Horse Beats Review #1

Source

Brony Music.
Ugh.

What can be good about twenty-five year old men, obsessed with a show about candy coloured equines, opening up GarageBand and creating music based around their love for [insert waifu of choice here]? Not much usually, but I, Purple Squid, will attempt to wade through the shit that is brony music to find the diamonds in the rough, or at least the more polished turds, all so you don’t have to!

“But why the fuck would you want me to listen to brownie music you spoon?” I hear you ask. Well, mostly because I hate you. But also, contrary to popular belief, there is some good stuff out there if you look hard enough and my weekly review thingy plans to make it even easier, cause I am such a nice guy!

Song: Sunshine and Celery Stalks

Artist: PinkiePieSwear

Despite the questionable song title, this song is probably one of my favourite fan made songs that I’ve ever come across.

A typical downtempo style song, it features a 4/4 time signature, hip-hop beats and chill out feel enhanced with a sustained crash symbol at the start of each bar that gives the song an airy feel, like sitting in an open field on a sunny day. Breddy neat.

The layered synths are also used to a nice, almost gentle effect, the main bass synth being octave shifted, lays down the base, three note melody which, while not being overly interesting, is pleasant and really plays off the chopped vocals well. The other synths are really just there to add extra dimensions to an otherwise simple-ish song. They also add to the weightless-like feel that characterises this song.
The latter half of the song undergoes a melody change and a more prominent dance-like synth that would be more at home in a typical EDM dance tune. Luckily, PinkiePieSwear avoids that route and uses this synth to inject a new vigour into the song, while still maintaining its chilled-out vibe.

Being a typical downtempo song, a simple, methodic beat plays throughout, edging the song along at an easy pace. It’s hip-hop vibe calls to mind artists such as Tycho, and gives the song an added sense of energy and makes it much easier to bop along with your waifu to. 

But the songs crown jewel and PinkiePieSwear’s biggest achievement in this song, is his use of AJ’s voice, which he has chopped and screwed to great affect, adding a whole new layer of melody to the song. Chopped vocals are very easy to get wrong and even easier to overuse (looking at you The Living Tombstone), but PinkiePieSwear avoids all these pitfalls by using it scarcely enough so it avoids being overbearing, but often enough to be appreciated. Also dat “just fine”. Hnng.

However I think that what this song lacks is layers, the song could’ve been evolved more, especially towards the latter half of the song. However this is a minuscule problem and has very little effect on the overall song.

SCORE: 9/10

WOULD LISTEN TO AGAIN.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP0f5rvVkAU

Download: http://tindeck.com/users/PinkiePieSwear