MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM/MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM.iso/MIDFILES/ASIF_ALI/STORM/REVIEW/REVIEW.TXT

Text File | 1996-11-21 | 15KB | 282 lines

MIDICraft Magazine The Disk Mag for Amiga Musicians

CD Review

by Kevan R.Craft

Artist:Asif Ali
Title:Out Of Abfinoosty Comes The Storm
Type:Audio Compact Disc Album
Record Label:Cyclops
CD #:CYCL034
World Distribution:Pinnacle

Out Of Abfinoosty Comes The Storm
    Tracks:
 1. When the Sun Explodes
 2. Interstellar
 3. Cyberspace
 4. Saddest Girl
 5. Love Like This
 6. Churchyard
 7. Hawk
 8. Hell or High Water
 9. Dream
10. Soul Catcher
11. You'll Never Make It
12. Recipe for Power (hidden)


MIDICraft readers will be familiar with  Asif  Ali from our previous review
of Abfinoosty's album Future also on  the  Cyclops label CYCL005.. Now Asif
has single-handedly written all the lyrics and music recorded on the Out Of
Abfinoosty Comes the Storm album and  used the Amiga music packages OctaMED
V6.0 and Music-X V2.0  to  create  the  multi-instrumental backing together
with session bass players  and  a  drummer.  Asif  is a guitarists/vocalist
musician and plays his  electric,  rhythm,  acoustic  and lead solo guitars
together with  providing the lead and harmony vocals on the album..

Asif originally produced all his song demos for Out Of Abfinoosty Comes The
Storm in his small home studio  but  later ventured into a professional 24-
track recording studio and  re-produced  all  the  tracks  featured on  the
album using up-to-date technology that  a  recording studio environment can
provide an artist.

Out Of Abfinoosty Comes The Storm,  as  an  album title, signifies a change
in direction since Asif's first band  Abfinoosty have now disbanded and the
work featured on this new album  is  intended  to  be a showcase for Asif's
solo talents which will eventually be taken  on  the road and toured with a
new band called Storm..

A Scanned image of Out  Of  Abfinoosty  Comes  The  Storm CD album cover is
provided on this issue of the MIDICraft  Magazine and if readers have had a
glimpse then you would have seen a  picture  of Asif emerging from a stormy
sky  background  with  an  open   road   ahead..  The  picture  illustrates
beautifully the changing direction in  the  way  Asif communicates both his
music and himself to the outside  world  and  for an artist this message is
important..

Equally important is the musical  works  and  the  remainder of this review
will examine Asif Ali's Out Of Abfinoosty  Comes  The Storm CD in the usual
manner..


1. When the Sun Explodes

The opening track on  the  album  When  the  Sun  Explodes employs a subtle
gradual build-up from  an  arpeggiated  synthesizer  piano  pad  and Asif's
picking electric guitar together with  his softly spoken-like singing until
the track opens up into a full-blown Rock piece! From now on we now exactly
where we are, with a solid  rock  beat  constructed  by the bass player and
drummer juxtapositioned with  Asif's  powerchord  guitar  and  soaring rock
vocals.. When the Sun Explodes  contains  a  fine  chorus and displays some
excellent harmony vocals by Asif, and some interesting sound effects, which
herald the emergence of Asif's amazing guitar solo, then finally a complete
vocal chorus, all of which is really quite stunning..


2. Interstellar

Interstellar is an instrumental providing  a  platform  for Asif to feature
his talents as a solo guitarist. Opening with a monologue speech which then
lurches Interstellar into the Rock nether regions.. Asif uses a combination
of stabbing strings and subtle  synthesized  instruments together with some
stunning drums and bass instruments  as  backing  juxtapositioned with some
whacky  omputerised sound effects montaged over  the score. This provides a
great platform for Asif to  paint  a  solo  guitar narrative, a voice which
sweetly sings to the listener from the darkness of space.. Wow!


3. Cyberspace

This next track reflects both the emergence of Cyberspace as both a concept
of Computer-speak, of  communicating  with  Email  on  the  Internet and of
Asif's sense of humour in poking  fun  at  this aspect of modern  day  non-
personal  communication. I like  the  clever  use  of  sound effect samples
within the score,  this adds to the  black humour inherent in the piece but
as the sounds are close  to  what  most  computer  games use then this also
makes for a weird and whacky track  at the same time..  The comic overtones
in Cyberspace works well particularly with  the  fun  Pop style of music in
the composition as a whole.. Its also  nice  to see someone poking fun at a
concept and Cyberspace is a good as any..


4. Saddest Girl

Saddest Girl is an assured track, placed  within the Rock ballad genre with
excellent overlaid drum patterns, a solid bass line and some fine vocals by
Asif where he sings of The  Saddest  Girl  and  her lost love.. The musical
tapestry provides  a  brilliantly  produced  backdrop  for  Asif's acoustic
guitar and  vocals..  When we  are  presented  with  the chorus this  opens
with fully orchestrated strings  and  distorted  guitar providing a further
springboard for Asif's solo guitar which gently weeps just like the girl in
the song's  lyrics..  A great song  this  with fine performances by all the
musicians, the  vocals  are  sung   with  real  feeling,   overall,  a well
produced song in the classic tradition..


5. Love Like This

A song's opening can make  or  break   a  piece.  With  Love Like This Asif
has decided to fade in a soloing  guitar   on  a tapestry of sound effects,
which act as an intro to  Asif's  picking  acoustic  guitar..  We  are then
presented with a drum beat and  bass  line which  does  not  follow  normal
4/4 timing but instead employs  an  off-beat  effect  on the  2nd  and  4th
beat which works well against  both  Asif's  acoustic  guitar and well sung
vocals.. The chorus opens  to  a  full-blown   orchestrated Rock score with
strings and powerchord guitar, the off-beat timing is explored further  for
the   well-executed   solo  guitar  section..  Love  Like  This  follows  a
traditional  written  song  style  employing  verse, chorus, verse, chorus,
solo, verse, chorus but  does   so  in  such  a  fresh  and interesting way
that'll grab your attention with  its  inherent hook-lines and catchy beat,
the chorus is easily memorable too and  wouldn't  be  out of place aired on
the radio and even featured in the charts.. Could be a hit this one!


6. Churchyard

Again, this track  communicates  Asif's  sense  of  irony  with  a  deep an
meaningful concept.. This  time  the  concept  is  "Death"   or rather what
happens to those who are dead and  buried only to find  that sometimes  the
living, whilst walking in  a  churchyard,  step  over  their graves..  Asif
clearly displays a talent for  this  kind  of thing.. Churchyard possess an
musical arrangement much like the  producer  George Martin employed in some
of The Beatles songs.. Its quite  astounding  to listen to the orchestrated
picture painted by Asif here in this piece, a good drum beat and bass line,
the subtle trumpet, the  string  sections,  bells,  brass and Asif's guitar
all stepping over  the  musical  gravestones  within  the  narrative of the
song's lyrics..  Equally there's the additional sound effects which further
embellish the weirdness of the piece  and overall contribute to a memorable
song..  A device used by Asif within his compositions is the build-up  from
small musical arrangements, a simple  beat  which slowly intensify and rise
up to a climax.. Churchyard is in this tradition where the final part takes
a change of pace to  develop  more  fully  with  a  really catchy beat as a
background for Asif's amazing solo guitar and amazing it is..


7. Hawk

Hawk's opening contains a deep,  sub-sonic synth-bass sound, its heart-like
pulse beats under the musical  narrative containing Asif's vocals, guitars,
bass,  drums  and  sample   sound   effects..   Exploiting  a  musical-box,
"minimalist-melody" technique, again Asif  employs a "build-up-to-a-climax"
approach where the  instruments  mentioned  above  are juxtapositioned with
various intermittent sample sounds and  occasional  snippets of Asif's solo
guitar.. Asif sings "Sunlight on  moving  water,  broken clouds in the Sky,
cool breeze blowing through you, waiting for you to arrive", the lyrics are
almost a metaphorical reference to how  Hawk reaches its catchy Rock climax
where finally there's a beautiful solo guitar section by Asif..

Hawk actually grows on you the  way  the  score builds, with its pulse-like
beat structure, the use of interesting  sound effects and Asif's vocal, the
reflective and poetic lyric,  and eventually the climax containing the very
evocative solo guitar.. Hawk contains  all  the  elements that fans of Asif
Ali's music will come to expect, its lyrical, catchy, and it grooves.. Hawk
should be considered a Rock Classic in every sense of the word!!


8. Hell or High Water

All popular music derives from  the  "blues"  and  Hell  or High Water pays
homage to this  traditional  genre..   Here  Asif  further embellishes this
style of music making and in so doing produces his own unique sound variant
of this style. Hell of  High  Water  employs  a traditional Rock blues back
beat but the song is modernised by  making  great use of a guitar technique
known as the "volume swell" which  produces  the  effect of a subtle string
section but is in fact  produced  by  the  guitarist's finger revolving the
volume knob on his electric  guitar!  This  really  works within this piece
and as Asif sings we  also  hear  an  occasional  blues  solo on his guitar
which juxtaposes nicely with the soft blues vocals.. This is a great track!


9. Dream

Like all traditional stories, Dream unfolds  like a Fairy Tale, a narrative
with child-like qualities which is a device used by many storytellers. This
track's use of instrumentation contains  subtle  use of bells, orchestrated
strings and deep polyphonic synths together with a solid drum beat, a sound
bass line and a picking electric  guitar  all of which produce the "dreamy"
effect inherent in the song's title..  Dream reflects our unconscious,  our
universal ability as humans to experience dreams  -  stories in our sleep..
Again, Asif pays homage to a  blues  Rock  style  of guitar soloing in this
piece, which reminds me very much of the band Wishbone Ash, with  beautiful
examples of lead guitar work that I've not heard in a long time, and that's
very refreshing to hear being played again..  Asif really is a great guitar
player in a fine line of British  guitarists  and his solo work featured in
Dream is simply fantastic!  Dream is a  great track full of atmosphere  and
delightful surprises just like a dream itself..


10. Soul Catcher

With some lovely apeggiating bells  this  signals an all-out-attack on your
senses which then follows in a rock/ballad tradition. What separates Asif's
work from a lot of his predecessors  is  his clever use of arrangements and
his production techniques using sampled  speech  and  sound effects and the
interesting stereophonic placement of that  instrumentation.  Here, in Soul
Catcher,  Asif again takes the role  of story-teller, this time its "death"
who narrates his story.. Soul Catcher  is  coming  to get you in this  song
so when your  time  comes  you  better  watch  out!  The  tapestry of sound
employed within  Soul  Catcher  is  full  of  orchestrated  strings  with a
thundering drum beat, thick  bass  guitar  and  a  solo guitar which simply
screams at you as if it  were  the  Soul  Catcher himself.. A real powerful
thundering track this one which also weaves a  kind of spell in the way the
music slows down and speeds up  in  tempo  like a heart beat and containing
moments of subtle ballad-like arrangements  juxtapositioned with moments of
head-banging riffs..


11. You'll Never Make It

This track opens  with  the  use  of  an  arpeggiated  electric piano which
provides a stepped melody for  Asif's  main  blues  style vocals..  This is
offset with some fantastic  harmony  vocals  in  the  chorus-line which are
perfect and work really well  for  this  piece.  You'll Never Make It opens
further in the middle section with  some  weird and wonderful fairground or
funfair-like sampled sounds with Asif's solo guitar, fingers burning on his
fretboard.


12. Recipe for Power (hidden)

Recipe for Poweris the final track  on  Out  Of Abfinoosty Comes The Storm,
and again  Asif  chooses  a  story-teller  technique  using  a  voice  over
narrator.. This time its a girl's voice which provides us with a recipe for
cooking a weird concoction for a meal that includes boiling a terrapin in a
stew -  this is the Recipe for Power.. This unusual recipe is narrated over
a short wonderkind of a  rock  track  which  acts  as a musical backdrop to
this ironic and child-like Recipe for Power...

Out Of Abfinoosty Comes  The  Storm  is  a  fantastic  album and displays a
strong sense  of  maturity  in  Asif  Ali's  compositional  and arrangement
skills. It also  demonstrates  his  talents  as  a  story-teller and singer
songwriter with excellent  vocal  and  guitar  performances  from Asif. The
drummer and bass players featured on  the  album demonstrate a fluidity but
are equally capable of forging  a  tight  musical beat structure in musical
time and their  performances are also very  good.. The clever use of synths
and sound effects using computers  further illustrates this musician's work
is communicating to today's audiences  but  with  one foot firmly rooted in
established traditions  of  genre,   of  European  story-telling containing
irony and wit but at the   same   time  has  pushed his music into a modern
arena towards the new  millennium.   For  those  wishing  to acquire Out Of
Abfinoosty Comes The Storm then  it  comes  highly recommended and as Amiga
computers were used in both the  compositional and recording stages of this
album then you'll be not only  acquiring  great  musical art but a slice of
Amiga history as well!

Out Of Abfinoosty Comes The Storm is  released  Worldwide in July 96 on the
Cyclops record label, number CYCL034 and distributed by Pinncale..

For more details contact:-

Cyclops Ltd
Unit 2
87A Maple Road
Surbiton
Surrey
KT4 6AW.
England. UK.

Fax: [phone]