Introduction
Artist: Carlos Devizia
Title / Release Page: Walking On A Straying Stone
Release Date: 2014 Aug 13
Genre: Electronic
License: CC BY-NC-ND
Media: MP3
Pricing: Free
Label: Self Release (Internet Archive)
Rating: ★★★★★★★
In writing about music these days there is little to keep someone deciding that they are an artist and want to express themselves. And there is nothing stopping someone deciding he / she wants to be a music journalist so he / she starts writing about music on the Internet. It’s not to say that either is good or bad, just that where we are has enabled a lot more happen — some of it good, and some of it bad. In the case where Carlos Devizia Walks On A Straying Stone, he shows us both sides at the same time.
Carlos Devizia Walks On A Straying Stone
In the description of this release, Carlos states: “It has elements of minimal wave, ambient, synth pop, etc, but it is none of these, but a personal approach to electronic music.”
Now I would like to offer a comment to artists when they are releasing a work, don’t use phrases like “…it is none of these…” and “…personal approach…”. (a) You aren’t fooling anyone by trying to distance yourself from the genres you have just mentioned, (b) you are undercutting your abilities as an artist, and (c) all artists are putting a “…personal approach…” or a “…personal expression…”. Of course, it’s easier to say this now since I have already made these mistakes a hundred times over.
As to the music on this release. Well, it’s something of a mixed bag. For example “A Saucerful of Presets” is based around a pretty cheesy bass and drum patch at first. But then the main synth parts enter, and the drums are expended to add some more realistic sounds, basically the whole thing is this odd fusion of cheap and good sounds. Then there’s the very similarly named “A Saucerful of Pretzels” which is a great bit of 8bit synth fun that builds and builds a single melody line through a number of different settings in a excellent way.
Then there’s the compositions themselves. I feel like when the Carlos writes longer pieces of music, he tends to lose focus on the strucuture of the work. For example, “A Saucerful of Pretzels” is 3:30 and holds together very nicely. Whereas, songs like “Cosmic Organism” at 5:00 wander aimlessly looking for a structure, and never really seem to move the listener forward.
Conclusion
This is a mixed bag of a release, that is one of the wonders of independent artists being able to release their own works whenever and however they want to. Some of the tracks on this release are really cool. Some of the tracks sound rough and could have been worked on a bit more. Some of the songs suffer from not really finding a focused structure. In the end it’s an interesting thing to write about music like this. Carlos definitely has some skill, and it’s pretty clear that there is some vision at work. However, it’s now up to him to keep moving forward and improving what he is doing with this work.