Marcel Donné & Eivind Sommersten - Trap
590. in all-time charts
90%
Eivind:
started this project but was unable to finish it (as mentioned on the Slay Radio live show). Luckily Marcel wanted to do a collaboration, a request for which I needed about 0 seconds of consideration
After working together on this I can now see that part of what was stymeing me was how technically advanced the middle part is musically. This was of course no match for Marcel, who provided track after track of wonderful performances. Eventually we have been adding to each others parts little by little and this feels like a true collaboration. Not to mention great fun!
Marcel:
During a live show on Slayradio when Eivind was being interviewed they played a WIP of his Trap remix which I really thoroughly enjoyed and I impulsively typed @Eivind Wanna collab on Trap?
in Discord. And so it happened, a few weeks later after exchanging ideas back and forth until we were both satisfied with the end result.
Technique
Artistic skill
Nostalgia factor
Overall rating
I admit, when it comes to Trap
I seem to be hard to please (as 7DD9 can tell you, haha 😅). So, no red smilie from me on this one, sorry.
I think overall this remix sounds a bit on the soft side for me. Some sections are just too soft on the instrumentation, and just a tad more cheerful than they should be (IMHO). Somehow, the original's moody, melancholic undertone seems to be lost in the synth sounds.
It starts very promising, though: I really like the heartbeat intro with the trumpet lead, although I feel it's a bit lacking on the low end here - some more growl would've been welcome.
Fortunately, the bass in the next section (2:10+) makes up for that, and the flute lead is just a lovely choice here.
The Jeff Wayne
break at 3:26 is a good example where softish synths start to take over, and then the next section (3:45+) goes full synth where it sounds even more mellow to me - not the tension-filled anticipation I was expecting.
And while I absolutely love the percussion in 4:57+, yet again, the presence of the synthy sounds just seem to drag it down a bit. Another good example of that is the synthy lead from 6:03+ that sounds out of place for me.
Anyway, I won't go on any further, because this review is getting long enough already, and because I think you guys get the picture.
My nitpicky hair-splitting aside this is a lovely, lovely production with so many good things going for it. I just wish it went deeper with a bit more grit.