This review covers the breakbeat track Cosmo & Dibs – Star Eyes.
This track was released in 1991 along with the track Up Keys.
The track starts off with a synth melody. A secondary synth melody that is almost off key comes in as well. This is joined by a kick. A third synth melody is also added. After a pitch bending effect, a grungy bassline takes over. This is joined by the drum kit that makes a brief appearance.
The drum kit drops out and the first synth melody comes in before being joined by the drum kit again. Eventually, the drum kit drops out and leaves the first synth to be joined by a repeating voice sample. The second synth melody then takes over and is joined by the grungy bassline. A female voice sample also comes in as well.
Everything then drops and a new synth melody comes in. The drum kit then comes back and there is a more subtle synth effect added to the track. Voice work comes in as well. The secondary synth melody makes a brief appearance. Suddenly, everything drops out save for the vocal sample. The drum kit makes a return. The vocals drop out and are replaced by different vocals. This too drops out and leaves just the drum kit and a synth effect.
From there, a bassline and the second synth melody comes back. The female vocals make a return. The male vocals also joins the track. This section ends with everything dropping out, leaving just the voice work.
The drum kit and bassline makes a return, then the female vocals return. A secondary bassline largely takes over and leads the track out.
One way to describe this track is eclectic. There is a lot going on here. This can work in a tracks favour. It can also be the biggest pitfall. If the various elements are well strung together, a track can be quite an audio journey. When produced poorly, it winds up sounding more like a collection of sounds that may or may not fit together.
In this track, there is some nice stops and starts. It adds a nice flow to the overall sound. The drop outs are brief, but they are always evolving. This does give this track some nice life overall.
Some sections in this track work better then others. The grungy bassline sections, I would say, work out pretty well. The triple melody with one being off key wasn’t that successful in my view. Meanwhile, the voice samples work to varying degrees of success.
The question then becomes, what exactly holds this track together. Something that unifies this track would be a very nice thing, but there’s nothing like that here. As such, because of the varying pieces of success in each section, this track ends up falling into the category of a collection of sounds. It shifts from one section to another, but there just isn’t enough cohesion in my view.
So, at the end of the day, while this track does contain a few interesting ideas for music, nothing really ties this track together in any decent way. Because of it, the track does crumble and fall apart. There are definitely some high points in the track, but taking the track in as a whole, I wasn’t as impressed with it as I would like to be. So, I would call this a fairly average track. If you are a hardcore fan of breakbeat and drum n bass, this might be worth listening. I’m not so sure the average listener would necessarily “get” this track, though.
Score
6.5/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
