Customer Reviews

Ioda SXSW Opening Day Bash Sampler 2009

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Ioda is a marketing and distribution company that helps independent record labels grow, and this sampler features affiliated bands performing in 2009's annual SXSW live event in Austin, Texas.

With the variety of record labels represented, you can expect a lot of variation in both song styles and quality of recording and production. Therefore, the songs on this sampler won't necessarily 'flow' well when taken as a whole, but there are individual songs of value here.

For example, the recording of "Fasting In San Francisco" by Y La Bamba is about as basic as it gets...you'll even notice some background hiss. The song itself is simple with a pleasant melody, nice harmonies, and just a couple of repeated guitar chords to back them. Theresa Andersson's "The Waltz" is similar; very basic and 'folk-y'...a guitar/vocal live performance with a string part in the middle. She has a nice tone to her voice, and when she goes into her upper register, she adds in an 'opera'-like vibrato.

"Don't go", by Marching Band, was also recorded live, but you can barely tell. The sound of the guitars is brilliant and exciting; the two male vocalists singing in unison sound great (especially when very tight harmonies are added to the mix)...again, the song is simple, but this track is definitely a highlight of this sampler.

Be prepared to turn your speakers down for "Parallelogram", as this song is super-loud when compared to the songs so far. There's a lot going on musically, with synthesizers, heavy bass guitar and lots of vocals with heavy reverb effects...overproduced in my opinion, which is sad because the song itself is very good.

A very 'groovy', very electronic production is up next. "You'll Disappear" could almost be considered an instrumental...it takes over two minutes to hear some sporadic female vocals, and because the 'groove' is basically the same thing over and over, the song may seem a little long (the arrangement of the synthesizers isn't bad, however. A little too much reverb and some not-so-easy-on-the-ears bell-type synth sounds make "We Used Technology..." a difficult listen for me. Blind Pilot's Beatle-esque "Go On, Say It" is another highlight...good song with much better production. "Ships With Holes Will Sink" is likely to please fans of a heavier, wilder rock style...extra compression when mastering gives this one a 'loud' quality to it (in a good way).

J. Tillman sings a good story on "Steel On Steel". From a pure songwriting standpoint, this is perhaps the best this sampler has to offer...unfortunately, there are moments in the mix where the clarity is lost (the overall sound is a bit 'boomy'...but not so bad it's unlistenable). The vocals on Deer Tick's "Art Isn't Real" are very 'harsh'-sounding; again unfortunate, as the song itself is decent. Finally, fans of Reggae might find Easy Star All-Stars' "Bed Of Rose" appealing, and this is easily the most professionally produced track on the sampler.

Good variety is perhaps the greatest characteristic of this compilation, but overall inconsistency of production quality is a bit of a problem. Fortunately, there's the option of downloading songs separately, so you can pick and choose your favorites.

IODA, Independent Online Distribution Alliance seems to be the clearing house for all these artists. The big corporates take a huge chunk of the mainstream artists, so it's nice to see -- and hear -- something different.
I took the previous review into consideration, and ran MP3Gain on the files to equalize their levels before listening to them. The result has been music files that do not require any volume adjustment. The first song ends rather abruptly, but all told, I've enjoyed them, even the live recordings.
If you like indie rock, give these guys and gals a try; you might find something you like. Amazon provides a nice sized jpg file, too. With a good mp3 editor to clean up the inconsistencies on the file tags, I was very happy with the results. Although I do enjoy more in the comment sections; especially band info; there was none, but that's what I've come to to expect from MP3 sellers.
I would have paid $5.00 for the music files and not felt hurt by it.

I think that 99% of the typical music lovers just listen to the music they like listening to. I am one of them. Many reviews here are not really important to me like the sources of these songs or how they par with other song standards. A typical music listener will just love the songs "Go On, Say It", "Fasting In San Francisco", Art Isn't Real", and maybe a couple more - such that they will download them and enjoy them over and over again. Just enjoy the pleasure of these nice music the way they are created by the composers and musicians. This CD is worth buying yet it is free.

Wicked-good music! I love it when musicians make pop music interesting--there's too much drone-pop going around, especially on the radio. I especially love "Art Isn't Real" (from "War Elephant") by Deer Tick and "Steel on Steel" (from "Vacilando Territory Blues") by J Tillman (of Fleet Foxes). Also good is The Phenomenal Handclap Band and "You'll Disappear." Deastro's "Parallelogram" is also quite good. For those unfamiliar with Easy Star All-Stars, check out their CD "Dub Side of the Moon" (a dub-worthy, song-by-song take-off on the obvious album), as well as "Until That Day" EP represented here. It seems many reviewers don't like this sampler. What gives? Give it a listen. A different but equally interesting free download is "Dead Oceans 2008/2009 Sampler." Don't be put off by other reviewers' negativity. The styles represented here are all over the map, but it holds together somehow.

I typically am all about some free music so I went for this with no question. I didn't even preview the music (mainly cause I like to hear more of the song than what the preview provides). So after downloading the tracks and adding them to iTunes I went through each of them and was extremely disappointed. I've since unchecked them from playing (I figure, I've downloaded, might as well keep them). The quality of the tracks was not consistent and the actual music was a few steps lower than some college radio stuff I've heard. If you like to fill your library with a hodgepodge of random stuff go for it, other wise skip it.

Most are tinny poor audio quality. Some sound like they were recorded in a ceramic bathroom with a metal toilet seat. Many would make Randy on Am Idol cringe because of the bad pitches in the voices. Overall, UGH!

Yeesh, there is nothing new here. Lots of Norah Jones, Jolie Holland and Shins knock-offs. In fact, so many of the songs sounded so similar to the work of artists I already have recordings of that I had to keep checking back to the credits to make sure I wasn't missing something. Lame.

Free for a very good reason. You'd have to be a complete imbecile to want to pay for any of these tracks. Not one good one here, this is an idiotic collection of crap to be sure!

This was probably some radio stations throw away stuff. Thanks, but no thanks. Not even if it's free.

I just got an e-mail message telling me these are the free downloads for the week. So I go to download the mp3 and am required to 1) install some proprietary software 2) provide credit card information, upon which I'm told I'm being charged for the download? Very disingenuous of you, amazon.