Song Reviews
Re-open the bar!
Wow, that's really elaborate. I appreciate the work that goes into arranging something that complex and getting a whole band behind doing something outside the usual. And a whole set of it on top of it probably. Amazing. Love harmony guitar parts, I'm always up for that. Great musicianship. I'll have to check out your page now to see what elose was going on. About the. Cassette recording. You can clearly hear everyone, good mix. Better to have this than nothing, sure a modern digital setup would have been great, but you did the best possible with what was available. Great effort, congrats to all involved.
United States, Oregon, Clackamas
Closing the Bar Review
I - LOVE - THE = GUITARS IN HARMONY!!!! First thing that caught my attention. I wish I could hear more foot drum and bass in the mix BUT the track is awesome. Great as a jam session piece. I would love you to structure it a bit more for today's radio, just to get it more airtime but I absolutely love the freedom expressed in the track. I feel like you should use the harmony guitar lines as the hook of the song and bring it back at the end if you ever do it again. Excellent!
United States, New York, Uniondale
Musicians' music...not for everyone though
To think that this was recorded on a cassette recorder, a few mics, and a 12 channel yamaha! Wow! Just goes to show what great live musicians can do, and a good mixer of course! Blown away by the talent on this tune! Now, to be fair, this tune is not for everyone. This is a rock instrumental set to the tone of the 1970s jam scene. Not Greateful Dead stuff, no, this is harder a la Boston or The Who. Great rocking feel and great talent is notable but, you have to like instrumentals and you have to like this genre of Rock. However, you don't have to like it to appreciate the musicianship in the performance, it's as tight as a drum! Excellence an par! This is musicians' music. It's what we listen to to get blown away! Nice job Mike! I enjoyed a piece of your show from way back then. Thank you for your contribution!
United States, Florida, Miami
Great live production!
I would have enjoyed seeing this performance! Electrifying sound! Drums and Bass Driving and Jamming! Awesome guitar tone and licks! I would really like to go on tour with you all! I take reviewing other artists real serious. I have my own system for doing so. It's called: AWZ'z N1M HAMMER SYSTEM or "ANHS" for short "AWZ" that's me; "HAMMER" Is an acronym for the 6 catagories of the song being reviewed Your song scored 5☆'s On my ANHS Review It Has everything a hammer needs to drive the nail home. This Song is a HAMMER Song The HAMMER system is pretty self explanatory. HOOK ☆☆☆☆☆ ARRANGEMENT ☆☆☆☆☆ MUSIC ☆☆☆☆☆ MUSICIANSHIP ☆☆☆☆☆ ENTERTAINMENT ☆☆☆☆☆ RADIO READY ☆☆☆☆☆ If you had gotten anything less than 5☆ in any catagory I would take the time to explain why. Well Done AWZ
United States, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh
Nothing Ambiguous Here--Solid Rock
There is a definite Jeff Beck-like influence buried in this rocker. The rhythm section is pounding and relentless, as if not even slowing down to take a breath at all. The drummer is aggressive, but does not bury his partner-in-crime on the bass guitar. Meanwhile, the showcase here is about the face-melt combination the have with the guitar tracks that are dripping in delays and doubling effects covered in distortion. There is a furiousness in all of this and the cherry on the top of this sundae is the end, when you hear that it is actually a live performance because of the crowd reaction. Make no mistake about it--the band is IN DA HOUSE!
United States, Tennessee, Nashville
Great music
This is a very good song very unique and creative and well composed and well put together and thank you for sharing your craft with the world and at anytime I would like to hear more of your music keep on making great music and never stop creating and have a great day and may God bless you
United States, California, Every Where
Last call
There are a lot of good parts to this and the mix is better than average, but the flow of the arrangement takes off in to many directions. Some sound forced and other sound like bits and pieces were put together like a square peg in a round hole. Some of the transitions get repetitive. However all that said I do think there is a tremendous amount of talent here. Think of progressive rock as a story being told. Even if there are no words it should still be as fluid as speech. Try listening to some people talk without hearing the words, only listen to the tones and flow of the conversation. No mater what the conversation is you will hear a natural flow. That is exactly what this needs a natural flow
United States, Illinois, Aurora
Fabulous Performance, recording is meh
I'm listening to this on studio-grade monitors. I also have a separate window open of your main page and am sampling various songs at various points. You guys are fantastic as individual musicians and you are fantastic as a group. Absolute top notch! So when I proceed now to jump down your throats about something very important, keep in mind that I'm a big fan of your talent and developed ability. Yeah, I know this is an old recording, 1979. But some post-production work on this would make it worlds better. I'm nobody, and I think I could take it for an hour or two and make it sound relatively amazing with some proper mastering. The overall sound is flat and dull in spite of the virtuosic performance all around. That can be fixed, and even a serious hobbyist like myself can make it worlds better. This issue of finished recorded product extends to your other offerings. Where the songs are live, it sounds somewhat like a smart phone was used to record it. Where the songs sound like studio recordings, it sounds like you pushed the limiter up to 11 and completely crush the life out of the music; your top listed song "His Name / Anything Goes" is really crushed in this way. I'm serious here! You should be a touring headline act and, if you're not, it is because you need to fire whoever is mixing/mastering your music and get someone who knows what they are doing. You're there, you've arrived, magnificent musicians, now find someone to mix and master your music and you will be a force to be reckoned with in the musical world.
United States, Michigan, Hastings
Nice
sounds good guys, really nice live performance, good guitars nice drums and the harmonics are good I would really make the bass line more complicated though I think it would add to the drive of the drums better but over all very good,
United States, California, Arroyyo Grande
Closing the Bar - Crystal Aire (Live 1979)
I really like this! It sounds very much like one of Led Zeppelin's songs. After listening to your track, I can definitely see that Led Zeppelin must've been one of the 1970s rock bands that you were very much influenced by. Keep up the great work!
United States, New York, Laurelton
Review on Closing the Bar
Hello my Friend.Your Instrumental beat is very good, however I have the felling that the progressions needs to be a little more balanced.The Guitars and Keyboard a little too loud, but for Rock Music that is necessary.Your tempo is right and the instruments take the beat to different levels.Good vibes.
Germany, Leverkusen
Belle Intro !
Bonjour The Antique Harmoniums, Suite à votre "request for review"... Mon Commentaire: Belle Intro ! Un Mix Magique avec des Voix Mystérieuses....... Carine Dito (Parolière/Lyricist) Ma page Facebook: ............../carine.dito Like & Share on Facebook
France, *
Great music as it should be!
Incredible how good these musicians are, really outstanding. So versatile this music sounds, gives me the idea that i listening here an there to parts of Frank Zappa or other kind of Virtuous bands. I wish they will come to Holland one's. I Really like to see them on a live stage. There performance will be amazing for the Dutch crowd. I did listen to some other tracks of Mike Harty and i have to admit, there's no any track which sound less. It has vibe, it's sounds dynamic, it has color and most of all, soul. Yeah, lots of soul.
Netherlands, Breda
At the end of the road, you always have something you took with you from the beginning...
Mike Harty brings us Closing the Bar- Crystal Aire- A prog rock road trip of a song recorded live using tech of the day (stereo cassette recorder) a few mics and a 12 ch. Yamaha board The hardest thing about recording live is not the equipment used but the acoustics in the room and without knowing the size of the room I would say that the only thing limiting this recording is the fact it was done on a stereo cassette recorder. But even with that limitation there is plenty of dynamic range left in the tracking and much of that is due to analogue processing and the trend of not crushing a mix to get it louder. Having said that I can tell that this was only "mixed down" but never "mastered" and I think with the right approach even more life could be brought out of this recording. There is actually quite a lot of life in the stereo field and perhaps some mid-side processing could bring out some more distinction in the kick drum and the bass guitar. If the original still has some of the audience on the end... you should leave that in and then fade out... The song is even more fun to listen to with headphones. It's a grand find in the archives!
United States, Texas, Houston
