Jacob James aka Motsy is an artist who just released his first EP entitled Motsy EP. There are five songs which sound like vignettes of songs with ideas that never get fleshed out. Take for instance the opening track “Surfy” which more or less sounds like a constant build. The build gets faster and then well sort of falls apart in a way and starts over again.
Up next is “Lied.” The guitar is out of tune possibly on purpose and revolves around a simple picking pattern. There are really no significant changes to the energy of the song which ends or could really just repeat. “Ooh” contains a 4/4 beat, jangly minor and major chords and literally “Oohs.” The song repeats a riff while stripping off layers. It does that once and repeats. “Drum Drum Drum” is another instance of two note pattern that repeats. This time around drums flick around the two bass notes. “Detuned” is a piano piece. One of the things that helped we while studying composition in school was learning the rules of the game. I studied both Western and Eastern theory which are very different on a foundational level. Once I learned the structure of what constitutes classical composition to modern contemporary pop I was able to but it in the back of my head and start writing my own music more effectively. I think James could benefit in studying a little more about composition and song structure. These songs which average around two minutes in length never get much farther from where they start. Melodic phrasing, dynamic shifts and resolution are only some of the things James will need to apply in order for his ideas to feel like more than ideas. The good news is that some of the ideas weren’t too shabby. I’m pretty sure James is a young musician just experimenting in his bedroom. Everyone has to start somewhere and I wish him luck in his evolution as a musician.
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