Sometimes, artistic concepts can translate into cogent sounding songs, bridging the gap between the sonic and the visual. It’s interdisciplinary, and can help enrich our world of understanding both forms of art. However, is it always socially acceptable or necessarily pleasing? The line between artistic expression, intent, and the laws of physics and audio seems to be blurred at times. In today’s review, we will encounter an artist named Astrogenica, which makes me ask this exact question.
Mide Bickersteth, who has christened Astrogenica as her pseudoname, is a singer, songwriter, producer, and synthetic guitar instrumentalist who is also a black British female. Born and raised in central London, now the ripe age of 26, she started songwriting in 2022 after joining a music school in the same location. However, despite the congruence of location, she lives in Northwest London.
She’s an interesting and unique individual, who lives in a flat on her own and takes care of her pets. She attended drama schools such as Italia Conti and the Young Actors’ Theatre. She went to secondary school at St. Marylebone Secondary.
She now attends an academy of contemporary music in London. She also adds in her artist notes that the university is known for having a ‘good game designing’ degree and that she has experience making game music, finishing off with the fact that she is one of three siblings. Her newest release is titled ‘I Had A Concept Before I Had A MIDIP4’.
I’m sure the release has a myriad of stories etched within the lyrics, but with the mastering and the lack of a lyric list, I’m not going to speculate on each word. The release is extremely poorly mastered, with her vocals showing a sliver of rhythm to it. Astrogenica does not seem to be a bad singer, but it’s hard to tell with the terrifyingly poor mastering and composition within this album.
I get certain artistic choices of making it sound more ‘DIY’ and polished for the aesthetic, but you can hear unpleasant background foley, with an atonal key piece not necessarily placed well, just poorly executed overall. Another thing that does not bode well with me is the fact that all of the tracks literally have the same backing track.
I don’t personally gain any pleasure from tearing down people, so I have to unfortunately keep this review short. It is wholly and objectively displeasing. I suggest Astrogenica to properly master her work, learn motivic variation, and study musical arrangement. It’s hard for me to think that without these steps, the current state of her artistry would go far beyond a very niche audience.
SCORE/Poor: I don’t know if this is an album that stands without the preface that it is possible a performance art piece. It is badly mastered, badly executed, badly arranged and not palatable to most. I wish Astrogenica well and lots of improvement.
[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]
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