Search - Boris Midney :: Companion

Dana B. from DAVENPORT, IA
Reviewed on 8/21/2006...

have 4 of these new

Boris Midney didn't pass the sound quality test

12/20/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"When I received this disc I listened to it all, by earphones, from beginning to end. I must begin with sounding the alarm to Boris Midney fans and indecisives (vis-a-vis liking Midney's material) alike: this disc suffers from a rather serious defect in the sound quality: throughout the entire album, the stereo effect "folds back" for segments lasting up to part of a second or even more than 1 second - meaning you can hear these segments in mono. I don't know whether this problem origionated in the master tapes or it occured during the digital remastering. The point is that this renders the listening experience less than pleasant (unless you hear it through speakers at a low or medium volume), irrespective of the music's merits.Another technical drawback: the time notes for several tracks are different than the actual duration of the same tracks on this disc. I'm not talking about a mere 1 second difference - it may be a few seconds or as long as almost 1 minute. Cases in point are the tracks "This Is A Test", "Living Up To Love" and "I Feel Delight" - which actually lasts 6:21 and not 7:05!! One expects this kind of mishap never to have happened from the outset and one certainly deserves accurate time notes.On a general note, this album is afflicted with shallow, rather silly lyrics; also, the at times breathless singing of the French "Charmaine" girls is carried out annoyantly exaggerating -on purpose - the European pronunciations of the English lyrics. These two factors cast a noticable shadow over the other artistic aspects of this project. The best tracks on this Midney work are by descending order: "Living Up To Love", "This Is A Test" and "I Feel Delight". All three are very fun and enjoyable both for listening and dancing. They have a heck of a rhythm and tempo (disco-wise), though the fast tempo on "This Is A Test" alternates with a slower tempo once or twice during the course of this track, to my dismay. This album was done in a noticable soulful and funky form, in comparison with Midney's previous projects. Midney reverts back to his usual style on his next project, ("Double Discovery") where he covers the tracks "Living Up To Love" and "Step On Out". I consider these tracks' versions on this album inferior to the versions on "Double Discovery".
The track "There's A Way" is a cover his origional 1978 "USA-European Connection" track - I think this is pointless since this cover is uninspiring in the extreme. Midney seems to be running out of "caches" of inspiration vis-a-vis disco, though at a distinct distance from biting the dust. To sum up: If it weren't for the sound defects I would have notched this disc up to a 3 stars' rate. For the same reason I don't recommend bying this disc."