Zephy's Off-Kilter Picks of the Week

We are introducing a brand new feature for BMD and also for the new FimMusic Tumblr, Zephy's Off Kilter Picks of the Week. These are some assorted tracks that are the favorites of busybody (and bmd staff member) Zephysonas!  He has selected them as the cream of the crop of brony music this week. We hope you give this a read and them a listen.

~Folk~  From the mind of the renowned artist, Cyril the Wolf comes the beautifully expressive tune, 'Lunar Cycle.' Well known for his work in the Metal genre, Cyril takes a step away with this calming folk tune. Seeing artists go beyond what they are most noted for to experiment with and release music of a different type, is always something that I love to see, and in this case I say it was particularly successful. The fairly simple guitar chord progressions are matched with a comfortably complex vocal accompaniment. If this tune fits your fancy, it is part of Cyril's new album, "Sands of Time."

~Orchestral~  I am sure that many of you know that arranging a orchestral piece of music using a DAW can be tricky. The balance and dynamic changes are particularly important to symphonic pieces, and frankly the really good VST's for orchestral sounds are few and far between (particularly when it comes to brass and woodwinds). However, the esteemed, Walt Ribeiro not only created an amazingly realistic and lifelike-sounding orchestral arrangement of "SmileSmile Smile," but he mixed in aspects of real instrumentation and audio. "I layered tons of clapping, singing, and snapping that you all submitted, which was the perfect accent to the gentle pizzicato strings.”- Ribeiro. Aside from buying a ticket to a real symphony that is playing MLP music, this is about as close to the real day that you can get.

~Orchestral ~ Callenby, to me seems like an artist who can  do no wrong. I find myself loving every tune that he puts up. This mellow piece really shines in its simple execution and its attention to dynamics. A master of the 'Intro' Callenby calmly draws the listener in with the addition of more and more chords and crescendo-ing  volume. Callenby knows what he does well, and he executes it. However I would really love to see this artist grow more in the future, to experiment more with his music and take risks in composition. Please check out Dawn (The Ponyville Cycle)

 ~Folk-ish~ It is great to return to your roots every now and then. 4everfreebrony does a complete re-recording of the very first song that he ever posted, Birdsong, and what an improvement. I stated earlier that good orchestral plugins can be hard to find, as a result of this fact 4everfreebrony has completely replaced his originally generated violins with a live recording. A very wholesome and natural tune that is very pleasant to listen to.

~Light Rock~"StealYour Heart and Eat Your Muffins,” An amazing ground breaking masterpiece? Maybe not, but an awesome idea with fabulous execution? Definitely! This tune by Slyphstorm is what is know as a "Drawfriend picture song," in which the artist takes a compilation of pictures and arranges them in a random order, subsequently followed by a composition of music based on those pictures and their order. It's such a fun concept that I half expect to see more of it in the future. The execution especially considering the prompt is fantastic and the song is rousing-ly pleasant to listen to.  

~Chill~ Cherax Destructor is an artist that always puts an insane amount of polish and completeness in his tunes. One can clearly see that CxDr is truly passionate about his works and its quality is a representation of that. A wonderful chill step piece about Twilight Sparkle made for the Soft Spectrum II album, "The unofficial anti-Balloon Party(album)"-CxDr. "Fading Light" is a crisp and SNAPPY tune all around. Oh and Seventh Element is part of that great collaboration.