The Vitals:

Label: Indie
Genre: Vocal Deep House
Number of Tracks: 14 music tracks with one spoken.
How you can obtain a copy: Visit www.djeh.com and email him. Samples of the demo are on his site (Click the raised circles/dimples).

Factor Scores:

• Production Quality: 4.0
• Programming and Arrangement: 7.5
• Entertainment Quality: 7.0
• Total: 6.2 – Above Average

Summary and Introduction:

This review will be a bit different from my usual reviews. I’m not going to “easy” or anything like that, but it is a bit different. First, it is very appropriate that this CD demo is being reviewed in an issue that features an article about making and shopping demos to labels. Second, I honestly know less about this producer’s history than any other artist whose work I have reviewed here lately. Because of these two things, I am going to attempt to review the release as if I was an A&R person.

For the record, here is what I received in the mail:

• A white bubble mailer with the UPS Store’s logo printed on it.
• A CDR with a simply designed label that includes track names and a contact email address inside an Ejector CD case (www.ejector.de)
• A folded sheet of paper with the word “BIO” at the top and what appears to be a resume with a combination of personal and professional job experience.
  

From what I know, DJEH is Dave Pearson. He’s a vocal house producer from Virginia who is not short on talent and that definitely shows throughout his entire demo. He is very active in his church and its various ministries and has his bachelors’ degree in theology and is currently working on his masters.

This leads me to my first real comment. If you are sending out a demo and you want to include a bio about yourself, it really should focus on who you are, what your musical influences are and what your experience within the music industry has been so far. It doesn’t have to be much, but it would be nice to say something along the lines of:

My name is Dave Pearson. The demo in your hand is a collection of vocal house with gospel influences that I have produced under the name DJEH. I have been producing now for XX years and some of my influences include XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. To date I have had my music released by XXXXX. A review of my music can be found at www.tastyfresh.com/XXXX. You can obtain more information about my music at www.djeh.com.

Now, I realize DJEH may not have any releases yet, so I would not expect to see a long list of releases, but I would not expect to be told what his degrees are in, that he is married, what church he attends and so on. There isn’t anything wrong with that kind of information so long as the musical components I mentioned above are included and the bio stays around 100 words or so.

Factor Scores:

Production Quality: 4.0

This was the most disappointing part of the demo, but at the same time, it is also the most understandable and maybe forgivable. What brings the production value down so low is the quality of recording for the vocals. Many times throughout the demo you can hear the vocalist breathing and some “pops” from where he pronounced words that started with B’s, P’s and so on. In other spots, the vocal recordings have some background static/noise that still pops through. Some of this could have been cleaned up through use of EQing and gating effects. Many of the vocals in his tracks would need to be rerecorded if a label signed them. That is not to say that a label not would be willing to do that, but that a label may pass over these tracks if they had another quality demo that did not have this problem.

Programming & Arrangement: 7.5

I have to say that the programming and arrangement was great. The songs are all well structured. The synth patches are fairly up-to-date and definitely on par with the current standards for house. The tracks are very clean and definitely a mix of house and deep house. The programming is great overall.

The vocals, despite the recording issue are well done. The lyrics are boldly Christian without being in your face or condemning. The vocals really do help to add a very smooth jazzy feel to just about every track. The CD would simply not be the same or as good without them.

The only negative thing I have regarding most of the demo is that the average track length is three minutes. The longest track is just under five minutes. That means that these tracks are not structured at all for DJs. Most of them would work out well for radio, but there are several tracks that simply fade out as if they never were finished. I am used to my dance tracks being between five and ten minutes long so these tracks seem really short.

I’m giving DJEH the benefit of the doubt here and assuming that he is taking some advice that is good for pop and rock demos: Keep the tracks short and sweet so the A&R people can hear the main parts of the song quickly. The advice is valid, but in a way it is counterproductive when there are fifteen tracks on the demo itself. A demo needs to contain no more than four tracks and preferably fewer than that. The truth is, the dance labels would probably prefer hearing one really good six to eight minute track than even six three minute tracks over a three to four minute one.

Entertainment Quality: 7.0

I have been listening to this CD almost non-stop for the past two evenings. I have yet to get tired of it. It is not a floor pounder, but it is a good listening CD and great for some really smooth house sets where you want a more serious, slick and professional sound. DJEH has done a great job in that regard. If I had to say DJEH sounded like, I would have to say he’s sounds similar to Alexander East.

Total: 6.2 – Above Average

Outside of the vocal recording issues and the track lengths, this is one of the most enjoyable CDs I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing in a long while. This was meant to be a demo and it shows, but hey, that’s ok… it’s a demo. If the production values had been on par, it would have been a solid 7 for a total score.

Dave’s Take:

DJEH should be given a serious looking over by any house label looking for smooth house music with a laid-back and often jazzy feel. I cannot express how impressed I am with this demo despite the issues I mentioned. If DJEH were to cut the number of tracks down to two or three and extend them to the average club length, he should have no problem shopping this around to labels. Seriously, if you have a radio show that is looking for some new material of this type, you should check this CD out.