Great feedback from the SMILEfest 2016 Demo Surgery

Solent Music’s Demo Surgery at SMILEfest 2016 showed that the students on Southampton Solent University’s music courses continue to produce some great quality music.

This year’s demo surgery was hosted by Dr Chris Anderton (Course Leader for BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Music Management) and featured the following music industry guests:

Neil Kulkarni (author of The Periodic Table of Hip Hop)

Matt Harvey (Paperhouse Music & Entertainment Management)

Neil Simpson (Artist manager at ATC Management)

Sophie Harris (Time Out NY)

Check out their Top 5 favourite tracks and comments below, or listen to the whole playlist on our Soundcloud account here …. 

Advocate – ‘Freefall’

“Now that’s a pop chorus ladies and gentlemen” – Neil Simpson

“The production on this is excellent, it’s super crisp, really tight. And I felt like melodically it’s really strong.” – Sophie Harris

 

Riversong – ‘Into the Woods’

“It grabbed me, and the reason why it grabbed me was the voice. The voice is wonderful, it has real depth and suggestiveness to it.” – Neil Kulkarni

“It built and it was suggestive massively and it made me want to hear more. It made want to actually hear the other kind of songs you do.” – Neil Kulkarni

“The “ahh-ahh” is a strong hook… I can hear a huge potential in that, as a producer and a writer, you know, there’s a huge amount of potential.” – Neil Simpson

SUGA – ‘Between Us’

“It was my favorite song, I thought it was really really well executed. It’s immaculate production, great vocalist, really strong, again, really confident.” – Sophie Harris

Sarah Pardoe – ‘Company’

“I could totally hear it sound-tracking – especially like a drama, like in Greys Anatomy or something like that” – Sophie Harris

“Nicely done, nice reverb, beautiful acoustic guitar, nice tones.” – Neil Simpson

Thrones – ‘Hands’

“The rhythm section – the bass and drums – just wonderful. The drummer has that relaxed thing that is just so rare these days. I enjoyed the guitar and vocals but fundamentally I’m sold because of the rhythm section.” – Neil Kulkarni

“They sound like they are enjoying it and you can feel it” – Sophie Harris

“It sounds like a band who should be gigging every night of the week” – Matt Harvey