Category Archives: Frank Portalatin

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Hello TEEKERS,

A while back I mentioned that I had a very sick Family member. The Family member was my Father. It was a long and winding road but he is miraculiously doing better and I’ve been taking care of him for the last 4 months.He’s doing so much better now that he does not need 12 hour care and I can start doing the things that I love to do and that’s MUSIC!!! I will start Teeking again next week. I want to thank The Indaba Community for your patience during this rough ride in my life. I especially want to thank the Indaba staff for being there for me when I needed them most!! I see there’s a lot of new submissions and I will get to listen to them this weekend and have a teek for you next week. I thank all of you again, and keep on sending in your submissions.

Thanks

Frank Portalatin

 

AIR

 

TEEK ME

 

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Song:

Cuban Rhythm

Member: Andre Watson

Hello Teekers of the world of Music!! Hope all of your musical needs are doing well. My projects that I’ve been working on are doing well and will show you guys the finish product soon.Thank you for keeping your songs in the submission box!! Just Like I said before, I will get to you sooner or later. This week we are going to teek a Latin instrumental called “Cuban Rhythm” Lets check out this cool piece.

INTRO: Great horn section part to start up with. The samples of Spanish and Portuguese sayings are very cool too. You definitely are getting that riding Latin feel with this groove. The recording is very clean mixed well. The percussion is very well programmed also. Good job so far.

FIRST VERSE: Now the fender rhodes keyboard melody comes in and it’s a nice simple melody. This melody kind of runs off to a solo so I don’t really know where you are going with it, but it sounds good. Now the percussion starts to get more aggressive but you never seem to elevate back to a chorus. Seems you are just playing the same chord progression over and over.

Trumpet Solo: You change to a Trumpet solo from the keys and the trumpet player is a good player. The band though now hearing the same progession for a while stays in the same mood as the beginning of the tune. If you are going to start at one level you need to elevate or have a breakdown and elevate again as you go so the listener can go on some sort of a ride. If you stay stagnant, you lose the interest of the listener. You do have a lot of great things going on at this point but you need to ask yourself where do you want to go from here.

OUTRO/ENDING: The Trumpet solo is getting more aggressive and you add the horn section parts in the background to elevate the tune a little more but I think you could of build more because it’s the ending and the tune should be reaching some sort of climax.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: The more I listen to this tune I think the best part of this piece is the drum programming. It’s really good and it really sounds like a real drummer. I think you were paying more attention to that then the arrangement of the song. This is a good piece. I would like to hear it again if you can arrange it a little bit better with a definite chorus and a melody verse. Andre you have just been teeked, and keep up the good work. I’ll see you all soon, until then keep on writing that music!!!

 

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Song:

KEEP_ ON

MEMBER: HOT 16 OFFICIAL MUSIC   

Hello all of you TEEKERS out there! Hope all is doing well in the world of music! I see a lot more people submitting music and I’m loving it. Please keep your music in the submission box because I will get to them sooner or later just have some patience. This week we are going to do a Rap/Hip-Hop tune called KEEP ON. Come on and let’s do some TEEKING! 

INTRO: You start off with a repeating sample and a string pad in the background with the rapper introducing himself with a “Ha,” which most rappers do to get them ready before they start doing their rap.

1st VERSE. The beat comes in and I really like your kick sound big time! The rest of the beat is also nice. Your Rap is good too. It is like a Kanye flow with very clean diction which is great. The only thing is the recording of the rap is distorting a little. Please check your levels on the mic pre. It sounds like you may have overloaded a bit. Other than that you got a nice thing going on in the first verse. 

CHORUS: Very Catchy hook! Love the chant in the background. It’s a little quick but still efficient.

2ndVERSE: You change the music a little in the background by doing a little breakdown and then adding some strings. This is good because you are building as the song is progressing. Flow is happening still, but I think since it’s the second and final verse it could have been done with more aggressive rapping. 

LAST CHORUS: Here you could of done more things musically like more string parts and more percussion parts to know you are reaching the climax and ending the song. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: You definitely know how to produce a Hip-Hope track! I like your rapping a lot because your flow is smooth and clear. I think that the 1st verse was a little long and you could of separated into 2 verses and have 3 choruses. This would have made the format more standard for radio play, but I think it’s still good as is.

Remember I’m just giving you a point of view as if you were to present this to a record company. With a couple of changes you would have a radio worthy track. HOT 16 OFFICIAL MUSIC, you have just been TEEKED! Keep up the good work. I will see you all next week! Keep on Rockin it!

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SONG:

MY DREAMS 

MEMBER: ANDRE WATSON

Hello TEEKERS! WOW, I really don’t know how to begin. I’m sorry for my absence but I had a sick family member and needed to tend to him while he recovers in the hospital. The projects that I was working on started back up again so I will keep you up to date with all of them! I want to thank the Indaba staff for being there in time of need. You guys will always be the BEST! I was checking out the submission site while I was out of commission and I saw that a couple of people had submitted material and then left the session, please try and resubmit those songs because I gave some of them a short listen and I would of loved to teek them. Okay, lets do some TEEKING shall we? This week’s teek is an instrumental by ANDRE WATSON called MY DREAMS.

INTRO: Nice mellow intro with acoustic guitar, piano, and hi-hat. It’s a little long but not bothersome.

Groove: Drum fill comes to start the main groove. Nice beat and choice of chords on the guitar, and piano. Your recording seems to be clean. I think the drumbeat is a little sticky and can loosen up bit. You should definitely think of some sort of melody here because it’s a nice groove. Be careful with the programming on the bass part. It sounds like you used the sequencer and it sounds a little mechanical. I understand that some times it’s good to lock in the timing, but try to make it as human as possible.

SAX PART: Sax part comes in and the drums now start to sound more like a real drummer. I still do not hear a melody for the song but it’s more like a solo. The Sax player is very good and I like how everyone is playing, very loose. The little brake/turnaround is nice and tight too.

OUTRO: Now everyone is letting loose and you added some strings in the background. Good building for the end and now you have a trumpet playing the solo in the outro. Good professional fade out with the groove riding smoothly.

OVERALL THOUGHTS. For the most part it’s a good instrumental. I can see Grover Washington JR of Najee doing this tune, but you also left a lot out, like in the intro there could have been some little adlibs from the sax, or trumpet, and the main groove has no melody or lead instrument to know where you are going. I think if you do these things you will have an excellent instrumental on your hands. ANDRE you have just been TEEKED! I will see you all again next week and I’m very happy to back in the Indaba Community!

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Hey Teekers, wow, I’ve been listening to your submissions and you
guys rock! All the music sounds amazing and I can’t wait to dive further into
them.  Unfortunately this week I do
not have a teek, I’ve been very busy with a really great opportunity.  In my last Teek I told you all about my
radio interview with JStylz of Blackstreet on April 17th, I will be performing
and speaking a little about my involvement with the music industry. This will
be an amazing opportunity and I am very excited about it.  I will be keeping you all up to date
with where you can find this interview. However the preparation for this has
taken up much of my time and I was unable to provide you with a Teek this week,
but never fear i will be back in the swing of things ASAP! Keep sending in your awesome tracks!