Nashaat Salman “Universal Melodies’ Review: Could Be Special, But Missing Heart

August 20, 2015 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Orchestrated music has to make you feel something. It’s got to take you to a particular place and time. While Nashaat Salman “Universal Melodies” makes you feel like you are in a bevy of places, you never get the thought that you’re somewhere special.

Although solidly crafted, these three songs (and one radio edit) lack the type of appeal that better known orchestrators the likes of Yanni and Hans Zimmer are known for. More like a solid try than something that feels full ad fresh, Salman’s EP is missing that “it” factor.

Of all of the three tracks, “Summer Night Joy” has the most potential as it weaves a Latin and Indian vibe beautifully together from beginning to end. Between the horns and sultry guitar lick, it quickly grabs your ears. It’s definitely a track you could expect to hear as the theme song of a Spanish soap opera or in a sexy scene in a Bollywood film. Had the two remaining tracks “Dancing Star” and “Chasing” tried to fuse more sounds together and experiment, this EP could have ended up much different.

Although it tries to play with its sounds with the Asian-sounding opener, “Dancing Star” lacks the polish of “Summer Night Joy.” The same can be said for “Chasing,” which does have a cool ’80s synth feel to it, but without any context, feels flat. Regardless, this is a track that could definitely find its way into a battle scene of an Anime or Japanese role playing game.

Simply put, by the end of these three tracks, it’s hard to know what to think. This is a musician with talent, known for his work on radio and TV, trying to create music that has a touch more “soul” and brevity, but in the end it’s more of the same. The type of music you’d hear in an elevator or a pharmacy, it, away from “Summer Night Joy” doesn’t evoke any type of feeling. That’s not to say it’s poorly crafted, it just doesn’t exude heart. It needs more context.

And that’s why regardless of what you are away from this EP, its impossible not to see that Salman’s work is best served beside something else (a film for instance) than all by itself.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13856 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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