Building With Brass - Review on 4BR

[HBB]

Surfing 4BR (as I regularly do) I stumbled upon this review of a recent CD the Tredegar Town Band have released entitled Building with Brass

This review can be foundhere

I read it, and finally got to bottom and realised that it was infact written by a member of the band.

Surely this is biased and really means nothing, how much credibility can the site have after pulling a stunt like this, I don't know how you feel but I personally feel that I can't take what the reviewer cum band member's words seriously.

I don't know what you guys think ...

Ben

 

[John Brooks]

I too read the review and noticed the name of the reviewer. However, I came away thinking that this was a review compiled in much the same way as any other by the same reviewer who is generally forthright in his comments. I noticed the omission in the actual review of any reference to his own solo. While probably not without a certain amount of objectivity it's my guess that the review is a fair reflection of the CD. Would it have been prudent to get Peter to do the review? Probably, but I see no harm done unless the review is a bunch of lies which I very much doubt. The reviewer may lack a little discretion in this case but probably nothing more.

The question I had on reviewing the content was why only two movements from Enigma when there was room for the rest?

 

[Lothianh]

I'm troubled by it as well, and I certainly found that the first four paragraphs left a completely different impression when I re-read the review after knowing it was written by a participant. What would seem like praise coming from an outside observer can seem like blatant self-promotion coming from a band member, even though the words are the same.

Even if Mr. Fox is writing as impartially as a saint, even the smallest whiff of impropriety does no good for the reputation of 4BR, and renders their reviews of little service to their readers. I will certainly be reading future reviews with much less faith in the reviewers objectivity.

-Lothian