No One Asked For Quarters, Just FiveNDime

Courtesy - cuindependent.com

Jason Michael otherwise known as FiveNDime, is a DJ and producer based out of Boulder, CO. This progressive musician has taken his life long experiences and exposure to a variety of genres, such as Western and Eastern influences and incorporates them into his own music. While playing multiple instruments he has been able to start to develop his own style of music through experimentation and manipulation of various sounds and instruments.

Although FiveNDime would be considered by most to be Dubstep or House music, there is much more to the complex production and variables he puts into his songs. On the track “Jason VoorHees,” the introduction starts out with a beautiful, yet darker sounding keyboard melody that the entire track essentially becomes based off of as well as reverting back to. The head banging beat slides smoothly into an incredible hip-hop style beat that makes me want to dance. I wanted to hear someone start rapping when this came into full effect to possibly give this hip-hop like section more body to it as well as giving listeners something more to connect with. I still think the beat is incredible with simplicity taking music off to be catchy, yet original.

On many of the tracks I listened to on FiveNDime’s Sound Cloud, I felt there was something missing. It was not necessarily an effect, another whomp, or synthesizer, instead it is something I can almost hear, I want to connect with it, which has the ability to make FiveNDime’s music completely successful, but it isn’t something that can just be thrown in and make everything better like a Band-Aid. Jason would make sure it fits perfectly. It has potential to develop naturally with his music as he moves forward in the music world. Whatever “the missing” is or isn’t, it would enable more tracks to stand strong on their own, which seems to be what he is going for. However, “Da Lullaby” is an extremely resilient on its own because of the emotion put into every part of the song. The transitions are seamless and the entire song flows like a Dubstep river. He keeps it true to his style by making listeners feel the music by putting his cards all out on the table.

I also believe FiveNDime would be more successful in having some kind of lyricism on top of the beats, whether it is a sample (or several), a singer, or rapper all the while staying true to his love for Dubstep. Lyrics have the ability to draw listeners in and give them something to connect with. However, most importantly he needs to take more of his unique influences and make them go wild. I feel a sense of shyness coming out of his tracks where there shouldn’t be, but this is less prevalent in his newer songs.

FiveNDime has amazing potential to not only create his own genre of music and to move music in a positive new direction, but to show listeners his true diversity of listening and original style of his music. I look forward to hearing future tracks to come as well as watching him take his knowledge of production to a new level. He is so close to greatness and born with a talent for music that should take him far. I am excited to see what he comes out with next, however, there is more to an artist than what is put on a disk. Performing live is a whole other entity that I would love to see FiveNDime take over. Watch out for this up and coming artist.