Review: Cylindrian Rutabaga @ Museum of SL Photography (MOSLP)

Written by Enniv Zarf
Copyright Metaverse Music
Second Life Live Music
Cylindrian Rutabaga's Myspace

Now here's someone I can sink my teeth into!

Today's concert is at the MOSLP, Museum of SL Photography hosted by Mariposa Upshaw. It's actually one of my favorite types of events in Second Life, art opening with live music. After all I do play at a good many art opening and improvise to a lot of these art.

Well SL Photography is also one of my favorite things in SL, and that's also why I host a few SL Photographers at my own gallery at PK Works.

Back to Cylindrian Rutabaga, who is actually one of the best singer I have heard in Second Life. She really is very good and her guitar playing is also very well rehearsed and well performed. Her originals are pretty ear catching as well.

Cylindrian got a great voice to begin with and definitely something to enjoy and listen to, very pleasant to the ears. And best of all is that she does not have any of the intonation problems that plague way too many in Second Life.

Cylindrian is always on tour according to her profile in the real world and in Second Life. She has a good following of fans both in and out of Second Life. In fact her stream today is heard by both people inworld and off world. I couldn't remember the yahoo group you can contact her in while she's performing, though I have no idea how many people are actually listening to her at the same time.

Nevertheless her voice have a great pleasant sound and her "sound" is definitely not forced and faked like so many wannabe singers in SL. Though I have to say even her singing isn't CD flawless. But they are just so minor that you probably have to have my ears to catch the occasional very miniscue issues.

I also have to hand it to Cylindrian that her cover song singers are just great. I love her rendition of Cyndi Lauper's Time after Time. She definitely have her own take and her own style but yet still works really well with this song. It's always difficult to do cover songs as we have the originally usually stuck in our head. And so to hear it in a different light, it's often hard. Also we are so used to the CD quality of the sound that anything less then a flawless performance is often rather disappointing. So kudos to Cylindrian for delivering a well performed cover song unlike a few others I have heard before.

Her music works well for an art gallery open of this sort. Her light sound and voice does help the browsing through the various artworks in the gallery. Her voice is rather soothing to listen to. Her sustained notes are solid and centered and well supported. Most importantly it's in tune.

Now aside from playing the guitar, being a versatile musician she also plays piano as well and switches between the two instruments as she performs. Though I'm pretty certain from the sound of it that it's an electric piano, sorry I'm just a fanatic about playing on a real grand, it's still descent to listen to. Though she is definitely a better pianist then her keyboard. The quality of even that electric really isn't my favorite, especially compared to a few other pianist in SL who plays on electrics. It's just a tad bit too electric and the low end is just a tad bit cut off. And her piano playing is definitely not as strong as her guitar playing. But hey who cares when you've got a voice like hers!

The balance between her voice though and her playing is very lovely and really her strength is her voice. It's pure, it's strong and penetrating and just easy on the ears. Hey if I can actually turn up her singing on my music player, what more do I need to say!

Well done Cylindrian, and I highly recommend this musical artist to anyone who's looking for someone that's actually a real singer worthy of your lindens!