Fair warning, this is an ‘I listened to this so you don’t have to’ review. John Laurence’s EP ‘Song of the Last Dove: An EP of World Music by John Laurence’ may have noble intentions about speaking to world peace through music, however, his technical abilities do not match those intentions. This is a technically inept collection of songs that certainly did not evoke any peaceful sentiments during my listening of it. The instruments are out of tune with each other making it physically uncomfortable for anyone with a decent relative pitch to listen to (perfect pitch people, stay clear!). Laurence’s technical abilities as a musician are limited with faulty intonation and articulation (particularly noticeable on wind instruments and guitar) heard throughout the album. Pro-tip: if you’re going to buy a cheap bamboo flute and use it as a feature instrument a) don’t expect it to be at A440 b) tune the other instruments to it! I won’t begin to discuss my thoughts on his compositional abilities except to say that he could benefit from some formal instruction on musical form. The editing and mastering of this collection are clearly DIY, with a number of jarring edits and balancing between instruments that speak to a lack of knowledge of how to masterfully use editing software.