During this competition i noticed that previously learned skills perish quite quickly during longer breaks. I found it difficult to solve some issues into which i wouldn’t have fallen before the break. Also it was more difficult to find creative ideas, as mind started to resort too easily to older obvious solutions. So, if you want to become better in music, just keep on doing it.
About comments: I didn’t read explanations or other comments so that comments were based on only music that I hear.
burakxmusic, Echoes Of The Night
Nice and promising intro, it gives me a great expectations of what is about to come. You have everything needed for the great song there, even a great singer.
But to my surprise despite the fact that you had all the ingredients for a great song present in the intro, the main song never starts. Somehow it stays in the reduced mode telling the listener: ”just wait, it’s about to start”.
One solution could have been if you introduced a stronger and fuller bass after the 47 seconds long intro. Maybe also some melodic development would have been nice. Now it consists only of A-part and it’s variation. There’s no B-part let alone C-part
On the other hand: maybe echoes of the night are like this. They are luring you to think that something is about to happen.
Dasein, Black Sunset
Cool hypnotic theme, interesting chord progression. Nice sounding guitar-like instrument. But I was waiting all the time the main melody to start with words like: ”hello darkness my old friend…” Or it could have been some kind of flute take the focus. My main point being: you have a very nice track that could be a perfect support to some melody line or singing. But alone it just seems to be saying ”I’m ready to support you, please join me”
Elcubano, Distres
Great guitar lines in the intro. Nice surprise when those heavy guitars come in. I wasn’t expecting that.
Main melody line could be a bit more bold. Now it feels that vocal track is muted and we are hearing some sort of supportive melody that would create a nice contrapunkt for the vocals.
But as this is already so good, my mind starts to think how to mix it. I guess the main issue to be solved is the sonic interaction between bass and guitars. I might try for example use the bass in mono so that attack frequencies (700-900?) were in the center, and then cut off that area from the guitars on the sides. And vice versa: cut from the bass those areas where guitars needs to blossom (150-300?)
EsteveCorbera, Al Tornar De La Feina
Very Nice instrument sounds that you have woven together. You surely have developed a strong skills and vision in that area. As you have not added any melody line that would try to grab the attention, this would be a perfect track for some science documentary where some davidattenborough’s speak would take the prominent role. Or maybe this could be music to some meditation stuff. Why not try to hit the big time by selling your sonic services to Joe Dispenza’s meditation sessions.
In short this feels to me to be one cohesive track on its own.
Koekepan
I like that arpeggio theme and sonic landscape that you have created with only a couple of instruments. Well done. I had problems to hear what the man in the middle is saying. So quite quickly the speech turned to be some sort of instrument with preset name ”alanwattsian comeback”.
But to my surprise the main instrument to me in this track is the bass. It nicely gives room to other instruments to say their thing but still it has the command position in the track. The bass feels to be some sort of moderator who keeps everything strongly in its place.
PonySho, Little Blue Ships
Very nice. I like the fact that you use very sparse instrumentation. Then each instrument has an important role and must be thought more carefully. Sometimes i try to follow a rule I invented for myself ”add only those instruments that are absolutely needed, and then take a one away.” Well, i seldom succeed in doing that, but you surely have a mastery on that area.
As if I’m hearing strong Beatles influence especially in the background melody lines. II like the way the background melody first fills the holes and then grabs the main focus. And also, it feels to me that you have listened and studied Eels. At least the mood and attitude feels the same.
You very nicely guide the listener where to direct the focus. The focus place changes smoothly from one place to another and I never feel lost. But is the focus point jumping too quickly? Is the mastery of arrangement hiding the message of the song? For, when the song has ended i don’t remember what you were saying. I was listening the music part. I remember only how skillfully those musical changes were made. (But it may be that the whole problem lies in my diminishing memory capacities, not in your song)
TrojakEW, MindPrison
As i know some of your submissions from previous contests, you have huge talent for music. So it created big expectations for me. Your track starts with phenomenal sounds, and I find myself thinking: ”ok, here’s the winner”. But quite soon after that the track starts to feel as a quick demo for a client to show the direction to which you would go if you were chosen for the project. (And it fulfils that task perfectly.) So the intro is absolutely great, but the moment the actual song is about to start you just fade out. From that point of view it’s difficult to evaluate this correctly. Sorry if I’m using harder criteria for you than to others.
APi_ZZ, Consiliation
Nice harmonies in those choir parts. I like the way one note at a time changes chord smoothly to another, while the rest of notes remains the same. The flute has a nice place to be the carrier of focus point. But id love to hear more memorable melody lines. Now those flute lines feel like rudimentary riffs, like melody placeholders that are to be developed later to finished melody lines.
Also, you should probably give some resting moments for the choir before they start to faint. Now they are doing constantly very long notes without possibility to breath in. And to hold better the attention of the listener it would be nice to have some different moments.
VOTES
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1 PonySho, LittleBlueShips
2 EsteveCorbera, AlTornarDeLaFeina
3 Elcubano, Distress
4 Koekepan
5 Dasein, Black Sunset Updated
How do we go from there?