| MindWanderer |
02-02-2012 10:00 PM |
My comments: - Magnus Divinicus Chiptunicus: Amazing production, and a very enjoyable piece. The combination of chiptunes with the background soundscape was excellent and memorable. My one gripe is that the Wily themes and Magnet Man were so dominant. I caught Schala's theme and a hint of Dust Man, but I'm not sure where Blizzard Man was. In any other round, that would probably have dropped a piece out of my top 3, but since everyone struggled with this, it gets a pass, and my #1 spot.
- Bubble Man's Requiem: Despite the unabashed dominance of Bubble Man's theme, this piece makes exemplary use of all 4 themes. It's like Wily Battle 10 and Bubble Man were the original pieces to be used, and Elec Man was used as a binding agent. Snake Man is a little forced, though--if you intend to submit this, it might be worth considering just taking it out. It's not bad, per se, and given that you had to use it, it's fine, but it's kind of unnecessary taken independently of the compo. On the other hand, once the production is cleaned up (the one thing keeping this out of my #1 slot), it might sound better.
- Amp: Q: What happens when a remixer who normally goes all over the place is asked to work with 4+ sources? A: Not a whole lot--this is clearly a pH piece, with all that means. However, a bit of schizophrenia is par for the course this time, so he's in his element, and this is perhaps his best submission of the compo. Good soundscape, solid use of all 5 themes, although Charge Man is in the forefront most of the time and Needle Man seems to be in the back seat. I'm not a fan of glitches, but there aren't many. Overall, a challenge accepted and met.
- Sweet Wet Nectar: Hornet Man and Splash Woman domimate, but all 4 themes can be clearly heard and work reasonably well together. I'm not a big fan of the synth samples used here, and that's probably the one thing that kept me from enjoying this more. Also a minor thing: the soundscape felt shallow and a bit busy; pulling something out to a lower register might have sounded better.
- In the Reading...: Classic Willrock, with the Air Man jams I've been waiting for this whole time, and the Rock of Halc, hard to go wrong. So why didn't I rank this higher? The opening and ending are pretty weak, IMHO, with an odd choice of instrumentation and some dissonance. It also suffers from a lack of coherence, with several awkward transitions. There's a lot about this piece that I liked, but it just didn't come together as a whole for me.
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