Leaderboard

The Judges Panel has been talking about ways to work through the queue of submitted remixes at a faster pace, and after a lot of discussion and weighing the pros and cons, we've come to a decision that's probably one of the biggest adjustments to our process in a long time: Submissions no longer require four (4) YES votes to pass. A decision is reached as soon as the difference in votes is three (3). To clarify the key change here: when a submission receives three (3) YES votes and there are zero (0) NO votes, the submission is accepted, because the difference in votes is three (3). If a submission continues to go back and forth without reaching +3 in either direction, the panel will continue to vote until all active judges have voted and the majority will determine the decision. This update to our decision making process will immediately apply to any submissions on the panel at the time of this announcement going live, and for all decisions moving forward. We won't be going back to previous rejections to find decisions that started with three (3) uncontested YES votes but eventually got rejected; in those cases, what's done is done. We hope that artists will find this new criteria a little bit easier to understand. Overall, we've been impressed with the quality of work being sent in these past months, and this should make it easier for us to get the slam dunk tracks through the process faster. Thanks to all the artists who continue to participate in our curation process. Hope to hear your work soon. - DarkeSword

This is an easy close-out. I have no idea what was going on with the first version that was holding it back, but nothing seems to have made its way into version 2. This isn't nearly as sophisticated as some of your more recent work, and I'm sure some of that can be attributed to writing and sound design decisions that were made with 10 years less experience, but in spite of its simplicity, your production quality and the performances (actually, I just read the original submission letter and the vocals were apparently done with some sort of plugin? Never would have guessed this wasn't a collab!) bring it all together now. Better late than never! YES

I remember this track and I voted on it. I remember thinking it was great but the vocals were sinking it and the synths were dry and blocky. It seems all of the issues I brought up have been addressed and it only took a decade! The vocals now sound amazing and everything fits in together super well. If these are fake vocals, they sound very good! "Fauxcals" bwahahahaha! Yeah this is good to go now. YES

Japanese city pop. I've built out my hi-fi and have been importing things. It's strangely nostalgic for me - it's how I'm coping with my midlife crisis.

I was basically out on parental leave when the previous version was subbed, so I've actually never heard that version; let's see what's going on. Intro seems unrelated to the source, but then hits the melody at :31 with some lovely, spacious faux-vocals, then Jorito joining in on backup at :47. The Synthesizer V vocals are impeccable; if you'd claimed it was a live singer, I would have readily agreed. Nice synth lead at 1:03, though the beat was feeling somewhat flat, and I felt the soundscape was muddy, enough to merit commenting on it. A reprise of the fauxcals at 1:42 with different textures underneath them. Slight tweak to the lead of the chorus section at 2:13, then some cool vocals at 2:20 adding some color to this section. Nice isolated vocals at 2:51; Jorito's choral stuff behind them sounded great as well, functioning like a pad. Good addition of the guitar at 3:23 to accent the vocal melody; at this point, the overall feel was getting repetitive (nothing threatening a NO vote, but still...), so it was good to hear even more playing around with the textures behind the leads at 3:56's chorus section. Not sure what would have held this first version back. /listens - Oh OK, I get it. Yeah, more stilted sequencing and thinner textures compared to the current version, and the Realivox Blue vocals were brutal (terrible articulations, very stiff timing), but I can see why Sir_NutS was saying this had lots of potential back then. No worries about that now for Jorrith, this one's now flying high. Great treatment of a cool, overlooked theme. :-) YES

opens with airy pads and some nice vocal elements. there's the slightest bit of overlap to indicate that they're layered else i wouldn't have been able to tell initially that it's done with a synth. technology has apparently progressed amazingly, because this sounds fantastic. the beat and backing elements at 0:31 are great, tons of space in the bass and the drums are nice and tight. the main riff at 1:04 is a little heavy in the left ear, but i like how it's being played and i like the escalation at 1:22 in the backing elements. there's a recap in the vocal elements starting at 1:42 - essentially a verse 2 - with some extra ear candy behind it to keep interest. the chorus/synth led section right after it has a lot of fun new content as well, including the vocal elements. there's a break at 2:54 and the really dumb lyrics are a bit more highlighted here, but it's effective as a break in the beat and vibe for a bit before the verse content comes back again. i'd have liked the guitar parts to be a bit louder here, as it's the only new thing that's going on in this section. i liked the subsequent guitar/synth stuff at 4:00 or so a lot. it trucks through some more chorus content, hits the flying high phrase once more, and it's done. this is great! it's got superb mastering throughout, it drives forward throughout and doesn't get stale despite some repetition in content, and the vocal elements really work well. definitely an obvious demonstration of your progress as a musician. excellent work. YES