Hey all! I'm not on either team this time but wanted to stick my notes in writing somewhere:
Калинка
Cool proggy/post-rock opening, good vibe to start GSM4 on. Sounds like seph did a ton of overdubs. Ending is also cute and well thought-out.
I Wish I Wish
I can see people wishing the sources were more dominant but this is my second-favorite one for this round. Not sure who did what (I'm not familiar with Oscar/Atcero's styles) but it does a lot with a little* and I love the Satisfaction/VN-sounding portamento saws.
Burning Obsession
Perfect "fire stage" intro with the guitar trills and toms. Thought josh did these drums at first. Heard Queen did the mixing, sounds great. The bridge being tongue-in-cheek is really funny and Weeks' range works good for the X VA.
Only real critique is that I think it could either be a little more punk/sludgy or a little more Broadway; as-is the backing track sounds almost surf rock at points splitting the difference.
Vulcan's Doorstep
Was expecting this to turn into full-fidelity psytrance at some point but kind of glad it didn't; JSA's writing with Xaleph's mixing/perfectionism is a great combo, reminds me of Project S-11 in some places. Specifically wrote down that the bass at 1:44 and Rocket Hideout-sounding foley at 2:08 are cool.
Vile Circuitry
Think this is my favorite one of the round. Seph(?)'s vocal foley at the start is funny but this one is really technically impressive. The almost djent-y rhythms and stuff in the second half help spice it up. I heard yami did the mixing - I'm not familiar with their style yet but it's a great start for mixing metal, the kicks around the 3 min mark are super aggressive.
A Vile Medley
Weil and Wave are both crazy sources - surprised neither team just called it Weilwave. Medley is really, really well-produced, to the point that I think it would have trounced anything from GSM3 Round 1. It's lush but not muddy. cammy's sax kicking in is comparable to Weeks' soprano coming in for Sakura Wa Karenai during GSM3. In practice this track has everything I'd want out of a jazz/funk mix, but I'm leaning slightly towards Circuitry, just because I'm familiar with seph's workflow and know he would have sunk a ton of time into doing those guitar overdubs/countermelodies for like 4 minutes straight. Hemo's debut on the keys is cool too - they're slightly too humanized imo, but a really strong opener and again, production is crazy across the board.
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Overall notes
It's fun seeing the genres/production of each GSM based on who's playing. GSM2 leaned a lot more electronica, GSM3 was weirdly super consistent with longform pop/rock tracks. It was fun for 3, but I don't think 18 four- to five-minute tracks is sustainable or a normal expectation for every GSM. *The tracks being shorter but "burning brighter" for 4 gives it more room for stuff like I Wish I Wish to exist. I wouldn't really describe 4 as anything but "experimental" genre-wise so far but it'll be cool to see teams find more niches round-by-round.
Also, just a suggestion for Team Mega Man - do something Splatoony! Get seph or someone to do some wobbly resonant synths and it splits the difference between the punk instrumentation and the more "aristocratic", un-filtered vocals on Burning Obsession.