prophetik music

big guitar-driven opening. 0:36 the drums kicked it off and it really started cooking. there's a lot of lower content and the bass sits a little high, so it comes across as very lower mid heavy. the guitars and bass are very clear and the drums are saying fun things - definite dragonforce vibes when the vocals come in at 1:13. it's hard to understand the words that are being said, but holy crap, what a voice! killer range. the first few lines of the chorus are so dragonforce, it sounds like it's straight out of the joke commercial they made of their hits. track blows through the next verse and hits another chorus with some neat harmonic elements added. there's an instrumental bridge that hits at 2:48 that features the required rising 'ahh' vocal yell and guitar solo. solo is outrageous as is expected. there's some pageantry at 3:48ish in the guitar work with a bunch of layered stacks and some really fun panning work. track comes back around to the chorus one time before an extended outro featuring the melodic content and a solid 15+ seconds of glam slam outro insanity. what a ride! i love everything about the arrangement here. this maps so well to the style and your choice of collaborators was excellent. the track feels a bit weird in the low end overall, but it's mixed such that i can always hear everything that's going on, and it doesn't get tiresome to my ears after nearly six minutes of balls-to-the-wall rock. what a fun track. YES

dunno if i'd call this a mix of the two games officially. this is pretty clearly just FF7Rem. really interesting opening feel. accordion, guitar, and what sounds like the bouzouki to start. would have liked whatever plectral instrument playing the single tones here to be a touch louder. some melodic content in the accordion, and then the band sound comes in at 0:33. there's some really fun crunch in that first chord, very reminiscent of what makes the FF7 overworld theme so good. vocal line at 0:56 sound great, a bit of rawness alongside the nice backing elements. there's not much bass going on here - drums are pretty quiet too tbh - and there also doesn't appear to be much formant boost here, so it feels pretty mid-heavy with some pressure in the 200-300hz range. a bit of lift in the 3k range (this might require different EQing than the bigger parts later?) would allow you to turn down your vocal volume while still cutting through the mix, and in turn reduce some of that pressure on the fundamental. there's the lightest touch of autotune artifacting at 1:19 (your smiling face). i really like the instrumental refrain after this verse - it's a great contrast to the body of the verses. i also like the tremolo guitar accents in the second verse, again reminiscent of the original soundtrack (Life Without Parole is the vibe i get from that). there's a prechorus at about 2:17, and your alto tone is still really solid through here. it's obviously low so excellent job continuing to maintain quality. there's a touch of overlap at 2:47 and then we get The Chorus, which sounds freaking awesome. i see the same lift at the 3.8khz range (not sure it's on the vocal part for sure) that i saw before and i think that freq is a touch high, because the vocal parts are still very loud relative to everything else in order to speak here. harmony parts though are an excellent addition and sound good, and are balanced really well. i wouldn't have minded more attention to consonants in the vocal line to be able to understand the words a bit better. 3:20 is a guitar lead part and sounds superbly in-style - love the octaver and the tone of the lead. there's no transition to the prechorus and i wouldn't have minded a crash or something. this builds into the second chorus and again this is a high point. there's a ton of suspensions in the backing part which is a really neat sound. i could hear a lot more of the keys in this section too which was really nice. there's an outro on the instrumental refrain, and a great solo line from EK, and it's done. what a ride! this is a really fun rock ballad that overall sounds solid. there's some nits in production and execution that i would love to hear get updated, but overall this does a nice job fleshing out the original's fairly basic chord progression while adding a lot of verve and folky style to the structure. YES

given the vote count, i'll pass this to TheManPF to see if we can get something to fulfill the C.

new version in the comments of the submission form.

big blow to start. immediately recognizable style being aped here. guitar comes in at 0:24 and is just what i'd expect for this feel. brass are fun but obviously fake, using them a bit less for those stabs might have helped cover that up a bit. 1:03's solo entrance sounds great, and i particularly liked 1:20's riff. there's a break at 1:45 that's more break than i'd have expected! i figured there'd be a bass solo or drums or something in there. after this is what i'd call a rolling section as it rides on the 7th of each chord for a bit. guitar is a bit twangy on the bottom here. then there's a sustained chord with some fun riffage and it's done. i was a little concerned about source usage given the original's minimal nature and the extended solo. i get source from 0:08 through 1:03, 1:53 through 2:00, and 2:08 through the end. that's 97s out of 165, so we're good there. this is a fun romp through twelve-bar blues. i like how easy it felt for you to stay in the form while exploring the original's 7th-dominated theme. track is short but sweet. nice work. YES

agree the opening is extended and doesn't appear to be directly related to the original. with such a short original, though, i don't mind. the chord pattern at 0:34 starts to fit the original (not exact), though, and then we start to get the melodic content in a very expanded method at 1:10 or so. i really dig the beat here, and the use of big wide chord stacks with tons of high-end content is a really neat way to represent this. there's a big break at 1:42 or so, and this is a good thing to give some space to the opening section's heavier beat. it also provides nice contrast to the big blocks at 2:15 and gives them more impact. that section has a ton of verve, and the following bouncier section at 2:54 has some neat new sounds that fit the vibe well. key change at 3:30 helps keep things interesting, and it's a straight shot to the end from there. this is a great adaptation of a simple, short original. there's a lot of variety of synths used within a fairly narrow palette, and i appreciate the overall shape of the track as well as it flows from section to section. nice job. YES

starts out with octave riffs. 0:20's addition of the upper octave sounds great with the arps under it, and then it really hits at 0:29. total band sound is great. 0:50's back and forth conversational lead work was a good idea to keep it moving and not be solely guitar-dominated. 1:10 shows it's not a castlevania remix without some descending arpeggiated elements played by an organ, and that section serves as a bit of a break. it navigates some solo work and then has the conversational section again. 2:13's half-time section is again well-timed to provide a bit of a break from the faster, heavier first two minutes. this goes back into a third conversational section, which is probably too many times to go back to the well for the same thing. around here i noticed that the drums overall are pretty consistently the same and outside of fills were not really doing a lot of unique stuff. the switch to double-time at 2:51 though was a nice change though and then the subsequent double pedal stuff was also fun. the track changes yet again at 3:23 and it noodles a bit until it's done. great playing by zach on this one for sure. lots of fun back and forth. i think it ran out of ideas a bit near the end with the third back-and-forth and the end being so different from the rest, but overall it's a fun romp between the two themes. nice work. YES

classic original. also the remix really needs a name. opens with some (very very) quiet arp elements. it's a neat opening idea but really needs some compression as it's almost too quiet. bass and lead come in at 0:25 along with some static fx. this is a really cool vibe and is super patient with the melodic elements. i liked the string sweeps a lot - they're very subtle. 1:17 adds some more textural arps and still is very patient with the approach. the chordal elements that come in during the B section of the melody are again subtle and nice. 2:08's a 'break', if you can really have one when the track's like this, but there's a nice build into 2:34 which opens the filter and adds some nice countermelodic elements. i wouldn't have minded if the melodic element and main backing arp got new sounds here as they've been repeating for the entire track and probably should be mixed up. there's a nice build into 4:16 and the track's clearly on the downswing here as the melodic content drops. this section dragged and probably could have had more direction via subtractive arrangement and not sticking to the length of the original melodic loop. it ends on a confused chord that is probably a iv, which isn't my favorite choice but it's not technically incorrect. this is a really neat one. there's a ton of subtlety to the associated arrangement elements, and the countermelodic elements that are used were fun. there's a lot of low-end rumble, which is possibly contributing it to being a bit dense in the low mids, but overall i felt it sounded pretty good. my concern is with repetition, of which there's a lot. we don't ever hear the melodic material changed up - either in synth choice or in how it's presented - and essentially every element says the same thing for the rest of the track once it's introduced. it comes down to if i think that the repetition is beyond that of what'd be expected for the style, and i land on the side that says it's repetitive but not too much. so with that i think this is over the bar. YES

verby arps to start, and a really fun wide synthy lead to start. 0:40's where we start to get a beat, and it really kicks off at 0:55. i don't know if i'd call this synthwave as much as just a fun bop with synth instruments - i like the variation right off the bat in drum elements and in the nice wide bass that's being used to keep it feeling warm and fuzzy. whatever lead is introduced at 1:35 is definitely not my cup of tea, but i like what it's saying. there's some density issues around this section as the bass and really low mids are really heavy there in an abnormally wide band, so it's a bit muddy as the kick, wide bass, and some of the arps are colliding. some more intentional EQ there could definitely help with that, as well as some intentional volumizing on the snare in the following quieter section. i also heard some crunchy notes as a borrowed chord overlapped a non-borrowed chord at 2:22 in the reverb tail. there's a nice dropoff at 2:40 for ordon village - it almost sounded like auld lang syne for an instant there which was fun. using the hats and arp to keep the energy moving towards the bigger section at 3:13 was a great choice, and using the excellent skyhold theme there as a wrapping element for the higher energy parts of the piece is also a great choice. it's such a strong theme and you let it shine through well. there's some nice sustains at 3:48 which serve as a great wrapper to settle the listener down without a fadeout. this is a fun romp through some great themes. i agree with LT that some of the synth work is a bit stilted and wooden, but overall the warm vibes really come through well with all of the wide, slightly detuned elements. fun track. YES

starts out with some light drums, and clarinet and bass clarinet come in pretty quickly. they're well played and it's a fun primary idea for the track. clarinet tone is a bit stringy, and doesn't seem helped by the mic or lack of room sound. bass clarinet is more fleshed out and has a great tone, but also isn't really helped by the mic or lack of room sound. for the clarinet especially, make sure you've got enough mouthpiece in your mouth, that your reed is doing you favors in terms of hardness, and that you're really trying to keep your teeth and throat open enough to allow for the proper resonance (especially on sustains it sounds like you're clenching your teeth a bit). flutes come in at 0:29 and are both better mic'd and playing some really fun countermelodic content. they're a bit loud in the mix relative to the other elements - flutes are always hard to mix because they cut through so easily. the b section arrives at 0:53 with a lot of sustains in the clarinet that emphasize the aforementioned tone issue. there's a ton of fun window dressing here though especially in the bass clarinet. flute takes the lead at 1:16 and the singing tone really carries this nicely. this is an opportunity for volumization though, as the flute really is a lot louder than everything here. bringing the flute a bit back (counterintuitively) relative to the other elements will help it not crush everything when it gets into power range in the middle of the upper octave. i really like the clarinet countermelodic content here too, your tone fits into the backing elements really nicely. flute carries the B melody at 1:41 and there's again some fun turns of phrase by the clarinet. the bass clarinet gets lost in here a bit because it's up in the upper registers and so doesn't have the bite that was helping it cut through down lower. there's a final hit and we're done. overall this is a really fun arrangement! i really love the different countermelodic elements throughout. i really wasn't sure how i'd feel about a track that was just winds and drums, but the bass clarinet really does a great job staying active and keeping the lower end handled. this is a great adaptation, nitpicks aside, and is definitely over our bar. nice work. YES

wow, what an original! this is a great track. initial riffs is just what i expected, and i love it already. immediate head-bobber. performance is stellar. 0:42's a break, with the following band sound at 0:56 more of a fusion vibe like you'd expect to hear in a persona track. 1:18 is finally the MOAR DAKKA i was hoping for and has some plini vibes with the ascending melodic line over heavy rhythmic chugs. 1:57's recap with the two leads is great, and i like the immediate key change here to ensure there's no chance anyone will think it's getting too samey. 2:28's break is well-timed and needed after all that, and the last gasp of fresh air before the end. synth solo at 2:40 is superb. during the section at 3:00ish i was really impressed with just how clean the mix sounds - there's a ton going on, and it's all audible and punchy and vibrant. EQing here is very good. 3:17's section felt a bit tacked in there as a palette cleanser since it doesn't really dovetail into adjacent sections, but the following section with trading leads sounds great. 4:05's a straight blow through to the end, and it's done. what a track. this is super fun - there's a lot of genre shifts and style elements in here for everyone, and it just keeps on evolving as it goes along. excellent work. YES

sfx to start, then some panning mandolin and arpeggiated guitar work. the beat hits at 0:31. i like the bass tone immediately and also like the way the elements are woven together here. sax is a bit out of time in a way that was confusing at first. there's a break at 1:09 and the celli here sound nice, and the groove that comes in right after is a really energetic and pressing sound that i like a lot. melody's back in at 1:49 and it's quiet, with the (fun) guitar work covering it up quite a bit. false ending at 2:17 is really just an excuse to lean more into stemage which i think is a great decision. there's an outro that starts at 2:59 and is mostly just sfx, and it's done. this is pretty straightforward, but i wouldn't call it conservative. i like the way you've taken the individual elements of the original and pieced them back together in interesting ways. this is really solid. nice work. YES

some FF5-esque synths to open the track. 0:25's where the beat and bass come in (in a different tempo, which is an interesting choice) and it feels a little dark. wouldn't have minded more highs through here. lead is pretty much playing the original's content - i would have liked to hear some movement on the synth lead part as well as dynamics. it also just ends where tsori comes in, which is a little weird. trumpet doesn't speak over the mix right off the bat but sounds great when it gets a bit higher. i liked the doubling on the theme down the octave as well, and the shift at 1:17 to drop the hats and focus on the melodic content was a good one. again the trumpet kind of drops off suddenly at the end of that section - a more dovetailed ending would have been preferable. i really didn't care for the solo tone at first - there's a very high ringing around 4khz that really grated - but i got more into it as the solo moved along. i'd have loved to see the drums changed up for the solo section to help keep it moving forward. there's several rhythmic elements in this section that weren't quite lined up - the drum triplet's second two hits are late, the solo part at 2:04 is a bit out of time, as is 2:18. the solo ends on a non-chord tone which is a bit unsupported. overall the solo sounded pretty good, but i didn't find that it followed the chords and hit the color tones quite as much as i'd have hoped that it would have. i liked the overall rhythmic direction you went with it, however, and i'd encourage you to use space in your solos more often to help drive energy. with synth solos especially, varying vibrato and velocity can really take it to the next level - experimenting with the mod wheel, pitch wheel, and using a synth that is velocity-driven can really pump it up. there's a bigger section with some fun interplay between the different elements at 2:50. this is the climax of the piece and it's fun to hear everything interweaving, and then come together at 3:15 for the same descending lick. the piece meanders a bit over the last 25s but it eventually finds a nice closing tone. i wouldn't have minded a fade on the synth vs. a hard cut like it had. this is a pretty neat combination of ideas. trumpet and what i'd consider to be a jazz/blues guitar tone with synthwave elements makes for an interesting overall feel. i liked the adaptation of the themes, and for the most part the solos sounded good and were interesting. i think that i called out a ton of nitpicks above but overall this is over the bar. nice work. YES edit 7/23: coming back to this a few months later. the bass is really crushing everything else in the low end. LT's right that the kick doesn't have any beef, but it's because the bass is stealing it all. some sidechain or an altered bass rhythm that's not just repeated eighths would help with that. the synth solo also isn't really doing it for me - i don't like the tone still, and it spends a lot of time not doing anything, and then ends on a non-chord tone. i think LT's statement of there being a lot of little things adding up makes sense. there's a ton of nits here and i think that correcting them would help a ton. i'm going to change my vote. NO

opens with a backbeat feel. off-beat guitar is a little loud, as is the eventually melodica (??) lead. not having a pad here to fill out the chords makes it feel a bit empty in the early section. there's also a good bit of panning so the lead and organ that comes in later is a little wider than expected. there's a bit of a drum break at 0:41, and that goes right into the air theme at 0:55. that same lead finally stops playing at 1:08 and its nice to hear something else for a bit. i really didn't care for the tone of the melodica lead and it just kept going with no real break. there's a recap of the water island theme and the organ continues to do interesting things in the background. 1:35 is a shift in the drums and organ - sounds like the organ gets a chance to do a bit of a solo - and then we have a second recap of the water island theme (this is, i think, copied directly from 2:01). there's a fade-out and it's done. i think there's a lot going on here that's good. i like the overall vibe of the arrangement - i think you are pretty close to nailing the backbeat-style chill feel. i also like the use of drums and bass overall. i think the drums have a lot of copied patterns and could use a bit of variance once and a while, and i definitely found the melodica lead to be grating and over-loud - i can't help but wonder what it'd sound like with a different lead used for part or all of those sections. separately, i thought that there is a general lack of anything to help ground the chords for each section - a light pad would do wonders to help clean that up. lastly, mixing up the presentation of the water theme that's repeated several times (add some personalization each time!) and the countermelodic content behind it would be a great choice. i think this is fun, and pretty close. there's a few things to fix and then i think it's there. NO

gets right into it. there's a lot of finger noise on the bass, particularly the attack, which is partially cool to hear how organic it is and partially distracting. the vibes are spare in their application - almost too much so! i'd love to hear more! - and there's a few sections where they don't line up with the bass (like the riff at 2:00). there's some copy going on in the vibes to my ear around the :50-1:00 mark and again at 1:55-2:05. the vibes don't have much velocitization to my ear at all - i don't hear many attacks that aren't exactly the same as the previous entries. there's also some notes that are not idiomatic (like 1:49 and each time that pattern occurs before in the track). i'm with LT. it's a creative arrangement that is uncanny-valley and has some technical missteps that are unfortunate. i'd love to hear a slightly more fleshed-out version that features more attention to the vibes realism and bass attack variation. i think the clever interplay is great though and i think this is over the bar, i just wish that more was done with it. YES

chill pads to start. there's some panning FM bells and ballad drums that come in next, and the bass is there at 0:43. this is a longer intro than i'd expect to hear overall, and i didn't care for how overtone-heavy the FM bells were. the clean electric guitar that comes in next is nice, but the muted stuff that's panning is a touch ahead of the beat and really distracting given how important groove is to this style. the melodic content - really more of a motif initially - finally comes in at 1:25. the 16th hats here are a good idea to keep it different from the opening. the mixing here is a little mid-heavy (i think you've got a lot in the 250hz range to my ear, some notch EQing will help). the b portion of the melody is at 1:50 and the guitar work here is simple but effective. there's a break at 2:10 and that's well-timed. 2:29 has a guitar solo that sounds regularly a fourth off of the correct key - there's a lot of tones that don't quite fit. for example, you've got a G-A-Bm chord progression, and the first part of the riff hits an F over the G (G isn't a 7 chord here), a G over the A chord (again, not a 7), and settles on an A over the Bm chord (again, not a 7 chord), then plays A G# F# E over a Bm chord (Bm does not have a G#, the G# bites against the earlier G chord) and settles on an E - the 4th of Bm, not a natural landing tone - over that Bm. it ends better though and that resolution is really nice. 2:51 is a nice lead break with a smooth synth taking the melodic content. there's some more heavy rhythm guitar in the next run of the B theme and the guitar lead comes back for a last run through. the panning FM bells come back for a bit and the pads fade us out. this is honestly really close. i think the arrangement is pretty conservative - the original does a lot more with the melodic progression that wouldn't really fit into a synthwave track, so i get deconstructing it like this. the style is pretty solid - larry said deliberate and i think that's an apt term to describe the feel. i like layering in the guitar where you did as well. i don't think the solo sits well at all until the last few notes, and there's another sour note note at 2:24 that's a half-step off - i can't help but wonder if it could be fixed in post-processing rather than re-recording it. i also really didn't care for the muted panned guitar elements that came in a few times and weren't really on the beat. i'm not comfortable passing this. i'm going to reach out and see if we can't work out the solo though because if that's fixed i can definitely see this passing. NO edit: 4/12: we worked together to fix the solo. it's above the bar now for me!. YES

starts out with some great keys. drums and bass are in almost immediately. drums sound really muted, especially the kick is almost not audible and the toms sound pretty rough. sounds like an overhead mic only was used and the toms don't really speak through that as the other instruments do - i'm curious if it's possible to pull some of the tone of those not-cymbals out with very specific EQ notches. bass tone is also bland - there's little top-end to it and it doesn't speak well over the drum elements in the same range. keys are the spotlight here. i really appreciate the varying levels of dynamics that are represented here, and there's a hard groove that the drums are laying down that the piano really settles into. bass isn't quite as settled into the pocket 100% of the time (any time there's repeated notes or a running section, it speeds up a bit down the stretch). keys riff at 1:46 is pretty silly great. there's some interesting falling action at 2:45 as part of a recap before it's the ending. the last chord took a second or two longer than expected to hit, and it's done. this is an interesting one. i really don't care for the quality of the drum recording or the bass tone, but the keys are really solid. there's a good amount of solo material here, but there's clearly a preponderance of the A section of the main theme at least so there's no concern of the arrangement. what i can hear of the drums especially is a really clean, clear pocket that's well-used by the keys to establish a really solid groove. i think overall requiring a drummer to have a multi-mic setup to be able to accurately record a jazz kit isn't required to have a passing grade on a great arrangement, so this is a yes from me. YES

opens with sfx and gets a beat around 0:13. a few ripley quotes (ridley? ripley?) and we're into a big, expansive, wide brinstar vibe with a ton of tempo-synced elements and fat pads. drum work is really nice, especially right before 1:15. 1:30 finally shows some castlevania - what a perfect dovetail there, and then following it with the organ and choir with the same drum concepts over it is great. 2:09 is a vibe change (admittedly i didn't see it going there!) and there is a ton of sfx in this section, as well as some really wild genre changes going on. 2:35 onward has some sections that feel very empty - by design, but it's almost too much - and then it hihats through to a filtered outro and it's done. this is easy. arrangement is just fantastic as expected - the two themes really work well together, and the realization is fantastic. from a mixing perspective, the wildly different elements all fit together well and are mastered appropriately. great work. YES

lots of opening foley and neat sound design elements. love the gated vox pad with the very slow bell arp from the maridia theme - that's a really neat combination. bass here is great - i look forward to the bass work on every track xaleph's on. there's a break at 1:33 that eventually features some audiomint, which sounds great. beat's back in at 2:15 and it's really trucking this time. the purification melodic content really fits this more aggressive approach well. there's some breaks for different instruments as fills occasionally that don't quite fit the soundscape as well as others - the piano at 2:40 is really dry compared to the backing elements, for example - but overall this is really catchy. 3:10 backs off the melodic content a bit in exchange for some more sfx and storytelling. there's some...pitched water drops? this was an interesting choice, not my favorite sound for some reason. huge vibe shift at 3:50 - this is more diablo than anything, with the long-tail guitar work and arpeggiating elements. i love how this combines the two themes. the pulsing bass here helps drive this forward really well. there's some guitar arpeggiated elements at 4:46 that lead into a electro-rock section that literally had me do the pacha perfect face. the hyper-compressed vibe of this section is great, it's so robotic after all the organic sfx and sounds that have been used. there's some bleeps and bloops to finish it off and we're done. i love the story of this track. there's a ton of vibrant mind-pictures that you can hear from each section, and there's so much energy flowing throughout. it's also very refreshing to just be able to not worry about the mix or the overall master and just enjoy the flow that you've got going on. superb job, this is a new favorite. YES

opens with wet pads and some fun rhythmic pad elements. there's a beefy fifths pad at 0:20 that i really like. rhythmic elements come in at 0:38 and we get some ridley/macarena stabs (now i will never unhear that, thanks, i hate it). it's a lot meaner than the original macarena which i like a lot - there's a really strong vibe that shows through well here. the beat drops in just before the first minute mark and this whole section sounds great. there's a big break at 1:37, and we get another rhythmic vibe at 1:55. the mad forest elements are there but it's really stretched out - it took me a bit to make the correlation between the different chunks of melodic material and where they match up. there's a big break with some fun voice clips, and then we get a party-next-door style build into 3:12. this is mask-off macarena and it's such a great beat. this trucks through a bit of the vox elements and then is done. what an easy vote. this has a killer vibe throughout, it's super creative in the arrangement and influences, and it never gets stale. the mix sounds great and beefy. excellent work. YES

opens with a really dense soundscape - tons in the low mids, so it's hard to hear what's going on. the guitar/synth stuff is great, well-played. i liked the extra panning elements that showed up on the second time through the melodic material. 1:01's arpeggiated stuff is pretty excellent, and emphasizing the uprising countermelody there from the original is the right choice. there's a lighter section at 1:24 with some nice long-tail reverb doing some neat stuff. there's some call and response solo work for the last thirty seconds and then it's done. the drums spend most of the song doing one of two loops which is a disappointing choice - there's a ton of room for clever writing there and it wasn't taken advantage of. the mastering is also pretty dense throughout even after the synths and lead guitar come in - the bass synth is overwhelmingly loud, fairly high all considering, and then there's some spikes in the low mids that cause it to feel very dense (the rhythm guitar or synth, whatever that is, that's probably the culprit). i think that this is pretty straightforward, but there's a lot of little flourishes and fun elements added outside the solo work that makes this great. i wish the mastering was better but this is good enough to pass as-is. if it gets conditional'd or NO'd, i'd say that it needs some more arrangement in the drums and backing elements so it's not so repetitive there, and needs another mixing pass (at least turn down the bass synth and give it some attack so it's not so oofy). YES

hey, just a side note to a point mentioned in the writeup - i know some of us judges are more available than others, but we're always willing to talk further if you've got questions about why something landed the way it did. just message us and we'll be happy to help. most of the time =) i'm also going to be honest and say i don't like my previous vote much. i was not clear about what needed to be done and that's on me. i had some specific suggestions that i didn't write down for whatever reason and that's not good enough from me. opening run through the chord progression is a lot better on this one, through like 0:47. piano feels good and the saturation feels more comfortable than it did before. drums feel better as well if i'm remembering correctly. 1:09's transition is nice. the kicks here are a little confusing due to where they're falling initially, but when more drum bits come in it's easier to track them. 1:35 has some nice keys licks. i don't remember the vox stuff at 1:59 but i really like it. stylistically that fits really well, although i'd expect more grit on them based on the rest of the instruments. ending is fine imo, i get it based on the style and the old-record vibe that's going on throughout. me being an old head would in general prefer a normal ending of some kind but that's personal preference. this is a great track. it may not be 100% on brand with what you're trying to ape, but it's a straightforward and fun arrangement, showcasing less is more from an instrumental side. thanks for taking the time to rework this. YES

breakdown is highly appreciated. i love the timelessness of the opening sections. it initially sounds like it's going to be in time and then just immediately falls off the rails. it's clearly immediately heavily influenced by vaporwave sensibilities (ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ) with the tiktok-brain switching of styles and ideas every few seconds. there's some really wild elements to this that are so far afield from the original that i can't imagine how you got there, and i'm so glad you did. combining the sound design with some of the traditional music theory techniques (like the diminution of the rhythm at 0:58, or the tapestop effects straight out of 1950s french musique concrete at 1:14) is just so fun. the breadth of innovation here is impressive. i just hope the acid wasn't too expensive. YES

"The real "mystery" is why the hell we picked this source in the first place." i admit i was wondering who in their right mind would pick EM of all tracks. it doesn't even have a triad that exists in western music theory for the entire piece. how do you arrange that? opens with some piano noodling and lucas repeating the phrase "environmental mystery" :< and then moves into a really nice loose jazz feel. guitar is sublime. the bass and drum writing is also excellent. i was amazed to hear you actually lean into the EM augmented triad by expanding it into a broken chord and then adding a 5 to ape lydian mode. what an excellent idea to make this into a real track. emu, if i had to suggest anything about your piano playing, i'd say to lean more into avoiding the I and V of any given chord. the bass is there to handle where the root of the chord. piano should be focusing more on the color tones (which is why jazz has such weird chords) throughout. what you did here is fine and does a nice job carrying the harmonic basis for everything else, but there's a lot of room for some really fun voicings if you unpin your left pinky from the root of every chord. there's a nice break at about 2:02 with some call and response before we get a big drums-driven shout section. again the drums here are just so good. there's an ensemble section immediately after this, and then we get some side-by-side work in the piano and guitar to the outro. what a great take on two diametrically opposed tracks. this works really well all the way through as an interpretive and ensemble-heavy approach to two tracks that don't really have much in common at all. i'd have thought the drums were live if i wasn't told they were programmed, and the keys and guitar really carry the track. excellent job. YES

opens with some synths and a heavily distorted lead bass tone (reminds me a bit of billy sheehan). drums are hard to hear outside of the cymbals - they're doing some neat stuff but i can't really pick them out. the marble gallery melody really works well with this kind of aggressive, forward-driving approach. 0:55 is kind of a transitional section, and then we get another instance of the melodic material at 1:09. there's a big rising tone and then it drops off for a break at 1:33 with some fun tempo synced synths. i can finally hear the drums for a bit and they do fun things! there's a bunch of proggy band-synced elements before we get back to a consistent 4/4 groove at about 2:00. this goes through the main section of melody from marble gallery and then references the end of it near the end of the track. there's some rising action and then it's over - not super prepared, but fitting given the way the original ends. this is indeed mostly marble gallery, but that's at least partly due to how simple environmental mystery is. i had trouble picking out the elements of EM actually - i'm assuming the early repeated arp pattern was a highly-transformed version of EM, and i can hear it a bit near the 1:00 mark, but that's it. as an arrangement of marble gallery, though, i think this has no issues with source usage. this is a really fun dash through the melodic material. the melody of marble gallery is sufficiently twisty that playing at the speed demonstrated here is impressive, and the various rhythmic elements really work together to make a fun whole. i wish that the drums parts that weren't cymbals were louder, and that there was a touch more rhythm guitar, but i appreciate the aggressive nature of the arrangement and the excellent performances of the musicians involved. nice work. YES