Emunator ⚖️ Posted June 6 Posted June 6 Artist Name: Slowly Crushed "Somewhere in the Woods" intro ping pong panning of the acoustic chords reminded me very much of the intro to Sigur Ros song "gobbledigook" where a similar usage of panned chords is used and that inspired me to also the straight tom hits from the Sigur Ros song. The thought of using flutes to make the track sound more woodsy inspired me to take a Watermelon Man type approach with the opening notes as well. Also, the intro is me blowing into a beer bottle that I tuned with the right amount of water.
Hemophiliac ⚖️ Posted June 19 Posted June 19 0:36 Big drums in the beginning a touch too loud, nitpick. Not a problem. Ostinato repetition is ok, change comes when it's needed. Change to second source was excellent, not abrupt; but felt as if it should have always been there. Source is dominant well throughout the piece, no issues with it's usage. Love the dynamic changes in the piece. Great contrast between the soft and loud. I would've liked to see more percussive change within a given section to prevent it from feeling static, but the overall changes between each structure do keep things moving forward along with the tiny ear-candy moments. The big payoff section does give us more changes with the percussion in this section, but outside of it more tiny variation would be appreciated. All those are nitpicks and don't impact the decision for me. This is great, highly expressive and an awesome track. YES
pixelseph ⚖️ Posted June 19 Posted June 19 Zelda Heineken finally has a companion in my staylist! No question about source usage here; the transition between Somewhere In The Woods (:00 - 2:27) into Snow, Lots of Snow (2:28 - ~4:12) is handled incredibly well. As someone not familiar with the game or OST, it didn't even register that we'd changed sources! The hypercompressed toms is endemic to the style, so I jive with them all over the piece. I can see a world in which they are treated more dynamically (softer in the front, bigger on the tail) but the payoff @ 3:30 is so damn good that I see it more like a callback. The bottle blowing gets a bit muddy around :40 when the guitars and bass enter; same thing around 1:44. Just a nitpick though, nothing that's sinking the piece. This piece earned its gold from DoD, and earned a spot on the front page. Welcome to the orange name club! YES
paradiddlesjosh ⚖️ Posted June 19 Posted June 19 When I heard this one before the DoD Live Play, I had no idea that there were two sources involved. Using the guitar ostinato from "Somewhere in the Woods" to thread into "Snow, Lots of Snow" made for a seamless transition. Speaking of sources, no question about source usage: we largely get a straight playthrough of source A and source B, but you've transformed the first source tune from 4/4 into 6/8 and explored new textural approaches on top of a genre transformation. Acoustic guitar enters at 0:28 with the piano ostinato from the intro of "Somewhere in the Woods," and we get the upper register chord movement from that source's A section when the toms enter at 0:36. Another guitar provides the B section melody (done by a layer of piano and a synth with some lovely portamento in the original) at 0:53, leading into the source's C section melody at 1:27 after bringing the sparse bottle blow + claps texture from the intro along with restrained drumkit. The guitar ostinato from "Somewhere in the Woods" then becomes the ostinato for "Snow, Lots of Snow," highlighting a clear connection point between these two tracks. Heading right into the second source at 2:35, more guitar gives us the upper piano and bell melody of "Snow's" intro (the slides on the guitar are a nice touch!). At 3:03, we get the piano melody of "Snow's" A section in the guitar in a texture very reminiscent to me of one of the "Main Theme" variations from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth with the reverb-sploshed tremolo in the background. Another round of the A section with the Sigur Rós toms at 3:14 builds into a cathartic B section at 3:31, ending in a climax of guitar and drum stings of the motif from the intro and B section at 4:00. The guitar ostinato returns at 4:13 to bring the whole thing home with sparse chords and birbs. It goes without saying that the live-tracked parts are well executed. The guitar and bass parts are a perfect fit for the genre and the tones are immaculate. And textural shifts like the claps in the intro, the marimba in the "Woods" C section, and the tremolo in the "Snow" A section help tie the piece together. The drums also do a phenomenal job of guiding the arrangement, maintaining restraint through the C section of "Woods" at 1:27 and opening up in the payoff of "Snow" at 3:31. We Js mentioned it during the NO Show: the blown bottles seem to have a slow attack and drag against the claps at 0:10, also against the guitar and bass at 0:35. It comes with the territory for the instrument, though you can nudge your tracks forward slightly or use negative track delay to compensate if everything's otherwise in time. Not a dealbreaker in any case. Seconding Hemo on the Sigur Rós-coded toms at 0:36 being too loud -- "Gobbledigook" has the same idea, but the drums are pulled further back in the soundscape. When they return at 1:11 and 3:14, they're in better balance with the rest of the track; this is probably more to do with the texture being thicker than any change in volume. At the end of the day, this is a nitpick. Nice work! YES
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted June 20 Posted June 20 gonna chime in because i really enjoyed this one. we did this on the 6/18 NO SHOW. this has a fantastic overall shape to it. i really appreciate the payoff section, like i talked about on the show, but separately also really enjoyed the build. i think the toms early on are too loud, and i thought that the bottles sound a bit funky next to the claps due to their attacks (and then later when they're popping in and out of the texture before the big transition), but those are nitpicks. this is fantastic. nice work. YES
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