by

Christiaan Frecle
(Frecle)

Perhaps the rain and bird samples are overused. Still, they really mixed in well with the song. The pulsing drums presented a nice atmosphere. The music successfully pictures a forrest/jungle. The special effects were also a definite plus. They added to the illusion of the rain and animals in the greens. It becomes a bit repetative, yet kept my interest withe the uniqueness of the special effects and the modifications in tempo and beat. Relaxing. The harsh bass was nicely balanced by the sweet high synths. You definitely show skill over the tracker. This ditty's one of my favorites. Go vet next year :)

The beginning after those nature effects was nice (orders 1-4) but after those I would have liked quicker progression. Also the main idea, the theme of the song was missing and so there was nothing that would make the listener remember the tune after listening. Sample quality could have been a little bit better, there were some clicking/hissing in some samples. Although the drumtrack wasn't perfect, it was a positive thing not to use looped drums.

pretty neato samples. it's a nice song, but it gets kinda cheesy at certain points.

Noisy 8bit samples, some obvious rips. Throwing together hiphop, d'n'b and pop style drums in one tune is brave, but not overly appealing. Good atmosphere, though. Weird tempo and style changes hurt the tune's flow badly. Sorry for not going more in-depth.

There are some interesting and original thoughts and ideas in this track, although maybe not always having been implemented in quite the best way possible. This is brought about due to the rather abrupt form of the piece during transitions. The beginning flows and builds well, up until pattern 13 where the blops are fully introduced. The speed change from pattern 14 was anticipated in the music, but achieved far too quickly and disjointedly to have the desired effect. This is the same with the decrease of tempo in pattern 36, although it was marginally better. A more gradual tempo increase starting from the end of pattern 13, then slowly gaining in speed, with a greater build up with the beat in pattern 15, insert an extra pattern in here to achieve this, would give a smooth transition. With the rain present at only the start and end of this track, it is a little unclear as to whether the increase of tempo is meant to symbolise a heavy downpour of rain or not. These samples and the thunder are only really present during the down tempo moments, which I find a little strange in concept. Technique is solid throughout, with an adequate usage of panning to create a full overall sound. The volume accents on the strings are effective, but the atmospheric background samples, bird, rain and thunder could do with a little adjusting. The bird sample cuts slightly and is marginally too loud and distracting. The high frequency sines used in the up-tempo section create a nice feel of water droplets. The majority of the samples are of good quality, but the drums are rather weak and standard, especially when used in context with the rest of the song. The beat itself becomes very repetitious and needs more variety and off beats, so that it actually adds something to the track other than just a constant rhythm base. The flute and oboe work well at complementing each other in the melody, but again more could have been done with this, and the bass sounds. All in all a pleasant sounding track that needs more diversity and consistency in its theme.

An impressive tune, with a fantastic beginning. The faster section doesn't really sit that well next to it, but it's pleasant enough. Good atmosphere.

Awkward tempo changes. Still admirable for a rookie (tempo changes are a difficult art to master). Methinks the bass samples were "borrowed" a little to liberally, but I can't think of the source, so I'll let that go. Actually, I was really most disappointed with the -name- of this song. :) It's too generic! But, of course, I'm not marking you down at all for that. I just wanted to mention it. The rhythm in the first part of the song is nice an primal, which is what you were going for, I'm sure, but it would have sounded *much* better if you'd made the beat a little more complex. The rhythm in the second section is a little better, but (again) it sounds too familiar, like it was 'borrowed' from a song I've heard before and sped up... I think it's something by Level-D, but, again, I can't place it, so I'll ignore my gut feeling for now. Still, the second section was the least "refined" of the three. You make excellent use of progressions and string samples, and the correography or orchestration of this song is generally very impressive. Overall, a song that deserved to make the second round. Well done.

The opening rain & bird sounds nearly made me vomit, but I moved on anyway -- the first part of this song is pretty poor, with the odd 2-note percussion riff, lousy string sounds, and silly lead-- however once the break-y drums come in, the song actually does make more sense, and when it's going full on a bit later it's beyond the scope of typical rookie work-- somewhat interesting indeed.