Leavesz's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tunetober24 #23]

These melodies are so pretty they in fact melted my brain.

The tone of the composition here to me is sorta reminiscent of Heal from the Ico soundtrack; it feels like an intense glimmer of hope and it is a significant touch to the heart the whole way through. It is pleasing to listen to and the soundscape it paints is permeated in a sort of invigorating happiness that I find hard to explain.

One nitpick I guess I have is that it could use some more dynamic variation to ease in & out of some sections, although it doesn't affect the experience that much as it is quite a short track. One could say that the main motif is a bit pervasively static throughout the entire thing but I personally don't mind it so much as the instrumentation surrounding it does provide enough variation to keep the track from feeling entirely stagnant at any moment.

If this were to be extended I could easily imagine a second half where the mood of the composition is turned on its head while the track disintegrates into a reverb wall towards the end. It is totally fine as it is now & and I feel that any minor alteration could easily destroy the delicate emotion it portrays so actually please forget I wrote this paragraph.

Also, is that Gross Beat on the breaks in the second half? I think I recognize those sequences, usually that would be somewhat of a turn off but here it doesn't sound lazily executed so it doesn't bother me as much as it would otherwise.

All in all, this is lovely and beautiful and definitely going into the dedicated NG folder in my local music library. <3

larrynachos responds:

Gross beat is my daddy. I want to make my own library of patterns but since I've been doing these daily, it's all about being economical with my time.

These have all been very much one idea stretched into 2-3 minutes. Yeah it would be nice to have multiple unique sections in each track, but some days I don't have more than an hour to work on it.

Thanks for the listen and review! Glad you liked it

[Breakcore No. 5]

oh yea, this is nice. I appreciate the gabber kicks.

Personally I find the constant max loudness level throughout the track to be a bit offputting as it muffles the impact of the gabber kick and softens the dynamic contrast between sections. Usually in tracks of this genre the drums are always the loudest elements while any other instrumentation is kept more in the background as a sort of decorative flourish, so hearing the sparkly synth at 01:51 overpowering the drums out of nowhere feels a bit awkward.

I also feel like there's a lot of room for some eerie psychedelic sfx splashes or rave stab dub delay noise during the breakcore sections, it gets a bit monotonous hearing just the dry break slicing in isolation for a minute.

Other than that this is a nice track.

8-BITek responds:

My friend taught me how to make breakcore using just drums and gabber kicks. Before, my breakcore tracks were different. thanks

[It's time to let go]

Being pedantic about it this would require more gabber noise industrial garbage distortion sounds regardless of BPM to be considered breakcore, and Drill 'n' Bass would be the more fitting descriptor for this sort of pretty IDM take on spastic breakbeat music, although few people seem to be aware of that term outside Squarepusher's work.

The drums playing throughout the entire track at a constant pace does get a bit tiresome even on a first listen, so I think a bit of dynamic variation in that aspect couldn't hurt. Being able to hear the instrumentation below the breaks in isolation at some point would've been appreciated, as I find its jazzy composition to be quite enjoyable.

Not sure if this amount of compositional content justifies the length of the track, but the production & mix quality is rather clean so it isn't a totally ear grating listen at least. In a way I guess I am actually glad this isn't just another Icosikaipent, not that it would've been bad but it would've been more of a task to listen to, lol.

Anyway, nice stuff.

8-BITek responds:

Yeah, it's probably closest to drill'n'bass. My top idols are Squarepusher, Photek, Aphex Twin, The Flashbulb, and Kettel, but my number one idol is Squarepusher. If you have time, you can check out this track of mine, which is more in the breakcore style: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1339711

[NOCTACRY - Angel of Animosity]

For breakcore I feel like the breaks could be turned up a bit, I can just barely hear them below everything else at 01:00. I also think the vocal samples could've been much less prominent and it wouldn't've affected the track negatively in any way, it just sticks out a little too much over the instrumental, and as they're the kind of samples I've heard more than twice already it comes off a little corny sounding to me.

The mix in general is a bit rough here and there but other than that I think it's a fine track, although a bit rhythmically simplistic throughout. I would say I liked the bit at the end the most, the compositional switch up there serves as a nice coda to resolve the track with, and more particularly speaking I also liked the pitch bending on the synths in that last section, it is always cool to hear in these kinds of tracks.

NOCTACRYofficial responds:

This isn't breakcore, it's 200step. That being in the tags was unintentional since I just copy pasted them from a tag list I made for myself

[amewn break (unfinished)]

That's the apache break...

Jackacomano responds:

yep

[Distraction (Mause's Lunch Break Remix)]

Drill 'n' bass would probs be the more fitting term but it disintegrates into breakcore often enough that most people would think it's just that, they're both kind of the same after all.

This stuff is really cool, don't usually come across such refined drum break processing on this site, it's a very welcome surprise. I like how upbeat this track sounds, it's a nice contrast with the more hardcore drum patterns.

Per the audio guidelines I would suggest trying to get the remix author on the site so they can be credited through the project system, technically you're not allowed to post things you didn't make but as you've created the original track and hold all the rights to it I believe this submission should be alright to stay regardless.

Anyway, I enjoyed listening to this.

greystarmusic responds:

yea Mause is all about the drum processing, his production is great. I do hold all the rights to this one, I made the original and we're good friends, I'll ask him if he wants to be on newgrounds though!

[Kyle's Marimba]

On a first listen the progression of this feels a bit incoherent and hard to follow but other than that this is really neat.

Lots of cool drum glitches. The upbeat instrumentation I find to be a welcome change of pace from most of the music I've been listening to lately, in general there's also lots of monotonous dark edgy breakbeat stuff going around it kind of starts to lose all meaning, what personally makes me appreciate this kinda thing a little more than I would otherwise.

Cool stuff. I like the bit at the ending, in a way it sounds like the post credits scene after the end of the song.

greystarmusic responds:

thank you!! yea this song has been through a lot of versions, sorta meant to be a journey it changes a lot. The ending definitely is a kind of post credits scene, and is also meant to transition into the next song -- it's just a lil pretty thing I made that I wanted to include somewhere but felt too short to make it its own track.

[Nautogen]

narutogen...

turquoisedeath responds:

dattebayo