LunacyEcho's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[That Feeling (When I'm With You)]

This is such an awesome 80s-vibe synthpop song! Dude, your work has consistently amazed me throughout the NGADM, and this is definitely no exception. The chorus is catchy, the song is well-composed, well-arranged, and well-produced. I mean, those claps in the chorus? Crazy good!

Maybe the one thing I would say about the track is that imo the lyrics could use a bit more phonetic development (although this is definitely a very nitpicky thing haha). For example, in the choruses, you've got a really catchy two-note motif for "feeling", "feeling", "feel it", and "heat wave". And once you've set up the pattern with two "feeling"s and a "feel it", it'd be cool if the third iteration of the motif was either "feeling" again or something that sounds similar ("heat wave" is different in both the vowel sounds and consonant sounds—maybe something like "healing", "feed it", etc. Not that these words would fit content-wise, but just as examples in terms of pure phonetics.)

But tbh this is the kind of thing that I tend to care about a lot more than other people, and all in all, it's another really great, really FinnMK song. Good luck in the compo! :D :D

FinnMK responds:

Thanks for your kind words! Neat advice about the phonetics. I've never even considered that sort of thing before. I'll have to keep it in mind for the future.

[My Firefly]

johnfn singing when

johnfn responds:

I HAVE MELODYNE ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME (heh that almost rhymes)

[Osman - "Power! Rushing Burstman!" (NGADM)]

Man, with that level of alliteration, you could probably rewrite the entire Series of Unfortunate Events haha

I love the massive amount of flavor in this track! The way you made descriptions for each of the different levels in the track not only enhanced the listening experience, but also shows how much detail was put into the making of the track itself :P :P

Also have you ever used breakbeats before? I've listened to some of your stuff and have been really impressed by it, but I've never heard anything quite like this, and I'm again impressed at how well you use the different musical elements!

pls pls pls make this game a reality and write the soundtrack. I really wanna play it! And good luck in the NGADM!! :)

RetromanOMG responds:

Hey there! When I started out, seven years ago, Breakbeat and Breakcore were actually my primary production styles. I'm a bit self-conscious about how my older songs sound, but if you'd like an example of how I was doing Breakbeat in 2010, I'd recommend listening to "The Fire Behemoth."

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/360018
(Not sure if links even work in comments, but eh)

It's been a very long time since I've done a song like this, but it was so much fun to take this genre that I used to love and inject everything I'd learned over the years into it.

I don't know any game devs, but I think I'm going to work on building an EP off of the song ideas I've established with this track, because believe me, there's a full song in my head for every unique part of this track.

[Gladiolus]

fun facc gladiolus was the winning word in the first ever scripps national spelling bee

etherealwinds responds:

words were so much easier in spelling bees in 1925

chihuahua was the winning word from 1967 can you believe it

[g o o d t h i n g]

これは素晴らしいことです！

midimachine responds:

これは良いこと！

[Kids]

This is legitimately one of my favorite NGADM tracks EVER. LIKE, EVER.

It's got the perfect instrumentation for its mood, a tried-but-true pop structure, a CATCHY AS HELL main melody, an awesome singer who uses super awesome vocal effects, crystal clear mixing... BUT MORE THAN THAT, without going into in-depth analysis, it's just A GOOd SONG!

I guess if you wanted to nitpick... the ending is a little weak in that pop songs don't usually leave the listening wanting. Also some transitions could use a little more lead-up, like 1:06. And the reverse piano kind of comes in out of nowhere (but I have a feeling I'll get used to it soon because of how obsessively I'm going to be listening to this track.)

Okay but let's go deep into why imo this is so good. The vocals aren't super processed; they're fresh and indie. And I know you said you wanted to re-record the vocals, but they have that "amateur quality" (which should nOT be mistaken for "bad quality"), which, when combined with the instrumentation, the choice of genre, and the description itself, CATEGORIZES YOU AS AN UNDERDOG. And when your composition is as strong and catchy as it is here, you've got people WANTING to root for you.

The mild kerfuffle regarding the somewhat elitist seeding of this year's NGADM has led to a lot of discussion about bracketed unfairness—but people like you, who started off closer to the bottom of the list but are still producing AWESOME TRACKS, create hope that the bottom half of the bracket can still prevail, and that this year WON'T be lower quality than other years. YOU EMBODY HOPE!

Anyways, sorry for the rambling haha. I haven't been this excited about a track in a while, and I hope that you make it a deservedly long way in this year's NGADM!!!!

*hums* I don't wanna be like any of those other kids....

McGorilla42 responds:

Wow.

I'm stunned by what I read from both you and johnfn. I'm really humbled by your words and it put a big smile on my face reading what you wrote. The fact that you took the time to write that lengthy response means a great deal to me and I appreciate all of the feedback and will take it into account during the creation of my next piece. I'm also happy that you liked my singing! I was INCREDIBLY shy of my voice for a number of years and didn't let anyone hear me sing until about two years ago, so although I've overcome that to a large extent, it still gives me a bit of extra confidence to sing more!

I'm not sure if you'd be interested, but I wanted to write a bit about this song in my Author's Comments, but I generally prefer not to say too much about my music in case it undermines someone's interpretation or perception of the song. I remember thinking while working on this that I would never upload it if it weren't for NGADM. I was feeling pretty bad during the last two weeks and honestly thought that I wouldn't finish this and would just give my competitor a bye...In fact, up until Saturday, this song just wasn't coming together at all and I only had a few hours to finish it up and fix it and I didn't think I'd make it. I feel like there are other things I'd like to write about this piece, but I don't know if it's totally appropriate for a public setting, haha. If for some reason you're interested, I can PM you :) Now I feel like I am rambling (you weren't by the way - I loved every second of your response).

Thank you so much for this. I'll always remain humble and self-critical and work to improve, but reading this sort of this helps with keeping going when I'm not feeling A-okay. Honestly, I was walking up the stairs before coming to read this, and that pang of self-doubt and defeat began to settle in again and I felt unmotivated to work on any more music for a while, but your comment lifted me up and I'm so excited to get to work tomorrow morning! :) It's 11:53pm...Sorry if this came across a little erratically. Good luck to you in NGADM! Thank you! :)

[Willow Wasteland: Fantasia]

funny story i was listening to this song when suddenly AN ALARM SOUnded and i was like wtf phonom that's a terrible compositional idea

only later did i realize it was because i had the NGADM countdown timer opened up in another tab

Anyways great song!!!! I love its abstractness, especially towards the end, when all the electronic elements and that sweet guitar came in. I guess it could be argued that it sounds a bit directionless, but gahh imo it's such a well-arranged cinematic journey. Good job, and good luck! :D

Phonometrologist responds:

that is a funny story. Thank you for sharing that lol

In terms of it sounding a bit directionless, perhaps you're right. It was meant to be a bit messy, angry, and loose. Even so, the piece knew where it was going and that was in the direction if its ending. thanks for leaving a comment!

[Dying in a Dream]

did you really die

johnfn responds:

no but u will

SPOOKKKKKKKKKKKKY

[Endowment]

5:25 OMG TEACH ME HOW TO DRUMS PLS

Man, this song took a bit of time to build up but how INSANE it got past the 5:00 mark was super worth it! And that sax-led key change was super sexy. After going back and listening to it a few times, it's much easier to see how the cinematic intro part melodically connected to the chiptuney latter part.

Damn, some might say that this combines too many different things to be coherent, but I honestly love it. You're quickly becoming one of my favorite favorite musicians! Keep up the good work!! :D

and one more great thing about that song is that chromatic transition thingy (electro toms?) that goes doop doop doop doop doop doop DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP

EctiBot responds:

Nice, glad yoy liked it :D. The coherence is something I never really got a full grasp on in this XD, but I,m glad you enjoyed it regardless :).
That doop doop thing used to be my most overused buildup, as Lucid knows all about XD. Thought I'd dig it up again :).