Adam-Beilgard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Analogies of Ascendency]

Well, this certainly was huge - no doubt about that. Mixing was done well, overall. Unfortunately not a lot to work with for a 30 minute epic.

What I mean by that is the four chords over eight bars got repetitive after about five minutes. What's amazing to me is that it lasted five minutes sounding like a Phish vamp (one of their more interesting ones). What starts to happen around the six minute mark is you get tired with the Pentatonic and Major riffs and start making up licks using blues, whole-tone and even some modes (phrygian, locrian) and chromatics I don't think you intended - they just happened. The only problem is that with the same arpeggio for the background, you have to approach them a certain way, then resolve them a certain way for it to work to our 'western-12-tone-ears'. Once that stops working, we hear 'wrong' notes, pick scrapings, clipped and muted strings. What we don't hear is a melody and form.

I definitely give you credit for being so ambitious. And you do have some nice licks here and there. Overall this feels like the lost kind of wandering instead of the leisurely kind.

[Nursing Home]

I think I threw up a little. In my mouth.

Yep, it's there.

[Fortress (R-Man Cover)]

That was really good: nice use of voices, I liked the form. Just listened to the original (for the first time) and this did it justice.

Good work!

RetromanOMG responds:

Thanks for the review. I have very little experience with Dubstep, so it's nice to hear that you liked it.

[Soulless]

Pretty good overall. About halfway through, I start to hear some dynamic contrast (other than instruments dropping out) and even some effects at the transition. I would use those more to give the piece that extra dimension. And maybe, for a number this long, one extra section to the music to use another voice.

Otherwise, this is sounding good!

CardboardowI responds:

Yea i still need to work on making my effects better.

Thanks for the review!

[Honey]

Very nicely done. Simple, easy feel, kind of bittersweet lyrics.
Like Dylan meets Neil Young meets Lennon.

I like it!

Kingbastard responds:

Cheers man;)

[Speedway 75]

A lot of stuff going on, here! It starts off, and I'm thinking ending credits to an obscure anime, then it jumps to 80's action movie then comes back to a vgm feel. The one thing I didn't really get from it was jazz. It didn't swing, have any of the common color tones, or chord progressions associated with jazz music. I'd probably re-classify it as some other kind of EDM (not sure exactly what, though).

The break at 1:12 was a little jarring, but otherwise I liked the use of form in this one. I could definitely see some 'B' list actor from 1979 in a car chase to this!

[Your Marbles]

Interesting piece, it always fascinates me to try and connect the dots between an artist's inspiration and the final result. Not at all what I hear here, but that's not bad! Pizzicato strings and syncopation make me think more of Grand Central Station filmed with time lapse, or a colony of ants.

Still, a well composed piece. The only things I would change are the ending (kind of abrupt) and the mastering (maybe bringing the strings down a bit, and softer, overall).

But like I said, this was an interesting piece, I like it!

BenTibbetts responds:

I know what you mean about pizzicato strings! The fact that you would put a time-lapse of Grand Central Station in the same visual category as a colony of ants just goes to show that the behaviors of people and insects aren't always very distinguishable.

I do have a tendency towards abrupt endings but since this track could loop comfortably I probably should have submitted it as a "loop" instead of a "song". You might also be right about the strings, because I'm not sure that pizzicato strings would be this sonorous IRL, but I like the sound anyway.

Thank you for listening.