Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
Quebi, Waking Dream: 9,8,9,9
Funny story, at the time I'm posting my reviews the art you chose is no longer visible. "ERROR — Submission not found. It may have been deleted." Good thing I wrote all my reviews like a month ago but I'm updating them all as they are being posted. Only thing to stop this kind of thing from happening in the future is by downloading and posting the image to your music page or communicating with the artist so they know the art means something to someone. Maybe a mod removed it? Reaching out to the illustrators used to be a rule and I thought it was a good one because it forced us to network and reach across creative platforms. Newgrounds has so many socially defunct creative juggernauts. In my opinion that rule was a good one, if a little awkward because it encouraged growth.
I remember loving your work the last time I judged an AIM so I was looking forward to this when I recognized your name in the list. That introduction was beautiful. Good use of the author's comments to defend your thesis. You picked such a raw experimental image to try and translate into song. There was only one other image that stood out as much as this one did and that review didn't go over well. So my initial gut feeling was to be worried. You're a very strong composer in my mind but I'm allowed to get worried. Literally every great composer has moments where they say "I'm doing something different today." Voice synthesis is not something I've ever played with. A little vocoding here and there but this was a neat sound to drink in, thank you. I wasn't a fan of the vocals when they initially hit me, something was off about them but the melodies were inspired and well written.
I think there was a little more room in the mix for bass and mid frequencies? Things were mixed very well but there appears to be more room for certain other elements. Maybe more percussion during the climaxes? What you do have is lovely but a faster shaker, some tambourines, chimes, rides might have helped that climax hit extra powerfully. Maybe that climax should have dropped the synthetic vocals in favor of stronger instrumental features? The lyrics were poetically written but perhaps it's a good time to apply the adage "less-is-more." Despite being painful to hear it is often times true. It's hard to toss this critique at you because there were some absolutely inspired sounds in this. Loved the percussion I did hear as it was unique and crisp to boot. A live vocal collaborator might have delivered the lyrics more soulfully but there's a very good reason all my songs don't feature amazingly recorded live vocals, can't hold it against you. Using an experimental voice generator is what I assume a cutting edge creative composer is going to play with. You got a great sound out of an experimental tool, even if it doesn't totally sit with my taste.
Overall, for what I was expecting this was a little underwhelming. I know you can be top of the class, but this time I'm giving you an awkwardly muted score to give some of the others a better chance. I do hope you've listened to some of your peers as some of them hit it out of the park. I handed out a few perfect scores and I really fought with myself to avoid that, you're on the receiving end of that decision right now. I know I'll hear more from you in the future and it will be amazing so please forgive me this time. Last time I judged (ten years ago) you made top three, right? You know what they say, if it isn't broke...
Regardless of my misgivings I wish you the best Quebi. Salutations and love.