Bezman's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[==(Ice Desert called Eart]

Beautiful song, summing up ice.

The high pitched triangle-ish notes really work well to illustrate the icy wintery feeling, as does the the general high pitch of the melody.

The opening sounds remind of wind. The sound as a whole reminds me of DKC's ice-level music. When the beats started, it reminded me of the rider starting in Skaijo's 'A Taste of Snow'. The whole thing brings to mind the icy feel you wanted, but I don't sense the desolation you mention in your comments - rather I imagine beasts flying into the sky, flowers growing, maybe spring has sprung and water is starting to flow.

Maybe it's a desolate place that magic has frozen for hundreds of years? An adventurer finally destroys the dark magic responsible and rushes in. The ground shakes. Sheets of ice fall from the walls. The villagers, market-goers, and courting couples wake, not realising the passage of time...

Nah.

My only criticism is that it doesn't loop. Something this good deserves to be listened to for longer, without obvious starts/ends cutting into the experience. And usable in thematically linked games.

Do you plan to ever try (or have you tried) your hand at loops or shorter songs?

[Galaga Main Theme]

Perfect Galaga recreation. 7s perfect loop.

Brings back memories!

This is like a perfect recreation of the classic tune! The tonal quality of the instruments, the timing... everything seems perfect! I'm not sure if the original had the background 'twinkles', but they work well. The background stuff really adds to it.

Only criticism - maybe have a TINY bit more resonance to the main melody?

[.:Lost In Her Eyes:.]

Varying electro-tempo could work for music-stomp

Simple but effective melody. My main beef is that you just don't play with it enough - you could have really introduced more layers, forced it into the bg whilst something new takes stage for a moment, generally played with it to make it more engaging.

At 0:55, it sounds like it wants more than just a couple of notes in the melody switching - maybe a beat switch too?

The cool bit around 1:30-1:46 could do more to keep the tempo going. Maybe quiet but rapid beats, rising in volume, then doubling in BPM before everything kicks in again. Its a cliche'd technique, but it does work.

2:22 similarly sounds like too much of a 'stop' and doesn't really feel natural - more like you've fallen over whilst running than you stopping for a moment to look at something before carrying on. Hope you know what I mean.

I liked the various filters/instruments you used for the main melody - the one at 0:55ish sounded cool.

Similarly, the qualities of the piano, snare/cymbal, drums and electronic tones all work well together.

I just hoped for a tad more variation mainly and/or a better 'maintenance of energy'.

[Example I - Dream]

Not a loop but not enough meat for a short song.

The first 22s of this sounds repetitive, after which you bring the melody loop into the bass and it works well as a background bit.

I like the melody you've got going from 22-42s. From 42s onwards is just an ending.

It's an interesting sound - as Coop says, 8-bit goes medieval (though it sounds slightly more authentic than some old chip sounds, maybe).

However, I feel that given its short overall length, the amount of the piece that's taken up by the intro and the ending leaves little room for any meat. It sorta begins, carries on for a phrase, then ends without creating much of a mood.

The tune sounds like you could have looped it, so that may have been an idea. Even though you call it a loop, it definitely sounds to me like it ends then starts again - a loop shouldn't have an obvious start/end.

Adam-Beilgard responds:

This was meant to be a longer, more intensive peice, I just never got around to it! So in less than a minute the intro does take up a lot of time. Kind of a mix between through composed and minimalistic, in the endyou get a small taste of one of my styles. I'm glad you could find 20 seconds you liked, thanks for the review!

[Improvisation Number One]

Sad and lonely oriental/jazz piece.

I'm not familiar with Togaku, but I love hearing something new and so DIFFERENT on the audio portal.

What are the 2 instruments? One sounds like a wind instrument - maybe Sax - the other sounding like a plucked string instrument, but with far more resonance than a normal guitar. What is it?

It's almost poignant, bringing to my mind both a closing jazz club and also a chinese animation with cut-out figures. The strings could maybe perfectly suit an animation done in that vaguely oriental style.

It might have been better if you'd cut off the first 0.5s to avoid the blip, but then it does add to the homemade feel...

I really didn't like the ending though, feeling it just ended too suddenly - maybe some sort of sped-up movement around the notes (similar to the ending of some jazz pieces) would have worked well.

-Review Request Club-

Adam-Beilgard responds:

I'll be honest, I hate beginnings and endings - not my forte. I'm glad you liked this one, I love discovering something new myself and if I can bring that to NG, all the better. To answer your question, there are actually three instruments at work here. An almost inaudible flute plays the bass (best if listened to with headphones), the sax improvised the melody and the stringed instrument was nothing more than my plain ol' dreadnaught acoustic.

I'll work on those endings, thanks for reviewing this!

[+The Broken God+]

Good, not great...

Everything sounds well placed here. Not quite enough progression/variation for my liking, but it's a quality tune I could totally boogie to - could almost see it being played at a club with a few changes.

The starting beats and electronic melody is awesome. Gets When the beats drops off at 0:30, the melody carries the beats nicely, but after the 'revving up' at 36s, I'd hoped for some harder beats or an extra layer or two to be instantly present.

The melody that fades in around the 1:00 mark sounds cool, but is lacking in 'punctuation' if you know what I mean - each beat has the same strength, so it feels a tad flat. Maybe some accompanying occasional beats of some sort would help make it more suitable for dancing to. Hope you know what I mean.

To be honest, that's a wee bit of a problem - it's like the tune doesn't know if it wants to be a thumping dance track to be played in the foreground and either danced or worked to, or if it wants to be the kinda fast-yet-chilled track that you can put in the background, will give you a bit of energy, not hurting any hangovers nor really encouraging dancing with a heavy beat. Maybe it's just me, but the cilldown at 3:00 is also something I wouldn't expect to hear from a quality dance track. I'm all for varying the tempo. so halving the BPM momentarily to provide a respite seems reasonable. However, turning it into a 'flatliner' for 20s seems a bit much, let alone the earlier slow section.

The bit starting at 1:35 is pretty wild.

The 3:00 melody is pretty uplifting - kinda like we're rising up, flying almost...

It is a quality melody and good to listen to, but not something I can have a lot of fun dancing to and nor does it have truly stupendous melodies that would keep me coming back for more.

Sorry I can't be more precise in my review. Feel free to review this review, giving it a low mark. ;-)

-Review request Club-

WritersBlock responds:

No, not at all, I thought it was a very good review. You clearly put a lot of thought into it, and I admire you for speaking so openly about your criticisms for this track. How else will I learn? Yeah, so thanks for that.

[Intensity of the Chase]

Great work, but after 42s, it all goes downhill.

The speed is portrayed well with the ultra-fast melody you've got going. Sounds like 450BPMish!

The way you have the basic melody repeated in different 'positions' works well.

The occasional electronic beats work well - they can be like passing another car - whilst the 2 bass melodies that you bring in are pretty awesome.

But after that 42s mark, I was disappointed to see it stop progressing!

When you take out the faster melody at 120s, it loses a lot of its tempo.

The drums are excellent and make for a nice variation, but for a chase, there seems to be too long before they come in. Maybe bring them in at the 46s mark, then drop the faster melody, then bring it all back in for a finale, ending with a crash, rather than the boring sudden-stop you've got.

And I'm not too sure why you put what seems to be the start at the end - it's not even as if it loops, since there's a 10+s pause anyways.

Grreat tune but could use some refinement. Hope to hear it after some added excellence! Keep going!

[{ANT} - Gray Gallop]

Industrial Polka. Fresh sound.

I really like this!

Quite a unique sound, it kinda reminds me of a russian/polish polka, mixed with techno.

The main channels I hear are the monotonoua beats, accompanying synth, and maybe 2 melodies running through.

When the melody first comes in, it reminds me of galloping horses or something.

I love the way this tune has so much going on! The melodies are full of energy and always surprising (but never in an atonal/arhythmic way).

The style of music works surprising well with electronic beats and synths and I congratulate you on a job well done.

Sorry I can't think of any real criticisms. Well, if it looped, it could be enjoyed in more ways.

Anth0n responds:

Polka? Never thought of that one lol.

[Hey There Delilah Suck My Dick]

Not really to my taste. :-/

Essentially, I found this song pleasant enough to listen to, but it just didn't make me laugh.

The guitar part's fairly well played, but it sounds like you could have let some notes ring for a little more. It's a tiny bit stilted.

Did you use some sort of echo effect for your chorus?

I think I've only heard one version of the original and that was a while ago. Your voice seems kinda similar to the slightly whiny, kinda 'raw' voice I remember.

It was mixed well, there weren't any glitches I heard, the volumes seemed perfect...

The lyrics were reasonably well written, though it is a 1-joke show. It made me smile a little the first time I heard it, but essentially it just doesn't tickle my funny bone.

-Review Request Club-

[Passionate Playing-UMSL]

A cool energy. Kinda loops. Racing/working.

This had me rocking and swaying whilst it was playing.
I got up for some dancing, but found myself slowing.
Maybe more beats would inspire my feet?
Maybe it's perfect for listening whilst working.

The beats early on are great. Later on though, they fade back a tad too much for my liking.

I think you could have come back in a bit earlier at the 1min mark.

I felt the tune really seemed to be running out of steam from 1:30-1:56. Maybe that could be cut back a bit.

I loved the switch-up at 1:57 and 2:12.

The last third of the tune sounds fantastic - little noises breaking up the melody. Cool beats.

My suggestion is basically to introduce a bit more variation into the 1:20-1:56 mark, maybe keep the beats going a bit more and maybe introduce some heavier beats.

A lot better than your other tune - I could really dance to this.

-Review Request Club-

umsldragon responds:

thnx guy. well critiqued! Ya, that break at one min does seem long...