Nur Ein XVI Round One "Pareidolia"

[Niveous]

Judging is a little delayed. Stay tuned.

[grumpymike]

Perhaps the songs should be a little delayed, too. Oh wait we don’t have that excuse anymore now that the title is announced.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

I jotted down notes from several listening sessions. I appreciate those of you who incorporated your field recording(s) as a genuine part of the song rather than something that feels added on. It's amazing to me how many people used bird noises. Too many people, I think.

Balance Lost - Field recording or sample? If you record a t.v. show or a video is it a field recording? Ah, but field recording a la Alan Lomax? Aye, that's a field recording. But did you make it? Nowhere in the challenge did it say you had to make your own. Still....
I like the rhythmic elements, the music is good and the ending is cool. Love the intro. Verse melody is okay, I like the melodies later better. Book ending the field recordings seems to be popular. I do love how you use that sample (okay, field recording) as a launch pad. I changed your placement in my rankings the most, I think. A couple of times. There is a lot I like here.


Berkeley Social Scene - Liked the music from the intro on. I liked the guitars/rhythm. Wasn't real hip on the vocal melody to start but enjoyed the chorus although it's not super adventurous. I like the train bit, I like that it's not just at the end. Cool bridge bit. Cool bass. Vox took a bit to grow on me which might be due at least partially to the mix, maybe? I like that way you incorporated the challenge. I don't typically like spoken word bits but it works for me here.



Boffo Yux Dudes - Live drums? Reminds me of Nilsson which is cool. Especially in the melody. Feels like this song has a couple of spliced together bits, but maybe it's just in some instruments being quiet right before transitions or something. I noticed that the guitar is not that prominently displayed. Drums really drive the song. Almost a vox and drums song. But it works well enough. (Yes, I know it has bass.) Some songs grew a bit on me as I listened. Unfortunately this one didn't. The vox and that jump in the melody got a bit tiring.


Brown Word and the Big Whine - Birds? *sigh* At least this one has dogs and a lawnmower. Cool intro. There is something about the way you typically mix the vox that doesn't sit just right for me but the more I listen to this song, the more I like the arrangement and the mix. I noticed the more distorted guitar comes in on that second verse that I would have probably did the opposite. Created more space for the vox. But it's a nice backdrop with a bit more of a midrange sound than the vox.


Budget Bears - I like the guitars right from the start. You had me bobbin' my head on the chorus from the first listen. Guitars +, Melody/Vox +, Radio/Video melody ++ (does that last bit make sense?) Couldn't make out what was going on in the bridge/drop out bit challenge wise but I didn't dislike it. Bookending field recordings seems to be a popular strategy.


Cavedwellers - Great use of the challenge. Cool rhythmic que (like Balance Lost.) There are a few places I feel the the vox is a bit shaky, but I like this tune. Melodically it could be a David Byrne composition. Cool arrangement. Not sure I like the melody on the first two lines of the repeating section. "Call me clyde..." The second two lines are cool.... walk.


Crown Shy - More birds. Love your voice and your melodies, especially on the chorus. (Which reminds me, I'd like to hear your semiprecious song with a reworked mix.) Vox a bit up in the mix, but it's the highlight so... Lovely arrangement. Your voice sounds good even on computer speakers. I *accidently* ready your liner notes which was good and bad. Good because I appreciate the effort and thoughtfulness of actually incorporating your field recording more than just using it asan intro or outro. Bad because I had to rush around and try to read all the other friggin' liner notes to be fair.


Ever Kenievel - This was my favorite from my first listen through. Cool intro. Cool song. That hi hat drum sound was a bit incessant, especially after repeated listens. Very persistent, isn't it? Ultimately I changed it's ranking multiple times. I had the same sample vs. field recording thoughts on this song as well. Is it a very short, repeated field recording sounding like rain or vinyl pops or just a sample? It works well, but not sure how I think of it in terms of the challenge. The storm sounds ensure it is at least checked off, though.


Frankie and the Mountweasels - The intro vocal delivery almost makes me think this is a joke sound on first listen. What I think would work on the stage took a listen or two to settle in. When it kicks in it sounds like an Adam Sandler song. Poop songs for the win? Well, no. Not the win. Definitely not the win. I like how you incorporated the toilet sound. Works great for this song. The mismatched doubled vox works very well for me, too. The mix was one of the worst on the computer speakers (bass/low mids, I think) but back in the studio it sounds fine.


Governing Dynamics - Cool melody, I liked the twin melody lines. I like the chorus melody and phrasing. Are the drums oddly panned. That snare especially overwhelms my left ear. Maybe it's just the mix. The drums seem more prominent than even the vox. Vox seems a bit strained in places. I really dig this song, though. I struggled with the field recording bit on first listen. Looks like it's bookends.


Grumpy Mike - I assume that intro recording is a field recording? A sample? Love the do dos. Simple but cool bass line. This song grew on me with repeated listens. That melody is catchy in a potentially annoying after too many listens manner. I really love the "see your face everywhere line/idea." That's really cool.


Heid - Lovely voice, melody and vocal performance. If I sung "lissssteners" it'd sound awful but you make it feel imperfectly perfect. The doubled vox at the end is a nice touch and a needed dynamic. The layered night sounds work well as a pad under your simple arrangement and as an outro. You pronounce pareidolia wrong in the most beautiful way.


Hot Pink Halo - Doubled vox is a good choice. The instrumental arrangement works well. The guitars don't quite sit perfectly in the mix and kind of distract from your softer vocal. Your vocal gets just a bit buried with the distorted bit comes in. I didn't mention how much I liked your vocal here.


The Lowest Bitter - This one didn't grab me much on first listen. Luckily for me, I've listened to these songs a lot this week. Your synth work is great. Your melodies are excellent. Not sure the snare work fits perfectly but I like the energy. Your song builds from start until the drop out. I like that. I was a bit torn about your intro recording but ultimately it works for me.


Lucky Spoon - Your field recording works as an intro/outro. But that's kind of an easy way out, I think. Did you use it elsewhere in the song? I'm not a huge fan of spoken word parts but when they work they work. It works here. Your mix might be just a bit dense. Could be a hair cleaner. I was thinking that might be ear fatigue, but I at least noticed it now listening back as I type this review up.
So pareidolia is seeing an item or object in an unrelated pattern or composition, right? But seeing a "good person" in the mirror etc., isn't, right? I feel a large part of your song is technically not pareidolia, "who you really are", but it works very well combined with the "ceiling world" which obviously is.


Mandibles - I like your voice and the melody. I like how you used the recordings to help with the story. The clipping is distracting and once I heard it I can't unhear it. Takes on a life of it's own.


Max Bombast - Oh, boy, more birds. At least it's in your verses, a better implementation than some entries. I some of your melodies a lot. It kicks in and I get a Green Day feel (sorry if that's an insult, not meant to be.) There are a few pops (like at 2:17 and 2:38) that are minor but noticeable (mainly because I really hear it in another entry.) This is competently done but ultimately doesn't really hit me in the right spot.


Moss Palace - You two should sing together like this more often, it's lovely. Yet another song I like more with repeated spins. Intro/outro field recordings? Seems a bit safe but works well. Oh, I think I hear it under the solo. Maybe? I like the solos. Cool song.


Nick Soma - Let me guess, bird sounds? Yup, bird sounds. I like the organ part a lot. Yet another song that grows on me a little bit as I listen. I like the bass but it might be just a hair unbalanced in the verse bits. There's something about that guitar on the right side that seems out of tune.. or something. Like one note when it hits. (Did you remember to tune your G string?) The hi hat on the right side is slightly annoying on repeated listens.


see-man-ski - I like your voice. The piano becomes a bit much after a bit. I like this song, but did you even use a field recording? (Tacked on birds at the end for like five seconds? Do they serve a purpose at all? Other than not getting DQ'd, I mean?) Is this song even about pareidolia? Even the "I feel these eyes" isn't technically pareidolia, is it? Or is it? The rest of the lyric isn't, it seems to me. Well, I like the song a lot but I've got a lot of questions regarding the challenge and implementing the title.


The Serviettes - Birds, right? At least you use them more than just as an intro and there is a reference in the lyric, right? I love how you used the idea of the title well in the lyric. You did the "show don't tell" bit in the lyric. And the rhythmic elements are cool. Nice use of repetition at the end. I think I've overlooked this song a bit. I apologize if I've ranked it lower than it deserves. To be fair, there were a ton of decent entries this round.


Third Cat - I love your chorus. Your vocal is great throughout. The patterns are pareidolia but the voices wouldn't be, right? No matter, it works beautifully. This is yet another song that grew on me with repeated listens.


Virgo Power - Birds? Birds. The lyric seems more a description of pareidolia than an expression of it when I read it. But listening to the song it works for me. Your field recordings really make this song for me. The mix isn't perfect and while I like your vocal performance it seems a bit out of the mix, especially to start. I definitely don't like the sound of your mix with fatigued ears.

wombat! - I like the bass, the bells. The vocal doesn't mix well with the music, I think. Maybe too dry? Cool rhythm. Is that a sample or a field recording? Ultimately I didn't enjoy this one as much as most with repeated listens.


WreckdoM -I like the intro/music. I'm not a fan of the talk/sing. Makes me think of the monster bash. I didn't like the purposefully off key singing. I loved the synth vocal. The drums sound good. Musically this is cool. But the more I listen the more I dislike the vocal performance.


Dented Bento - Pretty guitar. Delicate. The drum pattern works but the actual sound doesn't quite fit to me. The inflection in the vox makes it seem pitchy even when I'm not sure it is. I liked the doubled vox. I didn't listen to the shadows as much but this was a welcome addition to the round.


Lichen Throat - Tell those fucking judges what you really think. Bastards!

[furrypedro]

Balance Lost - Field recording or sample? If you record a t.v. show or a video is it a field recording? Ah, but field recording a la Alan Lomax? Aye, that's a field recording. But did you make it? Nowhere in the challenge did it say you had to make your own. Still....
I like the rhythmic elements, the music is good and the ending is cool. Love the intro. Verse melody is okay, I like the melodies later better. Book ending the field recordings seems to be popular. I do love how you use that sample (okay, field recording) as a launch pad. I changed your placement in my rankings the most, I think. A couple of times. There is a lot I like here.

I used a recording of the announcer from my local train station and based my track on that.

Thank you for the reviews, my dude! And I'm glad you enjoyed the song. Just for clarity as I don't want judges to think I'm shirking the challenge, I did walk outside to my local station and held my phone up to the tannoy to get my recording. There was zero sampling involved.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Balance Lost - Field recording or sample? If you record a t.v. show or a video is it a field recording? Ah, but field recording a la Alan Lomax? Aye, that's a field recording. But did you make it? Nowhere in the challenge did it say you had to make your own. Still....
I like the rhythmic elements, the music is good and the ending is cool. Love the intro. Verse melody is okay, I like the melodies later better. Book ending the field recordings seems to be popular. I do love how you use that sample (okay, field recording) as a launch pad. I changed your placement in my rankings the most, I think. A couple of times. There is a lot I like here.

I used a recording of the announcer from my local train station and based my track on that.

Thank you for the reviews, my dude! And I'm glad you enjoyed the song. Just for clarity as I don't want judges to think I'm shirking the challenge, I did walk outside to my local station and held my phone up to the tannoy to get my recording. There was zero sampling involved.

Aye. Thanks for reiterating.

[governingdynamics]

Governing Dynamics - Cool melody, I liked the twin melody lines. I like the chorus melody and phrasing. Are the drums oddly panned. That snare especially overwhelms my left ear. Maybe it's just the mix. The drums seem more prominent than even the vox. Vox seems a bit strained in places. I really dig this song, though. I struggled with the field recording bit on first listen. Looks like it's bookends.

Thanks. Confession time, I did essentially the whole recording Sunday because <insert your favorite three Song Fight Excuses here>, as a result I didn't really get through the "kill your darlings" phase of arranging that would have left things a little more coherent. The sample actually plays throughout the song at different points (most prominently it plays through the first verse kind of functioning as a pad) but heck if I know the unmasking technique for a recording of a drone in the rain.

You're probably right about the snare panning. Not intentional but something I likely missed during last minute mixing. I'll have to check the project file.

But I almost definitely made the drums too loud overall as an overcorrection to the common criticism that they've been too quiet on my last several songs anyway thanks for the reviews and glad you liked it at least somewhat!

[Evermind]

Ever Kenievel - This was my favorite from my first listen through. Cool intro. Cool song. That hi hat drum sound was a bit incessant, especially after repeated listens. Very persistent, isn't it? Ultimately I changed it's ranking multiple times. I had the same sample vs. field recording thoughts on this song as well. Is it a very short, repeated field recording sounding like rain or vinyl pops or just a sample? It works well, but not sure how I think of it in terms of the challenge. The storm sounds ensure it is at least checked off, though.

Yes, it was a field recording. The rain and thunder and animal noises were recorded from my backyard. Individual extra loud raindrops were sampled out of the longer recording and superimposed over the recording in a pattern matching the drumbeat, with the samples being chosen at random on every MIDI note. The recording was also cut up to cause the thunder and animal noises to occur at strategic times during the song.

The repeated "Hello this is Angela" at the end of the song was pretty much taken directly from a voicemail Ken got, skipping and everything, though we threw that it because it was spooky, not because it was a field recording.

[vowlvom]

Budget Bears - Couldn't make out what was going on in the bridge/drop out bit challenge wise but I didn't dislike it.

I flicked through AM radio stations on my car radio and layered up ten sections of the resulting recording spread across the stereo field over that section.

[Lucky Spoon]

Judging is a little delayed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArmNU3RaUMM&t=69s

[ken]

Let's go judges clap clap clapclapclap
Let's go judges clap clap clapclapclap

[Niveous]

Update:
Here we are. It's been over 24 hours and one of the judges is still missing. (It was two last night)

Gotta figure out what to do...

[Cybronica]

Update:
Here we are. It's been over 24 hours and one of the judges is still missing. (It was two last night)

Gotta figure out what to do...

Guest judge? As the only elimination and not eligible for reinstatement, I’d like to see LTs rankings.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Guest judge? As the only elimination and not eligible for reinstatement, I’d like to see LTs rankings.

Great idea, but not real practical to expect someone to give a ranking asap with no warning. But I'd like to see his rankings as well.

[Pop Machine]

Update:
Here we are. It's been over 24 hours and one of the judges is still missing. (It was two last night)

Gotta figure out what to do...

Give us the full Memorial Day weekend for the next one, I say.

[seemanski]

see-man-ski - I like your voice. The piano becomes a bit much after a bit. I like this song, but did you even use a field recording? (Tacked on birds at the end for like five seconds? Do they serve a purpose at all? Other than not getting DQ'd, I mean?) Is this song even about pareidolia? Even the "I feel these eyes" isn't technically pareidolia, is it? Or is it? The rest of the lyric isn't, it seems to me. Well, I like the song a lot but I've got a lot of questions regarding the challenge and implementing the title.

Fair play about the field recording, I literally recorded my backing vocals in the middle of a field, however, I chickened out and put it too far behind in the mix. However, I did think I met the main challenge though. The chorus is all about seeing someone else's face on a stranger, that was my take on it anyway.

when they turn around
what I tell myself
is that ill see your face
instead of someone else

[heid]

Update:
Here we are. It's been over 24 hours and one of the judges is still missing. (It was two last night)

Gotta figure out what to do...

Give us the full Memorial Day weekend for the next one, I say.

I second this suggestion right here

[lichenthroat]

I'm willing to do it if you actually want me to and if it will help. I could commit to having rankings by 10:00 p.m. MDT tonight. I wasn't sure if this was a serious suggestion or not, but let me know. I'm fine either way, obviously.

[grumpymike]

We should cut judges each round.

[BoffoYux]

We should cut judges each round.

I don't think we can afford the band aid bills... and I ain't cleaning up the mess!

[Lucky Spoon]

Update:
Here we are. It's been over 24 hours and one of the judges is still missing. (It was two last night)

Gotta figure out what to do...

Give us the full Memorial Day weekend for the next one, I say.

I second this suggestion right here

3rd.

[Niveous]

I'm willing to do it if you actually want me to and if it will help. I could commit to having rankings by 10:00 p.m. MDT tonight. I wasn't sure if this was a serious suggestion or not, but let me know. I'm fine either way, obviously.

LT, Go for it. If the other judge comes through, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[lichenthroat]

I'm willing to do it if you actually want me to and if it will help. I could commit to having rankings by 10:00 p.m. MDT tonight. I wasn't sure if this was a serious suggestion or not, but let me know. I'm fine either way, obviously.

LT, Go for it. If the other judge comes through, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Should I PM rankings to you?