Come join in (The Dregs Reviews)

[crumpart]

Hot Pink Halo:
Your production is getting better and more clear over time, and this is no exception. This tune doesn’t QUIT hit me the same as your tune last week, but mostly because I think I’m a sucker for ¾ time. Anyway, I do like the chorus - there’s a certain degree of punchiness that comes with prominent swearing, and in your case it happens to work well, I think. As for the lyrics, I can understand the general sentiment of them. There’s a few bits that sort of fly past me, like the “Sang "toorali-oorali-addity" part -- I must not be Australian enough cause I have no idea what that means. But it can’t be good! Anywho, how many fights have you entered in a row now? I feel like we started entering regularly around the same time and I’m not sure either of us have missed a fight in months...

Thanks! Triple meter is definitely my natural comfort zone, and what I'd do for every fight if I didn't force myself into 4/4 once in a while. I have no idea why I'm naturally drawn to it. I'm guessing I must have had some kind of saturation in it as a child.

I definitely put more thought and effort into the production and mixing this time. Watched a bunch of YouTube mixing videos and everything. I sent Giz and Toshiro my very first basic mix, which was basically similar to what I'd done in previous weeks, then I went back in the next day and to make some of the changes Giz suggested, and tried to fine tune everything as much as possible. Then Toshiro listened again 5 minutes before I sent it in and said I had too much bass coming through in the main vocal, so I dragged him upstairs and he showed me how to eq it out. Yay for learning!

I wrote the first verse after we watched The Nightingale, which is a real sucker punch of a film. Very, very difficult to watch but should be required viewing for all Australians. It's very violent and very upsetting, but also very much an accurate representation of colonial settlement in Australia. The British criminal justice system at the time was pretty foul. One of my ancestors was sent to Australia with the second fleet. He borrowed a horse, someone saw him with it, he was arrested and sent to Australia, then pardoned when he got here. I'm sure some of the convicts did pretty terrible things, but a large number were people who were brutalised by the British upper classes and forced into stealing food to survive (see: most of the Irish convicts). We visited Port Arthur about five years ago, which was a prison colony in Tasmania, and they have a big memorial there to all the people convicted and sent to Australia for being homosexual. There were so many, and it was just devastating to realise that was the case for so many people. And then there's what The Nightingale is about, which was the wholesale slaughter and genocide of the Australian Aboriginal people across Australia's eastern and southern coasts. When Australia was "discovered" and colonised by the British, they lied and called it Terra Nullius, pretending that they hadn't found entire communities of people already living there. It was illegal for them to claim the country as a British colony if they found societies of settled people, so they said there was no one there and systematically killed as many native people as they could.

This fight was due the day before "Australia Day" on Jan 26, where we officially "celebrate" this day, which marks the anniversary of the First Fleet of ships arriving in Port Jackson, after they realised the area of Botany Bay ("discovered" by Captain Cook) was uninhabitable. In light of the massacre of the Aboriginal people after colonisation, a lot of us find the celebration of Australia on this day pretty vile and we'd like the date changed to one that's less volatile. Australia Day as it currently stands is basically now a tension-filled fight between people happy with being casually and/or outright racist and those of us who want to recognise, reflect on and learn from our history. The "toorali-oorali-addity" line is from a folk song we all learned in primary school called Botany Bay, which was a pretty catchy and propaganda laden song aimed at the British lower classes to tell them they be sent to Australia if they were naughty. I found it again in one of my violin books a couple of weeks back and it made me feel super gross.

So anyway, I had my first verse and chorus all sorted out when a family member decided to post a good old "it's so sad that I don't get to be casually racist anymore" meme on Facebook all about how Aussies used to be able to take a joke and no one got offended back then and isn't it sad about how people are offended by these things now and can't we all just go back to the good old days? Like if you remember, share if you agree. I publicly took issue, explained some blatantly obvious things and she took it down. I hope she learned something. I was ranting to Giz and Toshiro about this in our group text when I realised I had my second verse. Then we all went on a "high pop" tangent and listened to a bunch of Ween.

And that is the story of my pop song.

(My first entry was back in August? with The Supper Club. I missed Please Move the next week due to work disasters/holiday, but have entered every fight since.)

[ujnhunter]

5 votes from me! Wish I was in... I'll post my track later. @WreckdoM have you been listening to OhGr lately? I think your track reminded me a lot of "Feelin' chicken" for some reason. Heh.

Hmm... I see lyrics but not the song link?

Technical difficulties... hope to be resolved in the next couple of days... wish me luck... also it does feature the Vox (Acoustic Mode) in a couple of spots... but I used my "real" (not really, it's a clone) Strat for the Electric Arps...

Edit: Here you go...

[WreckdoMelle]

Disclaimer - I listened to the first 4 songs on laptop speakers only before realizing I hadn't plugged them into better quality speakers - up past my old lady bedtime

Vom Vorton - Pleasant guitars and catchy chorus. I like your voice and I also liked how the strings (synths?) filled out the sound.

Brown Word and the Big Whine - If I had this to do over again, I would do it the same way.

miscellaneous owl - The intro is really cute. I find this song to be pretty and sadly sweet. I like the harmony toward the end and as with your other songs since I started songfighting again I enjoy the lyrics.

Pig Farmer Jr - Kudos for unfamiliar time signature. Being a lover of guitars, the lead guitar coming in was my favorite part.

Slither - Nice echoey, airy, dark quality to this one. Everything sounds very well mixed and textural. Turns into a bit of a rocker when the tempo picks up.

Glenn Case - Vox seem a bit low in the mix. I appreciate the chord progressions into the chorus. I did feel the dregs characters described in the song sounded a bit scarier than the tone of the song would suggest.

Paco del Stinko - The peppy bass makes this a toe tapper. A couple of fun surprises, with an unexpected chord in the "they are around you" harmony, and rhythm part under the guitar solo.

Berkeley Social Scene - Leading with tough-sounding guitars is usually the best approach, in my book. I was glad to hear them return later in the song. Is this a full band? Everything sounds pretty well-rounded.

seventeen62 - Some unexpected rhythmic changes here. Plus points for live saxophone.

WreckdoM - I always appreciate when a song causes a sense of disturbance; it speaks to the power of music to move one. My role in this tune was more in the architecture than in the execution but then we were given some particularly flavorful materials to work with.

Hot Pink Halo - I like the contrast of the heavy drums in the transitions to the sweet quality of the song.

Phlebia - The opening bass made things on my desk rattle, which to me is a good sign. The drone tones and whispered/intoned lyrics lent this a mystical sort of quality.

[sleepysilverdoor]

Ujn and Reve - It's a shame you didn't submit this in time, because I probably would have voted for it. The intricacy of the picking, the production, the "ahh" backing vocals with that faint chorus on them, all of this is pretty great. Like most of the stuff that I would take the time to complain about with this song are minor quibbles that are barely worth complaining about. Stuff like "I wish the snare drum was tuned slightly looser", assuming that it's a real snare drum. If it's not, I wish it was a slightly lower pitched snare. And there's something about the mixing of the vocals that sit slightly weirdly in the mix, and there are a couple lines like "overpower my consciousness" that kind of have a meter that doesn't sit right with me. But my songs are guilty of hell of doing that too, so look who's talking. And I can't tell if you've added pitch/timing correction on the vocal track, but it sounds a little bit TOO perfect to me, to the point where it doesn't quite sound organic.

Come to think of it, I think this actually is my favorite of the fight. But it's not actually in the fight. So, honorary favorite?

[owl]

It's FAWM and I didn't get my reviews done before February started, so unfortunately I'm probably going to be really bad about reviewing until the end of the month. Therefore I have very brief, sleep-deprived and thus slightly crabby, and probably not very helpful reviews for you this week, and apologies in advance for most likely entering but not reviewing the remaining fights of February. Faves this week: Vom, Paco, Hot Pink Halo, and honorary mention to Ujn/Reve. Who did the optional challenge this time around? I heard some in WreckdoM's song--did I miss some spoons from other people? I just realized I forgot to pay attention for that specifically.

Berkeley Social Scene: I like the chord progression at the end of the verses a lot. The main heavy guitar riff is satisfying if not entirely my thing. I can't make up my mind about the chorus lyrics--on the one hand, I think "full kegs" and "bootlegs" are inspired rhymes for sketching out a scene but on the other hand, I don't love the rhyme of "bootlegs" with "legs," and I think "full kegs" scans a little funny. I enjoyed this, but it's not in my top tier of BSS songs.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: The intro drums and synth thing made me feel like I was headed into some melancholy dreamy 80's synthpop song but the chugging guitar and vocal are decidedly Not That. The song didn't quite coalesce for me on the whole, but I liked some of the details quite a bit--I'm a sucker for simultaneous vocals so I really like the part with the repeated "dregs" under the other vocal, and I really liked the lyric "you took the low to new heights."

Glenn Case: Impeccable harmonies, very tasty. I like the sparkly guitar, although I'm not ultra into the jazzy soft rock piano this week, and the overall sonic palette doesn't really seem to mesh that well with the story you're telling, which to me seems to suggest mercenaries or fixers or something that I think would be a bit grittier than this. These lyrics seem like they would be crying out for one of your crunchy rock tracks. But this is beautifully written and arranged as usual, the dropouts to harmonized vocals are lovely.

Hot Pink Halo: I like these drums a lot, and the lead vocal sounds sweet. The backing vocals seem a bit messy/meandering; the lower-register ones in particular would probably sound nice sung higher, as they sound a little droney in a distracting way right now. I liked the Facebook verses, they hit home in the worst way--and I really appreciated your whole background explanation about "The Nightingale" and the general cultural and historical background for the song.

miscellaneous owl: Post-apocalyptic fiction is maybe my favorite genre, along with incredibly specific natural histories and survivalist fantasies. Something I ended up thinking about with this song is: what does it mean to be a "failure," really, anyway? Keep up with all the overachievers by dying neatly, as planned, on time? I had a Japanese coworker who said he moved away from Japan because he felt like he was just on a conveyor belt carrying him straight from birth to the grave. Our protagonist in this song is a lifelong fuckup, and maybe that makes her feel bad about herself and lonely, and maybe things will go very poorly in the end, but for the moment, she is also alive and free in a way that nobody else around her is anymore.

Paco del Stinko: I like it when your songs get bouncy and ultra-jangly like this one. I like the unexpected lift in the chorus chords on the "they are around you" responses. I found the lyrics a bit depressing so I couldn't really wholeheartedly love this.

Phlebia: I liked the hypnotic, mystical vibe to this and the coffee-related lyrics (I had to look up "ibrik")--thought it was a nice take on the title! I had less interest in it once the distortion kicked in around 2:43--it kind of felt like this overwhelming textureless fuzz that made me a little tired to listen to after a while, and the song didn't seem to go to enough new places from that point onwards to justify the full length of it. Still, I really liked your scale/mode choices and the general opium-haze feel.

Pigfarmer Jr: I really enjoyed the time signature in this song paired with the kind of folky arrangement, and I thought the chorus was super catchy. I particularly loved the two vocals going at once at the end of the song. I didn't find the lyrics particularly appealing, the chorus was vague and felt like it emphasized the wrong word ("tell ON me") and the leg barf was gross, though I can't really complain about that in a fight that also has WreckdoM's song in it. The ending felt a bit unsatisfying, too, like it just kind of ended but could have used a real outro or something more dramatic. Minor complaints aside, the bones of the song are great IMHO.

seventeen62: The execution in this song is generally really messy (acoustic guitar sounds super off) and I wasn't really into the chorus--the refrain repeats too many times and feels kind of draggy, and the "assholes on the internet" lyrics just feel kind of heavy-handed. I would probably forgive one or the other but not both at the same time (Sorry for being an asshole on the internet about this.) The saxophone sounded really good! The guitar noodling over the chorus at the end seemed kind of unfocused. I think it could have ended after the saxophone bit.

Slither: Everything in the instrumental sounds really nice, and I like the echoing delay effects on the vocal (the part where it all goes nuts with arpeggios around 3:30 is great), although as usual, I'm not into that "every note falling" vocal delivery style and would love to hear something different as far as that goes.

Vom Vorton: Excellent return to songfighting! I love that repeating guitar riff (reminds me a little bit of "Least Complicated" by the Indigo Girls), and the chord progression in the verse. The first verse made me very sad, the "saying reassuring things to my partner" scene was really poignant. Actually, the chorus also made me sad. But you know me, I'm in the sad songs club forever, so that's a good thing.

WreckdoM: Gross lyrics, and I don't really get anything out of this musically, it's very repetitive and busy, and lots of ear fatigue from the synths. I like the "awwww" though... kind of reminds me of Negativland. +1 point for spoons, but -10 points for tears of pus and bloody cum. I find lots of things funny but not so much that, and as my coworkers regularly sends photos of varying degrees of necrosis and rotting wounds to our group chat, I don't find it shocking either, just kind of mildly unpleasant. Get me with those deeply disturbing anthropomorphic cats next time.

Ujn and Reve: Yay for the Starstream! (is it those strums during the "awaken with everything..." parts?) Too bad you didn't get this in in time! I thought it was great and it would have been one of my favorites of the fight--I really adore the melody, and the contrast between those long held vocal notes and the arpeggios, and the textures of the song in general. The vocal sounded really processed/autotuned, which I didn't like so much, but I liked everything else a lot, musically. The lyrics wind up a bit vague but they start out with a bang as far as evocative images go.

[ujnhunter]

Thanks for listening. Yes, the strums are the Starstream and the more "busy" arpeggio part after the chorus with the "Ahh ahh" vocals is the Starstream. I wonder if my vocal layers are adding to the processed sound... I try to layer them (I thought, very subtlety with a double track) almost so you can't even hear them... and I've added a slight chorus onto the doubled vocals as well... but it's probably my delivery too. I don't consciously try to have a "weird" vocal delivery in this "voice" style... it's just how it comes out... which is the opposite of my "lower" type singing style... which sadly people feel that it "doesn't sound in tune enough". Though I seem to have better results when Reve is mixing... as he can pick and choose which parts should have double tracks, and which parts to re-do or whatever... anyhow, thanks y'all! The worst part of missing the deadline is always the fact that most people won't even hear your song. So I appreciate the inclusion!

[crumpart]

I’m just not going to get to reviews for this one (thanks life), so just want to touch on a few of my favourites.

Owl: I thought this was just beautiful and if my favourite song of the fight. I think the intro really does add to the song, and I also really like those subtle strings and things at the end. And yes, it’s a post-apocalyptic story about failing to die, but I feel like there’s hope and peace in it. Maybe I enjoyed it so much because I’m someone who likes to spend a lot of time alone. Extra points for deliberately adding “cream” and “shit”. “I know how to wait” is a perfect ending.

Vom: I’m so sorry about Brexit. We had originally planned to move to the UK to the point where we’d booked tickets, and then Brexit happened and we rapidly reassessed and chose Ireland instead. Thanks to Toshiro’s dad being born in the UK, he’s a dual Australian/UK citizen: we’re getting by here for now on the transition period and Ireland/UK common travel area agreement. My visa was granted on EU family rules, so hopefully that will stick until I can apply for citizenship in 2022. Turns out I was supposed to be sent an info pack from immigration in August, but haven’t actually been sent anything. Anyway, I particularly like the chorus and promise that one day you’ll be able to write non-Brexit songs again.

Pigfarmer: love the 5/4. It’s sounds in a few places that you’re not entirely comfortable with it, and the vocals come in a little off time. I really like the simplicity of the lyrics in the chorus. The layering of the vocals at the end really works for me.

[owl]

@crumpart, Thanks for the kind words--I wasn't sure if the intro added to the song so it's nice to hear you thought it did!
@ujnhunter, Did you do any tuning on this? It might be the chorus effect, something just sounded a bit processed but it could definitely be the layering with effects added.

[Lunkhead]

Glenn Case wins!

[owl]

Congrats, Glenn!!!

[gizo]

Woo hoo Glenn!