Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

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Niveous
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Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by Niveous »

Sultry Shambles?

Blazing Disarray?
"I'd like to see 1984 redubbed with this in the soundtrack."- Furrypedro.
NUR EIN!
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Albatross
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by Albatross »

Combustible Clusterfuck

(which would be a pretty nifty band name)
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Chumpy
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by Chumpy »

All in all a good fight, I didn't find myself annoyed or frustrated by any of the songs, and am generally glad I listened to each one.

Berkeley Social Scene
The bass and the keys at around 2:35 make for a kinda dreamy yet punky feeling, and that bass riff is sweet. I also like how the lyrics sorta pull in some ideas from the Fashion fight. I'm getting a post-punk vibe from the vocals (You're a Disaster!) which I really like.

Chumpy
Short, dumb, snotty.

Flvxxvm Florvm
I like how you first bring in the left guitar and then the drums and the right guitar in the intro, I never think of cool touches like that. That driving piano and the vocals adds a Stones type quality to the tune, I'm not sure I could have resisted the urge to put on a fake Brit accent to realy bring it home, but it probably would have ruined it. My nagging editor thinks the solo could have been cut down a bit to increase potency, same goes for the pickup selector breaking-up sounds at the end. An excellent entry.

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff
I like how the jangly guitars and shakers + tambourine sound together, and how they shaker pattern shifts. It kinda reminds me of the Byrds, altough they obviously didn't use a drum machine, which you really hear at the end. The glock solo is lovely but in places is barely audible in the mix, maybe that's a stylistic choice, but I wouldn't mind if it was louder. Another enjoyable listen.

Slickitude
Short, frenetic, rockin!

toby roktot
Really like the live bar atmosphere, and your witty banter, way to work the crowd! This special friend is not sure if it's actually live or 'studio wizardly' but either way, it's well done. I like the song too, and would have shouted 'YES' at the end. The line "sometimes she likes to tease, and I love to play along" I think is especially good, and in general the positive/happy vibe of the tune resonated with me.

Tomdg
Great energy in this song, and funny lyrics, I laughed out loud at 'creosote glaze'. The homemade feel of this song works for me. The vocals are pretty loud, and distort in places, and there are some harsh breath sounds here and there, but that doesn't really detract too much, and works if you think of the title as auto-descriptive. I like the synth strings and sloppy guitar licks too, and I especially like the way that Tomdg and Wub trade off singing the chorus. Charmed.

Zack Facco
Interesting thoughtful lyrics, crafty how you tie life's origins to a hot mess. I thought the electric organ sound in the intro was great, it's a shame that it didn't make it back into the chorus or elsewhere in the song, although the melodica sounds great too, and stands out in the ending. I feel like there are some nice backing vocals on the last chorus that might be a bit burried in the mix?
"I don't recommend ending on a bad joke." --ken
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by josh »

It sure is quiet on this here fight :-)

Berkeley Social Scene

Solid as usual. It's a nice open mix/arrangement. Good vocal performance. Easy vote. While I basically like the bass sound, it's a bit thin sounding when it's on its own

Chumpy

Nice start, but I can't really think of this as a song at that length and with the limited changes. Needs a bit more energy. But this could be a cool pop song.

Flvxxvm Florvm

Great energy and guitar sounds. Vocal performance and recording/mix is shaky at times. The piano part is a nice touch. The guitar solos are a bit sloppy.

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff

Vocals seem really low, but the instrument mix seems fine. Lots of instruments working together well. The drums are kind of boring / mechanical, but I can understand the struggle of a non drummer trying to get drums on a track. I think it's especially hard to use software drums to emulate a rock kit sound. Maybe in the future you might try to embrace a specifically electronic sound? Or go with shakers and stuff like that.

Slickitude

It's funny, this is the most solid mix / recording in the fight... but it's 30 seconds long and doesn't say anything really other than the title.

toby roktot

The recording is a lot quieter than the other entries. Did you normalize it? If so, could just need a little compression / limiting. Good performance. You have a very distinctive voice. Fun listen, worth a vote.

Tomdg

Gotta work on you vocal recording technique. Lots of hard popping / uneveness etc. Sloppy, but fun entry.

Zack Facco

This has gotta be my best entry so far, but that's not saying all that much. There's a lyrical issue I'm struggling with fixing, but I'll save that for another thread. I also couldn't figure how to play through the weird changes in time, so I recorded the sections separately and as a result... it's a bit discombobulated.

@chumpy: Thanks for the review! There are some synth harmonies buried deep in the mix, I wonder if that's what you're hearing. The only vocal harmonies are during the "reside" chromatic decent at the end of the chorus. Do you think those sound buried? I only put in the synth harmony to cover up how out of tune the "Hot Mess" line came off... which was a glaring problem, as it's the title of the song. I've been noticing that I often can't sing the A below middle C in tune... it must be at the transition between chest and head for me...
hillbilly

Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by hillbilly »

josh I see where you mentioned other sounds to Ken rather than drums, do you know of a good site to get them?
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by josh »

@hillbilly: I didn't mean samples, I meant actual shakers, tambourines, etc. I figure in the absence of a kit, stuff like that might be an interesting alternative to machines.
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by JK Fredrickson »

Hello all,

New to the discussion, but I have been contributing to Slickitudes tunes the past few weeks, listening, reading reviews, etc.

BSS - Main groove is great, The synth really sits nicely in the mix, and compliments the other parts nicely. Vocals sit a bit low in the mix in a few spots. That main groove tho...
Chumpy - Great performances, mix is solid. Catchy and to the point. Liked it!
Flvxxvm Florvm - best production in the fight IMHO, sounds like a drunk stumbling through a dimly lit dive bar hurling insults at the people giving him the cold shoulder.
Ken's SDBNS - Sunny and wide open. I like it musically, just seems very tidy given the title, not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but it stands out relative to the other entries in that respect.
Slickitude - OMFG buy some mastering software Slick! *facepalm
Toby_Roktot - Love that you recorded an open mic session, or how well you faked it. Great story, would have liked it better if they had done it in the parking lot. Great sing along at the end. Yes!
Tomdg & Wub - Lots of fun here, can I suggest you spend $100 on an SM58. You will never regret it.
Zack Facco - Highest concepts, production is entertaining. Is there Kazoo in the background? Is that an real organetto at the end? so many questions...
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by josh »

@JK: I use kazoo a *lot* but not in this production. I think what you're hearing is the synth I put behind the words "Hot Mess" and a couple other words in the second chorus. The outro features a real melodica. The intro has fake organ.
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by Caravan Ray »

Hey! WTF?!?!? I just saw this.

Is that supposed to be me in the cover art Glennny?
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by user »

That's definitely you. I was wondering if the other two guys represent particular songfighters, too, or any other real people who may have been there.
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Re: Burning Chaos (Hot Mess reviews)

Post by Lunkhead »

The other two people are from the TV show "Project Runway" which is a fashion reality tournament show. The older guy is Tim Gunn who plays the role of mentor to the fashion designers and the other person is a past contestant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Runway
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