Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

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Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by Pigfarmer Jr »

can be found on the internet, I'm sure.... (might not want to google it after all.)
Last edited by Lunkhead on Fri Mar 12, 2021 11:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: make normal
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by Pigfarmer Jr »

Please post your lyric here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12045





DO IT!!!





Please?!?
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by Lunkhead »

Songs posted!
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by sleepysilverdoor »

Have listened to Brother Baker and Brown Word so far. Between those two and my own, seems like this is the week of starting off with the i-VI chord progression. And Brown Word and I both used the same beat pretty much. Heh. Brother Baker's reminds me of early Chelsea Wolfe but with more dudes.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by crumpart »

I also have not yet listened to all the songs, but if Vowl Sounds doesn’t win I’m starting a riot.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by sleepysilverdoor »

crumpart wrote:
Wed Mar 03, 2021 5:26 am
I also have not yet listened to all the songs, but if Vowl Sounds doesn’t win I’m starting a riot.
It would have to be a slow motion riot. Because it's soundtracked by shoegaze.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by ken »

I would like to be sure everyone knows that Lunkhead provided the lead guitar on my song this week. If your reviews compliment the lead guitar, know that your compliments should be directed at him.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by sleepysilverdoor »

Thoughts: JP's song is interesting and presumably a literary reference that seems a little overlong. It reminded me a bit of the Grimm's version of Snow White but it's clearly not that.

CazaroTaro, your stuff sounds better with a little bit more dreaming in the mix. I like how you still integrated your main, simplistic new wave sound into the optional challenge.

Moody Vermin, that was dope. Sure, it's a bit noodly but as a big fan of Bardo Pond's relentless wandering psych jamming it was right up my alley.

Vowl Sounds - not sure if you two are into Asobi Seksu at all but it reminded me a lot of that one album with their song "Transcendence" which is an absolute jam. Great atmosphere.

Sweeney, that beat was so crunchy this go round, I dug the vibes you put into this.

Nomb Superbus, fantastic kind of drifting mood for driving to work at 545 am. The harmonic progression in that main guitar line and simplicity are really working for you.

Hot Pink Halo, my wife told me to write a song about a kid who loved building model trains and I couldn't think of a good way to make it fit with my instrumental, so I'm glad you took that approach (though I listened yesterday while planting stuff in my front garden and may have misheard some things)

Night Sky - man, this is a change from your usual style and I actually like it. The timbre of your voice works well in this genre. Now do a shoegaze song with some sax and morphine bass, hah! (Actually one of my favorite songs in the genre -- "Never Lose That Feeling". by Swervedriver -- ends with a dreamy sax solo so if you wanna hear how sax and shoegaze blend, there's a real world example for you.

Phlebia - just some liner notes. I didn't have any one artist as inspiration for this. I did just buy a telescope, and a really nice one at that. While clearly shoegaze, this is pretty clearly influenced by Boris too, through it's relentless forever build-up. I really really like shoegaze so this came out naturally. I'm well aware that talking about being a curious kid and curious adult is pretentious as hell, but the lyric sounded cool to me so I kept it.
I'll post more later.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by sleepysilverdoor »

Where the mf'in reviews at?

Brother Baker - In the beginning, I’m assuming that’s a distorted synth that’s making that pleasant distorted sound. I remember you said that you were going to try and add in as many instruments as possible to this. I’m not entirely sold on this melody line, but I like the fuzzy instrumentation and the comparatively huge and crunchy drums. I *do* like the harmonies you’ve got going on and the vocal interplay. It’s almost like you guys have known each other your entire lives or something. That outro where it just kind of cuts to that i-VI chord progression with the big drums is cool, kind of reminds me of Autolux a bit.

Brown Word and the Big Whine - Like I said in my initial comment -- the similarity of the melody line and chord progression between this and Brother Baker’s track is kind of funny, especially since they’re alphabetically back to back. Also that I started with the same two chords. I like the emphasis on the word yesterday, and that descending melody line that starts on the 5th and works its way down. There’s an element of this that seems maybe slightly too long but I’m hardly one to talk this week, give that most of my song is just the same chord progression over and over and over.

Cavedwellers - There’s this one song on the Lost in Translation soundtrack that I’m reminded heavily of, except this has way more dynamic drums. I forget who it’s by. Phoenix maybe? I dunno. The synth is cool, but maybe a little high in the mix, but only by a little bit. Also not totally sold on the melody here, but I really like what was done with the drums and I like the general vibe of the song. The bassline/guitar/synth/whatever during the verses sounds cool but it’s just a little too busy on all three elements at once so it’s kind of hard to pin down where you want the core tonality of the chord progression to me. The “I was a child star…” bit is well executed, I dig it. And the super deep note on the bass synth is cool.

CazaroTaro - SongFight’s favorite new wave artist strikes again, only this time with more reverb on the mix. Turns out that adding reverb to your usually sparse mixes doesn’t really change the genre that much, but it makes them sound a lot better to my ears. Is this shoegaze? No way, it’s still new wave, just with extra reverb on it! Which is actually great cause now it brings that 80s shimmer that I always liked, like some 4AD stuff only without quite as much ethereality. This is probably my favorite CazaroTaro track by a significant margin. I mean it kind of goes in one ear and out the other, but it’s got that chime and driving drum beat and I love the synths and everything. I’d just listen to this to chill out.

Duncan Martin - As with a number of the shoegaze tracks this week, this seems to kind of go all in on the “let’s make everything fuzzy and reverby”, but it doesn’t seem to really congeal in the gauzy blanket of sound that makes shoegaze work. It just ends up sounding kind of vague and sloppy. I like the whistling though. I’m not entirely sure what’s wrong with this mix, it just sounds kind of upside-down. The vocal melody and rhythm is pretty enjoyable though. All in all...pass.

Heine - I like the really bouncy delivery of “don’t know what to learn for”, and those kind of soft synths going through the crush the mirror (“crash!”) on the wall are great. This has a kind of weirdly medieval vibe in places in a way that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s that the harmonies remind me of the castle music in a few video games I’ve played over the years. If there’s anything I have to criticize about this track it’s that the ending is just kind of abrupt!

Hot Pink Halo - This is kind of the original lyrical idea that I thought about going with myself, and as I said, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t cause you did a lot more justice with it. Vocally this is one of your stronger performances. Maybe it’s because the relatively simplistic structure of the shoegaze influence works to your range and just vocal style in general. The multi-tracking also is well executed. Now I remember you mentioned on the Discord that you fixed up the mix from here, because right now it sounds like the vocals are a little bit more prominent. There’s that part right before it ends where there’s this rising guitar (?) line that seems to hit a note that’s a little bit off-key, it strikes my ear. All in all I really enjoyed this, one of your best works!

JP Nickolas - You are yet another SF artist who has submitted a personal favorite of mine this week. Honestly half of my appreciate for this one is from all of the triplet sections going on in the background. I’m a sucker for triplets. There’s a part of me that suspects that this is a little bit overlong. In past entries your vocal grit that you occasional throw in sometimes sounds a little bit forced but it works a lot better here so yay, refining a technique. Maybe this is a bit overlong? I dunno, it could probably have stood to be a bit shorter because after awhile my attention drifted. Still, not bad.

Ken’s Super Duper Band n Stuff - This is well executed. It has the same sort of pleasant, simple structure that you usually opt for. It seems to be a hallmark of yours, though it’s not something that always really aligns with my taste (which leans towards the more complicated or more boundary pushing). However, the guitar tone on this is sublime and I can’t complain about it at all. Is it good? I think so! Will I listen to it again? Probably not, but that’s me, not you.

The Late Heavy Bombardment - You sound like Gizo, and if I’m wrong I’m wrong but I enjoy the gentle descending melody going on in the bridge and the shuffling rhythm that’s running throughout the whole thing. This song is relaxing and I like the really subtle backing vocals that pop up here and there. Or am I hearing things? The “stand there for hours” is poignant and just a really well designed melody. The ending is...kind of unusual.

Magnetic Letters - Taking the “drench it in reverb” element of shoegaze to the extreme, it feels like everything but the drums is covered it in. You’ve gotta make everything HUGE and reverby! Anyway, the ascending scale runs in the bass are kind of neat. There’s not really a whole lot to latch onto here. That one part where you just kind of get stuck on the same note for a solid 20 or 30 seconds is one of the neat sections though. I don’t actively dislike it, but I don’t find it memorable. Which I think is endemic to shoegaze in general, I’m kind of choosy with it.

Mellfire - It’s like hellfire. But Mel. My neighbor goes by Mel. Or Melbel. And she’s not really my neighbor anymore. But her mom is. I hear she’s moving back in. That’s great, she’s cool. Brown Word’s name is also Mel. I tend to like people named Mel, it’s a good name for a person. The guitars here sound a little bit thin while the vocals sound a little watery. The guitars need to be a little bit bigger and the hi-hat/tambourine/whatever synth drum is keeping 8th notes is too loud. I like the line about the shiny balloon in the tree. The background “oh”s work. Honestly I feel like the biggest weakness in this song is the mix, it’s very anemic sounding. Melody doesn’t grab me. I don’t hate it but I don’t really like it either.

Moody Vermin - The line about cigarettes and twinkies was clever and stuck out as creative, created a darn good image. And you know what, I really like the backing track here a lot. I don’t know if you’ve ever listened to Bardo Pond but there’s a track off of their album “8”...Flayed Wish maybe, could be Kailash, I get them mixed up. Anyway, it sounds a lot like this, and I like it a lot because it’s perfect drift off space-out music. Which is basically what that band does with damn near every song so that’s fine by me. I have no idea if that’s what you were going for but it’s sonically near a lot of stuff I dug.

Night Sky - I already made some comments, but you should seriously make more music like this and add saxophone to it. The timbre of your voice works well in this setting and the only thing this is missing is more of that saxophone. I think I recommended in my “listened to the songs on the way to work making quick comments during a bathroom break” post from earlier that you check out “Never Lose That Feeling” by Swervedriver because it’s a fantastic example of shoegaze meets saxophone that would probably be up your alley. I feel like all I do is recommend you stuff. But hey, that resulted in a hell of a morphine tribute so I should keep going, eh?

Nomb Superbus - I really like the chord progression in here, it’s got this jazzy vibe that treats my ears particularly well and makes me happy. The vocal delivery is mostly kind of one note, but it’s done in that one way that works for it like One Note Samba or something. But all that’s a good thing because I like it and I like this song and I like the way you voice the arpeggiation. Yay.

Phlebia - I can never decide if I like the mix on this. But I like the song itself and it’s super fun to play and I got to show off a lot of pedals!

ShoehornTC - I’m not entirely sure if I like that one note. I think it’s an augmented 5th but by the time I’m writing this i’ve already moved on to SlyEli’s song in the listening party and I got to typing. By and large I really like this track though, kind of reminds me of early Brian Jonestown Massacre in the best ways. I don’t have a whole lot to criticize about it, and I don’t have much to praise other than saying I’m very much enjoying the sonic realm you created.

Sly Eli - Melody is complex but doesn’t stick with me. Synth is an excellent mood setter and the vocals are cool, and I like where this goes harmonically. Shew, I’m so late in this reviewing session that I’m losing words to say. Seriously, this is mostly just really good. I’m not sure it really held my attention for the entire track but it’s hard for me to have fault with. I think a lot of that is the mix. And the fact that I’m getting tired.

Sumner Sloane - The ending guitar riff is pretty pleasant. I kind of wish it ended with a bit different of a resolution other than just a fadeout, which isn’t entirely my favorite way to end a song. Is it bad that I just listened to this and I already forgot everything than the outro? Probably. I didn’t hate it. I don’t have much to say, it didn’t make much of an impression.
Sweeney Toad - SYNTH. FLANGE. MAXED OUT LEVELS. This sounds like a Sweeney Toad song but it’s definitely got some interesting harmonic choices throughout it. And the descending bit at the end of the chorus is kind of cool. I’d potential arge that the kick is just a little bit loud. Is that even a chorus with the descending line? I’m not sure what a chorus is. I don’t know how to diagram this song but it’s interesting. Maybe I wish the vocals deviated in pitch a bit more from the heavy droning synth line. But then again do I even care? I’m not sure I do, this is enjoyable. The cabbage patch sample sort of comes out of nowhere. Maybe it doesn’t. Too many songs, brain melting.

Thieves of Reason - I always feel like I’m sort of giving the alphabetically last people the short end of the stick when doing reviews cause I’m tired and typically by this time of night I’m just malfunctioning inside. But...eh, this is kind of repetitive and I’m not sure I like it. It goes nowhere, it’s basically just a few bars stretched out to take up time. I thought this was boring.

Vowl Sounds - Vom and Owl, y’all make such a great team. Inspired musical choices, and a memorable vocal performance, something that’s largely missing from so many of the songs this week. In term of actual songwriting quality, this is probably the strongest entry of the fight. Is it my favorite? Maybe not, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking it’s super well done. Of course HH I DID send you stems for an MBV cover so I definitely know that you have a prior appreciation for shoegaze and it shows. I’m not sure how much of this is Vom and how much is Owl but y’all nailed it. I’m pleased!

Best 3:

Moody, Vowl, Nom. And I really like my own but I better cause I wrote it and I’m an arrogant turd.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by gizo »

sleepysilverdoor wrote:
Mon Mar 08, 2021 8:29 pm
Where the mf'in reviews at?
honestly all my effort is going into bricking it about SpintTunes right now :(
sleepysilverdoor wrote:
Mon Mar 08, 2021 8:29 pm
The Late Heavy Bombardment - You sound like Gizo, and if I’m wrong I’m wrong but I enjoy the gentle descending melody going on in the bridge and the shuffling rhythm that’s running throughout the whole thing. This song is relaxing and I like the really subtle backing vocals that pop up here and there. Or am I hearing things? The “stand there for hours” is poignant and just a really well designed melody. The ending is...kind of unusual.
Spot on on all your observations. And thanks for noticing the 'hours and hours' - I am quite proud of that.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by glennny »

everyone has a good song, I like them all.

Ken has a GREAT song!
Awesome Super Duper band and stuff action!!!!
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by Duncan »

I'll try to post the rest before the deadline. I haven't had a chance to do a marathon session and It's hard to have strong opinions on a bunch of bands aiming for shoegaze, to be honest, me included. That said, Night Sky and Late Heavy Bombardment so far are my favourites.

Magnetic Letters: Cool sound. I like the drums a lot. The stereo sound is full and feels good in my ears

Sly Eli: Nice big soundscapes. I think you capture the atmosphere of Phillip K Dick and Ridley Scott. The first percussion to come in after the synth feels out of time. Spooky

Cazaro Taro: Really catchy intro sequence and solo section. Sort of a Tears for Fears sound on the verse. Sounds like the protagonist came upon an honest living in the end

The Late Heavy Bombardment: Real strong Leonard Cohen sound. Great layering -- nothing is overdone and every part has a role. Beautiful song

Sweeny Toad: That was a journey. That was wild. It works well as a cautionary tale. The cabbage Patch interlude was a nice touch

Vowl Sounds: Great vocal performance!!! Everything seemed mixed to kind of blend in to each other as one wall. Guitar and drums sound great. Sad story, but so common.

Moody Vermin: Very Steven Wright delivery here. I like the instrumentation -- it’d be nice to have some variation at some point in it though. I think I knew a kid who had this basic story

Brother Baker: I like the bass and drums and vocals all sharing the rhythm. Good vocal harmonies.

Night Sky: Cool synthy stuff and the reverb with your voice is a great combo. The sax is so sultry. A+++ on all counts. Loved this one.

Nomb Superbus: I enjoyed the stereo effects in the headphones. I would have liked it to have pitched up a bit more with some beat, at least for a little while. Is that a mu major chord near the end? Sounds like something Donald Fagen would throw in.

Heine: I couldn’t tell where this was going musically at first. It sounds well suited to a musical where there is a side character and we get to hear what his whole story is….in song! The climax portion is great -- nice catchy hooks. The whole thing feels very very midi. I think I want to hear some analog stuff in there somewhere.

Hot Pink Halo: Your lyrics have a great continuity to them, how they sound like one long sentence or thought. I didn’t catch all the lyrics but will check the lyric page. Great call on making it into a round at the end. It build nicely

Sumner Sloane: Both parts sound great. A bit muddy of a mix I think. The second movement has a real early 70s feel, could probably use more variation though.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by Heine »

It was a very great fight. There are so many strong tracks. Here are some of my thoughts:

Brother Baker – This feels a bit torturous to me but that matches the story perfectly. I honestly have to admit that your chorus stays in mind. Good production. Nice idea to put distortion on the drums but for my taste it's maybe a little bit too much.

Brown Word and the Big Whine – I really like the chord progression, especially when it comes to the chorus. The vocal delivery is not as strong as last fight. But some parts match fine. Overall a very nice song.

Cavedwellers – That's the highlight for me this time. There are so many flavors that appeal to me: Unusual chord progressions, odd time signatures, even though very catchy, Hackett/Fripp like Guitar, Nik Kershaw like Harmonies, vocals fit fine. Maybe a tiny bit sloppy in some places - but this is a very fine piece of music. I would be very proud if I had written and played this.

CazaroTaro – The music is well recorded. Maybe the vocals sound a bit canny but that puts me into that Joy Divison feeling. It has some nice 80s vibes.

Duncan Martin – The mix sounds at little thin. Some of the instrumentation can only be guessed. But I love the track. It is well-written and the chorus is great.

heine – I had these weird ideas while experimenting and programming in LMMS. I just had to use them. Each verse/soundscape offers a different kind of view. It is strange, but I really love it. (And next fight is gonna be a guitar track again…)

Hot Pink Halo – I like the tempo changes. I don't know why but the music sounds like British 80s music to me. The longer it goes the more it grows. Very nice!

JP Nickolas – It seems like you're fooling me with the time signature. Is it 4/4 or triplets, 6/8 or shuffle? Very clever. The vocals sound a bit overambitious in some places. But it has a very tasteful guitar work. And a surprising end. The Muse part is great!

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff – A great tune. Love the guitars. I'm still not too sure about what Shoegaze really is. But if it's about echo and reverb then the vocals could have a bit more of it? One of my favorites this time.

The Late Heavy Bombardment – You sang it around midnight and did not want to wake up anybody? That's how it seems to me. Very tasteful and careful instrumentation. I love the chorus. A very fine track. Well done!

The Magnetic Letters – I love the guitar arpeggios on the right channel. Overall a nice track.

mellfire – Solid. I particularly love the backing vocals. They add a nice touch. The guitar tone could be a bit sweeter to make it more fun to listen.

Moody Vermin – The backing track is so cool. It contains a lot of atmosphere. But the distorted vocals offer no changes so it gets a bit boring after a while.

Night Sky – The flanging effect on the left channel gives me a slight feeling of Kraftwerk's Kometenmelodie. The sax is really cool. I love the chilled feeling of the song.

Nomb Superbus – Unusual chord changes, unusual sounds. This one caught my attention although it is very short.

Phlebia – To me this sounds very industrial again which makes it not easy for me to listen to. But I detected the song structure and even some great melodies in it. It is really worth to dig them out. (I'd love to hear this one in a more harmonic style and was just asking myself how The Moody Blues would be playing it… ;) ) BTW Thanks for your kind review.

ShoehornTC – This is well written. I love the chords. I am a big fan of flanger guitars. Nice backing vocals. I especially love the "I had a crush on you … on you" section. Great (although I still cannot get used to this special "wrong" guitar note in the melody line).

Sly Eli –The vocal line has such a strong melody. I really, really love it! But I would have used the sequencing only in some parts and not throughout the entire song. Just like Phlebia I'd really love to hear this one in a more 'songlike' style. Well-written.

Sumner Sloane – Not perfect, but I dig where you wanted to go. I really like the idea of building this song of two different parts. I like them both. But I really wished it was recorded in a better quality. May I ask how you recorded it? Well-written.

Sweeney Toad – Once again, just like last fight, I am thinking that it would be a very fine track if it only would have been recorded by the Sparks.

Thieves of Reason – The start was very promising but after 40 seconds or so I found it a bit repetitive. A nice idea to build a cacophony towards the end.

Vowl Sounds – Can I talk frankly? I am an owl fan! Everything she is involved in is much more than just listenable. One of the best tracks this fight IMO.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by vowlvom »

Urgh, so I have felt pretty weird about reviews for a while for some reason and I'm not convinced anything I have to say here is useful to anyone but I don't want to become a never-reviewer either, so here we go.

Brother Baker: an impressive wall of sound! But I'm sorta torn between wanting to praise how Big it all sounds and also feeling like it's all crammed in there, I wonder if there's just a little too much compression on the mix or if that's part of the sound? The end result is I'm intrigued but not totally satisfied, I dunno, I'm getting off on an extremely strong foot with utterly useless criticism in these reviews aren't I? The lyrics are a pretty strong take on gross male entitlement.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: "I'm just a husk of yesterday", yowch what a phrase! I like the fuzz and chugging bass here, definitely getting a swirly shoegaze feel from the instrumentation. The vocal doesn't quite sit right for me, it's appropriately low in the mix for the genre but somehow it still feels like it kinda dominates, maybe taking some of the low frequencies out would be interesting?

Cavedwellers: returning to a well-trodden commenting path here but the proggy touches in this just kinda feel like "we need to fit in as much stuff as possible" to me, like no bar must pass without an extra beat somewhere, no guitar may be recorded without a ton of FX, lead guitar must be as busy as possible, and the end result is just kinda bewildering to me, the choices don't always feel like they benefit the song but it may well just be personal taste.

CazaroTaro: love the 80s vibes in the instrumental, and your vocal has excellent kinda Goth-y vibes - reminds me a little of John Maus. The lyric is interesting, it's a fairly straightforward take on the child fame not transferring to adulthood for the most part but the specific detail of the bicycle shop and the terminology of the chorus is a nice twist. I really like this one, definite VOTE.

Duncan Martin: I like the song, there's an enjoyable indie-rock vibe to it and the verse-chorus shift is really effective. The mix isn't terrible but it doesn't quite come together for me, I think if you'd paid less attention to the shoegaze challenge and mixed this fuzzy but with less delay etc. then it would have resulted in something better. But the song behind the mix is a good one, so I might VOTE for this one too.

heine: I didn't write reviews for the last fight but your song was one of my favourites. This one doesn't work quite as well for me, it's solid and there are some fun lines in the lyric (love "All I wanted was a cat, but got catwalk instead") but the melody doesn't seem strong enough to carry the dramatic vibes of the music, maybe? It's still a solid track but not one of my favourites this fight.

Hot Pink Halo: I really like your take on the title and the drum pattern and rhythm of the song generally fit well with the train theme. The way the music builds is effective although the vocal layering towards the end feels a little chaotic to me. I haven't checked out your updated mix yet but interested to see where you went with it once I've gotten my reviews finished and vote in.

JP Nickolas: this is the best mix and vocal I've heard from you, the singing in particular has a confidence to it that I have missed in some of your previous songs. I like the guitar part when it's sparser but with the pitch effect (?) on it, things get a little messy later on, I think it would have worked better to have had a clean guitar in there for some of the busier parts and use the FX more sparingly.

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff: nicely fuzzy, straightforward-but-effective lyric and a good tune. The synth, harmonies and ebow (?) guitar that come in later on build this up really well and the breakdown section works excellently too. VOTE.

The Late Heavy Bombardment: the melody on the first line reminds me of the Smiths / Reel Around the Fountain which kinda gets things off on the wrong foot (just because thinking about Morrissey makes me unhappy rather than anything to do with the song), but the song as a whole is solid, low-key in the kind of way where it doesn't jump out at me from the fight really, but thoroughly enjoyable and I suspect that it would rise toward the top of the pack the more I listened, so it's going in my MAYBE pile. The ending is fun!

The Magnetic Letters: this is wild and I love it, the guitar part is so intricate and hooky and the shimmer-reverb vocals really work for me. The bit where the melody kinda gets stuck is a really unusual choice, and reading the lyrics I think you captured that escalating panic in that section really well. Maybe my favourite from this fight, definite VOTE.

mellfire: this one is kinda pleasant but it feels like it could use some variation in the mix as it goes on. Like, by the time I'm 30 seconds into the song I've kinda heard all it has to offer. I think there's potential here but it didn't really stand out to me.

Moody Vermin: atmospheric and spacy but a little one-note, I wish there was another section to break up the spoken lines, instrumental or a hooky chorus. Although the hooky chorus might make it sound too much like Susan's House.

Night Sky: the song sounds good (especially the twinkly keys), the sax sounds good, but when it switches from the vocal section into the sax section it feels like a different song to me, somehow. I know sax is your thing but I wonder if it could have been integrated as a spacy layer in the rest of the song rather than being a detached solo?

Nomb Superbus: this is a hell of a shift from your last song! The guitar sounds gorgeous, I really like the other layers that you add as the song goes on and the mix is clean and lovely. The monotone vocal is the only part of this I'm not hugely into, it just feels a little uninspired compared to the interesting choices elsewhere in the song.

Phlebia: I'm generally a fan of the noisiness of your mixes but this one pushes too far through abrasive and into "painful" for me. Which leaves me in the oddly backwards situation where I thought your song in the metal fight was great but didn't get on your with your shoegaze one at all, WHO EVEN AM I

ShoehornTC: I like The Note that the other reviews mention, it creates an interesting psychedelic vibe. Fun hearing you do something a little noisier than your usual style, agreed with the comparison to the Brian Jonestown Massacre, it definitely has that kinda retro vibe and the harmonies are great. I like the lyrics a lot and this is a probable VOTE.

Sly Eli: love the synths, definitely captured that Vangelis vibe you were aiming for. The lyrics feel a little too much like an effort to hit the Blade Runner plot points / quotes to me though, it feels a little clunky. This is another MAYBE from me.

Sumner Sloane: this is a pretty song (at first) and when it kicks in the change is pretty rocking and satisfying, although I wish there were some vox in the guitar section too, if you could have found a way to continue the story in a way that matched the change of dynamic then it would have been really cool. Your vocals are really strong too. The recording quality is odd though, it's lo-fi but not in a nice cassette-y sort of way, more like a low-bitrate mp3 / phase issues sort of way?

Sweeney Toad: not one of my favourites of yours, the vocal melody and intensity is interesting but never quite works for me, it's another pretty abrasive mix and I mostly just feel like you're yelling at me.

Thieves of Reason: this feels like something that should be a 30-second interlude on an album, and it might be pretty cool in that context. But over 3.5 minutes this is just a bit exhausting and there's not a lot there to hook onto. Messy tremolo guitars and one repeated lyric... I feel like this could work with some attention to timing and dynamics, in a kinda post-rock way, but in this incarnation it just feels like a mess.

Vowl Sounds: really happy with this one, I feel like it's the most uptempo Vowl song we've done in a little while and I had great fun experimenting with textures on the guitars and vocals. When the vocal came back from Owl with that step up at the end of the pre-chorus I was all like "yesssssssssssssssssssssss".
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by crumpart »

vowlvom wrote:
Tue Mar 09, 2021 5:40 am
Hot Pink Halo: I haven't checked out your updated mix yet but interested to see where you went with it once I've gotten my reviews finished and vote in.
sleepysilverdoor wrote:
Mon Mar 08, 2021 8:29 pm
Now I remember you mentioned on the Discord that you fixed up the mix from here, because right now it sounds like the vocals are a little bit more prominent. There’s that part right before it ends where there’s this rising guitar (?) line that seems to hit a note that’s a little bit off-key, it strikes my ear.
The rumours are true. I did entirely redo this mix. All the parts are the same, but I cleared everything off and started from scratch. I mixed in a hurry and listened back the day after sending it in, and just wasn’t happy with how the vocals were sitting and that the guitars weren’t loud enough. I haven’t mixed anything recorded using real pedals before, so it was a bit of a learning curve. Sleepsilverdoor: that’s probably some whammy bar abuse you’re hearing. :)
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Duncan wrote:
Tue Mar 09, 2021 2:25 am
Hot Pink Halo: Your lyrics have a great continuity to them, how they sound like one long sentence or thought. I didn’t catch all the lyrics but will check the lyric page. Great call on making it into a round at the end. It build nicely
Glad you picked up on the one long thought thing. Basically, @gizo accidentally wrote this song for me in an off the cuff text after I asked for train information, as he has somehow managed to raise a child train enthusiast. His response was essentially “easy, just write an obsessive stream of consciousness about steam train minutiae, the tragedy of diesel and a chorus like this”. And then I used that exact chorus word for word. Thanks Giz! The round/layering at the end is that stream of consciousness just piling up and up and up. Singing this song, for whatever reason, just feels so good and makes me happy.
Heine wrote:
Tue Mar 09, 2021 2:57 am
Hot Pink Halo – I like the tempo changes. I don't know why but the music sounds like British 80s music to me. The longer it goes the more it grows. Very nice!
Thanks! It’s not really deliberate tempo changes, but I set my bpm to 75 then set the drums on all the sections with words to play double time. And I do listen to a lot of 80s British music...
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by slyeli »

vowlvom wrote:
Tue Mar 09, 2021 5:40 am
Urgh, so I have felt pretty weird about reviews for a while for some reason and I'm not convinced anything I have to say here is useful to anyone but I don't want to become a never-reviewer either, so here we go.
Personally I find knowing what people like or dislike in a song useful. I'm not expecting individual reviews to be constructive or offer solutions. If enough people dislike something it's usually a good indicator that I need to go back and make some changes. On the flip side if enough people like something it's probably worth polishing.
vowlvom wrote:
Tue Mar 09, 2021 5:40 am
Sly Eli: love the synths, definitely captured that Vangelis vibe you were aiming for. The lyrics feel a little too much like an effort to hit the Blade Runner plot points / quotes to me though, it feels a little clunky. This is another MAYBE from me.
You're spot on with the quotes point. I was trying to use lines from the film as much as possible (maybe 90% of the lyrics are quotes). It actually made things a lot harder as it really limits what you can do but it was fun to try. I think I'll go back and strip out some of the ones that don't work so well.

Thanks for the reviews everyone.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by slyeli »

I've been putting off my reviews as I wasn't really feeling the whole shoegaze thing. Apologies if they're are a bit negative but I didn't enjoy this fight as much as previous weeks.

Thieves of Reason - this just sounds like repeated random noises to me. If your going to do this sort of thing you could as least make the noises interesting.

Sweeney Toad - the timing on this is all over the place. The rhythm needs tightening up for the rapping to work.

Sumner Sloane - it really feels like you've joined up two different ideas without taking enough time to sort out how they fit together and to make the transition work. There's some nice parts to it but it doesn't feel like a coherent song to me.

ShoehornTC - I'm enjoying the chorus on this but not so much the verse. The verse is a bit dull and I want to skip over if to get to the chorus.

Nomb Superbus - this is an odd little song. It seems like a random collection of ideas that have been squashed together. I'm not keen.

Night Sky - this isn't really doing it for me. The heavy use of effects is making for a dreamy feel but I think if you stripped them away there's not enough going on in the song.

Moody Vermin - very atmospheric but there needs to be something more to keep me interested. It feels like you stretched out one idea for too long.

Duncan Martin - I like the chorus on this but I'm not so keen on the verse. The chorus rises above the distortion but the verse kind of sinks below it and gets a bit lost.

CazaroTaro - I really like the echoing guitar part, it's great. By comparison the melody is a bit uninspired. I think if you used the guitar line as the basis for the melody you would have a stronger song.

Cavedwellers - the different sections of this intro/verse/chorus seem slightly disconnected. I not sure exactly why but it feel like the rhythms don't seem to flow quite right between them. I think there's some good sections in here but it doesn't gel together for me.

Brown Word and the Big Whine - I'm finding the low level of the vocals a bit of a turn off in this one. It pushes the guitars up front and there's not enough going on with them to keep me interested.

Brother Baker - this is a bit of slower burner. I'm not sure the slow tempo works in it's favour as it feels like it never really gets going. It's well put together but it's not doing it for me.

mellfire - I don't have much to say about this one other than I enjoyed it. The "I never knew why" section and the "storm in a teacup" line stood out to me as the high points.

The Magnetic Letters - there's some good stuff in here. I like how busy the drums are and the effect that you're using on the vocals. The ascending guitar part is a nice touch too. With such a reverb drenched mix you need some sibilance suppression otherwise the Ss can overpower everything. Other than that this is great and one of my favourites this week.

The Late Heavy Bombardment - I wasn't so keen on this at first but it's grown on me. It has a western feel that I like. The almost whispered vocals are a nice touch. There's not enough variety here to keep me coming back but I enjoyed listening to it.

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff - this is well put together. I like the effect of the echoing guitar lines. I think the melody needs a bit more movement, it feels a bit limited in range. The harmonies are nice when they come in. This is a good song and it's one of my favourites in this week.

JP Nickolas - I like the way that you've sprinkled the heavier guitar parts through this, they're very effective when they come in. Watch your high and low notes, them seem to drift off pitch more than the ones in the middle of your range. The vocals are putting me off this one.

Hot Pink Halo - there's a runaway feel to the vocals and the music, that fits in nicely with the train theme. In the part towards the end with multiple vocal parts there's some sliding on and off the notes which makes the parts clash slightly rather than mesh together.

Heine - the rhythms on this sounds a bit robotic and stilted. It's the trumpet part and the "too much too soon" sections that I think show it the most. Your song last week felt more natural and flowing. This one opens up nicely in the chorus but then it returns to the verse too quickly. In summary I think I want more chorus :).

Phlebia - I'm struggling with the mix on this one. There's so much high frequency distortion that it sounds like white noise to me. The only things I can really pick out are the snare, the bass and little bits of the vocal. I think if you dialled back the distortion a bit it would help.

vowl sounds - I have mixed feelings about this one. The intro's great, especially when the crunchy guitars come and there's some nice use of reverb and delay in there too. It's really well put together but I think there's a couple of things that put me off. I know it's the style but I'm not a fan of is how low the main vocal is mixed and there's something about the verse melody that grates on me. Like on the "nineteen eighty nine" bit, it sounds to me like the nine is above the note, the teen is below and then you slide up to the note on the eight. I love the chorus though.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by CazaroTaro »

My review methodology is:

1. I listen to each song, all the way through, at least twice.
2. I do read the lyrics.
3. I do not read comments of other reviewers prior to posting.
4. I separate the songs into 3 categories:
a. Songs that probably will get a vote
b. Songs that may get a vote
c. Songs that probably won’t get a vote
5. I vote for 20% of the songs rounded to the nearest integer. For this round, I will be voting for 4 songs. I do not vote for myself.

Results:

Category 1: Probably Will Get a Vote
Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff

Category 2: May Get a Vote
heine
Hot Pink Halo
The Magnetic Letters
Sly Eli
Sweeney Toad
Vowl Sounds

Category 3: Probably Won't Get a Vote
Brother Baker
Cavedwellers
Duncan Martin
The Heavy Late Bombardment
JP Nickolas
The Magnetic Letters
mellfire
Moody Vermin
Night Sky
Nomb Superbus
Phlebia
Shoehorn TC
Sumner Sloane
Thieves of Reason
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by SweeneyToad »

I’ve been playing a lot of bowling on the Nintendo Switch. It’s like Wii bowling but better. Anyways, the first night these songs were posted I was listening to these with AirPods while bowling and got the idea of posting the score for each frame per song at the end of each review. So yeah, 1 frame = 1 song. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense but it just seemed like a fun idea. Maybe the vibe of your song factored into my bowling performance? The world may never know!

Night Sky - this is really dreamy, your voice works really well with the music on this one, it just fits nicely, that sax solo is even dreamier, I enjoyed this. Bowling Score: Strike

Vowl Sounds - owl’s singing voice works really well for shogaze I think. Vom’s subtle background vocals work well, although I can barely hear them, but I think that is what I’m hearing towards the end of the song. I could hear this on a third wave emo playlist and would probably have no idea it was made in 2021. Good song! Bowling Score: 8 / Spare

Heine - I like the intro a lot. I keep picturing this as Pixar movie musical number and i really like that. I like the mirror breaking part lol. This was pretty entertaining! Bowling Score: 7 / Spare

CazaroTaro - this one is making me dance down the imaginary bowling lane that is my living room. I feel like I am bowling in the 80s which is when I started bowling when I was but a wee child model, so this is making me feel pretty nostalgic. I feel like I am in the movie the Lost Boys at times. Good vibes to this one, thank you. Bowling Score: 7 / Spare

Melifire -I like the chorus on this one, it’s not overly catchy but it just feels good. And I really like when you say teacup for some reason. This is a feel good jam for sure, good stuff. Bowling Score: Strike

Ken - that opening riff though, so good. Kind of has a surf rock pixies vibe and I love that. I feel like this has just a slightly darker vibe than your usual poppier stuff but still poppy nonetheless. This is one of my favorites of yours for sure. Nice solo to close out! Awesome stuff! Bowling Score: Strike

The Late Heavy - I like your singing voice, kind of reminds me of Pulp and I love that band. The riff is catchy and the piano sounds nice with it. Your delivery and attitude is what really sells this, great song! Bowling Score: Strike

Shoehorn - I like the whole retro vibe to this one. The subtle background vocals on this really work well with this song. I really liked all the guitar work on this overall, really nice jam for sure. Bowling Score: Strike

Brown Word - I like the vocals buried in the mix, it works good for this style. Kind of like a cross between my bloody valentine and hole is what I’m hearing, and that is awesome! I’d honestly like to hear a whole album from you like this, especially if you had time to really get trippy/psychedelic with it at parts. Really like the vibe on this one! Bowling Score: Strike

Moody Vermin - this is awesome, it reminds me of Slint but I actually like it better than most of their songs I think. I feel like this could have been longer especially for this style, but other than that you really nailed this style perfectly. Bowling Score: 8 / Spare

Hot Pink Halo - your style has really grown on me and I really like this song a lot. I also feel like your singing style has really evolved from when I first heard you just over year ago. Anyways, this song was really nice, I feel like it could fit into an indie film of some sort pretty nicely. Bowling Score: 9 / Spare

Summer Sloane - this is pretty chill and I like it. I wasn’t expecting those guitars to come in but I’m glad they did, it’s the change up the song needed I think, and it’s a pretty awesome guitar solo at that. The way it suddenly fades out is kind of weird I think but other than that Good stuff! Bowling Score: Strike

Sweeney Toad - as I was writing this I kept thinking of bojack horseman but also Corey Haim. I had fun making this. This song was filmed in front of a live studio audience. Bowling Score: 7 / Spare

Cavedwellers - I started zoning out towards the end of the intro but the singing brought me back in and it’s pretty fun. I really like the chorus on this a lot but I feel like it’s so good that it outshines the verses. That solo at the end is pretty dope. That chorus is like something that could have been in an 80s movie, really strong hook and I’m loving that! Bowling Score: Strike

Nomb Superbus: this is probably my favorite of the fight for sure. I love how weird it is. It kind of reminds me of a band that I really like called Joan of Arc except your singing is a lot better lol. I really want to hear more of this style but longer next time. Bowling Score: 9 / Spare

Thieves of Reason - sounds like a secret song you would put at the end of an album. Remember when bands would do that? Do bands still do that? Do bands even make albums anymore? This was ok but I feel like you could have got a lot weirder with it, instead it was just kind of like meh. Bowling Score: Strike

Phlebia - this was another that made me kind of dance down the imaginary bowling alley of my living room. It’s definitely because of those catchy drums. You did the same thing as brown word where your vocals are buried in the mix which as I said to her works for this style. Almost feels like it should be a requirement really. I really like whatever that higher pitched instrument is buried within all the reverby guitars. Is it just another guitar I guess? Yeah I think it is now that I’m hearing it come out louder in the mix at the end. Anyways, good stuff! Bowling Score: Strike

The Magnetic Letters - another good shoe gaze , I like how everything is so reverby, maybe the reverbiest of the bunch so far, I really like the bass sounding part that goes dun dun dun dun upwardly. Bowling Score: 9

JP - I keep picturing a guy in a wizard robe singing this on stage and getting like really into it and it just seems like it would be a really entertaining spectacle to behold. Man I miss live shows. Bowling Score: Strike

Sly Eli - that intro is cool and then holy shit that synth is amazing. I’m loving everything about this so far. I feel like I’m in Tron. The vocals are perfect for this song. This is a top tier song. Like if you had a whole album in this style I would play it at my imaginary bowling alley and every one would get perfect 300 games across the board. Seriously though, perfect bowling alley music. Bowling Score: Strike

Duncan Martin - I like this because it doesn’t really sound like a shoegaze song but you’re still using all the reverb effect stuff so it just makes this all sound really weird and trippy and I really dig that. I love that whistle outro too. Bowling Score: 9 / Spare

Brother Baker - this kind of has that third wave emo style like the vowl song I think. A bit of an Appleseed Cast vibe to it is what I’m feeling. I love all that stuff and it’s very nostalgic for me. So yeah, very well done! Bowling Score: XXX TURKEY!
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by sleepysilverdoor »

SweeneyToad wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:38 am
I’ve been playing a lot of bowling on the Nintendo Switch. It’s like Wii bowling but better. Anyways, the first night these songs were posted I was listening to these with AirPods while bowling and got the idea of posting the score for each frame per song at the end of each review. So yeah, 1 frame = 1 song. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense but it just seemed like a fun idea. Maybe the vibe of your song factored into my bowling performance? The world may never know!
e is what really sells this, great song! Bowling Score: Strike

Phlebia - this was another that made me kind of dance down the imaginary bowling alley of my living room. It’s definitely because of those catchy drums. You did the same thing as brown word where your vocals are buried in the mix which as I said to her works for this style. Almost feels like it should be a requirement really. I really like whatever that higher pitched instrument is buried within all the reverby guitars. Is it just another guitar I guess? Yeah I think it is now that I’m hearing it come out louder in the mix at the end. Anyways, good stuff! Bowling Score: Strike
Ha, while I can never decide exactly if the mix on my entry is actually good or not, I can say that I did nail one thing that I was going for, which was the "let's kind of bury everything in the mix behind a giant wall of buzzsaw guitars". Or as I like to call it the "To Here Knows When" mixing style, where the drums are certainly propulsive but there's just so much overbearing fuzz on top of everything it's hard to tell wtf is going on.

I'm beginning to realize that my taste in shoegaze mixing and my taste in metal kind of overlap in that I like both of them to be taken to the utmost extreme of the style.

That being said, I had no idea there was a Switch Bowling. I still play Wii Bowling on a semi-regular basis, so this news is extremely exciting to me. Between that and fluffy informing me that apparently open-source DDR is a thing, I may have found my new video games for the next year or so.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by jpnickolas »

SweeneyToad wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:38 am
JP - I keep picturing a guy in a wizard robe singing this on stage and getting like really into it and it just seems like it would be a really entertaining spectacle to behold. Man I miss live shows. Bowling Score: Strike
If you ever get a chance to see Gloryhammer live, they are exactly this. They all dress up and will straight up have foam sword battles on stage. I really want to see Nekrogobikon live as well since I suspect they'll be similar.
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Re: Pictures from when (I Was A Child Model reviews)

Post by SweeneyToad »

sleepysilverdoor wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:38 am

That being said, I had no idea there was a Switch Bowling. I still play Wii Bowling on a semi-regular basis, so this news is extremely exciting to me. Between that and fluffy informing me that apparently open-source DDR is a thing, I may have found my new video games for the next year or so.
The game is called Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classic and it has 51 games hence the title. My favorites are Bowling, Darts, Pool, and sometimes Blackjack. You can play all these game online against people too so I find it to be pretty rad. If you're looking for something cheaper and just straight up bowling without the online play Strike! Ten Pin Bowling is a good alternative. I have both because I LOVE bowling. lol
Last edited by SweeneyToad on Wed Mar 10, 2021 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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