SpinTunes 19 Round 4 'What Was That Noise?' Challenge, reviews and comments

[BoffoYux]

This is it, the final competitive round of SpinTunes 19, the round that will give us our Champion. Our last challenge is a two-parter, with both a musical and lyrical element. Here it is:

What Was That Noise?: Write a song which makes creative use of musical drones or pedal points, and whose lyrics make prominent reference to the supernatural.
More information on drones and pedal points. In brief, we're looking for notes or chords that are sustained or repeated for extended periods (not necessarily the entire song) regardless of any harmonic change in the rest of the musical texture.

LP is Monday 5/2 at 9pm EST (might be delayed a bit due to work obligations)



https://youtu.be/phbuu7hKXJc

Examples of songs with drones/pedal points:

"400 Lux" by Lorde
"Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, as covered by Johnny Cash
"Ta Douleur" by Camille
"Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles
"You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes
Examples of songs referencing the supernatural:
"I Left My Body" by They Might Be Giants
"Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac
"Spirit in the Sky" by Normal Greenbaum
"Thomas the Rhymer" by Steeleye Span
"Wear Your Love Like Heaven" by Donovan

[Sober]

Another SpinTunes done, and likely the last music I ever write in Texas.

See-Man-Ski - Super Natural Way: The boopy farfisa or whatever organ is fun, and your understated approach with it is tasty and generally perfect. Good sense of space. Have you ever tried putting like a 3% swing on your drums? I feel like the snare at least could lean back a little. Toms could be tuned to be less dissonant, and perhaps turned down. Always impressed by how much discipline you have in letting an arrangement breathe, and being comfortable with space. Good stuff as always, dude.

Governing Dynamics - Two Different Worlds: The light-gauge guitar sound is very fun. Very up-front mix; feel like some things could be pushed back just a little with some room tone. The snare sounds super dry, and therefore quite out of place. Fuzzy guitar tone very good. Fun triply drum fills. Amazing female vocal delivery, just nailing the indy sound. Far and away the best sound I've heard from y'all. Really impressive.

Also In Blue - Howling at the Moon: Get a load of Jacob Collier over here. The super-present vocal layering is done very well, though I think the drums and bass in particular are so far back that we're not really getting any punch there. I really find myself wishing the kick and bass had the same impact as the vocal stack. Boo fade. Anyway, this is obviously ridiculous work, and I wish I could do stuff like this. Congrats in advance.

Sober - From Either Side of the Grave: Featuring my sister, who hasn't appeared on a tune of mine since Texas. Another entry submitted with ~1 minute to spare. God, so much mix work left undone. Another two hours and I think I'd have been happy.

***

Phlub - Yeti: Is that the Sandstorm synth? Sounds like a fun challenge on the kit. Consistently interesting.

Red Watcher - 3 AM Again: Chill, washy groove. I feel like staying in the lower octave would have suited the mood of this better. Some styles lend themselves to a melodic or instrumental buildup to create internal contrast, but maybe could benefit from dropping elements to create space, or a sense of breath. Award for chillest groove of the round.

Red Watcher - Searching For You: Plenty of flubs in the piano, but it's kind of charming. Bass sound is awesome. Wish the kick had the same punch. Tweak the cutoff of the strings so it's not so abrupt - the buildup of that sound is so great, but then that cutoff makes me sad. The reversy toms are neat, but I don't know about the small percussion elements that come in there - they're really dry, up front, and are a bit sharp in the hi freqs listening on headphones. Lots of cool sounds and ideas here.

Hot Pink Halo - Start Again: I like the low range of your voice, don't recall if I've heard you sing in that range before. Vocal sounds pretty dry. Feel like some slapback and tube burn could make it meld with the vibey track. Ooh that's a fun chord in the bridge. Good arrangement work throughout, using contrasts and negative space to keep things interesting.

Thank you and congrats to everyone who submitted something to this. I find this competition both taxing and rewarding. Glad to be done with it, and yet also looking forward to SpinTunes 20.

[Jerkatorium]

As far as the challenge goes, I feel like almost all competitors did sub-par on the drone/pedal point requirement. To my ear the drones were mostly de-emphasized, hidden, and/or tacked-on, and that was a bit of a disappointment.

That accusation of half-assery is a great segue to my nominal-effort reviews. [Though in my own defense, my crap reviews are still infinitely more feedback than most competitors bothered to provide.]

EVERYBODY GETS SIX WORDS:

See-Man-Ski - Super Natural Way: Soulful, enjoyable, fun. Great vocal performance.

Governing Dynamics - Two Different Worlds: Lush. Beautiful writing and performances. Excellent.

Also In Blue - Howling at the Moon: Immediate appeal. Groovy. Eerie, haunting lyrics.

Sober - From Either Side of the Grave: Uptempo bummer. Engaging, listenable. Lovely vocals.

Top Four - Competing Songs: Impossible to decide on votes/rankings.

Phlub - Yeti (shadow): Understood the assignment. Inventive, challenging, tense.

Red Watcher - 3 AM Again (shadow): Mopetastic. Wonderful vocal performance. Bad “drums”.

Red Watcher - Searching For You (shadow): Al Stewart vocals, DC Talk lyrics.

Hot Pink Halo - Start Again (shadow): Lovely layers. Excellent lyrics. Pensive, forlorn.

[sleepysilverdoor]

See-Man-Ski - I can’t tell you what this brings to mind. I like the farfisa sounding thing. There’s this one high note in the first verse that seems a little flat but that’s about all I can critique in the vocals. Timing on the doubling could be tightened up a bit. I’m not sure I hear the pedal tone though…is it the sustained Bb in the bass? Anyway this is a sweet love song. Also not sure how “supernatural” it is, but hey, love is intense so I’ll count it. Well produced.

Governing Dynamics - Pedal point, check, it’s clear to me right at the beginning. Vocals have a great “alternative” timbre to them. The instrumental on this sounds delightful. The chorus has nice lyrics but the hook is kind of forgettable, maybe making the pitch move outside of a narrow range would work? (Says the guy who submitted a one note vocal melody). Guest vocals are a nice touch. Vocal harmonies (whoaaaas) are divine.

Also in Blue - This is like Jamiroquai but more white. But that isn’t a bad thing, Vocal harmonies are fantastic, though at times I feel like the vocals are a bit high in the mix. A snare drum with more POP, more body feels desperately needed…like a song like this needs some seriously groovy drums. And I’m fully aware these are VST drums so I can’t be too harsh – not everyone has a real live funk drummer to work with! Just a style thing. Ending seems a bit abrupt. As for the pedal tones, I caught the pedal tones in the vocal harmonies. As for counting the A that the song is based around? I mean…yeah, I hear that, but the idea of pedal tones is shifting the tonal center around a single note? That’s present in the vocals, but really I’d just call the A thing “modal jamming in A dorian” instead of a proper pedal tone. But that’s being pedantic. This is a very catchy number and has the same quality that I’m used to from you.

Sober - I wish that the chorus was longer, or had just one more verse. By the end of the song it sticks around longer and I like that. It’s such a powerful lyric, but it feels lonely there by itself! Pedal tone is very much not apparent for the majority of the song, but that bridge right before the final chorus drops it in nicely with the vocal harmony, so check! There’s a certain degree to which I feel like a lot of your songs sound like each other, but you work in a very lyrics focused genre, so that is to be expected. You nail the sound very well. Really my biggest advice is that you should release music under your real name. This is “use your real name” music and you lucked into a great name for the genre.

Phlub - I gotta find the yeti. GOTTA find him.

Red Watcher - I love the chords in this so much. The way the verse melody drops and just kind of hangs there is great. And that pedal tone in the “why am I awake?” part, sustaining that dominant 7th throughout is just great. This is actually my favorite song of the round, but alas, no votes.

Red Watcher - I liked your other one pretty good but the digital piano in this sounds great. Would have picked a different snare sound. I feel like I always nitpick people’s drums haha. Those string swells sound great when they start coming in. Lyrics are vague but make it feel like a praise song. Is this about God? Maybe it’s reading the “DC Talk” comment in Ryan’s review programmed me to think that. They were okay. My neighbor Cody liked them. It’s very uplifting, I like the uplifting nature of this. And there’s this almost industrial percussion that comes in just before the 3 minute mark that I love. Feels a little bit overlong, I feel like the final chorus is a little superfluous. And that cool synth at the end should have been there earlier! The build is great, just trim the fat!

Hot Pink Halo - Your production chops have gotten so much better over the years, and I mean it. Am I hearing a stapler used for percussion? There’s a high, kind of ambient synth that comes in when you say “magic isn’t real” that is just…awesome. It ratchets up the ambience so well. Plus it sounds kind of xenharmonic to me…whether or not that was intentional or not, it doesn’t matter because it leaped out as cool to my ears. The shift at “And I want to explain it all away” is fuckin’ cool. Chord changes are on point here. 2022 has been a good year for your creatively. As a critique of the song…the “I’ll start again” at the end seemed kind of unnecessary. One thing I’ve noticed with your vocals is that you don’t really hold your notes out that long. You sound at your best in the moments where the pacing of the lyrics lends itself to a more legato style. And your lower register is underutilized, you sound good down there.

[seemanski]

See-Man-Ski - I can’t tell you what this brings to mind. I like the farfisa sounding thing. There’s this one high note in the first verse that seems a little flat but that’s about all I can critique in the vocals. Timing on the doubling could be tightened up a bit. I’m not sure I hear the pedal tone though…is it the sustained Bb in the bass? Anyway this is a sweet love song. Also not sure how “supernatural” it is, but hey, love is intense so I’ll count it. Well produced.

Thanks for the review, the song itself isn't about something supernatural but I think it meets the challenge as the lyrics do "make prominent reference to the supernatural".

I wasn't trying to write a song about something supernatural more make the statement that my wife could have supernatural abilities but it wouldn't make a difference to how I feel about her

[sleepysilverdoor]

See-Man-Ski - I can’t tell you what this brings to mind. I like the farfisa sounding thing. There’s this one high note in the first verse that seems a little flat but that’s about all I can critique in the vocals. Timing on the doubling could be tightened up a bit. I’m not sure I hear the pedal tone though…is it the sustained Bb in the bass? Anyway this is a sweet love song. Also not sure how “supernatural” it is, but hey, love is intense so I’ll count it. Well produced.

Thanks for the review, the song itself isn't about something supernatural but I think it meets the challenge as the lyrics do "make prominent reference to the supernatural".

I wasn't trying to write a song about something supernatural more make the statement that my wife could have supernatural abilities but it wouldn't make a difference to how I feel about her

I suppose it's a matter of differing interpretations, but yours is certainly valid, not just how I took it. Not that it matters cause you WIN!!!!!!!!!! Congrats.