Erkie's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Into The Eclipse]

Staring into a particular abyss...

I have a fondness for this particular sound after the beginning casm fades away, which I can tell is an authentic sample, because once the first pad starts kicking in, I had a flashback to 80s movies, where they have ambience like this post-character-trauma, the montages they show of a character's disbelief of an event, but moving ahead. Very good manipulations at work here. Haunting, eerie, but not overly so, there is a kind of reassurance in the background, like angels singing out notes.

John Cage would be pleased.

FatKidWitAJetPak responds:

I made everything from scratch actually. It isn't a sample, I recorded it on an airplane :D

John Cage wow

[-In The Sky-]

Awww so kewt

Didn't expect this from you.

Surprisingly fresh melody, sounds nursery rhyme without being cheesy.

Back-From-Purgatory responds:

Given the vast variety of music I tend to write, I'm surprised anyone can ever expect anything in particular... Although I guess no matter what I write, it always tends to be a more melancholy or dark mood.

But I'm glad you liked it.

[Multicolour Octopus Ink..]

Klingy Kingy

'Been a while. At the beginning of the year I had been checking out your site and slowly listening to the streams of beautiful isolation, I can hear the sigur ros/Jonsi & Alex/Post rock thing going on, but your own brand, I think with every ambient production you make, you add an extra touch and are defining and redefining your own style, no aforementioned band hits the same emotive high as well as you do, once the vocals hit you get straight to the point. Haunting afterglow, massive fills. Definitely agree with the Pink Floyd vocals after 2:00, but I wouldn't call it "Pink Floyd".

Anyhow, keep on keepin on KB.

Kingbastard responds:

Hello there! Thanks for the kind words man, much appreciated, hope all's good with you;)

[KVM]

Awesumo

Clear production, and what it makes up for being repetitious is of course the variation, from the drums to the filling/background notes, my favorite part is right at the beginning, the breakdown at :32, the drum solo until :45, where you reintroduce that xylophone, it reminds me of Bonobo, really smooth, and emotive, you could loop that section and it would fit just about any menu theme. Bass could use a little more kick, but pretty damn good, and simple

InvisibleObserver responds:

Thanks Erkie, this is in a lot of ways the exact kind of review I was hoping to see when working on this song. Its like a check list of things I got right. :D

[[Speed Rap]- Cynical Pinnacle]

Awesome

I slowed it down and you still had good timing with the beat.

JonH2O responds:

Well, take into consideration that I rapped it acapella. The beat was done in hindsight as complimentary. It has no dedicated BPM. The kick was added onto the syllables. :P I cheated.

[Back To The Front [ K B ]]

Very ethereal

I agree with the Thom Yorke reference, it almost sounds like Beatles-ish, and I don't even listen to the Beatles!

The first part kind of reminds me of any Chris Clark track that breaks down into a rhythmic ambience. Very calming, very ominous. Cloudy premonition for the big kick-in.

The vocal layering and falsetto singing style fit in real well with how upfront that synth is, my first immediate visualization is that dancing synth and it's kind of like a dude trying to climb a rainbow colored escalator. An uncontrollable and psychedelic event where the singing tries to guide you through the craziness.

Even though it's a very tame sound, I'm suprised you didn't do something special with the beats. But I suppose the simplicity kept the rest on track.

I've always been bad with lyrics so I can't make them out on this one.

Nice work m8.

P.s., I submitted a Hermit track not too long ago that's aching for your input.
Erks

Kingbastard responds:

Thanks for the review. The main body of this trk apart from the end synthline was on an old casio tr-20 even the beats, so i just kept it really simple and let the riffs try to do the talking:P (also, this whole song was made before I really got into the whole beats mashing and gltiching thing:)
The lyrics are.... "Any chance that I might go ahead of you, Is there any chance you might let me skip the queue", then layered over that "If anything I said, it wouldn't be easy, trying to get from the back to the front." then underlaying that quietly in the background i'm singing '"too many cars" but i learnt how to sing this line backwards then forwarded it to get that sort of odd sound to them.

[SR - Dubbed Out]

Nice

I've already had it loop a few times and the novelty hasn't worn off.

My favorite part is the breakdown at 1:29, you use the repetitions of that 'industrial' sound effect that really epitomizes dubstep in that you unsettle the listener and establish a dark mood with some kind of idiosyncrasy that is not "techno" sounding.

I'm a beatsmith myself, but the drums here are perfectly laid out. Sure, you could do more, but only in increments, as nothing should get in the way of the bass itself, the intricacy of the bass is what makes it memorable dubstep, not what kind of wicked beat setup you have.

The bass itself has the characteristics of a high tide at some beach.

Great atmosphere, nice ideas, good execution.

SineRider responds:

I agree with your idea of what dubstep is. I'm no expert on it, but I do think the bass is what makes it dubstep, much like how heavy bass makes dub. T

hanks a lot for the review. I don't always get many, so it's nice to have a well though out review

[[ 1 M 4 G 7 R G U Y ]]

Didn't think you'd come out with new material here

Very simple and effective mending of the melody itself into the rhythm-fabric of the song itself. You really like the 8bit stuff too, who can't get enough of it?

Really like the mini-breakdown at :45. Very playful song.

Kingbastard responds:

hey man, yeah I always put new stuff up here still, just not for very long, so tracks come and go on my page as I'd get my wrist slapped if the label found out. I thought it's only right to have at least one trk off the new ep up for free though, gotta give props to NG:)
Had enough of the 8-bit eh? I like to use elements of it in my tunes, I am a product of that era after all, it just seem natural to me.
Thanks for the review.

[-Ricochet Love-]

Slammin'

Almost right off the bat I can tell whether tracks like these will be great, or shitty.

The melody itself, alone, seemed to jump around a lot, but you had a lot of backup and accompaniment sounds to accomodate its eccentricity that it pulled off this haywire feeling you'd get watching a group of high tech soldiers fighting off aliens or some kind of shit like that.

The 8-bit vox starting at 1:22 is badass, the subsequent breakdown the melody is a lot more restrained, giving a serene appeal, then launching back into a kind of urgent awareness.

The piece itself is just dripping the same sweat you probably dropped into it making it, nice work.

Waterflame responds:

thank you so much! :) im really glad you liked it. you really know how to review, im kinda out of words here. :D

[Sleeping on Embers]

Neat

When that cello pops in at 0:42, it really alters the atmosphere, the roughness of the strings and the bass take over and give kind of a determination vs the spaciness.

Seems to get a little repetitive at the end, only because it's the cello strumming obsessively while the floaty synth leads it around.

My personal tastes aside, I like what you used and how you used it.

asdkjnuev responds:

I totally understand what you mean by the repetitiveness at the end. Originally it was even longer, heh. I've had my Mac for nearly three years and finally got the gusto to mess around with GarageBand -- it's been terrible amounts of fun but I think the math geek inside me is afraid to do much outside the realm of evenness and proportionality.

Thanks for the review though, it's definitely appreciated :]