AND WE'RE ON TO THE FINALS!! Thanks so much for playing, guys. I liked everything in the EP rounds... just about.
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Sacul: from bleep to blop"No fancy theme, just 6 very nice tracks that I hope are nicer than Stadler's
"
1. Massive Attack - Risingson
2. Portishead - Roads
3. The Black Queen - The End Where We Start
4. Arms and Sleepers - Twentynine Palms
5. múm - Green Green Grass of Tunnel
6. Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
The theme of this is clearly "Sacul music." I like this. It's mostly chill beats, groovy bass lines, ghostly synths. It's a bit drippy - that's a good thing.
I feel like I've heard the Massive Attack song before, but maybe that's because I've seen you send it in roulettes and I might have YouTubed it. I can't remember. This and the Portishead have some cracking head-bopping beats. I'm not too crazy about the vocals for either but they complement the music behind it perfectly so I'm not fussed, there's just something odd about the voice in Portishead to me.
The Black Queen's "The End Where We Start" is the highlight of the EP. It's fantastic, the vibe and choice of synths and melodies is a home run. A real winner. However, it's immediately followed by my least favorite song on the EP, "Twentynine Palms." It's not a bad song, but it takes half the track's length to get going - and I can dig that, but the last 90 seconds is the part that really gets my attention. Up to then it's a bit more minimal than I enjoy.
"Green Green Grass of Tunnel" is a nice cheerful piece but it's similar to "Twentynine Palms" in that I think it takes too long for me to enjoy the whole thing a lot. "Dayvan Cowboy" however ends the EP in a way similar to Massive Attack and Portishead, with a nice chill beat and some watery music flowing above it. Pretty good EP overall, it's a lovely little half hour of mellow music, and I definitely want to look into The Black Queen if they have more like that.
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Stadler's Reminiscence EP (my title, not his)
1. Power Glove - Dr. Elizabeth Darling
2. Deep Purple - Flight of the Rat
3. Power Glove - Blood Scope
4. Twisted Sister - Shoot 'Em Down
5. Power Glove - HELO-73
6. Billy Joel - Vienna
7. Power Glove - Rex's Escape
8. KISS - Hard Luck Woman
9. Paul Stanley - Goodbye
I tried to work this on a couple levels. It's a vinyl EP, which means:
- these are songs that I listened to a lot on vinyl;
- these are songs that take me back to if not my childhood (though some do) to at least my youth;
- these are songs that I think sound really good on vinyl (or at least I remember them sounding really good on vinyl)
Stadler sending synthwave is quite possibly the most surprising thing I've seen in any of my rouletes. Not a good or bad thing, just surprising. Shocking, even. By the way, you suck. When I first heard that Twisted Sister riff, I wasn't looking at the tracklist, and thought, "He sent me Judas Priest AGAIN?" Thank god I was wrong.
Okay, so let's look at the meat of the EP: Deep Purple, Twisted Sister, Billy Joel, KISS, Paul Stanley. I've never cared about looking into Deep Purple because I'm always wary of that proto-metal/rock stuff that sounds like it wants to be heavy but isn't. That said, this song is really cool. It somehow stays interesting and fun the whole way through, with killer solos to boot. Not sure if a fluke, but "Flight of the Rat" rocks.
"Shoot 'Em Down" - like I said, sounds like a Judas Priest riff with Twisted Sister vocals. Not bad, though. Actually, pretty solid "rock and roll" song, y'know? I could play this loud as hell on the work radio and it would fit like a glove in the playlist.
"Vienna" - I'm banning Joel from all future roulettes, because everything I hear by him, I fall in love with. This is wonderful. The accordion bit is painfully short, it is such a good dressing on an already fabulous song.
"Hard Luck Woman" does not sound like any KISS that I can think of. And that's a good thing. I don't know if I know who this singer is, but I like his voice, and the melody he's singing has been stuck in my head from the first go. Honestly, I think I like this more than any of KISS's hits. That corny-ass "ROCK AND ROLL, MAN!" stuff does nothing for me, but this, this is delightful. I'll be honest, the Paul Stanley track is kind of whatever - this the guy who sings on all the big schlocky KISS hits? Eh.
The transitions - absolutely wonderful. Synthwave weaving in and out of classic rock shouldn't work on paper, but fuck me, dude, this is brilliant, the tracks are simple and groovy and repetitive like video game-y synthwave - appropriate as it comes from the Far Cry Blood Dragon soundtrack. I'm impressed at how good they are for being essentially transition/interludes. They're super catchy.
The flow of this EP is awesome and it intertwines things that not only YOU like but also things that *I* really like, and the creativity and boldness is admirable.
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Winner...
STADLER!!I'd post a bracket but I gotta go do some actual work so yeah.
Sacul, buddy, you are consistently consistent and always send stuff I dig. But the synthwave force was strong with Stadler. Or whatever, make your own Star Wars analogy that's better
STADLER v. CYRIL IN THE FINAL ROUND WOOP