Okay, it's time for our #5, sorry bro, you didn't do bad but it was not enough to make up for the point difference
And I love that you genuinely care about BMUBMD as much as I do
Scorpion: Pump Me Up, Take Me Down – ToN’s EP of Unexpected ElectronicaFirst impression/thoughts:This strikes me as something I would normally not get from anyone, even for the electronic/frequents this would be seem a bit over the top, but I can appreciate the risk definitely. With the way it is structured you (unknowingly) start off with some artists I’m aware of what they sound like (Caravan Palace, Daft Punk (and Massive Attack to a lesser extent)), slowly going into untreaded ground, which is pretty cool. The fact that it’s all electronic makes it probably automatically seem like it’s a more cohesive EP, because it’s less familiar ground for me despite going to a lot of parties where they spin electronic music. Never really got into stuff like EDM at all, which I believe Daft Punk is.
And the Daft Punk, despite the effort you put into personally mixing it, is probably my least favorite off this EP right now. It has its moments but overall just sounds like “the same old EDM beat“ with some fancy samples (which apparently Daft Punk do live, that’s pretty cool). As well as with Sacul I’m glad the best stuff is on the end so I always have something to look forward, I love that Kirlian Camera tune.
Caravan Palace – DragonsI’m glad you kicked it off with an instrumental from the Caravan Palace department, the vocals are a nice touch of the band but as an opener I don’t think it’d have worked as well. What a cool song, I never knew electro-swing could be as diverse as this, it’s more diversity than I expected to hear from these guys. I can’t really fault it for anything because it does its job, it’s a good high-energy instrumental opening for an EP full of both low and high-energy electronic music. It’s not winning me over the way Suzy did because that also had to do with the fact that I never heard anything like it before, but this time around the song is part of a something bigger, and in that bigger picture I can’t say there’s anything wrong with this choice for an opener.
16.5/20 #16 out of 38Daft Punk – Long Song TitlesTransitioning into the Daft Punk song/mix is fine here, it doesn’t feel awkward and without really noticing we go from electro-swing to EDM. Now EDM is not my biggest obsession and to be brutally honest Daft Punk have always bored me a bit. I do however appreciate the effort that goes into this (both from Daft Punk’s live sampling abilities and your audio-improving skills
). Can’t say this one did much for me though, it has some cool moments such as the moment Harder Better Faster Stronger comes in, but the song(s) don’t have much staying power and fall a bit flat in the bigger picture.
13.5/20 #34 out of 38Caravan Palace – La CaravaneThen we have La Caravane, I agree that Suzy would’ve been a good pick here but this works too. I feel like I’ve listened to some Caravan Palace playlists before and I liked it, but the songs don’t differ much and I just burn out on them after a while, but since there’s only 2 tracks on this EP it works well as a change of pace opposed to the other tracks as they’re mostly laid-back. Comparing it to Dragons though, this one doesn’t keep me fully interested for the whole duration, it starts off fine but then goes on with the same pattern for a bit too long. The song wins me over at the end again though with the manly vocals, those are pretty catchy.
16/20 #20 out of 38Massive Attack – AngelI can’t help but feel like I’ve heard this song on tv commercials, it sounds very familiar. As for the content, I’m not disappointed, nor am I impressed. It’s just an alright not-too-out-there song that kinda tunes back the pacing of the EP, calms down the hype and prepares for a slow euphoric finale. If that was your intention, good job, but as a separate song it doesn’t really do much for me, this band might just be too sacul-y for me.
The Massive Attack song for the most part just left me curious to find out what the conclusion of the EP would sound like, it’s a nice little simplistic trip-hop tune, but it left me wanting more.
14/20 #30 out of 38Floex – Nel BluSo these last two bands I’ve never heard of, and this song by Floex is great, not sure what language they’re singing but it’s got a cool feel to it, getting pretty bombastic near the end only to tune down at the very end to transition into the final song. The drums and echoes in the background already give off a spiritual/atmospheric feel and it pretty much sounds like a more accessible alternative of the ambient stuff I’ve been receiving this roulette, only with vocals. I think that kind of music should be listened to in the context of an album anyway, and it’s fine the way you did it here aswell as it flows nicely.
16/20 #18 out of 38Kirlian Camera - DriftingAnd this is a very interesting one, with that hypnotizing intro it still leaves so much space for the song to develop as it’s over 7 and a half minutes in length. As far as chill electronic music goes, you’ve hit the right spots with this, the vocalist on his own is.. well not
that talented nor great by any stretch of the imagination, but the setting is perfect for this type of vocals. But the humming kind of vocals in the background are amazing, this makes the song sound so huge, like they took lessons from Orphaned Land on how to properly create eastern-oriental atmospheres in music.
18/20 #4 out of 38
The arrangement of the EP is pretty cool as it starts off pretty pumpin‘ and slowly declines in energy in the later stages of the EP. Though realistically I wish you would’ve gone with stuff like the last two tracks all the way through and make a full-on chill EP, wouldn’t have hurt the flow whatsoever and this still leaves me wanting for more in the vein of Kirlian Camera and Floex. With the others, Caravan Palace is great but it’s not something I want days worth of music of, and I’m a bit impartial on Daft Punk and Massive Attack. That said, it’s still a great flow and instead of lumping together some random songs this really looks like something that has some good thought put in it. Thought you would be deadlast with a huge point deficit with a full-on electronic EP tbh, this was a nice surprise.
Score:For the additional score you get 7.5 points, it’s a good score but could have been better if maybe the Caravan Palace tracks where after eachother and one of Massive Attack/Daft Punk was replaced by something that starts off on a high note and then breaks down over time, and put that in the #4 song slot. But hindsight is always 20/20, not much wrong with the flow here. Your individual score average comes in at 15.667
So that makes: 15.667 + 7.5 =
23.2/30 (+0.0) =
23.2
After the first few rounds I was sure you were going to take a top 3 spot at the very least, you were very consistent and sent some of the best songs of the entire roulette, but you went on a slow decline (or, my awful, awful tastes did
) near the end and still went out on a high note with this cool unexpected electronic EP, especially appreciate the Kirlian Camera and Floex songs since I would've never heard of it without you.
Standings:1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Scorpion - 23.2
I will fix parama's song ranking table soon but as it is right now it's not correct anymore because some of sacul's songs have changed spots aswell due to others becoming better/worse. Will post the updated one soon. Oh and not sure when #4 yet but it won't be too long from now, anyone hyped to take up that #4 spot??
EDIT: Here you go
#01:
#02: Radiohead - Exit Music (For a Film)
#03: Rammstein - Feuer Frei
#04: Kirlian Camera - Drifting
#05:
#06:
#07:
#08:
#09:
#10:
#11:
#12:
#13:
#14:
#15: Chelsea Wolfe - Carrion Flowers
#16: Caravan Palace - Dragons
#17:
#18: Floex - Nel Blue
#19: Nine Inch Nails - Starfuckers, Inc.
#20: Caravan Palace - La Caravane
#21:
#22:
#23:
#24:
#25:
#26:
#27: Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds
#28:
#29:
#30: Massive Attack - Angel
#31: Nine Inch Nails - Various Methods of Escape
#32:
#33:
#34: Daft Punk - Television Rules the Nation / Around the World / Harder Better Faster Stronger
#35:
#36: Faith No More - Caffeine
#37:
#38: Radiohead - The National Anthem