WE’RE BACK, BABY. My last two album roulettes were an amazing source of musical discovery, and I’ve finally finished exploring all the artists I really wanted to delve into from them (everything 8/10 and above, and some of the more intriguing 7-7.5s). Which means, good people, that it’s time to bombard me with music again.
This is going to mostly be an album roulette again, but with a few twists, explained in the ROUNDS section below.
I’ve made the prelim just one song (from the album you plan to send for round 1) so I don’t need to cap the number of people who want to have a go. Last time we had 18 people in the prelim – it’d be great if we could go higher this time!
GENERAL RULES (apply unless otherwise stated in ROUNDS section below):- Submissions: Whole albums (which can include EPs), sent to me by PM.
- Duplicates: Unlike my previous roulettes, in rounds 0-5 if more than one person sends the same thing, it will be accepted from all of them. From round 6 onwards, if there’s a duplicate, I’ll find some way of deciding who gets to keep it. Pistols at dawn, rap battle, something like that.
- Scoring: Again unlike my last two roulettes, scoring this time will be relative:
- The round winner will get 10 points, and the last placed will get 4 points. Everyone else will score in between, which should give a roughly even spread but I’ll flex based on my relative views on each.
- In addition, there is 1 bonus point for every 8/10 rating, 2 for every 9/10 rating, and 3 for the impossibly unlikely event that I give an album 10/10.
- Length: No maximum or minimum length. In general, I have no particular preference for longer or shorter albums, though albums that don't have much variety of tone or style tend to be better if they're not too long IMO. And on the flipside, an EP of just three short songs probably won’t have much impact unless they’re really good.
- Banned artists and albums: As in previous roulettes, banned artists are based on my RYM profile (https://rateyourmusic.com/~ariich – scroll down to the "music" section and you can use the "ratings" tab to browse what I've rated, but more useful is the "Search ariich's music for" bar to see if something you're thinking of is already in my list - if you really can't figure it out, just ask!). The banned rules are as follows:
- Anything by an artist that I've ever rated 4 stars or more is banned, even if I haven't rated that particular album.
- For artists I’ve only rated 3.5 stars or lower, any album I’ve rated is banned but anything else is available.
- Any artist that scores 8/10 or above in this roulette will also have any other albums of theirs banned, and I’ll maintain a list in this OP.
- The Sidekick Rule: Those who make it past the Prelim and to Round 1 can, if they wish, adopt as a Sidekick someone eliminated in Round 0. That person will then be their partner for the duration of the roulette. Decisions will ultimately be the responsibility of the main participant, but you can both collaborate together as much as you want, and in whatever manner you want.
ROUNDS: - Round 0 – Prelim: The prelim will be open to anyone, is an open round, and involves sending me just one song/track from the album you plan to send in Round 1. The top 10 will progress to Round 1, everyone else will be eliminated (unless only 10 or fewer sign up, in which case we’ll just jump straight to R1).
- Rounds 1-4 – Albums, open: Open rounds, no eliminations. The expectation is that your Round 1 submission will be the full album of the song you sent in Round 0. However, I'll let people change their Round 1 album based on the Round 0 results if they so wish (e.g. if they come 10th and scrape through, they might prefer to try something else), but you’ll need to explain why. Rounds 2-4 are just normal.
- Round 5 – Greatest Hits: Chance to send me your own compilation, ideal for some artists but tricky for others so choose wisely. 40-70 minutes of music from a single artist, which must come from at least 3 different albums (for this purpose, a single or b-side that was never on a studio album counts as a separate release, but short interlude tracks don’t count at all). There will be no specific scoring for flow so don’t worry too much about it, though of course it can affect my overall enjoyment. After this round, the 5 lowest scoring participants will be eliminated, and the other 5 will play the rest of the roulette.
- Rounds 6-7 – Albums, open: Normal open rounds, no eliminations.
- Final – Concept album: Here I want both quality and a bit of creativity. Here are the unnecessarily complicated rules:
- 40-70 minutes of music from at least 3 different artists (short interlude tracks don’t count towards this).
- Flow and narrative are important. It doesn’t need to be a story-based concept, it’s fine for it to be thematic as long as the concept is clear and it narratively flows well.
- You may use a small amount of music from banned artists, if this helps you get the flow/narrative right. Up to 20% of the total time (8 mins for a 40 min album, 14 mins for a 70 min album) can be from banned artists/albums. The rest needs to all be new and still be from 3 different artists.
- The usual 4-10 points scoring will be based only on how much I like the new music and ignore anything I already know. Up to 10 additional points will also be available: 5 for how coherently the album flows musically, and 5 for quality of the conceptual/thematic narrative.
OTHER INFO:- I will try and keep rounds to around a week, maybe 10 days. Hangman will occur, and possibly other shenanigans.
- I have a Spotify subscription, so that's pretty ideal for submissions as I can sync for offline listening, but other free streaming platforms such as bandcamp are also acceptable. You can always just tell me what the album is, and I'll see if I can stream it from somewhere, or if absolutely necessary you can send me the files - better to have your preferred submission than whatever happens to be on Spotify.
- In line with previous roulettes, I will listen to every album at least three times, maybe more. The absolute minimum is two listens, and if I'm really not finding myself at all interested after that, I reserve the right to give up on it.
MY TASTES:I don’t really know how to describe my tastes, but here’s a small updated version of what I posted last time.
I have a general leaning towards rock and metal, but I like music from pretty much any other genre too, as will be clear from my RYM profile. It’s a bit of a cliché, but broadly speaking the stuff I like the most is that which evokes a feeling in me, or makes me want to immerse myself in it. But there are completely different ways that music can do that, which depending on the style could contrast or could complement. An incomplete list of ways that music can, but does not necessarily, speak to me includes:
- Strong melodies and harmonies (doesn’t necessarily need to be vocal melodies, and I’m absolutely fine with harsh vocals);
- Energy and dynamism/variety (which can include technicality);
- Strong production, of various types (e.g. punchy, deep, etc.);
- Atmosphere.
I’d say that all my favourite music hits at least one of those, often more. And if something is particularly weak in one or more of those areas, it would normally need to really excel in others to compensate. But to be honest, I’m unpredictable and something might tick all those boxes and still just not really speak to me. So good luck.
My RYM ratings are probably a useful reference point, particularly on
albums I rate 4 stars or higher, if used sensibly. Essentially everything 4 stars and above I consider to be excellent. Within that, the stuff that I rate even higher (4.5-5 stars) really just comes down to how much it really grabs me and I normally can’t explain why. Higher ratings tend to come either after many listens if something is new, or if I'm already very familiar with an artist then it can happen quicker. With completely new stuff, I don’t often commit to a 4.5 star rating (and basically never a 5 star rating) after only a few listens. So if you're trying to judge what I might like a lot, taking in everything 4 stars and up is a good starting point, and higher ratings can of course be considered but may not be as reliable (to the extent that anything is very reliable, which is not much).
Stuff I rate 3.5 stars I still consider very good, but there's normally something about it that I find lacking for whatever reason. Even more so for 3 stars which is basically "pretty good but not very exciting". 2.5 stars and lower I'd probably never choose to listen to it again.
PARTICIPANTS:Current survivors:
-
Puppies [
aka Lex Luthor]
-
Cyril [
aka Squirrel Girl]
-
Tomi [
aka Garfield]
-
Clortho [
aka Venom]
-
Luoto [
aka Moomintroll]
As host, and having wiped out nearly half the contestants (twice), I am of course
Thanos.
Those who got eliminated in the second snap (round 5) were:
- 6th.
Evermind ft.
Sacul &
BIZKIT [
aka Desire, Dream & Destiny of the Endless]
- 7th.
Train (defending champion) ft.
Elite [
aka Thomas the Tank Engine & the Fat Controller]
- 8th.
Seneca [
aka Rorschach]
- 9th=
Katt [
aka Superman]
- 9th=
Nekov ft.
King [
aka Batman & Robin]
Those who got eliminated (some of whom found a way back to help the survivors) in the first snap (prelim) were:
- BIZKIT
- Romdrums
- TAC
- Jingle
- Sacul
- Stadler
- Elite
- King
BANNED DURING ROULETTE:Actor | Observer
At the Drive In
Baroness
Barren Earth
Bear Ghost
Bill Callahan (compilation)
Blue October (compilation)
Casiopea
Chaos Divine
Copeland
Dance Gavin Dance
Depeche Mode (compilation)
Disillusion
Dvne
Frequency Drift (compilation)
Glass Animals
The Hotelier
In Mourning (compilation)
Irreversible Mechanism
Jason Isbell
Keor
Kings of Leon (compilation)
Kyte (compilation)
Marah in the Mainsail
Maraton
North Atlantic Oscillation
Persefone
Phoebe Bridgers
The Physics House Band (compilation)
Portishead
Primordial
Shattered Skies
A Swarm of the Sun (compilation)
While Heaven Wept
Wishbone Ash
Woods of Ypres (compilation)
ROUND RESULTS:Prelim:
Part 1,
Part 2Round 1:
ResultsRound 2:
ResultsRound 3:
ResultsRound 4:
ResultsRound 5:
ResultsRound 6:
ResultsRound 7:
ResultsFinal:
Part 1 and
Part 2-------------------------------
Post-roulette updates:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,
Part 5,
Part 6,
Part 7,
Part 8,
Part 9,
Part 10,
Part 11,
Part 12,
Part 13
Topic: ariich’s roulette 5.0 – The End (again (the actual end this time (really))) (Read 56889 times)