Hello all! It’s been about a year since I ran my v2, and I’ve been feeling like another roulette for a good few weeks now, so with my current work schedule allowing me more time to listen to music than I’ve had in the past, there was every reason to take the plunge again and none not to.
This roulette will be shorter than the typical DTF roulette. I’ve found, when doing an 8 or 9 round roulette, that I start to get fatigued in the later rounds. As a result, the rounds start to take longer and longer, which causes frustration and tension. So, to avoid that unpleasantness, I’m just going to shorten things up in this and most likely all roulettes I run in the future.
The format will be straightforward: three open rounds and an EP round (standard EP rules: 40 minutes, substantial material from at least 3 artists). I don’t think I’m going to do any gimmicks or anything in this one. I tried some experiments last time, which mostly did not really work, so I figure it’s best to just keep it simple this time around.
There will be no limitations on song length. If you want to send that 20-minute epic, send that 20-minute epic. I love ‘em, so the more the merrier. Just with the caveat that obviously a long, complex song might not fully sink in as quickly as a shorter one, and I’m not going to allocate extra listens to a song on account of length.
As for participants: Last time I had 18, which I think might be the most a roulette has ever had. Honestly, I had a blast with such a huge field, and would be happy to have just as many again. So there will be no cap on the number of participants, but I will cut the field for the EP round so as to keep that manageable. I don’t know exactly how many will make the EP round—I’ll make that determination once I know the number of total participants—but I don’t really envision it being more than 6.
I've gone ahead and listed everybody who has already said they wanted in. Let me know if I missed you.
I prefer Spotify links for submissions, but I’m happy to accept YouTube links as well if necessary.
Tastes:First off, here are the links to the previous three roulettes I’ve either run or been a judge in:
Roulette v12016 Roulette ChampionshipRoulette v2I will warn you in advance that the only one of these I would actually suggest using as a guide to my current tastes is the v2. My preferences have changed a lot since the other two, and looking back at those, there is a lot that I would score differently if it was in front of me today.
The v2 roulette is probably a better guide to my tastes than any writeup I could give, so I’ll keep the rest of this brief.
Right now, I am probably more receptive than I have ever been to two genres: Modern prog metal and neo-prog rock. This might make this roulette a little more promising of an opportunity to people whose tastes have jarred with mine in the past—and on the other hand might make things less favorable to others I’ve gelled with better before.
I am also more receptive than I have ever been to growled vocals. I am still not a person who likes growls, per se, but I am more likely than I’ve ever been before to either let them go right by me or enjoy them in limited capacity, so long as I like the music.
What I look for in music is melody and emotion. I like grandiose music, and I like music that takes itself seriously, to the point where music with a strong comedic element is at a significant disadvantage with me.
In terms of mood, music that is very depressing or bleak will tend to be hit-or-miss at best. I can appreciate it, but it’s not my preferred mode. Here I’m thinking particularly of artists like Steven Wilson, who, to me, frequently convey a mood of hopelessness or despair. Typically I will only listen to music with this emotional quality in small doses.
Lyrics can matter to me. I don’t look up the lyrics to every roulette song, but I make no promises that I won’t look them up in a particular case, and of course I might just hear them and react. In terms of lyrics, it will be to a song’s disadvantage if the lyrics come across as unserious—party-type lyrics, needlessly sexual lyrics, and comedy lyrics would fall into this camp. Word salad Jon-Anderson-type lyrics are no problem so long as they’re played straight. I also very much do not like lyrics that are nihilistic or morbid, so I would suggest caution there as well.
I think that’s about all I want to say off the top, but I’m happy to answer any questions about tastes in-thread.
Rounds:Round 1: Open
Round 2: Open
Round 3: Open
Round 4: EP Round
Participants:Evermind
Cyril
Puppies_On_Acid
Sacul
Kattelox
TAC
jingle.boy
Stadler
romdrums
Elite
Tomislav95
Nekov
Lethean
Banned Artists:Here is where I’m going to be more restrictive than last time around. I’m primarily interested in hearing new artists that I have not heard before, rather than giving second and third listens to artists that I’m on the fence about or are on my list to check out from previous roulettes.
Therefore, in addition to the artists in my library, every artist that I awarded at least a 7.5 out of 10 in my v2 or the Championship, or at least an 8 out of 10 in my v1 (I was a more generous scorer in that roulette), is banned entirely. This allows a genuine second chance for poorer scoring artists, while ensuring that people mostly have to send stuff I haven’t heard before.
For purposes of convenience, I’m linking to my master spreadsheet of roulette submissions. To find out if an artist is banned, just do a ctrl-F search of the spreadsheet. If the cell is color-coded green, the artist is eligible for resubmission. If it’s white, they’re banned.
Banned from roulette spreadsheetHere’s the list of artists in my library. These are artists from whom I own at least one album. By no means should you take their presence on this list to indicate that they are favorites, just that they are banned. I’ve bolded ones that I would consider favorites.
Amorphis
Anathema
Anderson/Stolt
Avantasia (all banned, but favorite status mainly applies to the last three albums)
Ayreon
Beach House
Beyond the Bridge
Black Sabbath
Blaze Bayley
Bon Iver
Bruce Dickinson
Bruce Hornsby and the Range
Coheed and CambriaColdplayDavid Maxim Micic
The Dear Hunter
Death Cab for Cutie
Dio
Dire Straits
Dream the Electric Sheep
Dream TheaterEpica
Florence + The Machine
The Flower Kings
Flying Colors
The Gentle Storm
God is an Astronaut
Green Carnation
HakenHeadspace
iamthemorning
Imagine Dragons
Iron MaidenIQ
John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess (solo material from either of these individually is not banned)
Journey
Judas Priest
Kamelot
King Crimson
Led Zeppelin
Liquid Tension Experiment
LordeMarkéta Irglová
Meat Loaf
Megadeth
MetallicaNeal MorseThe Neal Morse BandNightwishOpeth
Pink Floyd
Porcupine Tree
Pure Reason Revolution
Queensrÿche
Radiohead
Redemption
Rush
Seventh WonderSigur Rós
Spock’s Beard
Steve Harris
Steven Wilson
Sufjan Stevens
Sunburst
Susanne Sundfør
Symphony X
Taylor Swift
Tesseract
Thank You Scientist
Thrice
TransatlanticTuomas Holopainen
Vanden Plas
Voices from the Fuselage
The Who
Yes
Let's get rocking!
Topic: 425's Third Roulette v. Fell and rose and tried... (Read 32459 times)
