Ok... Before Josh/RJ/Ruslan frantically scroll to the bottom to see results, I'll just let you know I'm gonna be a dick and not post the final scores for a couple of hours, just to torment you fuckers a little more ... but more to force you to read the writeups. I will say this though, I listened and rated these songs without doing any calculations of where the intangibles points were setting up the final scores. I didn't want any knowledge of who was gaining/losing ground (or how much) to influence my listening and rating of the quality of these. I didn't know the final scores until about 15 minutes ago.
Litho: Ulrik Lyngs / VanedisclosurejamMy written first impression was "22,000 big ones!" (for the Cheers fans out there). This is as big a WTF moment as Stadler sending Radiohead - nah, bigger. Hey, if you really like this, all the power to you. I joked last round that RJ's submission was *like* Ross Gellar on the keys… well this sounds EXACTLY as if Ross Gellar had composed and played this. Was this recorded on Windows 3.1 with a MIDI recorder? And the rest of instruments sound like they came from a 6-year-old's toy bin - right from the start with the "cowbell". This guy could've had a career in recording background music for Commodore 64 games - I swear I'm hearing some of the music from
Forbidden Forest in here. The ONLY mildly enjoyable quality was the 16 seconds of real piano that poked its head up for 15 seconds like a prairie dog at 2:30, said "fuck this shit!", and quickly disappeared again.
You said in your message to me "It doesn't appear that he records music anymore (at least publicly from what I can tell)", and I can only think ... "Thank fucking Christ". The only reason I listened to this more than twice was to make sure I was being accurate with my writeup, and not too harsh. But honestly man, I think you've taken the crown away from Chris as the worst thing I've ever received in a roulette.
Radiohead had 24 seconds of respectable music; this had 16 seconds, so I can't in good conscience rate this higher than Radiohead.
ScoresQuality: 1
Unpredictability: 4.5
Anonymity: 2
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Evermind:Chorny Kofe / Nochnoy jastrebDear lord, what's with the tone of the guitar - especially in the intro. I'm surprised Putin hasn't jailed this guy for the crime that this song is. I kept waiting for something to happen. It didn't. What is this, doom-sludge-post-core-alt-blues? The last time you sent a mixed bag of sounds, it clicked. This time, it crashed. The intro did not set the stage well, even though the guitar playing after it was pretty decent, there was something off in the overall sound - I think he was aiming for something in the melanlncholic range, but it was more like a baby with cholic. Sometimes simple works, but simple+plodder+repetition+mediocre production is not a winning formula here. The 2 instances of what I would call a "chorus" (1:13-1:49 and 3:03-3:34) were the closest thing I came to enjoyment during this. The outro solo could have been enjoyable, but the sludge (I can't think of another word to use) of the background rhythm kills it.
Still, it is 3 times better than Litho's submission.
ScoresQuality: 3
Unpredictability: 5
Anonymity: 5
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TAC: Valfreya / Peuple Du NordWhy, just why? Have I not been clear about my distaste for non-English vocals? The Celtic vibes were kinda cool (I like plenty of folk-rock/folk-metal tunes), and musically this was fairly enjoyable. I'm quite schizophrenic about this song, but the splash of non-English growls in the end push me to leaning on the 'meh' side of things. For me, this would've worked far better as an instrumental. Yes, it's a 'me' thing, but the lyrics really kill my enjoyment of this.
ScoresQuality: 5.5
Unpredictability: 1.5
Anonymity: 1.5
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Puppies: Wilton and Akerstache / Drag Ropes (Chaining My Heart)Did they hire Litho's guy as a session recorder for the keyboards
!?!? There's quite a bit I want to like here, but the production sounds so fucking anorexic - especially the drums … they sound like they were recorded in a 8x8 tin shed. The production wasn't just thin, it made the song borderline unbearable for the first few listens, and I nearly pulled the plug on this one too. There's certain frequencies where the my ears start to feel like they're pulsating (mrs.jingle can often reach that frequency during a … "discussion"
), and this song came right up to the line of settling in at that frequency - hence the gifpression. I like the style of this guys voice (except for that final wail); the composition is pretty good; and the riffs are also quite good, but man alive… the sound (and the keyboards)
I really would/could have liked this song if not for the fact it literally was on the verge of hurting my ears towards the end (right after the instrumental breakdown) - and being the longest song of the round didn't help because of that; if they'd wrapped it up using the instrumental section as an outro, I think I could've listened past the awful sound. Good production could've put this into an 8, but I've heard demos on a cassette that sound better than this. I did kinda get 'used' to it after 3-4 listens, but it could've earned such a better score
ScoresQuality: 6.5
Unpredictability: 4
Anonymity: 4.5
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Dr. DTVT: Oceans of Slumber / Pray for FireStarts out fine, but the 'distortion' effect in Beverly's voice was a big meh - the vocals were way better once they dropped that. Your streak of connecting me to bands I've heard of but didn't explore ends here - for when the guitars kicked in at 2:20, I lost the plot. Here's an example of how it would help to read the writeups of others' songs - as I've pointed out a my distaste for blast-beat/machine gun kind of sounds (bass or snare) a couple of times already. So A) the lead up into the growls already had me in a bit of a foul mood, and thus the growls didn't connect; and B) that outro (which at first I thought was the start of the next track!) was starting to produce the best part of the track, until they when all doom-metal at 6:15. But Beverly's vocal performance in that final 2 minutes, with the gradual crescendo, was fantastic. Thankfully, for the final 45 seconds, they pushed that machine-gun bass-drum way back in the mix.
Blasty-blast still no clicky-click with me.
ScoresQuality: 6.5
Unpredictability: 0.5
Anonymity: 3.5
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Indiscipline: Marty Friedman / MiracleNot what I expected out Marty (I've got a couple of his albums, and I think I would expect some shreddery - which does come up in a limited fashion in the 2nd half solo), but naturally, it's amazingly written and performed. At first, I was channelling my inner Shadow Ninja here, and say that the intro really would've been a great way to segue into something lyrical - but then I realized that (like the previous round), it was the axe that was doing all the talking. I knew this one was going to grow on me with repeated listens - and it did once I got over my expectation of Marty melting my face as he so usually does. Couple of bitching guitar solos (one that is paired magnificently with the keys), and drum work that slaps. I really should have more Marty in my library.
ScoresQuality: 8
Unpredictability: 2.5
Anonymity: 2.5
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Wolfking: Winterborn / LovehunterAnd here's an example where weak production can be overcome with a great tune. Dat opening riff
. The production sounds dated, but it's not *bad*. This song follows the K.I.S.S. principle again, and it's working for you. This brings me back to the late 80s when I was discovering some lesser known rock bands, and loving the hell out of it - acts like Damn Yankees, Firehouse, Brighton Rock, Winger, Sven Gali, April Wine, Helix and the like.. This could've been something that was heard on a B&B podcast (fuck I miss him/those). Shitballs man, that solo section fucking ripped - the backing rhythm work was just as good as the solo itself. Gave me quit a bit of nostalgia, back to the days when Elle graced the SI Swimsuit cover three years running, and 15-year old me had virtually every image of her pasted inside my school locker.
ScoresQuality: 8
Unpredictability: 3.5
Anonymity: 4
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Stadler: The Firm / Live in PeaceSolid. Rock solid. Like, adamantium solid. Actually, it's fucking balls - best thing you've sent me in this roulette, maybe in any roulette. Naturally, I know of The Firm … Rodgers voice is so distinct and unique. But why-oh-fucking-why didn't I dig in to their albums during the time of their release?!?!? I cannot fathom a reasonable answer - it defies any common sense (
), but thank you for getting me to rectify this travesty. What a glorious intro. This is how I likes my ballads… glorious amount of foreplay before getting to the meat of the song. The aural sensations from the bass and the strings gives me tingles. And dat solo… well, even I'm impressed with that kind of cheating. As usual, you got hosed with the intangibility points.
ScoresQuality: 8.5
Unpredictability: 1
Anonymity: 1
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Lonestar: Rie a.k.a. Suzaku / Heika SojoI hear an ode to The Vapours right out of the gate (not sure if you remember, I sent Turning Japanese to Obscure in her 2nd roulette). And after that, this song left most everything else in it's wake. Great melodies (and I really like the recurring main melody), rich sound, nice mix of pacing and some extracurricular sounds splashed in there, and a nice frantic ending. There's just not a lot more to say, this works on all levels - and you wisely made a selection that left out the non-English lyrics.
ScoresQuality: 9
Unpredictability: 3
Anonymity: 0.5
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King: Surreal / The Journey BeginsOohh... That's tasty. You have a knack for hitting that keyboard-led prog sweet-spot of mine. I'll never forget the moment you first tickled me there in Roulette v1 with Presto Ballet. This one is invoking some of those same listening feelz. Nice soaring vocal harmonies that accompany them too. Everything just clicks with this track.
ScoresQuality: 9.5
Unpredictability: 2
Anonymity: 3
Final results in a while. I'm sure three or four people will be whipping out their calculators, and get a pen and paper out while scrolling back and forth from the Round 7 standings
Topic: Re: jingle.boy's Roulette v5 - th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-that's all folks! (Read 36947 times)