de katchum » Lun Nov 10, 2008 10:56 am
Dear noctaventureers
You made me feel SOOO bad last time I've learned my lesson and want to apologize for my behaviour. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, thought every minute about the empty spots after my compo. I felt completely left out, as the only non French in this forum. I was in shock and I almost got a heart attack the first second I saw it.
I'm at work right now, and because I have absolutely nothing to do here I'll write a review.
As for the theme this time, I had absolutely no idea what I had to write because the description was so little.
So I went on to go to internet and search for: le majordome. What it could be. I found out that it's a French movie about someone who wants to kidnap some people but falls in love with an undercover agent.
So here we go.
Techniques:
Sound quality and mixing:
I started with compo 9 and was pretty surprised with the nice sound it had so for mixing I would give this compo a high score. Then I listened to compo 8 which was of equal great quality but the sound banks were a bit less spectacular, not to blame the composer for this, but it's a part of the points I'll give to technique. Compo 7 sounds more ambient and reminds me a lot of Sforouhi's Clown song. Here also the mixing is pretty good and I'd say it has a higher score than compo 8. Compo 6 has the power of sound effects, which reminded me how I like good SFx. I was very surprised about the beautiful harmonies, but we'll come to that later. I'd give it the same score as the other compos if it weren't for the short length. About compo 5 I like the nice beat, percussion is mixed very well too. I can't say much bad about compo 4, use of velocities is done very clean here. For compo 3 I like the realistic clarinet, great job. Perfect mixing. Compo 2 is just a piano solo which doesn't require much mixing. And as for compo 1 I like the creativity of sound here, the piano sounds a bit mechanical.
Compo 1 2/3
Compo 2 1.5/3
Compo 3 2.7/3
Compo 4 2.5/3
Compo 5 2.5/3
Compo 6 1.5/3
Compo 7 2.5/3
Compo 8 2/3
Compo 9 2.5/3
Harmony, structure, instrumentation:
We'll start with compo 1 here: Harmony isn't really brilliant here, structure is repetitive. Compo 2 sounds dissonant and is written in the form of a fugue which requires thought and concentration to do, harmony is to say the least very original. Compo 3 is written in an instrumentation known in many jazz pieces. Structure is flowing very good using interesting harmonic progressions. Nice. The harmony of compo 4 misses some basic chord progressions which makes the song sound odd, also it sounds looped, instrumentation and structure is ok. The intro of compo 5 is spectacular! The structure stays much the same though which is less good. Harmony is not very innovative. Compo 6 starts out very simple and gives the impression that something is coming. I very much like the turnaround of the environment to a sinister atmosphere, I like this kind of harmony! Plus points in creativity. Compo 7 is using normal tonal chords in the beginning which doesn't please me at all, but the second part is of great beauty although the structure didn't get much attention in my opinion. Compo 8 uses awkward melodies that don't match the base chords, I have to be severe here and hand out the fewest points for this song. I like the classical form of compo 9, I love the timpani hits and the piano is written very cute too. Sounds like a tea dinner or something.
Compo 1 2/3
Compo 2 2.5/3
Compo 3 2.7/3
Compo 4 2/3
Compo 5 2.3/3
Compo 6 2.5/3
Compo 7 2.1/3
Compo 8 2/3
Compo 9 2.5/3
Total:
Compo 1 4/6
Compo 2 4/6
Compo 3 5.4/6
Compo 4 4.5/6
Compo 5 4.8/6
Compo 6 4/6
Compo 7 4.6/6
Compo 8 4/6
Compo 9 5/6
Emotion:
It's compo 8 which made me feel the fewest emotions. Compo 9 amazed me, and I'm biased to classical music. Compo 7 sounded too frigid to me, especially the beginning wasn't something I would want to hear much. To be honest, compo 6 wasn't impressing me in the intro, but the second part was much better. The style of compo 5 isn't my taste, but I was surprised about the sound quality so it wasn't that bad. I didn't like compo 4 very much because the harmony didn't appeal to me. And your gun shots scared me like hell. And we all know that compo 3 will win this contest so I'll give my points here already, such a great clarinetist and arranger. Don't underestimate compo 2, I like the harmony so much I keep singing along with it. Compo 1 didn't interest me, also because of the repeated harmony.
Compo 1 3/6
Compo 2 5/6
Compo 3 5.5/6
Compo 4 3/6
Compo 5 4.3/6
Compo 6 4.5/6
Compo 7 3.5/6
Compo 8 3/6
Compo 9 5/6
Theme:
Okay, it's really difficult for me to give points to theme, because I didn't get the theme...
So I'll use the criteria of complot, which should mean something vicious and evil.
The pizzicato's of compo 1 give a feeling of some complot, that's true. Compo 2 uses a harmony that is evil enough to get people depressed. Compo 3 has a mid section that is placing a complot in scene. Jazz is mostly used to describe such activities. I don't think compo 4 has the right style to represent a complot. Compo 5's mastery is medium level. I didn't get as much complot as some other songs. Compo 6 uses silences to describe someone sneaking around, which works very well with the harmony in the second part. Compo 7 has two sections which work in contrast, it's well done. Compo 8 should get the fewest points because there is no complot to be heard here. Also compo 9 doesn't show any complot theory despite of the magnificent structure and harmony itself, maybe a bit of complot at the end...
Compo 1 6/8
Compo 2 5/8
Compo 3 6/8
Compo 4 4/8
Compo 5 4.5/6
Compo 6 5/6
Compo 7 5/6
Compo 8 3.5/8
Compo 9 3.7/8
VGM and anime music forever!