Hikigane's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Running (RD2010)]

So much to play with...

Industrial is probably one of my favorite (albeit least-listened to) genres. It gives you a lot of freedom to explore, in my personal view, "living mechanics". The way I see it, industrial is literally what robots would listen to, were they sentient, living, breathing beings. With that said, this song, from my opinion, embodies that very gritty, cold, mechanical, but so very emotional standpoint. Robots are awesome, and putting robots to music makes something very graceful and horrifyingly wonderful in it's own sense.

Though you say it gets noisy at the end (and was your purpose), i think it was something of a miss. It filled up too much "sonic space", so to speak. It was very full, which kinda threw off the rest of the song, which (from my standpoint) is somewhat more hollow, which i liked in the song. I think if you had given everything a bit more distinction, it would have given a more hollow (and all the more embodying) feel of this piece.

Short version: Overall, it was a well-oiled piece of music that flowed with the right amount of ambiance and space, though the ending filled up that ambiance - which, from one standpoint, could be a good thing. Didn't work so much for me, but there's nothing wrong with it.

Hopefully this helped some. I feel like i rambled/raved a bit more than actually constructively contributed.

[FILTHY]

oh my...

gives me the chillllss~ I like this, i like this a lot. I think the lead melody could have a little bit more something to them, but i'm not sure what. Maybe a little more twang. A bit more spice. Love the fluctuation waves you give to them, helps with the feel a LOT. I really can feel this song move me. Definitely deserving of the title.

I dunno man. Varied on the spectrum overall, love the bass and the drive, not feelin it on the lead. Unfortunately i'm not fully experienced in dubstep and thus couldn't really give you great tips on improving the leads. So just gotta say, awesome work. keep it up!

superuberinsaneausm responds:

thanks,i dont have a midi keyboard so its sorta hard to do leads and such,thanks for the review though!

[Swayhop]

I luvz me some hiphop~

Definitely got that walkin'tall you talked about. Gotta love it. Trumpet gives it a delicious jazz feel, which gives it that really really chill air that makes you happy to be alive. I think the drums COULD have a little more variety, but there's nothing that I inherently dislike about them. LOVED the drop at 2:13 that led into the trumpet solo. I think if you had a little more of the trumpet by itself in the middle, it could give a bit more flavor to the song. But OVERALL this is really, really good as it is. Well-earned 9. Good job, keep it up!

[Gavin A - Closed In]

Dude. Extreme groove.

I like the feel this song's got. I love driving bass and heavy drums, I think the volume could be worked with a little bit. I also think a little bit overall instrumental panning could be done. I also think you could put a bit more variety - though I don't listen to a lot of dubstep so i don't know if having relative repetition is typical. It drones on a lot and has nice driving force, but even driving force gets dull after a bit.

[This Is War]

Holy SHIT!

WOW. I can just say, 25 seconds into the song, I'm already blown away. I expect solely a classical song. I was pretty "okay, this should be good." Then the drums come in and i'm sitting here like "WHOAAAAA ORGASM?!"

I love how the triangles come in right before the beat kicks up epically, and everything just picks up all at once. It's almost overwhelming, but 80% in a good way. And the breakdown around 1:21? So superb. Once that goes by, the outro leaves such a strong impression on the listener. HOWEVER.

The fade-out. I do believe that completely ruins the original impression left prior to that section. I think it's innovative, but my personal opinion would be that if you ever change this up, make the outro memorable and huge. You build up such an AMAZING song at the beginning and throughout, and then you get this anticlimactic "huh? it just fades?" at the end. So I'm really really pleased with this song, I think you and Supersteph(?) did a great job of this collab (assuming it's a collab), but the end should give closure to the song, not leave it open ended. At least, that's the way I see it. It's kind of a hit or miss with that whole thing; a lot of people might actually think that's a great ending. It felt rather abrupt in my opinion, is all.

Overall i was indecisive as to whether or not to give you a 7 or an 8. I would've given you a 9 or a 10, but the ending was really disappointing honestly.

I ended up with a 7. Great work overall, outro significantly disappointing.

GronmonSE responds:

Oh hey, you came out of nowhere lol.

Yeah, lots of people have disliked the simple ending. I could have expanded on it but I don't know what happened, it's like my brain shuts down. Didn't think so many people would be bothered by it though.

Thanks for the great review and for checking out my song :) I think "New Life v2" might interest you if you liked this. No pressure though!

[Lost in 8-Bit Space]

hm hm hm!

A very subtle, sleepy, but eerie song. I can definitely feel the same hopelessness you said you felt.

The first 35 seconds I feel could have a little more variety, (granted this is an 8-bit, so there's not too much you want to put in it). I like the overall groove with the drumsynth, reminds me of Dead Space meets Pokemon. The droning lead could have some overall variety as it loops a LOT, and even for a loop it could have a tad more. You know how video game music gets after a while.

Mmmm. Not amazing, but it stands out in my opinion.

[{-=Bugg=-} Fresh Start]

Generic, solid feel.

Pump up the bass a little and you got one sick tune. I love trance beats/tracks with a heavy bass to them, and i feel like if you pumped that bass out a little more it'd be heavenly.

[[-=Bugg=-] Rhythm]

It's aight

Kinda repetitive for a lot of the song. I like the variety, but I think that you could do a bit more in terms of mixing things up. Maybe adding in another instrument arpeggiating/fading in, then pan from one side to the other periodically? Just a thought. Otherwise, nice chill song; i wouldn't think of it as a dance song so much though. Kinda has a lullaby feel to it in my opinion.

pretty good nonetheless though! keep it up.

[ph0ne vs Hopeku - Aerodynamite]

You owe me a new pair of headphones...

My ears literally just orgasmed all over them.

hopeku responds:

buahaha i'd rather buy a box of kleenex

[OUTLAW (RD2010) - Japillow]

oooh la la~!

Definitely fit the robot day theme. I can imagine a bunch of robots gettin down on the dance floor with this, hah. Awesome work

Japillow responds:

Thanks for the review!