Board 8 > [VGMC] d9: Battle Tower vs Final Destination, Wings of Terror vs Endless Desert

(+) Yeah! (+)

Final Destination
An Endless Desert
goldenslaughterer

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Final Destination
Wings of Terror Phase 2
Chloe

I want more of whatever Chloe is! idk what specifically I like in music, but the rhythm game stuff that Ive heard in these contests have been hits for me, so maybe I should listen to those soundtracks.

Battle Tower
Wings of Terror Phase 2
goldenslaughterer

Battle Tower
Wings of Terror Phase 2
goldenslaughterer

Final Destination
An Endless Desert
Chloe

Battle Tower ok. Final Destination slightly more ok.

Eternity II. Pretty boops.

The first zts song I heard. I didn't like it then. I do now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvCT-CChbHo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyPsn4fK5kc

Chloe's cute but Laurara's my gal.
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Final Destination
An Endless Desert
goldenslaughterer

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Pokemon Sword and Shield - Battle Tower
Alto's Odyssey - An Endless Desert

Umineko no Naku Koro ni 1 - goldenslaughterer
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Battle Tower
Wings of Terror Phase 2
goldenslaughterer

I welcome the Toby Fox bombast with open arms
Wings does the same thing as New World Order where I think the vocals are cheesy to start but I'm into it by the second half
A real villain vs. hero vibe here, goldenslaughterer might be the scariest name in the bracket that isn't Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE; wow just typing that out gave me shivers

Today's songs didn't stand out too much, but I very much liked the interesting contrast in every matchup!

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Battle Tower [6.3] < Final Destination [7.8]
Wings of Terror Phase 2 [7.7] < An Endless Desert [10.0]
goldenslaughterer < Chloe

ughhh today is so good the songs i like

--match 1

this is really loud at the beginning but then it becomes less loud and more toby fox maybe and i think that is okay but maybe not that nice? i really like the melody at 0:28 and the accompaning trumpet. that is my favorite part its a nice little happy melody where the rest is super BWhwbWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBW AT you like you're fighting a pokemon

MASTER HAND except SHES DOING DANCE MOVES AT YOU AND SNAPING. THEYRE WEARING THE MICHAEL JACKSON GLOVE INSTEAD OF THE MICKEY MOUSE ONE AND BOY IS IT GROOVY

--match 2

funny anime man sings a metal song in english (........just sing in japanese...)
i would like this more with different vocalist or if it was instrumental probably. this is super fun angry rock song. dont really like the hook (1:06) until the violin comes in (~1:15)

an endless desert is so good it makes me EXPLODE the way it keeps a bunch of separate different ostinatos in different instruments and elements is amazing, has this really floaty vibe going feeling something like reich especially 0:51 onward with the pulsing...clarinet? i lost my timbre reading
the swells at the end of each section leading into the next are so lovely and because the rhythm itself is somewhat irregular it's a little unexpected and very lovely, especially when the swells end and pull back into more minimally instrumentized sections directly following them..1:38 being a great example of this where all the instruments leave except percussion and a metal drum?, and in the section after that lower register elements come in and outline the progression, all very lovely stuff
i want to say 2:34 sounds like laurara's dance if even just a little though i'm not sure if i can say that in good conscience. it makes me feel a similar way though anyway i love the way all the different parts of this come together. i love motion created by changes in sound especially more if those changes are accompanied by actual musical changes as well which this does a lot as well

--toc

WOOF!!!!!!!
i like music that does nothing for a while, and then does things a little later. this does that. i like how theres sounds that will happen but they will happen in the exact same way but at different times. like the chimes or the wEEEEOoooooo. also sometimes it sounds like tetris. did anyone say that ever

GOD i love chloe music that sounds lke its world music and kicks you in the face with an accordion. the chords are so good.... the chords at 0:18 0:25 0:43 etc......the way they sound like theyre almost resolved but just FLOATING IN OUTER SCIENCE. lovely ways of music. i love all the instruments in this so much and that its in 5 i groove out to it...sounds like uk rampage magmell but less in your face and more fwssshhhhh you like music? cool. here is some music youc an dance to
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Final Destination
An Endless Desert
goldenslaughterer

goldenslaughterer > Final Destination > Chloe >>> An Endless Desert > Wings of Terror Phase 2 > Battle Tower

Never realized the original Final Destination sounded so much different and worse. Should have nommed the superior one

Pokemon Sword and Shield - Battle Tower
Alto's Odyssey - An Endless Desert
Umineko no Naku Koro ni 1 - goldenslaughterer

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Battle Tower
Wings of Terror Phase 2
goldenslaughterer

That background marimba(?) part in Final Destination is really cool (0:32 for example) but I don't think I actually like anything else about it. I'm not the biggest fan of Battle Tower either, but it does certainly set a mood effectively which I guess is probably all the song needs to do.

Both match 2 songs are pretty solid. The vocalist in Wings of Terror needs to be turned up but it doesn't end up as a huge deal.
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Battle Tower
Wings of Terror Phase 2
goldenslaughterer

pyresword posted...

The vocalist in Wings of Terror needs to be turned up but it doesn't end up as a huge deal.

This is the one thing I disagree with you on. He's already pushing beyond the envelope.

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Final Destination
An Endless Desert
Chloe

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Final Destination

didnt get time to check the other matchups, will try and listen to more in the coming days

Final Destination
An Endless Desert
Chlo

Final Destination
An Endless Desert
Chloe

-toby fox takes on pokemon music-- by writing startlingly safe, kinda generic toby fox music. this kinda bugs me on principle in a couple of ways. maybe his direction was to write whatever battle music suited his fancy for a battle tower, but toby fox is definitely capable of working in different styles, arrangements, musical motifs. he's capable of subtlety. why a track that feels so oddly out of place, and that blares aggressively and somewhat obnoxiously from the get-go? but maybe that's sort of the point-- this doesn't really have to fit into the aesthetic of the rest of the game because it's a track you only hear in the postgame. so then my second objection-- why something so safe in composition? the part that really sticks out to me is the underlying drums and guitar patch-- they feel like well-worn territory for him, like he threw on a loop he made a year ago and riffed a simple melody on top of it. this fits in too little where it should, and fits in too much where it shouldn't. 'hear me! for I am such and such a composer. above all, do not mistake me for someone else.'
-I have to say I'm pretty unaccustomed to the original final destination track. and that's a good thing-- this feels pretty fresh. the marimba that kicks in at 0:32 is pretty awesome. there's no real central melody here, so it's all up to the groove to carry things, and it mixes things up just enough to keep me interested.

-wings of terror feels deliberately cheesy, which is fine with me (though not really my favourite thing). I'm less fine with the muddiness of this arrangement and mix-- the overdriven electric guitar feels like it muddies up the low end, and the vocals sit a bit too far back in the mix (for a track that seemingly wants to have them be a central feature). some noble brass section wants to express itself every once in a while but gets kinda flooded out by the guitar. really I think it's the guitar that's the biggest culprit. they could probably use a leg up in the sound design department. I mean, hey, Azusa Chiba's there now, right? I'm sure she could help. I think melodically this does what it wants to do, which is to say it's kinda cheesy like the aesthetic. I think that's why my objections with the mix are more prominent in this case-- a track like this really needs to nail its production, and I feel like it missed the mark.
-going into this I wasn't sure what I was going to write about endless desert. 'oh, it's that reich-y minimalist composition and style I like so much. 7/8 time. cool climactic moment at [timestamp here].' end writeup. but I went through this track again, a bit more thoughtfully. I love the almost playful ambiguity of the rhythm of the first part. my first gut feeling was to say the rhythm kinda divides itself into segments of 8 and 6, mostly driven by the heavier notes of the piano-- but it's still shifty, almost guileful. it starts off with minimal instrumentation but builds itself and before you know it (1:09) it goes into this delightful section that expresses itself-- both melodically and dynamically-- quite strongly. you then hit the first real touchstone of the track-- the rhythm firmly establishes itself as 7/8 for the first time, and the melody of the pan flute floats along inquiringly, asking a question that the track waits to answer. that's because almost everything except for the drums drop out, so that the track can slowly rebuild itself-- but with strings as the base this time, following a progression that fits perfectly with the track but is substantially different from the first time. and then it builds into the same mini-climactic moment! it feels almost like sleight of hand. then some slow cello leading into the true climax of the piece, the moment where everything snaps together and my favourite part of the track by far-- 3:43. this is the answer to 1:09 and the payoff of the piece, a sort of melodic resolution. I love the upward motion of the sustained notes over the next eight bars (and the way they start to shimmer as they move up), as though the whole track were moving heavenward. it's really beautiful. (ocremix once did an interview with christopher tin-- the composer of baba yetu, one of my all-time favourite vgm pieces-- where he remarked that by design, baba yetu is constantly modulating upward. I think that sort of upward motion, done well, is something I really like in music. [note that endless desert is not actually modulating in this instance]) the denouement of the track features the slow cello-- the instrument in this piece that actually most evokes a desert to me-- and a reiteration of the rebuilding of the layers via marcato/pizzicato strings, though even here there's a little wrinkle because the layer of clarinets has persisted, giving them more prominence before fading out with the same piano rhythm it started with. it seems strange to make this comparison here as opposed to with bolt & sword yesterday, but it's this track that I actually liken to imbrium-- not aesthetically, but in structure and emotion. repeating offset rhythms and layers that shift around, keeping the track uncertain, except for moments where things line up-- including a big payoff at the end-- that exist to drive the point of the track home.
-apparently I did have a lot to say about this piece, and it's wonderful to me that despite having heard this track dozens of times before today, I still find new things about it that I find wondrous.

-the GOLDEN SLAUGHTERER. this track is sinister like its name. I think that dark, almost warped feel of the intro is real cool and some of that carries over to the rest of the track. the sound effect at 0:47 randomly reminds me of ffvii mako reactor. (it's not really the same sound-- I checked) basically a lot of this is a slower version of one section of dreamenddischarger-- or, rather, ded incorporates a faster version of this motif-- and that probably has a lot to do with why I like it.
-in a complete reversal of the previous, this is lively, earthy, happy. solid work from dr. DJ Totoriott, m.d. by day (and rogue agent TOTTO by night), always ready to provide an injection of rhythmic world music. usual dosage of cool chord changes like 0:19 and 5/4 time. take two in the morning and two before dinner
-tough match

oops i forgot i was going to add something else when i posted this
UF8 posted...

until now i didnt even view it as music lol

(but now i'd probably even score it a 2/10, which doesn't sound great, but would be enough to get my vote effortlessly over two songs today... neither of which is goldenslaughterer, for the record)

Battle Tower
An Endless Desert
Chloe

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Final Destination
Wings of Terror Phase 2
Chloe

Super Smash Bros. - Final Destination
Alto's Odyssey - An Endless Desert
jubeat Prop - Chloe

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