Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 37! TownTimePpl/Daring, CityCentre/Tempstissimo, BlueSanc/DancingMad

(+) Yeah! (+)

Dancing Mad

I will make a final decision on the other matches later if I have time.
Insert Kefka Laugh
Bonus match idea: Dancing Mad vs. One Winged Angel

Town, Flow of Time, People
City Centre (Construction Site)
The Blue Sanctuary

Dance Of The Daring
City Centre (Construction Site)
The Blue Sanctuary

Today's roses: 406,001 -> 433,000

Dance of the Daring
Tempestissimo
The Blue Sanctuary

Town, Flow of Time, People
City Centre (Construction Site)
The Blue Sanctuary

Crossy Road Castle - Dance Of The Daring
Sleepwalker - City Centre (Construction Site)
Missing-X-Link ~Ten no Yurikago, Togi no Hana~ - The Blue Sanctuary

Dance Of The Daring
City Centre (Construction Site)

top two matches have clear results for me but really tough to have to vote against their opponents.
this third match is so long . i am going to abstain and go listen to prime 4507 in its entirety before 10 PM

Dance Of The Daring
City Centre (Construction Site)
The Blue Sanctuary

Dance Of The Daring
City Centre (Construction Site)
abstain

Clannad - Town, Flow of Time, People - 4 - I suppose this is meant to invoke a calming, atmospheric feeling, The ambient hum in the bg with the crystalline sweet vocal sounds were pretty, dont get me wrong but when the track repeats with little variation, i cant help but feel bored.

Crossy Road Castle - Dance Of The Daring -6.5 - This has zing. Peppy bombastic energy that reminds me of rhythm music. I wish the last part had doubled down and gone to a higher climax rather than getting quieter. There was a sense of japanese like style too

Sleepwalker - City Centre (Construction Site) - 9 -Music on ocean software tends to be pretty good, at least for my tastes. This is no exception.I fell in love. Its calming in an effortless way, exciting without trying too hard. The guitar sounds fresh and jazzy. The bass is rocking like no ones business. It reminds me of waterworld music on steroids.

Arcaea - Tempestissimo -5 - The main instrumentation here features a pounding beat board that acts as the base, the home of the track in which other experimental sounds flirt and dance on top with the melody. Im not actually a big fan of the pounding beat. It sounds too much like club music (bad). The middle? Half of the track with all those random strange sounds was the best. The last half got really schizophrenic changing tempo and energy a whole bunch, which felt like a weird resolution.

Town, Flow of Time, People: This is pretty nice ambient stuff. The piano in the second half is especially nice. Very pleasant track.

Dance of the Daring: This has some really interesting instrumentation, and is definitely not something I'd expect from a Crossy Road game. The synths in the second half are especially cool. Not sure how you could call this "not music" tbh. It's not even that weird. Cool song.

City Centre: This is another one of those where the intro is pretty misleading to what kind of track this is gonna be. The guitar and bass are both really good. A lot of the guitar melodies are very reminiscent of Unused Song 2 that appeared a few days ago. Another cool song.

Tempestissimo: Talk about mixed bag the song. There are neat parts with the piano, the melody, and some of the synths. But there are also parts where the bass spam gets a bit too overbearing. I can appreciate it for being as unhinged as it is though.

The Blue Sanctuary: Of course the two best songs of the day by far have to go against each other. :( The synths in this song are insane, especially the dubstep breakdowns. Absolute candy to my ears. It's like an Umineko instrumental mixed with (the good type of) EXA_PICO vocals. Awesome song.

Dancing Mad: Have I mentioned that I hate that this a R1 match? Gotta throw Uematsu's magnum opus at The Blue Sanctuary, how fun. Phase 2 is the only part that I feel drags a bit. Phase 3 is a wonderful Bach-like fugue which is something I feel should appear in VGM more often. Then Phase 4 delves into proggy insanity (please listen to Tarkus if you haven't). Even if you hate it, this song definitely deserves its praise.

I hate match 3.

Votes:
Dance of the Daring
City Centre (Construction Site)
Dancing Mad

Town, Flow of Time, People
City Centre (Construction Site)
The Blue Sanctuary

Match 1 is pretty dang close, Dance of the Daring is better than I'd thought it be.

Arcaea was doing pretty well for me for this contest, but I don't care much for Tempestissimo. City Centre isn't too strong for me, but I like the soft groove it's going for.

I think Dancing Mad starts and ends strong, but I'm just whatever for movements 2 and 3. Blue Sanctuary is pretty cool, so intense from what's apparently a song from a visual novel. I wanna fight with this blasting, dang it!

Clannad - Town, Flow of Time, People
Sleepwalker - City Centre (Construction Site)
Final Fantasy VI - Dancing Mad

MATCH 1

If there's any song from the game that defines Clannad, I think there's no better choice than Town, Flow of Time, People. Sure, Nagisa is an iconic song, but I think this really captures the mood of the story, especially pre-After Story. It evokes this image of blankly staring out the window. There's this sense of longing that I think is conveyed here. A lot of it is in the pad chords. They have this dreamlike shimmering to them. But also, there's just an overall melancholic sound that's carried with incredible delivery. As an extra plus, there's a lot of variation in the song from changes in instruments to new melodies being introduced that keeps me even more invested. Overall, there's a clear identity to this song and it leans into it very well. Really happy to see this song in the contest! Easily a top 5 Clannad song for me. I think I'd put it at number 3, if I had to guess? I really love Palm of a Tiny Hand and To the Same Heights, and I can't think of any other song besides those that I'd put over this one, so...number 3 it is! I love Key music.

Dance of the Daring has this element of something I call "controlled chaos" where it's really wacky and silly, but not exactly off-putting despite not being something that fits in my usual tastes. Though, at the same time, the louder parts of the song feel a tad bit grating, so it's almost like there's this battle of toeing the line between "funny, I like" and "this is too much, please turn it down." I think it feels the best in the very beginning and at 0:26 with the "hai hai" chanting.

dowolf posted...

To all you flow of time fans: just remember that song is ranked 9th on top nine vgm on the top nines website. It will probably be remembered nine more in the nine run than its opponine.

So you're saying I should nominate songs from 9-Nine- next year? Or maybe 999? Would be fitting for the VN poll today.

MATCH 2

City Centre has a nice and exciting melody to it. 1:25 is an especially good transition to the song. That brief squeal of the guitar is definitely a burst of excitement and with the drums, I can definitely feel the song picking up. There's also a lot of fresh variations in the melody and instruments here between the electric guitar and the piano.

I really like Censored from t+pazolite, and I can hear elements of that as part of his general composition style, but I unfortunately don't feel as strongly about Tempestissimo. I think part of it might be that I'm a big fan of Touhou music and that song works in Hartmann's Youkai Girl's melody really well, one that I enjoy a lot, and I'm just not feeling Tempestissimo's melody as much. Though, it is pretty cool as well and feels like it's trying to hype me up along with the percussion. I think the other thing might be that some of the samples distract a little too much from the main melody. Maybe it's that the samples don't complement the song all that well? I don't know. I do like it, though! Actually, I'm enjoying more today than I thought I did, which makes the match closer than expected, but I still think I'm feeling City Centre more.

MATCH 3

The Blue Sanctuary's a really cool song! I can't really point to anything in specific, but it sounds pretty good overall with its melodies and vocals.

I think I like Dancing Mad the most for Phase 1. Dark organ chords are definitely my thing, and the first phase uses them well with its dramatic flair. Phase 2 isn't as good, but it sort of keeps that feel, and the vocal sample helps with it. Phase 3 is my least favorite phase in the song. It's fine, but I don't really find much in it to take interest in. I'm not the biggest fan of Phase 4's intro, especially those chords at 6:50, but the prog rock that comes after it is very cool! I especially like the Tarkus part at 7:59. As far as my ranking of the phases goes, I'd go with 1 > 4 > 2 > 3. This is also closer than I anticipated because I feel more into The Blue Sanctuary than last time. I think I still vote Dancing Mad, but I wouldn't mind The Blue Sanctuary winning here.

Town, Flow of Time, People > Dancing Mad > The Blue Sanctuary > City Centre (Construction Site) > Tempestissimo > Dance Of The Daring

Dance of the Daring
City Centre (Construction Site)
Dancing Mad

Damn you, match 3.

Dance Of The Daring
Tempestissimo
Dancing Mad

dance of the daring was amazing, but the clannad song was good too!
i never thought about how t+paz could be in this lmao, but he's like one of my fav artists ever sooooo
tempestissimo is just such a banger, not my fav t+paz but still SO SO SO GOODDDD
last one ahrd to decide, some of dancing mad is kinda bad and boring but some is REALLY GOOD, i think i have to go for dancing mad bcos movement 4 really makes up for the boring movement 3
i may be a bit late for voting lol im sorry