LuckyDee's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pico's Tranquility (Vadell's Mix)]

Awesome work man, really tied the thing together <3

[DystopiaTech: DystopiaTech Tourism Board]

Damn are you being prolific - and funny too! The overall volume could use a little kick in the keister, but other than that this stuff is excellent. Keep 'em coming!

[Like Blades: Carve The Sky]

This is absolutely fucking gorgeous

[Oruga - ADM'22 Round 4]

Official ADM review:

This track blew me away. The minimalism of the first half is daring, but allows the quirks in chord progression and melodies to really shine. Very often they take unexpected turns, with the chords swerving into deep melancholy at 40s in and the melody feeling like it's going to victoriously resolve on the root note at the 1m mark before plunging the listener into regret instead. And all the while the piano and violin are darting around each other like lovers who have forgotten how to talk.

Then halfway through the soundscape begins to fill up, gradually but definitively confirming the anxiety of the two voices before boosting morale and ending on a hopeful rather than regretful note - the only section I actually think could be improved. The contrast with the first pass, featuring only piano and violin, is clear and appropriate, but the climax feels forced. The major chord that brings everything home feels like it either comes to soon or adds to little as it just fades out after that without truly adding to the story anymore. Compare it to reading your kid a fairy tale and finishing with 'and the wolf had eaten his entire family and he lived happily ever after' *sound of book decisively slamming shut*

But truly, that's the only criticism I can come up with. The composition is beautiful in its simplicity, the sound design is spartan but very appropriate and the production is lush and really supports the composition in drawing your listeners in. Great work, and good luck with the finals!

[A Villager's Dream]

Official ADM review:

Well, I'm starting to feel like I'm running out of new things to say here. It doesn't really matter what set of instruments you choose - and the choice for this particular piece is flawless - you make it work every single damn time. The flute might have been difficult to program, but even focusing on that, I can't find fault with how you went about this - it sounds natural and like it's exactly where it's supposed to be.

Once again your storytelling is simply magnificent - I can actually see the places our protagonist is traveling through as the music changes, starting in their home village, going into a dark forest with some curious occupants, a castle and a landscape of rolling hills only for them to start dreaming of home again, and going back.

And this is where I feel the only shortcoming of this track is. Pop culture has been bombarded with medieval/fantasy films and series over the past couple of decades, so much so that within half a minute the listener will have your track firmly pegged as belonging to this genre. This can only be achieved by stringing the right number of clichés together - which you do expertly, but they're clichés nonetheless. And because the cultural mind is so conditioned to hear this music in support of visual arts, hearing it out of its expected context immediately makes it feel like something is missing.

Compared to your previous two entries, which don't have as clear an established cultural framework to be viewed against, I think this one is a step in the wrong direction for these reasons. And you're still scoring incredibly highly because you are simply damn good at what you're doing, but at least I thought I could give you some feedback with this that may help you for the last leg of the journey. Good luck in the finals!

[Grant and LuckyDee's Spooktacular Adventure!]

Gorgeous work \m/ \m/
Thanks for having me on board!

TeffyD responds:

No problem, thank you for your wonderful voice acting!

[A Bedtime Story]

Official NGADM review:

As with your previous submission, evocation is key once again - the smooth, lazily drifting tones of first and third sections immediately ring true to the title, with the velvety texture of the woodwinds and strings floating over the more solid, anchoring feel of the glockenspiel and piano working wonderfully with the melody and chord progressions to convey that sense of a warm cozy pillow to sink your head into on a dark evening. For some reason Garance's face springs back to mind; there's a cartoony feel to your piece which would pair well with those soft colours, absent lines and rounded drawings.

Now I don't know exactly what this kid here is up to, but the second section took me quite by surprise - this section I associate with pits opening up in the ground and creatures, hellfire and/or general evil rising up from them - again, with a cartoonish take on the concept, albeit of a significantly different variety. On a conceptual level, they feel like two different songs to me, but I realize that's due to my association and am looking beyond that.

And there you are again delivering an incredibly solid contest entry. The composition embodies your concept very well, choice of instrumentation greatly suits the different sections and the changes in it keep the composition fresh despite its limited palette, and the spatial coherence is once again stunning.

High production values, great writing skills and beautiful storytelling. Hats off.

[Inquisition - ADM'22 Round 3]

Official NGADM review:

These are the sounds that accompany the opening credits, or better yet, a preparing-for-battle montage of a fantasy themed movie. They speak of action, of movement, of dogged perseverance in the face of adversity. The tide will be turned as the tribes are uniting, their hesitant leader flitting from one unit to the next to monitor their progress, unexpectedly building their trust and boosting their morale in the process. Peter Jackson eat your heart out.

Simply put: this piece is amazing. You write about the mix being lacking and the chaos in the composition with the four different themes, but neither are obvious enough to draw attention to themselves. Well, that's not entirely true: the changing time signature does register, and even though I couldn't figure it out off the cuff (it's 7am, forgive me), it still feels natural enough not to detract from the vibe of the piece nor hamper its momentum. Also, despite there not being a lot of repetition in the piece, the sections form a coherent whole with a natural flow and a solid overarching theme.

The choice of orchestration works really well; the brass adds a sense of urgency to the anxious mood set in the strings, the simple rhythm section allowing for them to perform cartwheels and flourishes in the background as the tension rises. The dynamics also work really well, giving it that roller coaster ride feel necessary to really build suspense. The only criticism I can come up with is that by contrast the final four bars feel forced and empty - I get why you would move into this section, but for a climax it feels incongruously sober and to the point compared to the rest of the piece - I envision the entire string section cascading in on itself, if not outright smacking each other around the ears with their instruments. Mental note: if you are playing the violin, best not to mess with the bass player at this point.

Anyhow, the end result is simply put very, very good. As might be obvious by now, it really sparks the imagination - for me at least - which I think is one of the best qualities any song can have regardless of genre, composition or production values. Keep up the good work!

Santi-Montali responds:

'Mental note: if you are playing the violin, best not to mess with the bass player at this point.' Well violin section has more players so I think overall you might end up winning that fight lol. Thank you so much for listening and reviewing! :)

[A Untouched Place]

Nice work man, the melody and the texture work really well together. And good to see you're still alive and kicking.

squidwardtesticles responds:

Thanks Dee. I mentioned it to starr and a few others, but I've been going through the process to become an EMT. So I haven't been active on the server because I'm busy.

[Year]

Official ADM Review:
Much like Quarl recently did to me, I'll start out by thanking you for writing down the purpose of this piece. Reminding me of old Laurent Garnier tracks, I can totally dig how this would be a great note to end a night of partying on; it has the right vibe both in terms of melodies as well as rhythms. Close your eyes and you can almost feel the crowd moving around you, tired, sweaty and probably off their gourds on E. Especially he final section, with the beat dropping away is a real nice come-down, seeing everyone home safe.

In terms of production and sound design, it's pretty damn spot on. The selected samples work really well together in terms of texture and everything has a clear place in the mix - from a technical viewpoint, you clearly know what you're doing. I could dance to this, even though I'm not a particular fan of the genre (or haven't been anymore, for a couple of decades).

On the other hand there's the composition, which I can look at in two ways: there's music made for listening to, and there's music made for experiencing. By your own admission, this track falls in the latter category, being composed for a very specific purpose. But for this purpose, I think it falls short. You can't come down from a night of partying and dancing in just under 8 minutes - you'd get hurt. For the intended purpose, I'd expect the track to be much longer, the build up (much like Garnier's stuff) much more subtle, the rhythmless section stretched seemingly endlessly, with the instruments meandering about and gradually dissolving into something equally pleasurable and incomprehensible. OK, that last bit may be personal preference, but immersion is key here, and in that respect time = money.

If you look at it from the other perspective, there's not much to see. This clearly wasn't written as listening music, as for that purpose it's way too long and uneventful. Had you not added your description, I would have listened to it as such, and your score would probably have reflected this for the worse. As it is, I'll stick with your explanation and tell you you have a storyboard for the track you intended to create, with a lot of merits, but not finished as is. And going for something on an epic scale like that to finish within two weeks, yeah that's steep - which makes it a risky move to submit a track like this for a competition.

You're absolutely on to something here, no denying, and I hope you manage to crank up the epic to 11 on tracks like this. Good luck on the competition!

Sequenced responds:

I'm glad you are able to appreciate it for what its purpose it. I've had some feedback from other DJs and the 3-4 minutes is enough, I had it drag out more while writing this but it just felt TOO dragged out. So how do you balance that?

The reason I'm submitting tracks likes these to NG is because of the international success they've been getting. So, is NG ready for something a little bit different?

Perhaps, I may make a rendition of my own for 10-11 minutes just in case for back up if I start touring. but when I listen to this, I think the length is JUST right. We will see :)