Quirky.
Well, I must say that this fit very well in the 'Drug the Mouse' submission which I had to review since it was requested in the club. You can't begin to imagine how many times I've been listening to this track, since I spent so long trying to beat the other reviewers' high scores xD. Yeah, that being said, this is a very enjoyable piece. It has so many quirky synths and melodies that I couldn't help but smile in some parts of the song. Good work.
The way I see it, the melodies are definitely the highlight of this submission. As I said, they were really quirky and as iHeartQuistis said, it's not that hard to notice that there indeed is a lot of talent in the melodic section. The melodies actually sound very unique with a nice chord progression and very good rhythms. I like the small melody playing at the very beginning, and the main melody coming at 0:29 was excellent, and I'm sure it won't be easy to get it out of my head.
Another thing which was cool was that the background depth always changed. Sometimes you had an offbeat bass, sometimes you had some pitch-bent square waves, sometimes you had this cool plucked sound, etc... I could listen to this more than once and hear something new in the background. On the other hand, I really would've liked to hear more alternate melodies, since the main melody at 0:29 sounds overused to me, since it was used quite a few times in the song. This led to the song sounding quite predictable, which is a bummer.
The instruments weren't too special. They all sounded quite dry, and while I liked some delay effects you put on a few instruments, the sounds weren't really anything special. The square synth you used at the beginning was nice, but other than that, I think you could have been a bit more original and creative with your synths. There's a piano too, which really didn't work in this song I think. If you need to know how to make synths, and you have Sytrus, then this is probably the best tutorial for how to make synths that there is:
http://blackhole12.newgrounds.com/new s/post/80532
In-depth, but still in such simple and easy-to-follow diction. I think it'll definitely help you out. If not, you can download VST's like Nexus (2), z3ta+ and Vanguard.
On the other hand, the transitions were all very well executed. Each section flowed smoothly to the next, and the only transition which I think could use a bit of work would be the transition at 1:15. You introduce a new, slightly louder and more high pitched plucked synth, making it sound like it came out of nowhere. Giving it a bit of emphasis when it comes in like adding a crash cymbal or fading it in would definitely help not make the transition so sudden.
The structure was pretty unique. A common structure is keeping a similar background but varying the foreground, but it sounds like you varied the background more than the foreground. This has both an advantage and a disadvantage; advantage being that you have a unique structure which makes this song sound quite original, and disadvantage being that most users focus on what's playing in the foreground making this sound a little repetitive... So yeah, I think you should still vary the foreground a bit, maybe by adding some subtle changes to the melodies. However, both the intro and outro were superb, so nice job there :D.
The percussion was cool. You actually added a tambourine to a song like this, so you get some points for originality :P. The beats were good, and I loved the drum transitions, especially the one at 0:27. The drum samples could've been a bit more interesting, but other than that, I was impressed by your drums. I also liked that kick hit thing you first introduced at 0:46.
As an overall conclusion, this is a cool submission. You've definitely got all the melodies nailed perfectly, and all the stuff in the background including the drums were awesome. The two main defects in this would be the lack of alternate melodies/repetition in foreground and the bland instruments. Other than that, this is one heck of an awesome song. Good job!
9/10
5/5
-Review Request Club-