after hearing so many good songs I finally decided to sign up here for newgrounds to show my appreciation for all the hard work people put into creating their stuff.

anyway.. I just wanted to say I really love this song. it has a really catchy, upbeat tune and the slow and fast parts of the song keep it very interesting. it's one of my favorites right now.

I'm sorry for not being able to "critize" songs like musician do - mostly because I don't care what awesome technique was used... the main thing that matters for me is if I like the song or don't ;)

ehmm..
NO :D

It sounds relly wonderful. Great work!

Never-ending FS style :] That is my first impression. The drums at the very beginning were reminiscent of the classic Hawaii Five-0 theme intro, but when 0:06 came around with its funky badassery, I can tell it's you. It's kind of like it's screaming 'hey there! I'm BACK!'

Ok, everything goes well...but then there's this thing that just does not sit well with me, and it is the presence of the thick, gated synth around the one minute mark. Perhaps if you take away the gate, it would sound a bit more put together.
You have a strong start as always, and it does seem to wander later into the song...but I know you don't aim for catchy, and that's okay.

Now, you've got a REALLY nice chords progression at 2:50, but again with that synth, I feel like it's taking away from the composition. So I thinking if you ever plan on editing this, I suggest altering the pattern of the synth, or removing it altogether so it says plain. Or maybe changing the instrument entirely, I don't know, it just doesn't mesh well with the rest of the song, which is probably something new I am saying to you, since you are usually very good at this.
Argh ok, after hearing it again, I am doubling my passion for that suggestion. I almost didn't notice your awesome flutey melody around 1:00. It is VERY GOOD! It's just that gated synth pissing me off! >:o Like an actual gate in front of me that keeps flickering in and out of sight, keeping me from seeing (I supposed I should say, hearing) the treasure hidden behind its thick, blocky presence. It pisses me off because you've actually got a very strong point here that is being bullied around.
Excuse the odd visuals... :D

Ha, and when that beat comes in at 2:37 it just is...great. Very powerful in its timing. From 2:30-2:40 is probably my second favorite part after my first choice of the first 30 seconds of the song. The cut-out string sounds at 1:50 went unnoticed to me at first, but then I realized why that part of the song sounded epic. :)

Oh and did I mention your drums? Because they are just fantastic. :3 The various phasing effects you used were done quite nicely. Then again, this is Mr. FairSquare here, so why should I expect anything less? :D

Your transitions are excellent as usual. Or should I say beyond excellent? Because they are so excellent that I do not even remember it being there as a "transition". It's just there, part of the song as a whole, only distinctly audible when being searched for.
One of the transitions that was so tiny and hard to notice, was the one at 2:25. It was pretty smooth in a choppy way... if that makes sense?
Okay, and probably your absolute BEST transition is the one right before 2:50 hits. It just quiets down so, so nicely. SO GOOD! It's like music to my ears. Wait... :P

Overall, strong beginning, but after the 3 minute mark I just don't feel much.

Okay actually, after several times listening to the whole thing, I am noticing something. It just takes what I did to notice I am starting to analyze and appreciate the part after 3:00 much better now. It takes recognition at the complicated stuff you have going on here, so that's maybe why it sounds rather uninspiring at first. But you know me, I break it down. I break down every piece of music I own, and I eventually notice it. So I can sort of see your creative process a lot more clearly now.

Rather than believe the word is more appropriate. People like to hear some sort of familiarity, and a pattern they can easily hold onto, whether they know it or not, and your piece lacks this familiarity at several points, occasionally making the listener lost for some time.

So, I actually do this several times, myself, to check. Analyzing, and in the process (unfortunately, dammit) memorizing it. I'll end up creating a track, or at least a part of something that I THINK sounds pretty good...and then I listen to a couple dozen other WIPs of mine, and just random music, really, and THEN...I go back to the original track in question. Basically, I listen to it with fresh ears, not having memorized every detail of it. This works best when I haven't already drilled the pattern of melodies into my head. When the track is easy to temporarily forget, that is when I find the best time for self-critique. To check and see if it's actually as great as I thought it sounded when I came up with it. After all, the creator will forever be biased from the start, being the creator and all...

Then again, what is it to be biased? CAN an artist be biased favorably against their work? It depends...on what exactly are the intentions, and what hopes to be accomplished from creating it in the first place...
Music is not simply a product for the entertainment of others, but an expression...
All of which is fairly obvious, I suppose.

Anyway, all of which I have said up there just now...ah...I end up not doing it that often, because it's too late-- I can't forget the darn melody in order to come back to it later FRESH! >:(
Ah, I forgot why I mentioned this bit. Well, it's late...

AH! I CANNOT STOP DISSECTING THIS SONG. That is the one fun thing about your songs, you know. They are just so fun to pick apart. I just noticed a very low, nearly unnoticeable plucky synth around 0:43 that continued for a bit.
See? I'm already familiarizing myself with the piece, and that's when you get past the most noticeable and start noticing the not-so-noticeable. Have you noticed? :3 I am guessing yes. Since you kind of are the artist, here. Yep!

Well, it's been nice hearing stuff from you again, my dear FS. ^__^

ps. I believe the character limit has lengthened considerably, no? ...I mean I've probably written 1k words a least, and it looks like I have space for twice the amount I have written here, now.
...I am enjoying this very much so.. :D although with a limit like that, I will truly be challenged in reaching it..
Hm...this is probably the longest review i have ever written, so really I could just start now...but I am way too tired for that. And i'll admit, out of additional ways to bug you :d

You know your style has really changed over the years! Before I thought you were purely an orchestral guy, then you started throwing drum kits in orchestral, and now you've practically invented your own genre. As usual, you don't fail to deliver a catchy, enjoyable and considerably badass song! Yay.

What I really must commend you on is how original this is. I think the creativity and originality here is one of the strongest factors of the submission. I'm hearing some orchestral stuff, some synthy stuff, and those drums are unlike any drums I've ever heard.

I love the two notes at 0:06 that play right before the beat, the occasional flanger you throw onto the drums, the way you gradually increase the amount of instruments playing at the same time in the intro, your excellent introduction of the melody at 1:01, how you sometimes line up the drum hits with the melody (that's actually one of the characteristics of your music, I feel :P), the extra two bars at 1:48 to allow the instrument to make its entrance, the little arpeggio at 2:24... I could honestly go on forever. All of that is well-executed and highly creative.

Some of the composition is just awesome, man. I especially love the 1:01's melody. As I mentioned above, you certainly took a solid approach to introducing it by first edging a monotone version of the synth you used for it at 0:50. The melody itself is memorable and well-made, and you even threw in another instrument under it during its second iteration (sounds like some sort of piccolo or something).

This song, however, lands directly in the same track that a lot of your other tracks land in I'm afraid. In fact it might be even more prominent over here. The more you go into the song, the more uninspired the melodies feel. At the beginning you really had something going, and later on, while there was some interesting composition, by 2:24 it didn't feel like the song was going anywhere.

Then you repeat a previous melody at 3:13, and while this is a good way to structure a song, that melody unfortunately isn't very memorable. In fact, it took more than one listen for me to notice that it had already been played before. This might just be because it isn't as upfront as a foreground melody should be, but I think it's because the melody is just too long and complex man.

You mentioned that you were trying to perhaps make the melodies too complex, and you might be right. Not that I have something against complex composition - far from it - but for a song like this, I think throwing in the awesome 1:01 melody at 2:50 and then building up from there would have been a much better idea.

I'm in two minds about the mixing. I absolutely love some of your mixing and I'm not fond of the rest of it. What I like is how much oomph you put into this track, especially the drums. That is something you're very good at. The snare that came in at 1:25 is fat, powerful and I love it. The kick has a nice deep punch to it as well, and compliments the snare nicely. The song doesn't sound empty at all by the way! It's wonderfully deep and filled up, without sounding like the sounds are having a drowning tournament.

Then, there are some other mixing choices I'm a bit unsure about. As I said above, the foreground melodies from 1:26 onwards need to be easier to hear, most notably when you have the main beat playing. I'm not catching all of the notes, because they're getting drowned out by the stuff that's supposed to be in the background. One other thing; the cymbals and shakers (or hi-hats, whatever they are) are kinda terrible haha. Waaay too much high-end; they sound very harsh and unprocessed. This is quite noticeable at 1:01 when you play those crashes along with the melody. They're almost leaning into the white noise territory; I'd really consider some better sounds for the high-end drum hits like shakers/cymbals, etc.

Some of your instrumentation is a bit MIDI-like (mainly the piccolo/flute thing) and I would've liked some more high-end reverb/delay on the synth at 0:39 to make it sound a bit more intricate, but otherwise your instrumentation is awesome. What's great about it is the fact that sounds that aren't usually used with each other are used and they sound good together! For example, the flute/piccolo along with the gated synth at 2:50 (and a drum kit as well). Generally I find it hard to fit flutes in with a non-orchestral drum kit, and usually flutes and synths go terribly with each other, but for some weirdass reason it really does work here!

The drums... man. I don't know what to say; other that the mixing quirks they're fantastic. Maybe a bit TOO varied at points, but honestly, they're so interesting and fit with the song so well that I really don't care whether you vary them too much at points. The fact that they're varied makes them entertaining to listen to, and I bet that even if you stripped the song of the rest of the instruments, the drums would still be interesting on their own.

Last point; the transitions on the whole are nailed. You almost never have problems with transitions and this song is certainly no exception. You seemingly effortlessly lead up to different song sections. I especially like 1:23's transition, and how at 1:26 everything comes together after that little snare roll. On a related note, the intro is quite good and so is the ending!

Well, that's all I have to say (still loving the bigger character limit). As a recap, you've got something really intriguing, creative and well-made here. I did mention some issues, mainly that compositional quirk and that mixing quirk, along with a few smaller problems here and there, but I also mentioned a hell of a lot of good things, and that calls for a high review score from me!

8/10
4/5