I like the pensive and atmospheric tone at the beginning. The sub-bass at :14 is a nice touch, and the mix is really loud. The 8-bit percussion fits the texture of the piece well, but also sounds like it’s ducking under the arpeggios at times. The piece is slow to progress, but the atmosphere is pretty engrossing, and there’s a nice sense of build-up into 1:50. The melodies at 1:50 are nice, and the little swells during the more mellow parts of this piece (2:26-2:30, for example), are a really advanced compositional tool that I love to see you use so liberally here. The transition at 3:45 threw me off a bit - it’s a very sudden change in the tone and pacing of the piece. The grand descending effect that starts around 4:40 sounds a tad harsh at times, but even the more jarring aspects of this last third of the piece have a lot of musicality and flair to them. Really unique and fun piece overall, Azuretone. My one major complaint here is that the mastering could be tighter earlier on when the texture is relatively busy. It might help to give the volume levels a bit more breathing room and use some more EQ’ing and/or stereo widening to keep the drums and synths in distinct slots in the mix. Still, you nailed the melodies, atmosphere, and sound design of this one. Keep up the good work, Azuretone! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
9/10

big chillwave fan here, so there's a lot to appreciate in this track. the sound design is mostly on point for the genre and the melodies are quite pleasant. i had to turn this down a LOT though - the mastering is just bafflingly loud, and every element is constantly fighting for front and center position. pull everything down, pan some instruments around differently, and scoop out some of the midrange frequencies on the bitcrushed leads. the ending also felt kind of pointless and dragged out too long. but in spite of the very major mix issues, i really did enjoy this!

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

This beat thumps! Liked the moody progression, wish there was a break from all the crush