I like the rich atmosphere and crisp beats at the beginning. The pulsing on those pads at :07 is really nice, and the relaxing mood and neat sound design help keep me engaged despite the slow progression. The re-intro at 1:22 seemed a bit dragged-out, but I liked the sense of build into 2:35 and the more melodic flair there. The mixing and mastering is also pretty solid here. Later on, I would’ve liked to see a tad more variety. The dreamy mood and cool synths only go so far to keep me entertained. A secondary melody, modulation, or sound design switch-up would be quite welcome by around the 4-minute mark. That said, you’re clearly a talented producer with a strong sense of progression, harmony, and production. I also really like a lot of the risers in this piece. The somewhat eerie outro was a fun surprise, too. Keep at it, Ziondiac! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
8/10

love this lush house sound. the sound design is mostly really simple but it's layered together so nicely. mixing is really solid, good separation between instruments and good levelling. the percussion is far too basic, though. it really needs a shaker or highpassed drum loop to fill out the space in the top and push the rhythm forward more. couple clap fills or snare rolls would be nice to accentuate transitions and break up long sections. it's also about 3 minutes too long for what it is, definitely needs a shift in melody/harmony or some other kind of textural build to justify the runtime. i really appreciate the dj-friendly intro and outro, though. make more!

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

Nice and chill.