I like the quirky synths at the beginning. I definitely can hear the jazz influence here. The bass line is great, the mid-range syncopations mesh so well together, and the drums are crisp and refreshing. That string line at :58 has a nice sighing tone to it, and the dissonance at 1:13 is good for some contrast. At times, the track seems surprisingly minimal, and I wished the bass was a bit more prominent in the mix during some of the downtempo sections. This piece might also benefit from some more distinct structuring, as right now the energy level is pretty constant, despite the variety in the sound design and rhythmic elements. I especially like the scratchy zipper-sounding effect at 2:45 or so. The glitchy breaks at 3:13 fill a nice contrasting role with the more melodious texture earlier, and once you started overlaying the melodies at 3:31 I was seriously jamming out. The strings helped drag me back down to earth at 3:51, and overall you hit the piece home really well. I haven’t heard many tracks in this competition that take a more contrapuntal approach to layering melodies over each other and try to maintain your interest with so many different instruments at once, so that’s good enough for full-credit in the “originality” category in my book. Also, I’m really digging the production quality, rhythmic content, sound design, and atmosphere of this one. Keep up the good work, xkatttt! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9/10

Lots of tasty ear candy in the second part, very nice tight drums and the first part has some nice melodies, overall very nice!