Some nice playing with this one and you can hear that jazz style in this and it's pretty nice I like it but seems on the short side anyways good sound

~X~

cool

haha wait wait you went to my region?

Much as CryNN pointed out, length was a big issue while scoring. The track is sweet and beautiful but when others are willing to write 8+ minutes, 1:30 feels like a cop out. I actually hate a long track if it doesn't stay interesting the entire time and am typically of the opinion that sometimes a short track says everything it has to but for a song writing contest, I think 3 to 5 minutes is the goal to hit. Gotta stay competitive with your peers to a degree. If this was a theme-song contest for a cartoon or video game you got a perfect little ditty. This is a wonderful sample, but some users are breaking themselves in pieces trying to push the limits of length. IMO, stick to the middle ground, write something that isn't too short or too long. 3-5 minutes is fair in my book.

There are fidelity issues with those drums. The rhythms are all awesomely inspired, I love me some funk and the notation is inspired but the drum fidelity came across a little too digital and static. You could breathe a little extra life into them with some additional aux percussion samples or more dynamic range. Sometimes just layering in some new samples for tambs, rides, bells, chimes, cymbals, a second snare drum that hits different textures, a ghost snare, a second bass kick, anything really helps emulate the diversity that a live drummer might bring to the table as they push their kit to it's limits. Your rhythms are top notch, I loved them but I'm a drum slut that always wants more texture and power. Extra layers for the core drum components (kick & snare) will create some really nice diversity.

That vocal samples "are you ready" and "ow, oh mother" was perfectly soulful. I love it when people put that kind of stuff into the track, felt organic and real. I love me some live elements, even if they're "fake" or "afterthought" it just hits me nice. I love feeling like I'm there, a part of the recording process and in the studio.

The bass line was jumpy, staccato in the best way but maybe a few odd legato licks and pitch bends would have sounded nice? Maybe not? I'm learning bass guitar at the moment and sometimes I think something will sound good only to record video/sound and realize after that it doesn't. There was definitely some more room available in the mix and while you don't have to fill everything all of the time, you can often push the bass a little harder to fill negative space then counter that amplification with some good old fashioned side chaining. I guess I could ask for two things from your mix: more drum presence and more bass. These are hands down the strongest elements in your track but they lacked some power and unf.

Oh, back on the velocity of the drums you have a snare triplet at 00:26 that you could have written crescendo or decrescendo. A small roll, flam, or drag would have an amplification or de-amplification over time depending on how a drummer might play the notes. If you were going for full on IDM/EDM experimental music I would be a little more forgiving for certain ideas, but you have a really nice live jam sound going on and I would have loved to hear dynamics as nuanced as the notation.

Please don't read into how critical this might all come off, I love this track so much. I'm just letting you know where you might be able to tune up some ideas to write the best music you could possibly write. Deathmatch is a tough contest, I do hope you look around at what some of your peers have been writing because I'm amazed at the quality I've been hearing from the Newgrounds community in recent years. I'm sorry it took me a while to get around to this review but my IRL life is super busy. You have some inspired ideas and melodies, good luck with all your future endeavors!

Reviewing after the round.

Very short but sweet contest submission. I had to put down some points in the storytelling part just because of the lenght and structure. I very much enjoyed the overall arrangement and sound choice, the organ pluck is wack. I personally think the track could use more drum variations, or just more drum elements that are noticable. The mix could be less flat in the high end area, the low end is just right. The trumpet could have some dimension.
Otherwise very nice job