AIM 2023 Judge Review

Electric guitar seems like a strange choice for an intimate sex jam, but I think it works here. There's a looseness to the energetic nature of the chords and that plays well into the sketched style of the inspiration. I like how the composition is playful without being overly cheesy, which is fitting for the anime appearance of the two women in the art.

I don't normally like recorded or sampled sound effects being added to the music, but here it seemed like it was needed to get the concept across. Without the sound effects, it would have been easy to think of this entry as being like a surfer piece, but hearing the voices and the kissing at the end makes it explicit (no pun intended, haha) that this is about sexual curiosity and romance. The choice of using an electric guitar provides a grungier sound that actually makes the sexual tension seem more experienced than innocent. I feel like this piece is more convincing as a sex jam about two women who are familiar with each other letting loose in the bedroom and this isn't their first time in this kind of intimacy.

Overall, I enjoyed the guitar playing and the chord progression is fun. The sections flow pretty well into one another and I like the faster chords at 2:57 leading up to the recurrence of the main melody from the first section. I fear I might be too oblivious to understand some of the themes portrayed here, but I hope I got the general gist of it.

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

your guitar playing and harmony are so wonderful! ah man what a vibe. could jam out to that all day. what this makes me envision the most is a scene in which these two characters have their first kiss and as soon as their lips lock the song starts playing and we cut away to some sort of crazy psychedelic scene that's supposed to represent their experience. that's a cool take on this art and a good way to read into & play off of it without leaning into the sexual aspect (something tells me based on their clothing and poses that this is not their first kiss lol). it's cute, adventuresome, freewheeling. luv it

compared to the dynamism of your live playing, the drums suffer just a bit; there are times where repeated use of the same samples feels a little nagging, like when the crash starts hitting every beat around 2:30 and likewise for the snare 30sec later. to some extent you can mitigate it by modifying note velocities or very slight changes in the pitch, but speaking from experience trying to sequence drums like that, it's tough when you only have the one sample to work with. i totally hear what you're going for though, they're all great decisions for drumset writing...

my only other thought is that the energy level is fairly constant throughout and it'd be cool to see the song build up a little more than it does, or drop off & then build back up. all that said though, i really love this, it's such an infectious tune and you are a great guitarist!