I like the sound design and atmosphere at the beginning a lot, as well as the rhythmic content and the ominous mood. You blend the orchestral/world and electronic elements of the texture quite well, and the eerie flute riffs contrast really nicely with the grouchy mid-range bass. There’s a lot of reverb in the texture, though, and the drums don’t always come through the mix as strongly as I would’ve liked. The bass-y percussion at 1:54 is also something I really would’ve liked to be more front-and-center in the mix. I also would’ve liked to hear some more melodic content and/or harmonic depth at some point, but you still did a fairly good job creating variety with the spacey breakdown at 1:54. Some of the main riffs towards the end could’ve used more variation as well, especially compared to the first refrain at :46. Despite the full texture and rich atmosphere here, I find myself craving some vocal samples or even full rap verses that further sell the drama of the piece. Still, some nightmares are better left unspoken. >:D Really neat piece overall, Ryzmik! Absolutely love the instrumentation, catchy breaks, and apocalyptic overtones of this one. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
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?)
1/1
Composite score
9.25/10

Excellent blend of tribal elements and EDM. The only items for complaint I have are that the snare on the drop is down in the mix, reverb at times is too heavy on the low mids, below 250 hz, creating a wash that is hard to cut through.

Beyond that, I've listened to this 3 times in succession and not tired. Fantastic chords and percussion. Some trimming of frequencies and verbs here and there, maybe some sidechain, and all those lovely percs would cut through on big sections more satisfactorily. Overall, love it.

Thanks for coming out to NGADM!

(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)

this is a very cool mixture of sounds - everything comes together for a really interesting and engaging full soundscape. big fan of the high flute part and the blend of acoustic and electronic percussion. the wobbles and general aggression of the sound feel like they lend themselves to the, uh, spikiness? of the character, and having so many elements together feels kinda abstractly synchronized with their ostentatiousness, the full regalia of their getup. musically i liked that there were sections focusing on different parts of the instrumentation, like the segment in the middle with drums and strings; it would've been fatiguing for the whole song to be so huge but things are paced out in what feels like an appropriate way. an effective and interesting track imo!

AIM 2023 Judge Review

I am not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to production, but I feel like the production in this track might be the best I've heard in AIM this year. Something about the way the sounds are placed and mixed hits just right and I can see why this was a huge challenge given how many wildly different sounds coalesce. Every part sounds so clear and even the harsher sounds don't hurt my ears.

There's been a lot of great D&B tracks combined with other interesting sounds or genres in past AIMs, and I think this entry continues this trend perfectly. I love how the composition captures an intensity, but there's also some lightness in the upper winds that help to bring the character in the art to life. I can picture the character as being extremely menacing and swift and they can leap away in a moment's notice when approached.

Overall, I like the balance of simplicity in the melodic elements paired with the complexity of the texture and sound design and that comes through very clearly for me. This track is worth replaying a lot just to hear a lot of what goes on in those musical layers. It not only manages to reflect, but also elevate the art it's inspired by.

sounds like very old school dubstep