Good job, I really love this one!

I like the tranquil, bassy intro. Has a quirky pulsing vibe, and also leaves you a lot of space for climax later on. The progression is a little slow, and the basswork suddenly drops out at around the 1-minute mark. The minimalism was wearing on me after a while - I think you needed to introduce some drums earlier to give this piece a little more drive. Same with melodic content. The beat pattern at 1:45 is really cool, though. I like the climax into 2:14, but the minimalism there was really underwhelming. Same with 5:15. I think anti-climaxes like that are best when the lead-up to them are not minimalistic themselves. The transition back into the floaty synths at 3:17 also seemed a bit lazy, and the very end of the piece is rather abrupt. Perhaps this piece is fitting for a DJ intro number or club mix, but as a stand-alone composition it leaves much to be desired. Solid work with the sound design, atmosphere, and mixing. I’d highly recommend putting more effort into your compositions, though. Keep at it, Voltus! ;)

6.75/10

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Okay, this is pretty cool.

Alright, so right off the bat, I gotta admit I don't listen to all that much electronic dance music. And I have to double admit that I've basically never heard anything like /this./ Hard to know if that's because your style is unique or because I'm just out of the loop ;-)

Anyway, this is a pretty neat electronic song. We start off with this really chill section with pads and chords, but then we get into this super cool arpeggiated section. Believe it or not, this section, around 1:15 is probably my favorite part of the whole song. The chord progression has a really nice vibe to it, and while the sound design on the plucks could be a bit better, there's nothing that's super distracting me from the song. Around 1:50 when you introduce percussion, it sounds /alright/, but it seems like you reverbed it a little too much and it doesn't punch through.

Anyways, after that, you do this really bizarre and crazy transition at 2:12 into... bass notes at 2:20. I have to say, I don't really understand the point of this part of the song at all. The bass melody is not really that engrossing or catchy or otherwise interesting, and the fact that it repeats for a full minute, and then comes back later, really hurts this song unfortunately.

If I were to point out my largest complaint with this song, it's probably that it feels too repetitive. There's nothing wrong with the first minute or two where the chords are cool and the plucks are effective, but once you repeat those base notes over and over it starts to feel overdone very quickly. And then when the second half of the song is practically the first half of the song all over again, it feels /very/ repetitive.

There's nothing strictly wrong with repetition, but you have to repeat material that is good enough to be repeated. IMO, those plucks are, but the gritty bass is not quite there yet.

In summary - cool track, with a lot of neat ideas. Trim it down a little bit (and also improve the mix a bit to make those drums shine) and it should be pretty solid.

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 2/4
Composition: 2+/4
Sound Design: 2+/4
Production: 3/4

Overall: 7.7

Hello there!
I guess I'll start by saying I really like the pitch shift that occurs a ways into the song and continues occasionally throughout. I'm glad to hear it doesn't sound like most other songs that do that in my opinion ;) Also a huge fan of those deep rhythmic sounds. They are nice and loud, but don't overpower the other sounds I think. Only odd thing I heard was a random crackle here and there at the beginning, but no biggie. Nice job! ^_^

Might as well drop an R4R since I'm in the contest too.

+ I like this chord at 0:38
+ Drums at 1:45 are really really cool
+ Sounds are designed decently for their purpose
+ Dynamics and transitions are generally well executed

- First minute is literally the same synth the entire way with not much else
- Kick at drop (2:16) is a bit underwhelming
- There is no reason for you to wait so long to introduce the hihat at 3:00
- After 3:16 the rest of the song is mostly stuff we've already heard before
- Some of the stuff in the drops aren't tuned exactly right
- Generally lacks a strong melody

Very few entries this year, huh? We all have a better shot at making it.