I like the quirky synths at the beginning and the creative rhythmic content. The piece was a little slow to progress for a while, but the somewhat dissonant ambiance really helped give the track a stronger sense of direction. By around the 1-minute mark, you went beyond the point of creating a meaningful progression and the piece started sounding a little anti-climactic as my sense of expectation waned. The production and sound design here are really cool, but by 1:40 or so the fading texture loses all sense of momentum and completely shifts moods into a tranquil, pensive haze. Both halves of this piece sound pretty and well-constructed, but there isn’t a strong sense of connectivity between them. I can tell you’re a talented producer, but the composition here just ends up sounding pretty underwhelming at the end of the day. I wanted to hear some more complex structuring to the piece and some dynamic melodic content. Still, you managed to pull off a pretty ambitious transformation of the piece that unites two very different characters in one track. It’s like the entire piece was reborn as I was listening to it. Unfortunately, the experience was still a little jarring for me as a listener, like my pre-teen daughter died in my arms and then got reincarnated as a 40-year-old man. This is one of those pieces that really tears me up, because I really love some aspects of it (the mixing and mastering, instrumentation, atmosphere) but others really rub me the wrong way (arrangement, lack of cohesion, lack of melodic content). Overall, I’m going to be pretty generous here because I’m still impressed that you managed to wed two very different harmonic ideas with such a sense of flow. Damn. It’s these kinds of pieces that make me really start to question the structural standards I use to judge this competition. Anyway, keep up the good work, man! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
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
8.25/10