I like the frantic piano harmonies at the beginning and the energy here. I think a lot of the harmonies here sound really dissonant, starting with the line at :14, and the drums are a little haphazard and overwhelming at times. The texture feels really incoherent at times, and the progression takes a lot of sudden twists and turns, like the abrupt transition at :41. During the busier sections, the mix can also sound really muddy. I think you tried to do a little too much with this piece. I’d encourage you to try consolidating your compositional ideas a little more. Try working with only 3-4 percussion sounds at a time, and constructing harmonic riffs around a simple chord progression that only uses 5-6 pitches in total. That should give you a solid baseline of a harmonic framework. There are certainly moments here where you have a strong harmonic paradigm in place here, like from around :45 to 2:10, but otherwise there’s not a lot of cohesion in the harmonic patterns of these riffs. It can be hard to construct a meaningful harmonic progression if you don’t know a lot about music theory, but until you get a feel for how to keep the arrangement of you track cohesive and well-balanced, I’d recommend keeping things simpler. Originality is important in music, but I think it’ll be good for you to prioritize creating core harmonic motifs in the near future. Please PM me if you have any questions, or just want me to review some of your other work. :) Keep at it, BALDORF!
Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
.75/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.25/1
Composite score
4/10