I like the dreamy atmosphere at the beginning and the grainy white noise at around :20. At :30, the bass is a little too loud and the rhythm is a little hard to follow. I like the filtering work with the hi-hats at :47, but the clap at :50 sounds pretty generic and the harmonies in the chords and bass clash a bit starting at :58. The phasing vocals at 1:10 sound pretty cool, although they contribute to the dissonance in the harmonies. I also think this piece needs some more structuring. It’s almost 2 full minutes between :30 and 2:15 where there’s almost no discernible change in the energy level of the track. I appreciated it when you took this track in another direction at 2:32 (and also provided some melodic content in the process). I also think the production quality of this piece is rather good overall. The dissonances in the harmonies become apparent again starting at around the 4-minute mark, and I also think the way you gradually turned up the wet reverb on the claps as a method of fading out the entire texture was a little overdone. I enjoyed the prominence of the strings in the texture by around 4:30, but then the riser/effects that come after were pretty unnecessary and bombastic. Overall, despite all my complaints with the compositional details and such, I’ve largely enjoyed the mixing and mastering, atmosphere, rhythmic content, and progression of this piece. I think it couldn’t hurt to consolidate some of your ideas here a little bit and aim for cohesion in your composition, but perhaps a bigger priority should be injecting some creative energy into your sound design choices. Still, the arrangement of the piece sounds pretty unique, but also works well to keep the piece coherent. Keep at it, ThePal! :)
Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
7.5/10