This is an NGADM Finals Review.
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Just yes. I have no words to express how impressed I am right now. Every round you've nailed it. Not once did you slip up. You've simply delivered an extremely consistent and sky-high quality of music since the beginning of the competition. Ergo, this an extremely well-deserved first place.
This song... where to start? It's in roughly the same kind of melodic, journey-like style as your Round 1 and especially your Round 4 track, so you weren't reaching too far into your sleeve for this one, sure, but damn, despite that I still can't help but feel taken aback by the sheer splendour of what you've presented. This is insanely uplifting and huge, realised beautifully by your inspirational composition and thrilling array of sounds.
Once again, I'm a big fan of your main melody. You have this approach to melodies which I think is pretty unique (I've only heard it done before in the NGADM by RetromanOMG and to a lesser extent), where you think of this addicting little melodic phrase, and build whole melodies out of it, while somehow keeping everything from coming off as monotonous. You've done it in nearly every NGADM track thus far, and it's a great way of creating a hook without obnoxiously repeating the same thing over and over again like an extravagant amount of commercial electronic music does nowadays.
While there's a whole plethora of super enjoyable aspects to the composition, I think the highlight would have to be how you built up to the climactic sections each time (0:45, 1:19, etc), which was nothing short of gorgeous. The way you approached it was pristine, and the energy and emotion came through each time.
The secret behind those great buildups has to be the vocals. I think your vocal performance here (aside from some quirks) is brilliant. That dreamy, soft quality to your voice is nothing short of perfect for this track, and damn, you deliver it like a beast. Your confident delivery, amalgamated with the significant, but not excessive, use of reverb makes it sound like you're singing atop the peak of a mountain or cliff, facing a vast blue sky, rather than in front of a microphone in a small room. Great stuff.
The additional singing you've got in the 1:52 climax is an especially nice way to elevate that climax with even more energy and atmosphere. I kind of think that the only part which sounded awkward is 2:13. The vocals are mixed in somewhat awkwardly there, and they felt kind of sloppy compared to the much tighter performance of the rest of your vocals. Doesn't help that I had no idea what you were saying in that part either!
I don't usually dedicate much time to talk about the percussion of a track but I felt like I should talk a little bit about the drums here since I think they're some of the best drums you've done for this contest. It's easy to overlook them since they're just in the background, providing the rhythmic backbone for the track, but when I paid particular attention to them I realised that they're really damn good. I love how you use different drum sounds for different sections, opting for a more understated, glitch/breakbeat style for the verses, a heavier, DnB style of drums for the climaxes, and a set of drums more suitable for dance music at 2:13. You also have really great fills, especially during those aforementioned buildups.
Really, my main issue with this track (apart from that vocal section that didn't sit too well with me) would be the same one I had previously with a few of your earlier tracks. While I do like how you set up your melodies out of a single, small melodic hook, I was still hoping for something new to pop up in the form of an alternate/counter melody. It is definitely not much of an issue, as I don't think I would call this particularly repetitive, but it is something I wished for.
That's everything I have to say about this track. I can't possibly overstate how much I've enjoyed your music over the past months. As I said in an earlier review (forgot which), your NGADM tracks are simply perfect role-models of what I personally look for in electronic music. Congratulations on winning this enormous contest, and above all, thanks for the amazing music you've given us during your stay.
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SCORE: 9.6/10