Best of /mu/ Contest, Vol. II – Review of Submitted Tracks (Part 2 – page 1)

The Sifters – Goodbye Waves

Very nice mellow song with sort of an hawaiian style and a little bit of 60’s style voice harmonization. It’s pretty fun and distinctive.

New Motive Power – Breathe

NMP is kind of evolving. After doing a bunch of pretty different tracks, especially collaborations with The Hai, I see this track is coming back to improve more specifically on the style exhibited on his first album, which is a sort of 8-bit dance punk, I suppose, which made his track the most voted on the first best of /mu/ compilation. The track itself is powerful and fun, with a nice progression and an effective transition between hard and softer parts.

mattir – You Trusted Me

Another guy connected to The Hai. Here he brings a pretty and sweet electronic track with an interesting synthplay.

Slamsterdam the Wicked – Tupac ft. Notorious B.I.G, Big L – Deadly Combination (Slamm’s Wicked Man Riddim)

A mashup track including the mentioned rappers and the classic Jamaican riddim. It works pretty well, very entertaining.

RPBGV – The Natural Cold

A pretty “voice over EDM” track sunken on reverb and reverby synths that are strangely related to each other. It’s not the most impressive thing I’ve heard the whole day, but isn’t bad. The inventiveness of the synth work is cool, I’d like to see more of that style.

Jypantificitus or Paul – DSS Baby

This is very strange and I know I’m voting for it, it just sounds like /mu/ from beginning to end. If you’re skimming through the tracks, absolutely stoop to listen to this one. It starts with a bit of a Gershwin style intro, then degenerates into early Jazz singing over insanity blues/jazz, then gets crazier and ever more fun, and then it’s over. Is anyone reading this? Absolutely vote for this dude!

A Problem Like Maria – Eviction Notice (Produced by Nemo Hose)

Yeah, this is APLM rapping, strange ain’t it? The rapping isn’t bad, the emotion is there, but perhaps at could use a little bit more of that, the “being in the moment” aspect of it. The chorus is nice. I personally like her better when singing. Her work with The Hai is flawless, to the extent that it might kind of suck without her, it wouldn’t be as interesting as a whole, I suppose.

Background Character – Ether

Well, he’s calling it chillstep, it’s interesting synth play on the droner side with a sort of bleak futuristic distinct style. I like it, but it isn’t stellar or anything.

Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack – Out From Underground Alive

Another The Hai member, and the guy responsible for possibly the best track on their first serious album, Pop Songs. I can’t recommend his track there enough, Think About You. Now about this one. I like it a lot, the singing is beautiful, the lyrics are good, the structure is flawless and the EDM side of it comes forward more than on the previously mentioned track. I was talking with the guy the other day and he blames pitch correction for his perceived beautiful singing. You know what, I see absolutely no problem with that. That enables him to be fully responsible for the final outcome oh his tracks, not depending on a second person to sing it for him. This is a wonderful thing and makes a track like this possible, it’s not simply a medium for someone singing, but works on both ways.

\\BOOMGLITCH – nobody

It’s an interesting glitch track, classified by the author as post-IDM. I like how the voice samples struggle but end up coming through eventually, which means the structure of the track is satisfying. The voice manipulation is interesting, as well as its relation to the broken beat. I like it.

-Carpeaux