This is an official NGADM '18 Round 1 Review:
Beginning Comments: A fun, but solemn groove to relax to. I was excited to hear what you had to bring since I've studied you music before in chips compos, so I was pleasantly surprised by what you had to bring to the contest.
Production and Mixing: Nothing much to write in this category. It was well mastered and carefully balanced with the end result sounding like a finished product. Everything had it's place and I didn't feel like there were many elements competing with each other. Elements that were leading the piece were brought to the forefront as they should have, and the intricate background details did well to spice up the piece without being distracting.
Composition and Structure: Very simple intro. Makes for a solemn theme. This is not what I would have expected from you, but the first section after the intro came in pretty nice. Maybe a little suddenly. The vocal chopping is interesting, usually I'm not up for that stuff, but I like what you got here. Okay, I'm really digging the 02:00 section. It has a nice groove that easy to ride with. There's nice use of background details happening as it's going on too. The structure has nice use of dynamics, although I wonder if it's a little too bare in the quiet breakup at the 2:40 section. The rhythm was a very sudden changeup at 2:59. It's interesting but you loose the ambient feeling you were riding the whole way through. Granted, that's more the style I excepted you to have from the beginning, but it was quite the change compared to earlier. Overall, for the main theme / melody that you introduced originally, it was really basic. Which is fine for this style of ambient piece, and you did develop the structure a bit around that theme. I enjoyed that.
Sound Design: You had a very interesting choice of sounds and synths used. They were unique, but they did a cool job of emphasizing the feel you were creating with the composition. It all had a pleasant but uneasy atmoshpere that was fun to explore. The vocals you brought in were a nice touch. Didn't understand them or why they were there, but they seemed to work. The crows, will initially sounding a bit gimmicky, were a nice addition as well.
Ending Comments: It's a cool piece. One that displays your abilities in making calmer and more somber music. Not the style I'm used to hearing from you, but one you pulled off well. It was well developed, but ended on an inconsistent style compared to the rest of the piece. Good work.
Score:
Total - 7.5
Production - 2
Sound Design - 1.5
Composition - 1.5
Structure - 1
Replay - 1.5