Bronyquest Fundraiser: BALLOON PARTY

[Interrobang Pie]

My brief thoughts on the output of the album.

[Circuitfry]

I legitimately have 0 time at all to respond to this topic.

Sorry guys.

[senntenial]

Woo! C is passing. I guess. Least you didn't tell me to kill myself this time, I-Pie
What were you're favourites from the list, guys?
Mine was MHM's. And Six of Lasers was pretty good too.
Did I ask this already.... Ugh I'm so tired.

[MixMastaCopyCat]

I legitimately have 0 time at all to respond to this topic.

Sorry guys.

Runs balloon party:
Doesn't have the time to talk about it.
...
...
...
DAFUQ!?

Because it's not like he's getting hounded by hundreds of people, rite?

[Dave!]

Hi! I'm dave, this is what i have to say to all of you who are complaining vigorously about not getting in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2Vvj5VFszQ

[spacebrony]

Is it weird if I thought the demo for Break It was even better than the one that ended up on the album?

I still love both versions, though.

Makkon's "Little Toy Shop" is something I love as someone who's interested in music production, but not really listening to music. I mean, holy CRAP is this well put together. I don't think I'd ever really listen to it the same way I'd listen to a song like Break It, but damn is it just PERFECTLY mixed.

I like songs like 16-NOCAB.

[Whitetail]

There was no favoritism. I am dead honest about this. Songs were judged without artist names explicitly known. The only way you could tell is if you heard the teaser beforehand, or the song had already been tagged as such. There were many well known artists whose songs did not make it. I was shocked at some of them when I learned who the artists were.

So please, PLEASE, do not assume that the track list was based on who was submitting the track.

Okay, sure, but can you explain why Balloon Party was billed as "THIS HARD", only to have tracks rejected because they were TOO hard?

Maybe there wasn't favoritism, but there sure was genre bias.

If you're talking about Dave!'s entry no it wasn't rejected for being too hard
It was rejected for being too violent, it was a rather big debate whether or not it'd get on the album (with people pushing for it for the reason that it was definite hard EDM) but in the end the final decision was to turn it down - it was discussed the possibility of putting a warning on it but a song that included intensive horrific screaming, chainsaw sounds and weeping in pain it was a bit much.

It wasn't genre bias, we didn't get many hardcore/speedcore/hardstyle/hardtrance or assorted other literal "hard EDM" entries.

[Ricky Denzel]

I'm sad that I didn't make it...

[BetterDash]

I'm sad that I didn't make it...

It's okay, i didn't make it either, but there's the afterparty !

[Ricky Denzel]

WHERE?! I love parties

[BetterDash]

WHERE?! I love parties

http://balloonpartyafterpartymix.tumblr.com/

Hop in !

[Freewave]

Well i put my own thoughts and some track reviews in here.

As people said there's loads of post-BP projects and other ways to get involved if you missed the cut or simply missed out (or wanted more cowbell).

**F*ck i just hit 1000.....**

[Pickslide1992]

Yeah, Lunar, some of us are going to do the after-party album. It'll be great fun and a more than favorable consolation, since understandably BP had incredibly high standards and limited Bandcamp space.

[ArtAttack]

My only contribution to this thread is to say that I'm kinda bummed that I got three songs in while some great guys didn't get any. Hopefully we'll know more of what we're doing if we do this again, and stricter rules and guidelines will be set.

[Dave!]

There was no favoritism. I am dead honest about this. Songs were judged without artist names explicitly known. The only way you could tell is if you heard the teaser beforehand, or the song had already been tagged as such. There were many well known artists whose songs did not make it. I was shocked at some of them when I learned who the artists were.

So please, PLEASE, do not assume that the track list was based on who was submitting the track.

Okay, sure, but can you explain why Balloon Party was billed as "THIS HARD", only to have tracks rejected because they were TOO hard?

Maybe there wasn't favoritism, but there sure was genre bias.

If you're talking about Dave!'s entry no it wasn't rejected for being too hard
It was rejected for being too violent, it was a rather big debate whether or not it'd get on the album (with people pushing for it for the reason that it was definite hard EDM) but in the end the final decision was to turn it down - it was discussed the possibility of putting a warning on it but a song that included intensive horrific screaming, chainsaw sounds and weeping in pain it was a bit much.

It wasn't genre bias, we didn't get many hardcore/speedcore/hardstyle/hardtrance or assorted other literal "hard EDM" entries.

Can i just make a point that i really dont mind my track not getting in for those reasons. I admit i pushed the envelope a bit too much and i think i may of accidently sent it.

[Klecior]

If you're talking about Dave!'s entry no it wasn't rejected for being too hard
It was rejected for being too violent, it was a rather big debate whether or not it'd get on the album (with people pushing for it for the reason that it was definite hard EDM) but in the end the final decision was to turn it down - it was discussed the possibility of putting a warning on it but a song that included intensive horrific screaming, chainsaw sounds and weeping in pain it was a bit much.

Is there anywhere I can find this track? Or will Dave! try and submit it to after party? I would really like to hear it.

[Mallard]

Oh boy, this is likely to be the longest post I ever write here, but here goes, WITH THIS I OFFICIALLY DECLARE MYSELF TO BE REVIEWING THE MUSIC POSTED ON EQD AGAIN. Prepare yourselfs, for the ramble is going to go on and on....

Now, I'll start with a bit of pretext to my listening experience here. I've not really followed the news on BP too closely, but talk of it in the various music groups I hang around in on skype and IRC means that it wasn't hard to get the basic idea. As far as I know, it was billed as a HARD pony album, and its focus intended to be... hardcore music. I knew however, that knowing this fandom, that a real hardcore gem was unlikely, and that the average brony musician has a some what warped view of what constitutes hardcore. The other thing I know is that owing to the massive amount of hype preceeding this project, everypony and their brother submited tunes to this (except me lol x_x), amongst them a fair first time musicians and it seemed to end up being regarded as something of a popularity contest, rather than a musical one. So forgive me if going into this, my optimism is somewhat guarded. I'd love it to be a real hardcore album.... but what I've heard already has suggested otherwise....

Also, note that here that my standard will be considerably higher than it is for most of what I review on EqD, as this is being billed as a professional quality release of what represents the best of the fandom's output. I shall also be reviewing it as an album of dance music, that is intended to be played by DJs and listened to in a club environment. I shall be listening on a pair of BeyerDynamic DT-150s, plugged into a Creative Audigy ZS2 and a Behringer headphone amp.

Anyhow! Without further ado, let us hit the play button and let the ramble commmence.

1)Art Attack - Break It

Weh. Within the first few seconds, I hear modern talking, and a repetitive electro riff. The first drop presents us with a rather cliched house synth, as is entirely typical of the kind of dull schlock that is blasted at me in the clubs I find my drunken plot at that likes to pretend that it's house music. Okay, okay. My obvious predispositions against this genre aside, this is quite competently produced, and there's a lot of cool fidgety synths going on here. There's not really any glaring technical faults here other than some painfully obvious presets, but this brings absolutely nothing innovtative or intereting to the table whatsoever. It's an entirely transparent aping of the painfully tedious and run into the ground electro house genre.

This track move between segments way too fast and is in not very DJ friendly, it's mastered in the typical "soundgoodizer" fashion, i.e. heavily compressed so that it can be driven as loudly as possible, with everything being smooshed into the same narrow dynamic band.

Seeing as this is meant to be an album of dance music, there should be mixing bars here that a DJ can latch on to either side of the main melodies, sections of raw rhythm in which the DJ can easily beatmatch the track. This requirement is often why the original mixes of electronic dance tracks are a lot longer than your average pop and rock tunes. Break It somewhat achieves this, I guess it has a few bars of nearly raw rhythm before it drops any major riffs, but I know I'd struggle to mix this one. About 30 seconds in, we're already at the first breakdown, and the track structures itself similarly henceforth. The dancefloor is barely given 10 seconds to latch onto any one rhythm or riff before it's all changed up again, this is a tune that just... doesn't know what it wants to be.

I'm kinda sad really, as obviously a lot of talent went into making this, but it lacks a basic understanding of what works on a dancefloor. I think I can perhaps forgive it though, as I doubt much of this will end up in clubs. I just don't know man. I can't get behind this, yet I feel mean writing it off entirely as it's competently produced. I think this might be setting something of a prescedent

2) Six of Lasers - They will See Me

Okay, I gotta say this one caught me slightly off guard, with the cookie cutter brostep beat and arp intro, I was expecting this to be absolutely run of the mill brostep schlock - which in way is exactly what it is. But it also has a little sprinkle of magic. It has a bit of that old dubstep feel, it has that esecence of minimalism, chopped in vocal samples and dark atmosphere that make if feel just that touch bit like the good old dubstep of old, before the DUB entirely fell away from the step.

Then about half way through the track, it kind of loses its way once more, for my money. The whirring hoover bass moves yet further into the midrange. I think I kind of knock off on just about every brostep track at the 3 minute mark though, it becomes annoying to listen to hoovers screaming at you after a while. That being said, I actually think this is a pretty good tune. It's got a legitimately dark feeling to it that could be enhanced with some real dub elements and a softer mastering (something I feel is going to be a problem on this whole album), but not bad. Not bad at all. I guess since this was a "hard" album, it had to be hard. Fair play.

3)Nettohunden - Get my Rope

Hm! I am impressed that this one actually launched into some proper mixing bars. +1 respect for that much! But I'm quickly disappointed as it drops into an all too familiar house organ... and then by the time you're into the meat of the song it's just... like they took the synths from the first track and rearranged them a little. That being said, this makes more structural sense than Break It did, not trying to jump around all over the place constantly and generally harbouring a much better understanding of what works on dancefloor orientated tracks, so I can certainly commend it for tht. What I cant commend it for is how the midrange of the drums absolutely rape all the melodies, treading right into their frequency range. Not that there's much new to hear there, but hey, I can't deny liking a fair few cliches myself.

I guess if you like complextro, this is okay. But I can only pass it with an average mark, as there are a few ameteurish mixing mistakes that make it irritating to listen to.

4) Lavender Harmony - Arrivederci

Welp! I am liking what I see already when it comes to length, this tune clocks in at over 7 minutes. when a dance tune is on the longer side, you're generally onto something good. And we have a nice orchestral intro... and some breakbeats sweep through it. OH yes. Here we have a vocal and... yes, a cookie cutter 2-step dnb beat, but a good one. Oh wow... guitar solo, piano chords? You can tell by my writing style here that I'm legitimately getting excited. this is kicking major ass already. I will make one big complaint is that introducing that two-step pattern so early on for such a short period was a mistake.

And now... now, now it's dropped into the main part, oh dear. It's sounding incredibly plastic, what happened? Those hats are all the same velocity, and there's no comrpression... but wait, this section was also very short... this is silly. With some excelent thumps and swoops, we sweep into a the main part, in which the beat is backed by some tasty amen slices, and orchestral stabs, and a nicely processed vocal that neither stands to proud or recessed into the mix... this is the first track I am actually enjoying on this album rather than begrudgingly accepting its intrusion into the space between my ears.

Yet it's making that same mistake of fidgeting about too much for its own good... there's so very much to like here, dripping with orchestral loveliness and increidble sound design that I can forgive it however, its one fo those sort of tracks that makes a bit of a hodge-podge work, given the tense theme of the lyrics it reall- oh! Nice breakdown with the choir pads, but again, it came too jarringly. This track is trying to be too many things all at once - but they're all rather intensely beautiful things.

What we have here is an artist that is a master of composition and sound design, but not so much in structuring a track. there's an EP's worth of ideas in under 8 minutes... but you know what, as much as I constantly bitch about this kind of thing, I love this track. It's high octane, it's beautifully engineered for the most part, there are but a few scratches on this diamond that need polishing out.

I'm lovin' it.

5) Makkon - The Little Toy Shop

First, I must commend Makkon for this clever title The Little Toy Shop... TLTS... The Living TombStone. Good stuff. Now, onto the music, I expect good things here from this worthy name! Starting off with a haunting toybox melody and a seriously awesome metalic beat that makes full use of stereo space, this is... legit, true industrial. In come the slamming pistons, and thumping hammers, I really do feel like I'm in pinkemina's demonic toyshop. Makkon, you are not disappointing me here bby. And oh my... just before the 2 minute mark my ears are treated to some incredible syncopated mechanical rhytms as the thumps drop... and a build up to die for.... that so deceptively drops back into the original melody now backed by the shuffling rhytms of twirling drills and spanners and all... manner of sounds that put you right in the industrial zone. I cannot fault any of this. It's a true journey into pinkemnia's warped mind. It's a walk through the workshop. The funky workshop. It is amazing.

This may not be paticuarlly hard, but I've kind of given up on this album being so. This is at least innovative and dark and wicked.

6) Pinkie Guy - This Monster in Me

Okay, I'm begging this cool spacey trancey intro isn't about to be raped by turning into another complextro nightmare, especailly since.... ooo... nice dark indsustrial beat on the down low. And we acutally have here a relatively slow build.... OH LOL IT'S METAL

Hahhahaha professional trolling there, that caught me totally off guard. I am sure this good metal, but I am not one to judge on this genre. I can only commend it for being something actually hard. Not within my reviewing capabilities, so next tune! (but hang on whilst I enjoy this)

7) Icky - Everfree

Wayyyy... waiit! Are those some 90s style jungle pads we're starting off with? <3... I'm guessing he started with a random bit of beat to aid beatmatching, capital effort, but if that was the intent that bit should have gone on longer or not been there at all. we have some interesting soundscapes and the OBLIGITOARY PONY SAMPLE before the real build up into.... woah, some pretty knarly drum and bass indeed. Good work Icky, man! WHEN YOU GONNA DO THAT TUNE FOR MY LABEL BRUV? Ahem, anyway, this has a nice biting bassline, some classic pads, the drums feel a little stuffy and could do with some crisping up through EQing, but they sit nicely in the mix and sound polished and nice. And man, that gnarling, snarling reese bass... it's a really good 'un. I feel like the filter sweeps as it's building up arn't really all that effective though... that kinda sweep doesn't really work on low frequency content so well.

BUT WHY
WHY MAN IS THIS SO DAMNED SHORT. THESE ARE DANCEFLOORS NOT RADIOS. MAKE THIS TUNE TWICE AS LONG AND I'LL GIVE YOU A HANDSHAKE TWICE AS FIRM.

8) Assertive Fluttershy - Boooring!

Right, bit of pretext, here, I originally dismissed this track straight out of hand, on account of me being a grumpy git, then later realized that was a rather foolish thing to do indeed, and I just looked like a massive pillock. The original is quoted in the thread on MLR (incase you're not reading on there). Yes I am a twat. Here is a real review.

OKAY TIME TO REREVIEW

THE INTRO STABS ARE nice building sawtooths but this sound is by this point getting somewhat long in the tooth on this album...

THE WUBS in the chorus lack any real punch and feel very subdued below the two-stepping beat, the reverberant hihats would be nice if it wasn't for the fact that they were crowding out everything!


OOHH

it suddenly became drum and bass, this I can approve of. There's something amiss here though, it feels like the drums have been bandpassed and all the highs are cut off! Infact I am getting a general feel of stuffy mastering on this tune, it's suffering from a lack of dynamics. I'm not sure if I'm listening to this in high enough quality, damn...

Okay, this tune is a lot more interesting than I originally gave it credit for, definately, but I stand by my judgment that the sound design employed is lacking in any pizzaz - we've got all the checkboxes checked without any real flair. The drums punch okay, there's some supersaws, house organs and a bit of modern wobblel.

The strucutre is interesting with altenrating half and full time segments. A respectable effort, but a rather tame one on my books.

9) Echelon - Sleep

GATED SUPERSAWS RUSHING AT ME WITH A GLITCHED VOCALS.... this COULD BE GOOD..... OH MAN WHEN IT DROPS IT IS. This is hard. This is brostep, but it's hard enough that it might actually offend the dainty ears of the usual guidos and chavs that listen to this schlock. That makes it awesome. It's full of complextro cliche sure, but there's something of a kick-you-in-the-face xfactor here that's making me acutally enjoy myself. It's tipped over the edge from bland-and-inofensive-hard-but-dont-frighten-the-fillies to HARD AND FLUTTERSHY WILL RAPE YOU IN YOUR SLEEP.

Thankyou, Echelon whoever you are. You have made me enjoying a genre I usually hate by turning up the dial to rediculous.

10) Jackle App - Cawtion
Okay, Jackle, Jackle, Jackle! My first friend in this communtiy, let's see what you're up to now... RATTLING THE FUCK OUT OF MY SUBWOOFER I SEE... oh gosh, why did you have to ruin it with extremly messy mids....

hm okay, this started off with a lot of promise, but quickly descends into something of a train wreck. Those drums are far too dry for this genre, they don't slam at all, they're just rattling around in the midrange with no dynamic or vibe, and this whole thing sounds like it was bandpassed right into the midrange.... The sound design here is just muck....

but then something magical happens when the wubs drop out onto their own! This "breakdown" is by far the best part of this very messy track.

Sorry bro. This is just screaming right at me with no finesse, everything is squashed into the midrange, there's no regard for mixing, sound design or anything really. This is just a mess of differnt distorted sounds.

11) Foozogz - New Fluttershy (Monster Mix)

HOLY BREAKBEATS BATMAN. HOLY BREAKCORE ROBIN. This is the sort of thing balloon party should have been made of, and it stomps major ass. Incredibly high speed amen work here has my head pounding like fuck, YES SOME HAPPY ARPS. SO MANY WONDERS INFUCKINGDEED. Oh god I'm crying tears of rainbows and joy and my head is bouncing. This is what hardcore should make me feel like. I love you, Foogoz. BUILDING IT UP AGAIN WE HAVE SOME MAJOR AMEN ASSHAULAGE

I LITREALLY
cannot
type
anymore

you should pay $1000 for balloon party but it should all go to foogoz

thankyou
based
foogoz
I will tell this story to my grandfoals
but my ears are tired now...

plz more variety and this will be the most perfect thing ever.

12)Tarby - Rejected

Ah, 8 minutes! that's a good sign of competence. And we're starting with some awesome autechre eseque clicky rhythms and sweeps... oh man I can feel the Autechre. This is good. Very Amber. Okay... so this is Tarby, so it goes a bit more... rock. Which isn't my area really, but the near whispered vocal that gradually builds... it's good! I feel like I'm rapidly falling away from my territory with this one, so I'm going to stop here since anything I can say from here on in will be rather meaningless. Sounds capital, though, Tarb!

13) Dawn Blush - Midwives of Discord - Graphene

Okay, okay! this one is sounding like it's going to be rather rocky again... but we have some rap! GEEK WITH A HANDGUN. haha okay, this one's gonna be all about the lyrics. You're the kinda brony I like, whoever you are. This is a lot of fun. The production is great too, with its metal chugging and breathey sounds. I'm not really great at reviewing lyrics, but I know I'm enjoying myself here with this chap. he's starting to repeat himself a bit... but it was good to begin with.

Heh. Next!

14) Psychedelic Brony - From the Gaping Cavity

REVERSE REVERSE REVERSE REVERSE. Hiya Psych. Let's just open this in audacity and put it the right way again.... Heh, just kidding man. WE'VE GOT SOMETHING quite hard coming here after that reversey bit. BUT OH MAN. Awesome psychadelic guitar work as usual, and drums to match oh my~ THese those abbey road drums you were pedling around? Either way, this is something totally left of centre as always.

AND HOW COULD WE FORGET THE HAMMOND SOLO

We couldn't. I don't listen to your music very often Psych, but when I do it always makes me smile. You're incredibly competent at something not many folk can do. But then we're wobbling. Okay! Since you're a good friend of mine and know my wrath, you've kept those wobbles in the real low down zone. Awesome. with some screaming guitar too... that's a neat effect.

Capital stuff as always, amigo!

15) Senntenial - Bronies are Weird

FIRST OF THE BRONIES. SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE PONES. Okay, all similarities asside... wait, I can't put all the similarities asside, otherwise we'd have no track here! Children, foals, fillies, there is more to dubstep than a lopsided lesbian who had to quit singing metal. I doubt I'm going to be able to continue without dropping the S word, so I'll just pass this up... so much for "no modern talking"

16) Aussie Asher - Spinner

WE'RE SOUNDING RATHER INDUSTRIAL HERE. And that kick... it's a tasty one. Do we perhaps, despite the short length of this tune have someone who knows how to strucutre a tune for the dancefloor? I think we do! <3 this is building up into an asskicking... oh I hear some use of TAL DUB there, nice one. BUIILLLD AMEN TRILLLS... they're awesome. And some hoover synths here. But eh, I feel this kind of built up to be a lot more intense than it ended up being. This wanted to be full on hard, but if it was the squeemish fillies that obviously made up the BP review board would have cast it out.

But asides, asides, THIS HAS A LOT OF WIN IN IT. It just feels like it never quite reaches its apex before it goes into that nice stabby breakdown. And the mixing feels somewhat stuffy, with everything in the middle of my headphones, in the middle of the frequency range...

Yeah. There's a lot of promise here, would love to see this worked on some more since I like the ideas in it a lot <3

17) Ark - Ascension

Okay, given the length and intro I think this is going to be trance... maybe hardstyle trance? Hm! We've got some pretty piano riffs coming up, and a kick that really bites in. Nice electro bass. this is the kind of electro aesthetic I can really appreciate, as it's not pretentiously trying to be EPIC AND HUGE. It's just slinky, smooth, wobbly and raw. This producer, this is a guy who knows what he's doing with the genre, somethign that's been sadly lacking on the electro front so far. oooo, nice little solo... I think we're building up into the true apex now. We've got those house chords that I think I'm starting to develop a stockholm-esque liking for... BUT this build up is over extended. You're milking it now bud.... COME ON DROP YOU TIT... oh, it did. And when it did it didn't feel like there was terribly much more. You could have at least overdriven the kick at this point or something, man... it just doesn't feel like it's enough for that kind of epic buildup.

This tune has a lot of right ideas, but like the last one is lacking a cerain something something. It could do with being harder, it could do with less incescent building and breaking. But there's a lot to love nontheless, there's bass that really slams the subwoofers, a kick that really cuts through, lovely atmospheric sweeping pads on the breakdown, and that little glock melody.. ah~! <3 timpani rolls and... hm, after this point I just don't know. It's gone and done something different again, and we've got a needless influx of modern talking. This tune has gone from being a promising bit of true electro house to being yet another commercial house track that's trying to be more epic than the last guetta piece of nonsense.... but on the way out it's making more sense again. I've a bit of a fetish for the mixing sections of house tracks, it must be said, but I really think these parts in which you let each sound speak for itself rather than overwhelming everything with supersaws and modern talking are the best. Since that kick

really bites.

Needs work, but this could be epic if it wasn't trying so hard to be epic.


18) Neu KatalYst - KataklYsm

Okay, drum and bass then! And lots of ks. KKK. This rhythm is a tad on the dry side, but let's see where it goes, eh? We have some very muffled breaks swiming underneath the epic pads, rising back up through the filter... perhaps a little far. it's starting to clip! Loudmodernmastering.wav Yeah holy shit man, this is clipping something awful. Stop trying to make your tracks as loud as possible, leave some headroom and let people turn up the sound on their cards.

Apart from this rather glaring technical fault... I don't know. I feel there's nothing really slicker than the average here, if this came on in the middle of a DnB set, I probably would barely notice and I'd be at the bar getting another Jaegerbomb.

19) Stars In Autumn - Dark Terrors

okay... rumbly rumblin' bass... and more music box sounds. but that bass isn't really bass, is it? It's midrange grunge... hm, there are interesting things indeed being done with delay here. this is sounding rather like a movie soundtrack with that POUNDING ORCHESTRAL PERCUSSION. But then the drums come in and muddle the whole track.... fortunately they go away rather quickly!

This sounds like it's very good compositionally, as is the skill of those that tend to write orchestral pieces such as this one, but it just needs unlocking with a nicer mixdown, give it a bit more space... and air. WOW TECHNICAL TERMS.

But yes, nice hard orchestral, there's a lot to love here, just sounds a bit stuffy.

20) HMage - What Stays and What Goes

Ah, HMage. With HMage there are two things of which I can be assured. Zero technical errors, and saxaphone. With that, I hit play! And we have some delayed bass hiting my 'phones. A slightly anemic electro beat, but growling, sweeping bass to make up for it... I'm hoping that the real kick's about to drop in... OH YEAH THERE IT IS.

I dunno man. I think there's a bit too much grit in those basses, and although they're pounding into the sub section of my cans, it's kind of not leaving enough room for the percussion... OH THIS SWIRLY E-PIANO PAD AND.... gweh, that snare you're bringing in is awful dry sounding.

Once again when we drop into the main bit, it's awfully dry... as the gritty bass is eating up all the sonic space. Now HMage, I know you're one to be very careful with that, being the expert mixmaster you are, but I feel that this track is lacking in any real melody and that bass is somewhat... obnoxious. You're a master of sound, but like my good self, your compositional skills need some honing. This has all the right pieces, just not quite in the right order...

And in my honest humble opnion, it needs more saxaphone.

21) Princess Addictia - Balefire

Now there was this one Princess Addictia tune I had on loop for like, a whole day "Wonders". It was radical, so my expectations here are high. Let's play!

Sweeeeeppp.... some mechanical hihats and supersaws, good good. That's the kinda addictia goodness I was expecting. Pianos and all, as we build up into something...... what is that something? The drums are falling through the filter as an arp furnishes these rather lovely pads. And vocal samples... yeah. This is another top tune from addictia and IMHO could easily find its way on beatport. It perhaps steps a little on the repetitive side, with those constant supersaws, but I can't really fault a DnB track for that. Good DJ friendlyness, good everything

This is the most professional sounding tune so far. Hats off!


22) DJ MHM - Divinity

MHM, you're off to a good start with these euphoric sounding pads! You know just how to please your uncle mallard. Not so much with that whiney g-funk synth... eck! This is quickly building into a rather unpalatable wall of sound... let's see if we're about to break it down... okay... nope. Modern talking everywhere and employed with all the finesse of a rampaging rhinocesorous, and not in the awesome way either. There's a very fine line between doing this properly and making a huge sonic mess, and I'm afraid you've found yourself on the wrong side of it. Next.


23) Cyberpunk Colt - Impact of Friendship

Hmm, wonder where I recognize those offbeat stabs from? Haha! That being said this is building into something promising, as we've got some wobbles that don't sound horribly overdone... but I think I know what's coming... YOI YOI YOI WAHAHWHAHWAHW WUUBWUBWUBWB. Weh. That being said, this aint a bad application of modern talking, it's just a very derrivative one. Too much epic sweeping everywhere, too much midrange, and no bass. I think I'm gonna hit next.

24) Aviators - Never Back Down (ThatSonofaMitch remix)

Aviators? THe elevator pop of Bronydom on a hard album? Well, okay then, this is a remix... but your voice is pretty nice. I can't fault you on that one. But similar to aviators originals, this remix is entirely derivative and uninspired. UNTIL... wow, that drop... is that your voice f3nning? shout out bro if that's you. But wow. THE FIRST WUB. IT screams. These are some rather legit indeed wubs, sure, it's the kind of metalic midrange stuff I normally slam, but ThatSonOfABitch has shifted the gear lever into a new realm of rediculous filth that's putting a rather joker-esque smile on my stupid psychadelic muzzle. But that's by far the best thing here.

The rest is... well, let me just hit the next button.... just after the next chorus. SCREAAAAM. These are some of the tastiest wubs ever to sneak into the midrange.

25) Icky - Interrobang Pie Invades Equestria


The two Is and a G, I se- MALLARD PUDDLEDUCK HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE CONVERSATION. Anyway! Starting off with some cheesy chiptune chirpyness that I-Pie has so mastered, we then are treated to... the dulcet tunes of i-pie's voice. THen SOME ICKY DNB GOODNESS. OH WOW... THOSE NES FALLING EFFECTS IN THE HOOK ARE AWESOME. That's the kinda shit I really dig right there, I'm presuming those came out of famitracker under the g-man's capable hands.

I dig, I dig.

Icky you can do no wrong, bruv. But what you can't do is make your tracks long enough. LONGER, LONGER GABBA.

lol game over yeah

26) Pinkie Guy - Loco

One that I'm again sure is very good but I am enitrely unequiped to say anything about. Next!

27) AcousticBrony and PrinceWhateverer - Breaking Bonds (Ft. Mando, Lulz, MHM and George)

quite the crew here! nice casiotone beat starting us off... CHUG CHUG METAL THRASHING. That thing I dont know a thing about ;w; HEHE I HEARD A CUSS WORD THOSE WERE MEANT TO BE BANNED

28) Aviators - Melody

Okay, I'm sorry Aviators, but what are you doing here? You've balked at all the awesome hardcore tracks in toastbeard... you're the last person who should be anywhere near a hardcore album and it's showing here, man. You've ticked the complextro boxes of modern talking, supersaw abuse, and all that here, but there's no deeper understanding of what makes harder tracks good. THat shaker in paticular is really annoying, and this is just... a wall of sound. You're a lyrics and singing guy. You do the lighter thing well, it's a bit elevator, but what you do has a place, and it's not on a so-called-hard album.

29) Makkon - Dregs of a Bitter Cup

SECOND MAKKON. I've been looking forward to this since the first one! AND IT'S NOT DISAPPOINTING. Same awesome shuffling, stereo spaced rhythms and industrial feel.... OH ORCHESTRAL STABs. Man do you make awesome use of stereo space. The pounding bass guitar perhaps muddies things a little in the low-mids, but there's so much awesome here. Epic orchestral, epic breakbeats that shuffle around and click, a true understanding of how to make something sound epic in scale without building an obnoxious wall of sound... and oh gosh. THOSE CHOIRS. You must have all the kontakt banks in the universe, and my oh my can you use them.

Once again, I have no real criticism. Beautiful.

30) Stormwolf - Lunatic

HELLO MAN WHO LIKES TO BREAK MY SKYPE GROUPS. WHY DOES THIS SOUND SO SIMILAR TO SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES? Doesn't matter, it's better than that piece of cack. And then we build into some modern talking... okay, this is at least done some what tastefully, with a nice steady punchy beat and those vibe trills. But again... it's just another modern talking midrangeline (I REFUSE TO CALL THEM BASSLINES ANYMORE I QUIT). I feel like a fair bit of talent has gone into this track, but no real ideas have. It's compentently put together, but it's a competently put together ford focus or honda civic rather. Which I guess is better in ways than a shodily constructed Porche 911. But I think I'd still rather have the latter.

31) The Living Tombstone - 16 NOCAB

So I've heard much talk of so called Tombstonegate, and how this track is not only his weakest work, but totally doesn't fit the theme of the album. I WILL TRY AND PUT THIS PREDISPOSITION ASSIDE WHILST LISTENING.

Ha. Jazz jackrabit called, he wants that bassline back. TLT, your other songs called, they need their beat back. It's only going to stretch so far you know... Damn. This really is incredibly half arsed. barely 2 and a half mintues long, consiting mostly of the same repeated beat, bass and arpeggios. Despite the insistance of the BP organizers that the tracks were blind selected, with the listeners not knowing which aritst they were listening to, I struggle to believe that was really true in this case. It's as obviously TLT as it is obviously lazy, and as obviously chosen for the name alone as it's obvious this was made in an hour at most.

32) Sci - Hurricane Dial

Ah, Sci, the great innovator of our community, and the great organizer... the great tracker... the great everything! Except the "great at making his tracks longer than 2 minutes" I have high hopes, so let's take this one for a ride. Oh teehehee. THis is such a mess. A great silly glorious mess, in typical sci fashion. It's like akufen meets skrillex. I'm not sure it's really music as such, but I like what I'm hearing nontheless. It's litearlly raping my aural sense with a 12 inch dragon dildo.

And that my friends, is what hardcore should do.

33) General Mumble - Stinkin' Thinkin'

General Mumble is a name I can always rely on, and right away, my cans are being kicked at and snarled at. Yummy! The supersaws are perhaps a bit dry, but that's not a big problem... EEEK this screaming lead isn't helping my headache. By the time we get to the hook, I feel things are perhaps a bit all on top of each other. Suffering from that all too common complextro problem of trying too hard to sound ULTRA EPIC with new synth lines coming left right and centre.

This just didn't really do much for me in the end.

34) Silva Hound - Everypony's Bangin'

Now, Silva Hound's Pony OC EP was my soundtrack for almost a whole week, and the stuff this guy does is some of the best house in the fandom... so let's see what we have here! I'm not really liking that high up synth much, but the pumping of the bass and drums underneath shows that usual level of professionalism from Silva. AND WE'VE got some lovely house MC chanting coming in as a HOOVER DESCENDS INTO THESE ORCHESTRAL STABS AAAANNNDDD..... oh of course modern talking. That thing that was advised against in the original post of BP that has appeared on over half of the tracks on BP. Being silva hound, thes usage here is tasteful, but still, I am just pure sick of this sound.

PIANO STABS. OOOH REVERSY PADS. That's a nice hoover sweep. I'm liking this second build.... NEOWWW! enough chit chat. I want to like this more than I do, but I feel the combination of modern talking and sidechained white noise is muddying up the midrange a little too much here. It's just assulting my ears with too much at the same time, and those autotuned vocals... nah.

Silva I love you, but this is pure commercial cheese. But then again, it is balloon party...

35) H8 Seed - Lung Buster

Now I've griped at H8Seed before for his technical falldowns, but I griped so much because he's an excelent composer who could really do with some improvement in that area... or at least he was! Let's see how he's come on.

We have some drum and bass. WHAT HAVE WE LEANT. LOTS OF CONTROL. definately, these thumping breaks are a massive improvement over what I heard before on manticore. this isn't really my style of drum and bass, that being said. The bass is far too grating and distorted, being more of a midrange line than a bassline... what is this trend in EDM these days of neglecting the bass so heavily? I swear, everything is being mastered for iPod earbuds rather than club PAs... I digress! I guess this is a pretty good tune, especially when it breaks into those drum trills around the 2:10 mark. There's a lot of energy here, for sure.

I just find it hard to get too excited about! But I think I'm going to blame my fatigue at this point...

36) Elspongie - Helium

Okay, this track is less than 3 minutes and its not by sci. My hopes are not high, lets see if I can be proven wrong. We start with house organ... then sigh, modern talking and high pitched stabs.

Meh.

37) Circuitfry - Orbital Friendship Cannon

Okay, this is the chap that organized this whole malarkey! Let's see what he's got... oh dear. He's got some rather dry sounding presets and no bass whatsoever.. like literally this sounds like it went through a high pass filter. I'm going to take a large gulp of my tea now and quell this headache I'm developing from this muddy mess of midrange and cliche.

Seriously, what happened here? It sounds like I'm listening to a 32kbps mp3 of a flp project from 1999. uck! I think I may have found the major issue with this album right here.

38) Cyrricky - Party Pony

Woop! nice, we have some proper DJ friendly percussive introduction here, sounding like we're in for some hard house. and the beat sure slams with nice punchy snare and some... vocal chanting coming up! And wow, an electro synth that's being allowed to stand on its own? Magic! I love that, because that's really what this genre was originally about, stripping house down to its bare minimum, and replacing all the space with these cool solo leads. What artists seem to fail to realize today is just how much sonic space unfiltered waveforms take up YET STILL THEY ADD TO THE WALL OF SOUND.

This isn't done here, so hats off! It's actually a pretty hard, cool track, that isn't trying to be epic, it's just trying to kick you in the balls. IT's not as hard as would be to my tastes, but competently done. PINKIE PIE.

Hats off cy for actually understanding the genre. woah. SOME ACID IN THE OUTRO. TRES BON. MY SPIRITS ARE LIFTED.

39) Michael A. & Whitetail - Prominence

Michael A, 8 minutes+. <3 There is no way this could go wrong. Interesting offtempo beat to start off with which sounds like samples of a filing cabinet being droped or something... AH YES. Building it up with some real drums. That's a heavy beat that really bounces. Lovin' it. Rising up with a sawtooth, we have some more drum fills... I feel like something pretty great's about to happen. This build's going on a while, but that's totes acceptable for this genre. This melody seems very very hardstyle.... but when it drops, oh... no distorted kick? OH right, I forgot, Balloon Party, where distortion goes to die....

Anyway! Yes, The drums feel very anemic here for the sort of genre this is meant to be, this sounds like it should be hardstyle, but isnt. The kick has no body, and the hi hats rattle annoyingly. I really want this to be hardstyle. It sounds like hardstyle with its manhood lopped off... UNTIL. Okay, perhaps I've been trolled, BECAUSE WE HAVE THE FIRST DISTORTED KICKS OF THE ALBUM RIGHT HERE. They're not hitting the bass as much as they should by any means, but at this point, any kind of distorted percussion brings a smile to my muzzle and a glint in my eye... ah yes.

That being said, it really feels rather anemic indeed, the kick's just not hitting as hard as it should, it's not thumping, it's not hitting my headphones with vigour, it's just floating in the low mids. Capital effort here though to do something a bit different, and it's actually hard. Just needs a fair bit of work in the design and mixing department, it started off so good! I think with a little polish and some more oomph in the drums, this could be a really awesome bit of melodic hardstyle that sweeps through mutliple movements.... Close but no cigar.

40) Elliptisoar - I Know You're in There

Stabby stab stab. Here come the supersaws... but then something a bit different than what I was expecting! A hippity hopping steady breakbeat. Wow, that made no sense. ANYWAY. I admire this track's decision to do something a little different with the complextro/moombah sound palette. And the fact that it's really rumbling my headphones something amazing. It's not trying too hard, it's not switching up every 4 measures, it keeps a nice steady beat and groove and really bites into the bass. This is pretty much making the best possible use out of sounds I dont like, and it's radical. The bass in this track is something evil and it's awesome.

Thankyou, Elliptisoar whoever you are for having a grip and not getting carried away. This is just a lush little darker tune that doesn't get too big, and it's all the better for it. And when there is one minor drop near the end, it's neither over extended or over the top. This is a very, very good track, and you can take the word of someone who doesn't even normally like this kind of thing. oooh, and it speeds up near the end too!

41) Alex S and PinkiePieSwear - Disco Lights

OH THESE VOCAL SAMPLES. Well, we have an all star cast here for sure, PPS and Alex S are both legends, and PPS is perhaps the best, most innovative musician this fandom has ever seen. This though it seems more dominated by the Alex S sound... which is good, but it's a bit too BIG and commercial for my tastes. Loud supersaws, and constantly changing rhythms and over reliance on vocals... it's not really my bag. I can tell that this is well made, but it's for the play of a human CD changer down at your run of the mill student union club.

I feel kinda bad slamming it, but it's a case of doing something very overdone, but doing it very well. If modern talking, screachy stabs and supersaws are your kind of things, you'll love it. I'm just disappointed at the lack of X factor that'd make this track appeal to everypony, especially with this kind of pedigree.

Shame!

42) Silva Hound and ArtAttack - How Far We've Come

Hm! This combination of names makes it hard for me to get any kind of first impression, so let's hit play and see...


THUD THUD THUD THUD. THE KICK HITS. I like it. That's my kinda thing. The rhythm builds too, into something rather nice... until the hats and snare come in, then it feels somewhat awkward... but as that fades away with some delayed noise... we have a really rather nice synth section providing the breakdown with some melodic chords and an epiano coming from the right... then it switches into something else... Hm, that was a little jarring, but these are some nicely designed house chords sweeping through the filter... and then tapestopping... I get a whiff of levels here. It's spending simply TOO long building for my tastes, its rather milking it... I guess that modern talking was rather predictable. Oh dear. It's become a complete mess at this point. No finesse to its use here, its just all over the place, out of time...


Wah.

ArtAttack, pls go.


The second set of wubs fair somewhat better, THIS TIME they've dialed up the rediculous to the level it becomes good again. I find midrange cack tends to do that. It gets progressively worse the harder it tries, then it suddenly gets awesome again when you push it that little bit too far.

43) Twitch - Mass Destruction

Those stabs... I wonder where this track is going? I'd love for it to supprise me... and it does! With a supprisingly funky house beat with a deep yummy kick. Ah, the art of hihats i thought was so long lost from house... make a glorious return in this tune! my toe is actually tapping. This is hard, but it keeps the funky element of house that I spend so much time mourning the loss of these days... stepping down through the filter... we've a nice stabby breakdown... WITH A LOVELY EUPHROIC CHROD PROGRESSION. Man I aint heard that shit since the 90s, and its lovely. This track is proving to be a lovely combination of new and old sensibilites and it's really quite refreshing. My ears are enjoying themselves a lot.... there's a bit of the complextro, and there's a bit of the good old house sensibility going on here. This is what modern house music should sound like. Funky shuffling beats, a hint of euphoria, but still maintaining that harder edge that's evolved.

Hats off to you twitch for making something unique. We need more house musicians like you.

44) ISMBOF - Friendship in Tartarus (The Escape)

Hm, what have we here? some spacey... breathey soundscape... Ahh, this quickly becomes metal that I have nothing to say on... next!

45) Makkon - Dregs (ArtAttack Remix)

ArtAttack, silly artattack. I don't know how you intend on improving on a tune by god himself, but I'll hear you try! I feel I've been terribly harsh on you in this whole review, and perhaps it's that what you do is entirely not my thing and I'm a big tithead.

I certainly am liking this more than anything else you've done so far, but I'd still much rather listen to the original. That kick you bring in is a bit anemic considering the epic tone of this tune. And it rolls into that ever so predictable drop into......... yep.... WOAH. This is has officially tipped over that complextro tipping point where it gets so hard it gets fucking awesome. I'm going to have to come up with some kind of name for that. MY HEAD IS NODDING. SO MUCH BETTER THAN EXPECTED.

THIS
IS
HARD.

and then we have a radical breakbeat coming in. Art Attack, if all your tunes were this ass destroying I'd love ya. Great remix of a great tune, totally better than I expected in the end, and a great way for the album to go out, leaving me on a smile (and a stomped ass)!



FINAL THOUGHTS

Wow, this was quite the journey. My ears and mind alike are rather exhausted. Was it worth it? Well, well. The standard here was very inconsistant, and as Zovi/SSH warned me, there's barely a single distorted kick in the whole thing. There are some real ass stompers in this album nontheless, but they're burried under a sea of very derivative complextro and artists that obviously have a limited appreciation of harder genres that were jumping on the bandwagon. That being said, I appreciate this was more a display of community than it was about putting together the best album ever, and I appreciate that. Everypony banded together and did their best, but this philosophy was underminded by several points. Pushing everyone in the hard direction wasn't perhaps the best idea for such a long compilation, seeing as this was more about getting the MLR community to band together rather than it was to make a cohesive album, something this long by this many artists with so many styles was never going to make for a great result if you try and channel them all down one path, one which I feel the judges didn't really understand to begin with. From what I've heard, a number of truly hardcore tracks were rejceted, stuff by the likes of Dave! and Supersaw Hoover, the aritsts that really understand hard dance in this community. When you have this wider base, and as many people judging as BP did, you end up with everything being pushed very into the middle of the road. The reach of BP was simultaneously too narrow, and too wide, resulting in a rather bland selection that's ended up pleasing nopony - within the musicians communtiy, at least.

No doubt though, as a "commercial" product, this will do fantastically, and we have to remember, the intent of BP was to make money for the community, and as such, maintaing the level of hard-ness at commercial was probably a wise choice, that way, the less musically inclined are going to be more intersted, and there's no awesome 300bpm terrorcore to put anyone off. Still, I think it's kind of bad that this is being billed to the general public as a hard album. It's a narrow slice of club (somewhat) friendly complextro, brostep, and electro house. Exactly the kind of thing I could assult myself with down at the local bog standard commercialized clubs.

I was perhaps somewhat naievely hoping that this would be our community easing the general brony population into hardcore, by dressing it up with a bit of pony to make it more friendly. I guess I'm rather disappointed.

FINAL DISCLAIMER

Please dont take anything said here personally. These are simply my humble thoughts, filtered through my perception of dance music. I may well be wrong, and I may well be a horrible snooty gitwizard. Feeel free to tear apart my critisms, call me out for being a cunt. I'd love to have a chat with any of you guys <3

[Icky]

Wow Mallerd that's one insanely long post! And you're totally right, I need to work on giving my tracks proper mixing intros and outros.

I had to rush Everfree a bit though (actually wanted to do a good outro on it) because of the looming deadline, but your post has inspired me to do an extended version (after I finish some stuff I'm currently working on). Thanks for the praise and the feedback, always appreciated.

[CommandSpry]

Oh what a coincidence, I also did an in-depth review:

Baloon Party review


1) First song - it started off nice but it ended nice
2) Second song - absolutely awful, 9.5/10 yes type is alrit
3) Third song - I don’t know what this is doing in BP, definetely going on my iPod
4) The other songs - I have no strong feelings one way or another

Summary: Balloon party, buy shit and get hoes *shrug*

don’t watch this niggers

k

spry will mak u more analasas

5) Princess Attic - Balefingers

Is good song, it starts like DnB but troughout the whole thing you can kinda feel that it’s not DnB, but more Drum and Bass.

6) Rick Astley - Never gonna give you up

The drum intro is amazing and the singing is very strong, the music is simple but catchy and overall it’s a great tune for the radio.

7) DJ MHM - Divinity

Rock and roll at it’s finest

8) Ark - Ascension

This song definetely had a beginning and an end, as well as a middle part

9) Makkon - Dregs

Lal fagget

10) Eduard Khill - Vokalize

Fantastic track

11) Robert Prosinecki - Areantuet

aeiou

12) Kobe Bryant - Never gonna give you up

No comment

13) <><><<<>>>>

Suddenly, the end

no srsly it’s the end fags why are you still watching this

do you enjoy text appearing before your eyes so much

if so then write something yourself

it’s easy look I’ll write a song

In the land of the mountain queen


A big crimson dead enormous faggot
gagged hating in jail

omg, THE FIRST LETTERS ARE THE ALPHABET :O:O:O:O:O: HOLY SHIT CALL TEH POLIC
[00:56:39] Dj Pon-3 / Freewave/ thescientist: wow i can see your typing
[00:56:47] Dj Pon-3 / Freewave/ thescientist: so virtual!!

now you see me copy pasting

:OOOA::AO

if you laughed you are a bad person

why?

I’ll explain

no

let’s continue with the review

what song did I miss

4934) Lavender - something starting with B

This song generally had an impact on my headphones, because I could hear sound coming from them

2390234) The best of Kirghistan - Shalom prostitutes

This was a very hard track indeed, I think my hair exploded

3298) 4”33’

Beest drop

11) Skrillex - Scary monsters and nice first of the years

need mor cowbell

12) Devil May Cry 3 OST - Devils never cry

choir, metal shit, kill stuff

13) The Legend of Zelda - UN Owen was her

This song, originally made for the Legend of Zelda, is very slow and uneventful, it’s really painfull to listen to and it makes my head hurt, 98/100 (IGN logic)

Hey guys, if you just joined in, this is a text document that is expanding by some thread of logic that is yet to be explained to our human brains,

it’s totally not Spry writing stuff, what gave you that idea

If it was me I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t say if I wasn’t not writing these words that are untrue

K let’s move on with the review

I’m gonna grab an actual song now k

hmm

but I dun remember names :<

there’s gotta be one called

12) DJ Harddrop - Electric Boogaloo

This one was particulary interesting because of it’s use of sound

13) Darude - Sandstorm

I just don’t see this song catching on, it will be a hipster project that will soon be forgotten

14) All you have to do is dream - by those guys I forgot the name of but they sing very nice

This song made me feel very happy mainly because I won the lottery while listening to it.

15) Satan - I love Jesus

Great track, very philosophical

16) NOCAB

What the fuck was up with this one, if this is hard then my dick is 40000 inches

17) ArtAttack - remix of the song that was already in the album

this was a song

18) Rick Astley - Together Forever

…....what? Rick Astley had other songs too....

19) Icky - Ipie invades...eh...what was it...I think it was Detroit

This song had me hooked; the bass was perfect but the only complaint I have is that the bass isn’t very good
haoly shat

k one more song

20) Michael Jordan - SLAM JAM HEY LADIES YEAH ARE YOU READY TO STOP (I DUN REMEMBER IF THIS IS WHAT THEY SAID) NO no wait that’s not how it goes

fuck it this is the v2 version

HEY PERSON IN CHARGE OF ELECTRONIC MUSICAL EQUIPMENT

- Pardon me, my dear chap?

ARE YOU IN A STATE CAPABLE OF CEASING ACTION?

- I must decline.

DO YOU HAVE AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS PARTICULAR BEHAVIOUR?

- I do wonder that myself.

IT APPEARS TO BE BECAUSE OF THE SLAM JAM

k the end no rly go home

Pardon the language but it's true opinions

[MatthewMosierMusic]

27) AcousticBrony and PrinceWhateverer - Breaking Bonds (Ft. Mando, Lulz, MHM and George)

HEHE I HEARD A CUSS WORD THOSE WERE MEANT TO BE BANNED

I was wondering this also... As much as I love the song, it threw me off a bit when I heard it.

[Klecior]

27) AcousticBrony and PrinceWhateverer - Breaking Bonds (Ft. Mando, Lulz, MHM and George)

HEHE I HEARD A CUSS WORD THOSE WERE MEANT TO BE BANNED

I was wondering this also... As much as I love the song, it threw me off a bit when I heard it.

Guidelines:
1. Cussing/sexy stuff won't make your track hardcore, so don't disqualify your track from possibly playing at Bronycon.

It was said that cussing may disqualify it from playing at Bronycon. It was never said that it may disqualify it from being in Balloon Party. (Or at least i can't find any note about it, correct me if I'm wrong.)

[Stars In Autumn]

19) Stars In Autumn - Dark Terrors

okay... rumbly rumblin' bass... and more music box sounds. but that bass isn't really bass, is it? It's midrange grunge... hm, there are interesting things indeed being done with delay here. this is sounding rather like a movie soundtrack with that POUNDING ORCHESTRAL PERCUSSION. But then the drums come in and muddle the whole track.... fortunately they go away rather quickly!

This sounds like it's very good compositionally, as is the skill of those that tend to write orchestral pieces such as this one, but it just needs unlocking with a nicer mixdown, give it a bit more space... and air. WOW TECHNICAL TERMS.

But yes, nice hard orchestral, there's a lot to love here, just sounds a bit stuffy.

haha, Thanks for the critique. I agree, it does sound muddy at parts. I have trouble with mixing still, it's an ongoing process. I noticed the music box is clipped really hard, especially at the end and it really hurts the piece I think now. I swear, I don't know how I miss these things...

[senntenial]

Mallard, would you be surprised if I said that I've never used the modern talking waveform, and that I've only heard one song on the Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites album? Hahah xD

But wow, you spent a long time critiquing those songs! I haven't had the patience to listen to half of them yet. Thanks for taking the time.

[Whitetail]

"This hard"

Started as a joke before it became a catch phrase.

The album was originally a parody of Knife Party, which is rather obvious from the title.
It was never once sold as a literal "Hard" EDM collection

Like ever.

In fact the original vision was dubstep and moombah before it turned into just do whatever you want but make it intense/hard. Hardcore/Hardstyle/etc. don't exclusively own the term hard when it comes to subjectiveness (yes if someone said Hard EDM outright it has a legitimate connotation, but used in the context it was it never outright meant that) - fuck hardcore exists as a name for multiple genres (punk, metal, etc.) - you'd have to indicate it rather clearly if you wanted to literally sell it as a "Hard EDM" album.

[Dave!]

If you're talking about Dave!'s entry no it wasn't rejected for being too hard
It was rejected for being too violent, it was a rather big debate whether or not it'd get on the album (with people pushing for it for the reason that it was definite hard EDM) but in the end the final decision was to turn it down - it was discussed the possibility of putting a warning on it but a song that included intensive horrific screaming, chainsaw sounds and weeping in pain it was a bit much.

Is there anywhere I can find this track? Or will Dave! try and submit it to after party? I would really like to hear it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwLVL2jPhIc << here it is mate

I'm not submitting this to anything else apart from my album. haha ;D Enjoy!