Albums: Dwelling of Duels: DS Month (June 2025)
I was so Lost in The Woods and Also in My Sanity that I had a Mental Collapse
Game(s): The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Reviews
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Look at that length, look at that GIRTH. Interesting intro. Maybe too brainy for me. I get the gist of it, but it takes a little bit too long? Maybe it’s following a pattern and it doesn’t stop until it ends but it’s not something I’m paying attention to on a casual listening. It gets more interesting later on when the drums come in and there’s a groove I can follow better now. Production and performances are pretty top notch throughout the whole thing. Arrangement wise this is uuuuhhhhh hard to describe. I think I get what it’s trying to do, and I don’t mind some heady music or stuff that is intentionally trying to be more unconventional (I assume from the title that there’s bound to be some degree of uncomfort in the listening experience), but considering the length and everything happening, for me this starts to cross into a territory of trying to be complex for the sake of it, which I mean, as a musician exercise that’s fine, but it’s not gonna do much for me otherwise. I do appreciate the work put into it though, especially for the performers this must be one HELL of a practice session.
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Got dayum, anon – this is like the soundtrack to going out on a hunt for Sasquatch and getting stuck in the forest for months. So frenetic and just timing whiplash – kind of like Mr. Bungle without the vocals and fraKcture era King Crimson. The prog heads really showed up this month, and I’m here for it!
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What a lovely weird prog adventure. Honestly, one of the most creative tracks / interpretations I’ve heard in my 6 months as a part of DoD. I appreciate the authenticity of leaving in the breaths and shortened notes on the sax during the intro section, and I really enjoy the tone of the horn during the solo. The runs were nuts! After the intro, the clean mixing was a really nice contrast to the mindfuck of the beginning, which also then makes the guitar sounds of the C(?) section stand out when they get all grungey-ampy. You’ve turned Frank Zappa into Frank Zelda; either way, he’s jamming out in his grave with a big ol’ smile.
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Mr Zappa Bungle???? God what a cool arrangment. Good performances too and I can tell you made an effort to make it not sequenced at all (hello breath on the sax part) – so cool.
I can’t really critique this kind of thing very well. The production feels a — little static. Like the programmed drum do sort of detract from the overall. If this were a drummer they’d play along with the dynamics and tempo changes a lot more I think.
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This didn’t hit for me. I’m not familiar with the source material so it’s hard for me to know where it ends and the original ideas begin, given how abstract it all is.
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This is a bit of a trip. Repeated live sax loop (heh, the breath means that you know it’s real, right?) and strange developments and all of that. It takes a moment to get used to it (in this context) but I buckled myself in so I’m down for it. Like the noodly sax is actually quite pleasant. The backing bass is kinda like… what is going on here! but it’s serving the purpose. My mind is spinning, my heart is racing. It is a bit long, maybe? Thanks for serving us up something different, I enjoy hearing strange concepts for music.
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The intro almost lost me here, but I’m glad I stuck with it, because this track goes places. I would have trimmed up the intro significantly but I can also tell that this style is not my bread and butter, so you were probably going for something specific here. Once the rest of the instrumentation came in, I found myself enjoying all the creative ideas you brought to the table. I’m curious what source you were arranging here, I’d love to hear the story behind this one once votes are revealed. Bold and unapologetic, I love that you full-sent this, even if I’m not exactly the target audience.
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Most tracks, my review happens on the first listen. This is my second listen for this review so I’ll comment on the overall stuff.
TBH I actually grew to enjoy this one more and more as it went on. Many of the ideas are really, really cool to listen to. Not all of them land for me, but more land than don’t! Love 4:38. The major section at 6:00 is really refreshing and super cool. 7:00 absolutely slaps. Unison run in the outro is insane.
I want to drop a personal preference that I think is important in arranging: the first 90 seconds are the roughest part for me. It sounds like a bunch of lines trampling on each other, like a live sound check lol. Maybe this is exactly what you were going for, but something I try to do in my arrangements is hook listeners early and save the really weird stuff for later. That way it feels earned and listeners don’t check out early. Just my 2c! 🙂
Playing on this sounds insane for everyone involved.
I hear some quotes in here which are really cool surprises, like the Majora’s Mask Astral Observatory at 5:00. N64 Lost Woods at 6:30.
Lastly, a mix comment: The overheads sound like there’s a little too much room on them, like they’re in a different room than the rest of the mix. This is particularly obvious on the crash in the left channel. Same comment for the heavy rhythm guitars at 3:50, they sound like they’re in a different room.
Overall really fascinating track. I enjoy novel ideas, weird rhythms, and virtuoso playing in music and this definitely ticked the box for me. Great job!
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There’s some real good guitar tones in here. Bass tones too. There’s a lot of cool stuff in here. Riffs, beats, changes, things. good performances. Amazing execution. Only actual critique is your track is over ten minutes long and that cymbal was still was cut off at the end.
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this is a song you must listen to the start untill the end to apreciate it
love this chaos vibe, sound like mr bungle feat van der graaf, dillinger escape plan ,etc
major prod here, thx anon
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Wooow big longie here. The intro feels a bit discombobulated – I’m guessing its intentional the sax feels out of time, if not then there just really is some disconnect between the guitar, drums, and sax to start this out. It’s distracting enough it’s really hard to get into an initial groove. After the break, then at 1:35 it starts to come together a bit more. Drums giving the more consistent beat help to identify the time, and a groove really settles in. Drums are nice and balanced, helping to drive and not overpower, but guitar and saxes may be able to come up a touch more here. Ok this one is going to become a prog adventure for sure, that metric modulation around 2:10 helps drive into the next section. The cymbals here do feel a bit too washy with the open hi-hat, but at least the groove is more consistent to really help drive consistency. Sax solo is really nice, but could come up a bit more since it is in the lower register. Time does feel a bit off again around 3:30 or so, but then re-establishes as we get heavier around the 3:50 mark, as we start getting an nice buildup in the sax and the bass voice, as we really start to get more proggy around 4:45 or so, then we hurry up and bit as well. Really nice dark tones with the bass and the slower drum rhythms for a bit, before the electric guitar comes in and it starts to get a bit busier. Guitar solo is really nice and clean, and balances well as it fades out and the sax comes back in. Unfortunately again feels like the saxophone is getting swallowed up by all the electric instruments. Really gets proggy again around 6:30 – not sure what instrument is driving the rhythm part but it sounds really interesting – as we get some of the lost woods themes popping in and out here in fragments. Really complex rhythms going in the later section that helps drive forward, but it is harder to pick out exactly what the melody should be there – just feels more like proggy rhythm grooving with not much to glue it together. Starts to come back together with some form of a melody being reintroduced around 8:40. Nice intensity building towards the end, really helps to punctuate the drive home on this piece.
Overall, there are a lot of nice ideas in this one, but I feel like also a lot of balance and execution issues that kind of pull this piece back a bit, especially given the multiple ideas and the length of this one. A lot of innovation, but I think too many things competing that prevent this from being fully cohesive
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This one had a concept. Performances sound great to me, even if they are experimental and at times, dissonant. After all, I think that’s the point: to be as schizoid as possible. It keeps changing and turning into different genres as we go. However, the main motif was already getting tiresome when we reach the 5 minute mark. I believe making you uncomfortable was one of the objectives, but I better not assume anything about anon’s intentions. So I’ll say that this is easily 2 or 3 minutes longer than it needs to be, and that’s what prevented me from voting it higher.
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I could go on a bunch of mixing/other crits, but I think it’s better to start at the source: While I dig the arrangement, I think losing your listeners can be a fear. The best prog tracks aren’t good because they’re complicated, they’re good because the complication serves the track itself. There’s a LOT of great prog ideas here, but they feel more like doing 30 second snippets instead of telling a story. I get that I may not be the target audience for this, and I get that I’m also a bit “SIMPLIFY” as a producer, but just a bit of reigning it in can go a long way. Also absolutely love the section at 7:00. Seriously, a ton of nice ideas here. Hats off to the performer(s) for pulling this one off.
edit: pretty much +1 to everything TheManPF said.
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