ShangXian's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dreamsong (Descent Mix)]

I love how all of this sounds to me like a living wall of sounds, like a breathing experience. I really like how not only the rhythm, the intonation but also the underlying tone of a dream-like trance experience or a trance-like dream is constructed.

I find very cool how the tempo repeats melodic phrases and the musical form that distinctly builds the tension and elements throughout the track often culminating in 1 to 2 "peaks" or "drops"

I like the chorus-like tune that can be heard at 00:48, 01:47, 03:35 and 08:13 because it almost seems like a tunnel that leads the listener to a new gallery of sounds through this dimension. If I had to mentally imagine the colors that this sort of choir induces in my mind, it would be a color mixed with violet, purple and blue with green hues just outlined. What I love the most about this complex song is the presence of mixed layers with distinctly foreshadowed build-up and release. mid-song climax followed by a soft breakdown disposing of beats and percussion entirely, leaving the melody or atmospherics to stand alone for an extended period before gradually building up again.

I like the first 01:47 minute as it builds up the underlying theme of the track, I've noticed it can be mentally divided into three sections, each of them works in harmony with the previous and next part to build such theme.

00:00-00:30---> this first part recalls a tapping of feet, my mind visualizes a yellow ochre desert terrain, the rhythm is dry, dry but serves as an introductory door to the second part.

00:31-01:00---> the second component instead is enriched by this more lively and vital rhythm as if in this hypothetical desert succulent plants, with vibrant green leaves and large purple flowers, were sprouting. And already in this part here we hear that angelic choir introduced that will be heard in all its calming power at minute 01:47. It is almost as if it were a foreshadowing for what will be needed in that minute to create the soft breakdown necessary to introduce the main theme.

00:01-01:46---> the last section instead is a mix of the previous ones, it is as if it were an evolution of the previous stages. After all, trance is an altered state of mind that accumulates past experiences and enriches itself with them, and this musical genre well exemplifies this state.

The mid-song climax followed by a soft breakdown disposes beats and percussion entirely, leaving the oneiric atmospherics to stand alone for an extended period before gradually building up again. The length of the track allow for such progression and has sufficiently sparse opening and closing sections to make the overall composition well paced and highly enjoyable. Even now as I'm writing this review I'm moving some parts of my body to the rhythm of the song.

Despite the apparent lively and aggressive pace, the last part (06:42) actually calms me down a lot, as if I had reached the state I was aiming for. I relistened to the song several times not only to better analyse it but also to fully experience each part and as you said it's a journey. A journey in our minds, a journey in our senses, a journey in our thoughts and feelings. A really superb track! Congratulation for the amazing job. I hope it gets frontpaged.

SHE-RE responds:

This all was so nice to read! I was definitely going for some dreamlike atmospheres, so it's nice for me hearing that those came through so well for you. Thank you!

[Church Of The Cosmic Fuck]

This is the very first M-rated, sex-themed audio track that I ever faved and reviewed and the reason is simple: I love the underlying tone and concept behind this track! Really it's not only extremely well-executed (congrats for the FP!) but the reasons that are behind it make it deep and well thought. Gosh how I loved reading the description while listening to this song, which for the record I'm listening to over and over again while I'm writing this review. I love the conceptual combination of physics, eldritch entities and sex to make something that goes beyond the satisfaction of some horny mind who might stumble across it and simply listens to it with a superficial mind.

This track is mental porn, what do I mean? I mean it stimulates the mind to produce a combination of thoughts related to the underlying tone of the amazing singularities that are black holes. They are my favourite non-living entities and rival viruses in terms of "objects" present in this vast and for the most part unknown universe. These regions of spacetime where gravity is so strong that no matter or electromagnetic radiation, such as light, can escape it, make them extremely fascinating to study. It's extremely cool to know that objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. In 1916, Karl Schwarzschild found the first modern solution of general relativity that would characterise a black hole. And because of this Schwarzschild metric is named after him.

When listening to this track some parts (for example the first one is around 00:44) reminded me of a mix of gravitational waves sound and two black holes colliding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWBkZ3bMSV0
I also like the sound of the bass in the section around 00:54 because it gradually becomes more wild, growing in intensity and always around this section I like how the delayed arp sounds, and the drums fill the tom-tom in a well-paced gait because starting from here things become even more lively (even though they have been introduced well as preliminaries in the part between 00:25 and 00:42). I love how the "fuck" voices emulate a sexual act and how they become high-pitched (the female voice while the male voice, which I heard it four times, has a much more guttural, almost feral I would say and I like it because I can feel the aggressive but not destructive passion). These sounds get fast untile we reach the 50th second and from there things assume a new form just like matter and antimatter interacting with each other.

I also admit that all this preliminary part (00:00-00:54 circa) reminded me of neutron stars that merged along with gravitational waves especially in the first half part of the video I link below here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C5Bl_hE8fM

I love how the combination of drums, bass and dubstep well convey the density (physics pun, sorry XD) of the conceptual ideas of sex, Eros and Thanatos, creation and destruction, matter and anti-matter. And I like the idea of physics used as tool to convey an idea: matter and anti-matter as tsunderes who secretly wish to fuck themselves until everything evaporates. But there's a lot of technique and talent here. I congratulate you for making this. It's a pleasure to listen to it, the ear is stimulated with these drums and dubstep. After all sex is about body stimulation as whole, not just what's between our legs.

I like the roughness of the male voice that can be heard four times, as I mentioned before, and I don't know if it's intentional or not considering that you brought the theme of tsundere in relation to matter and anti-matter interaction, because in Japanese (and Chinese) culture four is pronounced the same way as "death" so again I see Eros and Thanatos united in a cosmic dance of sex and pleasure.

Keep it up! I really enjoyed it and it's extremely rare I decide to review, vote and fave something that has a sexual tone on NG.

Quarl responds:

Lmao, thank you so much, I wasn't sure if I was over sharing but I'm thankful someone got the weird sexual influences. The imagination goes to some interesting places sometimes, and I'm not very good at conveying adult themes.

Again, thank you so much. This was emotionally stirring and very welcome <3

[Kt~ // vertex]

Wow, this track is truly sick. I love! Every part tells a story of its own, the beginning seems to prepare for something really cool and mysterious to happen, the middle part hypnotizes the listener with its percussion rhythm and the final part was unexpected to me: a mesmerizing, compelling experience.

If I had to depict in my mind what the initial part gives me as image it would be a cristalline marine cave similar to Blue Grotto, a cave in Anacapri with its intense blue waters and magical atmosphere.

The middle part seems to physically accompany me into an urban but serene environment of a city that struggled to reach that peaceful state of mind.

The last part with this accelerated tune reminded me of a dream that evaporates from your mind before waking up and leaves you with an uncontrollable impulse to reach again this dream.

It's too beautiful that I am re-listening to it in loop over and over while exploring NG. Thank you for this masterpiece, totally deserved the frontpage!

5 stars from my rating, but 10 stars from my heart!

KTilted responds:

Thank you for so detailed opinion! luv <3

[Aquacea Depth OST // Until I Find Safety]

I love so much how this musical composition really gives me a water vibe, it has liquid notes with the basic leitmotiv repeated as if they were the drops of water coming from the cave of a lost atoll in the middle of Pacific Ocean. I am imagining a bright vivid light blue sky being soared by sea birds while a soft, fresh wind caresses the surface of the sea.

I love that dynamics of the composition starts at slow but peaceful pace and starting from the half part of music the rhythmic cadence creates an extremely catchy tune that combined with the nice loop that is created when music ends, make all of this a hit that sums up the spirit of summer: carefreeness, liberty, relaxation, sunny days, hot temperatures but fresh water to cool you down.

The melody is very sweet and this is emphasizes by the leitmotif that repeats itself and again reminds me of water droplets. I've listened to this piece almost 20 times and I love it so much, I think I will keep it going on while I create my piece for the summer collab as I love drawing while listening to quality music. Keep it up!

Tyhond responds:

Thank you so much for the comments! :D

To be honest, I'm not very into the complicated aspect of music. I tend to make the music and think to myself "does this sound good and would I listen to this on repeat?" and if the answer is yes, then I cook xP

[O MY GOSH BANANA RAT]

First time I comment on a musical piece and I simply love it. I re-listened to it many times. The tunes are really fitting the adorable banana rat character with these sweet notes and retro-like vibes. The electric piano in the first 15 seconds really help the listener to be gently guided to the whole composition as if it were a kind of guide into this magical world.

The progression feels and contributes to the overall narrative of the song which gives a nice harmonic vibe of upbeat and happiness. The melody is pleasant and kept me engaged for the entire song even more since I keep listen to it over and over.

You really did a great job, keep it up!

Tyhond responds:

Aww, thank you! ^-^

I'm still learning! :D