a big to Laguna Rising not only for the vote!

Hey Dan,

great! i always thought, you must be at least the son of 22 Pistepirkko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZEpl_6aIyw&feature=related

Yeah, your track is the evidence that we don't need thousand notes/leads to build an atnosphere. A great picture.

Cheers

Kryptonaut and Me109

THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOTES!!

Oh I get it guys - you're saving all your votes for me for next month's contest!

It's like the academy awards, comedies hardly ever get nominated for best picture. Definitely not fair!

¿voting? ¡¡¡arrrgggghhhh!!!

I'll just reciprocate the pity vote then

I guess this month's voting makes mine an Adam Sandler comedy then...

I really wasn't looking for sympathy votes, but cheers guys!

Thanks, reviewers. Didn't have time for proper reviews myself, so here's what I jotted down while voting:

farlukar - my brain likes the idea, but my ears aren't buying it. stupid ears require more variation.

evo2slo - punchy mix, perhaps to the point of bruising: on my speakers the percussion bludgeons down the more subtle parts. strong song though, well arranged, with an original take on the theme* (and inspired photoshoppery).

(* i wasn't expecting the 57 other ufo entries at this point. kvr, home of the tinfoil hat.)

Mister Natural - there's a haunting mark hollis vulnerability to your vocals here. very inward. didn't care for the flange-y/phase-y effect towards the end, some of the high-end percussion needs taming, and it continues for a minute or so after it's said what it needs to say, but there's something about this that gets under the skin.

liqih - hmm. i find this pretty, but wispy. plays well as ambient background, but not quite enough meat for active listening. i'll see if it grows on me.

Hellfog - some excellent sound choices: i particularly enjoy the little twangs and the phlegmy darth vader coming in at 0:35. the shrill main lead i like less, and the switch at 1:20 feels clumsy, but lots of good stuff here.

kryptonaut - the vocal gets a little swamped in the mix at times, and the vocal delay hurts intelligibility, but great production otherwise. tense, eerie, nicely varied and paced. uuuullaaaaaaaa.

Miro - pleasingly minimalist and melancholy. would have liked the vocals a bit more prominent.

Daniel Pompougnac - light touch. almost weightless. very enjoyable.

Sepheritoh - nice work. a little overegged at times - the lead guitar pesters a bit in the first half, doesn't rest long enough for us to miss it - but you make a good team.

offthewall - warm solid chunk of folk. nice adornments between verses. the chorus lyrics are perhaps a bit thin and plain to warrant the repetition.

bzur - the opening gambit on piano is lovely. was mildly disappointed that the piece detoured into prog rather than developing this, but solidly crafted and nicely produced throughout.

broodkillphill - tuning and timing a little wayward at times. a great late-night vamp mood. tasteful.

forw - simple but very lovely. as the distortion grows, it pushes off into ambient, and starts making me think of things like this. if you can get a version done without the clicks, please post it.

oddbod - shades of neil finn on the verse, and the chorus is heart-melting - warm and humble and simple. yet another gem.

Jerru - this is good stuff. brooding verse blossoming into a big wide chorus. nitpicks: verse vocal could sit better, occasionally swings out of tune, and drums a bit rigid on the chorus, but overall very accomplished.

nikp2000 - very evocative of time and place. nice warm guitar tone, nicely balanced arrangement. yes, liked this a lot.

Doc Jon - this is disarmingly charming. shuffles along winningly, and your vocals are great.

beanpole - i laughed at the twist, then felt like a bad person for laughing. (the way you deliver it is superbly unsympathetic.) the punchy drums and double-tracked vocals outweigh the song - like using a hammer to crack a grape - and there's the occasional lazy rhyme, but your usual strong songcraft.

nahkaorava - nice. inflections of satie in the opening passage. smooth and accomplished, possibly a bit anonymous.

GMoneh - warm and genial. has a sort of laid-back, loungey, bossa-nova-preset-on-an-80s-organ charm.

Patrick9 - a distracting, eating-the-mic level of mouth noise and unhelpful vocal fx do their best to hide a lovely song and sweet singing, but thankfully don't succeed. a case could be made that everything beyond the guitar and vocal (and perhaps the synth pad) could be removed without harm.

Laguna Rising - love how this shrugs off its initial pensiveness and infuses itself with energy. i was often more interested in the backing instrumentation than the frenetic lead (which reminded me of a stage-hogging frontman who doesn't know when to step back and let his bandmates shine).

papatomany - nicely pensive and creates a great mood. the staccato section makes a nice contrast, but exposes some harshness in your piano samples. i found myself wanting a more tightly composed right hand part - it feels aimless and vampy at times - but on reading your description, perhaps that would undermine the concept.

robojam - good sound work and strong clear mix. might have been more disturbing / funnier with a blander, neutral vocal delivery, rather than signposting the satire.

me109 - i like how this works as both celebration and critique of the 50s. is girl won over by guy's genial underdog charm, or is she listening to her babymaking, tupperware fate with quiet despair? great arrangement as always. nitpick: some sibilance and husk on vocal, accentuated by effects.

mellotronaut - doesn't particularly resonate with the photo for me, but a damn fine song on its own terms. a sort of waits-y peyote party with a great slow build.

RuediRena - some of the samples are well-deployed, but there's perhaps not quite enough connective tissue to give the song a personality of its own.

D.H. Miltz - strong mood, strong story. a great song in here, but i'm not sure it's been properly coaxed out yet. the rhymes feel a bit boxy & inorganic, and leaning on the croak means the vocal melody is largely implied, so doesn't stick as it might.

pchor - the big sci-fi b-movie chords work surprisingly well against the gutsier elements. good stuff. nice clean mix. bit more harmonic development would be good if you extend this.

satYatunes - great craft on show. the clean, muscular, military midsection, while impeccably produced, didn't always hold my interest, but the postlude is beautiful.

Thanks for your review. At the 1:20 mark it's supposed to have a abrupt end. Sometimes music translate badley of the interpretation, and can be hard for the listener to understand what the creator wants with the track.