1. Rogue Batty's Dream - Totilototo
This ticked all the boxes - great composition with nicely developed themes, clever percussion programming and the mix was technically very well executed managing a convincing enveloping warmth whilst maintaining a sense of space and separation between the various elements (would have sounded muddy as hell in my hands) - and it was just a very pleasant listen through, from beginning to end.
2. She Was Hatless - John Boyd
I could almost repeat my comments from above, save, replace percussion programming with the interplay between the many melodic phrases and the inventive way that new themes were constantly being introduced and developed - lively and witty this had a strong character that made it really stand out from the rest. As I said in an earlier post - Tomita-esque. Again, great production.
3. Alone - MOK
A very assured piece from the opening chords through all of the various breakdowns and stylistic and tempo changes, showed a high level of technical proficiency in beat programming and production. The morph into the dubstep section was particularly well performed. If I'm very picky I might say that, though it displayed considerable skill, jemmying in such a range of styles and tempi, it felt a wee bit forced to me - a condensed 5 minute downtempo, or dubstep workout might have been equally effective.
4. Gone Rogue - Rellik
A real tour de force, with the emphasis on force. The gritty bass at the beginning grabbed the attention and then a bewildering blizzard of notes, melodic phrases, arpeggios and all of the rest followed. The production, particularly the heavy compression with the crunchy 8-bit sound had me thinking Justice meets chiptune? Maybe a bit too in-yer-face for my taste, but that could just be a problem with my taste?
5. Enable Smiling - MA Simon
This got a vote just for doing what it said on the tin. Simple, but original and had a whimsical charm that persuaded me.
1,2 and 3 were fairly clear in my mind but 4 and 5 could have been taken by any one of a few, so, just missing out on a top 5 and in no particular order: Curiosas - Shroom Feverish, All Too Familiar - Yeager (great production, but unfortunately it was a bit too familiar - sorry, I'm not a fan of Pachelbel's Canon), No Rogues Were Harmed - Nahkranoth, Rogue Rage - tattiemannie (whoever said YMO was spot on!), Rogues in the House -Evil Marshmallow.
And all of the rest just missed out on the 'just missing on a top 5'. Every track had something to recommend it.
