[VGMC] Day 14! feat. Movement and Containment, Slumber and Waking, and uhhhh wtf

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Enclosure South America Jungle
Before I Rise
Portals

these are all close for better or for worse

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
abstain

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Portals

really not a fan of either portals or take lmao

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Genshin Impact - Across Dimming Asterisms
Heaven Burns Red - Before I Rise
Arcaea - Take

Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert
Portals

This Crystal Key song reminds me of parts of that one song from myhouse.wad whose name is a pain to properly type out. It is obviously not as good as that, but it still gets a thumbs up from me. Nice song

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Take

I can no longer pronounce the English word "take" correctly

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Portals

Enclosure South America Jungle
Before I Rise
Portals

Before I Rise > Blue Desert Hotel >= Enclosure South America Jungle > Across Dimming Asterisms > Portals > Take (or Bamboo, whichever)

Across Dimming Asterisms - 7.75
huh, that was pretty cool for a desert theme. feels like it lacks something to get the full 8 tho, and I could not tell you what it is for the life of me

Enclosure South America Jungle - 8
just a really nice song, I like

Blue Desert Hotel - 8
quite a nice song I like

Before I Rise - 8.25
is it unfair of me to immediately say I'm voting for Blue Desert Hotel because this has non-English vocals? probably, and I'll see it through to the end anyways, but I strongly doubt it'll win me over. well fuck I'm eating my words LMAO, once the instrumental kicked in it was really cool and I love the vocal melodies. still wish I could actually. understand the vocals, but hey y'know what I'll give it its dues regardless

Portals - 7
nice ambience ig, but that's about it

Take (or Bamboo? unsure) - 4
what. literally the only thing I can say is "holy shit was that a Splatoon reference in the video". otherwise I am completely and utterly speechless.

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Genshin Impact - Across Dimming Asterisms
Heaven Burns Red - Before I Rise
Arcaea - Take

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Take

Didn't expect to be unhappy voting for an Arcaea song, but here we are.

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

I'm not voting for it because as always Mitsuhiro Kaneda is simply too powerful, but all the shortened measures in Before I Rise are actually really fun, especially in the intro

Enclosure South America Jungle
Before I Rise
Portals

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel
Take

Desert music, eh? It's pretty powerful. I like this urgent percussion added on it. Those solo parts on the bit are also cool. It's very neat, I like it. South America, eh? Oh, this is a great rhythm, alright, alright. I wasn't really expecting those guitar parts and they hit very cool. I think I like the first section more than the second. Hmm... I guess I wouldn't put either in a pedestal, but I think I'll give the vote to Zoo mostly cause it does more interesting things.

Hello Basiscape. Well, this is a simple song. I like how the lead woodwind sets free and goes wild as it reaches towards the end, the last 30 seconds are definitely the best part of the song. It's very pretty and has some classical music appeal to it, I can appreciate it's direction while not neccesarily being the biggest fan. Before I Rise feels a pretty standard main theme to me, I guess not too far of what Heavens Burns Red represents. Vocals are nice and the chorus is danceable. It's nice, but I think Blue Desert does above average here.

This portal takes us back to atmosphere! Well, like the rest of them, it is atmosphere. Nothing I dislike but nothing I love, either. Very relaxing and space-like. I think the noise from the upload layers a bit more onto the feel. Aaaaaaaaaand mood shift, and what a mood shift. For first, I appreciate the bamboo encyclopedia. For second, wow these speed shifts and different sections are so fun. The silly voice is also a good host to all this madness and the instrumental also seasons it well. Yeah, this match was decided in the first second, lol. What a song oozing with charisma, I hope it goes as far as... *checks next match* UGHHH NOT AGAINNNNN!

South
Desert
Portals

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/68a1bdb0.png

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Take

so which one was the higher seed in the third match anyway

Zoo Hospital (Wii) - Enclosure South America Jungle
Heaven Burns Red - Before I Rise
Arcaea - Take

MATCH 1

Across Dimming Asterims isn't very interesting to me. I don't think I've been a fan of any Genshin Impact music, to be honest. Though, one song I listened to that I thought was kind of cool was No Turning Back, which I think got nominated this year. Maybe there's something from this game that's for me!

Enclosure South America Jungle has a cool melody going on with the electric guitar in particular. 1:36 is my favorite part of the song. The descending note and ascending note slides are pretty neat (feel like I slightly prefer the descending ones?) I also really like that higher-pitched note that's thrown in there (1:36, 1:40, 1:48, etc.).

MATCH 2

I actually really like Blue Desert Hotel! I think I first listened to this song during the year Partizans retired? That was VGMC14, I think, so four years ago? Man, that seems like so long ago, but who knows when I actually first listened this song lol. In any case, I really liked the bright and cheery melody of the song. This one of those songs where all the instruments come together really nicely. From the piano to the flute to the oboe, they all mesh together very well. I considered supporting this song, so I'm glad to see it in!

Unfortunately for Blue Desert Hotel, though, it got an absolutely horrendous draw against my Bracket B champion (and my own nomination), Before I Rise. This is probably the strongest round 1 match in the bracket for me, so this is really unfortunate since I probably would've taken Blue Desert Hotel over most songs. But anyway, as for Before I Rise, I went listening to some other Heaven Burns Red songs after last year's contest because I really liked White Spell, and Before I Rise was definitely the biggest standout from what I listened to. So as with White Spell, Before I Rise already off to a great start having Jun Maeda and Yanagi Nagi on it. I've always really liked music from Key visual novels, of which Jun Maeda has composed a lot. And Yanagi Nagi's a great singer whose works I've also really liked (last year, I think I mentioned her vocals on the OPs for Oregairu, which still holds true here. I haven't listened to them as much since finishing that show, but they're still as great as ever), so together, they make a great musical pair! Before I Rise is just a very pretty song! The brightness in the piano and vocal melody is really pleasing to hear. The vocals in particular only get better once the chorus hits, and there's an even stronger emotion there. The harmonizing vocals are very nice too! Especially at 1:45 as the main vocals get quieter and you can hear the backing vocals more prominently. Another thing I really like about the chorus is that bit at 1:38. But it's a great song all the way through, and there was really nothing that came close to stopping it in my favorites bracket in its road to champion. I'm not exactly expecting this song to win, but I'm glad it has an opponent I really like as well in the event that this does lose.

MATCH 3

I always like that shimmering sound of chill pad chords like in Portals. Unfortunately, though, this is another case of me just not being super into ambient music like this. Put these pad chords in a more melody-focused song, though, and you might have something for me! Map and Diving from Waterworld are the first songs that come to mind for these types of pad chords.

Take is just a really fun song to listen to. I love these types of silly denpa songs that are intentionally goofy in how they sound and don't take themselves seriously.

Before I Rise > Take = Blue Desert Hotel > Enclosure South America Jungle > Across Dimming Asterisms > Portals

Enclosure South America Jungle
Before I Rise
Take

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Enclosure
Hotel
Portals

Enclosure South America Jungle
Before I Rise
Portals

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Take

abstain
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Lately I've been especially into really immersive soundscapes, particularly those of the ambient songs in the contest. Portals transports me to a faraway land, enveloping me in rich, warm textures.

...but Take is the exact kind of hyperactive "little girl music" I normally enjoy in VGMC. It's a worthy successor to luminaries like Soflan-chan. It's guaranteed to put a smile on my face. Tough match, had to relisten to both.

Can I vote for both songs in match 3 over the other four songs?

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Take

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Before I Rise is my second favorite today. Unfortunate matchup.
Portals would not normally get my vote but I actively hate listening to Take. Hell.

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Christ Christ Christ Christ Across Dimming Asterisms is so damn good. The sweeping movement and low-key intensity and unsettling mood and how unabashedly DESERTY it sounds. Arabic style desert themes are a weakness of mine. I feel SO BAD for the Zoo Hospital song though because I think it is cool and the kind of song I would not have known about until now!

Blue Desert Hotel will play in my mind when I embark on my next vacation..it is so refreshing.... Before I Rise is also good, but, like .... Blue Desert Hotel though???

This truly is one of the matches of all time

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Portals

Desert song. Jungle song. Neither of these deserve to be in this contest.

BDH is a song I can respect, though it doesn't do much for me. Before I Rise keeps going against what I want it too, but it's still a song I'm mostly into. I like the verses more than the chorus.

Portals does nothing for me. I hate most of Take. This is hopefully the worst match of R1

Across Dimming Asterisms
abstain
Take

Enclosure South America Jungle
Before I Rise
Portals

I would vote each match 1 track over match 2, and each match 2 track over match 3.

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Portals

I would vote each match 1 track over match 2, and each match 2 track over match 3.

This.

Asterism
Hotel
ta ke

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

I feel nothing from Portals... and whilst Take is more memorable and funny... it also hurts my ears :(

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Take

Good day. Even the third match.

Enclosure
Before I Rise
Take

Enclosure South America Jungle
Before I Rise
Take

Enclosure South America Jungle
Before I Rise
Take

My favorite part of Asterisms is 2:18-2:42. Like Duel in the Mist, it gives the sense of the live instruments being a cohesive whole as they play off each other.

Touhou music is so good. Im feeling Neo Bamboo Forest in Flames right now.

Across > South
Rise > Hotel
Portals > WTF

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Take

Across Dimming Asterisms is about as cliche as it gets, but the cliche is a guilty pleasure - this makes me want to go adventuring in a cool desert level and I'm not above that. I'm really into it but it loses half a point for going four-on-the-floor with the kick drum in the last stretch. It's super tacky, the rhythmic equivalent of key changing up a half step for the last chorus because you want things to be REALLY intense. 8.5/10

You know you're going to get a weird, fun surprise when the song is from something that sounds like shovelware, because it wouldn't be here otherwise. Thanks for the weird, fun surprise, Zoo Hospital. 6.5/10

Blue Desert Hotel is a weird one. It simultaneously has an almost elevator music sound to it and seems like it should be trying to convey relaxation, but it's one of the most busy and frantically paced songs in the entire contest, which makes it a strange listen. My brain doesn't know what to do with it. 6.5/10

Oh, Heaven Burns Red again. I don't think I liked this before, either. 3.5/10

Portals vs Take is the most hilarious matchup of the contest; one of the most low-key themes vs one of the most... high-key. Portals is, uh, I dunno, it probably does its job? It's not bad but I wouldn't return to it. 6/10

Even though I stand pretty firmly that Take is not vgm, I'm voting for it anyway because it's great, but that's partially because the music video is amazing which isn't even the music portion but whatever, this rules, I love Take 9/10

Zoo Hospital (Wii) - Enclosure South America Jungle
Opoona - Blue Desert Hotel
The Crystal Key - Portals

[9.0] Portals
[9.0] Take help i love it
[9.0] Blue Desert Hotel
[6.5] Enclosure South America Jungle
[6.5] Across Dimming Asterisms
[6.5] Before I Rise

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Across Dimming Asterisms
Blue Desert Hotel
Take

not even mad that take is gonna get steamrolled

From TunnelScene:

Across Dimming Asterisms (Genshin Impact)
Blue Desert Hotel (Opoona)
Portals (The Crystal Key)

man this part of the bracket has quite a lot of odd time

please come to brazil

I love oboes!!!!

I am not sure I comprehend how well this fits with the previous track when i put them against each other

I at some point determined that The Crystal Key may be the #1 most nostalgic game for me? it IS the first myst clone i played (rather than myst series itself), seeing it at a game store on the shelf and thinking it looked just like Myst & Riven!! Saying that as someone who's entire top 30-50 favorite games is games in this style now, so that's fairly profound to me. it takes me right back to teh early 00s in a split second. It's not just When I played it though, it's the fact that much about it contains easily identifiable era artifacts heightened in such a way that is difficult to find deliberately (both music & nonmusic), even in other games i played/that were made around the same time in similar style. This track is super quiet, like in terms of actual dB of waveform in the original raw file from the game, and at this quality level, this results in a beautiful fuzziness when sounds are at the border between silent & audible (actually i ironically think YT's compression may obfuscate THIS compression artifact in itself a bit). This exact sound is one of the unintended artifacts of tech limits i find most powerful, one of the things I most seek that is largely exclusive to vgm storage methods. but also these exact synth patches. Beyond my fond association, this really does do what I look for compositionally, subtle as can be there's lots of parallel motion, stacked intervals as timbre and somehow it all manifests into one or the most viscerally powerful calming things I have ever heard. I would say there may not be a single piece of music on the planet I get as calm upon hearing as this one. I need that lately, I haven't been very well. As much as my identity has been one of edginess and chaos, this piece is proof that you can inject a dose of the most viscerally powerful subduing energy using the same exact composition techniques as the most unhinged abrasive prog I love. The tonal language may parallel, but what matters above all, is the context you intend to convey.

3this is like a weeb version of Story 2 by clipping. I certainly respect it haha

From failgirlema:

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel (reluctantly)
Portals

Across Dimming Asterisms
Before I Rise
Portals

Genshin Impact has some fantastic world music selections, and this is no exception. Of course, featuring an erhu in any capacity is instantly going to shoot you up my rankings, but I do think the part is very good either way. Also a great sense of progression with the song as a whole. The Zoo Hospital song is pleasant and fun, but it's a bit out of its league here.

Blue Desert Hotel is an upbeat song with a pretty oboe, but the composition overall doesn't work quite as well for me as I feel it should. Frankly I've grown a bit tired of songs using piano in this Blue Reflection-esque style that you see in Before I Rise (I don't know how else to describe this). I guess I just don't think solo piano is well-suited to the sort of ethereal vibe it's going for, but it usually does not work for me. Fortunately I really like the vocal part and the vocalist herself which more than makes up for it. Very pretty overall even if the piano-centric parts are a miss for me.

Portals is...fine, which means it's an easy vote in this match. I should say I don't necessarily mind vocals that sound like Take; it's more the composition style and the rhythm game percussion that kill this one for me. (The vocals don't help either though...)