Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 37! Colress / Burrito / Bahram / ExerciseMode / iBelieve / Wavetapper

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to Video Game Music Contest 15, an annual celebration of the best of the best video game music according to the voters!

Important Links:
Bracket: https://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=474630
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16XAaBMDuUnQ4c5AxQNL9ZhvD7VG5kQyrXWWZxnkrn-o
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79443554
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3m7iohpL0xt7lOF1eB-H4NpAaF1yAnU
Compatibility sheet (courtesy of Haste!!): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iGYWo_ifr_p2uYpD_I6TwBQS2tm7zJtPCxYZfRJcG8I
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o
Discord: https://discord.gg/WDvMS4a

Rules:
- Listen to both songs in a given match, at least through the loop time provided (to make sure you don't skip before you've heard the whole thing!)
- Please consider the loop point listed when judging the song; if a video loops one minute 5 times, don't treat it as if it's a repetitive 5 minute song
- If it's a match between your favorite song ever and a song you despise, still LISTEN TO BOTH! Votes can and will be disqualified if there is suspicion songs are not being listened to, and you may be discounted for the rest of the contest for repeat offenses.
- No alt accounts, no rallying or begging, etc., etc.... You only get one vote! Swapping votes is alright, just make clear that you've already made a vote and are swapping.
- Make clear what your voting options are! Please keep votes separate from any comments, and use the titles given in the topic post.
- Voting in all matches is not mandatory, feel free to skip matches you do not wish to vote in.
- Vote based on the links provided, and not other sources of audio. Links are specifically chosen for best quality and the like.
- Don't discuss vote tallies in this thread, or in other threads, as they may influence votes. Likewise, please refrain from looking at the running tally before

Colress
Bahram
Wavetapper

rip class ciel nosurge

this is far less uncomfortable with the new thumbnail. i still hate the name, and it's still not my kind of thing

i have absolutely no idea why two of the three nekomata songs that stuck out at me the most when going through his disco sound nothing like him, even though he's one of my favorite composers, but here we are.

not my kind of thing

not my kind of thing

72786326464

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Battle! Colress
Bahram Attack
I Believe

why wasnt this with the number songs, curse you ties
yeah
Persona music good, actually?

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Battle! (Colress)
Exercise Mode
Wavetapper

Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

What? DireKrow voting against Pokemon AND Persona 5? You saw it here first.

Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Exercise Mode
Wavetapper

Second match is ridiculously close for me.
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Battle! (Colress)
Exercise Mode
I Believe

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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Exercise Mode
I Believe

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Pokmon Black 2 and White 2 - Battle! (Colress)
beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS - Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Persona 5 Royal - I Believe

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
I Believe

I like I Believe. I don't love it. It's quite repetitive. It's a good song for running up a staircase. And its opponent is probably technically impressive. But I would rather listen to I Believe, so.

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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
I Believe

I swear my opinion of Colress changes literally every time I listen to it. this time I don't like it that much, sorry
this isn't a style of Nekomata I like as much as his usual, but it's chill
playing Arcaea has given me a very deep-seated bitterness towards Frums and Wavetapper does nothing to alleviate it - I think I'm going to like it at first and then they keep adding sounds and it just loses me. also Life Will Change 2 is great

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Battle! (Colress)
Exercise Mode
I Believe

Asa kara Zusshiri Milkpot SPECIAL - Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS - Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Exercise Mode
Wavetapper

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

Battle! (Colress) (9.7 - 3rd place) / Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito (5.6 - 55th place)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix- (7.8^ - 24th place) / Exercise Mode (5.4 - 58th place)
I Believe (6.6 - 49th place) / Wavetapper (5.6^ - 56th place)

Colress is my top returner that I didn't nominate. As expected, Bahram Attack rating has gone up, probably a full point. I knew those parallel 1/5/9 chords would grow on me. And what a coinkidink, Wavetapper does something similar! Suddenly the fourth match is a hard choice. Actually, not really?

Janus5k posted...

I swear my opinion of Colress changes literally every time I listen to it. this time I don't like it that much, sorry

I'm actually the same way. It varies between like an 8 and 9.9 depending on my mood and it was more like an 8 today, but I know I'll like it more again on a future listen! I tend to give ratings the benefit of the doubt.

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Battle! (Colress)
Exercise Mode
Wavetapper

Burrito kinda grew on me, but not enough to bring vote for it

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Burrito
Attack
I
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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

The first three songs are considerably better than the last three songs, and I will leave it at that.

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

Morally questionable dogfighting vs. Staring at a questionably flavored wrap - I'll give Burrito some credit for reminding me of old Turtles arcade games. It's pretty cool, but I'm much more in tune with "let's count wrongly." Guess I'm in a funky EDM mood more so - it's just a lot more INTERESTING than Burrito for me.

Humbug, a goat struck (by some cat) vs. Please God no, I already had a stress test this year - Huh, Bahram was the first lock this contest, correct? I somehow missed listening to it at all, and I was expecting something a lot more headbangy or Eurobeat, given usual popular Bemani fare. Instead, I get something really chill. This automatically puts it leaps and bounds above Genesis noises ugh I'm sorry I just don't like the console's noises. Even discounting it, the melody doesn't serve to interest me for much longer than a loop.

Creo que vs. The thalassophile - Royal didn't add much to 5's soundtrack that it didn't already have, Gentle Madman notwithstanding. I Believe is a resounding *hand-waving-gesture* and more of the same, except somehow lesser? Wavetapper, on the other hand, is up there with Kaze no Notam-Discovery and Saira - Baluchons with my "dudes, nice finds" of the contest. Even if it loses, I'm happy it resides in a personal playlist now. I could do without the telephone noises, but everything else is just gravy.

Just kidding I fucking love the telephone noises being part of the melody it's genius.

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

Really good day overall

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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Exercise Mode
I Believe

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Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram Attack
Wavetapper

Bahram Attack [9]
Sour Cream Burrito [7.5]
Colress [7.5]
Wavetapper [6]
I Believe [6]
Bean Machine [5]

alright time to actually talk about wavetapper

Credits was a song that I could definitely appreciate, yet I was always a bit ambivalent; I couldn't fully enjoy it. On first listen, Wavetapper seemed about the same, something that, as Dire likes to complain about, aims to be more "interesting" than "good" (I of course use this as a purely rhetorical example, as it's a fucking stupid thing to say about voting trends). But like many non-conventional songs, Exsphere and Soilscraper as examples, having a video allowed me to visualize the way the song was constructed and start to grasp onto it. This song has RHYTHM. This song has CHORDS. This song has TELEPHONE NOISES that are somehow absolutely brilliantly incorporated into the song in ways I can't enunciate, playing off of the cyan sample in really hypnotizing and engaging ways. I have no idea how this guy pulls this shit, but he does. Definitely my favorite discovery of the contest, in every sense.

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

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Purple phone block is the best block.

Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

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For those who care: i don't know how this didn't get fixed as i remember going out of my way to double check to make sure this was listing the original puyo puyo composers (looking into it, i was actually given misinformation, that the japanese composers were listed because of working on puyo puyo and that javelosa arranged this which is 100% FALSE like basically the opposite of correct)

anyway the composer data for Exercise Mode should be listed as :

Masanobu Tsukamoto arr. Masanori Hikichi, Masayuki Nagao

(Javelosa apparently did everything original to the game that wasn't taken from puyo puyo; Exercise Mode is based off a puyo puyo song confirmed to be written by Masanobu Tsukamoto)
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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito is a cool Ultra Games facsimile that nails a very important facet of Konami video game music: absolutely disgusting sampled orchestra hit abuse. It's my least favorite of chibi-tech's three songs for the game though; I prefer Fling Out my Funky Whey for composition generally and Heiming on my Boudin for probably the best-programmed NES guitar solo I've ever heard

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

If Life Will Change is so good why isn't there a-ALL GLORY TO THE WAVETAPPER. Just like Credits, I was 100% willing to support this song in noms but it locked on its own, woo! I actually don't care too much for the samples in these Frums songs, and am mainly interested in the backing tracks with glitchy beats and ambient synth lines - just loop 0:11-0:19 of Wavetapper and put something interesting over it and I'll be happy lol. Those synths somehow feel so full yet so sparse at the same time, I wanna say they have peaks at low and high frequencies with a trough in the middle but my ears aren't really trained for that. Credits was my #1 retiree last year, so I certainly hope Wavetapper can replicate its performance! The retiring part, not the makes-round-2-and-gets-doubled part...

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Isquen posted...

thalassophile

damn it this was actually funny

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HidekuniHorita posted...

and Heiming on my Boudin for probably the best-programmed NES guitar solo I've ever heard

funny you should mention that (Heiming on my Boudin actually showed up in vgmc9, and actually did pretty well, got to round 3)
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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

expected to come in and vote for colress but sour cream burrito absolutely killed it

Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
I Believe

Get out Colress. Burrito pretty fun though goofy.

The start of Bahram kinda reminds me of Ratchet and Clank music before the Nekomata Master songs appear. I like his more Nekomata-y stuff more, but this is solid. Some of it feels more Hamauzu than Nekomata, and although I like both of them, I don't think it's a great combination.

I like I Believe a lot other than the chorus. Kill that stupid chorus. Would rather listen to 867-5309 than Wavetapper...

Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix- > I Believe > Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito > Battle! (Colress) > Wavetapper >Exercise Mode
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Battle! (Colress)
Exercise Mode
Wavetapper

Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

-(one thing i appreciate most about hitomi sato (and go ichinose) is the overdose of extended chords that feel like you are inside of a computer just like megaman battle network, this makes sense because influenced by "jazz" of course, whichi s the music about when you are inside a computer, they knew computers would exist when michael jackson came up with the idea of jazz in 1920 so he told them to make chords that would sound like megaman battle network which takes place inside a compuiter.
~~~~~
a lot of things hitomi sato does are almost impossible to find anything close to outside of her stuff. the way that sticks out most to me is how elongated her rhythmic patterns are, rarely actually deviating from 4/4, but certainly avoiding lining up directly with it. So many layers here take like 4 bars to resolve their loops or melodic patterns, 1:07-1:14's my favorite part for it's "3/16 polymeter" on the weird distorted sound just endlessly going (it's not endless because it STOPS after 4 bars). :49-:54 is a similar "4/4 but it doesn't feel like it" thing, it just creates this intangibility and smoothness that i desire. it's not like hitomi sato is the only person in the world who does these things (for all i know those elements in this song are ichinose's doing), but the particular way it all works...melodies being hard to latch onto but still perfectly mood-setting...just these particular grooves i can't find anywhere else. oh and all the parallel harmony stuff (except i can actually find that in other places like MegaMan Battle Network(Star force) which takes place inside of a computer and PSO2 which akari kaida from megaman battle network wrote lyrics for for some reason apparently)
~~~~~
I also always dig chord stabs! this song made me realize transposing "normal chords" like major or minor triads around is actually MORE SCARY than transposing around unusual chords. you would think that weirder chords are more unsettling, but i think it's because these chord stabs have an implied emotion when they're triads, with expectation of resolution, but instead it's STAB stab stab halloween computer instead of computer computer.
~~~~~
this is like an alien tried to make a rave song but had only ever listened to jazz fusion so it is more cool than real music. also it's one of the most technically impressive sequenced ds songs imo, making lots of use of sampling LOTS of sounds and variants of the same sounds and manipulating them carefully. this whole thing is crammed into like 12 polyphony somehow. i could go on about this song forever but i did that many times before anyways so this is all for today...)-

-[gaze at my sour cream bitch is good use of the sound chip like it's not a song where i can complain "this is too plain of sound design for the nes" which i complain about too often because of being spoiled by people who are good at it like chibi-tech. and it has fun with actual pitched non-drums pcm samples which i always feel are underutilized in most other people's music in that format too. it's composition-wise not really my thing at all but i respect what it does: a very nice full feeling expressive sound within the self-imposed limitations]-

-{computer}-

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-(i'm more fond of the short version of this since it's a more condensed container of basically all my favorite parts of the song only and all at the forefront. though it's especially heightened for me because the short version starts off with my favorite aspect, the 5/8 over 4/4 polymeter (ie the looping keyboard bit at 1:30) right off the bat, focusing on primarily the sections of the song where that's a focus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrlHXw7uxI0
~~~~~
....i've gone on and on forever about how polymeter is my favorite feeling thing in music pretty much. this also has jazz harmony which was invented by mcihael jackson because he played mmbn3 on gba emulator in the 1920s and wanted to tell people to make it. It's interesting seeing people saying this doesn't sound or feel like nekomata master because this song is EXACTLY what i think that nekomata master sounds like because it feels like it could be in elebits if it didn't have vocals. and elebits was my first exposure to nekomata master. but i like this more than anything in elebits basically "Because it has polymeter" lol, but also it's just harmonically more engaging than elebits to me (which was engaging to me in the first place) because it sounds more like megaman battle ntetwork (michael jackson). all the echoy parallel fake rhodes keyboards like chords...!!! 3:33 taking the polymeter further than the earlier sections do (not ever resetting at barlines) is a pretty great representation of NEWFOUND FREEDOM. the chord changes at some parts of this are nice and spooky!!! nekomata has this perfect thing with like doing these slight detunings on these already dense or 'complex' chords and it sounds so cool...
~~~~~
i'm still pretty impressed that if i understand correctly, nfun and i both independently had been long planning to nom this for vgmc15 without each other knowing...and that the same thing happened with kohri too basically. like we knew when it was closer to the contest actually starting but there was a pretty long period of just these two songs both being on both of our "next year" lists without us having talked about it the way we did kar-light. i don't have like actual max compatibility rating with nfun or anything but we definitely clearly get on the same wavelength with what specific songs stand out to us within sets it seems. this is probably my favorite nekomata master song)-

-[dr robotnik is so mean : ( that makes me sad! I could just cry ;-; he hates music ! wyhat the fuck. that always fraeked me out. I like fm synth but this is the sort of song i would have only liked during the period where i automatically liked every fm synth song unconditionally. there's still cool little things i can point to liking, the echoes on the one sound, the kinda neat harmonies, and where the song randomly gets 1% more serious and melodic than the more cartoony parts lsightly before that. it's melodically really neat even if it takes a bit of time to get there, but i'm glad it takes that time, it wouldn't be as impactful if it started as cool as what it turned into]-

-{this match is like alt universe of my 2009 music taste where i just listened to sega genesis music "and elebits" all day}-

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-(persona music gives me "megaman battle network vibes" because it has aspects of the genre of music known as jazz that was invented by michael jacksons. this is harmonically legit pretty interesting in ways i like but i find it difficult to actually click with me in practice as much as i'd like that on paper)-

-[frums is always a real treat. i'd expect myself to like the more rhythmically complex and strange parts of this the most, but the calmer DARK part with the cool thick harmonies at 1:30 is SO powerful to me for some reason, that it's my favorite moment of the song. and i have to thank HidekuniHorita's ::telephone noises:: playlist for getting me looking out for music with telephone sounds in it and thinking about how cool it is as a sounds. this is a song where watching lots of ytp certainly influenced my appreciation as well, all the glitchy sampled voices reminiscent of stutter loops on voices in that stuff i always loved the sound and feel of. but this takes those elements and puts them into a setting that feels distinctly serious, which i love as an emotional layered contrast of "quirky" and "cool and foreboding"]-

-{i want to look at cubes on every song}-

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Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix- (8th/220)
Colress Battle (28th/220)
Wavetapper (79th/220)
Exercise Mode (177th/220)
I Believe (182nd/220)
Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito (203rd/220)
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Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram
I believe
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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Exercise Mode
Wavetapper

Battle! (Colress) (3rd) vs Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito (169th)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix- (34th) vs Exercise Mode (138th)
I Believe (209th) vs Wavetapper (97th)

holy fuck today is good

Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
I Believe

Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

my vote for who won e3 goes to the Indie Live Expo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYTjzBJX5bI

Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

I'm not typically a Pokmon music guy. Even if I should love all the stuff it does on paper (and I do love other music that does similar things), I just can't seem to "get" Pokmon. In this first match though, the cool stuff the track does outweigh my general aversion to Pokmon music and the track it's going up against, so that's where my vote goes.

I love Nekomata Master.

I don't hate P5 Meguro. I think it has some interesting tracks, even if it's a step down from his other work. Not this one though. Boooring. Wavetapper feels similar to the Pokmon track in that this is something I should love on paper but I just can't seem to get into it. But again, like the Pokmon track, it does enough cool stuff that it's a fun enough listen to win this match.

I don't typically post rankings but Bahram Attack was by far my favourite track from today. Overall I'd consider today to be a lot weaker than yesterday song wise, but meh.

Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

Match 3: thx I hate them both x_x

Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
Wavetapper

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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Exercise Mode
Wavetapper

Battle! (Colress)
Exercise Mode
I Believe
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Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
I Believe

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Battle!
Attack
Wave

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
I Believe

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack
Wavetapper

surprised at how easy this third match is. first match is close but alas.
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