MarsKid
Mitch Worden
Emeritus

Reviews 172
Approval 98%

Soundoffs 200
News Articles 34
Band Edits + Tags 478
Album Edits 1,058

Album Ratings 5876
Objectivity 86%

Last Active 01-01-70 12:00 am
Joined 01-01-70

Review Comments 21,030

 Lists
09.20.23 MarsBro's Court of 2023 ♦08.30.23 MarsBro's NFL Ranking: '23-'24 Preseaso ♦
06.23.23 Mars 23/5: All the Goodies ♦02.24.23 straight edge friendos
01.28.23 Mars Ranks: Avantasia01.11.23 MarsBro's NFL Ranking: '22-'23 Season F ♦
01.09.23 The Weekly Dive: Doom and Melodic Death01.06.23 MarsBro's NFL Ranking: Week 18
01.02.23 The Weekly Dive: Hip-Hop12.28.22 Build-an-Album II, GAME OVER: Adios, Am
12.27.22 MarsBro's NFL Ranking: Week 1712.26.22 Mars Ranks: Blue October
12.20.22 MarsBro's NFL Ranking: Week 1612.13.22 MarsBro's NFL Ranking: Week 15
12.12.22 Build-an-Album II, R13(P3): The Final C12.08.22 MarsBro's Court of 2022
12.07.22 MarsBro's NFL Ranking: Week 1412.04.22 Build-an-Album II, R12(P3): Just One of
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Build-an-Album R8: Development, Oh Hell

Things are slowly winding down. What does the future hold?
1Plini
Sweet Nothings

Steak's album: This album seemed to follow a route that stuck to the metal-influenced portion of jazz fusion, featuring varied guitar play as a common focal point for tracks. These similarities led to a flow that felt very natural and connected each tune very well, such as the transition from Track 2 to [REDACTED]. There was a balance of technicality with subtlety ala Track 4, and the musicianship demonstrated could be thoroughly evocative at times—the intro sets a great example. As good as those entries were, however, I feel as though some of the structures got to be too repetitive or overall lost a degree of staying power; not much was being said and they didn’t really stand out (the closer and [REDACTED], for instance). This does not make the record bad by any means, but perhaps lacking instead. VERDICT: 3.8
2Herbie Hancock
Sextant

bg's album: From the get-go, the album presented here draws the listener in with ease; the introductory track has a lot of different elements at play that give it an intriguing vibe, inviting one for a closer look. The flow here is notable for its effectiveness, managing to bridge both similar-sounding outings and ones that don’t jive together on paper (track 1 to track 2 comes to mind). The record wasn’t afraid to cut loose and just rock out on occasion in jazz fashion—check the concluding track’s riffing. There could have been more songs that packed a punch like the aforementioned highlights, but the way they cooperated with each other assisted in bringing up the album’s quality on the whole. VERDICT: 3.95
3Shô!
Shô!

neek's album: What neek crafted for this round tended to rely more on restraint rather than outward characteristics, a method that lent itself to a more atmospheric approach. The biggest contributor to this without a doubt took the form of the piano; on track 2 and especially on track 4, the keys performance was incredibly evocative and made for a memorable experience. That’s not to say that everything was strictly based in delicacy, clearly evidenced by the wild jazz playground of track 6 and the jam session performed on the closer. An excellent balance of styles was incorporated, wrapped up in a tight flow. Hard to ask for more than that, really. VERDICT: 4.1
4Billy Cobham
Spectrum

Zombie's album: Zombie took the musicianship exhibited on other records for this round and amplified them to a great degree, optimizing technicality over ambiance. There’s nothing wrong with taking such a directive, a path given plenty of credibility through the instrumental delights uncovered throughout the runtime. The overall performances on track 4 in particular were full of highlights, especially the off-the-chain bass playing. Track 5 all the way to the finale carried on a similar vibe that just rocked down the house, jazz-style. It was hard to find any moment of real weakness here; the product maintained a concise flow and consistent quality. Some good stuff happened here. VERDICT: 4.2
5Basement
Beside Myself

butch, Sint, and Papa: As it turns out, three competitors breached the strict theme standard for the round. Ordinarily, this would be an easy decision--just pick whoever had the worst album as the loser--but I found all of these to be on about the same level of quality. I thoroughly enjoyed each record and it was difficult to determine who would be cut off based on merit alone. So then the infraction had to be investigated in terms of its severity, and in that regard it seemed as though a clear offender was discovered. Essentially, the point of this round was another hard-as-hell rule-driven foray to really test everyone remaining, so it seems fair that the round is decided based on that criteria.
6Kamasi Washington
The Epic

Judging this round ended up being a very difficult decision to make, but something's gotta happen. As such, the competition must continue, and heads are gonna roll. No other easy way around it. Without further ado, the placements!
FIRST PLACE: Zombie (4.2)
SECOND PLACE: Neek (4.1)
THIRD PLACE: bg (3.95)
The battle for the top ended up being relatively easy to award. The bottom end was a different story. What brought down the guillotine here was the fact that this contestant featured vocals that appeared prominently throughout the whole song, making it impossible to ignore or pass over; it was simply the most egregious of the errors.
butch (basement-level) is ELIMINATED. "You've Got to Have Freedom" was the cannonball that sunk the ship. Thanks for your participation and fighting hard!
7Macho Man Randy Savage
Be A Man

That was a rough one! Regardless, you six have persevered through a lot of close calls and otherwise tight circumstances. The random genre wheel ended up picking a very wide category, so I figured a fitting reward for making it this far would be to open things up to full creative expression. Playing games might help in this regard. Technical contact in general would be handy: it prepares oneself for the round and our eventual takeover by Macbook Pros.
8Sweet Trip
Velocity : Design : Comfort

Bleep-bloop, gents, it's time to travel off into ELECTRONIC land. This is probably the largest musical selection that has been selected thus far; there are a lot of different genres, sub-genres, sub-sub-genres, and so on that go into this particular binder. But who needs binders? Computers have all that shit covered digitally. In HAL we trust.
9Macho Man Randy Savage
Be A Man

Break out your nearest console or PC, since the theme this round will be CONTROLLER FREAK. When you get around to constructing your particular product, act as though you are designing your own video game. What might that entail? I leave that up to the individual contestant. It could be different stages in a game, themes for characters, background accompaniment for a shooter, take your pick. Ultimately, what will win out here is an establishment of a consistent tone. Flow is not as necessary as usual, since it's possible to choose different routes (i.e. the aforementioned examples). If flow is what you want to focus on, of course, then I will pay attention to it for your album.
10Macho Man Randy Savage
Be A Man

No track limits are going to imposed for this round, but there will be another duration ceiling in place. For this go-around, I'm going to be asking for albums that have at least an hour's worth of material. Fill that up with as many tunes as you think are required to complete the job--just ensure that the time limit is considered and met. As usual, "point of no return" rules are still going strong.
11Macho Man Randy Savage
Be A Man

I keep saying "you" though, which seems to be misleading. See, it should be more of a "you all" or "your team." I get that solo developers are totally a thing, but most people create games with some kind of help. The dumb rule is that you will have to work in a partnership! I decided to do this by establishing team captains based upon placements: 1st = 3pts, 2nd = 2pts, 3rd = 1pts. The top three scorers, then, are Sint (7pts.), Neek, (6pts.), and Zombie (6pts.). I flipped a coin and Neek won, so that there is the pecking order! The other three contestants are on the bench waiting to join a team.
12Macho Man Randy Savage
Be A Man

SUMMARY:
Genre = Electronic
Theme = Controller Freak
Requirement = Need at least 1hrs. worth of music
"point of no return" = no repeat songs; can use an artist in your album once
"Dumb Rule" = teamwork; players have to cooperate in a partnership
13Macho Man Randy Savage
Be A Man

Contestants:
Papa Universe | ZombieToyDuck | Sinternet | bgellesp | SteakByrnes | neekafat
14Mogwai
Young Team

Team 1: Sinternet + bg
15Mogwai
Young Team

Team 2: neek + Steak
16Mogwai
Young Team

Team 3: Zombie + Papa
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