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Tom R.
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Last Active 02-15-23 2:12 pm
Joined 10-12-14

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 Lists
08.21.24 [R4] Build-An-Album³: Spill the OSTea 05.11.24 Eurovision Entries Scored
04.08.24 [R3] Build-An-Album³: Wub 2.0 02.27.24 [R2] Build-An-Album³: Out With Old, In
02.06.24 [R1] Build-An-Album³: Everybody Listen 01.28.24 LAST CALL [SIGNUPS] Build-An-Album³: T
01.21.24 Sin's K-Pop Roundup 2022 Part 3/3 FINAL 12.29.23 Sin's K-Pop Roundup 2022 Part 2/3
11.17.23 Sin's K-Pop Roundup 2022 Part 1/3 10.06.23 Recent vinyl pickups ver.29403
07.29.23 Vinyl update 2k23 edition04.08.23 2023 Q1 Part 2
04.04.23 2023 Q1 Part 1 10.09.22 Vinyl update shit
03.15.22 can you separate the fart from the fart02.20.22 VOTE SKRAMZ
02.09.22 my FAVouRiTE LYRICS!!! 10.17.21 7 years of sin >:)
More »

[R4] Build-An-Album³: Spill the OSTea

Back in business.
1Burial
Untrue


Hello Build-an-Albumeers, it’s been a long time. Too long in fact. I’d like to formally apologise for going radio-silent over this for so long, but the truth is I went through a very busy period of both work and other stuff and had to put it on the back-burner for quite a while until I felt I had the energy to do this again, which luckily for you happens to be now. Before our hiatus we left with submissions for the dubstep round, let’s see how you all did…
2Loefah
Jungle Infiltrator


ffs' album

JEBBA

Summary: An absolutely exquisite playlist to start us off, one with a ton of love and care obviously put into it that’s both well-researched and thematically consistent. These aren’t exactly obscure artists, but you’ve definitely picked out a few deeper cuts which show a keen ear for that good old early dubstep sound. Of particular note was the Hijak track which I’m embarrassed to say I had not heard before, but am gonna be rinsing fairly hard now alongside some of my favourite Mystikz tunes (one of which you also got). Also really like the Kromestar pick, got a big grime flavour off that one which made me smile. Flow here is immaculate. Excellent submission.
Highlight: Hijak - Babylon Timewarp [4.6]

Tracks: 4.2/5
Flow: 4.6/5
Penalties: None
Bonus: Best track [+0.5]

Score: 9.3
3Volor Flex
Tramp


SlothcoreSam's album

PAPUA

Summary: There were a lot of mixed bags in this round, and this was among the mix-iest. It starts off terribly and finishes very strongly, and everything else is somewhere in the middle. There is a good flow here, despite the generic, overlong and boring opener, which thankfully gives way to a pretty tight 2nd track in a fairly strong transition. Abattoir stands out easily as the highlight here, as it’s one of the only tracks not to either blatantly copy someone else’s style (looking at you Volor Flex) or greatly outstay their welcome. Maybe that’s a little harsh - this does flow very nicely.
Highlight: Kahn - Abattoir [4.1]

Tracks: 3.4/5
Flow: 3.9/5
Penalties: None

Score: 7.3
4Djrum
Seven Lies


anat's album

HEARD

Summary: Ok this one fucking rules. And 95% of the reason it rules is because this flows smoother than a motherfucker and I have zero faults with it - fuck it, it’s a 5 on that metric. It’s moody, spacious, evocative, whatever adjective you throw at it just simply rules. Are these my favourite tracks of the round? Nah - they’re all good to great but individually they aren’t the most impressive. But together? Hell fucking yeah baby. I really love this. Definitely treads around the fringes of what can still be considered dubstep and what is borderline ambient territory but I love the boundary-pushing here, very unique vibe compared to all the other submissions.
Highlight: Azaleh - Emerald Sand [4.3]

Tracks: 4.0/5
Flow: 5.0/5
Penalties: None
Bonus: Best flow [+0.5]

Score: 9.5
5Untold
Kingdom


ReefaJones' album

TAJIK

Summary: Unfortunately this one didn’t really hit any sort of stride until about halfway through track 3, and then failed to deliver on those vibes afterwards. There is a competent flow here that feels consistent and considered, but everything here is far too lowkey for my personal tastes and drags on for far too long without really doing much. I see the vision and could definitely vibe with this in the background, but I found myself wanting to skip through parts of this more than I did most other playlists submitted - not for lack of quality per se, but for it’s non-descript-ness.
Highlight: Ramadanman - Justify [3.8]

Tracks: 3.4/5
Flow: 3.7/5
Penalties: None

Score: 7.1
6Swarms
I Gave You Everything


gryndstone's album

SARMI

Summary: Suffers greatly from that opening track (never at all got the Pretty Lights love, sounded really boring to me), but luckily the rest of this is solid. Am unfamiliar with that Renard project but it sounds a hell of a lot better than most of the stuff they were putting out back then which is nice, and tracks 3 and 4 work really well next to each other. Perhaps feels a bit more plain overall as it neither settles into energetic or groovy territory and mostly goes for atmosphere, which is fine but hard to pull off. Enjoyed this for the most part though.
Highlight: Ital Tek - Midnight Colour [4.0]

Tracks: 3.5/5
Flow: 3.7/5
Penalties: None

Score: 7.2
7Camellia
crystallized


JohnnyoftheWell's album

ASMAN

Summary: It was gonna take something bold for me to really appreciate the more brosteppy/EDM side of ‘dubstep’ and fortunately this does the job very nicely. I love how much this playlist highlights the one saving grace the high points of this style all have in common - top-tier sound design. The Fellsius track was incredibly well-produced, and track 4 was no slouch either in that regard. I had forgotten how much nostalgia that Pendulum track holds for me as well, despite being apprehensive beforehand. Yeah this was very well put together - again this isn’t massively my style but this brings out its best qualities very well.
Highlight: Fellsius - Mirror [4.0]

Tracks: 3.8/5
Flow: 4.2/5
Penalties: None

Score: 8.0
8Martyn
Great Lengths


anode's album

FLINT

Summary: In a reversal of trends, this starts off well and falls off sharply. Not for the quality of tracks so much as the fact neither the Shackleton or Floating Points tracks are remotely dubstep, which is a shame because the first two tracks are pretty solid picks. The Swarms track is a pretty obvious pick but hey someone had to make it, and I’m not about to complain. Love Martyn’s work too (although this track wasn’t one of my faves) which is a decent pull. I think there are Shackleton tracks that would have worked here (especially any of his stuff with Pinch), but that one was essentially just tribal ambient with no dub nor wub. Eh, it’s an alright effort but you can do better.
Highlight: Swarms - Flikr of Ur Eyes [3.9]

Tracks: 3.3/5
Flow: 3.5/5
Penalties: Wrong genre [-0.5]

Score: 6.3
9Subtronics
FRACTALS


FowlKrietzsche's album

PABLO

Summary: I feel like I’m being trolled here, but it’s ok because despite these songs sucking hot ass this was actually very entertaining to listen to the single time I could stomach it. Opening with the stupidest track featuring a way overlong and uncomfortably contextless Bob’s Burgers sample maybe showed your hand a little too quickly, but damn whatever I enjoyed my time. Never again though.
Highlight: Subtronics - Open Your Mind (Anthology 999) [3.5]

Tracks: 3.4/5
Flow: 3.8/5
Penalties: None

Score: 7.2
10SP:MC
Trust Nobody/Future


Jash's album

TIELT

Summary: Very moody, a lot of this is not usually my bag, but it ended up being cohesive enough as a whole that I could switch off to it and bob my head to it. First track was a bit too far into what RYM seems to call ‘dungeon sound’ territory for me - I’m discovering that this scene I have previously neglected is maybe not for me, but the rest brings a decent amount of heat. Really liked the Commodo track in particular. Flow is solid. Definitely one of the better researched entries.
Highlight: Commodo - Loan Shark [3.9]

Tracks: 3.6/5
Flow: 3.9/5
Penalties: None

Score: 7.5
11Vex'd
Degenerate


neekafat's album

SAMOA

Summary: The tracks here could work well in the right playlist I feel (maybe bar the first one that’s completely at odds with everything else), but there is very little in terms of flow or seamless transitions in this playlist which makes this a bit of an odd listen. Knowing 4 of the 5 tracks already didn’t help me either, which lost a bit of the surprise factor I got from most other playlists, but that’s not really your fault, and Midnight Request Line still slaps even on the 1000th time I’ve heard it. Just wish this was more attentive to how a good flow could have improved the playlist a lot.
Highlight: Skream - Midnight Request Line [4.1]

Tracks: 3.7/5
Flow: 3.1/5
Penalties: None

Score: 6.8
12Lindsey Stirling
Brave Enough


Zac124's album

ITALY

Summary: Did Tundra make this playlist? I’m gonna be honest this was the worst thing I’ve heard this competition so far. Not only are some of these barely even dubstep tracks, but all of them are either gimmicky, sickly or utterly derivative, or a combination of those. This reminds me of like every terrible Monstercat track from 2014 you hear in the background of youtube videos and bad twitch streams. I have a little bit of nostalgia for a couple of those types of songs before i grew out of them, but none of these do the least bit for me - perhaps i’m impressed by the boldness of going for Lindsey fucking Sterling though, so if this was a meme I rate it. I’m sorry if this was a serious attempt but this was very much not my thing at all. Still love you babe.
Highlight: MitiS - Away [2.4]


Tracks: 2.1/5
Flow: 2.4/5
Penalties: None

Score: 4.5
13Ital Tek
Bodied


Pangea's album

HOORN

Summary: This wasn’t bad, but it never really got out of second gear, and kinda dances very far round the outskirts of what is and isn’t dubstep. There’s certainly some interesting choices - that James Blake track I’ve never heard and seems to be hated by most people but I really liked it. I just couldn’t gel super well with a lot of this though. Having said that I did quite like the flow of this one, wasn’t always an obvious track order but the transitions were fairly seamless.
Highlight: AgonyOST - Not Dreaming [3.8]

Tracks: 3.5/5
Flow: 3.8/5
Penalties: None

Score: 7.3
14Submotion Orchestra
Colour Theory


PitchforkArms' album

MALTA

Summary: Starts off alright, and the Death Grips pick is a wild shout but actually works pretty well. I do have issues though with how much of this is just not really dubstep, specifically the closer and track 2. The majority of tracks here are pretty solid, but also not very cohesive in the way they’re sequenced, lacking either a smooth transition or an entertainingly volatile one. Far from the worst here, but I didn’t particularly get much out of this one.
Highlight: Appleblim - Mystical Warrior [3.9]

Tracks: 3.5/5
Flow: 3.4/5
Penalties: Wrong genre [-0.5]

Score: 6.4
15mr. bill
Mechanomorphic


Uzumaki's album

MACAO

Summary: Overall really not my thing, a lot of these tracks are remarkably dull and have little happening. They’re predictable, the sound design which is the key selling point for this style was average at best and never tingled my brain at all, and I ended up wanting it to be over fairly quickly. Even the Mr. Bill track was pretty mediocre, and I’ve liked most of the stuff I’ve heard from him before. There’s a competent flow here, but mostly due to the fact that they all sound identical to each other. It’s not offensively bad or anything, just very boring.
Highlight: Mr Bill & VCTRE - Absence [2.9]

Tracks: 2.5/5
Flow: 3.0/5
Penalties: None

Score: 5.5
16STUCA
Resurgence


tyman128's album

ALAYH

Summary: Amongst the better half of the brostep-heavy playlists submitted, although not really because of the tracks which were varying degrees of mid. This one has a really good flow though, I could def imagine this set being pretty hype at EDC or Tomorrowland or whatever. A reminder to everyone else that flow is just as valuable as the actual tracks you submit. I didn’t hate myself after this one.
Highlight: 2soon - YOUR LIFE [3.2]

Tracks: 2.8/5
Flow: 3.6/5
Penalties: None

Score: 6.4
17Pendulum
Immersion


bellovddd's album

SYDNEY

Summary: Bello, bello, bello. I love you man, but you’ve got to stop submitting playlists whilst on the VBs. Not only did you submit six tracks instead of five, but you also chose a track that was already taken by someone else. Your best song (Reol) also was not really dubstep at all. You know what, don’t stop, this was refreshingly funny after a fairly long streak of mediocrity, so props to you.
Highlight: Reol - YoiYoi Kokon [3.8]

Tracks: 2.7/5
Flow: 2.8/5
Penalties: Picked a song already taken [-0.5], Submitted wrong amount of tracks [-1.0]

Score: 4.0
18Kode9 and the Spaceape
Memories of the Future


This leaves us with this wonderful scoreboard for the round, congratulations to anat, ffs and Johnny! The rest of you, hang your heads in shame - ye shall never wub again.

1. anat - 9.5 + 1.0 = 10.5
2. ffs - 9.3 + 0.8 = 10.1
3. JohnnyoftheWell - 8.0 + 0.6 = 8.6
4. Jash - 7.5 + 0.4 = 7.9
5. Pangea/SlothcoreSam - 7.3 + 0.2 = 7.5
7. FowlKrietzsche/gryndstone - 7.2
9. ReefaJones - 7.1
10. neekafat - 6.8
11. tyman128/PitchforkArms - 6.4 - 0.1 = 6.3
13. anode - 6.3 - 0.2 = 6.1
14. Uzumaki - 5.5 - 0.3 = 5.2
15. Zac124 - 4.5 - 0.4 = 4,1
16. bellovddd - 4.0 - 0.5 = 3.5
19Skream
Skream!


Now what does that do to our overall leaderboard? Let’s take a look…

1. ReefaJones - 29.3
2. anat - 29.0
=3. JohnnyoftheWell - 27.6
=3. ffs - 27.6
5. Jash - 26.5
6. SlothcoreSam - 26.4
7. gryndstone - 26.2
8. Pangea - 25.2
9. neekafat - 24.4
10. anode - 24.3
11. PitchforkArms - 23.9
12. FowlKrietzche - 22.5
—-------------------------------
13. Zac124 - 22.3
14. tyman128 - 22.2
15. Uzumaki - 21.5
16. bellovddd - 17.9
20Horsepower Productions
In Fine Style


Wow what an interesting leaderboard and still so competitive! You may have noticed a small change there - with a couple dropouts, the first elimination phase will see just 12 remaining. Don’t fear yet however, as we have one more round left to go in Phase 1. Let’s take a look at what the genre roulette has in store for us.
21The Bug
London Zoo


Your genre is…


22Jeremy Soule
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Soundtrack


SOUNDTRACK

Why is this a genre? Who knows! How am I going to make this work? Painfully!

Ok listen, this is so vague and I don’t actually want you to submit a bunch of random ass songs that have been used in whatever film or game or TV show or whatever, because that would be pretty boring. Instead, I want YOU to come up with your own soundtrack. Not for your own life story, that sounds far too boring and emo. But you have to come up with a soundtrack to a fictitious game/movie/TV show that you would make, and I want you to give at least a brief synopsis/description of what it is. I will score you based on how well I see the vision you’re going for. I don’t mind wacky, be wacky if you want, but make sure you justify it.
23Soundtrack (Film)
Barbie: The Album


What genre? Whatever genre you want, with a couple of catches. Your playlist must exclusively be of one genre (that is taggable on sput) - feel free to roam the fringes, but don’t stray too far or I’ll lose my immersion. You may also not use any of the three genres that have previously appeared - no dubstep, techno or new wave, or anything that resembles them too closely.

CONSTRAINTS:

With 16 participants still involved, I’m gonna stick with keeping this one short and sweet. 6 tracks, 35 minutes maximum. Wow me, don’t bore me.
24Soundtrack (Video Game)
Mass Effect


BORING RULE:

The final round of Phase 1 is double points! This is your opportunity to sprint your way back up the leaderboard or solidify yourself at the top (there will be bonuses next phase for the highest finishers).

WEIRD RULE:

The little spelling game last round was fun. This one won’t be as much. The first letter of your artist names must spell out a palindrome, which will also be the title of your work. No they don’t have to make sense, this is mostly to continue testing your ability to follow rules.

For example, my techno album might be:

Helena Hauff
Autechre
Nav Katze
Ninos du Brasil
Ansome
Hecq

You get the picture. Artists with The or A in front of their name can be used as whether with or without.
25The Seatbelts
Cowboy Bebop


TL:DR

Genre: Soundtrack (One genre of your choice), must describe your hypothetical property it’s attached to.
Constraints: 6 tracks, 35 minutes maximum.
Boring rule: Double points for everyone.
Weird rule: First letter of artist names must spell out a palindrome (doesn’t have to make sense).

Deadline: 7th September.
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