SMWCentral Official Annual Music Tourney #2 (2022) - WINNER - Old Contests & Events

Billain & Kursa - NEWGROOVEORDER: Show/Hide

I've been excited for this track for the entire tourney thus far, and it closes off the bracket round. Wow.

I uhm. I was not excited enough. I already knew I was gonna get my knees capped by Billain, but safe to say, I now have all the regrets for not having Billain on top of my "when new music is released, drop everything and listen" list. What was I thinking?

This is the best music this tourney has presented me.

Chris Potter - Hold It: Show/Hide

Good grief yes. Yes! This goes so unbelievably hard. I haven't listened to all sets, but from what I heard, this is the highlight of everything for me. Thank you. (Hey, future Exo here, I just listened to Newgrooveorder and it kinda overthrew this but don't let that piss in your popcorn.)

That part where they went quintuplets threw me in the best way.

Also sick cover art.

I am copping this album so hard right now.

Phuture Doom - Phuneral Phuture: Show/Hide

Ominous intro, straight into a balls-to-the-walls black metal section, which then falls away to a void that keeps creeping closer, shaking everything. It strikes with lightning acid, until the walls close in and everything is black.

Phuture Doom is a three-piece band, who do perform live, and Skrillex is rumoured (AFAIK never confirmed) to be one of the members.

Phuture Doom do a fusion of electronic styles and the most bleak metal.

I like Phuture Doom.

(Hi, future Exo here. I am shook that this set was good enough for this track to only net a 3rd place.)

Edward Alstrom - JUST SAY YES OR NO: Show/Hide

Yes.

The Highwomen - Crowded Table: Show/Hide

Very positively surprised. It's very hard to get me interested with this genre, and sure, this song doesn't have anything particularly interesting (the main metric I judge by), but it has an enjoyable production, good (though simple) composition and relatable lyrics — though to be fair, if the video didn't include the lyrics, I will have likely not caught any of that due to how I process the world around me, so that's a lucky break on the nominator's part.

Happysad - Bez cienia: Show/Hide

Never heard Polish in a rock context before; for that alone, nice! The production sounds good, love the grit, but I'm not terribly interested in the music otherwise though

R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower: Show/Hide

As Crowded Table already exposed me to the lyrics and I spotted lyrics in the comments for this one, I decided to read along in order to keep my votes for this set fair. So, in all fairness: I do not care one bit for the lyrics and the vocals they're sung with. In fact, the vocals rather bother me.

That said, the production sounds great (even interesting in the small bridge), but I don't really care about the composition.

じん - チルドレンレコード(Re:boot): Show/Hide

You click play and you know exactly how much chaos you're in for, just par for the course really. Safe to say, not my jam.

I... didn't mind this. C'est tout.

I was gonna say that this was the best set out of all the ones I've listened to, but that's hardly fair. Goodness me.

Happysad - Bez Cienia
The Highwomen - Crowded Table

1. JIN - Children Record (re:boot)
2. Edward Alstrom - Just Say Yes or No

Honourable mentions go to Bez Cienia and Hold It, such a good lineup for the last set of this round!

What is a Lunar Magic, and can I eat it?

R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower
Chris Potter - Hold It

List Soundtrack - List Hacks

Mega Man X3 OSTs

R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower
Chris Potter - Hold It

sure why not

TA-TA-TA-TAAAAAN
TA-TA-TA-TAAAAAN
$#thp{O_O1}$ $#thp{O_O2}$

MY VOTES:

PERFECT!!
1. The Highwomen - Crowded Table
2. Edward Alstrom - Just Say Yes or No

THE REST OF THE SONGS:

GREAT!
3. JIN - Children Record (re:boot)

GooD
4. R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower
5. Chris Potter - Hold It
6. Happysad - Bez Cienia

Boo!
7. Phuture Doom - Phuneral Phuture
8. Billain & Kursa - Newgrooveorder

Can't wait for the next round!

Chris Potter - Hold It
R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower

Mad respect for the breakcore and vocaloid songs, but I felt more like chill vibes today.

Didn't expect to see Phuture Doom here, last time I've heard of these guys is when Antoine Daniel mocked one of the weirder videoclips back in 2015.

Billain & Kursa - Newgrooveorder
Phuture Doom - Phuneral Phuture
(Chris Potter - Hold It)

nice set

Set Z Results

Chris Potter - Hold It (9)
JIN - Children Record (re:boot) (6)
Edward Alstrom - Just Say Yes or No (5)
R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower (5)
Happysad - Bez Cienia (4)
The Highwomen - Crowded Table (3)
Billain & Kursa - Newgrooveorder (3)
Phuture Doom - Phuneral Phuture (1)

-------------------------------------

READ THIS NEXT PART CAREFULLY:
As I said earlier in the tourney, the Bracket Round's bracket has 64 spots, but the low number of sets in this tourney means that only 52 songs will go through automatically, leaving 12 spots available. Two of those spots were filled by submissions that got through their sets via ties (Fleet Foxes and Caravan Palace), so that leaves 10 spots open; however, there are 15 Wild Cards. I was initially going to just take the 10 highest seeded Wild Cards and automatically eliminate the others, but in hindsight it felt a bit unfair to do that without at least giving the lowest songs a second chance to "redeem" themselves (and the number of Wild Cards happened to work out perfectly for a full-fledged voting round).

All of that said, I've decided to do a Wild Card round! The 15 Wild Cards will be randomized and put into two sets, and you'll have to pick up to FIVE from each one. The 5 songs from both sets will fill up the last 10 bracket spots. To see all of the Wild Cards, look for the songs that are marked in blue on the tourney spreadsheet (or scroll all the way to the bottom of the Submissions tab).

That said, remember to pick FIVE songs from this set (or eliminate three if that's easier). The ones with the most votes will be added to the bracket (any ties will be broken this time).

Wild Card Round: Set A

RED ORCA - ORCA FORCE
Elisa - Lost Into The Night
Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
Anthropia - Take Me Home
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Sevish - Orbital
Eduard Khil - I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home

Check out my WIP romhack!

Great:
RED ORCA - ORCA FORCE
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Anthropia - Take Me Home
Elisa - Lost Into The Night

Good:
McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
Sevish - Orbital
Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
Eduard Khil - I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home

5th pick was a little tricky

Oh baby

1. McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
2. Sevish - Orbital
3. RED ORCA - ORCA FORCE
4. Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
5. Elisa - Lost Into The Night
---------------
6. Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
7. Anthropia - Take Me Home
8. Eduard Khil - I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home

Check out my WIP romhack!

Elisa - Lost Into The Night
Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Sevish - Orbital

Here are my five choices:

Elisa - Lost Into The Night
Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
Anthropia - Take Me Home
Sevish - Orbital
Eduard Khil - I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home

With one exception, most of these I simply gave a quick look up again. The exception was with two songs that were rock 'n roll songs, which had to compete for the last slot. I ended up picking the one that had a little bit more variation in tempo (I saw the presence of lyrics as a non-factor in this case).

top5

Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
Anthropia - Take Me Home
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Sevish - Orbital

Elisa - Lost Into The Night
Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Sevish - Orbital
McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)

[cracks knuckles] Let's do this!

My choices are:

RED ORCA - ORCA FORCE
(This is how it feels like...)
Elisa - Lost Into The Night
(Ladies and gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES!)
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Eduard Khil - I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home
(I wonder if I could make a song by sampling with this.)
Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
(RIP, Miura. 😭🙏)

Honorable men—Err, I mean—Eliminations:

Sevish - Orbital
McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
Anthropia - Take Me Home

“YAAAARGH!!! I can’t decide! I just can’t decide!!”

A tough choice. It's hard to pick which one is the best-est.

The Hacking of PuyoPuyo. Come join the fun, friends. 『いけいけ団長、頑張れ頑張れ団長！』

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“Even if you personally are so dissatisfied with life that you want the world to end, surely the cruel reality is that it will continue on, unchanging. All the better for someone perfectly content, like me.”
– Aya Shameimaru, Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery

Elisa - Lost Into The Night | eurobeat my beloved
McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover

Not particularly a fan of many of these so only 3 votes from me.

McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
Sevish - Orbital
Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
RED ORCA - ORCA FORCE
Eduard Khil - I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home

take me home
cliffs of dover
orca force
lost into the night
guts theme

------

orbital
i am very glad as i'm finally returning back home

never will know

soundcloud / bandcamp / twitter / buy/stream my EP / buy my touhou music / buy my NEW album!!!

RED ORCA - ORCA FORCE
Elisa - Lost Into The Night
Susumu Hirasawa - Guts' Theme
McKinley Dixon - Never Will Know (feat. Micah James & Gold Midas)
Anthropia - Take Me Home

List Soundtrack - List Hacks

Mega Man X3 OSTs