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Nerve Bag

By 1wills.com

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Yannick

Originality:	8	Technical:	7
Theme:	6	Quality:	7
Arrangement:	6	Global:	6

Sunbuster

Originality:	7	Technical:	7
Theme:	6	Quality:	6
Arrangement:	6	Global:	7

Some wicked drum'n'bass or something. As is typical with these kinds of tracks it's a bit repetitive, unfortunately that also goes for the drums, which follow the same pattern almost all the way through (the snare loop especially). Here I think some more variation could be important. Plusses though for the drumprogramming not being loops.

The song incorporates some interesting twists, if they're good or not is a matter of taste I'd say. Personally though I think the swich at pattern 14 is cool, but the one at 2C is a bit odd imo. The slowdown is cool, but the stuff that follows it goes a bit too far of from the main theme I think.

I believe that instr. 0E, although good in principal, could have used more low bass. Most of the time it sounds a bit weak.

Sample quality is a bit variating, going from bad to good, but it's not audible in the track so it doesn't matter that much.

Overall, it's a pretty interesting piece, but doesn't have that little extra to go all the way.

mindplay

Originality:	7	Technical:	4
Theme:	6	Quality:	5
Arrangement:	7	Global:	6

Nice, aggressive drum'n'bass track, but unfortunately with certain sounds way out of balance. Many interesting beats and variations.

Novus

Originality:	7	Technical:	6
Theme:	4	Quality:	6
Arrangement:	4	Global:	4

"Nerve Bag" by Scott Wills is a spirited techno romp that ultimately falls far short of what it could've been. There are some good ideas in here, but rather than develop them into great ones, SW seems content to let them stand on their own and throw his energy into more inconsequential background elements of the song, particularly in the unfocused final minutes. The results are patchy at best.

The first 90 seconds serve to introduce the 10-second techno-synth riff that the song seems to be built around, and it's a dandy of a riff, somehow subdued and aggressive simultaneously, and seemingly flexible enough that it could've been used as a springboard to other riffs and melodic tricks. But inexplicably, SW chooses instead to continuously re-use this riff almost exactly. While he occasionally switches or drops a note here or there, the changes are so obscure that the riff quickly wears out its welcome. Add in a poorly-chosen and stereotypical spoken vocal repeated a few times, and a song that starts out sounding promising quickly becomes grating instead.

At about 90 seconds in, the song rather abruptly changes gears, dropping the riff and replacing it with an absurdly simple synth-pad chord progression which consists of exactly 2 chords, and then fairly soon forgets about that pesky second chord and drops down to just 1.

This sequence goes for about 80 seconds, before SW slides back into the 2-chord progression and tosses the original techno-synth riff back into the mix. Hearing the two together is actually intriguing, and this is easily the best segment of the song.

It's also the shortest. SW uses the combo exactly once through, and that's it. 10 seconds. The results are maddeningly frustrating; I wanted to yell, "No! Go back! Build on that!" Why SW would repeat the weakest portions of his song ad naseum and then limit the strongest segment to 1 cycle is a mystery, but that's precisely what he does here.

SW then drops the backing chords and re-introduces the vocal clip, then abandons both in favor of a change-up in the percussion and random background sound effects that leave the song sounding aimless and unfocused, and finally the song sputters to an end 2 minutes later.

Production-wise, the sample selection is adequate. The mixing and volume levels sound clean, but the samples themselves sound sub-professional. The song has a clearly amateur ring to it as a result.

Overall, "Nerve Bag" has its moments, but they're frustratingly brief. In the end, the chasm between what is and what could've been is easily apparent, and the results are merely average.