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(+2)

Love the concept here, definitely one of my favorite takes on the theme of "Inside My World" thus far. 

Right off the bat, loving the sound of "City Streets." The bass is funky, the sax is groovy and the whole sound perfectly encompasses the vibe you described in your game synopsis.

"Desperation at the Space Station" has some very cool sounds; the organ/guitar combo at the beginning is powerful, and I  love the wobbly tremolo on the guitar towards the end. This track does a good job of creating an atmosphere without being just ambient background music. My only complaint is that the kick drum feels very heavy on the left/right in the sub-bass region.

Good little story build-up track with "Home Video Escapism." All of your sound design and instrument choices up to this point in the album have been excellent - you have created a unique blend of sounds that fit very well into that pseudo-retro sort of vibe.

"Ghosts of the Railroad" immediately gives me the image of a chain gang (definitely some overlap between "chain gang" and "cowboy western" in the collective unconscious of acoustic guitar sounds, imo) Regardless, really cool track here, love the chanting type vocals in the background and the crunchiness of the percussion.

"Home Sweet Home" does a great job of staying true to the time period as you intended, the tone of the bass, drums and brass all feel very indicative of the time period. And whatever the hell is going on with that hip-hop vinyl record sound... I don't even know how to describe it, but it's such a cool vibe. Great work here.

"The Pirate Queen's Booty" immediately paints a picture of adventure aboard a pirate ship. The orchestration is very well done here!The bass drums here feel a bit too loud in the song compared to the rest of the track, I feel like there's a few tiny moments where the rest of the song is getting drowned from the drums hitting the compressor on your master bus? I could be imagining it, or if not then the issue is relatively minor. 

Overall, this was a really fun listen! Great instrument choices, interesting sound design, solid composition and a wide array of music that still sounds pretty cohesive as an album and masterfully represents the game that you've described. Excellent work, definitely one of the best that I've listened to thus far.

(+1)

Thank you for your long and detailed reply. I am glad you like it and appreciate some of the more targeted feedback.

A chain gang was indeed on my mind when I wrote it. 'Oh Brother where Art Thou's imagery has been burnt into my mind at this point and I maybe dug even more into that well that straight up western just as you suggested. 

I try to find ways to emulate the production techniques of what I am referencing, so I tried to have a modern take on the boom bap tracks. I sampled old rare groove songs, splitting the individual voices with an app and then treating them with low pass and other effects. I cut them up and treated them in many ways so the original sound is no longer present. The warbly record scratch effect is an old group jazz impro, that I cut up and treated with a tape delay, automating the delay time that I had set to a note value. This led to them jumping between the reverb values in a jerky manner almost like manipulating a vinyl record. Just as the rap producers, you sometimes have to use gear in a way that isn't intended. 

I am certain that the Pirate track hits the master bus a little hard at times. The loud low strings are intentional, but I might have toned it down if I had some more time - the finer nuances can get lost in such a tight timeframe, but I also was kind of numb to the track as it ate a lot of my time for the jam, while others were written in a more spontaneous manner.

Also thank you for noticing the sound design in the first couple tracks, particularly the short interlude. That one was done similarly quickly, but I just enjoy delay effects so much, it was a joy to experiment.