The Pop Open Round 3.2 (and 3.1 RESULTS)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This round sees lockedintheatti and piratemoggy send their songs into a Robot Wars style ring. Except without house robots (if we did have house robots they would be Daft Punk).

Hear the songs here: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2007/12/pop-open-week-151/

And then vote. You have four voting options:

VOTE FOR TRACK THREE
VOTE FOR TRACK FOUR
ABSTAIN IN FAVOUR OF TRACK THREE
ABSTAIN IN FAVOUR OF TRACK FOUR

You can only vote for a track if you've not heard it. An abstain would be used when you know one track but can't bear to give your vote to the other, or when you know BOTH and want to express a preference. Abstains are only counted in the event of a tied vote.

I've used a text box cos it's less obvious who's winning!

[Poll #1100226]

Meanwhile the first person to go through to the finals is mackromackro, whose track "But" by Kumi Kuma beat the Max'C track credoimprobus submitted. Well done him and he can start thinking about the WINTER track for the next round.

Next up: stevem78 vs byebyepride

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Oh tits, I forgot to go and vote in the last round after listening to the tracks and I would've voted for the other one. Sorry, credimprobus!

I think I have made a crucial error of judgement in track selection here.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty nervouse. Choosing a track that might appeal to everyone and with no theme was bloody difficult.

I like your track. Although obviously won't be voting for it!

[koganbot]

I voted for credoimprobus's too, but it didn't save the track from the final slaughter.

[credoimprobus]

Haha that's okay. I knew I was going to lose like whoa the second I heard the competition anyway, really -- I wouldn't have voted for me over that one, and I lovelovelove my track.

Fnx for the support to you lot that did vote for me, though!

[credoimprobus]

Oh also since a couple of people wondered (more or less): Max'C aka Charles Salter resides in Finland but originally hails from ver US (iiuc he had a big cultural influence in the early days of the Finnish hip-hop scene); the (co-)producers on the track are Finnish, though.

[mackromackro.livejournal.com]

I really really liked the Max'C track as well. CHEERS CREDO! *holds up pint*

It seems like this round was more of a "what flavor am I in the mood for NOW?" type of thing. I'm surprised the Kumi Koda track did so well in comparison, but if people were allowed to split multiple points between the two, it would be neck-and-neck, no doubt the score would go into four overtimes!

Again, you guys are insane for letting me get this far. Now to look for landmines and trapdoors.

And msg me if you want to hear a better encoding of "But", web searches failing. (Again, no issues with the Pop Open player on my end for the purpose of judging. People know it compresses a lot.)

[mackromackro.livejournal.com]

UGH! Accidentally deleted my entire inbox. Msg me again if you did so within the past week. I'm really sorry about that.

[mackromackro.livejournal.com]

Re: Kumi Koda. "But" is really atypical of her discography. Kumi actually started out trying to break the UK and US in 1999/2000 (singing in English) but failed miserably. So she concentrated in her home country (Japan) since then. Her major breakthrough was in 2003, singing the final song pair in Final Fantasy X-2, hence instant fame. Within the past couple of years, Kumi Koda has been blatantly embracing U.S./UK production styles for the dancier numbers, especially from Timbaland, but she remains primarily a crooner in chart-topping love ballads in Japan. "But" came from nowhere, which is part of the reason I chose it. It sounded like P!nk over an Ed Banger track but with a more dynamic vocal range. What else do you need really? (ok ok)

blah blah, anyway!

Round 3.2

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I really like both these tracks. This is going to be a tough FITE, I reckon.

Re: Round 3.2

[mackromackro.livejournal.com]

I vote POP OPEN ROUND THREE MIX CD! Seriously, so far, all of these songs segue so well into each other. Then again, all of them (so far) have been very "today" and most of them (so far) have been non-English, which does make for a nice mix.

I liked both tracks, but it didn't take me long to decide on Track Three, which surprised me a bit because of its length. First, I only count it as 4:45 since the final minute or so sounds like a coda or transitional ambience. Second, all 5 minutes are very well used.

I really liked the verse and chorus for Track Four, but alas it didn't really go anywhere beyond the first chorus for me.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Phew, only just got round to listening to these (have been uber busy!)

One word reviews of both tracks:

Track 3: MYSTERIOUS
Track 4: SWANKY