Hello, tincca! Here I go with my review for your entry.
[Note: Please don't take my criticism too hard, as I am trying to be as constructive as possible, and nothing is further from my intentions as to sound harsh or unrespectful with your work. I want for all of us to improve through these jams and I am learning myself to give a focused and attentive listen and thoroughly and sincerely comment other's entries as much as I would like mine to be reviewed.]
I listened to the Bandcamp version of your entry with closed-back headphones.
Track by track review:
1. Misty Crossing
Feeling like I am entering a machine. Background buzzing is too loud. There seems to be a lack of bass, and the noise is omnipresent. The melody could benefit from some legato. At 1:00 finally I got that bass I felt needed, the track starts to feel more balanced. I don't get boat vibes, but rather being inside some kind of factory. Selvatic because of some of the effects, but not entirely natural. At around 2 minute mark the buzzing becomes a rasping sound with more rhythmical qualities, dropped around 2:30 to get some sense of harmony changes, but there's still something in the background which is grating, couldn't say precisely what is happening that is making the sound uncomfortable. They are very very long sustains without apparent changes in volume or texture, and become difficult to bear for a long time. The rest of the instruments don't compensate their strong and powerful presence. Because of the background, I found it difficult to focus on the added nuance that I am sure is there on the foreground, but which is eaten alive by the sustained drones.
General impressions:
Overall, your track gave me this feeling of oppression. I tried to listen to the details and connect with the journey you were aiming for, but the drones setting a constant and very intense background low-end with sustained notes and noises made it difficult to appreciate the nuances of the composition.
Ratings by category:
Execution: 3/5
I find it difficult to judge with precision, because everything is conditioned by the problem with the intrusive space taken by the drones compositionally and in the mix, but I think that there are many interesting things that are nuanced on the foreground in terms of variation, but sadly they are difficult to discern properly.
Vibe: 3/5
There's some interesting atmosphere going on here at moments, it just needs space to breath.
Composition: 3/5
Same situation as with the execution. The lack of a resting moment of calm with the constant drones don't give room for appreciating the variations.
Listenability: 2/5
For this category, the impact of the drone problems was the most strong for me. It was difficult to listen to the track through one time.
Correlation to Theme: 3/5
I felt there was a connection to the theme, but not specially strong.
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Note: for this jam I am starting to use a rating rubric/template in order to rate more consistently and make my feedback more insightful for the person I am rating. It is available here in case you wanted to check it out: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LEz4pyyHR7iQ75W2IFjA22odaeDNmdm-/view