This is my favourite entry of yours. FINALLY something I can 100% get behind~ Port Blue was good obviously but I wasn't in that contest and this is even better tbh. I did point 'Headlights' but that was on the lower end of my votes and it DNQ'd </3. (let's hope this doesn't)

Edited January 29, 20187 yr by M.

As a fellow distortion enthusiast I am rooting for this *.* x

This is an awesome entry Jacob! I am so here for the lil invasion of distortion in semi 2. I am not so thrilled that I cannot help you out however :lol: So I really hope that you'll be just fine in semi 2. One of your best for sure!

This is my favourite entry of yours. FINALLY something I can 100% get behind~ Port Blue was good obviously but I wasn't in that contest and this is even better tbh. I did point 'Headlights' but that was on the lower end of my votes and it DNQ'd </3. (let's hope this doesn't)

Yass! Distortion fans unite. :wub:

 

Welcome Oblivion is indeed through to the final so thanks for the votes so far and plz give it all the final votes! :heart:

 

I'm feeling pretty positive about this one tbh, expecting somewhere in the mid rankings but hoping for a possible low top 10? I'm so bad at predicting this kind of thing though so who knows? :o

Flopped at 34th oops, one step closer to fulfilling my aim of hitting all the positions in the 30s at least twice. xx

 

Still absolutely obsessed with this song so #noregrets. Glad I made a few fans though and happy to have qualified! Hoping this will be a good year for us. :o

I think this is my 2nd fave of your entries to date now, glad it got the chance to be in the final <3 x one day BuzzJack will truly appreciate angsty rock music

BJSC 102 // Timecop1983 - Girl (Feat. Seawaves)

Like I mentioned in the reveal thread, I've been really really getting into The Midnight and I would've entered "The Years (Prologue)" had it not been entered in BJSC 69 and came 2nd, or perhaps "Crystalline" or maybe even "River Of Darkness (Feat Timecop1983)". :o :o :o

The Midnight got me into this whole retro synthy sound, and while I initially found "Jason (feat. Nikki Flores)" through Masquerades last year (lovely lovely song, gave it +15), I never listened to any more of their music until a small YouTuber I watch, Tom L J White (great music review channel, 10/10 recommend, made some amazing discoveries through this guy) did a review of The Midnight's EP "Nocturnal", and he reminded me of their existance, following that I went on a Midnight binge and now I have their entire discography. The only thing is with the Midnight, people know them in BJSC, they did so well already. It wouldn't be """my""" discovery for you guys and I was very aware of a possible veto. I was stuck for entries really this month and after watching the entirety of "Stranger Things" over the past few weeks I'd started hearing this retro sounding synthwave music everywhere again and was absolutely living for it as the soundtrack to an amazing show.

And what do you know, Timecop1983 has made music that was featured in Stranger Things episodes, that was the music giving me all the #feels. Here it is:

Unlike The Midnight, Timecop don't have a vocalist, they usually make instrumental tracks but they occasionally feature vocalists. While I love listening to the instrumentals myself, for a standout track to enter to BJSC (certainly in this genre) I wanted one with vocals really. I adore the dreamy, nostalgic (yet not?), lovely bubbly sound to "Girl" and the vocals from Seawaves are just the cherry on top, they blend perfectly with the track and I really think this collab was a match made in heaven. I hope you guys enjoy this track as much as I have and go check out New Retro Wave, it's the best thing ever! :wub:

Took a while to update the thread but here it is! Like I posted in the results thread, huge thanks to:

 

Ramrynia (13)

Suedonia (12)

Jupiterdonia (12)

Summercia (11)

Kluminican Republic (10)

Aesthetica (10)

Fljótavík (9)

Terra Avium (9)

St. Burbia (9)

Skall (9)

Buzzjack Mountain (7)

Azure (7)

Rolloland (6)

Tinnmark (5)

Cor Lupus (5)

Seyetana (4)

Bøtanikkä (4)

South Danaelander (3)

Jadakissnia (3)

Cumulonimbia (3)

Trifoski (2)

Ojnoj (2)

Alteria (2)

Persephonia (1)

Cadelicia (1)

Espen (Comis)

Quintessa (Comis)

 

for your points, and glad you commiseration people enjoyed the song! Was happy to come 24th, unique result for Aelandor and was nice to not be in the 30s!

 

Next month we'll be returning to our more rocky roots with an absolute banger. Slightly reminiscent of early Muse perhaps. Lots of attitude, great grungey, garagey, blues rock sound. Fully accepting the possibility of a DNQ with it if I don't get a good semi because BJSC is hardly the crowd but I know for a fact some of you will love it. x

BJSC 103 // Moriaty - Esperanza

 

(It has a music video but it's not that interesting and it misses out the iconic spoken word intro)

 

Return to #rockbloc.

 

Aelandor's entry to BJSC 103 is "Esperanza" by blues/ garage/ heavy rock band Moriaty! I first heard them when I saw them live supporting Muse (along with The Marmozets- what a gig that was *.*) and they really were phenomenal. They're a Devon based band that Chris (the bassist from Muse) found online and obviously invited to support them in Exeter. I never got round to collecting/ listening to their music though until a few weeks ago and I can see why Muse liked them, a bassline like the one in "Esperanza" really reminds me of Origin Of Symmetry/ Absolution era Muse.

 

This banging tune features the aforementioned amazing bassline, rapping in the first verse, distorted vocals, Spanish in the chorus and a fantastic lil spoken word intro that got me into the song originally. Honestly no idea if people will like this but don't mind too much how it does (plz let me qualify x).

 

Insanely enough, these guys are a two piece. No idea how they manage to make this sound. :o

Aelandor came last in the semi, which is a first for me actually! Even during my tragic early DNQing days I never came dead last. Received 21 points though so at least it wasn't anywhere near the dreaded unattainable 0.

 

Absolutely undeserved of course, Esperanza's beauty wasn't appreciated and BJSC is just wrong about most things especially considering some of the awful bland trash that sailed through, not exclusively in this contest either. Thanks for the vocal support though from the people that did like it, you're the best. :heart:

 

Is okay though, I just tend to enter what I'm obsessed with and I was fully aware this would probably DNQ, might send a protest entry next month, might be fun, we'll see. x

Bah humbug. Maybe you were right about it being the wrong semi, I feel like my intuition for what is and isn't the right semi for certain songs is completely backwards. But yes, last place for this is pretty ridic. x

BJSC 104 // Kiasmos - Looped

 

 

Better late than never! Kiasmos is actually another artist I discovered through that Tom White youtuber I mentioned a couple contests back. It has a lovely slow build and really pays off. I love listening to it when I need to ""chill"" for lack of a better word. I've been listening to their self titled album for months and Looped was (one of) the standout track(s) for me so I hope you've all enjoyed as much as I did! Really wasn't sure if I was going to Q so really happy I did and looking forward to seeing where I'll place.

Spinoff: 90 vs 00s

Not forgetting our 90s vs 00s song, Tiny Vessels from Death Cab For Cutie. It comes from their 2003 album Transatlanticism, and actually leads into the absolutely beautiful title track which I wish I could've entered along with this, if you get a chance listen to Tiny Vessels and the song Transatlanticism one after the other- they work together so well. As for Tiny Vessels itself, the lyrics are the thing that really hit home for me,

"So one last touch and then you'll go. And we'll pretend that it meant something so much more, but it was vile, and it was cheap. And you are beautiful, but you don't mean a thing to me"

Absolutely chilling, my take on it (and I guess if you read it closely it's kind of obvious) is it's about a relationship in which there's no spark but they try to force it anyway because they both want to feel it, and when they eventually split up they try to convince themselves there was something there at one time, but there never was.

The repeating guitar and beautiful atmosphere is absolutely perfect with the charged yet kind of numb emotion from Ben's voice, and that's not even talking about the climactic chorus. One of my favourite Death Cab songs easily, and I absolutely adore Death Cab. We came 20th out of 38 which I wasn't even necessarily expecting with the kind of audience we have in BJSC so thank you all you voters so much, especially Rollo and Suede who I remember gave us medal positions (including an 18 from Suede!). :wub:

Our 90s alternative song was Cake - "The Distance", a moderately successful (in the US and kind of UK too!) hip hop/ rock banger so check that out too if you like that kind of thing, honestly it's such a tune!

Snaked out of a top 10 at the final moment, Kiasmos came in at 11th, which is still our 2nd highest hit ever in the main contest so huge thanks for all the votes everyone!!! Honestly I didn't have high expectations, not because I didn't love the track but because I didn't expect it to go down so well here. Glad it was a discovery for many of you including several medal placing and even a few 18s. Very happy with that result, looking forward to going to Niceland (presumably) next month. ^_^

:heart: real shame this missed the top 10 at the last second, really looked like it had it! Was lovely to hear another song by Death Cab for the spinoff as well.

 

Have you heard 'So Close' by Ólafur Arnalds (one half of Kiasmos)? One of my all time favourite BJSC discoveries but it was a bit before your time (I might have played it on plug while you've been online idk x)

Have you heard 'So Close' by Ólafur Arnalds (one half of Kiasmos)? One of my all time favourite BJSC discoveries but it was a bit before your time (I might have played it on plug while you've been online idk x)

Only just went to look it up! I had heard of Ólafur but only through people mentioning him after I entered Kiasmos. I really liked So Close on first listen, unsurprisingly. ^_^

Ugggh used to be so good at keeping up with this.

 

Kay.

 

But Blood unjustifiably flopped.

 

SONOIO qualified. Thank.

BJSC 106 // SONOIO - Enough

SONOIO is (was? - last album was 2011)** a cool electronic/ industrial(ish) project by Alessandro Cortini, who was for a while a full member of Nine Inch Nails and still currently plays as a touring member I believe. I fell in love with "Not Worth Remembering" from his first (2010) album, was actually going to enter that one but Enough had a cool music video and is also a massive tune (plus I thought it'd have broader appeal). Trivia: Alessandro is Italian and SONOIO literally means "It's me" in Italian (Sono Io). Hope to see this go far, gutted to have missed all the plug sessions so I have no idea what the reaction was to this but looks like it was good enough to get us into the final, thanks guys! :wub:

**EDIT: Just found out, he's releasing a new album literally next week (July 27th) so it seems I've entered this at the perfect time for any potential fans. :lol:

He also says it'll be his final SONOIO album but lots of people say that. Even if that is the case though, it'll be good to hear new material.

This is sooo good once again, these Nine Inch Nails side projects are a good sound for you :wub:

 

(still weeping for Hockeysmith as well)

Mat Zo - The Enemy - (Feat. Sinéad Egan)

 

 

Interestingly enough this has grown on me since I entered it. I added it to my iTunes library (thx Apple Music) ages ago because I think I saw it on a YouTuber's favourite songs of the week/ month's list or whatever and I liked it on first listen, but I completely forgot about it until I was looking for entries this month. I tried scrolling down a little while through my recently added on iTunes to see if anything was suitable and this song was here. :o

 

I adore the melding of funk, the weird distorted elements and really cool electronic production. Sinéad's vocals seem perfectly suited for this too. I thought this would be so BJSC, fairly Aelandor (Gramatik, Said The Sky, C2C all have a bit of this kind of sound) but also honestly really reflects my taste right now. I'm listening to lots more production heavy stuff but still leaning towards either grittier elements or crossover with genres like (in this instance) funk. I love hearing older styles sampled or used in electronic music, it makes it come alive for me. x

Bleh. Predicted to do really well, good reactions on both plug sessions. Unimaginably bad flop at 38th, especially considering the semi results of 7th (should've been around 14th going off that). Almost as bad as when Nu:Tone came 4th in the Semi and finished 37th. Apparently this happens a lot to me. At least it was a Q tho.

 

Going to have to revert to my usual BJSC persona: It's a great song and you're all wrong. xx

I'm shocked this didn't go top 20 minimum! Crazyyy!