I'm writing these as I listen to this, bear with me.
Cruel Pickings - It's not bad until the dissonant screeching comes in. Hated that, the part at ~1 that gets rid of it is pretty cool. I like the attempt at breakbeat but it sounds like most of it is just very fast, grinding percussion. The song lacks a real beat as foundation which makes it all seem very chaotic. I'm not sure why you got rid of everything but the breakbeat and the bass for the last 30 seconds but it was pretty boring. An ending would have been nice too. Not a huge fan of this song, sorry.
WeakDays: Starts out pretty nicely, solid layering. Not sure what you sampled but it fits well enough. Nice to see this song actually has a beat. Now about a minute later... I don't have anything new to write about. The song didn't really go anywhere, sounded more like a loop than anything. Wasn't bad but I think you could have done more with it.
Laughing Puddle: Took me a while to realize the song switched, I like the seamless transition. I like the melodies that come in at ~40. The pads at 1 minute in are pretty awesome too. I think this sound would have been better with a much more subtle beat, and maybe get rid of that reversed vocal sample, it's really clashing with the mood. The sitar sounds pretty cool, this reminds me of music from the Twilight realm in Twilight Princess. Again, though, all of this would have sounded much better with a quieter rhythm section. Still, this one was pretty awesome.
Seldom Subliminal: I really don't know where you get these vocal samples from but they're pretty distracting, especially with this one. You have some interesting stuff going on but these vocal samples you keep putting on are going to draw the attention of anyone listening to the song, which you don't want because the background stuff is much better. The song overall didn't go anywhere again but it sounded pretty interesting. The wind transition was also just done in the last song, I'm hoping you don't overuse it.
Dub Thy Harmonica: Another song that could have been interesting, but it didn't go anywhere.. I don't know if this is your style, and I shouldn't expect the songs to go anywhere, but still, you can at least change it up. It sounds like you wrote some of these pretty quickly just to get an album out. Also, again with the wind transition?
Expired Throat Muscles: The song constantly switching up sounded pretty cool, and the beat that comes in at :45 solidifies everything that was chaotic before it. That was pretty awesome. Back to chaos again, still sounding pretty good. Reminds me of BT in some sections, though it sounds a bit overdone past 1:45. And, back to the wind.. you should listen to The Flashbulb's "Soundtrack to a Vacant Life" for an idea of how to transition songs properly.
Zealous Complex: This isn't bad. Nothing really stands out on this one, though I don't like the needlessly long breakdown near the end, there wasn't enough to keep my interest.
Un Punt Chwechdeg: Beginning is AWESOME so far. The beat compliments what's going on for the most part, your breakbeats are really on the border of structured and chaotic, the song loses its flow for the most part during your breakbeats. The background sections are the best I've heard so far, though.
Treespoon: Beginning sounds pretty cool so far. Nice job working in something other than 4/4 time. The song progresses nicely, the piano near the end was great.
Townsfolk: This sounds like a single sample that could be part of a full song. Didn't enjoy this at all, sorry.
A Spoil Of Blue: The melody in the beginning is nice, carries the song well enough throughout. Again, nothing really stands too drastically, but it's a solid song.
Athlete of Sound: Well here's the titular song. Sounds pretty good so far. Though.. again, the song doesn't really go anywhere. Your songs create a theme and then you basically just do that for 2 or 3 minutes, not a lot of them dare to do anything beyond that. I don't think any of your songs so far changed chord progressions mid-song.
Puddle of the Terribly Concerned: Well this is twice as long as your other songs, I really hope it switches up somewhere. Starts out nicely as your songs usually do. The ethnic percussion is pretty cool. I think this song could have been the same length as your other songs without losing anything in the process, but it's not too bad.
Doesn't Really Matter: This is one of my favorite songs, solid throughout. All of your songs have a very ambient structure but this is the first to finally execute it.
Chronic Chromatix: This is the best song on the album. Finally one that builds throughout and does different things as it goes, this was very enjoyable.
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Okay, so here's my first concern: Your songs had some of the most realistic string/guitar/ambient synths I've ever heard. They were EXTREMELY subtle, and each note of each passage didn't sound like a synth playing different notes, but rather an actual live sample. The reason that's concerning is because, I have to think there's a very large amount of premade loops in your album. If not, you either have access to some of the best synths I've ever heard, or you somehow managed to get live instrumentation. The horns and guitars used in Chronic Chromatix don't sound anything like a synth. The fact that almost every song has some kind of vocal loop makes me think you found other loops to work with as well.
If you did work with loops, then I can't really critique this as per your talent, because, well, working with loops takes a lot of the talent out of songwriting. If you did legitimately write every single part of this album, then this was a very original experience that was oddly enjoyable, though it's not without its flaws. The wind transitions got old by the second time you used it, much less the 10 or so times it happened. A lot of your songs aren't fleshed out at all. If you put as much effort into the album as a whole as you did with Treespoon and the last two songs, I think it would have been much better, but a lot of your songs ended right when I expected them to do something more, or never even got to that point (Townsfolk). I'm not expecting every song to do something drastically different every time, but most of your songs started with everything in place, and everything beyond that were just minor variations on what was already established.
So yeah, that's what I think.
