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Nav
Hello, friends. I am Nav. I sometimes produce or DJ, but I always listen. On a musical journey that never quite seems to end.

Age 30, Male

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Carnegie Mellon University

NYC

Joined on 1/6/07

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Influential NGAP Music!

Posted by Nav - April 8th, 2008


This is a list of music that influenced ME from the Newgrounds audio portal, in order from least influential to most. Meaning, the first track was the least on the list, and the final track will be the most. This should keep up the suspense....

20. Happy Again - Father-of-Death
Now, I'm not trying to throw all of F-o-d's music under a single song, as he has been very influential to me as an artist, but most of his really influential stuff has not been submitted here, or I just can't find it. So, I picked this as I can remember the influence this had on me. I had a song up called "Happy Circus March" or something of the sort, and this song was THE influence, and the means. F-o-D pretty much taught me all the basics of FL6, from automation to simply how to use it. He was one of the people who pretty much made me who I am today in this regard. I will get to the others who did that later. All I know is that this song reminds me of my early days using FL Studio. Expect more of these personal memories, probably in greater detail, later on.

19. Regicide - TheComet
This song... its intense, and I remember it. After I realized that it was simply noise, I would show it to all of my friends, saying "OMG ITS SUPER INTENSE." However, this song actually helped me. This, along with another mentioned later, were what drove me to get off my ass a few summers ago, and to get in shape. Its grinding rhythm and simply LOUDNESS, caused by his lack of mixing skills back then made it perfect to TURN UP LOUD and run my fat ass off to. Of course, I realize now that its nothing similar to jungle, probably borderline hardcore, but it doesn't matter, as I probably lost 10 pounds just thanks to TheComet's bad mixing.

18. Joyful Glory - Father-of-Death
This song has a SPECIFIC memory. One that has, sadly, never come to fruition for me. It was a platinum track, the first I had ever seen. I looked on his page one day, said OMG HOWD YOU GET THAT I WANT ONE TOO, and from there I made a vow to get a diamond track someday. Too bad, it never happened (my friend auto-downloaded the first track on my page >:(), but I will still attempt to get that many downloads. As of now, I'm not totally sure that it WASN'T autodownloaded, as tracks with that many downloads typically get over 20-something reviews, but that's beside the point. This track was an early influence on me.

17. Lazy Summer Days - Cornandbeans
Cornandbeans has always kicked ass at naming tracks after what they sounded like, and this track hit the idea straight on the head. This song was more recent, just after the redesign, this hit top 5. I listened, and liked it. So I downloaded it. And listened. A lot. Eventually, this just became solidified in my memory as a... Lazy Summer Day, in August. The sky is orangish-red, and all I'm doing is just sitting around, staring or doing some other mundane activity. Anyways, the title worked. It didn't really influence me, but it had a strong memory attached, as will many other tracks on this list of stuff.

16. Anaconda - API
This track was probably the first dnb track I grew to enjoy. In other words, this took an acquired taste, and made it possible for me to enjoy it. After API's tunes came Pendulum... And they simply made me say "I need to find more of this." There are some vivid memories associated with this song, but I will describe them on the second API track I put on my list. So stay around.

15. The Sewers - Cornandbeans
This track was on my ipod at the same time as the API tracks started to speak, and this was, at the same place, a major influence. This track has many blurry memories for me, and few strong ones. Some I can pick out are simple, like running, waiting in a lunch line at camp, but overall, this song did a lot more for me. It taught me what awesome energy dnb can have. I still can't get as much energy as this track managed to get, however, like many of CnB's old tunes, I tended to drift out as I listened, so only the beginning and intro really made a difference to me at all. Overall though, this track just has so much energy, and is put together well... It was one of those unforgettable tracks.

14. Oh No - TheComet
This track was one of my first experiences with trance music in its "raw" form. I was used to Envy's early drumlines, and I had no idea about mixing. What I like was that this track was loud, catchy, and repetitive, which Newgrounders like. My review is funny too, I dunno what I was doing listening to Tiesto at the time, and he DID follow the kick/clap formula... I was retarded back then. Anyways, its catchy and sticks in your head, because its repeated a bajillion times.... That's enough rambling for now. On to the next track.

13. Airborn (Pulstated) - Pulstate
At first, I hated this track. IT HAS NO BIG BUILDUP, I would think, and it wasn't my favorite. However, I would listen to it when I was doing something else... I have vivid memories of sitting on the bus in the morning. The sky was totally dark, and this song was playing as I would sit there... To tell you the truth, I prefer the low quality version. It has more memories, more color, than the older one. This track also did something else: It solidified my idea of melodic builds and climaxes, which was taught to me by the MOST INFLUENTIAL TRACK that I've heard, which is, sadly, not on Newgrounds. I will probably include that as an "honorable mention" at the end. All in all, I never noticed the power of this track until I really figured out what was going on. This track just sends chills through the spine, and its an excellent listen.

12. Sonic 3 - Ice Cap - PaulStetich
Ignore my review there. Just ignore it. I was brainwashed by HouseMasta on the forums, and it started a total feud between Paul and I, which has since been resolved. What I didn't say in the review was that I absolutely LOVED this track. I was looking for Sonic remixes, as I have memories, EXTREMELY VIVID memories, of playing Sonic 2 on a Sega Genesis at the "Beach House," aka a house we rented for a week in Delaware every year. This track reminds me of that too, and was probably my favorite Ice Cap mix on the site. I can't stand that melody now, but I couldn't get enough back then.

11. Lost in Translation - GroundForce
This track is an interesting one. I used to listen to this track a lot. It was my favorite track. The weird part is that I deemed this track good enough to show to my friends, and one of my friends still considers this track to be his favorite track. This was also my first experience with "Professional-Sounding" music, as its got a clean, clear mix, and is catchy, along with being organized like a radio edit of some epic trance song. Anyways, this track made me love trance for a few months, and its still an excellent listen, being one of the catchiest songs on the list.

10. Everybody Is Freee (Full) - GroundForce
Although this was the same author, this track served a different purpose. You see, in Music class for eighth grade, we had to do "reports" on a song, and analyze the track fully. This was the first track I chose... I got 11/10s on all of them, because I spent time and handed in a well-written 3-page typed report, while most people just did them handwritten in homeroom. I took music class seriously, and got some award when I graduated middle school for it. Anyways, this track was one of the songs I did the essay thing on. I didn't get this track at all at the time. And I mean it. It didn't make sense to me. The rhythm and melodies were completely new to me. I just didn't understand what this track was, and what it was trying to be. I have some memories of this track on the most memorable time of my Newgrounds life (The walk home from school when I was in eighth/seventh grade), but I will share those later with some other tracks.

9. Bloodwax - API
This track has MEMORIES, and influence. One of the most important memories I've had. In the summer of Seventh Grade, I went away to a camp for three weeks, it was a sleep-away camp. It wasn't a normal camp, it was a college-level computer course for "gifted children", through Johns Hopkins Talent Search thing. I brought this track along, and I have memories of listening, while being picked on for listening to that "techno" crap. This would change when I went again the next year, and most of the kids were asking me how to get that music, more than how much it stank. Thankfully, I've pretty much lost contact with most of those kids, but I still have a sheet of some of their IMs/Email addresses. That camp was a good learning experience for me, as it pretty much taught me how to function around other people, IE Social Skills, and taught me about World of Warcraft when I was playing RuneScape, along with Anime and that kind of stuff. Anyways, this track got many listens at the time.

8. Neutralized - ParagonX9
This track is the ONLY Paragon track on the list, but his (her?!) other tracks did influence me greatly at other points in time. This was the only one that still holds significance. First of all, a minor point: This track was the only one energetic enough to run to at the time, and I have memories of sprinting around a track to this song. I was a fatass though, so my sprint wasn't very fast. This track also just holds memories of Video Games, specifically Gameboy games that I would play on Car rides, listening to this over and over, wishing it was longer. That's about it, though, no OMG AMAZING :O :O stuff.

7. I'll Be Here For You - B0UNC3
This track also made me interested in trance. I loved the synths, and melodic work, and B0UNC3 is a nice guy. Not too much to say about this track, except that it's nice, and that I really enjoyed it, and looked to it for influence in my own music at that time.

6. Daydream - Cornandbeans
Ok, after that lame-o description, I will write a really long one for this track, as it brings back EXTREMELY VIVID memories for me. I was walking home from school one day. Seventh or Eighth grade, I can't remember. I know that this track was on. The sun was bright, giving everything a sort of surreal quality to it. The sun was shining with a whitish light, exposing the brilliance and vivid texture of each thing in the air. I was walking by a lamp post, turned off, of course. It must have been late Spring at the time, as pollen was in the air. Suspended. This was a snapshot of perfection. A beautiful day, with pollen grains all around, the yellow detail reflected in the warm air. This track propelled me through many a walk, some similar to the above, some different. I remember that the most influential part was the modulation on the drums, giving it a really atmospheric, surreal quality, making this beautiful track even better. Oh the days I have loved this track, its just simply wonderful.

5. Chaos Sphere (Edit) - Envy
Along with OCON, and F-o-D, I would talk to Envy while I was just starting out. In fact, he gave me the first tutorial to creating music I had ever received, simply called "tutorialaa.flp" It was GREATLY influential to me, and this song reminds me of it. I asked him "What are you working on?" And he showed me this. It was simply epic to me. I didn't understand how z3ta worked at all, only that you could do stuff like this. It was epic to me, and I thought it was amazing. I said to myself "I want to make music like that someday."

4. red sand - trogdar
This track was just amazing for me. I saw it on someone's favorite list: at that time, Trog only had a few songs up. I listened, and it was excellent. It had a catchy melody, that has stuck in my head for a long time. It also let Trogdar develop his "style," considering how similar his later tracks were compared to this. This track, though, gave me tastes of DnB outside of Spor and Pendulum, and I liked it. It led me, eventually, to my most favorite artist (Not anymore, but was): Omni Trio. I even ended up buying one of Omni Trio's albums, because I liked it so much. This track, though, just stands out to me. Maybe because its a recent influence, and I still listen today, or just because it was a time in my life where I needed new music, but this track was excellent, and I love it.

3. Psychosis - TheComet
Ah, my top 3 most influential songs. Didn't expect to see another Comet track there, did you? Well, here it is. This track was simply awesome for me. it was the most fast paced track there. Distorted to hell and mixed shittily, but giving it A LOT of loudness, making it perfect for running to. This track would not be nearly as high up if it didn't have any other meanings, but this track does. I remember listening to this a lot, and its melodies along with drums DID influence me, and quite possibly might have led me to dnb eventually. I never saw this and dnb, though. It was always louder, more intense, sort of like hardcore breaks or something like that. Anyways, this had a chilling melody, great interludes, and just really influenced me early on. It was one of those tracks that is just... different. It stood out. Oh, and the vox rock. I wish I could talk to TheComet, but he's never on MSN/AIM/IRC, so I can't...

2. Sunlight - Cornandbeans
I have similar memories for this than for all the others, especially Daydream, but this track has something special. First of all, it was probably my first experience with melodic progression, in all of its glory, how the melody changes. This track did something else, though. I remember walking, it was nearing the end. The sun was coming out, I looked up and it shone in my blissful(ly ignorant) eyes. It was just a moment of pure joyousness... The number of times I've returned to my house with a smile on my face from hearing this track on my trip back. I would just drift to this track, and chill out... It was awesome.

And my number one MOST INFLUENTIAL TRACK EVER is....

1. Celcius - Envy
This was probably the first song I heard on Newgrounds. It was, actually. I remember that now. That arp was just amazing, and the whole track was simply epic to me. I had never heard anything AT ALL like it in ANY WAY. It was culture shock, in its most primitive form: I had never seen it before, I was curious, I listened, I liked. Its a catchy, basic track, but it was probably THE reason I came back to Newgrounds in the first place. That then became THE reason I started making music, and THE reason I am where I am. So thank Envy, although I didn't realize it until a few days ago, that dude was the guy who made me what I am... I got the idea to write this after I just heard this again. I have memories of the old interface... sitting, listening to this track, it was the best. I didn't notice the mixing errors, just how catchy, energetic, fun, and happy it was. I loved it, and it loved me. So, send Envy your thanks!

So that's it.

Honorable Mentions coming soon!

Enjoy! :) Thanks for reading.


Comments

Nice list! I've gotta check them all out, but yeah, Bloodwax is a fav of mine too :)

This isn't favorites per-se, just influences.

hahah wo wtf you talked about me... :D Thanks for the awsome nice stuff. I don't know what to say... so yea.

Well, you did pretty much get me started. So thanks! ;D

tahnk you very much nav i think ill have to redo it no :3

Haha, that's what I was hoping you'd say. Now, can you... maybe... SHARE that melody? So I could do a more... hardcore... remix of it? :P

HEYO!!!!!! Number 12!!!! thats a good number.

But hey, glad I influenced you to make music and GET ON THE FRONT PAGE :O

Well . . . cool . . . dunno what else to say lol

Haha, thanks!

Really great entry. I only read a few because I have work to do today, but I'll get into everything else later. Really though, this is a good one. lol, RuneScape :P

Haha, thanks! :)

Augh, your "master" of Space Sequence just made it distort a lot in my opinion. The original was waaaaay better. D:

And nice list. I remember when Celcius was submitted, I listened to it once or twice though it didn't quite influence me nearly as much as it did for you. :P It's actually kinda funny how many of these I downloaded and listened to all the time as well, actually. :O

Ok fine, I'll resub.

Yeah, its funny! :) I'll explain later about Celcius.