MONSTERCAT 018 - FRONTIER: ALBUM SEASON GOTHAM AWARDS!!!

Because screw it. I'm too excited and I'm in the mood to write this. Risk nothing, humans, for we've had one HELL of an album with a ton of twists, turns, surprises, and just all-round flying fwappadoodly awesomeness. And behind the scenes, my balls were freaking kicked in by the assholes among the community, plus the great Rezonate, who I can't really call a douche because everything he said was a good point, essentially. Either way, my one formula for all this is: Screw Dubz, Screw Priz, Screw Redditors.

This will be in the same format as 017 season awards: Best of Genre, Best Production, Best Veteran Song, Best Newcomer Song, Biggest Disappointment, Worst Song, Best Song.

BEST PRODUCTION

WINNER: Au5 - Follow You (VIP Mix)

Those of you who saw my ultra-apeshit review of this song know that I consider it the best remix or edit of a song I have ever come across because of its ingenious musical mastery - to this day I still believe the same thing and thus, it wins the production award by all means. Good god, this VIP is what most people were expecting of Follow You, but it did the song justice LIKE CRAZY. The newer instrumentation and new melody just perfectly integrates with the old one like clockwork, and the even more uplifting vibe and blend of genres is just too perfect. It's the biggest service done to an already beautiful song and has this seriously celestial vibe to it. Its balance of energetic and immersing/euphoric is just so insanely flawless and Au5 has created the strongest reinforcement of his tour de force status.

RUNNER-UP/2ND PLACE: TIE!!!! Varien - Valkyrie (feat. Laura Brehm) and Haywyre - Everchanging

Both of these songs blew my mind to smithereens on all levels, but naturally, the production and musical elements jumped out at me first and stayed with me for too long - I consider both of these songs sacred and can never let go of their creative brilliance. Valkyrie tells a story about a tragic tale on the battlefield and all the song's elements work perfectly - too perfectly, and it's astounding to experience. The guitars, orchestras, and the drop, the DnB segment, plus the part after it - those three segments made for one of the greatest musical sequences I've heard. As for Everchanging, you know my thoughts on Haywyre, he's so incredibly profound and professional production just DEFINES him, but this song had that Back and Forth vibe and all the energetic flow and funky, goofy feels just got me instantly. Follow You VIP destroyed me completely, but these two songs shattered me away enough for them to come EXTREMELY close.

BEST VETERAN RELEASE

WINNER: Pegboard Nerds - New Style

Here It Comes was FANTASTIC, but the Nerds' second release on this album took a turn for smart and creative - on a scope of all songs this isn't the most unique, but for the Nerds, it's something fresh and purely enjoyable, and it was just so instantly likable to me. The melody is freaking catchy as shit and their experiment was so much of a success that this song is bound to be a classic any day. It was a brilliant blend of genres and escaped "unique = big room" territory by utilizing the other genres just as good as the house elements.

TIE!!!!

2ND WINNER: Varien - Valkyrie (feat. Laura Brehm)

Yup, I just so love this song. Au5 could be called a veteran but veterans in my book are people who've been here since early/mid 2012 and beyond, or people from before. Valkyrie's production brilliance is explained above but as for its primary element, the story it immerses you into, I was actually LOST in this song for the three minutes it went on for - I saw the tale Varien chronicled because of the tone the song set, the vibes it gave off, and the way everything went into place like clockwork. It flowed flawlessly and never missed a beat.

RUNNER-UP/2ND PLACE: Rogue - Night After Night

Yeah, it's unfortunate that I and a few others seem to be the only ones who are fans of this song. Sure, I'm an all-out Rogue fanboy, but this song was likable for reasons besides just the artist. It was quite unique for Rogue, and I'm always a sucker for funky stuff. This song just screamed funky, urban, playboy, and just embodied the definition of enjoyable in every way. Sure, it still didn't exactly reach the peaks of Rogue's greatest accomplishments, but again, this was an experiment and a preview to what I feel will be a unique album. He's trying big room, which I actually liked, and the way he's done everything so smartly induces nothing but appreciation from fans, including me. Songs on this album surpassed this one, but for its unsung positives, this song needs recognition.

BEST ARTIST DEBUT

NOTE: This does not mean a song from an artist who debuted on the album, it means the actual debut song.

WINNER: Grabbitz - Here With You Now

Remember how I said Orbit was perfection but You & Me was better, and how that plays a part in the note above? And how much I liked THIS song as well? Guess what? I liked it so much that I feel it actually surpassed Orbit, especially after the song was slightly dwarfed when WRLD topped himself with You & Me. Here With You Now is one of those songs with a sound that's IMMENSELY hard to find - but it's not just a song like that with one element you like and everything else being lackluster for your tastes. This song nails every element right and just immediately introduces Grabbitz as a FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH. I mean, just that intro! So smooth, immersing, and those VOCALS. WOW. This song's timeless vibes contrasted by its aggression just embody the sheer passion in the relationship between two lovers, or, because of the perspective this song is sung from, the lengths the man is willing to go to in order to get his lover back. It chronicles a fascinating, relentless, and in ways, tragic tale that one can't help but appreciate. All that for a first release. That level of connection surpasses the innocent and jolly vibes Orbit had enough for me to crown it as winner. I have an immense respect for this song.

RUNNER-UP/2ND PLACE: WRLD - Orbit (feat. Richard Caddock)

But that doesn't mean Orbit KICKS ASS!!! I hope you get an idea of how close this song came to winning. Here With You Now was too impressive a debut, but it was after the time Orbit was. In THIS song's time, I felt nothing could pass it. I've now seen examples, but my love for this song has never died. It has such a beautiful, timeless, innocent, eternal feeling of love, joy, and appreciation, and induces those exact feelings into the listener. The vocals are strange and at times childish but still outlandishly innocent to match this song's timeless vibe. It has very lovely production that induces a very wondrous feeling, and it's all about imaginative happiness. WRLD is a proper genius and while he's actually outclassed himself, what he DID improve on was nonetheless amazing.

BEST OF GENRE: DUBSTEP

WINNER: Au5 - Follow You (VIP Mix)

While most of you know this is the Frame of Mind of 018, all its aspects are so unique in their own right that you can't just cram it all into one description. This award goes to the embrace of the genre in which this song delves in and makes full use of to provide a graceful service to fans, being done with utmost effort and topping an already beautiful creation. Au5 paints multifaceted potential and then fulfills all sides of it with all sides of HIM and how versatile he is in the EDM world. He's a true visionary and I'm with him every step of the way.

RUNNER-UP/SECOND PLACE: Varien - Gunmetal Black

While I will always love the hell out of Follow You VIP, this song definitely ASTONISHED me with the feat it accomplished as a defining factor. It managed to embody badassery from multiple points in time from different cultures and still felt like a complete, multifaceted domination of sheer power. Its instrumentation included vibes of traditional Chinese music and chronicled the time of the ninjas, until the action-movie stuff kicked in and it felt like a spy movie - then the Chinese instruments kicked back in, before a string section, in the two seconds it took place, had a European film vibe. And then the vocals gave it a Bollywood action feel, followed by a violin that chronicled a very dark, tragic tale, backed by a choir to give it a battle feel. Then the drop kicks in with the synths and electric guitars and warps you into cyber-world full of futuristic terminator-action. Then the violins and timeless instruments kick in to give it a very neo-noir western feel. An then the pattern repeats with the ninja feels but mixes up more and more to warp you into ten different times at once, until the bridge-drop makes it feel like a fantasy film! Jesus Christ, how it's possible escapes my grasp but witnessing it is truly marvelous.

BEST OF GENRE: ELECTRO

There were only two songs here but the one I prefer is...

WINNER: Stonebank - Moving On (feat. EMEL)

This song was a serious accomplishment for both Stonebank and EMEL, two lovers whose skills tend to contrast often, though they met here and the spark ignited a marvelous wonder of a song. This song is an instant classic - super catchy, classic 2012 drop, excellent production - while the vocals are a bit unnecessary, they are a great improvement for EMEL and the song managed to stick in the factor of optimism should EMEL ever return. The vocals weren't nasally and annoying, but rather passionate and powerful. The drop kicked ass, and the melody and upbeat vibes were all an automatic plus. Despite Stonebank raining tracks on us, you've gotta admit the guy's got serious skill.

There's no runner-up. Prism was an unoriginal failure of a song which held its own individually but is terribly dwarfed in the scope of the full album. Case & Point are nothing special.

BEST OF GENRE: DNB

:(

BEST OF GENRE: HOUSE

WINNER: Nitro Fun - Soldiers

Nitro Fun is already one of my favorite artists and has made himself a legend, but good god, the feat he pulled off here was quite incredible. His video game influenced style goes perfectly hand in hand with electro house and I find it hard to escape that, but Nitro simply utilized his melodic expertise while still even blending in some electro elements in there to capture a very beautiful vibe in this song and make it an instant classic. It's catchy as hell, and the production is just astonishingly beautiful. It's innocent, playful, VERY smart, and masters a blend of progressive house and electro, showing how an artist with a style so unique can still be versatile and entitled to the whole world of music rather than a singular genre.

RUNNER-UP/2ND PLACE: Hellberg - This Is Forever (feat. Danyka Nadeau)

Hellberg, as we all know, has already established himself as the king of house. Nitro Fun being able to surpass that is one HELL of a feat, but that doesn't stop Hellberg from returning to give it his very all. This song reinforced 018's amazing trend of throwing fantastic 2012 bangers at us - this song is beautiful, uplfiting, and SO lively! While the other house on here has gotten more meaningful and thought-provoking, this is a happy, party-pumping feel-good anthem with top-notch vocals from the amazing Danyka Nadeau and lovably classic production elements we've all missed. Being a service from fans, it's not necessarily a sacrifice of originality when something like this reappears after a long time - either way it does a damn fine job of that. Nitro simply vamped up his creativity and made an instant classic, with the feat being a bit too marvelous, but this song can seriously hold its own in 018's collection and is independently at its very best.

BEST OF GENRE: DRUMSTEP

WINNER: Varien - Valkyrie (feat. Laura Brehm)

I've reinforced quite intently how much I adore this song, but it's an accomplishment on all levels. Not just the aspect of production or uniqueness, but as a whole, the multifaceted success comes together and provides for an immersing, wondrous experience that you feel lost in and envision every part of the story Varien aims to tell. The vocals are nice despite my considering Laura Brehm not worth the over-the-top hype she gets, and the song's elements work perfectly like clockwork. Despite it being so short, making fans long for more like that makes what the song DOES have an absolute masterpiece.

RUNNER-UP/2ND PLACE: TIE!!! Grabbitz - Here With You Now and Noisestorm - Breakdown VIP

Is that all of it? Man, the drumstep in this album seriously kicked ass! For Here With You Now, as I said, Grabbitz makes his debut, of all things, a fascinating story of love and perseverance that comes in the form of an immensely well-produced track, and Noisestorm comes back revamping a two year-old already badass song into something EVEN BETTER! Both these songs are worth truckloads of hype, and are full of creative brilliance, excellent production, and pure enjoyable excitement. The three things that centrally make up an instant classic, both of these songs fulfilling them. While their genius fell slightly short of Valkyrie, it was only slightly - these are outstanding tracks in the EDM scene any day.

BEST OF GENRE: GLITCH HOP

WINNER: Stonebank - Holding On To Sound (feat. Concept)

See that? This is not just "proving something" to haters, it's proving a point to the inattentive readers who thought I hated the song atop hating the fact that Stonebank was behind it. I was simply on vacation, excited for the artist all day, and had to wake up in the middle of the night due to timezone shift. I'm half-asleep, but filled with relentless excitement, and it's Stonebank. That disappointment lasted simply during the duration of my writing that review. Nonetheless, I was pumped as hell for this song and with it unchanged, it no doubt kicks ass. This, like Here With You Now, has these very smooth hip hop influences that are so perfectly balanced that it's hard to find something this good. This has that gravity-like appeal from its slightly narcissistic smoothness that makes the song flow perfectly. The drop is smart and has these ominous undertones along with the rest of the song - I also deeply admire the production due to the expert-level sound design. The strategy they used with Stonebank and his releases was terribly flawed, but he's fully proven his worth here by making an instantly appealing track and also proving how beneficial the absence of EMEL can be. His talent has "Blossomed to the Max". (And yes, I couldn't help myself in the double pun.)

RUNNER-UP/2ND PLACE: Falcon Funk - Pounce

Despite my sticking up to Night After Night and not considering it a failure, and rather a smartly done experiment, I still find Pounce to be the more appealing of the runner-up glitch hop tracks on this album. This is because of Falcon Funk's improvement from their already awesome status, their smashing return after a year, and also by how instantly appealing this is to my tastes. This song is FUNKY AS HELL. I know, it's Falcon Funk, but damn, son! These guys nail it on the spot! The start of this song is already cartoonishly playful and has this Tom & Jerry vibe to it - it's very innocent and lovable and really does warp you into the comedic life of a house cat (hence the name "Pounce") - its production also matches that tone with perfectly chosen sound design. Then the insanely funky and aggressive chord-filled drop hits, and it just screams mischievous. This song is light, bouncy, fun, and just one of those songs I could play on loop over and over again.

BEST OF GENRE: EDM

WINNER: TIE!!!! Haywyre - Everchanging and Laszlo x WRLD - You & Me

Both these songs are just purely unforgettable. Their production is sheer next-level and the sound design and style is just something that's extremely hard to come across nowadays. I'm so thankful that these songs nailed it ON THE SPOT. Everchanging is Haywyre at his best with light and goofy, telling a simple yet beautiful story within a song that defines itself by elegance. It's delightfully funky, catchy with excellent melodic expertise, and just has such fascinating undertones. You & Me, on the other hand, uses its multifaceted and ingeniously designed contrasts to define its sound and establish the usage of styles plus the adventurous nature of its two producers. The song has a very aggressive and seductive edge to it yet it manages to sound timeless and innocent; it's so bouncy and energetic yet has a soft and smooth feeling; it gives beach sounds and that mixed with the energy gives it the feeling of two lovers partying and vacationing non-stop, but the contrast here of it still feeling subtle and gentle illustrates the full spectrum of love - all ends of energy. Truly a musically architectural spectacle beauty of a song.

RUNNER-UP/2ND PLACE: Pegboard Nerds - New Style

This song was just made up of the sheer smarts of the Nerds. They managed to prove how adventurous they have the right to be, but still served the fans by appealing to their idea of uniqueness while still putting their ingenious twist to it. The whole "unique is big room" stereotype was both taken into consideration and thrown out the door - this has big room elements to it, but blends in aggressive elements of electro house, dubstep and hard dance to make it a very strange song, but to make it a classic, the Nerds put the cherry on top with the CATCHY AS HELL melody and just make it a delicious serving of all-out appeal. While not as inspired as the songs above, oh, it's inspired all right. Just genius and that's it.

BEST OF GENRE: NU DISCO

NEON IS AMAZING!!!!

BEST OF GENRE: HARD DANCE

Original green forever! We're all proud to have AlphavibeZ in the community.

THE PESSIMIST SECTION

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

Winner: Rezonate - Shake It Off (feat. Jeff Sontag)

Yes, my pathetic history with this song and its followers probably makes me quite the douche for crowning this song as the singular disappointment of the album, but seriously, LISTEN TO ME IN THE FOLLOWING WORDS. THIS WAS NOT A BAD SONG. My comment of "no one likes it" was my being half asleep and was a product of SHEER STUPIDITY. My original review never got any views or likes so no one knew that I liked the song in the first place. THE FOLLOWING IS QUOTED DIRECTLY FROM A PREVIOUS GOTHAM AWARDS.

Seriously, this song had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. Literally ONE element, just ONE, brought it down SO PAINFULLY HARD! It makes me hurt inside! I feel so sorry for this song! It's like being on a long-ass level in a little platformer game and falling off short of making it to the finishing platform. Rezonate nailed EVERY LAST BIT of this song from the production to the vocals - that said one element was unfortunately the most important part: the climax. IT HAD NO FREAKING CLIMAX. I was unsure if the "drop" part was actually a drop - it just blasted a chunk of problems all in one. No change in percussion or volume, no buildup, no change in melody really, no change in tone, NOTHING. MONOTONE. It means the song never got anywhere. Sure, it was designed to sound like a phone call and capture that "waiting" feeling of a lost relationship, perhaps, but waiting also means longing, and longing for something can come with its emphasis. This song had no emphasis. The melody was beautiful, the vibe was perfect, the vocals were FANTASTIC, and EVERYTHING worked except for that one crucial part. Sorry for being Karl Urban with the metaphors but it's like a structure with so many support beams, and the strongest one right in the center holding everything up the most just collapsing. In this case it wasn't there, so the song just fell. Like that. Thud. On the ground a lot harder than it should have. The little support beams indicating all the good parts of the song just shattered as the structure fell. It's quite sad. I HOPE TO ALL THE GODS, FORCES, POWERS, PENGUINS AND MAJESTIC BEARDS that a remix does this song justice. It NEEDS a redeeming factor. It deserves it completely.

WORST TRACK

WINNER...

(drumroll)

NOTHING!!!

My above description of Shake It Off comes from my original thoughts. It would be too unfair to call it the worst song because I feel it used what it DID have to the fullest. This album was literally perfect and even Prism, as unoriginal as it was, still held its own individually and I liked it as an independent song. 018 - Frontier is the greatest compilation put forth by Monstercat because of its lack of flaws. Thank you, Monstercat.

BEST SONG

Here we go...

AND THE WINNER IS....

AU5 - FOLLOW YOU (FEAT. DANYKA NADEAU) (VIP MIX)

THAT'S RIGHT!!!!! I actually mentioned in my lost review that this was added to my top 5 Monstercat songs of all time. I even said here that this was the Frame of Mind of 018 but deserved the hype - for those of you who didn't realize, Frame of Mind won best track on 017, tied with Moonlight. But this song guys... I can't stress enough how this is the best remix I've heard of a song - it just uses its resources SO BRILLIANTLY! Every part of the original Follow You was vamped up and incorporated with a blend of genres including progressive house and DnB, and the added aggressive elements contributed to the emphasis of a beautiful, fantasy-like journey of love, redemption, and a vibe of sheer elegance. Danyka's voice is just astounding and the already amazing vocals were emphasized by further contrasts, suspense, energy, and just a powerful blast of beauty that never felt overwhelming - a righteously fitting, righteously astonishing contrast to the innocent elegance of the original, this brought out Au5's inner beast and unleashed a force of nature, in a sense. Au5 can define a story through subtlety, and can define a MAGICAL ODYSSEY with his full force. Both songs demonstrated his utmost effort, but this was a SERVICE. Not just to the "dubstep drop" fanboys but just to observers of multifaceted elegance and how it can come in so many forms - this embodied the power of beauty and channeled through the bloodstreams of every listener in the world that contributed to the 387,175 views this song has acquired so far in its path to a well-deserved one million and above. This is easily one of the best songs I've heard in quite a while. I have been hungry to hear it and this just gave us a delicious 100-course meal of musical mastery. Thank the heavens plus its celestial gatekeeper Au5.

TIE!!!!!!!

Varien - Valkyrie (feat. Laura Brehm)

I was going crazy above so much that typing the tie declaration surprised me just as much. But remember how much I praised THIS song too? This was another clear standout track on 018. I've said this repeatedly but Varien just vacuumed me into this mental simulation of his battlefield upon which a tragically astonishing beauty of a chronicle of survival and redemption lies. This embodies every aspect of a silent soldier from a piece of fantasy, and how he's like a guardian angel - he's willing to do anything for his people but the vocals show his mental journey acknowledges his also being a human, not just a defender machine, and despite it being his choice, he deserves something more - the tone of this story instead says that he's died, and the vocals say how "when we were young the thoughts of death weren't a cause to live slowly" - it's perhaps representing how his death resonates to the homefront, and those who admired him, like the character whose perspective Laura sings from. It's a breathtaking tale of love, loss and redemption, and just destined to be a classic. It's over 550,000 views already and deserves billions. I was lost in this tale, and while the three minutes are just a perfect portion of the plate, we all relentlessly long for more because of how magnetic Varien and his music have time and time proven to be.

TIE AGAIN!!!!!!!!

Nitro Fun - Soldiers

Holy flying crapsaucers, this album is good. THREE best songs. Of course, everything here is my opinion, but I think many will agree that these three stellar songs deserve a lot. Soldiers is a musical definition of the blossom of creative brilliance of how it just magically allows you to weave a wondrous story into the minds of those who already consider you a legend - I'm talking from Nitro's perspective because his previous legend status seemed to match his style with electro house - he was able to derive from such influences while still defying them and allowing his other side of creativity to take full form - his melodic expertise. This song is just so insanely catchy, masterfully produced, innocent, playful, resonant of Nitro's style, and yet so thought-provoking. It has these very light and electronically influenced production elements that tell a little story of toy soldiers going into war and fighting a tale of a child's playful imagination, but the melody's slight edge of sadness perfectly contrasted with the quirkiness give this story depth and represent how much these toy soldiers could really mean to the child and the listening audience reliving this story. It's just a force of sheer magnificence that no one can help but admire. This song will stay with me for a long time.

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All in all, 018 - Frontier was undoubtedly the greatest gift Monstercat could offer - I thought 017 was unstoppable but the gifts we had left in store were so damn promising - everything was used to its full potential. I don't know what 019 could use to top this - one Tristam release or Braken comeback is not enough. The Rogue album seems sufficient, in part because my optimism rather than paranoia at his experimental phase - his big room track "Kingdom" was oddly appealing. But THIS level of appeal, full of richly produced masterpieces, nods to 2012, instant classics, every song telling a story, it's nigh impossible to beat. It always feels strange praising away at the next album after so much talk about the one that just came out, but 018 will stick with me. Finally an amazing summer album that's fully realized, wholesome, and nothing but fulfilling. It's been a great season, y'all! Batman lives!