I've been finding myself revisiting songs that I have favorited throughout the years on Newgrounds, and I thought it would be pretty neat to put together a list of tracks & artists that I like in case someone entropically stumbles upon it, to hopefully bring them a bit more attention. Maybe you'll find something here that resonates with you, too. That's all I could really ask for.
These are not in any particular order; I'm just gonna be writing about them as I listen. This isn't meant to critique or review per se, it's just things I personally enjoy or was moved by. Having said that, I think I'll start with some artists that I've discovered while judging NGUAC in 2024 & 2025.
1 - @GameBoyFireworks
An incredibly high-quality combination of genres with an equally qualitative mix to match. As I've said in the comment I left on the song, It reminds me a lot of melodysheep. The reason it does so is due to how cinematic it is, being structured in three different acts, each with it's own style, however united by the overarching conductor/train thematic. I really love when songs sample/incorporate organic sounds, and "Conductor" does this flawlessly with the various railroad fx. Even the vocal chops evolve and change throughout the song and are beautifully sprinkled in. The intro has major R&B vibes and the synthy basses sound extremeeely satisfying. The pause at 01:05 is such a small detail that does so much.
Petals in Moonlight is a lofi/chillhop track that handles its ear candy with care representative of the genre. The instrumentation is on point and I'm really a sucker for any and all melodies/compositions that feature horns and bitcrushed leads (it's probably the two things that show up somewhat consistently throughout my own songs, too). This track has the perfect blend of "dirtiness"/detune and clean notes and the punchy drums really bring it all together (at least for me)
If you're into cleanly mixed, experimental and electronic tracks, I'd highly recommend checking out his songs. There's plenty other tracks that demonstrate this, so shuffle around:)
2 - @Walpang
I was and continue to be blown away by the level of quality found in his catalogue! reading about him on his website is even more impressive.
This track is most likely the hardest hitting, best overall hiphop beat that I've heard on Newgrounds. I remember thinking for NGUAC "How do I even judge this, it's so above my paygrade". The various percussion elements keep things constantly in motion and interesting (and serve as ear candy of course). There's definitely a slap bass layer/accent that I can hear and it's sososos good. The vocal play in combination with all that I've mentioned give me a permanent stank face all throughout the beat. The synth comes in at the best moments possible, and I really appreciate the particularly hard hitting part at 01:51. The reverse kick is a neat trick, too, and it works really well here, especially with the other reversed fx in this section.
On the other side of genre spectrum in comparison to the last, "Vignette" is a professional sounding cinematic/synthwave track. It heavily reminds of some segments in Epic Mountain tracks (music made for the Kurzgesagt channel) but also, again, melodysheep and various other music you'd hear in space documentaries (i really like space) or tv shows such as Loki. There's truly not enough arps in the world that play with their note gate and speed. His inspiration, Hyper Light Drifter also seems filled with cinematic sci fi goodies worthy of the same kind of praise.
Going from mean hiphop to cinematic synthwave and now electro-swing, we're probably only scratching the surface of Walpang's skill and talent. Outstanding sound selection, steady but satisfying rhythm provided by well mixed drums. He is veeeeeery underrated, if what I showed you made you curious at all, please check out his profile and other socials!
3 - @mjattie
"Melancholy" is a heart warming piece that as someone else mentioned, is very reminiscing of C418's style when composing Minecraft, especially with how it all swells up and culminates at 01:34, and how the synthy arp later comes in, too. The bitcrushed ambiance really sets the mood, and it's neat how everything loops back at the end though part of me wishes it rang out in delay or distortion or both or something idk. The piano has a lot of weight and impact to it, helped out by the lead/melody now being an octave up with everything else played together at the same time. To me, this style gives off a magical feeling, and the title fits perfectly.
"Kikker Kekbab" has an interesting soundscape with catchy melodies. At 02:30 another sci-fi sounding melody gets introduced, which is then layered with some dynamic panning and accompanied by a fast arpeggio. I really like how cohesive this second part starts feeling, with the deep bass underneath.
"Breathing Glitch" follows a similar template to "Melancholy", while featuring some snappier, harder percussion. It's a bit more sci-fi, which is really starting to show my preference in music, haha.
@mjattie first joined Newgrounds in 2008 and has uploaded 141 tracks, so there's no telling what you'll find if you decide to dig through, such as:
which I particularly enjoyed, the nostalgic melodies and soundscapes still being present here despite the release date of 2011.
4 - @Nxes
Though they don't seem to be active anymore (judging by the posting history) or at least right now, that won't stop me from yapping:v
"A Window to the Soul" is short but sweet lofi beat, with a lot of little things that can be appreciated. It's a reminder that beautiful things don't have to always be complicated. The chords flow nicely with the melody and rhythm and there are a couple stereo glitchy effects. Sound selection is also effectively simple.
I really like the melodies and R&B vibe. The bass scratches an itch, especially the one at 02:14, and the riff at 02:27 is really nice too.
"Satisfaction" features lovely chords with the same R&B vibe. 02:16 and that section onwards is really well put together, returning the previous melody in a more upbeat setting.
While those 3 were hiphop, don't let that fool you as @Nxes also has a variety of genres in their list:
I'd recommend listening to those as well, they have really pretty melodies and completely different vibes than the hiphop tracks.
5 - @IreadysuckS
There are two songs from NGUAC 2025 that I have downloaded and are sitting on my desktop. One of them is
Incredibly clean, dark DnB song. The reese basses are really nice and despite the description, the arrangement to me is really good too
Their latest is just as clean, the songs they consider mid blow so many others out of the water imo. If you're looking for high quality DnB, House and other electronic genres definitely check them out. They have a professional sound to them.
6 - @saria1chigo
The other song that I downloaded from NGUAC 2025 is
Another case of a professional sounding song, the vocals are sooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooood. The bass mix is perfect and the drop at 01:31 goes so crazy.
Of course, as is the norm by now with this list, this artist also makes a plethera of genres:
I'm sure you can find even more if you poke around their Twitter and Soundcloud where I definitely heard the fuckass jumpscare noise from fnaf in a song and mixed in it sounded majestic.
7 - @sodakc
This is something I can easily picture in either an anime or some nintendo game. Stellar compositions, the melodies really speak for themselves, so I'm going to drop a few that I enjoyed.
Super clean, if you told me these were songs from some nintendo game that i hadn't known about, I'd totally believe you. Check out their Bandcamp if you want to support them:)
8 - @Quarl
If you've been on Newgrounds for a while, you've probably seen her at some point.
No Boundaries is a song I come back to often. I really love the piano, and the overall emotions the composition strikes in me is not something I can easily explain in words. The panned blips and bloops are satisfying and the drums are really clean. It almost makes me feel bad that I botched the mix when I took over as Quarl as totally not my alt account. Almost.
Jokes aside, another song i come back to just as often is
For similar reasons as No Boundaries, I simply love the emotions that the orchestral composition gives off.
I also like
For no complicated reason other than dubstep that happens to be my taste ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
She also has a Bandcamp, and an extensive number of tracks you can shuffle through right here on Newgrounds.
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It's actually getting late as I'm writing this, so I'm going to stop for now. I definitely want to do a part two though, since theres so many artists and songs that I have written down in a notepad that I wanna get to! Sorry if there's any grammatical errors or typos, I'm not a good writer.
