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The Christmas Season is upon us once more, my children. You know what that means? 12 Tracks is back for another December! ARE YOU AS PUMPED AS I AM!? Oh, well, that's ok I guess.
To any newbies, the idea with this project is that every even numbered day in December- from the 2nd to the 24th- I will post a brand new song, and then sometime between Boxing Day and New Years Eve, the whole lot (plus any extras picked up along the way!) will be uploaded to my netlabel's bandcamp page!
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TRACK 1: LIKE LIGHTNING
ARTIST: Master Controller Featuring
GENRE: Oldskool Hip Hop
And the first track for the project... Doesn't have a whole lot to do with Christmas. Or winter. But it IS a new Master Controller Featuring joint! That samples Fallen Angel and Street Fighter The Movie! That's novel, right?
The last MCF song I did was more upbeat and joyful sounding, so I wanted to play around with a sort of "emotional" hip hop sound. As for why the content is more "Halloween" then Christmas-y? Because I needed an excuse to sample Raul Julia, that's why.
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TRACK 2: BITTER ON THE BARE
ARTIST: Rigor Motions
GENRE: Jungle
The second of the 12 Tracks tunes, and the first proper debut of my Drum 'n Bass/Jungle alias, Rigor Motions! I'm surprised it took me this long given my love for the genre, but hey.
This was less inspired by a specific thing or event so much as a feeling that crops up only around this time of year, and only at a certain time of day; that slight melancholy feeling you get during winter sunsets/twilight. There's something about that time of day during this time of year that just feels very bittersweet and even slightly lonely. Or Is that just me?
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TRACK 3: TIMESTREAM TERMINATION ZONE
ARTIST: Arcade Child
GENRE: Game
A couple of hours late in my time zone though it may be, here is the third 12 Track’s tune! It would’ve been much earlier, but I’ve had a hell of a time trying to come up with a song today; this was actually attempt number 3 at doing a tune for today!
Remember that Sonic CD tribute album I had in the pipeline way back when? That’s still going to come to fruition at some point (hopefully sometime next year), and you can consider this track something of a preview of what to expect on that project; a blend of early 90s electronica and good old videogame type tunes! This song is intended as a final stage type song- the kind of level I had in mind when composing was a chaotic void of colours patterns and debris, at the centre of which is an impossibly tall Clock Tower, and the very floor Sonic runs on is a jumbled up mixed of the floor tiles of all the previous stages- the idea being the zone is the result of Robotnik’s messing with time causing a sort of anti-time-pocket dimension. Hence the jumbled up and chaotic nature of the song.
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TRACK 4: GUNSMITH
ARTIST: Mello-MACHine
GENRE: Oldskool Progressive House
How the hell I managed to pull this out of my ass after the annual terror that is Christmas Gift Shopping Day™- just barely in time in my time zone no less- I have no idea, but I am by no means complaining; here's the 4th song for this years 12 Tracks album, an oldskool progressive house tune that's equal halves Well Hung Parliament and 808 State in terms of inspiration! Because holy shit, for all the oldskool electronica I do, I don't do oldskool house of any kind nearly enough. I need to get more mileage of my Mello-MACHine alias.
Although, at least some of the grittier sound choices can be blamed on Gunsmith Cats- which has nothing to do with Christmas and only barely something to do with House (insomuch as Chicago is considered the birthplace of House- and all of modern electronic music as a result), but I've been rediscovering my love for the series the last couple of days, so it was bound to show in one of these tracks in some form. I also sampled a bit of the OVA for the intro.
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TRACK 5: SHIVER HEAVEN (NORTH CONTINENT STAGE) [FROM "WINTER WING"]
ARTIST: Gonkaka
GENRE: Videogamesque
I realised I was doing a lot of oldskool electronica stuff for this years album- or stuff that has clear influences from 90s electronica in the case of tracks 1/3- and while I'm really proud of the tracks I've done so far, I don't want this years 12 Tracks album to be JIMINY'S TADCASTER VOL. 1 PART 2, so I'm shaking things up, starting with todays track, which is... Directly inspired by a song from a 1990s arcade game. Ah, fuckit, at least there's no HELLA BOSS RAVE STABS in it.
This tune is actually a gift for my friend Dio- probably the first of at least two- and is directly related to a series she's working on that I'm ruining- er, "helping with"- called Distance. The track was heavily inspired by the general tone and 'ambience' of the composition was heavily inspired by the song Wind Woods by Nobuyoshi Sano, from the game Prop Cycle.
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TRACK 6: A PINE BREEZE IN ADELAIDE
ARTIST: The Twisted Kerchiefs
GENRE: Oldskool Progressive House
If it wasn't already obvious just based on the fact that nearly every song I've ever done has a solo in it somewhere, freeform and improv Jazz have had a very big influence on my compositional style, although I rarely do any straight Jazz music of any genre. I decided to remedy this by putting together a somewhat experimental improv fusion number under my oft-underused Jazz/Funk alias. I did a lot better utilising the improv Jazz here then I did on the initial run of Cutthroat Business, but I haven't QUITE got the hang of it 100%, I feel. I'm still quite proud of the result though; the piece definitely evolves and quite wildly so, but it doesn't feel like it deviates too far from the core of the track, and elements/chords carry across the whole piece.
This track is also kind of related to E.Q., but to go into to much detail right now would be spoilers, so my lips are sealed. For now. You'll have to just wait and see!
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TRACK 7: TERROR ON SAINT SCRATCH'S EVE (ATTRACT MODE) [FROM "MISFIT MANOR"]
ARTIST: Gonkaka
GENRE: Videogamesque
This is EXTREMELY late; it's almost four in the morning in my time zone as of this writing. I should probably have just waited until "tomorrow" to do this song, but even after an absolutely horrendous day full of writers block and repeated program crashes, I FINALLY got a piece done for the 14th's entry. Monday will hopefully be a better day (and hopefully lead to a longer track).
It's another gift for Dio, and is inspired by her Misfit Demons project, which has been represented by a few bits of art on the site already.
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TRACK 8: CAN YOU BE TRUSTED WITH A 303?
ARTIST: third-MACHine
GENRE: Acid
Another day filled with many crashes and technical hiccups, but I was at least able to preserve all the bits and pieces I'd done inbetween crashes, and I didn't have half as much trouble actually composing todays tune, so all in all a much more successful day then Saturday. Could've done without the crashes all the same though.
Anyway, brighter and better pastures; my third-MACHine alias gets another workout, as todays tune is a return to the oldskool flavour with a hard hitting, gritty acid number, chock full of fuzzy basslines, crunchy breaks, mellow synths, and funky chords. The title is a direct reference to the Fatboy Slim song "Everybody Needs A 303".
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TRACK 9: MELT THE ICE AROUND YOUR BROKEN HEART (AND MEND IT WITH THE LOVE IN MINE)
ARTIST: Piston Quints
GENRE: Chilled Ambience
A bit late again, but I didn't start working on it properly until around about half 10; blame that on having a bit of a shite day and having little sleep. Still, worth it though; I got to exercise my sound design fingers and slower (seriously, this is like 65 BPM) compositional style with a new Piston Quints tune. The title for this piece came first, and that dictated the kind of style and atmosphere I wanted to cultivate with this tune. Namely, something bittersweet; not exactly outright sad, but something that sounds like longing for a time, place, or even person.
The track also takes some partial inspiration from the Underworld song Louisiana.
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TRACK 10: I AM MEGA DRIVER (INSTRUMENTAL)
ARTIST: Master Controller Featuring
GENRE: Hip Funk, Hip Rock
Ooohh boy, another late 'un. I really must try to get the last two tracks done in time.
It's the 25th Anniversary of the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis this year (it's already passed in fact; it was October the 29th). Saying the Mega Drive I was gifted when I was barely five years old made a massive impact on my life is an understatement; it's the first games console I ever owned, it's the reason I love oldskool videogames in the first place, hell, it's the very reason I wanted to become a videogame musician in the first place. While the console I own now isn't the original (it's like, between the 6th and 8th I've owned), every game I own for it now is every game I've ever owned for the console, and ALL of them still work a dream. Shit, the copy of Sonic The Hedgehog I own? I love it so much (and the series it spawned), I got the thing signed by Yuji Naka at Summer Of Sonic 2011. I can say without a hint of hyperbole that it made me who I am today, and it holds a very special place in my heart. So it was only fitting I did a tribute track for the console, right? It's a funk and rock flavoured hip hop joint that samples the Ending and Game Over themes from Atomic Runner/Chenlov, one of the pieces of Opening music from Valis: The Fantasm Soldier and the Continue Theme from Gleylancer. I also sampled a terrifically cheesy old advert for the Mega Drive that aired on TV over here back in the day.
Oh, and do take note of that "Instrumental". I've got big ideas for this tune...
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TRACK 11: AUTOTRIGGER BRAINDEATH (MAIN MENU) [FROM "K-TYPE EPSILON"]
ARTIST: Gonkaka
GENRE: Videogamesque
Ahh, can you smell the holly? We're finally at the penultimate track! This December has mostly been the "December I was really late with almost every song" December this year. It's also been a very Gonkaka December too. Not that that's a bad thing; I need to get more mileage out of it. My only real regret is that I didn't really do much on the chiptune side of the alias, but eh, that's only a minor niggle. I was going for a very deliberate, mid-90s Playstation 1 era type of sound this time around. The actual compositional style is much more western (particularly American) in sensibility then a lot of my videogame/videogame-esque tracks usually are, but that's not a bad thing either; fuck anyone that says otherwise, good videogame music comes from all over the globe and all across the history of gaming, not just from Japan in the 80s/90s. Because this isn't a gift based on someone else's work or something based on my own projects, we're back to the "faux game title that parodies a real franchise/entry in said franchise"; no points for guessing which one it's a send up of this time!
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TRACK 12: I WISH YOU ALL THE VERY BEST
ARTIST: Piston Quints
GENRE: Ambient
Well, we're finally here; the last track of this years 12 Days album, which means it's once again Christmas Eve. It's been another wild and densely packed December of business and some slight stress, but as per the norm, it has definitely been worth it; I feel that, like last year, doing this project has helped me improve my musical ability across all the genres and styles I've worked with, and I've been further practising with techniques I'd started playing around with late in the year to get richer and more varied songs. I've made some of the best tunes I've made this year for this project, and even though some songs are a little weaker then others, overall I consider this a better year then last years.
Todays song is a much more sombre (but ultimately happy) track to close out the album; no rolling breaks or hard hitting basslines, no rave stabs, none of that; it's a very experimental light ambient piece that almost serves the antithesis of the other Piston Quints track I did for the project; whereas Melt The Ice Around Your Broken Heart (And Mend It With The Love In Mine) was about longing for a place or person you lost out of sadness, this is more about remembering your roots; thinking back on times of the past with great joy, and taking stock of how they shaped you into who you are; a happier nostalgia if you will. Granted like the last track I'm trying to convey this all without lyrics or words and through sound alone and doing so with the use of christmassy samples, but there we are.
Happy (early) Christmas everybody, and best wishes for the year to come! Thank you for sharing this incredible journey with me, and I do hope you'll join me for the next one!
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