Ladies, gentlemen, and anyone between and besides, it gives me great pleasure to announce the official beginning of this year’s Christmas Album project!
I’m doing things a bit differently this year. Firstly, the total track number is undecided; it’ll be what it’ll be, but I’m aiming for a minimum of six. In addition, the countdown won’t cease on the 24th this time either; the cut-off date this year is the 31st, giving me extra time to play around with. Finally, there are to be NO external samples, copyrighted or licensed/royalty free, used in ANY track on this album; in fact, the only sound outside of Music 2000 I am allowing myself to use is my own voice. Every chord, bass patch, drum and lead you are going to hear this go ‘round will be produced within the confines and limitations of Music 2000.
The theming is also of note this time: every song will be a fully realised, complete version of an unfinished sketch or demo from my discography. Of which, there’s quite a few- which is why I asked my Dio to curate a small selection of songs she’d like to hear as potential suggestions. I had planned to go with that idea well in advance, given 2017 was both the 5th anniversary of my netlabel 103 Records, and the 10th anniversary of my music “career” as a whole, but after serious struggles with mental health all throughout the year robbed me of my ability to compose most of the time I figured I owed it to myself and to my dedicated followers to end this celebratory year with something that’s… not just a collection of old work from years ago.
The first reworked track is a never-finished Dubstep track I did under my retired Hypnotherapist alias, titled Tesco Value Skrillex. So named because it’s pretty blatantly obvious that I’d been listening to the likes of Ruffneck (FULL FLEX)and First of the Year (Equinox) a lot at the time, and both were rubbing off on the direction I wanted to take the alias in before I put it to bed. The shift from Dubstep to Electro House/Bass house under my Visor Jack name was pretty natural, and though it’s a little out of my comfort zone- I’m more a Fake Blood guy then a Steve Angello one, as far as production goes-the end result is pretty solid for a first attempt. It’s getting the album started off on the right foot, of that there’s no doubt. That I got to preserve the original unfunny joke in the original title- just with a different producer and budget grocery chain- is an added bonus.
Of my various music aliases, Piston Quints is easily my partner Dio's favourite: songs done under the name always rate very well with her, and the quirky character paired with it endeared himself to her pretty quickly. Which is why it kinda surprises me that, of the 12 potential songs she suggested I finish up for the album, only one Piston Quints song made it to the list; Selected Parafin Works 11-14.
Comparing the sketch to the fully realised song is like night and day, honesty. The original sketch was abandoned due to quickly running out of ideas- and affliction that leads to most sketches or demos getting dumped- and it's a somewhat dreary downtempo piece that's a little too moody for its own good. By comparison, the ideas for the remake formed in my head relatively quickly and, though I was unsure about the direction and arrangement several times in the composing process, the track gradually came together smoothly. Also, it's now a sorta experimental-ish synthpop-y IDM-esque piece of... something. Gonna level with you, I wouldn't know what genre to classify this as, but it's upbeat and it's in a Triplet time signature, so hey!
So; that was quite a gap between breaks. Partially that's the fault of a (thankfully) very brief depression spell, but mostly it's because I got stuck on the portion of the song between 0:14 and 0:41 for about two days, trying out different things and switching out samples until things finally started to click. 80% of everything past that point, barring the odd loop or two, was done over the span of the last roughly five hours. The creative muse is a funny old thing, in't it?
I suppose it makes sense that I was extra picky with this song; it is, after all, Sonic related. The first song for the project based on a demo of my choosing, this is technically a rework of Timepiece Trauma (PAST) [Never Completed Circuit Mix], from the Myth of the Little Planet EP. Said EP was a small collection of works written for a project I've had in mind since I was a kid: a spiritual follow up to Sonic CD, which remains a firm favourite Sonic title largely because of its visual aesthetics and it's fantastic soundtrack. The zone in question, Timepiece Trauma, is one of the zones I've had in mind for the project more or less since its inception- a sort of Sci-Fi meets Victorian city filled with clocks and timekeepers of varying kinds, exposed mechanics all over the place, and an enormous Clock Tower at the heart of the city that stretches miles into the sky and looms over it all, with the flow of the level eventually taking you inside the tower itself. The future variations would lean more heavily towards the Sci Fi end naturally, and the past variation would lean more towards the Victorian angle with most of the tech still in construction. The concept I ran with for this remake is that it's for a Sonic Mania-style re-imagining of the zone, kinda like Stardust Speedway except in reverse- you start in the present, and end in the past.
The title features a direct reference to Graham Massey, of 808 State fame, specifically because the drums throughout most of the track are directly influenced by the kind of drum machine sounds he used for both a number of 808 State songs, and some of his solo remix work. Cubik is a good example of the sort of thing I mean. The synth work as a whole across the song is heavily inspired by 808 State's output, with a little of Paul Hardcastle's early forward-thinking electro work in there as well. The chopped up vocals before the loop are supposed to say "time is alive", but due to the way they were cut it's sounds more like "time is a lie"; I kinda like that better.
Hey, an alias that wasn’t utilised on the 2016 Christmas album! Was wonderin’ when one of those would turn up.
Some departure from the original sketches is to be expected with these reworks, for a couple of reasons. For one, I’ve become better at composing in the timespan between working on the demos to now; for another, a lot of the time I’d drop demos simply because I’d run out of ideas on how to expand the track or flesh it out.
All that said, this is still the most radical shake up of any of the XMAS 2017 tracks so far.
The original piece was a dubstep number by the name of “A Bullet for Your Thoughts”, intended to be used as a character theme for a killer7-inspired project when finished. That, obviously, didn’t happen, and was one of several Hypnotherapist songs that got dropped before the alias was retired. Fixing it into a Juke/Footwork number wasn’t my initial idea, but once it came to mind it stuck (I’ve been itching to do more stuff of this style anyway). The change in key was entirely motivated by the fact that one of my weaknesses as a musician is a tendency to write/compose stuff either using D# as a root note, or chords built around D#- so I’m making more of an effort to get my root ideas down and, if they’re in that key, shift them about a bit until I find a new one I like.
I’m definitely a little picky about some of the drops here- I feel they’re not quite as tight as maybe they could be- but I am VERY happy with how the main bass sections came out, as well as a majority of the drum samples/patterns throughout. I also had entirely too much fun mocking up that ‘censored’ “OHHHH FUCK YEAH” sample, and am far more amused by that silly “oh I say, it’s a gunman thing” vocal I supply at the end then I should be.
Fun fact: the title of this song is a direct reference to the greatest cutscene in video game history. The only thing keeping me from sampling it directly is the fact that it’s got BGM running behind the whole thing (well and my whole “no external samples except my own voice” rule for the album but ayyyy).
Maxwelle House started life as a cheesy, house-y little video game jam I wrote specifically for Dio's author avatar, Dio Maxwelle, as a potential stage track for her if she were to appear in a fighting game project I've had in the back of my brain for... damn near a decade, if not longer. God damn. It was also originally named "Moderately Attractive Gamer Girl Dio Maxwelle", a jokey play off of "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon" (a series of which we're both fans), but I changed the title to something that came across a lot less mean-spirited.
Dio was the one that put the track forward as a potential XMAS 2017 remake-ee, but pretty much right out the gate the idea to do a sort of The Shamen / Jesus Jones style- dance rock take on it came to mind. I put it on the back burner a couple of times because I wanted to put extra care and effort into it- it's my partner's theme song, after all!- but before too long it was Xmas Eve and I was seriously running out of time to actually make it.
My feelings on the end result are, ultimately, mixed. Everything from the start to about 2:40 was written on the first day of work, and by and large I think that's all solid, but everything past that point... eh, I reckon I could've probably tightened that up a bit with a bit more time and care. In particular, the final solo section is a bit wall-of-noise-y thanks to all the reverb, and ultimately neither I or Dio are 100% sure about the use of triplets in the solos themselves. I would actually like to take another stab at this sometime in the very near future- hopefully for Dio's birthday in a couple of months time- so be on the lookout for that.
On the flipside, I am extremely happy with how most of the guitar and bass work came out across the track- because it's all sample based it's never gonna sound completely realistic, but I think I got both as close to sounding like they were "played" instead of sequenced as the technology will allow. I'm also far more proud of that voice clip 58 seconds in then I really ought to be; per the rules of the album, I couldn't use a text-to-speech synth to generate a "Maxwelle House" voice clip... so I just recorded one myself and messed with it in wavepad until it sounded suitably synthetic enough. It actually sounds fairly close to the Whisper preset from Mac OS's Dictation & Speech synthesizer, which was famously used for the Ranked Assassin introductions in the original No More Heroes.
Man, I'm sorry for the delay there folks; the hectic nature of the closing of the holidays, socialising, and a small mini-drama put a bit of a delay on things. But, finally, five days into the new year, XMAS 2017 is all done and dusted!
I remember writing Sapphire by Day, Topaz by Night with the intention of submitting the finished piece to the Homestuck fan music competition- that which lead to the coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A / Universe B albums- as a potential theme song for Jake English, but of course it never got finished. Kind of a shame, really; the brief I was going with was to do a sort of "70s action movie theme song" type piece that vibed with the character's presentation at the time. Kind of a proto-Twisted Kerchiefs song, ironically enough.
I dunno if going with a Master Controller Featuring take on the sketch was my first idea, but it stuck pretty hard once I thought of it. Originally it was going to be just MCF, but more freeform and jazzy-elements kept creeping into the mix that I didn't want to abandon. There's no rule saying I can't have two of my aliases "collab" on a track and, hey, I daresay it's not a 103 Records Christmas Album without The Twisted Kerchiefs on it (god, I promise to use the alias outside of 'em one of these days).
Trivia Dump Time™!
the title of the song, Barion Cuts, is a two-prong pun. A "barion cut" is a type of cut jewels- including Topaz- can be set in, and "cuts" is slang term that can be used for songs and also refers to a turntable technique
the voice clips I provided (the nasally "these are the drums" guy, "everybody's doin' that new type of jazz shit") have been rolling around in my head as possible samples all year, and it was a tremendous relief to get them down in a track
the opening drum pattern (and the extra percussion in the main drum riffs) were inspired by two sources; Joshua Morse's remix of Sagat's Street Fighter II theme, Travelling Thai Guy, and Ayumi Yasui's arranged version of God Hand from Street Fighter EX.
I was originally going to recreate the wah-wah guitar patterns from the original demo as closely as possible using the same technique I do for my custom distorted guitar/bass guitar patterns, but I couldn't quite get it to gel; the idea to approximate the sound with piano chords also clung to my brain once the thought was in there, and I think it sounds a lot better
I haven't used quite as many scratches in a single song since 2015 and, frankly, I had way too much fun laying them all in
the use of the in-program samples referencing the program itself- and developers/publishers Jester Interactive and Codemasters- were definitely put in there as a statement of intent on my behalf, and to really cement the "100% Music 2000" sub-theme of the album (although I admit they don't have anything to do with the theme of the song itself or the original sketch it's based off of, but eh)
The end result is by no means perfect- a few of the drops could've been a little tighter maybe, a phrase I often find myself saying- but the strengths of the piece definitely shine quite brightly. I'm ultimately fairly satisfied with this song, and it makes for a good closer to the mini-album
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Phew. Ok. That's a wrap, folks; XMAS 2017 is finally complete. Before we go, though, I've a few words of thanks to give. There's a lot of ground to cover here, but please bare with me and read it all if you can;
I could not have done any of this without the love and aid of my lifelong partner, my creative muse, my trusted confidant and ever-shining light Dio Maxwelle; she is my universe and without her, this extremely difficult year would have been even harder. There aren't enough words in the english language to fully express my feelings or my gratitude towards you, so I say simply; Thank you, candycons, for being you~
My family, of course, deserves tremendous kudos; Mum, Dad, all my aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces, you've put up with my eccentricities for years and for that you all deserve lifetime awards. Much love to each and every one of you, for there are far too many of you to name. I hope you can forgive me for not always being around for functions, haha!
Respect of course to my nearest and dearest; Dayle, Sam, Lee, Lauren, Aaron, Dan, you all played your part in keeping me safe and sane this year and that's not an achievement to be understated; you're all diamond people and I am blessed to have been able to spend time (and get utterly plum bollocked) with you. Skip the Jeagerbombs next time though, yeah?
To the online crew, too, I extend my gratitude; Delphy, theunextraordinary, Shad, Rec, mushroomminded, mendelpalace, you also had a hand in making the brighter parts of a dark year shine even more brilliantly then they otherwise might of with your support and your kinship, and I thank you for that. Never let anyone tell you that you're anything less then some of the nicest folks I've had the pleasure of interacting with, because you sure as hell are!
Finally, to music; in importance to me, you are second only to everyone listed above. You give me purpose and direction where I would otherwise have none, and you fulfil my soul in ways that nothing else does. I hope to keep making you well into my golden years, come hell or high water, and when times seem hopeless I know you'll be there too, filling empty days with wondrous melodies. Thank you.
All of us here at Random Lunacy and 103 Records wish you a very merry (if slightly belated) Christmas, and hope that 2018 finds you well and treats you all with kindness.
~ Decon Theed (05-01-18)