Embedded Files
Is it the time of year where I try and crunch hard on tunes and bang out as many as possible in a fairly short time frame, for reasons that can only be described as Absolutely Insane? Why yes, yes it is! And this year, I'm going back to the older format; come hell or high water, this years album will total at least 12 mainline tracks, with options for a few extras if need be. The theme this year? Well, way back at the start of the year, me and Dio celebrated the 10th anniversary of our companionship; a significant enough event in of itself, but it goes without saying that she has remained the single biggest fan of my music in all the time I've known her, and has done more then her lions share supporting my work over the years. So, I told her to go through my extensive back catalogue of works, pick out at least 12 pieces (be they finished works, or unfinished sketches/demos), and I would redo each and every one. We did something similar for 2017's Xmas project but as I recall, we picked three tracks each; here, I gave her complete and total control over the potential tracklist. The only input I have is picking tracks from her proposed list.
We both sincerely hope you enjoy the project~!
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Track 1: Obelus Operation (Attract Mode) [from ''Beyond Human (FunCentre 1 ver.)''], by Gonkaka
Original Track: An Unlikely Hero (Attract Mode)
Right as the theme of the album was settled upon, Dio suggested revisiting this old song from one of my older video game projects (which has since begun the retrofit process to become a Gonkaka project), later stating it to be her priority choice once the potential tracklist was compiled. I was happy to obliged, but I had to take a couple of days to mull over exactly how to approach the rework. I initially considered following the original's style and pace and simply doing a better job of it, but that sound doesn't quite match the vibe I want the eventual project to have. After a couple of days of going over ideas in my head, I settled on doing something with a slightly dancier vibe- something you can hear during that initial intro portion, however (as is often the case) sudden inspiration to completely change up the song at the first-third point into an electronica-infused rock jam bubbled up out of nowhere. I'm glad it did; it gives off the impression of two very distinct motifs, one for the bad guys of the project (the intro) and one for the protagonist (the main portions of the track). The end result has a very "PS1 game released in 1998" sort of vibe to it that I'm personally very pleased with.
Speaking of, here's a rough rundown of the lore of the project this song is for; Beyond Human, were it a real video game, would be a late 90s action platformer- think something like Contra, Castlevania, or Ghouls 'n Ghosts (but nowhere near as brutal as that last example)- taking place in a post-post apocalyptic earth. The story starts in a small settlement at the edge of the world; a tiny collection of suburban towns at roughly early 2000s levels of technology, populated by highly evolved humans that have unlocked psychic powers- the specific powers vary, with some having telekinesis, others having telepathy, fewer still having control over a specific elements, and the rarest of the rare being those that have control over all elements- which they use in their daily lives in helpful and nondestructive ways (mostly). Theirs is a peaceful existence- they live regular lives like you and I, going to school/work in the day, hanging out at cafes/bars/arcades etc., and commute only between the towns, never "going out into the green" (the name for the wide expanse of endless fields surrounding the settlements). This peace is shattered entirely when what appears to be an army of mechanical abominations, far more advanced then anything seen before, invade one of the towns and begin kidnapping people en masse, few of whom fight back. There is one person who does, though- a 16 year old lad with a stutter named Tony Harper, one of those rare souls with the full spectrum of psychic abilities, who takes one look at these weird robots attacking his town and goes "no sir, n-not a fan of that at all". He manages to beat back some of the invaders, but not before they've grabbed about two-thirds of the towns populace and begun a hasty retreat. Without even thinking, Tony gives chase, following the machines out into the green and beyond, going on an adventure that takes him through a wide expanse of settlements and cultures totally alien to him- with populations made up of entirely different races from his own- beating back the mechanical masses harassing them on his journey to save his kin. ... Aaaand that's it so far! It's still a work in progress. Haven't got much content to share for it yet, but here's a couple of pictures of the project's protagonist, Tony Harper (from oldest to newest):
Fun facts about the song; "Obelus" is the name given to the mathmatical symbol for division, ÷, so the title can be read as "Division Operation". This is probably the first Gonkaka track I've done in a while that was, in universe, composed predominantly by the bands guitarist and resident Eclectic Old Man, Shinji Namiki- the dude with the wild hair and tache in the song pic- as his works tend to (naturally) be more rock focused. The leitmotif from the original song was also, I shit ye not, borrowed liberally from the 'chorus' of the English Digimon theme song when I wrote the initial track literally a decade ago. Why? I don't know! But you and I have to live with it!
I also have an alternative version of the track, which has one extra addition; a little violin melody in the final section. I was on the fence about whether it made that last portion sound too busy and packed, arrangement wise, so I decided to have my cake and eat it to by recording a version with it and a version without it. You can hear the alternate version below:
This is one of those very rare but super lucky scenarios that occasionally crop up during a 12 Tracks project; the opportunity to make use of a WIP I have laying around on one of my memory cards that already has a decent amount of groundwork laid, cutting down on some of the workload (in theory at least). Though the demo linked above was only publicly shared relatively recently, it's been around for a while- I believe it was one of a couple of songs I sketched out during my extended break in 2017. As the title indicates, this was originally shortlisted as a track for mine and Dio's joint fiction project E.Q.- nothing specific was assigned to it yet, but it likely would've been a more intimate scene (similar to the intended use of the PQ remix of Free Man from 2015's album), or a more sorrowful one. However in addition to listing songs she wanted to hear me take another stab at, Dio also accompanied each suggestion with notes on possible avenues she'd like me to go or what she could envision a rework going along with, and in this case, one of the projects of hers she thought this would work with is Dreaming³. Development on Dreaming³ is still ongoing- and has been for a while- but the central figure of the work, a dream traveller named Lunis, has been floating around Dio's head for a while and has had a presence in her art for over a decade.
This wasn't too surprising; Lunis has been associated with my Piston Quints alias before. He appears on the cover for the Amineptine Smile EP, for one thing, and this piece from the 2014 Advent Calendar was both titled for and very loosely inspired by one of the PQ tracks I did for 2013's 12 Tracks project, Melt The Ice Around Your Broken Heart (And Mend It with The Love in Mine), so there's a definite connection that's grown more and more conscious with the passage of time. Incidentally, I also found the track developed past it's demo incarnation a little more easily, albeit not super quickly, once that shift in focus was decided upon; I'd always really liked the base of what I had and wanted to continue it, but was completely stuck on where to take it for, well, two years. It's difficult for me to say what sort of scene or scenario the song would accompany, due to Dreaming³'s development still being a little loose and it not being my narrative to work with, but that air of melancholy still comes through fairly strong- if not stronger- in the finished incarnation of the song. The "vocals" at the start and the title of the song indicate ties to someone who has trouble sleeping due to external forces- stress, worry, possibly even trauma- to the point that medical or chemical aids are needed, though, all of which I readily admit could be me pulling from my own troubles with sleep (which might not necessarily be caused by my struggles with depression and anxiety disorder, but is definitely bolstered by it). Does that technically make this a "vent song"? Maybe!
Speaking of the vocals; the original intention for this piece was to have those laid out over the section spanning 2:56 to 3:37 as a sort of "verse", hence the active rhyme scheme (that I openly admit to using a rhyming dictionary to aid with), but I just couldn't get the timing right when overlaying the vocals over that section (for the record, I was doing it word-by-word and hadn't yet applied the extra effects you hear in the final song). It dawned on me quick that likely the only way to do so would be to type out every word of the verse into the TTS I was using- this thoroughly excellent online emulation of Microsoft SAM- adjusting the tempo for every single word to get the timing I needed and, sadly, I have got other things to do this month so I had to nix the idea for the time being. I liked the little verse I came up with, though, so I decided to incorporate it as a kind of pre-intro intro. If you're having a hard time making out what it says, the verse goes as follows:
"This is a prescription for sleep; no more shall you lie awake and weep. Administer it nightly or take as you need; one drop a piece is all it takes to be freed. No more troubles with slumber, no matter your woes; rest easy knowing you're certain to doze. Lay thy head down and wrap up all warm; peace will keep you close 'til the coming of morn."
I am also extremely happy with the fact that the ride cymbals in the dream break I used in that last portion came out sounding almost like old-timey train bells after being pitched down/with the phase effect applied. It wasn't intended and how much it adds to the track will vary on the person, but I'm pleased with it.
Oh, yes; it was the 25th anniversary of the original Playstation on the 3rd of December, as I found out far too late into the day. If I'd had more time to fully prepare I'd have had something far deeper and longer winded to say about it, but I'll keep it brief and say that not only is the console central to many happy gaming memories of mine, and not only do several of my fave games find a home on it, but without the consoles existence I straight up might not have ever got into making music. Or at least, if I did, the outcome could well have been very different. So, uh; I guess 12 Tracks 2019 is also dedicated to the PS1 now as well? Sure, why not!
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Track 3: Nightmares Won't Chill (Course BGM #04) [from "Nightmare Busters"], by Denji Koshiro
Original Track: Chilling Air
Don't worry, folks; this album ain't gonna turn into "R.I.P.1.0.3. x XMAS 2019". Pinkie swear, this is a one off.
Nightmare Busters is an older project of mine that holds a special place in my heart; it was the first fully-fledged Gonkaka project I ever worked on and completed, as well as the first (and so far, the only full-length) chiptune project I've put together. If memory serves me correctly it's initial release on 103 Records was the first release I ever charged for- this was before the "pay what you want or get for free" clause was mandatory. It definitely shows it's age compositionally, as well as my inexperience in terms of sound design- not helped by the inconsistency of sound design between tracks (each piece basically uses entirely different sets of waveforms/"instruments", which is not at all period-accurate for what was supposed to be an arcade game from the late 80s/early 90s)- but it's only with the benefit of experience and hindsight that I can say all of that. And of course, none of that takes away from the fact that I sat down and put the time in to create an entire album using software I was pretty much completely knew with on a mobile device, working on rough "game design" documentation alongside it with help from Dio (who provided the excellent cover art). I did grow discontent with it after a period, and strongly enough to actually take the initial release of the album down, though cooler heads would eventually prevail and the idea to re-release it swam around in my head for a while before it eventually dropped in 2017, with the story surrounding it reworked to frame the version of Nightmare Busters that music was written for, in Gonkaka/Nincom lore, being an overly ambitious prototype from a freshly established company that collapsed under it's own weight. The story does state however that Nightmare Busters was eventually revisited by Nincom, re-imagined for the console that in-universe stands in for the Playstation.
That's where this song comes in, but first I should probably explain what Nightmare Busters is about. Like, the in-story game, I mean. Strap in folks; this is gonna be a long one.
The game takes place in a quiet little house on the outer edge of a countryside village, on Christmas Eve; its current occupants- two young adult twins named Shaun and Susan Englund - are "enjoying" a quiet night in with whatever cheesy films are on t'telly whilst the rest of their family is out having a night on the town ('cus, y'know, they're Broke College Students) when suddenly, the power goes out. When the pair go to investigate the fuse box they find that it has been deliberately tampered with, meaning that there are intruders in the house. Not a problem; they're relatively steel-nerved and have access to a Spade and a Cricket Bat; a lowly Robber isn't any match for them pair of them. One small problem; they're not dealing with a Robber.
They're dealing with living Toys.
See, whilst the pair were downsizing their possessions for the move into college dorms, they both came across hordes of toys the two had built up during their childhoods, then left neglected in cupboards or hidden away in the attic. After a very brief nostalgia trip, the pair tossed almost all of them into bin bags to be thrown out the following day, all except for two that they had particular attachments to: Shaun kept ahold of his Copper the Tin Cowboy figure (an action figure of the central character from a cartoon about mechanical cowboys), and Susan held onto her Ms. Red Hood doll (a stuffed plushie of one of the side characters from a puppet-based fantasy show), which they kept in their respective bedrooms in the house.
Unfortunately, the toys they threw out were a little less then thrilled about the arrangement; they'd spent several years tucked away, out of sight and out of mind, praying and hoping their owners would bring them out and play with them like they used to. Instead, they were thrown away- literally treated like rubbish- and have spent the last year rotting in the local refuse dump. One former toy is particularly incensed with the Englund twins; a stuffed bear the two were gifted when they were toddlers named Mr. Honeysuckle. In fact, he's so furious at his and the other toys' treatment and has stewed in it for so long that finally, on the eve of the day that many of them first met their former owners all those years ago, he decrees; "We shall take revenge! We will treat them as they have treated us!" The other toys are only too happy to go along with this plan for vengeance, breaking out of the garbage dump en-masse to storm the house. They succeed, taking the twins captive and stowing them away in the attic until the clock strikes midnight on December 25th, when they plan to enact their revenge.
Naturally, the ruckus manages to catch the attention of both Copper and Ms. Red Hood; they're too late to save their owners from their initial capture or prevent the hostile takeover of the house- which is now swarming with toys- but they still have time to save them from their ultimate fate. They will, however, have to cleave their way through mobs of disgruntled toys to do it.
Unfortunately for said disgruntled toys, Copper and Ms. Red Hood are both fiercely loyal to their owners and not to be trifled with.
Gameplay wise, Nightmare Busters is set up like this; you are given a selection of five Courses (plus one secret Course) played from an overheard top-down view, wherein the goal is to reach and clear a certain point threshold by traversing the house and eradicating every enemy toy you come across. Each Course has a different point threshold, with Course 1 having the lowest and Course 5 having the highest, and though the general structure of the house doesn't change, the layouts do differ in each course by way of different scattered debris, furniture, detritus etc., with the earlier Courses having less clutter and the later ones having a lot of tighter choke points. The number of enemies remains at a consistently high rate, but the designs change with each course- the implication being each course is populated by groups of toys from different lines. Each of the main rooms of the house are divided up into small sections that can be traversed between- enemies cannot follow you between sections in all Courses except the secret one- and the number of sections as well as their size vary based on the room. The upper and downstairs hallways act as transitions between the rooms that Copper and Ms. Red Hood move through automatically, though they are populated by enemy toys that can be taken out for double the points those enemies would normally give you, if you can hit them (they pose no threat to the player however; the Hallways are safe zones where they cannot be hurt). All courses are timed, with the player having exactly five minutes to reach the point threshold by defeating as many enemies as possible- additional ways too boost ones score include racking up combos by attacking groups of enemies in quick succession, the prior mentioned Hallway enemies, or by activating "traps" in the levels that take out clusters of enemies (these aware huge bonuses if discovered, but they're technically 'hidden' and require critical thinking to decipher). If the point threshold is reached, the player is taken to a boss battle against the 'leader' of each of the different toy lines, all of which are fought in un-obstructed and fully open versions of the rooms in the house- they are still broken into sections, mind, and unlike enemies all the bosses can follow you between them. These guardians include: Hank Harmsmash, the muscle-headed rubber doll who's surprisingly stretchy for a toy that hits so hard; Betty Beauty, a once gorgeous lady bust more then capable of using her limited articulation to ruin your day; Applegunk Mutantchop, a thoroughly grotesque action figure that elevates weaponised grossness to an artform; and finally Lady Green Smock, the conniving evil Doppelganger of Ms. Red Hood and the smartest of the toy horde by far. As far as player character stats go, Copper is the slower character, but his weapon of choice is a "laser cork-gun" so he's able to attack from further ranges; conversely Ms. Red Hood is faster, but her weapon is a "magical lantern bo-staff" that requires her to get closer to her enemies to eliminate them. They both have special moves that can help them out in a pinch; Copper opens up his chest and unleashes a large missile that completely eradicates all active enemies on the section of the room you're occupying, though the room will begin to fill with enemies again in around ten seconds; Ms. Red Hood unleashes a powerful blast of light from her lantern that completely immobilises all active enemies in the occupied sector allowing you to slip away (though they become active again within around ten seconds. The effects of both are nullified if the player changes sections before the ten second timer elapses, and activation awards the player a flat point bonus that does not change or stack (and sits between the Hallway bonuses and Trap bonuses in terms of how much it grants you). You have a limited stock of 6 of these special moves however, which cannot be replenished (and you are awarded an extra bonus on time-out for each stock you still have). Both characters take three hits before they lose a life, and players are awarded three lives at the start of a match; extra lives are awarded to the player for smaller point thresholds, and similarly to the special moves bonuses are awarded for each life you still have on time-out that go towards your total points. If you lose all your lives, the course ends and you must try again from the beginning. Beating the initial five courses unlocks the secret sixth course, the completion of which awards the player a more complete ending then the one they get for beating the fifth boss, however the difficulty of this final course and its end-boss is significantly steeper then any of the others.
"PLEASE DECON JUST TALK ABOUT THE BLOODY SONG ITSELF" alright no need to shout at me innit
The track this is one is based on was one of my early attempts at writing hip hop; specifically it was inspired by my getting really into the soundtrack from Samurai Champloo at the time, which was the stuff that got me hooked on the genre in the first place (I wasn't much into it before that point). It and a couple of other early genre attempts, D.I.Y.P.I. and Dead Line, were attempts are writing tracks for a project of mine that I wanted to have a similar audio style as Samurai Champloo, though of the three Chilling Air is probably the strongest (or at least has the clearest melody line). Hence why Dio picked it for the shortlist, I imagine. I wanted to keep that melody intact but it wasn't gonna fit the project the beat was originally for, and for a brief moment I didn't know what to do with it. Nightmare Busters popped into my head fairly quick though, and I was settled on that idea out the gate- it would give me a good chance to do a "dry run" for how I want the music for the Nightmare Busters rework album to sound.
That sound was a little more 90s Techno-y then I initially intended, but honestly not by much. Going back over the original chiptune tracks, there's a fair bit of 90s electronica vibe and groove to everything; the somewhat acid-y bass of We Loved, Once, the steady swing beat of Nightmares Can't Disco, the crusty FM Synth Speedcore of Nightmare Beatthing, and the Soul II Soul rip of Tears for the Brave are all fairly self evident. Pumping things up to full on rave scene madness was, arguably, the next logical step. I knew I wanted a steady Roland TR-909 beat backing an organ rendition of the old Chilling Air motif more or less out.the gate- in fact, those were the first elements I actually put down for the track (this despite the fact that said leitmotif and accompanying chords don't show up until the last third of the track- though the Theramin-like synth plays a slowed-down variation on the first chunk of said motif, if you listen closely). Another element I settled on including early on was the SFX collage that plays over the Reese Bass + Percussion intro; I wanted something that sounded vaguely like a Halloween Sound Effects record, because even during Christmas (which is arguably my favourite time of the year) I cannot resist the siren call of the Samhain Season™ (my other favourite time of the year). To dip quickly back into game mechanic stuff for a sec, the title of this song doesn't indicate that it plays strictly for Course 4; the idea is, whenever I get to working on Nightmare Busters in full, that the player is given a selection of songs- maybe 6, maybe more- that are played over the courses either at random, or can be specifically selected to play during the pre-course setup where you pick the character you're using, and... other things I've yet to properly outline! The decision to not have a loop and to time the song to be around five minutes tie into the timed-level mechanic, as well. This is also why the song is credited specifically to Denji Koshiro rather then the Gonkaka outfit as a whole; the idea is that each of the background tunes for the courses themselves would've each been written and performed/produced by members of the band individually, as well as musicians at Nincom outside of the band (which yes means even MORE fictional aliases to keep track of, oh my word).
It's at this point I confess a major, if unlikely, source of inspiration for the rework of this track, and a portion of the game mechanics outlined above, was Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus. No, I'm not making that up; I picked up a copy of Namco Arcade Pac for the Switch that includes the game back in early November and from more or less the first time I played it, I've been in absolute love with it. I knew the music bopped in advance, but hearing it all in context and paired off with the incredible gameplay gave me a new appreciation for it- and I totally adore said gameplay and the mechanics of how it works. Though there was arguably always an element of Pac-Man inspiring Nightmare Busters- as I recall, the "cancelled arcade game" version (back when it was the intended version) saw the player taking out enemies in single-screen mazes not unlike Pac-Mans, albeit with each map corresponding to a single room in the house- but I didn't intend to lift quite as much inspiration as I did. But I did, and now here we are. Go and listen to the PMCE2/PMCE2+ soundtrack, by the by; it's a belter. Go and grab the game whilst you're at it too, it's brilliant.
Also, y'know what? I'm gonna link up the OG Nightmare Busters art, 'cos it's extremely good (and features the older designs of Copper, Ms. Red Hood, Hank Harmsmash, Beauty Betty, Applegunk Mutantchop, Lady Green Smock, and vaguely Mr. Honeysuckle + Shaun and Susan; the designs will likely be reworked in the future but I don't intend to change them super wildly). All credit goes to Dio Maxwelle, of course~
In the notes Dio left for this suggestion, she mentioned that the original demo appeared in a dream she had recently, only it was a "collab" track between my Visor Jack and Piston Quints aliases. She didn't specify whether the song sounded the same in her dream or not, but I took it as a launching pad anyway, for a couple of reasons. firstly, the original sketch kinda has more of a Visor Jack vibe to it then a Piston Quints one to my ears (and if memory serves, it was written before I'd really adopted the Visor Jack alias and produced much Twitch House/Bass House etc). Secondly, that's not a combo I typically would have thought to pair up; I wouldn't have even known how to approach it if it hadn't been suggested to me first.
Yet surprisingly, ideas for the track came together fairly quickly once I'd actually sat down to start it off; I came across plenty of samples I knew I wanted to use when scouring my external library (and had several in mind for use later on or in post), and ideas on what to reinterpret from the demo and how came fast. There were a few hiccups along the way- sample memory constraints were a bit of a pain when working on the final section, and at one point I'd accidentally deleted a sample I still needed and had to go through my discs again to find it (I spent about twenty minutes or so going through discs before finding the right one, much to my great annoyance)- but hey, most composing sections come with a little baggage, as anyone that actually reads my waffle can tell you from years of me badgering on about them. The end result definitely leans heavy on the Visor Jack half of the combo, which isn't terribly surprising, but there's an overall experimental nature to the flow of the piece that wouldn't normally have been there. Likewise, I pictured out some samples and instruments that I would normally have used on a PQ track over a VJ one- especially the acoustic guitars (a staple of many Piston Quints productions), and arguably the more melodically complex nature of portions of the track are in line with the latter alias as well. There's a very clear influence from the Fake Blood school of Twitch House in there, too, which I appreciate as he's the artist that got me into that and Bass House in the first place.
I am regardless pleased with the end result; it's got a nice bittersweet and ethereal feel to it. Club music you sit and think to. The metaphysical idea of "healing from your mental baggage" came to me early on in the process- probably around the point that the "chorus" sections of the track were in place- so that idea sort of permeates the track thematically. How clearly it comes across will depend on the individual, though, given it's only partially through the vocal samples and more through the 'vibe' of the track. In line with this idea, the chosen songpic today is a photo of me, Dio, and her father during my trip to California for Dio's wedding; that trip was amazing and it was one of the first times in a very, very long time where I truly felt deeply happy and healed.
Speaking of samples, man, there's an eclectic blend here; Animal Crossing: Wild World, Gorillaz, Sonic Advance, Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band's version of Apache, and lots more from all sorts of sources. I love fusing together elements from disparate sources like that. See if you can pick 'em out!
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Track 5: Can't Cease, Shan't Cease [Breathless Bars Edit], by BPM Termination Society
Original Track: Stop at a 45 Degree Angle
You uh. Might've noticed the extremely long gap between the last track and this one. To cut a short story even shorter; I had a bit of a mental breakdown last Friday, and truth be told I'm still kind of overcoming it as I type. I'd been overdue one due to a lot of personal stuff and other stresses getting on top of me, so it is what it is. The worst of it is out of the way, though (and hopefully I'm not jinxing things by saying that because boy howdy that sure would suck).
Anyway, the song!
Stop at a 45 Degree angle was, if the extremely hamfisted title doesn't give it away, inspired by the Yuzo Koshiro's "Go Straight". It's not the most blatant bit of musical ripping-off I've done, but the influence is clear, and went hand in hand with the early sound direction I went in for my Heaven's Order project (very ravey). When I saw the track on Dio's shortlist, my initial idea was to keep the rework close to the songs Streets of Rage inspired roots, albeit without going full-on YM2612 (I don't have the means to do so without heavy usage of samples, currently), but that idea fell through. No particular reason why; it just wasn't clicking. Then I got struck by a slightly more offbeat idea; using the original song as a base to build a track for my ongoing Splatoon project off of, to the point of crediting it to one of the in-universe characters' aliases. I originally wanted to do it as a big beat number assigned to my Inkling character Skint- who releases music under the name Jackpot Goalie in my personal Splatoon Canon- and had laid out a couple of basslines and some guitar loop reinterpretations of the chords that I definitely wanted to keep (and did), but I hit the dreaded Big Beat Wall I hit a good 90% of the time I try to work in that genre. Dunno what it is about it, but for a genre I absolute adore I find it extremely difficult to write myself. Perhaps it's that adoration I have for it that makes it hard.
Then during the early stages of my recovery from the breakdown, I damn near literally dragged myself out of bed to try writing something, and in the moment I decided "what if I still rework Stop etc. as a track for my Splatoon project, but do it for a different character?" And in my infinite wisdom, the character I picked was one of my Octolings, Troubadour.
A fierce looking lass, ain't she? Here's a bit of a rundown of her character:
"Troubadour is quite possibly the most intimidating Octoling you’re ever likely to meet. Her industrial tinged taste in fashion and piercing grey eyes gave an air of menace that her very brash, bold, and downright crude demenour only accentuate- her soft and angelic voice dampens it a bit, though. The truth of the matter, though, is that she’s a deeply shy and insecure young lady who’s hiding behind an intimidating and overconfident veneer to compensatefor the near constant anxiety she feels. She was a software designer for the Octarians, and a darn good one at that, before the Calamari Inkantation gave her the courage she needed to break off from Octarian Society (in which she was often bullied or looked down upon). She was stuck in the Metro for a while until she got wrapped up with Geffen, initially disliking him intensely (and vice versa) before coming around to him, helping him through some tests, and barely making it through the escape to the surface together. On the surface, she found a new love in producing and listening to Speedcore/Gabber/Rotterdam Techno music, and is toning down her harshness (slightly) and opening up to people more."
To expand on that last bit some more; the hard hitting, ridiculously fast, often goofy and more often aggressive nature of the kind of music Speedcore, Rotterdam Techno, Gabber etc. is provided a medium through which Troubadour could channel and expel the anxiety, fear, frustration, and leftover aggression she had accumulated during her rough upbringing that was far healthier then being an overly confrontational cybergoth, both as a listener and as a producer. She hadn't really expressed any interest in writing music before she reached the surface and had no history doing so; she didn't even particularly care for it much as a listener. But something about Speedcore and its offshoots and predecessors awakened both a newfound appreciation for the medium and a desire to create it. Shit, a girl's gotta have a hobby, particularly if their job is as taxing as that of a software engineer (as I assume she kept that hustle up once above ground- a girl's also gotta eat). When planning out what I wanted her music to sound like during her initial design stages initially intended for her music to be the more straight faced, brutal no-nonsense sort of speedcore like Disciples of Annihilation, but ultimately decided that a sort of happy medium between that and the more quirky side of the scene's sound was more fitting- specifically, things like Sampling Masters' "Return of Rottel-gem" and "Lesson.26 Heaven Debt". Specifically, as Troubadour is an Octoling, and therefore during her lifetime the most-heard music in Octarian society (besides DJ Octavio) was that of Turquoise October, it makes sense that some of that quirkiness she was subjected to would have bled into her own work. For example, here's "Tentacular Circus" and "The Girl from Inkopolis". Also, though the name she ultimately went with for her project was BPM Termination Society, initially she intended to go by "Inkling Termination Society" for Maximum Edginess (again, inkeeping with one part of the culture around the music IRL), before being talked out of it by a friend on the grounds that an Octoling naming a music act of theirs that might seem a little tactless in the days when Inklings and Octolings were only just starting to reintegrate a century after the two were at war.
To talk about Can't Cease, Shan't Cease itself for a moment, it's definitely the roughest sounding of the tracks on the project so far. At least, I think it is; it just kinda sounds like it's a tiny bit less polished and more gritty, which I reckon kinda fits with the vibe a lot better. This definitely harkens back to the early days of the brutal hardcore movement, when underground labels were pumping out sample-heavy, copyright infringing, uncompromisingly edgy or outright daft tracks that were never going to garner any sort of mainstream appeal anywhere- well, except maybe the Netherlands. Said tracks probably weren't as freeform as this one was, but I've noticed the last couple of years especially most everything I do now has moved in more progressive directions, with a greater emphasis on clear starting and end points over wholly repeating refrains. Partially this is down to my weird compositional complexes- despite listening to and enjoying a lot of repetitive music, I am shit-scared of making boring or dull sounding tracks- and partially this is because thanks to MUSIC™ 2000's memory quirks, it's actually less of a ballache to write songs with constantly changing and shifting elements. Again though I think it kinda worked in this song's favour. I only really incorporated elements from the main portions of Stop at a 45 Degree Angle, and left the motifs of the piano breakdown on the cutting room floor for the most part- it might be hard to tell, but a portion of the synth solo at 3:18 reinterprets some of the piano melodies (albeit without the weird tuning of the original track- I wrote Stop etc. at a time where I was still deliberately detuning everything for... what I'm sure were very good reasons at the time). Oh, extra fun fact; the drumbeat at the beginning of the track was taken from a very-early-on sketch for a Damn That Rotter track that's been laying around on my memory cards for a while, so it was nice to finally use it.
When it comes to Splatoon related music- specifically stuff intended to exist "in-universe" as well as outside of it- I have a,,, semi-hardline rule that no discernible vocals of any legitimate language should be featured. I say "semi-hardline" because... well, obviously, I broke it here. That jumble of vocal samples was put together to go along with the first pass of the track- the one that was more SoR inspired- but I liked it so much I wanted to use it somewhere on the album and, well, I figured it fit here. My excuse? Troubadour somehow came across Human music, and samples the vocals. Maybe she understands what they say, maybe she doesn't, but hell, if the DJ for Sashimori has access to LPs from Humanity's days to sample for their tracks then I don't see why Troubadour can't.
On the subject of vocals though, this was my first attempt at doing nonsense vocals for a Splat track- something I've meant to do for ages. There's nothing to decipher; I literally just whispered nonsense noises that sounded vaguely like words that rhymed, pitched it up, and added warbling effects. I'm pleased with the end result on the vocals themselves- I was trying to capture Troubadour's canonically very delicate and soft voice to the best of my ability- but the integration with the track isn't perfect. They're a touch too quiet, but amplifying them further would have brickwalled the songs waveforms and resulted in clipping; this is why I am not a mastering engineer. As a result, I'm also putting out an "instrumental" version of the track that doesn't include the vocals for those that might prefer it.
Also yes, I am aware that the first four notes of the reggae style bassline that comes in at 2:18 sound like the start of Megalovania's (in)famous riff in a different key. It wasn;t intentional and I didn't notice until I was nearly done with the song- though I did, very briefly, consider doing a super short alternate mix of the track that straight up lifted the bassline for jokes. But then I remembered that I am a remarkably lazy human being sometimes and went "nah, can't be bothered".
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Track 6: Elegy for Heaven (B/M1999) [from "Nincom Neutanz Crew @ JIMINY'S TADCASTER 1999/12/24"], by Mighty Obnoxious Yellow
Original Track: Battlemania Theme (Proof of Concept Sketch) // Heaven Shatters (Attract Mode) // NEW RAVE ORDER (Bonus Stage)
Well; 6 outta 12 tracks before the big day ain't bad! Doubly so given the fact that depression's been kicking my ass through much of the month. Hopefully that doesn't translate to the tracks too much.
Nightmare Busters was the first full Gonkaka concept album I committed to, but Battlemania: An Evil Supreme was the one where I and Dio went all in. Music, written text (Both metatext explaining the game and a little bit of fiction) written by both I and Dio, art assets all provided by Dio to back it all up, we went the extra mile to make Battlemania feel like it was a real game you could've played in the late 90s (just shy of producing mock-up screenshots, anyway). As a result it is an album that holds a special place in both our hearts- as far as I'm concerned I do have my criticisms of some of the material (and as she had to listen to it in-person several times during car rides whilst I was out in San Jose, poor Dio can attest to that), but ultimately I think most of the material on it holds up. Under Armageddon's Sky, One Pence Empire, A Thousand Fists a Second, and the above-linked NEW RAVE ORDER in particular are personal highlights that I think were pivotal in my musical evolution and were very ambitious for the time in which I made them.
Unlike the previous tracks on the album, this piece wasn't specifically based on a singular track; the actual note I had in the shortlist Dio said more or less said "a new trailer-type track for Battlemania", with Dio later telling me that anything making use of the Battlemania leitmotif was fair game. Funnily enough, one of the things I've had on my song shortlist for... literally years at this point, was a "image song" for the console port of Battlemania in-universe- a piece that made use of the BM tune that would score a brand new, anime-style intro exclusive to the port. Initially it was going to be on a fully fledged Battlemania remix album I've been planning... also for years, but this seemed like a good opportunity to wheel the concept out.
Such is the way of things, plans did not get followed and that is not what I made. Oh, I got a ton of samples ready to create a piece in that style- but as soon as I put together the chords you hear in the intro I went "gee you can tell I've been listening to Jonny L's Oooh I Like It lately huh" and my brain switched gears entirely into Make An Oldskool Rave Track Mode. I did initially think I could spin that angle and retain the "anime opening" concept but, as the runtime of the track should make clear, that quickly went by the wayside.
The general vibe the track quickly picked up during the compositional process was that of Euro Rave; the sort of precursor sound to Eurobeat, which like Eurobeat was extremely popular in Japan and a lot of producers making it were either themselves Japanese, or Europeans marketing heavily to the region (to the point of exclusively releasing stuff in that region). Examples of the kind of sound I mean include Starr Gazer's Re-Flux, Fargetta's Music is Moving, and Cold Sensation's Bang to the Rhythm. One of the premier clubs playing that kind of sound was the legendary Juliana's Tokyo, a nightclub and record label combo that helped spread popularity of rave music of all sorts, though it was definitely that Euro Rave style for which the club made the most popular. In fact, a fair few game composers were either patrons of the club or had heard/purchased one of the compilations put out by the label, which then bled back into the music they wrote- a particularly notable example is the soundtrack version of Duck King's arranged theme from Fatal Fury Special, Duck Duck Dub (primarily arranged by Toshio "SHIMIZM" Shimizu, but performed by SNK's in house band/unit Shinsekai Gakkyoku Zatsugidan), not only in the music style (which the original track shares) but by having an MC shouting hype stuff over the track- including namedropping Juliana at 2:30- in a similar way to the DJs who held residence at the club. Duck King's stage in Fatal Fury Special is also something of a reference to the club.
I mention all of that seemingly unconnected gubbins partially because it gave me a good excuse to do more metafiction nonsense around my music, because we all know I love that. In the Lore™ of the 103 Universe, this arrangement of the song was produced by Denji Koshiro and Takayuki Mitsuyoshi, the teal-haired "cool guy" and shy heartthrob from Gonkaka respectively, under the name "Mighty Obnoxious Yellow" (the name of a duo the two formed before being hired by Nincom, who's purpose was to incorporate their non-electronica/synth instruments of choice- Violins for Denji and Bass Guitar for Takayuki- into electronic tracks), for play at event hosted by Nincom at the notorious JIMINY'S TADCASTER Nightclub on Christmas Eve of 1999. Nincom's composers, both from the Gonkaka unit and outside of it, as well as hobbyist musicians from within their staff, "hijacked" the club's soundsystem under the collective banner of the "Nincom Neutanz Crew" and put on a 24 hour rave that kicked off at midnight on the 24th, and finished at midnight on the 25th. The music was a mixture of rave inspired tracks from their games played wholesale, ravey remixes of songs from their games produced exclusively for the event, and non-game related electronica tracks. Rather then utilising turntables and vinyl, these tracks were effectively performed live using hardware- the main stage was completely overrun with synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, and an assortment of other instruments. In fact, the bass guitar and violins on this song were themselves performed live, with Denji making use of a custom effects peddle for his modded electro-violin that automatically double-tracked what he was playing in real-time. Needless to say, all the acts that night made liberal use of arpeggiators, sequencers (on-board and otherwise) to pull this off without a hitch. The party was legendary, with the patrons and the performers all going absolutely ham throughout the duration of the day seemingly never losing energy, and in-universe it is still fondly regarded as one of the best events put on by the club.
Bringing us back to reality, the choice to incorporate elements of Heaven Shatters and NEW RAVE ORDER came about in the middle of the process and weren't pre-planned. Heaven Shatters' presence was part of my early attempt to still go with the "animated intro track" concept before things ran away from me, but I'm glad I included them; on reflection it's odd that the actual Battlemania motif was largely absent from the original track, given it played over BM's attract mode, so it was nice to finally pair the tracks off. The vocal sample usage in this song was also in line with a lot of what I was using for Battlemania's tracks- more then a couple likely being from the same sources, even. But man, timing that infamous stock rap was kind of a nightmare, entirely unsurprisingly. It took a lot of cutting and pasting around to get the verses to flow not just in time, but within the four-bar structure I had laid out. That's why the cadence gets switched up basically each time, but I kinda like the effect. The sung vocals that kick off at 4:02 were a tad easier, but still took a little finagling to get into shape- though there, part of the problem was constructing sensical sentences out of M2K's vocal library (of which all the sung vocals in this section use the same vocalist "bank", "Cathi", for consistency). I got there in the end, though.
Speaking of samples, y'know what I'm super hyped I finally got to use? The sample from Shades of Rhythm's "Ecstasy" that comes in around 3:34 (which itself is a sample from D-Train's Keep On, likely taken from Francois K's mix). I've been wanting to use that for ages.
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