2014-06-01 4:01:47 ¶ ●

7 / 13 – tHANK YOU FOR LETTING ME FEEL THAT, i GUESS,

During Act 5, the music team was in overdrive, kicking out multiple albums that touch on all aspects of the comic. The Felt and the Midnight Crew had had their turn. This time around, it was the exiles who got their own soundtrack written for them: The Wanderers.

Its exotic, ethnic sound jumps out immediately: this is a place that Homestuck music hasn’t yet been. There’s a lot of melody and instrumentation inspired by music from the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and the subcontinent here. Adding even more variation is the Western-themed snippets here and there (in Aimless Morning Gold, Tomahawk Head, Ruins Rising, and other tracks).

So mix two parts oriental, one part spaghetti Western, with a generous helping of Homestuck electronic beats and chiptune, and what comes together is an album custom-tailored for a trek through the endless desert.

The beginning of the album’s pretty solid (kicking it off with Carapacian Dominion really sets the tone), and things pick up near the end (anchored by Bowman’s Ruins Rising), but the middle of the album’s pretty soft (a little too ambitious and ambient, I think). That being said, I think this one’s a bit of a sleeper. I hadn’t given it a proper listen-through for some time (since mid last year when I bought it), and I was pleasantly surprised to rediscover some pretty solid music on the album.

Click here for individual song reviews for The Wanderers.