By Nick Smalley, with help from Luke ‘GFD’ Benjamins.
The intro really makes the song. The pacing’s well done too: it bounces between slow, tired spots to frenetic, crazy speed.
Image source: MSPaint Adventures.
His smut has been forged into a formidable blade, capable of bringing elves to tears, John, too.
By Robert J! Lake
It’s hard to describe why, but this song gives off that ‘penultimate’ vibe. Really, like it’s building up to the end, but it’s not quite there. Like you’re on the eerily quiet path towards the end boss. Those weird stereo swishes are something else.
Images source: MSPaint Adventures.
Yeah. Attack the elf that just granted you two wishes. Nice going, there, chief. Now why does this scene look familiar?
A Common Occurance (Every Night, To Be Exact) (by Robert J! Lake) is one of the bonus tracks on the album (the whole album can be downloaded here). The song itself is a little bit too chaotic for my tastes.
Useful or Otherwise (by Robert J! Lake) is another one of the bonus tracks. The intro rolls off into a metronomic, basic ticking, and a new beat is added every few measures afterwards.
What was that stage show that was taking America by storm years ago? The one where it’s just a bunch of people standing on a set, but then they start making music with everyday objects! Oh. Stomp. It was Stomp. This is a little bit like that, I guess.
b a w s (by Nick Smalley) is yet another bonus song on the album… well, it’s not really a song, it’s more like max score at skeeball. Yet it makes me feel as though I accomplished something.
Softbit (Original GFD Please Shut the Fuckass Mix By Request Demo Version) by Robert J! Lake (whoa that’s a mouthful) is the last bonus track on the album.
Even simpler still than the version of this song earlier in the album. Even though it’s pretty basic, there’s parts of it I like even better than the more polished version.
RATING: 7 / 13 – this activity has been a nice diversion
Welcome to Jailbreak Vol 1, the unofficial soundtrack for the brief webcomic of the same name. I rather like the implication of more albums to come for this 134-page comic, Normally I’d be 100% sure that this was facetious, but in this fandom, who knows.
As someone whose first real game console was an NES, naturally I have a soft spot in my heart for chiptune music. This album delivers a megadose of 8-bit fundamental waveform mania. Some of these songs could have been pulled straight from an old game’s background ambiance.
That being said, by no means is it perfect. It’s one-dimensional (duh), and it loses a bit of steam in the middle tracks. But it’s a fun album to listen to.
Since it’s an unofficial compilation, it’s available for full download completely free of charge: you can download it in MP3 format (as well as some bonus NSF files, which can be played back in native chiptune format) here from GameFreakDude’s DropBox.
Up next for review: Tomb of the Ancestors, another unofficial album, written by Robert Blaker of the music team. It’s available for free, and you can download the full album here!
Green Sun (By Kalibration) is one of the bonus tracks on the album. Of all the songs, I think this one has the strongest melody on the playlist. The intro has a bit of that Felt vibe to it, too.
By Kalibration
Slow, dulce strings. The mood’s right on target, with those maudlin, wandering notes. More of a background ambiance than a stand-alone track.
By Kalibration
A mellow xylophone track. The mellowest, most leisurely song on the entire album, as a matter of fact. It seems this track was cut before The Concesce’s ‘SEA HITLER’ persona was revealed, so unless the Batterwitch turned over a hell of a new leaf, the song isn’t all that related to its subject. Doesn’t stop it from being a relaxing beat, though.
Potential Homestuck ending 4/13 update #NOPE: Caliborn sends his best wishes, live from the Gigapause.
By Kalibration
An exotic exercise in bongo drums and finger cymbals. There’s no instrumental melody to compete with, and that talent for percussion has a little more room to shine.
By Kalibration
I like the hook. I like it a lot. It’s bouncy and cagey, and it fits Mindfang awfully well. But there’s a few parts that make it hard to listen to. The heavily distorted outro comes to mind, or the crazy chiptune bit blowout that starts around the one minute mark.
FAKE Potential Homestuck ending #2: soul-bustin’ makes me feel good.
By Kalibration
This one pulls off a sort of a ‘Friday the 13th’ feel in the intro. The first half shows promise, but the second half (right after the big vocal sample) devolves into a freestyle mess of drum kit and ultra-synth.
By Kalibration
I like the introduction with those roaring horns, but after that… it just sort of wanders from musical fragment to musical fragment. It feels patched together: there’s no unifying theme.
By Robert Blaker
I like the introduction with those roaring horns, but after that… it just sort of wanders from musical fragment to musical fragment. It feels patched together: there’s no unifying theme.
I gotta disagree here that the combination of fragments makes it un-unified. A huge part of why Robert Blaker’s stuff is so cool is because it layers in so many different contrasting themes to make the song as a whole really good. This is the best example of that in my opinion, though the obvious choice for most people would be Upward Movement (or Valhalla if you’re a Homestuck music hipster). I think that in this case, it does a fantastic job of conveying Dualscar’s character through the mix of blaring badass parts and a classy waltz tune. In fact, I’d go out on a limb and say wwretched wwaltz might be my favorite Homestuck piece by KalibrationLTD because of that.
Hopefully you’re prepared for the fact a good chunk of the rest of Tomb of the Ancestors is the same way. I love it, though I understand that his music, especially his Homestuck music, is a bit divisive.
You raise a good point! Upward Movement (another one of Robert Blaker’s songs) is similar to wwretched wwaltz in composition (it has a lot of smaller song segments tied together as one track), but where I think the latter is choppy, the former feels smooth, catchy, and really well done. Maybe it’s the intensity that puts me off.
By Kalibration
Well, it’s loud and busy. The percussion overwhelms the main melody, and in the second half it’s chaotic to the point of cacophony.
RATING: 5 / 13 – It is weirdly infectious.
Tomb of the Ancestors is a solo album written by Robert Blaker. It’s an unofficial Homestuck album, so it’s available completely free of charge (you can download the entire album and its bonus tracks here). Theme-wise, it’s a little like Alternia. There’s a song for each troll, only this time the subject is the trolls’ ancestors, rather than the trolls themselves.
I’ll start with the good. It’s an intense album, for the most part. There’s huge body to the brass section, and the percussion is diverse and driving. And many of the songs do well to establish a leitmotif for its subject.
But there’s places where the album falls short. The transitions between songs are jarring in a a few cases, and it makes the album feel disjointed. And some of the digital processing effects are more noisy than musical.
A lot of the songs rely on repetition of a few core segments. A little fragment of song is repeated many times, with slight variations in percussion or backing instrumentation. It’s hit or miss: on some songs on the album (and especially on one particular earlier composition of his) the hooks are great, and the flow between segments makes for a kick-ass tune. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much.
The songs were all written well before the audience knew much of anything about the trolls’ ancestors. Because of this, a couple of the songs don’t fit their subject all that well. That might have contributed to the album’s unofficial release (though there’s no primary-source info available on ‘the nets’ regarding it, so I won’t speculate further). But, of course, this only has a superficial effect on the music.
Click here for individual song reviews for Tomb of the Ancestors.
Comin’ up on the home stretch now. Genesis Frog, a solo album by Alexander Rosetti, is up next.
Heheh, yeah, I give Eridan a hard time. But that’s only because of all the main trolls, he’s the most irredeemable.
Except for a half-helping of closure that happens well after the fact, he’s unfailingly selfish. Even when he gave his gun to Jade, it was because he wanted her to get back at Rose. Gamzee snapped, and Vriska convinced herself she was working towards the greater good. Eridan’s eventual betrayal was the coldest, the most calculating.
But he’s one of my favorite characters. Why? Because almost every single one of his conversations with other people turn into absolute train wrecks. And it’s hilarious.
He always starts off with a massive chip on his shoulder, but ends up inadvertently outmaneuvered by whoever he’s talking to. For bonus points, try reading one of his pesterlogs in John Travolta’s voice, circa Welcome Back Kotter.
By Alexander Rosetti
Track art by Marina.
A solid, subdued introduction. Starts off with a light touch, establishing the recurring theme with a single clarinet. It sets up the next passage superbly.
By Alexander Rosetti
Track art by Marina.
This track serves as a pretty strong anchor for the album. It really establishes the main theme well (especially near the end, love those booming timpani). The little passage that starts around 0:45 has a great lullaby quality to it.
By Alexander Rosetti. Includes “Sarabande” by Erik “Jit” Scheele
Track art by Rikuru.
Continues the thoughts established in the first two tracks on the album, with a little more variation in pace. Lots of slow, reverent strings. The symphonic turn on Sarabande in the second half is fantastic.
By Alexander Rosetti
Track art by Rikuru.
I really like the oboe intro that establishes the main melody. It’s a passage dominated by the woodwinds, with a slow rise in pace and energy throughout. Except for that violin solo right around the halfway mark, which is splendid.
By Alexander Rosetti
Track art by Marina.
It’s only a short segment of a song, and I felt that a cross-fandom picture would describe it better than words.
By Alexander Rosetti. Includes “Atomyk Ebonpyre” by Toby “Radiation” Fox.
Track art by Marina.
I never thought I’d say this, but the crocodile nakking is both hilarious and well done. You can almost feel the tension in the room as the consorts slowly realize that some coolkid jacked their economy and stole all their boonbucks. Confusion turns to panic. Shenanigans ensue. It is the perfect crime.
The rest of the song is a terribly catchy romp, with the ridiculous energy of Orpheus in the Underworld.
By Alexander Rosetti
Track art by Rikuru.
This song’s a great example of the album’s ‘voice’, so to speak. There’s a very operatic back and forth between the various groups of instruments, and it’s a technique that shows up several times throughout the album.
Apart from that, this song blows past my ability to name the individual woodwinds (I had to cheat and look at the liner notes: it ranges from flute on the high side to contrabassoon on the low, with just about everything in between). The strings add a really catchy melody, especially near the end.
By Alexander Rosetti
Track art by Rikuru.
Like Pink Shells, this one starts off slow-paced. It’s very similar to that song, up until the bagpipes kick in around 1:45. One of my favorite stand-alone melodies in the album.
By Alexander Rosetti
Track art by Marina (poor Jade).
Kind of a leisurely, Baroque chase scene, off and on. My favorite part’s the variations on the main ‘Pondsquatter’ theme near the end (especially that march bit).
By Alexander Rosetti. Includes “Black” by Toby “Radiation” Fox.
Track art by Rikuru.
Most of the album gives off a very positive vibe: this track’s a little more brooding, a little more dramatic. Even apart from the staccato, chanted march cover of Black, there’s a great sense of tension throughout. The hook from Prospitian Folklore gets turned on its head when it’s done in electric guitar instead of an orchestra.
By Alexander Rosetti
Track art by Marina and Rikuru.
If you get a chance and you own the album, have a read through in the liner notes PDF that comes with it. Alexander Rosetti describes the setting he’s trying to accomplish, the story he’s trying to tell, with every song. This one follows the destruction in Bilious, and all that’s left is a sole clarinet melody, caught in the wind of a vast emptiness. Crushed but not yet destroyed, like a fern emerging from the ashes of a forest fire.
RATING: 9 / 13 – “Shucks, buster, sign me up!”
Sit back, relax, and dim the lights. The symphony’s in town.
Like Sburb, this is less a collection of tracks and more a single hour-long concerto. But this album has a much greater scope. It’s ambitious, and the sound is superb. No danger of falling into that ‘uncanny valley’ of sampled instrumentation here – you may as well be sitting in the back of a hushed auditorium. It’s an absolutely professional production.
And I can’t help but like some of the specific choices Mr. Rosetti made in his compositions. He really tends to lay on the woodwinds. As a lapsed saxophone player, I can appreciate that.
With a strong main overture, the album is downright operatic in construction. Between the music, the cover art (which is fantastic and really coherent with the album), and the liner notes, the roots of a story are told. All of these details serve well to reinforce the idea of a stage production.
I don’t consider myself a really deep fan of classical music (though I do listen from time to time, especially 19th century era romantic composers like Rossini and Tchaikovsky). Over the course of a few months, I listened to this album many times, and I found myself liking it better and better with each play.