By Lark Mordancy
A Frankenstein mix of some of the best of Bowman. I really like the hook from Dawn of Man on Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido, and it’s hard to go wrong with Sburban Jungle. The mix is terribly smooth, too. I’m a fan if it: so much so that I used this song as the backing track for a preposterously rigorous video on the conversations between characters in Homestuck.
By David “A Lunatic’s Daydream” Ellis
A mellow tune-up on Skies of Skaia by Mark Hadley. The multi-track acoustic guitar in the first half has the same vibe as the original, while the second half soars into classic-rock anthem territory.
By Max “Imbrog” Wright
Desolation is surprisingly uplifting, judging by the notes played by it. Sort of grand and overbearing, but still far more positive than its title suggests.
By Erik “Jit” Scheele
Hard to argue with a bit of folksy, nylon string acoustic. The root for this tune’s gone through many iterations: from airy, to brutal, to techno-electronic. This version’s one of my favorites.
By Charles “Crazy-8” Neudorf and Marcy “Shadolith” Nabors
A little bit of house music for Roxy, with a monster hook that kicks in around 0:40. Great energy, great melody. That intro flourish is positively Bowman-esque.
By Trent “Trogg” West
Wanders from ambient to electronic to bass-thumping. I can’t decide whether this would work best in a positive fashion (bad things happen to the kids, but even better things result) or a negative one (Doc Scratch sets up all of his meticulous plans as we watch in fly-on-the-wall fashion).
By Astro Kid
A rockin’ synthetic remix of Jackpot. Astro Kid’s got a great talent for taking quality stuff and switching up the flow and beat. It’s a little darker, a little heavier, and just as cool.
By Land of Ships and Music
If there was ever a song written for a Saturday morning Homestuck spinoff, this is it. Really cheerful, and the production is extraordinary (great instrumentation, even better vocals).
On the other hand, if both our favorite exiles somehow wind up dead at the end of the comic, it goes from cheery to maudlin and heartbreaking. Let’s hope we never have to replay this one in memorarium.
By Domble
Musically interesting, this one. There’s a lot of ground covered (Courser, Upward Movement, Dawn of Man, and Ruins jump out at me the most), and the mix is really fun (the sharp, funky brass counter-melody stands out especially). It’s a little bit like Descend in composition.
By Kevin “UWBW” Grant
Frantic, driven jazz. The bass and drumkit lay down a solid background, but it’s the improvisational, fast piano that makes this one fun to listen to.
By PhemieC
Image source: Homestuck.
Fantastic.
At first I only thought it was ‘just’ clever. That was a mistake. After a few more listen-throughs, I realized I was doing this track an injustice.
Musically, the entire composition feels terribly authentic. The little guitar string squeaks add to the song’s character, rather than distracting from it. The simple acoustic-plus-vocals arrangement gives it a better perspective than a busier composition might: it’s all one character’s thoughts.
And what a poetic set of lyrics. It’s stream-of-consciousness, all from Eridan’s perspective, as his attitude slowly deteroriates and he falls deeper into isolation and nihilism. The vocals are rapid-fire, and it’s a really impressive combination of content and rhyming meter (it’s tough to nail both without making sacrifices in one or the other).
This one’s not just my top track for the album: it’s one of my favorites throughout the Homestuck library.
By Nitrosparxx
The sampled instrumentation is a little rough around the edges, and it’s a tad plain, but there’s something enticing about this song. Maybe it’s the sad, lead violin that carries the melody. Then there’s my favorite bit, the morose, quiet rendition of Gardener that starts around 4:15. This tune’s pretty high up on my list of favorites for the album.
By Brenden “Avrec” Cameron
The first half’s a solid, sorta sad rendition of Showtime: death comes for us all. The second part’s a little more interesting. It’s a whooshy, newsroom-stacatto cut of Doctor: it’ll take more than a pesky stabbing to keep this one down.
By Samm Neiland
A really impressive, deep, reverberant strings medley of some of the heavy hitters in the catalog. The changeup in orchestration makes some of the covers almost unrecognizable, and even more fun to try to separate out.
By Paige “hrmnzr” Stanley
The fade-in’s a bit like the THX chord, morphing from chaos into ordered music. It’s supremely effortless and smooth, and I’m sure it was a technical challenge to produce. The stately, imposing version of English that starts after the crescendo is my favorite version of that tune.
Not really a fan of the second half (it’s night and day, this one), though the lead-in to Jackpot is pretty slick.
By Paige “hrmnzr” Stanley
This is some next level shit going on here.
How do you top the intentionally shitty irony of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff? Go in the opposite direction. Take one of the comics and treat it with the gravitas and magnitude of a Moody Blues spoken word interlude.
If there wasn’t so much great music on this album, this would be in serious danger of being a top track. It doesn’t even need a lyrics page.
By Thomas “EidolonOrpheus” Ferkol
It’s pretty and all (especially around 1:30), but the sound effects recall a stopped-up drain a little more than the majesty of Alternia’s oceans.
By Mai “Cat Boss” Yishan
The cover art for this one calls it exactly right. There’s a lot of ground covered, but at its core, this one’s a fight between jazzy, stabby Spades Slick and malevolent Lord English.
By Kevin “UWBW” Grant
Catchy, but oh so plain. The first version of this song on the album has a little more meat on its bones.
By Ian “MyUsernamesMud” White
I’ll admit, it’s technically impressive. But I can’t get past that garish curtain of 90’s bro-rap to really, truly enjoy it.
This is it. All official and major unofficial albums have seen their day on this blog, except for this one. Up next is Strife!, a solo album by Joren “Tensei” de Bruin.
Spoiler alert: I didn’t leave this one ‘til last because I dreaded the review. Buckle in for a wild ride.
By Joren “Tensei” de Bruin
There’s some songs that work together in pairs. When some radio station sells out and plays ‘We Will Rock You’ but not ‘We Are the Champions’, it makes my skin crawl.
The first two tracks on Strife! are one such pair. Stormspirit is a subdued, simple piano introduction for the crazy, electric metal that’s soon to follow. Great way to kick off the album, and the transition into Heir Conditioning is absolutely seamless.
By Joren “Tensei” de Bruin
Image source: Homestuck.
From the calm, directly into the storm. It’s a crazy combination of chiptune-synth, rock guitar, and a few more eclectic instruments like piano and trumpet. This track amps up the energy, and it doesn’t really let off from here on out.
Heir of Grief
By Joren “Tensei” de Bruin
I’m about to run out of albums to review, but that doesn’t mean that the Homestuck music scene is dead. It’s somewhere between possible and probable that one more album will be released as the comic draws to a close. In fact, some of the music team has already begun making new tracks for Homestuck Vol. 10, if indeed it does become reality.
Tensei amongst them. This track was released about a year ago. It’s not released yet in an official capacity. And it’s such a cool jam, it’s a shame it hasn’t seen more attention. Heir of Grief, the song featured in the video, is a different take on Heir Conditioning: a little more measured in pace, but with just as much driving force behind it.
Listen to the extended solo that starts around 4:15. The song’s more of an anthem than a thrash, and Tensei just crushes it.
By Joren “Tensei” de Bruin
Image source: Homestuck.
Fiddle-driven rock insanity. The general structure’s and sound’s similar to Heir Conditioning, though it cools off just a little bit around 3:00 for a harpsichord ditty.
Although it hasn’t found a home in the comic proper, Andrew Hussie chose this track to back the video for the Homestuck Adventure Game Kickstarter.
By Joren “Tensei” de Bruin. Remix of “Beatdown” by Curt Blakeslee and “Black” by Toby “Radiation” Fox.
Image source: Homestuck.
Dave takes the reins next and runs the turntables through a couple of old favorites. The song’s built around two remixes: Beatdown first, around 0:50, and then Black later on. The instrumentation’s what stands out on this song: they’re used sparingly, but holy shit, there’s so much raw power behind the horn section.
Overall, though, my favorite moment is the pause around 2:45 that leads directly into an extended guitar solo.
All together, it makes for the perfect backing track for a memorable Flash in the comic, which takes many of its cues directly from the song. It’s my top track for the album.
By Joren “Tensei” de Bruin
Image source: Homestuck.
It’s a little mellower than the preceding tracks (although using the term ‘mellow’ is quite the stretch). A little more wide-ranging, too, with some changeups in instrumentation and an oriental vibe. Love those deep, deep drums.
