Image source: Homestuck.
I’ll be reviewing Land of Fans and Music next. It’s an album where every song is dedicated to Arquiusprite.
Alright, that’s not true at all. It’s completely false. But I had this picture handy, so I figured I’d throw it out there.
By Hames. Original “Atomyk Ebonpyre” by Toby “Radiation” Fox
Atomyk Ebonpyre has come out in many flavors. This one’s faithful to the original chiptune version, just with a much more polished feel. It’s as if the original was run through the ‘modern production values’ machine, and this excellent bit of music came out.
That’s not to say there’s nothing new here, though. The off-beat, muted trumpet call gives it a really weird, interesting feeling too, like the accompaniment for an anachronistic, record-spinning deejay from the 40’s. Never heard big band horns and turntables mix so well.
By Yan “Nucleose” Rodriguez
This track has a story to tell, with its antagonistic, dominating horn melody. We wander smoothly from planning (0:00), to execution (1:00), through a moment of false victory (1:23), then on to panic (1:35) and the ensuing mad chase (2:40).
I don’t know if this song was written with ‘soundtrack’ in mind. But you can close your eyes and see how well this piece would work in a Flash animation. I hope I’m not offering a backhanded complement when I say that, because it’s a great listen as a stand-alone piece too.
By Erik “Jit” Scheele
I love this little piece. There’s a couple of versions of it floating around (I’m sure I’ll come back to it when I review AlterniaBound and One Year Older), and this one’s probably the most cheerful. It’s a little too evenly paced to be ragtime, but it has that feel.
By Brenna “Random Encounter” Curran
A noirish, jazzy number. It’s a neat combination of horns and flighty percussion. By the end, it’s like a semi truck full of saxophones rushing headlong towards you.
By Ian White (MyUsernamesMud). Original “Beatdown” by Curt Blakeslee
Drop the minor key and switch out some of the instrumentation, and Beatdown takes on a whole new feel. That solid percussion line does a lot to drive the track’s vibe, too. No longer is it a cautionary tale about fraternal abuse. This is the soundtrack for brotherly fort-building.
By Ralen Gainsborough. Original “Sburban Jungle” by Michael Guy Bowman
A solid, simple chiptune jam that draws from Sburban Jungle. I especially like how that crazy, rapid xylophone part in the original isn’t replicated here: instead, that basic riff (xylophone riff? sure, why not) is slowed down and drawn out until it’s almost unrecognizable, but better for the medium.
By Trent “Trogg” West
The track starts out light (with shades of Frost in the background), but by about the end of the first minute, it’s kicked it into high gear with a pretty solid synth percussion jam.
By Eston “silence” Schweickart
It’s best described as a very stylish medley. There’s versions of many familiar tunes remixed into this song, but each has a unique kick to it.
There’s a jazzy, Latin version of Crystalanthemums. That’s followed up by a symphonic, soaring cut of that Nic Cage sappy specialty, How Do I Live. An aggressive version of Ruins intercut with Liquid Negrocity fits in too. But I think it’s the bookends that are the best on this song.
There’s a song called Lotus that shows up quite often throughout the Homestuck catalog. I never really dug it, until I heard it borrowed for the intro and the coda here. It works great as a slow, simple piano dirge.
Composed and performed by Kristian “Dacen” Anderson. Mixed by Eston “silence” Schweickart
The clean, plucked electric guitar gives off a huge 80’s pop/rock vibe (I swear there’s a Van Halen or Van Halen-ish song that this reminds me of, but I cannot for the life of me remember it). Atmospheric and relaxing.
By Eston “silence” Schweickart
I want to describe it as ambient or atmospheric (there I go fighting to cram in puns again), but this song is just too damn cool for those sorts of adjectives. Great flow and a fantastic, eclectic mix of instrumentation. My favorite part? The windy static at 2:00, followed by a fade-in of the main guitar melody.
By Brad “Avinoch” Griffin
It’s a tidy mashup of Doctor and Sburban Jungle. The main piano melody meanders between the two, all backed by that frantic xylophone rhythm. The little snatch of Penumbra Phantasm at around 1:20’s a nice touch, too.
By Trent “Trogg” West
It’s taken a couple of trips through the gears of the wub machine, but that combination of low synth and high electric piano makes for a slick beat.
Arranged by tynic. Original MIDI by Beast72. Vocals by tynic and Goatmon
Alright, I knew that Aradia’s and Equius’s relationship was unconventional, if not a little twisted. But I’ve never heard the charges levied quite so eloquently as in this song. I had to go backwards and tick off each individual adjective. So, in order:
Yep, it’s all there. God damnit. The song itself is ridiculously saccharine and catchy, too. Mary Poppins wouldn’t last a day on Alternia.
By Marcy Nabors (Steamlord313/Shadolith)
It’s all of the naks. All of them. I would say that it’s impossible to successfully use crocodile naks as a significant part of a musical piece, but when we get to Genesis Frog, Mr. Rosetti is there to prove me wrong.
By Elaine Wang (electronic orange juice/orngjce223). Original “Frost” by Jeremy “Solatrus” Iamurri
I like the source (Frost), and I like the choice of instrumentation (mostly woodwinds and strings). But the heavy usage of long, drawn-out notes exposes the sampled nature of the instruments a little too audibly. Parts of the song falls into the uncanny valley of musical instruments: it sounds like a flute, or an oboe, but the perfect pitch and timing makes it feel… off.
By Gec (Eligecos)
So many horns. The organ intro’s pretty cool, but it descends into a whirling batshit pandemonium of screeching honk horns soon afterwards.
RATING: 8 / 13 – Ill, dog. I’m basically titillated here
A lot of fan-created music has been made over the years, and fortunately there have been efforts to collect it into an organized form. This is one of the early ‘fan music greatest hits’ compilations.
It’s a great deal of music, and it’s a little patchy as one long play-through. But it’s comparable in quality to the Homestuck volume albums. It most definitely carries that ‘Homestuck’ vibe: it has the same smattering of remixes, the same genre-bending variation, and the same general feel as the official material. Small wonder, I suppose: all of the artists were inspired by the comic, and many tracks on this album were written by members of the official music team.
Of course, the best part about this album is that it is completely, utterly free. The entire album (one ZIP file, all in MP3 format) can be downloaded from skaia.net. Give it a whirl.
Click here for individual song reviews for Land of Fans and Music.
It’s an impressive, complicated medley, one that reviews most of the big ticket Homestuck tracks up until its point of release. But it’s not a track that triggered a particular reaction for me, positive or negative.
Usually when I pick a song for review, it’s because it’s one I particularly enjoy, or because it’s one that I find myself actively skipping over (bluh). I’ll be listening to all the album tracks, all over again when we roll around to LoFaM 2 (and 3 quite soon, so I hear), so I’ll have another opportunity to review konec0’s tracks, I’m sure. Until then!
Boom! It’s funny ‘cause it’s twisted.