There’s a lot of kick-ass, high-energy music in the Homestuck library. I’ll be tagging my review picks for these types of songs under #shut up and jam.
By Kalibration
It’s a weird combination of a rap percussion beat and a symphonic overture, complete with pizzicato strings and soaring brass. It’s exactly the sort of genre-mixing that makes music in the Homestuck catalog so appealing.
By Curt Blakeslee
This one was a bit of a coin toss for me. This version’s mostly chiptune, and there’s another version of the song on the album: Beatdown (Strider Style). In the second half of that version, though, some choppy audio effects detract from it, rather than adding to the beat. Great mix-master energy in both versions, either way,
Written by George Buzinkai, Arrangement by Michael Guy Bowman
The first really ‘epic’ end-of-act Flash track. It’s a great combination of chiptune (the main melody) and rock. It works brilliantly: it feels like neither a piece of video game music, nor a radio play. It’s something else entirely. Each verse adds a new layer, whether it’s an accent to the melody, a more elaborate drumbeat, or distorted power chords driving the anthem home. My top track for the album.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox
It took me a few listens to warm up to this one. The first time I first listened to it, this style of music simply wasn’t on my radar. The latter half of the song, with its crazy speeded-up Eddie Morton and its squiggly, synthesized lead, was a little too electro-thrash for me. Each time I’ve revisited it, though, I’ve liked it better. The energy is undeniable.
By Michael Guy Bowman
The song featured in the end of Act 3 Flash animation. Good highs and great lows. Especially like the manic xylophone that drives most of the track.
By Seth “Beatfox” Peelle, original (Sunsetter) by Toby “Radiation” Fox
Source: Homestuck
Beatfox takes an original song by Radiation and moves it into a whole new genre. Sunsetter (the original) is fast-paced and electronic, with a fantastic hook. Yet this version is even better. The pace is slowed down a bit and the saxophone / xylophone lead is replaced with a simple, well-executed electric guitar.
The main melody is something you could have pulled out of an album written in the middle of the stadium-rock 80’s (and I mean that as a compliment). This song is has ridiculous replay value (I swear, I could loop it for an hour and not grow tired of it). It’s a great example of the music team building upon earlier works and producing something even greater, and it’s one of my favorite tracks in the whole Homestuck catalog.
By Robert J! Lake
A cool, mellow chiptune song. It’s at its best around the minute mark. All it takes is a deceptively simple drum beat and a shimmering electronic chorus to really make the tune shine. Great, easy listening.
By Alexander Rosetti
Source: Homestuck
Shut up and jam. It’s a short fragment of a song, but its pseudo-Eastern rhythm is terribly catchy. It has the potential to be even cooler if it could have been explored longer, made into a more complete and stand-alone song.
By Erik “Jit” Scheele. Original (Crystalanthemums) by Alexander Rosetti. Original (Mannequin) by Perry Sullivan
Music to watch trolls be blown up, blinded, and beaten to death by. It’s a different take on the original Crystalanthemums (also featured on this album), and a better one, I think. The intro’s a little abrupt, and the siren’s a little jarring near the end of the track, but that doesn’t stop this from being a rockin’, hard-driving song.
By Mark Hadley
The plucked strings that counter the main melody after the first verse are a nice touch. It’s my favorite variation on the Aggrieve root.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox
Featured in the end of Act 4 flash animation. In a very crude way, you could describe Descend as a ‘greatest hits’ for Homestuck music up until now. It’s composed of bits and pieces of many different songs. The electronic drumbeat from Upward Movement (Dave Owns) ties the whole thing together, and little bits of songs like Liquid Negrocity, Explore, Atomyk Ebonpyre, and many others make appearances.
It’s a great, fun puzzle, in a way: some of the familiar songs are executed so differently, they can be difficult to recognize. Only upon repeated listening did I realize that the funky bass part at 0:47 (when Mom and Dad are shown on the ship) is the main melody from Aggrieve. Or that the staccato chiptune melody at 2:24 (when Jack start’s tearing shit up on Prospit) is a modified version of Doctor.
The editing job is fantastic. Except where the effect is intentional, the flow of the track is great. This song rightfully serves as the anchor, the featured track, for this album. It speaks to the album’s quality that I rank a few songs even higher.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox. Partial remix of “Unbreakable Union” by Kalibration, “Courser” by Alexander Rosetti and Seth “Beatfox” Peelle, “Carefree Action” by Mark J. Hadley, and “Homestuck Anthem” by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell
Source: Homestuck
It wanders from calm traditional introduction to frenzied tribal rhythm, and hits every point in between. My favorite part of the song, by far, is the piano interlude in the middle. It’s ominous and terribly foreboding: the most reserved part of the song serves as an accompaniment to the biggest reveal in the webcomic, up to that point.
By Erik “Jit” Scheele
It’s sort of a slow burn, what with the deep piano lead-in and the string backing, but the payoff comes about a minute in. After all of that, it’s a fun video-game chiptune piece. Definitely an interesting mix.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox. Guitar by Joren “Tensei” de Bruin
Source: Homestuck
Not enough troll violence for you yet? Here’s some more. Another great mash-up of genres, with a synth / chiptune lead dueling with an electric guitar. The hook’s as catchy as they come.
By Malcolm Brown
The music-box intro, with its string quartet backing, gives off a great ‘fallen from grace’ vibe. I don’t like it as much as the remixed version used in Cascade (the chiptune glissando scales are a little off-putting), but it’s still a great, atmospheric song.
By Toby ‘Radiation’ Fox. Original “Upward Movement” by Kalibration
A cool variation on Upward Movement (Dave Owns). That rad drum line gets yet another feature. The rather common classical trio of oboe, harpsichord, and Scalemate is used for most of the main melody.
By Malcolm Brown. Originals “Chorale for Jaspers” by Michael Guy Bowman, and “Aggrieve” by Mark Hadley
It’s a shame this wasn’t featured more extensively in the webcomic: only a few short segments are featured here. It’s as ‘strife’ a song as they come. Favorite part? The section with the eerie choir and the electric guitar lead that starts around the two minute mark.
By Joren ‘Tensei’ de Bruin. Original “Spider’s Claw” by Toby 'Radiation’ Fox
Starts off with a kick-ass guitar solo by Troll Eddie Van Halen (Edward Vhalen, I guess?). Seriously, if you like the intro on this song, go check out Eruption. So far as the rest of this song goes, it’s a slick combination of hard rock and blues horns, with a clean electric guitar bridge snuck in the middle.
By Malcolm Brown. Originals “Doctor” by George Buzinkai, and “Savior of the Waking World” by Toby ‘Radiation’ Fox
Awesome. Just awesome. Rises from a sober melancholy chorus, through a hopeful pizzicato rendition of Doctor, to a ridiculously energetic, driving overture. The song would have a completely different feel without the power-chords backing the main melody.
Technically, this version of the song is not used as part of a Flash animation (though it forms one of the main sections of Cascade). The coda is a bit different from the version used in Cascade: it doubles down on the energy with strings that smack of the shower scene in Psycho, until dropping just a little too abruptly.
‘Black Hole / Green Sun’ by Malcolm Brown. Solo piano, violin, guitar parts written and added by Toby “Radiation” Fox, featuring Joren “Tensei” de Bruin on electric guitar and Kelly Sadwin on violin
Black Hole / Green Sun begins at 10:48 in the Cascade medley. It’s only available as a stand-alone track when you purchase the album, but the album version is unchanged from the final few minutes of Cascade.
I like this remix better than its source (Black Rose / Green Sun), but only just. The changes aren’t huge: this track’s more like a driving classic rock anthem. The melodic guitar solo in the first half is great, and the soulful, Celtic violin refrain in the second half is even better.
And I love the extended chord that finishes things up. Now where’s that been done before?
Arranged by Michael Guy Bowman. Original ‘Ocean Stars’ written by Mark Hadley
Great, easy listening. Starts off low key and builds slowly to a pretty cool groove. I’d have to call it a haunting refrain if it weren’t so damn cheerful and bouncy.
By Malcolm Brown
What an awesome, well-balanced combination of instrumentation. At its most basic level, it’s a duel between leads: chiptune, piano, electric guitar, string section, bass guitar. When one section takes over the main melody, parts of those prior leads add to the harmony.
A song like this could very easily feel stapled-together with so much variation, more like a medley than a single composition. Except for a rather abrupt break in the middle that adds a bit of character (and also proved helpful for the bifurcated Flash animation that features it), this track flows easily from one part to the next. It feels totally complete as a single piece. And to top it all off, the main hook is awesome, and it’s not overplayed or relied on too heavily. This is one of my favorite tracks in the library.