By Toby “Radiation” Fox
It’s got some great piano and synth hooks, but I have to admit that I think Black is a superior remix. Whereas this tune is driving but measured, Black throws away any pretense of control and just cuts loose.
If this tune is Diamonds Droog, carefully orchestrating and executing his psychopathic plan…
…then Black is Spades Slick (or any of the Jack Noir incarnations, for that matter) spouting one-liners and stabbing everything in front of him as fast as he can.
By Mark Hadley
Harlequin with a side of jazz. The sax and bass interludes between the main cover melody give it a little more of an edge.
By Mark Hadley
Another bass, piano, and drum trio, but this time the piano and the drumset are there for backup. This is a bass-led jam, and it’s that much cooler for it.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox
Image source: Homestuck.
It’s a musical meat grinder, like something out of a Mega Man boss fight (and not just a little reminiscent of Atomyk Ebonpyre). This song’s lead synth line is so industrial, it ought to be churning out a new Volkswagen at the end of every play.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox
Image source: Homestuck.
It’s interesting to think about how some of the trolls’ motifs were established: this album was most likely the root of many of them. Most of Tavros’s themes have a western vibe, and I imagine that direction was set here. Strummed guitar and soaring trumpet, along with some more eclectic stuff like accordion and xylophone.
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 Jeremy “Solatrus” Iamurri
Best hook of the album. Where Darkened Streets featured the violin (Rose) and beatbox (Dave) in separate sections, this track effectively intermingles the two. Cool snippets of Endless Climb and Atomyk Ebonpyre (once again shining the spotlight on the first two Derse dreamers we meet) show up in the second half.
By Jeremy “Solatrus” Iamurri
Kicks off with a flourish and a fanfare. The bookends of this track are more of a march, but my favorite part is the bridge. The melody that starts at 1:50 and carries its way through flute, clarinet, and finally a crisp, clear-ringing trumpet.
By Alexander Rosetti
Xylophone, plucked strings, and harp to start with. I would say that it feels a little like a game show theme song, but that focuses too heavily on the first minute or so of the song, and there’s more to it than that. The melody comes into its own in the second half, with an expressive violin lead. In the end, it skews towards sugary again with the pipe organ, yet somehow it’s more symphonic than superficial. It’s a reverie, not a shabby carnival.
By Clark “Plazmataz” Powell
The dark side of Reverie, and even better for it. Take those same plucked strings down an octave and it sounds methodical, not celebratory. The beat box synth and the phased effects create a weird, unsettling background, right up until the bridge. There’s a great hook there, driven by a heavy, bass synth line starting at around 1:40 or so.