Up next: SBURB OST, the unofficial, original soundtrack to the game. It’s as unofficial as it is free (you can download the main album and its BONUS DLC here, courtesy of skaia.net). I’ll be grouping both parts into one set of reviews.
By Michael Guy Bowman
The intro’s instantly recognizable as a Bowman cut. It’s quite a bit like Sburban Jungle in vibe, if not exactly a remix.
By Tarranon
Of all the tracks on the album, this one has the most raw, perky positivity. I rather like the looping fade-out, too: that really tattoos it as a video game track (this would be the in-town music while you’re taking a break from the fight, I’d imagine).
By UWBW
Strife music, set to speed-bass and synth. The Showtime pastiche in the middle lightens the mood for a little bit (maybe it’s the break between rounds).
By James Roach
The track that fits its target subject most closely. File this one under the burgeoning ‘elevator’ category of Homestuck music. Bouncy and casual.
By Brad “Avinoch” Griffin
My favorite jam on the album. Most of its minute and a half is a duel between skittish synth and driving bass and guitar. The second half is especially kickin’, with a build-up into a monster guitar riff.
By sidewalkbanana
Mellow and a little bit jazzy. While you’re setting up the fun bits of your SBURB session (crank that reckoning up to APOCALYPTIC), there’s a nice drum / piano / bass / keyboard synth quartet in the back keeping you company and on task.
By Brad “Avinoch” Griffin
A darker turn on Sburban Jungle. The anchor bassline and the hammer-on-anvil effects really help to establish that ‘god of the forge’ vibe.
By Charles “Crazy-8” Neudorf and Marcy “Shadolith” Nabors
The first 45 seconds sounds a little bit like the organist warming up the crowd at a hockey game, just before the puck drops. The trumpet melody stacks a little more dimension on top of the SPORTS vibe.
By Veritas Unae
It’s a pretty relaxing stroll through Prospit for most of its length, but at 4:30, the rest of the song takes off into a sort of cool, electronic-western gallop.
By Brad “Avinoch” Griffin
Savior of the Waking World immediately comes to mind when you think of resurrection to God Tier. This is an interesting alternative take on the concept. A little calmer, a little more drawn out.
By Marcy “Shadolith” Nabors
Love the combination of shabby Casio drumkit beat with ultra-realistic clarinet, xylophone, and accordion carrying the simple melody.
By Mai “Cat Boss” Yishan
One of my favorites on the album. The deep, deep organ intro makes it feel like it ought to back up the opening credits for a cheesy midnight local TV horror anthology. The choice of instrumentation puts this song right in the Drawing Dead wheelhouse, but the muted trumpet gives it a little more style.
By James Roach
A pretty little gem of a piano solo. Take a break. Refresh your drink. It’s quite simple, but sometimes simple’s all that’s needed in a melody like this one.
By Max “Imbrog” Wright
Time marches on. This track is pretty tense, but still more climactic than ominous. Even the title reflects this: the world’s on its way out, but it’s only the very beginning for the player.
By Brad “Avinoch” Griffin
Funky, in a really artificial, grim, synthetic kind of way. The beat in the second half really sells it.
By sidewalkbanana
Heh, that forlorn violin is sure to get the kids pumped up to play the game. More of a dirge than a pick-me-up, but maybe this the intro for the Derse players’ copy of the game. It touches on some a few familiar tunes (Sburban Jungle and Beatdown, amongst others).
By Marcy “Shadolith” Nabors
The echoey percussion beat that kicks off the second half of the song (starting around 2:40) really cranks up the eerie ambiance.
By Max “Imbrog” Wright
Noble and dignified, through and through. If I had to offer one criticism, it runs a little bit long, but that’s only a slight distraction from the song’s symphonic quality.
By Marcy “Shadolith” Nabors and Paige “hrmnzr” Stanley
I can’t help but imagine that the 12-minute playtime is a bit of an in-joke in itself: it takes a long time to build a house hundreds of miles high. There’s a musical segment for each of the seven gates, and my favorite’s the sixth (starts around 8:20), which has a sort of mellow pop quality to it.
RATING: 7 / 13 – COM1NG D4NG3ROUSLY CLOS3 TO G1V1NG M3 4 C4S3 OF TH3 V4PORS
When I first saw the album title, I thought, SBURB EAST, odd, but okay. Where’s the WEST cut? But no, this isn’t a German mistranslation. This is the unofficial soundtrack to SBURB, the central ‘game-that-heralds-the-end-of-the-world’ in Homestuck. Mark “Shadolith” Nabors asked a simple question: while playing SBURB, what would the music behind the game sound like?
Dozens of contributors later, this massive compilation is the result. As an unofficial album, it’s available completely free of charge (you can download the main album and the album expansion pack (!) here).
Each song has a main title and a ‘setting’, so to speak. With the BONUS DLC, this album clocks in at well over three hours long. I wonder if it may have served better to break the album up into a couple of different cuts (maybe by song energy level or tone, like an SBURB and an SGRUB release).
‘Fan album’ sometimes (quite unfairly) implies connotations of amateur song-making, but SBURB OST is as good an example as I’ve heard to put that presumption to rest. It’s uniformly professional in sound and quality. The ‘background’ theme of the album holds it back a little bit, but that’s the nature of a high-concept project like this one.
Click here for individual song reviews for SBURB OST.
Image source: Lexxy.
The Wanderers, an official Homestuck concept album, up next. There will be plenty of music to talk about, but first, I implore you to look at this alternative cover art (it’s tucked away in the album’s file set). Drink it in. Wallow in its glory.
The Kraft Dinner in the bottom left’s a little suspect, though.
By Seth “Beatfox” Peelle
Maybe the first exiles landed in the Middle Eastern desert: the intro to this tune may as well herald the rising sun over Damascus. It’s only a bit later that the electronic instrumentation kicks in. The repetitive, swinging synth bass beat works really well against the synthethnic (!) wanderings throughout. It’s a weird, bold mixing of genres that sets the tone for the songs to follow, and it’s my top track for the album.
By Alexander Rosetti
A happy peasant’s dance. The improvised makeshift bridge that starts around 2:00’s my favorite part.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox
Not as catastrophic as its title might make it sound. The first section’s a bit of a march led by high strings, followed by a more relaxing ‘it’s okay being poor’ guitar piece.
Image source: Lexxy.
Tomahawk Head (composed by Toby “Radiation” Fox, and performed and produced by Joren “Tensei” de Bruin) is one of two bonus tracks on the album. Yeah, I can definitely see the Aimless Renegade cranking this on Grandpa’s Walkman before taking justice into his own hands. I AM THE LAW!
It’s a bit of ultra-Western rock, the sort of eclectic tune that might find its way into an especially self-aware gunslinger film. One where all of the eagles are crying.
By Michael Guy Bowman
That guitar part could have been played while lazily swinging in a hammock. Love the pacing and meter. Even when things get a little neo-Western with echoey machine-guns rattling off in the far background, a feeling of carefree apathy still dominates.
By Michael Guy Bowman. “Ruins” by Erik “Jit” Scheele.
The intro’s ambient and subdued, but really interesting and varied. It leads into the main hook, which is just a monster, minimalist version of of Ruins. Deep bass and thumping electric guitar.
By Jeremy “Solatrus” Iamurri and Nick Smalley
A bit of Eastern European, Tetris-esque chiptune to start with. It’s another exotic mix of sounds, with a bit of the subcontinent coming through in the second half of the song. And man, that’s one boomin’ bassoon.
By Alexander Rosetti
Eerie and unsettling. There’s nothing wrong with ‘unsettling’ in a song, but this one never really takes off into much of a melody. On the bright side, this would be an especially effective accompaniment for the comic starting with this page.
By Malcolm Brown
Pretty awesomely weird. Haunting, ethereal howls and chopped-up voices sort of muddle the first part (though, like What a Daring Dream, it’s clearly targeted towards a specific point in the comic). The last minute or so is more focused and ominous, and the coda gives the album a nice bookend.