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.
Written by Malcolm Brown. Arrangement by Kevin Regamey
The original haunting refrain, and the very first track on the album. I would be remiss not to include it as a pick. Homestuck Vol. 1-4 contains many remixes and reimaginings of this song, and many of them are good listens, but I prefer the original, unaccompanied piano out of all of them.
Fanart. Source: potatokind.
By Malcolm Brown
The most shocking twist yet. Heavy, ominous horns drive it forward behind a rushing arpeggio of strings. Brief, but it stands on its own (and it’ll show up again later on).
By Malcolm Brown
This track opens with a great steady bassline that underpins the whole song. The melody is rolling and leisurely, working its way up to a high point before cruising back downwards with a counterpoint hook. It’s relaxing and it doesn’t become dull or repetitive.
By Michael Guy Bowman
Source: Homestuck
Simple and undeniably catchy. What could make a mournful, whistled melody even better? Hoof clops right out of Monty Python’s playbook. I’ve replayed this song far more times than I’m willing to admit (even here!).
Together with the Flash animations in the webcomic, the effect is hilarious. You’d think Rose wasn’t even moving, except for the slow-scrolling SNES background and the scarf whipping spastically behind her.
By Mark Hadley, Andrew Huo and Toby “Radiation” Fox
“Sunny”, to describe it in one word. The song is featured in the comic, but the middle third of the album version is reworked to replace some of the chiptune instrumentation with an orchestral version.
Written by George Buzinkai. Produced by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell and Michael Vallejo
For the record (a snarky web-blog counts as ‘the record’, right?), I don’t hate this track. And I know many people are a fan of it, being the inspiration for many songs on follow-up albums. I think that’s why I can’t get into it on its own: the melody is much more effective as an accent for something bigger.
When combined with other songs, the two become much greater than the sum of their parts. I’ll explain more about what I mean later on, when we start hitting some of the songs that incorporate Doctor as a part of their structure.
Remix by Gabe Nezovic
This remix isn’t really effective: it dilutes the original track with a heavy, muffled beatline, rather than taking it in a new direction or putting a new twist on it.
RATING: 8 / 13 - rEASONABLY INSPIRATIONAL,
Homestuck Vol. 1-4 contains virtually all of the webcomic’s music from the first few acts. It’s a great starting point for getting further into the catalog: the main volume albums tend to collect most of the music from the comic. That being said, albums a little further down the road surpass it in scope and quality.
In the first half of the album, bouncy chiptune tracks like Showtime (Imp Strife Remix) and Harlequin predominate. The songs are catchy, but it’s hard for them to stand up to repeated listening: they’re more on the ‘functional’ side, as they work very well within a brief Flash game or skit. The more ambitious tracks tend to be towards the end of the album, and it finishes strong with songs like Black and Ballad of Awakening.
It’s a good taste of the ‘homestuck’ genre of music, and it gets even better.
Click here for individual song reviews from Homestuck Vol. 1-4.