Thursday, September 29, 2011

Llama Acquired

People's Remix Competition 203 brought in a handful of entrants as well as a tie for first place. For the round OneUp chose the Level Theme from the game Tyrian for others to remix. sggod89 attempted to avoid synth sounds for his entry and started it with gentle harmonies before slamming into a rocky arrangement with a hint of pads. Lidawg eased into electronic ambiance and nostalgic leads, and then sped things up a bit with guitar chugging and steady drums. Binweasel rounded things out with a piano-centric take of the theme bounded with acoustic guitar and accompanied by an incomprehensible sales pitch in the description.

JHCompo on Tuesday happened to fall on my birthday, and as a gift to the entrants I settled on an accessible space-related theme: "Reaching the Planet". RAMPKORV delivered an extensive piano solo entry that starts mildly somber and progresses to quirkiness. dusthillguy on the other hand went straight into kitschy synths and vocal loops running under a minute. nikola also put out "A Fast Bout of Synth", in his case a groove centered on a bassline. coda characteristically crash-landed on a dog planet and uploaded his moody electronic tune without listening to it beforehand.chunter credited his guitar solo to wide variety of sources, guided by a simple hi-hat pattern and Latin percussion. jmr made an appearance to give out birthday wishes and stayed to make a filter-filled track with melodic twanging. 

StatusD recorded his Korg devices live and showed off nearly seven minutes of acidic dance as he traveled to the "Planet of Electribe". Gario made his first JHCompo entry and typed out a poetic description to match his sonorous bells and pads. Evil Shrubbery made his "Deadly Arrival" using subdued bass and synth strings that come in waves among methodical pulses. Mirby put up a rendition of a certain composition by Patty and Mildred Hill, topped with whistle accompaniment. Obtuse experimented with electronic sounds and asked me to record narration; I obliged by performing the Leonard Nimoy monologue "A Visit to a Sad Planet". Finally Zerothemaster uploaded a collage of various sampled clips including Daft Punk, The Beatles, Owl City and Electric Children.

The theme for Thursday's OHC was "Montage", a summary of the preparation for victory. Following my introduction, dusthillguy put together his signature vocal clip pitch manipulation set to a choral beat. RAMPKORV set the abrasiveness to eleven on his track, with submerged rhythms and swirling effects. nikola unfortunately suffered a power dropout and lost his work, prompting him to put a segment of what could have been. Shael Riley made a rare appearance and submitted chip music that he "probably" wrote, or probably ripped from Pokémon. Fusion2004 joined acoustic drum loops with synthetic bass and contrapuntal elements, described as "a pot. Of Code." Mirby composed in her unique style of layered takes, this time with some semblance of structure and a title provided by a friend.

Tomapella's thought provoking name "The Summer I Became A Tomato" served as a launching point for his lo-bit arpeggios, piano chords and stereoized snare. sci went back to sounds of game's past and sent along a a succession of harmonies ending on an open chord. Arcana used raw waves for his melody and punchy kick as the score for his adventures in Crazyland. Usabell's piece contains a sample of Vitamin C's "Graduation (Friends Forever)" which itself is heavily based on Pachelbel's Canon, though in the entry it is in the key of C# and ventures into drum and bass. CJthemusicdude elected to use an alternate spelling of montage and submitted music that would not be out of place in a film sequence on a dancefloor. jarski muffled a bongo riff and gradually opened it up, seemingly "Jamming" somewhere in a jungle.

Shadix married acoustic chords and wordless choral with rhythmic piano that brings to mind Streets of Rage. ShrackAttack effectively wrote a snippet of a montage lasting twelve seconds. munchi took a dose of acid and proceeded to bang on prominent hi-hats with frantic synth. DDRKirby(ISQ)'s drone arose from the darkness with 8-bit blurbs, breakbeat, ambiance and electro, described overall as a "song so epic it requires Wikipedia research". SupaSpeedStrut sent along his "pretty sketch" entry featuring syncopated electric grunts and pounding kick drum. At the end of the round, Forty-Two did some last-minute touch ups before re-submitting his "Landscape", a gentle mix of pads and chimes smoothed over with piano.

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