One More Thing

Doubles Dash Compo occurred at the end of September to give entrants ample time to “get back into the swing of things” as the organizer Level 99 put it. As usual in DDC, an editable EtherPad page was set up to facilitate team-ups just before the start of the round; on this particular night however the page was promptly pillaged by Monsquaz enthusiasts. In the spirit of collaboration I recorded my spoken-word intro with OCRE, who also put in a falsetto rendition of the Beyoncé song “Irreplaceable” for good measure. Level 99 teamed up with Xenon Odyssey and tagged in Cyril the Wolf for bass after his partner disappeared; the result is an anthem about returning home. Xarnax42 showed off his vocal chops joining up with MickRip, whose guitar work eventually steals the spotlight and keeps it for the remainder of the song. 

A wild OLRmageddon LII appeared, and with it a slew of entries based on the "water game" theme given. Participants could remix any game tune as long as that game had water in it, and for a bonus could include elements of jazz. Brunzolaitis served up three entries for the round: His Morrowind remix starts off with a voice clip joined by delay-affected chords, then lays down un-tiss as the dialogue increases; His take on Mother carries a thinner sound built around a disjoined beat and topped with something resembling pop vocals. OneUp quickly settled on organ for his Super Mario Bros underwater theme arrangement with a synth lead that is given some time alone before morphing into a distorted electro edge. Brunzolaitis’s third entry took on The Neverwood by first embracing the swing rhythm for the intro, then gripping onto acoustic strumming and spreading electronics over it. Rexy remixed James Pond: Underwater Agent with a mellower, hi-hat based swing by contrast; her “License to Kazoo” was in full effect, playing off the flute at the opposite end of the stereo field along with syncopated piano chords and other jazz tropes. Finally dasaten put together a quick Mega Man 9 remix consisting mostly of accordion and clashing basslines. 

JHCompo on Tuesday featured “Crime Scene” as its theme, and I recorded a “Crime Scene Intro” (CSI) accordingly. chunter submitted a subdued, Rhodes centric piece that would not be out of place in a special victims unit. coda similarly went for a softer route, riding a four-note riff along varied textures as his “crimehound” was afoot. Obtuse’s “TV crime scene” imagines an SUV driving to the scene bringing along pulsing dance rhythms. nikola was able to make a arpeggiated snippet for the compo using his friend’s DAW at a café. StatusD returned to create music that he described as “kinda weird slowpoke stuff” generated from the iPhone app Nanoloop. ShrackAttack generated a minute-long ambient excursion, the length of which was attributed to being thirty minutes late to the round.

Jarski evoked a sense of “mysterious murder” by way of an electronic growly buzz, and the sets down a head-bobbing beat. irrelevnt polished up his guitar strings and uploaded a multifaceted meld of strumming, shreddage and noodling. Detective Tuesday fittingly made his appearance to investigate and showed his laidback, funky jam as he pored over every clue. Evil Shrubbery worked out “It's Existenze!” a moody fragment of pads and effects proceeded by an orchestral hit and extensive silence. SonicThHedgog made it in at the last moments with a sparse beat with industrial and trip hop influences, and then blew out the listening party’s speakers with dubstep at the end. TheoryOfN somehow latched onto the list of entries with a rap collaboration between Storm Moore, B-Ri, and Mr. Bird. 

Thursday’s OHC was apparently home to an Occupy ThaSauce movement as Monsquaz people flooded the IRC channel #thasauce prior the compo round starting. The the theme for the night was "Meeting the Mark" and this I recorded my vocal narration to that effect. dusthillguy once again used pitched vocal samples to convey his quirky melodic structure and sped things up near the end of his entry. Zovi openly wondered where Mark went and offered oldskool gabba for the listening party. RAMPKORV submitted his piano styling as usual, this time guided by hi-hat and synthetic accompaniment. Jeffthestrider made his first compo entry and put together a searing lead backed by a steady drum machine. Sadsic decided that his "whirlwind of synths" met the mark using filtered snare and a breakdown two thirds of the way in. Destroid's track  featured either a crying animal or a small child, depending on who listened to it during the party. The good doctor Arcana practiced vision, direction, and execution to compose an efficient dance track. 

General Mumble equated the night's theme with gunfire, and did a cover of the Metallica song "Shoot Me Again" in the style of upbeat electronic. Obtuse brought out echo-affected piano for the sake of being "Legendary", propelled by a breakbeat. sci ventured to the far reaches of his unique musical style and decided "maybe you needed the other target, anyway". jarski linked a smiling dog for his entry and fell back on loop out of supposed laziness. munchi successfully made it on time and wrote an initially violin-filled, drum heavy  piece about the moment one completes a video game. Forty-Two felt relieved about completing a university assignment and composed a blissful tune to celebrate. DDRKirby(ISQ) begins with pads that open up to a constant kick and and arps, declaring a launch by way of trance. Suzumebachi graced OHC with his presence, lamenting reuploading but otherwise delivering a breezy session of rock. At the end of the listening party, Acuity went up and down broken-up chords with harp over a bed of strings, eventually putting out gritty electro to fill out the soundscape. 

I’d like to take a moment make a note about the recent passing of Steve Jobs. If it wasn’t for a fateful day when I stumbled across an Apple Store and fooled around with GarageBand, I probably wouldn’t have gone on to produce music in other DAWs. I’ve met many people in the community as a result of exploring music production and entering compos. In a way, it all leads back to him.