Being Duosis

People’s Remixing Competition 209 benefitted from a rebound of attendance following the holiday season. This was perhaps due to the dual source selections; entrants could choose to remix either Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Bahamut Lagoon for the round. sggod89 went for the latter game, infusing the material with hard rock sounds and flourishes of orchestral toward the end. DjMokram also trudged along the Desert Land Daphira displaying his arrangement skill with a rare electronic take on the tune. The only Sonic 2 remix came from evktalo, who mostly worked with the MIDI file to create his entry. The Soundevotion Competition had a smaller-than-usual turnout of two entries; Shadowbane put together his industrial track between Christmas festivities and his own birthday, while chunter composed a light affair with guitar treatment. 

JHCompo on Tuesday offered a chance for a “Clean” start in its theme, or the option to get dirty. DJ Sombrero made his return to with his signature blend of latin riffs and electro, wondering in Spanish why he had to wash up the place. liquid wind debated the value of “shampoo vs conditioner” by way of frantic piano ending on a 3-4-5-1-8. MandraSigma made sure his chip music had been thoroughly cleaned before applying breakbeats and choir. Kay Faraday settled on family-friendly television programming intercut with snow static between channels. Finally SonicThHedgog broke out the keyboard-and-guitar style reminiscent of the Sonic Adventure games, but not before attempting to game the system by facetiously asking for more time.

Thursday’s OHC had a slight mishap as the organizer starla inadvertently left up “fzfzfz” as a theme. This was shortly changed to “Hit the ground running”, but not before a group of entrants had settled on the former. After my "Running Introduction", dusthillguy made an intro of his own taking my vocal and taking it in a different direction. CJthemusicdude cranked up the jungle beats and ended by reiterating DHG's direction, albeit more intensely. LuketheXjesse's metal offering had a description that broke the compo page due to a unending line of "fzfzfz..." Acuity took the theme to mean a noise channel, which he incorporated into a pounding chip tune. frkygp picked up the torch immediately after with an 8-bit dance session of his own. JackShine apparently caught word of the previous JHCompo theme, and showered partway though the OHC round to create some electronic.

Forty-Two clarified that he was indeed following "fzfzfz" and submitted a sequel to his "Lonely Technology" using lush arpeggios and ambiance. Fusion2004 applied gymnastics to his composition with swelling strings that lead to blips and a steady snare. BrandonS improvised a meta-song about composing a song for the compo, gradually altering the intonation and tone of his singing as he went along. Suzumebachi made his first submission since upgrading to broadband Internet; he surprised himself as his electro track sampling my vocal had uploaded within seconds. Bartekko presented a slightly detuned treblestep piece that could be categorized as both fzical and runny. Duosis sampled the "plop plop fizz fizz" Alka Seltzer jingle to create a brief interlude. Flaedr similar sampled vocal clips, but with a manic amount of pitch shifting via Melodyne.

 

General Mumble was one of the people thrown off by the changing theme, and thus settled on a remix of Queenstons and Casey Lalonde. Shadix discovered a seabed of music narrated by a genteel accent that gives way to lo-bit upfront harmonies. Arcana interpreted fzfzfz as a lost radio signal for an onset of bloops and bassy thuds. sci's opening field recording lends itself to heavily reverberated harmonic elements. Foozogz presumably felt obligated to participate for his fz-like namesake and thus served up a rushing sweep and frantic beats. A pair of  DDRKirbyISQ entries followed: one based on the theme, and the other a demo reel accompanied by a newsletter. The night ended with Destroid modifying the formant of my voice, and MandraSigma going "Free for All" with a breezy synth excursion.

For a while I had been secretly composing for compos under the name Duosis. The reason for this was to see if feedback for my work would differ than that of music submitted under my usual name. It also allowed me to explore methods of production that I normally would not have tried. After a creating few entries, I focused on polishing the existing material as well as creating new tracks specifically for an album. That album is The Duosis Sessions, available now at my music page.