Compos Are Magic

People’s Remixing Competition 211 was host to an obscure source tune for patrons to remix: Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap. DjMokram made a point of selling the virtues of the game and its soundtrack, pointing out that its “Metroidvania” style predates both Metroid and Castlevania. Hakstock took a break from his school studies to crank down the tempo and flesh out the tune as an electro groove. sggod89’s arrangement was heavily influenced by Snoop Dogg’s “Gin & Juice”, thus reworking the material into a frenetic rap beat filled with shreds and piano stabs. JerryTerry put together a self-described “straightforward” remix playing off of the composition with acoustic drums and violin. evktalo similarly kept it close, but with a looser rhythmic structure and mastering courtesy of Pleiade.

JHCompo on Tuesday was a jarring experience both for its “Ousted” theme and the sudden, momentary closing of the round due to a minor flub. chunter declared “I’m Quitting Chiptune” but not before making some with 38911 Bytes, Medusa, and LoFiMat. MandraSigma’s “NO” featiured solitary piano and insane muttering going through the many stages of withdrawal before finally landing on dubstep. coda attempted to ban-evade but failed to enter the #dog_shrine IRC channel, instead settling with epic rock. skyndileg summoned Gollum to collaborate on his entry, the result of which was an industrial session about a precious friendship.

Kay Faraday ducked the theme altogether and choose to joust in medieval times instead. Clockwerk traveled along an interconnected series of processed beats ending in a bed of delay effects. mu’s only way was “up” for electronic funk topped with a searing melody, some glitch and a brief pause to switch cartridges. Beigh ventured on a “Dark Frontier” using deep pads, piano and a guiding arpeggio. irrelevnt’s studio hiss merely heightened the somber lyrics and performance for “Love Can Never be Lost, Only Pushed Away”. Finally SonicThHedgog went straight to the point with “BITCH” and crept quietly until a wall of 80s wubs appeared.

Thursday’s OHC extended the previous week's dedication to Triforce Mike with a My Little Pony-themed round. After my introduction of "friendship and magic", DJ_SOMBRERO offered an experimental piece with a characteristic tinge of brass and Spanish vocals. Obtuse paid tribute through his Game Boy, thus tearing up the night with blips. Serisium put a Pony sample to use amongst a soundscape of synthetic sonorities. Forty-Two sulked in being "Forever Alone" and lay himself onto a cloud of keyboard harmonies and woodwind. DDRKirby(ISQ) started off with a chime and rode on strings that led to 8-bit, and finally rocked the dance floor. Acuity took a note from DDRKirby and worked out some chips of his own with touches of piano and a lo-fi growl. Trancient took the Funky Drummer and Amen Break for a walk around the block beside high pitched riffs. ProjectSpam wrote a sparsely mellow pop song alternating between deep and steep vocal modes. sci displayed his multitasking ability by making a gritty electronic piece and promoting his album.  

jarski introduced chiptune blurbs to the Friends theme song. Arcana's take on the conventional pop-punk progression mainly involved pumping untz and wave shapes. munchi whaled away on a piano chord and joined in a chorus of warbled vocals before dropping the kickdrum. MandraSigma went for doo-wop swing littered with Pony clips wondering "what went wrong?" GLL got the butts wiggling in their seats as he laid down the beat and sang to his heart's content. Level99 made a rare appearance to honor a fallen friend in the most fitting way possible: a wah-pedaled porn groove. td244's strings ebbed and flowed indicating a "magical friendship" further enhanced by choir. Duosis performed a parody of the song “Honolulu Baby” with unusually specific lyrics about the compo organizer, and a brief bit of tooth-whistling. At the end of the listening party, scibot9000 shuttled an entry sci had made just prior to the round, but happened to be related to the theme.