No Hagalo

Despite predictions of a delayed spring season in the United States, compo circles continued to ride a hot streak. LLCompo on Sunday in particular resulted in a turnout of 28 entries, perhaps a reflection of the “Rainbows” theme and its wide spectrum. Famicompo mini vol.8 wrapped up with a total of 120 tracks split up into 72 covers and 48 originals, all submitted in the NSF format. SDCompo bounced back slightly having a total of six entries based on a samplepack: the compositions ranged from chunter’s mellow electronic “You Remembered” to iddy’s groove-centric “pixels at light speed” that carries an Amiga-influenced sound. 

OLRmageddon LVI portended the supposed doom of the year 2012 by announcing a “Prophecies” theme. Any game music was open for remixing, so long as it had a “strong piece of lore”. As a bonus entrants could also include maniacal laughter. One such track came from ProjectSpam, whose Skyrim remix contains lyrics about drinking and getting into a funk for the purpose of getting out of a funk. The round also contained three Final Fantasy entries: OneUp dabbled in wubstep occasionally broken up with dry cackles and whistling; In Torzlelan’s “Hero Be Gone” he raps over layered arpeggios; and OneUp’s “Schiminal Schmantasy” again delves into wubwubwub ending with a gurgly laugh. Rounding out the entries was Brunzolaitis with “The Doomsday Medley” covering seven games and spanning nearly six minutes.

JHCompo on Tuesday followed Ferris Bueller and took “The Day Off” as its theme. irrelevnt appeared with graphic use of female moaning backed by a drum machine and bass. MandraSigma made use of sequenced piano, but then launched cuts of “go! go!” and a staccato beat. coda was able to fit his dog-title fascination reasonably into the theme: his “walk the dog” offers a bouncy session complete with trumpet riffs. liquid wind made the most of things by sitting at home with his synth patches on a “snow day”. housethegrate again found a perfect place for his signature funk rock and took a rollicking trip as a result. mu brings to mind the Genesis chipset right from the opening chords, leading to a halfbeat building off of the harmonies. Newcomer FrankieChains served up some doo wop vocal samples while Shadix used a mixture of strumming, pads and woodwinds for a lush soundscape. At the end of the listening party SonicThHedgog wowed the audience with a series of noodled covers followed by a wall of guitar, flute and sax polyrhythm.

Thursday’s OHC was dedicated to Triforce Mike, who tragically died earlier in the week as the result of an accident. "Courage, wisdom and power" conjured up a wide variety of styles. Zovi went for a timestretched series of high gain sounds simulating an unspeakable act involving a triforce. In a stunning move BrandonS hopped onto a bicycle whilst playing with a Game Boy and heeding verbal instructions. MandraSigma reworked my vocal narration and scat singing to create a quirky soundbed. CJthemusicdude exclusively used tb_triforce, a VST approximation of the NES soundchip to make his entry. JackShine continued the lo-fi aesthetic for a Chopin-influenced piece ending on piano. PsychedelicBrony sent the listening party into a nostalgic frenzy with his Tetris-meets-Zelda dubstep composition. Obtuse rolled on with the chip style by way of a brief-but-affecting track. AnimusVox was even shorter with "The Worst Bass Ever" of six seconds. Serisium grabbed hold of my vocals and went off on a quest of tuplets.

ProjectSpam melded pizzicato strings and metallic percussion along with his own vocals. isidor3 put up a somber take on Ganon's theme ending with rolling thunder. Forty-Two similarly submitted a mellow, woodwind-filled tune causing one listener to "want to ride Epona". HarryNilsson'sGhost rolled his toms into a spaced out industrial beat made using milkytracker. DDRKirby(ISQ) also put tb_triforce to use alongside drums and effects for a pulsing six-minute dance session. With much trepidation, Trancient followed DDR's track with one he admittedly made in 20 minutes; it works its groove despite the shadow cast by the previous entry. Fusion2004 rose to the challenge and used spectacularly mechanical guitar chords, which were masked partially by the drums and synthesized rendition of the Song of Storms. sci's track may not have qualified as unts, but it did get bodies shaking and included a vocoderized John Lennon line.

elsalluz brought some hip-hop into the party with occasion burst of wah effects. Arcana moved the audience with his organ, pads and melodic stabs, but lamented his song-titling ability. munchi worked on wriklefree's DAW and intended to do vocals, but settled on a heavily affected instrumental. DJ_SOMBRERO came by and provided incessant hospitality along with my scats. Finally bLiNd paid a rare visit to OHC to display his orchestral elements and chips with acoustic drumming, bringing the night to a fulfilling close.