Made of Pieces

People’s Remixing Competition 214 started off with its chosen source material, Castlevania III available for participants to remix. A trio of entries came about as the round wrapped up: Zerothemaster worked out some reverb-heavy piano interpretation, surrounded by deep synths and lo-fi high end. chroxic’s drum and bass has perhaps too much sub-bass as well as a half-rhythm indicative of dubstep influence. Yami rounded things out with his first entry for PRC mainly out of love of the source, beginning soft and tearing a hole in the soundscape for a trance-y take. The World Warrior Remix Royale also began the voting stage for round one of the Hadouken Bracket, which brought about seven entries. LLCompo: Battle 9 followed shortly thereafter with 15 compositions related to its theme of “The Sea”.

JHCompo on Tuesday invited entrants to ascend “The Throne” and compose in a royal manner. After my Conker’s Bad Fur Day-sampling introduction, a wild dusthillguy appeared for a session of bass playing. Jakesnke17 came back to JHCompo after some time away, serving up his usual tribal percussion, strings and horns. ShinnyMetal similarly returned and made his “Contemplation of the Throne” by way of somber solo piano. Obtuse took his present drum beat and made a competent dance tune despite not being fully sober. Both he and Jarski admitted that their music were unrelated to the theme and made some untz for the sake of untz. Kay Faraday broke out of the cage for a “Battle Royale” of chips that lasts a full minute. skyndileg riled up the orchestra for “Coronation of the Damned” that takes a quiet turn before coming in full force. Listeners noted that oginome’s 8-bit track suffered from an unusually swing beat, but otherwise garnered complements. At the end of the round SonicThHedgog put up his characteristic Sonic-infused rock licks, while MandraSigma set his spaceship coordinates to electro. 

Thursday’s OHC once again had a theme presented by an epic introduction by The Stuff of Legends, this time set to a lush orchestral backdrop. AutomaticJack created a four-second track in two minutes, bringing in quality rather than quantity. Misael.K’s clashing harmonies are centered by a synth bass and eventually a chime to “Remember the Future”. DucksUnlimited generated a chorus of pitch vocal clips leading into mellow industrial. JackTHerbert unintentionally continued the vibe of the previous entry by retaining the key, but picked things up with some fast drum and bass. isidor3’s studio hiss established the stirring mood pervaded by acoustic guitar, bass and distant piano. Acuity fell into a deep sleep and entered a “Dreamscape” somewhere within the bowls of a Game Boy. General Mumble pulled the listening party back to the realm of ambience and heavy effects, eventually slamming down drums. OMGitslewis traverse a long tunnel of reverb emphasizing each beat of every measure until finally laying a drop. 

sci pondered the mixture of jazz with brostep, the result sounding like a scratched jungle breaks CD. Fusion2004 stumbled upon a keyboard shortcut activating a quantum leap of blips transitioning to orchestral. Forty-Two’s bell-like pads and minimal structure adequately represented a voyage through “Alien Landscape” punctuated by piano. cyberjet189 deftly experimented with compression to make a hip hop piece with hints trance chords. The clanging of bells rises in CJthemusicdude’s entry and melds with layers upon layers of arpeggios. Arcana lifted the low-pass filter just enough to let the sonorities and dance beats fill the listening party’s ears. A-zu-ra’s sparce intro belies the eventual dense arrangement of 8-bit elements. Foozogz layer together recording of a multitude of musical sounds topped with an incomprehensible song title. jarski began with just bass, and the other pieces of the brass-filled electronic soundscape fell into place. Roseweave's track apparently followed the established bass-plus-reverb pattern of the night.  

Trancient made the plunge from a life of piano to that of boom-pat, and back again. DDRKirby(ISQ) celebrated his 100th OHC entry by incorporating techniques old and new and spanning nearly nine minutes MandraSigma pondered a conspiracy and glitching some lo-bit instruments and ramblings along the way. Jakesnke17 found himself in the Matrix as evidenced by the slow ebb of trip-hop beats and spacey pads. MisaelK put in another track from the future claiming “This Happened Tomorrow” with a compressed musicbox. After dusthillguy’s eight minute loop, munchi discovered that he submitted on time in a parallel universe, thus allowing him to submit it to the party. Duosis entered with a mixture of sampled and pitch-shifted elements, most notably from the Mark Ronson production "A La Modeliste". At the end of the party bjkmenu expressed failure, but delivered his signature quirky humor rock in spades.