Fire in the Disco

Doubles’ Dash Compo 15 aimed to spur friction with its “Showdown” theme and resulted in three teams of two for the night. The compo organizer Level 99 joined in without worry of unfair foreknowledge of the theme, because it had been set long in advance and had been forgotten by him. He and Brandon Strader grouped up as The Dying Dead of the Dead, and given the metal growling and antagonistic lyrics, perhaps the title could use more references to death. The Whoppers put together a light superhero-themed pop song in ode to the arch-villain, containing an extended guitar solo that soars higher than a caped crusader. Finally ProjektZero spat lines over Prophecy’s stomping beat with chords that bring to mind every hit Britney Spears song ever. 

People’s Remixing Competition 217 visited the world of Warcraft by way of an earlier game in the franchise, Warcraft II. The winner of the previous round, Chickenwarlord chose a track from the classic real-time strategy game for participants to remix. The lone entry came from sggod89, who delivered some moody rock building from one one of source material’s riffs. Not to be outdone by PRC 217’s slim turnout, OLRmageddon LIX had zero entries despite the enticing Batman-related theme for the month. Dwelling of Duels in April had its Free Month that allowed contestants to remix any game they desired. As a result the round covered a wide variety of titles including, as it so happens, Warcraft II.

LLCompo: Battle 15 again yanked its theme description from the dictionary: this time it accompanied its “Crime” with an ASCII rendering of a holdup. Kay Karaday’s introduction narrated by WVI seems to take place in a prison cell judging by the harmonica backing, although it gives way to 8-bit. Bipolarbear made the most of the situation, writing a song about being shot dead from a failed robbery. sonicmax managed to record would-be thieves stealing his piano, and uploaded the results. Perhaps the most cerebral entry came from johnny bigoode, who imagined that his laidback ambient groove would be perfect for “a heist in a hyped LA lounge bar”. 

JHCompo on Tuesday found its way into a “Processing Plant” for the night and urged the contestants to escape. Clunkst got lost, but did find out the “Secret of the Hot Dog”, which has something to do with chicken. chunter on the other hand got trapped in a “Synth 1 Plant” and thus created his song exclusively with that VST as his instruments. rwarman007 brought things back to the realm of hot dogs whilst delving into the factory of the mind. reaby similarly asked “Hotdog, Anyone?” and got swept up in wind effects before laying down the electronics. At the end of the listening party liquid wind encountered pickaxes and chiptunage so pumping that it clipped. 

Thursday’s OHC had its disco fever theme pasted verbatim from the person who suggested it, and thus the phrasing does not follow the usual format of compo descriptions. As a terminal illness, the fever gave entrants ample wiggle room to interpret it. CJthemusicdude informed the audience that since someone had won his trivia contest last week, he remixed a medley that winner’s previous entries. The first conventional entry of the night came from seventhelement who referenced the Bee Gees, but presented an original electrodisco track. blastron’s track was one of the first in the round to emphasize the terminal aspect of the theme, with “One Hour Left to Live."

A slew of disco-titled tracks followed, including “DICKSONITE” by Zovi, “Short Disco” by TheMisterCat and the thought-provoking “Disco at the Beach” by Misael.K. At one point it became clear that the organizer starla had left the round without an admin, so Misael made a point of clarifying that his later track "Chicken Popsicle" was actually a collaboration between Trancient and munchi. Wrapping things up was my own take on the theme: a cover version of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi", because you don't know what you're got till it's gone.