Sing Gently

This week was a double dose of nostalgia for Punchfest 17, since it required that participants remix tunes from games they each received on their respective birthdays. As a result, the round brought about five entries from a variety of titles. The tracks covered a wide range of approaches, from Rexy’s frantic koto work, to PoD’s fart tribute of Snappleman, to Obtuse's plucked bass, and Plank's acoustic soloing. The World Warrior Remix Royale also began the voting stage for round 1 of the Shoryuken Bracket, releasing a slew of Street Fighter remixes into the wild. This past Sunday saw LLCompo celebrate its tenth round by setting its theme to “Yourself” and asked contestants to “look inside” for the answer.
 

JHCompo on Tuesday was put in a forbidding chamber with its “Torture” theme. After my music-backed introduction, dusthillguy admitted that he was not at his best and thus put up a brief, familiar riff. liquid wind’s atonal sonorities evoked the sense of “tortured phantoms” including piano, scratching effect and a steady kick. bjkmenu's funky pop got a thumbs up from superjoe when the music stuck closely to the written description of the night’s round. Clockwerk expressed the torture that a lot of composers go through: “Daw Crash Freeze”, in his case an ambient electronic piece ending with an unintentional recording of my intro. Finally SonicThHedgog worked out some acoustic strumming, electric shreds and searing lead to wrap things up. 

Thursday’s OHC spoke of its audience not making progress by way of its theme, “Wasting Time”. The listening party began with an introduction by The Stuff of Legends, reading the theme description with a mellow musical backing. dusthillguy followed with a series of noodled guitar arpeggios set to no particular tempo. DucksUnlimited had fittingly “Totally Forgot” about the compo and put together a patchwork of twangs, clanks, piano, and synth bass. CJthemusicdude pondered a brief history of time, and then whipped out his Theremin to rock. General Mumble used a catchy hook to sing about wasting time to a tuplet-centric, swingy electro beat. sci sampled “The Rockefeller Skank” as the basis of his epic mashup, using all manner of elements including wub-wubs. HarryNilsson'sGhost feared entering the chat because of the perceived quality of his improvised piano-and-vocals entry. 

analoq stated that “hemo is over” and settled in chilled-out Rhodes for the “socal sunset”. Forty-Two soared above the clouds in a flurry of electronic harmonies, sweeps and pads. DDRKirby(ISQ) collaborated with Acuity and set about a bunch of experiments whilst getting nothing done, per the theme. A-zu-ra inserted his vintage cartridge Procrastination Fighters and thus raged against the chips. Misael.K traveled to a “Sunny Park” and decided to burn daylight in 3/4 time. scibot9000 transmitted its entry for CJthemusicdude by sampling his pre-flatulatory grunt and colliding into dubstep. OMGitslewis wrote his entry description in all caps to emphasize the rise of Ultra Nintenga, the world’s most advanced time waster. Fusion2004 busted out his percussion for a freewheeling acoustic entry with dollops of flute and guitar. Trancient settled on a trip hop rhythm dotted by 8-bit blips “Wasting Happily Away”. 

Kaxon revealed that he attended a Zelda-themed concert the previous night, perhaps influencing the mood for the strings and piano of his composition. MandraSigma woke up at an inopportune time and maneuvered around a gauntlet of glitch effects before reaching his workspace. Arcana established a tense, dancey tune, waiting until just the right moment to realize time wasted. Toward the end of the night dusthillguy and Destroid suffered a teleporter accident to become the freak of nature known as desthillroid; the violent clash of chord progressions and nostalgic instrument sets may be too much for the average listener to bear. Finally the night ended with a second entry from DDRKirbyISQ thanking OHC for being host to his many productions. 

As a personal note I’d like to thank OHC myself as an entrant and follower for many years. Although my behavior and mindset had taken a regretful turn, I nevertheless enjoyed being a part of the community. The feedback and advice I received for my music I uploaded each week was invaluable, and is part of my workflow to this day. I grew as a musician thanks to the positive reinforcement of my peers. For a long while I took my connection to this community for granted, but now I see the situation with clearer eyes. My experience in compo-ing and interacting with others has made an indelible mark on my creative life. I hope that others continue to discover this experience too, and benefit from it as I had.

Between the Eyes

Kwakfest on Saturday started a compo weekend and marked its triumphant return after a year-long hiatus. A whopping 23 entries that night resulted from its loose theme related to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Saturday also happened to be the second round for the Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet, in which DarkeSword selected Wily Stage 1 from Mega Man 2 for team members to tackle. Punchfest 16 occurred on Sunday, thus continuing the weekend festivities. The theme for the round was “Vertical Shooters”, opening up a slew of video game music for participants to remix. For a bonus, entrants could also elect to do it vertically, with SnappleMan adding “I don't care, find a way.”

For JHCompo on Tuesday I selected a theme inspired by the NYPD’s recent actions on Occupy Wall Street protesters: “The Raid”. The ambiguity in the phrasing meant the entries largely leaned toward military movements. Alestance rolled the timpani and fired brass as he pondered over a day he will never forget. irrelevnt posted army chatter that is ominously cut off in mid-sentence. liquidwind’s track is washed over with flying jets, an explosion and a percussion session. LoneStar made her second JHCompo appearance, offering live electronic work self-described as “Omigosh Too Long (It Really Is Mix)”. coda again referenced canies when he deployed the “D.O.G.Z. Squadron” with a composition that recalls the days of the Sega Genesis. zebra’s ambient glissandos established the mood before settling in a lo-fi beat. Finally Torzelan preceded his frantic metal with a voice clip and proceeds despite a momentary bit of silence.

Thursday’s OHC featured "The Stranger" as its theme, thereby giving me the opportunity to read aloud some Billy Joel lyrics. Fusion2004's description almost looked like a transcript of a film trailer voiceover, which suited his string-heavy music with bits of electro. Forty-Two found himself in a "Kingdom of Ice" framed by Rhodes, bells, and pizzicatos. HarryNilsson'sGhost's conceptual piece starts off with a raw synth tone tamed by pervasive drum machines. The good doctor Arcana experienced sensations that could be diagnosed as dubstep-like, but with a dollop of bloops. swordofdestiny began with a quick stereo pan to clear the air, then offered a cautionary tale by way of brass intertwined with e-lines.  

Hapi-San swung "Along in the Rain" by putting his double bass and organ next to a spacey lead and heavy sounds of a storm.  Flexstyle perhaps worked on music in isolation for too long, as he proclaimed "I Just Want a Friend" and put out a mellow dance tune. Billy Joel was kind enough to join the round and retroactively created the song "The Stranger" to meet the compo theme. munchi stumbled into OHC through "The Fog" and found his way along by following the harp arpeggio, piano and head-bobbing drums. sci continued his megasong for the month and threw in all manner of elements, including chip melodies and a warped vocal clip. 

DDRKirby(ISQ) fired up a "Grooveshark" funk beat embellished with violins and and e-piano breakdown. frkygp was no stranger to audio panning, and worked out some electronic music despite apparently having Ableton crashes. CJthemusicdude's entry brings to mind the Dragnet theme and Tums ads, all while being cautious of the stranger. As the listening party winded down, Zovi presented a 5-minute excursion into aural madness narrated by muttering voice. Acuity finished things off with a more straightforward synths to make the body, and rests on a bed of delayed piano.

Boxing Around

Punchfest made its triumphant return this past week after an eight-month hiatus, as its theme brought about a fair amount of entries. For “The Rip-offs” the participants had to remix music from games that lifted ideas directly from other titles. auriplane sent along a solemn mixture of acoustic and electric strumming for his take on Battle of Olympus. Obtuse delivered a jazzy rendition of Darkwing Duck complete with a keyboarded flute sample, dollops of piano and organ. LuketheXjesse approached Bucky O’Hare using heavy guitar chords before laying down the drums, buzzy lead and a surprise ending for good measure. Prince of Darkness’s guitar works over disco rhythms in his Gunstar Heroes remix in a rollicking manner despite complaints in the listening party about the bass.

bjkmenu prepared a batch of “Turd Soup”, his arrangement medley of Diddy Kong Racing that opens with a synth chord and continues with shreddage inter-cutting portions of the original tracks. Tibone’s brief Rad Racer rendition was aptly described by a listener as “love making music” as a form of acoustic un-tiss. Snappleman adhered to a chippy soundbed as he arranged Neutopia before smashing into a rockier version as well as a dash of MJ near the end. Demonstray remixed Brain Lord in e-piano fashion garnished in lead guitar and sparse drumming, but picked up the pace later with a bit of chugging. Finally M-H forwent a conventional buildup or intro to dive into a remix of Lagoon, cooling off with some tom roll action.

People’s Remix Competition 202 featured two source tunes to remix, as the previous round ended in a tie for first place. Entrants could choose to arrange Mega Man Battle Network, a Star Fox 2 track, or both in the same entry. The tied winners were also allowed to participate as long as they remixed each other’s source tune instead of their own. OneUp fitted Mega Man into a dubstep format, making use of voice clips and sparse snare patterns commonly associated with the genre. chroxic used the lack of canonicity of Star Fox 2 as an excuse to interpret it as he saw fit; he worked in vocal samples in his moody, frenetic remix, anchored by growling electronic bass. Obtuse remarked on how the source composition affected his “big synths”, riding out the sonorities without percussion for almost half the duration until the kick drum drops. marcusg to had little time develop his arrangement and wished to have a harder sound, but submitted an otherwise distinctive rendition of that picks up steam near the end. Zerothemaster, a first-place entrant of round 201 opted to join, uploading his plucked and fittingly spacey version of Star Fox 2 with snippets of dialogue.

For JHCompo on Tuesday I selected “For a Cause” as the theme, perhaps as a nod to the events of ten years ago and how they prompted wars that are still fought today. nikola served his duty by presenting militaristic drums and horns before transitioning to a more dance-oriented vibe along with choir. Obtuse incorporated a bevy of soldier chatter and gun sound effects accompanied by synth chords and rumbling bass. Jarski stated that he made his entry on a “crappy laptop”, but nevertheless put up an effective DnB track featuring a shape-shifting low end. Newcomer LoneStar fired up his drum machine to make a headbobbing beat centered on the titular “Pew Pew” effect. mv revealed his “Unspeakable Truth” by way of cinematic orchestral befitting an epic battle. Mirby appeared near the end of the compo submission stage, but worked out some keyboarded riffs and an unexpected whistling session.

StatusD uploaded his first JHCompo entry and put a Korg Emx-1 to use for his track, centered on an unusual time signature considering its electronic dance roots. SonicThHedgog’s tune ruptures at the start, establishing the somber mood with solo piano and leading to a rush of strings signifying an ascent to “Black Ops Valhalla”. MandraSigma appeared with a hooky pop song about peace, pressing the matter by repeating “PEACE” several times; the second half changes gears with a uptempo drums and a series of grunts. At the end of the round, youngstrizzle presented a rap operetta about knights embarking on a journey to “conquer in the name of the kingdom.

Thursday's OHC used "Hope" as the theme for the night and I recorded my hopeful introduction, after which doctor Arcana provided a status update as his entry. Acuity was similarly unable to make to compo, and his ice-themed track was uploaded courtesy of DDRKirby(ISO). dusthillguy submitted his characteristic pitched vocal samples and spastic structure running just over half a minute. frkygp's methodical thuds and lo-bit kick and clap made for a decidedly dark take on hope. ancara22 made his first OHC entry putting together piano arpeggios with flute and soft strings. jarski again noted the failings of his laptop, but managed created a brief, competent dance tune. nikola went for evocative synth ambiance that ends in a major mode. Mirby continued her extemporaneous style, throwing in more whistling that could probably reach a cab driver a mile away.

sci looked to his trusty chips for his entry, presenting his harmonic construction by looping it multiple times. ItsMatt explored dense industrial with "Is All Hope Is Lost [Rads Mix]" referencing a world in the wake of nuclear war. zorg's alliteration bordered on obsession as he latched onto the letter D; his gentle composition is complemented by percussion partway through. General Mumble send along a orchestral-turned-electro cue that captured the hopelessness of being stranded miles away. CJthemusicdude took on a multi-faceted production, part of which included a sample of Cornel Campbell's "Boxing Around" per my request. siebensus4 submitted strings and filtered rhythm, thus declaring "I Try The Other Way".

Shadix took the opportunity to plug an upcoming event with his entry, though he did offer a song for critiquing. MandraSigma could have actually been "In Awkward Darkness" considering he left his description blank and uploaded a 32-second tune. Usabell on the other hand put forward inspiring words and a lush, expansive soundscape. DDRKirby(ISQ) turned on his Game Boy and subequently tore up the listening party to save the world from chaos. Rounding out the entries was Forty-Two who admittedly rushed the track out, but served an climactic blend of e-piano and pads.