Most Dangerous Game

The past week marked the start of Street Fighter: The World Warrior Remix Royale. For the tournament, each entrant selected a character theme from the Street Fighter series and will battle by way of a “vs remix” merging the theme with that of an opponent. Unlike previous competitions held on OverClocked ReMix, the royale will feature involvement with Capcom for potential inclusion of music in its promotional releases. SDCompo ended round 65 with a handful of entries, and its first place entry agargara gathered much approval despite its unorthodox structure and inexplicable snail-themed lyrics. LLCompo: Battle 8 similarly was home to some unusual verses due in part to its “Robot” theme. Saif in particular teamed up with a friend to create a speed metal song about the rise of the machines. 

JHCompo on Tuesday invited everyone to a “Game Show” where the big prize was perpetually hidden in a question-marked box. My introduction track featured my usual narration, this time set to the Match Game theme song. Duosis chose to make a theme song for a reality show, cutting a sampled rock riff to a pounding house beat and funky bassline. SonicThHedgog in his typical fashion put out a pair of Sonic arrangements and asked listeners to identify the source material. Finally rwarman007 worked out an electronic piece that served to propel his spoken-word instructions about the game show and its progression. 

Thursday’s OHC was preceded by the hype built up at Compo Stadium, detailing the “Battle of the Heroes” theme amongst the flaring of NFL on Fox horns. A-zu-ra demonstrated that overthinking is a mixed blessing, thus leaving his entry untitled and creating a brief chip entry. CSWorks worked out a bouncy, off-kilter battle theme in the style of Final Fantasy. Acuity’s track “Summoner’s Rift” asked participants to select the protagonist and go off on an adventure of lo-fi synths. Miru’s post-piece requiem focuses on playful fights between friends, set to rhythmic orchestral music. DijiTwitch said simply “Kill’em Dead” and ventured to the dance floor with his stabbing piano. BrandonS decided to forgo actually composing a song for the round and instead offered an infomercial for his new EP. DDRKirby(ISQ) similarly promoted his compilation album, but made a new song containing church bells, strings and many blips.

Flik made a rare appearance and submitted a short but effective mixture of industrial and ambiance. Arcana felt that his tune was too upbeat to be about war, so his orchestral jaunt summarizes the joy of victory. CJthemusicdude whipped out his keyboard to rollick among the ivories in a somber composition. Trancient noted that his electronic track sounds better with headphones, which is not a problem considering the listening party’s large percent of producers. Shadix’s entry is possibly shorter than the time it takes to read the track description, but what is heard fits the context. General Mumble arrived an hour late due to a Daylight Savings Time snafu, but shook the dancefloor with arps and a lumbering beast of some sort. sci uploaded another mashup of his that manages to sound cohesive despite the wild mixture of sources. 

munchi made a sly nod to DDRKirby in his entry title and presents the glitched blurbs he worked on as practice. OMGitslewis also sent out a chippy electro tune complete with a chilled middle section and some wubs. Forty-Two soaks his reflective “No Man’s Land” in reverb and subtly played off of his harmonies in a soft manner. Roseweave sang a bit for her submission, seemingly falling onto her microphone in the process. I wrote an original song in OHC for once, with the help of a rhythm guitar recording that I chopped to create chord progressions. At the end of the listening party MandraSigma submitted his “hero theory” for approval, combining keyboard jabs with vocal samples and a patchwork of other elements.

Composer Spotlight on Rexy

Beverley Wooff aka Rexy has been involved in remixing since 2004 and has made a mark on the arrangement community. From her earliest days at VGMix to her recent contributions to OverClocked ReMix and its various fan remix albums, Rexy has had her hand in multiple successful projects. Additionally she puts out a video blog on her YouTube channel wrapping up her thoughts on current releases by the community. As an active participant in composition compositions, she has seen herself improve and witnessed the rise of musicians in her peer group. I asked Rexy a few questions about her influences, her tenure as a compo organizer and her recent projects. 

Regarding her earliest exposure to music and how that influenced her current approach, she revealed that, “My first experience with a musical instrument must've been with the elementary school piano when I was about five years old. Eventually I'd learn the craft; the way a piano can interpret so many different styles of music left me open to expand my listening horizons too. This transferred over well to my current style of composition, even outside of piano solos.” Rexy explained her common workflow methods: “I'd plan everything out on paper first to cut the chances of artists' block, and then spend time writing the tracks out in Cubase and spending some additional time producing and getting a second opinion before getting the track out there properly. My soundbank has been changing over the years; currently it consists of many Native Instruments’ Garritan, Addictive Drums, Zebra, EWQLSO Gold and a handful of freebies I looked into over the years. My current solo piano weapon of choice is Alicia's Keys for its more delicate tone, though I do want to explore many more down the line, wallet permitting.”

As an avid entrant in compos, Rexy has shared her work and gained feedback from others. She detailed her early experiences in such competitions: “I got to hear about the Dwelling of Duels back in around 2004, followed by the People’s Remixing Competition (PRC) not too long after; in mid 2005 I finally got around to start taking part in both. What I find compelling about competitions is getting the chance to make music to accompany the corresponding theme. It's a great way to be heard, but also hard because you also have to think about what the voters want to hear too: tastes, production values, composition... It's hard to understand at times. But generally, if you understand the theme, give it your all and make something enjoyable, you'd often be proud of what you did.”

Among her contributions to the arrangement community, Rexy is also known for her tenure as an organizer for PRC. She recalled the events that led to her being handed the reins: “PRC round 65 was a bizarre event; at that point, the original host reelmojo decided to do a mid-season tie-in, in which the source tune was the Team All-Stars theme from Super Dodge Ball (SDB); the winner would go on to represent that source on Walan's SDB project Around the World. While it started out fine, the voting phase faced a delay because of reelmojo’s disappearance, extending close to PRC66's start date. As the winner for PRC64 I decided to take PRC66 into my own hands and let Walan host the voting for PRC65 alongside it. Then it was found out that reelmojo's internet problems meant he could no longer host it, and so it was decided that my position as host was made permanent.” 

Rexy further elaborated on the responsibility of running a compo by saying, “There was a lot of organization: keeping the inbox open for votes; getting MIDIs and MP3s ready; updating my forum signature every two weeks; noting that the dates for the mixing and voting stages are met; making sure the previous winners have their source material ready; and validating all submissions to make sure they fit the guidelines.” She added that despite the numerous duties, “I found it to be an enjoyable run with encouraging people to participate in things like this and get their foot out the door.” Her tenure ended at PRC130, and the torch was passed to Bundeslang, who continues to run it to this day. Rexy explained the reasoning behind her departure: “It got harder during season five when due to real life strains I felt I was getting more distanced from the community, and just as well that by PRC130 I had just started employment and took on a new responsibility.” That round gained an enormous turnout of participants and included acknowledgements of her contributions to the compo: specifically Hylian Lemon’s entry titled “We Love You Rexy” and analoq’s “cheers, rexy”.

Rexy looked back upon the experience with fond memories and noted that, “During my time I saw the competition as the launching ground for several newer artists who went on to be huge names within the community.” She pointed out avaris, Flexstyle, Joren de Bruin, Nutritious and Mattias Häggström Gerdt as examples. Several remixes from PRC later became posted on OverClocked ReMix, including Bladiator’s "Fast Cars, Russian Cigars", Suzumebachi’s "The Final Stretch", Showroom Dummy's "Pixelated Tales" and Heath Morris's "TimeShock". Theory of N's PRC130 entry "I Love This Radio" later appeared as a bonus track for the OCR album project Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption. Rexy concluded her thoughts on PRC by stating that it “served as a great outlet to get newer blood started out, and to just have fun making music.”

I asked about her recent projects, including her participation in the Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet (WCRG). In an unusual turn, Rexy recorded her vocals in a team-up with Brandon Strader titled "Liquid Metal". She explained how this collaboration came about: “Brandon had wanted me to provide vocals for one of his works since he found out my microphone settings — intended for things other than singing, mind you — and thus the WCRG arose as a funny opportunity as he wanted to do a comedy metal entry for one of his submissions. He asked for a demo of what I could do, felt that my metal screams bombed (rightfully so!), and then later on we spent a night together on Skype trying to get me to improve the art of death metal growling. Then the next day he gave me the lyrics; I sent him five different takes with the intent of him just using the best parts of each, though as it turned out he layered every single take into that mix for some strange aquatic effect, which came across as unique and worked.”

Rexy concluded that, “Doing ‘Liquid Metal’ boosted my vocal confidence, though my reasons for not doing them often comes down to even my normal speaking voice rubbing people the wrong way in regards to tone and accent. Given the chance I'd still get to sing just for fun, though hearing my voice back on actual recordings without flinching may be another thing altogether.” Aside from her singing adventures, she also narrates a video blog summarizing arrangement community projects via her YouTube page. Rexy offered some closing advice for compo hosts and entrants alike: “Just sit back and have fun. Then you can look back afterwards and remember this legacy fondly, wherever it may lead.”

Composer Spotlight on DDRKirby(ISQ)

To call Timothy Wong aka DDRKirby(ISQ) a star in the compo community would be an understatement. His reputation for creating vast, dense musical tracks in 60 minutes precedes him. Fellow compo participants lament even being played after him in listening parties, as the euphoria of hearing his entry often extends past the end of his song and onto the next. It comes as no surprise that one of his tracks was played during a ThaSauce panel at MAGFest X, as any tune of his is a shining example of what could be accomplished during a One Hour Compo (OHC). His latest “Monthlies” compilation can be found at his Bandcamp page. I asked him a few questions regarding his musical output, his influences and what he has in store for the future.

Timothy spoke of his early exposure to music and how it impacted his current work. “As I was growing up I was being classically trained in piano, but most of the music I listened to was chiptunes from video games. From there I later branched out into Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) songs and OverClocked ReMix.” He noted that he considers the DDR games and OC ReMix to be within the realm of video game music, and that he began listening to trance and other “non VG stuff” afterward. Timothy explained how all of this influenced his output: “When I first started producing I actually wasn't doing chiptuney stuff at all... It was more ‘old school OCR’ techno-like, and I was trying my hand at making trance stuff as well. Somewhere along the line, chiptune sounds started creeping into my songs, and nowadays they're there full-force.”

One question that occasionally pops up during compo deals with Timothy’s unusual artist name. He explained the origin of DDRKirby(ISQ): “DDR and Kirby were two things I liked a lot at the time so they just came together. Later I decided it wasn't guaranteed to be unique so I added ISQ, which stands for Io Squad. It’s a crossover universe of sorts that my brother created and that only really exists between us. You can just think of it as an arbitrary clan tag or something. It's solely for uniqueness.” Sometimes he uploads a second entry for a compo round as “DDRKirby(ISO)”, which serves as a similar looking duplicate name.

He recalled when he first began participating in composition competitions: “I knew that compos existed but never got around to actually trying them until eventually I just decided it might be neat to try, and good practice. Since then, I've found that they're a blast, and have improved my production skills to an amazing degree. Somehow the one hour time limit of OHC is perfect, and manages to spur me on to create great things. I also like how it really streamlines your process and manages to really get you into the flow of things.” Beyond OHC, he has also joined remixing compos. “I participated in a few rounds of FLMC (Fruity Loops Music Competition), where you're only allowed to use the default samples and plugins that come bundled with FL Studio. I managed to win twice, with Mega Man 3 and Link to the Past remixes that really show you the power of 3xOsc, among other things.”

Listeners often marvel at the intricate nature of Timothy’s work, especially considering the limited timeframe imposed by compos like OHC. He elaborated that, “In terms of arrangement style, not instrumentation, I'd say that I tend to work a lot with layering. Perhaps due to FL Studio I tend to have a pattern and loop based workflow. So there's actually a lot of repetition in my arrangement; even in my melody lines, it'll usually be something like two measures of something, then the same two measures with some differences. I'm not one to focus on primary foreground melodic elements – rather, I consider textures, soundscapes, and complex layering to be more important to me. This also tends to help me do well in OHC because I get to reuse a lot of elements, whereas I know there are other people who spend a lot more time because they don't use as much repetition.”

Timothy went into further detail about his common workflow methods: “Starting a song off is always the hardest part, but once I have the beginnings of a neat song, things tend to flow really well. I hardly ever start by composing a chorus first; I always just go from beginning to end. I try to basically have more-or-less final arrangement and instrumentation before moving on to the next section. Really, most of my practice nowadays is in the OHC setting, so my workflow has become pretty heavily streamlined to that sort of style.” As far as his choice of weaponry, he stated that, “My most used instrument has got to be the 3xOsc, which I love to death.” He recommended the VST for its versatility in the manipulation of its oscillator shapes. “It can do everything, from massive supersaw basses, to sub-basses, and triangle whistle sounds.”

He mentioned his signature ‘KirbySquare’ made using 3xOsc, one that has inspired other entrants to emulate this sound during compos. Timothy described KirbySquare himself as “a square wave plus a triangle wave one octave lower, and was originally inspired by RocketSniper in FLMC.” His approach to chip sounds has changed as he progressed in music production. “Recently I've been using custom pulse and triangle waveforms ripped directly from Famitracker and LSDJ, which has been working super well. Before I had those waveforms, I used to use a combination of TS404 for great pulse leads, magical8bitplug for pulse pads, and tb_triforce for triangle wave stuff.” Aside from 8-bit, he incorporates elements from a wide variety of sources. “I have Alchemy’s Planet Earth sound bank that I use a lot for pads and soundscapes, and I also use Ugo’s Motion for evolving sounds. For drums I have this one MPC library that zircon recommended, but more often than that I'll just slice up drum loops, of which I have two different collections.” 

Timothy recently put up his body of work on Bandcamp, which was a lengthy process. He noted that he re-rendered a lot of his work in WAV format to meet the site’s upload requirements. “There were a bunch of issues with stuff that didn't render right or didn't render the same as the original track, so I had to fix all of that. And then some of the songs were just so old (back to the days of FL 3.56) that they basically didn't work now, so I just caved and generated the WAVs from the mp3s directly.” Due to Timothy’s large back catalog, the work was split into "Monthlies" album releases, each with its own cover art. “For a while I was just working on all of these 16x16 pixel art graphics to put for each month. I ended up having to make over 50 of them.” Aside from the monthlies, he intends to release a new original album on Bandcamp.

A DDRKirby(ISQ) track was played as part of a ThaSauce panel at MAGFest X. When he had heard about this, he said, “I thought that was just really cool and awesome. At the risk of sounding egotistical, I do admit I'm well-aware that I've developed quite the reputation amongst the OHC community, and really appreciate the fact that people recognize my music.” People have also shown interest in seeing Timothy possibly perform at Jamspace. He clarified that, “My music just isn't very performance based. Keep in mind that I just sequence everything by mouse, so the limit of my ‘live’ ability would pretty much be me hitting the play button for something I've already composed.” He joked that, “If you want me to go all the way out to MAGFest just to hit a play button, something tells me that's not very efficient!” Timothy however hastened to add: “I can play other stuff live, like piano, flute, and maybe I could mess around with my LoopMuse program, but that's not really anything like the chiptune music that you guys know me for, so that kind of defeats the purpose.”

Timothy has several plans for his work, and for branching out. “I feel like I'm still relatively unknown in the larger VGMesque community, but perhaps that might change in the foreseeable future.” Regarding upcoming releases, he revealed that, “I've got a handful of unfinished WIPs, including one that's being made using two instances of LSDJ. I'm also trying to make a compilation of music for social dancing, since I'm big on social dance.” He submitted a Touhou Project arrangement to ReMix: ThaSauce and OC ReMix, marking the first time he has submitted to OCR in seven years. Besides music, he has delved into game development, CG art, and "insane crazy Japanese Tetris" among other things. His various interests can be viewed via his “Site o’ Stuff” containing an impressively tall navigation bar. Perhaps fittingly, considering all the dance floors his songs could rock, glowsticking is one of his pastimes.

New Sensations

Tuesday’s JHC got off to a positive start as the “Mystery Island” theme was well received by entrants. I began the automated listening party with spoken word, my first such entry at SolidComposer. Jacob presented his synth-laden track that gradually fills with strings and tribal percussion. Swelling alpenhorn sets the mood for OverCoat’s entry “Isla”, a spaced out tune that gains steady percussion at its midpoint. MandraSigma’s “scary island” description belied his cheery combination of steel drums, organ and voice singing “palm tree…” b-type provided another rap freestyle during his radio show, preceded by a mildly concerned “I hope JH Sounds is recording this” and proceeded by the start of a Yakko Warner song.

mistermv’s “Outlander” is awash with delayed plucking and upright bass, eventually joined by woodwinds, bongos and shakers with a degraded breakdown. chunter put out bossa nova surrounded by otherworldly synth sounds and mellotron-esque flute. irrelevnt ventured to the mysterious island of Cuba, bringing along a hand-driven beat, acoustic guitar and a bit of cussing in the native tongue before tossing in an electro ending. sci made his JHCompo debut with an array of chips spanning generations as well as an apparent cameo by K.K. Slider. ShrackAttack submitted a somber piano entry punctuated by glissandos and high end plinkiness. coda’s synth groove drew comparison to the Sonic CD soundtrack during the listening party. Finally newcomer Clockwerk brought in a nearly 6-minute dance track with wobbly electronic bass.

A Trippycompo round occurred on Wednesday, and entrants were restricted to using a sample pack. The pack consisted of a varied assortment of sounds, including a song fragment, lopped metallic tones, a sonar-like bell and a synth burble. chunter ran down “A Road to Triplet Hell” by using extreme stereo panning along with the titular triplet rhythm. coda served up “cannoli sigma”, a chilled track revolving around a vocal from the pack. MandraSigma’s “Enter Charlie Sheen” alternates between loop-propelled electro and quiet ambiance. delt created his first compo entry in a decade with a stomping song under the file name “delt”, unwittingly breaking the rule of anonymity for submissions. Under the name “Barrack Obama”, mad popped in with the steel drum-centric “Popd” featuring a tripped out beat. At the end qualo ran the gamut of samples with “roboter” and submitted his track as an MP3 rather than a module file.

Thursday’s OHC featured a theme without a description, "The New Sensation". With little to read aloud for my entry, I looked up the word sensation in the dictionary and used the definitions for my vocal narration. Obtuse displayed a collection of synthesizers and shakers along with koto, flute and bongos. Arcana put on his elbow-padded smoking jacket for an initially orchestra-backed reading of fan fiction. Tomapella sent along a bouncing song with gargly bass and a vocal that appears to duet with a helium-infused version of itself. DDRKirby(ISQ)'s "Shifting Sensations" carried a drone-like atmosphere interspersed with drum elements before switching gears to lo-bit arpeggios.

coda appeared to acknowledge the site hosting the compo with his track "the Sauce", a brief swingy bit of electro. Usabell had a technical issue finishing his entry, but nevertheless delivered a full sounding dance journey to "The Fifth Dimension". sci's composition includes growling synth and human beatboxing that gives way to conventional percussion. mv's tune consists of pitched sighs and a trip-hop backing followed by a jazzed up interlude complete with Rhodes keyboard. CJthemusicdude provided new sensations via heavy delay, pads, violins and vocoder. InvisibleObserver returned from OHC hiatus with glitched out breakbeat. Shadix put up a patchwork of song clips while jarski showed off a thumping psybreaks-inspired piece to finish things off.

At one point during the week I discovered that an arrangement I submitted to OverClocked ReMix was placed under the to-be-posted list. After a moment of stunned disbelief, I thought of how cosmic this judges' decision was. I first visited OCR and compos from the outside looking in, and now things seemed to have spun around.

It Doesn't Matter

For once, my absence did not affect my ability to review compo activity. Late afternoon on Sunday, my intention had been to attend a one-hour round of Trippycompo. I was away from home, however, and my mobile device reception failed just as it began. Afterward, when I asked for a chatroom log of that round's conversations, I was told that "nobody typed a word" for the entire time I had disconnected. The competition was not without entries, though: MandraSigma's "Mansion of Puzzles" evoked a harpsichord-sounding instrument joined with short e-pianoesque chords and funky percussion. The other track, coda's "faerosol" contains a noodling guitar-like lead and chilled-out drumming.

Compos have affected musicians and their workflow in various ways. When asked about the subject, diotrans responded, "I'm a firm believer of creative challenges with deadlines, because it forces you to create quickly without worrying about what your inner critic is saying. [...] It's incredibly liberating." Her OC ReMix arrangement "Insomniac Skies" originated from PRC156, and she noted that the remix "wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for PRC." liquidwind's entry "sunrise over mardia" from PRC156 was later reworked to be submitted to ReMix: ThaSauce. The turnout for that round was partially attributed to an "invasion" of ThaSauce's OHC regulars, led by Level 99. He stated that "Doing things like OHC have been an amazing boost to my musical progress" and that the idea to invade PRC occurred on a whim.

Tuesday's JHC went off to a bumpy start as bugs manifested themselves at SolidComposer. Incidentally the website administrator superjoe attended the round, witnessing the glitches and proclaiming: "need to fix my broken crap". b-type performed a rap freestyle on his radio show for JHC, complete with "mountain peak, take a peek" wordplay reflecting the compo’s theme. Jacob uploaded a subdued electronic homage to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. mv's "White Ascension" displays a combination of bowed and plucked violins, concluding with a rush of wind. Under his name Andy Kelley, superjoe submitted a swift electro entry with an unexpected vocal clip at the end.

mu delivered a downtempo track that drew comparison to Secret of Mana and also contained a sampled voice. OverCoat put up a unusual mixture of ambient synthesizers and ukulele in his composition "Alta". More appropriated singing made itself apparent in Jarski's "beauty and the beat", in this case a repeating "you, you, you..." accompanied by dance rhythm. The prominent bass growl in CFX Music’s "Clouded Peak" meets an ominous lead and kick, giving way to a laid back outro. irrelevnt brought up the rear after suffering software issues when rendering, and accidentally uploaded a 27-second segment instead of his full tune; it features drum looping and short strums of guitar.

On Wednesday the voting period ended for Soundevotion Competition round 57. SDCompo celebrated its fifth birthday with a "Spring" theme. JustinCredible's track "Ueberschall" (german for supersonic) carries an extensive industrial feel before tossing in a four-on-the-floor rhythm. chunter delivered "Springtime Air", a rollicking pop tune using AquesTone vocal synthesis. Airmann's drum and bass entry "Unleashed" worked in the subtle presence of choir. The Evolutionary Cell entry is a collaboration featuring organic io (production) and ambtax1 (singing, production) with synth leads and vocal lines bouncing throughout. Chotoro rounded things off with a mellow, pulsating composition containing voice samples.

Wednesday was also the submission deadline for PRC193 once it had been extended. The menu music from the NES game Predator had been selected for the hundredth ThaSauce-hosted PRC round. This marks the third consecutive PRC featuring a film-based video game, following Batman in PRC192 and Jurassic Park 2 in PRC191. Showroom Dummy appeared after a lengthy absence with "Stealthing Predators", a moody, chiptune-influenced trance entry. The remixer expressed that he took the opportunity to explore the genre whilst adding an abrasive edge.

OHC on Thursday was greeted by a failing style sheet in addition to the ongoing issues with logging in to ThaSauce. The visual brokenness of the site rendered the night’s theme invisible at first glance; coincidentally this fit perfectly with the theme itself, "The Secret". In an effort to change up my usual spoken-word entry, I preceded my speech with the drum loop intro from The Chemical Brothers song "It Doesn’t Matter". OCRE chose to submit his track in the form of a question with the wistful and short "Memorial Song of Secret Village?" sci seemed to go on a trip-hop bent including various sliced clips and grunts. Shael Riley joined unexpectedly and showed off an quick acoustic entry with self-referencing lyrics such as "I wasn’t gonna enter the compo..."

Arcana displayed slap bass layered with electronics and a ¾ time signature. Tomapella laid out a sprawling song merging live guitar with programmed drums and synth bass. As suggested in the title, ShrackAttack’s horn-filled orchestral entry was made in five minutes. Usabell sufficiently warmed up his electric piano to deliver a bright intro before delving into a dark sea of strings and pads, then burst into electro for a upbeat finish. DDRKirby(ISQ) put out sharp chippage and pounding kickdrum to "Unlock the Universe". CJthemusicdude’s arpeggios brought to mind Usa’s entry from the same round, and the track eventually goes into high gear with unts. mv wrote yet another thought-provoking description to accompany the filtered keyboards and lush violins in his track. jarski finished the party of with a swinging beat and pokes of organ.

Among other things, I seek out creative outlets to obtain spiritual fulfillment. For a time I felt I gained this through musical composition. While I may stop releasing songs, I suppose I’ll always keep making tunes in my head. Nevertheless, putting a melody together is not quite as fun to me as telling a story.

Absences and Storms

The conspicuous absence of a 2DC round on late Saturday left me without a purposeful hangout for creativity that night. However, my musical week picked up as I ventured to a SHARE.nyc open jam the following evening. Among other reasons, I visited the venue in an effort to promote SolidComposer, with the reasoning that the musicians there would be intrigued by the concept of compos. That Sunday reminded me that performing music live is much more fun to me than feebly attempting to sculpt a song. In my case, there's no lingering sense of remorse or disappointment associated with potentially creating a mediocre product. There is no "product" with live playing per se; it is all about the moment, joining a groove and filling out a soundscape.

On Monday I again revisited an old composition of mine, "Bygone Times". I had originally written the song as an entry for OHC073, then re-imagined it for JHC003. A few other permutations followed before I shelved the track for nearly a year, then performed it at a local Best Buy. Listening to the different versions now provided me with an interesting perspective on the way I work on music. Particularly I noted my tendency to shift styles and genres in an effort to change things up and keep an open mind.

Watch "JH Sounds - Bygone Times (a brief history)" on YouTube

Tuesday's JHC was a chance to start a new creative phase in my compoing. The theme that week was "Wet", one I had deliberately chosen to be broad and open to interpretation. I took the opportunity to create an entry consisting of a recording of the ocean, filtered through various effects I toggled on and off and adjusted in real time. The response from the listening party that night was quite varied and humorous. One listener likened my track to dubstep, while another interpreted it as the first-person view of a sweater in a washing machine. My entry was accompanied by some prose I had written, based on the "Wet" theme. I later submitted this text to the Writing Competition Thread at the OverClocked ReMix forums to chip in and receive feedback.

On Wednesday I inquired about the Facebook page that Doulifée had created to help promote ORC. He eventually added me as an administrator of the page, and I worked on filling out the information therein. It is my hope that social media outlets such as Facebook will help bring about a larger turnout for this compo, as it has been a long-standing favorite of mine.

OHC on Thursday had a slight hitch as its organizer, starla was unable to join the IRC chat due to a local power outage. With no one to reopen the submission stage after the deadline, several entrants were not able to submit their tracks to the compo page. This issue was later resolved, however. Draconiator stepped in to host the listening party, during which various takes on the "eye of the storm" theme were played. For my entry I used another field recording and applied filters to it, this time the sound of wind. Additionally I mixed in a reversed, time-stretched acappella section of the Röyksopp song "Remind Me". One listener was convinced that the vocal was a Big Daddy from the game Bioshock.

The potential bridge between the JHC and OHC themes allowed me to continue the prose I had written on Tuesday to a certain extent. My first bit of text in JHC detailed a story of a beach that had been affected by a rising tide, and the second for OHC described a monstrous tornado and how it was treated by the media. It may even be possible for me to continue this narrative for next Tuesday's JHC. I'm sure that won't sway my decision for what the theme is that week.