Cosmic Caretakers - Comentario
7,1 mil palabras en 75 entradas.
Cosmic Caretakers Cosmic Caretakers (album commentary) Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube (lista de reproducción)
COSMIC CARETAKERS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Album organized by the Unofficial MSPA Fans managers
Booklet assembly by Ucklin
With cover art by Elanor Pam
and cover art commentary by Ephemerald:
We see dimly in the present what has guard and what has none,
Slow of faith how weak the curtains turn the moon and turn the sun,
But the soul is still a caretaker; amid the Furthest Ring,
List the fabled cosmic whispers that the horrorterrors sing:
'They are in the consellations of the pondsquatter's offspring.'
-James Russel Lowell, Second Son of SkaiaWith final thanks to the Homestuck Music Team, Andrew Hussie, What Pumpkin, and the loyal, enduring fan base that makes this all possible.
AFTERWORDS
The concept for this album had its origins more than two years ago, and its basic blueprint was drawn up by me as a follow-up to Beforus. Back then it was known as "Rubric of the Guardians", and while that was later changed, and due to management upheavals I wasn't personally involved with its development as "Cosmic Caretakers", I am excited for what the project has become and what these fantastic musicians have in store for us. A comprehensive Guardian album was an idea straight out of my original list of fan-album concepts circa 2015 that spawned Beforus, and now finally the dream of having themes for all of them is realized. Vava la Guardians! (V-l-G, perhaps? Or perhaps not. :P)
This album dedicated to the classic fanmusic album reality of progress stalling for months, followed by the completion of half the administrative work in the final three days before release. Seriously, I wrote this afterword 1 hour before the album stream. But if you're reading this, I hope you've enjoyed every last minute of it, because I know I sure did. All our work and unwork was not in vain.
Putting together the booklet for this album made me realize just how ambitious the project was. We have said goodbye to a few old faces over the long production time of the album, and some have questioned the team's motivation. However, I think it is a testament to the enduring strength of the team that we have been able to stick with this project, despite delays, until its release. I want to thank everyone who stuck by it, even when it would have been easy to write it off. It's been a long haul, but we've learned a lot about how to avoid similar delays in the future, and the team is facing the next project with renewed enthusiasm.
MSPA READER. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO LAST ONE YEAR WITHOUT UMSPAF CONTENT. YOU ARE NOW GROWN UP. IN SOME WAYS, YOU HAVE MOVED ON. BUT YOU HAVE ALSO LEARNED THAT GROWING UP DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN SAYING GOODBYE TO THE THINGS YOU ENJOY. I AM SO, SO PROUD OF YOU.
Quasar Nebula: (wiki editor)
(per LoFaM 4 standard, ive highlighted commentary from people besides the original musicians or cover artists in bold!)
Disc 1 Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
The jingles I wrote for this album are a little more involved from the ones you usually find on Homestuck albums, which I did because I thought it would be fun (and it was). A grandiose intro to prepare you for what'll probably be the best god damn album you'll ever hear?
this was done pretty quick, its a simple concept that didnt take much doing. the thing i like most is probably the scratch lightning, ive been drawing a lot of lightning recently.
Egbert's Kitchen Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
For this track i went for the style of music i think Dad listens to, Under The Hat but even jazzier haha. The chiptune breakdown in the middle is also kind of a reference to Showtime (Original Mix) which is the Strife! theme you hear when John encountered Dad. It worked pretty well, i think this is what you'd hear when you walk in to the kitchen when Dad is baking something.
trip:
I want this dad to be my dad.
Nanna's New Groove Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
At first I considered making this track electroswing, but that's a bit out of my range. I think this works well as a compromise!
Think of this as the soundscape to an elderly clown grandma (clownma?) throwing pies at you forever, but in a good natured way, a way where you both laugh at the absurdity of it all, except when the fifth pie is thrown you laugh a little less hard because the joke is starting to get stale, and by the time the tenth pie is thrown you start to want to go home and wonder if the clownma still finds it funny, and she does, still not in a mean spirited way, not because of the pie and not because of the frown on your face, but because she knows the joke is stale and you know the joke is stale and yet it keeps happening in spite of its staleness and that mutual understanding really only underlines the absurdity of it all.
The clownma is pretty good at pranks, all things considered.
in this household we stan Jane Crocker/Nanna Egbert.
Martini Cardamom Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Hey, it's your local pianist extraordinaire Flare. The basic seeds of this track belong to PoisonedElite, who left behind a minute-long demo of harpsichord and strings. Imagine my surprise when her MIDI was handed down to me and there were the beginnings of an electronic drum track I didn't get to hear in her exports! So the concept was set, orchestra with electronic rhythmic backing.
Mom always seemed like quite the intimidating figure to those who met her. Perpetually drunk, with an endless, seemingly vindictive collection of wizard paraphrenalia, Mom was more living myth than parental figure. While most might soften those figures over time to be more relatable, not Hussie, and not Mom! She handles a massive Sburban monster with ease, demonstrates martial arts and weapons expertise, and catches the romantic attention of Dad without so much as breaking a sweat. All I could think of putting this track together was "classical badass." So here's to you, Ms. Classical Badass.
I wanted to try something new for this piece, so I went with a lineless minimal style. For the art, I wanted to draw both of Roxy's post and pre scratch selves, not just Mom Lalonde, since I adore both equally!! While working on it, I wanted to somehow connect the two versions of Roxy together with something common. Eventually, I settled on the scarves, and used them for composition and filling in blank spots in the art piece.
Meteor, Schmeteor (I'll Cut That Thing Right In Half) Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Hi I go by Chaosvariant. I worked on this track for Dave's Bro, my original intention was to remix Beatdown (Strider Style) to have a little more flair and fit better into the cool yet dangerous aura Dave's Bro put off then to have that transition into the fight with Jack Noir. My computer halfway through this process bricked so sadly we're kinda stuck with a WIP but I hope you'll like it for the concept alone.
SplitSuns: (album mastering)
SplitSuns here. In addition to writing my own song for this project, which you'll find 24 tracks from now, I mastered the album in general. In theory, this means making sure each song is around the same volume so you don't have to keep adjusting your headphones. However, sometimes I did some extra work just to polish things up. Like with this song, for instance: I took what Chaosvariant had finished, added some EQ to make the mix clearer, and added a small sound effect at the end to smooth things out.
i really like how i did this one. not too much going on but i feel its good for how simple it is. drawing the meteor took a bit of work, and looking at some reference shots from descend, but it really came together, and of course the sense of scale given with bro and the meteor is very well executed id say. pretty much flawless except for the fire which i couldve done better.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
SplitSuns: (album mastering)
With its blend of sharp synths and cinematic orchestration, as well as its dramatic swells in composition, this song does an amazing job capturing Grandpa's famed taste for adventure. Can you feel it? That sense of danger, the palpable tension in the air as the jungle trees sway in the breeze? Quick snatches of animal chatter meet your ears, the rest muffled by the dense canopy above. You grip your rifle a little tighter and adjust your hat towards what lies beyond. You have a feeling it's going to be a long hunt.
i accidentally listened to bec's song instead of grandpa's song (wow well done me), so i HAD to include dogs. but i wanted the image to live up to this song's title. you can see my thought process here. besides which you can see the true danger that grandpa must have put himself in expressed here with his lack of pants. anyway i wanted the animals to all look vaguely real, so i spent a lot of time looking up pictures of them while drawing. i was heavily inspired by hiveswap and the photo frames of grandpa in his past, and wanted to draw a silly looking hunting scenario that could fill the gaps of in your head. there's even a version with joey's comments scribbled on, though it was a bit too busy and standoutish. hope you enjoy [Kanishka]'s song.
Fetch That Steak Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
SplitSuns: (album mastering)
Bec is, first and foremost, a good dog. Let's put aside his featureless visage, god-like powers and key role in creating a Sovereign Slayer capable of destroying entire universes. He is a dog that likes to run around, play fetch, and eat treats like any other! This song shows that under-appreciated side of Jade's best friend. How can you say no to those Mario Paint dog barks? (If you think those are great, wait until you listen to the song for Bec's post-Scratch counterpart. Cinematic parallels, I'm telling you.)
Ephemerald: (commentary help)
Bec quite clearly doesn't have a care in the world here. You know, it's funny how omnipotent dog brains work. "Yeah, I was brought to this planet with the express purpose of facilitating its ultimate purpose and also ensuring that I exist at all, but, I mean, do I have to do that right now? Can't I just take some time off and go fetch a steak so radioactive it would make the Elephant's Foot seem like a regular old chunk of steel by comparison? The answer is yes, I can. So I will." Good dog. Best friend. Not a superb prioritizer.
Monatomic Strife Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
I wanted to write a Strife theme for Dad Crocker since i've never heard one before, but i think he's the cooler dad so he should have one. I made it kinda fast paced based on him fighting in [S] Collide, i think that's where he really showed how good of a guardian he is by beating up some felt members.
trip:
This one too.
Secondhand Memories Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Sorry, sorry to interrupt the booklet, folks, but I've got a cracking idea: see the next time you find yourself in a pub toilet, and you've got a pen on you, write on the door, "Johnny Crocker, R.I.P." Or let's say you're not old enough to get into pubs yet, let's say, you're still in school? Write it on a desk. Scratch it in with a compass. "Johnny Crocker, R.I.P." Or let's say you're online. Let's say you're on Bebo, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, a forum, whatever it is, just get the message out there. "Johnny Crocker, R.I.P." Miss you, big man. Gone, but not forgotten.
And who is Johnny Crocker...? Eh, who cares.
I had the sketch of this track art sitting by for a while, since I never found the time to finish it - not even during the holiday break. I finally was able to find the time to do exactly that on... A very long and boring plane trip, hahah. While drawing it, I thought about how Jane never really knew her poppop, nor did she know she was the cause of his death in the first place (classic Homestuck), so I wanted to convey that bittersweet feeling through the piece. I experimented on the colors with using a couple paper-constructioney textures on it and on the backdrop. Also, the stewardess on my plane trip caught a glance of the drawing and gave me a compliment in broken English, so you know this is some certified REAL good art.
The Light's Rebellion Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Greatly inspired by the soundtracks of Touhou, PMMM, and various Japanese media, The Light's Rebellion is meant to sound like the overture of an epic and tumultous tale. To me, the life of Roxy's illustrious and erudite Mom - encompassing the publication of doorstepper novels, a Guy Fieri rodeo down a waterfall of blood, and death as a revolutionary at the hands of an alien empress - is the sort of capricious novel-worthy story that can only be told through battling melodies in the major pentatonic scale, 3/4 + 6/8 cross-rhythms, and soaring trumpets.
The primary melodic motif opens the piece on the solo violin - a rousing tune representing the character of Alpha Rose and her rebellious aspirations. The trumpet then introduces the secondary motif - that of The Thirteenth Hour, a melodic backbone representing (erroneously?*) the novels to which she devoted the greater part of her life. It rises and dips, shifting between lyrical solos, brassy full-orchestra segments, and percussive interludes. Two of Rose's motifs, Aggrieve and Endless Climb, are also briefly quoted.
In all, creating The Light's Rebellion was a joy and a challenge, and possibly the first and last track of its style that I'll ever do.
*The video from which I'd heard The Thirteenth Hour featured the cover of Complacency of the Learned, leading me to associate the track with Calmasis and CotL. In retrospect it was probably more about Calliope's Calmasis-like trollsona (i.e. the thirteenth "troll") than Calmasis, but here we are. (Calliope is named for the muse of epics, Mom wrote epics, it works...)
keyboard cait: (UMSPAF manager)
Her hair is like the sun, rebelling against the oppressive shadow of the night sky.
Not complacent, but sure as hell learned enough to punt you down a waterfall with stabby needles.
The Dave Strider Experience Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
wilson for wisdom. stiller for power. glover for courage. with the tripartite decree of america's three greatest heralds, backed by a rendition of beatdown so terrifying it can only be described as psychological warfare, the stage has been set for the star of the show. the experience behind the experience. but such titles do not ascribe what importance this fiend deserves. nay, they COULD not ascribe the requisite importance, for only one title suits the hero, the madman, the director and architect to a hall of fame of utter shit.
he is THE BIG MAN, and we are all in his court.
heads are about to roll.
MISC NOTES: this piece started with me thinking "hm, i really want to use running hell in this dave song" and then the rest kind of flowed from there. in that segment, you may note that violent j seems to alternate between lamenting the presence of "THE WITCH" and singing her praises. i feel as though if an alien queen actually appeared to install the insane clown posse as figureheads of a government responsible for the deaths of billions, it would have to involve some sort of mental manipulation on her part, because honestly, icp seem like sort of decent upstanding folks in reality? like violent j wholeheartedly supports his daughter being a furry so he seems to be a nice dad at least. shit, in this political climate they might not be half bad as dual presidents, comparatively, and they're literal clowns. thanks to grace for recommending i use icp's seminal and apparent manifesto, "What Is A Juggalo", whose lyrics you should look up because they are just truly incredible. the section it transitions to, where the nightcore becomes ambient noise, is meant to symbolize the tense standoff between dave and icp before he cuts their heads off, but also it was mostly tongue in cheek. waters of nazareth also plays during that section very faintly, which partly symbolizes that in parallel to this event rose is executing the antichrist over a waterfall, but that was something i just made up now. more intentionally, sampling waters of nazareth badly in a strider song contrasts with the fantastic use of the sample in splitsuns' Thyme On My Fries. (love ya split). oh god this was a wall of text. i'm done now bye
I kinda wanted to show Alpha Dave as a simple sturdy figure in a messy messy background because that's how Dirk saw him? Super cool and collected in all the chaos surrounding him. Also suits.
Jade English - Study for Eclectic Bass, 1984.1 Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This piece has been in the works for a LONG time. I started it in March of 2017, and though most of the compositional work was complete by July of that year, I didn't finish polishing everything up until late April 2018, after many months of procrastination and tweaking. The idea of the track is simple, it's Jake's Grandmother, Jade English, writing a song for her signature eclectic bass sometime in the 80's, which you probably already knew from the title. Anyway, I wanted to make a song that you could supposedly 'play' on the eclectic bass, which meant I had to figure out what exactly the components of such an instrument were (see the accompanying diagram). I chose the iconic Yamaha DX7 (used in tons of 80's pop) to be the keyboards of the instrument as it could make the sounds I wanted, it was from around the right time, and I had an emulation (Digital Suburban's "Dexed") on hand. Other instruments used in the song were Karfoyer Audio's "Pastabass" and "Swagbass" for the bass guitars themselves, as well as Full Bucket Music's "Ragnarök" (used to flesh out some bass frequencies at the song's peak), and some built-in GarageBand instruments (drums) and effects.
Compositionally, I started out with the ostinato that closes Rhapsody in Green (Clark Powell) from the Felt album, but played in reverse, adding in an FM pad (the aforementioned DX7) and Skaianet by Mark Hadley on the other bass guitar. The introduction section transitions into variations on Verdancy (Bassline) by Kalibration, and closes the track's first half with a medley of various Jade-related songs. The second half is an original thing (though the beginning is a variation on Afraid of the Darko by RJ! Lake) that I had build in complexity and intensity before dropping off to end the piece. Reference-wise, I tried to keep things centered roughly on Jade, as well as some other skaianet/felt sort of stuff that I thought fit the Alpha world and Jade's place in it, but I did end up throwing in a couple memetic references, see if you can find them both!
Jas:
Grandma Harley often wrote her grandson about the tyranny of Lord English, obviously not able to hide everything from the enemy.
Felidae Superior Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This song took remarkably long to put together. Less because it was difficult, and more because I kept getting distracted with other projects along the way. Anyway, meow.
SplitSuns: (album mastering)
Shu delivers some impressively smooth and refined art for everyone's second-favorite cat whose name begins with a G, GCAT. They say you can tell a lot about someone from their eyes, which makes it more impressive that you can glean this cat's mischievous expression without any eyes at all. GCAT is prepared for action from its carefully positioned placement on a tree branch, ready to pounce at a ball of yarn or teleport to the spot best suited for making your life hell. Some rough glitchy effects in the background add an interesting dimension to the piece, nicely contrasting against its smooth linework. This is one art you won't want to miss, and knowing GCAT's temper, you might miss it if you blink.
Sweet Talker Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
The idea for this song started with the transition around 2:35 to the section with Hate You played in a straight rhythm. I wanted to capture a feeling of dread by making that part of the song methodical and delaying the payoff of some of the notes by a beat. It would also be a stark contrast to have this straight section in solo piano right after a climactic section with plenty of instruments in a swing beat! I was inspired to incorporate a musical palette from the 30s-40s because that's when I estimate Condy took over as Betty Crocker and started doing her guardian things. In the original song, I planned for the bass to carry most of the weight with regards to rhythm, but eventually, I was persuaded to add percussion to the track after helpful feedback from a few of the organizers, and I think it helped a lot! Hate You is quoted 3 times, although the first two ended up a bit disguised by subsequent layers of instrumentation.
With regards to the rest of the composition, I tried to have fun! In a way, this song is supposed to tell the story of The Baroness. The beginning hook and the next section portray the mask she wears as Betty Crocker upon arriving to earth, and the persona that caused her husband Colonel Sassacre to fall in love with her. That part of the story is pretty funny to me. The following section introduces the mystery of her real identity with a jazzy Hate You quote before returning to the first section, and finally the climactic transition of the song represents the death of Colonel Sassacre and the beginning of Crocker's reign of terror proper. Finally, at the very end of the song, there is a piccolo harmony which just sounds like aliens to me, possibly because it sounds a little like a theremin. I learned a lot composing this song! Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed! (And thanks to nights for art more polished and gorgeous than I could hope to deserve!)
This very nice track gave me vibes of a casual setting with the condesce, so I thought to draw her doing a mundane but fun task - baking! I've always liked fanart of HIC as betty crocker, doing crockery things like baking cake and raising post-scratch john/jade.
Disc 2 Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This was actually the first of the three disc jingles that I wrote, and uses synths to aim for a more alien-ish vibe for the trolls disc, contrasting the organic instruments present in the humans disc.
WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (UMSPAF manager)
Would you believe that both DAD and CRABDAD are looking at the VERY SAME STAR while cradling their children?
No? You don't? They both exist in completely different universes you say? That the stars are thematic element used to tie this track art together and to symbolically show the role of each of these GUARDIANS?
You're no fun.
Voice of the Dead Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
H*ck dude ye made this shit for a thingy that was DEAD in it's FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING COMIC??
So! I've realized nobody wanted to make a track for this completely relevant character for completely obvious reasons, so I took three days of my entire life to give this beautiful creature the piece it deserves. The whole process of making this was to base it around a small snippet of Famitracker that Cookie made a long time ago, and with that I completely broke it up to a point of being in love with it, so thank you Cookie you gave me an awesome idea as well as a good snippet!
I had the idea of remixing Aradia's Theme (Pre-Death) from the Homestuck Sound Test for this song and tried to make a track for it but never ended up finishing it. To my surprise, Coy decided that he was going to finish this garbage song. After I posted the project file, he proceeded to work his magic on it, making it actually good in the process, and now it's pretty much his track and he deserves any and all praise for it.
Grace Medley: (It's Grace Time)
he wasnt going to let the song just :Die~2:
I love the track and wanted to try and capture the more haunting side to it.
Flittaurine Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (UMSPAF manager)
Tinkerbull is a daintly and beautiful lusus, who took care of his young troll Tavros to impeccable standards, giving him the kind of love and attention that all trolls in their early sweeps truly need.
Until he got crushed painfully to death by Tavros's wheelchair anyway. Kind of a sad end to this tale.
Dear, sweet, precious Tinkerbull. Rest in peace my little guy.
Polypolyphemus Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
For those who may be curious, the title (suggested by Lambda) is play on the term "Polyphemus" which refers to the cyclops in The Odyssey. It's a really dumb pun, and I love it.
SplitSuns: (album mastering)
Polypolyphemus is an intense track, so it's fitting for its art to capture the same intensity. Sollux's Biclops is captured right before its imminent demise as the troll's Mind Honey-induced flip out rips through the ceiling of his hive and surrounds the lusus in a multi-colored beam of energy. The meteors illuminating the night sky further illustrate the carnage present in the scene in a fashion that pops up time and time again in Homestuck proper. If only one of those meteors could break the chain around the Biclops' leg and set it free! Wait, the resulting impact would probably just kill the Biclops anyway. Never mind, that was a stupid idea.
Rangoon Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Crabs taste pretty good, gotta say. I'm partial to snow crab, myself. Of course, the only place I ever had them was Red Lobster: the apex of all seafood cuisine.
this one is pretty much just a carbon copy of a homestuck panel i found. i mean i didnt trace anything, but its all placed pretty much the same with minor differences. dont give me too much praise for this one.
Apex Conquistador Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
I had the opportunity to touch up this piece, which I mostly did by polishing up the samples and adding an electric piano as backing.
Meow.
WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (UMSPAF manager)
If there's one thing that mouse can appreciate, it's that it got to see a two-mouthed cat monster before it died.
Coincidentally, it's about to die because of said two-mouthed cat monster eating it. You just can't have it all, unfortunately.
Recordare, Virgo Mater Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Oh man, this is a really loaded song for me. Coming from a musical background that mostly consisted of writing punk songs and making bad beats, when I started on this I sort of had no idea what I was doing?? I wanted to portray this sense of grief and sadness that would shift into a big, fun declaration of hope and all that, but really what wound up happening was me rushing through the grief and sadness to get to the fun bits with the electric guitar. I even made the fun bits with some friends watching just to make sure that it truly was both big and fun! That was the good part, in my eyes. Unfortunately, I just didn't know how to properly convey the feeling I was going for, and I really didn't know how to write a song for a character. I wasn't experienced enough and I didn't have the tenacity to stick with it. That was the first version of the song I ever made.
That's when my dog Beethoven died. He was 15 years old, but I'd only had him for 6 of those years. He was honestly one of the sweetest dogs anyone could ask for. He was intensely loyal, loved to get loved on, and would always come back no matter how far off he ran or how deep into the woods he got. He was one of my best friends, and having this happen to me was a very large shock to my system. I'd been fortunate enough up to that point not to have any close family or friends pass on me, but Beethoven was very close family and a good boy in general. It was my first time having to grapple with the overwhelming feeling of grief that comes with the loss of a loved one, even if that loved one was a dog, and I was struggling with it. I was down and out for a while. If it had been me from a few years ago, I probably would've just laid in the dark and grieved for a long time instead of doing anything useful or trying to get over it.
Instead of just letting myself wallow in it though, I decided to push most of those feelings into this song. I don't really get too cerebral when I work on music; most of the time I just make sure it sounds good and then I move on. With this song, though, I specifically wrote the middle portion with this smothering feeling I had weighing on me in the forefront of my mind. It was a really therapeutic experience for me and I think it reflects in the music. The portion before the guitar comes in has wonder woven into it, but it's also heavy feeling. It being so sparse contributes to this darker feeling which makes the brighter section feel more fun, whimsical, and most importantly, hopeful.
All in all, this was an interesting thing that I learned a lot making. It was my first time receiving real criticism on something I made and I hope people enjoy it!
The Mothergrub has always been a fascinating creature to me in Homestuck, both as a part of reproduction and as a lusus. Especially since becoming a lusus means that you give up a life in the brooding caverns for a shortened existence to care for onechild. And with the Virgin Mother Grub drawing so many parallels to the iconic Holy Virgin Mary, I decided to draw my own parallels. I wanted this peice to be symbolic in nature towards the ideas and standards of the Mothergrub. It also may be a little sacrilegious in regards to the Catholic images of the Virgin Mary, but we'll just ignore that little fact. The Virgin Mothergrub floats with the brooding caverns behind her, and her new charge sleeping peacefully nearby, alongside other eggs nearly ready to hatch into trolls that will play a game and sacrifice to create something new.
(we're also going to ignore the fact that i may have had an out-of-body experience while working on this piece)
Amniotic Daydream Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
I conceptualised Amniotic Daydream together with Skip: the first thing we decided was that it should be a lullaby-like track built on top of a heartbeat. I ultimately ended up working on this track alone, looking to a demo Skip made as a stylistic reference before taking it in my own direction.
Incubating within her egg for almost her entire lifetime, Dragonmom's track describes this inchoate state: the warmth and serenity and loneliness of waiting to hatch, and the constancy of the heartbeat throughout. The gradual build and elaboration of the track mirrors the development of an embryo. Pad synths ebb and flow, swelling and lulling with the beating of the heart. The drums start out muffled, as if heard through shell and chorion, and the sound only begins to take shape towards the middle of the track as the riffs grow more complex.
Featured in Amniotic Daydream is a delicate rendition of the motif from the Redglare/Pyralspite-related track JUST1C3 R41NS FROM 4BOV3 (also by me and Skip). This version pares away the ferocity of the original and turns it into a sweet lullaby tune. Terezi's lusus, meant to become a fearsome dragon like Pyralspite, may only dream of that destiny for now - and forever.
I'd love to thank the mods for their feedback, which truly helped me turn this track into what it is now.
this piece is probably the most complex one i did for the album, and i think it payed off in spades. i used a lot of elements from the scene in which terezi's dragon hatches and is immediately killed by a falling meteor, which might be one of the best looking parts in homestuck, although its hard to choose since the first half of homestuck is littered with striking imagery. oh my god just look at it. so good. so fucking good guys. its really good.
Arachnida Antecessor Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Well hey, would you look at that: my first ever track with the Homestuck Fan Musicians Crew. That's pretty neat.
Let's talk about it shall we?
I've always loved Vriska's various themes and tunes through the HS soundtrack's generous selection of tracks; they're nice, they're catchy, and they're just h*ckin' amazing overall. Imagine my surprise, then, when Spidermum's slot laid unclaimed on this very album, ripe for the picking. I swore on that day that I would create the catchiest distortion guitar-filled, 8-legged bop of all time.
What I made instead was the track laid before you.
I'd like to think that it's pretty snazzy and very Serket, though I have a sneaking suspicion that I may come back to this track l8er and fix it up when I actually have a clue what I'm doing. Yes, it's pretty short and it's kinda flawed in its execution, but I just hope that you can appreciate this humble nerd's first attempt at a somewhat-professional-level tune.
You know what? Since you've gone through all the trouble to read this here commentary, have a free concept guitar riff for this tune. For you it's on the house.
I understand why hussie didn't draw spider-mom with hair on her. that took way too much time to have to do it more than once.
STRONG Butler. Best Dad. Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
You thought you could get rid of me that easily? Think again. That's right, it's round 2 with Dyl Nye the Science Guy: Horse edition.
Honestly I'm not entirely sure how this worked out, but I'm glad it did since horses are the bees knees.
I said before in Arachnida Antecessor that it was my first song for this group, and technically it is (I think), but this is the one that I feel most greatly reflects my progression in skill as a musician.
This tune went from a slow Horschestra with awful, grotesque choir & drum samples to this lovely little equine ditty as I went from a newbie musician creating mediocre covers of songs' melodies to the only-slightly-less newbie musician writing this very commentary piece.
As such, this song will always fill a special horse-shaped space in my heart.
What's this? You don't want all this personal heartfelt guff? You want me to actually talk about the track? Oh alright.
Aurthour is, unequivocally, the best character in all of Homestuck. There is no possible way you can disprove this. It was pretty much high blasphemy that so few songs were made to honour him, and so I produced this offer to appease the gods and bring balance to the universe. You're welcome.
Also yes, that is me saying 'neigh'.
For every album cover I've drawn so far, I try to make them look a little different and experiment with different styles. In this case I tried to draw a HORSE (crazy i know) and used this very painting-like flat style, and decided to put Equius's signature up, effectively making it his own painting! This went through lots of colour hue alterations and was originally a very light pink desert in a sunny sky before we settled on this darker background to make Aurthour stand out more. I like to think that Equius is simultaneously admiring his surroundings and panicking about their imminent death by sunburn.
Absent Reflection Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Wow, this is the first song I ever signed up to make, over a year ago in April of 2017. From the beginning writing a song about Gamzee's Lusus provided a challenge due to the fact that it only appears in a panel or two, so I decided to write the song around the lack of it in Gamzee's life. Like Calming Quartz, this also had a different song as the rough Draft, so here ya go.
Play Hollow Knight, eat your dinner, and never forget the pokemon you lose when you're doing a Nuzlocke challenge. Rest in Peace Oswin ;-;7
Jas:
Sometimes you wait a long time to see the people you love.
Hippocampaternal Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Fun fact: This was the first song I ever made for any Homestuck related project ever, and I lost the original file at some point, so excuse the mixing being a little weird. I still stand by the song's compositional and structural quality though.
Jas:
Your baby crashed in on a blaze of fire, go get him seahorse daddy
Whispering Leviathan Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
angry tentacle noises
Listening to Whispering Leviathan always made me feel like I was hearing it in a submarine environment - perfectly appropriate to the subject of Gl'bgolyb. The scene in which Gl'bgolyb was revealed was, to me, one of the several "holy shit" moments of Homestuck, and instead of trying to depict the vastness of Feferi's lusus, I went for a sense of mystery and foreboding more closely matching the tone of the music, by revealing nothing but its tentacles in silhouette.
Finding the right balance between silhouette and rendering proved one of the primary challenges of completing this piece. Too much light meant the image lost its spooky, foreboding tone; too little made it look flat. In the end I came out with something that roughly strikes that balance, though I still feel that it loses some of the spookiness of the sketch. Thanks @ the good people at the Homestuck Artist discord for the tips!
Al-Aalam Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This piece is heavily inspired by the bis radio edit of Turbulence by Arab Strap - 808s and gloomy guitar lines are the order of the day. Mayhaps not the most obvious approach to a track about the Dolorosa but I take a slight measure of pride in that. Quite pleased with the middle section; the cycle of dominant sevenths with the electric piano improvisation atop it.
Grief is a strange thing and I find it rarely conveyed well in music. Another for the bonfire pile.
Ephemerald: (commentary help)
*The sound of a camera flash can be audibly heard over the music.* Yep. That one's going in my Pietà compilation. But really, is there a more appropriate parallel to make? Probably not. The parable of the Sufferer is full of religious iconography by design, which I guess means that Earth based the Bible off of it, and not the other way around? I don't know. I'll leave that commentary for Hussie, when he (doesn't) get around to it. As a side note, I love the "halos" surrounding the Dolorosa and the Sufferer here. Good stuff.
The Puppet Master Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
When I was first given the opportunity to work on Cosmic Caretakers and saw that there was an open slot for a track centered around Doc Scratch, I jumped at the opportunity to produce it! Scratch has always been one of my favorite characters in Homestuck. When I read through the comic for the first time I loved how he orchestrated the destruction of two entire universes but managed to give an air of dignity and style to such a nefarious event. His demeanor was never overtly evil: it was unsettling at times, sure, but he always acted the part of an excellent host through and through. I tried to represent this atmosphere in my own song. Its jazzy feel ripped from "Drawing Dead" or "The Felt" definitely brings to mind a comfortable stay in Scratch's parlor, but if you listen closely you can notice sinister undertones lurking beneath the surface through the decaying bells and whistling winds. Of course, I had to throw in some reverse piano in the mix as well. It wouldn't be a Felt-centric song without one. Towards the end of the track the piano backmasks some iconic Beta Kid motifs, showing how Scratch is acutely aware of every piece to his puzzle (even when we're not). What kind of an excellent host would he be if he didn't keep tabs on his "guests", after all?
So! The Puppet Master. The laid-back yet sinister vibe this song gives off felt fitting for Scratch, who, for most of the comic, just creepily stands and watches things happen. That's why I decided to not have Scratch do some Cool Actiony Villain Pose - he's a puppetmaster. He just needs to lounge. Yazshu took care of the Alternian planet, moons, and the cueball/sun/thing, so thanks to her for the backdrop!
Disc 3 Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Since Disc 3 only has a few tracks, I went for a simpler approach here, and ended up with a quirky refrain of the theme present in the other jingles. s/o to the Tetris DX soundtrack for getting jazzy chiptunes stuck in my head forever.
Jas:
Styled after old album covers that always seemed to be scraped up and have that off yellow color.
HONK FRIEND. Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This might be the wildest take on a song revolving around Gamzee. I decided to use Reverie and Power Fantasy as the foundation of this track as well as taking an advantage to make this somehow cheery-ish since we don't really know what happens in the story. A good advantage imo.
Jas:
It's hard being a single mom when you are a teenage boy. At least Caliborn is sitting still for once.
Singularity Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This track originates from an idea I had in 2014 to make a track about Calliope and Caliborn's parents. Five years later, it's finally done, stitched together from the composition and/or actual audio clips of like 4 FLPs (I went through about 6, all in all). Funnily enough, the scribbles I had for this song in 2014 then are completely different composition-wise from what ended up being made, but the narrative loosely remains in this track: the cherubs' mother drifts through space, searching for her mate. She spots him, taking off at full speed, following him as he leaves a trail of destruction across the universe. Their eventual meeting is tense, cold. Saying nothing, they transform into unfathomable astral serpents, and battle to create the most innocent muse and most shitheaded gremlin to ever exist.
I attribute the latter half of this track to listening to a lot of Hawaii: Part II, which is also sampled at the end. Listen to Hawaii: Part II.
Ephemerald: (commentary help)
The game of choice for cherubs seems to be chess, or at least, some neon-green candy-red shitty-twist variant of the game, but I'm getting real playing card motifs here. Two identical, serpentine warriors, millions and millions of miles long, locked in a symmetrical whirlwind of a strife. Reminds me of the art to Noirscape back on Volume 9, though that's a more literal example. The spiraling, iconic egg in the middle, shining like a light in the darkness, is a very clear reminder of what these two are fighting for: the right to force their opponent to give birth to literally the worst entity in all of existence. But I suppose it didn't matter who won or who lost. After all, he was already there.
It's Ogre Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
I was struck by divine inspiration 2 hours ago and now this exists, you're welcome
Jas:
I hate myself for making this and yet
Cosmic Caretakers
Disc 1 (1–14)
Disc 2 (15–29)
Disc 3 (30–32)
Bonus tracks (33–33)