2,9 mil palabras en 18 entradas.

Fighting Further Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Vast Error: (Bandcamp about blurb, excerpts)

"I'm going to protect you. I promise."

Special Thanks to:

Alex Votl
Levc
Tee-vee
Marcie Hobbs
Rabooski

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

"A strife album across the hyperthetical"

Special thanks to Hannah for reading over the lyrics and monologue for the album

Could I Be A Hero Too? (Arcjec Voorat Vs. The End Of The World) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

If I remember correctly, this was the very first song that I finished for the album. I pretty much knew what I wanted this track to be from the beginning: A rockin chiptune infused banger in the vein of Anamanaguchi’s work on the Scott Pilgrim vs The World Soundtrack. However, as I started developing the track beyond the demo phase, I wanted to incorporate influences from tracks like “Just” by Radiohead and the “I’m In Your Mind Fuzz” Suite by King Gizz. The final product is something I feel works as an intro to the album as a whole. It’s a familiar sound for those who’ve listened to Tensei’s “Strife” albums but also serves as jumping off point for the album to start doing its own thing.

No One's Prisoner (Taz Is Unbreakable) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

And now time for something entirely different. Like Arcjec’s song for the album, I knew what wanted this track be very early on. If it wasn’t already apparent, this song takes heavy influence from Yoko Shimamura’s work on the Street Fighter 2 soundtrack. I wanted a song that felt intense but heavy like many of the tracks from SF2 and Taz’s songs more generally. Specifically, I took influences from Ryu and Guile’s themes as well as Taz’s Theme for Catch 322. I like how the main melody develops over the whole song with more and more added layers of harmony. Really helps convey a somewhat triumphant feel, like it’s as if Taz is overcoming her adversity and coming out the other side stronger.

On The Hunt For Something Dangerous (Redux) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

So, this song has an interesting history. I initially wrote the beta version of this track for Vol.6 before I started development on Fighting Further. I wanted to write a Go Ichinose style Pokémon battle theme for Laivan since I was told that a song like that would fit him best. In the process of writing it, it gave me the idea to try and write battle themes for the rest of the main cast. This idea would eventually crystalize into the idea for my solo. Once the solo had started development, I found myself wanting to rearrange the original track to fit the album’s feel a bit better. Most of the beta version’s elements are here but altered and interpolated in a more intense way. I took a lot of influence from “PWT Final Round” and Go Ichinose’s arrangement of “Battle! Champion Cynthia” for this track and I think it shows. This song is a personal composition highlight with all of its dynamic changes and tempo weirdness. If you’re curious what the beta version sounds like I did include it as a bonus for your listening pleasure.

RUN IT BACK Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

I knew that I couldn’t miss an opportunity to remix what is, at time of writing, my most popular VE song for my solo. That being said this song was a bit of challenge. For this track I was aiming to emulate the styles of Hideki Naganuma and 2 Mello to create a Jet Set Radio type vibe. I’m not as familiar with the plunderphonic dance/big beat style those two are known for so knew going in that it would be a pain to write. Not helping matters was my commitment to make sure every song was referenceable by the following track on the tracklist. After a couple of false starts, I finally got something in the form of “RUN IT BACK”. I knew going into this that I wanted more pronounced original elements in conjunction with the D2R Riff. These elements include a synth bass line that I could reference in other tracks, some stabs, and some psychedelic funk guitar. The final product is something I consider to be a worthy successor to D2R’s daft punk infused dance rock. This song understands the CONCEPT OF LOVE.

Atomsplitter / Destroyer Of Worlds (Ft. votl) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

Indecision is a funny thing. So, the idea with this track is that it was supposed to be a Shin Megami Tensei inspired battle theme. Thing is about SMT’s battle themes is that they are wildly different depending on what game you are talking about. I was torn between the thrash metal sound of classic SMT battle themes like “Old Enemy” and Synth infused Apocalyptic rock sounds of “Normal Battle” from Nocturne. Then a thought occurred to me: what if I did both? And that’s what I did. In the move inspired by Tyler, The Creator I decided to make this song two parter. Part 1 is “Atomsplitter” which focused on delivering a fast as fuck thrash metal sound fill with synths and funny midi guitar solo. Part 2 “,Destroyer of Worlds” is a bit slower with meatier riffs and fucked up text to speech lyrics. Shout out to Votl who played the live guitar I layered with the Shreddage guitar to beef up the song. Not really much else to say about this track, I like how I arranged the “Battle Against an Unyielding Foe” Riff in part 2

Quasar Nebula: (wiki editor)

This track's "Atomsplitter" title appears to have originated as the initial title for Battle Against An Unyielding Foe.

Hope For A More Radiant Dawn Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

Another compositional highlight on this album. The idea for this track was to create a chrono trigger inspired battle theme for everyone’s favorite star child, Albion. She’s an interesting character to write a battle theme for given that most of her music leans on the more mystical/meditative side of things. Rather than abandon that aspect of her sound entirely I decided to lean into it for the intro/outro to create contrast from the more intense sections. I took heavy influence from “Battle with Magus” and the way it handles its various sections. From the very first demo I had of this song it was one of my favorites and I think it goes toe to toe with some of the more ambitious songs on the record.

The Fool Does Not Laugh Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

This song might be a controversial given what it was taking influence from. Serpaz has big earthbound energy and so I wanted to write a battle theme in that style. However, I quickly realized that a more traditional earthbound battle theme would not fit the more intense feel of the record. So I decided to get a little bit…extracurricular with the influence on this. If it wasn’t already immediately apparent, this song takes heavy influence from “Megalo Strike Back” by Toby Fox. “But Rainy” I hear you ask “Isn’t Megalo Strike Back a song from Undertale/Deltarune?” The answer is no, it’s from an Earthbound tribute so that’s how I can still connect this to Earthbound even if it’s tangential. That being said I didn’t just want to make my own version of a Toby track but I wanted add my own spin. To do that I did incorporate more earthbound-y influences like those from “Sanctuary Guardian” and “Pokey Means Business.” In addition, I pulled a little bit of influence from “Welcome to Hell” by Black Midi. The final song is a bit unhinged and all over the place but I think that fits the feel of the song perfectly imo. Fun Fact: I finished this song on April 1st.

The Curtain Rises ~ Millenium Actress Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

This was the very first demo I wrote back when my solo was in its initial phase. I knew that I wanted a Touhou style song for this album since 1. I’m familiar with the style from previous songs and 2. I like Touhou. The difficult part of writing in this style is that getting the instrumental pallet sounding right since most of the synths that ZUN uses don’t have VSTs. I tried to emulate the sound by primarily using VSTs of famous 90s and 2000’s romplers (i.e SoundCanvas, Wavestation, M1 etc.) to give the song a nostalgic feel. The primary inspiration for this song is “Reach to the Moon, Immortal Smoke” which is like one of my favorite Touhou tracks. In the grander scope of the album, I do think this song winds up being one of the weaker tracks but I do like what I was able to do melody wise for this song.

Strobelite Striker (Ft. Levc) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

So, this track was a collab between me and Levc EGM. Dude jokes all the time that people think his music sounds like Kirby music and I thought who better to reach out to help with a Kirby styled track. The process this time around was pretty simple, I sent him my original demo and he added stuff and sent it back to me until the track was done. For me, there really wasn’t a singular major inspiration for this track aside from SNES Era Kirby soundtracks. Eagle eared listeners will hear a call back to my track “Torchlight” from Vol.5. In a way I wanted to redeem that track given the less than pleasant circumstances of its making. I definitely think that Levc carried this song hard especially with that slowdown section towards the end of the track which is insane. Anyway, Levc’s cool as fuck and I hope to work again with him on something.

Levc: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

Rainy contacted with me to work on this track since it's supposed to sound like a kirby song. And I'm the guy that always get's "this sounds like a kirby song" on his music so I guess that checks out lmao (lov u rainy I'm your fan ur best fren). Classic kirby tracks are so much fun thanks to it's structure and melodic composition, tho ironicly I was just thinking in the "kirby forgor his lan [ADD SKULL EMOTE HERE]" OST since it's really good. You can tell by some of the sections I worked in (like that really cool C section with a ostinato melody that also shows up in the end of the track). My favorite part is the one before the climatic end, that slow section that gets even slower to BURST UP with a ton of energy! That sick move was inspired by lemon demon's "When He Died". Also the general vibe of that slow part was inspired by "proto man theme" from megaman... I'm sorry I also get the "sounds like a megaman song" a lot too...

At The Gates Of Truth Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

I’ll tell you what I very much felt out of my depth with this track. I wanted to write a Super Metroid inspired battle theme for Occeus in the vein of “Ridley’s Theme.” I was initially going to use soundfonts for this song but quickly realized that the Metroid soundfont sucked and decided to utilize synths instead. Personally, I don’t feel like I’m as well versed in utilizing synths compared to other music team members, so figuring out how to make my composition shine while using them was an uphill battle. Making things more difficult is the fact that Metroid’s music is typically less melody driven which contrasts starkly with my style. All that being said I began to pull in other influences to help move the song along. Aside from Ridley’s theme, the other big influence on this track was “Atomyk Ebonpyre” with its industrial feel, abrasive synths and early Toby’s signature winding melodic lines. Through combination of these two influences, I got something that was distinctly dark, alien, and futuristic. I think that song is a standout not just on the album but in whole of my composing career thus far

A Portrait Of Ruin Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

Let the record show that I think Calder’s vibes are wrenched. Regardless I knew going into this album that I wanted to do Calder song in the vein of NES/SNES Castlevania games. The B-Movie Horror/gothic vibe from those games fits Calder’s aesthetic. Initially going to use the Dracula X soundfont but that soundfont sounded like ass so I opted to use the Final Fantasy ones instead. I wrote this one pretty early on in the process as thus this track is simple in comparison to the later tracks I wrote. That being said do think that the main melody of this is one of the strongest melodies I’ve ever written. Definitely, coming back to this one for a remix down the road so keep an eye

Occult Hymns Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube / SoundCloud descriptions, excerpt)

Out of all the songs on the album, this one took the longest to put together. Initially, this was going to be a collab between me and dbnet but for time constraint reasons it fell through. I wrote the initial demo very early on but it wound up being the last song I wrote on the album. For this track I wanted to write something in the vein of Secret of Mana’s “Viridian Dance.” However, as I got to writing parts for the collab, the songs concept mutated. I was listening to “Battle on the Big Bridge” from Final Fantasy V and though it would be interesting if wrote an opening 6/4 arpeggio section just like that song. From there, I went wild lol. One of my biggest regrets with this album was the fact I didn’t use odd time signature as much as I would have liked. To make up for it, I went hard on the time signatures on this track. This is the closest thing to an outright progressive rock song I’ve ever written and I’m pretty proud of it.

Go Beyond And Fight Further (Ft. Tee-Vee and NezumiVA) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube y SoundCloud

Rainy: (YouTube description, excerpt)

Here it is, the longest, most ambitious song I’ve ever written. I knew when I pitched the album to Austin back in early January, I wanted to do a big medley encompassing all the songs on the album as a closer. The obvious point of comparison for this track is “Rex Duodecim Angelus” by Malcolm Brown. It’s an iconic homestuck and pretty anyone would jump to write something like. That being said I grossly underestimated how much work would be involved. The track took about 70 hours across 5-6 different projects files and took about a full month to write. With no hyperbole, this is probably the largest undertaking I have ever done musically. I will talk about this song more but for the sake of ease I’ll break it into 2 parts just like the song.

Part I – The Battle Begins
I like to think that every VGM composer wants to compose an absolutely nutty final boss song to show off their composition chops. That ethos is basically what is driving this part of the track. I wanted to write a song that would basically soundtrack the final battle against The Naughtfather, Gaiaeon. It might surprise you that I took a very normal song writing approach for this track. The song has typical Verse-Bridge-Chorus structure with the only twist being the 4-medley section between the various parts and those riff breakdown parts in 7/4. My concern with writing a song this ambitious is that it can quickly get stale if you don’t pace it right. I used this track structure to create a cohesive “shell” that would help guide the listener along and make the track feel like it’s constantly moving forward without disorienting the listener too much. It’s at this point I’d like to thank Tee-vee for bringing this song to life with his guitar performance In terms of influences aside from RDA, I took major influence from both “Raise Thy Sword in Pride” by Yuzo Koshiro and “The Ones Who Gather Stars in the Night” by Revo. The former is where I took symphonic rock influence from and the latter, I took the overall structure for the song from. In terms of the medley section, I tried my best to make so that every character had their chance to shine musically. Given how disparate the song on the album have been up to this point, getting them to cohesively transition into each other was a pain to put it lightly. Some segments with in the various medley sections are pretty close to original songs but some had more or less complete rearrangements to better fit the tempo of the song. The end result is a song that is largely cobbled together sounding but is that way by choice. Given that eclectic nature of the album, I think it works. This song is also notable because it’s only time that leitmotifs written other than me pop up on the album. What final battle theme would it be it I didn’t references some of the key leitmotifs from VE. Probably the most notable one of these is the interpolation of “Perfection” by Rom which I arranged over the off-kilter 7/4 riff breakdown. I wanted the utilization of these motif in a way that created a loose-ish narrative of how the battle went. Those riff breakdowns represent Gaiaeon’s unnerving, hostly presence while the more heroic motifs signify the growing confidence of our heroes as the battle goes on. This confidence culminates in the reprise of “A New World” and “Courage” as the battle ends with our heroes battered but ultimately triumphant…right?

Part II – All for Naught
And this is where the albums concept becomes apparent. On top of being VE’s “Strife” album it also the Probability album. Every song you’ve so far depicts a different alternate reality with this song being about the Alt! probability depicted in [S]Murrit: REW/FFW. If Part I is long but successful battle to save the world, Part II is our heroes realizing that the battle was over before it started. Those who’ve listened to the Hollownull album will recognize the narrator as the wonderful Marcie Hobbs (NezumiVA) reprising her role as Mimesis’s canon voice. Her performance here adds so much to the desolate tone I was going for. I couldn’t think of a better way close out this album especially considering the 1 Year Anniversary of PoP. Maybe things will wind up better for our heroes next time.

Fool's Plea Listen on: Bandcamp y SoundCloud

Rabooski: (SoundCloud description, excerpt)

Rabooski's Remix of the talented Rainy's 'The Fool Does Not Laugh'.