SBURB OST - Comentario
8 mil palabras en 109 entradas.
SBURB OST SBURB OST (album commentary) Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube (lista de reproducción)
Greetings, revered listeners!
It is my pleasure to present to you the long-awaited album known as the Sburb OST. It has been a long journey, one that has finally concluded.
Over a year ago (July 2011, to be precise), I had a conversation that forever changed me. A question was posed:
What if Sburb came with stock BGM?
What if, indeed. I set out to provide an answer to that question.
My idea was to create an original soundtrack (or OST) for Sburb, a collection of generic, catch-all, session-nonspecific music to accompany every player throughout their journey.
Upon presenting my pitch to the MSPA forums, I was met with a brilliant team of musicians and visual artists dedicated to making this a reality. Along the way we created some fantastic works of art, spawned an exciting narrative, and forged many strong friendships.
It is, again, a great pleasure for all of us to finally be able to bring this project to a satisfying conclusion, and to present it to those who have waited so long for its arrival.
-Marcy "Shadolith" Nabors
Founder and CEO of the imaginary Sburb OST Corporation•Special Thanks•
Conception/Organization: Marcy Nabors
Management/HR: M. Alex "melodioiusDiscord" Moser
Website Coding: Veritas Unae
Website Hosting: AndrewNeo & Skaia.net
Tracker/Commentary Book: Brad "Avinoch" Griffin•EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS•
Andrew Hussie (for inspiring us)
What Pumpkin, Inc. (for not suing us)
Our fellow Homestuck Fans (for your patience and support!)
Waiting For Adventure [Loading Screen] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
So this being arguably the third time I've written the same song from a functional perspective, "Waiting for Adventure" is definitely a hell of an exercise for me. The melody is halfway between "Sburban Jungle" and "Another Jungle" and was probably the least involved element. Everything else was an attempt to find a heavier sound than I had attempted with either of my tracks from the Homestuck soundtrack, and I guess this time around I made it happen. While the other two score a lot more merits for memorability, composition, and length, this one was definitely the most fun to produce - unlike its two predecessors it's more of an ass-shaker than a head-banger, so I like that.
Between the time I finished Fly to when I was asked to make art for the Sburb OST, I had just picked up a book comprised entirely of panels and pictures of art deco design by Eugene Grasset. I was quite taken with the style and decided to add hints of it in the compositions of my Sburb OST art.
SBURBan Prelude [Main Menu] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
When I went into doing this piece, I wasn't really thinking about anything and I literally spent the first day doing nothing. Then I tried to remember the first song I properly heard and enjoyed which was 'Explore'.
I tried to give it a highly arpeggiated sound and a low classical feel while still using synths. Once I fell into the flow of things, it was easy enough to get some basic melodies down. I split it up into two sections to explore the themes of both Prospit and Derse. In the end, I am happy with it due to this being my first attempt at composing, and I have definitely learnt from the experience.
When I was asked to do the artwork for these two tracks, I had a few things to work with already. SidewalkBanana had drawn up a menu for SBURB in paint, so for the menu, I just remade that, using a background drawn by Emily, and proper buttons and such.
I LIKE SPACE.
Meta Choices [Options] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
For 'Option Menu', I started with an old riff that I'd abandoned due to lack of ideas. I began to fiddle around with jazz elements and this is what came out.
Support this album as all the other artists are incredible people. (Tips hat to Brad)
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[Brad tips his hat back!]
The options screen was more fun, because I got to play around with what sorts of options would be in a game like SBURB. I ended up going with some of the more basic options, so that it would fit on the album cover, but I left in the Reckoning Damage, and the SBURB Gold joke, because I enjoyed that, and so did Sidewalk Banana.
YEAH. COOL.
Ignorance Is Bliss [Tutorial] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Ignorance is Bliss holds a special place in my heart, simple of a song as it is, because the scenario that it represents is what started this whole big Sburb OST project in the first place. I tried to capture the initial apparent simplicity presented and curiosity elicited by the Sburb interface when one connects as a server player. The titular blissful ignorance is the topic at hand here, as the simple Animal Crossing inspired instrumentation calmly assures you that you have all the time in the world - but the world doesn't have much time left.
The first time I heard this track when we were doing selections, I couldn't help but remember my days avidly playing Animal Crossing on the Gamecube and immediately picked it as one of my choices. Luckily, the music was cute enough that I got picked to do it! Thinking about how to make art for all these game OST tracks was harder than it sounded at first, because I wasn't entirely sure how I could convey clicking around without including a subject, which had at the time not been set as the composers of the music! Fortunately, though, we worked that out and I got to draw Shadolith instead of some generic cutout!
Metamorphic Choices [Kernel Prototyping] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Metamorphic Choices was lovingly glitched by Shadolith. This song is meant to be a sort of a 'you just prototyped this, way to go' song - a great big flash (everything got changed his molecules were all rearranged...) happens as your item makes contact with the kernelsprite and then the song plays. This piece was heavily inspired by Harlequin and Nannaquin. Who doesn't love glitchy sprites?
I actually had a hard time coming up with what to do here so I relied on Scott and Marcy a lot for the concept. We used it as an excuse sort of to really get into a lot of the specific world and sprite stuff! In the end Marcy made a Squiddle Speaker Sprite which I LOVE because of how fucking terrifying it looks with that cyclops speaker eye. Veri has his self-writing story sprite, which is much more classy. And then we got Marcy and Veri's worlds in there, too. Up top you see the Land of Beats and Stirring Sonar, and below you have the Land of Music and Technology. It seems that I forgot how much fun I have with scenery and land designs until I joined the Sburb group.
Dawn of the End [Countdown] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
The end of the world is a pretty big deal. Maybe not in the grand scheme of everything in SBURB, but this is still the apocalypse we're talking about! It's loud, it's powerful, and it stops for no one, so you'd better be ready for it. This piece revolves around the anticipation of a timer constantly ticking towards turmoil, as well as the frantic nature of the whole puzzling process that must be completed while proximate meteors rain down in a destructive deluge. It is a chaotic cataclysm that builds up and up as the remaining minutes drain away - the countdown timer continues its steady death march until the very last second, when the hour is met and the final bell is struck.
Also, there are references to each of the Homestuck kids' medium entry songs inserted throughout, though not all are obvious.
Unlike the other two pieces I made for this album, I didn't plan this one out at all! Luckily, the awesome folks in the chat space had ideas to spare about what Imbrog's totem lathe item should be. Thanks to them, Imbrog the SBURB Player will have to compose for his life before that meteor destroys everything he loves.
A Spirited Conversation [Sprite Interaction] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
While Metamorphic Choices does well enough as a generic Sprite/Prototyping piece, remixing it with Crazy-8 just allowed us to explore the theme a little more and give an alternate, more diverse song. A Sprited Conversation is a nice contrast to the original chiptune song. Props to Imbrog and Shadolith for providing piano and accordian, respectively.
For "A Spirited Conversation" I once again contacted Veri and sent him a quick piano part I had written up as a suggestion for a "Sprite exposition theme." Veri went above the call of duty and actually finished pretty much most of the song by himself! Then it was simply a matter of asking Imbrog and Shadolith for the respective piano and accordian recordings. Thanks again guys!!!
While I was listening to A Spirited Conversation, it sounded kind of dark, but with a hopeful ending which reminded me of the moment where the players and their sprites separated. I guess this sort of idea that you have to leave a friend, but you know that thanks to that friend, you're strong enough to carry on. What was really tough was this idea of... How on earth do you show the relationship between a fellow and his sprite when his sprite is a book and has no human-esque features so to speak of?
I wanted to draw something with a wistful atmosphere, like two friends saying goodbye, but making a book say goodbye is fairly challenging! I finally ended up with Veritas looking wistfully at the quill of his sprite. Maybe he's in the middle of saying goodbye, or they've already said goodbye, and all he has left as a reminder is that quill, or maybe they're just having tough times. Either way, I hope that the element of bitter-sweetness has gotten through?
Layers Upon Layers [Build] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
When coming up with the concept for the build theme, I brought in influences from procedurally evolving songs like the map theme from Yoshi's Island. Each of the seven sections corresponds to the task of building to each gate, getting more and more compelling as each goal is reached. In keeping with the idea of procedurally evolving music, every section has the same tempo, key and chord progression, to perpetuate the scenario , threw in a small melodic reference to Bowman's loading screen theme, because building is what Sburb is all about.
My name is Alistair Diszrali, and this is the piece I worked on for the build theme track.
STRIFE! [Battle] Listen on: YouTube
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[James did not send me
commentary for this track
so here's a haiku!][Also no comments
provided by the artist
so here's another]
Mysterious Messengers [Exiles] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
I had that G, G#, B motive stuck in my head for a long time, and I knew I wanted to use it for a desert song, so when I saw "Years in the future" I jumped at the chance to put it into play. The latter half of the song is scavenged from an older piece, that never saw the light of day. Texturally, acoustic guitars, high strings, droning pads, and a bit of brass all make me think "DESERT." The scale does most of the also desert themed, work establishing that, though. I wanted the song to be upbeat and include two parts. The first serves as a "conversation theme" to be played when the exiles are communicating with the players and "exile action" which, is unlikely to be heard by a player, but would accompany something more intense happening years in the future.
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[YEARS IN THE FUTURE...
A ramshackle wanderer
...finds a giant book?]
Overly Ostentatious Ogre [Miniboss] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[Hope you've leveled up
This guy doesn't mess around
but he makes a mess!]
So near the end of the project, Tawa made it known that due to circumstances she wouldn't be able to finish some of her art for the album. For this piece she had left the basic sketch, and I decided to take on the task of making it into a finished piece. The overall layout and the shape of the ogre with his rippling muscles was all Tawa, so my job was really one of trying to decide on a background, put the characters into some kind of context and to add finish and colour to the whole thing. I quite like the collaborative feel of it; I think both of our artistic voices come through.
The Porkhollow is Overflowing! [Echeladder] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
The Porkhollow is Overflowing was a difficult piece to write until I nailed the melody. The drumroll at the start plays until you ascend to the rung of the echladder you just reached, plays the little fanfare and then loops the rest of the song from then on. Not much else to say on this, so enjoy! (Have you noticed I love mallet percussion yet?)
Toe:
Ascend the Echeladder and you'll get Boondollars stuffed in your Ceramic Porkhollow! Nothing much can be said about this picture but Veritas did a splendid job for this track. I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I did.
Consort Air [Consorts] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Drawing from the music of Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie, DK64), I aimed to capture the goofy, bouncy spirit of the slippery creatures native to the Medium. I ran out of ideas 30 seconds in. Tarranon sent me some notes as to how I could continue, and it evolved into what you see know. Big props to him on helping me get this finished!
[Spider Crow T-Rex,
Possum Owl Lizard Fox Mouse
Cow Mongoose Hamster]
8bitkitten: (track artist, Tumblr)
This is my track art for the recently released Sburb OST!
These consorts belong to the artists who contributed to it. Mine is the blue possum. =3
Fraymotif Samba [Consort Shop] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[Let's just take a sec
to appreciate that cow.
It's adorable!]
We actually had a big discussion during the planning stages of the album (the part where we decided the players would be the composers and the consorts would be the artists) about which player had what kind of consort a while before I ended up drawing this. I'm reasonably sure I missed that discussion, because I was pretty surprised to learn that the Cow, which I had chosen as my consort animal, was the very animal James had chosen for himself! Happy coincidences aside, I was pretty excited to work on this track (although I at first misunderstood that it wasn't supposed to be the alchemiter theme, which was embarrassing), since it's a bouncy, fun track, and I like that sort of thing!
Waking the Beast [Denizen Encounter] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Nucleose and I are good pals, so we collaborated on this piece. We decided to compose a theme for first encountering a denizen (but not fighting it!). We agreed that it should be cinematic and ominous, and perhaps switch moods throughout, to accompany a theoretical cutscene featuring a dialogue between the player and the denizen. Within a day, Nucleose had hammered out the main theme on piano, which I then set about to arrange for full orchestra and electronics. I emerged nearly 6 months later, scarred from many bloody battles with the demons of procrastination, with a song called Waking the Beast (a title that I settled on months before Eidolon Orpheus' Bargaining with the Beast was released). Though Nucleose would claim that he had almost no hand in the finished product, I incorporated (read: stole) many elements that are common in his music: uncommon meter, Phrygian mode, numerous gradual tempo changes, etc. SO THERE, YAN.
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[It begs the question...
How zen is a denizen
when it's in a den?]
Glow in the Distance [Save] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[SKAIA•NET PATCH NOTES:
ADDED SAVE POINTS TO ALL LANDS.
LOAD POINTS COMING SOON.]
James' land is a desert which made it easy to come up with imagery for it. A single glowing point of light past a troop of imps. You just need to get past them and you're safe for a bit. The song itself is for the screen that would display when you loaded the game from a previous file, like Dearly Beloved from Kingdom Hearts. But I digress, the art depicts one of the few save points in the game. It is located on top of a hill. And off in the sky you can see Shadolith's land! Yay!
Lulling Lutescent [Prospit Sleep] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
These two lulling lullabies were rather fun to write... I wrote the Prospit lullaby before writing the Prospit song itself, so linearly it inspired part of the Prospit theme... As such they're short and relaxing, but with a little twist at the end.
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[These songs remind me
...
Time for bed, goodnight!]
On Golden Dreams [Prospit] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
When approaching Prospit's theme, I had a clear picture in mine that this piece would have several sections illustrating different areas of the moon itself. Feel free to envision your own areas, but the areas I came up with were Main City, Touching Skaia Clouds, Dream Towers, Queen's Palace and Solar Strife. Dream Towers heavily borrows on the Lulling Lutescent theme I made prior to attempting this piece. Also, remember the 'teaser'? Everything in that was from this. So I'm sure a lot of this album was a surprise after all!
This song is really gentle and dignified, like a slow floating walk through a golden city, until the end where you gaze up at Skaia and see your entire life flashing before you! The Dreamer in the image does exactly that while curious Prospitians look on. I'm not sure what he's seeing in those clouds, but I bet it's exciting. I bet he'll remember it when the time is right.
Amongst Smiling Faces [Prospitian Dignitaries] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
In the early hours, Prospitians set up their wares and prepare for a day of fruitful bartering, bantering, and bargaining in the city's largest bazaar.
The image was pretty straightforward. I had an idea of what I wanted to do very early on. What's actually interesting about this image isn't the image itself, but the fact that I've worked on a lot of stuff with Rayner before, and this is actually my third time doing album art for his work because we're both involved in the 'Vacant Sky' RPG series. Because we never really talk directly on that project and because he goes by 'Tarranon' and I by 'Darth Mongoose' there rather than 'Rayner' and 'felicitousArtisan' we didn't realise we already knew each other! I just happened to pick the piece because I liked it. Kind of a funny coincidence.
Grudge in A Minor [Jack Noir] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
I suppose most people expected jazz!
Well... It's not jazz.U MAD?
Seriously, though. In Homestuck, Jack's theme "Black" is pretty darn crazy with all the pitch bending and running notes, but to be honest? I don't think it fits with Jack as a character. Don't get me wrong - it's perfectly justified within the context of Homestuck because Jack goes batshit insane after getting the bunny. But if you look at him within the context of a regular session, he's, well - a washed-up Archagent stuck in a dead-end job who hates his superior. And that's not very exciting. So I made something that sounds more like a funeral march. It's your funeral, because after the song's over, he shoas u his stabbz.
Some explanation is required for this piece. Kon made the sprite that made Jack hate him at least 10 times more. A Party Cat sprite. Sadly for Jack, these are not corpse parties, these are the good old fashioned cake, confetti, and music parties. So imagine you are Jack. You went to bed feeling disgruntled as always but that's nothing new. You are then suddenly wakened by DD, HB, and CD playing a rousing and lively song outside your door. How do you feel?
Lavender Lullaby [Derse Sleep] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
These two lulling lullabies were rather fun to write, especially Derse's, which used a small refrain from Konec0's Derse theme... These short instances would play, similar to the one that was played as Doomed Rose fell asleep and merged with the Alpha Rose...
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[...
I should not be up this late.
Time for bed, goodnight!]
Planet in Shadow [Derse] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
He awakens with a start. The first thing he notices is the throbbing headache. He feels groggy, and his entire body feels heavy, as if he's been sleeping for ages, so long it's forgotten how to move. There's something in the back of his head, something that sounds like white noise, or static, or strange whispers. He dismisses them for the moment; it's probably the headache talking, he thinks. The second thing he notices, as he forces himself to sit up, is how everything is purple. The walls of his room are lined with violet and indigo, and even his sheets and his pajamas (he didn't remember putting these on before going to sleep; heck, he didn't even remember having them) are similar shades. This must be a dream, he thinks, and yet he is unable to shake the feeling that this is terribly, frighteningly real. The third thing he notices is how dark and quiet it is. Faint light streams in through the window, from a blue planet far away. It's thin and wispy, as if shining from behind a veil. The eerie silence makes his skin crawl. He strides over to the window, and looks up, towards the endless void. There is nothing there, and yet it beckons him, and he is nearly compelled to leap into the abyss. Tearing his gaze away from the vast nothingness, he peers downwards instead - and there it is, stretching out before him in all its glory: Derse, the planet in shadow.
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[Planet in Shadow?
With all that purple, more like
Planet of the Grapes]
Drolls and Dignitaries [Dersite Agents] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
The Dersites have always struck me as a colorful bunch. We see a range of personalities, from the cold, calculating Droog to the bumbling Deuce, the goofy Vagabond and the highstrung Renegade. Also, with the possible exception of Jack, they don't really seem that evil or malicious to me. If you'll forgive my use of the term, they seem like Punch Clock Villains, just out to do their job, like the soldiers of any army. That job unfortunately includes the extermination of Prospit. That doesn't necessarily mean they're the bad guys here per se! From a musical standpoint, the Dersites have also been very much linked with jazz for me, especially since the Midnight Crew album. It just seems to fit; they're dark, but not really evil. I didn't entirely subscribe to the Midnight Crew's "dark jazz," though - they're more diverse than that. So I went with a jazzy piece with different elements that hopefully capture the different personalities of the Dersites we've seen so far - lighthearted piano for the Drolls and smooth jazz for the Dignitaries.
I was so excited to get this one, oh man oh man, I love the Dersite characters so much and also the song is great and oh gosh. So I was all "yeah I think I'll do a nice picture of DD and CD" and I talked to Cat Boss and he mentioned WV and I was like, OH MAN. All my babbies. So yeah then I tried to do something with WV and DD with the flag and spear in an X pattern, and it looked dumb, so I drew this. And spent about ten million hours on overlays getting the colors juuuuuust so. And it's hardly even noticeable, bluh.
The Ultimate Riddle [Ultimate Riddle] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
With The Ultimate Riddle, I tried to merge two concepts: The first half of the song is quite ambient. It is meant to fill the role of a sort of myserious "you can't go here yet" song, not unlike the scenario of the infinite staircase in Super Mario 64. The second half is a very Metroid Prime inspired exploration piece, to be heard while exploring ruins on your personal world. The result is a very mysterious song indeed.
I interpreted the riddle as Shadolith entering a temple in his land and then when she finally reaches the core she sees the heart of the land along with ancient carvings. Shadolith is confronted with a strange tablet on the wall (representing the prophecy about her becoming a god) and a series of holes in the wall. Said holes actually make up part of the melody to the song "Gods of the New World". Would playing those measures actually be relevant to creating the new world? They might be, or they might not.
Eldritch Murmurs [Horrorterrors] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Fuzz:
I have always been keen to experiment with soundscapes. Essentially this piece is just one giant soundscape with a melody. The goal i had was to create something which would be intense enough to feel horrific without being goofy or cheesy. In essence i feel this expresses the nature of the horrorterrors accurately.
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[H͏ ͘ E̶ ̡ Y̕ ҉҉̡ T̨ H͢ ͝ E̢ RE҉̢ ҉ ͢ L͝ I͡ T̢ T̨ ͢ ĹE ̡ F̷ ҉R̢ Į͝ ̕ E̷ ͠ N͏ ҉D̵
́H̶ ̛ O̡ W̷ WO͏ U͞ ĻD̡ ̵ ҉Y̛ O͘ ͜ U͞ ͞ L̕ Į̵ ͠ K҉E͝ T͞ Ớ͠ ͡ H͏ U͞ G̢ ̕ ̧ A͏ ŅḐ
B͟ E͟ ͜ ͝ T̀ ͟ A̕ N҉͠ G̛ L͜ ͞ E̴ ͏ B̢ ͠ Ù̶ ͘ D̸ D͘ I͡ ̶ ES͟ ͞ ]̸
Outer Reaches [Veil] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
When I started working on the Veil theme, I initially had the idea to combine a song about the Veil with a song about the labs. The idea was to have two separate sections: a calm, soothing ambient piece and a harsh electronic piece. That idea ended up not really coming to fruition due to various reasons, so I just settled on writing a piece solely focused on the veil, and I'm still very proud of how it turned out! I really think that as I worked on it, I gained a much richer understanding of how compositions are made, and for better or worse, it has deeply impacted how I look at music.
Crazy-8 has been a good friend of mine for about a year now, and when I heard that he was going to be submitting to this album, I immediately set my heart on doing the cover art for it. This track, to me, at least, has a sort of peaceful loneliness to it, which I think is perfect for the Veil.
Inner Depths [Labs] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Made an ambient track for the labs. Beep Boop. Drums added at the last minute to drive it better. Crazy-8's "Outer Reaches" is quoted in it too.
[Tarranon drew this
and send the lineart to me
I did the colours!]
Autogenesis [Ectobiology] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[Paradox parents
stealing slime from other times
Infinite infants.][Chess men in a tank?
They rook rather put upawn.
(Thank you, and good knight!)]
Broken Dreams [Prospit's Fall] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Working with Crazy-8 on Broken Dreams was great, and I'm sure both of us got a lot out of the experience. A remix of Prospit's theme for when Prospit eventually loses the battle and the Reckoning is just about to begin. It transitions into the song for the Reckoning too.
For Broken Dreams, I suggested a sad, almost funeral-esque arrangement of the Prospit theme "On Golden Dreams" as sort of a "Prospit loses" theme. Veri delivered with the fantastic piano arrangement and I added the percussion.
Dersite battleships float above, casting shadows on the lifeless Prospitian husks. The King lies on the Battlefield, pierced and broken, never to rise again.
This is probably the most depressing thing I've drawn. I had a lot of fun with it!
Paradoxical Meteor Shower [Reckoning] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[The end of the world
Spacey stones seeding stations
...and also babies][Falling fireballs
spectacular shooting stars
massive meteors]
Emerald Icarus [Green Sun] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
When approaching the concept of a song for the Green Sun, I knew that it would have to be very ambient. When making this song, I drew from sources of inspiration including Super Mario Galaxy and the phazon-related songs from the Metroid Prime trilogy. I tried to capture just how weird it would be to see an unfathomably massive star out in the middle of complete blackness, suspended in the void, stationary yet serving some great cosmic purpose.
This song would be entirely nothing without Absynth 5.
Mixt:
There's something about facing off against something so big - especially something with the mass of two universes - out in the middle of nowhere and nothing that is incredibly humbling, even if you are a god.
My first thought when thinking of the Green Sun is a surface of rolling, boiling fire, hotter and brighter than anything you've ever seen. Solar flares that reach distances you can't even imagine. I also had a brief flash to another celestial body with a turbulent, stormy atmosphere: Jupiter, whose Giant Red Spot I ended up making an allusion to.
CumuloSeerus [Oracle Clouds] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
To reflect the subject matter (prognosticative precipitation) I tried to make this song lighthearted, with a hint of mystery. To give it a drifty, floaty feeling I messed around a lot with stereo panning. The track name is a terrible pun (sorry!). This piece is heavily influenced by "Dire, Dire Docks" from Mario 64, and references the melody from SidewalkBanana's "SBURBan Prelude".
With every piece I did for Sburb OST I was trying to blend iconic Homestuck images/styles with an art deco feel.
Checkerboard Checkmate [Battlefield] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
The sun rises over a rolling landscape of rivers, checkerboard plots, and embattled denizens of Skaia. The allure of battle hangs heavy over the fear of death.
I mimicked a typical art deco floral tiling (you usually see it in wallpaper designs) but with blood in one and reused the tiling idea on the loading screen. I find the same sort of amazement and calmness in the compositions of the art deco patterns that I find in a lot of symmetrical compositions. I like symmetry.
Skaiaward [Skaia] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Skaiaward has had a pretty strange development. I was the original artist attached to it, but had to drop out of the SburbOST project to focus on everything else that was going on. Eventually, Cadrien (mD) attempted something for it, but struggled due to his lack of compositional experience. Nonetheless, the pentatonic idea he went with (similarly to the canon Skies of Skaia) was the base that Marcy and I ultimately used in our reinterpretation... after I managed to get myself involved with the project again.
Our opinion is that this piece is a more accurate representation of Skaia compared to Skies of Skaia. The focus is on the bittersweet concept that Skaia is both a creator and destroyer of life.
Toe:
You gotta admit, Skaia is beautiful.
I tried to portray its surrounding as enchantingly unique as I possibly could by using awkward vibrant colors. Hopefully it looks nice.
Resurrection [God Tier] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
"[S] JOHN. RISE UP" is one of my favorite HS pages. A lot of that was watched while composing this. I added the fading rain at the start as a transition from the Game Over track before that got moved. The crescendo and accelerando throughout is meant to embody the returning of vitality and infusion of power. It's in 5/4 time because 4/4 is boring.
Making an image that encompasses 'God Tier' is kind of hard. I mean, it's such an epic concept in general and more than just getting groovy hooded pyjamas. I decided to do something that'd reflect the 'resurrection' aspect of ascending; I love the animations of John and Jade's with the big sparkly skies and stuff. It was fun to make something gratuitously glowy.
Land of _____ and Frogs [Frog Gathering] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Land of _____ and Frogs (the _____ is 'Space', a double entendre) was meant to be a happy go lucky piece contrasting the true danger that was to come. Also, it's hard to imagine a little child running around and not being overzealous at the thought of catching Frogs to use in experiments. There's also a reference in there I was asked to put in - it might be obvious. I personally haven't played the game referenced but it's a funny little one nonetheless that I was happy to put in. It's very Irish sounding, too, which could have come from playing a lot of marches in an orchestra while I was writing this piece.
My first attempt at this art ended up being a little too dark and dreary for the music, so I whipped up this one instead. Veritas and Traikan (out Space player in the background) catching frogs. I kind of suck at backgrounds and foreshortening, but hopefully I added enough shinies to cover that up.
Rana's Abode [Frog Temple] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
I made this when I was just sitting at a piano messing with 6th chord arppeggios and really enjoyed the foreboding but... I suppose, full feeling that it gave. For something that's been around for a long time, and, well, is important.
Toe:
It sounded as if the stars in the night sky were jingling in the beginning of the song, soon proceeding with a more dramatic melody as it surrounded the frog temple, representing the mysteries it holds. Nucleose, you never cease to amaze me! The melancholic atmosphere got stuck in my head when I started drafting out the picture. You can tell I like starry night skies quite a lot. Ahaha.
The Will to Fight Further [Denizen Strife] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
I wanted something fast paced and intense, but I realized that effect would be more dramatic if there was a slowed down intro with different instruments. That way, the song can build up and surprise you when that beat finally drops.
This is my arrangement of UWBW's "The Will to Fight." It was pretty awesome enough already, but then UWBW (originally, at any rate!) had to pull out of the project. So I picked up his theme and remixed it, while mixing some of my own melodies in. In my mind Sburb is an action RPG, so I wanted something fast and action-y. I didn't actually necessarily know where I was going to go with it so it ended up this fast-paced, nearly dance-esque thing? With multiple segments, heh. And then Marcy stepped in with Shreddage and tossed some badass guitar at me, and I added that in too. So now you have a song which starts off with a sort of let's fite kind of atmosphere, and later it gets pretty badass, so I'd say it turned out pretty well on the whole! Also, there's a quick reference to "Waking the Beast" in the ending. I love that song.
There's a lot to say about this picture that makes the whole thing really hilarious, and not in a structural way. The narratives that are taking place make no sense at all, and I think it's really funny. I had conceptualized the original Denizen Strife theme to take place with Cetus as the subject, but when the game came together with the musicians as players, this no longer made any sense. We don't have any Light players. As a matter of fact, we don't have any Breath players, either. konec0 is the Boss of Cats and Underwater Basketweaver is the King of Queens. I really had no canon denizens for those titles, so I drew Typheus for fun. When listening to the song I could imagine the backgrounds changing according to the different movements, but I couldn't make track art of that so I just idly drew up konec0's Land of Flight and Thunder. Still, the mish-mash of elements and locations and denizen doesn't actually make any sense. konec0 and I figured what this means is that he and UWBW's have been running around killing other people's denizens.
The jerks.
Barren Session [Game Over] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Originally my first foray into using orchestral strings, adapted to suit the theme. Definitely more melancholy than most of my previous work, and was quite a challenge to get sounding right. I added thunderstorm effects as a cheesy attention-getter (as most people just skip listening to the "Game Over" music and load their saved games), but they ended up fitting pretty well.
Game Over, figured there should be some player dying, so I made it funny/sad by making him die next to his quest bed.
Dilemma [The Choice] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Fuzz:
The choice always struck me as an interesting game mechanic. In essence the game gives you two impossibly difficult options to choose from. I wanted to create a piece which constantly builds tension as a player is supposed to make up their mind about what their choice is going to be. I didnt want to create a clear resolution because the choice is a choice, it is up to the player what happens. This piece is just impossibly-tough-decision-making-music. I think it fits.
I want to say "The Choice is one of my favourite songs on the Sburb OST" but that would be a lie just because I love absolutely everything on the Sburb OST. Either way I was really excited when I got to do the art for this song. It's so slow, smooth, beautiful and dramatic, and I wanted a piece that could convey that. I wanted it to be dark, hopefully have Echidna in a silhouette somehow with glowing eyes.
I experimented with a side-view of her before we got the outline of what you see here. Then we tried to go with a bright background, but it wasn't working out, which I'm still pretty sorry for. The bright BG could have worked in a pair of scales, which I was excited to use because of all of the music puns we could make. But when I got this BG I knew we had a winner.
The entire time I was drawing it I would occasionally say to myself, in hushed tones, quietly.... pchoooooooo. Now I do it every time I look at the thing.
Vulcanic Volcano [Forge] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Right from the start I knew there'd be some heavy brass and rumbling percussion, obviously taking inspiration from every Lava World, Dwarf Kingdom or Magmoor Caverns soundtrack ever, but I also wanted to do something a little different. The harp, the flute, and the light bongo-esque percussion give the track a hint of an Aztec or Incan, just barely South/Central American flavor. Originally I considered a slight electronic twist, but decided to opt for something more... professional? Orchestral seemed to be the texture de jour in this OST, and I don't write that way much, so it was an opportunity to push myself production wise. Compositionally, I knew I wanted to use a minor scale for the ominous and sublime nature of a volcano, and I settled on F# minor mostly because of the way I-V-VII-I sounds.
I think we can all agree that volcanos are awesome. I've never been great at scenery, but it's something I've been practicing and actually when I decided to audition for this project I was hoping for some scenery to draw! I went into this one thinking "Okay, I think I'll draw the volcano and a Space player looking at it", and I asked Traikan for direction and he asked for his self-insert character, and also his land, which helped me flesh out my idea a lot. Also his land was super, super fun to draw. He gave me a lot of references for his character and I kind of feel bad that I didn't put more detail on him, but I didn't want to draw attention away from the Forge...
Check the Chequered Castle [Battlefield Castle] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
As I wrote the Castle theme, I was picturing a two stage piece - one where you were merely exploring the castle for information or insight and another where the battle was taking place inside, with small meteors from the Reckoning crashing through the ceilings, and Prospitans and Dersites engaged in battle around you. The piece shows shifts between the two; the trumpet fanfare into the fast section and the slow down to the start section again allow for transition between untouched rooms and rooms with action. Thanks to Nucleose for all his assistance on this song too - it really helped make it what it is.
Mixt:
One of my favourite things in RPGs is exploring every knook and cranny of the environment, although sometimes it's also a bit nerve wracking because you might not know what's around the corner. How long can you continue unhindered? What will you find?
Will you like what you find in the middle of this war?
Endgame Execution [Black King Battle] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This is a final boss battle theme in four parts! It's heavily inspired by Nobuo Uematsu's "Dancing Mad", from FFVI; in fact, I considered making a very long unloopable thing, but along the way it became apparent that it would be pretty unfeasible. So now it has a intro, two loopable middle sections, and the ending. They are as follows:
Herald of the End - An ominous chorus heralds the coming strife between the heroes and the Black King, as the players stride up to face the final boss.
March of the Black King - The Black King laughs at the puny players, and attacks. He plays around with his prey attacking with his scepter and abilities gained by the various prototypings. However, the players give him far more than he bargained for.
Heroes: Rise Up - With an earth-shattering roar, we enter the final phase of the battle. The Black King is clearly getting desperate now, pummeling the heroes with everything he has, and bringing the full force of the Reckoning to bear. The heroes respond in kind; they can't afford to lose...
Herald of the End (Reprise) - ...and finally, their efforts are rewarded. The Black King stumbles, and with a final cry, he crashes to the ground, vanquished once and for all.
I took a lot of elements from previous, unreleased songs, but that would take too long to go through. Enjoy!
I'm pretty pleased that I managed to get in every single first prototype that was listed to me.
Including that Obama picture.
Where ribbIt All Began [Genesis Frog] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
A universe is born anew - a starry expanse of which one might catch only a vivid glimpse. Grandiose and immense beyond all rationality, the Genesis Frog bears the creation of a new reality within.
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[Universal frog!
I bet it's quite slippery...
..cuz it's Slick. Get it?]
Higher Hopes [Game Complete] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
The cusp of victory, at a moment when it seems that it will be snatched away forever - the heroes stand proudly at the crest, knowing that they have succeeded beyond all hope or expectation.
Mixt:
You've all fought long and hard, faced and defeated great enemies, overcome incredible obstacles and achieved unbelievable feats. At last, you are here.
And yet, for a moment, you hesitate. You think of all that has been lost on this journey - all for the sake of a new universe. And what will it be like, this creation of yours? How will you be as gods?
You look around at your fellow players - friends with whom you've been through so much, accomplished the unimaginable - and you turn back to the door (so deceptively simply) before you. You reach for the knob and open...
Gods of the New World [Universe Creation] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Shh... close your eyes. Listen carefully.
To the birth of the New World.I only have one thing to say about this piece, that it is meant to convey the emotions that would be felt when creating a universe - the epitome of achievement. I can only hope that I have managed to convey such feelings here.
The moment I heard this song, even then when it was still half-finished, I gasped, sat back in my chair, and instantly felt unworthy. These guys are so ridiculously talented. The song covers the entirety of a growing universe, so it was difficult to pick just one stage. In the end, I decided on the Genesis Frog in His pond, surrounded by blooming lotus flowers. You can just barely see the end-game platform, where the victorious players are watching their new universe take form.
The Untold Story [Skaia Exposition] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Initially made to give Crazy-8 some ideas on how to continue his Skaia track, this piece is driven heavily by what he had already done. It's a medley of the other OST themes relating to Skaia, loosely shadowing the progression of Nannasprite's Skaia exposition. See if you can catch all the references!
The art was kind of thrown together at the last minute. Check out the rad J.J. Abrams lens flare!
Melody && Form && Composition [Alchemiter] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Shadolith has been a really great friend and mentor to me these past months, guiding me through my admittedly limited knowledge of music theory and production. I'm really glad I worked with her on the Alchemiter theme and I hope to work with her again soon.
Hahaha. Haaa. I had no idea what to do with this.
The only thing I could think of was that using the Alchemiter would probably be very menu-intensive, so I should draw menus. And then I was like, okay, what kind of look should I go for here, I'm really only good at vector stuff but something pixelly and oldschool would be really neat...
Ahhh well the short end of it is that I tossed Photoshop aside, opened up an old ANSI-based game creation engine I used to use back in the day and drew up some menus in that.
Mmmm, pixels.
Take Flight [Battleship] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Take Flight was just an attempt at making a song I had running about in my head to do with the Battleships both sides have on Skaia's battlefield. It takes a couple of motifs from Battlefield and Castle themes but ultimately it came into its own. The trumpets take a harmony from the start of Battlefield, while the main repeated motif of Castle is interspersed on different instruments throughout. The second violin brings in Battlefield's theme briefly before the end.
On the art, I asked Pseudonym if she'd be willing to draw some album art for me. I suggested the reflection of a battleship in Veritas' glasses, the Reckoning causing many ships to be struck by meteors and catch a-blaze. The sketch she drew was fantastic, and I'd like to extend many thanks to Avinoch for finishing the art up for us!
I can't really speak to the concept behind this art piece. Pseudonym drew the original sketch for this, but was sadly unavailable to complete it. I just did a colours and shading pass.
Born to Die [Doomed Timeline] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This is an arrangement of ThiefofTruth's "Born To Die" with a rad choir soundfont. Influenced slightly by the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack.
There were a lot of interesting tracks in this album! I liked the idea of making a track for a doomed timeline. I had a lot of imagery in my head when I thought about the theme. The song itself in terms of the topic made me think of a dead character knowing the fate of their timeline. I wish I had been less bogged down by end-of-semester work and major artblock; I would have liked to express more of the theme and mood of the song in the picture.
The Will to Fight (Original Mix) [Denizen Strife] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
This song started out as a chiptune, but due to computer failures, I lost all of my work. I decided to remake it in non-chiptune form. It's supposed to sound menacing while at the same time spurring you into action. A real fight-or-die situation would have music like this. Overall, I just tried to have fun with this piece, drawing inspiration from songs like Chaotic Strength and Tomahawk Head. While I don't think the song is as good as it could be, other obligations (and further computer failures) caused me leave it a bit unpolished.
As soon as I laid my ears on The Will To Fight I knew I wanted to be related with this song somehow. It's just so poppy and catchy and wonderful. I sent Marcy a looong e-mail detailing why she should let me do the art for the track. I just love this song so much, I wanted desperately to have the honor of doing the art. I really wanted to convey a sense of scale with the Denizen because there's some pretty epic battle vibes in this song, and a great build-up that I thought I could reflect well with size. I also wanted some classic video game effects to get the old school boss battle feel, but nothing I did quite looked right, so I just have that glow in place instead. I'm so excited that this piece made it onto the album. It's been on pretty much every playlist I've made for myself since I heard it the first time.
Prime [Pause] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
Brad Griffin: (booklet editor)
[.....
.......
.....]
A regular old pause screen is boring I guess. So I drew someone pausing right when they're about to die from their meteor strike. Again, because it's more amusing that way.
Godfight [PvP] Listen on: Bandcamp y YouTube
"Marcy, you can't do this!"
"Yes I can. With Prospit winning on the battlefield, the Reckoning will be delayed indefinitely... or as long as I see fit."
"No, you don't understand. Without the Reckoning, none of us would ever exist - you'll cause a time paradox-"
"-That's a risk I'm willing to take."
"It'll be the end of us all, Marcy!"
"Would you rather I end you? Right here, right now?"
"...so that's the way it's going to be, then."
Uhh I don't really know what to say about it honestly???
It was a really last minute decision to do the art for it since prior to this I knew precisely jack shit about the project. There were better things I could have done but I had a really small time constraint.
SBURB OST
Disk 1 (1–32)
Disk 2 (33–48)
Bonus tracks (49–56)