Homestuck Vol. 7: At the Price of Oblivion - Commentary
2.9k words across 22 entries.
Homestuck Vol. 7: At the Price of Oblivion Homestuck Vol. 7: At the Price of Oblivion (album commentary) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube, YouTube (playlist)
Andrew Hussie: (MSPA news post, excerpt) captured 7/14/2011
Two Albums
Homestuck Volume 7: At the Price of Oblivion, and... a solo album by Michael Guy Bowman called Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido
Volume 7 is pretty self explanatory. Contains many songs from the story, plus a bunch of other great new ones. I say this every time, but this is now the best HS volume. AND IT KEEPS BEING TRUE EVERY TIME I SAY IT.
Michael Guy Bowman: (Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music, adapted to text)
At the same time that Mobius Trip & Hadron Kaleido came out, we released Homestuck Volume 7. That summer of 2011 was so cool because we were in full swing releasing one of these cool spinoff albums, and one of these compilation albums, like, every month. So we were operating on the capacity of an independent label, and like, really killing it. I would have loved to see that continue.
Homestuck: (Bandcamp credits blurb) captured 6/3/2011
Music by:
Malcolm Brown
Michael Guy Bowman
Clark 'Plazmataz' Powell
Robert Blaker
Toby 'Radiation' Fox
Alexander Rosetti
Erik 'Jit' Scheele
Joren 'Tensei' de Bruin
Thomas 'EidolonOrpheus' Ferkol
Robert J! Lake
Curt Blakeslee
George Buzinkai
Mark Hadley
Black Rose / Green Sun Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
So it's the music forum discussion, and there's talk about albums representing each of the kids and discussions on what the styles would be. Some are obvious (like say, Dave) and some are offering a bit more discussion. It comes to Rose and there's a degree of uncertainty, and I suggest that it'd be veering into classical, offering up Saint-Saëns "Dance Macabre" as an example of the sort of thing I'd expect, and then set out to whip something up.
And at this point in the story Rose's set on flying her dream self with the tumor into the green sun to destroy it (Ah remember those days). In a tried and true effort of "trying to predict where Hussie will take the story and make music for it" BR/GS was scribed as a "very sad, yet hopeful, song about Rose's eventual sacrifice" - Hence why it all builds up to a big creshendo and then fades away (and why it's called Black Rose / Green Sun , although there's another reason for that as explained below)
The whole thing is based on yet another piece I made years ago and drafted it out of retirement and made it into something new and useful. The music box was one of the key elements, representing a kind of creepy childlike innocence, and then Rose's signature instrument (the violin, although the sample used is actually a viola and the notes it plays are closer to a cello) begins to kind of build up. Eventually we see the majesty of the green sun, and the rest of the song builds up to the tumors destruction. (All of which never happened even remotely in this way but that's what the song was supposed to be about anyway). The overall style is a kind of very sinister attempt at representing something small vs something huge - Original inspiration was taken from the style of music from Xenogears (Yasunori Mitsuda, being very celtic and awesome).
The scratchy-sfx were my attempt at auralising the green sun's "scratch" effect. I'm not 100% convinced they work but Andrew kept 'em in so whatever.
When Andrew asked to use it, it was going to be for a walkaround, so I needed to make some adjustments to make it loopable for the flash. For the album, I added a second section with a keytar solo (I was mucking about with it at the time) to make it a bit more interesting. Ultimatly it ended up being used for something completely different than originally intended, and oddly the name ("Black Rose") became oddly apt once she went all grimdark and tried to fight Jack ("Green Sun").
The name was also a reference to a Sonata Arctica song, similarly titled involving colours, except it was called "White Pearl, Black Oceans".
At The Price of Oblivion Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
The name comes from a line of Rose's during Act 5 while discussing her options of survival with Doc Scratch:
TT: But it's a little disheartening to learn I'm now faced with not one, but two suicide missions at once.
TT: One to destroy Jack's power source and defend all of existence, and another to ensure our cosmic progeny at the price of oblivion.As soon (like, not a minute after) as I saw Rose go grimdark, I decided to wrote some hilariously ANGRY AND KICKASS BATTLE MUSIC for her (presumed inevitable) battle with Jack. The original sort of concept was something like the music of Guilty Gear - All guitars and organs and the like. It took several attempts to try and tone it into something useful, but in the end I decided to dig up Chorale for Jaspers - A previous bit of music used for representing the death of Rose's cat (The main themes here being the death of Rose's mother and the anger she feels afterwords).
So that's where we start, with a kind of messed up, creepy violin rendition of Chorale for Jaspers, before we start to build up and then kick into the main part of the song. Around 1:00 we here the music box chords from Black Rose/ return, then at 1:20 it's another Keytar Solo from me (I'd just bought it and was feeling cocky). The rhythm guitar and guitar solo at the end was also me and also something I was terrified to do since I don't normally do "Live" playing (Everything is usually sequenced). In this case, a lot of it was so difficult to do (Because I can barely play guitar. At all) at this speed most of it was played at a slower tempo and then sped up digitally (HAX!).
The drums were easily the funnest thing to sequence in this thing, mainly all the awesome fills and the double bass step at the end. The final guitar solo is an attempt to reference Rose's original "Strife" theme - Aggrieve. It's very loosely there, and I reckon needs to come back in some fashion since it's actually kind of awesome.
When Andrew told me he was going to use this one for a fight scene I was looking heavily forward to it. Imagine my surprise when just as it's about to kick off... John gets himself stabbed.
Terezi Owns Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Angela Sham: (alternate artwork, Tumblr)
Terezi: Engage justice mode. And also stay in the redglare costume for the rest of a while ok, ok.
#i like my coffee like i like my justice #covered in bees
Trial and Execution Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Not a huge amount to say on this one... The scene inspiring it was obviously Terezi's ancestor Redglare vs Vriska's ancestor Mindfang during the sort of mock-trial that ended in Mindfang mind-controlling the crowd and hanging Redglare. Felt like a nice scene to try some musical accompaniment, so I did.
So a combination of liking Terezi's theme and getting my hands on some new samples and voices, I decided to whip this together. The idea was a very tribal, savage kind of military march (and chanting) to represent the lower class masses baying for blood. It starts off using Lemonsnout Turnabout for Terezi, but then quickly changes to Crystalanthemums -- Specifically for the reference to "Make Her Pay" and Crystamanthequins as a kind of "Vriska vs Somebody" theme. Ideally it would've just evolved into Vriska's theme, but I find that one a bit tricky to work with.
Finally it throws in a string glissando as tension mounts, and then snap! Dead! (The snapping is some kind of double bass string snap.)
The little eerie female vocalist thing didn't really work and is a bit cliched, but I kinda like the rest of the track. Always nice to give character deaths a little celebration
The name's fairly obvious - I was trying to work in some kind of "Trial and Error" gag but I guess this works.
Spider8reath Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Alright, as requested, I'll do some indepth commentary on already released Homestuck songs, starting off with Spider8reath.
Now, you may have heard this from me before, but Vriska is HANDS DOWN the most fun character to write music for. It's hard to exactly pinpoint the reason for this, but something about her character just invites badass pentatonic blues riffs, squealing guitars and shrill horns all over the place.
Really, when you pick it apart, this song is actually very simple at its basis, containing a pretty typical blues progression, and the constantly repeated guitar/bass riff which is introduced right at the start and then just keeps on going ( dadada DA dada DA dada dada dadadada, it's really fun to sing along actually!)
The horn section actually adds the bulk of the songs 'gravy', providing lots of switch-ups, sometimes playing in unison with the main riff, sometimes splitting up and providing countermelodies or underlining the harmonized guitars. It was also by far the hardest part to write because I had literally no previous experience with brass writing, but I got some great feedback from other music team members.
Actually part of the reason that it was so hard to implement is probably because the song was already more or less 'done' before I thought of putting in a few brass stabs here and there. Then as I was writing the brass became more and more of a foreground element, and that's how Spider8reath became the screamy shrill funfest that it is now.
People who said that the exposed guitar solo at the start reminded them of Van Halen were totally right, because the song 'Eruption' was more or less a direct inspiration for it. I think it turned out really well, and it serves as a great intro to the song!
Really though, the main inspiration for this song simply comes from building on the previous Vriska songs that Radiation did. While the brass was a new, spur-of-the-moment addition, the guitar riffs and melodies were always supposed to be reminiscent of stuff like Spider's Claw, Killed by Br8k Spider and MeGaLoVaNia. People definitely seem to associate this song with Vriska too now, so mission accomplished I guess?
Lifdoff Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Name's fairly obviously a reference to SB&HJ And also the bit where John's car takes off, as the song is a reference to.
Another music team discussion got onto the stereotypical "Airship" themes you get in JRPGs. Homestuck didn't have one, so off I went to fix that!
The original plan was "Showtime in the style of a soaring, brass-filled JRPG Airship theme (ala Highwind, Ragnarawk takes to the skies, Wings etc.) and that's where the first bits come from. Around about 0:56 I wanted to try some cool chord progression as a kind of extension of John's theme (Something I've used in future i.e. Do You Remem8er Me). Someone's recently since pointed out this sounds like the theme of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story which is kind of annoying, since I'd never heard that before and it completely does. Still, I stand by it.
Awakening Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
I fixed this up a bit.
It's nicer now.
Havoc To Be Wrought Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Thomas Ferkol: (composer, Tumblr, excerpt)
Havoc to be Wrought was spawned from an idea for a short story I had in my mind about a man climbing the old bell tower of an abandoned church investigating strange sounds that had plagued a small town, only to be forced into a confrontation with the "King of Owls" once he reaches the top, and ending with the KoO cutting the bell rope that the man clung to and screeching in the night. Things changed though. Once I had actually started writing and refining it, I decided to change its message, from a mad owl thing to the mysterious demon in the troll's session which had been recently mentioned in the comic (I wrote this sometime in Fall 2010). Also, yes, that is why there is distorted owl screeches at the end, although they were more meant to evoke the horrorterrors crying out in pain than owls by the time it was finished. Contains some very powerful organ and some great chord progressions, but also some structural choices I am not completely proud of, which remained in the piece until its release months and months later because the original Finale file crashed on me before I had a chance to save it. So, rather than attempt reconstructing it, I went with what I had, and it stuck.
Thomas Ferkol: (composer, YouTube comments)
Darkleer had no actual connection to my writing of the piece, was actually a Lord English in the outer ring piece. Someone choosing track art just thought he fit for some reason?
WHAT IS THAT TERRIFYING SOUND?! The end of this song is freaking me out.
Barn Owl put through distortion. Possibly horrorterrors. Who knows, man, who knows..
Well I have a stud horse (stallion), and this kind of sounds like him whinnying slowed down.
Barn Owl through distortion, was supposed to be horrorterror sounds, but the person gathering art for the album chose this picture.
considering it was originally written about lord english, i'd assume the vast honk?
...(another commenter)...
No? We HEAR it, and it's him saying honk, not random screaming that is supposedly a honk
Been a while, but the noises are the horrorterrors being slaughtered
Play The Wind Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
L'ART its title is "John your shoes are a horrible color yet endearing" also I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BE WITH THOSE AWESOME ARTISTS THERE????????
Rumble at the Rink Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Stevie Borbolla: (full-size artwork, DeviantArt) captured 6/1/2011
highbloods
soooo regarding this 50s au, when i first posted that one doodle of greaser gamzee a while ago on tumblr, thought everyone was going to yell at me or something but @__@ pretty much the opposite happened!
and its reaaaaaally cool to have seen this au take off and see so many talented people drawing fanart of it based off my 'designs'?? it's been fun and i just wanna say thank you to everyone that participated cause it really makes me smile and jeez i don't really know how to properly express myself
i know some people hate it because they dont think its properly portraying the 50s, but if it WERE then people would be complaining about how offensive that would be to trivialize the bad parts about it using characters from a silly comic so uh, chill out and let people have fun okay
Let's All Rock the Heist Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Siins: (full-size artwork, Tumblr)
spent the most part of my evening to make this look not like ass
and i probably poked the wrong eye out
WSW-Beatdown Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
And this is what I was taking a break from. It's a gif by the way, though the moving part isn't really important... but I think you should click it anyway because tumblr resized it apparently >:|
Warhammer of Zillyhoo Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Michael Guy Bowman: (Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music, adapted to text)
Let's see. On Homestuck Volume 7, Warhammer of Zillyhoo - I think it started as a non-canon Problem Sleuth page and somehow spun its way into the canon of Homestuck. That was, of course, the page where he bothered to lip-sync John Egbert's lips to mine. Somehow, once again, we broke the rules, and there's voice acting involved, which there was never supposed to be. Y'know, you can take it as maybe like a, like, well, it's a fantasy, or it's what John's imagining himself doing. Y'know, it's not like I ever did it again. But, you know, one more brag for me, I guess.
Savior of the Dreaming Dead Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Ok, so this one. First main goal was some kind of Doctor remix, on the ground that I never actually did one (Took my hiatus around the time of Vol 5.) so this was partially a jokey attempt to "Join in the fun". Secondary goal was mainly a combination of liking the track this is mostly based on (Waking World) and the concept of Godhood ascension (Didn't have a particular character in mind at the time). There's also a little bit of wanting to try some new instrument samples (Namely choir and guitar) so there was a bit of experimentation in this one too.
The working title for this one was "Doctor on the Bridge", because the choir instrumentation at the start reminded me a bit of "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm" (the bit after Gandalf dies in the LOTR movie). The final product aimed at being a bit closer to the original SotWW so I gave it a kind of darker twist - "Dreaming Dead" worked quite well as a title and Homestuck concept (And kept the alliteration). The ending I like, it channels a bit of danger and kickass before ending rather uncertainly. I wasn't fully 100% on this one to begin with - There were parts I liked and parts I didn't - And it's not as faithful a 'Doctor/Waking World' homage as it could be... The mastering also isn't brilliant - Quite bass heavy in places.
But. After it was used in Cascade, particularly with Rad's additions to the ending and generally going along to the animation of Jade Being Awesome and Universes Being Destroyed it's hard for me not to like it now - Particularly when the end cuts hit and everything's starting to head towards disaster. I don't think it's one of my best, and I would love to go back and try making it better, but I'm happy enough that it was used at one of the biggest moments in the comic, and still stands as a fairly harmless, simple and straightforward bit of music.
Maplehoof's Adventure Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Michael Guy Bowman: (Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music, adapted to text)
Oh, Maplehoof's Adventure. I don't know what attracts me to the dumb pony music so much, but, you know, knowing Andrew and his obsession with the horse paintings and Humanimals, I figure it's just par for the course.
Sburban Reversal Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Not long after I made Sburban Countdown, I made a version that rewinds back to the beginning again and called it 'Sburban Reversal', just in case it might be useful someday. Andrew ended up using part of it in act 2 except for the actual reversing part, but still credited it as 'Sburban Reversal', which had people asking me constantly after that if it's a real song. It wasn't really anything except for the reversing, so I eventually decided to extend it out to a full song. Since it was never actually fully in the comic, I recommended it as a bonus track.
>Dave: Hurry up and get in the fucking game
White Host, Green Room Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube
Al Neun: (full-size artwork, Tumblr)
What’s that, tumblr? You’re simply DYING for more silly fake old comics? Well, I suppose I -must- oblige.
Homestuck Vol. 7: At the Price of Oblivion
Main album (1–17)
Bonus tracks (18–20)