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Land of Fans and Music 4 - Commentary

22.2k words across 244 entries.

Land of Fans and Music 4 Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube (playlist)

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Unofficial MSPA Fans: (booklet commentary, front)

The Unofficialmspafans present:

LAND OF FANS AND MUSIC 4

The Team
Lambda Elise Merryberry
Veritas Unae
LizaWithAZed
keyboard cait
Lathan Jury
Archie
ostrichlittledungeon
Makin

Booklet
Circlejourney

Additional Help
Mark Ciocca (Dagoth Xil)
Yishan "Catboss." Mai
Seijen
SerialSymphony
nights
Grace Medley
Bambosh
Wheals
Kal-la-kal-la
WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES
SplitSuns

Special Thanks:
Elaine "OJ" Wang
M. Alex "melodiousDiscord" Moser
Brad "Avinoch" Griffin
Robert J! Lake
Christina "Lune" Lillard
The Cool and New Music Team
Andrew Hussie & What Pumpkin Studios
The Homestuck Music Team

Lambda Elise Merryberry: (booklet commentary, preface)

Hey, so, I'm Lambda. I did like 2/3 of LoFaM2 and a little bit of LoFaM3. I also made that list of references that comes up if you google "Homestuck remix list".

Anyway, this is LoFaM4. It's a pretty good album with some pretty cool songs. I hope you like it. I'll be popping in to give some extra ocmmentary on songs throughout the booklet.

I'm using the rest of this space to thank a bunch of people, starting with my collaborators. Thanks to Liza and Scott for sticking by my side for so long; to Aris, Archie, and Lathan for stepping up to judge and being awesome friends; to Makin for doing a ton to get this album out; and to Caitlin for... existing.

I also want to give thanks to a bunch of the cool people I've met along the various communities and Skype and Discord groups. So: shoutouts to Paul, James, Nick, Luke, Marcy, RJ, Clark, Bowman, Evan, Thomas, Blueberry, Seth, Elaine, Yishan, Brad, Emilie, Christina, Paige, Ame, Lisa, Buck, Naomi, wheals, Putnam, nights, Rune, power, Kal, Roxe, Erin, yaz, and soz. And a special shoutout to Mark.

I think that's pretty much all I have to say? Enjoy the album.

Veritas Unae: (booklet commentary, preface)

This is not so much an end as a new beginning.

Homestuck music, to me, has been an ever present part of my life for six years now. I can still keenly recall switching on my iPod Touch to the original Land of Fans and Music as I travelled into university for my first year of higher education, the excitement I felt in getting one of my own songs on the second installment and the deep pride I had in bringing the third album to fruition. The Land of Fans and Music has always been a celebration of the best of Homestuck fan music, a collection of musicians that continues to grow from strength to strength, doing things I could never dream of accomplishing.

But Homestuck is a work filled with passion, with creativity and ingenuity, and it is that spark that has set so many of its fans ablaze. Through transformative retellings like Cool and New Homestuck and Act 8, the songs of which have equally earned their places in the annals of fanmusic history, and innovative projects bringing light to untold stories like Beforus, Ancestral and Xenoplanetarium yet to come, Homestuck fanmusicians are always hungry for content on which to develop their musical crafts. It only takes a quick listen to some of my early Homestuck content (my tindeck is still mostly online, including those Nepetaquest tracks...) just to see how far I've been able to hone my own crafts through this medium.

However, it is time. As all things inevitably must, the Land of Fans and Music project is reaching its final limits. While it would not at all surprise me to see another small scale LoFaM 5 spring forth from the incredible pool of talent that I have the privilege to interact with on a daily basis, it is here that I personally choose to bow out towards my future horizons. While I will always be a part of this fan music community, I think I'm finally tapped out on my own Homestuck energy. (Thankfully, you can be freed of my disgusting motif potpourris. How many of those do I have now? Like... 4?)

This album would not exist without so many incredible people. Thanks must be given to Lambda for spearheading the project, and getting the ball rolling in the initial stages. She is incredible at pulling everything these projects need together and I know this album would not be half of what it is without her. Thanks also to Cait for what she has done towards getting this album out. Hopefully this means no more long nights for me uploading hundreds of tracks. Thanks to Blackhole and circlejourney for what they've done for the booklet you're reading right now. It looks fantastic and is filled to the brim with amazing information. And to both circlejourney and nights, thanks must be extended for the high calibre of art this booklet is home to. To Makin, Aris, Emily, Liza and even Mark and Lathan, thanks for being a part of this process in helping us sort through the hundreds of tracks we received.

It's been six long years for me, but I finally close my own chapter on Homestuck fan music*. I wish everyone the best of luck in their future pursuits.

Yours in fanmusic, from now and forever more,

Veritas Unae

*Except for Violet and Gold. If I don't finish that, I think several people would have it out for me.

Unofficial MSPA Fans: (booklet commentary, front)

Contributing Musicians

Catboss
Cement City
Cerulean
Circlejourney
cookiefonster
David "Dirtiest" Dycus
David Ellis (A Lunatic's Daydream)
Difarem
Discfortune
ehlsea
Elaine "OJ" Wang
electric lantern
Emelia K.
Facetious & Friends
Grace Medley
Hadron
Helena Ruth
Interrobang
Jamie Paige
Joe “DoubleJoeSeven” Ouellet
Kal-la-kal-la
Kanishka
Kevin “UWBW” Grant
keyboard cait
Kouta
Kris “Astartus” Flacke
Kurtis Burton
Kusoro
Lambda Elise Merryberry
Lark Mordancy
LydianChord
Marcy Nabors
Mathias Ramalho
Mmetafour
Musical Panini
Natrox
Ngame
Nicholas “Viridian” Nakano
nights
Noisemaker
olegoleg123 / Prince of Light
ostrichlittledungeon
polysaw
psithurist
Rhyselinn
Riki Tsuji
rilez
Sean “Flare” Gorter
Seijen
SerialSymphony
slogbait
Shandy
SplitSuns
Tamara Fritz (totalspiffage)
The Great Anansi
theh0nestman
Thomas Ferkol
TirantBacon
Veritas Unae
Viko Riféo
WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES
Whimsy
Willow Ascenzo

Contributing Artists

0ysTezy
Adamantist
Aeritus
Amethyst Barron
Andiavang
AroSoup
AS
Benedict Ide
Beta
Brawlitup99
Buck
Calicorn
Chalaite
Chumi
Circlejourney
cobaltmoth
CybeR
Daniel McDonald
dodostad
Elanor Pam
EllenZarael
Emily Jane
Ephemerald
Fitzwibble
fuchsi
Griever
Hadron
insecureIllustrator
Jas
Jenny
Josefin B.
Kate Griffith
koba
Lukanya
Mags
Matrosha
meigender
Melissa Peebles
Neiratina
Ngame
Nick Tucker
nights
PatManDX
Phil Gibson
piskomil
plaidcushion
Quietserval
RaChoTamer
rawlithmora
Rebecca Peason
sailorleo
Sam Garcia
Scarodactyl
Selan Pike
Shadok
Shandy
shu
SmashCooper
sonotcanon
Sozzay
SplitSuns
Squid
sweetjegus
tempest2k
Trufflemeep
tti
William Leonard
yazshu
YoItsCro

~~DISC 1~~ Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

Lambda Elise Merryberry: (composer, booklet commentary)

I'm, uh, actually not really much of a musician. I'm mostly just good at recognizing melodies. We didn't have anyone lined up to do the disc jingles (though I assumed maybe Veri would do then, as on LoFaM2+3) so I mentioned to Cait that I had the idea of making each disc a song representative of each prior LoFaM. I sent her files of myself vocalizing the melodies and she transcribed them.

You might be tyinking, "wait, but there's not a song on LoFaM1 called Homestuck Title Screen". This is correct. Its composer was unable to be contacted during its production for whatever reason, so it was arranged into both the first and last songs on the album. So, this is sort of like a reprise of the first song on the first LoFaM.

Initially I wanted to do Emissary of Wind but Cait's idea was better.

Sozzay: (album cover artist)

This piece was a very unique experience for me because it involved drawing something I was rather unfamiliar with. Before I started this piece I knew from the beginning I wanted something rather dynamic and fun and I feel the result stayed true to the image I had in mind. This piece was certainly difficult, but after some trial and error things eventually started coming together nicely. I ended up having a lot of fun trying out new brushes and mixing my favourite colors together to get a final result I was very pleased with.

Merge Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Kouta: (composer, booklet commentary)

After writing Denizen, my only thought was that I really wanted to keep writing dubstep, but good dubstep. That was when I deicided to reach out to my good friend poly, who I'm a big fan of. Her dubstep is as great as her production skill, so at the time it was the perfect arrangement. It was hard working together long-distance, but we somehow made it work through all-nighter Skype calls and a lot of caffeine. The way our styles differ and yet somehow met in the middle helped make Merge exactly what I hoped it'd be.

polysaw: (composer, booklet commentary)

Producing Merge was one of the most exciting projects I'd worked on in a long time. Kouta and I made a great team, and working with her pushed both of our boundaries well beyond our comfort zones. We got a lot of doubt from our friends about working with the caw and meow samples, but we were sure it was the perfect way to bring the song together. We were also heavy-handed with leitmotif from the original soundtrack, focusing on blending them in a way that was both interesting to listen to and recognizable. This was made with the utmost care, so give it a listen or ten.

Circlejourney: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I drew this immediately following [S] Collide. Kouta later asked to use it as the track cover for Merge on SoundCloud, and I was happy to oblige. I'm honoured that they saw it as a fitting image to accompany their (very impressive) track.

Jungle #3 Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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cookiefonster: (composer, booklet commentary)

Similarly to several other songs on this album, this started as a rescore of [S] Jane: Enter for this collaborative project where people would come up with new music for all the flashes in Homestuck. The goal here was to make a song similar in style to Another Jungle (a very underappreciated song) without actually quoting it other than the way that song quotes Sburban Jungle. It was quite a challenge not borrowing anything else from other songs except for when I used a part of Oppa Toby Style towards the end, but this song was fun to make and I'm happy enough with the end result even if it's not as punchy as the original.

Lambda Elise Merryberry: (album organizer, booklet commentary)

a fair number of songs didn't have commentary from their musicians and/or artists, so i asked a few people, mostly mspafans managers to write some filler commentary for those. they'll be prefaced by bold names.

Quasar Nebula: (wiki editor)

For the wiki, this commentary is marked with annotations (in parentheses) instead. Check the album page for the original booklet PDF if you'd like to check out the commentary as it was first presented!

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

This art is a lovely rendition by Fitzwibble of that bit in [S] Dirk: Unite where Dirk takes Roxy and Jane along for a ride. Unfortunately, due to her foolish boorishness, Jane does not appreciate the joy of flying through the air as a bird would in spring. It is a shame, that such an enlightening experience must go ignored.

Frost and Clockwork Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Circlejourney: (composer, booklet commentary)

This track was my very first piece of fanmusic, composed in 2013 immediately after I finished reading the Homestuck archive and adapted for LoFaM4 in 2016. It's an attempt to capture the joy I felt reading Homestuck for the first time, and a tribute to one of my favourite things about the comic—the juxtapositions of intimately small details against cold, fathomless space.

Frost and Clockwork is about the planets in the medium, and the things residing upon each one—hummingbirds, fireflies, cogs, falling snow. The comic discusses fate and determinism all the time, but I like to think about how it is to simply exist in this universe, without awareness of purpose or destination.

Rather than embodying a sense of mystery or adventure (as most Medium-related music tends to), I wanted this track to feel like home—something that this webcomic has become for me.

RaChoTamer: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This was such a fun song and it reminded me of one of my favorite parts of Homestuck - the fun and adventure. It feels so welcoming and warm and triumphant, and I really tried to capture that here!

Reunited Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Shandy: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song was written to celebrate the reunion of Rose and Roxy in the 4/29/15 Homestuck update! It was so sweet and triumphant, so I tried to reflect that in the music. The main melody is structured kinf of like a call-and-response between the two of them.

nights: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Rose and Roxy's interactions are some of my favorite parts of Homestuck, the best of which is their meeting after Gameover. I've resketched and redrawn this way too much since I wanted to give this very nice track some justice. Originally the idea was much more different, I was going to draw roxy running towards rose with skaia in the background, but I changed it to match the canon scene better. Overall I'm pretty happy with the final product, I hope you guys like it too!

Prospitian Crescent Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Mmetafour: (composer, booklet commentary)

A little piece I put together, thinking about the broken moon of Prospit during the final battle between Jack and PM.

Brawlitup99: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The song that Mmetafour made was an electronic 8-bit style mix, so, logically, I took the role of drawing (or rather, "spriting") the art for this track. As you may know, the song symbolizes Prospit from A6A6A1 after it gets destroyed, so I did two scenes in one: Jane and Jake after their godtier transformations, and our heroes encountering Jack English for the first time. Come to think of it, that act was really messed up, wasn't it? Anyway, the song is amazing, and I really liked how the art came out. I hope you enjoy it too!

Altitude Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Whimsy: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song in its early stages was meant to be about the medium and space. But as soon as it was put in a recording with appropriate instruments, it reminded me a lot more of LOWAS than anything else, so it just sort of became about that. All it took was a borderline distasteful amount of reverb to add a feeling of elevation, and it became Altitude. I always think of John's quest bed whenever I hear this song, probably just because it's the only really high-up point on the whole planet.

Also, I think the artist for this track wanted to make it have to do with John/Roxy? Which isn't really what I initially had in mind, but it's cool and it works. Death of the Author and all that.

yazshu: (track artist, booklet commentary)

i went through like fucking 5 variations of this art before i just decided to fuck it and do vaguely johnroxy retcon sequence that was at the bottom of the subreddit for some time. all of the others involved davesprite but fuck blorange. also please dont notice how lazy i was and i used the color blending tool on the tree when everything else was with the pencil tool.

Midnight Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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TirantBacon: (composer, booklet commentary)

As an acknowledgement, this song in many ways was mostly inspired by the tune "Black" by Radiation (or Toby Fox I guess). I made this song as a "remix" of sorts of the song called "Midnight Suffers", something I made for the mostly popular fanventure, cool and new web comic. If anything, I'd say it was directly copied from Black, and that I did a mostly poor effort to recreate the style... Nonetheless, I did focus on trying to incorporate some transition points in the song where it would actually deviate from the original arrangement, and I suppose it works quite well even when it's not on paper.

The main motif was taken from midnight suffers... A bluesy jazz type theme that was made with no real direction intended. This song is not necessarily "catchy", but at least it has direction and sounds good, which is always nice! Some of the most prominent instrumentation involved DVS saxophones, loud crazy drums, a heavy bassline, sharp synths and a really loud piano chord progression in the background. It's all crazy stuff.

Calicorn: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I chose Midnight as my track art, mostly just because of my love for Intermission. The song is absolutely fantastic, but since I'm not the most creative person around it took me a while to come up with any concrete designs at first. I was originally going to start off with a 50/50 bust drawing of Slick and Jack, but I soon discovered that might be a little too bland. I ended up listening to the song a dozen more times until I sketched out the base idea for the finalized idea. The main challenge had just been lining everything and getting the perspective to look pretty alright, although I'm not really an expert on perspective or composition. Either way, I'm really happy with how the piece turned out, especailly with the lighting on Slick himself.

Dersite Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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ostrichlittledungeon: (composer, booklet commentary)

I'm actually not a huge fan of this song. See, I more or less made the whole album Cyclica in a couple of days, and this short "here are a bunch of melodies over the Flare arpeggios" only took me an huor or two. I really think there are parts of Cyclica that are better (if you haven't listened to Cyclica yet, you should do that; you can find the full album on YouTube). A bunch of people seemed to like Dersite, and it made it onto Cool and New Greatest Hits, so here it is I guess. The violin note holds are unrealistic, the synth is weird as fuck, the piano is bad. But everyone liked it. Except for Veri. Veri didn't like it. Bless you Veri.

plaidcushion: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I wonder what life was like for the carapacians, floating out in space away from everything going on on the battlefield as it got prototyped. Seems kind of lonely.

Pax Condesca Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Viko Riféo: (composer, booklet commentary)

Wait why did this get on the album it sucks

It's about the Condesce, obviously. It's vaguely about her conquering a planet? The natives fight a long fight and then they just barely win! and everyone is reflecting on their loss and then she just glasses them or whatever she does. There's Crystalanthemums mostly because it seems to be the default badass-trolls theme. Also that is some badass art.

Circlejourney: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The prompt I received with this track was "the Condesce (conquering planets)". The bubbly synths and unusual harmonies called to mind a geometrical design of neons against blacks, and I thought a logo-esque look suited the rather propagandistic vibe of the title. (Am I overthinking things? Probably.)

The image's composition, in which the Condesce is encircled by the planets she has conquered and ruled, is inspired by the Diamond murals from Steven Universe.

Blind Pilot Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Adamantist: (track artist, booklet commentary)

the Blind Pilot is leading what is left of his people through unknown lengths to a new home, albeit despite his own will. lonely encaged flighting spirit with a glimmer of hope. digital whispers of draining life. that is what I felt the Blind Pilot is.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

Right after Pax Condesca, the theme of a fuchsia empress' intergalactic conquest, Blind Pilot shifts the focus to the hidden lowblood driving her flagship. Where Condesca was a light tune with unsettling undertones, Blind Pilot goes in full force with its cinematic and emotive atmosphere, a mix of dramatic orchestra, electronic sounds and ambience. It's all in all a breathtaking and impressive final result, especially considering just how silly and tongue in cheek the original The Blind Prophet was. Kudos to Kurt for recontextualizing it so well!

Additional note: this is the first of four Gold Pilot arranges to appear on the album, and boy does it start off the trend well. I hope you enjoy all their unique spins on the original!

Daywalker ~Rise~ Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Catboss: (composer, booklet commentary)

holy shiiiit it's uh that third track I made for the Homestuck music contest. wow. remember that? that was so long ago. anyway this was a track for Kanaya, at that part where she comes back as a rainbow drinker and slaughters everyone. it's super great.

I redid this track from the ground up for lofam 4, updated the flute playing and everything. Is it better? Is it worse? who knows, really

Catboss: (composer, Tumblr)

It occurs to me that I never did post the finished version of this, did I?

This was my third submission to the Homestuck Music Contest. I was at a mental block after finishing Guns Blazing, so I asked my girlfriend for a prompt, and she gave me “Kanaya” and “Geisha” (to my surprise, I might add - her favorite troll is Karkat). I more or less discarded the latter portion because I didn’t think it would fit, but it DID get me thinking about Kanaya. I hadn’t even thought of making a song for her before that point.

I wanted this to be… well, the major songs for Kanaya so far - Virgin Orb and Darling Kanaya - have been beautiful piano pieces (at least they are in my memory), and they’re p. perfect for Kanaya, but her rainbow drinker form is so much more badass and… assertive. Especially that. So I wanted to go for something that was simultaneously graceful and kind of badass at the start. And after I had conceptualized the harp part and the melody, I went back to write the intro, because I wanted some sort of contrast between alive!Kan and daywalker!Kan. The bass drum I used to simulate heartbeats; the entire intro is supposed to be her life slowly fading away.

And then she comes back as this awesome vampire creature and proceeds to send Gamzee hooooooooooooonking into abyss.

Also it’s a waltz because Kanaya is friggin’ classy okay.

Production-wise I think this is the weakest of my three entries. I played the flute for this piece, and honestly I think my terrible recording and audio processing skills might have hurt it, since this was my first time working with real audio at all. And all I had to do it with were my shitty laptop mic and absolutely no experience. (Also I hadn’t played in a couple months, that probably had something to do with it.) I really love both the harp part and the flute part I wrote for this though, and it was really fun to play!! I might bring it back in a later piece, we’ll see.

Kal-la-kal-la: (album help, booklet commentary)

This image has three Kanaya Maryams in it. Having two more Kanaya Maryams than Homestuck itself had is a bold creative decision, one which, in my opinion, works out rather well. I very much like the 'Naya in the foreground's halo, illuminating her face, while the Maryam furthest from the front of the scene is relatively shrouded in darkness. Consequently, her bright yellow eyes shine like a wild animal in the dead of night. Cool as hell all around, this image.

Savior of the Waking World (Cement City Remix) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

It's a remix of Savior of the Waking World. That's something you couldn't possibly have found out unless you read this very commentary. Aren't you doing yourself a favor by looking through this?

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

For this track, Chalaite rendered a portrait of John staring down at his deathplace, after being revived by the inscrutable mechanics of sburb. Despite being killed by Bec Noir, he retains his life, and is now more powerful than ever, having attained god tier.

Skaian Dreamers Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Difarem: (composer, booklet commentary)

This track has quite the story! It was originally meant to be fake "loading screen" music, to accompany a parodic video on the Cool and New Music Team youtube channel about Overseer v3 (a web-based sburb web game, whose development team I used to be part of) being shut down by What Pumpkin (though the C&D was later found out to be fake). The project fell through, so I continued working on it and posted it on the LOFAM Discord server, where it got approved (thanks Lambda), though the deadline had technically passed.

Chumi: (track artist, booklet commentary)

it sounds like a song for the beginning of a cool adventure! so that's what i drew :o

Emerald Waltz Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Wheals: (album help, booklet commentary)

Of all main characters in Homestuck, Kanaya is perhaps the most suited to a soft orchestral/piano piece like this. The song pulls off some great production orchestra-wise while putting a lovely 3/4 twist on Darling Kanaya.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

A little known power held by the clearly very fictional and not at all real troll folklore creatures known as "Rainbow Drinkers" is to create flashing green silhouettes of themselves whenever they dance. This of course, holds no practical purpose whatsoever, except for the theoretical seduction of aliens who happen to resemble flighty broads.

Intermission Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Joe Ouellet: (composer, booklet commentary)

John exploring the Land of Mounds and Xenon searching for his friends evoked some melancholy feels for me.

This track was composed entirely backwards; That means I was constantly exporting WAVs seeing if the "forward" track I was making was sounding good backwards. It was a fun and interesting way to make music.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

You think they'd set up a bench by the road, but nooooooooooo. John has to sit on the grass, thanks to those inconsiderate jerks. The salamander probably had a hand in it. Damn that salamander.

Joe Ouellet: (Tumblr, excerpt)

Happy 4/13/13 everyone! To celebrate, I made a new song! In a style similar to a song or two on The Felt album, this song is backwards. It reflects John's time searching LOMAX for his friends. It was my first time composing this way and I think it turned out quite well!

Have a great rest of the day, and may there be many amazing new updates as Homestuck draws to a close this year!

Homestuck: (SoundCloud artwork)

Retconjuration Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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keyboard cait: (composer, booklet commentary)

As one of the oddball Retcon Lovers out there, the scene where John becomes unstuck in canon is one of my favorite moments in the entire comic. Thinking about it inspired me to make a song about the retcon; specifically, the introduction of John's powers, followed by the way they're used to save the entire timeline from its catastrophic doom. This time around, the game gets completed... but maybe the ending isn't so happy, as we're reminded there's still four kids trapped in the retcon juju, waiting endlessly for freedom in paradox space.

Some trivia: this song was named after an update discussion thread on the old MSPA forums. Apparently, that thread was in turn named after a TVTropes page. Also, alongside a Homestuck Anthem quote at the end, the music box refrain featured throughout the song quotes the foley on Homestuck's title page. That's both because it's where the retcon arms first appear, and because I always wanted to reference those windchimes. Now you know!

William Leonard: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I've always loved the 'John's retocn adventures' section of Homestuck, and I think it has to do with how it leads both the characters and myself along a brisk rollercoaster of twists and turns, through unknown paths - this sense of adventure is what I tried to convey in this art.

Formation Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Hadron: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song is for Cool and New Webcomic, but I like it a lot and a lot of people like it too, so I want the world to see it. It is inspired by a lot of the new-age synthpop, which itself is inspired by the 1980s. In this time of rapid community music projects being built I want y'all to remember; we're all musicians and that is the blood that festers throughout the body. We're all alike in our different ways. love you all thanks have fun :>

meigender: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Formation has a very 80's vibe to it, so I decided to aim towards more of a Hotline Miami feel for the accompanying artwork. I'm not sure how well I achieved that, but I figure a combination of bright colours and guns is at least veering in the right direction.

Scales Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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hanging (abstract)
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Helena Ruth: (composer, booklet commentary)

This is a song I wrote many years ago, from Terezi's point of view after she killed Vriska. When you look to the outcome of a choice, are you really seeing all that could be, or are you, by consequence of looking, only trapping yourself in the position of making that choice? You can't really see all that the future could hold. You couldn't take it, anyway.

At the time I wrote this song it was mostly theorizing, but it's held up through the years (thankfully), so I took the chance to rework and record it for this album! It was a struggle to record, and there's a thing or two I would change, but I still think 2012 me would be pretty damn proud, haha. Finished, not perfect, as they say! Homestuck did so much for me creatively. I'm glad I could be a part of this tribute.

shu: (track artist, booklet commentary)

the track is really pretty in a melancholic and reminiscing way so I wanted to encorporate things from earlier in the comic (the tree, the hanging scalemates, and the pink flowers) into a sadder scene that's near the end? The tree's also a clever metaphor for branching paths and al that lol and also it looks cool

Glide Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Veritas Unae: (composer, booklet commentary)

Originally, this piece was written for a good friend of mine, Patrick. He was running the fan adventure Loftlocked at the time, and I'd supplied the comic with a lot of music in conjunction with Kurtis (who is also on this album! Check him out!) Pat had approached me to write a haunting refrain for a harp playing character, Eliza. This theme would eventually form part of several songs written by Kurtis and myself, and the most prominent of which, Lamental, was made into another song, Infinity's Lament. It is a fun, jovial melody that turns darker as Eliza becomes less sure of herself and her playing. However, in a Homestuck specific context, consider Rose playing the rain, plucking strings but quickly finding herself at odds with her own land quest. Who knows? The beauty of music is that you can make your own interpretations.

Circlejourney: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This track was initially left open to interpretation but being in contact with Veri, I asked him for a recommendation for its subject. Apparently, while Glide was oriinally composed for a fan adventure, the main motif features in a large and yet-unreleased track concerning Alt!Calliope. Veri ultimately decided that I should draw Alt!Calliope, which I was happy to, seeing as Calliope is my favourite character in Homestuck and in dire need of more fanart.

We've only ever seen Alt!Calliope looking extremely grim in the comic so I thought it might be a nice change if I were to depict her in a more clement mood. Imagine her soaring through space, creating and destroying galaxies. I gave her wings just so that the illustration would remain relevant to the title of the piece.

Limelight Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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psithurist: (composer, booklet commentary)

Limelight was made for the unfinished Act 8 fan continuation of Homestuck, and was used in the flash [S] Resolve. It's a theme for alt-Calliope, as she merges her soul with Davepeta's and the other half of Gamzee's, hence the meows and the high-pitched Secret Honks in the middle section. The working title was Miss America, because it's like, the opposite of Lord English? Shoutout to whoever came up with that one on the Act 8 team. This one was super fun to make since I got to use a lot of wacky sampling techniques and also I just love Calliope a whole god damn lot okay.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

Like the song, this fantastic art was originally used for Act 8 Volume 1. It's a pretty stark contrast to the carefree art for Glide immediately before it; Alternate Calliope has now taken off her hood, with a look that indicates that she means business.

Bonehead Destiny (LoFaM Cut) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Grace Medley: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song was originally written for FLSA's Problem Sleuth album, however those of you who've heard the original may notice some subtle differences. This song is meant to be a theme for late-game PS, with the first half representing the over-the-top surrealism of Higgs Bonehead's sacrifice, and the second, the far more interesting rush to beat DMK. I pretty much spent the ages 10-12 listening to Daft Punk and Digitalism near-exclusively, and I think the influence shines through pretty clearly here. The second half is a slight nod to the rush of [S] Dirk: Unite and Synchronize, which I feel is stylistically similar to the pacing from the end of PS.

Elanor Pam: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The futility of a sacrifice, the chaos of a final battle, the wrath of an arbiter, the finding of love after death, the absolute ownage of a sharply written missive. All these and more contributed to making the epic ending of Problem Sleuth what it came to be known as: a confusing clusterfuck of hilarious and completely insane shenanigans.

Stubborn Throes Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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body horror
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SplitSuns: (composer, booklet commentary)

This track was made for the Cool and New Music Team's Volume 7. It was based on the hypothetical question "What if Rose went grimdark?" which was based off of a series of shitposts on the /r/homestuck subreddit. With this song, I tried to make it mirror the chain of events that occur to Rose before and after she goes grimdark in the comic. It starts off relatively simple, but quickly goes ominous and unsettling as she stares into the cueball in "Seer: Ask." Then suddenly the song explodes into a blistering drum-and-bass track with booming organs to tell you that, in fact, shit just got real. The song was meant to be reminiscent of "Your Best Nightmare" from Undertale, and I hope I was able to pull that effect off. The song concludes in much the same way it began as Rose, in her newly darkened state, flies into space. All things considered, I had a lot of fun making this song.

SplitSuns: (album help, booklet commentary)

This track received brand new art for its release on LOFAM4, courtesy of the talented Neiratina! With this song portraying Rose succumbing to the broodfester throes and going Grimdark, this art features Rose beginning to slip away to the eldritch Horrorterrors as well. With her wand gripped firmly in hand, Rose looks fiercely determined to destroy anything in her path. Her aura of golden is inexorably being snuffed out by the black tentacles that pour out of the image, even interfering with the designs in Rose's shirt and snaking their way into the background. Marked with jagged lines and dripping ink, this piece perfectly captures Rose's last moments of innocence as she throws caution to the wind and turns herself Grimdark.

My Lady Greensleeves Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Shandy: (composer, booklet commentary)

Some ships may come and go, but Rosemary is forever.

A mashup of the traditional "Greensleeves", which I've always loved, with "Endless Climb" and hints of "Black Rose / Green Sun".

SplitSuns: (album help, booklet commentary)

This is a solemn artwork that captures a snapshot of Rose and Kanaya in a tender embrace. The piece manages to render the two lovers at their closest, while also highlighting the extremes of both of their characters. Rose's skin is tainted black to indicate her status as Grimdark, while Kanaya is glowing white as rainbow drinkers often do. Although the addition of the titular "greensleeves" to Kanaya's outfit is subtle, it helps tie the artwork even further to its song and turns it into an excellent companion.

Highland Thunder Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Elanor Pam: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This was very much a test-bed for photoshop brushes and adjustment layers I had yet to touch on, all while putting the speed in speedpaint.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

At one point I described this as something along the lines of "electric Scottish war music", and that still stands. The melody in this song is absolutely iconic, if you ask me, and it gets INCREDIBLY amped. Maybe enough to see what lies under that voltaic fault. (Spoiler: It's just a lot of xenon.) Also, the lyrics to this song are "DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE". That is all.

Thomas Ferkol: (composer, Tumblr, WIP commentary)

The Voltaic Fault (Land of Mounds and Xenon)

Sorry it (maybe, I can't tell anymore) is so quiet, still trying to fix this volume issue I've had with my stuff. Jakes land reminded me of highlands with the mounds and all the green, and I love the charged xenon running through the planet's canyons.

Thomas Ferkol: (Tumblr)

The Voltaic Fault (Land of Mounds and Xenon)

I put my ear to the rolling hills of highland thunder.

Ghosts Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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David Dycus: (composer, booklet commentary)

This started out as an attempt to make a song in the style of Death Grips, but ended up going in a different direction. It was a challenge to try and make something equal parts creepy and danceable.

Elanor Pam: (track artist, booklet commentary)

For the last couple of months my computer has been sitting on a small folding table as my house undergoes a bunch of scattered repairs, which made deploying my tablet a tricky situation. Thankfully I've been buying art markers piecemeal—they're very expensive in my country—and had enough colors to paint a troll! But when it came to a background I and my limited palette both failed miserably, so in the end I had to take the drawing to photoshop and figure things out with a mouse anyway. Whew!

Pilotwave Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Interrobang: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song began when I was messing around and thought I wanted to make some v a p o r w a v e. I really like the glitchy sections of Gold Pilot, and my initial plan was to slow those parts down, loop them, add drums, etc - the usual vaporwave stuff - thats also how it got its name, thanks to its project file. However once this started to happen I realized what I had written was very different, and that it had turned into some strange Gold Pilot remix. While I worked on other things for UMSPAF and CANMT, this song was on the back burner and I wasn't sure I'd actually finish it, but I stuck with it and just added things as they came to me (I'll admit that Lambda showing some interest in the song was a bit of motivation). At some point one of the later versions ended up getting accepted to LOFAM4, which was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one, and so I wrapped up production.

Some other facts about this song: Quite a bit of the instruments (I'd say about 80% or so) are modifications of default Garageband synths/presets. This is the first song I've ever made that regularly causes audio overloads on my computer from just playback. The name, "Pilotwave" comes from when it was going to be vaporwave, I named the project file that and it sort of stuck. Special thanks goes to everyone that listened to it and helped me with balance/mastering issues, and extra special thanks to AroSoup for their amazing art!

AroSoup: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This took a really long time.

Aura of Colour Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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olegoleg123: (composer, booklet commentary)

Aura of Colour is one of my older tracks, originally completely unrelated to Homestuck and only then adapted as a theme for Rose and submitted as such. It is the piece that marked my transition form straightup EDM to more VGM-styled music.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

This art by insecureIllustrator was actually one of two made for this track! iI sent us both this version and a different one of Rose with just as much incredible detail, and allowed us to choose which one suited the track better. This version won out primarily due to fitting the bright tone of the song more, and the general feeling of an "aura of colour".

insecureIllustrator: (track artist, alternate artwork)

Beyond the Death of the King Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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slogbait: (composer, booklet commentary)

This was supposed to be a fill in track for a finished trackart for LOFAM2 about Calmasis and I liked it and pianos

Imagine the plot to Complacency of the Learned and that's what's happening here

Wheals: (album help, booklet commentary)

Likely the oldest art on the album, this dates all the way back to LOFAM2 days. The song never did get finished for that era but stuck around until the song got made and finished in time for LOFAM4. It turns out that in the end, playing beyond the death of the king was a metaphor for the art's living past the end of the comic...

I must confess to loving this art style, with mostly aliased lines and two-tone shading, especially in its similarity to some of Andrew Hussie's own art in Homestuck. It's none too common to see fanart of Calmasis, so it's nice to see him/her rendered in a more dynamic pose than the only canon one, while still clearly recognizable as that same antihero.

En Masse Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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The Great Anansi: (composer, booklet commentary)

En Masse is actually a remastering of sorts of the very first Homestuck remix (and just generally one of the first songs ever) that I made about five or six years ago, because this was conceptualized around when Homestuck was ending last year to be a commemoration of the webcomic that sparked so much creative energy in me and catalyzed about 99% of my current friendships. I was keen on having it be grand and sweeping—essentially, doing everything my initial remix did, except bigger and badder than ever before. To that end, I started tossing in some extra motifs and making the composition even mroe frantic than before, but I was keen on keeping the overall rhythm and classical-esque style of Scratch; it's been a very long time since the cueball-head was directly relevant, but it's important to remember that that's where so much started! The project encountered some severe snags due to various real life troubles and motivation issues, but thanks to the support of the LOFAM team, it's finally been brought to life and I'm back on my feet with bountiful motivation. I might be a bit rocky, but it's only going up from here!

SplitSuns: (album help, booklet commentary)

This art primarily focuses on Doc Scratch, his profile taking up most of the canvas. There's a nice contrast between the organic and textured forms of his suit and the precisely geometric shapes such as his cueball head, the triangle cutting through his chest, and the halo of squares over him. The use of recurring motifs such as pool balls, arrows, and brooms help to connect the piece further to Scratch's roots, with the peacock texturing suggesting the foreboding Felt Manor. An interesting artwork for an enigmatic character.

[GRIEF] Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Nicholas Nakano: (composer, booklet commentary)

I was listening to STRIIFE right when it came out, then I thought, "Hey, this is fucking amazing" so I was inspired to make a Tensei-esque song. Its success is still unclear, but I like it. I hope you enjoy.

Griever: (track artist, booklet commentary)

So. Let me just say right now that nights, the one who first thought up these fantrolls and drew them up for the Strife 2 album, is top tier at character design. These guys were all really fun to draw and I'm glad that they came out as well as they did, honestly. They're all very differentiable from other fantrolls and just look really nice. Read nights' comic, Oceanfalls, because it is good and has nice character design/art in it too.

The music was rocking and good so I went for a dramatic action shot. I used Jojo as a reference for this type of shot, because of course I did (Read Jojostuck). The background and everything about this picture is made only to look kinda cool, which it sorta does. The art functions on the "rule of cool" so to speak, at least a little bit. There's not much to say about it, honestly. Maybe I've already rambled on more than other artists about this, and I'm pretty much done expositing, but I'm gonna go just a little bit further with this commentary. But it won't be lal that important. Just recounting a story I remembered.

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise? I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend.

Plethoric Euphoria Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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body horror, eye horror
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Seijen: (composer, booklet commentary)

"how do I make a future bass song without sounding generic or like a total douche?" you don't, youre a douche. Accept it and move on with life. The only saving grace this track has is the tempo. Most future bass is 130 or 144. Nah fam, we're going 150 on this since 150 and 175 are all I know. This track was exclusively made with harmor and maybe 1 serum. Fuck the system, and fuck my CPU since like exsanguinated, FL crashes 3/4 of the times I try to open the tracks. RIP the dream.

Trufflemeep: (track artist, booklet commentary)

is this what drugs look like? i hope this is what drugs look like.

Buffskull Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Noisemaker: (composer, booklet commentary)

An extension of a very, very short segment of a group collaboration (7 GRAND END from the Cool and New Music Team), it seemed unfitting to leave something like this in its short, unfinished state.

SplitSuns: (album help, booklet commentary)

Buffskull was originally a part of the CANMT song "7 GRAND END," with the music syncing up to the final Act 7 flash in Homestuck. This part of the song played when Vriska and her army prepared to face off against Lord English, and the art reflects this tense moment. Vriska stands in the middle of the chaos, with the house juju towering behind her. All of this is reflected in the eye of Lord English himself, his normally radiating visage forced into the position of eight-balls. The detail on English's eye is both very sharp and a little unsettling. So although this art mirrors previous scenes in the comic, it adds its own interesting twists to the presentation to make it an exciting and engaging image.

I'm a Member of the Midnight Crew (theh0nestman Version) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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dodostad: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I was asking around for iconic rock album covers to base the art on since it was rather classic rock take on the midnight crew. Someone said Nirvana's Nevermind and I laughed and laughed and went with it

ostrichlittledungeon: (album team, booklet commentary)

After the acapella and post-punk versions of I'm a Member of the Midnight Crew, you may be wondering how there could possibly be a unique version of this song without stooping to What Pumpkin's level and making "I'm a Member of the Midnight Ska." theh0nestman manages to take this early 20th century classic somewhere entirely new. This version of the song has a country rock feel to it, with soft verses leading into harder, crunchier choruses, and the bridges between verses taking us into previously uncharted melodic territory.

Crystalendofgames Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Jamie Paige: (composer, booklet commentary)

Well, here I am again. Paige Stanley, closing disc 1 of a LOFAM, 4 years after I last did it. In that time, I technically became an Official Music Team Contributor!! I helped my dear friend Marcy Nabors with creating Solar Voyage and Renewed Return from Volume 10. I got 12 bucks on Paypal from What Pumpkin for that! Andrew Hussie bought me lunch! I got burgs with homestuck money!

Speaking of burgers, Crystalendofgames is a song that I made back in 2012 on a stormy, Autumn night. The power actually went out while I was making the song, even! The version you're hearing is from after I taped my broken ego back together and remade the whole damn thing. It's pretty Neat And Cool? I make cooler things now, though. Either way, I'm glad it could be a part of this wonderful Loaf Man.

Anyways, I'm gay! Bye!

Circlejourney: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This track has a climactic and solemn feel that, for me, seems to suggest the chillingly peaceful scenes preceding the violent turn of events in Act 7. As the quietest and yet most significant event in EoA6, I chose to depict the scene of PM and the Mayor climbing the Forge to cast the ring in, against the looming light of Skaia.

This is one part of a larger image formed by the covers of this, Ultimate Alchemy, and Black Hole / White Door.

~~DISC 2~~ Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Lambda Elise Merryberry: (composer, booklet commentary)

For a lot of people LoFaM2 is the best (released) LoFaM, which is... sort of weird, as someone that did it. Personally, I sort of think of 2 and 3 as parts of one whole because they were so close in proudction and a number of songs were moved from the former to the latter.

Also for a lot of people, the most represenative songs of LoFaM2 would be things like Alphamatic Replacement, CR1M1N4L CR1M1N4L, Fighting Spirit, Dance-Stab-Dance, stuff like that. As the, uh, co-head of Loaf 2 though, I sorta always felt that Jackpot was the "most LoFaM2" song? Not sure exactly what it was. Perhaps that it had like three remixes (two of which never made it to a LoFaM), perhaps that it was my personal #1 "why wasn't this on coloUrs and mayhem" song. But, anyway, yeah, we did Jackpot. It's a neat song.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

In my opinion, this track art perfectly fits the "calm before the storm" vibe of a middle before an end, like Disc 2 is before the endgame-themed Disc 3. I'll also note it looks incredibly fitting for the cover of a vinyl record, and with those bright colors and jazzy writing I'd check that hypothetical cover out the moment I saw it.

Hiatus Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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asphyxiation, blood
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Kevin Grant: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song was made, unsurprisingly, during one of the many Hiatuses that Homestuck had over the years. I wanted to capture the feeling of hopeful waiting combined with the sadness that came with the lack of content.

Trufflemeep: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The song was made during the gigapause, if the timestamp on soundcloud was right. So, I drew part of the scene where the gigapause left off aka Terezi getting the shit kicked out of her.

HOMOSUCK. DIRECTOR'S CUT, OF THE YEAR EDITION. Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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keyboard cait: (composer, booklet commentary)

Initially, I was going to compose this as one of those classic "ironically bad" songs, which I love dearly. At some point, it became clear I was going to drive it in a bit of a different direction, and then a few more directions, until I'd pretty much done a sick 360 degree spin across the musical canvas that is FL Studio. Wow that was kind of a weird metaphor? All in all, what you hear is what you get, and that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter. I don't want to take up too much of the commentary space, so I'll leave the rest of it to Nick and... uh, well, yeah.

Nick Tucker: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I sketched out two versions of this art, the clean one and the "meme one", which was more popular. And that's pretty much entirely understandable. Also, the title bar is based off the spine of a PS1 game.

CALIBORN: (booklet commentary)

WAIT. WHO ARE THESE RIDICULOUS PEOPLE? FORGET THEM.

HERE IS WHAT REALLY MATTERS.

A MESSAGE. FROM YOUR MASTER LORD.

BY THIS POINT. YOU HAVE ALREADY COME TO TERMS WITH THE FACT THAT "HOMOSUCK. DIRECTOR'S CUT, OF THE YEAR EDITION". IS BY FAR AND ABOVE. THE BEST PIECE OF ART. THAT YOU WILL EVER HAVE THE UNDESERVED PLEASURE TO EXPERIENCE, IN YOUR FLEETING MORTAL LIVES. IT IS A BEAUTIFUL MIXTURE. OF A MAGNUM'S OPUS THAT ASSUAGES THE AURAL SENSES. AND A GRAPHICAL COMPANION PIECE TO DELIGHT YOUR VISUAL WORLD.

THE SOUND OF THE MATTER. WHICH IS TO SAY THE "SONG". CONTAINS FIVE SECTIONS OF GLORY. OR EVEN "ACTS". SUBDIVIDED INTO USUALLY TWO FURTHER ACTS. THE FIRST TO REPRESENT MY VERY OWN BLOOD, SWEAT AND ARTISTIC PROCESS AS I CREATE THE LEGENDARY CHEF DE OEUVRE KNOWN AS "HOMOSUCK" ITSELF. AND THE SECOND TO REPRESENT THE CHAPTER OF HOMOSUCK THAT CORRESPONDS. YOU MAY NOTICE THAT WITH EACH PARTITION, THE SONG DOES NOT SIMPLY "PROGRESS". INSTEAD, IT EVOLVES. A TESTAMENT TO THE INCREDIBLE EVOLUTION OF MY BIOGRAPHICAL HERO'S JOURNEY. THAT I RECALLED TO YOU IN ANOTHER PLACE, AT ANOTHER TIME. I THINK WE ARE ALL IN AGREEMENT HERE. THAT THE WAY THE TWO MIRROR EACH OTHER. SO ELEGANTLY, AND SO CLEARLY. BASICALLY FUCKING RULES.

NOW. I HAVE ALREADY HEARD RUMORS, AND WHISPERS. FROM THE MYSTERIOUS AKASHIC SERVERS DEEP IN THE FURTHEST RING. VOICES THAT SAY THINGS LIKE, "I CAN'T BELIEVE CALIBORN COULD MAKE SOMETHING THIS GOOD". OR, "THIS IS TOO 'AWESOME' FOR HOMOSUCK".

FIRST OF ALL. FUCK YOU.

SECOND OF ALL THOUGH, YOU ARE SLIGHTLY COMPLETELY CORRECT. THAT MY INVOLVEMENT IN THIS PROJECT. WAS NOT A COMPLETE AND UTTER SOLO VENTURE. IN FACT. YOU MAY ALREADY BE AWARE. THAT THE ART PIECE WAS IN TRUTH MADE BY THE INCOMPARABLE [INSERT NAME I FORGOT HERE]. AND THE SONG ITSELF. WAS ESSENTIALLY COMPOSED BY THE LOVELY [INSERT WHOEVER THE FUCK'S NAME HERE]. AND I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. SOMETHING LIKE. "BUT IT'S LAZY TO GET OTHER PEOPLE TO DO YOUR WORK FOR YOU." OR. "HOW COULD YOU BE SUCH A MISERABLE SELLOUT?".

BOTH ARE EQUALLY MOOT POINTS. BECAUSE ON ONE HAND. I HAVE ALWAYS MAINTAINED THAT "WHEN DOING ART. SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO CHEAT. [...] THIS CAN SAVE TIME"1. AND ON THE OTHER HAND. WHICH IS REALLY JUST THE SAME HAND. THE DEGREE TO WHICH I SHOULD BE CREDITED FOR ALL THIS. IS PROBABLY MORE THAN YOU THINK. SURE, OTHER PEOPLE DID WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL 'THE HARD WORK'. IF YOU'RE A SHITTY BABY MORON WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND ART. BUT REMEMBER THAT ALL OF THIS. THE MUSIC, THE VISUALS, EVERYTHING. WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO CREATE. WITHOUT ME! IT WAS MY VISION THAT DIRECTED THIS PIECE. AND MINE ALONE.

THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED THE DIRECTOR'S CUT, BY THE WAY.

BECAUSE I'M THE FUCKING DIRECTOR.

"WOW," YOU ARE SURELY NOW THINKING. FOR A WHILE YOU SIT AND PONDER. THE RAMIFICATIONS OF SUCH A STUNNING REVELATION. "WE ARE ALL BLOWN AWAY". "MOST SHOCKING TWIST YET". ETC ETC ETC. BUT REALLY, ALL OF THAT WAS JUST A SIDE NOTE. AND AN INTRODUCTION. NOW, WE BEGIN THE *TRUE* COMMENTARY. AND DELVE INTO THE PURE, RAW SOUL OF ALL OF THIS. TO SEE FURTHER INTRIGUING, ENLIGHTENING PARAGRAPHS. DESCRIBING IN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THIS PIECE'S SECTIONS. THEIR REASONING. THEIR JUSTIFICATION. AND EVEN THEIR PURPOSE. PlEASE GO AHEAD. AND SCROLL BACK FORWARD TO THE NEXT PAGE.

1 QUOTE CITED FROM "HOMOSUCK. ACT ONE". PAGE 19.

S U C K E R .

WHAT. DID YOU REALLY THINK. THAT I WOULD JUST GIVE AWAY THE SECRETS TO MY TRADE? THE SPECIAL SAUCE TO THE GOURMET BUFFET??? NICE TRY, CHUMP. MAYBE YOU SHOULD JUST "INTERPRET" IT YOUR OWN WAY. AS ALL ART IS SUPPOSEDLY WONT TO BE. MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF THAT. INSTEAD OF ATTEMPTING TO FUCKING STEAL THE THOUGHTS OUT OF MY BRILLIANT MIND.

AS CONSOLATION FOR COMING THIS FAR THOUGH. I WILL GIVE YOU SOMETHING ANYWAYS. A RARE GESTURE OF "KIND NESS". IT IS A DETAILED LIST OF THE MANY LEIT MOTIFS USED IN THE SONG. COMPLETE WITH MARKERS INDICATING THE LOCATIONS. OF THEIR TIMELY APEARANCES. BECAUSE HONESTLY. THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO INTERPRET THAT. IT'S JUST OBVIOUS FUCKING FACTS.

ENJOY YOURSELF. (WHILE YOU CAN.) I'M OUT OF HERE.

Unofficial MSPA Fans: (booklet commentary)

References

Three in the Morning (Ngame's Bowmix) [Explicit] Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Ngame: (composer, booklet commentary)

For those not in the know, Michael Guy Bowman is one of the most iconic people associated with Homestuck. You may remember him as the composer of Sburban Jungle, one of the comic's most iconic songs, the angelic voice that captivated your ears in How Do I Live (Bunny Back in the Box Version), or maybe even as the "face of the fandom" for his famous Homestuck videos and convention appearances.

What isn't as well-known is that he's also an incredibly hilarious individual with dozens of sketch comedy videos - often featuring his equally sidesplitting friend, Scott Stutzsman - and I wanted to bring these two worlds together. With the release of Volume 10 in June, and the resulting focus on the Homestuck music team, Bowman appreciation had a resurgence in the fandom (especially one particular video, Bowman's Credit Score). I got caught up in the fervor as well, and made my first foray into music remixing to put together the first iteration of this tribute to Michael Bowman. The remix includes notable quotes or samples from every video that Michael Bowman and Scott Stutzman collaborated on, as well as many of their individual comedy videos.

If you liked Bowman's Homestuck stuff, love comedy videos, or were just too damn intrigued by this song to stay out of the loop, I recommend giving the Stutzbows (as I like to call their videos) a watch. Whether it's Scott singing you the jingle for his favorite breakfast cereal, Bowman informing you about his credit score (spoiler alert: it's 720), or both of them having some good, old-fashioned backyard fun, I'm certain there's something to enjoy for everyone.

Schrödinger's Harbinger Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Noisemaker: (composer, booklet commentary)

Initially from call and new 2: locomotif under the name Excess Express, I wanted Schrödinger's Harbinger to be Jasprose-themed to compensate for the lack of tracks in that category, as well as to make some additions to the original trakc.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

I can't believe that Roxy thinks that Rose smothering herself in response to the heinous evils of Jasprose is so "wonderful". What a terrible mother/daughter figure.

Listless Squiddly Bliss Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Marcy Nabors: (composer, booklet commentary)

I'm a bit fuzzy where this song came from. I made this sometime in the summer of 2011, and I remember sending it to Alex Rosetti as a token of my appreciation for his work shaping the musical palette of the Squiddles universe. The friend who got me into Homestuck (now Alex's partner and roommate) came up with the title. I think this was the last thing I made in Lgoic Pro before my ill-fated stint bumbling around in FL Studio for the latter portion of 2011. I love you Logic, I'm sorry I ever left.

dodostad: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Honestly don't know what to say about this one. I tried very hard to do pixels.

All the Luck Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Phil Gibson: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Vriska is gr8 and thank goodness she saved all of space and time so we could hear this album

Wheals: (album help, booklet commentary)

Xoro was working on a little 8-song Vriska album concept for the CANMT, to be released on 8/8/2016. Though the idea never came to be, he made a couple songs for it, which then languished on the main tab of our organization sheet. Reading through the list of semi-abandoned songs there, I convinced him to put it on our Volume 8, so it ended up with some 8-related action. At some point, either the LOFAM judges listened to the album and felt it was a standout track, or Xoro submitted it on his own. The latter is possible since right around then was when Lambda put out an open call on /r/homestuck for song submissions. Either way, Xoro felt the song could be improved, so the song as presented here is an even more polished version of the v8lume one. Relistening, many of the changes jump out. Right away you can tell some of the instruments have changed. (Enemy Approaching, the Undertale song, is still an obvious compositional inspiration, even though the instrumentation being less electronic makes this version less similar in that sense.) Some of the mixing is better and more punchy, a skill that Xoro excels at. Terezi's theme opens the bridge, after which the song contains new composition. Returning to the original motifs of the song after the bridge, it continues to put a new spin on them. I never cease to be impressed by the musical improvements of my friends in the Homestuck fanmusic community. And I'm glad that in a managerial role, I can facilitate others' improvement. Let's all give Xoro a thumbsp for the great work here.

Wisest Wizord Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Trufflemeep: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The music reminded me of a disco party, so I tied that in with the name of the song and created the most fabulous fortune-telling session I was able to. It's OOC because Roxy knows that only nerds half-ass their wizard cosplays. In reality it would be a proper tunic, silk closure beard, and 230% more glowsticks.

Wheals: (album help, booklet commentary)

This track was made a while ago (originally for Colours and Mayhem if I'm not mistaken) but didn't get the attention/nomination to end up on a contemporary LOFAM. Fast forward to 2016, when Chamango releases his third pro as heck guide to homestuck, highlighting this song as his favorite fanmusic of all time. It's not hard to see why if you listen to the track. The publicity brought it to the eyes of the LOFAM team, who were glad to add it. This whole story is basically an excuse to hsill Chamang0's awesome [S] Jade and Calliope: Rumble. and pro as heck guide to homestuck videos, but it also serves as a reminder of how far this fandom has gone, and how much history lies behind this amazing fanmusic project.

Prospit Towers Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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SerialSymphony: (composer, booklet commentary)

Prospit Towers took cues from the Genesis Frog album, as well as inspiration from tracks like Moonsetter. I wanted something subdued but moving to capture the feel of the moon. Also, I'm on LOFAM, hi mom!

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

In this piece by sonotcanon, Jade looks down on the city of Prospit from one of the... Prospit Towers. I'd say that sitting like that on a window pane is unsafe, but then I remembered that dreamselves can, you know, fly, so whatever.

Red Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Tamara Fritz: (composer, booklet commentary)

I wrote this pretty soon after the Openbound walkaround, and it was the first fansong I really felt amazingly proud of. Gotta love that sadstuck.

nights: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I needed to draw something equally cute for this cute track. I made this almost exclusively with MS Paint save for the final effects on the art, which were done with SAI.

Daydreamer Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Elanor Pam: (track artist, booklet commentary)

For this piece my only goal was to express the same soft dreaminess of the song itself. And to draw Joey, of course. Where's she going to in this dream?

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

I was a bit unsure of what to associate this track with at first. Jade is a dead ringer for a daydreamer, but so was Dave before his Derse awakening, implied in the song through Derse Dreamers and Atomyk, but Hiveswap's Old Secret is referenced in the song's first few seconds...

I'm personally glad Elanor took the Hiveswap route for this song's track art, because I feel it fits the song so well even beyond Old Secret. The song invokes a calm theme for Joey, and speculation on all the possible misadventuers she'll have that we'll soon get to see. As of this writing, Hiveswap's definitive release date of September 14th was revealed three days ago, and I hold hope it won't be delayed any longer. In the meantime, Daydreamer is a theme that embodies thoughts of that wait and that hope, and of course, thoughts of the game itself.

Grimbark Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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body horror
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Amethyst Barron: (track artist, booklet commentary)

A space werewolf with reality warping powers would be terrifying and I wanted to reflect that. Also I really like drawing drooly sharp teeth.

Grace Medley: (album help, booklet commentary)

Okay, okay. Before you start listening to this song, just picture in your head the absolute BEST grimbark Jade theme. Then hit play. If you're not confused as to how Ascenzo managed to read your mind, you did something wrong.

Makin: (album team, booklet commentary)


body horror
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Willow Ascenzo: (composer, SoundCloud description)

Happy 4/13, everybody!

Very slightly hints at Penumbral Phantasm. (thank you Xzaz for reminding me what song that was!)

Amethyst Barron: (track artist, Tumblr)

Track-art I contributed for the song “Grimbark” by Willow Ascenzo, on the recently released Homestuck fanalbum “Land of Fans and Music 4!″

An “evil” version of the character Jade Harley framed by her two very intimidating dogs… had a lot of fun drawing this as spooky as possible!

Upward Meowvement (Davepetasprite^2 Owns) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Kal-la-kal-la: (album help, booklet commentary)

The iconic Upward Movement backbeat speaks for itself. In true Davepeta fashion, numerous cat and bird noises appear throughout the track, and a bouncy B-section rounds it off.

Kal-la-kal-la: (album help, booklet commentary)

Davepetasprite^2, Paradox Space's certified #1 cat-bird, shows us their stabs from a vantage point just beyond the Green Sun. The green and orange hues in this piece are particulary lovely.

Requited (Dirtiest Remix) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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David Dycus: (composer, booklet commentary)

Plazmataz is amazing.

For extra fun, play this in sync with the original version of Requited.

Josefin B.: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Requited has always been a song associated with the Leijons for me, and since I had trouble deciding which one to draw I went with all three. I figure they all had love stories central to their narrative, but not necessarily happy ones. The word "requited" can taste bitter, especially to Disciple, since her love certainly was requited... I added a red string to show that they're all connected, but also how tied they all are to this bitter word.

The picture is all guache on aquarelle paper.

Expanses of Interstellar Space Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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blood
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yazshu: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Now, this art. It's something im proud of in a sense. Great background. Half-decent Becs. Too much going on, maybe, but i think it works well for the vast expanses of space. Space, however, does not have much in it. It might be a bit counterintuitive for that reason. Space is always really fun to draw though, so thats why i went a little bit overboard. Great song, too. Am very glad I did art for it. Yeah, thanks oj for making this fantastic remix.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

A calmer, somewhat less dramatic remix of Gold Pilot. I'd imagine it gets pretty lonely exploring the EXPANSES OF INTERSTELLAR SPACE.

Horizontal Headshot Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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decapitation (abstract), blood
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ostrichlittledungeon: (composer, booklet commentary)

Written for the Cool and New Music Team's Cool and New Homestuck 2, this is an attempt to remix Unite Synchronization in a way that fits better thematically with [S] Dirk: Synchronize and [S] Dirk: Unite. Some of the things I worked in were Orange Hat when Dirk wakes up, for example, Metamorphic Choices when the kernelsprite appears, Hate You for Meenah's cameo... Dirk's scateboard-riding I represented with Moshi Moshi?, a theme that's admittedly been a bit of a stickymotif for me (I've used it in way too many compositions). I like Moshi for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it goes so well with so many things. What can I say? I like mashing themes together.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

An illustration of the events of both [S] Dirk: Synchronize and [S] Dirk: Unite. As can clearly be seen, the Red Miles tore up the spacetime continuum, resulting in all the events happening concurrently. This is exactly what happened both here and in the flashes, and definitely isn't just a clever tactic by dazed-squid to create an pretty neat track art that depicts a lot of the best parts of said flashes.

Unofficial MSPA Fans: (booklet commentary)

References

One and a Half Midnight Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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blood, eye horror
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Makin: (album team, booklet commentary)

Here's some beta art by yours truly, the final art is almost as good I guess


blood, eye horror
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Selan Pike: (track artist, booklet commentary)

LET THEM FIGHT

Fractal Flowers Nui Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Kal-la-kal-la: (composer, booklet commentary)

This piece was originally written for a different album, centered around the theme of Problem Sleuth. Given the jazz-era vibe of Problem Sleuth I decided I'd make something jazzy, and I figured it'd be nice to do a downtempo sort of theme, which I originally intended to represent the character of Godhead Pickles Inspector. With that in mind I sort of set to work trying to find a jazz chord progression that worked. After a bunch of fiddling about at the piano, the one I ended up with draws a lot from "My Favourite Things" and "Nardis", and so I worked out a melody of sorts over that in Ableton. Saxes are pretty much standard for jazz, and I picked a Rhodes soundfont over a piano owing to a distaste for the way a lot of piano patches sound. The sax solo I sequenced manually, and the accordion solo I reocrded as an improv.

"But," I hear you exclaim, "if it's a GPI track then why isn't the track art GPI?"

That's a difficult question to answer, exactly, but somewhere along the way, the track became reinterpreted as a theme for Death and the afterlife. "But what is that figurine that Death is playing with?", I hear you ask. That's the sort of question that invites what is oft known as a "long story", but a simple explanation is as follows:

For centuries, the bottom of the deepest seas had been shrouded in mystery and superstition. Some say it's a hostile place inhabited by the strangest creatures. Others, that it's a prison for the most dangerous outcasts. Legend has it that the only hope of ever getting out of there is a mask, that every deep sea creature has been craving for years. A mask they say, everyone is prepared to fight for, and risk their lives to possess. But the only way of ever finding out, is to go there and see for yourself.

Selan Pike: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Look, I should never be allowed to draw Bionicles.

Ringleader Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Discfortune: (composer, booklet commentary)

AKA The One Time I Sold Out to LOFAM, Ringleader is a Crowbar song I had a lot of fun throwing together. I tried incorporating aspects of jazz and rock solbos, in addition to experimenting with a 7/8 time signature. I'm pleasantly surprised at how it turned out, considering how obtuse the concept felt to me when I was first planning out the track. Blah blah blah check out cool and new webcomic please

nights: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Crypt's songs are always a delight to listen to, I'm so happy I got the chance to do art for one of them. (Plus it's a Crowbar track! Objectively the best Felt member. This is fact not opinion.)

Dance of the Dead Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Veritas Unae: (composer, booklet commentary)

I'm really sorry I delayed this album. I hope this is worth it.

Originally, when LoFaM 3 wrapped up and we were considering how LoFaM 4 could tie everything up, I approached konec0 about what should be done for the 'dance' track in that album could end up being. One of the original ideas was a song initially called 'Requiem Momentum / Moment of Dance'. Like Garden of Eden and konec0's dance tracks before it, it was going to flow between piano medleys (based around Requiem from Sburb) and high tempo dance segments. Eventually the ideas drifted towards being a love letter to all of Homestuck music, in particular, one that featured at least one song from every album. (Well... except Act 7, I have to draw lines somewhere; it's here I apologise to anyone expecting me to tackle the CaNMT discography.)

From there, konec0's involvement in the fan music scene dropped somewhat, and I was still particularly excited about this idea around the time the ball actually started rolling on LoFaM 4. So I decided to try and revive the dead dance. Humorously, Requiem no longer shows up in the piece, so Dance of the Dead is a bit of a misnomer, but I think the frantic pace and thematic idea of the beta kids and the Midnight Crew jamming together in the Farthest Ring is one we can all appreciate. The choice to go with jazz for the piece is mostly due to how comfortable I feel writing for small jazz ensembles. Another funny thing to note is that I gave anything tricky or unplayable to Jade (consider some of the basslines or the double notes on flute) - she must have pulled out her dreambot again! (Not withstandding, I think a couple of carapacians picked up some alto saxes.)

Many thanks to all the amazing fan musicians who populated the sheet music thread back in the day. So many of those scores were invaluable to me. Also thanks to TheOtherN on musescore for their incredible transcription of Watercolour, Alex Rosetti for the Pondsquatter MIDI, Max Wright for Gods of the New World sheet music, Nate Tronerud for the For Beforus sheet music, Tensei for the Rouge on the Rox MIDI, Circlejourney for the JUST1C3 MIDI, and Marcy for her incredible melody notating skills.

Selan Pike: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I think it makes a statement, and that statement is, "I've been playing too much Persona 5", or perhaps "I hate drawing musical isntruments"

Unofficial MSPA Fans: (booklet commentary)

References

Atomyk Clockwyrk Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Marcy Nabors: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song represents a lot of firsts for me. My first piece of Homestuck fan music, my first time composing for an ensemble of orchestral instruments, and the uh... second song I ever wrote in a digital audio workstation. I read Homestuck in a feverish marathon in the Fall of 2010 while taking a class about playing in a rock band and recording music (my high school was very cool). Around that time, I'd also been sequencing MIDI files in Anvil Studio (a program which was also the genesis of Bowman's MIDI experience), and had only recently discovered that Logic also had MIDI sequencing capabilities. After falling madly in love with the Homestuck soundtrack, I had an epiphany to the tune of "holy shit, I know how to make stuff like that!" and Atomyk Clockwyrk was thus the result. I've come a long way since then, but it's a testament to the quality of Logic Pro's stock library that I managed to make it sound this good with minimal knowledge of production. A little volume automation, slap a limiter on top (not even Logic's wonderful Adaptive Limiter? Come ON, 16-year old Marcy...), and blam, what you're hearing today is a time capsule of what I put together in December of 2010.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

Dave is waiting in his land. For what? We're not quite sure. Perhaps he is simply waiting for one of the countless time loops he has employed as his session's time player. In any case, it can't be comfortable wearing that suit in that heat. I guess that's the price of being a c o o l k i d though.

Fun fact actually, this piece had a couple other variants before this version, which had Dave wearing different colored suits. One was white, and the other was red. However, after dazed-squid was suggested to try a green one instead, it managed to catch the eye quite very well indeed. As such, the green version stuck.

Cleopatra's Cocktail Party Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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alcohol
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nights: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I'm really happy with this piece! The music sets a uniquely nice atmosphere on LOPAN, which I hoped to capture in this art's composition and colors. (Also the glass is just water, I promise I don't condone underage drinking, please don't call the cops)

Grace Medley: (album help, booklet commentary)

During his time as a musician for Homestuck, Thomas Ferkol touched on a wide range of styles, from metal to neoclassical to krautrock, and everywhere in between. One he hadn't done, though, was disco... Until now! Conceived as one of three land themes for the alpha session (LOPAN in particular), this track sadly never saw an official release, but it's here, now, for your listening pleasure.

Quest Crypt Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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keyboard cait: (composer, booklet commentary)

This is by far my oldest song on the album, having been created only a couple of months after LOFAM 2's release. The image of the Alpha Kids talking out their problems on cold stone slabs, in the middle of a hollow moon's core, really stuck with me. I set out to make a theme that would convey the melancholy, expansive atmosphere of that scene. The long pauses give off a sense of unsureness, while the echoing background noises bring us back to the chaos currently happening on the planet surface.

Also, this cryptic crypt song was partially based on Sburban Jungle and cryptically took inspiration from Sburb OST's Outer Reaches cryptomnesially. The song does not have anything to do with cryptids. That's Quest Crypt.

sweetjegus: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The A6A5A1x2combo is -apart from being a mouthful- a very introspective breath after a wild, high-octane sequence. My early draft for this piece featured all four alpha kids on their respective devices, but it felt too engaged, too connected. I think this song is more reflective of solitude (the solitude that comes despite being in simultaneous chat conversations with two other people), and I hoped to convey that.

Noble Ascendance Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song originated as a battle theme for Roxy, but as I moved along in the process, I thought "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to make some kind of medley for all of the alpha kids when they got their god tiers that would be pretty cool wouldn't it?" and started what at the time was the most ambitious song I made yet.

My process when making the medley was to make some kind of... story I suppose? I'm not really a fan of stuff that shoves in references for the sake of shoving in references, so pretty much every reference I put in here was meant to connect ot the kids somehow. (Look fine Ruins only has a really tangential connection to Jane but I didn't listen to Volume 9 because I'm a bad person)

This song was made when I was first really digging my teeth into making music, and I feel like it shows. Generally I feel like the production and instrumentation in this song has... a lot to be desired. Even so, making this taught me lots of things that I wouldn't have learned otherwise, and I'm glad I made it, even if I can't stand to listen to it.

I tried to make another medley with this kind of format for the Cool and New Music Team recently, and it's essentially what I was trying to do with this song. (Although, with a different subject matter entirely) You can find it on the Greatest Hits 2 album, under the name Two Master Classes, A Knife Enthusiast, and A Green Dude Walk Into a Bar. Yes, I know it's a shitty name.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

After her fantastic work on the Volume 5 Anthology, a project to supply Homestuck Volume 5 with unique art for each track, Aeritus supplied this wonderful image. Here, the alpha kids lie in rest, waiting for the future of attaining god tier. It... can't be comfortable to lie in rest on stone slabs. That must be hell on your back.

Sunslammer (Cement City Remix) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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YoItsCro: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This was quite an interesting piece to work on; I was trying to do something with perspective though you know, practice will eventually take someone far! Anyway, here's Jade. The green sun is in the corner because outside of paying mind to the spacey environment, it somewhat references her whole god tiering ordeal, which essentially meant the first guardian bonus pack.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

i think this song speaks for itself so here are some lyrics.

lyrics:

OH LET'S BREAK IT DOWN

NOOT NOOTVAPE NAYSH YALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

I'M GAY

YEAH BOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII(...)

*annoying laughter*

YOU CLOD

WUBBA LUBBA DUB DUB

OH HE NEEDS SOME MILK

IT'S TIME TO STOP

(SFX: Toki yo Tomare.)

Climbing to Infinity Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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SplitSuns: (composer, booklet commentary)

This track was made for the Cool and New Music Team's CANWAVE, an album entirely of Homestuck vaporwave parodies. This song in particular is a vaporwave edit of Endless Climb, hence the name. I tried to extend the vaporwave feel beyond just slowing the song down, splicing and editing the original song in interesting ways, adding 80's style instruments, and utilizing pitchbend and other distortion effects to provide an uneasy feel. The result is something that transcends meme status and enters "dream status," if you will. Actually that sounds kind of dumb. Forget I said that.

SplitSuns: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The track art is a parody of the cover of the vaporwave album "Shader Complete" by Sacred Tapestry.

Beatup (Shutdown) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Riki Tsuji: (composer, Tumblr)

a new Homestuck remix, this is actually a remix of a remix by myself and Clark that’s going to be on an official release that is going to happen sometime in the future and that is all that I can say on the matter.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

This song gives me vibes of a "prelude" version of the original Beatdown, like one that plays as a character's theme before a boss fight where the boss music is just a more complete and amped up rendition. Or maybe it's like an encore of Beatup where the DJ gives the backing track a little more flair. Either way, the fact that this song uses only the opening arpeggios of Beatdown throught its run works hella well as a lead-in to the next track, Airtime Assault, which dives straight into the main melody.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

This art reminds me of what could have been. Oh, Bro. You could have had it all. A sweet hipster ninja buddy just like you who had your back at all times, who enjoyed being with you and never fought against the blade. You could have trained him with such bullshit free discipline mixed with such terror free compassion that his genuine confidence would never let him lose again. Not even to you, the teacher, brother and father. Then you two could stand back to back while this badass music of fraternal teamwork played in the distance, complete with a backdrop of blazing sun and raging meteors. But then you just had to throw the kid off a building and make his daily life hell. Thanks for nothing, man.

Airtime Assault Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Cerulean: (composer, booklet commentary)

I wanted to combine several things I learned while at college but the only way I knew how was to mash together 3 of my most favourite songs together, Doctor, Beatdown and Jungle.

I've learned to mix and match certain sections of a song to a better over composition. As for mixing, I had my music tutor (A semi-popular DJ) listen to the track and give their feedback. I then used this to make the overall song so much better.

tempest2k: (track artist, booklet commentary)

So this art is for Airtime Asasult, which was originally named Dave v John, which is a boring as heck name if you want my opinion. There was one slot left for art and when I saw this posted in announcements I decided to take it. I haven't drawn John or Dave as much as I have my favorite Homestuck gals, so getting things right was a bit difficult at first. I started work on this in June and as time went by and I got more done, I was getting better with my art style. If I had went and finished this in a day, I don't think it would've looked nearly as good as it does. The idea came from me thinking about how John and Dave would battle. I figured Dave would abuse time travel and John would be able to retcon around, making for an interplanetary fight between good buddies. The top drawings of John and Dave are intended to look silly, as it's not likely they're fighting over something serious. Anyway this was really fun to do and I hope you enjoy the rest of the album and junk!

(ps, viko told me to say johndave is canon i guess)

Robert Jailbreak Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Mathias Ramalho: (composer, booklet commentary)

This track is a joke. It doesn't have a serious purpose. But it is, in fact, an 8-bit track I worked quite hard to make sound good. If you love 8-bit and RJ, then this is the track just for you!

koba: (track artist, booklet commentary)

so i worked on this art way back in the beginning of the year just to see if i could contribute to the album and made a piece of art i'm pretty happy about, i don't really do art stuff so this was a first for me but im glad i could have worked on the album in some way still. it was pretty fun working on the art in general, coming up with the idea was pretty quick after i heard the song, but the hard part was trying to draw lil rj for the art (with a trackpad, dont use trackpads), and after a few revisions i think i got it to a pretty close style to the original. anyway glad i could help work on the album, and hope you dudes all enjoy the rest of it

Robert J! Lake: (probably not associated, booklet commentary)

What
W h At
W ho Did This

hors Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Hadron: (composer, booklet commentary)

I really like Arquiussprite; he gets me at a fundamental level. He doesn't swear, he is super into technology, he loves horses, and is just all around a pure sprite; too bad Andrew BYBooted him into Lord English. why do that to a pure horse boy

Griever: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Jojo and Homestuck sure do have a lot of things in common, don't they? Themes of predestination, weird time shit, luck being used as a weapon, a guy without the use of his legs, horses everywhere in a certain part...it's all kind of weird and interesting. So that's why I did an EPIC JOJOKE for this trackart. If you don't understand what's going on here, read some more Jojo, I guess. Or don't. Look, Hors is a great, funny track, and this is the dank artistry it deserves as accompaniment. You're welcome.

The Gemoni Mustard Blood Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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cookiefonster: (composer, booklet commentary)

You know, it's pretty funny that some Cool and New Webcomic songs (such as this one) are being re-released on this album, but at the same time it's kind of fitting, since after Volume 10 was released, the CaNWC soundtrack helped reignite the notion of Homestuck fan music.

I made this song before I knew I'd be making a whole album full of songs like this, just as a Sollux song for the hell of it. Even though this was the first one I made, it pretty clearly turned out to be one of the best, and I recently figured out why: the vibrato feature in Famitracker adds magic to everything and this one uses that feature pretty heavily. I'm not even joking, that functionality makes chiptune songs so much better.

Title is a reference to Tavros and Fairie: A Love Story, a trollfic that starts off funny but eventually becomes truly painful to read.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

Sollux is about to get down. Gotta give out some FRESH BEATS. Gotta JAM YOUR EYEBALLS AND EARHOLES WITH SOME SWEET ASS TUNES. CHECK IT OUT YO.

Reconciled Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Shandy: (composer, booklet commentary)

A track to celebrate the Striders finally talking and hashing out their differences! Because it's a Striders song, I couldn't help adding a little breakdown. Sharp-eared listeners may also note that in the call-and-response main melody, the first synth is in 4/4 time and the second synth is in triplets—just as Dave and Dirk aren't quite in perfect lockstep. I left the ending open ended and hopeful, because I feel like the final chapter on their relationship has yet to be written.

SplitSuns: (album help, booklet commentary)

Dave and Dirk's reunion on the spires of LOTAK was serious and poignant, but not without its sillier moments. This art is a mashup and showcase of the most ironic bullshit the Striders had to offer throughout the story. Smuppets galore, their plush rumps and jutting proboscices laid alongside such gems as a Game Bro magazine, an artifacted Statue of Liberty, the lovable Squarewave and Sawtooth, and SBaHJ icons including the Big Man himself. And who could forget Guy Fieri's surprise appearance, his scream frozen in place as he prepares to assume the title of the next Antichrist? But that's a story for another time.

The End of Something Really Excellent Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Rhyselinn: (composer, booklet commentary)

The Beginning of Something Really Excellent is a fun song that takes place early in the story when not much is known about the world of Homestuck. The End of Something Really Excellent is a song I wrote as kind of a book end, a symbolic song that encapsulates the journey all the characters went on, and kind of retells it in song format. From the beginning the kids went into Sburb (Sburban Jungle), learned the mythos of the Medium (Skies of Skaia), took upon them the mantle of heroes (Dawn of Man), explored their worlds (Doctor, Endless Climb, Atomyk Ebonpyre, Frost), did a bunch of stuff to salvage their session (Cascade), scratched their session and made a new one (Another Jungle, Even in Death), reflected on the journey they went on (Do You Remem8er Me), fought a great final battle for the sake of the session (Skaian Skirmish), and beat the game of Sburb (reprise of Sburban Jungle), and with it reached the end of the story. And so did the readers.

Homestuck has been a heck of an adventure, one that I had the privilege of watching firsthand for some number of years. I am honored to be able to pay a tribute to such a beautiful thing with my comparatively small contribution to this project. A million thanks to Andrew Hussie and all the artists/musicians who put in so much work to make the comic into what it became. It truly was something really excellent.

Rebecca Peason: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The End of Something Really Excellent brings a lot to mind. To the end of the story, to the end of the adventure, end of the game, the fighting, the dying, etc. Listening to it I thought of when The Beginning of Something Really Excellent played in comic and started there. The concepts jumped but in the end, I wanted something that speaks to the end of the harrowing journey playing this game was. What a relief it is that the fighting is over and for now can be left behind.

Unofficial MSPA Fans: (booklet commentary)

References

The Sin and the Salvation Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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blood
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psithurist: (composer, booklet commentary)

So I started this track about two years ago when I was much less experienced with production and workflow, and working on it more recently has become kind of a nightmare. It's about the story of the cherubs: Caliborn's domination, the rise of Lord English, Calliope's isolation, and her alternate self's ultimate sacrifice. The working title was "Damara's Descent", and the whispers are actually edited recordings of exposition about Damara, but the theme changed pretty early on. Thanks to Lucas Haggett for performing bass on this track!

psithurist: (composer, SoundCloud description)

this track has been in the works for a very, very long time (since 2014 i think?). feels good to finally get it out. the longest and most ambitious track i've ever made, telling the story of the cherub siblings in three movements. enjoy, love from jo psithurist, xoxox

SmashCooper: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I'm really glad I had the chance to draw track art for a cherub song since Caliborn is probably one of my favorite characters in Homestuck. I tried to fill this up with as many pieces of imagery of the cherub's journeys to god tier, all framed within a beautiful clock ready to be smashed with a crowbar. Side Note: Caliborn's gun was superbly hard to draw and now I can see why Hussie used a jpg image for it as often as he could.

Resend Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Noisemaker: (composer, booklet commentary)

This track almost didn't see the light of day. I submitted it for the Cool and New Music Team's credits music contest, and ended up pulling an admirable 3rd place. At first, the track wasn't going to be used in the credits mix (partially due to recieving 3rd place, but also because it fell short of the 7 minute length requirement), but, after a miracle on-par with the birth of Christ took place, Resend was just barely able to squeeze in due to a mandatory meme credits addition.

yazshu: (track artist, booklet commentary)

originally this song was going to be replaced by ocean man, per my request. it wasn't. fuck you bambosh

~~DISC 3~~ Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Lambda Elise Merryberry: (composer, booklet commentary)

Finding a suitable song for a disc jingle from LoFaM3 was... sort of a struggle, really. I didn't want to do something based too heavily on another song (e.g. Emissary of Dance, Garden of Eden, I'm Not a Hero, or Thermporia) and I really didn't want to do something memey/jokey (i.e. Theme of the Slam Jam, JOHN DO THE WINDY THING, or Sord).

This... narrowed the pool of available songs from LoFaM3 significantly.

We ended up going with Starblaze because it does have original portions and I'm fairly sure was one of those "universal yes" songs among the judges. My second choice would've been Fortune Healer, probably.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

For the final disc of what could be the final LOFAM... we see that the sky's the limit for this community, its massive catalog of music getting only larger for the comic that's stuck with all of us. We still have a ways more to go, folks.

Pseudumbra Phauxtasm Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Marcy Nabors: (composer, booklet commentary)

Back in 2016 I got together with RJ Lake and James Roach to compile Homestuck Vol. 10. Everyone was pretty hyped, and there were threads in various places full of people feverishly speculating about what the tracklist would be. Much of this speculation focused on whether Toby Fox's elusive song Penumbra Phantasm would finally see release, founded on the rumor that he had agreed to finish it for the album.

Around this time, a couple of us on the Vol. 10 project decided to have some fun with the speculation and put together a fake version of the album to "leak" to the fans, so we gathered a few WIPs that'd been cut from Vol. 10 and arranged them at the beginning of the album for an illusion of Authenticity™. Jamie Paige put together a bunch of awful low-effect vaporwave remixes of Homestuck songs, which we gave names to match what the fans were hoping for. Finally, as the keystone piece to tie it all together, we referenced an old Toby Fox piano recording and created a short (but hopefully convincing) song that we titled "Penumbra Phantasm". Christened by Toby's seal of approval and an unholy melding with a vaporwave Sunslammer monstrosity, this one-minute-and-fifty-second piece quickly became a fan favorite once the [sock?] ruse was revealed, and we promised that this "Pseudumbra Phauxtasm" would see an extended release on LoFaM 4.

A year later we've completed this track, and now the latter third of the song is just a power metal cover of the Breath of the Wild theme, but that's a story for another day. Ask me sometime

Jamie Paige: (composer, booklet commentary)

🅱️

Circlejourney: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This is a highly stylised representation of Act 7, with Alt!Calliope creating the black hole that consumes the entire universe, and John reaching for the knob of the door into the new universe. They circle around Skaia, neither pulled into it nor escaping it, but trapped in the loop of its inscrutable machinations. This scene is set against an image of Paradox Space cracking at the edges, which also resembles a cracked disc: the final disc of Homestuck, shattering at the edges, foretelling of the destruction of the story itself.

While this image wasn't originally made for Pseudumbra Phauxtasm, I think it is a fitting illustration to accompany it: this track is an expansive and beautifully-made arrangement of the elusive Penumbra Phantasm, a track that has been kept under wraps for almost as long as the end of Homestuck itself.

Crystalmethequins (Broken Bad) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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cops
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Riki Tsuji: (composer, Tumblr)

YO U HOMESTUX AINT READY 4 DEEZ DROPS DOE
THIS SOME REAL SHIT RITE HERE
CRYSTALMETHEQUINS ON THAT OVERDOSE
BRINGIN THAT MOTHAFUCKIN HEISENBERG GAME
UPDATED TRACKART BY RICHARD GUNG AGAIN
CRYSTALMETHEQUINS: THE REBIRTH
CRYSTALMETHEQUINS 2.22 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE
CRYSTALMETHEQUINS
BROKEN BAD
BY ASTRO KID
(DOWNLOAD THIS SHIT)

Richard Gung: (alternate artwork, for SoundCloud)

tti: (track artist, booklet commentary)

dont do drugs

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

From the co-creator of smash hits Crystalmethequins and Beatup, and the composer of classics like Skaian Starstorm and Starblaze, comes an all-new drug fueled adventure!

(Note: Don't do drugs, kids. Note 2: Don't even THINK of doing meth, trust on this one, please. Note 3: This isn't actually all-new, it's been around since 2013, but BOY is it still a doozy. Note 4: This is a remix of a remix of a remix. Are you a bad enough dude (or any casual moniker of your choice) to continue the chain? Note 5: I've run out of ntoes, so I guess... enjoy the song?!?!?)

Thyme on My Fries Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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blood, decapitation
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SplitSuns: (composer, booklet commentary)

This track was originally made for the Cool and New Music Team's "Cool and New Homestuck" project, remixing and parodying the various Homestuck Flashes. In case you can't tell, this song is a parody of Time on my Side. I mostly played it straight to the original song, changing the instrumentation and adding some twists of my own. Of course, there's some jokes thrown into the mix as well, such as the Crazy Frog theme song, Waters of Nazareth, and other subtle additions. All in all, I hope you like this song! It's good enough for Tensei to say "this is pretty good," so make of that what you will.

Ephemerald: (track artist, booklet commentary)

When I saw that Thyme on My Fries' art was still unclaimed, I knew what I had to do. This is the result - a love letter to the song and the Flash it's parodying.

I wanted to make the dividing line horizontal, but I couldn't get it to work, so I went with the diagonal split, which I'm happier with. I wanted the Dirks to look like a playing card - maybe the Suicide King, as it looks like they're decapitating themselves. The hardest part of this was Derse. I knew I could take the easy way out and copy some buildings, but I pushed myself to draw everything on my own. I'm glad I did; I think it's the best part of the piece. (See if you can spot some familiar faces in the crowd of carapacians!)

Oh, and thanks to Nights for finding the image of the sun for the line in the middle.

Raise of the Conductor's Baton Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Hadron: (composer, booklet commentary)

Rise of the Conductor's baton is probably my most ambitious song I've made; I pulled all the stops for this song for [S] Finale of CANH. I knew from the start that I wanted to do an upbeat EDM-styled track, and I thought a remix of Beatfox's original Creata would be spectacular.

Makin: (album team, booklet commentary)

This track was made way back in November for the [S] Finale animation, a culmination of Cool and New Web Comic lore Hadron had been working on for a long time. The track features a bunch of obscure little references like Skaian Voyages and Celestial Fantasia, both amazing Beatfox songs you should probably look up, and Formation, the Hadron song you've already listened to. Beatfox is a music god, and Hadron knew just how to combine all the good leitmotifs in order to make the song feel as grand and epic as humanly possible. I actually named this track, as I feel cool Homestuck quotes like "Raise of the Conductor's Baton" ought to be used when they fit the content (and indeed, Rose raises her wand... conductorly... in the animation mentioned above. Seriously, go watch [S] Finale when you're done with this album).

Radness from Concentrate Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Whimsy: (composer, booklet commentary)

I'd been trying to make a Strider theme for quite some time, when this idea struck me: What if instead of writing a strider theme, I wrote THREE STRIDER THEMES? And then shoehorn in a variant of Beatdown because why not.

But in all seriousness, the wildly different sections of the song was more accidental and natural than anything else. I like to think parts of the song imply the introspection and humanity behind Dave and Dirk's cooldude persona, like the comic often demonstrates to us. And if not, at least we get a couple minutes of cool blues scale noodling.

piskomil: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Radness is a rad song so it needed a rad track art and what is more rad than alpha dave soaring through space on unreal air? but there's also a bit of playfulness to the song which is why I added those shitty statues of liberty. Imagine dave with pockets full of shitty statues of liberty just tossing them down on the planet as he flies by.

Conflict! Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Emelia K.: (composer, booklet commentary)

made for redditstuck. homestuck is bad

yazshu: (track artist, booklet commentary)

since july 20th, 2016 i have made trackart for many variations of this song. i helped Discfortune create the very first mashup of this song. i have drawn the characters from a comic i dont even like that much more than my own. when i was sent the spreadsheet, and i saw it sitting on there, unclaimed, i knew i was the only man capable of doing this. thank you emelia k for creating my entire career.

Solar Momentum Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Nicholas Nakano: (composer, booklet commentary)

This was one of my first truly good songs, having distinct sections. Also included my first guitar solo. At the time of creation, I was playing VVVVVV, and is now one of my favorite games of all time (the music being especially good). I hope y'all enjoy.

Mags: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The pairing of aggressive electric guitar and elegant violin immediately made me think of the similarly aggressive-but-elegant PM, and the snazzy chip tune flair inspired the pixelated art style.

-Omega- Timeline Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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blood
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ostrichlittledungeon: (composer, booklet commentary)

This is the song on LOFAM 4 that I'm most proud of, and was the most fun to make. Yes, it's Gold Pilot. Yes there are like seven other songs on LOFAM 4 that use Gold Pilot. But I do think I did a lot with it, and this piece showcases a bunch of different things. It starts with pretty standard Gold Pilot, and then slowly grows into the subversion that is the Gunshow 2 Theme, followed by a drop. Then there's a section inspired by Of Gods and Witches, then whatever the fuck happens at 1:42. Bring back the Gold Pilot with a new beat, and then end with Formation. Dumb weird fadeout that I definitely could've improved somehow but I was lazy. I wrote -Omega- Timeline with the Game Over timeline in mind—the dark feel and the choirs peppered throughout reflect the devastation to the A2 session, the Of Gods and Witches section is somewhat of a tribute to... dead kids? And the next section is a tribute to... uh, the happiness that's gone? I don't know, come up with some meaning there yourself. Most of this piece was me going for a specific feel rather than a specific meaning. Also, the dashes in the name are more for my own amusement than anything. -ω-

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

Omega Timeline is a song about the Game Over timeline, which Terezi heavily assists in healing with a plan she formed herself. Naturally, then, it works for the art to show Terezi in the middle of her final journey in this timeline, inches away from finding her true potential. It fits the adventurous and determined nature of the song pretty well! The fact that the letter Omega is associated with Libra helps too, of course.

Emerald Cinders Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Grace Medley: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song started out as a test to see if I could replicate that bassy blare from every major action film trailer from the past six or so years. Then, it evolved into a Rhapsody in Green cover, and the rest is history. While making this I had the image of the Midnight Crew's casino burning down as Spades struggles to escape, then I re-thought it over with Lord English's arrival into Jack's body, then Jake's battle against the leprechauns, until I eventually decided, "as long as it's Felt-themed, this song is about it". There are a few references to Felt-based songs in here, too. The aforementioned Rhapsody in Green, the eerie variation of English from early on in Carne Vale, the opening from Afraid of the Darko (although quite drastically rewritten for a cinematic vibe) and a hopeful piano reprise of Carne Vale as a reflection of the first defeat Jake had left the Felt with. Then it concludes with the tail-end of English, because the Felt never truly stay down.

sonotcanon: (track artist, booklet commentary)

snowman a la mal from inception. credit to power for the concept!

Sugar Cubes Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

There's no music or art commentary on this track (which by the way is incredibly catchy and cute), so instead I'll pose a relevant question. How many songs with Mario Paint cat meows do you think are on this album? 2? 3? 4? Just this one? All 105? I'll tell you: there are 6. Six Mario Paint meow songs on the album, including this one. Approximately 5.71% of all Land of Fans and Music 4 tracks have Mario Paint cat meows in them. Now, that might not seem impressive, but let's put this in perspective: that's triple the number of tracks about Vriska. Whether that's good or bad, I'll leave to you.

"the more mario paint meows i can cram on this album the better" -lambda 2017

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

A serene landscape painting by fuchsi.

Let's be honest here, that tea is probably so saturated with sugar that drinking it will probably give you diabetes as soon as it enters your bloodstream.

Fond Regard Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Lark Mordancy: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song was inspired by the cosmogonical aspects of the MSPA universe(s), and by those universes' cryptic curators.

Selan Pike: (track artist, booklet commentary)

GPI: Fondly regard Selan spending too much time fiddling with the background

Prospitian Monody Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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blood, corpses, decapitation
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Viko Riféo: (composer, booklet commentary)

I honestly can't believe this got in. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm satisfied with it, but seriously this took ages to get to a publishable state.

Prospitian Monody started life as a techno/ambient fusion with acoustic instruments in for fun too, which is a fancy way of saying I have no idea what genres actually mean. It also had a completely different melody. People told me the piano didn't fit so I made it synth, people told me the melody was aimless but couldn't explain why so I just rewrote it and blindly hoped, and they liked it but then production sucked again so I made it orchestral, and then the whole thing became synth instruments, which I kind afound bland but also it works well and I don't know what else to do. ANYWAY ENOUGH RAMBLING ABOUT USELESS FEEDBACK LETS GET TO THE SONG ITSELF

A monody is essentially a dirge, except that it's not a dirge? It's dirgeish anyway. (fucking hell ost) This is like a funeral hymn for the White King, but the Dersite army is slaughtering all the Prospitians that try to mourn, so in the end the funeral ends up being held by some Dersites who aren't sympathetic to Prospit, but do respect tradition and politeness and etiquette and so on, so to compensate for it being a funeral for their enemy they make it all imposing and evil. (The Black King is too busy ending the world to notice.) You could sort of view it as a counterpart to Broken Dreams on the SBURB OST, but focusing more on Derse's triumph than on Prospit's downfall.

Wheals: (album help, booklet commentary)

Jas posted a quite different original version of this art, showing a funeral procession of sorts for the king's impaled head, but replaced it with this even more impressive composition featuring a more dynamic posee and focused around a central Dersite. There was some disagreement on the discord server whether it looked better with or without the tree in the top left, which almost ended with the tree being put in at 8% transparency.

Also johndave is a bad ship suck it viko

Shatter Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Kanishka: (composer, booklet commentary)

The song itself is supposed to be some kind of a ham-fisted theme for the Reckoning, and its name refers both to Skaia being bombarded with meteors and Prospit moon crashing into the battlefield with no survivors.

Just a lazy attempt at trying to combine fabled The Baby Is You with ever-elusive and almost mythical Double Midnight at first, Shatter eventually evolved into somewhat fleshed out song. Yeah, it lacks originality, essentially being a simple medley, but I was more interested in making DnB-y stuff with a bunch of Homestuck motifs thrown together than composing something completely from scratch.

I think I'm more or less satisfied with the end result, even though it hardly resembles jungle (as a music genre, not, you know, Sburban Jungle or anything). Anyway, I hope you like it.

Andiavang: (track artist, booklet commentary)

"Boom boom boom boom
I want you in my room
Let's spend the night together
From now until forever
Boom boom boom boom
I wanna double boom
Let's spend the night together
Together in my room" - Vengaboys

Denizen Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Kouta: (composer, booklet commentary)

This was my first foray into dubstep, and looking back on it, I could have done a lot better. I wrote this as a sort of mock-up "flash soundtrack", hitting a lot of different styles at different points in the song. At the time, though, I was experimenting with a lot of different things, and it's actually pretty good for what it was. This was also my entrance into sampling, which helped me get the experience needed to start writing newer, fresher material, by listening to other peoples' far better material.

AS: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Typheus may not be pretty to look at, but he is not a bad guy at all!

Ultimate Alchemy Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Interrobang: (composer, booklet commentary)

The song that eventually came to be known as Ultimate Alchemy started at a time I found myself listening to Volume 7's Earthsea Borealis, which remains one of my favorite Homestuck songs ever. One day, a melody popped into my head, and I started writing. At some point in the composition process I decided I might as well try to submit the song to LOFAM4, and with quite a bit of much-appreciated feedback from the judges, got it into a completed state. The biggest surprise as I was finishing up work occurred when Viko Riféo pointed out that what I had thought was the original melody throughout the song was in fact Bilious, which is a great song from the Genesis Frog album that I had embarrassingly forgotten about.

A lot of people helped me to get this song into the state that it's in now, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them. Thanks to Viko Riféo and Kusoro, who both had some really great ideas on mastering and percussion that ultimately didn't make it into the final song; to Wheals for giving it a final name, and ESPECIALLY to Seijen, whose mastering made the final product much better than I could have ever thought. And of course many, many, many thanks to Circlejourney, whose art is indescribably fitting and amazing. Finally I'd like to thank the LOFAM team for all their help and support, y'all are a bunch of great people and its been an honor to have this opportunity

Circlejourney: (track artist, booklet commentary)

The track is clearly about the Ultimate Alchemy, which I also find it very evocative of. I took that prompt on as faithfully as I could.

This is one part of a larger image formed of the covers of this, Crystalendofgames, and Black Hole / White Door.

The Sock Ruse Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Alex Votl: (muisc, booklet commentary)

this project was pieced together over the course of 5 years with tons of help from my friends. it started out as an inside joke from the homestuck tinychat community around 2011, but i see it more as an homage to the series and the fandom. thanks for the memories everyone. it was a blast.

Nick Tucker: (i HAVE the arts, booklet commentary)

The most common way of perceiving the passing of time into a concept that humans can understand often involves the idea of moving forward through time, as if we foresee what is in our path, and approach it in a straight line. A more accurate way of looking at it is that we are reversing into the events of tomorrow, with no real idea of what awaits us. When we look ahead, we see our past, and that informes our actions. The Maori turn of phrase, "ka mura, ka muri" means to walk backwards into the future.

In the modern classic piece of literature, "Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff: The Sock Ruse", the titular Hella Jeff orchestrates an intricate plot to distract his compatriot Sweet Bro with the most unassuming of items: a pair of lost grey socks. The items in question, the socks, are lying in plain sight. However, there is an unintended turn. Sweet Bro spins off into a monologue, nay, a soliloquy as to the nature of socks and marijuana consumption. Hella Jeff did not forsee this consequence. But he does not hesitate to capitalise, fulfilling his desires nonetheless.

The vehicle in possession, the theme of walking backwards into the future is rendered physically manifest, with the metaphor of reversing Sweet Bro's car into a large body of water outside the companions' lakeside property. This is the point from which I drew my inspiration for my illustration. This is the now. This is the moment. Where is Hella Jeff going? He knows not. There is dramatic irony here: we, the readers and long-time followers of Dave Strider's work know full well what will unfold: nothing, ad infinitum. But Hella Jeff is living in the moment: he HAS the car. He knows not what awaits him.

He makes eye contact with you, slyly breaking the fourth wall. Almost... beckoning. Come with me, he says. Live for the present. Become an animal of the now.

Juju Breaker Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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keyboard cait: (composer, booklet commentary)

I always figured "Juju Breaker" would be a cool name for a song, so I kept that name in mind and centered the feel of this song around it. It's a track about Crowbar, but more specifically Crowbar's crowbar. Its long chronology goes nearly entirely under the radar, as does the smooth green mobster named after it. Think of this track as a means towards rectifying that.

The song was made with a particular narrative in mind, with each section of the song signifying another step in the juju's journey. Crowbar leads the Felt on Alternia, crowbar in hand. Slick steals the crowbar and opens the Felt vault, distorting spacetime. Kurloz finds the crowbar in a memory and hands it to Gamzee. The meteor reaches B2, and the crowbar is given to B2 Jack Noir. He destroys his prison, then fights some kids and himself on top of a building. He and the crowbar are sucked into a black hole. The juju is thus brought to a dead Earth. Gamzee again hands the crowbar to his lord, Caliborn. With the crowbar in his possession, Caliborn trudges through his Sburb session, planet by planet. He builds an ensemble of loyal leprechaun people, including Crowbar himself. Finally, the crowbar is given back to Crowbar, who will later lead the Felt on Alternia. With so many diverging timelines in the intermission alone, we are left to guess whether the cycle will repeat again, or be cut off.

Griever: (track artist, booklet commentary)

You know, the great thing about Homestuck is that a lot of panels are so iconic that Hussie more or less traces over them to make a new panel, and it still looks great, and people love him for it. And this self-referential quality extends to fanworks, to. Makes my job easier.

Oh right, on another note, Crowbar's pretty sweet, I guess. Enjoy.

Tragic Heights Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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nights: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Another very nice track for the Alpha kids' medium, this time for LOTAK. Unlike my other art pieces on LoFaM, I used SAI for this instead of the usual MS Paint. It's a nice change of pace to be working with another art program.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

This is one of Ferkol's 3 tracks that were created for the planets of the alpha session. (In particular, this was created for Dirk's planet: The Land of Tombs and Krypton.) Although this song never saw an official release, now you can enjoy it here, on Land of Fans and Music 4. Or on Ferkol's soundcloud. You can also listen to this song on Ferkol's soundcloud.

Starting off with simple choir alongside plucked strings, this piece builds up slightly, before letting a synthesizer take us deeper, as if we are descending onto the surface of Dirk's planet. As the piece continues, more and more electronic instruments come in, as the landscape becomes harsher and harsher. Yet, throughout it all, the strings remain steadfast.

Thomas Ferkol: (SoundCloud comment)

Are you going to be doing any more of these for the other planets?

Probably not at this point. LoPaN, LoTaK, and LoMaX needed themes at the time since LoCaH was already introduced with one, so I thought I could fill in the blanks for those three.

Waltz for Calliope Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Shandy: (composer, booklet commentary)

It always struck me how different alt!Calliope was from her friendly, happy-go-lucky counterpart—she almost seemed like a different character. Alt!Calliope had given up on ever feeling happy or fulfilled. She only had a single solitary purpose left to her: to die. I wrote this song as a melancholy elegy for a lost soul.

Quietserval: (track artist, booklet commentary)

A representation of alternate Calliope's journey to achieve her ultimate goal.

Circlejourney: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I love dealing with dark foreground figures against bright backgrounds, so this was fun to add the final touches to. I got a sense of what Quietserval was going for with this drawing from talking to them, and tried to realise that in its fullest.

Everlasting Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Joe Ouellet: (composer, booklet commentary)

Dream bubbles allow the various players of Sburb a chance at an Everlasting life. I wanted to illustrate the feeling of traversing these bubbles and exploring the infinite possibilities they create.

PatManDX: (track artist, booklet commentary)

When I hear the song, it's a no brainer that it was about Roxy in the dreambubbles, being a remix of 'Even in Death' and all. What was tricky was figuring out what exactly to show in the track art: what angle, what aspect of the dreambubbles, and so on. I didn't want to make the art too busy, so I went for a simpler piece that showcased one of the grander moments of the 'Roxy: Sleepwalk' flash—where the music swells as Roxy falls into that dream bubble. Pinks and purples were used cause they pop on the black, and they're nice mysterious colors.

Crystalline Repose Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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dodostad: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I was just trying to capture Aradia to the sweet tunes of the song!

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

Chrono Trigger is a great game. Corridors of Time is a great song. Crystalanthemums is also a great song. Any questions?

Black Hole / White Door Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Circlejourney: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This track was reassigned to me after the original artist dropped out. I decided to further extend the image formed of Crystalendofgames' and Ultimate Alchemy's track illustrations after several people expressed assent when I aired the idea on the LoFaM server.

(continued below)

Circlejourney: (complete illustration)

Circlejourney: (booklet commentary)

(continued from above)

While brainstorming illustration concepts, I immediately to attached to the idea of an image of the victory platform gang silhouetted in the light of the Sburb logo, and went with it. It's a shame that this scene is physically impossible due to the clouds being higher than the victory platform, but the picture looks far too plain without them.

Kal-la-kal-la: (album help, booklet commentary)

The final boss is beaten. The game is won. The lights fade and the world begins to disappear. A gaping maw drags all into it, even the very fabric of reality. In the distance, a door opens.

Strife Mayhem Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Musical Panini: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song didn't actually start out as a Homestuck song when I was first making it. It went from tune stuck in my head, then into a random song that I was calling Metallic Mayhem, then into Flare, then into a practice in motifs, then into what is now apparently my most popular by far!

Scarodactyl: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I have wanted to do something like this for a long time. Final Fantasy 6 is a big inspiration for me, particularly the in-battle sprites and backgrounds. Homestuck, with its numerous great designs, seemed like it would be really fun to render in this style. When I saw Strife Mayhem on the song list I knew what I had to do--a large-scale battle with lots of characters to match an amazing battle song with lots of leitmotifs. I pulled a few elements from my previous track arts which were sort of stabs in the same direction, particularly the background from Medium and the handmaid from Maidswap. The GUI is also a bit of a reference to the previous track art for this song on Cool and New Volume 7.

Moonsetter (Strider Remix) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Grace Medley: (album help, booklet commentary)

Cement City doesn't normally do much music like this, so hearing Toby Fox's Moonsetter remixed into a laid-back, yet high energy neopsychedelic piece is a blast of fresh air, especially for someone like myself, who practically grew up listening to experimental electronic music. Despite the track's simplicity, it somehow succeeds in pulling off an atmosphere all of its own, and makes one of Toby's catchiest tunes even catchier.

WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES: (album help, booklet commentary)

Honestly, the head of an ogre doesn't sound like the most comfortable chair to me, but evidently, the Striders disagree. I guess they're too... cool...

Exsanguinated Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Seijen: (composer, booklet commentary)

time and time again I make a drum and bass song and im never satisfied with the drum mix. Like the time before and that time before. The snare is powerful but the kicks are never too prominent without being overtly compressed. Its always the same as the last time. But this track was a little different, instead I said "ooh that was horrible" because like the time before the kicks never seem to be enough. Its just the same as the last time. But those basses though. so ill. I feel sick now. Just like that time I ate at that Chinese place. I got sick there the time before but that was a year before. "Oh that was so gross" I uttered after taking my first bite of that gen. tso chicken. It was just the same as the last time.

Kal-la-kal-la: (album help, booklet commentary)

The concept of vampires has existed for millennia. There seems to be a split amongst modern depictions between vampires as grotesque being and vampires as alluring and beautiful. Exsanguinated, with its vocal samples describing disgust, expresses this, and the track art displays the dichotomy well, depicting a very beautiful Kanaya Maryam with blood in all the colours of the rainbow dripping from her mouth. Were it that Homestuck neurofunk should have a particular aesthetic sensibility, it would be bloodied rainbow-drinkers.

Premortem Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Noisemaker: (composer, booklet commentary)

If some of you thought this was le canrival from Cool and New Webcomic's V8LUME, then you'd be right! I initially made le canrival as a Cool and New Webcomic track, but the folks over on the Land of Fans and Music team took some interest in it. So, we arranged to have it put on the next LOFAM, under a new, more classy name.

0ysTezy: (track artist, booklet commentary)

this track art you see right here took over two months of work as we needed to space out time for other projects as well. the setting takes place in the land of tents and mirth as shown. The experience of creating this project was sorta stressful but fun. it was mostly stressful for me since I had many other things I needed to work on. EllenZarael worked with me over the course of the drawing.

Fruitjam Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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keyboard cait: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song was formed out of a spontaneous idea by the LOFAM team to create a song about the happy fruits Jade carries along with her in Act 3, as well as Toby Fox's "fan character" Apple Girlington, who was based on the ever-popular Touhou Project series. These intersecting characters united for one song, and the result is a mega-medley featuring references to songs from Homestuck, Touhou, Toby Fox's Touhou improvisations and... Undertale? Yeah! As progress of the song went along, I envisioned it perhaps being made by the Beta Kids in-universe. All their corresponding instruments are here, after all. Remember when they'd collaborate on songs and post it to each other on FreshJamz? Good times.

Fun fact: each of the happy fruits correspond to a beta kid. Really! You've got the red apple for Dave, which is fitting because it's his text color and because he loves apple juice. Then the green lime for Jade, also because of text color. The orange is Rose, because, uh, Roxy says she's similar to Dirk who types in orange I guess? Then the last fruit is the yellow lemon which has to be for John, because... uh actually you know what, forget it.

Ok, here's another fun fact then. The title of the song is a play on the FreshJamz player which has the fruits on its interface, the Homestuck song "Hauntjam", actual fruit jam, and the fact that it is a song (i.e. "jam") about fruits. Neat!

sweetjegus: (track artist, booklet commentary)

Open your heart to the fruity embrace of Apple Girlington! I have the fondest memories of Jade's fruit mishaps back in Act 3 and a soft spot for fun and twangy tracks, so Fruitjam was the perfect storm. Her outfit is drawn from cubewatermelon's absolutely adorable Apple Girlington design, and I've kept to the Touhou art tradition of contorted angles within a dramatic flying object vortex - but updated, now, for a lurid fever dream ft. the chlorine-headed personification of an apple.

Lambda Elise Merryberry: (album organizer, booklet commentary)

she says lofam team but this song is mark's and my fault

Unofficial MSPA Fans: (booklet commentary)

References

Lightfall Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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nights: (composer, booklet commentary)

This piece was originally for CaNMT, although it was still about the character Rose Lalonde. Perhaps you're wondering why someone would release a track on CaNMT, before putting it on LoFaM, but that was due to my joining LoFaM after this song was published. I worked on this song for nearly 2 months, so the production was a pretty complicated process - but at least I could finish it. It doesn't matter how long it took, what matters is that it's done. Originally, using pianos wasn't a part of my plan - the step before it was to use violins and Pavellion strings, because violin is Rose's instrument. But I couldn't pull it off so I switched to extremely romantic pianos midway through production. However, if I did take the pianos off I feel this track would've suffered a lot of pain, barring its size. In the end there really wasn't much that survived of my original image of this track, but I'm still happy with what I ended up with. Lightfall was my first song published anywhere, so you could say this is a big song for me.

nights: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I envisioned the scene of Rose playing on LOLAR for this art as well as the song. I can't count how many times I redrew this piece before finally getting it to look good, since I'm only a beginner at drawing scenery. I'm glad it turned out nicely in the end though. Also I gotta say, doing art for your own songs is kind of weird. :p

Blanc Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Sean Gorter: (composer, booklet commentary)

The base idea for this song's groove came about in late 2011 when I noticed the repeated piano riff was just an E-flat blues scale Radiation messed with, and I started laying it over a Latin-style chord rhythm and liked what I heard. I thought to myself, "this must be what it sounds like when the Midnight Crew just jams", and before I knew it I had a remix idea in my head. Something I've always loved about the original mix I did, poorly executed as it was, was how it took an idea we know to be so dark within the Homestuck universe and turned it into a light, relaxing, foot-tapping piece, something the Crew might have done in happier times.

Daniel McDonald: (track artist, booklet commentary)

It's been long enough since I made this image that I don't have much that I can remember to say about this, beyond feeling like I really nailed Boxcars' face.

Collision Course (Davepeta's Movement) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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SplitSuns: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song was originally made for the Cool and New Music Team, but I went with a much more Homestuck slant than a cool and new one for this track. I wanted to take Upward Movement and change it into something more EDM and techno, so I chopped and screwed traditional strings and mixed them with the powerful drum tracks and synths you hear in the song. I wanted to include motifs from both Dave and Nepeta as they're two halves of Davepeta's whole. I also incorporated caws and meows for the same effect. Finally, I put the Undertale track CORE in the song because of that one scene in EOA6 (you know the one.⁠) There's an additional reference at that point if you're listening carefully! Although this song was challenging to make, I think it turned out very well in the end.

Shadok: (track artist, booklet commentary)

this used to be a normal edit of the Upward Movement cover but greatest hits 2 happened on the cool and new music team so i decided to redo it. i experimented a lot with the shading but in the end, i kept something simple

Revisit/Rewind Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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ostrichlittledungeon: (composer, booklet commentary)

God, this was so much work. Oh yeah, and I lost the first half of the project file towards the end so I couldn't go back and edit it. Ugh. But all in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The original plan was to go through the CANMT discography and pick the most iconic songs over time. If you're unfamiliar with its discography, I highly recommend you at least go give it a glance. I roughly settled on using Cascante, Tick/Tock, Fruity Pebbles Redux, Gunshow, Rex Mille Geromius, Doctor and Penumbra Phantasm (cool and new vol V), Contra (from Cool and New Homestuck), Moshi Moshi, Final Confrontation, Unintentional Touhou, In the Beginning/Contact, Formation, Jungle #3, Muse of Nanchos, Flintstones, Gunshow 2, and of course, the RCT theme and Bowman's credit score. Shoutouts to Difarem for making the "it's between my buttocks" vocaloid for me. Revisit/Rewind, which is based heavily on Ascend, was released as the Cool and New Homestuck song for [S] Credits.

Wheals: (album help, booklet commentary)

This art was made in like five hours on Christmas 2016 when i yelled at nights to make some John/Aradia art for Revisit/Rewind (it being based off Ascend, with its iconic John/Aradia art). That's basically the plot of The Christmas Carol and by writing this seven months later I'm now the Ghost of Christmas Future. I'll let Past Nights (the Ghost of Christmas Past) fill you in on the rest:

nights: (track artist, booklet commentary)




Unofficial MSPA Fans: (booklet commentary)

References

Homestuck Sonata Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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David Ellis: (composer, booklet commentary)

Homestuck Sonata was written around the time we were submitting pieces for Volume 10. The idea was to write a piece that loosely followed the sonata form with Homestuck Anthem being the first main theme and Penumbra Phantasm (via FantasyP) being the second. It's also intended as a left hand practice piece so the left hand is much busier than in most of my other work!

Sozzay: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This idea came to me after scrapping a few rought drafts. Originally I planned for an artwork starring an original hero, but decided to change it to something involving John because his associated instrument is a piano. It was a difficult piece to draw, but I am very happy with the finished result and feel I created something really dynamic.

Wicker Kingdom Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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PatManDX: (track artist, booklet commentary)

RND and I used to collaborate on projects years ago so we've become very familiar with the other's work. When I first heard this track, back about 3 years ago, I knew I had to do the art for it. The song felt very grand and frenetic, while giving a sense of regality and awe, so I did my best to capture those feelings into the track art. I knew that I had to put in the White King as the main focus on the picture, since the song is a remix to a certain other song. There is a great emphasis on texture and desaturated colors, to help make the piece feel almost like a worn tapestry. I added a bloom filter to add to this effect.

Kal-la-kal-la: (album help, booklet commentary)

Musing upon the king my brother's wreck, and upon the king my father's death before him. White bodies naked on the low damp ground, and bones cast in a little low dry garret, rattled by the rat's foot only, year to year.

A rhythmic, galloping reel brings to mind our lost monarchs.

Skaian Rebirth Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

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Sam Garcia: (track artist, booklet commentary)

This song is about the beta kids so i drew them like if they were in a cd/disc. I did it like that because the transitions between different moments of the song reminded me of a movie or song playing. So basically i drew this how i thought a cd for homestuck would kind of look like.

keyboard cait: (album team, booklet commentary)

There were a few possible choices for the last track on this truly HUGE album, but none quite felt so conclusive or right as Astartus' contribution. After mood highs and mood lows, thrills and relaxations, we get to cap it all off with a spectacular victory sequence for our original kids and the game they played. And we are all so, so, so proud of them. Bless you, Beta Kids. We'll see you on the flipside.

P.S. If you don't know what spectrograms are... now would be a useful time to learn.

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