By David Ellis alunaticsdaydream Bandcamp a-lunatics-daydream SoundCloud ducksual Tumblr.
Cover art by Petra K. sigimigi Tumblr.
Released 4/13/2012.
Duration: 4:46.

Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.

Download sheet music files.
Download MIDI/project files.
Read artist commentary.

Contributors:

• Malik Refaat (alto saxophone)

Tracks that Blue Atom references:

• The Beginning of Something Really Excellent by Robert J! Lake

Tracks that reference Blue Atom:

From Fandom:

• The Beginning of Something Really Electronic by Wheals
• Atoms in the Snow by David Ellis

From Additional Tracks:

• Spritely Gardener by Rainy

Tracks that sample Blue Atom:

From Fandom:

• The Beginning of Something Really Electronic by Wheals

Print or download sheet music files:

• Sheet music by OI3L1V1OUS

  • Blue Atom - OI3L1V1OUS.pdf (301.3 kB)
• Bass sheets by Dontrush

  • Blue Atom - Dontrush (bass).pdf (86 kB)

Download MIDI/project files:

• MIDI by Unknown (piano)

  • Blue Atom - Unknown (piano).mid (986 bytes)

Artist commentary:

David Ellis: (composer, Tumblr, excerpt)

First off, people seem to have been saying a lot of nice stuff about the two tunes I wrote and I’d just like to say thanks!

I wrote some track commentary for my tunes, thought I’d post it here as I don’t know when/if all the submitted commentary will be posted. Feel free to ask me stuff if there are things about the songs I don’t cover that you want to know about or if you have any recording questions.

When I started writing the pieces for the contest I knew I wanted one of them to be based around a theme that already existed. Running through a few ideas I landed on doing a kind of jazzy shuffle piece around the main theme from 'The Beginning of Something Really Excellent’. As soon as I hit the first chord with the Rhodes piano it became smooth. The writing process was really quick and the piece was almost completely sketched out on the keyboard in one go. As the piece was intended for Jade - given the use of the earlier theme - I added in a little bass solo.

Technical note: Sometimes when I think I've finished writing something I'll find that it's a bit too long and something needs to change, this was one of those times. The sound you hear at 3:53 is the sound of me finding a way to avoid playing an extra intro/verse and tightening up the song a bit. Using almost the same build up heard earlier in the piece and changing the resolution at the end has the added advantage of (hopefully) making you think it's heading back towards the intro riff until the key shifts in the last bar and the song jumps straight to the final chorus.

David Ellis: (composer, Tumblr, excerpt)

Heh. Didn’t expect Radiation to actually put that in.

“! - Blue Atom was, at one point, called ‘Jack and Jade’s fantastic corpseparty.’”

Only for a little while. I was trying to think when it could possibly happen and I thought the most amusing inappropriate time for the Jam would be for Jade to be jamming with Jack Noir just after Dave got all shot up and before he was revived.

Petra K.: (track artist, Tumblr)

I haven’t done a decent watercolor painting in years. THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN YOU HAVE NO IDEA!

it could have been better but unfortunately my watercolor skills deteriorated and then my scanner killed the colors.

Petra K.: (track artist, Tumblr)

I am so proud my watercolor Jade was picked as track art for her song in the new fan album :’)

sigh, the song is really nice with its retro theme.