♌ - MOG^3
By Dallas Ross Hicks
drhicks76
SoundCloud
drhicks76
Tumblr.
Cover art by Kate Holden
faisdm
Tumblr.
Released 4/12/2016.
Duration: 7:01.
Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.
Read artist commentary.
Tracks that ♌ - MOG^3 references:
Tracks that reference ♌ - MOG^3:
Artist commentary:
MOG^3
1. Meulin, Obsessive Girl
2. Makara's Oddball Gaiety
3. Matesprits Osculate Gleefully
(EpiMOG: Milord's Onerous Gift)This song begins by echoing Nine Lives, One Love sound but this version of Meulin Leijon is much happier and offbeat by nature. Like 9L1L, it's also in 9/8 time and the opening bells tap out the morse code for MOG. The second part starts suddenly as she "meets" a peculiar purpleblood... one Kurloz Makara. The organ is prominent but also lots of whimsical synth sounds to suggest he's an entertainer but with a more sinister side. The cymbals tap out 10 hits as Makaras are the tenth troll on the list from low to highbloods. A slow romantic transition follows, reintroducing the Leijon bells over Makara's organ sounds and then into the third section, where the heavy drums pound out a heartbeat for the Mage of Heart and you can hear voices for both Kurloz's seductive whispers and Meulin's joyous song. As she falls asleep in his arms, he too begins to dream... the chiming bells signal the arrival of the Vast Honk and the tinnitus that recedes into Meulin's deafened silence.
I've always found Meulin slightly unsettling, so I was pleased to be assigned art duty on a track that explores all facets of the character, rather than just "she's cute and likes cats!". Meulin happily ships and memes her way through a surprisingly tragic life; she's fine that Kurloz deafened her, she's oblivious that he's mind-controlling her. I wanted to reflect that with a smiling mouth and eyes full of stars and the beauty of it all, but a sense of emptiness and loss as the Vast Honk obliterates her hearing and she's left with a meaningless future. Sorry, that's pretty nihilistic, but so is Meulin!