preliminary muddledash stuff

1 files changed, 84 insertions, 11 deletions

diff --git a/album/muddledash.yaml b/album/muddledash.yaml
index 24e9974a..5780b164 100644
--- a/album/muddledash.yaml
+++ b/album/muddledash.yaml
@@ -35,8 +35,11 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/dash
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/dash))
+
     the muddledash theme song! this tune was literally the very first melody ever conceived for the game.
+
     i got the message that i got the job working on the game while walking home from grabbing burger king, and before i even got home i had already recorded that A-E-C#/A-C#EC# hook into my phone; it practically wrote itself pretty much immediately.
+
     by an hour later the entire song was sketched out and outside of obviously extensive production tweaks (it's a lot synthier than the original mix) over the years afterwards, it's been pretty much the same ever since.
 ---
 Track: walk?
@@ -47,7 +50,9 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/walk
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/walk))
-    aaaaaaand already we're getting a repeat! i'm not sure where the idea to have some mirror tracks on the album came from, but it ended up working out pretty well, all told! this tune manages to contain all of DASH!!!!!!!! inside of it structurally while being so fundamentally different in feel that you'd be forgiven for forgetting that i haven't changed a fricken note out of the progression for the most part.
+
+    aaaaaaand already we're getting a repeat! i'm not sure where the idea to have some mirror tracks on the album came from, but it ended up working out pretty well, all told! this tune manages to contain all of [[DASH!!!!!!!!]] inside of it structurally while being so fundamentally different in feel that you'd be forgiven for forgetting that i haven't changed a fricken note out of the progression for the most part.
+
     that's not to say that this doesn't have its own lil foibles that i've gotten fond of. i'm very proud of the retro synth breakdown at the end-ish of the track, which is joy.
 ---
 Track: Octopus's Garden Party
@@ -58,9 +63,12 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/octopuss-garden-party
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/octopuss-garden-party))
-    okay i said DASH!!!!!!!! was the theme song but i lied. this is the actual theme song of the game.
+
+    okay i said [[DASH!!!!!!!!]] was the theme song but i lied. this is the actual theme song of the game.
     i mean, there can be two, i guess.
+
     this was the first time the "sound" of the game and its soundtrack really came together in a big way. thrill vibe might have been the real first track (we'll get to that later) but this one ended up really hitting the buttons a bit better. being major key didn't hurt.
+
     the best part of this tune is the doubletime DNB breakout at 1:54, easily. that was a late-game addition that worked shockingly well.
 ---
 Track: Pode Position
@@ -70,9 +78,12 @@ URLs:
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/pode-position))
     there's a type of staccato chord vibe throughout this album. you know the one i'm talking about.
+
     although thrill vibe sort of had it from the beginning, it wasn't a major part of the identity of the track in the same direct way it is here, where the hook just slaps you in the face with it.
+
     the pun here is on "octopode," of course.
-    this track came after another long period of trying and failing to come up with anything good; between making Takoyaki Walky Talky and making this i threw away 17 tracks that weren't good enough to make the cut. and i put effort into those! but they just weren't good enough, in the end. you won't likely hear any of those anywhere. they will reside, forever, in the trash. so say we all.
+
+    this track came after another long period of trying and failing to come up with anything good; between making [[Takoyaki Walky Talky]] and making this i threw away 17 tracks that weren't good enough to make the cut. and i put effort into those! but they just weren't good enough, in the end. you won't likely hear any of those anywhere. they will reside, forever, in the trash. so say we all.
 ---
 Track: Bubblebeam
 Suffix Directory: true
@@ -91,8 +102,11 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/abab-kababbab
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/abab-kababbab))
+
     the name is a dumb joke. abab kababbab because the song is in a very repetitive a/b/a/b structure, but it pretends not to be just by being that dang smooth. like magic, abra kadabra.
+
     ergo.
+
     this is a track i wasn't sure of at first because i was worried it was just too dang fast! it's a very fast track.
 ---
 Track: Takoyaki Walky Talky
@@ -101,20 +115,37 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/takoyaki-walky-talky
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/takoyaki-walky-talky))
+
     this was the 7th overall track sketched for the game and tensions were a bit high at the time because we still hadn't really nailed down the overall direction for the music, even if other "definitive" tracks were already agreed upon. thankfully, this was a MEGAhit with both the dev team and myself, despite (well, because of, actually) being a nearly 1:1 ripoff of the style of super monkey ball 2's soundtrack imo
+
     when i had writer's block, which i had a lot during the middle bits of working on this soundtrack, sometimes i would actually use this track as a base i could build on and then remove once the song could stand on its own. i mean this literally; i'd copy and paste the mp3 in, maybe slow it down or pitch it up or reverse it, and then use that to create new basslines, melodies, and patterns to help maintain the "feel" of this track.
-    a fair few tracks were started this way very directly, most notably rumblepals and cephalosquad.
+
+    a fair few tracks were started this way very directly, most notably [[rumblepals]] and [[cephalosquad]].
 ---
 Track: Wrigglyville
 Duration: 2:13
 URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/wrigglyville
 Commentary: |-
-    <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/wrigglyville))
+    <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/wrigglyville), excerpt)
+
     a lot of the time i have no idea what one of my songs is called. sometimes even right after naming it. this is actually kind of a severe problem when you're trying to organize any larger-scale musical project, because it leads to a ton of confusion throughout the process when the only link to what a track sounds like is "the one that goes...like that" in your head.
+
     anyway that's a roundabout way of saying that i have no idea what wrigglyville sounds like and indeed forget that there's a song called this on this album every time without fail until i click on it and hear "the calm happy one with the squeaky fun synth and the bouncy runs" and go "oh"
-    every
-    single
+
+    every<br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+
+    single<br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+
     time
 ---
 Track: Cephalosquad
@@ -123,7 +154,9 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/cephalosquad
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/cephalosquad))
+
     this song didn't really come together until niall flippantly said "maybe this is an end credits tune?" and i structured it as such.
+
     turns out, uh, we don't actually have an end credits. or even an ending to speak of . the credits screen just kind of keeps the menu music going over it when you highlight the option for it. but the concept lead to an extensive, super heavy rework and juice-up that gave the song much needed structure and direction it didn't have and it's way better, even if it's just being used as a good ol' background tune these days
 ---
 Track: Rumblepals
@@ -137,8 +170,11 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/slidesurf
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/slidesurf))
+
     slidesurf would not be here if i didn't fight for it. this was a reject track through and through until i came back to it over a year later and tried to rescue it from the ashes. part of that was that originally, when we were going through the "what the heck is the SOUND for this thing" stages at the beginning, this was the first track niall really liked.
+
     it got vetoed by kieryn way back but i'm glad, now, that it was at the time. the current direction of the music is way tighter and more fitting for a game about racing octopi, honestly.
+
     thankfully, the track was strong enough to stand alone even after months and months of working on progressively better stuff. it deserved its own unique treatment, and the version of slidesurf that ended up making the cut is beefed up significantly.
 ---
 Track: Octopile
@@ -147,11 +183,17 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/octopile
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/octopile))
+
     spy vibes
-    this song and dark day for spaghetti child almost didn't make the album, and unlike every other case here, it wasn't for lack of being good! because of deadlines i had to scrap these two because they were just not far enough along to make our release date.
+
+    this song and [[Dark Day for a Spaghetti Child|dark day for spaghetti child]] almost didn't make the album, and unlike every other case here, it wasn't for lack of being good! because of deadlines i had to scrap these two because they were just not far enough along to make our release date.
+
     thankfully, as things happen, we ended up having our release pushed back and i had a lot more time to work on these two and get them into the game proper.
+
     there's a lot i like about this track. there's bass stuff that, because i can't help myself, is basically right out of shinobi 3. there's a lot of fun lil melodies and countermelodies that fade out and return. there's a neat epiano that gets chopped and screwed into nothingness at several points. there's record scratches!
+
     scratches!
+
     gotta love record scratches.
 ---
 Track: Chill Vibe
@@ -160,7 +202,9 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/chill-vibe
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/chill-vibe))
-    by some metrics, this is the oldest song here. i gotta qualify those metrics, though; obviously DASH!!!!!!!! came earlier, and thrill vibe itself is an older song too; both of those, though, got radical revisions towards the end of development that kind of complicate how "old" they really qualify as. but chill vibe is pretty much exactly how it was since day one. originally this was just the full replacement for thrill vibe; it was The Version, until i decided to split the file into two branches. but while the first branch kept going, chill vibe ended up pretty much complete from the day it was initially started. the only thing i added past the first day of this earliest version of the song is some extra bass work in the middle and the synth riffs near the end. everything else is incredibly dated by the freshness of the other tracks and my "work every day a little bit" approach to them.
+
+    by some metrics, this is the oldest song here. i gotta qualify those metrics, though; obviously [[DASH!!!!!!!!]] came earlier, and [[thrill vibe]] itself is an older song too; both of those, though, got radical revisions towards the end of development that kind of complicate how "old" they really qualify as. but chill vibe is pretty much exactly how it was since day one. originally this was just the full replacement for thrill vibe; it was The Version, until i decided to split the file into two branches. but while the first branch kept going, chill vibe ended up pretty much complete from the day it was initially started. the only thing i added past the first day of this earliest version of the song is some extra bass work in the middle and the synth riffs near the end. everything else is incredibly dated by the freshness of the other tracks and my "work every day a little bit" approach to them.
+
     it nicely occupies the initialization page, forever providing chill vibes before the thrillier ones take hold.
 ---
 Track: Welcome to Slamtown
@@ -169,10 +213,14 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/welcome-to-slamtown
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/chill-vibe))
+
     look i'm not gonna mince words here, this is probably the best song here.
+
     welcome to slamtown is so good it actually pisses me off because after i made this i tried desperately to make songs as good as it and a grand total of 0% of the time this works out.
+
     this was the 29th sketch made in the process of working on this album and let me tell you: i was scared, at first, when i put it together. it didn't really sound anything like the tracks that came before it outside of the staccato chords that are sort of muddledash's main musical trick. for a good while i considered not even pitching it for the game and holding onto it for something else, because it didn't square with what i thought muddledash was.
-    i'm very glad this is a part of this soundtrack. it marks the nice, definitive full-swing start of the second half of the album, and also kind of begat the death of slamtown, which is a personal fave of mine here.
+
+    i'm very glad this is a part of this soundtrack. it marks the nice, definitive full-swing start of the second half of the album, and also kind of begat [[the death of slamtown]], which is a personal fave of mine here.
 ---
 Track: Noodle, Poodled, Bottled, Paddled
 Duration: 3:14
@@ -180,10 +228,15 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/noodle-poodled-bottled-paddled
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/noodle-poodled-bottled-paddled))
+
     i think this is niall's favorite song title on the whole album.
+
     this was the most work to make out of all of the songs here. over one hundred hours, several hundred tracks, and, inexplicably, three entirely different DAWs (reason, ableton, AND fl studio) were the source of what you're hearing here. lots of recording and sampling and recording again, many many many stemmed-out production files to compensate for audio latency.
+
     that's partially just an extreme overcompensation for how "meh" the sketch felt to me initially. i really didn't like how it was coming along while still recognizing that, yeah, musically it had something i liked in it.
+
     going overboard has a tendency of solving creative problems.
+
     it's not a healthy solution, though.
 ---
 Track: Inky Blinky Pinky Clinky
@@ -202,8 +255,11 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/dark-day-for-a-spaghetti-child
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/dark-day-for-a-spaghetti-child))
+
     this was the last song done for the album. best part of it for me is the korg m1 piano bridge in the center, which felt really necessary to me because of how utterly, dreadfully 90s this track ended up turning out. seriously, this could have been a reject from an underworld album.
+
     remember underworld? born slippy? you know? the, that song from, the toilet movie. you know the one.
+
     the title of this song is utterly ludicrous and was, i think, the last song title i came up with for the album? whatever, it works.
 ---
 Track: The Death of Slamtown
@@ -212,8 +268,11 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/the-death-of-slamtown
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/the-death-of-slamtown))
+
     this has dreamcast vibes
+
     i wanted to do another round on the slamtown project file just to mess with it, and slowing it down and really just totally destroying the mix ended up yielding a weird enough vibe that i ran with it. this track is completely brickwalled especially compared to stuff like thrill vibe, which has loads of dynamics.
+
     this is, shocker, intentional! kicking that piano against the limiter gives the track its odd anodyne quality. it's oddly off-putting even as it's a calming tune. the vocal stuff at the end is my personal favorite touch here.
 ---
 Track: Thrill Vibe
@@ -222,10 +281,15 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/thrill-vibe
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/thrill-vibe))
+
     RECORD SCRATCHES!
+
     this song was the VERY first song made for the game that 1000000% the dev team and me both felt seriously was a hit, was definitely a part of the game. the close inspiration for the vibe of the initial sketch was actually the arcane kids game "perfect stride" and its associated soundtrack (i hate to say "i liked it before it was cool"* but damn if i wasn't a LAGS backer who loved some perfect stride way before sonic dreams collection and the...bubsy thing) but the current mix has gotten away from that pretty significantly, morphing into its own weirdo hip-hop thing.
+
     if there's any indie skateboarding game it feels like it's a part of NOW...it's maybe...olliolli? i could see this playing in the background of olliolli.
+
     the wacked out modulated arp at the end of this is the medusa2 vst, which is a creation of a friend of mine, voidshaper. it's a super excellent lil game boy vst i strongly recommend, and i'm using it here to a very non-game-boy effect. please download it if you make music digitally and check it out!
+
     *that's a lie, i love to say this. this is a warning to all people who want to talk to me in person. i am that guy.
 ---
 Track: Four Legged Race
@@ -236,10 +300,14 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/four-legged-race
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/four-legged-race))
+
     when muddledash's first trailer was being built by our publisher they went through the soundtrack and said nothing felt really like a "trailer song," which led to this lil guy.
+
     this is genetically from-birth designed to be trailer music for this game, and it turned out good enough i wanted to extend it past the 60 second cutoff the track had to be for the ad and/or ads. it's a bop!
+
     the drop was a production nightmare. a fun one, but a nightmare nonetheless; probably this is my most cpu-intensive project file of all time, with over a hundred generator VSTs making my life hell. rachel had to help me figure out an easier way to sidechain to make this track even a feasible proposition, but i'm glad it's together.
-    stitching together octopus's garden party and DASH!!!!!!!! works way better than i thought it did.
+
+    stitching together [[octopus's garden party]] and [[DASH!!!!!!!!]] works way better than i thought it did.
 ---
 Track: A Birthday Party Spent With Almost All Your Friends
 Duration: 2:38
@@ -247,8 +315,13 @@ URLs:
 - https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/a-birthday-party-spent-with-almost-all-your-friends
 Commentary: |-
     <i>rj lake:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp.com/track/a-birthday-party-spent-with-almost-all-your-friends))
+
     it took me a whole lotta time to figure out the track order for this album release, and for a lot of that time four legged race took this spot at the end of the album proper. but after so very many times listening through my speculative album order playlists and thinking "oh wow this is a great ending track" when it gets to this one, it just seemed natural to switch them around.
+
     i don't even know what to say about this track. it came together very quickly and i don't even feel like i made it. i feel like i stole it from someone smarter, cooler, and less fatigued.
+
     but somehow i made this song, and honestly, if i might brag a bit,
+
     it rules
+
     the melancholy and happy sublime, that feeling when those two vibes meet, riiiiiiight in the center between them? that is a tone i will probably spend my entire life chasing.
\ No newline at end of file