more commentary annotations

1 files changed, 14 insertions, 14 deletions

diff --git a/album/cosmic-caretakers.yaml b/album/cosmic-caretakers.yaml
index 287e02c..5babea0 100644
--- a/album/cosmic-caretakers.yaml
+++ b/album/cosmic-caretakers.yaml
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ Referenced Tracks:
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Chaosvariant:</i>
     Hi I go by Chaosvariant. I worked on this track for Dave's Bro, my original intention was to remix [[Beatdown (Strider Style)]] to have a little more flair and fit better into the cool yet dangerous aura Dave's Bro put off then to have that transition into the fight with Jack Noir. My computer halfway through this process bricked so sadly we're kinda stuck with a WIP but I hope you'll like it for the concept alone.
-    <i>SplitSuns:</i>
+    <i>SplitSuns:</i> (album mastering)
     SplitSuns here. In addition to writing my own song for this project, which you'll find 24 tracks from now, I mastered the album in general. In theory, this means making sure each song is around the same volume so you don't have to keep adjusting your headphones. However, sometimes I did some extra work just to polish things up. Like with this song, for instance: I took what Chaosvariant had finished, added some EQ to make the mix clearer, and added a small sound effect at the end to smooth things out.
     <i>ackro:</i>
     i really like how i did this one. not too much going on but i feel its good for how simple it is. drawing the meteor took a bit of work, and looking at some reference shots from descend, but it really came together, and of course the sense of scale given with bro and the meteor is very well executed id say. pretty much flawless except for the fire which i couldve done better.
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ Referenced Tracks:
 - Dissension (Remix)
 - track:old-secret
 Commentary: |-
-    <b><i>SplitSuns:</i></b>
+    <i>SplitSuns:</i> (album mastering)
     With its blend of sharp synths and cinematic orchestration, as well as its dramatic swells in composition, this song does an amazing job capturing Grandpa's famed taste for adventure. Can you feel it? That sense of danger, the palpable tension in the air as the jungle trees sway in the breeze? Quick snatches of animal chatter meet your ears, the rest muffled by the dense canopy above. You grip your rifle a little tighter and adjust your hat towards what lies beyond. You have a feeling it's going to be a long hunt.
     <i>Tipsy:</i>
     i accidentally listened to bec's song instead of grandpa's song (wow well done me), so i HAD to include dogs. but i wanted the image to live up to this song's title. you can see my thought process here. besides which you can see the <i>true danger</i> that grandpa must have put himself in expressed here with his lack of pants. anyway i wanted the animals to all look vaguely real, so i spent a lot of time looking up pictures of them while drawing. i was heavily inspired by hiveswap and the photo frames of grandpa in his past, and wanted to draw a silly looking hunting scenario that could fill the gaps of in your head. there's even a version with joey's comments scribbled on, though it was a bit too busy and standoutish. hope you enjoy [Kanishka]'s song.
@@ -212,9 +212,9 @@ Art Tags:
 - Jade
 - Earth
 Commentary: |-
-    <b><i>SplitSuns:</i></b>
+    <i>SplitSuns:</i> (album mastering)
     Bec is, first and foremost, a good dog. Let's put aside his featureless visage, god-like powers and key role in creating a Sovereign Slayer capable of destroying entire universes. He is a dog that likes to run around, play fetch, and eat treats like any other! This song shows that under-appreciated side of Jade's best friend. How can you say no to those Mario Paint dog barks? (If you think those are great, wait until you listen to the song for Bec's post-Scratch counterpart. Cinematic parallels, I'm telling you.)
-    <b><i>Ephemerald:</i></b>
+    <i>Ephemerald:</i> (commentary help)
     Bec quite clearly doesn't have a care in the world here. You know, it's funny how omnipotent dog brains work. "Yeah, I was brought to this planet with the express purpose of facilitating its ultimate purpose and also ensuring that I exist at all, but, I mean, do I <i>have</i> to do that right now? Can't I just take some time off and go fetch a steak so radioactive it would make the Elephant's Foot seem like a regular old chunk of steel by comparison? The answer is yes, I can. So I will." Good dog. Best friend. Not a superb prioritizer.
 ---
 Track: Monatomic Strife
@@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ Commentary: |-
     The primary melodic motif opens the piece on the solo violin - a rousing tune representing the character of Alpha Rose and her rebellious aspirations. The trumpet then introduces the secondary motif - that of The Thirteenth Hour, a melodic backbone representing (erroneously?*) the novels to which she devoted the greater part of her life. It rises and dips, shifting between lyrical solos, brassy full-orchestra segments, and percussive interludes. Two of Rose's motifs, Aggrieve and Endless Climb, are also briefly quoted.
     In all, creating The Light's Rebellion was a joy and a challenge, and possibly the first and last track of its style that I'll ever do.
     *The video from which I'd heard The Thirteenth Hour featured the cover of Complacency of the Learned, leading me to associate the track with Calmasis and CotL. In retrospect it was probably more about Calliope's Calmasis-like trollsona (i.e. the thirteenth "troll") than Calmasis, but here we are. (Calliope is named for the muse of epics, Mom wrote epics, it works...)
-    <b><i>keyboard cait:</i></b>
+    <i>keyboard cait:</i> (UMSPAF manager)
     Her hair is like the sun, rebelling against the oppressive shadow of the night sky.
     Not complacent, but sure as hell learned enough to punt you down a waterfall with stabby needles.
 ---
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ Art Tags:
 Commentary: |-
     <i>WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES:</i>
     This song took remarkably long to put together. Less because it was difficult, and more because I kept getting distracted with other projects along the way. Anyway, meow.
-    <b><i>SplitSuns:</i></b>
+    <i>SplitSuns:</i> (album mastering)
     Shu delivers some impressively smooth and refined art for everyone's second-favorite cat whose name begins with a G, GCAT. They say you can tell a lot about someone from their eyes, which makes it more impressive that you can glean this cat's mischievous expression without any eyes at all. GCAT is prepared for action from its carefully positioned placement on a tree branch, ready to pounce at a ball of yarn or teleport to the spot best suited for making your life hell. Some rough glitchy effects in the background add an interesting dimension to the piece, nicely contrasting against its smooth linework. This is one art you won't want to miss, and knowing GCAT's temper, you might miss it if you blink.
 ---
 Track: Sweet Talker
@@ -425,7 +425,7 @@ Art Tags:
 Commentary: |-
     <i>psithurist:</i>
     This was actually the first of the three disc jingles that I wrote, and uses synths to aim for a more alien-ish vibe for the trolls disc, contrasting the organic instruments present in the humans disc.
-    <b><i>WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES:</i></b>
+    <i>WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES:</i> (UMSPAF manager)
     Would you believe that both DAD and CRABDAD are looking at the VERY SAME STAR while cradling their children?
     No? You don't? They both exist in completely different universes you say? That the stars are thematic element used to tie this track art together and to symbolically show the role of each of these GUARDIANS?
     You're no fun.
@@ -451,7 +451,7 @@ Commentary: |-
     So! I've realized nobody wanted to make a track for this completely relevant character for completely obvious reasons, so I took three days of my entire life to give this beautiful creature the piece it deserves. The whole process of making this was to base it around a small snippet of Famitracker that Cookie made a long time ago, and with that I completely broke it up to a point of being in love with it, so thank you Cookie you gave me an awesome idea as well as a good snippet!
     <i>cookiefonster:</i>
     I had the idea of remixing [[track:aradias-theme-pre-death]] from the Homestuck Sound Test for this song and tried to make a track for it but never ended up finishing it. To my surprise, Coy decided that he was going to finish this garbage song. After I posted the project file, he proceeded to work his magic on it, making it actually good in the process, and now it's pretty much his track and he deserves any and all praise for it.
-    <b><i>Grace Medley:</i></b>
+    <i>Grace Medley:</i> (It's Grace Time)
     he wasnt going to let the song just :Die~2:
     <i>freckledOctopus:</i>
     I love the track and wanted to try and capture the more haunting side to it.
@@ -470,7 +470,7 @@ Art Tags:
 Referenced Tracks:
 - Rust Servant
 Commentary: |-
-    <b><i>WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES:</i></b>
+    <i>WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES:</i> (UMSPAF manager)
     Tinkerbull is a daintly and beautiful lusus, who took care of his young troll Tavros to impeccable standards, giving him the kind of love and attention that all trolls in their early sweeps truly need.
     Until he got crushed painfully to death by Tavros's wheelchair anyway. Kind of a sad end to this tale.
     <i>Chumi:</i>
@@ -493,7 +493,7 @@ Referenced Tracks:
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Ducky Senpai:</i>
     For those who may be curious, the title (suggested by Lambda) is play on the term "Polyphemus" which refers to the cyclops in The Odyssey. It's a really dumb pun, and I love it.
-    <b><i>SplitSuns:</i></b>
+    <i>SplitSuns:</i> (album mastering)
     Polypolyphemus is an intense track, so it's fitting for its art to capture the same intensity. Sollux's Biclops is captured right before its imminent demise as the troll's Mind Honey-induced flip out rips through the ceiling of his hive and surrounds the lusus in a multi-colored beam of energy. The meteors illuminating the night sky further illustrate the carnage present in the scene in a fashion that pops up time and time again in Homestuck proper. If only one of those meteors could break the chain around the Biclops' leg and set it free! Wait, the resulting impact would probably just kill the Biclops anyway. Never mind, that was a stupid idea.
 ---
 Track: Rangoon
@@ -535,7 +535,7 @@ Commentary: |-
     <i>WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES:</i>
     I had the opportunity to touch up this piece, which I mostly did by polishing up the samples and adding an electric piano as backing.
     Meow.
-    <b><i>WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES:</i></b>
+    <i>WHATISLOSTINTHEMINES:</i> (UMSPAF manager)
     If there's one thing that mouse can appreciate, it's that it got to see a two-mouthed cat monster before it died.
     Coincidentally, it's about to die because of said two-mouthed cat monster eating it. You just can't have it all, unfortunately.
 ---
@@ -726,8 +726,8 @@ Commentary: |-
     <i>Kal-la-kal-la:</i>
     This piece is heavily inspired by the bis radio edit of Turbulence by Arab Strap - 808s and gloomy guitar lines are the order of the day. Mayhaps not the most obvious approach to a track about the Dolorosa but I take a slight measure of pride in that. Quite pleased with the middle section; the cycle of dominant sevenths with the electric piano improvisation atop it.
     Grief is a strange thing and I find it rarely conveyed well in music. Another for the bonfire pile.
-    <b><i>Ephemerald:</i></b>
-    *The sound of a camera flash can be audibly heard over the music.* Yep. That one's going in my Pietà compilation. But really, is there a more appropriate parallel to make? Probably not. The parable of the Sufferer is full of religious iconography by design, which I guess means that Earth based the Bible off of it, and not the other way around? I don't know. I'll leave that commentary for Hussie, when he (doesn't) get around to it. As a side note, I love the "halos" surrounding the Dolorosa and the Sufferer here. Good stuff.
+    <i>Ephemerald:</i> (commentary help)
+    \*The sound of a camera flash can be audibly heard over the music.\* Yep. That one's going in my Pietà compilation. But really, is there a more appropriate parallel to make? Probably not. The parable of the Sufferer is full of religious iconography by design, which I guess means that Earth based the Bible off of it, and not the other way around? I don't know. I'll leave that commentary for Hussie, when he (doesn't) get around to it. As a side note, I love the "halos" surrounding the Dolorosa and the Sufferer here. Good stuff.
 ---
 Track: The Puppet Master
 Artists:
@@ -819,7 +819,7 @@ Commentary: |-
     <i>keyboard cait:</i>
     This track originates from an idea I had in 2014 to make a track about Calliope and Caliborn's parents. Five years later, it's finally done, stitched together from the composition and/or actual audio clips of like 4 FLPs (I went through about 6, all in all). Funnily enough, the scribbles I had for this song in 2014 then are completely different composition-wise from what ended up being made, but the narrative loosely remains in this track: the cherubs' mother drifts through space, searching for her mate. She spots him, taking off at full speed, following him as he leaves a trail of destruction across the universe. Their eventual meeting is tense, cold. Saying nothing, they transform into unfathomable astral serpents, and battle to create the most innocent muse and most shitheaded gremlin to ever exist.
     I attribute the latter half of this track to listening to a lot of Hawaii: Part II, which is also sampled at the end. Listen to Hawaii: Part II.
-    <b><i>Ephemerald:</i></b>
+    <i>Ephemerald:</i> (commentary help)
     The game of choice for cherubs seems to be chess, or at least, some neon-green candy-red shitty-twist variant of the game, but I'm getting real playing card motifs here. Two identical, serpentine warriors, millions and millions of miles long, locked in a symmetrical whirlwind of a strife. Reminds me of the art to [[track:noirscape]] back on Volume 9, though that's a more literal example. The spiraling, iconic egg in the middle, shining like a light in the darkness, is a very clear reminder of what these two are fighting for: the right to force their opponent to give birth to literally the worst entity in all of existence. But I suppose it didn't matter who won or who lost. After all, he was already there.
 ---
 Section: Bonus tracks