Album: Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido Artists: - Michael Guy Bowman Date: May 31, 2011 00:00:04 Date Added: November 15, 2019 URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBZx4eTVu4Ufun - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kT4A-zOvA1ht-UCuwStN-uoVIdxS7S7Qw - https://open.spotify.com/album/6t1yIGtOCn9hpPcxBFwgr8 - https://music.apple.com/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido/1485455944 Cover Artists: - Tavia Morra - Richard Gung Default Track Cover Artists: - Tavia Morra - Richard Gung Cover Art File Extension: png Track Art File Extension: png Color: '#eecc22' Groups: - Michael Guy Bowman - group:official Art Tags: - Mobius Trip Additional Files: - Title: Album Booklet Files: - Mobius_Trip_And_Hadron_Kaleido_Booklet.pdf - Title: Bandcamp Banner (w/ Vol. 7) Files: - banner.jpg Commentary: |- Homestuck: ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://web.archive.org/web/20110603145529/https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido)) *Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido, agents of Prospit and Derse. They once fought on the battlefield as their respective nemeses, only to be united by a common epiphany - the truth behind the Ultimate Riddle. Gazing upon the Skaian clouds, the secrets of the past, present, and future are now well guarded by these strange sentinels who spread enlightenment through their cryptic music and dance. Together, they hope their songs may be a beacon to all those who undertake the Riddle.* Andrew Hussie: ([MSPA news post](https://web.archive.org/web/20110714053512/http://www.mspaintadventures.com/), excerpt) Two Albums [[album:homestuck-vol-7|Homestuck Volume 7: At the Price of Oblivion]], and... a solo album by Michael Guy Bowman called Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido On the solo album: [[artist:michael-guy-bowman|M.G. Bowman]] has done a lot to shape the sound of Homestuck. Among his contributions were [[Explore]] and [[Sburban Jungle]] (end of acts 2 and 3 music). He is also a mastermind behind the ambitious [Hare Force One](https://web.archive.org/web/20110716223444/http://www.iambowman.com/hareforceone/) project (people ship Con Air bunnies to each other all over the globe). For his album, he has created two characters whose names are featured in the title. They exist somewhere in the Homestuck universe, playing their own session, and each song captures something about their adventure. See his [website](https://web.archive.org/web/20110630045842/http://www.iambowman.com/) for what he has to say about it personally. I think it's a really fun and creative album with a fantastic sound. [[artist:tavia-morra|Tavia Morra]] and [[artist:richard-gung|Richard Gung]], both art team contributors, worked on the art for this album together. Tavia and Michael themselves actually [[track:chain-of-prospit|dress up as the characters]] and [[track:beta-version|pose in the album graphics]]. These are serious entertainers, folks. Michael Guy Bowman: (excerpts from [New Album Q&A](https://web.archive.org/web/20110630045842/http://www.iambowman.com:80/)) > Is there a linear story to this album, or is it some other form of story telling? I've seen a good handful of questions like this and I'd be glad to clear this up. This album does have characters and a story behind it, but it is not a linear story or a rock opera. It's an eponymous album by its members Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido. Back when Andrew proposed the music project in March of 2009, he made it clear that one of the things he wanted to do was create a lot of "fake bands" which would exist as actual musical entities within the Homestuck Universe in much the same light as the Gorillaz, the Monkees, or the Chipmunks (wow, those are all animal names). While we accomplished that somewhat with albums like "Squiddles Singalong", most of the concept albums have largely been musical homages to the actual characters. For example the Felt didn't "make" their album of the same name, the music team made it as program music. *Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido* is meant to be literally an album that Mobius and Hadron would make together. Like the Kernelsprites, they spread their knowledge of Sburb and The Ultimate Riddle cryptically through overtly complex riddles rendered as rock music. They have a seemingly limitless knowledge of all things in the Homestuck universe, or do they? For all their answers they don't just give anything away, they tease you with their songs. Hoohoohoo! > How much thought did you put into connecting the album with Homestuck? Or was it just supposed to be a silly thing with a loose connection? From the very beginning I wanted to make this an album for Homestuck fans, but I also wanted this to be something which could be listened to from the outside-in. My goal was to create a solid set of songs that would revisit the basic themes of Homestuck, meaning that the fans would get a whole new dimension to the world of Homestuck and listeners unfamiliar with the comic could discover listen to it and, if so intrigued, discover the entire world of MSPA to create context for the album. Think of it as the relationship between *House of Leaves* and the band Poe - there is intertextuality between the literature and music and together they create a bigger picture. Plus, you can discover them in whatever order you like. Personally, I believe the album is very faithful to the basic ideas of Homestuck. All the big themes are there: time, eternity, repetition, survival, the unknown, fractals, betrayal, dreams, romance, hypnosis, pumpkins, etc. While I certainly had ideas for songs already floating around before the fake band project fell in my lap, my rule of thumb was to incorporate Homestuck any time I hit a dead-end and didn't know what to do. Plus, the process of planning the art was something that Tavia and I were working on from almost the very beginning. > how much of the instrumentation was synthesized and how much of it was organic? i'm thinking specifically of the fiddly guitar bits in forever I play every instrument on this record, and all the ones that aren't real instruments I either played through a synthesizer or sequenced myself. All the guitar is real guitar played by myself. I did all of the singing except for some backup vocals by Tavia. About half of the bass parts are me playing an old P-Bass and the other half are some spectacularly vintage-sounding synth basses that I sequenced. While I do play drums, I was unable to use my drum set in the making of this album and instead spent an intense amount of time laying down the drum parts as the first step in making each track. Most of the performance side of the album was really quick and just involved running through the song and playing a midi keyboard run through patches. The "fiddly guitar bits" are played on a white Epiphone Les Paul named Glinda. > Are there any intentional song similarities or specific inspirations, musically? Chain of Prospit reminds me a LOT of She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby, in a very good way. None of the songs are supposed to sound intentionally like any other song, but my style is informed by the groups I've listened to that I really enjoy. I can see the resemblance, but when I listen to my own music I always hear a demolition derby of every song I've ever liked. All the things I've seen posted about my music being a mix between groups like Daft Punk, David Bowie, or They Might Be Giants really satisfy me because those are most of the same things I listen to. I think I listened to "She Blinded Me With Science" a lot about five years ago. Thomas Dolby is a cool guy. I really like his soundtrack to Gate to the Mind's Eye. Tavia Morra: > Also any fun stories you can share from taking the pictures for the graphics? For the portrait of Hadron's face, I cobbled together my little lighting and shooting rig with the following: tripod, camera, music stand, orange extension cord, nightlight, and a chair. It was super guerrilla, if you consider shooting in the comfort of your own home guerrilla. Either way, it was actually a very pleasant photoshoot that didn't require an extensive amount of time to set up. Oh, and I kept eating cookies during one of the photoshoots. That's all I can remember at the moment. Bowman might remember more. Michael Guy Bowman: ([Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1359), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) Mobius Trip & Hadron Kaleido, now there's something! When the fake band idea was being proposed, I think partly because of all the guitar and drum stuff I had been writing out on some of these, [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] was really into the idea of, hey, you know, you should produce a rock album. And that's what he actually told me - it was just, produce a rock and roll album! That's what I'd always wanted to do, is produce original songs and do rock music. *(Continued in [[track:lies-with-the-sea]])* More broadly, what we ended up doing with that - I wanted to do, like, a prophetic work, where I wasn't tied to concrete storytelling episodes within Homestuck, because ultimately I didn't have authorship over the comic, Andrew did. And I wanted to create something that would be able to be interpreted freely, so that he could use it however he wanted to use it. So he never really... gave me characters, or anything, that he wanted there to be. I was just like, you know, let's come up with some loose characters, and we'll just see whether or not Andrew wants to use them. Because he never had a real, like, hard idea for that one. I think he was just too busy with other stuff. The characters were a collaboration of myself and [[artist:tavia-morra|Tavia Morra]], and we based their images on ourselves, and we came up with these citizens of Prospit and Derse who were generals, who were on opposite sides of a battle. And of course, knowing the comic, the battle is futile, and really the answer lies somewhere in the eternal, and they are prophets of peace who express that prophecy through cryptic art. (laughs) They are telling you something that's kind of, a psychedelic truth, which is that, you know, the universe is bigger than we know. And I always respected that about Andrew's ideas with the cosmology of Homestuck, even with Problem Sleuth, with the Godhead Pickle Inspector and stuff, and staring into the lotus, and like, the microscopic becoming the macroscopic. He was always playing with the idea of, what's our eternal purpose? in a universe where time may be cyclical and where individual lives may not amount to much, in the face of cosmic destiny. I think thematically, that's what I wanted to play with. *(Continued in [[track:dawn-of-man]] and [[track:chain-of-prospit]])* I was really encouraged by Mobius Trip & Hadron Kaleido, even if it wasn't ever incorporated in the comic, I was more motivated to say - you know, I care about my own songwriting and want to continue with it. That meant that I ended up pivoting that year to making more solo music - those of you who follow this channel and know my personal work, it's probably not the biggest history lesson for you, but, that was the beginning of me doing [[group:michael-guy-bowman|a series of solo albums]] that I'm continuing to work on [[album:your-majesty|to this day]]. Of course, I didn't stop making music for the rest of the comic. We worked on more volumes and compilations. Homestuck: ([Bandcamp credits blurb](https://web.archive.org/web/20110603145529/https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido)) Album art by [[artist:tavia-morra]] and [[artist:richard-gung]] --- Track: Forever Duration: '2:58' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/forever - https://youtu.be/O9Q5JvfBMYc - https://open.spotify.com/track/67bDtuEBFsIRgGKXMkvtxi - https://music.apple.com/album/forever/1485455944?i=1485455945 Art Tags: - Mobius Trip Commentary: |- Michael Guy Bowman: (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/5/2017) I tend to hold on to ideas and use them when they're ready. Forever was an idea I'd been holding on to for about five years. [[track:lunar-eclipse|Lunar eclipse]] I think was 3 or 4 before I arranged it. Lots of my stuff bakes for months or years. Sometimes the first drafts suck but I find myself humming it later. That's how I know. --- Track: Dawn of Man Duration: '5:44' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/dawn-of-man - https://youtu.be/Fyib6VCDA2s - https://open.spotify.com/track/6WjbErpN3Q2VvydajTKSCp - https://music.apple.com/album/dawn-of-man/1485455944?i=1485456246 Referenced Tracks: - Sburban Jungle Sheet Music Files: - Title: Chords by Kal-la-kal-la Files: - 'Dawn of Man - Chords.txt' Lyrics: |- I was about fifteen I was walking the beach I was racing a wave It knocked me off my feet I fell into the tide It spat me back on the sand I laughed without a clue How lucky I was to land It's been a long long time Since my life was spared It's been a long long time But I'm still not scared It was the dawn of man I held the bone in my hand I was as hungry as death Wandering through the sand I met a wild boar My bone came down with a crack I tasted flesh and blood And swore I'd never look back It's been a long long time But I had just begun It's been a long long time Out in the African sun It's been a long long time Since I learned that skill It's been a long long time Since my very first kill If anyone's out there to see what we have done Can somebody tell me what we are to become Our tiny lives They fly right by This goodly frame, it does not care If we live or die It was the month of June In Tiananmen Square The tanks were on TV But I was not yet there The guns they all went pop We heard the screams and shouts I was brought into this world As they were taken out It's been a long long time So many people to mourn It's been a long long time Since the day I was born It's been a long long time And yet no time at all It's been a long long time And yet no time at all If anyone's out there to see what I have done Can somebody tell me what we are to become Our tiny lives They fly right by Who were they, and next to them Who the hell am I? Commentary: |- Michael Guy Bowman: ([Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1517), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) *(Continued from [[album:mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido|album commentary]])* I did that on Dawn of Man, which was this piece that wove, you know, near-death experience, atrocity, and the survival instinct, and it's kind of like... 2001-style, oh, you know, pre-history and history and the future are all connected. *(Continued in [[track:chain-of-prospit]])* --- Track: Beta Version Duration: '4:35' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/beta-version - https://youtu.be/m6Km35fIHiw - https://open.spotify.com/track/1sr7vcstGJq6ZH3dZ5CajD - https://music.apple.com/album/beta-version/1485455944?i=1485456247 Art Tags: - Hadron Kaleido --- Track: No Release Duration: '4:28' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/no-release - https://youtu.be/ZO_ile-Mdsw - https://open.spotify.com/track/21FJyt1uG6PvCxKtS8NIkO - https://music.apple.com/album/no-release/1485455944?i=1485456248 Lyrics: |- She's changed, she's new now She's moved on somehow The pain is gone now But she still needs room to breathe You've changed you're silent For all those years spent Explaining what it was that you really meant Now you won't say it aloud You'd rather be silent and proud But down inside you still lies the beast If she's the reason you live You'll only get what you give And what you've given is no release You've changed, you've grown up Your wounds have sewn up Your time has shown up Yet you still can't find your way No lies, no secrets This is your life, now keep it In time you'll see it The faces you have put on Have held you back all along You're a king, not a pawn, so cease To be so loyally fake You'll only get what you take And what you've taken is no release And one day, everyone will smile again We'll feel like a child again And look behind us And think of all the stuff that's going on The stuff we're growing on It's an ashen quadrant affair Except you just don't care Your only aim has been to appease Lay down your pride and your gun You're not the only one Who's still looking for some release And if the rules they can bend You know you still could be friends But it doesn't rely on me This is as far as I go I only say what I know And what I know is you need release --- Track: Fly Duration: '5:01' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/fly - https://youtu.be/CUDkBTYWtGk - https://open.spotify.com/track/1klZMcClr0wPElFxl6OMAE - https://music.apple.com/album/fly/1485455944?i=1485456249 Art Tags: - Hadron Kaleido Lyrics: |- Fly fly fly whatcha say Whatcha gonna do Change your ways change your life Change your point of view Been so long since your feet Felt the open air So far back down the line Were you even there? It's so cold the rain blows in your eyes It's so cold the days go flashing by It's so cold you've lost all track of time It's so cold you turn back into slime Dream dream dream dream your life Make it up from scratch In your dream you're the star It's you who makes that catch Can't hold on, cannot grope Your fingers will not clasp Measurements fall apart The tools you cannot grasp It's insane you must be high on pot It's insane the air this man has got It's insane the stuff you must be on It's insane you wake up and it's gone And you're on your way to work And you still can't work it out And you can't recall the details Or what it was about So you read a bunch of websites And you study archetypes But you throw away the answers 'Cause it's all a bunch of hype And you're on your way of work But you just can't work it out And you can't recall the details Or what it was about So you hustle through your morning And you waste your afternoon And at night you still are wondering If you'll dream again so soon And you lay awake and wonder And you never get your sleep 'Cause you're still waiting for the answers But you never hear a peep And you die alone and angry And you're wrapped up in a shroud And the world's far below you And your feet are in the clouds Commentary: |- Tavia Morra: ([Music video!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUDkBTYWtGk)) --- Track: Lies With The Sea Duration: '4:46' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/lies-with-the-sea - https://youtu.be/LH_tBygClwg - https://open.spotify.com/track/7FgS82UUmwb4xP96FZtdNJ - https://music.apple.com/album/lies-with-the-sea/1485455944?i=1485456250 Art Tags: - Hadron Kaleido Referenced Tracks: - Lies With The Sea (Beta) Lyrics: |- Lonely submarine in murky shades of blue and green A silent knock on Davy Jones' door Octopi and hydronauts explore unsalvaged shipwrecks caught In coral reeves that span the ocean floor The geothermal chemistry Of vents below the deep blue sea Burning on and on The winking of an angler's light You make this underwater flight Down where there is no sun My heart lies with the sea My heart lies with the ocean My heart lies with the sea My heart lies with the ocean My, the continental shelf and all its sunken wealth Bones of those who walked the plank The depth to which these pirates sank Crushed by pressures great The submarine has lost its way Shall we ever make it to the bay From where we once did leave? A sonar ping still rings for help Diffused amongst a cloud of kelp Where mermaid kingdoms breathe My heart lies with the sea My heart lies with the ocean My heart lies with the sea My heart lies with the ocean My heart lies with the sea My heart lies with the ocean My heart lies with the sea My heart lies with the ocean My heart lies with the sea My heart lies with the ocean My heart lies with the sea My heart lies with the ocean ... Commentary: |- Michael Guy Bowman: "Lies With the Sea" is one of two songs based on sketches from dreams that I put on Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido - the other, aptly enough, is "Dawn of Man". During the time I was initially formulating a concept for a fake band during the summer of 2010, I thought it would be interesting to do something with a nautical theme. One night as I was falling asleep, I very vividly imagined a melody and accompanying refrain "my heart so full of love", which I sketched and eventually transformed into "my heart lies with the sea" to fit the concept. Ultimately I ditched the nautical theme for the band after Squiddles! Sing-along came out and resolved to develop the concept that became Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido with Tavia. However, the song was already well-developed by that point and I opted to keep it around. My first sketch for that piece was actually a lot heavier - I produced a version over that summer as a demo for Andrew that featured a slow, dirge-like drum beat and an incredibly loud guitar riff that somewhat resembled the song "Grease" from the way-overrated musical of the same name. Perhaps later I'll do some touch-ups to this "heavy" version of the song and share it, but until then I'd rather keep it to myself, being so primitively produced. One thing it has in common with the quicker, more lightly-produced version of the track I put out in May was a fairly strong inspiration from modern electronic acts. I drew farily heavily from the sensibilities of Gorillaz in chosing synthesizer sounds on tracks like "Rhinestone Eyes" and "El Mañana" and also pretty closely studied the mix on Daft Punk's "Something About Us", a down tempo track I greatly admire. The thing that most strongly made me feel comfortable using this track on Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido was its inspiration from dreams and the sense that it generally echoed the thought of being swept away in a wave as mentioned in "Dawn of Man" earlier on the album. Originally I even recorded an alternate lyric to the melody of "Sburban Jungle" to open the second verse which I ditched that went as follows: "Down, down far below, somewhere safe/ Lost in the wave once again." Michael Guy Bowman: ([Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1386), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) Originally, I think partly inspired by Plastic Beach, I was kind of interested in an underwater theme, characters like Eridan and Feferi and the sea kingdom thing... like, one of the first ideas I worked on that was Lies With The Sea. --- Track: Chain Of Prospit Duration: '4:37' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/chain-of-prospit - https://youtu.be/c9XA_P5g_4w - https://open.spotify.com/track/4bPlriMggiVy5UssUd043f - https://music.apple.com/album/chain-of-prospit/1485455944?i=1485456251 Art Tags: - Mobius Trip - Hadron Kaleido Lyrics: |- Hold up Before your hopes and dreams are sold up You haven't failed yet don't fold up Don't cut the tape before it's rolled up You've always got a chance Rock it And if the picture isn't clear just shop it You're swinging by the chain of Prospit The future's always there so pop it Back into its place You've got a reason to live Got a reason to live No matter what you say No matter what you take away There's always something you can give And buddy that's the reason That you've got a reason to live Got a reason to live Don't care what you've been through Don't care what people think of you There's always something you can do And no one knows it better than you Praise you The absence in your life delays you The note that desolation plays you You know you mustn't let it phase you If something's in the way Own up There's data structures you can bone up You might be feeling like you're Homestuck But you can make it by your own luck Snap it into place And if the wind should blow I will know I will go Reversal, all matter and its great dispersal The secrets of the universal This isn't just a dry rehearsal We're living for today You've got a reason to live Got a reason to live No matter what you say No matter what you take away There's always something you can give And buddy that's the reason That you've got a reason to live Got a reason to live Don't care what you've been through Don't care what people think of you There's always something you can do And no one knows it better than- You've got a reason to live Got a reason to live No matter what you say No matter what you take away There's always something you can give And buddy that's the reason That you've got a reason to live got a reason to live Don't care what you've been through Don't care what people think of you There's always something you can do And no one knows it better than you And no one knows it better than you And no one knows it better than you Commentary: |- Michael Guy Bowman: (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/11/2017) the outpouring of people who told me that song got them through a rough patch was incredible. it definitely makes me think twice about what the effect of my work on an audience will be, esp. compared to the stuff i was working on when i was way younger Michael Guy Bowman: ([Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1537), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) *(Continued from [[track:dawn-of-man]])* And, taking that journey toward, you know, a culmination on Chain of Prospit, which says that our reasons for living are personal, and not refutable simply because the universe is giant and possibly indifferent. We have our own right to live for ourselves. To some extent, that album was a turning point for me, because, you know, when you compare it to how stupid it was to do these... silly songs, you know, I think *so* much of the stuff I did for Homestuck ended up being funny, and it was like, I managed to get my way back into the comic again and again by being, you know, a comedian, that - pivoting so hard, to this, y'know, big serious thing that was more about "what does life mean?" (laughs) And doing that while decorating it with the elements of this comic, which are... sometimes just stupid and shocking. I don't know, I think it hit right in the weirdest way, by reaching people that weren't expecting it. When people tell me that Chain of Prospit, for instance, really connected with them, and made them feel like they're not alone, or it made them feel like, that it... that it is personally true that they have a reason to live and that they shouldn't doubt their own struggle to keep going... I think it made me change, quite a bit. How cynical can I be about the world, when there's this other side of myself that... does honestly believe that, what you do with art, even if it's for some crazy thing like Homestuck, um, could actually touch somebody, in some real way? *(Continued back in [[album:mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido|album commentary]])* --- Track: Pumpkin Tide Duration: '3:31' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/pumpkin-tide - https://youtu.be/lyxw3e3RvzE - https://open.spotify.com/track/2SyJ99LRL8qA9Kj977S56O - https://music.apple.com/album/pumpkin-tide/1485455944?i=1485456252 Art Tags: - Hadron Kaleido Lyrics: |- Destroy your desk, it's useless now Build yourself a fort to hide Close your eyes and crawl inside You're sailing on the pumpkin tide The ship you're on is yours alone The wind will push your sweet sweet ride But this foreign wave just appearified You're sailing on the pumpkin tide Focus on the sound of my voice You are under my control Obey my will or I'll bury you alive And it's you who'll dig your own damn hole Forget your friends, what good are they Suckers filled with words that chide Heads green with envy but orange with pride Screaming at that pumpkin tide Listen to their whispering voice The current where the pumpkins roam You never saw a thing Never saw the thing you think you saw Just shadows looking for a home The door into your heart is locked Its [gun] is buried in your mind Too heavy to carry but too huge to leave behind Without it you will surely die But even that's just another lie Sailing on the pumpkin tide --- Track: The Deeper You Go Duration: '3:36' URLs: - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/the-deeper-you-go - https://youtu.be/IMpM4xKg9vU - https://open.spotify.com/track/04bH49gpsynafFR9dtmEP5 - https://music.apple.com/album/the-deeper-you-go/1485455944?i=1485456253 Art Tags: - Mobius Trip Referenced Tracks: - Sburban Jungle