Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-further

Art by TK

References "Torchlight" by Rainy 

Commentary: 

“So, this track was a collab between me and Levc EGM. Dude jokes all the time that people think his music sounds like Kirby music and I thought who better to reach out to help with a Kirby styled track. The process this time around was pretty simple, I sent him my original demo and he added stuff and sent it back to me until the track was done. For me, there really wasn’t a singular major inspiration for this track aside from SNES Era Kirby soundtracks. Eagle eared listeners will hear a call back to my track “Torchlight” from Vol.5. In a way I wanted to redeem that track given the less than pleasant circumstances of its making. I definitely think that Levc carried this song hard especially with that slowdown section towards the end of the track which is insane. Anyway, Levc’s cool as fuck and I hope to work again with him on something.”  -Rainy 

“Rainy contacted with me to work on this track since it's supposed to sound like a kirby song. And I'm the guy that always get's "this sounds like a kirby song" on his music so I guess that checks out lmao (lov u rainy I'm your fan ur best fren). Classic kirby tracks are so much fun thanks to it's structure and melodic composition, tho ironicly I was just thinking in the "kirby forgor his lan [ADD SKULL EMOTE HERE]" OST since it's really good. You can tell by some of the sections I worked in (like that really cool C section with a ostinato melody that also shows up in the end of the track). My favorite part is the one before the climatic end, that slow section that gets even slower to BURST UP with a ton of energy! That sick move was inspired by lemon demon's "When He Died". Also the general vibe of that slow part was inspired by "proto man theme" from megaman... I'm sorry I also get the "sounds like a megaman song" a lot too...”  - Levc

Strobelite Striker (ft. Levc EGM)

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-further

Track art by Artatruc

Commentary:

This was the very first demo I wrote back when my solo was in its initial phase. I knew that I wanted a Touhou style song for this album since 1. I’m familiar with the style from previous songs and 2. I like Touhou. The difficult part of writing in this style is that getting the instrumental pallet sounding right since most of the synths that ZUN uses don’t have VSTs. I tried to emulate the sound by primarily using VSTs of famous 90s and 2000’s romplers (i.e SoundCanvas, Wavestation, M1 etc.) to give the song a nostalgic feel. The primary inspiration for this song is “Reach to the Moon, Immortal Smoke” which is like one of my favorite Touhou tracks. In the grander scope of the album, I do think this song winds up being one of the weaker tracks but I do like what I was able to do melody wise for this song.

The Curtain Rises ~ Millennium Actress

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-further

Art by _apsinthos

I’ll tell you what I very much felt out of my depth with this track. I wanted to write a Super Metroid inspired battle theme for Occeus in the vein of “Ridley’s Theme.” I was initially going to use soundfonts for this song but quickly realized that the Metroid soundfont sucked and decided to utilize synths instead. Personally, I don’t feel like I’m as well versed in utilizing synths compared to other music team members, so figuring out how to make my composition shine while using them was an uphill battle. Making things more difficult is the fact that Metroid’s music is typically less melody driven which contrasts starkly with my style. All that being said I began to pull in other influences to help move the song along. Aside from Ridley’s theme, the other big influence on this track was “Atomyk Ebonpyre” with its industrial feel, abrasive synths and early Toby’s signature winding melodic lines. Through combination of these two influences, I got something that was distinctly dark, alien, and futuristic. I think that song is a standout not just on the album but in whole of my composing career thus far

At The Gates Of Truth

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-further

Art by bitter_rayjay

Commentary: 

Let the record show that I think Calder’s vibes are wrenched. Regardless I knew going into this album that I wanted to do Calder song in the vein of NES/SNES Castlevania games. The B-Movie Horror/gothic vibe from those games fits Calder’s aesthetic. Initially going to use the Dracula X soundfont but that soundfont sounded like ass so I opted to use the Final Fantasy ones instead. I wrote this one pretty early on in the process as thus this track is simple in comparison to the later tracks I wrote. That being said do think that the main melody of this is one of the strongest melodies I’ve ever written. Definitely, coming back to this one for a remix down the road so keep an eye

A Portrait Of Ruin

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-further

Art by Larry Reverie

Commentary

Out of all the songs on the album, this one took the longest to put together. Initially, this was going to be a collab between me and dbnet but for time constraint reasons it fell through. I wrote the initial demo very early on but it wound up being the last song I wrote on the album. For this track I wanted to write something in the vein of Secret of Mana’s “Viridian Dance.” However, as I got to writing parts for the collab, the songs concept mutated. I was listening to “Battle on the Big Bridge” from Final Fantasy V and though it would be interesting if wrote an opening 6/4 arpeggio section just like that song. From there, I went wild lol. One of my biggest regrets with this album was the fact I didn’t use odd time signature as much as I would have liked. To make up for it, I went hard on the time signatures on this track. This is the closest thing to an outright progressive rock song I’ve ever written and I’m pretty proud of it.

Occult Hymns

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-further

Art by dizzims

Composed, Arranged and Produced by Rainy
Lead, rhythm and bass guitar Performed by Tee-vee (https://teevee.neocities.org/)
Mimesis voice over on peformed by Marcie Hobbs ( @NezumiVA  )
Monologue written by Marcie and Rainy

References:

All previous tracks from Fighting Further
"Perfection" by Rom M
"A New World" by dbnet
"Courage" by Grace Medley
"DEAD 2 RIGHTS" by Rainy

Samples:

"Glimpses Of Perfection" by SplitSuns

Go Beyond and Fight Further (feat. Tee - vee And NezumiVA)

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-further

Art by expirequiem

On The Hunt For Something Dangerous (beta)

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/in-medias-res

Art by bisectro
References "Like Tears in Rain" by Rainy

Commentary:
Accel/Exceed was the first track of the new batch of songs I wrote for Vol.6 and is easily one of my favorites of the bunch. I initially wrote the main synth/piano motif when I was doing a bit of riff writing practice. I wanted to get a piano motif that sounded like the main riff from “Lust Sin” by Daisuke Ishiwatari. I wasn’t even going to use it for Vast Error, but I felt like it was too good to not use for something. I remember reading the post-incursion part of the comic and having Hamifi fresh on the mind, so I decided to make a song for her using the motif I had written previously. When I started the song, I decided to take the song from the initial riff in a more action-y breakbeat direction in the vein of “Fairfrozen” by STEEL_PLUS. I’ve always associated Hamifi with “elegant” instrumentation like strings and piano in addition to corporate’s more electronic soundscape, so those made up the instrumental pallet I was working with. Writing this was different from the usual approach to song writing. Rather than focus on developing a melodic idea over the span of an entire track, I built the song with the main motif as the main backbone of the song. I think it allowed me to do a lot of different stuff structurally, such as meter changes and solos, as motif tied the whole song together. I did sneak a cheeky call back to “Like Tears in Rain” given the context of the song. I feel like its inclusion highlights how much Cecily’s memory weighs on Hamifi during her confrontation with Edolon. I’m not sure if it’s too self-indulgent to use my own track as a leitmotif like this but I like how it gives the songs layers.

Accel/Exceed

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/in-medias-res

Art by Neptune

Another older song for Vol.6 but one that you might have heard elsewhere already. I wrote Little Miss Fortune as a sad song for Serpaz. I felt like a lot of Serpaz’s music leaned heavily on being silly and goofy, so to stand out I decided to write something distinctly sad sounding. I remember the unreleased Homestuck song “Aradia’s Theme” was the main point of inspiration for this song. I do find it somewhat amusing that the song wound up forecasting the direction Serpaz’s story would go. Returning to the point I made at the start, if the b-section melody sounds familiar it’s because I remixed it in The Fool Does Not Laugh, which was in turn remixed by both Rab in Fool’s plea. The song has a pretty far reaching musical legacy despite only now getting released.

Little Miss Fortune

Get the album: https://vasterror.bandcamp.com/album/in-medias-res

Art by Neviathan
References "Falling Upwards" by Grace Medley

Commentary:
Like Tears in Rain is probably one of the oldest songs for Vol.6 being written in like October of 2022. I wrote this song for Cecily because at the time, she had no official music outside of her themes in Snowbound Blood. It’s funny I wrote this song early into reading of SBB, so it was largely written based on her design, inference on plot details, and some of her music from the game. I knew pretty much immediately that I wanted this song to be evocative of media like Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell, so I leaned heavily into retro synth sounds. I vaguely recall that Grace Medley’s and SplitSuns’ more ambient cuts inspired the composition and production. While I don’t remember as much from the process, I do think having finished SBB recently that it works well as a song for Cecily. It feels evocative of her forlorn disposition and the begrudging role she plays as a corporate enforcer, which I think its pretty cool imo.

Like Tears in Rain

Made a second account to post music for the various music projects I'm involved in since I'm running out of time on my main account. I'll try and keep things as professional as I can on this account but since I'm involved with a lot Homestuck fan stuff who knows how long that will last.

I'll be reposting all the songs I post here on my main so follow that instead,

Profile picture by infinite

At The Gates Of Truth

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