It's taken a while, but here we are at long last! To refresh your memories, in the "Sounds of..." series, I go through the Everfree Radio Top 100 for that year and feature each song along with a paragraph of text and (if relevant) where you can buy a high-quality version of the track. Well, I say each song, but there are certain exceptions. For the 2012 edition, I've come up with four rules to guide whether a song is included. You can read about them in full in my earlier post, but in brief:
Rule 1: Still available in some form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion
Since I joined the My Little Pony fandom in the spring of 2012, I'm expecting quite a few nostalgia hits this time around. The songs I'll feature in this first post, with artist name listed before song title as in the 2011 series, are as follows:
100: Twitch vs. Pinkie Pie – Welcome
99: Sim Gretina – Equestria Girls
98: Awkward Marina – Deejay Just Like Me
97: Foozogz – ,~*Smile!*~, (Rmx VIP)
96: Aviators – The Real Me
Come past the cut for the songs themselves, plus some more details!
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 3 Jun 2012
We kick off with this Twitch Remix from the artist now known as AVINOID. It takes one of Pinkie's lesser songs from "A Friend in Deed" and somehow squeezes a five-minute remix out of it. I do find that this makes it a little on the repetitive side, but then this type of electronica has never really been my specialised subject.* You can pick up a WAV of this song, along with versions (some WAV, some MP3) of Twitch's other non-commercial MLP music, from the link in the video description.
* For non-Brits who wonder why I use this phrase and not "specialist subject", this is why.
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 23 Mar 2012
This is a Sim Gretina remix. Really, what more do you need? For those whose memories don't go back that far, though, here the Finnish artist creates a fantastically catchy and excellently put-together remix of The Hub's "Equestria Girls" promo. (Not the later EqG series!) There's not a lot to the accompanying video – it's just DJ Pon-3 nodding her head. One thing I really appreciate about Sim Gretina is the way their songs don't overstay their welcomes: this one is under four minutes. I can't find an official download, but the song is on the artist's Soundcloud.
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 13 Jul 2012
Awkward Marina is most famous for "Anthropology" – which we may just possibly get to in a future edition. ;) This song, from a few months earlier, is nowhere near as well known; indeed, I don't think I'd ever heard it all through until fairly recently. As you'll gather, it's a Vinyl Scratch song, in which she talks about how much she loves being a DJ and what it means to her to use music to make people happy. It's a fairly simple thing, but I think it fits its character well and doesn't overdo the electronic distortion. There's a 320k MP3 Mediafire link in the video description.
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 14 Mar 2012
Yes, that is how they write the title on the YouTube video! From an artist still releasing Pony music in 2019, Foozogz' track is what you'd expect it to be: a remix of one of the show's most famous songs. It's not an especially complex or deep remix, but it has a nice, upbeat mood to it. At least, it does if you don't associate it with its later use as the soundtrack to the blood-soaked "Smile HD" PMV. (Nope, not linking that. It's easy to find if you must.) There's a 320k MP3 download in the video description, or you can pick up the Tree Vision album on which it appears for 50 cents on Foozogz' Bandcamp. (Bizarrely, buying this track on its own is twice the price at $1!)
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 11 Mar 2012
Aviators won't need any introduction to most of you. This is one of his early songs, made while he was getting used to the FL Logic Pro music software and described by him as "an experiment" and "not professional sounding" and "cheesy". And yeah, you'd be hard pushed to describe this very simple song as among the finest of Aviators' 2012 output, even if it is about Best Pony. It covers Fluttershy's realisation, after the events of "Putting Your Hoof Down", that she can be assertive without bullying. The verse sounds distractingly like that of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire", though that seems to have been accidental. The track was eventually included on Aviators' The Lost Songs album a year and a half later; you can find that on his Bandcamp on a name-your-price basis.
Join me next time on "Sounds of 2012" for parties, fighting and flying!
Ahh, I'm pleased to see these posts again. :D 2012 is when I feel like the fandom's music really took off.
ReplyDeleteThat's not one of Marina's better songs, but for as early as it is, it's pretty decent, and I still remember quite a lot of the lyrics!
I'm really looking forward to this year's series. And 2013's, assuming I eventually get that far. :)
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