Sounds of 2012: Nos. 77 to 73

It's August Bank Holiday weekend here in England, and by some miracle it's actually sunny and warm. As such, I've been spending some time in the garden reading ponyfic – and listening to fandom music. That reminds me that I've slightly neglected Sounds of 2012, my look at the Everfree Radio Top 100 from that year. My four rules determine whether I should feature each track, since I'm not always very comfortable with featuring songs whose artists have nuked them and disappeared. Happily I didn't have to skip any this time, but here's the rundown:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar 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

As usual with "Sounds of 2012", first I'll give a quick list of the songs I'm looking at this time, and past the cut I'll embed some videos and talk a little about each track. Five of them today, as follows:

77: toastwaffle – Sweetie's Big Race - FiW REMIX
76: H8_Seed ft. Mic the Microphone – Petrified
75: ReicheruCharin – Bad Harmony
74: PrinceWhateverer – Taking Flight
73: AcoustiMandoBrony ft. EileMonty – Nightmare in Everfree

If you want to know more about these tracks, please keep reading!

77: toastwaffle – Sweetie's Big Race - FiW REMIX

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 4 Apr 2012
One of my absolute favourites to start with! I love Friendship is Witchcraft, and one of its best features was its original music. Episode 5, "Neigh, Soul Sister", parodied "Sisterhooves Social", and Sherclop Pones' original of this song played during the race scene. It's sung by Sweetie Belle, better known (though not in FiW itself!) as Sweetie Bot – perhaps the most famous breakout star from the parody series. That original song was fun, but toastwaffle got hold of it and added more electronic bloopiness, some great instrumental breaks and a more urgent tempo – and the result is sheer perfection. You can pick up HQ versions of the full song and its instrumental via Mediafire links in the video description, although the Dropbox link for the a capella is sadly long dead.

76: H8_Seed ft. Mic the Microphone – Petrified

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube on 29 Mar 2012
There aren't many absolute bangers about cockatrices, but H8_Seed managed to make one, and this is it. His account later used the Trace Mychal name, though nothing there is dated after November 2012. This was a collab, with H8_Seed contributing the music and Mic the Microphone handling the words. The two gel extremely well, with the sheer dark energy of the beat and the nicely-turned lyrics forming a compelling team. (No, you can't write for NME —Ed.) While I'm slightly less keen on the rap sections, that's largely just because I don't have that much interest in rap anyway. The song art is by a certain General Mumble, so it's quite the team-up of top-line 2012 talent! You can get this song in HQ by grabbing the Mythozoology EP for whatever you think it's worth on H8_Seed's Bandcamp.

75: ReicheruCharin – Bad Harmony

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 5 Feb 2012
After a song I've liked for a while, here's one I'd never even heard of before doing this feature. It has over 1.4 million views, though, so it must have been a big deal in its day. I don't know whether it's the only MLP song ReicheruyCharin released, but it's certainly the only one still up. They abandoned this YouTube account later that year, starting over as Nomyriad. Fittingly for a musician whose music is drenched in Japanese/anime culture, this remix of Masayoshi Minoshima and nomico's original has the high-pitched, 16-bit-ish sound of a retro Japanese videogame. Actually, the tune would make a great soundtrack to a fast-moving AJ platformer! The lyrics, however, are original and in English: they're about the events of "The Return of Harmony". The very striking accompanying video is by Farionelle. You can pick this song up in HQ via the Mediafire link in the video description.

74: PrinceWhateverer – Taking Flight

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 25 Mar 2012
You know what to expect from PrinceWhateverer: intensely energetic, loud hard rock and metal. This track, subtitled "A Song for the Wonderbolts", has a sound inspired by Bullet for My Valentine, so it features some sections that might be too heavy for some. Expect some pretty intense screaming at times – though the majority of the song is more melodic. There are HQ downloads via the video description, though unfortunately you have to go through the adf.ly short URL service to get to the Mediafire links you actually want! However, a more polished but perhaps slightly softer-edged 2015 remix featuring NRGPony is available for £1 on PrinceWhateverer's Bandcamp.

73: AcoustiMandoBrony ft. EileMonty – Nightmare in Everfree

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 21 Oct 2012
I'm sure AcoustiMandoBrony need no introduction: this team of Acoustic Brony and MandoPony produced some of the fandom's biggest ever hits, and we'll be meeting them again later on. EileMonty also remains a hugely popular and accomplished singer. This particular song, however, hasn't endured as much as some. As its name suggests, it's a slightly glam-rock take on the Nightmare Night holiday, definitely not to be taken too seriously. In the middle is a spoken solo by EileMonty which contains references not only to some of the musicians but even to "the manly DustyKatt". That sort of thing was cheesy even in 2012, but it's deliberately cheesy here, which makes all the difference. The attempt at nodding to the then-massively-popular dubstep sound late on in the song irritates me slightly, but overall it's likely to bring a smile. There's a download in the video description if you're looking for HQ.