Sounds of 2013: Nos. 84 to 80

PonyFest 2.0 on Saturday was a very enjoyable occasion, even if internet iffiness meant I only caught parts of some of the fanfic panels I was interested in. And even if US-targeted scheduling (which is fair enough for a US-based con!) meant most of us over here had to miss the end as it finished about 6 am UK time. Anyway, now we're going back to the year of my first convention (BUCK 2013) and as ever the inclusion criteria are:

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

All five songs make it through the filter this time, and they are:

84: TeiThePony – Flying With The Rainbow (VIP Mix)
83: The Living Tombstone – Pinkie's Brew (remix)
82: The Living Tombstone – Neverending Strife (remix)
81: MandoPony – When I Find My Wings
80: Feather and The Combine – Pilot Light

More past the page break, as you'll already know if you've been following these posts.

84: TeiThePony – Flying With The Rainbow (VIP Mix)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 9 Jan 2013
Now known as AcidUsagi, TeiThePony was a pretty well known artist in those far-off days of 2013. This is actually quite a simply constructed song, built around samples of Rainbow and Scootaloo from a couple of episodes in earlyish S2. This is apparently a new mix of an earlier song by the same person, though I've never heard that so can't compare. I'm hopeless at determining genres, but there's something a bit trancey about this one; it works pretty well to have on in the background while typing, certainly. Unfortunately there's no HQ download – the Soundcloud link in the video description is broken.

83: The Living Tombstone – Pinkie's Brew (remix)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 12 Apr 2013
Here's The Living Tombstone, making approximately his billionth appearance in these charts. The source song is the one that really brought Friendship is Witchcraft acclaim; indeed, some still find its music its best feature. I'm not really sure I like Tombstone's remix all that much; it doesn't really grab me and its repetitiveness gets old a little too quickly. Maybe it's just that the original was so good, or maybe it's that Tombstone did better remixes. You can download this via a Mega link of the Tombstone Remixes album; find that in the video description.

82: The Living Tombstone – Neverending Strife (remix)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 4 Apr 2013
Yes, it's The Living Tombstone again! This time he's remixing H8_Seed's ancient classic about Discord, back in the days when he was a pure villain. Here, he's boasting about how great he is and revelling in the fact (as he sees it!) that nothing the ponies can do has ever defeated him. This is another song where I feel the original was a better listen, in this case not least because Tombstone hasn't done a lot different. The same applies as for the previous track: use the Mega link in the video description to get this as part of the Tombstone Remixes album.

81: MandoPony – When I Find My Wings

Rule 1b: remaster uploaded to Bandcamp 17 Sep 2013
Here's MandoPony with one of the many songs he's taken down from YouTube... but happily it's still there (in remastered form) on his Bandcamp. As you would expect given that this came out after S3, this is a song from Twilight's perspective. She is coming to terms with her ascension and hoping – a little insecurely, this being Twi – that her friends will still be there for her now that she's changed. It's a nice little number. As I say, you can pick this up in HQ formate on MandoPony's Bandcamp, and it'll set you back $1.

80: Feather and The Combine – Pilot Light

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 29 Jan 2013
Here we have a song about Spitfire! I would imagine this was inspired by "Wonderbolt Academy", which went out about six weeks before this song appeared. The vocals are by Feather, which is pretty much always a good thing. The Combine now seem to be called something else, but their channel currently has no content at all so I won't link it here. I quite like the song, though it is a bit on the wubby side for me. It seems to suit the harder-edged Spitfire we'd been introduced to in the show a few weeks earlier – though there's a sneaky little shiptease in here too! The intro voice belongs to CommanderWillRiker, about whom I know zilch. Sadly, the Bandcamp link in the video description is dead.