Sounds of 2015, nos. 90 to 86

Not a great deal to chat about in the intro today. I've been playing Forza Horizon 4 a lot and mostly loving it, though I can't say I'm thrilled with the apparent near-impossibility of getting hold of the Napier-Railton. Oh well, there are enough cars I can get to have fun with. Let's return to 2015 now and take the usual look at the criteria I use, at least one of which has to be satisfied for me to feature a track:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the/an original 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. 

So, how have we done this time? Sadly, this is the worst week for a long while, with me having to skip not one but two songs. There's nothing I can do about it as I have my criteria for good reason, but I'm sad not to be able to bring you those tracks. I promise you, I searched diligently for any remaining official uploads but still drew a blank. Still, you do still get three songs today, and they're these:

90: Scraton – Work It Tavi
89: SharaX – In Our Town (remix)
88: skipped
87: skipped
86: Sayonara Maxwell – Rainbow Factory (Alternative Metal)

Jump break coming up if you're reading this on a computer, and then it'll be time to embed and talk about these songs! Ready? Thought so. Let's go!

90: Scraton – Work It Tavi

 

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 20 Nov 2014
When I checked for this I was pleased to find that electronic music maestro Scraton was still highly active, with songs being released every few days recently. There's even a recent Pony song! But to return to the 2015 chart: "Work It Tavi" is as you'd expect from this artist at this era very much on the wubby side of things, which as you probably know by now is decidedly not my area of expertise! The song comes from Scraton's Nothing But Noise album, which is available on both iTunes and Spotify to this day. However, it's also available for $1 on Scraton's Bandcamp, giving you an easy route to an HQ download.

89: SharaX – In Our Town (remix)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 6 Apr 2015
I was delighted to find this remix by SharaX had made the chart, since I'd discovered this (and her other MLP remixes) independently a while back and greatly enjoyed them. Faster than its show inspiration but not ridiculously so, and with some excellently judged vocal chops, this might even be my favourite remix of a song I like anyway. A nice use of brief silence at one point, too. When you consider that this track came out two days after "The Cutie Map" aired, I really am rather in awe. Sadly, although SharaX is on Bandcamp this song isn't, so the best I can offer away from YouTube is the track on her official Soundcloud.

88: skipped

87: skipped

 

86: Sayonara Maxwell – Rainbow Factory (Alternative Metal)

 

Rule 1: Re-uploaded to YouTube 9 Feb 2017
Now going by the shorter name of SayMaxWell and still producing music, Sayonara Maxwell made quite a few Pony songs back in the day. It's a little frustrating looking for them, as not all are still online – but fortunately, this one is! I'm sure WoodenToaster/Glaze's classic "Rainbow Factory" needs no introduction, and nor does the fact that it has spawned a truly vast number of covers and remixes. This, although not in a genre I'm particularly knowledgeable about, is rather to my taste. I'm not entirely sure why it counts as alternative metal, but it's reasonably melodic rather than just shouty, and the production is pretty good too. Grab it in HQ for $1 on SayMaxwell's Bandcamp.