A milestone passed today, as we enter the top half of the Equestrian Trot 100 chart of most voted-for fandom music tracks of 2015. Not all of them were originally released in 2015, but that's irrelevant. The point is that the people who voted still found them worth voting for in 2015. And now I've used the year three times in three sentences (four in four, if you count the title) I think it's time to move on! The usual reminder of my inclusion rules follows:
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.
Last week, I had to skip two of the five songs for non-compliance with those criteria. This week, I can improve a bit: I only need to skip one track today! I hope to get back to a full slate soon, but we'll have to wait and see on that score.
50: Scraton – Ponies
49: skipped
48: Notion – Stop the Bats (remix)
47: PrinceWhateverer ft. Rockin'Brony – Ace of my Heart
46: 4everfreebrony ft. Lil' Everfree – Otherwise
That's the introductory stuff over and done with, so it's time to continue to the section that has actual music in it...
We start off this time with a bit of melodic dubstep from Scraton. I can't say I really understand dubstep of any kind, despite it being thrown at me from all angles for over a decade in this fandom, but I can at least say that this seems pretty well produced and put together. The song was originally taken down in 2016, not because Scraton was embarrassed of his MLP music, but because Hasbro did not like the fact that he was using the "PON3" name, along with "PONĪ£" I believe. (This is explained in the YT comments.) No problem with it under the Scraton banner, though, so here we are! As far as I can tell it isn't available on Bandcamp, but it is here, on the artist's Soundcloud.
Who is Notion, you may be asking yourselves? Even if I expand to the full name of "The Brony Notion" you may be none the wiser. In fact, this artist was far better known as Sawtooth Waves. Their music isn't often played now, due to an incident involving their involvement with a minor and their later removal of all their music from YouTube. (I don't know the exact details, and this series is concentrating on the music in any case.) This is a slightly unusual version of this much-remixed FiM track, with a sound that may slightly bring back memories for those of us old enough to remember pre-wavetable Yamaha keyboards. After an organ-heavy beginning, the main bit hits nicely. It's certainly catchy! You can only download this as part of the Notion Remixes (Vol. 1) album, available for free on Sawtooth Waves' Bandcamp. (The artist specifically says free, hence my not using "name your price" this time.)
Time now to rock out with one of this fandom's absolute troupers, Britain's very own PrinceWhateverer. "A song about two lovebirds" is all the official explanation we get, though the OCs in the thumbnail are obviously the couple concerned. One unicorn, one pegasus, with no princesses involved, but even so I like the lyric "If you'll be my Cadance / I'll be your Armor" that arrives about halfway through the song. If you know PrinceWhateverer's music (and if not, how?) then you'll have a good idea of what you're getting here. In case you're wondering who "Rockin'Brony" is: he's the guy now better known as Pathfinder Project! I really like this song and think it's been a tad neglected of late. Grab it in HQ for £1 on PrinceWhateverer's Bandcamp.
I imagine basically everyone with the slightest acquaintance with Pony music knows 4everfreebrony's name, but who is Lil' Everfree? As 4EB says in the YouTube description, he's his (then) 13-year-old younger brother, Jackson, who played piano at Everfree Northwest and on the Musiquestria tour. It was made for Balloon Party project Academy of Power's Mindscapes album, and it's about not being scared of who you really are, despite what others may say. As you can see from that cover image, it is of course a Derpy song, and that's a fine thing in itself. The whole Mindscapes record is a free download from Balloon Party's Bandcamp. (Again, free as this time there's not even the option of paying.)
ah c_c yeah, with the recent drama involving Agent0Fluffy, Sawtooth Waves' name showed up as well, not exactly the fun kind of connection to make
ReplyDelete"Ace of My Heart" is really fun, but oh man, "Otherwise" is so good! I've had that stuck in my head recently, apropos of nothing :D it was such a cool thing to bring his little brother in on it!
4EB is just ridiculously consistent, as in consistently great. Even his lesser songs are nearly always very good. :)
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