Sounds of 2014: Nos. 80 to 76

It's been a little bit too long since I last posted a "Sounds of 2014" entry, so let's do something about that today. Before I get to the actual music, here's the usual reminder of the criteria I use to decide whether 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.

No skips this week, I'm happy to inform you! We also have a double bill from one artist, someone who remains very well known in the fandom to this day. Indeed, the overall roster of artists here is quite a heavyweight one.

80: Foozogz – You've Got The Music (Foozogz DELIGHT MIX)
79: Aviators – The Party Song
78: Vylet Pony ft. LilyCloud – Fall to the Clouds
77: Vylet Pony ft. LilyCloud – Starcrossed
76: MandoPony – Away in the Sky

Past the jump break, there'll be the usual collection of YouTube embeds and Loganish rambles.

80: Foozogz – You've Got The Music (Foozogz DELIGHT MIX)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 8 Apr 2014
Based on the track from the wonderful "Filli Vanilli", this is very much in the vein of what you would expect from Foozogz. That means cheery electronica, distorted sampled vocals and bouncy, bloopy synths. It's both appealing and addicting, and I'm fond of it. "Made for Tombstone's collaborative event thing," says the YouTube description, though I have no memory of what that actually was. You can pick it up for $1 from Foozogz' Bandcamp, though this is another song where the full album (the delightfully named I Have a Red N' Black OC) is available on a name-your-price basis.

79: Aviators – The Party Song

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 12 Aug 2014
Aviators will need no introduction to most ponysong fans. "The Party Song" isn't one of his tracks that I recall particularly, but it is a song that's MLP-related. According to the man himself in the YouTube video description: "It's based on the “what if” concept of Pinkie being in the real world faced with the dangers of partying; particularly addiction." Perhaps a forerunner of some of the darker-themed songs that Aviators has come out with later in his career, this mixes the usual catchy synths with some harsher guitar... and some very dark lyrics. Example: "Party on, party on, How could it do you harm? You ask yourself with a needle in your arm." Get it for a dollar from Aviators' Bandcamp.

78: Vylet Pony ft. LilyCloud – Fall to the Clouds

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 22 Apr 2014
I get the feeling we're going to be in for a fair bit of Vylet Pony from here on in. Made in partnership with LilyCloud providing fine female vocals – who has no Pony content any more and doesn't use the same username anyway – it's quite short for a Vylet track (just 3:15). Despite this artist's common disdain for genre labels, this is listed as "Swedish House/Progressive House". I'm not sure what distinguishes the "Swedish" bit of that. "This song does have its background message that only people close enough to me will understand," says Vylet, but for those of us for whom that's meaningless, also "In a metaphorical sense, a friend had left me, carried on. No, they did not die. They moved onto greater things, yet I am saddened." Pick it up in HQ for $1 on Vylet's Bandcamp.

77: Vylet Pony ft. LilyCloud – Starcrossed

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 28 Aug 2014
Told you it wouldn't be long before we came across VyletPony again! Another collaboration with LilyCloud, this is a Vinyl/Octavia song. It's fairly similar in style to "Fall into the Clouds", but with a few slightly unexpected touches, not least a very unusual (and sudden) outro. There's also a nice (to me, at least, synth solo as the end approaches. Okay, so songs about these two ponies are two a penny, but it's worth mentioning that Vylet was proud of how this track turned out. If you share that positivity, you can buy it for the slightly unusual price of $1.29 on Vylet's Bandcamp.

76: MandoPony – Away in the Sky

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 7 Jun 2014
Songs by MandoPony don't get played as much as they used to, for reasons that don't need repeating here. I don't think this acoustic ballad about (it would appear, despite this not being explicitly stated) Rainbow Dash was ever that famous, though. It's just crept over 100,000 views on YouTube, which isn't massive for an artist who was once so popular. The story behind the song is that even somepony who's 20% cooler needs to get away from others and just be alone sometimes. You can buy the HQ version of this for $1 on MandoPony's Bandcamp. (Note that he uses his real name of Andrew Stein, and that the song is listed there without any reference to Pony.)