the music of the poor falco's guide to laser

Info about the beats produced in The Poor Falco's Guide to Lasers

Every single beat was produced by me, on my own time, for the sole purpose of serving as background music for this video series. I could've just looked for some royalty free music online, and it probably would have sounded better than what I ended up making, but I made myself produce my own music because I'm new to Ableton, DAWs, and music production, and I want to improve at it. And there's no better way to improve at something than to do it, a lot.

Here's some info about how I named the tracks I made. The titles all have some kind of convoluted, contrived meaning underlying them. Thought I'd explain them here.

Satellite: A mix of two different feelings and attitudes. A little bit of Explore by George Buzinkai. A little bit of Lune by Y&V. Combine the notions of "the moon" and "exploration" and you get "satellite."

Microstate: This drum groove came to my mind after I thought about Jeff Randall, a session drummer from Nashville who makes helpful YouTube videos about drumming. Randall is the name of the cloud that travels around Yoshi's Story. Clouds are made of condensed droplets of water vapor. Water vapor got me thinking about physics, specific heats, phase changes, energy, entropy, and microstates.

Breathe Deep: I was thinking of the lyric from Little Brother's debut album's title track The Listening "breathe deep within the strong rhythms." I also wanted the track to evoke a feeling of supreme relaxation and loosening up. Breathing deep.

Jason Leaps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUGnhG_9uQ

Blood on the Mountain: I wanted to produce a video-game-music inspired track after watching Mango play Undertale and hearing Toby Fox's absolute fire in the Undertale OST. Apparently, "bergentrückung" can be translated to "king in the mountain." Asgore, who bergentrückung refers to, must be killed for you to continue in the game. Thus, killing him leaves blood on the mountain.

Fur Coat: I sample Bill Evans in this track. Bill Evans had a brother named Harry. Harry is a homophone of hairy, like a winter coat. I also wanted the track to sound thick and hairy, like a stuffy winter coat made of otter hide or goose down.

Stratosphere Waltz: This track samples Heir of Grief by Joren "Tensei" de Bruin. Heir refers to John Egbert. John has the ability to channel wind and is often depicted flying through the clouds up in the atmosphere. It is a waltz because it is in 3/4 time.

Pride: A pack of lions is called a pride. Lions are vicious killers. This piece samples On Top by The Killers.

Blade Festival: "Blade" is a synonym for "knife" and "festival" is a synonym for "party." I produced this song with the intent of reproducing the weerw weow synths at the 2:00 mark in the Knife Party song "Rage Valley. " I didn't exactly accomplish that. I just replaced the sound with a distorted electric guitar.

Sunbleached: I produced this when I was in a daze from the drugs I was prescribed during my food poisoning issues earlier this year. Every single walk to and from the dining commons seemed to take a lifetime. The sun screamed at my eyes. The heat was unbearable. I felt as though my entire body was sunbleached. And there's your title.

Topaz: I originally wanted to interpolate the part of My Favorite Things as performed by John Coltrane and his squad where they momentarily change to E Major, about 1 minute in. I tried to recreate the piano ostinato and ended up composing a whole bunch of other crap around it. The original version of My Favorite Things was composed by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Hammerstein directly translates from German as "hammer stone." John Egbert's strife specibus is hammerkind, and his God tier outfit color is blue. If hammer = John = blue, and stein = stone, we find ourselves with "blue stone." What's a blue stone? Topaz.

Office Hours 2: I made a beat called Office Hours a while ago. This one's the sequel. Office hours just makes me think of a calm, quiet room, and this beat serves to bring that image to mind too.