Man, I'm sorry for the delay there folks; the hectic nature of the closing of the holidays, socialising, and a small mini-drama put a bit of a delay on things. But, finally, five days into the new year, XMAS 2017 is all done and dusted!

I remember writing "Sapphire By Day, Topaz By Night" with the intention of submitting the finished piece to the Homestuck fan music competition- that which lead to the coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A (homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/colours-and-mayhem-universe-a) / Universe B (homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/colours-and-mayhem-universe-b) albums- as a potential theme song for Jake English, but of course it never got finished. Kind of a shame, really; the brief I was going with was to do a sort of "70s action movie theme song" type piece that vibed with the character's presentation at the time. Kind of a proto-Twisted Kerchiefs song, ironically enough.

I dunno if going with a Master Controller Featuring take on the sketch was my first idea, but it stuck pretty hard once I thought of it. Originally it was going to be just MCF, but more freeform and jazzy-elements kept creeping into the mix that I didn't want to abandon. There's no rule saying I can't have two of my aliases "collab" on a track and, hey, I daresay it's not a 103 Records Christmas Album without The Twisted Kerchiefs on it (god, I promise to use the alias outside of 'em one of these days).

Trivia Dump Time™!
- the title of the song, Barion Cuts, is a two-prong pun. A "barion cut" is a type of cut jewels- including Topaz- can be set in, and "cuts" is slang term that can be used for songs and also refers to a turntable technique
- the voice clips I provided (the nasally "these are the drums" guy, "everybody's doin' that new type of jazz shit") have been rolling around in my head as possible samples all year, and it was a tremendous relief to get them down in a track
- the opening drum pattern (and the extra percussion in the main drum riffs) were inspired by two sources; Joshua Morse's remix of Sagat's Street Fighter II theme, "Travelling Thai Guy" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn3vhmwCiQs), and Ayumi Yasui's arranged version of "God Hand" (youtu.be/5sjC3XYQ1Ug) from Street Fighter EX.
- I was originally going to recreate the wah-wah guitar patterns from the original demo as closely as possible using the same technique I do for my custom distorted guitar/bass guitar patterns, but I couldn't quite get it to gel; the idea to approximate the sound with piano chords also clung to my brain once the thought was in there, and I think it sounds a lot better
- I haven't used quite as many scratches in a single song since 2015 and, frankly, I had way too much fun laying them all in
- the use of the in-program samples referencing the program itself- and developers/publishers Jester Interactive and Codemasters- were definitely put in there as a statement of intent on my behalf, and to really cement the "100% Music 2000" sub-theme of the album (although I admit they don't have anything to do with the theme of the song itself or the original sketch it's based off of, but eh)

The end result is by no means perfect- a few of the drops could've been a little tighter maybe, a phrase I often find myself saying- but the strengths of the piece definitely shine quite brightly. I'm ultimately fairly satisfied with this song, and it makes for a good closer to the mini-album.

Original Sketch: 103records.bandcamp.com/track/sapphire-by-day-topaz-by-night-sketch