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Arcade Child - Making Massey's Minute Machine (Timepiece Trauma Zone Act 1)

from XMAS 2017: 103 5th ANNIV. / 100% M2K by 103 Records

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So; that was quite a gap between breaks. Partially that's the fault of a (thankfully) very brief depression spell, but mostly it's because I got stuck on the portion of the song between 0:14 and 0:41 for about two days, trying out different things and switching out samples until things finally started to click. 80% of everything past that point, barring the odd loop or two, was done over the span of the last roughly five hours. The creative muse is a funny old thing, in't it?

I suppose it makes sense that I was extra picky with this song; it is, after all, Sonic related. The first song for the project based on a demo of my choosing, this is technically a rework of "Timepiece Trauma (PAST) [Never Completed Circuit Mix]", from the Myth of the Little Planet EP. Said EP was a small collection of works written for a project I've had in mind since I was a kid: a spiritual follow up to Sonic CD, which remains a firm favourite Sonic title largely because of its visual aesthetics and it's fantastic soundtrack. The zone in question, Timepiece Trauma, is one of the zones I've had in mind for the project more or less since its inception- a sort of Sci-Fi meets Victorian city filled with clocks and timekeepers of varying kinds, exposed mechanics all over the place, and an enormous Clock Tower at the heart of the city that stretches miles into the sky and looms over it all, with the flow of the level eventually taking you inside the tower itself. The future variations would lean more heavily towards the Sci Fi end naturally, and the past variation would lean more towards the Victorian angle with most of the tech still in construction. The concept I ran with for this remake is that it's for a Sonic Mania-style re-imagining of the zone, kinda like Stardust Speedway except in reverse- you start in the present, and end in the past.

The title features a direct reference to Graham Massey, of 808 State fame, specifically because the drums throughout most of the track are directly influenced by the kind of drum machine sounds he used for both a number of 808 State songs, and some of his solo remix work. Cubik is a good example of the sort of thing I mean (youtu.be/veMqdYpchgI?t=25s). The synth work as a whole across the song is heavily inspired by 808 State's output, with a little of Paul Hardcastle's early forward-thinking electro work in there as well. The chopped up vocals before the loop are supposed to say "time is alive", but due to the way they were cut it's sounds more like "time is a lie"; I kinda like that better.

Original Sketch: 103records.bandcamp.com/track/timepiece-trauma-past-never-completed-circuit-mix

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from XMAS 2017: 103 5th ANNIV. / 100% M2K, released January 5, 2018
composed by Decon Theed

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103 Records March, UK

Those who fear music are dangerous.

103 Records is an independent label based in Cambridgeshire. Spearheaded by Decon Theed, 103 Does not believe in narrow genre focus, forced monetary participation, or exclusion of the individual; our goal is provide music of any genre, produced by musicians from all walks of life, and to have it be as readily available to everybody as is possible. ... more

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