Sometimes it’s healthy to limit your methods of producing a tune. You know, to have a new perpective.

SLAYER OF PAPER TIGERS was a commission from myself. I gave myself three rules:

1) Short, simple, melodic tune
2) Use only one instrument
3) Early video game feel

Well, I gotta admit I failed miserably. There’s two instruments.

Blast!

The good thing is that, although there most certainly are lots of rules in music, you don’t have to follow them. Just do whatever pleases your ear, spine & brain.

Ha! Don’t you tell me what to do!

Sequel time. The first in the series was about trench coats, crooked cops & car chases, whereas this one’s about leather jackets (those with huge collars), crooked cops and chases on foot.

So, here you go: 70S THRILLS II.

I wonder what’s the third one gonna like?

Should I go all exotic with Kumar vs. Dharmendra & Bachchan or Lee vs. Chan?

Or should I abandon the decade and head on to the 80s? No shortage of great versus battles there, cos you know, 80s was the golden age of action movies.

Ok, now the poster of the film “Expendables 3” popped in my mind. Too many, too much, too soon.

I think I’ll just stick with the 70s.

The rhythmic & hectic piano that can be heard all the way in LET US DO THIS, is the element, which defines 90s dance music for me.

Oh, those long 90s summer days when it felt like…

Yeah, yeah, you know the drill. Nostalgia strikes when you least expect it.

Anyway, buckle on and dance up!

Metal time. This time a proper one. No guitar synths, no silly faces, just grrr!

The title is FINAL MAJESTIC DEED and in addition to metal it contains some prog, although I’m not exactly sure of how modern it is. Progressive metal just sounds better than regressive metal.

That would be reg metal, like reggae metal?

Very interesting…

Top 3 songs that earwormed me in 2016:

2) “Eat That Question” by Frank Zappa

3) “Tacky” by Weird Al Yankovic

1) “The Lamb” by Aphrodite’s Child

FOX WILL LEAD THE WAY was also a nasty one, although it was the last tune I made in 2016.

I hope that making my condition public will help me get rid of those tunes. It’s not like they suck, on the contrary! But enough is enough.

Ok, this one needs a little explanation.

I’ve wanted to compose a national anthem of a fictional country for a long time. And in fact, the tune has been almost ready in my brain for at least a year. Only one thing has been holding me back:

I was afraid that the song in my head is an actual national anthem. So, before I could start working on the song, I’d have to make sure that the melody in question is original.

There’s about 195 countries in the world (late 2016), and apparently all of them have a national anthem or equivalent theme song.

Good show!

Although some anthems are shared between countries, that’s a good bunch of songs to listen to. I had to narrow down the list a bit.

I ended up listening 77 songs, that being the number of countries that’ve appeared in football world cup along the years.

Anti-bingo! Neither of those songs had any resemblance with my melody.

The rest was easy. And now we got NATIONAL ANTHEM OF PREPOSTRISTAN.

(By the way, of the 77 songs I went through, my favourites are Montenegro and Senegal.)

“I looked around and saw purple things. Maybe curtains. Colored lights swept the room. There were people dancing in slow motion, looking focused. The air was thick with smoke and lust. Love was nowhere to be seen.”

– Zeus McFethry: Shapes of Grin

The title TOUCH OF GLASS may not be as hot-hot-hot as the images I got, but at least its got class.

Piano music. The rice of the music.

The hammer and nails of ear-visual impulses.

This time not-quite-over-the-hills-and-far-away. More like FAR AWAY ACROSS THE STREAM.

Did I mention it’s piano music?

I really enjoy making old-school chiptune pieces, such as THE PATH BEHIND GRAVITY. Why, I don’t know.

Maybe it’s the nostalgia of simpler times, when world was only in 2D?

Creating lightning fast synthesizer solos is also great fun. That I can explain: Sense of power, baby, sense of power.

Yeah.

Also, happy new year peeps.

So, what we got is rock. Hard but not too heavy, meant to cause partying more than headbanging.

After I declared the tune ready, I already knew I was gonna call it “… of love”.

Creature? Tragedy? Force? Too stupid, sad and obvious.

Moment? Persistence? Explosion? Too cheesy, weird and come on…

While pondering, I looked out the window and lo and behold, icy particles were falling from the sky. Therefore HAILSTORM OF LOVE.