Songs of the Week (May 11, 2013)
A very wise person once told me that the secret to achieving fantastic scores on FFR is to purchase him cigarettes from the variety store that he was hanging out in front of and then make a blood sacrifice to the Dark Lord Samael. Naturally I treated his outlandish claims with the level of skepticism that’s more or less expected from an educated twenty-first century citizen such as myself, but after performing the tasks that were asked of me and then patiently waiting a couple of years until I could reap the rewards, I was quite shocked to discover that the person was right! Songs that I used to find next to impossible to simply pass were being AAA’d with the greatest of ease. I did not reluctantly accept temporary overexhaustion, I resurrected Death Piano just to murder it again, and I laughed at vROFL right in its big stupid face. And to think, all I had to do was break the law and massacre a live goat in my basement! Oh, and also put in hours upon hours of hard work and practice into the game, but without that special young man’s advice I don’t think that those two things would’ve had any sort of effect whatsoever. Perhaps one day you too will come across your own version of the young man with khaki board shorts and a caterpillar-esque mustache prominently on display atop his face as he loiters out in front of your local variety store, and perhaps you’ll be able to utilize their words of wisdom to completely demolish this week’s batch of releases just like I theoretically did.
Devil’s Music Box by Jake Ferguson (Jake Ferguson) – Very Challenging [58] / 1:27 / Misc / Xylophone
Enkan No Kotowari by ETIA. (MrPopadopalis25) – Master [73] / 2:21 / Dance2 / Trancecore
Heartsifter by Jackal Queenston (_.Spitfire._) – Expert [61] / 1:41 / Purchased [1,800] / Techno
tetris by songstowearpantsto (YOSHl) – Very Tricky [37] / 0:53 / Hip Hop / Hip Hop
Throwin’ Down by Psychostick (samurai7694) – Master [74] / 5:17 / Rock / Nu Metal
VALLISTA by sakuzyo (LongGone) – Master [75] / 1:56 / Secret [43,000] / Drum’n Bass
We kick off this week of releases with a song that is eerily reminiscent of the opening jingle that plays whenever you start up the Gamecube only with a bit more oomph. Jake Ferguson makes his song and step artist debut with Devil’s Music Box, an xylophone-tastic piece that seamlessly transitions into the stepchart format since it was created with four-key rhythm games in mind. Although the instrumentation utilized may sound lighthearted and bubbly by nature, the song stays true to its name as it poses a significant challenge all throughout. Players will have to deal with syncopated notes, single extended jacks, jumpjacks, jumpstream and an ending that is guaranteed to make at least one or two players choke before the day is done. A piece as unique as this one can only be found in the Misc genre.
Next up on this sextet of releases is Enkan No Kotowari, a fairly fast-paced remix of a song that originally appeared in the “Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica” anime. Originally submitted as part of the BMS of Fighters event, ETIA. pumps his piece full of heavy synths, driving basslines and plenty of climactic moments while some really cool dude named plopadop transfers the seven-key intended song into the four-key format that we all know and love. Enkan follows plopadop’s love for dreamy stream as it features dense, lengthy jump- and handstream runs in conjunction with jumptrills that are interspersed with 32nd bursts. With no magical girl related entropy to worry about, feel free to stream to your heart’s content over in the Dance2 genre.
If you’re in the mood for some hardcore techno that will get you headbanging so hard that your glasses, your headphones and perhaps your most beloved booger will accidentally dislodge themselves from your face then you’re definitely in the right place with our third release! ._Spitfire._ pours the strained remnants of that infamous organ located within your chest into Jackal Queenston’s Heartsifter and infuses it with so much love and passion that you might just blush during your playthroughs. Things begin relatively low key with some broken jumpstream and the occasional 32nd burst before the latter half turns things up with denser layering and even more complicated bursts. Make sure to give this one a go after you make an offering of 1800 credits to the faceless FFR machine. Where do all of those credits go anyways? It’s probably for the better if you don’t ask.
Much like Silvuh and Ikodo Moonstrife or hi19hi19 and SSH or mi40 and The Flashbulb, the top shelf combination of songstowearpantsto on music and YOSHl on steps is definitely one that should be familiar to the FFR community. Based on the song title alone, it should come as no surprise that this song’s backing track and primary lyrical concern are both Tetris related. Down-tempo jumpstream mixed with the odd jumpjack and YOSHl’s unofficially trademarked usage of colored notes all lend themselves to a file that roughly correlates in difficulty to having your screen half full on level three of the original NES Tetris…maybe? Try to sing along with the lyrics if you’re coordinated enough to arrow smash and lay down the fresh beats simultaneously.
Unless for some reason you find trancecore to be the funniest thing in the world, Throwin’ Down marks the second of two comedy-centric releases for this week. Psychostick gets your blood boiling with an aggressive nu metal style that’s juxtaposed with vocal samples of an over-possessive and distrustful significant other rambling in the background and an enraged person yelling in the foreground. Believe me, the song sounds a lot better than what you’re probably imagining right now. Step artist samurai7694 makes sure to transpose the aggression into his chart as he incorporates jumpjacks, handjacks and, yes, even quadjacks into the mix. Combine these patterns with a marathon song length and you have yourself the recipe that’s necessary in order to mimic the angered screaming that mitigates into desperate sobbing near the end of the song.
Our final release of the week comes to us courtesy of BMS virtuosos LongGone and sakuzyo. VALLISTA, which is the second seven-to-four-key conversion of the week, starts off innocuously enough, but with that 75 difficulty rating you should know well enough that any moments of ease are merely temporary. Dense jumpstream, fast minijacks and difficult bursts of all shapes, sizes and colors are fired at your receptors at a relatively high BPM that will surely make your fingers ache and your eyes get all bugged out. Interested in playing this bad boy? Excellent! The only thing that serves to separate you from enjoying the entity known only as VALLISTA is a prerequisite of 43,000 credits. Don’t have enough cash? Perhaps the gambling hall can give you the dough that you need…or perhaps it can take away what little you have now. Oh well, po-tay-to po-tah-to.
And that’s it for this week. This post is now officially over. There’s nothing left for us to discuss here, save of course for the fact that last week’s veteran songs Waterfall and MEPHISTO are now available for public consumption. Oh, and a reminder of that whole “share your questions, comments and concerns in either the comments section of this post or over on the forums” thing. Oh, and that totally fun and never-too-late-to-join May-hem event thing too. Oh, and a reminder for you to actually head out and play all of these new songs. Okay, maybe this post isn’t over just yet…
…sike.
5 Responses to “Songs of the Week (May 11, 2013)”
You must be logged in or registered to post a comment.
Posted at 6:27pm on May 14th, 2013
If you haven’t had quiche lately, it is time to remedy that situation. I could eat quiche for breakfast, lunch, and dinner without ever growing tired, but quiche is an especially good dish for a big Easter brunch or other spring-time gathering. You make it the day ahead, slice it just before serving, and then pass out the plates. This fool-proof recipe has yet to disappoint.
Quiche is essentially an custard made with milk and eggs poured into a pie crust and baked. You want just enough eggs to set the milk, but not so many that the quiche becomes rubbery. You want a bit of wobble in your quiche as it comes out of the oven. Wobble means silky, melt-away custard in every bite.
The fool-proof part comes courtesy of the French. They are masters of the quiche and long-ago settled on the perfect formula of one part egg to two parts milk. A standard large egg weighs two ounces and a cup of milk is eight ounces, so a good rule of thumb is two eggs per cup of milk. I like to bump this up a bit to make a more substantial quiche and usually go with three eggs and a cup and a half of milk in a nine-inch pie crust.
Cheese makes a luscious custard even more luscious. There’s no hard and fast rule here. Two cups of cheese makes an especially rich quiche, good for a family brunch or dinner party. Cut it back to a cup or so for a weeknight dinner.
The other fillings just need to be cooked through and fairly dry. Aim for one to two cups cooked ingredients — fewer lets you enjoy the silkiness of the quiche while more make a more substantial meal. Wilted spinach, crisp bacon bits, sauté mushrooms, caramelized onions, and asparagus are all favorites in various combinations.
I’m always surprised by how easily a quiche comes together. I’m still working on my pie-crust skills, but luckily, this is maybe the one dish where the crust is secondary to the filling. That first bite of soft eggy custard makes all other thoughts fade away.
So I ask you, what is your favorite quiche?
Posted at 12:03am on May 15th, 2013
will you write my biography please
Posted at 7:26am on May 19th, 2013
where do all the credits from purchased songs go?
Posted at 1:21am on May 21st, 2013
I don’t even play this game, but I’ll read a plopadop text wall ALL DAY EVERYDAY.