LogFAQs > #962802289

67nd
Game: Arcaea
Title: Dropdead
Composer: Frums
Nominator: @DireKrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow4eYirS-2A

OOPS i almost skipped over this song and writeup because it was another rhythm game song in a row and so my brain just went "rhythm game, oh i already did that, time to move to the next one!" haha

i said the same thing about the feryquitous thing dire also nominated for me, but this song was responsible for me really getting into frums, so a HUGE thank you for that. I'd known about frums before but hearing this song come up when i was listening to the submissions for this topic [on the speakers in the car with my visiting boomer parents while driving to a fancy restaurant next to a historical 1800s train station on vacation (very distinct memory filled with contrasts so i feel very compelled to mention it)] really signaled to me "i need to check out this artist" and i DID and now Frums is one of my favorite musicians! thank you for catalyzing that discovery for me!

this song is pretty overwhelming, it's the kinda thing that i think is very unlikely to naturally come to exist other than because of rhythm games too. back when DDR was popular i was always annoyed that the more difficult rhythm game charts were more about speed than they were about being actually musically challenging. but i was very thankful when i discovered the stuff that actually did go that far. and the limits keep being pushed! I think frums is one of the artists who challenges musical conventions (or even "rhythm game conventions") the most of anyone writing for this stuff and i have a huge amount of respect for that. because i don't just like it because it's "different", it's different in a way that's distinctly meaningful, a deconstruction of rhythm game tropes, pushing the limits of what's difficult to musically comprehend and creating the challenge through that. and it creates a style that just wouldn't have incentive to exist anywhere but here

oh yeah odd time sure so OK: the in-game chart writes most of the barlines as if this is "15/4", but that's really not practical for sheet music in typical settings, a conductor or other people are going to want to know how to break that up/etc. so it's probably more 'practically' interpreted as mostly looping "4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 3/4". However there's a lot of sections outside of those that are more just like, ambiguous crazy tempo change stuff. that seems more for effect of the rhythm game chart being interesting than a practical way to feel the song, but it is also probably how it was written, knowing the way frums does things.

despite what i just said: the "15" container is played around with in many quite varied ways. there's the 4+4+4+3 broader beat container, but the synths are just going in looping groups of 3, which ALSO line up with 15. This may not be obvious given that i make my identity "11/16" (mostly because 11 is an "important number" to me), but when people ask my favorite time signature, my answer is usually 15/8 or 15/16, and part of the reason is because it's a container that allows for both even and smooth feeling groupings (3+3+3+3+3) and very jagged jumpy groupings (especially if 15/16, you get "4/4 but cut off", potentially in the same space as what'll feel like the more bouncy groups of 3s!). This song plays with that status that only a few timesigs even have (basically 9, 15, 21, the ones divisible by 3 but still "weird" and able to be read as a jumpy cut-off version of something more normal). in fact the way it plays with the even-ness of 15 made it so on first listen i didn't even notice it was in odd time! that's a status i appreciate with this song. it's absolutely not "subtle" at all..not in the slightest, but while it's very in-your-face and aggressive timbrally, the musical intricacy in itself is actually very subtle. that seems very rare for rhythm game music! usually when something's an odd timesig it wants to call attention to the fact that it is, but this sorta tricks me into thinking it's simpler than it is, which makes it even more "difficult" than if it was clear.

THE SOUND DTESIGN IS SO GOOD; i love those sine wave chords around :35 they're so beautiful and it makes the contrast of the aggressive perc really fun. I love the split seconds of being slammed with breakbeats, drilling percussion, etc i LOVE that sound at the very end, at 2:07, turning that buzzing associated with the drilling percussion into almost like a temporary echoy pad. frums is good at making tons of cool sounds