Influences
Bassic, “Disoriental”
Growing up on public television instead of cable
Underworld, “8 Ball” maybe? I don’t think so, but one could make a case.
Story
The other transitional track, this one is halfway between the decades (‘70s/’90s) and bpms (73 at the end/122) of the flanking songs. It took me awhile to not just rewrite Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings” given the parameters, but I ended up at this sort of public television pledge drive music – the muted Prophet brass in particular.
The title’s a play off V of Doom, the name the internet gave the Viacom Television zooming-at-you logo with weird synth brass fanfare that could get really scary if you were a kid and your VHS was warped. But it’s much more a mood piece, as I decided to take basically everything I could towards happy warmth. I rarely do that; it was fun to try.
In particular, I figured out that I grew up with ’80s music as cold and sterile – not just from the production and the available stereos but because it’s associated with growing up in my particular family. It was one underlying reason I’d avoided overtly making anything ’80s-sounding; it felt too much like my childhood. This song was therapeutic in that I used all ’80s equipment (except for a celeste from Omnisphere; I could have done that on a Yamaha DX7 if I’d been patient), but I made as many warm choices as possible. This song is my way of saying, “hey, all the equipment was available to make this years ago; people simply chose to do other things.” That is a metaphor to say that the potential for better choices always exists, and not to read too much into when people don’t make them.
Personal heaviness aside, this is the kind of music I would remember if it had showed up at the end of whatever PBS kids’ show I was watching growing up. Probably Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, or Square One Television, or Ghost Writer.
Another version of the song
Cyber Erotic Love Child remixed this song as a Multi Directional Music Album (MDMA), which is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure but for a song, where your A/B choices change what the next several bars of the song are. I mapped out several U.S. road trips you could take based on those choices. We put in two hidden endings in which your reward is leaving the U.S., and there are random bits of video footage from me, including one on the actual route and one where I walk in Memphis while singing the tune of Walking in Memphis but not the words.
Go for the full 100%!
https://www.yoghurtpot.co.uk/manchineel/vofmood
Some press about it
“#VofMood sounds like a dream and a nightmare morphed into one. Maybe it’s a dream inside a nightmare? or a nightmare inside of a dream? little twinkle sounds offer something to daydream along to but the distortion of the bass takes us into a darker realm. Listening to this track made it very difficult to know where to place the emotions that it had brought out of me. I like that! Anything that makes me question or think is always great!” – Tamara Jenna, TJPL News
“An instrumental that just might make you want to dance around your living room while listening to it.” – Will Lisil, topmusic.news
Next song: Shadwan
restlessmosaic.com 