Inside the Pipework

Music theme for Alternative Soundtrack Music Jam #3. 

You can also listen to it in streaming here.

This month, we had to emulate the Underground theme by Koji Kondo from Super Mario Bros (1985, NES). 

When producing this track I wanted to keep the mysterious and eerie feeling of the original theme and I added some turns to give it a similar sense of being lost and not knowing what will come next, mixed with a basic hip hop urban beat inspired by the Wii version soundtrack of the game, as well as various experimental sounds to create some kind of subterranean, echoey and uneasy feelings.

The theme ended up much heavier than the original, in fact it has probably nothing to do with the original! xD But I like to think the inspiration was there, and its main characteristics, that is "part A: ambiguous but still grounded phrase" and "part B: chaotic apparent randomness which makes you totally lose your way" are still somehow there.

Inside the Pipework (an underground journey):

Apart from the general audio and musical concepts, my approach was to have some kind of story through the track. Listening back at the completed theme, I would describe it as follows:

In the intro you are dropped inside an intriguing and dark underground world.

In part A you start walking and hear your steps rebounding on the metallic surface of the pipes under your feet. You think your eyes are beginning to get used to the darkness, when...

Bam! Part B: the unknown, the sudden realization that you are lost, you had your rhythm but now there is nothing to guide you, until you see again some glimpse of light which guides you, and again you are in...

Part A, you are writing your own story and starting to feel at home here (bassline giving the harmony lacking from first take of part A), but then...

BAM! Part B again, this time worse. You thought you had control of the situation, but in reality you are still lost, and some nasty things are lurking here.

You step inside a new area, at part C, and you hit the walls repeatedly trying to feel your way. You ask for help knowing no one will hear you, and your calls come back to you broken, distorted, your voice mixed with its own reverberation and something else. You fell on your knees.

You are back at the beginning (same intro pads with different notes). Darkness surrounds you and you are alone. Finally you take a deep breath, and decide to go ahead and venture again into the unknown.

At the end, part A last reprisal. Everything experienced comes together: the first feelings of strangeness at the intro, the finding of your own rhythm and harmony of part A, and also the melody of your voice, which is now not broken, but strong and bold.

Lastly, the underground outro (same as intro, but now it is not new and strange to us any more): we become the darkness itself and we watch as the character walks into the distance, not scared any more, engulfed by the still mysterious world around him, a small dot of light becoming smaller and smaller and fading into the pipework.