Thursday, December 17, 2015

Song of the Day #242 - DJ Sharpnel - We Luv Lama

Ahhhhhh, ahhahhhahhhahhhahhhhhhh!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcrUX5UZE

Alright today was a long but largely unproductive day so here's some stupid speedcore to cheer us up and maybe give us some motivation for the last few pre-bed hours!! I've talked a lot before about how complex, fast music often manages to get me "pumped" but with no real "emotion" associated with it. DJ Sharpnel is sometimes an exception, as many of their songs are based in anime samples, and often evoke the emotions I associate with the original anime, e.g. "Jersey Spirit" makes me want to shout "Maru!" and "Marunouchi Survivor" makes me feel like my brain is melting. Here, though, we don't get anime, but uhh, weird distorted chanting? It comes from this cheesy Fruity Loops plugin called Delay Lama, which itself has a bit of a fanbase (oops what happened to productivity?). So basically we have this plugin, which is based off a pun, that leads to a Japanese NicoNico meme, because what doesn't, and is noticed by DJ Sharpnel, who puts it over 210bpm speedcore and adds a military-march type breakdown, just cause...

And then somehow this becomes... actually genuinely powerful and inspiring? Like we somehow went full circle to a point before where we actually started? Somehow the song manages to function in all the meditative and triumphant ways of the genres it parodiously lifts from. Maybe I'm crazy for this one but if so I'm embracing it because the song becomes powerful through it. It's something that works because of the contrast, like, you keep thinking "what a silly song" but when those drums hit at 1:10, don't act like you don't get GENUINELY HYPE, like, you might want to act like that for dignity etc, but really honestly don't, you'll have so much more fun if you don't. Or at 3:47, when we get the reemergence of our beloved Delay Lama, with unprecedented aggressiveness and variety, don't you want to believe that something very wise is being imparted to you? If you do, it makes the glorious finale at 4:40 all the more powerful.

Like a lot of music in the genre, this stuff is extremely well suited for rhythm action games, and although it's way too hard for my rusty flabby body (this mixture of literal and idiomatic descriptors is disturbing) I appreciate its presence as both hype chart and resulting meme. It's seen as something of a benchmark chart in ITG, something that many players have as their boss song while transitioning into 17+ footers, so I'm sure any irrational feelings I have about the power of this song go much further for those who have given every note adrenaline soaked meaning. Like people who are actually in moaning religious communion with this silly FL plugin, hoping to make it to the end. How absurd. Thank you internet.

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