Sound credits here:
https://www.goophball.net/PSW_Sound_Credits.txt
Tunes are usable for your own projects, as background tracks for videos/streams, or whatever. Check sound credit info for appropriate information if commercial use is wanted, though (where commercial means you make direct money by selling a service or product). Some tracks may be bound to non-commercial use due to some sound sources themselves being non-commercial use only.
Also, here is a track by track breakdown of each tune and what they mean to me. Thanks for the listen!
1. This Style Will Never Die
This is the first tune on Persistent-State World. Seeing as it's my first full tune set in several years, I felt the title to be appropriate. This track is a statement that although it's been a crazy long time since dropping a collection of tunes, one thing is for certain - that it will happen eventually. The GoophBaLL project lives. The game influence is here. And importantly, my enjoyment for doing this is as strong as ever. This style will truly never die.
2. PSW
If there's one thing I've always liked doing, it's skirting the lines of genres, but also moods. "PSW", short for Persistent-State World, is supposed to be the immediately jarring follow up to "This Style Will Never Die." Whereas the opening track is brighter and sprightly, this track is supposed to be slower, tenser, and grittier. As the quasi-title track (PSW = Persistent-State World), its function is to abruptly show flexibility in sound and mood. After all, the ironic nature of a persistent-state world isn't that it's persistent, but rather, that it changes regardless of if you are there.
3. InterferenZe
An old, old project of mine, amped and turned into a track. If the first two tracks were supposed to be mood contrasts, then this one was supposed to a minor stylistic breakaway from both, with just a little less retro-game influence. This track is thematic, with the main theme being interference. Fuzzy hisses, static, distortion, analog signals, all that good stuff. I used a few vocal and radio samples to really drive the theme home, but the main lead is actually a sine wave synth. Very fun tune to put together.
4. Compulsion Loops
In gaming, a compulsion loop is a habitual loop that rewards the player and incentivizes them to continue the loop. Use fast vehicle, win race. Win race, obtain award money. Use award money to upgrade vehicle even more. Repeat. In my musical terms, a compulsion loop is simply a musical loop I put together on the spot, compulsively. Funny how that works. So, this tune is heavily loop based, and the way I sectioned it is supposed to represent hitting different mile-markers, before reverting back to similar themes. Compulsion loops referencing compulsion loops. I guess that in itself is a loop.
5. DON'T CHOKE
It's short, it's sweet, it's weird, it's loud. You only get once chance at succeeding, here. Can you clutch it? Don't choke
6. Gibberish
A minor breakaway from the super heavy game influence for a milder game flavor. In fact, one might not notice anything game-like at all. Gibberish is my vocal cut track, with several garbled voices saying things that don't really make sense, just random syllables and short phrases. I've used small vocal samples before years ago in tracks like "Depth-Load", and longer vocal cuts in tracks like "Wander The Skies", but this is supposed to be very exaggerated. It's just Gibberish.
7. Third Party Party
Ah yes, Sega. Once a first party giant, they find themselves making games for others nowadays. And that's okay. I like them as a third party. Well, usually when I do retro tunes, I combine sounds of the 2a03 (NES sound chip), as well as some Commodore and Atari sounds. But I don't really do retro-Sega type stuff too often, despite the cool sounds of the YM2612 used in their retro consoles. So here's an ode to them, with a lot of Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles influence. It's a third party party.
8. FireRoom
WaterRoom is an ongoing style of tune I've been personally crafting since the mid 2000's. The first WaterRoom appeared as a track on my Every Day Journey tune set, and then WaterRooms 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 appeared as tracks for an EP. WaterRoom 8 came a few years later as a track on my All My Styles tune set, and WaterRoom 9 appeared on my GOOPHCORE album. WRX (WaterRoom 10) is a standalone single I made in the past few years. So why am I talking about my WaterRoom tune series, when this is FireRoom? Simple, I'm planning to do a sibling-series of tunes alongside WaterRoom. And this is track #1
9. Theorycraft
The longest track of the entire album, it's supposed to be a stylistic blend of my own game influence with a dnb-type groove. This tune probably had the most revisions, but I think that's likely appropriate, considering the title. Very happy with the 50/50 blend of my own style with a more contemporary kind of sound.
10. Kinetic RNG
I hope you like distorted, heavy thuds and lots of synths and game sounds because that's 100% what you get here. The tune is supposed to be both straightforward and unpredictable, though that's somewhat contradictory. A play on the term kinetic energy, "Kinetic RNG" is supposed to be high energy, heavy, and a reminder that all of our fates are in the hands of RNGesus above all
11. OHKO
Inspired by gaming, breakbeat, and big beat (as in, the musical style "big beat"). Big beat was one of my favorite genres growing up and I always thought it would be cool to do a vaguely big beat track with my own influence. So, here it is. OHKO, a.k.a One-Hit KO.
12. Another Day Journey
A reversion, a blast from the past. Over time, I've really come to hone a style of my own, but the journey has been cool. My old tune set, "Every Day Journey" is where I really started to take my hobby more seriously. Tracks like "Get Ready", "Diligence and Operation", and "Dial Tones" will always have a place in my heart. So this track, "Another Day Journey", is a stylistic callback to those times. Using the same distortion on percussion, same sound sources, and same grit as those days. If that was "Every Day Journey" and this is "Persistent-State World", then it only makes sense. This is just another day's journey.
13. Some Chippy Dubhoppin Beepfunkstep
Another style blend, I just wanted to put my own style on top of another. This was the result. Vague dub-like rhythms are underneath this track, similar to those found on my "Desktop Rhythms" tune set. Is it heavily dubby like some tracks I've produced, such as "Orphic"? Naw. But that's what the title is trying to express. It's not dub. It's some chippy dubhoppin beepfunkstep.
14. The Lost WaterRoom ("Flowing Waves" - Credits)
Flowing Waves is a lot of things to me. First off, it's my latest WaterRoom tune in years, so it's effectively WaterRoom XI (11). Therefore, it's first and foremost titled "The Lost WaterRoom", due to the absence of tunes in this series. That said, Flowing Waves is supposed to reference the fact that the sound waves, mostly squares, saws, and triangles, flow into each other. Especially when arpeggiated, which happens a lot in this tune. I found it a fitting way to close an album. Rehash an old tune series of mine, as a roundabout way of saying this style hasn't died eiter. It has persisted too. I even threw a little melodic part in here all the way back from my second WaterRoom tune, WaterRoom II. I've started a new series with FireRoom, but I feel I'll always do WaterRoom tunes on the side too. So here's to several more of them in the future. Lastly, this tune is also supposed to double as credits music. Especially with the section changes. Who knows, maybe I'll actually do the sound credits for Persistent-State World as a simple video using this very tune. That could be cool. But for now, here it is. WaterRoom XI (11), a.k.a The Lost WaterRoom.
