Age of Vinyl and Hay Tea is the most iconic duo of the so-called “DnB gang”. When they join forces it is hard not to stop everything and admire in awe the formidable achievement of two musicians being in total control and mastery of their craft. This time they gave us Moonrise, available as part of P@D: Eternal. The intro of a liquid drum & bass song is highly important and here it is made up of some slick sampling followed by some bells on top of strings that appear again during the bridge. After this, the main part comes and we hear the insane reese bass that is found in most Age of Vinyl songs which has the ability to catch the listener’s psyche and put them in trance at once. Thereafter, divine arps perfect what had been built just before. That second drop finishes this magnificent song by including the immortal flutterchops. These two musicians proved themselves once more capable of making us experience some of the most intense feelings music can provide. We truly are blessed to have them.
Author: Canatime
Nicolas Dominique – Beauty of the Night | Chillout
Nicolas Dominique’s songs are always journeys. Beauty of the Night is one of contemplation of the moonlit night. The cute bells evoke space and the plucks can be perceived as a star sparkling sound effect, making it feel as though we could hear the sound of stars. Then, when the middle section hits, a softer segment comes forth, only to crescendo back to the intensity of the first part. It seems the artwork has been chosen with great care, as the bright full moon’s light resonates with the unexpected energy coming from a chillout song.
Tw3Lv3 – Waves | Album | Lo-fi
It is fairly safe to say that pony music has reached another level in terms of quality. Furthermore, the speed at which new musicians in the fandom get better can inspire nothing but awe. The names of GrazySmash, Niłch’i Poni, Single Purpose to name a few and of course Tw3Lv3 come to mind. He can now rival with Drum & Bass giants such as Hay Tea and Age of Vinyl, ventures in a plethora of heterogeneous genres (and be good at it!) and at the same time produce some of the best lo-fi out there.
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VocalScorePony – Pinkie Sense! | Acoustic
VocalScorePony wears his name quite fittingly, as his singing skills are admirable. Not only is the upfront singing amazing, but the vocal harmonies are awesome as well. The instrumental does not trail behind and the ukulele adds an additional dose of fun to the lyrics, perfect for a Pinkie song. The bassline is neat too and lots of little details have been added, such as a little bit of piano when it is mentioned that one should lookout for falling pianos. Also congratulations to him for his song Thank You For The Fun! that was recently awarded best pony song of 2019 by Top Pony Music!
DAϟH – Bet Against The Fire | Gabber/Speedcore
Released on Equestrian Terror Corps (a reference to Rotterdam Terror Corps), a hardcore pony music label, Bet Against The Fire is DAϟH’s latest tune. The title is a quote from Dawn Somewhere’s adaptation of the fanfiction The Star In Yellow by Blueshift. The music gives the same sense of unease the story does, and this is mainly due to the weird melody and the myriad of sounds used, as well as the sample from the aforementioned animation.
Toby Macarony – I Wanted To Make You Smile | Hybrid Orchestral
Part of the Shenanigans album, I Wanted To Make You Smile… comes from the darker side of Toby Macarony’s musical production, in the same vein as I’ve Watched You. The piece’s main idea revolves around a piano and twisted Pinkie vocals from the Smile Song. It begins with storm sounds in order to set the tone from the very start, the beautiful sad piano melodies are powerful so as to emphasize on the gravity of whatever happened. The middle section goes even deeper in the dark as the melodies disappear, making way for ominous sound design and gravelly low-pitched vocals from the end of the Smile Song, giving them a monstrous feel. The song then ends how it started. Apart from the fact that we can feel something tragic happened, the song is very much open to interpretation. Are the dreadful events the magnitude of a lost cupcake, or the fruit of Pinkie Pie’s theoretical very dark side?
FilledSilhoutte – Allure | Future Funk / French House
Allure is a single from FilledSilhoutte’s upcoming EP DAZZLED ’92, coming out on February 21st. Alluring, dazzling, charming are quite fitting to describe the trio of sirens that inspired this track, which in turn inherits these qualities. Moreover, we could add funky and groovy, for this track is at the intersection of future funk and French house and uses a handful of disco samples. The melody is catchy and the bass is fantastic and often takes the spotlight in a fashion similar to that of the Dazzlings themselves.
Daniel Ingram – The Magic of Friendship Grows (Skelter Remix) | House
This is Skelter’s take on The Magic of Friendship Grows, paying tribute to this eternal song. In it you will find their signature incorporation of orchestral elements to electronic music, however there is a twist: the use of glitches throughout. The intro section has an interesting drum pattern before going into four-on-the-floor. All of it makes for a refreshing new spin on the original.
FilledSilhoutte – The Warmth | Hip-Hop
Chill vibes for days! FilledSilhoutte crafted a minimalist hip-hop beat perfect for a rainy day. Indeed, the song starts out with the sound of droplets hitting the ground; sweet piano chords then join in soon followed by percussion. However, it is only when the bass finally comes in that we can feel the warmth as if coming home on a cold winter day. The vibe that emanates from the beat is reminiscent to that of Vylet’s beautiful Princess. The warmth is from the hearth and for the heart as the song ends with a cute little vocal clip from A Hearth’s Warming Tail.
VibePoniez – Hearth’s Warming EP | Compilation Album | Lo-fi / Chillout
This is a great time for pony music. New faces are are showing up while old ones are returning, already existing labels are developping while new ones are being created. In terms of chill music, 2019 began with Spikey Wikey’s mix showing there was demand for this family of genres that had been previously left aside by the fandom. Later this year, Tw3Lv3, Steryotype and TheTaZe undertook the responsability of building a scene from the ground up in some sense and produced decent amounts of music to relax/study to, to quote the YouTube stream that rose lo-fi to the popularity it has today. In september they created the label VibePoniez that sought to “promote brony artists who make chill music”. They had expected to have 3 to 4 lo-fi tracks overall on their debut album but it went much beyond their expectations as they recieved submissions from a great diversity of genres and even some from big names in the community.
This long EP starts off with meme tracks from the label founders themselves that are nonetheless very pleasent to listen to. Single Purpose‘s track Setbacks is short, sweet and minimalistic and uses a heart wrenching Octavia sample. Paloris‘ i still miss you makes creative use of Twilight vocal chops from I Have to Find a Way and has a great deep bass which creates a terrific chilled out atmosphere. TheChristmasSong(ChestnutsRoasting) from Steryotype is exactly what you’d expect from him: clean classic lo-fi beats. Reflection by Rayne Dear, an alias of PhonicB∞m apparently, uses some nice percussions made up of various sounds they recorded in their dad’s kitchen. Tw3Lv3 made a liquid drum & bass remix of GrazySmash‘s Dream from Helpie’s Corner: Other Side Of The Mirror, which definitly falls under the chill category. :Twi: by TCB will get a post of its own soon. Happy Mood is Insane Domi aka Mr.Sunset’s first ever released track. Even though it didn’t quite make it in Equinity 02: Catalyst, with a few tweaks and help with mastering from Tw3Lv3 it became a rock solid track to relax to. Lorris Power Note‘s Sentiments brings yet another genre to the album being a cute vocal chops-heavy synthwave track. VibePoniez’ first album and sucess ends on an ambient piece by GrazySmash which comes off as a surprise considering Grazy had only made hard hitting music so far.
Now we almost have enough for a 24/7 pony lo-fi radio! Make sure to follow VibePoniez on Bandcamp and YouTube to catch their latest releases!
Horse Music Herald 