Rin-Rin
Artist: Hyparpax
Genre: DEEP SCHRANZ
7KEYS:
- NORMAL 6
- HYPER 9
- ANOTHER 11
9KEYS:
- NORMAL 22 / obj. agu+hyso
- HYPER 35 / obj. agu
- EX 49 / obj. agu

Originally I wanted to try to make a rendacore song this time, but when ルゼ left impressions on World War I got scared what would happen if he played it, and I scrapped the song. It probably is for the better since the BGA I wanted to make would have been too time-consuming and probably beyond my level. Hmm, but there are still remnants of that song concept in this, too.
Anyway, about a month before registration I found out about Grimgerde from Toy Musical 3, which I was super excited about, so in my usual reactive manner of making music I impulsively decided to try schranz this time.
I haven't been able to get a distorted schranz sound that's to my liking yet, so the song turned out more like a faster version of my usual tech dance style.

My initial vision when I was planning out the song in my head was an ambient track that has startling jump up in intensity in the middle, and I tried to express complete loudness and chaos with the middle section. Ever since hearing a certain song I've wanted to try the supersaw + glockenspiel combination, so it was to be able to include that this time. (I think supersaw + glockenspiel has become a bit a BMS mainstay anyway due to LeaF.) Also there's hyperactive piano over a hard-to-follow chord progression since that's been appealing to me lately. (When he heard the chord progression, Dolphin asked if this was "schranz for SHMUPs"...)

As for the main theme of the song... I think there's a vague spookiness to old telephones. You hear about them a lot in urban legends, right? If you're getting a call from a mysterious stranger and you can't trace it then that's no good. Plus a ringing phone is loud and startling to begin with. But beyond just the usual tropes about telephones I think there can be a sense of uneasiness from being around another person who is on the phone, since you're only able to make out one side of a potentially important conversation. It's basically nothing once you're grown up, but as a young child, adults will talk on the phone about things you can't understand that could be life-changing for you, and you're unable to talk to the adult until the call ends. Unless you were a very rude child.
It sounds like I'm implying I have some telephone-related childhood trauma, but actually I'm a boring person and I don't at all. But I still wanted to use "telephone surrealism" as a song concept! To me all old technology becomes increasingly surreal as we become further removed from it, and I fit in other types of analog beeps too. Analog horror is good...

For the BGA, I did my best to make something that fit the imagery I had in mind while making the song. I wasn't planning on drawing a cute girl for the BGA but I always end up doing that anyway and I think this is a good thing?
The theme involves older technology, so influence from older computer graphics is a must here. I like the dim gold you get from reduced BMP color palettes. That color (or dark blue) used with black is used a lot for night-time scenario in old video games and those palettes have taken on a mysterious feeling for me. All these aesthetics appeal to me and I'd like to revisit them at some point if I'm ever more confident in my artistic abilities.
Right now I'm not great at expressing myself through visual graphics; it's something I'd like to improve at because it feels awful to have abstract aesthetics that only exist in your head and not be able to turn them into a concrete image that you and other people can revisit.

I kept having gimmicky chart ideas in mind while making the song, and I was hoping another person would handle charts so I wouldn't have to use them, but I ended up making the charts in the end. The 7K ANOTHER is a particularly hellish 11 this time, so please enjoy. agu made a set of 9KEYS patterns, as well. Thank you! (I worked on the 9KEYS NORMAL pattern a little myself too.)

Dunno what else there is to add so I'll conclude by saying that I still have not actually been able to unlock Grimgerde (it's good though). Although this is hardly like that song anyway besides genre. The vocal samples might have been kind of ！？-like though. ！？ is extra good because of kantangimoko-chan. Oh, in typing that I realized I never named the BGA character this time. Well, her name can just be Rin. Anyway, kantangimoko-chan if you're reading this please PLEASE give me your phone number