Tricky Toby Radiation Fox
It's been almost 4 months now...
...Since Deltarune chapter 5 released...
What's changed?
Ever since I discovered the Undertale community, I was hooked, consumed, absorbed even into a rabbit hole that was deeper than almost other fandom I've seem combined. The music, the characters, the gags, and my favorite, the Au's
Now I know typically this type of content isn't exactly favored, but the base conceptual design had so many years to evolve that we created a completely new community, one that almost focused entirely on love for our own version Tumbler sexy man of 2022, and his game. (Of course Sans wasn't the only character we made our own but he was the main and most popular one)
From this we created gems like Dust Sans; whose theme was "Red Meglovania," Ink!Sans; whose theme was "Tokyovania", and Bad Time Trio; whose theme was "Triple the Threat." (All of which I highly recommend you check out) These massively popular versions of the "Sans AU's" are actually what inspired my musical interests, even if actually taking band was a mere coincidence.
As the Undertale era of the internet started to die down, we finally had a look of what's to come next, Deltarune...
Deltarune's first 4 chapters was actually where I started to truly get into studying Toby "Radiation" Fox's music, of which I can't even begin to explain why its so illegal.
...
I'm going to explain why its so illegal.
In music there's something called time signatures, usually expressed in the form number over number (4/4), and key signatures, basically a modification of the notes you're playing. In normal musical pieces, typically there's a couple, anywhere from 0-5, time changes, and same with key signatures, usually the limit being 7 or so.
In "Tricky Tony's" music not only does he choose constantly changing time signatures that don't evenly divide notes, not only does he choose key signatures that have almost every single modification possible, he also choose to use notes that aren't on the piano. The "every has single note" piano. This in extreme cases makes his music almost impossible to play.
Although, after all this I would still recommend you take a look at his music, games, and god forbid his code(its actually really funny if you know a little coding).
This brings me to modern era, Deltarune chapter 5. Now I've actually looking to compose a little on the side thanks to studying his music. I've actually found really cool to see how Toby's grown as a composer, and I'm hoping to apply some of these things to myself and new and growing bud.
But still, my opinion stands. God. Forbid. His composistioning.
How attentive! You’ve gone (what I describe as) full nerd mode in this blog, Lucas! (Take note that I do not use the word “nerd” as an insult, I have been labeled that plenty of times before.) I am extremely grateful that you have talked about his time signature in his songs—he is absolutely crazy. I’d like to bring up his song The Third Sanctuary as an example as he literally switches time signatures mid song! I swear, his songs are so addictive for a reason. Did you know that the Undertale album is in the United States’ Congress Library? Pope Francis also had a copy of the video game and played through it!
ReplyDeleteMoving on from Toby’s works, I would also like to suggest a different AU’s music. Have you heard of the Disbelief Papyrus AU? It was surprisingly modern for its time, not going with the typical cliche of Sans having 3 million gazillion bajillion power-ups and hating the player for whatever reason. Disbelief Papyrus has nice character development during his fight as well, realizing that his manifested friends are nothing more than mere delusions, facing the player at hand with his own strength. You should look that AU over, as it is quite pleasant.
Hi Lucas! The moment I saw that your blog was about Deltarune, I knew I had to read. For me, I am not an OG at all; I only started becoming a fan during the summer when Chapter 5 released and my friends begged me to look into it. So, like the good friend I was, I overindulged in Deltarune and Undertale content for the entirety of my summer in preparation for the new chapter coming out. Ultimately, I caved into buying the game because I wasn’t satisfied with just watching it on YouTube. As I played and progressed more and more, I fell in love with many of the soundtracks used in the game—but I didn’t know that his music was actually this “illegal”. I’ve heard countless times about how Toby was a great producer, which I completely agree with, but I never truly understood why there was so much hype…like he was doing something extraordinarily different compared to others. Even though the time signature concept is still confusing for me, I understand why his music is treated as so unique. Especially the mind-boggling idea that he uses keys that aren’t even on the piano…I never knew that was possible. Thanks for sharing, I will definitely research more about this in my own time!
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