My Little Creeper Dark Acquaintance

The My Little Creeper: Dark Acquaintance compilation album has been released!

 

Organized through My Little Remix by YakFace!, Dark Acquaintance is the sequel compilation album to a grimdark compilation entitled My Little Creeper that was released last year (link). The theme of the compilation album is a grimdark take on ponies, with an emphasis on psychological horror and genre diversity. The album can be downloaded for free from the new bandcamp.. If you are feeling generous, all donations will go straight to the Humane Society.

And now for a track by track breakdown.

"The Amazing Freewave claims the feature track with his masterpiece Cheerilee's Garden. When I first heard the song, I instantly fell in love with it, as it reminded me of everything that was awesome about the original Rainbow Factory combined with the creepy carnival feel of the fabulous "Carnival Cat vs. Ponyville".

Musically, there is a ton going on in the song. Freewave expertly blends together orchestral, industrial, ambient, and modern techno elements, and an improvised guitar solo to top it all off.

The vocals are a prime specimen of vocoding (praise be to the lord and god of vocoders, Glaze), sitting very nicely in the mix and adding a very creepy touch. It took a lot of work to get the right balance between clarity and the atmospheric effect, and the final product nails it!

Second is FLAOFEI's remix of Fall of Gloomy Town. The piece starts with a slow, tension building ambient section, then introduces some wonderfully creepy vocals and a very catchy melody. I particularly enjoyed the distorted piano.

I love the intro and refrain of this piece, and the melody is really catchy despite being bitsmashed to oblivion.

D1SCORDANT's Sunny Town features some very gritty synths and a nice, steady club beat. The song evolves through a number of different phases, building up tension, then relaxing again, giving the piece a good dynamic feel.

I could see this played at a super dark themed nightclub.

The first of Bobby Garces' tracks, The Deep End, is a nice break after Sunny Town. The piece is incredibly atmospheric with a  very strong low end, and some neat stereo effects at the end.

We are thrown right back into the fire with Breadfan's Draconequus, Chaos-Opera. This piece has a ton going on, from vibrant piano glissandos to a wonderful orchestral accompaniment to glorious metal riffs and high powered drums.

Opera is a very appropriate label, as the piece transitions between many different acts, yet remains a unified whole. Breadfan has crafted a truly wonderful and engaging listening experience with this track.

In AppleBoo, Cii definitely embraces "creeper". This piece features a cool sounding synthesizer that I can only describe as rusty machinery operating underwater in a basement behind a wooden door.

It is definitely not for the faint of ears, but there are some very neat effects layered into the track. It does get dangerously loud towards the end, so be sure to have your speakers at a reasonable volume.

Lonely HeartZ's piece Molly Dolly captured my heart from the very beginning, and got only better and better as I listened. The whole piece is a glorious revival of 60's psychedelic rock, especially the amps on the guitar and bass, which sound like they came straight out of a time machine.

The vocals are perfect in tone and expression, reminding me of early Pink Floyd, particularly Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The rock organ is beautifully done, giving the piece both excitement and atmosphere, and is followed up with some very cinematic sound effects and a rather chilling conclusion.

Pierce Strine by SOULS is a wonderful D&B track, with beats that somewhat remind me of trap, and what sounds like Darth Vader's respirator, but EVEN MORE EVIL! I would love for this to be part of a horror-thriller's soundtrack.

Bobby Garces returns with ye olde ambient track #2: Dark Under , straight out of the creepy record shop on the corner of Fleet Street and Plainfield. The vinyl pops and distortion create a very old fashioned feel in this piece.

D1SCORDANT treats us to another ambient track with Desolate. This piece has some wonderfully creepy synths and stereo effects, and glitches and a lonesome music box. This piece seems to come straight out of Fallout Equestria. The wonderful diversity of sounds and graceful evolution of the piece captured my attention throughout the entire duration.

When Zephysonas showed me a wonderful track by Callenby titled, "I Dream in 3/4 Time", I decided to try my own hoof at 3/4 composition, and A Broken Clock in the Factory Basement was born.

The piece cycles through three iterations, each adding a new element. It begins with a music box, then adds a screeching synth, and finishes with a hard rock guitar.

The lyrics tell the story of Purity, a factory worker who has always strived to live up to his parents’ motto: “Waste not, want not.” A link to the complete story can be found on my tumblr.

YakFace! gives us some beautiful atmospheric sounds coupled with the gleeful sounds of my favorite pink pony, all tied together in a high powered track that seems to draw a lot of influence from FlutterRex. The track was put together quite well, gracefully flowing from ambient to frantic, and at the same time telling the story of a terrifying game of hide and seek that seems to come straight out of My Little Amnesia.

The entire album was crafted to deliver the perfect grimdark experience when listened all the way through, flowing from powerful and energetic tracks to more ambient and atmospheric pieces.

While each piece has a unique and distinguishing sound, the compilation definitely feels unified and takes the listener on a musical journey to the darker side of MLP.

Considering that there was very little discussion or teasers from the featured artists concerning their contributions, it was awesome to discover so many wonderful tracks for the first time all in one sitting."

This album was organized on My Little Remix: http://mylittleremix.com/index.php

This review was written by Mathematicus (http://mathematicusmusic.tumblr.com/) and featured on FiMmusic (http://fimmusic.tumblr.com/), a blog dedicated to spotlighting wonderful artists and musicians from the fandom.