Although I did want to commission this cover from an actual artist with their own style, I yet again decided to just make it myself using readily available sprites. I already had the idea for the scene of having the boombox guy take the place of Hank in MC5, looking out towards the red gradient sun. Additional details like the dead 1337 agent zombies, Sanford and Deimos (in standard grunt uniform) dead in the car and the decapitated heads of Tricky, Hank and Jebus came together naturally as I was making the scene.

Came out pretty well I think. Other than that, the 3 planned traxx for Madness Day this year are in production, with MC5.Alt.Intro.ThisIsMadness being pretty much complete and AntiHero being about half done. Still need to get started on Laying Waste. That's all for now.

The sequel to Madness Traxx vol. 1 is being made and will be released progressively over the next few years, starting with traxx 1-3 for this Madness Day. What follows is an updated tracklist with also updated style descriptions and plans. Some of the planned details or styles are of course subject to change as future me could have other ideas. But the titles and the track order will probably stay as it is now:

1. MC5.Alt.Intro.ThisIsMadness - Remix of Cheshyre's unused intro track for MC5 but with also original elements. Hard footwork jungle. Not so much intro track vibes after all. Uses some vocal samples, namely "This is madness! Madness? THIS IS-" from the movie 300 for the memes, but placed tastefully and sparingly.
2. AntiHero (No Heroes Mix) - The essential AntiHero remix. Footwork jungle + footcore and possibly gabber elements. And of course absolutely no samples of Mr. Goebbels addressing a crowd in 1943. I got a replacement for the crowd noise ready to go and for at most a pre drop vocal I can readily find a suitable ragga/jungle vocal sample and timestretch it like an old AKAI.
3. Laying Waste (2 ur w00fers Mix) - MC5 main theme remixed. This one will probably be some heavy bass footwork jungle + footcore, will try to get some breakcore in there too. Open to collabing on this track.
4. Clown Killz U - This will be based off of Cheshyre's own remix of the MC5 theme, so a remix of a remix. For this one I'm thinking of going with some trap and phonk vibes of all things (also strongly considering jersey club), but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Potential for rappers here.
5. CSOD.exe - Clown song of death. For this I'm thinking of just going all out like how it's meant to be. Speedcore, terrorcore, hardstyle, some footcore, maybe even a touch of extratone.
6. Insane (Ninja Brain Mix) - Remix of a classic non-mainline Cheshyre track to break up the pace. Maximum Ninja reference in the title ofc. First half will be straight forward footwork, second half might incorporate some hard dance or hardstyle elements. Possible opportunity for some light vocal work here, DM me for details.
7. Darksong2 (22:22 Mix) - The streak continues with another non-mainline Cheshyre track. I will probably have to do something to differentiate this one from the Insane mix, but I will still be unable to resist making footwork out of the first half. Could get some dark phonk elements into it at least.
8. MADNEWAT (JUST DO WAT) - MC6 intro track remix. Trip hop with footwork is what I originally had in mind. This one should be short.
9. -API-MADNESS (From The Grave Bootleg) - MC6 action theme and first remix of an API track so far. Hard jungle and breakcore, no other way to do it. Quick and to the point.
10. TrainMadness (Pain Train Bootleg) - Saving the best for last. Plans for this rolling monster of a track remain unchanged. Heavy on the schranz, all out industrial techno for the first half. Gabber and hardstyle for the second half. Collabs welcome.

And that will be Vol. 2. For this one I'm deciding to focus entirely around MC5 and MC6, leaving MC7 and MC8 for a possible Madness Traxx vol. 3. MC7 especially is a major undertaking and I'd prefer to spend max 3 years and 3 Madness Days including this one on making Vol. 2. But again, things might change. I might get things done faster than anticipated.

Go listen to it

There's also a playlist

Wanted to wait until after the MD24 winners got announced before deciding to post my future plans, so first off, congrats to all the winners! Last year I was surprised enough to walk away with both a front page and a #5 winner slot. No such luck this year on either front, but that will not discourage me one bit. Considering my plans, you can safely expect me to take part in Madness Day for at least the next 3 years. I can't just release a "Vol. 1" and never make a "Vol. 2", that simply will not work. Even though the Madness fandom is no stranger to cancelled or heavily delayed sequels.

But I will have to be realistic with the amount of songs I will be able to produce in a year while juggling the other music projects that I keep getting myself into. 1 track a year is fine, but 2 or 3 is better. 4 or 5 is excellent, but I think that's gonna be my limit going forward unless by some ridicilous circumstance I'm able to have up to 9 tracks finished like I did last year.

So without further ado, my plans for Vol. 2 is simply to continue on a roughly chronological order of remixing Madness soundtracks, which from this point on will be heavier on the cheshyre remixes. I want to highlight the stylistic shift that occurs at this point in the series too, by doing a little stylistic shift of my own. Still gonna be footwork, bass and breakbeats but with a harder and more industrial-tinged sound, closer to something that can resemble Cheshcore with my own twist to it.

The mainline soundtracks I'm aiming to remix will include MC5-8 but no ".5"s. But a large part of it will also be remixes of non-mainline cheshyre tracks that mostly ended up in early fan animations. To give you an idea, the tracklist might look something like this:

1. Intro (unnamed as of yet, mainly sampling the "Alternate Intro" for MC5, might also incorporate bits of the I.V. intro theme) - style: glitch hop, trip hop, dark ambient ish
2. AntiHero - style: heavy footwork jungle, strictly no nazi samples (crowd noise samples will be sourced from a football match or something)
3. Insane - style: mostly halftime footwork
4. Laying Waste (MC5 main theme) - style: footcore, breakcore
5. CSOD - style: industrial juke gabber breakcore
6. Darksong2 - style: UK bass halftime footwork jungle
7. MADNEWAT - style: more on the downlow
8. API Madness - style: jungle, breakcore
9. TrainMadness - style: schranz, acidcore, hardcore breaks
10. MC7 main theme - style: footwork jungle with halftime sections
11. MC8 main theme - style: a dark beat with a twist
12. Unnamed original finale track - style: TBD, but might end in something dark ambienty

A few more notes. The genre/style notes are my current ideas which are subject to change, even drastically, when I get around to producing the remixes. I'm also gonna be open for collaborations on some of these tracks, which might also change up the style drastically depending on how it goes. If you're interested, DM me and let me know which track you wanna try and do something with.

Finally, I'm gonna need some album art for this one as well. And once again, I'm putting out an open commision for it (although I will just end up making it myself with sprite sheets and GIMP like last year if there are no takers). The scene I want for the cover is a wider shot of a scene from MC5, when Hank is looking out from a cliff towards the red "sun" in between fighting Jesus and his zombies. But instead of Hank, it's the boombox guy.

For the occasion, I made the two final tracks I wanted to make to round out the album:

The playlist has also been updated here:

UPDATE 23.09: The full album is now also available on Bandcamp (free download), SoundCloud and YouTube

MT1 on Bandcamp

MT1 on SoundCloud

MT1 on YouTube

That's all folks, see you for Vol. 2!

And for next week I'll be tackling the Chicken Dance. I have some very specific plans for that which I don't want to spoil, but if I'll spoil anything it would be that I'm not gonna be remixing that in a serious style like I did for "Heaven". The only way to go with the Chickens is fully tongue in cheek. Could bring out a couple of genre switches for that one.

Anyway, as "Heaven In A Wild Flower" is in a bit of a rougher spot with regards to copyright compared to the other pieces of music used in early Madness cartoons, I did have to write up a few e-mails to the guy who composed it, Bill Douglas. A few weird e-mails at that, there was no real other way around it. But the good news is that I did get permission to post it on here and on SoundCloud just as long as I'm not making money off it or putting it out on major streaming platforms, and if that were to happen I would have to set up a deal with his label for clearance and royalties. But that's how the music business is, you can't step on people's toes. If you can get permission for a remix, get it. For what it's worth, he also enjoyed the rough mix of it that I sent to him.

That's all for now, you will get to hear more on Madness Day

HIAWF PREVIEW

...And as you can see, it involves choir samples and tons of drum machine patterns, and it's in 160. Hmm. Could it possibly be... a footwork remix of "Heaven in a Wild Flower" by Bill Douglas, as famously heard in the final death scenes of Madness Avenger and Apotheosis?

And what's that about those seperated choir tracks? Well imagine this: what if I didn't even sample the original song? What if I found out that the sheet music for the piece is easy to come by? And what if... get this: my mother sings in a local church choir and the conductor was more than happy to have a short snippet of the piece practiced and recorded in the church, only for me to chop it all up footwork style.

As I said last year, MT Vol. 1 isn't done. So this surprise addition is Step 1 of getting it done. Step 2, if I have time for it, is the almighty "Ententanz", or the "Chicken Dance" (actually the "Duck Dance"). And with that, Vol. 1 will round out at a respectable 11 Traxx.

Stay tuned

Happy Madness Day!

Madness Traxx playlist link: https://www.newgrounds.com/album/305646/dj-d-face-madness-traxx-vol-1

It's been a busy workweek. I was able to get the Madness4 remix just about finished though I have not had an opportunity to start working on the Chicken Dance remix unfortunately. All the more ironic considering the cover art!

So for now this is a "0.9" release featuring tracks 1-9. I'm not gonna start working on Chicken Juke today, but I might do tomorrow. And depending on how quickly I can work once I get started, I would say it will be ready for release between tomorrow evening and sometime during next week. I'm also holding off on the Bandcamp and Soundcloud releases until then, so you can call this an NG exclusive pre-release.

With one week left to spare, I'd figure I'd share how the project is going. I have now decided on the naming convention for all 10 tracks and are done with or close to completion on all but the last two.

The tracklist, and current progress per track is as follows:

1. Elfentanz (Marshmellow Juke Mix) - Arrangement and mixing completed
2. Sh3riff Traxx0r - Arrangement completed, still working on mixing and minor touch-ups
3. Fancy Fiddle (Fancier Feetle Edit) - Arrangement and mixing completed
4. Splitmek (Splitskull Bootleg) - Arrangement completed, mixing mostly completed
5. Monks (Nevada Nirvana Mix) - Arrangement completed, still working on mixing though it should not require much work at this point
6. Look Down (At My Legless Feet Mix) - Arrangement and mixing completed
7. Refraction (Maximal Ninjutsu Edit) - Arrangement and mixing completed
8. Calliope (Calliopeton Riddim) - Arrangement almost completed, mixing WIP
9. Madness4 (Club M Backroom Dub) - Not started on yet, but got a solid idea for it, and will start working on it within this week if not tomorrow.
10. Chicken Juke - Not started on, might not be completed on time, but I do have an idea. Worst case scenario it will be a post-Madness Day release

In the end, most of these remixes are leaning more heavily on footwork/juke rhythms and breakbeats than I had originally planned. Currently, the biggest outliers are the Splitmek remix and the Calliope remix, where the former has been made primarily into a tech house, speed garage and UK bass track in 138 BPM, but with a trap breakdown in the middle and for the outro. The latter, as implied by the remix title, is taking a turn towards dembow and reggaeton-inspired rhythms at a modest 125 BPM, which makes it the slowest track on the album. But I just couldn't resist the goofy combo of the MIDI-fied Powerhouse melody played on a synthesized circus organ with a banging dembow. And I am currently resisting the temptation of adding even more goofy cartoon SFX to it. I should just save that for the Chicken Dance remix if anything.

I've also gone ahead and made the cover art myself rather than commissioning it. Put about as much effort into it as I would've done for a similar project 13 years ago (except that I had to make this in GIMP rather than Flash as I no longer have a Flash install), but that's all right because it fits the overall aesthetic. Though I may end up changing the DJ D-Face logo.

But that's all I have to report for now. Madness Traxx vol. 1 will be released on Madness Day on here, Bandcamp and SoundCloud, and if I can be bothered I might put it up on YouTube as well, but that would be later on. Anyway, see you on the 22nd!

Elfentanz (Marshmellow Juke Remix) - (WIP)

I just posted a WIP mix of track 1 for the upcoming Madness Traxx remix album. It's a footwork syle remix of the very first piece of music ever used in a Madness cartoon. David Popper's "Elfentanz" as heard in Marsh-Mellow Madness. Only a short snippet of the entire piece is used in the cartoon, and I have cut it off where it would be cut off, although I have chopped and looped some of the earlier segments so it's not a 1:1 arrangement.

Next up I'm going to start working on Track 2 and 3, which would sample the music used in Redeemer. Although I may not be able to post the Fancy Fiddle remix on Newgrounds due to copyright issues.

Sometime soon I'm going to put out a commision for the album art. For now the idea I have for it is a subversion of the first scene in MC1: Boombox Man front and center in front of the tree, Dancing Guy still in the background but Hank is dead on the ground on the left, having been shot by the Boombox Man (who should also be holding a smoking pistol). Get in touch via DMs if you're up for it and we can also discuss potential pricing.