LogFAQs > #964142283

22th
Game: Undertale
Title: Here we are
Composer: Toby Fox
Nominator: @hombad46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y49b8aiQVBg

i had almost a reaction of disbelief when i found out that this was really a thing in this game. i have a huge thing for "incomprehensible chimera creatures that are not meant to exist and are hidden away in a secret lab" as a trope or whatever, it's one of my favorite things aesthetically and conceptually as a fiction basis basically. so the fact that this idea, presented itself with a song with odd time and cool transposing chord pads?!?! i was very sold! really i had not expected my favorite song in the game to line up with what was my favorite part of the game as well in many ways. the atmosphere of the presentation was pretty far considering the self-imposed limits visually. i actually sorta had it spoiled a bit too much before experiencing it, wish i could've done it organically without knowing what was going to happen. in fact a large motivation of me completing undertale was because i knew this part of the game existed and i really wanted to see it (i wasn't the biggest fan of the game, but i KNEW i would like this part, so it was my primary motivation for getting through it basically---i wanted to hear this in context! in the end, it was worth it just to experience this for real, with my own control over movement immersing me just a bit more slightly in)

this track really opens uip to me when the piano comes in and you're really starting to get other interactions with these constantly modulating chords; they otherwise might not have as much meaning and may come across as just like "rave chord stab" type existence, where there isn't necesarily any compositional relevance to the thing they do, but the piano ensures that there's some interaction going on where you have to pay attention to how this makes the tonal center flip up and down constantly.

i've also always liked the percussion in this track when it comes in, there's some lightly tonal elements to the drum loops, and reversed feeling sounds. it honestly sounds sorta like a mechanical groove made out of scrapped machine parts, which is well...quite fitting. it feels like an abandoned laboratory no question. but in a strangely funky, hopeful way. this is scary, and sad, but also not?

one element that's tethered to the game itself, is the realization that this track is actually referenced in alphys's theme. it took me forever to realize it, but there's a whole section of her cute tune, that descends into 5 with pretty much these chords and stuff. it's definitely intentional, and is of course as everyone knows one of the endless examples of this soundtrack self-referencing itself like crazy. but i always find that sorta thing very effective. I think the exact way toby's music works in terms of setting every scene, and making sure the music means something in relation to it, is a lot more powerful than any individual track itself. something i realize more and more about why i like what i do from it. it's honestly a big part of why i like video game soundtracks, i like hearing alternate variants and further and further distorting iterations of themes between different songs, that give them all different meanings

oh yeah, i had actually made a GRaVE error on my blog, i said that this song was "all 5/4", but there's at least one extra beat just before :44, making a 6/4 bar there.