Kryptonite Arsenal (arc-kryptonite.s3m)

 I completed this song in late June or early July of 1996.

I believe this was an entry to some kind of local contest (compo) on R-Squared. Usually, with a compo you have to limit what you put in the comments, often just the song name and artist name (in some compos you needed to submit your song anonymously - MC3, which was before my time, even required your song name to be anonymous). In this case, you’ll see my comments are quite spartan.

I recall two early songs of mine being contest entries, this one and Delta. I don’t recall what the nature of this one was, however, and if it had any limitations such as number of channels, file size, etc. I think it may have been organized by Subliminal, and I do recall possibly getting a message from him afterward expressing some disappointment in the quality of the song I had submitted. Not sure what he was expecting given my history at the time. Though, to be fair, even I thought at the time that this song wasn’t my best work.

Like all the other CPDP songs, this one is short, low-quality, and hastily assembled. I re-used the lead from CPDP and I would eventually use this lead quite a lot in my music. I don’t remember what song I originally got it from.

The song itself is very minimalist (possibly because of constraints from the compo rules, but more likely because I was in a hurry). There are only four samples: A guitar riff, a lead, a bass, and a snare drum. I still was really into using the Gxx slide-to-note effect after I first learned how in Aquatic Jive, so you’ll hear me using it quite a bit in this one (perhaps slightly more effectively). The tune itself is very menacing-sounding. The title doesn’t have any particular meaning, I just chose two words that sounded sinister and put them together.

All in all, a rather forgettable song.

About CPDP: In the summer of 1996 I was in a computer programming / data processing class, and the teacher let me compose songs in Scream Tracker for class credit. I put together six hastily prepared songs:

CP/DP
Kryptonite Arsenal
Aquatic Jive
Oh! The Suspense!
The Unbrunchables
Willy Universe

They are all short, low-quality, and made quickly so I could get course credit. Look at CP/DP for more context about this series.
- arcturus