Disco Elysium "First Death of the Heart" 5:42

Happy 4/20 Day! Time to blaze forth and cheekily celebrate with 4 suitably appropriate tracks, depending on your state of mind. :-D (If you're a stick in the mud, just call them quirky and leave the rest of us alone.) Third up, TheManPF's *extremely hazy* memory is bugging me right now, but we have enough mementos to piece together that Sea Power's soundtrack to Disco Elysium was involved, along with some strong collaborators:

• Arrangement, sequencing, mix, and electric guitar by TheManPF
• Bass and lyrics by Zach Chapman
• Vocals, acoustic guitar, and additional electric guitar by Cory Johnson
• Vocals by CeCe Ennui

OK, so upon futher reflection, it turns out TheManPF *was* able to recall a teensy bit. Who restored those memories, anyhow?:

"This is a midwest emo/post-rock arrangement of Sea Power's "La Revacholiere" from Disco Elysium, one of my favorite games of all time, with my buddies Zach Chapman, Cory Johnson, and CeCe Ennui. This arrangement was originally released through Dwelling of Duels in August 2024, in a competition where it came 11th place out of 25 total tracks.

I FUCKING LOVE DISCO ELYSIUM

There, if you haven't played it, it's one of my highest recs, it's a game that filled me with a lot of strong emotions, it's a deep piece of art, and one of the only two games I've ever played that I'd dare call a perfect 10/10. For a while, I wanted to do something with it, and when we figured a Mystery/Detective month was coming to Dwelling of Duels, I remembered this song, "La Revacholiere", stuck with me ever since I heard it. It's a huge spoiler, so I cannot give many details about it, but all I'll say is that is the most powerful moment in the game for me.

I went for a midwest emo/post-rock style. It's something that I think fits the vibe of this game very well, and I tried to emphasize what I think is one of the most prevalent themes of the game: the world is fucked up, and DE is not shy at showing you this when you start the game. There's a lot of things happening around you that could immediately send one spiraling into despair, and the protagonist is caught in the middle of all of this. Despite all this, and throughout your whole adventure, the game never stops hammering you about one thing, yes, things look really bad, but there's always one bit of light, one tiny ray of hope that's always by your side, and a voice in your head telling you that things can, and will, eventually get better, as long as you keep your head up and don't let this cruel world beat you down.

A lot of this is expressed through the arrangement and the lyrics, and I thought midwest emo/post-rock fit the themes well, as well as the style of the music in the game. Along with this, I put sprinkles of different quotes from the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one that I never watched, but shares some common themes with Disco Elysium, particularly rough romantic relationships and memory loss. It also helps bring a lot to the overall atmosphere. Just added a few subtle reversed reverb tails to the quotes so they ease in better.

Zach is, of course, here. His bass tone is immaculate as always, but I also want to shout him out because he wrote all of the lyrics for the song. He hasn't even played the game! I gave him some pointers, some quotes from the game that I liked, and a vocal melody, and he did the rest. He's always been incredible on bass but lately he has showed me more of his hidden talent of lyric writing that he has. He even delivered these super-fast, and they fit the arrangement perfectly.

For this one, I decided to team up with good ol' Cory Johnson. I figured he has a much better grasp than I have at this genre, and he helped me with a lot of bits and pieces for the arrangement, suggested Eternal Sunshine when I told him I wanted to use quotes from something, played a bunch of acoustic guitars, and, my favorite part, he sang! He doesn't usually sing, but every time he does he nails it. He usually really knows how to use his voice when it fits, and I was convinced he was perfect for this one, and I'm happy he was able to pull it off.

CeCe Ennui also joins the team for this one. She's more well-known as the accordionist for The Tonberries, an incredible VGM band that mostly plays live but also submits regularly to DoD. She has sung something all the way back in October and when I first heard it I thought, "Man, this voice quality would fit an emo track so well", and here she is! I'm so happy she was able to deliver for this one.

Once again, very different from what I usually do, but I love experimenting, I love vocals, I love lyrics, and, something I realized these last few months, I just love plain good ol' songwriting, which is something that I have been showing with all of my last few VGM covers I've been doing. Hope you enjoy it! (:"

Despite not tipping his hand on any of this cryptic game's plot points, judge prophetik music's a Disco Elysium junkie, so he had an extra layer of appreciation for TheManPF's transformation in tandem with Zach, Cory & CeCe:

"original is so lush. and i agree, it's an intense experience in-game.

opens with the expected very slow rush of sound and aleatoric plucks. the initial wash of sound is in the same key and pitch as the opening, so i'll even count it as source! i realized when it moved at 0:50 that it was guitar really washed out, and that's a neat feel to have the rhythmic stutters in it as it flows out.

the rest of the band starts at 1:29. this section feels really Silent Hill with the simple approach. [...] we do finally start to get some melodic material at 1:56. this is a really introspective approach [...] there's a very relaxed solo section at 2:40 that's really nice and fits into the feel really well.

there's a hard transition at 3:27 as the vocals come in. [...] cory's voice is excellent, i love the tone! same with cece's additions. i found the vocal elements to be interesting - i didn't grok a direct connection between the melody you have for the vocals, but the backing elements mirroring the descending idea was a great way to tie the original to this new version. [...]

i think this is a super fun track! i love the vibe of the music. [...] i think that there's a really shining example of adapting a very ambient original into a melody-driven track here. excellent work."

Great source tune choice, and I echo proph's sentiment on this being a nice, moody, well-personalized adaptation of "La Revacholiere". It was cool to hear it done with this warm guitar as the lead, and the drums also give the theme a particularly different quality. The bassline was enjoyable to listen to as well, well worth focusing on as a listener. 3:28 shifted over to the original vocals, and I too dug Zach and CeCe's performances. TheManPF and crew showed out with a great 90's rock vibe the whole way through; I earnestly hope Sea Power catch wind of this thoughtful version! :-)