Hollow Knight "A Path" 4:21

For Team Cherry, it's been a long and winding path to the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, but well worth the wait! In turn, DaMonz' Hollow Knight tribute EP A Knight (for a Knight) was waiting in the wings and we were excited to finally let it come to light to accompany Silksong's long-awaited release. Let's rewind back to when DaMonz submitted his first completed contribution for the album and established its audio identity:

"I have been cooking a small Hollow Knight album for a while now, and it's finally nearing completion! This is my first submission for it, but you can expect a few more! This will be the third track on the album, but was the first track that I worked on and which sparked the whole thing.

For this track, I wanted to make something that would be easy to listen while still retaining the same sense of mystery from the original, and that would be a good lead-up to the album's final track, which is "City of Tears". So basically, a strange blend of "comfortable" and "uncomfortable".

Also, there's one very specific thing about the track that I'm expecting to be divisive on the judges, and that's how I produced the bass drums. I made the very deliberate decision of having them more subdued than is usual for a track of this style, because I thought having it be too present or too punchy would have been detrimental to the track's creative vision. I hope you won't mind too much! :)"

Third on the album, first in his heart. :-) Seriously though, nothing divisive about anything in his approach here, and it was genuinely interesting hearing how the style of this Hollow Knight EP took shape. Judge prophetik music chronologically chronicled his path down DaMonz's version of "Greenpath" and dug what he heard along the way:

"opens with some filtered piano and crackles. the shuffle starts at 0:22 and brings in some synths and some neat distortion effects. there's a wobble synth that's the melodic material at 0:57, and i like the space that you give that synth to breathe. the additional elements brought in at 1:13 are really nice as well - the countermelodic synth in particular is a nice settling saw tone. there's some fun work in the bass expanding the earlier ascending three-note motif after that which is also cool.

there's a shift in feel at 1:49. i'm continuing to like the playing with time which isn't super common in this style, and the 8-bit-esque synth work is also neat too. there's some vibes work at 2:26 that's also a neat shift, again mixing up what could have been a recap section. call and response at 2:45 is also well handled and interesting.

3:19 has the piano not quanted in the same groove as the drums [...]. this section plays through a bit until we get to a dropoff where it's just the piano doing its thing to finish it off.

this is a really clever adaptation of a beautiful original. i like the shuffle throughout and the ways you continue to play with time and the ascending three-note motif that you define early on in the piece. i think your choices around mixing are also successful as the different elements really come together into a complete picture without anything sticking out. excellent work."

Carefully crafted cohesion, though not surprising at all given DaMonz' status a judge alum himself. Fellow panelist Hemophiliac was anticipating something less interpretive given the start, ending up pleasantly surprised by the path's pivot:

"When this started I expected it to stay really close to the original because of the close adaption at first. But then we get the bass and drums at 0:22 and wow was that a surprising change of genre. There's so much warmth in the bass that it fills the space wonderfully but at the same time keeps the piece sparse. Doubling the bass with the piano later on actually gave a timbral change that I didn't expect and is a great subtle way to add some variation.

The [...] groove is quite lovely, and the percussion sits perfectly in the mix and shares the space with all of the other elements. It sets "A Path" that the other parts get to walk on. [...]

I could listen to this on loop for a while, perfect meditation music; very enjoyable."

A lovely one to loop indeed, echoed by judge Chimpazilla, who also appreciated the smooth stylishness on display:

"Opens very conservatively, nice lo-fi filtering. The warbley leads that make their way into the soundscape are really cool, followed by a more bouncey, shuffled bass doubling the piano at 1:33. The soundscape stays relatively simple and uncrowded, but feels super sophisticated. There's a jazzy flavor, I hear vibraphone, piano, jazzy drums, some chippy synths. This is a delightful, varied yet cohesive mixture of sounds.

The arrangement is fairly straightforward but keeps things fresh with varied sounds and groove patterns. Truly awesome work, love it."

So is this 6/8 or 6/4? Hemo and Chimpa couldn't agree on it, but you can have fun figuring out how you groove to it! Time sig trickiness aside, DaMonz delicately balanced on a shaky creative tightrope, staying haunting and uneasy like Christopher Larkin's score in many respects yet ultimately having a measured bounce and swagger to things that's all his own. Beautifully measured material from DaMonz that'll envelop your ears, this is absolutely worth your time to vibe to, alongside the rest of A Knight (for a Knight)!