#8 | Clickbait — Splatoon 3 (Switch, 2022)

Subterranean Homesick Alien-ish Blues

Composer: "C-Side" (fictional band, undisclosed)
Developer: Nintendo EPD
Track Type: Edit-loopable
Placement: Multiplayer battle (and other variations elsewhere)
Key: F# (+Parallel borrowing/Flamenco Phrygian modal interchange)
Chord progression: ǁ |BMaj79|DMaj7|Eǁ:F#|%|%|C#7:ǁ:F#|%|%|C#7:ǁ
ǁDMaj7|% E|F#|%ǁA|G|F#|EǁDMaj7|% E|F#|%ǁA|B|C#7|%ǁ
ǁF#|A|B|C#7|DMaj7|A|C#7|%ǁF#|G#madd4|A|B|DMaj7|E|F#|%ǁ
Functional map: ǁ |IVMaj79|bVIMaj7|bVIIǁ:I|%|%|V7:ǁ:I|%|%|V7:ǁ
ǁbVIMaj7|% bVII|I|%ǁbIII|bII|I|bVIIǁbVIMaj7|% bVII|I|%ǁbIII|IV|V7|%ǁ
ǁI|bIII|IV|V7|bVIMaj7|bIII|V7|%ǁI|iiadd4|bIII|IV|bVIMaj7|bVII|I|%ǁ
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: 180BPM (Presto)
Scale: F# Penta blues, Flamenco Phrygian
Instrumentation: Synth metal
Lenght (before edit loop): 1:36 (72 bars)
Structure: Intro, Riff, Riff', Riff'', A (Male Vocals), A (Female Vocals), A (Male Vocals), A (Female Vocals)' (Bridge), Chorus, Synth Solo, Synth Solo'

¹This week I got a Ko-fi from Pierre (thanks a lot!) so soon there will be a free acoustic guitar slice of this song up available in my profile. Stay tuned!

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The first piece of diegetic (that actually exists inside the medium it's used, that is) music covered here at GMAC, Clickbait is part of C-Side's set--a fictional in-game band whose real-life composers aren't exactly clear (even if Nintendo has recently shared some amusing footage of the actual musicians behind this particular recording, so at least the execution side of it is clear at the moment). Putting such music together can be tricky depending on the setting, and this is certainly the case: a post-apocalyptic alternate human world that has been retaken by meta/anthropo-morphic squid-like folk--which endeavour in human activities like, for instance, making music.

One of the toughest tasks in composing original material for soundtracks is thinking outside the box enough to be able to create sounds that are "believably alien"--in the sense of not sounding like something a human would/could do. Mica Levi's stellar work on Under the Skin aside, we usually fail at the daunting task in several levels but end up in good solutions for wrapping things up on the arrangement/instrumentation end.

Clickbait makes use of such shenanigans--e.g. gibberish distorted voices--but it also goes surprisingly hard on twisting the blocks of what "human" bluesy rock would be if done "right", to the point it can sound "glitchy" at times--or at least noticeably "off".

Abusing the parallel borrowing framework (as seen previously in Gradius' and Final Fantasy's issues here), C-Side kicks it up an extra notch by messing around with the riff. Subverting the penta blues scale in genuinely creative ways (like using both minor/Major 3rds and the augumented 4th--which should be employed only as passing tone--as structural parts of the riff) makes it for a delightfully whimsical musical narrative--specially when the blue note is finally nailed "correctly" in the final bar of the 3rd iteration of the riff, a cracking up cue right before the verses kick in. Throw in a hint of Eastern spice through the Flamenco Phygian mode (one that's both Major and minor 2nd-ed) and a subtle whole-tone feel both melodically (when the solo guitar emphasizes four full steps in a row, as a Lydian ascendent scale that never resolves) and harmonically (when parallel borrowing Major chords go for another ascending movement, A, B, C#) and you have a uniquely fun alien-ish rocker track.

Take a listen to the original theme and an impromptu rendition of it I did a while ago. Pro users will be able to access sheet music for this theme plus a link for its interactive sheet at Soundslice. See ya next week!