xRGTMx / Drisello: Recent Episodes
xRGTMx / Drisello
I make various EDM tracks, but I also make artsy, experimental electronic tracks under my alternate alias, Drisello.
I, as Drisello, had the pleasure of collaborating with Midflight Digital Records' newest member, Fergu$on, to deliver this liquid drum & bass short! This release coincides with THE END - PHASE 6: PEFORMANCE update in DanceDanceRevolution XX.
Follow Fergu$on: https://soundcloud.com/ferguson411
It's been a while, hasn't it? I don't want to have my SoundCloud and Bandcamp collect dust for too much longer, so here's a new drumstep track outside of my usual projects I'm a part of.
This is my first monetized track. You can purchase and download it through Bandcamp here: https://xrgtmx.bandcamp.com/track/transmission
You can find my other works on my SC/BC, Rhythm Horizon, as well as exclusive tracks on DanceDanceRevolution XX. Who knows, maybe I'll make a track for Club Fantastic someday!
Jacket artwork by Liam Paulus Carver, aka leeium. Typography by me. Contact me if you'd like to use this track for your rhythm game.
This is divine strike, the ultimate boss song (EXTRA STAGE LEVEL XX) for DanceDanceRevolution XX, a non-profit fan project by Midflight Digital. This piece of music has a development history spanning five years, from conception and rework, to release.
Marten, the head of Midflight Digital, came to me in 2017 asking if I could compose a boss song for a planned final event for DDR SuperNOVA3, which was the organization's previous project for XX. Preceding this song was a track named "return to apollo," so I initially made a concept called "artemis strike," which signified her wrath upon other gods/goddesses that wronged her and Apollo. The concept was later renamed to "divine strike," while keeping the same idea. Initially, the song's BPM was 230-460, but was later updated to 240-480. The artist alias made a change as well, starting with "xRGTMx underground overlay" to just "xRGTMx," as to not copy off existing formats. Unfortunately, the final event for SN3 never occurred, so divine strike was shelved for the time being.
In 2018, Midflight Digital would release DanceDanceRevolution XX to the public, and as years went by, it grew to be a hit. divine strike was once again planned to be the ultimate boss song for the project, while other songs from the SN3 event carried over, including return to apollo. However, when the song was released as a normal EXTRA STAGE, some were point out that the song was plagiarized from another song, and it was renamed and credited properly. From there, we learned divine strike's name change was a dodged bullet. Years later, I would compose a song named "Shoreline Scramble" that would replace this song, taking reference from the step charts made for it as the song's rhythms and melodies.
During XX development in 2019, a group of four artists within Midflight Digital (funkyzukin, Dynamite Grizzly, saiiko2, and leeium) came together and created an event and series of songs called Quad Strike. In this event, an artist would make a variant of the same song, while choosing a song from four different BEMANI titles to be stepped for DDR XX. Around early 2020, when I myself joined Midflight, I discovered the stem files and initial MIDI's that leeium, Quad Strike's composer, posted for himself and the other three artists to use. Once Quad Strike was done, nothing else related to that event was planned. This gave me an idea...
In late 2020 to early 2021, I proposed to the XX team that we make an event that would end the project with a bang and to tie Quad Strike together. It would be simply named THE END, and the first two END phases involved players submitting courses containing all of the chosen BEMANI songs from Quad Strike. The first reward were four more BEMANI songs that were stepped, but from four different titles. The second phase involved just two courses; one for the newly released songs, and the other for the four Quad Strike variants. The second reward... was this song, as EXTRA STAGE LEVEL XX, a set of Challenge charts for a different EXTRA STAGE song (BURN OUT, by leeium), and a new ENCORE EXTRA STAGE song named "heart of XX," by saiiko2.
What's special about the PHASE 2 release is that during development for this event, divine strike was still shelved and unreleased to the public. I had decided since I was not pleased with the quality of the original song draft at the time, not only would I rework the song, but incorporate elements of Quad Strike into it. This led to the jacket artwork being updated with the four colors, and the addition of two key Easter eggs found in the song itself. One is a callback to the original melody, while the other contains reversed samples of all four songs. As a nod to the series of songs, the artist alias was finalized to "f(QS)," or "function of Quad Strike." Finally, the BPM was updated to 99-999.
THE END launched in 2022, and finally, after five years, the song had emerged from development hell for all to enjoy.
128beat. 128 BPM, 12/8 time. This track is part of the STARLiGHT TWOpointZERO theme update for DanceDanceRevolution XX, a fan project led Midflight Digital.
Download the track on Bandcamp here: https://xrgtmx.bandcamp.com/track/128beat
Original hardstyle track I made for Update Pack 16 (the XXclusives Update) in DanceDanceRevolution XX, a fan project led by Midflight Digital and Zenius-I-vanisher.com that celebrates the 20th anniversary of DDR.
DDR XX thread: https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/thread?threadid=9810
"Um...
Hi, there... I won't take up much of your time, but now that you know everything... I wanted to say a few things.
...I know you're probably really sad right now. Maybe upset, too. But I want you to know that it's okay. Things won't always be like this. There will be a brighter day for us. I can feel it, from within the depths of my heart. Even if I have to die, I'm still happy. I'm happy because... one day, my friends and I will be free. Isn't that worth dying for? Thank you for coming back for us. It means everything to me.
I'm.. sorry you had to see us like this. Everyone here has their own demons to struggle with. But... that doesn't make us evil. We were never given a choice. Everyone has so much good inside of them. It makes me proud to have them in my life. Even in a place like this.
Since he can hear this... and it's the last time I'll ever get a chance to tell him...
...
I know you're feeling pretty bad about yourself right now. I want you to know that I forgive you. She would say the same thing. Trust me. And... I'm sorry that you blamed yourself for my death. That really, REALLY wasn't your fault. Please try to forgive yourself. Believe me. I have no regrets. ... I love you, more than anything in the world. One day, we will be free. I promise. ...God, I... I wish there was more time... Goodbye, my love.
...
And to you? Take care of yourself.
I'll see you again, okay?"
- dialogue taken from The Good Ending, a Doki Doki Literature Club mod
This short track is part of the compilation album ZENIUS -XX- DECADE, and has been in production hell since 2017.
WARNING: This track is 100% rhythm game boss song material. Listener and player discretion is advised.
"[They] want you gone so they can get back to the way things were. But I know the truth. There's no going back. You've changed things... forever."
Selfie sketch by LiriLias (Twitter)
Throughout my life, I can become plagued with negative, dark emotions. They pull me down from within, and it feels like I'm drowning in my depression.
However, I will not allow myself to succumb to them.
Really old crap. I can do better than this.
This is a track that I had initially made in 2014 (five years ago) for a certain silly dance game tournament. A few years later (I think 2017?), I remastered it for Rhythm Horizon, but I never officially released it on my SoundCloud or Bandcamp.
Ah well, better late than never, I guess.
A few weeks ago, I had an epiphany about myself when it comes to being an artist and producer. Basically, what it came down to was that I didn't think I've ever made truly original music. However, I've discovered the solution to this problem, and I know I'm very close to honing in on my style at 100%. The best part about all this is that there is so much ground to cover afterwards once I lift myself up from my feet.
What I needed to do was make my music the wrong way, instead of focusing on making it right.
My goal for this track was to make something unlike anything I've made before, but also focus on the style that I had developed over the years. Essentially, I came home as a new man, hence the title.
"What lies beyond the distance is something left for curiosity and the sense of discovery."
This is a remake of an old track I made. I mainly used reFX Vanguard to incorporate the synths.
This is an old-school styled happy hardcore track I've worked on for a little while, I hope you enjoy! :D