Listening: Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube
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And the latest STAFFcirc release is the only original album of this year, so far. Volume 10, which to be very clear is not volume X, is a followup to the very first STAFFcirc album, released in 2015, hence the somewhat confusing subtitle STAFFcirc vol. 1 2. That album was frog-themed and released in collaboration with chiptune label Ubiktune, and so this new album is also frog-themed and released in collaboration with chiptune label Ubiktune. They even got as a special guest contributor Japanese composer Hironobu Yahata, who composed for a Frogger game one time; that’s how serious they are about frogs at the Sexy Toads And Frogs Friend circle.
As is tradition, this is an “anything goes” variety pack STAFFcirc compilation, and since this is by far their largest album release to day (even larger than both volume 3 albums combined), they were able to pack a little more variety in there than usual. Though I wouldn’t say it’s more variegated on average, there’s just more of it so there are more opportunities for you to get jumpscared by Kirby’s Dream Land 3 samples or hip-hop.
Wait, did I say hip-hop? Yep! This isn’t the first STAFFcirc compilation to have vocals, they did that ages ago in fact, but this one definitely has the most lyrics of anything they’ve released so far. Which isn’t to say the majority of tracks have vocals or anything, because they definitely don’t, but there’s more than a couple! Like five of them! I didn’t count but that sounds right. There’s also a lot of frog noises too, which are in their own way a kind of vocal. There’s even a song that’s kind of about that!
I liked this album the most of the three from this year, it had the most space to get freaky and it sure seized on that opportunity to get freaky. Though don’t be scared, there’s a lot of less freaky, more comfy cute and jazz fusiony tunes in here too that you could play for your normal friends. Then again, why would you want that??? Get weirder friends.
The video upload for this album features some fun animations and visualizers by the artists or friends of the label and is the way I’d for sure recommend giving the album its first listen.
Recommended tracks:
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“frog and cat” (petet) is sneakily microtonal
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“Koax” (Lasertooth) turns croaking into some choppy IDM
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“Frog Dance” (tenby) was originally supposed to be a calm track, but as you can see, very much did not end up that way
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“[swamp];Rat-P427 & The Big Frawg;[opolis,];[fearofdark’s song, covered];Its A Jungle Out There;swamprat_anthropomorphic” (TiffanyNeat, orig. Fearofdark) remixes a chiptune from the first volume into something more broken, which you might be able to tell just from the title
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“USE? INJURE? FROG CLIMAX” (Chimeratio & Cryptovolans as Zoomlight) sounds the most like it came out of a Frogger game, so it’s appropriate that the video for this song features a bunch of Frogger game footage
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“A Life in Frogaria” (cubenoy22) has a bunch of folky jauntiness
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“Cheesecake Shoals” (SupaBubba) is that track with the Kirby samples in it, it’s very much a Jun Ishikawa pastiche overall
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“i miss my frog” is some silky smooth instrumental R&B
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