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Molly Millions

By Disposable Planet on May 16, 2024 7:29 pm

The Full Length Album Music Video on Youtube

The Free Album on Bandcamp


"She held out her hands, palms up, the white fingers slightly spread, and with a barely audible click, ten double-edged, four-centimeter scalpel blades slid from their housings beneath the burgundy nails.

She smiled.  The blades slowly withdrew."


The Color of Television, Neuromancer themed album, Track #2 - "Molly Millions"

I hope it's alright - after some comments i've decided to continue uploading my Neuromancer album, The Color of Television, one track at a time to WB2024.   The full album is here for free licensed under CC Non-Commerical Share Alike with all M8 song bundles included: https://disposableplanet.bandcamp.com/album/the-color-of-television

All of these tracks fit under WeeklyBeats rules (even the two based on previous WIPs) - they were just all made at the same time instead of over the course of the year.  But if you'll permit me this technicality, you're in for a treat.

This week is Track 2 - Molly Millions - everyone's favorite character- the brazen, take-no-shit, cyberpunk razor girl of people's dreams.   Known as Steppin' Razor to the Zion Elders, and even as Sally Shears to some, she makes her appearance on this album right next to Case.

I wanted to start this album with some high energy songs before the seedier characters show up on the scene.  So the sharpened edge of this retro-future is right up front.   Case's song was a 7 minute console cowboy ode and Molly's tune shows she's got a little more emotion in those eyes behind the shades than she'd ever admit to in a fight.   It's true, Miss Linda Lee's song is faster and arguably happier, but that's one girl that's on way more drugs than Molly ever was and Linda's prone to burn out under the lights of Night City, if there ever was a person who pushed herself too far.

But Molly is a survivor, if anything - and her song has some claw-like razor-sharp hypersynths on the top three channels.   Rumor has it she's even graced the top channel with some graffiti of her initials somewhere in the waveforms.  The pre-hook melody is a delayed echoey synth and the main bouncy melody is a highly modified macrosyn Struck Drum patch with plenty of reverb.   Some simple breaks and a slightly punky bassline keeps her moving forward to take care of biz with her flechette pistol deployed and the retractable scalpel blades she keeps under her fingernails out for the locals' entertainment.   Even snuck some plucked macrosyn in there for atmosphere.

Remember, Molly can't cry with those mirrorshades surgically inset in to her cheekbones - she spits instead.

All character names and quotes from Neuromancer, by William Gibson.

This is entirely unofficial.

Dedicated to my folks, Ralph & Sandra.  RIP & infinite love.

Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)

Planetoid forever here.

Love this. This and Dune duke it out on the regular for my favorite book. The foley sounds are a great addition.

Is that koto in the middle? Love the sound choices. It’s a wild mix that I think fits the environment really well.

Love when the sub bass kicks in. Feels like home.

Regarding Neuromancer. I thought I'm pretty good in reading English, until I read Neuromancer. This wasn't decades ago, mind you. It was last year. So inaccessible for me, even though I absolutely love the derivative cyberpunk worlds it spawned.

jbarket wrote:

Planetoid forever here.

Love this. This and Dune duke it out on the regular for my favorite book. The foley sounds are a great addition.

Is that koto in the middle? Love the sound choices. It’s a wild mix that I think fits the environment really well.

Thanks jbarket!   I didn't intend for it to be a koto it's just a modified pluck instrument from the M8 Macrosynth.   But I'll take it!   

Yeah Neuromancer is def my favorite book.   I love science fiction/fantasy when the author actually has real prose chops.  It's found more often in soft sci-fi but Gibson has a leg over each side of that fence.   That's why I love Ray Bradbury and J.G. Ballard and Samuel R. Delany and Ursula K. LeGuin (especially her fantasy stuff).   Some of my other favorites include The Martian Chronicles and Myths of the Near Future and Wizard of Earthsea.    V.A.L.I.S. by Philip K Dick has a special place in my heart as well as it is quite possibly Dick's best work and one of the greatest psychological science fiction novels ever written.   I use a lot of samples from an old reading of that book in my other work like on Dystopiatown and elsewhere.   Thanks for listening!


jimmac wrote:

Love when the sub bass kicks in. Feels like home.

Regarding Neuromancer. I thought I'm pretty good in reading English, until I read Neuromancer. This wasn't decades ago, mind you. It was last year. So inaccessible for me, even though I absolutely love the derivative cyberpunk worlds it spawned.

Thanks jimmac - I've been rocking your ambient.    Neuromancer is a dense and chewy book for sure.   But I've always found there is a sort of poetic lyricism to the web it spins.   I just happened to click with the book as happens for some but it's a matter of taste.  The TV show "Halt and Catch Fire" (not sure if you've seen it its about the early era of the microcomputer revolution) poked fun at Neuromancer's difficulty by having one of the main characters read it in a scene that takes place in the 80s and be like "What the hell is this?".    Thanks for listening!

I was listening without having read the explanation. The tones took me to a summer vibe, light and full of positive energy. The high synth that appears at the first minute with its short sliding notes brings a whimisical, young, and bright vibe to the whole track. I liked it alot and still had it playing in my head after the end. Favoriting this one.

Kedbreak136 wrote:

I was listening without having read the explanation. The tones took me to a summer vibe, light and full of positive energy. The high synth that appears at the first minute with its short sliding notes brings a whimisical, young, and bright vibe to the whole track. I liked it alot and still had it playing in my head after the end. Favoriting this one.

Thanks kedbreak, glad the tune resonated with you.   It does have a summer vibe to it.   Summers in the Sprawl.

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