This is such quintessential song in my life that I can't even imagine it not existing. It's become a staple in so many ways. I spun this one all the time when Worlds first came out, which was the year prior in 2014.

Always and forever will love this one, perfect album opener and I think it's a pretty significant decision for this project to have this particular porter song the thing that opens the entire project. Never knew how much that would mean to me when I did that.

I remember this one coming on when I was watching a world live performance, the Coachella one that he debuted it at, and being blown away. To this day I really love full stops in music and it always reminds me of this one.

And it's impossible to say, why I always feel this way.

I try to make a habit out of digging around soundcloud and bandcamp for indie music that I like via slouthing out various tags and following recommendations. Pretty sure this is the earliest example of me finding a song in this way.

Skywide does not go by this alias anymore, not sure how to find them since this song was pretty obscure. I've always loved the sort of ocean sounds and the way that they chop up yume no hajime ring ring to build a fun melody.

Skywide if you're reading this in 2024 - this track is still super dope!

I don't really know how I found this record in the first place, but RAC created a really fun set of pop records and my partner and I used to belt this one out in the car all the time

There's not much to say about this one besides that, I still really like it!

Rest in peace, Hitorie. (aka Wowaka)

Wowaka was the lead artist of Japanese rock ground "Hitorie:, who is still around as a group, having made for themselves and choosing to continue on after Wowaka's death.

That being said, Wowaka and the rest of the band is nothing short of extremely influential for me, and now listening to anything by them is bittersweet.

Wowaka made a lot of extremely popular Vocaloid music as well, culminating in a record called "Unhappy Refrain", which holds many iconic songs such as Rolling Girl, Worlds End Dancehall, and of course - Unhappy Refrain itself.

I will forever and always love everything that the Hitorie and Wowaka projects produced while Wowaka themselves were still alive. Amazing music and I binged a lot of their music a lot in 2015 when I was in college on my FiiO X3 music player.

While on the topic of Vocaloid stuff, Hiroyuki ODA's solo project I found via being "pipelined" from their Vocaloid project, short-formed to HSP.

Not a whole lot to say about this one other than the entire record this song comes from, titled "thirty" is a very good trance record with memorable melody lines from beginning to end. Still love Hiroyui ODAs musical and visual works.

This track is one hardly anyone knows about, if online stats are to be believed. AdyS released this song on a record called "So What" under an English Vocaloid label that was somewhat known at this time.

I still really love this albums style. They used Vocaloids that weren't super popular at the time, and I felt that they blended rock and dnb/electro styles very well. A trend that I still enjoy to this day!,

Liking Denpa in my late twenties is a lot less cool than it was at 17.

I used to play a lot of Beatmania IIDX and BMS during my late teens and early twenties. Camelia has a really cool technical style that lends itself to rhythm-game type music a lot.

I honestly cannot recall how I found this track but I do still like this era of Camellia music, lots of fun switch ups. I especially like the "taking her back under order" switchup where it gets kind of acidy.

Pretty sure I found this one via Osu?

Gotta respect the grind from Camellia. Great technical tracks even 10 years ago.

I recall the album that this song was on being very out of left field for Mau5.

The driving beat it has is still a pleasure to listen along to, though I admittetly haven't listened to this album at all since probably 2015.

This is an interesting track to be included because I do remember liking this song a lot, but this isn't the type of music I've listened to at all since then.

I appreciate kyaryu's attention to the cutesy art style but this sort of thing doesn't resonate with me anymore though.

This sort of reason is why I appreciate this project, though - it's nice to remember songs that I don't end up sticking with. Reminds me of a different time.

IIDX Pendulum was big the version of the game that was out at the time - and this was definitely one of my favourites, the other one is featured in a few tracks.

I was never really able to pass a USAO song on ANOTHER difficulty in IIDX, they were always way too hard.

I don't listen to much dubstep anymore but I do like this songs style. I really love being reminded of IIDX, it's a game I really loved but just don't have the time for anymore. Also I want to avoid speedrunning carpal tunnel.

This song is super beautiful, definitely a song that has stuck around for me. Further importance has been added to this track for me since in 2016 I saw Shelter Live in Toronto, and the live rendition of this song was a highlight of the show for me.

Growing old with someone, heartbreak, and love are all things that I really enjoy in stories and lyrics so this song struck a particular chord with me back then, and it continues to resonate today as well.

I'd rather give up, and be, happy.

The IIDX roots are strong here, this song was not in IIDX but Kors K was a favourite of mine, for many of the notable tracks you may know, such as kailua or smoooooch.

This one was on a record they had released solo at the time, very 2015 soundcloud future bassy, good stuff! this particular style of song has REALLY fallen by the wayside and is super indicitivie of a particular moment in time.

Not a favourite still by any means but such a nice time capsule piece.

This song is off the same record, iirc, that the previously song from Skywide was from in this compilation.

An all time favourite from IIDX for me, across any entry, let alone Pendulum.

The ANOTHER chart for this one was super fun and one of the first 11s I ever cleared.

The melody is a lot of fun, and the chiptune synth in the middle is such a nice switchup on the song and I like how it continues into the final leg of the track.

A IIDX all-timer for sure!

I want to echo a lot of what I said about the previous Hitorie track featured here, this song is a lot more math-y and closer to Wowaka's personal works than the previous song.

This one is one of the groups best tracks from before Wowaka passed away. The accentuation on the beats from Wowaka's singing and the way it turns into a spoken-word verse that is accentuated on the melody hits and builds into the main chorus is such a perfect song structure.

This whole record is great, you should dig up all of the bands work and give it a listen.

This song is another very interesting inclusion - music like this is very much made for a live show setting, something I didn't really appreciate when I first listened to this song.

Loud, glitchy, abrasive music isn't my vibe anymore so this is another good example of a good inclusion in the project from the lens of being music I don't like anymore.

None of the track listing on this compilation was intentional, aside from these two tracks - I do distinctly remember wanting it at the end. It wouldn't be for quite a while that I started worrying about track flow more. On this compilation it's weird!