2017 Review: Makeup and Vanity Set

As I did in 2016, I'm going to run through a review of yk records releases from 2017.

It's not an outlandish statement to say that Makeup and Vanity Set is an extremely prolific musician. In 2017 alone, he released five "official" albums, two full-length Subscriber exclusives of non-b-side work, four 10 minute sound explorations, some remixes and contributed music to a Netflix movie. Not to mention that he was also recording music for release next year. Oh, and he also has a side project he rarely talks about. Despite all of that, I'm sure I'm not even scratching the surface of the full body of work within a calendar year.

One of those many releases was for the indiegame Trackless, providing the original score that accompanies the game. The game itself is an homage to early puzzlers like Myst, text-based adventure games from the DOS era and even some early VR undertakings. The video below will give you a good summary of the style of the game and the vibe of the MAVS score behind it: It's not your typical looking game and it's a Makeup and Vanity Set composition that takes on many new sounds and styles. It still often has a dark and foreboding vibe but, overall, it's a decidedly lighter tone that pulls you forward into something, rather than chases you from behind (metaphorically speaking of course). With the amount of work that MAVS releases in a year, it's impossible for me to be involved in every single one and, honestly, I'm glad he's found a large enough audience that he can spread it around.

We released the soundtrack digitally and on clear cassette, given that the game itself is an homage to the 80's, why not also make the physical format version a nod to that time as well. Furthermore, the potential degradation of the music through the tape decay was just too alluring.