#neil cipher

ナイトヴェールへようこそ

I like Ruler. Easily a top five character. However, their solo/hype tracks have been... Underwhelming? Their first solo was a straight cover of Labyrinth from Hawaii Part II, and that's good! I like it! But it is also just Labyrinth. They then got Reflection Chamber, a very chill track, and that's also great, but in the long run it's not something that I return to. They're great tracks, but in the long term they don't stick with me. It's kind of similar to how I felt about Detective Hat Kid, another top five character with somewhat underwhelming tracks.

Hat Kid's solos, I'd say, are better then Ruler's, but they kind of did the same thing for a while. TOPHAMHAT-KID and Something Ain't Right are both very focused on Electro Swing, and I really like Electro Swing, but when you have two tracks filling the same role focusing on the same thing it can feel a little much. But in LR2 Hat Kid got a new track that didn't use any Electro Swing, focusing far more on her video game sources, and it's a vibe! I really wanted something similar to happen to Ruler and I think ナイトヴェールへようこそ might just be that, while also staying true to what Ruler is trying to be.

A Ballad of Fiedler and Mundt is one hell of a base. I've tried listening to Welcome To Night Vale before and I like it, but didn't end up following up on it that much. I know it's designed to be listened to in any order, but the number of episodes intimidated me none the less. For that reason I don't fully understand why Night Vale is related to Time, but the vibes are perfect for Ruler. And on top of it is so much hip hop! It fits very well with with the more trippy vibe the track goes for, and hearing rap bard on top of non rap beats is in general something I enjoy a lot. And that art! Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum torn down, revealing a wasteland of attractions with the only sign of life being this one tv, complete with original stop motion animation and an omage to Lemon Demon!? What else is there to really say.

Neil's Rhapsody

I like Neil. Easily a top five character. That said for a good amount of time before this match I rather stupidly thought he had a limited pool of pulls. As someone who's listened to every Lemon Demon and Mouth album multiple times I felt that Neil had a, I dunno, countable number of possibilities. I felt I knew everything he could do, if that makes sense. Disney Channel is a wild card that I enjoy, but his usage of it has been pretty minimal. That said he does consistently use it (even if it's once or twice per track) and when he does use it creatively it's pretty good (Bust-inator and Mouth Lemonade). Of course when the tracks started coming out for this match I immediately realized that even if it's a smaller pool it's fucking Neil Cicerega, that pool is really fucking good. And Neil's Rhapsody certainly tries to show the versatility of Disney Channel. key word tries. I don't feel all the Disney Channel pulls stick out quite enough, beyond the obvious exception of Raine's Rhapsody as the base.

I don't want to say I slept on it, but-

I've been doing the YouTube Boycott for a while now, and it's absolute hell doing it in the tourney community because half of everything is on YouTube primarily and even the ones that aren't are moving to YouTube and there's a bunch of stuff I haven't been able to look at for the last, uh, *checks ladybugmonkey13* 120-ish days! That said I have used a YouTube to mp4 converter called Freemake which gives you the option to watch the videos in browser. Sometimes. For me it more often just makes you watch in browser. I know, or at least remember hearing, that converters still give the site traffic so I've been keeping my use of it to a minimum though. Since not every LR2M6 track released on SoundCloud alongside their YouTube uploads I used it to listen to those tracks only on YouTube a few times. Unfortunately that ment some tracks I could only listen to a few times until recently, when they finally got on SoudCloud. That's why I'm making this now and not last month!

Neil's Rhapsody was unfortunately a victim of this, and at the time I was pretty underwhelmed. You know, a track called "Neil's Rhapsody" gave high expectations, and it didn't quite match the impact. It didn't help that I can't see the sample list with YouTube to mp4 converters, so I couldn't see that the main instrumental is called Raine's Rhapsody. I was expecting a grand melody of pulls, Something worthy of being called a rhapsody, and what I got didn't meet that expectation.

Additionally, since I couldn't tell much about the instrumental that only brought me closer to what I did recognize, the vocals, and especially Bodies. Why Bodies? It feels slightly over done to me, partially due to it appearing in two previous, admittedly quite good, tracks (Top of the Unholy Totem and Mouth Lemonade) and partially Bodies's inherent repetitivity. It's used well, but that doesn't stop it from being redundant, you know? And after listening to it again after so long, that can really go for most of the non-Disney Channel pulls. All of them have been used before. I'd go as far as to say they overshadow some of the most interesting Disney pulls, like Welcome to Amphibia, It's Gonna Get A Little Weird, and Kim Possible because of how much more time and focus they get! Again, excluding Owl House.

This sort of leads to something I've been feeling for a while in tournies, and especially felt during LR2. Yes, characters can make better use of their more neglected aspects, but is it enough? I'm kind of torn, because on one side they're doing just that, they're acknowledging their less used options. That's great! But on the other, there's so much more evidence they won't do that. They might be using it now, but historically they could just go back to doing what they've always done. Would you rather vote for character that's consistently used all their kit, or a character that only just started using all their kit? It's something of a glass half full/empty situation, but I sadly lean a bit more towards empty on this one.

All that said, I appreciate what Neil's Rhapsody at least tries to accomplish, and can now say that's it's a very catchy track. While it's more derivative than I think it was ment to be with lots of repeated samples, they are still good samples. If nothing else, it's at least on par with Mouth Lemonade.

oh yeah, uh, art. I was also pretty underwhelmed by it. While the switching up and down are interesting, there's not as much substance to it for me. It's just Bill smiling like creep and Neil doing what he usually does. It's a cool idea, but could've gone farther. Granted, this part is mostly based on my memory of the video, so maybe if I looked at it now I'd have a similar turn around on it. We'll find out as soon as YouTube stop using fucking AI verification and other bullshit! Also the silhouettes at the end are a cool.

Travel Back In Time With Me

I will never escape the Happy Monster Band. This is the fate of all Tally Hall fans. It's a shame they don't actually sample HMB at all, just reference it.

This is such a cute track, it has a childlike innocence that will soon die in a massive explosion, but let's not think about that now! This is a prime example of all the untapped potential these two have just from their primary sources. Neils focus on Dinosaurchestra (the album) and Ruler using some great Tally Hall song they haven't used before, The way Misery Fell and Dinosaurchestra (the songs) meld together is fantastic. This whole thing is fantastic. Not an all time great by any means, but it's so cute and wholesome. They should make a kids show based on this! Kids show like Hapyp Monster Band.

As for art, it's a good bit of nostalgia for the days of Disney Junior. It does a good job combining aspects from both Dinosaurhestra and Happy Monster Band. Good stuff. I haven't actually seen the video for this one, but I thiiiink it uses animation, and I really hope it's good.

Achilles

Hey, another track I couldn't listen to for ages.

Thank god I have better opinions on the rest of them, and holy fuck. Back In Time was the calm before the storm, as everything after it body slams me.

This is much more of a Neil Cipher track then I expected, with several interesting pulls from the Mouth albums, even dipping into the unreleased "Mouth Craft". And not to mention Sundial, I love sundial! When it showed up I had my mind blown with a "THAT'S why it's called Achilles!" realization! Why hasn't he used more View Monster, thats a good album. Ruler doesn't quite have the same impact in the track, but when they do. I mean, they're responsible for the main backing track, Strange Hours, and frankly that's half the reason this track is so good. More of this etherealness like the stuff from their hype track. And also The Trap! The Trap is an underrated Tally Hall song, I'm glad it got to be used.

Both characters make great use of their sources, and even the stuff they've already used get brought back in interesting ways, like Touch Tone Telephone, Stressed Out, and Ruler of Everything.

AND THE ART IS BEAUTIFUL!?!? WHAT THE FUCK!? IT'S SO GOOD AND NONE OF IT SHOWS UP IN LORE!?!? I would take whatever's going on here in lore over the next track, but what we do get it still pretty cool. And the SoundCloud version your seeing isn't doing it justice, on youtube there's a whole two thirds with moving pieces and references, genuinely awesome. But just the SoundCloud version has so much anyway, to Rulers new steampunk time traveler esc outfit (complete with mechanical hands), his knife made of the Tally Hall tie colors, seemingly on the verge of stabbing Bill Cipher's eye while being haunted by a unique split face pyramid Neil/Bill fusion. It make me think of what a "physical form" Neil Cipher would look like in megamix.

Killing Time

The funniest intro to any track. Slay The Princess Narrator to Shia Leboeuf to Twilight Zone works so well and all the different monologues, all stylistically cohesive but wildly different in context, bouncing off each other near perfectly is nuts.

This track is almost haunting focusing on the more melancholiac songs of each artist. There's not really thaaat much happening at any given moment but maaaaaan. I'm falling through space. I'm witnessing the birth and death of stars. I'm wanting to finally place STP.

This is another reason that I wasn't feeling Neil before the match, I don't feel like I can get the same "oh my god" kind of moments with him because of how familiar I am with his sources. I enjoy what Neil has, but several times Ruler controls the tone. They swing in with Night Vale and Slay The Princess and I'm not supposed to take notice?

I can see myself not being into this track sometimes, but dame, if there was only one track I could call "beautiful" it'd be this one.

TAKE BACK THE HALL

So I'm going to be completely honest here, as part of the staying off YouTube stuff I've been doing my best to not encourage others to use YouTube, but if you want to see the visuals for any of these tracks, any of them, watch TAKE BACK THE HALL. No others. Just TAKE BACK THE HALL. You will not be sorry. It's a crime that I can't watch this more. Well, I can, but my morals won't permit me to. Someone did compress it enough to send it in Discord, but that's not practical. Even if you don't, listen to it fully before reading what I have to say. At least listen like to the first few minutes to understand what's happening.

I'll give you time.

Okay, that's enough!

I'm going to talk about each segment separately because why not! While each segment have "names," they're just the base track. I'll be giving them my own names because it's fun to name things and admittedly the official "titles" are kind of boring to me. They're just the base track. That's it.

PRELUDE ~ HOW 'BOUT THIS!? (Intro)

I'm mostly giving this part a section as a joke, but I'm glad they did the most obvious thing they could, I love this scene in Gravity Falls and Time Baby's voice fits Ruler really well.

Welcome to Your Fall (Mirai Nikki)

I have no idea where to find this instrumental I can't find it anywhere and I don't think "Mirai Nikki - Hide and Seek" is the right song because every time I look for it I get the same creepy stalker song thing that sounds nothing like this part and I really want to find what this instrumental cus it's so good where the hell is it-

This really threw me for a loop with the art, feeling like a manga panel, not at all what I expected, almost makes me uncomfortable. (I also just realized Ruler has the Little Dipper constellation on their back, that's fun.) But you know what, this part is fantastic! The chiptune-y instrumental and fast paced vocals hook me just right. If the entire track focused on just this I would've loved it.

And then it happened.

Mmm, Chicken (Mucka Blucka)

This caught me very off guard when I first heard/watched this. I was so confused, but I still enjoyed it. The bait and switch from a fitting clash of gods to something far more goofy, it's almost violent whiplash on a first listen, but it's still a clean transition. the art for this segment is especially interesting, as most of the following art will seemingly use this as a template, including the last one. More on that later. I gotta commend the use of 3D models and the very slight animation of them here. Also the goofy bouncing the screen does with the music sometimes, it's a good example of what music looks like to me.

And with the music, I don't want to call it a trick, but the Mmmbop x Chillie's Baby Back Ribs is such a cool vibe. And then we get more Chonny Jash! I actually hadn't listened to the Chonny version of Mucka Blucka in a while so I didn't recognize it until I got to see the sourcelist. It really fits both characters for the obvious Tally Hall reasons but also fits Bill's vibe musically.

Against: The Clock (Lemming Demon)

At this point it's clear what's happening, we're doing a little big of everything.

the art for this one might be my favorite, as it's so cohesive! It really goes all in on the video game-y parts of both characters, Neil with Computer Fighters and Ruler with Labyrinth. Ruler McSkirmish vs .GIFfaneil (only slightly cursed) especially.

In general, the gameness of this section is amazing! Lemming Demon being a remix of Lemming 2 music, Labyrinth's chiptune aspects, the 8-bit use of When He Died in the back!? And then Do It All The Time comes in, oh my god! The only issue I have with this section is that they don't hit the final "time" in Do It All The Time leaving it feeling a little unresolved but the rest transitions nicely into-

The Other Match (Coralaroline)

This one is really cute, it makes me smile :) Coraline is a good film, and this captures the feel good parts of that movie well, and to get a little speculative, some of the darker parts as well with Spiral of Ants. The art is also really neat, turning the eye into webs and a button. It also references a very specific Mind Electric animation, one by Lonely Man's Lazarus. Or maybe that's just the project name. You're probably expecting another thing about my refusing to go on youtube again, but someone actually put it on The Internet Archive, so you can just watch it there!

I Can't Believe It's Not Persona (Star Vs.)

The name for this one is mostly just because 1: the art is Persona themed and 2: it doesn't sample Persona. Why make the art Persona based if you're not gonna use it? I mean, I know why, it's a KFAD reference, but you know what I mean. I actually thought it used Persona until recently because of aforementioned description reasons. I can also really easily see something Persona related to fall under Time or Royalty. Instead it mainly uses a cover of Shine Bright from Star vs the Forces of Evil. I got a good bit of nostalgia from this one when I finally found out what it was. And even if it's a bit confusing thematically that art is still really good, especially the Persona-fied designs for all the characters!

We May Go Crazy ~ BOOM (Boom is already a good name)

CRASHBOX!? CRASHBOX IN MY MASHUP WEEK MEGAMIX!?!? I LOVE CRASHBOX! AND I ONLY GOT TO KNOW IT WAS CRASHBOX NOW!? FUCK! Truthfully I only saw like two episodes as a kid but the memories stuck with me for years until I finally bothered to search "Jamaican man in a submarine in a fish tank" and finally rediscovered it. Still my type of show, you should watch it. The distortion guitar mixed with the Futurama bells and jamming vocals, it's amazing! Possibly the best part next to Mirai Nikki. It's one of those two for me, with Lemming in a close third.

We Went Crazy (Bad King Kong)

This might be even more of a shift then Miria Mikkito Mucka Blucka. This really feels like the part where everything just breaks, partially due to the return of the Cas von da Pol art style we saw way back in Laelius de Amicitia from WR2. We go from two increasingly climactic sounding chunks only to get slapped by this, it's great. But a lot about the art is slightly messed up as well, Bill in the back is just a face, Ruler is turned to stone and Neil is covered in little guys. So much is turned around her. It's like the sequal to the Mucka Blucka part. The samples here are also pretty neat, Ruler providing the comparatively silly instrumental of Bad King Kong and Neil giving a straight forward Fell In Love With A Girl and a very scrambled Wannabe.

Sacred Swamps (No Big Deal)

Another cute part. So many of these Disney pulls have been stuff I've heard and just didn't remember until finally looking through the sources because it's been so long since I last watched most of the shows that I don't recognize the songs from the instrumental alone. No Big Deal actually works really well with Tally Hall's sound. Probably the simplest segment, but still good. The art turning everything into the Good & Evil album cover is nice, though for some reason Neil doesn't look right to me. I think his shoulders are too broad.

INEVITABILITY (Eventuality)

I'm going to honest I forgot Eventuality, the Lemon Demon song, existed. I like Damn Skippy but Eventuallity wasn't one that clicked when I first listened through the album so I never really revisited it. But I know someone who's really into it, and now that I've been able to relisten to the segment it's actually quite good.

On the Damn Skippy note, this is probably my favorite art of all of them! I can't explain it, it's just the nicest to look at for me.

But the music! It starts out super upbeat and actually samples Happy Monster Band, hell yeah! But then we get the switch up of Bill singing Cannibal and Ruler singing Cabinet Man! Very thematic for the lore or the tournament. Neil Cipher is Bill Cipher in Neil Cicerega's body, effectively being the cannibal leeching off of Neil's body. Ruler meanwhile is a hive mind that temporarily stopped being a hive mind to have a single personality steer for a while only to be dragged out because all the other parts of Ruler thought they was jepodizing their purpose to protecting time! (I'm half human and half machine) That purpose making them perceive anyone who disrupts time in anyway as a threat! (I won't hurt you unless you cheat). The more frantic it gets as it goes along as well, a great conclusion, except for-

(ortxE) esnesnoN suoireS

I mean, it's 95% Hidden in the Sand, just with revered "Why did you do it?" instead of Marvin. It does it's job, though I kind of wished something a bit more climactic finished us off. But with how much good stuff there already was, I can't be too upset about it. The rubber hose style and petrified cipher sinking into fire is also neat.

So how the did it end?

In heart break :)

It doesn't matter who I voted or who won, I think I'd feel the same way regardless. Neil did not deserve this, and frankly it's a little criminal that he had to go out now. Again, this match should've been an endgame thing. But we still have Ruler, and I did vote for them. I voted for them very hesitantly. I think I've made myself clear as to why I voted Ruler throughout the previous segments, but Neil truly is one of the best megamix characters, and I wish I got a chance to vote for him in any other match. Part of me will forever wonder if it should've been Neil. It's far too early to say if I regret voting Ruler, but I don't think I would've made a difference. Both with the pain I feel and the final results. That fifty-ish vote difference will haunt me forever.

There's been lots of talk on discord about how much the YouTube audience loves Ruler, and this was the first time I really felt it. I don't want to be too mean spirited about it, but I do think that blaming it all on the YouTube audience isn't fair. Granted I started as YouTube audience and voted Ruler so maybe everything I say is invalid. But as that person I feel that saying it's because of the YouTune voters that only care about Ruler and nothing else makes most of their votes seem hollow, ignores the people that do prefer Ruler, and ignores the people only on YouTube that do enjoy the whole tourney. I don't think anyone on Discord has gone so far as to denounce the entire YT audience, but with the consistency I see people talk about the YT in regards to Ruler it can almost feel like it sometimes, at least to me. I'm not sure how relevant any of this actually is, it's just stuff I think about a lot.

I believe there's a timeline where Ruler definitively won based on merits alone and not the few dozen people who only care about them. And while we're at it, there's timelines where Neil won by those fifty votes and Ruler was the one that didn't deserve a 1-2 placement! There's worlds where I voted Neil, and worlds where I couldn't vote at all! There may even be one where this was finals.

We'll never know what Neil would become if he won, nor do we know what Ruler will do with their win. But maybe, just maybe, the resulting music will be so good that it almost makes us think it was worth it.

Anyway, fucked up timeline to live in, should've been a split decision.