Backtrack is a series devoted to backtracking to tell short stories about songs I've written.

Back in 2007 I was hired by a mobile developer to write 16 one minute loops of general MIDI music for a puzzle game. Over a span of about three months I wrote the tracks, which are pretty much all over the map. The only commonality was direction from the client to make them somewhat dancy.

This particular track is probably one of the better ones of the bunch. Given the requirements, I took the opportunity to use my favorite tool at the time, Tabledit, (MIDI Guitar Tablature Editor Software) to create all of the music. This was one of the very first game-related projects I ever took on, and the experience helped at least somewhat in getting me interested in writing for games in general, even though the music was never actually used by the client, and I never really got to play the game while it was being developed. It may sound like a bit of a horror story but at the time I was happy enough to get paid to write music (and I try not to forget that!)

After years of dormancy, these tracks made their way onto a release called ’Limeade Grin’.

Limeade Grin is an album of dressed up General MIDI loops. But originally, these songs were written for a cell phone game called "Wasabi Puzzle", back in 2007, one of the very first game projects I ever worked on. It was a sushi-themed puzzle game that ended up being released without any music, for some reason. So I had these 16 perfectly good loops with no home ...

All of the titles associated with this album are anagrams, can you figure them all out?

Backstory

Limeade grin. We all saw it. Down by the Neon Levee, the wolf had made herself known. The government had made a habit of rejecting safety legislation. "What's the Veto News?", whispered Jesse, but of course that wasn't important now, with the wild canine so close. There was something different about her. She reminded me of a fox I once knew, the daughter of a circus mogul… a regular three tent heir.

We had brought along our conic cat, Funnel, the oddly shaped thing.A monk personified, Funnel had spent many years at Math Fur Priory, calculating the spiritual purpose of feline follicles. "It's Her Ex", Jesse murmured to us. But we told her to pipe down. Funnel and the Wolf with the limeade grin had been lovers before the cat became a member of the cloth, but we had seen that story many times. "I see dots…". The wolf had sensed their presence, and it stopped her dead in her tracks. Mere sections ago, she had caught whiff of this same scent. "Niece twin." The wolf's sister and the wolf's mother had each given birth on the same day. A peculiar nickname indeed, and one that very few would recognize, save Jesse and the Wolf with the limeade grin.

When the wolf was a teen, fortune presented itself to their family, in the form of one hot genie. As the youngest in the tree, Jesse was given a wish. While at university, she had fallen for a local with a great big cow. On the eve of a great storm, the cow was swept away, and the local failed to survive. In memory, Jesse used her to wish to restore the townie's ox to her side. It should be known that the family had terminology for just about everything. Jesse and the ox often laughed over coconuts and cheese, and as a result, its return came to be known as the first of many "Coconut Reunions".

"Cut! Wolf, you're daydreaming again! This picture will never get made if I can't have you all focusing." The director had been directing all morning, and his patience waned. "Actor, Accouter! Jesse, how many times must I remind you to keep your outfit upon your person?" Jesse strolled off stage, and with a dramatic turn, pointed towards the set and yelled, "There is nothing there! Nothing there for me! I am gone! I am taking the cat with me." The director, nonplussed, noted to himself that as invitees invite additional members onto the cast, they tend to create an unstable work environment. He was glad the cat would be leaving; the script never called for one anyway. "Rarify, Oh Trump!", the director shouted. We were never quite sure who this Trump deity was, but it seemed to ease his nerves. The wolf with the limeade grin strolled off set and returned to her place in the field.