Since 2018, musicians and YouTubers Andrew Huang and Rob Scallon, as the band First of October, have gone into a recording studio every year (excluding 2020) on October 1st. Their challenge: to write and record an entire ten-track album in a day. Huang and Scallon are both accomplished musicians with unique, music-related YouTube content: Huang is known for making songs out of sounds made from random objects and animals, such as music made from pets, pet food, and pet toys, and has a series called 4 Producers 1 Sample, in which four producers (or groups of producers), including Huang, make a beat out of the same sample. Scallon also has several unique and thought-provoking videos of his own, including a series in which he makes metal songs that feature instruments not commonly associated with the genre, such as a $1 guitar, a shovel, and a harp, and a series in which he tries to learn the fundamentals of an unusual instrument such as the talkbox in a limited amount of time with someone who has mastered that instrument. The duo has also worked together in the Sonic Boom series, where they create a song in an hour or 90 minutes (depending on the challenge) while working within certain parameters (like having to use a specific instrument or incorporate a certain musical characteristic).
However, the recording session for this year’s album, Round 6, was a little different. For one, the project was postponed to October 19th because members of the band’s production team contracted COVID. Secondly, Scallon was thinking a lot about video games while planning the recording sessions because he was busy creating his own video game, Fretless. Because of this, many of the album’s tracks were related to video games, as evident in the album’s artwork and with the inclusion of several synthesizers that utilized sounds from the SNES and Gameboy consoles.
Since 2018, as part of the First of October tradition, Huang has uploaded a video made up of music videos created from footage of the band recording each of the album’s songs, while Scallon has uploaded a video that chronicles the making of the album (below the next paragraph). Credit: ANDREW HUANG (YouTube)Round 6 begins with “Start!,” a 3-second track featuring the sound of the Gameboy turning on. The second track, which is also the title track, is a go-go-like rap that’s both about the album itself and an homage to video games. Although this is the first time First of October has written a song like this, it may be the best song on the album because of its well-thought-out production and its uniqueness.
The album also marks the return of fictitious character Greg and introduces a new fictitious character, Dungeon Man. Dungeon Man, the namesake of the third song, also appears in the song “Final Boss.” (Huang and Scallon even considered having Dungeon Man appear in another song, “Same Old Game,” but decided not to do it.) On the other hand, Greg has a more detailed backstory. While First of October was recording their song “Don’t Go to My House” for their debut album, 2018’s Ten Hours (named for the amount of time that the album was written and recorded in), Scallon came up with the line “This goes to you, Greg!” A year later, during the recording sessions for their album Gourmet Ravioli (2019), the character of Greg was further developed in the song “Thirty-First of October,” in which it is revealed that he sells Halloween costumes. On the following album, 2021’s Gotta Record Everything Good, the band even wrote his theme song, “Greg!,” and named the album after him (Gotta Record Everything Good is an acronym for Greg). However, they neglected writing a song that referred to Greg in their albums Chaos (2022) and Across The Road (2023), so this year, Scallon got a friend of his (who had already dressed as Greg for the album cover of Gotta Record Everything Good) to stop by the recording studio that the sessions for Round 6 were taking place at to play the role of Greg again. Scallon’s friend even brought a baby bottle filled with milk labeled “Greg Milk.” The milk, combined with Greg’s appearance at the studio, served as the inspiration for the energetic, punk-inspired song “Day Old Milk.”
The group’s fun sense of humor is showcased throughout the album. For instance, on the eighth track, the short, minimal “I Am a Full Grown Man and I’m Wearing a Retainer,” you can hear Huang laughing as he sings the song. In the following song, the SNES and Gameboy-heavy “Let’s Fight,” Scallon, acting as an announcer introducing the characters of a video game, says, “Select your character’s tie color” after proclaiming that “the previous [round] was a tie.” As a contrast, the album closes with “It’s Time to Move On,” a solemn, reflective song built around a melody played on bear bells, a set of bear-shaped toy bells that are featured prominently on nearly half of the album.
Overall Review: 9.4/10: Although I wished that some of the songs on Round 6 were a little longer and that more instruments were added, it’s still a really fun album to listen to, and I think it might be their best yet. I look forward to First of October’s seventh album!
