1KIJE^3 is the first single released under alpha.zero and the first released song by 1oolm.

The single was released digitally on Bandcamp on July 20th, 2023, then on 5 other streaming platforms on September 3rd, 2023.

This release is followed by Constraint.



A lo-fi inspired track, 1KIJE^3 is a rather anticlimactic debut to the now typically hardcore alpha.zero label.

Trivia

• The name 1KIJE^3 was suggested by owaloid: "1" stands for 1oolm, "KIJE" is short for kijetesantakalu, "^3" comes from the track's original name, X Cubed (Cubic Root Remix).
• The aforementioned kijetesantakalu is contained within the outro, viewable with a spectrogram.



• The song used to be called 1_KIJE^3 with an underscore, but that underscore has been removed after the streaming release. Some music distributors didn't take well to such special characters.

Personal Experience: 1oolm

Background

1KIJE^3 as a song has a mildly more interesting history than any other so far. Makes sense for my first release.
Let's run it back to February 2023: I just moved into a new apartment, my Windows 7 laptop's charger is on the verge of death, and I feel like making something. Enter Endspiel: the final seventh bonus track for the now scrapped X Cubed EP. Using Frederic Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 4, it was going to be a heartfelt breakbeat sendoff to the hardcore EP.
It did not work, I sucked. But the project got to enough of a stage to have an end section with the final four chords of the classical composition. I decided to have X Cubed loop as an album, using its final section in the beginning. All of that didn't go far, but one day I felt silly and just went "it would be really funny if i remixed a hardcore track into lofi", and so, on February 26th, I started work on X Cubed (Cubic Root Remix), an experiment sampling those four chords that felt both refreshing and awkward at the same time.

Production

If you've listened to 1KIJE^3, you've listened to Cubic Root. It just used to be worse. But honestly, I still kind of liked it back in the day. I vividly remember lying in bed, playing idle games on my phone with the song in the background and zoning out a little bit.
The first known iteration of the track dates back to February 28th, but nothing happened until April 2nd, when I actually sat down and spent a few hours.
You can listen to a snippet of the original X Cubed track here:



...and of the Cubic Root Remix here:



Both audio files date back to that day.
After maybe a few days of work, I thought it'd be funny to make the song change up for the latter half or so. The bass part was conceptualised and worked out in a few hours. Used my hardcore kick creation knowledge to just grab a Sytrus bass and do stuff. There's nothing else to it. As for the only other element in the part, it's the same sound used throughout the entire track but gated using Gross Beat.
This visualiser snippet also dates back to April 2nd:

Was I specifically proud of any of this? Not at all. That's why it hasn't gone released for roughly 3 months since the last progress in April, until...

Release

In July, I was starting to talk in a Discord server. There were enough familiar people to ease myself in, but more people that I've never met before, or just dudes I've never gotten around to hitting up, for example, Masernerd. We started talking in that server.
Point is, new people = new opportunities to show off my work. I sure as hell was shy about it, and while recording a demonstration of a VST plugin I was recommending, I showed the Cubic Root Remix. It was not the focus of the video, but it attracted the attention of a few people, more than the plugin for sure. (what a shame, SPAN's really good, still use it)
Here's that specific video:

Their positive feedback compelled me to work on releasing the track alongside this website. I already had a base with setting up my Bandcamp, so I went from there, starting a separate mastering project to fix the horribly muffled feeling sound.
And on July 20th, 2023, my production career was properly started, because of some friends who really liked the kijetesantakalu.
In total, I spent 17 hours on the original project file and 4 hours on the mastering project.
This was the start of a different era for me.

Reception

"That's cool and all but where is the sex update?" - AddisonJudah

Not much happened on release day. I announced the release in the alpha.zero Discord, and all the feedback I was seeing from those guys is regarding the state of the website. But a slightly sloppy release didn't stop this song from becoming essentially my #1 hit on everyone's list, breaking 100 Spotify streams basically the month it was released on the platform.
This kind of feedback is nice to see, but also throws me a dilemma. This track is not me whatsoever. It started as a joke. I loathe its production quality. People like what's not even my sound.
Y'know, fair play to them! Hardcore ain't for everyone.

- March 5, 2024

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