Early Exit

1. A Beginning Without a Concept

Early Exit was not originally conceived as a particularly conceptual work.

After Refrexion (2015), the first piece TM and I created using MuseScore, turned out well, I thought we should continue working in that way. I began adding harmonies in MuseScore without any grand intention, and as I developed them further, this track emerged.

At the time, I had not yet introduced Studio One. The entire production was completed within MuseScore. The mix was also done inside MuseScore, and the export was an MP3 at 128 kbps. It was not what would normally be considered a full mix. I simply adjusted the balance of the sounds that were generated.

The only place it was released was YouTube. There was no SoundCloud account.

FMT had not yet systematized its activities on the web as it does now, and the concept of a Production Note did not exist. That is why the early works do not have Production Notes.

The title was not deeply considered. When (most likely) Brazil was eliminated early from the World Cup, TM jokingly said, “Why not call it Early Exit?” There was no further meaning behind it.

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2. Time Gives Words Meaning

As time passed, the framework of FMT became clearer and the production environment changed.

The starting point this time was a purely technical curiosity: what would happen if I reconstructed a past work using my current setup?

I chose this piece because, even at the time, I had a relatively clear image of its finished form. There were specific elements I had wanted to change but could not realize back then.

The accidental title “Early Exit” also began to resonate with my present state.

Originally it simply meant early elimination. Now it feels slightly different. It is closer to being “the first to step away.” It means stepping back from a competitive structure. By “Game,” I am referring to the broader system of the market and evaluation cycles, where continued output and measurable results are constantly expected. The phrase “an elegant retreat,” as described by Uchida Tatsuru, also comes to mind.

The point is not about winning or losing. I have participated in that Game long enough, and there were moments I felt satisfied with. However, continuing to produce results within the same structure indefinitely is not realistic. So I decided to step away before deterioration sets in.

I choose to use my time and resources not to sustain competition, but for myself, my family, and those who are extremely close to me. That condition is what “Early Exit” means to me now.

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3. The Sound Came First

I reconstructed the track in Studio One.

The original composition itself remains unchanged. I broke it down into patterns, fragmented them further, rearranged them in a mosaic-like structure, replaced certain sounds, and remixed the whole piece.

The result felt like the sound I had originally wanted.

The original Early Exit pursued ambiguous tonality and the stacking of “impossible” sounds. The phrases were simple, but their movement was unnatural. The sonic image was influenced by 808 State’s “Pacific State.” I loved that track, but its structure is relatively simple and can become repetitive. I think I wanted to amplify and complicate the aspects I liked, updating it into a form I personally wanted to hear.

At that time, within the limitations of MuseScore, I was enjoying that sense of “impossibility.”

So this reconstruction did not begin from an idea. The sound came first.

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About the Production Process

The 2015 version was created entirely using MuseScore’s internal sound engine. No external instruments or DAW were used. The sound existed only inside notation software.

For the 2026 version, I imported the original MIDI and WAV data into Studio One and began by dismantling the track. Rather than polishing it, I chose to break it apart and rebuild it.

The harmonic structure was redesigned using Coder. I reshaped timing and phrasing through arpeggiators and gate processing. However, TM’s original rhythmic foundation was preserved. I cut and reorganized it, maintaining the core groove while updating only the texture. TM’s beats are not simple like typical dance tracks. The placement of accents is subtle and precise. I wanted to retain that quality.

On top of this, I added rap reflecting my current state of mind. I used AI and Suno at this stage.

The process was as follows:

Reconstruction in Studio One

→ Rap generation with AI and Suno

→ Dismantling and re-editing again in Studio One

The meaning originates on my side. The shaping of form passes through AI. The final structural decisions return to me.

AI does not deliver a finished product. It functions as part of the material-generation process.

Meaning → Medium → Restructuring

I use it only within this loop.

For the mix, I used limiters more aggressively than in previous FMT works. The sound is intentionally compressed to create a more immediate impact. I felt that a certain degree of direct clarity suited this track.

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4. The Emergence of Dual TI

Watching The Game emerged from a simple musical curiosity: what would happen if I placed my current state of mind as rap on this track?

The content being expressed is my own thinking. However, I used AI to shape it into natural English that would function properly as rap.

What occurs here is not outsourcing. My thoughts pass once through the medium of AI and return in another form. In that round trip, a slight distance emerges between myself and my own thinking.

At first, I considered that distance merely a side effect of formatting.

However, as the production progressed, that distance appeared in the form of deviation.

After completing Watching The Game, I recalled that hip-hop traditionally includes a self-introduction section by the rapper. I decided to add such a section. At that stage, there was no concept of what would later be called the Signal Intrusion Version.

During this additional production process, Suno unintentionally merged the existing lyrics with the newly written lines and generated a mashup.

Under normal circumstances, such output would be discarded as an error. However, when I transcribed and examined the merged lyrics, I realized they corresponded to another layer of thought that already existed within me.

The important point here is that AI did not “create something on its own.”

By passing through a medium, my thinking separated into multiple layers that had already been present within me but had not yet been visible.

What I had assumed to be a single line of thought turned out to be layered. Passing through the medium exposed the misalignment between those layers. That misalignment surfaced as another inner voice.

Through this experience, I began to understand the output not as a malfunction, but as structure. Only at that point did it become what would later be named the Signal Intrusion Version.

At that moment, I realized that this was structurally identical to what had been depicted in Max Headroom.

However, the sequence is the reverse.

I did not construct this concept because I was influenced by science fiction. Rather, after experiencing the duplication of thought in the production process, I later recognized that such a structure had once been represented in fiction.

Fiction did not imitate reality. Fiction had already articulated the structure, and I encountered it as lived experience.

Dual TI is not a narrative device. It is not a character.

It is the name for a real cognitive structure in which thought passes through a medium, distance emerges, and within that distance thinking becomes layered.

It functions as a production device. It is also a model of thinking. It is a structural concept that can be applied in future works. Yet it is not something newly invented. It is simply the visible state of a multiplicity that had already existed within my own thinking.

AI is neither a substitute nor an amplifier. It is a device that externalizes thought, generates distance, and makes structure observable within that distance.

Dual TI is the confirmation of that structure as an actual phenomenon.

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5. Four Layers

The following four versions are being released:

• Early Exit (Original Version)

• Watching The Game

• Signal Intrusion Version

• Instrumental

Watching The Game takes the present state described in Chapter 2, writes it out as text, and passes it through AI to shape it into English rap.

The Signal Intrusion Version emerged afterward. After completing Watching The Game, I returned to the structural conventions of hip-hop and decided to add a self-introduction section. In that process, Suno unintentionally generated a mashup of the lyrics. I reconstructed that unexpected output.

As for the Early Exit (Original Version), I remastered it myself in order to align its texture with the other tracks.

This release is less a new work than a rereading of an FMT classic. It overlays a present structural awareness onto a piece created before Production Notes existed.

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6. Coincidence and Reinterpretation

The phrase Early Exit was originally accidental. Over time, it began to acquire structure.

Meaning did not exist from the beginning. It was observed afterward.

This re-presentation is neither a declaration nor an accusation. It is an attempt to record the overlap of time and structure.

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7. AI as a “Device for Re-Observation”

To explain why this process feels real to me, I need to clarify what “real” means in my framework.

For me, “real” means that my will acts upon the world and I can confirm the resulting change.

Emotional reaction alone is not real. Realness occurs when intention is input, a response returns, and structure changes.

Dialogue with AI follows the same structure. Writing a prompt is an act of intention. The output is the response. Through revision and re-input, I can confirm that my will has influenced the structure.

AI is virtual, yet it alters the structure of my thinking. It is not “fiction disguised as reality,” but an interaction whose structural effect can be confirmed. That is why creating with AI is a form of real experience for me.

AI is not a direction. It is not a tool for efficiency. It is a device for externalizing, re-observing, and reconstructing thought.

My shift from performance and improvisation toward post-production and structural editing comes from the same place. I am less interested in igniting emotion than in reconstructing it into a form that can be re-experienced.

AI lies along that extension. I do not intend to turn every piece into Dual TI. I use it only when it structurally fits.

Early Exit and Dual TI were not designed concepts. They emerged from the process of making.

Meaning did not exist at the beginning. It was observed afterward.

AI is one of the methods of that observation.