Experimental
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Experimental, Indie Music
Hear Resident Evil 2 in Faux 80’s Synthwave Style
February 13, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Hear Resident Evil 2 in Faux 80’s Synthwave Style Share this
Escaping the horrors of Resident Evil by running to one of the impenetrable Save Rooms has always helped me cope with the survival horror gameplay. The songs that accompany these rooms aren’t upbeat by any means but they’ve always been some of my favorites, offering just a hint of hope in their despondent melodies.
Now artist Mono Memory has taken one of my favorites from Resident Evil 2 and given it an even more foreboding synthwave makeover. Dripping with sounds of faux 80’s synths, I’m suddenly realizing that a full rearrangement of the soundtrack is something I never knew I wanted.
That may never happen but Mono Memory has plenty of similarly synthy tracks to check out including “Outrun the World” which serves as a teaser for his debut album coming this Summer. He’s also given the Game of Thrones theme a similar overhaul on his YouTube channel and has some other tracks and EPs available on Bandcamp. And if this track has stirred your desire for more old game music done up in the style of their times, check out Metroid Resynthesized by Luminist.
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Experimental, Game Music
That Analog Synth cover of Metroid is Complete
You may have caught some links to Luminist’s analog synth remake of the original Metroid soundtrack in October when he began releasing single tracks. I was also going to share the work-in-progress but decided to wait for it to be completed, and now it is. Capping off the year is the full 12-track album which you can listen to (and watch) on Luminist’s YouTube playlist or download for $5 on Loudr.
“My initial interest behind doing this was thinking that if the technology were available back then to put hi-fi recordings into a videogame, they might have done it this way with Metroid,” Luminist told Kill Screen. “I’m just interested in bringing out more of the inherent alone-in-space factor that the original gave us with bleeps and bloops.”
The entire album is just over 15 minutes in length but it’s definitely worthy of playing on repeat. Luminist nailed it on adding to the “alone-in-space factor” with the despondent synths and thrumming bass. Take a listen above and let us know what you think of this fresh new (and old) sound in the comments.
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Experimental, Game Music, Japanese, Reviews
The Last Guardian ‘Mini Soundtrack’ App (Review)
With The Last Guardian (actually, really, finally) shipping this week I was able to redeem one of the Amazon pre-order bonuses ahead of time, a 4-song Mini Soundtrack. It serves as a preview of both the game’s orchestral score by composer Takeshi Furukawa and the ‘Last Guardian Composer’s Choice PS4 Music App’ that Sony announced in early November. Let’s take a look at the app and the music inside.
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Experimental, Game Music
Surreal Synth from ‘Small Radios Big Televisions’ on November 8th
November 1, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Surreal Synth from ‘Small Radios Big Televisions’ on November 8th Share this
Small Radios Big Televisions is a surreal indie game that I discovered amongst the IGF entrants in 2015 and have been patiently waiting to hear and see more of ever since. At the time it was a simple web-based prototype but its striking visual style and trippy ambiance was already well established. After much silence the game has emerged again ahead of its November 8th release date on Steam and PlayStation 4 with a new trailer and a soundtrack pre-order.
Like an abstract point-and-click adventure, the game has you mousing around factories in an abandoned sky-world in search of analog cassette tapes. When played back in your TD-525 device they transport you to surreal virtual worlds where you soon discover new ways to manipulate and explore the spaces.
As you might expect the soundscapes that accompany this mish-mash of future tech and retro aesthetics is heavy on distortion and synthwave. There were already some great things to be heard in the prototype (still playable) but if the sample track, “Tundra”, above is any indication then the full score is much more nuanced. It has that airy, synth ambiance I loved in Fez and PONCHO and I can’t wait to hear the remaining 23 tracks on the album. You can pre-order the album now for $5 on Bandcamp. Full price on launch, and the price for the game itself, have yet to be announced.
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Experimental, Game Music, Indie Music
“Loose Cannons 2.0” Takes Aim with Analog Video Game Compositions
This summer sees the worldwide digital release of Loose Canons 2.0, an epic soundtrack of original video game music and sounds performed on vintage 1970’s analog synthesizers.
The debut electronic music release by multi-instrumentalist/composer Steven Jaime Giacomelli, Loose Canons 2.0 is the official soundtrack to the the unrealized video game adaptation of the Loose Canons song suite, as composed and executed on Micromoog synthesizer and arranged into ten separate tableaux. In lieu of the imaginary video game representation, the listener is invited to use the music of Loose Canons 2.0 as a personal soundtrack to their favorite video game. In the event that no video game is available, the listener may perhaps use the enclosed music as an active listening pursuit, or alternately, as a soundtrack to real life.
ABOUT GIACOMELLI & LOOSE CANONSLoose Canons 2.0 is an analog synthesizer and retro video game fan’s fantasy come to life, with monophonic Micromoog mandalas of vintage bleep bloops cascading through space and time like an 8-bit calliope of revolving sound. The album is the culmination of years of melodic electronic synthesizer experiments by multi-instrumentalist/composer Steven Jaime Giacomelli, whose dual abstract and hook-laden sensibilities were on display in multiple bands in the Gainesville FL underground scene in the early 2000’s. Chief among these was The Ohm, an instrumental four-piece with a varied m.o. of instant composition, epic noisepop psychfuzz and atmospheric environment enhancement.
A series of underground self-releases yielded new projects, new bands and new contexts, with Giacomelli stretching compositionally into classic American song forms, from doo-wop to metal to orchestral pop to country to surf rock to soul baroque pop to hip hop to americana to spoken word soundtrack to blues to ambient, all the while honing theoretical melodic approaches and atmosphere exploration that would ultimately express themselves after a chance re-discovery of the work of Californian minimalist composer Terry Riley and an embrace of a lifelong influence of Japanese video game music composer Koji Kondo.
Now making his home among analog synths in Silicon Valley, with Loose Canons 2.0 primed for placement, Giacomelli continues to work on his next opus.
Loose Canons 2.0 by Giacomelli is available now at iTunes, Tidal, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, CD Baby, and all other major digital outlets.Website: hohmrecordings.com
Contact: hohmrecordings@gmail.comSource: HOHM Recordings[This is an unedited press release made in conjunction with Original Sound Version and Steven Jaime Giacomelli] -
Chip Music, Experimental, Indie Music
Chime Sharp Launching in June, Full Artist List Details
June 13, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Chime Sharp Launching in June, Full Artist List Details Share this
When we last checked in with Chime Sharp it was racing towards its Kickstarter goal last July. Having been fully funded the game was launched on Steam Early Access in November and will see its final release on Steam by the end of this month. Today, publisher Chilled Mouse and Chime co-creator, Ste Curran, have announced the full list of artists whose music will be at the core of the game’s fifteen stages. The list looks to hit a good mix between electronic and acoustic styles with contributions from the following artists:
- Kavinsky
- CHVRCHES
- Steve Reich
- Los
- Chipzel
- Andy Hung
- Message to Bears
- Timothy Schmalz
- Magic Sword
- Shirobon
- Noveller
- Haiku Salut
- Luc Grey
- A Mote of Dust
- Symbion Project
For those that don’t remember the 2010 original, the team sums it up perfectly as a “crossover between a music sequencer and Tetris”. Utilizing a sweeping time bar Chime hits that same hypnotic, rhythmic euphoria as the classic music puzzler Lumines as players slot pieces into formations to clear them from the screen in time with the music.
Chime Sharp offers new modes, new music and a sharp (whoops, didn’t see that coming) new visual presentation to bring its classic gameplay up to date.
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Experimental, Music Production
Update: Wipeout Remix Album Delayed to July
May 16, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Update: Wipeout Remix Album Delayed to July Share this
Previously in the saga of Tim Wright’s Wipeout remix album, the original release date had slipped from late March into late April thanks to an intercontinental relocation for the composer and his family. Now that it’s mid-May and we still haven’t seen a release he’s issued another update detailing the woes of creating a physical product largely on his own.“Doing these physical projects is a bit like giving birth I think. The reason mothers even consider having more than one child, given that it’s painful beyond belief, is because the human brain doesn’t actually remember pain that well, or so I read somewhere. In effect, the fun of having children outweighs the trauma and 9 months of feeling like you swallowed a beach ball.”
Yikes. The labor pains for Ch’illout” have been brought on by complications with the fulfillment company that’s pressing the 2-disc album and its accompanying mini-poster. A staff change has caused further delays on top of a renegotiated quote, increasing the cost as Wright puts it, “close to profitless”. He’s not increasing the price for those who pre-ordered the album but the situation has forced him to change his plans.
On the bright side, he’s taking the extra time to create even more tracks on top of the original fourteen and the whole album will be released digitally on Bandcamp ahead of schedule. Anyone who pre-ordered the physical album will also get a code to grab the digital version and there’ll be a period of exclusivity before it’s released to the general public.
Wright is clearly holding back some disdain for the fulfillment company in his email update which I won’t quote in full here. Suffice to say, he’s talking to other companies to see if they may be able to press and ship the album ahead of its new ETA in July. As a parting consolation he’s shared another sample from the album bringing us all 30 seconds closer to the eventual release.
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