I have also been on a Primus kick lately, and they kicked absolute ass live
"Can I say 'happy birthday' to Phase Connect, everyone at Phase Connect, except for Sakana"Lia Rinkou's mom
-
Former Niji-member Michi Mochievee (Mika) alleges massive tax fraud on the part of ANYCOLOR. Could explain Kuro's tax issues too. Stream excerpt here courtesy of Murray. Click me!
MSM Talent, an agency managing dozens of large indies totalling 25,000+ CCV, may be a huge scam.
MyHolo TV is kill & a vtuber live appearance gets a bomb threat. -
PSA to any NEXAS Talents: I wish you all the best possible careers in NEXAS, I just sincerely believe it is doomed to crash and burn. If it gets too much for you and you need support or an anonmyous vector to tell your story, contact me.
The Music Thread
- Thread starter Harrow Prime
- Start date
I'm going to endeavor to make one of the longest posts on this forum to highlight video game music. Ever since someone in the Pippa thread said something about sanctity I've been on a video game music kick as that word is a Manchurian candidate level keyword that triggers me to listen to the Diablo soundtrack.
...
Anyway this post will just be me highlighting specific games and soundtracks over the years. So while I won't be highlighting stuff like Doom 93 or Dragon Quest, I will be highlighting a lot more as I feel that the 90s specifically was the golden age for video game soundtracks at least in the West. Anyway lets see what I can remember
I might come back to this for a round 2 or a spotlight on Japanese soundtracks, but alas I'm just hoping this post doesn't explode when I hit post reply
...
Anyway this post will just be me highlighting specific games and soundtracks over the years. So while I won't be highlighting stuff like Doom 93 or Dragon Quest, I will be highlighting a lot more as I feel that the 90s specifically was the golden age for video game soundtracks at least in the West. Anyway lets see what I can remember
So of course I'm gonna start with the original Diablo. While not chronologically the first game I will be talking about it might be the most effective as it combines dark atmosphere with distorted and clean guitars that really enhance the dark horror vibe of the game. There are only a few tracks so I'll just include the whole soundtrack as each of the tracks are amazing in their own way.
The composer of Diablo, Matt Uelmen, would come back to work on Diablo 2 which continued to be excellent
Coming off of that I want to spotlight Quake, a similar soundtrack focusing on atmosphere. ID got Trent Reznor under the moniker Nine Inch Nails to do the soundtrack and if there was ever someone who got it, it was him. 1996 was a wild year for Reznor as he effectively had two massive projects, Quake and Antichrist Superstar which neither really put him on the forefront. While Downward Spiral really played with atmosphere and sound depth he took Quake to another level and you have driving Nine Inch Nail pieces combined with ambient horror tracks. A few key tracks that show off what Quake had to offer
Now ID following up Quake would release Quake 2 which they contracted Sonic Mayhem to do the work. And they did the exact opposite basically making a heavy metal album. Now Quake 2 is more of a straight up balls to the wall action game so it works and Quake 2 also kicks ass as an album. It would also establish Sonic Mayhem in the soundtrack scene.
Dialing it back a bit to the Midi days where you could make the soundtrack sound really bad or really fucking awesome, I'm gonna whip out Duke Nukem 3D which on every account as a game and as a soundtrack is way better than it had any right to be. Like for a brief moment in time 3D Realms fired on all cylinders.
Bonus Megadeth version for fun and what could have been
Naturally I would be a fool not to include the Command and Conquer games. C&C very 90s, very awesome
A style he continued in Red Alert with of course more metal in the main theme
With Tiberian Sun it became even more electronic
Now I'm gonna fast forward it a tad to two similar soundtracks that both did a great job of enhancing the futuristic atmosphere of the games. Both games were done by the same team of composers I believe and I would say that these two are their iconic works. First up is Unreal Tournament
And of course, Deus Ex
I'm going to fastforward a ways as not long after with the advent of DVDs it seemed like soundtracks became more orchestral and movie like. A lot of the time they wouldn't stand out, while some were definitely good I wouldn't say that at least in the West that they reached the heights they had reached in the 90s. There are some definite outliers though. Mainly being a couple trilogies, and the end of a trilogy.
While I skipped out on some other kickass soundtracks like Perfect Dark or Turok 2, I feel like this list absolutely needs Halo included. In a lot of ways the soundtracks make the game, and in many ways carried them. After Reach a lot sucked about Halo, and the decline on the soundtracks is just another.
Halo 1
Halo 2, one of the times when balls to the wall budgets and collaborations worked out during this time
And to round out the Halo portion, Halo 3 of course. While ODST and Reach deserve a mention, I feel that the core trilogy was the strongest OST wise
As one trilogy ended in 2007, another began. One of the unique things about the Mass Effect soundtrack was how much at the forefront it was. Its heavy synths both complemented and drove the mood
With Mass Effect 2 the music shifted to the background more, except for the setpieces where things got real bombastic. Of the three soundtracks its probably the one I listen to the least, but in the moment it kicks ass
And with 3 they had a composer shakeup. Jack Wall was replaced with.... Sonic Mayhem. Everything is a circle and shit. However even with the shift I would say that of the three this had my favorite soundtrack. Dives deeper into dark electronica. And I would say has the best song suite in the series with Mars.
And to end this post as its getting long and I don't want to think about how the formatting will work. For Max Payne 3 Rockstar commissioned a band (Health) to do the soundtrack. And like Trent Reznor they got the memo and did a killer job on the score.
The composer of Diablo, Matt Uelmen, would come back to work on Diablo 2 which continued to be excellent
Coming off of that I want to spotlight Quake, a similar soundtrack focusing on atmosphere. ID got Trent Reznor under the moniker Nine Inch Nails to do the soundtrack and if there was ever someone who got it, it was him. 1996 was a wild year for Reznor as he effectively had two massive projects, Quake and Antichrist Superstar which neither really put him on the forefront. While Downward Spiral really played with atmosphere and sound depth he took Quake to another level and you have driving Nine Inch Nail pieces combined with ambient horror tracks. A few key tracks that show off what Quake had to offer
Now ID following up Quake would release Quake 2 which they contracted Sonic Mayhem to do the work. And they did the exact opposite basically making a heavy metal album. Now Quake 2 is more of a straight up balls to the wall action game so it works and Quake 2 also kicks ass as an album. It would also establish Sonic Mayhem in the soundtrack scene.
Dialing it back a bit to the Midi days where you could make the soundtrack sound really bad or really fucking awesome, I'm gonna whip out Duke Nukem 3D which on every account as a game and as a soundtrack is way better than it had any right to be. Like for a brief moment in time 3D Realms fired on all cylinders.
Bonus Megadeth version for fun and what could have been
Naturally I would be a fool not to include the Command and Conquer games. C&C very 90s, very awesome
A style he continued in Red Alert with of course more metal in the main theme
With Tiberian Sun it became even more electronic
Now I'm gonna fast forward it a tad to two similar soundtracks that both did a great job of enhancing the futuristic atmosphere of the games. Both games were done by the same team of composers I believe and I would say that these two are their iconic works. First up is Unreal Tournament
And of course, Deus Ex
I'm going to fastforward a ways as not long after with the advent of DVDs it seemed like soundtracks became more orchestral and movie like. A lot of the time they wouldn't stand out, while some were definitely good I wouldn't say that at least in the West that they reached the heights they had reached in the 90s. There are some definite outliers though. Mainly being a couple trilogies, and the end of a trilogy.
While I skipped out on some other kickass soundtracks like Perfect Dark or Turok 2, I feel like this list absolutely needs Halo included. In a lot of ways the soundtracks make the game, and in many ways carried them. After Reach a lot sucked about Halo, and the decline on the soundtracks is just another.
Halo 1
Halo 2, one of the times when balls to the wall budgets and collaborations worked out during this time
Steve Vai noodles and creates a legendary remix
Out of nowhere Breaking Benjamin gets the memo
https://youtu.be/tj9QbiBaSsk?si=U8uCtcebT9lItdKn
And
https://youtu.be/cQLg0pKoSpo?si=7AW9qI_ChwQyuej3
Out of nowhere Breaking Benjamin gets the memo
https://youtu.be/tj9QbiBaSsk?si=U8uCtcebT9lItdKn
And
https://youtu.be/cQLg0pKoSpo?si=7AW9qI_ChwQyuej3
And to round out the Halo portion, Halo 3 of course. While ODST and Reach deserve a mention, I feel that the core trilogy was the strongest OST wise
As one trilogy ended in 2007, another began. One of the unique things about the Mass Effect soundtrack was how much at the forefront it was. Its heavy synths both complemented and drove the mood
With Mass Effect 2 the music shifted to the background more, except for the setpieces where things got real bombastic. Of the three soundtracks its probably the one I listen to the least, but in the moment it kicks ass
And with 3 they had a composer shakeup. Jack Wall was replaced with.... Sonic Mayhem. Everything is a circle and shit. However even with the shift I would say that of the three this had my favorite soundtrack. Dives deeper into dark electronica. And I would say has the best song suite in the series with Mars.
And to end this post as its getting long and I don't want to think about how the formatting will work. For Max Payne 3 Rockstar commissioned a band (Health) to do the soundtrack. And like Trent Reznor they got the memo and did a killer job on the score.
I might come back to this for a round 2 or a spotlight on Japanese soundtracks, but alas I'm just hoping this post doesn't explode when I hit post reply
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@God's Wingiest Winger when a Band "gets the memo", they're able to make some legendary game music.
I also love how Marty O'Donnell managed to create the definitive "space music" sound, re-introduce Monk Choral vocals to modern audiences then, in Halo 2, somehow cement some legendary Rock music into the wider culture that's normally more Pop focused. It's wild that in Halo 2 they were exploring what you could do with audio & music far more than most of the entire industry still. And, when a studio does, you can elevate your game to another level.
I also love how Marty O'Donnell managed to create the definitive "space music" sound, re-introduce Monk Choral vocals to modern audiences then, in Halo 2, somehow cement some legendary Rock music into the wider culture that's normally more Pop focused. It's wild that in Halo 2 they were exploring what you could do with audio & music far more than most of the entire industry still. And, when a studio does, you can elevate your game to another level.
Remember that guy that did the soundtrack for Toy Story? Turns out he had a whole musical career before that, where he wrote weird rambling sarcastic songs about things!
Here's a song that is definitely, 100%, about nothing other than how disgusting short people are. Otherwise, why would radio stations ban the song for encouraging bigotry?
Also, Randy Newman LOVES money and hates orphans.
Plus, he likes taking off his pants.
Alright, I don't have a quip for this one I just like this song. You can 100% hear the Toy Story soundtrack roots in this one.
Here's a song that is definitely, 100%, about nothing other than how disgusting short people are. Otherwise, why would radio stations ban the song for encouraging bigotry?
Also, Randy Newman LOVES money and hates orphans.
Plus, he likes taking off his pants.
Alright, I don't have a quip for this one I just like this song. You can 100% hear the Toy Story soundtrack roots in this one.
I adore MM..FOOD? and listen to it constantly. I dunno what it is about that album specifically that makes me gravitate so strongly toward it, but when I think of an MF DOOM song it's always something from that album. Hell, I even gave it a shout-out in Cloudscratcher.
You're entirely in your rights to call me a music snob for this, but I think Madvillainy is his best work ever. It's just a masterpiece of flow and lyricism. The sampling and mixing on the album is also top-notch. There's almost nothing you can find fault in it.
Enough Madvillainy glazing, here's my favorite and least favorite songs from Madvillainy.
Favorites:
Least favorites:
I also adore Doomsday and Knock Knock:
Anyone here just enjoy listening to childhood game osts? I find myself listening to a lot of the Pangea Software game ost's like Bugdom, Nanosaur, and Cro-Mag Rally on loop. It's all surprisingly good for what it was.
One of my personal favorites to loop:
One of my personal favorites to loop:
This is SO much better than the original single. The original version of Der Kommissar is dynamically weak in my opinion, the song feels repetitive. This version is disco as fuck and has a ton of stuff going on, but doesn't overpower Falco either. Also this entire album is actually well balanced, I can't tell you how disappointed I was listening to Metallica's first S&M orchestal album (for example) only to realize that Hetfield's terrible live vocals were balanced to be 3 times louder than everything else.
EDIT: Actually, does anyone know if there's any chuubas who have done orchestral stuff for their music? I feel like there are (Suisei??) but I am not 100% on that.
EDIT2: Oh, I'm a retard. I forgot Midnight Grand Orchestra was a thing, though tbf that's not completely classical orchestra...
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People often talk about who the best musician is, and it usually just has to do with either who their favorite is, or who had the seemingly biggest impact on music history. But what if I told you there's an artist who is, quantifiably, the greatest of all time?
Meet electronic music legend Brian "BT" Transeau.
It's going to be a genuine struggle not to make this an essay, but here goes: for those not into electronic music, BT is one of the most influential artists in the genre. He may not have been the one to start it, but he definitely codified the Trance genre, with many believing it was even named after him (which I can see why. Otherwise it's kind of a crazy coincidence the Trance genre was basically started as we know it today by a guy with the name *Transe*au). But that's not what makes him the actual GOAT. It just helps. What makes him objectively the greatest to ever make music? Well...
- Certified musical genius. As in, he's in MENSA.
- Wrote his own music making program from scratch because technology at the time was not at the level of his brain. He would go on to sell this program, Stutter Edit, which would evolve into what is now one of the premiere production software for electronic music.
- Composes music down to 1/15000 of a note. Frequently layers beats within beats.
- Made it in the Guinness Book of World Records for most vocal edits in a single song. Over 6,000 of them. And it's done so seamlessly you'd never know it has that many.
- Created a 24 hour long piece of music that changes tone and instruments depending on the time of day you listen to it. i.e. the 10 hour mark will sound different in the afternoon vs. the evening.
- Created the Orbs, which are endless, procedurally generated ambient music tracks that will continue in perpetuity as long as the internet exists.
In order for your favorite to actually be the GOAT, they would have to out-do that.
You can see a notable shift in his music before and after he started using his own software. Compare the above track, Flaming June (the track often credited as the blueprint for Trance) with something like this:
BT is also an extreme technophile, often going totally apeshit with whatever tech he gets his hands on. When NFTs were a thing, for instance, either no one told him it was a scam or he wasn't listening, because he got heavily into the blockchain and actually used it quite well. Rather than a bunch of ape JPGs he would actually use this technology in novel ways. For instance, the aforementioned 24 hour music piece, Genesis.json, is also an NFT, which uses its ties to the blockchain to play a special message on the owner's birthday.
And don't even get me started on Metaversal. I genuinely cannot even comprehend what that shit was, but eventually he released the album as a normal album you can listen to wherever. Which is good because it's great.
The guy does everything from club bangers to meditative ambient tracks. Anything from this:
To this:
Hell, he even decided to show off by making some absolute gold using a K-Pop singer and a dude from N-Sync.
And this is still only scratching the surface. Do yourself a favor and just run through his discography. In the meantime, here's a few choice tracks...
This one's especially notable for being the aforementioned record-making song. Many of the "instruments" in this track are, in fact, heavily distorted vocals.
You like Zoolander? He made his way into that movie's soundtrack!
Meet electronic music legend Brian "BT" Transeau.
It's going to be a genuine struggle not to make this an essay, but here goes: for those not into electronic music, BT is one of the most influential artists in the genre. He may not have been the one to start it, but he definitely codified the Trance genre, with many believing it was even named after him (which I can see why. Otherwise it's kind of a crazy coincidence the Trance genre was basically started as we know it today by a guy with the name *Transe*au). But that's not what makes him the actual GOAT. It just helps. What makes him objectively the greatest to ever make music? Well...
- Certified musical genius. As in, he's in MENSA.
- Wrote his own music making program from scratch because technology at the time was not at the level of his brain. He would go on to sell this program, Stutter Edit, which would evolve into what is now one of the premiere production software for electronic music.
- Composes music down to 1/15000 of a note. Frequently layers beats within beats.
- Made it in the Guinness Book of World Records for most vocal edits in a single song. Over 6,000 of them. And it's done so seamlessly you'd never know it has that many.
- Created a 24 hour long piece of music that changes tone and instruments depending on the time of day you listen to it. i.e. the 10 hour mark will sound different in the afternoon vs. the evening.
- Created the Orbs, which are endless, procedurally generated ambient music tracks that will continue in perpetuity as long as the internet exists.
In order for your favorite to actually be the GOAT, they would have to out-do that.
You can see a notable shift in his music before and after he started using his own software. Compare the above track, Flaming June (the track often credited as the blueprint for Trance) with something like this:
BT is also an extreme technophile, often going totally apeshit with whatever tech he gets his hands on. When NFTs were a thing, for instance, either no one told him it was a scam or he wasn't listening, because he got heavily into the blockchain and actually used it quite well. Rather than a bunch of ape JPGs he would actually use this technology in novel ways. For instance, the aforementioned 24 hour music piece, Genesis.json, is also an NFT, which uses its ties to the blockchain to play a special message on the owner's birthday.
And don't even get me started on Metaversal. I genuinely cannot even comprehend what that shit was, but eventually he released the album as a normal album you can listen to wherever. Which is good because it's great.
The guy does everything from club bangers to meditative ambient tracks. Anything from this:
To this:
Hell, he even decided to show off by making some absolute gold using a K-Pop singer and a dude from N-Sync.
And this is still only scratching the surface. Do yourself a favor and just run through his discography. In the meantime, here's a few choice tracks...
This one's especially notable for being the aforementioned record-making song. Many of the "instruments" in this track are, in fact, heavily distorted vocals.
You like Zoolander? He made his way into that movie's soundtrack!
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The old more seasoned video game and chiptune enjoyers here may remember the Pokemon Trading Card game for Game Boy Color. You know, the game that had one of the best osts of ANY Gameboy game ever, marked by insane jazzy progressions that somehow turn four paltry channels into music like this:
And inspired a generation of budding chiptune artists and fans who ended up making stuff like this:
Well, it turns out there was a second game, which came out in the last few months of the GBC's life, and was only ever released in Japan...
And the same guy did the soundtrack.
It's better than the first one was.
Seriously, if you enjoy older video game music or chiptune music, you owe it to yourself to listen to the entirety of these two soundtracks. What Ichiro Shimakura was able to put together here is a wonderful showcase of everything the GBC chip was capable of. Art like this is why modern chiptune exists in the first place.
And inspired a generation of budding chiptune artists and fans who ended up making stuff like this:
Well, it turns out there was a second game, which came out in the last few months of the GBC's life, and was only ever released in Japan...
And the same guy did the soundtrack.
It's better than the first one was.
Seriously, if you enjoy older video game music or chiptune music, you owe it to yourself to listen to the entirety of these two soundtracks. What Ichiro Shimakura was able to put together here is a wonderful showcase of everything the GBC chip was capable of. Art like this is why modern chiptune exists in the first place.
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