“A good tune is a good tune. That’s basically it! If a melody can stand the test of time when it’s being played with a one channel sine wave, then it can stand being a fully orchestrated piece of music. I guess really it’s substance over style.”
- Tim Wright, OC ReMix Interview
June 5, 2008
Fairfax, VA — OverClocked ReMix today published its first video game composer interview, with pioneering British VGM composer Tim “CoLD SToRAGE” Wright. Wright helped usher electronica into professional game scores with his work on the landmark racing title Wipeout, released in 1995 by Psygnosis for the then-emerging Sony PlayStation. The interview touches on other career highlights such as Wright’s days composing for the Commodore Amiga, his development of popular music creation programs eJay and MUSIC (a.k.a. MTV Music Generator), and his upcoming original album, CoLD SToRAGE HD, which functions as an unofficial soundtrack to Sony’s latest title in the Wipeout franchise, Wipeout HD for the PlayStation 3.
Conducted by site staff, OC ReMix interviews cover major aspects of a composer’s career, featuring targeted questions unique to each subject, as well a standard list of questions that specifically delve into a musician’s formative years, creative inspirations, and views on the current state of the game music industry. This unique format presents both a contemporary look at a composer’s recent activities as well as more comprehensive questions about the nature of video game music composition.
About OverClocked ReMix
Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring hundreds of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.
Jillian “pixietricks” Goldin’s latest newsletter is out, detailing today’s release of her new original album, Origins.
To receive Goldin’s newsletter, visit JillianGoldin.com and enter your email address in the signup box on the left-hand side:
Jillian Goldin - Notes #8 - April 22nd, 2008
Drumroll, please…
The moment we have been waiting for has finally arrived: the release of my debut album, Origins!!! Pick up your copy today! Physicals are at JillianGoldin.com, and digitals are available through CD Baby - both for $12.99. Why get it today, you ask? Read on.
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Earth Day Fundraiser
In honor of Earth Day, I want you to help me in contributing to The Nature Conservatory’s Plant a Billion Treescampaign! For every copy of Origins (physical or digital) purchased by 11:59 pm EST on April 22nd, I will donate one dollar to this cause. What can one dollar do? One dollar plants one tree! Help save the Atlantic Forest in Brazil - one of the most endangered rainforests in the world, with only 7% left of its original area. Unbelievable…
My goal is to raise $100 for the campaign this week. You can also contribute on your own separately by clicking on the image on this page. Mother Nature will thank you; I promise. Let’s do this!
Keep in mind that the number there on the page may appear lower at times because I will be donating my album proceeds in batches, as opposed to one order at a time. Also, please enjoy this recording of me at six years old - a song written by my father about saving the rainforests!
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General Awesomeness
A friend of mine - Kevin “Lorenzo” Sisk (a.k.a. debeerguy007) - put these fantastic desktop wallpapers together using my album art! I’ve hosted them for free download, so take what you like! There are different sizes available: single standard, dual standard, single widescreen, and dual widescreen. Thanks again, Kevin!
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So that’s that. Pleaselet me know what you think of the album! You can post reviews on the CD Baby page, leave a message on my guestbook, or discuss your thoughts on the forum. I would really love to hear your reactions and answer any questions you may have.
Shnabubula was kind enough to let me check out the album on the sly back in January, but now that it’s finally out, I’m glad to post about it. Released via II(read: Pause), Controller 1 finally saw the light last week. That’s some pretty awesome concept art from Francis Coulombe, am I right?
Produced by chiptune scene fanatic Shawn Phase, this original chiptune-style album is inspired by the buttons of the classic NES controller, featuring titles all derived from the various controls. Quoth Somnambula:
Take a journey across the face of an old NES controller. Each button has a story to tell if you’re willing to listen. Some of them have been forsaken by their fellow buttons while others are living the good life. Come listen and find out what goes on inside your controller when you’re not around.
I’d recommend something specific, but you’re really not gonna go wrong checking any of this out. At just over 35 minutes and not costing you a dime, you’ve gotta swing over to II and grab this quickly. Tell your friends about it. This album is wild per Sam’s usual craziness.
I have just released my first “album” (it’s really a single/EP) on Skrow!Media (a friend’s netlabel). It is totally free to download, so if you’re interested, go to http://skrowmedia.com/skrow004.html and you will be able to download it. It’s short at just about ten minutes total length, so it won’t take you much time. Be warned, though - the two pieces are ambient/drone music that rely heavily on piano, so if that’s not your thing… well, it still won’t be your thing. =)
Featuring album art cropped from an acrylic and pastel piece of Stephens, this original ambient offering, Meditations on Autumn, is definitely an engaging listen, also described by Stephens as “two songs written as meditations on the season of transformation.” Considering there’s very little time investment, you should have no regrets taking a moment to check the EP out in full, some smooth stuff from Saffron Slumber. You may have to keep an eye out on Skrow!Media for potential future releases from Kevin.
Ok, so there’s no Blade Runner stuff in here, but hey, you want more original experimental albums from video game remixers, right? Of course you do. And you’re punk, are you not? Of course you are. And since you’re all about the “high tech, low life” lifestyle, Scott “OverCoat” Porter’s got you covered with his newest release, A Cyberpunk Adventure EP.
Get a load of that art. Good stuff, though I’m getting tired of the generic fonts being used lately. Someone get that stylized for a change.
Right from the beginning with “Evaporative Air Coolers” and its strange sounds & unique textures, there’s a lot to enjoy with this album. With that said, I’d skip over “Shmorg” in a heartbeat, due to it sounding too cheap, but everything else is sounding cool, meaning you hit paydirt with at least 5 of the 6 tracks if you’re open to the potential of the cyberpunk genre.
Much like Skrypnyk’s Absolute Music, this EP was also created for Brian “Ubik” Davis’s yearly Auld Lang Syne compo, a compo not really designed in competition but rather encouraging artists to focus on the creation of new albums. Since some of the artists haven’t heard from Ubik regarding the ALS4 rollout of the albums on New Year’s Day, many of the artists have gotten antsy and released their albums early. SOC’s impatience is your gain, so jump right on it and pick this up ASAP, some solid material from one of the community’s many off-kilter composers in OverCoat.
Keep an eye out on OC ReMix in the coming months when Scott’s sophomore ReMix goes up on the front page there, Cave Story “H2O”, from the Cave Story Remix Project.
Just before christmas comes and goes, and just before I kill off a few thousand braincell due at a new years party, I have released my third EP. Entitled Absolute Music, this album is completely avantgarde and experimental with subtle and subliminal messages for everyone. If you liked my Brainwork EP, chances are you’ll hate this and start bleeding from the ears.
Fun facts: it is the longest EP I’ve done to date, it contains the most songs to date, and includes a reprise version of an older track.
Right from the jump, you get some good grooves surrounded by a bevy of noise and effects with “Obelisk Run.” Other strong selections included the creatively titled “Track #4,” “You’re Only Ever Asleep,” “Halcyon” and “Visine Orb.” Each song continuously flows into the next so keep it rollin’, keep it rollin’!
Over the last year or so, Skrypnyk has found his musical calling in the genre of “weird ass stuff.” Indulge him by giving this 20 track, nearly 25 minute album repeated play while you choke down that fruitcake.
The album is pretty awesome. I thought the soundfield was a little cramped, particularly for “Bank Holiday” and the overall volume could have been pulled back a little bit. But in the way of criticisms, that about all there was to it. The sound quality was otherwise hot, and all 7 songs on the album were well-written. “Girl Trouble” and “My Gay Shirt” in particular were my favorite cuts. Shael Riley, that boy can harmonize. The pimped-out bassline for the verses of “Girl Trouble” was genius along with the smooth and speedy vocal delivery, while the lyrics didn’t get any sharper or more hilarious with “My Gay Shirt.” Don’t be selfish, spread this gold around.
Fellow OCR judgeJigginJonT was really feeling the album, definitely meaningful since Jon doesn’t go out of his way to give praise to anything. With that said, don’t delay in picking this up for your fill of nerdcore. If you’re an audiophile looking to support a good cause, you can buy the FLAC version of the album for $5, with all the money going to support the Penny Arcade charity Child’s Play. Lulz for the chilluns.
Did we also mention prize$$$? Lots of excellent music-creation software is up for grabs as well as presets created by the man himself, with the lucky winner also landing on a future album of zircon’s, including profit-$haring. One would have to infer that a slew of good entries could facilitate the creation of a separate album as well if all goes well. The deadline is January 31st, so you may want to get cracking. Without further adieu, zircon provides all the needed details:
Hey everyone - since I released my third album Antigravity earlier this year, I’ve gotten a bunch of requests from people asking if they can remix some of the tracks. So, here we are. :) I’ve compiled remix packs for two of the songs, “Mindbender” and “Warhead”, and you can download ‘em for free here (plus the original songs):
Even outside of the actual contest, you’re free to create AND distribute your remixes, provided;
1) There’s no commercial interest - eg. you can’t sell them. If you want to do this, contact me privately.
2) You credit me as the original artist. Most remixes have a naming scheme like this: “Original Artist - Song (remixer name/remix)”, eg. Fear Factory - Cyberdyne (Junkie XL Remix), or The Crystal Method - Name of the Game (Hybrid’s LA Blackout Remix).
If you’d like to enter the contest, simply email me (admin at zirconstudios dot com) a link to your finished remix. You can do it in whatever style you want, and you can use as little or as much of the original audio files as you want, provided the end result is still recognizably “Mindbender” or “Warhead” in some fashion.
On February 1, 2008 I’ll pick the best of the bunch to be featured on my next album, and the winning producer(s) will of course get a cut of the sales as well. If there are too many entries, or I simply can’t decide, I’ll open up the voting to the public.
Post questions, comments, feedback here… and happy remixing! ;)
NOTE: You can enter more than one remix!
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PRIZES
11/23 - Urs of u-he software fame has graciously offered up a copy of my favorite synth, Zebra 2, as a prize in this contest as well. I’ll also be throwing in all of my custom presets including my two current commercial banks (128+ sounds.) Considering it’s my weapon of choice, it seemed only appropriate. Please give a big thanks to Urs for his generous donation!
11/25 - Thanks to IK Multimedia and eSoundz, I have another excellent prize to offer: the T-Racks mastering suite! T-Racks is my mastering software of choice; I’ve used it on virtually every remix and original track I’ve ever made since 2005 and it’s just awesome. It consists of four low-CPU, analog modeled plugs - a compressor, limiter, EQ, and channel strip with all of those. This software is produced by IK Multimedia, one of the top VI developers in the biz, and distributed by eSoundz, a big audioware retailer which has a massive selection and fantastic deals for loyal customers.
ALSO included are 50 free loops produced by Sonic Reality, another company I love. I used R.A.W. material all over Antigravity, including on Mindbender. :)
Even if you don’t win, definitely hit up both IK and eSoundz next time you’re looking to make a purchase, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find some awesome, innovative gear at sick prices.
Man, call me out of the loop. The album itself, Ritual of Battle, was leaked in September and the video itself was posted on YouTube in late October. Parental advisory and all that good stuff. Hell, one of ‘em is wearing it for a shirt. Don’t hate:
the new album is finally done and arrived.
as you can clearly see, i am not selling it like i said i would… it just didn’t make sense for me to do so and i’m sure you won’t blame me for the decision i’ve made. i’ve never taken this long on an album before… for the early stretches, it was driven by a slow roll of creativity… i was writing but not in the abundance that i’m usually accustomed to. stretches later on, i was simply curbed by my computer failure that lasted months amidst production. as a result, you’ll hear an, at times, unnerving mixture of contrasting musical ideas… some of this is all over the map and it’s really because within a year’s time, it isn’t a stretch how much of the “map” i, myself, have traveled … let alone my music haha. i eventually got back to it and then spent a few months in a seemingly unending state of obsessive revision. as a result, it’s a far more refined body of work than its predecessor, “Perspektiv”…
and at times, a ton more comprehensible - i tried to stay committed to making more sense this time around than with the last effort as stretches of Perspektiv didn’t seem to make sense to anyone which turned a lot of people off. of course, it neither moves me nor behooves me to worry much about my audience as i’m convinced that anybody who likes my music probably likes it because of the very attitude i have about it: it is what it is.
i’d be surprised if anyone listened to my work with the expectation that it was going to be orthodox
this may not have as many critical errors as most of my work because of how unrushed it was… but at times, i’ll have boring drums and out of tune guitars and bad vocal intonation, wonky strings and awkward transitions and lyrics that don’t make any sense…
and then after it’s all over, you’ll realize it was me and it’ll be ok.
If I had to confirm any “errors” alluded to in the info, I felt “Patience in Love” had a promising Santana-style vibe before everything started clashing something fierce, but that was about the only track I outright wasn’t feeling and would surmise you won’t be a fan of.
“Something about Laughter” was very laid back, a great listen if you’re just trying to chill. zyko tends to have a pretty loose style, but he’s managed to preserve that while really upping the level of polish on the overall presentation, as well as exploring quite a few interesting instrumentation ideas that I’ve either never heard him explore or never heard him use with this level of refinement. Check out the wind instrument action of the opening track “Something Wicked…” for an example of what I’m taking about.
The killer work of this album? In my opinion, it’s shared between two pieces. “Remember me?”, a remake of a 1998 track of his and easily one of weed’s best efforts in my many years following his material, and “Everythin you expect of a hero,” the most upbeat and straight-up catchy piece of the bunch thanks to some great percussion writing and the funky rhythm guitar work. Download Circumstantial Zen in full and take a listen to some of zyko’s strongest offerings yet.
Slipped under my radar last month, but I’d be remiss in not highlight Quinn Fox’s newest original album Music From Mars. No idea why the album isn’t properly linked and available on Fox’s homepage, but the VGMix forums have got what you need until then. The artist writes:
Well, here it is. I managed to finish this baby up and work to get started on even better possibilities, but this release is clearly new ground for me.
Music From Mars is easily the best, most accessible, and unique album or collection of songs I’ve ever created. Those familiar with my music and style (I’ve been in this scene for more than five years) should find things as alien and new as they are familiar and welcome. I’m positive if I’d spent another few months with this, it could be better, but I’m trying to become better at leaving well enough alone….
Anyway, I hope those who listen enjoy it and listen often. Reviews are welcome and encouraged.
Definitely go ahead and review this one. If, like me, you’re a fan of other works from Fox like Fitz Warine II, then Music From Mars should be solid as well. Fox definitely hits some unexplored territory with this effort, embracing vocal work a lot moreso than most of his previous releases.
In my critical opinion (clearly the most important one out there, of course), the drumwork frequently felt out of place, and the highs should have been toned down throughout, but compositionally this was a pretty sophisticated album.
I couldn’t help thinking I wanted the opening track of “Patience” to be twice as long, to hear the concepts worked with further, and that’s just the start of things. “Director” was also an example of some killer lyrics, spun from a great creative concept. The vocals in “Deimos” should have been punched up and better separated from the instrumentation, but was yet another extremely strong composition featuring some very emotive delivery from Fox. Aside from the percussion not clicking, the same praise and criticism fit “Obliterate Me” as well.
“Prosper,” I’d have rather heard Justin Timberlake or Robin Thicke give that one a go (not my style, but hey), and the transitions felt too jarring and disjointed, but this was a surprising dose of hip-hop/R&B flavor within his trademark sound (including drumloops).
Overall, I feel the album started off stronger than it finished, but the overall package was definitely worth the price ($0!) and the time (just over 35 minutes). Check it out and decide for yourself, then swing by Fox’s site for even more of his original works.
On October 28, François Bezeau, better known as Rimo, finally launched VGM Rush, a site dedicated to Western VGM; that’s “Western” as in American, European, etc. as opposed to Asian, not “Western” as in Wild West cowboys and outlaws. The site features composer credits for a bunch of different games, associated soundtrack, arrangement, and original albums, and composer biographies and full works lists. VGM Rush is still less than a month old and obviously still growing, but it’s got some very good content for something so new and is definitely worth checking out.
One example of the burgeoning content is an interview posted on November 7 with Alexander Brandon, who composed for such games as Tyrian, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, and Deus Ex. The interview is excellent, covering Brandon’s game compositions, original work (including his latest original album, Era’s End), thoughts on the industry, and a whole slew of other good stuff. Brandon himself stated that the interview is “the most in depth interview [he’s] ever done.”
VGM Rush: Were you ever limited by a director when composing for a certain project or did you always write with complete freedom?
Alexander Brandon: I felt Deus Ex: Invisible War was more sparse than it should have been. The design lead really pushed “Thief” as a reference. Don’t get me wrong, I love that game series and all the audio in it, however DX I think has more depth to its gameplay choices and the music should have reflected that.
For just about all my other projects I provided solid reasoning into my decisions for either my writing or composers I would hire, and sometimes I’d get the usual “that sounds like a synthesizer” argument, to which I have a very powerful arsenal of responses now, but for the most part its complete freedom these days.
I’m pleased to announce that, as of this morning, we’ve surpassed the 5000 album milestone. While not every one of those albums is a perfect entry, with fully researched tracklist/artist information, I think we’ve made some great progress towards that goal, and we’re now offering a significant amount of information that was previously not available anywhere.
In addition, earlier this week we exceeded 100,000 total album page views. I’ve been particularly pleased to notice that many of our pages have top billing in the Google search results for their catalog number.
So anyway, I’d like to thank all of you for everything that we’ve been able to achieve here. It’s made me very happy to see a lot of new names on the active members list, many of whom have already made significant contribution; keep up the great work.
I’vepersonallyaddedanumberofalbumsontoVGMdb, and fellow VG Frequency writer ‘Ili “CHz” Butterfield is on staff there as well, so I’m definitely glad to see the concept take off and do a great job working with all of the VGM catalog sites out there to not only aggregate the information, but provide an even more comprehensive, interactive, more easily expandable destination to learn more about video game music. Any site with me in the database has to be good!
Hey all! I’m pleased to announce the digital release of my new album, The World Circuit. This album is not a full-length release like Antigravity or Impulse Prime, but rather more of an EP. It was originally written for use in media licensing, but I decided to make a slimmed-down version available to the public. The description, from my website & CD Baby:
Ever thought about how cool it would be if that breakbeat tune you just heard had a Japanese taiko breakdown? How about some slick drum n’ bass rhythms in a samba? Gregorian choirs plus granular synthesis? A bit of Persian bouzouki in your smooth jazz? Maybe you haven’t, but you’re about to hear what it’s like! Welcome to THE WORLD CIRCUIT…This EP-length album consists of eight songs that explore sounds, melodies, and harmonies from around the world and fuse them with modern electronic elements like synth basses, sweeps, blips, pads, and drum machines. Close your eyes and imagine exploring an ancient South American ruins in “Enter the Temple”. Feel the cool breeze as the pulse of “Drum and Bossa” gets your foot tapping. Or envision a multi-million dollar movie car chase to the tune of the bombastic “Bazaar”. From the rainforests of Africa to Eastern Europe, the Far East, India, and more… this album is an ethnotronic adventure you’ve gotta check out.
It is available EXCLUSIVELY in digital format - WAV through my own site or MP3 through CD Baby. The list price is $7.99, though it IS part of the $5 CD Baby sale, which means you only pay $5 for the DRM-free MP3 version provided you pick up another 2 CDs @ $5. You CAN get the physical or digital copy of Antigravity as part of this sale, as well as sgx’s Better Than Sliced Beats!
Worth noting… people on my mailing list got a special offer for this album; not only did they get to hear previews sooner AND obtain it before the official release, but I also took a cue from Radiohead. You could pay nothing for it, a minimum of $1.30 through Paypal, the list price, or really anything in between. So really, any of y’all who aren’t on my mailing list, you definitely should sign up so you don’t miss killer deals like this in the future. :) Just send an email with the subject “Subscribe” to list (at) zirconstudios (dot) com.
Anyway, this is probably the most varied release I’ve done and the early reception from people on my list has been very good. If you like my remixes, my original music, or ethnic music in general, then I think you’ll be interested.
That’s true, the Zircon Studios mailing list. Like the man said, anyone really interested in zircon’s material that could have scored something like this for free is probably kicking themselves if they weren’t signed up. Don’t forget to do that on the side.
Having been privy to many of the tracks during the creation process, if you’re a fan of zircon or curious about globetrotting electronica, indeed The World Circuit’s a no-brainer.
I just finished a feature film called Fear of Clowns 2. I had done the first one, as well. Well, the 2nd one is now complete, coming in at 81 minutes of music. I think it’s some of the best stuff I’ve written, so I wanted to share some of my favorite parts with you guys. I wrote the 81 minutes of music frantically in 10 days during July. It’s mostly pounding thumping totally awesome kick ass action music, but there are the occasional scary and emotional moments. Enjoy!
Seiter noted he was particularly proud of his efforts for this score while limited to synths, so your opportunity is here to scoop up all 10 tracks released so far and survey (a third of) his efforts. Personal favorites of mine would be “Clown Invasion” and “Running From Shivers… Again”. I’d say the results are effective.
In it, Kikuta discusses his musical influences [editor’s note: Prince!], his recent first (Lost Files), second (Alphabet Planet) and (potentially) third original albums, as well as desired future plans. The interview, also available in its native Japanese, is a quick read that’ll put you in the know of some of Kikuta’s latest developments. If you’re a fan of the Secret of Mana soundtrack or any of Kikuta’s other works, the general buzz on Alphabet Planet (thank you, Babelfish!) is that the hooks and energy evoke the same feelings as listening Kikuta’s game work. And check out those glazed doughnuts.
Press Start is my first feature-length film score. It’s a comedy about a trio of adventurers who are the video game world’s ray of hope against a hilariously twisted evil sorcerer. Along the way they meet shopkeepers, fight orcs, and stop to chat with a talking CG-animated tree.
If that doesn’t tell you enough, I’ll spell it out: It’s a light-hearted, moderately cheesy no-budget film done by a bunch of friends and volunteer actors and voice actors and makeup artists and choreographers and writers and yours truly — not Hollywood, nor Bollywood.
But make no mistake: it’s not just some stupid thing they threw together because they were bored, it’s a huge massive labor of love. The kind of labor familiar to mothers of triplets - including the knives and painkillers and potential circumcisions. Just the score alone took me 6 months, countless sleepless nights, tons of technical/stylistic studying and pushing my abilities to their absolute limits. I leveled-up like 15 times during the course of this, and can say for sure now: I LOVE SCORING FILMS.
Seeing how much devotion they’ve put into it has really endeared me to it, and will probably win you over, too, even if you’re a super jaded post-ironic anti-anti-hipster, which describes many of my friends. Wankers.
So: Here’s the trailer. (The only music that is mine is the “Not Final Fantasy” battle theme, and the ending jingle - I was slammed with work while the trailer was cut)
It really was a fun project, but don’t just take my word for it - come September 25th, go order a copy - vote with your dollars for independent comedy films!
Plus, you get to hear an HOUR AND A HALF of brand new virtkwak, including some chiptunes. ?????
Oh come on, let’s embed that trailer:
That’s better.
With 8- and 16-bit sendups to games like Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, Metroid, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Paperboy and many more, hit that trailer, check out the various clips, “vote with your dollars,”Digg it and spread the word. Help Jake Kaufman sleep at night.
Joshua Morse is one of those restless groovemakers, and one of the more temperamental artists I’ve ever had to deal with. He’s akin to my own version of Kanye West. With that said, get in line for some praise if you’re a fan of the Sega Genesis and FM synths of the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip.
This past Wednesday, Morse released a 20-minute EP called Waveform featuring five original pieces constructed from the musical building blocks of the Mega Drive. A quick listen, there’s definitely a lot of good stuff to enjoy.
“Alligators” has some similarities to djpretzel’s “Consent (Make Me Dance)” in that it has a really solid groove and also sounds like something that could conceivably fit into a Shinobi title, even being a little outside the box. Meanwhile, the energy of “Corridor” is just what’s needed as a solid boss/battle theme for particularly long challenge.
Lots of good nostalgic feelings, as you can conceivably picture all five of these tracks in use within some of your favorite 16-bit games of the past. There’s nothing precluding you from giving this a look. Once you’re converted, you may end up stopping by Josh’s musicpages and grabbing everything you can.
There’s some VGM to be found as well, as the bonus track concluding the disc is the “Turrican 3 Suite” as performed at the Fourth Symphonic Game Music Concert, part of Games Convention 2006. Would Hülsbeck steer you wrong? C’mon now.
I believe I first heard of Pandora in early 2006, but zircon may have been the one to put it on my radar way back when. With his ear constantly to the ground, he’s pretty good about those things.
Personally, I don’t have much time in my life to dedicate to discovering new music outside of VGM, partly by choice, but mostly due to a complete lack of time, as I do appreciate anything that sounds good. But Pandora makes it easy for any listener to discover new music via its ties to the Music Genome Project. In short, give ‘em a seed track, and they aim to find you more of what you’ll like.
I just can’t get this big grin off my face. Over a month ago I sent my CD “Antigravity” to pandora.com, which is one of the biggest internet radio stations in the world. They operate using the “Music Genome Engine” which attempts to quantify defining characteristics of a song using hundreds of parameters, all input by actual humans. No computerization! All of the music that Pandora gets is hand-screened and they do not take everything. After 5 weeks (or so) I hadn’t heard back about my submission, and was told that they probably turned me down. But just for fun I tried typing in “zircon” today and lo and behold, I was added!
Some of my “defining characteristics”, apparently;
* Electronica roots
* Highly synthetic sonority
* A use of modal harmonies
* Tight kicks
* A wet recording sound
Good to know, eh? ;)
Anyway, I’m just really excited about this because it means significantly greater exposure. Plus, I genuinely thought they weren’t going to take me. “We hate technos!!” :<
Even without an account, visit Pandora, type in any artist, and you’re up and running with a new song potentially in the same vein nearly instantly. Read up on both Pandora and the Music Genome Project via Wikipedia to get a good background on the intricacies involved in song classification and recommendations.
Congratulations are in order again for zircon, who keeps the accolades and sales coming with his latest original album offering.
He’s a stuntman. And he can dance while kicking your ass, because he’s a disciple of capoeira. A truly lucky individual is able to mesh his hobbies with his professional life, and Mazedude has done just that yet again by providing music and video production to a website promoting instructional videos on the art of capoeira, Capoeira Nation.
I am very proud and excited to announce the launching of a new website. It is the first of its kind - to teach the martial art of Capoeira via Instructional Videos on the Internet.
I am even more delighted to share the kickass news that I am the composer for the website, and all of their video productions. For those who are not aware, Capoeira is from Brazil, and the music that accompanies the martial art is very unique and ethnic. The vocals are in Portuguese, and the beats are performed by such instruments as the berimbau, atabaque, and pandeiro. I play each of these instruments, and am fluent in the various traditional beats and songs. However, for this project I have been given the freedom to fuse the traditional style with that of my own, and I’ve had just oodles of fun putting it together. :)
Even better examples can be heard in the Promo videos […] although the timing is off slightly due to YouTube’s conversion.
Enjoy the music, but furthermore, enjoy the site. If you’re at all interested in learning Capoeira, but don’t have any teachers near you, well, that’s what this website solves!
How long will said sale last? I’ve got no idea, those crypticbastards! Check out the free previews and hook it up soon, because as zircon says, “this deal won’t be around forever.” Good things come to those who ORDER NOW!
The album is free to download, so there’s no cost besides time. Why should you check it out despite the cost of time? Well, Bryan’s been on my radar for a while due to his material at VGMix. He later scored an successful submission to OC ReMix with a Final Fantasy VIII arrangement entitled “Everything = Nothing” which featured some of the most beautiful and emotive string sequencing I’ve ever heard in my time in the community.
With that said, Bryan constantly keepshimselfbusywithperiodicalbumreleases, never allowing himself to get stagnant. On the production side, some of the levels should be toned down, but my favorite tracks on the album have to be the opening track “Dependence”, the high-powered “Warfare”, as well as well-textured”Degeneracy” and the unassumingly titled “Oh”. Swing by Sefiros’s space and grab ‘em all.
Although Helen Trevillion hasn’t been around the OCR community for a while now, she has always been highly regarded for the Enya-quality vocal and instrumental work in her submissions to the site under the ReMixer name Destiny.
Helen’s first album is a 2-CD endeavor via her personal label Faefly Records, with a total of 22 tracks. The first disc is called Inside Myself and contains the bulk of the songs on the album, while the second disc is entitled Once Upon a Time, having a fairy tale theme. You can buy the whole shebang at her CD shop. Google Checkout only works for orders within the UK at the moment, unfortunately.
The price is a bit hefty at 8.49 GBP (~$17 USD), especially with international shipping if you’re in the US (another 2.00 GBP, for a total of about $21 USD), but most people who have heard her work will agree that it’s worth it for 2 CDs of Destiny goodness. In addition, each copy will be personally signed by Helen, with an optional message of your choice. Here are a couple previews from her site in case you’re still not convinced:
Inside Myself
Once Upon a Time
There are also additional full-length samples available on Helen’s MySpace. Better grab a copy while you can though: there are only 100 in print.
“Something about Laughter” was very laid back, a great listen if you’re just trying to chill. 
Joshua Morse
As mentioned last week on Remix64
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