VG Frequency

I loves me some netlabels. As a big proponent of free music (not ideologically, don’t worry), some of the most creative music you’ll find doesn’t cost you more than the time it takes to download.

Obviously, I spend a lot of time involved in the video game music rearrangement community, but netlabels feature great collectives of talent doing original music as well.

Like any hobbyist initiative, productivity can sometimes be intermittent. My favorite netlabel Hellven, run by Xavier “mv” Dang, has stopped and started on several occasions. This makes it difficult to find a really steady source of content to satisfy your fix.

On the chiptune side, Audun “AkumuHau” Sørlie, keeper of the most comprehensive NSF collection out there (and the only other guy I know who’s listed his hobbies as “VG, Wrestling, Comics” in that order), has been pimping the latest chiptune netlabel, II (i.e. Pause). Norrin Radd and Shawn Phase are there. I’ll be checking out their other material in the near future, but check out this cover art hotness for Radd’s album, Melodia di Infinità.

That art’s good enough to hang on your wall.

One of the other latest netlabels with strong ties toward the game music arrangement community that I’ve been made aware of has been Jonas “Platonist” Loman’s effort, Reunion, which announced last month that its site had gone out of beta stage into a final release. They have a lot of good artists I’m aware of from OC ReMix including FFmusic Dj, GaMeBoX, Saiko, SGX, Siamey, The Joker, and even guest releases by Binster and OverCoat. They’ve hit a pretty good stride, just announcing their 45th single release (courtesy of GaMeBoX), so give ‘em a look and bask in the free.

Andrew “zircon” Aversa’s big on reviewing music. Either at Broadjam or the OverClocked ReMix judges panel, Andy’s been all about giving out criticism and hoping for some in return.

Recently, zircon has positioned his MySpace blog as a central location for music reviews, aiming to spread the good word. While zircon focuses on electronic music in general, it’s always relevant when he takes a look at original music from artists within the game music arrangement community.

Dain “Beatdrop” Olsen recently hit professional paydirt, co-winning a Broadjam-sponsored contest on May 8 to have a track added to the official soundtrack of Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2.

If you do as zircon recommends and check out Beatdrop’s free album, In the Dark, you yourself can obtain a copy of the winning track “Until Forever”, and pretend to stomp on some arrows as you await DDR’s latest installment.

Keep an eye glued on zircon’s MySpace for additional music reviews in the near future.

I don’t own many albums, period. I tend to only buy stuff where a major majority of the album is enjoyable, i.e. I don’t purchase blind. So there don’t end up being many albums, or even EPs, where I can sit down and listen to the whole thing.

I’ll admit, I was lukewarm on Fitz Warine II…at first. It wasn’t a mediocre EP by any means. Indeed, something about the tracks made me keep listening long after I had downloaded them. Fully appreciating the album took me about a month, but it was well worth it. Before we get into the album, onto some background…

In my time at OC ReMix, Quinn Fox has been one of those modest guys who doesn’t like being overly praised. I once asked him (through GrayLightning) repeatedly over the course of half a year to submit a great Sega Rally mix he did, “Snow Tires”, and he said that if I ever asked again, there was no way he’d submit it. /shrugs

But he also recoils after being criticized. Much of the reason for criticism stems from his usage of out-of-the-box preset drumloops, a practice that Protricity’s constant decrying in the formative years of the judges panel ultimately made taboo around OC ReMix. (Though I’d definitely argue that for the community, it was a development for the better. Parts of the necessary “evils” of being on the judges panel. :-D)

Quinn Fox’s predominantly original album Fitz Warine II turned out to be 29 minutes and 32 seconds of really excellent material, full of driving beats, ‘verby soundscapes, and great hooks. Sure, many, of the drum patterns are essentially or verbatim preset loops. But one thing that Quinn does right that hardly anyone else does (so far, only Red Tailed Fox has been comparably decent at it), is actually integrating those presets properly within the context of a complete piece of music.

If I didn’t know any better, I could just as easily believe that Quinn wrote all of the drums. While it’s not rocket science, to me such successful integration of presets is indeed a matter of skill and experience.

Once you check the album out, you’ll see that there’s a lot of care taken by Quinn to fashion smooth, ethereal textures to accompany the evolving grooves at the foundation of each track. For anyone familiar enough with Fox’s OC ReMixes and other works, Quinn has a telltale style on account of his other sounds as well. The album is a nice cross-section of spacey pieces alongside some big beat-style material.

“Lonely Air Machine”, “No Proper Time of Day” and “When and How I Feel” in particular remind me of how the video game industry is missing out on someone who knows how to create very engaging tracks, modern in their approach, but hearkening of the old school in terms of catchiness and memorability. Somewhere out there, a simple but modern-looking space shooter game is crying for a Quinn Fox soundtrack. Meanwhile, his Ristar “H2O” arrangement will keep the VGM-hungry among you satiated for at least 3 minutes and 32 seconds.

Some of the louder tracks were mixed a little too hot for my tastes, and some of the textures could have been fuller for the quieter pieces, but everything turns out a winner overall, especially on the writing side. For the clock-conscious music listener, it’s not a huge time investment, so you should be willing to download this free album and see how it suits you. At a mere $0, the price is right. Have at it, and be sure to let Quinn know if you enjoy the album.

2005 has been another eventful year in the video game music arrangement community. Now that we’ve reached 2006, join us for an informal retrospective at some of the important goings-on in the scene last year.
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Royal Sefton III, frequently known as rs3 and a member of Hellven since its second incarnation, released Hellven’s first solo album since the netlabel’s return earlier this month. Featuring artwork by Kenji Bliss, st rotfest and the death monastic is a 10-track, nearly 25-minute techstep album whose darker mood reflects a departure from much of Sefton’s previous work.

Originally released as a part of Ubik’s Auld Lang Syne 2 album “competition,” Sefton fully remastered his entry before officially releasing the completed album at Hellven. The album’s ever-present harmonies and no-pause/continuous format are described by Sefton as one’s experience during the last half-hour before the impending end of days.

Popular netlabel Hellven relaunched yesterday, providing the first new material from the music collective in 2 years. With artwork and design handled by fellow artist Hans “hunz” van Vliet, label creator Xavier “mv” Dang announced Hellven’s return with the release of a group album entitled Debut.

The full-length album includes most of the artists comprising Hellven’s fifth incarnation, featuring virt, hunz, epoq, rs3, funkymuskrat, xerxes & mv.

Comments and feedback can be left at the site’s forums. Keep an eye on Hellven in the coming days for a full statement from mv on the return of Hellven, as well as what’s in store for the site and its artists in the near-future.

Liontamer wrote…

Ormgas.com, OverClocked ReMix’s unofficial internet radio station, wants YOU for its jingle contest, now underway and set to end on July 10th. We need artists, remixers and anyone willing to have some fun with a microphone to check out the contest and submit 20-to-40-second station identification style jingles, and if you’re one of the top 3 entrants, you can clothe your body with hot OMG FREE Ormgas.com gear. As long as your entry is quality, you can potentially earn radio infamy along with other legends (like Liontamer) as one of Ormgas.com regular jingles, so be sure to check out more information at the OCR forums thread as well as the full set of contest rules over at http://oc.ormgas.com/news.php?extend.36. Antonio Pizza, SgtRama, Neskvartetten & OverCoat are already in the game with their own entries, and I encourage you reading this [Larry points at you] to consider submitting your own jingles in support of Ormgas while you get in the hunt for free, fashionable swag. Please don’t delay. July 10th’s the final deadline.

Hope y’all Amerikaners had a good 4th of July long weekend full of illegal fireworks, lemonade, and hot dogs. That’s the American way. The jury’s still out on what the Scandanavian way is. Oh, hey there, folks. Do an Ormgas radio jingle for the contest above and win free stuff. Es bueno. Now let’s see what was going on for the week ending July 3rd:
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