The Republic of Thoronia

So, I’m still getting bludgeoned over the head with work from other places, including one new place that pays extra nice in comparison to what I’m doing nowadays. That’ll be linked to later however, so for now, here are a few things from the local, including one incredibly out of date article. Hilariously, Recast is getting people incredibly upset which tends to be my accidental forte. Regardless, I enjoy recasting movie soundtracks that I think are shit, and frankly, find it amusing when people get all into it as well. People tend to be unable to separate a song from a moment in a film, regardless of how ill-fitting it may be. In the case of Blade Runner I was merely adding a soundtrack, one that regardless of the array of negative comments, I still feel would be an excellent addition to the film.

Ten Band-Inspired Costume Ideas:

Halloween, the time when adults decide to don their favorite witty getups, whether it be the intellectual “Freudian slip” or the pop culture driven “Christian Bale Yelling.” We’re sure some of you are short on ideas, so we’ve compiled a list of band inspired costumes to wear to your favorite party. So then, what are you going to be…

Recast: What the Ghostbusters 2 Soundtrack Should Have Been:

Last Recast, we looked at film with an excellent score and added some licensed music to spice it up with mixed results. This time around we’ll look at one of the arguably worst licensed soundtracks of any film, Ghostbusters 2. Now, keep in mind, we’re not saying we don’t appreciate Randy Edelman’s score here but the soundtrack is such a ugly sign of its times it’s in need of some serious work. This is Recast, in which we appoint ourselves soundtrack supervisors of existing films…

Recast: What the Blade Runner Soundtrack Could Have Been:

Movie soundtracks have the ability to create mood and atmosphere in an interesting way when utilized properly. Changing or adding to a soundtrack is a way to create a completely new experience. Blade Runner is one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time but the soundtrack has always felt a bit lacking. Although the film doesn’t feature any licensed music, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have. Even though these proposed changes would dramatically change the mood of the film, we’ve got a few suggestions for where Ridley Scott could have ditched the Vangelis score in favor of some less ambient music. Welcome to the inaugural edition of our latest feature, Recast, in which we appoint ourselves as soundtrack supervisors for an existing film…

I’ve been a bit busy making giant amounts of money writing elsewhere, thus I’ve been ignoring this free to read pile of crap. Anywhere look at things here!

Top Ten Reunions We’d Like to See

In recent history we’ve been treated to the reunions of Mission of Burma, Gang of Four, Antipop Consortium, among others. This year, Faith No More, Sunny Day Real Estate and Pavement got back together, and, of course, there’s the ever pervasive rumors of Soundgarden reconvening at some point. But who’s still left? Are there any bands out there with the majority of their members still alive that haven’t reunited already? Here’s the reunions we’d like to see. Check out our wish list and feel free to weigh in with yours…

Top Ten Reunions We’d Rather Not See

There have been a lot of bands in the history of the universe and most of them, at one point or another, have broken up. Surprisingly, we’ve found the majority of them have reformed despite themselves. Another surprise is the amount of bands still playing — Better Than Ezra, Seven Mary Three, the Troggs, and the Zombies — despite their lack of a mass audience. Last week, we waxed on our dream reunions. This week, we offer up ten bands we think should just stay dead, for one reason or another…

Ten Potential Supergroups We’d Like To See

It seems like we can’t go a year without running into a few new supergroups popping up  to play a show or record an album. Whether it’s Danger Mouse teaming up with Sparklehorse, Monsters of Folk, or, most recently, Flea and Thom Yorke, musicians are constantly looking for new ways to present their ideas and sounds. It got us wondering about what potential super groups might be waiting on the horizon, simply biding their time before a surprise show or pay-what-you-want download. Check out the ten potential collaborations we’d dreamed up after the jump and, of course, feel free to contribute some ideas of your own…

More things to come soon, including detailed notes on the “final” Simoebic Dysentery build, thoughts on several games, and bonus ridiculous stories and hilariously terrible scripts involving vampires, robots and maggots.

I just finished recording another Simoebic Dysentery track, this one, “Blood Buddy” is a little different than the rest of the album (okay, not really), and utilizes a “less is more” attitude (with the exception of the absurd six and a half minute length). Please enjoy. The rest of the soundtrack is available here. Free, as always.

Video game soundtracks are rarely on the top of list when it comes to finances, and rarely even listed on review scorecards. Yet, as a medium the industry still seems hell bent on retaining a cinematic nature with the sound and to this end the industry is failing.

Now, to be fair, sound effects are usually high on the list of “things to make a game good” but the actual soundtrack itself usually finds itself following basic film tropes:

*Large orchestrated pieces
*Midi synth
*Rock ‘n Roll/Pop Music
*Complete lack of music

There are a few games that I’ve been playing recently which have attempted to, and in some cases succeded at creating an excellent soundtrack — I’m not talking about the excellent Zelda theme and its subsequent rehashings, or the massive scale Final Fantasy orchestrations, or even the highly addictive music of puzzle games — I’m talking about a few games I’ve played recently that have attempted not to bridge the gap between cinema and game, but actually make a soundtrack specifically for the medium.

Mass Effect

Mass Effect fails miserably on most counts when it comes to the soundtrack, like many games before it and certainly many more to come, the designers decided on large scale Hollywood-style orchestrations for the majority of the game. However, at certain points Mass Effect nails it with minimalist, small scale science fiction arpeggios that feel, well, just right. It’s a science fiction game, it takes place in a science fiction universe, it follows science fiction theme’s and ideals — man/woman goes on mission, things go wrong, man/woman must save universe. Occasionally the soundtrack kicks in, lightly, as background, with the feeling of experimental ’70s electronic music, when this happens it is absolutely perfect — immersive, gut wrenching, hypnotic. Unfortunately this changes during cinemas to an orchestra and the whole thing falls apart.

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 has an excellent soundtrack. That said, it’s a very short soundtrack, maybe 40 minutes of actual music. Weirdly, this in game music, which is controlled by a radio by the player isn’t what happens during sequences with event triggers. You walk out of the vault for the first time and what do you get? An old timey jingle? No, for some reason you get a large orchestrated piece that doesn’t fit in with the rest of the game. It’s mindblowing that this is what they decided to do. They create a world in which the ‘50 lived forever, and then shatter the world with modern music pieces. They weave an in game radio into the plot, filled with propaganda, old time songs by the Ink Spots, Roy Brown, etc., then toss in orchestrations that make little sense. Why not use the same licensed soundtrack to convey the plot? Why wouldn’t “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” have worked for the player’s first step into the Wasteland?

inFamous

inFamous is a game that really, truly nails the very idea behind a video game soundtrack. That said, it’s not executed particularly well, but the foundation is there. The soundtrack is written and recorded by Amon Tobin using real world objects — trash cans, concrete, junk cars. This works perfectly for a game taking place in a half-destroyed city. The game itself is nothing particularly special, but the soundtrack is an excellent example of developers actually thinking about what the world they’ve created would sound like.

Final Thoughts

It’s no mystery that the industry needs to step away from film tropes if it wants to come into its own and tell its own types of stories. At the same time the industry needs to come up with its own way of conveying story through music. Soundtracks are an important part to any film — and most of us have our own personal soundtrack running through our heads throughout the day. Why wouldn’t our digital avatar’s have the same thing? What would these worlds, created from scratch sound like? What would I be hearing in my head while exploring a desolate planet, or an apocalyptic wasteland? Orchestrations? Unlikely.

If we look back at where the medium was heading 20 years ago we’ll find scripting like iMuse that attempted to set up soundtrack triggers to help convey themes. This was a stepping stone that didn’t seem to lead anywhere (we’re still here, just play any Call of Duty game and look for the line you need to step over to start the moaning violins and epic horns), but did set up some interesting ideals and systems to execute a soundtrack. Recently we’ve been getting dynamic systems in games like Far Cry 2, where weather, environment and pace are reconciled into the score (Far Cry 2 is another example of a game that attempted to go above and beyond in the soundtrack department, using instruments native to Africa while attempting to create mood and atmosphere with their dynamic system). These dynamic systems are likely the future of video game soundtracks (or, more accurately, are currently the way many work, event triggers not withstanding).  However, the soundtracks themselves have got to fit the mood of the rest of the game. I don’t need every game to have massive orchestration, I don’t even want that. Orchestrations are Hollywood tricks to make you feel when the director can’t completely convey a point — tearing up at the end of a movie when someone dies because the actor’s can’t hold their own (okay okay, also they are to enhance the mood). A true score needs to be able to be manipulated and changed to fit the player’s actions, no matter how unexpected those are.

I’ve got more to talk about here in regards to the possibilities for new systems and mechanics, and will do so soon.

At one point in my life I was at an age when I was capable of distinguishing between what I liked and disliked concerning music, but wasn’t able to search and find things on my own. I was sure that I liked songs that told stories, and I was sure that I could get away with anything I wanted. Those were the two things I was absolutely sure of. That and the fact that dragons were real, unicorns were fake and wizards lived in my backyard. When it comes to songs that tell a story, there is no man better than Marty Robbins, and no song better than “Big Iron.”

Crooning is an ability few are capable of achieving. Elvis did it, Buck Owens did it, but Marty Robbins did it best. It takes quite a bit to gain complete attention from a growing young man, but when Robbins has a story to tell, he does it in a fashion that erases any sign of distraction and draws the listener into such complete attention it’s impossible to let your mind drift away. “Big Iron” tells the story of a stranger coming to town where the outlaw Texas Red (thought to be an insinuated Billy the Kid) is holding up. Texas Red calls him out to the street for a showdown. The time is 11:20 (forget about high noon, it’s too damn hot) when the two face each other.

The first time I remember hearing “Big Iron” was approximately 15 minutes after my first experience with looting. I’d walked out of a mom and pop shop in Estes Park with a California Raisin toy, unpaid for and unscathed. I was free. When my mother noticed me playing with it in the back seat (why I thought I’d get away with it while sitting a mere two feet away from her is still a mystery to me) she grabbed my arm and interrogated me. Suddenly, freedom was looking like a far-off place, and the only discernable future I could see myself in involved a small western town, a bottle of whiskey, and a stranger coming to town to shoot me down.

As my mother began to scold me and my father turned the car around, Robbins crooned on, “20 men had tried to take him/ 20 men had made a slip/ 21 would be the ranger/ with the big iron on his hip.”

My mind was racing so fast I wasn’t paying attention to my mother yelling. Could I become the outlaw that Robbins spoke of? Was it possible that little old me, stealing California Raisins, would someday become an Arizona ranger’s prime target? Is it possible I could kill 20 men?

In the end the ranger kills Texas Red, and his gunslinger speed is still talked about to this day. I have yet to make it out to the old west, and after returning the raisin and apologizing for my actions, I was once again returned to freedom. What the future holds at this point is still questionable, but with Texas Red out of the way and Calfornia Raisins still locked in 1992, it would be a difficult task for me to end up an outlaw in Mariposa County.