Posted in music on 11/21/2012 12:39 am by c5
In the early 1990s, I liked to collect and listen to MOD music files. Some the best ones I came across were by 4-mat of Anarchy.
About twenty years later, I discovered that 4mat (now without the hyphen) was once again releasing new music. His 2010 album Decades was excellent, and has since been followed by several more. His latest, Sans Titre, was released just yesterday. Simmonds is prolific, but manages to maintain a high level of quality.
Although his music falls within the chiptune genre, there is more variety to his work than that label might suggest. There is a consistent “warm” sound to many of his songs that, in addition to their catchiness, distinguishes them from a lot of other chiptunes out there.
To sample his work, I’d recommend starting with Decades and just moving forward through the releases. As for individual standout tracks, these are a few of my favorites from the first two albums:
Simmonds also does sound design for video games. I was interested to learn that he worked on Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (both of which I enjoyed, especially Shattered Memories).
You can find an interview with him here, in which he talks about his music and his work on games (including a game that he created himself).
Posted in music, video games on 09/14/2012 09:52 pm by c5
When I played Machinarium, I was impressed by many aspects of the game. One of those aspects was the soundtrack. The song “Clockwise Operetta” especially stood out to me the first time I heard it.
You can listen to the game’s soundtrack here, and you can download some additional music from the game for free here. (My favorite song from the bonus EP is “By the Wall.”)
When I went looking for more music by Tomáš Dvořák, the Czech composer of the Machinarium soundtrack, I found his 2001 album Pocustone. I was happy to discover that it is just as good as the music in Machinarium (and in fact, it was the reason Amanita Design asked him to work on Machinarium).
Dvořák released another Floex album called Zorya ten years later in 2011. It is also excellent. You can download the song “Casanova” from it for free here.
From an interview with Gamikia:
My studio it is really laboratory with different components what I am trying to mix up together. I am originally clarinetist so this is my main acoustic instrument. However you can also find piano, metalophones, pianet, kalimba, melodica, acordeon, shakuhachi and several other instruments in my studio. And then there is computer, synths, effects – sound design and mix is maybe 70% of the time I spent over the song when I work on it.
Posted in music on 09/11/2012 12:51 am by c5
Even after a little research, I’m not sure exactly what qualifies music for the “witch house” genre, other than often including triangles in names. But I’ve now come across two things I like that are apparently in that genre. I probably would not have given them a chance had I heard the genre name before I heard the music.
The more recent of these two discoveries is Lake Radio. Lake Radio is Caden Moore, and I came across his album Dream House while looking for interesting free music at Bandcamp.com one night.
Here are a few other albums on the same label, all of them worth a listen. Musical styles vary, and they are all either free or pay-what-you-want:
I also recommend these two sampler albums, which include songs by the artists listed above and others (some of which may well deserve to be mentioned specifically as well–I’m still making my way through them):
I mentioned that I’ve come across two so-called witch house musicians that I like. The other is an Australian who goes by Horse Macgyver (and who has in the past been known as ///▲▲▲\\\ and _v_o_i_d_).
I don’t know of an official download source for Horse Macgyver’s music. (The Bandcamp page seems to be broken as of this writing.) But you should be able to find something if you search for Horse Macgyver Void EP.
Here’s a sample (Youtube link) that might help you decide whether it’s something that would appeal to you.
