Audiogames

We ♥ Katamari (Various Artists) While I’ve previously...

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 23:12:00 +0000

We ♥ Katamari (Various Artists)

While I’ve previously shared my Greater Theory of Damacy, it would be a tragedy to not post the series’ greatest song.

“But what about…” Yeah, sure, that one’s good too. Starlight Jamboree is better.

“You’re forgetting…” Love it, don’t get me wrong. It’s not Starlight Jamboree though, is it?

“Oh come on, how can you not pick…” Look, I’m gonna stop you right there. NOTHING is better than Starlight Jamboree. FACT.

Borderlands 2 (Various Artists) Remind me to do a proper Jesper...

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Borderlands 2 (Various Artists)

Remind me to do a proper Jesper Kyd series at some point. He’s an amazingly talented and versatile composer. Even with the Hitman series, each game he worked on had a distinctive style.

The division of labour for the Borderlands 2 soundtrack is a little odd. Kyd’s role seems to be at the Southern end of the spectrum. There’s some crossover, but generally speaking, the booming drums, synths and strings of Chris Valesco & Sascha Dikiciyan’s contributions are about Action, while the slide guitar and dirty electric wails from Kyd add Flavour.

Incidental Ambient is – you can guess from the name - the most laid-back song contained on the soundtrack. There’s something about it that speaks to the wild, harsh frontierism that hides behind the game’s broad comedy. It’s when the… Is that a melodica? When it takes the lead at the halfway point, it just makes the song perfect. Pure redneck blues.

Journey (Austin Wintory) “I wanted to write a game score...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:14:00 +0100

Journey (Austin Wintory)

“I wanted to write a game score that was able to do two contradictory things simultenously. It had to be deeply interactive to the player’s experience, which usually means it needs to be modular and granular and able to be broken apart into these constituent bits for scripting. But that is contradictory for the othe goal, which was to produce something highly musical, where you actually get to hear a genuine musical performance – which is an inherently linear experience. If you go to see a band, they are sculpting an experience over time.

“My ultimate dream for game scores is one that somehow does both of those. I work with a lot of musicians who truly move me and I wanted to put that in a game. In films we do this all the time, because it’s a set linear timeline. It was quite a project, I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Sony was hugely supportive on the technical side, helping to choose when to make a cue deeply interactive and when to make it more linear.

“My fantasy is, it feels like, as you’re playing the game, I’m looking over your shoulder composing in real-time to perfectly accompany what you’re doing. The experience should sound like one traditionally scored for a movie. I’m hoping other composers will be able to build on that for the sake of the art.”

-Austin Wintory. Interview by Hookshot Inc.

FEZ (Disasterpeace) After a few exploratory bursts last week, I...

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 23:56:00 +0100

FEZ (Disasterpeace)

After a few exploratory bursts last week, I finally settled down to play Fez properly yesterday, and I’ve barely stopped since. I love this part: when you’re deep into a game that hasn’t fully given up it’s secrets. It’s all wonder and anticipation - anything could happen, and the swirling vortex of possibilities make for a compelling reason to venture deeper into that world.

Which is usually the point I turn to the soundtrack. Brilliantly, the ethereal chiptune loveliness of the music aside, Disasterpeace has stuck liner notes up on each track’s Bandcamp page. They reveal the divide between the mp3 and the in-game implementation. Here are a couple of random picks:

<a href=”http://disasterpeace.com/track/progress” data-mce-href=”http://disasterpeace.com/track/progress”>Progress by Disasterpeace</a>

“The seed of this song is actually an idea for a piece of music that starts in a center location and expands out into 8 or 9 different directions. Each level would have its own key and as you move around this area the music would move with you. For the soundtrack edit, I tried to convey this same idea, where you’re surrounded by these machines that are in repetitive motion that evolves slowly over time.”

<a href=”http://disasterpeace.com/track/memory” data-mce-href=”http://disasterpeace.com/track/memory”>Memory by Disasterpeace</a>

“This track is a foreshadowing, but it also has to do with something that already happened, so I was planning on calling it “Aftshadow”. But that sounds dumb. The game plays these phrases based on a random time scale, to help convey a sense of vague memory… something like saudade.”

Majesty, the track embedded at the top, is far more traditional in its delivery, but no less affecting when it arrives. In fact, I suspect it’ll be the song that keeps me routed to the world of Fez for some time to come.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Michael McCann) Human Revolution is...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 22:45:00 +0100

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Michael McCann)

Human Revolution is an odd one. Set before the events of the first game, it looks, feels and sounds more futuristic than JC Denton’s adventure through conspiracy and betrayal ever did. McCann’s score is a different beast entirely; richer and more layered.

…And yet, it’s still Deus Ex-y. That urgent synth, which weaves a motif through the game, creates a path that leads straight back to DX1’s techno/industrial flavour. It’s also dark and brooding throughout, and more than anything it’s that tone which provides the thematic link.

To prove the point, here’s arguably the least dark and brooding song on the soundtrack. It’s also the one that plays as you emerge out into the Tai Yong Medical building of Upper Hengsha. After the tight, oppressive darkness of Lower Hengsha’s night time squalor you find yourself in clean, futuristic surroundings, overlooking a beautiful daylight vista. The rich/poor divide, summed up in art and sound. Very Deus Ex.

Deus Ex (Alexander Brandon, Dan Gardopée, Michiel van den Bos,...

Sun, 27 May 2012 14:19:00 +0100

Deus Ex (Alexander Brandon, Dan Gardopée, Michiel van den Bos, and Reeves Gabrels)

I’m a sucker for anything with a soft industrial edge, so Deus Ex’s soundtrack was long overdue a mention.

Its success parallels the game’s art direction. This is a diverse collection of sounds that still manages to gel into a single cohesive theme. In The Synapse - the track that plays through the streets of Hong Kong - you get the synthetic strains of a Chinese mandolin, which gradually folds into layers of industrial and techno motifs. It’s a mirror of Hong Kong’s recognisably oriental landscape filtered through Deus Ex’s dark, brooding futurism.

And then there’s the always-present oppressive techno-paranoia, hinted at throughout the track. Despite being very different games, there are huge similarities in the music of Deus Ex and Introversion’s Uplink. Both games can trace back to a similar theme - a very 90s pop-phobia of safety and control amidst the early internet boom. A cyber-punk strand that gave us everything from Hackers to the Matrix. Leather, sunglasses at night, great music.

Sword & Sworcery EP (Jim Guthrie) We’ve been here...

Sun, 20 May 2012 11:05:00 +0100

Sword & Sworcery EP (Jim Guthrie)

We’ve been here before of course, but now S&S:EP has become a thing I can play despite the lack of a portable Apple device.

I loved Jim Guthrie’s soundtrack before, but hearing it in the game was like hearing it for the first time. And not just hearing it - seeing, experiencing, touching, however abstractly. S&S:EP allows you - encourages you - to interact with its music, at times for no other reason than it’s a game and that’s a thing you can do in a game! The importance of that is something I want to cover in more depth, but that’s for a longer article in another place.

Now, here, the themes of returning and transformation are apt for another reason. Audiogames is back, and I’m going to try, try, try to update it regularly. Every week regularly. Every Sunday, to be exact. And I will fail, on occasion, because that is the nature of side-projects. To make up for future transgressions. Here’s a preview of Scntfc’s remix of the above track, from the forthcoming Moon Grotto 7”. I desperately want it to be something I can download and repeatedly listen to.

&lt;a href=”http://scntfc.bandcamp.com/album/sword-sworcery-moon-grotto-7-coming-soon” data-mce-href=”http://scntfc.bandcamp.com/album/sword-sworcery-moon-grotto-7-coming-soon”&gt;Sword &amp;amp; Sworcery: Moon Grotto 7” (coming soon…) by scntfc&lt;/a&gt;

Cosmic friends forever, okay?

Machinarium (Tomas Dvorak) If you ever wondered what music a...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:51:00 +0000

Machinarium (Tomas Dvorak)

If you ever wondered what music a robot society would make pre-electronic revolution, Machinarium provides the answer. There’s a distinctly hand-made quality to the music: clacks, clicks, clanks, steel percussion and faux woodwind, with the more obvious computerised beeps and drones used as an emphasiser rather than a crutch.

This thoroughly weird and deeply rich music accompanies you through Machinarium’s quirky world, perfectly embodying the tone of the game. It’s a world in which robotic street musicians use makeshift instruments and a wrench dances to Jamaican steel drums on the radio. A charming world, with a charming soundtrack behind it.

Bastion (Darren Jorb) There’s a school of thought that...

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:37:00 +0100

Bastion (Darren Jorb)

There’s a school of thought that argues the best soundtracks are the ones you don’t notice, so seamlessly do they blend in with whatever it is they’re accompanying. In a way it makes sense; a soundtrack should emphasise the mood of the whole piece, not overwhelm it.

In practice though… Well, Brynn the Breaker is a song that I wholly noticed while playing through Bastion. Appearing in the various weapon Proving Grounds throughout the game, it engulfed me in the way that only the most perfect of instrumentals can. Whenever I wasn’t playing the game it was playing in my head, drawing me back in. Because of it, for nearly a week of my life, Bastion was an inescapable obsession. It still kind of is.

Not that the track is even particularly standout in the full soundtrack. Every new song is a joy to experience and - here’s the important bit - does accentuate the game’s weird artistic style and spot-on narration. It doesn’t overpower, it just understands that by being heard it has a far greater impact on the overall experience.

What’s really impressive is the way each song is able to gel such an eclectic mix of styles into a cohesive whole. Hit play on the embed below and let the opening narration feed into the first real track, A Proper Story. In just over minute it melds a sense of Wild West frontierism with traditional eastern influences over the technological undercurrent of electronic drums. In one minute of music you understand the world of Bastion; its influences, its desires and the journey it intends to send you on.

In other words, a proper story.

&amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://supergiantgames.bandcamp.com/album/bastion-original-soundtrack” _mce_href=”http://supergiantgames.bandcamp.com/album/bastion-original-soundtrack”&amp;amp;gt;Bastion Original Soundtrack by Darren Korb&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

Sword & Sworcery EP (Jim Guthrie) Can a game soundtrack...

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:32:00 +0100

Sword & Sworcery EP (Jim Guthrie)

Can a game soundtrack still be great even if you’ve never played the game it comes from? That’s a question that links into an argument I’m saving for a future post. Spoiler: Yes it fucking can. Like, obviously.

The only difference is, without experiencing the ties to the game it’s from (or worse, the spectre of nostalgia), it has to work harder for a place in your Tumblr blog of game soundtracks.

I don’t own an iPad and so I’ve never played Sword and Sworcery EP. Why do they spell sorcery wrong? I don’t know. Why is it an EP? Not a clue. Why is the soundtrack album subtitled ‘Ballad of The Space Babies’? Who are these babies of space? What terrible tragedy have they experienced to make them worthy of a ballad? No. Fucking. Idea.

Luckily the soundtrack absolutely works for it. Even as a standalone collection of ambient instrumentals it’s brilliant.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://jimguthrie.bandcamp.com/album/sword-sworcery-lp-the-ballad-of-the-space-babies” _mce_href=”http://jimguthrie.bandcamp.com/album/sword-sworcery-lp-the-ballad-of-the-space-babies”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Sword &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Sworcery LP - The Ballad of the Space Babies by Jim Guthrie&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

We ♥ Katamari (Various Artists) Once again I find myself in a...

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:53:00 +0100

We ♥ Katamari (Various Artists)

Once again I find myself in a quandary over just which track to pick. What song from We Love Katamari’s eclectic soundtrack of J-pop and J-rock oddities best encapsulates the game?

(Important: I didn’t ask which song was the best, as that’s a no contest home-run win for Starlight Jamboree. I will never be able to love a Katamari game as much as We Love Katamari unless the end of level completion screen involves it. In fact, the more I think about it the more I realise I’m probably an idiot for not including it as the featured song. Or even just posting it alone on this blog and walking into the sunset, proud of a job well done.)

The soundtrack, like the game, can be weird, experimental, relaxing and bombastic. It’s also unsettling in places. At times it mirrors the dark undercurrent that runs through the game - born from the series’ commentary of capitalism, consumerism and, in the case of We Love Katamari specifically, fanaticism. These things are all Katamari. It’s a complicated game and a truly varied collection of music.

What isn’t complicated is the song I’ve picked: Everlasting Love. This traditional J-rock song shows no trace of negativity; no message of a problematic world to impart. So why does this simple expression of unbridled joy best sum up the game?

Allow me a rather drastic tangent. The Flaming Lips recorded a cover of (What a) Wonderful World for their fourth album, In A Priest Driven Ambulance. In the later compilation, The Day They Shot A Hole In The Jesus Egg, Wayne Coyne wrote this about the song:

“When we were justifying the reason for this song, we were… avoiding the truth. We had convinced ourselves we were doing the song sarcastically - really meaning “it’s an evil, shitty world”… But luckily, the song being of such power and quality, our optimism and enthusiasm shine despite our intentions.”

They fucked up their message of ironic cynicism. Similarly, Keita Takahashi fucked up his comment on “disposable society.” Because for all its themes, Katamari is an unashamed celebration of happiness, wit, charm and humour. Optimism filters through every level. The world is a better place because it exists. That’s the best kind of fuck up to have.

Rez (Various Artists) Rez, then. If you make a blog about music...

Thu, 26 May 2011 16:10:00 +0100

Rez (Various Artists)

Rez, then.

If you make a blog about music in video games, it’s inevitable that at some point you’ll need to tackle Rez. This is problematic because games don’t get much more divisive. Actually that’s not true - whether you think Rez is gaming’s Second Coming or pretentious old knob doesn’t really matter. Talking about Rez in a blog about music in video games is problematic because its soundtrack isn’t very good…

[Dramatic Pause]

…In isolation.

It’s a game designed around the interaction between the mechanics, the visuals, the sound and the feedback, and when one of these elements is removed the experience fails to capture what the music is about. Even my usual tactic of embedding a YouTube video when I need to show how the music interacts with the design doesn’t cut it. Watching someone else play Rez is about one of the dullest experiences you can have with the game. In fact, from a standalone perspective the best songs are the unfortunately unreleased backing tracks for the credits, precisely because they aren’t designed to be interacted with (and because they’re genuinely great, but that’s beside the point).

It’s the experience then that matters with Rez. It invites you to let your senses merge in the pursuit of one singular moment. That’s the sort of thing you can’t pin down by embedding an MP3. It’s available as Rez HD on Xbox Live Arcade or from various second hand retailers for PS2 and Dreamcast if you’re interested. Which you should be.

Gitaroo Man (Tomohiro Harada & COIL) It’s unfair...

Tue, 03 May 2011 19:47:00 +0100

Gitaroo Man (Tomohiro Harada & COIL)

It’s unfair really.

On the one hand Gitaroo Man was a game of extraordinary variety. Each level is a showcase for a different musical genre, all filtered through a distinctly quirky Japanese lens, both sonically and visually. The game entertained the player with J-Pop, funk, drum ‘n’ bass, reggae, samba, hair metal and - well - SUPER POWERED GUITAR DUEL MADNESS!

And yet… all anybody ever goes on about is The Legendary Theme. A relatively simple, slow acoustic track. Really, it is unfair.

Except The Legendary Theme is why games like Gitaroo Man are still remembered, despite the Guitar Heroes and Rock Bands having long since claimed the music genre for their own. It’s an unambiguous moment of beauty as the player serenades a mysterious girl on the beach. While Gitaroo Man’s other great songs are levels to be defeated, The Legendary Theme is a moment to be savoured.

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (Kelly Bailey) Quick! Name your favourite...

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 22:18:00 +0100

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (Kelly Bailey)

Quick! Name your favourite FPS soundtrack…

Okay, that didn’t work for a number of reasons: we’re not actually having a conversation, I haven’t published this yet… well, you get the logistical problems. What I can say with confidence is, were it not for the Half-Life 2 series I’d be completely unable to even think of an FPS soundtrack, let alone a good one. So often they’re horribly generic ‘epic’ mixes of orchestral strings and pounding drums, lazily interlaced with the same synth sounds in an effort to convey urgency. To a game I’ve forgotten every single one as soon as I’ve finished playing.

Half Life 2 and its Episodes inject some much needed personality into the soundtracks of the genre. Not only are the tracks completely different to anything else, gifting the game with a unique feel that goes beyond its dystopian European city, but they’re so contextually at home with the action on screen so as to truly implant them in your memory. From Triage at Dawn, lending an air of tragedy to the death of an incidental member of the rebellion, to the weird soundscapes of Episode 1’s journey through the alien Citadel and Episode 2’s urgent, empowering action sequence backings.

Sector Sweep, the posted track, which backs the battle against Combine and Hunters just after the first Advisor encounter, is my personal favourite of the bunch. As the repetitive pulsating bass builds into the sharp electronic drum beats and finally introducing the full track - mirroring the escalation of the escape from basement to hallway and emerging into a full battle in an abandoned settlement - the game becomes pulse-racing in the way so many shooters wish they could be but simply aren’t.

Red Alert (Frank Klepacki) Hell March is the signature tune of...

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:06:00 +0100

Red Alert (Frank Klepacki)

Hell March is the signature tune of the Red Alert franchise. Every iteration of the series has opened to a version of that familiar driving guitar riff. While later re-imaginings have added an orchestral backing, evoking grander and more epic battles, it’s the original that remains the high-point.

That darker industrial edge fits perfectly with the game it introduces. While all anyone seems to remember are the camp FMV cutscenes, what people - and the later games with their ridiculous units and cartoon graphics - forget is that is that, away from Einstein time-assassinating Hitler, the actual game of Red Alert 1 was relatively understated and brutal. After all, war is hell. And Red Alert is Hell March.

Bit.Trip Runner (Gaijin Games) Appropriately enough, Commander...

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:17:00 +0100

Bit.Trip Runner (Gaijin Games)

Appropriately enough, Commander Video is always running. With no directional control the player’s job is to help him avoid the various obstacles blocking his unstoppable sprint. In essence each level is a series of visual quick-time events - jump, block, kick, slide, all assigned to different buttons and all with unique visual cues.

The game’s music serves not only as an aid, but also the necessary motivation to complete the brutally difficult challenge that is Runner’s later levels. Each obstacle produces a note in time to the background music. The game is about learning - memorising - the correct route and pattern of button presses to navigate it and these notes are what unconsciously begin to take hold, to guide through the split-second timing required. When truly - to abuse a cliche - in the ‘zone’ it’s possible to see an eternity in each millisecond. When the game is working with you it’s effortless; when it isn’t it’s torturous.

More importantly the way the player’s actions contribute to each level’s sound add personality - not in the Rez sense of allowing for a personal flair and experimentation, but in a strictly rigid authored sense - and the way that sound evolves on collection of each powerup are what kept me pressing through, long after my natural tendency would have been to abandon.

Triumph - the final and hardest chapter - has, fortunately, the best soundtrack. The calming sparse ambient beginning morphing through to an explosion of transcendent serenity, all interspersed with the bursts of sound from obstacles and the delightful three note pattern of the spring pads kept me enthralled. That said, if you aren’t the sort of person to fall for a soundtrack working perfectly in harmony with a game’s level design then Bit.Trip Runner is probably not for you… But then, neither is this blog.