Monorail is the new 6 track EP from Panda Transport and I can confirm that it is rather fantastic. The duo fuse alternative pop electronica with random extras to create a fun.
Opening with the title track, is a groovy cloud-infused piece of dream-pop that you’d be quite happy riding to work via country lanes on your bicycle to, smiling and tipping your hat to all whom pass you. It’s just delightfully upbeat and fun. I could see it opening a Japanese Animation actually.
“Saint Revel” is the song currently gaining exposure via Grey’s Anatomy and is a little more laid back and chilled out with some fantastic vocal layering and sweet electric piano with a Sitar section! How can you lose? Panda Transport’s ability to carry off placing random instruments into a relatively standard track to make it stand completely out from the crowd is one of their key assets.
“Up The Disco” is a more a lighter-swinging track as its more subdued despite its percussive bangs and while its less immediately gratifying than the previous tracks the chorus riff will stick around in your head after a few listens.
“Freak Show” is cute. From the xylophone to warping electric noises to the mariba-esque percussion, it tippy-toes about with children’s movie overtones and then bursts into a lounge jazz piece like something from the Katamari games. I actually really like the way how the whole song shifts into a more slinky mood and it certainly stands out.
“Cicadas in Stereo” see’s Kathy step down from vocals and Ti step up for a French song full of cuteness that verges on Pikmin style music. Think Jazz gone to the circus with a gallon of icing on top. The closer is “Dark Horse” is as close to a downbeat ballad as you’re going to get. Quite minimal and vocal fronted, it works really well with solomn church bells and low hummings setting the mood and is a welcome change from the other very uptempo numbers.
Monorail is a great introduction to a duo that are prepared to take a chance by going for a different approach everytime and merging things together you wouldn’t nessacarily sit together and making it work. I expect to hear of more great things from Panda Transport in the years to come as the alt-electro-pop genre continues to gather strength and popularity.
Espers are a beautiful breath of fresh air for me. With their debut album (I’ve only just been introduced to them) they really give you a psychadelic folksy dreamstate that you can drift away in.
“Espers” opens with the dreamy guitar/flutes/vocal layering of “Flowery Noontide” which is simply a slice of heaven in a speaker. It’s very etheral and otherworldly and you feel like you’re gliding through the clouds. “Meadow” meanwhile is a more darker acoustic guitar driven track that has a heavy apocolyptic feel drenching the song from the undercurrent electric hums to the bending strings and the beautifully tuneful dual male/female vocals that are perfect in harmony. Gregg takes the lead in the more electric “Riding” which has Espers’ signiture acoustic melodies but they are eclipsed by rousing electric guitar solos that raise your spirit and really send you on a journey with it. Coupled with Zither strums, its another great track.
“Voices” has a real Eastern feel to it with lots of twisted chords and hypnotic vocals and it really comes across in a menacing manner for me instead of being relaxing, there’s just an unnerving with the track – great stuff! “Hearts & Daggers” continues but builds the tense flowing atmosphere with an eight minute epic including a fantastic bridge section that really rips rip neo-folk style! Sometimes epic songs outstay their welcome but not here at all. “Byss & Abyss” then gives us another tale of two halves. The first part of this song is a lost wandering soul and then gradually electric blips and buzzes enter the track to almost signify that the depths have been reached. It’s really quite interesting how the songs continue to evolve throughout the album and what would originally be classed as etheral (as this whole album is) gradually becomes more hypnotically dispairing. It’s so well done that you don’t notice.
“Daughter” is a like a siren calling you into the sea for your death swim. It’s so beautiful but against the slightly maddening backdrop of the rest of the album, it almost feel eerie! It must depend on the mood. “Travel Mountains” closes the album with a fantastic instrumentalesque track with lots of acoustic and electric guitars, etheral choral elements and all kinds of electrical hums and string elements flowing around in circles in a maddening shroud. Like a place that lost souls meet for group screaming therapy.
“Espers” is quite possibly one of the most beautiful eerie albums I have heard in the last decade. It has a fantastic flow to it, draws you into its secrets and then utterly encaptures you with every riff and downplayed doomsday beauty nuance it has to offer. Utterly mesmerising.
Singing a piano vocal version of what was her debut single “Slow Me Down“, its Emmy Rossum. I really like this version. Still one of the most surprisingly beautiful albums of the last few years is Inside Out.
Lauren Hoffman returns after her fantastic “Choreography” with her fourth studio album “Interplanetary Traveler” and this time it’s an album that comes from a mothers love.
Title track “Interplanetary Traveler” is the case in hand. Lauren weaves a beautiful acoustic country tinged ballad with lyrics of wonderment and adoration for her child. Avoiding sappy is something a lot of artists struggle to do but Hoffman’s opener is as honest as the day and I defy anyone not to love the music video that accompanies the track perfectly and the marching drum beat pushes the song forward.
“Surrender” continues to show off Lauren’s more acoustic rock side that we’ve not seen in full flow before. The track is light but catchy and has some mean riffs in it. I could see this easily being played in all kinds of coffee houses. Again the percussion stands out and the minimal approach to the guitars too for making it a really clear track to dig into, and the last thirty seconds are great.
“Pictures From America” is the first more introverted sounding track with its slinking guitar melodies and Lauren’s voice really shining with vulnerability and showing real maturity with soft restraint throughout which impacts more on the wandering soul feel of the track.
“Prove the Moon” has some wonderful lyrics and continues to impress with Lauren’s ability to write positivity with meaning and it all ties in nicely with the overal theme of flying off into new uncharted territory all round. The pace changes and guitar work throughout are really relaxing too.
“Let it Go” is the first song to really have an electric feel to it on the album and has a real mood change between moody echoed verses and more upbeat choruses which makes it stand out from the rest of the album so far as the brooding track.
“The River Takes Me” has a lovely flow to it and a rolling wave feel to it and is a personal favourite for me on the album as it is both intricate but with a passion and glide to it that would be great to cuddle up to or be a nice movie moment, and the vocal dualing in the final sections is beautiful.
“Celebrate” is another beautiful chugger with little twists that keep you on your toes which come from the stringed instruments that are scattered around the speakers. It’s realy quite cleverly done and really gives what could be just a great if standard track a really fresh edge and turns it into a fantastic track.
“Firefly” harks back to earlier albums from Lauren to me with her beautiful ballads she writes with downbeat chords and Lauren’s laid back but slightly meloncholy voice nestled deep in the midst of the music. “In This Life” in contrast is a foot tapper instead even if the lyrics aren’t all that foot tappingly happily, so it’s got a deceptive edge to it and it’s the most political I can remember Hoffman ever being.
The closing track “Sweet Lazy Day” rounds off the album with another acoustic piece of relaxed downbeat brilliance.
“Interplanetary Traveler” is another excellent album from the Hoff! This time around there’s a lot more love and joy in the album, but that doesn’t stop it from being a powerhouse of how to strip catchy songs down to their bare bones and really enjoy the moment. Highly recommended and first top album class of 2010.
See, it pays to contact me with new artists that I may be interested in! Some wonderful lady contacted me and said, if you like so-and-so, you might like this little duo… oh yes I did! Welcome to Panda Transport, a French-American duo who are recently getting recognition due to one of their songs appearing on the drama of drama’s Grey’s Anatomy. A video for that is due to be made, but for now I wanted to share this video gem for the song “Painting By Numbers” and long live home made animals!!! Hopefully, if all goes to plan we’ll have an interview with them in the near future.
So yesterday we reviewed Vancouver 2010, today we’ll go for its stand off rival, RTL Winter Sports 2010. This series has had good success on the Wii, now its on the Xbox360 and PS3 – but is this years version a worth contender for best winter games game?
The Premise
Bypassing the olympics, this is all about building a career for your athletes to take part in bigger and bigger tournaments and win them.
The Gameplay
Here’s the duff note… there are only 8 events! Ski Jump is called Ski Flying, Bobsleigh is Bodbled, Snowcross is Snowboard Cross… it all stinks of no licences! However once in game, there’s very little difference between this game and Vancouver, however there is much more diversity in these 8 events than the 14 in Vancouver. Figure Skating is a Simon Says game, Shorttrack is a good racing game using slipstreams and a boost button which means its all about strategic timing. Infact this boost button “Adrenaline” makes an appearance in a lot of the games which thus makes this game feel a much more arcade version of winter sports. Bobsled has a boost? It does here! The best game is the biathlon as it involves all that is shorttrack, with precision shooting however even that’s over too quickly, and I own a PS2 game that’s dedicated to it (by the same makers actually) which does the sport much better justice. It’s all a bit light.
Multiplayer is fun, and the career mode with a points builder similar to Bejing/RPG elemented. There’s also a challenge mode with 44 cups to be won and that’s where the trophies are.
The Graphics
Graphics are fine, not spectacular but certainly above Wii standards. You’ve got to love the mascot dancing bunny too.
The Sound
Sound is encompassed by some really dodgy commentating that is a bit too serious for its own good and arcade menu music. However, at least this game has commentary, if not in game but as little pre and post event comments. Vancouver has none.
The RePlay Factor
Similar to Vancouver, this again is down to how many friends or online fun you can have. Sadly I’ve yet to find anyone online to play with, but two player in house works fine. Challenge mode sticks to its arcade roots (avoid the skulls!) but is all light hearted and light on content.
The Positives
~More diverse controls and events than Vancouver 2010
~Knows its arcade and plays to its strengths
The Negatives
~Seemingly no one plays it online
~Not any better or any worse than the official game which may see it fall into obscurity
~Again seriously lacking events
The Verdict
Well, if you have to choose between Vancouver and Winter Sports, its like choosing between being slapped or spanked. Both give a quick hit of substance which then leaves you with a dull ache either wishing you had never had it to begin with, or wishing you’d have another hit but they are both sorely lacking in their one trick pony brigade. I’m very disappointed in both games, but neither really trumps the other so if you need a winter fix, Vancouver currently has the edge as at least people play it online!
Ah… Olympic games to me always give me memories of soar fingers after hours of button mashing, but in general I’ve felt the Winter Games’ attempts of official Game-dum never quite hit the heights of Summer Olympics. Can Vancouver 2010 change that?
The Premise
Well its Winter Olympics time and that means lots of snow, ice, skiing and jumping, with maybe a sleigh and skate thrown in for good measure. All in the name of multiplayer fun of course… a a gold medal!
The Gameplay
The first thing that I saw was the event total…14. Not impressive. Then I saw what the events were! 6 of them were skiing/boarding games which are split into two distinct types. The faster ones which aiming for the gates is paramount without braking and the slower technical ones which is more about the carving of skis and turns. Sadly the controls are all the same. Next up is the ski-jump which also has similar controls, as does the Ski Cross event which is effectively a race. Then we have Ladies Aerials which puts a bit of a spin on things by twisting the analogue sticks instead of just needing L2 and R2 to steer. Then we have two speed skating events which unfortunately are almost identical except for length except for a stamina part in the 1500m. Then to finish off we have Luge, Skeleton and Bobsleigh which again share identical controls and although each event has different physics, its the same course for all three and so it just takes two or three gos to start getting things right. I wouldn’t have minded the repeats at all had there been some more events to get things really ice cool, but there’s just little here and what’s here is samey. At least online it runs perfectly fine and it is quite interesting to be in a downhill race while seeing everyone else skiing around you in coloured shadows, but again its limited to groups of 4.
The Graphics
Graphics are in general pretty good. The pre-amble stuff is always great and I enjoyed what it added to the tension, but there’s been some shortcuts, such as if you crash out and there’s no motion, you see all the crowd people are very, very fuzzy and very 2-D sprite! When things are going though, its smooth and clear.
The Sound
Sound is something Vancouver 2010 has got right. The soundtrack is great with that middle-of-the-road indie rock pumping out full of Red Bull. Sound effects are good too – however…there is no commentary at all, and it sounds a bit empty without it.
The Replay Factor
Here’s where the rot sets in. Olympic mode is awful, there’s no career element like Bejing. It’s just play and finish. You can take it online which is where I’ve had by far the most fun, and to be honest, when there’s four of you gunning down the slope – yes it is very fun, but it just lacks that something. Bejing had it. Winter Sports 2008 on the PS2 and Wii had it. Hell even Winter Games on my ZX Spectrum had it! It’s just very hollow. There is a challenge mode which is where most of the attention seems to have gone, in creating a few strange challenges like its some trickster arcade mode, and this is also where most of the trophies come from. It doesn’t fit in with the game well and feels disjointed, but the challenges do increase in difficulty (and the AI is quite good too). All the replay factor will be online and/or with friends infront of you.
The Positives
~PS3 glossy graphics
The Negatives
~Sheer lack of events and diversity in controls
~No commentary
~Has an empty personality
The Verdict
Oh how I wanted a decent Winter Olympics game… but its not going to come with Vancouver 2010. It’s just a shame as it seems to have started off well, and then fallen off somewhere into the cutting room floor. Also there is the cheaper Winter Sports 2010 that came out the same day. I’ll be reviewing that tomorrow so everyone can make direct comparisions. Ultimately Vancouver 2010 is not about what that game has, its all about what the game hasn’t.
While a lot of people debate music album sales have struggled due to priacy and downloading, I’ve often wondered how the good old single fairs these days. I remember, back in the 1980′s (just – oops showing my age!) and 1990′s, singles would be looked forward to like mini-albums. You would have at least 1 b-side, sometimes the karaoke version – and the b-sides sometimes would explore new paths for the artist. Very few artists seem to do that anymore and it seems such a shame with singles now reduced to a singluar download or remixes that all sound the same. So Higher Plain Music asks the question…. do you still buy CD/download singles?
Sumthing Else are busy again, today (in the UK) saw the release of Dark Void and now we have the soundtrack coming. Composed by Bear McCreary who is most known for his Battlestar Galactica soundtracks, the soundtrack will take Bear’s favourite pieces of the games score and piece them together again. In particular, we at HPM are most intruiged about the bonus track which will make an 8-bit rendition of the main theme. Dark Void’s OST is due out on 9th February.
Iona, led by the sweetest silky vocals of Joanne Hogg (Xenogears) are this weeks Live Vault with a beautiful performance of Chi-Rho. You can watch it here. I know that it is Christian music however I believe Iona are one of the few bands that actually transcend that genre and the music means more than just a religious context.
Michael Salvatori and Martin O’Donell are being given the remix treatement for new soundtrack from the anime Halo Legends. Reworked by Tetsuya Takahasi and Yasuharu Takanashi, they’ve taken the original game themes and reorchestrated them. Release day is February 9th via Sumthing Else.
Chaining animals into lines? Lodged together in 3d? Is that legal? Zoocube seems to think so…
The Premise
It’s that old 3 in a row puzzler again, but this time its 3D Animals! Woohoo! The story is quite random, but thats half the fun of story mode.
The Gameplay
As with all puzzle games there’s the hook. In the centre of the screen is a 6 sided block. Animals will come in from the top, left and right of your screen. It’s up to you to move your block about the capture the animals how you want. 3 in a row means a nice chain which gets rid of the animals. So far so simple – and it is – for a while. However, soon there are more than say 4 types of animals coming at you, which makes stacking and lining up the animals you need all the more important and then they soon come towards you quite quickly. Some games are over in a flash, others if you can get the rhythm, will go on for some time. There’s a few different single player modes but they all amount to the same thing, however the multiplayer modes really add extra fun as you can do co-op or battle modes for up to 4 players.
The Graphics
Graphics, for all the shout of 3D on the cover, aren’t fantastic but they certainly do the trick. Nice to see puzzle games using FMV’s too.
The Sound
Sound here is quite cute, the music actually quite un-annoying (for a puzzle game that’s good!) and plenty of dodgy animal squarks and honks.
The Replay Factor
Single player is challenging but the multiplayer mode is where its at. 4 player fun is great to challenge eachother with, although it does take getting used to as a concept. However once you’ve picked it up – you’ll be throwing animals at each other like nobodies business.
The Positives
~New spin on the connect 3 puzzler
~4 player modes
The Negatives
~Reveals everything quite quickly do runs the risk of becoming stale later on
The Verdict
Zoocube is an interesting, if not a top of the class puzzler. It’s concept is a nice spin on the connect three genre, although when each tube has only about 7 spaces, you quickly find the levels can be over too quickly if you’re not careful. However, as a 4 player alternative to your usual suspects, Zoocube is a cheap option that can fit the bill.
Fever Ray is someone who I’ve just recently discovered, and she’s already a heavy part of my daily listening already! Here is a live performance of “When I Grow Up“. Expect an album review soon
Over the past few years, I as a person have always wanted to do more for when people are in need. When the Asain Tsumani of 2004 hit, it was a time when so many needed help to recover. Now most recently with Haiti, again, the world needs to unite to help people through the worst. For this (and my other) websites and ventures, I have chosen MAP International as my chosen charity to sponsor and give awareness to. The reason for this is that the operate in such an efficient way that 98% of donations actually go to where they need to go, not to paid workers or other businesses demanding the money from the charity. They are one of the most efficient charities around and therefore your money is most likely to make more of a difference the other end.
For 2010, MAP International will have banners on all of my sites and my sim racing cars.
British band Broadcast are quite fantastic and I’ve only just been introduced to them (thanks Wears the Trousers). The first EP that I’ve bought of theirs is Pendulum and is summed up as dial up rock!
The music of Broadband in general is rock but the strange heavily processed syntheriser is just as important and prominent as the guitars. “Pendulum” is the opening track and has plenty of drums and the vocals are so silky smooth, it matches and takes away the really hard edged synths being used. It just sounds like a dial up connection being connected, but in a tuneful manner. It’s quite strange and can really flange into your ears and pierce them if you have it too loud, but that’s half the point. It digs right into your mind and rocks about in there. “Small Song IV” focuses on Trish’s whispy vocals glazes over bass guitar and computerised feedback noises. It’s quite interesting to listen to as got a slight eerieness about it.
“One Hour Empire” is like a spaced out lounge bar track or James Bond sneak-em-up track. It’s been heavily processed to be very close to the speakers and sounds like a real mash up of all kinds of ideas in a tuneful abstract way. Great for hiding behind corners to then sneak around on your walk to work or school! “Still Feels Like Tears” has an interesting duel feedback running through it, like an organ and guitar feedback have been fused together. This is possibly the most rock orientated track on the album and the most accessable from an outsider.
“Violent Playground” sounds like The Go Team! had a baby with Akira Yamaoka – both playful and slightly eerie but very spaced out, this almost freestyle end of gig drum backed freakout is great for just letting go. “Minus Two” is the final track on the EP which is full of all kinds of bizarre noises and is like an improvisational freakout again while flying through a psychadelic hedoism. Bizarre and quite unique.
“Pendulum” is definately not for everyone, and many won’t appreciate the fact it tries its best to go anti-hook, anti-chord and anti-guitar for a rock band. However it is completely unique and experimental and deserves credit for being completely compelling listening and it will draw you in if you take thew bait.
SqaureDance is a fan made project CD from OneUpStudios letting a group of people remix their favourite songs made by Square Soft and releasing them as a compliation. The result is something far better than just amateur works, these songs are very groovy indeed.
The opening track “Hip-Hop Corridor” is a fairly standard but highly produced remix from Chrono Trigger that uses various synthesizers to provide a mellow dramatic feel. The beginning is masterful as it comes across like a space odyssey. Following that comes the epic length of “Soulless Village” from Final Fantasy IX. This comes across as a dance floor mega hit, and if it were released properly I’m sure would do well! The song is faithful to the original and is very pleasing to listen to.
“Spacecat” from Chrono Tigger comes across like a space movie and then continues to send waves of sound through your speakers. The instrumentation in this song is very close to real life (especially the string sections) and makes for a complete change of scene in the album.
“Hello World” from Secret Of Evermore is a nice song in itself but I don’t think it has a strong enough main melody to really compete much with the surrounding songs. The instrumentation is still top class though. “Cyan” from Final Fantasy VI is geared towards grizzly old skool music from the early 1990′s and the songs chorus makes the song as it uplifts you and takes you on a journey – great ear candy. In between the chorus’ though is fairly cluttered techno-babble but on whole it’s a great song with a lovely ending.
“Forest Animal Groove” from Secret of Mana is done very much in the style of the how the Secret Of Mana’s OST would have had it. It has a beefy, grizzly baseline and some cutesy tunes, but never really gets going and so is the laid back tune of the CD. “To Far Away Times” from Chrono Trigger is a magical adventure trip with lovely fairy lights guiding the tune through with a dance beat bumping away. It’s a simple but very effective and enjoyable remix.
“World Of Ruin” from Final Fantasy VI is a gothic piece that has an almost jungle beat to it. The church organ though begins to get a little repetitive towards the end repeating the same 4 chords to the end but it is a bit more of a welcome quirk from the normal dance music you’d get!
“Adventurous Break” from “Final Fantasy Adventure” is perfectly pitched. It has regular chord changes, regular dips and rises in its song and the actual main tune is good. It comes across as a drama piece more at times with some excellent effects.
“Cecil’s Jinn and Juice” is mixing two songs from Final Fantasy IV and is done in a relaxing manner that rewards you with each listen. The lead is taken by wind instrumentation and is defined and superbly realised. The change over between the two songs is absolutely spot-on and marks this as one the real stand out tracks for the album. Put simply – this song is a masterpiece.
“Reiterated Inspiration” mixed from Chrono Cross begins with a lovely acoustic guitar that is added onto by other lovely instrumentations to make a beautiful dramatic piece. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect at the end of a film when you see the main character make their final goal. It’s another masterpiece on the album and really sticks in your mind. The best way to describe this song is a dreamscape.
“Magus” arranged from Chrono Trigger is a typical trance remix that is pleasant to listen to and has a rather scary voice in the middle of it. Apart from that its run of the mill stuff but done to top class quality.
“The Day Will Come” taken from FFV starts of beautifully with a lovely piano introduction that envelopes into a great piece of trance music that is faultless.
“Star Stealing Girl” from Chrono Trigger uses some excellent vocal samples to set the song apart from the rest and make it a unique experience.
“Forest Starlight” from Chrono Trigger also comes across more of a jazz pop song and slows the speed of the album down for a nice relaxing song that very intimate. The final track is “The Ultimate Being” from Parasite Eve that despite some lovely effects is just a bit too chaotic and cluttered at times.
SquareDance is all about how you like the genre. If you love dance music, this will be right up your street, but for the rest of the VGM listeners out their, you’ll be able to appreciate most of the arrangements that you’ve had first hand experience, but skip over the rest without a thought. Paying for this quality of remixes should never pose a problem however, there is so much original content that’s not even in the same ball park of SquareDance, even if I don’t always feel in the mood for the album. SquareDance is ambitious and somewhat the cement on what would become a great section of VGM, the fan remix. If there’s not a celebration – I don’t know what is!
Lauren Hoffman’s new album “Interplanetary traveller” is out…now! You can buy it at CD Baby or you can download it from amazon and other major retailers. The title song is the leading track and has an adorable music video which you can watch here
Musaic Box is an interesting take on music games and a small shout out to independant game studios that all kinds of weird and wonderful concepts can work.
The Premise
Musaic Box is a puzzle/music game hybrid where you must piece together blocks of music to form a whole track of many music boxes that your grandfather has scattered around your house.
The Gameplay
Essentially each level has 3 or 4 instruments and there is an outline that all the instrument coloured blocks must be placed into. The blocks all come in different shapes and sizes and one block is one single bar from a song per instrument. You place them into an exact position and then hopefully complete the song. Sometimes its a matter of playing jigsaw, others its about listening back to what you’ve already placed to make sure its all in tune. In order to find the levels, you play a bit of item searching on static screens of rooms to find the outlines. Sometimes moving items is needed later on but that’s about it. Once you’ve completed the game, you are then able to rearrange the songs how you like brick wise, as long as you always keep to the Musaic Box rule that you can only have your instrument playing one bar at one time. It’s not as deep as it would like to be, but it is a nice fun addition to what is a fairly quick game.
The Graphics
Nothing too dramatic to write home about, its all very functionally but I do like how when an instrument plays, one of the four corner windows opens to show a little camtoy man playing it.
The Sound
Obviously sound is key to this game and sound in the most part is great. All the songs are either classical classics, nursery rhymes or songs everyone knows. They’ve almost all been rearranged to a degree but still keep the main tune intact.
The RePlay Factor
The actual main game is pretty short and can be done in a few hours easily once you know what you’re doing. The tutorial should see you through though. The after play factor is down to how much you want to tinker with the songs and samples after. I didn;t get too inspired myself being a musican anyway, but its a good start for people just wanting to lightly tinker with things.
The Positives
~New concept
~Sense of achievement when you complete a song makes the game rewarding
The Negatives
~Not as deep as you’d think it is
Conclusion
Musaic Box is a fun distraction for a few hours but not a game you’d constantly want to return to. There’s plenty of fun to be had but its not quite enough puzzling, nor enough of a music game to completely satisfy either fan base and therefore sits uncomfortably in the middle at times. However, if you know its going to be a lighthearted bit of fun and that you don’t mind reconstructing Old McDonald, then I recommend it as a left-feild game of choice for a quick 20 minutes quiet time.
The Age of Wonders is a fairly long running god sim which has spawned off into various other offspring on the way. “Age of Wonders II: The Wizards Throne” is an 11 track soundtrack to the game of the same title composed by Mason B. Fisher, not a name I’ve heard of to be honest.
“The Age of Wonders” opens the soundtrack with a cinematic synth orchestra piece that comes across very noble and well written. It has a strong tension to it as it goes from strong outbursts to much more sweeping parts of the song. “Fire” then cements this style with a quite anthemic melody that is quite similar to a war march with a booming bass drum giving much needed pace. One of the great things about this track, and the others is that there is no real looping in a sense. The tracks are formed much like songs, having a beginning, middle and ending. This marks is seperate from many other soundtracks.
“Water” is a more ambient piece with some lovely guitar melodies and echoing vocal samples. It reminds me of the Final Fantasy tactics Advanced arrangement album in style. The synths blend particularly well together here to make a seamless painting of sound.
“Life” ups the pace with our first real drum tracking with a quite dark melody that equally has plenty of beauty to it. That achievement is quite hard to pull off so well done to the composer for doing so. It’s like a synth orchestral near hip-hop piece.
“Air” (can you tell the naming pattern yet?) starts off in the same vein as the previous two songs, bridging the gap between acoustic synth and orchestral synth – which is probably the best way to descibe the overal sound of the soundtrack. Air however is my favourite piece on the soundtrack – it has a beautiful harp lead melody playing over a lush string and acoustic guitar background.
“Earth” is a much more subtle track, using string and woodwind arrangements to bring out emotion slowly while keeping in line with the same style of music. Once again the result is pretty and mellow with dark undertones.
“Death” takes things a step darker with some big cymbols, pained vocal samples and some very theatrical string arrangments. The music seems quite primal and medievil on this track, more so than others.
“Cosmos” takes on a regal feel, but also one that feels quite sorrow-fueled and not at ease with itself, which makes the track a lot more intresting as a listener as you have to choose which stance you listen to it from.
“Aggressor” is a very simple track in places with hightened tension and lots of miliatary drum rolls and some dramatic string pluges which keeps everyone on their toes before “Defender” brings out some nice dulicmer synths to keep things moving slowly in a different direction as the soundtrack finishes on the lush string & brass arrangement “Finale”.
The way how to synths on this soundtrack have been produced in a soft and airy light way makes the overal sound quite unique and intresting to listen to. The tunes themselves are pretty and catchy in places, but are slow to evolve into anything that really catches your attention. The purists who enjoy music where you can pay attention to detail and really soak in sound, will enjoy this soundtrack I feel, but if you are looking for life changing stuck-in-your-head melodies, I suggest to look elsewhere first.
It’s a pretty unique item, and we know a lot of folks would want one (even if they can’t snowboard), so we’d appreciate your help spreading the word. The difference with this contest vs. past giveaways of the snowboard is that SEGA Europe has allowed OC ReMix to open it up worldwide, not just to the UK. Everyone around the world is eligible, so this is their chance to win it!
* The name & description of a cool made-up snowboarding trick!
They also must be subscribed to the OC ReMix YouTube channel (http://tr.im/yOCR). YouTube is how we’ll contact the winner. (Video get!)
The snowboarding trick ideas can be Mario & Sonic-based, Olympic Games-based, OC ReMix-based, it can be anything, and entrants can submit as many tricks as they want in one email. The coolest snowboarding trick sent in will win!
Trick Examples! (They don’t need to be this literal. Entrants just need to be creative & cool, and have fun with it!)
“IceCap Dash” – Sonic does a 360 rotation while spin dashing on the board!
“Space Harrier” – Hang in the air for more than 5 seconds, with a rocket pack attached to your back!
“pixietricks” – Sonic gets some air and jumps off the board, while Amy Rose jumps and lands on the board in mid-air! <3
There’s also YouTube players on the contest page to check out Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and listen to all of OCR’s SEGA music tributes. (Little bit of trivia: The music of SEGA was a huge inspiration for the founding of OC ReMix by David “djpretzel” Lloyd back in 1999.)
If you have any questions, let us know, but thanks again for passing this contest along so people can get in on this before the deadline! Even if you can’t officially post news of this, we figure some of you would want to enter. Good luck to you if you do!
Monorail is the new 6 track EP from Panda Transport and I can confirm that it is rather fantastic. The duo fuse alternative pop electronica with random extras to create a fun.
