The Kyd’s certainly got it. Jesper returns again for the new Assassin’s Creed game subtitled Revelations. Jesper’s previous scores for the series have garned a collection of awards and we here personally loved the music when it was in full flow. Judging by the press releases it looks like more of the same so that can’t be a bad thing at all. The game itself comes out November with the soundtrack expected to follow shortly after.
Bring me the Greek instruments!
Adam Fielding has a couple of new things up his sleeves and has also recently been signed to a label too. Whilst he works on album No. 3, he also has completed a production album for general media consumption. Here’s a sneak peek. That would sound good in any platform / shooter / sniper game to me.
Naoshi Mizuta posted the track Archlyte Steppe from the upcoming FFXIII-2 game. Great fun, reminds me of fun Chocobo theme from the previous game. Take a peek.
I do love OCR. They simply make fantastic productions time and time again. This latest release today is entitled “Mega Man 9: Black in Blue” and celebrates the series’ return to its retro roots by rearranging its soundtrack into a variety of styles from a collection of OCR’s finest. Pop over to their website and grab yourself another slice of arranged excellence.
DreamWeb soundtrack is a little known soundtrack that I came across on the internet. Composed by Matt Seldon, the ten tracks try to come across much like a space odyssey.
“Sweet Dreams” opens up with a faint drum beat and some monotone buzzing with random statements such as “I thought the dreams had gone away” syphoning through. Statements from the game prehaps? Whom knows! The soundtrack really gets underway though with “Lunar-Sea” which follows a very similar pattern before getting into a house groove. The problem it takes two and a half minutes for the drums to kick in. Even then the actual track development is very slow but gradually melodic.
“Suburban Symphony” is two minutes of background street noise and faint atmospheric keyboard whirls before “Prepare to Die” gives us a six-minute trip-hop affair with machines whirring and lots of very english speaking voice overs.
By the time you reach track five “Can You Hear Me” (which is actually quite an interesting Ico-style track and then track six “What Went Wrong” you will have noticed two things. Firstly the actual production completely lacks any oomph. All the sounds melt together and mesh into one. Secondly, and this is the killer, that all the tracks in essence seem to be the same. Two chords, a progressive drum beat, extra keyboards at half way and lots and lots of random voices and everyday ambience fading in and out.
“Total Head Control” differs by taking four chords on and some brite piano. “Time Runs Out But The Clock Runs On” is a superb track name. Thankfully it is also the best track on the CD. It has a beautiful ethereal tone it where the soft production for once works to its favour. “The Electronic Revolution” sadly returns to the earlier roots of the album while “Back To Sleep” sounds like a lost Ico track which leaves you wondering why on earth Matt went for a house feel when the ambience effect could have worked much better.
DreamWeb Soundtrack is a very frustrating CD. It has one or two moments of clear class but they are severely tarnished by being surrounded by standard house music that just doesn’t liven up your speakers. I really cannot recommend this soundtrack unless you a major collector but if you like odd ambience, you can find the tracks I’ve picked out and take them with you. That’s really all there is!
Final Fantasy Songbook “Mahoroba” is a collection of songs arranged by Yuji Hasegawa and half of them have vocals sung in Japanese by Manami Kiyota. Taking various songs from different Final Fantasy games they are arranged using traditional instrumentation.
A perfect example is the opening “The Place I’ll Return To Someday” which is just a simple translation of the FFIX track to real life woodwind. It’s very fragile but sets the tone of whats to come. “Summer Album – Eyes on Me” is a rendition of the song originally sung by Faye Wong. This time in Japanese and in a folksy/jazz style, the song translates very well to a different genre. Manami’s voice is not as strong as Faye’s but it’s certainly not a failed attempt and I quite enjoy the fact we now have an alternative version.
“This is Probably Goodbye” is a vocalised version of the good old farmboy song from FFVII. The fact it doesn’t stray far from the roots of the original definitely helps retain the cute and chirpy nature of the arrangement – a beautiful lazy piece of folk. “Town” (taken from FFIII) is even more laid back, ballad-like with some beautifully soft vocals.
“Fisherman’s Horizon” is a beautiful rendition of the song from FFVIII. Using electric piano, woodwinds and various guitars it carefully plucks its way through a six-minute epic that builds and evolves throughout. This arrangement made me appreciate the original again. “A Walk In The Rain” is a swinging folksy rendition of “Descendants of the Shinobi” from FFVII which is a fabulous lighthearted piece that Kiyota’s vocals are made for. Plus I’m sure we have a banjo playing! What more do you need?!
Strangely track seven is taken from the Ten Plants – a game/story/thing that had many of the top vgm composers contributing to the soundtrack. Not a Final Fantasy song no, but the acoustic guitar and piano led piece fits like a glove to this set of songs and the actual melody reminds of a few other Final Fantasy tracks rolled together. I’d like to hear if anyone else can hear them too. “Daguerreo” from FFIX is the third and final instrumental – a beauty acoustic guitar arrangement that could lullaby anyone off to sleep.
“Transient” taken from FFV’s “Far-Off Hometown” once again goes from the earthly instrument route for a direct fight off against its previous vocal arrangement on FFV’s “Dear Friends” CD. However the arrangement could not much more different in tone if it tried. This is one of the highlights of the album as it builds and builds itself up to a huge crowd pleasing arm swaying climax and for really the first time on the album – everything really stretches its legs properly. A personal favourite of mine this track.
The album closes with “The Light Goes Around” from FFIX’s “Unfulfilled Desire” a piano and vocal piece that ends the album on a suitably low-key note as the album is relatively low-key throughout. Leave the final track to run though and you’ll get a full traditional band reprieve of the opening track which is superb.
After “Pray” and “Love Will Grow” – I think people were expecting a third similar album to round off the classical orchestration beauty that was those albums. However this is something completely different – not better nor particularly worse. Its a different genre and deserves a mention for trying to be a bit more different. It’s not as accessible as the other two FF Vocal Albums but if you enjoy your music buried at the earth’s roots – I’d definitely recommend this album for you.
Panic Maker is a bizarre game (known as Under The Skin over here in Europe) that I found quite a refreshing piece of fun to play. I was however slightly surprised it had a soundtrack and bought it really to see if I could remember the music more away from the game environment.
“Trick Scan I” opens the soundtrack as the title tune, the sole piece written by Daisuke Asakura. It’s a catchy house piece that’s inoffensive and playful. The song is reprised at the end of the soundtrack too.
The rest of the soundtrack is done by Chamy Ishi. “Are You Serious?” continues the cheesy house vibe before “Groovy Sonic Beans” gives it all a continental jazz feel in a quite funky refreshing feel. However we are then treated to random dance fillers “Yo Homie!” and “Dice A Carrot”. “Pins and Needles” is an ambient darker piece which breaks up the slightly repetitive tempo thus far before a fanfare of “Global Connection” leads us into the more meaty tracks.
“Missing Persons” reminds me of an AWOL track from Final Fantasy X-2′s battle tracks at times. There is some excellent acoustic guitar action here though. “Estado Del Panico” is a shorter more manic track as the name suggests before “Take It As It Comes” gives us an electro-jazz track. Once again the music is nice enough and you can listen to it as background noise (nice brite piano pieces) but it really doesn’t grip me at full pelt. Pleasant to the ear, but never enough to warrant a massive replay factor from within.
“Boundary Layer” is a fun hyper high-pitched organ dance piece but only lasts a minute thus keeping it fresh. “Hazard City” is a more industrial track but has absolutely no real melody in most of the places at all sounding like a dance version of the ambience of Metal Gear Solid! However “Western Jamboree” is a corker of a track. Light, cheerful, a great blend of cultures and doesn’t out stay its welcome, it’s an example of a track brought to its full potential.
“Flippin’ Over” is almost hardcore dance with its snares and podgy synths and urgency while “Relics Stone” continues the whole style of the elctro-jazz into a kind of 1970′s cop car chase song which is good fun to listen to. “Pirates of Bootleg” is another song that’s been done correctly for the majority of it. Its lead synth however sounds like the theme songs to the old Grange Hill theme song! Good or Bad? You Decide! “Inside Out” is another throw away panic minute song but “Horror Geek” is much more substantial with its typical b-movie noises, slower pace and cohesion. The soundtrack ends with a few short fanfare style pieces, “Space in the Space” a trip-hop keyboard fest, cheesy jazz piece “It’s as Easy as Pie”, the out-of-place oriental “Hanafubuki-Dragon” and the chilled out “Cool Down!”.
The problem with Panic Maker OST is that while the sound quality is excellent and there’s plenty of instruments thrown in, there is very little in the way of catchy melodies. As a result you listen but don’t take on board what’s going on and forget all about it about ten minutes later. The music is far from disastrous but it is almost completely forgettable unless the relaxed nature of the music is your genre specifically. To me, it just seems like an entire soundtrack of menu music.
Sometimes good things come in small packages… such as a toy box! Whomever the genius was that decided to marry LittleBigPlanet and Toy Story for a DLC expansion pack deserves a huge slice of sack-cake because this is a match made in heaven. Not only do we get new costumes, new stickers, new backgrounds and new contraptions to play with, we get new music courtesy of the ever exciting composer Winifred Phillips.
With the pack comes three fantastically varied themes. “Toy Story Big Band Theme” is perky, upbeat with just a hint of slinky shimmy-shoulders to it. It just oozes Disney from the brass leads to the little piano motifs dotted around the track. I can already picture plenty of comical story scenes playing out to this theme in my head immediately.
“Toy Story Space Theme” is more grand in scope returning to a more traditional orchestrated approach but it’s so heavily layered in instruments and it constantly evolves into something different in tone, tempo and gusto every ten seconds, you’ll be able to enjoy the piece as a great track as well as being able to chop up the various layers for your own levels.
“Toy Story Western Theme” is the final track is a fun ditty that fiddles and finger plucks its way around in a fashion that reminds me not only of Woody but of old silent cartoons and the kind of music you get in the background of wooden puppet shows. Utterly charming and disarming it’ll have you beaming in no time. Again from a gaming point of view you’ve sections of fiddle and honky-tonk you can place nicely for your scenes too.
In just three tracks Winifred crosses chasms in the variety offered and I’m already planning exactly what I’ll be making my little sack bots do with these tracks and the rest of the DLC. An absolute must buy purchase for the levels that come with them and of course for the create mode after.
Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan famous for the God of War and Tron: Evolution scores respectively have teamed up together to create Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine’s soundtrack. The 3rd person shooter series’ latest installment comes to Xbox360, PS3 and PC on 06/09/11 and the soundtrack which will be fully orchestrated will be included with the collectors edition of the game. I have to say I am loving this come back of soundtracks being released as collectors editions. This comes hot off the heels of Catherine, Arcana Heart 3 and I picked up Ar Tonelico III with a bonus soundtrack CD included too. Thank you developers!
Drag-on Dragoon 2 is the completely orchestrated soundtrack from Yoshiki Aoi. The 22 tracks are a complete attack on the sense’s as an entire orchestra and full-sized choir rampage as much power and tension on you as possible.
“Symphonic Poem Forbidden Prelude” opens the soundtrack is a huge way. Everything is thrown into the mix in this tense and powerful piece. It is perfectly balanced and very well produced losing none of its grandeur at any stage. The timpani, low brass and stabbing strings really bring out panic in the listener and it is honestly one of the best orchestral pieces I have ever listened to.
“Fate” is a classically played piano based piece with sweeping woodwind and strings that then push the piano to the background. This is one of the few tracks which shows grace, pride and empathy and really stands out because of that – along with a beautiful melody for most of the tune.
“Plains of Pity” is a strange one because it uses an orchestral dance paced beat and war chants over a brass tune which gives it a completely unique sound. Once again its full of drama and tension and completely hams it up. “Reminiscence is Madness” follows a similar line of thought and tune but is more string based.
“Old Tombstone” brings in what sounds like ancient Erhu’s and Guzhengs for a maddened piece of out of tune chord progressions and some beautiful piano interludes. It took me a few listens to get this piece but once I got it, it became a favourite for me. Almost like an evil fairground ride theme.
“Valley of Avidya” is a downbeat sorrow filled string piece with what sounds like a guzheng improvisation in the distant background. This track is welcome as a pace slower because all the other tracks really go for it, so this is needed to stop the soundtrack becoming too much for the listener.
“Formidable Enemy” returns to our orchestra and choir who go all guns blazing into this waltz battle theme. Another excellent track. “Vein of Grief” uses a military beat to stand out from the others with waves of strings and discordant wind instruments to create more tension and confusion. While some of the tracks on this soundtrack sound out of tune, it’s never to the point of it being unlistenable – it’s always off kilter for a reason.
“Sadness” is sombre piece as the title suggests but it doesn’t sit still with ambient strings and harps to a mechanical drumloop. “Exhausted ~On the Holy Land~” continues with the harp as a calming instrument for this beautiful piece underscored by piano and later given a voice by flutes and strings. In contrast “Exhausted ~The Broken Past~” has a much sharper tone to it using various themes from before in the soundtrack to reprise and give you what is essentially a main theme now.
“Abysmal Earth” once again cranks things up to the max. If you don’t like pounding over the top orchestration then I suggest you don’t buy this soundtrack because the same premise is then used in “Furious Earth” and gain although much more slower but still overscored “Twilight Hill” (all about the strings here).
“The End of the Conclusion” however gives us guitar and what sounds like a computerised bass! It’s certainly different to the others and it was a wickedly dark melody and is a standout track.
“Impatience” starts off with a furious keyboard and ambience before going into a completely abstract piece equal orchestral ambience (much like Clock Tower music) and random almost comical sections (ala Voodoo Vince) which is an interesting combination. “Exploration” is more of a background track with experimental percussion loops thrown over it – much like a dungeon track actually before “Breakthrough” returns to the all singing all dancing full orchestration for another rousing piece that goes at well over 100 miles an hour with some stunning musical work.
“Unrest” gives us another ambient experiment using that faithful horror movie glass moving noise before “Final Battle” goes percussion mad for its final piece.
The final track on the soundtrack is “Hitori” sung by Mika Nakashima which is a soft jazz song with sultry smooth vocals and a nice tune. Not a personal favourite of my vocal tracks but definitely a good song.
Drag-on Dragoon is all about power and orchestration. While it does do other things the majority of the soundtrack is about pounding out as much as you can as grandly as you can. This does for orchestra’s what The Black Mages did for stadium rock so if you think you can stomach it and are prepared for a tension filled ride – go for it!
Melodies Of Life is the vocal track to Final Fantasy IX. On the single there are 3 versions of the song. The first is in Japanese; the second in English and the third is an instrumental version. Also included on the single is Galway Sky, a completely new song for the CD.
Melodies Of Life is a straightforward love song about feeling alive with love. Many accused the song of being a bit too laid back, but I don’t find that the case. After a soft beginning, it gradually builds up for the chorus’, which are fairly powerful. If you found the song too laid back, then it’s probably due to the rest of the soundtrack being a bit more low key compared to say Final Fantasy VIII. Instead of going military, this is Final Fantasy returning to its roots, and the song would not be out of place in say the Pray CD. Of the two vocal versions of the song, the Japanese version is better, because it follows with the music easier, and sometimes the English vocal arrives a little too late for piece’s and fluctuates in tone a little too much. The Japanese version is what Melodies Of Life was written for, and that’s why it stands out more. The Instrumental version is a bonus, and can be used for Karaoke purposes since it has no synth voice.
Galway Sky is the new song and is absolutely astonishing! Emiko’s vocals shimmer here with the uptempo chorus’ and the excellent bridges. It doesn’t borrow from any song from the Final Fantasy IX OST and come across like a breath of fresh air. Galway Sky has a distinct Japanese feel, from the vocals to the instruments used, and for the first time in a long while, a male and female vocal track actually works! The end of the song shows the vocalists playing off eachother to great effect and Galway Sky is reason enough to buy this single.
Amon Tobin, a well-known and respected man in his musical field of mad electronica spearheads a 10 song sensory overload that has become the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Soundtrack.
Combining ambience, basslines to kill for and some mega foot stomping drum loops, the soundtrack weaves its way through a manic mental path to hedonism of the dancing senses. I’m not usually one to get madly to grips with such genres however the way its patched together makes for very interesting listening on occasion.
The opener “Lighthouse” melds the ambience and bass lines together to cause some kind of panic fury which never really explodes into a full-blown attack but clearly goes into a bedlam mode. A very clever way to skip around going for the normal route of things. “Ruthless” follows then really does explode into a huge drum n bass number with not much in the melodic department but all trousers in the drums. The percussive elements throughout the album are something to admire.
“Theme From Battery” is a beautiful yet haunting ambience piece, something I could see a band like Cocteau Twins almost doing – very surreal and dreamy. “Kokubo Sosho Stealth” continues the whole ambience theme with broken down drum loops and echoing vocals but is not as successful as creating a timeless space as the previous track. “El Cargo” is completely reliant on its funky basslines and echoes of an almost gospel sounding choir. “Displaced” is full of discord from the word go. Random little quirks of instrumentation are set to an uptempo drum beat which is interesting but not entirely listenable too unless you’re into the genre!
“Ruthless (Reprise)” is much better in this version that the previous one. Almost low-fi in presence, it just has so much more structure and poise to it! “Kukubo Susho Battle” too is better than its similar predecessor just but having a rhythm to its madness and getting on with it! There’s some mean parts to it in places with some electric guitar fits and starts too. “Hokkaido” sadly doesn’t get going, a bit like a lost and best forgotten Silent Hill gone techno track. “The Clean Up” rounds off the album with a bit of everything that had gone before it and makes for a very good track indeed! Some superb use is made of orchestration and drum montages too.
This album is such a hard one to judge. It is technically unique in its sound (Sudeki cross Silent Hill cross Metal Gear Solid prehaps?) however it doesn’t always hit the spots required to say that it should have a standout place in the VGM World. If you’re after something that’s very eclectic and electronic – you could do much worse than this album, or if you should see it cheap then I’d recommend it. It certainly will gain a foothold in your audio mindscape and maybe over time and many listens will grow on you . However a melding of many different genres does not necessarily mean it will please any of the follows of them.
Another cracking double CD arrangement album from OCRemix, taking on the Nights series, we have all the music genres under the sun plus 30 stunning pieces of artwork to boot from Nightsintodreams.com. It’s yet another masterclass of game music wizardary and its time to go download over at the Lucid Website!
This piece of music simply has to be seen to be believe. Xia and Song perform over four gu-zheng’s a megamix version of the entire Plants Vz Zombies soundtrack originally written by Laura Shigihara. It’s reworked to perfection and is mindboggling to watch them perform. I actually own a gu-zheng and if I can get one tenth as good as these girls, I’ll be a happy man!
Congratulations on recently completing the soundtrack to the game Kung Fu Panda.
Thanks!
Now the projects finished, how do you feel about it as a body of work? Is there anything that stands out as a particular piece you’re proud of?
I am really pleased with the score – I love a lot of the music, but I guess I really adore the music for the rickshaw race – it’s fun, and I conceived of it as an erhu concerto for Karen Han, who is a knock-out erhu player.
In scoring Kung Fu Panda 2, how much of an influence has the film itself (and the original) had over your creativity. Were you set specific tones, instrumentation or a set of rules to work with or were you given free reign to arrange music how you like?
I certainly listened to Hans Zimmer and John Powell’s score for the first Kung Fu Panda and it absolutely had an influence. Prior to my score for the Kung Fu Panda 2 video game, I wrote music for A Monkey’s Tale. This project is a film about three mischievous monkeys in their quest for an ever-elusive peach. It’s installed in The Monkey Tale Theater, situated next to the Tian Tan Buddha, the world’s largest outdoor bronze Bhudha, Ngong Ping 360, Hong Kong. The music for A Monkey’s Tale received a 2006 Annie nomination for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production. That score featured Erhu soloist Karen Han as well. (Ironically, she had played on the original Kung Fu Panda).
The score for the Kung Fu Panda 2 video game features solo performances recorded with Karen Han on erhu, renowned multi-instrumentalist Craig Stull on pipa, guzheng, yuet chin, dan tinh and chin chin, knock-out percussionist M.B. Gordy on Chinese percussion, myself on Chinese flutes, and orchestra. I worked closely with Griptonite Games to create a rich, cinematic sound as Po and the Furious Five: Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Viper and Mantis, go out to save Kung Fu from another evil enemy.
I was pretty much given free reign, although the score is loop-based, and so timings and construction were predetermined by my wonderful audio lead from Griptonite, Jaclyn Shumate. She also did an incredible job at organizing a tremendous amount of material and delivering coherent direction.
You’ve been prolific in video game music for many years now with credits such as RPG’s “Everquest II” and “Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom” right across to tense shooters such as Field Commander. Does each genre have its own challenges and how do you change your style and/or approach to each music project?
In terms of my approach, I like to really get into the dramatic heart and soul of each project. I always want the music to feel organic to the game, so that the player has a truly immersive experience. For games that have strong narrative elements, like Untold Legends, I’ve often worked with choruses and texts that are conceptually connected with the drama. For a work like Kung Fu Panda 2, I spent some time studying traditional Chinese melodies and the ways those tunes are built and developed before I started writing.
You have also recently scored a movie too called “Last Man Standing”. Tell us how that came about and what we expect to hear in this film.
Last Man Standing is a film directed by Ernest Dickerson and executive produced by Gale Anne Hurd. It’s the first action movie that Lifetime has ever produced. I encourage everyone to tune in on June 6, 2011 at 8pm. The crazy part is that I had to compose, record and deliver the score, 80 minutes of driving action music, in 13 days. So writing it was like being in the film. It was a ride!
In another string to your bow you also compose concert music which has been performed most notably at Carnegie Hall. That must have been a great moment to have your works performed in such a renowned venue!
Yes, thanks. ASK YOUR MAMA was commissioned and premiered at Carnegie Hall with Jessye Norman, The Roots, de’Adre Aziza, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and George Manahan. Setting this epic text of Langston Hughes’ had been a mission of mine for a number of years, and I was so glad to be able to realize his vision. The piece went on to play at the Hollywood Bowl in August of 2009. Currently, I’m completing ONE TEN, an opera commissioned by The LA Opera, and a large-scale multimedia work for the Cabrillo Festival, in collaboration with The Kitchen Sisters.
You’re also a professor for the UCLA. Tell us what that entails for you – it sounds like a very rewarding responsibility!
At UCLA I’m on the faculty of the School of Theater, Film and Television. We are implementing a curriculum that I created. It is a truly cross-disciplinary concept in film and music education, bringing together filmmakers, theater directors and designers with composers to invent and explore every facet of their disciplines, while breaking boundaries in collaboration. This philosophy is a direct result of my experience in the last twenty years as a professional working composer. I teach film directors about film music, and mentor their collaborations with composers. I also teach a wacky class called Gesamtkunstwerk in the theater department, where we explore the state of multimedia in performance today, and I also oversee the development of interdisciplinary works. All of this taps into the cross-genre work that I do as a composer working with visuals both in my daily film scoring work and in the concert hall.
So with your fingers in so many pies, what do you do to keep yourself inspired? Is there anything in particular that gets the creative juices flowing?
Well, I live on the beach…need I say more? [Ed: *envy eyes!*]
Do you remember the first song you composed? How old were you at the time?
I was seven. It was called “Man In The Moon.” I do remember it.
If you could pick up and play a new instrument perfectly tomorrow, which one would you choose?
Great question. I can kind of play woodwinds right now, but I do fantasize about waking up one day with unbelievable woodwind chops.
What’s next for Laura Karpman?
1. Sleep training my seven month old baby.
2. A solo violin piece for Tim Fain
3. A chamber music piece for viola and guitar about the California/Mexico border
4. A 21st century response to Milton Babbitt’s All Set
5. The score for To Kill A Mockingbird for Denver Center Theater Company
6. Another episode of Craft in America for PBS
7. Did I say sleep train my baby?
8. And various other big projects…
The adorable Laura Shigihara talks on her YouTube channel about the excellent Play for Japan Charity CD that’s being spearheaded by Akira Yamaoka.
The full tracklist:
Akira Yamaoka (Shadows of the Damned) | “Ex Animo”
Arthur Inasi (Harmonix) | “We Are One”
Bear McCreary (SOCOM 4) | “Maverick Regeneration”
Chance Thomas (Lord of the Rings Online) | “Rise Up”
Hip Tanaka.β (Mother) | “HVC-1384″
Inon Zur feat. The Lyris Quartet (Dragon Age) | “Remember”
Jason Graves (Dead Space) | “Necromancer”
Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros.) | “Super Mario Medley On Two Pianos”
Laura Karpman (Everquest II) w/Lisbeth Scott | “Pine Wind Sound”
Laura Shigihara (Plants vs. Zombies) | “Jump”
Mitsuto Suzuki (The 3rd Birthday) | “Play for You”
Nobuko Toda (Metal Gear Solid 4) | “Reminiscence”
Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) | “Every New Morning”
Penka Kouneva (Prince of Persia) | “White Cloud”
Sean Murray (Call of Duty) | “The Temple Stone”
Tommy Tallarico (Advent Rising) | “Greater Lights”
Woody Jackson (Red Dead Redemption) | “Moshi Moshi”
Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger) | “Dimension Break”
“Play for Japan: The Album” will be released on iTunes in June, and I’ll make sure to tell you the exact date as soon as we know. 100% of the profits will be donated to the relief efforts in Japan
We at HPM are big Winifred Phillips and she’s just been featured on a great indepth interview with GameSpot. It’s great to see game composers talking at length going right into the belly of the beast of composing and creating with such enthusiasm and gusto.
The Wonderful Heavy Melody, recently showcased in the latest Shift 2 soundtrack for their excellent remixes of various artists. They kindly agreed to answer a few of my questions about their latest project. Here’s what the trio had to say:
How did Heavy Melody come together as a trio?
Dave: Neil and I met back when we were both attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. What initially began as a friendship through musical collaboration turned into a 20+ year career together.
Neil: Ari joined Heavy Melody shortly after we launched, back in 2005. He was finishing up his Masters degree at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, and was actually our first official intern. His knowledge of music combined with his technology background was a great fit for where we were headed as a company.
How did the recent project for EA’s Shift 2 come about?
Ari: We had worked with Charles Deenen (Audio Director at EA’s Blackbox studio in Vancouver, BC) on Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit for the Wii. When production ramped up on Shift 2: Unleashed, he approached us to demo for the game (composers generally compete, or “demo” as it’s termed, to score big gaming titles). After demoing multiple musical styles, remixing/recomposing a track by “30 Seconds to Mars”, we were awarded the job, creating 10 “Dirty” remixes for Shift 2.
On the remixing project for EA’s Shift 2, you were able to work with some top class bands tracks. Were there any in particular you were looking to work with?
Neil: EA had a few bands chosen once we had begun working but they where adding new bands for us to remix as the project progressed. We knew early on that STP would be one of the bands, which being fans, was very exciting for us. I have to say that all of the other bands involved were equally exciting to remix because they are all great artists. Having the creative freedom to recompose and recreate the music under the vocal was a huge thrill for us.
Dave: Technically, we didn’t actually work directly with the bands, although they had to approve all the remixes in the end. A vast majority of the direction and feedback on our work came from EA’s Audio Director (and indirectly from other EA folks).
Ari: The caliber and variety of bands chosen was truly amazing. There was an incredible range of material to work with, both contextually and stylistically. Every track got to take on a new sound of its own.
When you’re presented with a track to remix, how do you go about redoing a track Heavy Melody style?
Dave: Essentially, we start by doing a lot of experimentation. Reimagining a sound for a rock tune takes quite a bit of trial and error, to pull if off in a meaningful way.
Neil: We tend to create a host of original sounds (processed percussion, basses, guitars) to inject into the tracks. With the Shift 2 remixes, we were producing a super gritty, dirty-electro vibe for the remixes. Our goal there was to completely break down the tracks, and work toward a new version of the song that was completely different from the original arrangement. Most of the time, this involved taking bits and pieces of the vocal tracks and building the new “band” around them.
Ari: Throughout the remix process, we focused more on creating new and hard hitting sounds. For example, we would distort, EQ, compress, re-distort, and layer 4 or 5 kick drums, just to make 1 hard hitting kick for a track.
What is the most important aspect or goal for you all personally when you remix a track?
Ari: We want to enjoy, and be proud of, the end-result. What fun is it to work on and produce a track that you don’t like? They also have to sound “real” – radio ready – when you listen to them. On the production side, we like hard-hitting, edgy, gritty music with a solid, in-your-face sound, so this gig was a perfect fit for us…you can never have enough punch!
Of late Heavy Melody have been quite busy writing and remixing for the gaming medium, but you have also composed for TV and adverts. Does your approach change to creating music depending on what type of music you’re looking to make? Is it easier to create music for say a 30 second advert, than it is to create a fully realised four minute track for a game?
Dave: That’s a tricky question, because it really depends on the scope of project. Sometimes 30 seconds can take what seems like FOREVER to get right! In general, though, budgets can tend dictate the way in which we work. Every gig we take on tend to introduce unique challenges, whether it’s with creative direction, or expectations of the client. There are times where we’ll spend more than a week perfecting a track, because we have the resources to do so. These days, commercial advertising tends to have very fast turnarounds, with shrinking budgets. While we do our very best to nail the clients creative vision, sometimes there isn’t the opportunity to fully produce a track the way we’d like (by hiring live players or singers, for example). No matter what the job is, we always work with the idea of being solution orientated.
You also run a company called Heavyocity which develops virtual instruments. Tell us more about this, the product itself and how the idea came about.
Neil: Heavyocity was Dave’s brainchild, but it came into existence as a result all of us creating a wealth of our own unique percussive and musical elements. As composers and sound designers, we were filling in the holes that were left by the 3rd party virtual instruments and samples that we were using in our projects. At a certain point, we realized we could create a lucrative “business” by offering it to fellow composers, sound designers and producers. We launched the company in 2008, and have seen incredible success with our three instruments – Evolve, Evolve Mutations, and Evolve Mutations 2. The instruments stem from a more non-traditional approach, in terms of their sound. They introduce new ways, or options, when it comes to composing music in an industry that is, itself, evolving!
Do you have any particular stories or feel good moments from hearing your own creations popping up elsewhere or unexpectedly? They must be everywhere since its becoming such a must have product!
Dave: At this point, it’s seemingly impossible to NOT hear one of our sounds whether we’re watching movies or television, or playing video games. A massive number of working composers own one or more of our virtual instruments. We’ve developed relationships with many of them, which is really cool, because it allows us to get important feedback that we ourselves might not have come up with. Overall, it’s really gratifying to know that our sound is helping to inspire others in their creative journeys. On a funny side note, we sometimes joke about being on flights offering Direct TV, and not being able to escape the Heavyocity sound!
What’s next for Heavy Melody?
Ari: We have a couple of very exciting unannounced projects that we’re up for in the gaming and television worlds. We’ve been working on an exciting new unannounced Heavyocity Product for quite a while. We’re also working on a new music licensing initiative that we’re ramping up as we speak, recently launching “Heavy Promos”, a 10 disk set of licensable tracks. We’re going to be very busy composing this summer, and working with live orchestra. We’re very much looking forward to continuing to expand both our audience, and our sound!
Wow! That sounds like their summer breaks will be short and sweet! We’d like to thank Heavy Melody for taking the time to talk us HPM and wish them best of luck with the Shift 2 soundtrack and their continued assault on music technology that we are all thankful for!
Heavy Melody have been busy of late – remixing and recomposing ten tracks from big name bands for the latest soundtrack to come from EA - Shift 2! The sound team which comprises of Dave Fraser, Neil Goldberg and Ari Winters have been mixing bands such as Stone Temple Pilots and The Bravery. You can hear samples over at their website www.heavymelodymusic.com
In another side note, both myself and fellow podcaster Maurice Zondag reviewed Shift 2 in our recent CrashCastFM podcast for sim racing lovers and gave it a big thumbs up.
Furthermore Heavy Melody run a side company called Heavyocity which develops virtual instruments for composers to use for music scores, game soundtracks, film scores and all kinds of wonderous audio delights. Chances are if you’ve seen a film with Hans Zimmer or Harry Gregson-Williams scoring it recently, you’ll have heard the tools at work. Great huh?
Xenogears Creid is an arranged album from the PS1 game, with a heavy influence on the Celtic and Eastern instrumentation. Yasunori Mitsuda collaborated with Millennial Fair to produce what could well be classed as one of the best-arranged albums ever.
The album opens with the epic “Melkaba” which starts off with hypnotic harps and piano before breaking out into a majestic guitar, fiddle and choral song that lets nothing slip from its grasp. From each chord and build up to the next finale-like set piece, you’ll be hooked and mesmerised. Add to that some fantastic Eastern European (think Bulgarian) vocal ab-libs and you’re in even. 7 and a half minutes later, you’ll be hit with “Two Wings” which is a new vocal version of Joanne Hogg’s outtake song. Although the songs not changed, new lyrics in Japanese make it feel fresh. The song is just as captivating and uplifting.
“Balto” starts off very ethereal before showing its pure beauty and swiftness. This being an instrumental, the instruments take centre stage and really show off. Then half way through, the loving tempo, and the songs origin changes from Eastern to French, as the accordion kicks in and the song up tempos and the chirpy version of the song begins. It’s a great way to finish the song with the end result sounding like a River Dance song!
“Creid” is a beautiful, soft Celtic song, which is very spiritual and warm and wouldn’t be out-of-place in a church. Half way through once again, the song changes and instruments begin to make it into an epic adventure with echoing drum rhythms and sweet singing. “Dajil” is an absolute stonker of a song. It rocks out the electronic Sitar from start to end in a mass crescendo of music that will send your pulse racing. The diversity on the album hits home between the complete opposites of the last two tunes. “Stairs of Light” is pleasant and happy ditty that goes through various cultured stages in the song and still has time to have a lovely grandstand finish. The way in which each song is thought out really shines through on this album.
“June Mermaid”, perhaps one of the most loved songs from Xenogears, is given a very sensitive and heartfelt rendition with harps, fiddles, whistles and wind chimes. The end result is a tear jerking effort that would be perfect for any sad scene for any game. “Spring Lullaby” is possibly the least immediate song on the album, but that still puts it miles above the best of a lot of other albums. The song is a grower as it does have its own hooks, it just takes a few listens to bed them in.
“Lahan” is a fast paced, light fun song that gives you a buzzing smile that then turns to anthem singing with a fantastic build up to great finish that has you cheering along with the fair at the end of it. “Mebius” is a classic song to finish on. As loving as it is beautiful, this is a Japanese vocal of “Small two of Piece’s”. The song captures all the drama and feeling and ends the album perfectly.
“Xenogears: Creid” is the kind of CD you can’t help but love. It’s a class above the rest with real emotion in the performances and extremely enchanting themes. Put simply…one of the best. Buy it now.
