Erang "Songs Of Scars" (2017)

The unwavering inspiration and output from our beloved French musician Erang strides onwards! After King Of Nothing reunited us with the land of five seasons, Songs Of Scars returns to the mysterious Sci-Fi dystopian realm of Anti-Future. Its presentation, a striking front, sets the tone. The eerie gaunt corpse painted skull featured in much of Erang's artwork stares us face on. The bold red font illicits the danger that lurks, the subtitles set the stage for a soundtrack of freight.

Where Anti-Future stepped into new territory, Songs Of Scars owns it. These deliberate compositions set the perfect tone for your John Carpenter 80s flick. The breeze of suspense, a soft paranoia, the looming of evil and smog of future tech all from the comfort of your sofa. Its a true soundtrack, one that needs no cinema in front of it convey the atmosphere it will soak you in. Each song a master stroke of tone to illuminate the never ending nightfall in which our adventures will play out.

Aesthetics is king and with a touch of minimalism and measure of balance our synthetic instruments, buzz saws, sine waves, bells and strings, swoon in their glossy packaging. With just a few key sounds resonating on one another, the bold, rich textures and gorgeous reverberations dazzle and delight as the songs play simplistic and singular melodies. Chiming notes cast the spell as they play off one another. From gleaming bells of fortune to deep swirling, sweeping synths of despair every song finds its own degree of the chemistry so swiftly established as the record begins to spin, bar the first track.

Despite sections of repetition on reasonable lengths of song, the craft carries the music forward, along with the slow, steady, often bare yet effective snare kick drive. Instead of opting in to key shifts or tempo changes Erang find the opportune moments deliver magic in the form musical unwinding of sensual events with swirly synths dancing without a melody to conjure a vision. This never feels overplayed, in fact the balance across the record feels stunning as these imaginative atmospheres conspicuously lure us through there transitions. From front to back It feels like every opportune moment has been realized yet fed to the listener unknowingly.

Where Anti-Future left me with a lack of event, or teetering for something more, Songs Of Scars fully satisfies. The subtle unfolding of songs in their minimalist exterior fleshes out a journey the atmosphere inspires. There are some favorites that come to mind, on occasions where the drums muster up more energy and the instruments find a colorful melody the tone borders on a form of dark Synthpop. "Street Klowns" takes the cake for its mischievous, quirky sounds, grooving, playful and fitting the mold! It makes a break to the traditional Erang Dungeon Synth sound, linking the ages together. "Metal Magic Madness" also opens this rift between worlds again.

With all this magic at work, I strangely enough find the opening and closing tracks, "1984" and "2084" to be rather underwhelming in comparison to everything else. The intro a bit to energetic and overly synthetic, it doesn't quite address whats to come, equally the outro doesn't unwind as much as I think its sweeping synths intend to. At fifty one minutes the record certainly entertains for its duration and may just be Erang's finest release yet and definitely the best of "The Last Age" records.

Favorite Tracks: Sequenced Suicide, Street Klowns, Home Schooling, Ruins Of The Lost Underground Kingdom

Rating: 9/10

Timothy Steven Clarke "Starsiege OST" (1999)

In a similar vein to Frank Klepacki's Command & Conquer soundtracks, Starsige is another video game soundtrack of weird and wonderful Industrial music colliding with Techno, Breakbeat, Cyber Punk, Metal and all with shades of Ambience steering the musical intensity. This is the sort of music you could grow to love after hearing it over and over in the background of your favorite childhood games. The difference is I never played Starsiege, It was recommended to me based on my adoration of the C&C soundtracks. I'd always yearned to hear more music in the Industrial Metal styling of Frank Klepacki and this is the closest Ive come yet. Unlike the back road to bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, here is a record that comes after the likes of Tiberian Dawn & Red Alert that pulls influences from Frank's particular flair and contribution to the genre.

All I know of Timothy is his work on this soundtrack and its squeal. His distinction is in the detailed layering of sounds that stack up in these compositions, throwing all sorts of guitars, synthesizers, drum sequences and samples into overwhelming blocks of deep, textural sound that charge at you with big theatrical directions. That's just some of the tracks though, others dispel the lively energy, creeping into mysterious territory with eerie, unearthly synths brooding dense atmospheres over janky disjointed beats. Thick and blunt with its delivery, many of the synths and oddities are paraded upfront with no measure for subtlety. The resulting songs can often be very alike to some of Frank's own but Timothy gets the chemistry right, emulating a rather wild and fringe sound that will turn off many. The vocal presence, where it turns up, is surprisingly dark, offering alien warped voices and distorted shouts in the vein of Aggro-Tech.

The soundtrack is split onto two discs, the first is rather disapointing, with just six tracks it feels like the projects b-sides, with exception to "SS2" and its thudding, pounding break of the Amen Loop, bordering on Hardstyle. The album gets going on the second disc with the anthemic, blood pumping "You Got". From there on the pace and variety is just fine, constantly mixing up the approach, fluctuating the intensity and maintaining the same mysterious, alien, cybernetic atmosphere. Its a journey, a trip and has totally scratched the itch, one to go on the playlist with some of my other favorite video game soundtracks. Great discovery!

Favorite Tracks: You Got, Newtech, SS4, Purge, Watching, SS1,

Rating: 6/10

OverClocked ReMix "Doom II Delta-Q-Delta" (2008)

 Here's a record I almost passed over but curiosity got the better of me. "OverClocked ReMix" is an online community of musicians who re-imagine the soundtracks of computer games in their own vision. Despite hearing nothing but praise it didn't appeal to me much, but how foolish could I of been? I picked out the Doom soundtracks since its my favorite game and just after a couple of listens I was sucked in! The vibe and atmosphere was very fitting of the game, and the instrumentals had a level of craft and care similar to the C&C soundtracks composed by Frank Klepacki.

As a community driven record there are many musicians at work here, sometimes collaborating but mostly working on their own, each with a level song to rework. Despite a range of aesthetics and approaches, the record has a strong flow as the themes and mood shift through track to track. Even going from chirpy electronic led tunes to pounding on metallic guitars the record flows well with one exception, "31 Seconds" sounds out of place, its indie guitars, bright pianos leads, light drum kit and voice samples had me thinking I was listening to "Public Service Broadcasting". I thought id messed up my records playlist!

The atmosphere is ripe and the songs stroll through with an ambient quality that has subtle leads, chords and arrangements working around one another a typically soundtrack fashion, letting your attention focus to whatever is at hand while these songs steadily build and grow with a few distinctive melodies and moments cropping up in between. The whole soundtrack is a mash up of styles that has many dynamic components working together. You can hear elements of Metal, Noise, DnB and Big Beat around the predominantly Electronic and Industrial tracks.

The chemistry between these styles is executed with a vision and on "Icon Of Sinewave" we hear samples of our hero and the demons that create a dark and gruesome scene of the game before crashing into the main theme which amplifies the grueling intensity before breaking to an uplifting fast tempo beat that reminded me of being "in the zone" playing Doom. The samples could of featured more but it may have been overkill to do so. This is a fantastic soundtrack that produced a couple of real gems I will be returning to fore times to come.

Favorite Tracks: Westside Archvile, Crushing Headache, Silent Healer, Icon Of Sinewave, Ablaze

Rating: 7/10

Carl Karjalainen "Snakebird The Soundtrack" (2015)

 

Having thoroughly enjoyed my recent playthough of the addicting puzzle game "Snakebird" I found myself compelled to pickup the soundtrack, which I was pleasantly surprised to find out its free on bandcamp. The hours spent rattling my brain for solutions had been accompanied by delightfully quirky and innocent melodies that got stuck in my mind. This is often the case with soundtracks, but its a sign greatness when you can enjoy that same music in another setting. Whenever I need to knuckle down and do some jobs, "bits and bobs", the snakebird soundtrack is there to sooth and help me focus on the task at hand.

There is not much information available about Swedish composer Carl Karjalainen, but his music speaks in volumes, or maybe lack of. The soundtrack's gift is in its minimalism, its quiet, and what it crafts with so little. Its not demanding, or taxing in anyway and just a few instruments create little passages of time that drift on by peacefully if your paying attention or not. The percussion quietly shuffles along with muted kick and snare sounds that are not to dissimilar, as ambient sounds of waves on the beach and winds fill a void quietly in the distance. Along with a murmuring baseline, the lead instruments sing out chirpy, harmless leads and define each song with a strong melody.

Its music for a setting, music for a mode and beyond that there isn't too much spectacular at work but there doesn't need to be. There are a couple of songs which go for a bit more depth and it dispels the simplicity a little. The last song feels very out of character, but it was composed for the end credits, an attention grabbing song to signify victory over the game. For me this record is a great "go to" when you need something gentle to focus your efforts elsewhere.

Favorite Songs: Down Below, Sokosnake, Up Above, Space Maze

Rating: 5/10

Tim Shiel "Duet" (2013)

Tim Shiel is a musician and radio DJ who's music I picked up for free on bandcamp after a recommendation from a commenter here on the blog! Electronic can be such a broad term for music, as can Ambient, this is a Ambient Electronic project with a similar feel to C418, however despite some similarities Tim yields his own memorable vibes and soundscapes that i am continuing to enjoy.

Duets is an absorbing listen, a record that can sit in both the back and foreground of your mind, its gentle and relaxing, yet intricate with a sense of detail. The melodic leads are poised in a balance between being the focus, and being part of the atmosphere. The rhythm section his is nicely arranged with many variations and details, sometimes making effective use of wobbles and harsher sounds that splice between the gently crafted rhythms.

This album has an array of passionately engineered sounds and beats composed together with care. As a whole it comes a little short with a couple of the tracks falling behind the mark set by the more memorable tracks on the record. In its best moments its an indulging listen, but at other times its a bit tame. I look forward to hearing more from Tim in the future.

Favorite Tracks: Theme From Duet, Nay, Exchange, Arete II

Rating: 6/10

C418 "Minecraft Volume Beta" (2013)

When this album dropped it somehow went under my radar, as both a C418 and Minecraft fan, it bemuses me somewhat that I missed it, but i finally made the time, and time is certainly what it is. Clocking in at 140 minutes this may be one of the longest album I've listened to, and for all thats good here, its the length that bugs me. I like albums, I like the listening experience, but it is hard in our busy lives to dedicate that time without interruption. Perhaps this isn't an album as such though, I do believe these are the songs that play throughout the game, however my music setting is muted so I wouldn't know any better!

So whats on display in this album? A lot, theres 30 tracks of lush soundtracks for your imagination to drift into. From quiet moody ambiance to quirky melodic leads and dramatic symphonies, there is a vast range of emotion, style and beauty in this record. C418 has a vast range of instruments and they are all crafted with a character that paints his sound on even the most routine of devices. Every composition here is lovely, in its own way.

For all thats good to be said i felt there was a lack of direction or momentum that took these tracks anywhere. Individually they shine, but as a collective the album drifts through many quiet spaces that drown out the more memorable moments. This makes sense, its a soundtrack for a game where the songs will creep in and out at random, and for that its fantastic, but as an album it's not quite what I'm looking for.

Favorite Tracks: Aria Math, Dead Voxel, Alpha, Ballad Of The Cats, The End

Rating: 6/10