Happy Valentine's Day! Why not take a 7-minute break from snogging your significant tax-deductible other by drowning in some hand-picked love song staples, all of them covers, with me not disclosing who originally wrote and/or performed them? Sound good? But of course! Hey, chocolate's still chocolate, right?
Here are a few quirky musical experiments. Using the gun sounds and sound effects from two Valve games--Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2--several people have crafted genuinely impressive percussion pieces. This is the first time I've heard anything like this before, though MinimalfoX found a similar mash-up of Pixar sounds last month. The first track's not nearly as loud and piercing as the second (which reminds me of banging on trash cans for the first minute or so), but still, the effort that went into these projects is pretty staggering to me:
Just an indie rock band for you today, one that's been getting more exposure as of late--Spoon! They have a relaxed, balanced, upbeat quality to most of their tunes. Somehow, I kind of hear a throwback to older rock styles in Spoon's songs, but I can't quite put my finger on which ones. Whatever they are, they work swimmingly here. Hope you enjoy their sound:
Well, a quick post and download for you Ghost - Lullaby. Really great chill-downtempo/ ambient electronica song. No really, this one is looking into. I couldn't dig up more of this artist at the moment, but it's somewhat Brian Eno meets Boards of Canada. Soundtrack for the game Crayon Physics. Part of a new style of games called Ambient Games. Mainly slower paced games with ambient electronica. They are quite nice, and provide something to get lost in while your in an airport, they provide Music for Airports.
-Minimal foX (Heading back to Anchorage soon, but first a fun stop in Phoenix)
This series of posts aims to resurrect those film soundtracks that have been needlessly forgotten, either by proxy of their movie counterpart's slip from mainstream consciousness, or simply because no one really gets excited about original soundtracks (which truly is a shame). Soundtracks and themes in films aggrandize the universes we passively invest in by actively guiding our emotions; without them, modern cinema would not resonate.
It is my sincerest wish that the names and works of Harry Gregson-Williams, Danny Elfman, James Horner, Hanz Zimmer, John Williams, Howard Shore, Thomas Newman, James Newton Howard, Michael Giacchino, and dozens of others will be memorialized properly in the future. This blog series is my small step to promote that outcome. (Notice: I will not critique the films mentioned themselves, only offer the opinion that these films' soundtracks deserve to have an audience and a following.)
To kick things off, let's have a listen to the themes no one can forget, beautifully orchestrated in a medley by John Williams--arguably the greatest film composer in all 100 years of the craft:
To counter that performance, here's our first worthy outcast you more than likely don't recall: "Antz," the 1999 Dreamworks film with a manic, ear-burrowing, conga/march soundscape. Harry Gregson-Williams wrote these tracks, and to this day his themes refuse to leave my mind alone:
The Colony
The Big Shoe
Voila! Hope you reminisced, rediscovered, and enjoyed. Look for Vol. 2.
Short shout out today, Texas based indie rock band Midlake just dropped a new CD today, entitled The Courage Of Others. If you're like me, this is just estatic news, since it's been 3 years since the last Midlake full LP release. I haven't gotten my hands on it yet and have yet to find a place to listen to it, but this is just a lo-fi band that you really should check out. Their myspace page and The official website should give you a great start to the sound of a great indie/lo-fi rock band. Those who are fans of The Chemical Brothers have already gotten a taste of this band with the collaboration songThe Pills Won't Help You Now which is a great electronic standalone song about not wanting a friend to do drugs, or so my take is. Anyways, get a chance to check out the new cd. I've been hearing great positive reviews, though many critics are "complaing" about how the song just doesn't sound new but that's ok. Midlake - The Courage Of Others check it out and let me know how it is.
-Minimal foX
Ah Quantic what great music you have. I am so very surprized you've flown under the radar for so long. It wasn't until the song "Mi Swing Es Tropical" with Nickodemus being aired on an iPod commercial that people suddenly realized what great dance music you make. Ah, as a DJ myself, I love using Quantic songs for a mood. Whether I need an upbeat dance song, or something to play at a dinner party, or even something to just sit and relax too, Quantic just has it. I heavily recommend this artist. He does great postmodern music work, great sasla music, and just overall nice to listen too.
(Here's the song from the iPod commercial, you'll recognize it...) Quantic & Nickodemus - Mi Swing Es Tropical
