The Best 8-Bit John Carpenter Score You’ll Hear All Day
I love John Carpenter movies. No, they aren’t “high cinema” or anything like that. They are typically around 80 minutes long, tell a story, and having told their story, they get the hell out. In an age where movies are getting longer and longer on average, it really bums me out that he doesn’t do as much anymore. The influence of his movies on video games is obvious, especially if you’ve ever played a Metal Gear game. One of the defining traits of his movies was that he typically produced his own musical scores for them, and they all have this bizarre, low budget synthesizer sound to them. The opening theme to Escape From New York is one of my favorite pieces of film music, as it does a great job of setting the scene for the dim, dystopian world of the film.
Chiptune net-label Pterodactyl Squad has put out an 8-bit John Carpenter tribute, entitled It’s All in the Reflexes, and is comprised of 8-bit interpretations of selections from many John Carpenter films. The album is free to download in high quality MP3s over at their site, and I’m having a lot of fun listening to it. Does anyone else out there feel like some of these tracks would make for good Metroid music?
Star Wars As You’ve Never Seen It, Narrated by Batman
During Emerald City Comic Con back in March, something amazing happened. Something incredible that has to be seen and heard to believe occurred. A panel of talented voice actors was assembled to read the script of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Included among the panel are Rob Paulson of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Billy West of Ren and Stimpy and Futurama fame, John DiMaggio of Futurama and Adventure Time, Tara Strong of the Powerpuff Girls, among many others. The script is narrated by none other than Batman himself, Kevin Conroy.
If you’ve ever wanted to hear Batman narrate Star Wars, while Bubbles commands over the Imperial army, you’re in luck.
24-bit Streets of Rage 2 Remix Make Us Giddy
DJYuzoboy is back at it again with one of his more interesting ideas: mash-up both the Game Gear and Megadrive/Genesis versions of classic Streets of Rage 2 songs. Hence the name “24 bit remix”. To my surprise it actually sounds better than I originally thought. It adds a certain extra level of depth and grit to the soundtrack.
Here’s the remixed version of ‘In The Bar’ for your listening pleasure. You can download the entire album full of tasty 24-bit remixes by following this link.
Beastie Boys Intergalactic Sonic CD Remix
The passing of Beastie Boys founding member Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch marks a sad day for the music community. Although he is gone, his spirit will live on in the music he created these past few decades. As the Beastie Boys were masters of the remix, YouTuber DJYuzonboy creates a fitting mashup of Beastie Boys ‘Intergalactic’ and Sonic CD’s ‘Collision Chaos’. Whether your a fan of music or video games, this song testifies to the enduring nature and legacy Adam Yauch left behind.
Yuzo Koshiro a Music Composing Copycat?
When it comes to video game music, Yuzo Koshiro is one of my personal favorites. For those of you who don’t know who this titan of tunes is, he’s responsible for creating the music of some of our favorite video games, most notably the Street of Rage series. Now his music always had that 90′s dance and hip hop flare, but you’d be surprised to find out just how much he was influenced by other artists of the time.
DJYuzoboy has done us all a favor and matched up a a selection of tracks that may have influenced Yuzo Koshiro during the early 90′s when he composed the Streets of Rage soundtrack. Some songs have faint similarities while others are eerily similar. Listen for yourself.
Do you think this is influence or a straight copy of the music? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
Fringe Renewed for 13 Episode Final Season
FOX has announced today that after much speculation and rumor, Fringe will be returning in the fall for a 13 episode season to finish out the series and give it a proper ending. Rumors of cancellation has permeated the sci-fi series for a while now, but FOX executives love the show, and want to do right by the fans (One could argue it’s an apology for Firefly). Being one of my favorite series currently running on TV, I am very excited at this announcement, as I was very worried the show was going to have to end without a proper conclusion.
Check out the full announcement after the break.
Dub Cadet: Simon meets Daft Punk in a Ball
As a musician I’m always fascinated with new forms of musical expression. So when I saw the aptly titled “Dub Cadet”, I was intrigued. Simply put, the Dub Cadet is a handheld, motion activated musical ball.
Think of it as interpretative dance for music rolled up into a ball. It contains a Hi-Fi speaker and a computerized musical brain to transform any kind of rotation into an immersive, uniquely created jingle. Any turn, spin, or wiggle triggers a new chord based on the unique way you have moved the instrument. Plus it offers several ways to sculpt the sound through fun, highly reactive buttons.
This little ball-o-sound is still in the prototype phase. You can visit their Kickstarter page if you’re interested in supporting this venture of spherical sound.
