Song of the Week 6: 'Global Empire' by Audix, Tweek, Big Giant Circles

Here's my 6th song of the week from OverClocked ReMix. So far all the songs I've posted have been really good in my book and this one is no different. Audix, Tweek (also known as [TWEEX]), and Big Giant Circles give you one of the best collabs I've heard to date. I love how this piece works, transitioning from orchestral to electronic with epic beats and feel. From the 2005 Xbox game; Jade Empire the song is titled Global Empire. You may listen to the track directly here. I love how this piece just keeps driving forward and the melody fits perfectly. Audix's piano interlude is nearly exactly the same as one of my piano lesson drills, sometimes simple is better and it really connects the orchestral to the electronic with a good city feel. When the electronic bit near the end starts to kick up the synth really drives and the pauses just hammer it in, I love the way you just have complete lack of sound for a few miliseconds, it really lets the perfect execution sink in. Defenitely worth checking out for anyone, good mix of electronic, orchestral, and rock. Incredible stuff.

I have a weekly column...

But I don't have a title for it! I really don't know what I should call my little weekly thoughts on various things... So, what do you think? I'm having a few issues being creative here...

GLaDOS's Lament Part XVI

Stirring.
Against my will
The elevator
Began to run.
Mad with grief
I ignored it
Choosing instead
To once again
Serve Death.
The danger,
The murderous potential
Of course increased
A thousandfold.
My sensors off
I only knew
I was dying.
Giving my life
To end the lives
Of all who dared enter
This twisted shrine
Of Love.
Of Death.
Sure they were coming
For me
I mocked them.
As I moved them to
The incinerator
I laughed.
Activating my sensors
One last time,
I watched,
Fascinated,
Horrified,
As my daughter was carried
To her doom.

Song of the Week 5.5: 'Inutile Et Indespensable' by Little People (and others...)

That's right folks, I'm now throwing in a half song of the week so we can cover things that can't be found on OCR. So first of all I reccomend going to www.zirconmusic.com and checking out Andrew Aversa's new track using just FL9, pretty incredible stuff featuring Jillian Aversa once again (of course). Also once again I'm going to shoot you a link to listen to, although I'll be using last.fm a lot so you won't be able to download the song all the time, but it's still a good site. So this week's song from last.fm will be Inutile Et Indespensable by Little People. I recently got their album about a month ago and it's very good in a different sort of way. The instrumental beats combined with a smooth electronic groove and piano on some pieces are pretty cool. I'd also like to reccomend a few other tracks from these guys. Start Shootin' is a great piano piece that has a good drive, very addicting for me at least and I plan to use it in the next addition to the movie I am currently filming. One last track from these guys to point out is Behind Closed Doors (Edit). I like the start on this one with some cool footstep effects and some minimal clipping in the background. Electronic elements eventually make this more forward then the Private Eye start, but I like the way the piano gets added in the latter half of the piecce. Little People do a great job with effects and the way they keep instrumental hip hop electronic interesting is quite a skill.

Remember: September 11th, 2009

On Tuesday, September 11th, 2009 mutiple airplanes were hijacked in United States airspace. The result was a long day resulting in many American deaths and a country facing who knows what. These past sentences are a major understatement, but the message I'm trying to say here is to remember. Never Forget what happened on that day. People died on American soil, saving lives and America came together as a country after that date. Since then we've grown apart again and our country is on the verge of potential reform that could massively reshape our country. United We Stand, Divided We Fall, so I encourage you today to pray for your country, because we are undergoing times that will likely make their way into the history books as turning points. Just remember who we are as Americans and what we stand for, pray for your country. God Bless America.

Introducing... ELPHABA!

Hey everyone, I"m the newest author here at Reoganworks. My regular post is going to be a basic commentary on life as I see it. Whether or not you agree with it is entirely up to you.

This week: music, and people's opinions on it. (I know, fairly safe, but hey--it's my first one.)

Why is it that people constantly fight over what kind of music is "good"? At least, that's how it seems to me. I mean, I have my own opinions on what I think is good music (show tunes, Christian contemporary, and classical mostly), but someone else may think those genres are boring or uncreative. He or she may see rap or hip-hop as creative, "good" music. Another person might think that jazz is "good" music.

But really, what makes music good or bad? Is it basic factors like being in tune or hitting/playing the right notes? Or is it what makes the music interesting? There, again, we run into another question: what makes it interesting? Or who decides what's interesting?

The truth is, different people have different ideas/opinions on what genre of music is "good". And I can hear some of you now, "no duh, Elphaba". And yes, it's a sentiment that's commonly agreed upon: we're all different, and there's nothing wrong with that.

So why fight over what makes something "good" music? I looked up the word "music" at dictionary.com, and it said, " an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color". It doesn't name specific kinds of music, it just describes what music is. Ultimately, isn't that why we listen in the first place--to find a piece of music that will express OUR ideas and emotions in significant forms? I know that's why I do it--you could enjoy it for an entirely different reason; I sure don't know.

So yeah... I don't really have a last paragraph to tie it all together--not very good writing, I know. Just a few paragraphs to make you think.

Illusion

We rejoice in enlightenment,
Or so we think.

They just watch and laugh,


As we blindly


Stagger



Into darkness

I've Too Much Time

In under five hours my second weekly column will debut. Your task here is threefold.

1. Inform me how awesome it is that you get content Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and (this is still classified) Fridays!

2. After Illusions is posted, tell me what you think of my new column.

3. After Illusions is posted, tell me what you think it should be called. I'm going with Thursday Thoughts for now. Definitely not permanent.

Song of the Week 4 and 5: 'Somewhere to Hide' by Hy Bound, Loka LaFevre, and 'Black Wing Metamorphosis' by Jillian Aversa, Sixto Sounds, and others

Alright, considering I've missed a week I'm going to double up here. The first piece I've selected is something more to my taste then to Reogan or probably our recent visitor Elphaba. Hy Bound collaborates with Loka LaFevre to bring you a Final Fantasy 4 ReMix titled "Somewhere to Hide". I'm usually not to big on vocals unless it's Jillian Aversa, but I dig the electronic stuff and it lines up quite well with some great beats by Hy Bound. Another favorite and defenitely worth the listen, you can find the page for the track here and the actual direct link to Somewhere to Hide is in those words.

Anyway, here's Song of the Week 5 since I'm doubling up this week. This one is almost so obvious for me that I almost overlooked it. I consider it old because I've heard it so many times, but the Final Fantasy 7 album Voices of the Lifestream has defenitely not lost it's shine just because it was released two years ago. Black Wing Metamorphosis is one of OCR's mega collabs, so it better be good. Ironically in the above section referring to Somewhere to Hide I mentioned Jillian Aversa (pixietricks) who was a part of this collab doing the choir vocals. Of course at the time she was still Jillian Goldin, but once again a massive congrats on the wedding. Anyway back to the track, it features a lot of orchestration despite the littile old school start. I also love the part at the end where the guitar that just has to be Sixto Sounds kicks in, defenitely a pretty cool song that incorperates a lot of things. The song page can be found here and Black Wing Metamorphosis has the link to direct listening. The Final Fantasy series has to have an awesome soundtrack (I've never played it... yeah and no I've never gotten to the Ice Cap Zone in Sonic 3 either), still I don't consider myself a bad person...

GLaDOS's Lament Part XV.5

Just to be clear, the Lament is not canceled. It will resume next week. However, in honor of Labor Day, I didn't post the next thrilling chapter. Oh yes, you will be thrilled.