It's Glitching In A Good Way

I wanted to put off another post until I felt I had something relevant to say. Thusly, herein lies great contemplation on the nature of sound... and stuff.

As if I haven't already been spouting off about the site enough, I have to mention BrEaKcOrE-AdDiCts today, if only because it was through said site that I acquired today's song of the day, as well as more free music than I know what to do with. Before I get right to the track though, I have to cover something.

For those of you reading this who don't play video games, you might not understand the soundtrack/remix culture associated with the medium of entertainment. For every big game, there is a soundtrack, and for every soundtrack, there are more remixes than you can shake a... Japanese Doujin Band at (S.S.H., Mint Jam). OC ReMixes is a good example of this. This kind of phenomenon exists for the same reason that people eagerly purchase rereleases of their favorite games - they are eager to play their favorite content over again, but in a new and exciting way. Thusly, the remixed soundtracks are analogous to this kind of thing - listening to a soundtrack is like playing your favorite game moments over again in your mind, and remixes are a different way to do that. Also, many games have amazing scores, and composers just seem to be getting better and better.

All that said, today's track may be a remix - if it's not, it's an amazingly done piece of original work - and even if it is, it certainly sounds good enough to warrant listening to anyway. As I earlier mentioned my oft visited breakcore site, I was lead through it to an artist called MegAAngelo (not unlike the dog from Final Fantasy VIII). He has quite literally, his entire catalogue for download, which consists of no fewer than 10 albums. He also has several partner artists hosted as well. People who offer their music for free download amaze me, and I hold to this day that if I secure a record contract in some soon to be famous band (the upcoming Battle o' the Bands in march may determine the reality of my future fame) I will offer my band's entire compendium of music for free download. In any case, after extensive re-labeling and organization of the (what seemed like hundreds of) zip files, I was ready to listen to this artist.

I wasn't really very impressed.

Let me interject something here though. I pride myself on my ability to have at least enough knowledge of a given 'music' scene to hold my own in any medium of discussion about said scene. Possible exceptions are Country and any amalgamation of 'street-cultured' music such as Rap and Hip-Hop. One of the scenes that is small enough whereupon it's not overly hard to know most everything about it is the 'Intelligent Dance Music' scene. Abbreviated to IDM, this is computer music for 'intelligent' people. It can also be called 'braindance'. It's very cerebral, clicky, mellow, and meticulously programmed. I know a lot about it, but I'm not a huge fan. When this supposed 'breakcore' artist came off as IDM, I was a little disappointed. After a while, though, I warmed up to it... incidentally, the fellow seems to be a fan of the anime FLCL (pronounced "Furi-Kuri"), which gave him points. I remembered noting what sounded like a remix of the Super Mario Bros. theme (entitled Super Musical Brothers), so I checked that album out. I'm glad I did.

A high contender for album of the week, this delightful EP is an amalgamation of IDM style mods and clicks, as well as some home-brewed video-game instrumentation and sound effects, with a healthy dose of pre-established samples and remix work as well. I can't say why, but the second I heard the opening track I was hook - the entire album, without even listening to all of it at first, made a place on my 'Music worth noticing' playlist. The song of the day today, is the first track, Battle Sequence, from awesome free-download music artist MegAAngelo's EP album, Vidiot.

MA seems to make music in a more ambient, quieter, glitch associated thing than I'm accustomed - there's a decent breakcore influence though. His site offers all his music for free download, so rather than upload (even though maybe I should be), I'll just offer a link - you can download invidual MP3s, or the whole album - even though I would reccomend this whole album, you don't have to get it. Here is MegAAngelo's site. The link to the album is on the right, along with tons of other musical deliciousness. Even if you don't like breakcore, this stuff is worth checking out - it's far less abrasive, more melodic, dare I say creative - and free. Can't go wrong with that.

Album and artist of the week approaches, and my recent music listening habits my skew my decision a bit. Hopefully someone awaits eagerly.