PANEL: "Nerd" Music you may not have heard
This is gonna have embedded video where possible so
We started with Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene II
(I cut it to start at the "main sequence" at about the 1 minute 30 mark)
This was the first "SciFi" music I ever heard that wasn't written for a Movie. (Ironically it was made famous, at least in Australia by the movie "Gallipoli"). It's a haunting piece and I have purchased it several times over the years. Despite some of the hate he gets, JMJ is one of my long term favourite artists and I could probably do an hour long panel of JUST my fave bits of his music, and his influence on other artists.
Next up was Valve - Mike Morasky: Reconstructing more Science.
This one was a good choice I felt because many people had heard it as part of the promotional work for Portal 2 but had no idea what it was, or that it was available for free. It was a nice videogame piece and lead nicely to the next few.
It lead me to Jonathan Coulton: Still Alive
A double whammy of nerdcool here. Closing credits from the huge hit, Portal, and it's a Jonathan Coulton song. He does some great stuff in the "nerdcore" area. His ode "Re: Your Brains" is a lovely ballad to being a Zombie, for instance...
Ok final videogame hit... Nobuo Uematsu: Valley of the Fallen Star
This was my single fave track from the PS1 hit "Final Fantasy 7" (the last of the FF series I was actually able to complete). and interestingly it was a MIDI track, using the internal MIDI chip on the PS1. As one audience member said "How the heck did they get so much colour and emotion out of MIDI?"
And this leads to me crossing over to sample music. Superfluid: Knucklebusters
Crazy, Sample driven, Chiptunes and a great beat... It was also a "donationware" track on their website. They're also Aussies!
Next up was FreezePop: I am not your GameBoy
(I chose lyrics only as I couldn't find any official videoclip)
Freezepop! Made famous by Guitar Band! Write about and in videogames! Do songs about duct tape! And covers of Jem and the Holograms themes! Make me use to many exclamation marks!
Well that was linky!
After that I played a small "tick" by announcing the next track was by Daft Punk and then played Daft Punk: Fall
Heh! Sound track to a geek movie by a geek band that sounds like classical music! ALL WIN! This lead to discussions about how much the OST for Tron:Legacy absolutely rocked...
Next up was The Timelords: Doctorin' the Tardis
Much discussion about the quality of the song, it's links to KLF, and what the heck were KLF up to anyway were enjoined. This was a bit of a throwaway track for me. Mostly I knew the crowd would love it...
Next was The Diva Dance
(Cut to 3:23 for the version I used, a MUCH truncated version)
Notice no artist? I'm not even going to try and untangle who did what for this piece of music...
Well it was a great bit of SF sounding music from an SF Movie... Nuff Said.
Next was BOA: Duvet
This was used as the soundtrack for Serial Experiments Lain, an Anime that seems to have damaged a fair chunk of the audience. Apparently BOA got ripped off by their label after the label appropriated it and never paid for it! The song, however was a huge hit and they toured Japan for years ...
Next up was the first actual videoclip of the evening, The Guild: Do you Wanna Date my Avatar?
Yay! Felicia Day and the Guild singing about virtual sex in MMOs, done with a love of the source material. ( I should mention that I was REALLY tempted to use another track, which from the crowd reaction that they'd done Bollywood, would have possibly been a better track to use. (PS))
Next I played a cut down track Juno Reactor: Masters of the Universe
It was used for a trailer for Tomb Raider, is an absolutely skrotnig track and at least one Swancon launch vid was built around it.
(I need an excuse to buld a launch video around Navaras or Pistolero now. Already used Samurai)\
Next was Electric Light Orchestra: Yours Truly 2095
(Actually I am not sure I had time to play this one. I think it got played, but I have had a very drunken tiring SwanCon...)
An older track with a very silly subject. One of only 3 tracks I like on the album Time.
Unfortunately I then ran out of time and had to drop some tracks.
I jumped straight to Professor Elemental: Fighting Trousers
A great upbeat final song. Steampunk! Chaphop! Polite beatdowns and just a hint of a Jazz Solo on the bongos. This was, in my opinion, the most popular track of the night and had the group really popping. An excellent way to end.
So what got cut?
Bjork: All is Full of Love
Now this one is interesting. Directed by Chris Cunningham, ex of 2000AD and a SFX wizard on movies such as Hardware and Judge Dredd. It features Bjork as a Ceramic Android making out with Ceramic Android Bjork... Um. Oh My!
Cunningham originally wanted it to be much more intense with the robots, embracing, merging and flowering like a giant ceramic rose.
Also I lined up in case of emergency Yoshida Brothers: Storm
Which callistra heard on radioKoL back in the day when we both listened to StarkMoon religiously.
Also David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes
Cos David is a God and this was one of the most broken videos of my childhood and also of my twenties which says something and oh god I have forgotten to take a breath again..... GASP!
And finally Dimanda Galas: Exeloume
Cos none of you needed to sleep, right? Used in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Audio Nightmare Fuel and she does worse...
Whoah that was longer than planned!
We started with Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene II
Click to view(I cut it to start at the "main sequence" at about the 1 minute 30 mark)
This was the first "SciFi" music I ever heard that wasn't written for a Movie. (Ironically it was made famous, at least in Australia by the movie "Gallipoli"). It's a haunting piece and I have purchased it several times over the years. Despite some of the hate he gets, JMJ is one of my long term favourite artists and I could probably do an hour long panel of JUST my fave bits of his music, and his influence on other artists.
Next up was Valve - Mike Morasky: Reconstructing more Science.
This one was a good choice I felt because many people had heard it as part of the promotional work for Portal 2 but had no idea what it was, or that it was available for free. It was a nice videogame piece and lead nicely to the next few.
It lead me to Jonathan Coulton: Still Alive
A double whammy of nerdcool here. Closing credits from the huge hit, Portal, and it's a Jonathan Coulton song. He does some great stuff in the "nerdcore" area. His ode "Re: Your Brains" is a lovely ballad to being a Zombie, for instance...
Ok final videogame hit... Nobuo Uematsu: Valley of the Fallen Star
This was my single fave track from the PS1 hit "Final Fantasy 7" (the last of the FF series I was actually able to complete). and interestingly it was a MIDI track, using the internal MIDI chip on the PS1. As one audience member said "How the heck did they get so much colour and emotion out of MIDI?"
And this leads to me crossing over to sample music. Superfluid: Knucklebusters
Crazy, Sample driven, Chiptunes and a great beat... It was also a "donationware" track on their website. They're also Aussies!
Next up was FreezePop: I am not your GameBoy
(I chose lyrics only as I couldn't find any official videoclip)
Freezepop! Made famous by Guitar Band! Write about and in videogames! Do songs about duct tape! And covers of Jem and the Holograms themes! Make me use to many exclamation marks!
Well that was linky!
After that I played a small "tick" by announcing the next track was by Daft Punk and then played Daft Punk: Fall
Heh! Sound track to a geek movie by a geek band that sounds like classical music! ALL WIN! This lead to discussions about how much the OST for Tron:Legacy absolutely rocked...
Next up was The Timelords: Doctorin' the Tardis
Much discussion about the quality of the song, it's links to KLF, and what the heck were KLF up to anyway were enjoined. This was a bit of a throwaway track for me. Mostly I knew the crowd would love it...
Next was The Diva Dance
(Cut to 3:23 for the version I used, a MUCH truncated version)
Notice no artist? I'm not even going to try and untangle who did what for this piece of music...
Well it was a great bit of SF sounding music from an SF Movie... Nuff Said.
Next was BOA: Duvet
This was used as the soundtrack for Serial Experiments Lain, an Anime that seems to have damaged a fair chunk of the audience. Apparently BOA got ripped off by their label after the label appropriated it and never paid for it! The song, however was a huge hit and they toured Japan for years ...
Next up was the first actual videoclip of the evening, The Guild: Do you Wanna Date my Avatar?
Yay! Felicia Day and the Guild singing about virtual sex in MMOs, done with a love of the source material. ( I should mention that I was REALLY tempted to use another track, which from the crowd reaction that they'd done Bollywood, would have possibly been a better track to use. (PS))
Next I played a cut down track Juno Reactor: Masters of the Universe
It was used for a trailer for Tomb Raider, is an absolutely skrotnig track and at least one Swancon launch vid was built around it.
(I need an excuse to buld a launch video around Navaras or Pistolero now. Already used Samurai)\
Next was Electric Light Orchestra: Yours Truly 2095
(Actually I am not sure I had time to play this one. I think it got played, but I have had a very drunken tiring SwanCon...)
An older track with a very silly subject. One of only 3 tracks I like on the album Time.
Unfortunately I then ran out of time and had to drop some tracks.
I jumped straight to Professor Elemental: Fighting Trousers
A great upbeat final song. Steampunk! Chaphop! Polite beatdowns and just a hint of a Jazz Solo on the bongos. This was, in my opinion, the most popular track of the night and had the group really popping. An excellent way to end.
So what got cut?
Bjork: All is Full of Love
Now this one is interesting. Directed by Chris Cunningham, ex of 2000AD and a SFX wizard on movies such as Hardware and Judge Dredd. It features Bjork as a Ceramic Android making out with Ceramic Android Bjork... Um. Oh My!
Cunningham originally wanted it to be much more intense with the robots, embracing, merging and flowering like a giant ceramic rose.
Also I lined up in case of emergency Yoshida Brothers: Storm
Which callistra heard on radioKoL back in the day when we both listened to StarkMoon religiously.
Also David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes
Cos David is a God and this was one of the most broken videos of my childhood and also of my twenties which says something and oh god I have forgotten to take a breath again..... GASP!
And finally Dimanda Galas: Exeloume
Cos none of you needed to sleep, right? Used in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Audio Nightmare Fuel and she does worse...
Whoah that was longer than planned!