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It is a unique set of circumstances when an aspect of culture, so deeply rooted, in my other interests melds with games. Let alone online games. Such a situation causes myself to convulse. Eyes twitching, my face lit up with a synthetic glow, gazing in disbelief. I've been spinning records, and buying vinyl for over 7 years now. One of my favorite artists of all time, is non-other than Amon Tobin. Most of his work can be found on the diverse music label, Ninja Tune. Ninja Tune itself is also one of my favorite labels, and someday I hope to own their entire library of tunes. This is quite a challenge, because there are piles of records no longer being pressed. This is nothing knew of course and in many respects I am glad, because one of my passions is digging for records. For you lamens out there, when I say records I really do mean vinyl, 12" plastic discs that output audio via the friction of a needle. You would be suprised how many people can't grasp this, however I am not suprised. The purchasing of vinyl as a primary means of listening to 'new' music is a foreign concept to the average individual.
I was shocked to see an article linked on the main page of gamespot.com with his picture on it. When I say, 'his' I mean Amon Tobin's. I recognized the face, then look above and see his name. This totally cought me off-guard.
By now your probobly wondering what the hell this has to do with PS2 online. Well, Splinter Cell Chaos theory will have tracks lent to it by non-other than Amon Tobin.
Whether gamespot writer Tor Thorsen is into this music himself or not, he got it right. Finally someone in the press got it right. He did research, and got the reporting down correctly. He didn't toss Amon into some "electronica" cliche and even brings this very point up at the beginning of the article. (Note: Electronica is a term dubbed to many styles of music, originating within the last 10-15 years, that mainstream music listeners just don't understand. So they lump it into this stereotypical catagory.) From the article, I have an inkling that he is a listener of the label and knows some history, because he got too much of his information correct for him not to. If not, then he did some damn good reporting.
Tor actually has a Q&A interview up. I suggest you read it to check it out. Good stuff:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/26/news_6117182.html
After the XIII soundtrack droppin heavy tunes from numerious downtempo and turntablist artists, it's pretty clear that the heads at the UbiSoft offices have some good taste in music. This is brought up to some extent in the gamespot interview above as well.
If your interested in purchasing the new CD or LP of Amon Tobin - Chaos Theory hit up the official ninja tune website at www.ninjatune.net. Or you can go directly to the albums page here The LP probobly won't be out for little while longer. Hopefully a few remixes get toss on the LP as well, which is a general practice.
If your interested in bio info and more of Amons work, you can check out his bio page at ninjatune, or his official website at amontobin.com.
For some of you this information won't interest you too much. Some of you might already listen to this kind of music and be very excited. Others will be discovering this for the first time and might be curious, causing you to broaden your horizons. What's interesting is lately I have been telling some people that I've been listening to a lot of game soundtracks. Some of my other friends who also listen to underground music are puzzled, usually resulting in replies of, "really?" Since they respect my own tastes in music, and me even saying this, would mean I have found actual good music that appeal to them as well, in places they had never thought to look.
Over the past year I have really jumped head on into exploring game soundtracks. It's a huge untapped resource for myself personally. I am finding tons of new artists through the games I like to play. Namely lots of Japanese artists doing original scores for shootemups(scrolling shooters, r-type, border down, darius, espgaluda etc etc). I have been listening to a lot of tracks by Kou Hayashi and Daisuke Nagata, who did the OST for recently released Dreamcast shootemup, Chaos Field. They have also collaborated on previous shmup OST's in the past.
A shining example of some quality original game music comes from our very own Armored Core series. Silent Line's soundtrack is one of the best I have ever heard. And if you own Nexus, the Revolutions disc has that entire compilation of tracks on there from the entire Armored Core series.
My point here is, while I myself have listened to Amon Tobin for years, there are other people who've listened to artists like Kou Hayashi for years on their own. As I have discovered Hayashi and Nagata via the medium of games, other gamers out there will pick up on Amon Tobin from hearing about Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.
Side note: There will be gamers who will buy the Splinter Cell 3 OST based on blind faith, knowing nothing about the musics origin. Instead purchasing it just because it has something to do with a game they love. Some underground music listeners hate it when this happens, because they feel that by listening to something other people arn't, it makes them special. These people need to go jump off a bridge. Just because new people are listening to 'artist a' or 'artist b' doesn't make that artists music bad. I just don't care who buys the music, or why they buy it. It's good music, plain and simple. |
