Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku‘s constant hangout for people who love video games and the cool sounds they make. Today I’m bringing you a treat: a couple of games! All with killer tracks from mainstream musicians.
Say what you want about Mirror edge catalyst (Actually, please don’t This game doesn’t deserve the negativity), but at least it had killer music. The games pulsating, moody soundtrack
The Glasgow-based electro-pop group sits in a small pantheon of famous (or semi-famous) mainstream musicians who created music for video games, including Florence and the Machine, Breaking Benjamin and of course 65daysofstatic, whose crispy, industrialized riffs are in the DNA encoded by Nobody’s heaven. Most of the time these pieces are great. A typical example: the song by Chvrches: “Warning call. ” Listen to:
If this song wasn’t explicitly labeled a song from a video game, you’d think it came from Chvrches’ back catalog. The Mirror edge catalyst
To the Final Fantasy XV, Florence and the Machine recorded a three-track EP. One was a cover of “Stand by Me, “But two songs were originals – tailor-made for the game – with”I will be“As an outstanding track:
“I’ve always seen Final Fantasy I don’t think I could have worked with any other video game, ”wrote Florence Welch, the band’s singer, in one Tweet. “In a way, the landscape of Final Fantasy and my own inner landscape seemed to fit in pretty well. ” (I would say!)
Or how about this walk through the past. Notice Halo 2and how were tracks from time-specific acts like Incubus and Breaking Benjamin shown? I’ll keep my general feelings about the latter to myself, but I’ll say this: your song for Halo 2, “Blow me away, “Bloody hell. The album version includes a vocal track with lyrics that are not out of place in the margin of a hot topic journal. ((Here it is for the curious.) But in the in-game version the vocal track is missing, absolutely kicks in the ass and appears right away Halo 2‘s narrative tip while you stage an attack on an alien ship. See it in action:
Compared to the orchestral arrangements, which for the most part scored gloriole Up to that point, “Blow Me Away” blew me away.
But none of them compare to the plus in music-gaming collaborations: 65daysofstatic’s work on Nobody’s heaven. As Paul Wolinski from 65daysofstatic told The edgeafter meeting Sean Murray, Nobody’s heavenAs a social creator, it took the band five minutes to decide if they would provide music for the game. They spent the rest of the planned meeting “[talking] about sci-fi. “In 2014 65daysofstatic played a concert at PlayStation Experience as footage from the then unreleased game in the background:
At the beginning you hear “Super moon“That song from the gameplay trailer that really, really showed how amazingly big the game could be 2:22pulls out the camera. It whips through the universe, countless stars race by. Every star you see that you can travel to, each one potentially full of promise and intrigue. Man, when I watch this I still get the chills. Sure, some of this is down to what the game suggested. But that feeling is mainly a result of the music.
Make no mistake: this doesn’t mean in the slightest that video game audio directors should replace original compositions with famous or mainstream musicians. Nor does this mean that licensed music should fall by the wayside. ((Tony Hawks Pro Skater would never be the same.) I’m just saying every now and then it’s exciting to hear a great track from an established band. Where’s the Death Cab x? Life is strange work together?
And that’s it for today’s morning music! Certainly I haven’t downplayed all of the songs that famous video game musicians wrote. What are some of your favorites? Better still, are there any musicians that you would like to work with game makers? See you in the comments and hope you have a nice Wednesday.
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