The remastered, enhanced remake of the classic LucasArts’ adventure game Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge is now available for demo or purchase on XBLA, PSN, Steam and iPhone/iPad! As I mentioned earlier this year, I was part of the team of composers and arrangers that worked on the completely reworked musical score for the game, which features literally hours of interactive music.

The reviews are just starting to trickle in, but so far reception of the game and its audio has been outstanding! One reviewer said the new music is “beautiful”, and another praised it as “alarmingly good.” We really put a lot of time into the music, staying true to the spirit of the original MIDIs while breathing life into the production and arrangement by using modern samples and live instrumentation.

Whether you’re a casual gamer or diehard fan of the original game, I’m sure you will enjoy MI2:SE and all it has to offer. If you already have it, post here and let me know what you think!

ZirconTrax, a new website devoted entirely to one-stop music licensing for film, TV, video games, ads and other media, is now online and features over 100 tracks from an entire roster of artists and composers! The online catalog, which features searching/sorting by artist, genre, subgenre and tags, has an advanced project-based ‘matrix’ which creates quotes based on desired usage. So, getting a track for a podcast is much cheaper than for an international film trailer!

Our team so far includes myself, Jillian Aversa (pixietricks), Will Roget, II (bustatunez), Jimmy Hinson (Big Giant Circles), Danny Adler (sgx), Mike Worth, Joshua Morse, Jordan Aguirre (bLiNd), Chris Getman (Mazedude), and Jeff Ball, with more tracks and new composers being added all the time. Needless to say, if you’re a fan of OC ReMixes and the people who make them, this collective is a dream come true for your original music needs.

I’m really excited for this project, as it assembles some of the best talent I know, and all the tracks are hand-picked. Having worked for many libraries myself, I can safely say our bar of quality is quite high and our offerings very unique and diverse. Hope to see you there!

If you’ve used FL Studio 9, you probably already know about Just Hold On, the progressive trance song I wrote to demo the program (with additional writing + performance by my wife, Jill!)

What you probably don’t know, however, is that “Just Hold On” was based on an instrumental called “Dreamer” I wrote over a year and a half ago. As part of my upcoming album, I’ve decided to go back to this song, now called “Just Hold On Eternal” and finish it, integrating the vocals from the FL version of the song.

There will also be new vocal parts and the whole thing will clock in at an epic 5+ minutes. This is almost like a successor to Antigravity and I’m really excited about it! Check out the MP3 below for a preview –

zircon – Just Hold On Eternal (Demo Preview).

The video game remixes player has just been updated along with the Free MP3s VG remix directory. You can now stream and download all of my 2010 video game ReMixes thus far!

* Mega Man 9 – High Pressure System
* Mega Man 9 – Daft Drafts
* Mega Man 9 – Tornado Man Goes Clubbing
* Mega Man 9 – Charge My Shot Up
* Final Fantasy 6 – Desertion
* Team Fortress 2 – Electrodispenser
* Super Street Fighter IV – Time to Oil Up

Enjoy!

Having never remixed a game from the previous generation of consoles (PS2, GC, Xbox, DC), I decided to just skip it and debut my first Xbox 360/PS3 remix, “Time to Oil Up” from Super Street Fighter IV! Yes, SSF4 did just come out, and in fact I created this remix the week before the game was even released, simply based on OST YouTube videos! It’s an arrangement of “Theme of Hakan”, the Turkish oil wrestler who has become my new main character in the game.

The style of the mix is psytrance with lots of Middle Eastern and other world instruments, inspired by artists like Infected Mushroom and Juno Reactor. My wife even contributed some Middle Eastern-style vocals! I had a ton of fun creating this one, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the response; Capcom-Unity. OC ReMix and Shoryuken both posted it, and the original composer for SSF4 himself commented (via Twitter): “Holly Sxxt! This mix is enough to be paid much! gonna be embbed on my blog!”

So, if oily Turkish psytrance is your thing, check it out on YouTube below!

Download the MP3!

I used to be an avid Team Fortress 2 player (still a huge fan, just haven’t had the time!) so last year I decided to remix the iconic main theme, “Playing With Danger.” I also worked in a little bit of “Right Behind You”, from the excellent “Meet the Spy” video. The result is Electrodispenser, which can best be described as electro-house meets dubstep… or, for the layperson, turn up your subwoofer and enjoy!

In case you don’t want to download the linked MP3 above, here’s a YouTube embed of the track! Feel free to leave a comment here or at the OC ReMix page!

(Also, sorry to anyone expecting yet another cheesy TF2 voice clip remix. It was only funny the first 1,000 times, and Inspector Bonk was the pinnacle.)

In addition to my various other projects, I’ve been working on producing an instrumental hip hop CD. Why?! To see if I can, of course! Before starting, I collected dozens of reference albums, songs and instrumentals to study, with the help of various aficionados on OCR. I’ve now written and produced nine instrumentals to date, ranging in style from underground, jazzy hip hop to reggaeton, dirty south/crunk, 90s uptempo R&B, and even futuristic electro hip hop in the style of the Black Eyed Peas.

I don’t think I’ll be selling this album, since it’s almost more of a production exercise, but I’ll probably make it available in some form or another, and it will definitely be available for licensing too. Below you can download one of the tracks I finished today, a rather minimal, futuristic instrumental in the vein of the BEP as mentioned above. Enjoy!

Download the track here!

A few months ago I had the pleasure of mastering an album for OC ReMixer Meteo Xavier, also known as 12 Followers. While I do mastering and production work frequently, it’s rare that I get to work on a project that I truly enjoy and get excited about. Espers, the debut album from 12 Followers, is one such project.

When I first started listening to the album, which I would best describe as ambient, instrumental electronica mixed with orchestral and world elements, I was immediately engrossed.

Each track is a different “world” with deep, evolving sonic textures but more importantly, interesting compositions. When I initially wrote a letter to Meteo about my thoughts on the album, I told him how a lot of the music called to mind scores from the Phantasy Star Online series, and he confirmed that video game soundtracks were indeed among many influences.

Espers is not the kind of album that you should drop track-by-track into an iPod. It is a meditative experience full of emotion. As I worked with Meteo for months on this project, I learned about his passion and vision for this music, and his unwillingness to put forth an album of anything but his best work. Few artists I’ve met have this level of dedication, and thus few have created music of this caliber.

You can pick up Espers at most any online music store, such as CD Baby, for only $5.99.

After the release of Fittest last year, I began working on concepts for a new album. Though I have dozens of WIPs and unreleased completed songs lying around, it is only recently that I’ve really settled on an album concept and begun working on it seriously. My next album is going to be focused on dramatic, score-like pieces with lots of dark ambiances, atmospheres and textures, as well as more live and organic components.

I chose this theme for a few reasons. First of all, a number of my previous albums were more upbeat in mood and more focused on dance beats, so reigning in the tempo and paying more attention to detailed textures and intricate parts is a great artistic challenge. I’m using many new tools, synths and techniques on this project which makes it very exciting to work on! Another reason for this theme is that lately I’ve been inspired by compositions by a variety of film, video game and anime composers, and so I wanted to write pieces that call to mind more visual imagery. My goal is to try to get this music in actual film and game productions, too!

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Last year, I formed a video game company called Space Whale Studios with three fellow Drexel students/grads and my good friend Mike Worth. The goal of our studio is to create small-scale, retro-inspired games with modern twists that have enough depth to appease both casual and hardcore gamers alike. Last night, we finished an alpha version of our first title, Return All Robots!.

RAR! is an action-puzzle game where the player takes the role of a hapless intern working at a corporate-funded laboratory. The game begins when The Intern arrives at his lab only to find it in chaos with robots and animals running amok, fires burning, pools of acid everywhere, etc. He is given a single directive by the lab’s corporate headmasters: retrieve all company-owned machinery and ensure their safety. You can read more about our game concept, look at screenshots and watch a video at the Microsoft DreamBuildPlay contest website.

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