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

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!

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).

* 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!

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!

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.)

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!

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.

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!

I’ve put together a little preview of six tracks that I’ve completed so far. Because some of these pieces are more like cues in a film score, many are shorter than you would expect, but I plan on writing more of them as a result, of course!

Dark Album Preview Medley – Download Here

Enjoy, and let me know your thoughts!

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.

For the alpha version of the game, only a handful of musical tracks were needed, which you can listen to and download below. The game’s aesthetic is a mix between 50s and 80s; the story is lighthearted with darkly humorous moments. In writing the music (with the help of Mike Worth for the title theme) the idea was to capture that unusual blend of influences and keep the player entertaining and engrossed.

Return All Robots! – Title Screen

Return All Robots! – Main Lab Hub

Return All Robots! – Alpha Level