RævJäger
Verified Account
Sword & Trickery
Posts: 27
|
Post by RævJäger on Dec 27, 2016 8:15:31 GMT -5
andrewwerdna> I'm strongly reminded of the music of the first two Age of Empires games And Warcraft II.
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Dec 27, 2016 8:20:54 GMT -5
Never played/listened to Warcraft II, but if it sounds like this I should listen.
|
|
RævJäger
Verified Account
Sword & Trickery
Posts: 27
|
Post by RævJäger on Dec 27, 2016 8:22:56 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Dec 27, 2016 8:42:29 GMT -5
Listening a bit, skipping through a bit, I like it, but it's a little too active for me. It doesn't leave enough room for my mind to wander.
For me this is one of the best example of ds sensibility in video game music, there is not a single moment that I don't love:
edit: come to think of it though, it doesn't sound all that much like the Xaaron album, certainly not nearly as battle-oriented. I think it's moreso the mastery of the standard midi tone lineup that reminded me of it.
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Dec 29, 2016 8:03:36 GMT -5
Listening to Foglord - Celestial. The Dungeon Synth Archives youtube channel just posted this and again that's why I'm listening. Honestly that's how I usually tend to discover new ds these days. Almost everything on there is either good or interesting in some way. I wasn't planning on commenting on this, but as I started listening I found myself intrigued. I've been listening to a bit of Foglord since at least as far back as 2012 I think, and I've always liked his stuff and meant to give it a review sometime, but it never seems to really hook me. And he's made a lot more albums since the handful I have downloaded. Foglord is consistently beautiful and atmospheric, and his work is both engaging to listen to and interesting to think/talk about, so I regret not having reviewed Foglord stuff on the blog, as I regret not reviewing a lot of things. It certainly leans toward the "ambient" side of the spectrum. I'm not surprised he then went on to make one of those winter ambient kind of albums next. I'm not a big fan of the winter-sounding stuff, but that might just be because where I live I get my fill of that sort of mood. "Floating Under the Stars" sounds very familiar. I thought it might be an homage to Depressive Silence or something so I'll admit I went and listened Depressive Silence a bit, skipping through to try and find the song I was thinking of. I ended up getting lost in Depressive Silence for a while, remembering how great they were, even though I was intending to not listen to anything else in-between the album I was commenting on. So, while I might not be jumping for joy about this Foglord album yet, it's good in such a refreshing and mysterious way that I'm finally realizing how awesome Depressive Silence has always been. But maybe I'm thinking of Gothmog... but I'm not going to check. I need to stay focused, and I know I'll get lost for too long if I listen to Gothmog. I'm really enjoying this album so far. It took a little bit to grow on me, so I suspect it might get better on subsequent listens as well. The album cover played a big part in me wanting to give this a thorough listen, it is quite excellent. I really appreciate how Foglord over the years has kept it simple and remained so trve to the sound. I think this is a perfectly comfortable place of minimalism, bedrock of the catacomb, in a dark, forgotten shadowy corner, where at certain weird hours a shimmer of a parallel landscape appears, or perhaps it is merely an hallucination... Song by song I'm appreciating this album more. I often wonder whether dungeon synth might be psychologically toxic, but every now and then there's a few really healthy-sounding works to contradict that, like Iami for instance. But I think this album would be another good example. I don't know, something about listening to this feels healthy, like basic daily purification, like meditation, eating vegetables, showering, etc. This might be because it has a stronger sense of spirituality than most dungeon synth, which I don't think exactly comes from any one approach or another, it's just a vague impression. Wow, Dance of Spirits is an incredible track. All sorts of surreal, liquid, dreamlike images are coming to mind, but it's hard to pin anything down specifically. It has that perfect sort of familiarity, where you feel like you've heard it before in another life, or at the very least in forgotten dreams. I need to listen to more Foglord, for sure. Ok, this was completely a first-listen and I'm actually thinking it was surprisingly awesome, which is saying something because I already thought Foglord was good.
|
|
|
Post by Verminaard on Dec 29, 2016 10:43:50 GMT -5
Hey Andrew -- quick question. Were you mostly intending this to be a thread for you to share your thoughts, or are others welcome to do the same? I just got the new Primeval Spell tape in the mail, and I don't think it's available anywhere online, whether it be on YouTube or a digital release, so I thought it might be interesting to share my thoughts on a first listen through of that, maybe help some people figure out if they want to grab it.
|
|
Tyrannus
Verified Account
Knowledge is Night
Posts: 806
|
Post by Tyrannus on Dec 29, 2016 20:21:14 GMT -5
Hey Andrew -- quick question. Were you mostly intending this to be a thread for you to share your thoughts, or are others welcome to do the same? I just got the new Primeval Spell tape in the mail, and I don't think it's available anywhere online, whether it be on YouTube or a digital release, so I thought it might be interesting to share my thoughts on a first listen through of that, maybe help some people figure out if they want to grab it. I can't speak for him but I for one am interested in hearing the opinions of a variety of folks!
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Dec 30, 2016 2:37:11 GMT -5
Yep, I definitely meant for this thread to be for anyone to comment on stuff. In fact I encourage it, writing about an album as you're listening seems to make the experience of the music more focused and engaging.
|
|
|
Post by Ananoriel on Dec 30, 2016 16:57:02 GMT -5
I totally agree with you on the Foglord review. Somehow it feels pretty light and soothing. I think the title Celestial was well chosen because of that. Would love to read more reviews from others too. Perhaps I will post some thoughts on records as well. I miss doing that since I deleted my old Blogspot blog.
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Jan 11, 2017 8:15:30 GMT -5
Listening to Mitternacht - An Ambush in the ForestFirst listen. Starting out immediately with the narration is probably a good idea, letting listeners know what they're in for without surprising them about that. Starts out very big and gloomy, very cool. And then the blastbeats kick in. Oddly enough, considering how close dungeon synth is to black metal, you don't hear the blastbeats very often in ds. Mitternacht is one of the few that embraces this sound. I don't know if it'd be good in most ds, but Mitternacht makes it work. And the machine guns and stuff suggest that this is not the familiar medieval fantasy, even though the instruments all seem to be the classic orchestral ds presets. As with previous narrated Mitternacht albums, I usually can't understand what he's saying without reading the lyrics along with the music. That's fine by me though, because I think narrated music can be problematic sometimes when you feel as if you're sort of forced to imagine the music a certain way. But when the vocals are sufficiently incomprehensible, as they usually are whenever vocals appear in ds, it has the effect of creating the feeling of narration without actually directly guiding the listener's thoughts in the way that narration does. In any case, I think it works here. It has that same majestic quality as Mortiis vocals did. I love the lyrics here though, they only add to the experience if you read along. The harp in the latter half of Lament of the Nova is great. This album is cool because it's like the same elements, the same general synth sounds and ds moods that are classic, but it seems like every track is making a clear point to do something innovative. Through the Silverwood is excellent. Very fast-paced and yet gloomy and atmospheric. The percussion on The Dream of the Pharaoh is crazy, very unique, works perfectly. Reminds me of Summoning's percussion a bit. Wow, First Encounter with Fomalhaut Migration is fucking EXCELLENT. These garbled sound effects make this so atmospheric. This sounds like a dungeon within a spaceship. This is dungeon synth meets sci-fi without skipping a beat. Incredible. Listen to this guys. It's as authentically ds as it gets but totally original.
|
|
|
Post by curwenius on Jan 12, 2017 9:38:35 GMT -5
Andrew, thanks a lot for your words about Mitternacht. I'm glad you liked it. I really appreciate your comments, they help me to improve my work. I should have uploaded this album to Bandcamp before (the album was ready to release for almost two years); now I'm happy to have it published. I hope it contributes with the DS genre.
|
|
|
Post by jondexter on Jan 13, 2017 7:03:30 GMT -5
"This sounds like a dungeon within a spaceship" what more could ya want?
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Jan 13, 2017 10:35:41 GMT -5
I didn't even realize that was something I wanted.
|
|
|
Post by jondexter on Jan 14, 2017 2:55:57 GMT -5
Awesome review mate - it made me listen to and buy the album and i must say i am really loving it - i think the 'narratives' especially are fantastic and as you said the whole album has a really original, unique, feel.
|
|
dmr
Peasant
Posts: 19
|
Post by dmr on Jan 28, 2017 17:07:12 GMT -5
I often wonder whether dungeon synth might be psychologically toxic Interesting observation. What makes you think that?
|
|