Music is better when riding a chocobo
The world of classical music is a bit sad I guess, back in the day, all the heroes were celebrities, although I guess they were only ever really celebrities among the upper class, and that remains the same.
That being said, there is a weird dimension to classical which has slipped into this era. From your Herrmans to your Williams, the only recognisable modern composers for a good proportion of people are probably those who compose movie soundtracks. Anyway, these are usually more about the movie than anything. Vader and Skywalker's themes are pretty remarkable pieces of composition, I mean, I like them, but its in people's minds because the series is pretty spectacular.
Anyway, so I don't actually know any of this stuff, but I do know Final Fantasy VII is one of the best Playstation games ever. Great story, environmental calamity, brought on by capitalist excess, you are a pawn in a game that is slowly revealed, but have special power, and good friends, but this sense that fate is guiding everything, the joy of a pretty one dimensional storyline, but fairly adaptable gameplay, considered by a few people, at least me, to be the best of the saga (given I've only played 6 to when they sold out into the massively multiplayer universe of averageness). A few horrific puzzling situations to get out of that you spend so many hours before you relent and access the good old dial up internet to find some kind of solution.
The point: the music behind the saga is just about one of the best things about it, sounding like it is composed by a kid on a keyboard at home, which is possibly true, it nevertheless perfectly blends with the odd fantastical, environmental, storyline, traversing massive city through to casino, prison in a desert, through to beach city, and onto wilderness, mountains, and all indelibly imprinted on my consciousness through absurd amounts of hours wasted playing the thing.
So, the composer, Nobuo Uematsu has contributed to this amazing collection of homages to fantasy games, Symphonic Fantasies, first performed in 2009 but more recently, by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and its amazing, and I recently got Spotify and played it a lot. That is all.
Also, this:
https://soundcloud.com/y2k2y/there-are-things-you-cant-forget
That being said, there is a weird dimension to classical which has slipped into this era. From your Herrmans to your Williams, the only recognisable modern composers for a good proportion of people are probably those who compose movie soundtracks. Anyway, these are usually more about the movie than anything. Vader and Skywalker's themes are pretty remarkable pieces of composition, I mean, I like them, but its in people's minds because the series is pretty spectacular.
Anyway, so I don't actually know any of this stuff, but I do know Final Fantasy VII is one of the best Playstation games ever. Great story, environmental calamity, brought on by capitalist excess, you are a pawn in a game that is slowly revealed, but have special power, and good friends, but this sense that fate is guiding everything, the joy of a pretty one dimensional storyline, but fairly adaptable gameplay, considered by a few people, at least me, to be the best of the saga (given I've only played 6 to when they sold out into the massively multiplayer universe of averageness). A few horrific puzzling situations to get out of that you spend so many hours before you relent and access the good old dial up internet to find some kind of solution.
The point: the music behind the saga is just about one of the best things about it, sounding like it is composed by a kid on a keyboard at home, which is possibly true, it nevertheless perfectly blends with the odd fantastical, environmental, storyline, traversing massive city through to casino, prison in a desert, through to beach city, and onto wilderness, mountains, and all indelibly imprinted on my consciousness through absurd amounts of hours wasted playing the thing.
So, the composer, Nobuo Uematsu has contributed to this amazing collection of homages to fantasy games, Symphonic Fantasies, first performed in 2009 but more recently, by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and its amazing, and I recently got Spotify and played it a lot. That is all.
Also, this:
https://soundcloud.com/y2k2y/there-are-things-you-cant-forget
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Powerful article from the world's best music reviewer. What else are you listening to?
ReplyDeleteQuite a bit at present, the joy of Telecom adding Spotify to their standard preplay plan. Quite enjoyed Fanfarlo and Noah and the Whale and Broken Bells and new Vampire Weekend.
ReplyDeleteAnd John Adams and Steve Reich, quite good for work,