Defcon

January 15, 2007 6:44 PM

Please name this music...

Anyone recognize the music used for this trailer? Or is it likely written for the game itself? If so, please recommend similar music or artists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgSGekp9kvE

posted by DieHipsterDie to media & arts (13 answers total)

This might be up your alley
posted by GeekAnimator at 6:52 PM on January 15, 2007

Please name this music...

Frank.

Sorry, bad joke. But that's clearly yer basic ambient music, circa 1985 or so. Try Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, KLF, Tangerine Dream (check the samples) and a host of other gentle, mildly dark "chillout" music from the 90s.
posted by mediareport at 6:54 PM on January 15, 2007

Thanks
posted by DieHipsterDie at 6:59 PM on January 15, 2007

Is it Al Lindsay?
posted by tellurian at 7:08 PM on January 15, 2007

Written for the game itself. And yes, mid 90s 'chill-out' is what you're looking for.

I love this cd set un unholy ways:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chilled-Out-Euphoria-Digitally-Mixed/dp/B00005NDY7

It's out of print, but if you look at the tracklistings, you'll see a lot of good tracks to look for.
posted by empath at 7:09 PM on January 15, 2007

According to the credits, ALISTAIR LINDSAY oversaw "the production of an entire hours worth of original music"
posted by nightwood at 7:11 PM on January 15, 2007

Dear god, does this mean I have some new age tendencies?

Ugh. ;-)
posted by DieHipsterDie at 7:13 PM on January 15, 2007

Buy it here or if you have the game get it like this.
posted by tellurian at 7:21 PM on January 15, 2007

Sorry, I see GeekAnimator has already done that.
posted by tellurian at 7:24 PM on January 15, 2007

does this mean I have some new age tendencies?

Ah, don't worry. Genre boundaries are always blurry, so, yeah, there's some overlap between "new age" and ambient music. To me, though, ambient is more challenging in general; it doesn't approach things with such an obvious pleasant/healing agenda, is usually more experimental and the good stuff is as likely to unsettle your nerves as calm them. New age is generally more bland, so if you find yourself liking the bland sort of ambient, then you might start to worry.
posted by mediareport at 10:17 PM on January 15, 2007

Selected Ambient Works was already suggested, but if you're into this trailer, there's about a 95% chance you'll love Selected Ambient Works Volume II by Aphex Twin. I love both SAWs, but the music on Volume II is much closer to this trailer than 85-92.
posted by atomly at 11:57 PM on January 15, 2007

Y'all love knocking New Age. It was just something for folks to enjoy that were getting bored with pop, while being too old to enjoy metal. Some of it was no better than Easy Listening that my father liked. Other was extremely tripfull, every bit as juicy as the best ambient.

And then, there was the music that came before New Age. Some of it was classical, done in synthesizers (Isao Tomita). Some was classical styled, but new work (Synergy). What they share is the rich textures, like your example.

Sadly, a lot of the non-mainstream music from the 70s has been forgotten. But it definitly was a heavy influence on the ambiet and electronica that came latter.
posted by Goofyy at 3:36 AM on January 16, 2007

The Aphex Twin ambient stuff (SAW II) is a bit more discordant than this, and Tomita, KLF (Chill Out is their only relevant album here), and Tangerine Dream are all going to be a lot more rhythmic and dense. For nice-drone like this you might check Michael Stearns, Robert Rich, Tetsu Inoue, or maybe Vidna Obmana.
posted by rhizome at 11:09 AM on January 16, 2007