Hey look, I'm actually following through with this! A Songaday style post every Sunday!
So, as the debut of this feature, I'm doing something a little more extensive, mostly because I want to talk about the soundtrack in detail. I'll be embedding all my videos, not just linking them!
You may have noticed that this is about Assassin's Creed, less than a week after the Songaday on AC. That's because videos for the soundtrack are popping up and I've actually played it some now to understand it and its place better! Link to the Songaday here, because I had a discussion about the series as a whole and then did a billion links, many many more than you'll see here.
http://the-logbook-project.blogspot.com/2012/10/october-songaday-day-30-assassins-creed.html
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - THEME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE0Y5VmkILQ&feature=player_embedded
ACIII released last Tuesday, as you may know. I'm playing it, slowly but surely. I'll save my opinions of the game itself until I review it upon completion. Instead, let's talk about its soundtrack.
Have you heard the soundtracks of the previous games? If so, you've heard the work of Jesper Kyd. Kyd has been the musician in charge of the series since the beginning. If you haven't here's a crash course on the music of the series.
Just click past the jump here! There are like a dozen embeds and I didn't want to slow down the main page's loading.
ASSASSIN'S CREED - CITY OF JERUSALEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngi8Eww4UAw&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED - FLIGHT THROUGH JERUSALEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPNhSzuxNwQ&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED II - VENICE ROOFTOPS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EaRHlo4B0Y&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED II - EZIO'S FAMILY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBUiu_m70KQ&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED II - FLORENCE TARANTELLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6YJ05t5iRs&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED II - DREAMS OF VENICE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvZHAT7xHO4&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD - CITY OF ROME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyee46OFCkc&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD - ECHOES OF THE ROMAN RUINS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdlmwwRcfog&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD - APPLE CHAMBER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIrovVoZsrE&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - THEME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKhNbKplIYA&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - THE WOUNDED EAGLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuAhtWqLpcw&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS -WELCOME TO KOSTANTINIYYE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSnOq9g5RIU&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - ON THE ATTACK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIFWD4rHsAQ&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - FIGHT OR FLIGHT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOHUXriHzXQ&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - SCHEDULED FOR DELETION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3njtBA0WuI&feature=player_embedded
A veteran of the Hitman series, doing music for them, he has in recent times done other things such as the Borderlands series and Darksiders II. He's easily one of my absolute favorite soundtrackers. I think its his very non-standard style. And here's where I say something controversial: I don't actually like Hans Zimmer's style all that much. To me, his stuff is painfully generic nowadays. I respect his skill, and he's probably the REASON it's now the standard, but I think in general the soundtrack industry needs a shakeup of styles. Kyd does a great job of providing that shakeup. If you want to know who else I'm respecting for this, Michael McCann is doing some real unique stuff, and in general the growing number of artists employing dubstep elements or carefully using electronica is a good trend. For example, Harry Gregson-Williams had a great implementation of these elements in Total Recall. Also fun is the complete stylistic replacing of an expected tone of music with an unexpected tone (I'm currently fascinated by Samurai Champloo. Hip-hop samurai is amazing). Zimmer is pretty much an incredibly well-executed Orchestral, and that's about it.
That's not to say I dislike all of Zimmer's stuff. I like quite a bit of it. But I think so many people see his style and his success and try to attain that same success by doing the same style.
Why the FUCK am I talking about Hans Zimmer? Because Lorne Balfe works closely with his film studio. Lorne Balfe also teamed with Kyd on AC Revelations. And he's now completely in charge of Assassin's Creed III's soundtrack. Yeah, if you didn't know, Kyd left the series for other stuff.
Let's see. Okay, you heard the song up top there? That's the main theme of the game. And, well, it bothers me. That, plus a lot of the songs in the game, don't quite seem like the right sound for AC. Now, maybe I'm just attached to Kyd's sound, but I think that Balfe's sound just isn't as unique or appropriate. From what I've been thinking, I'm pretty sure the main variance in the sound is from the lower end of the sound spectrum - Balfe uses a decent amount of low-bass drone that's quite common to orchestral soundtrack nowadays, and, more significantly, uses a very standard set of orchestral drums, most noticeably a traditional bass drum. Something I always notice in Kyd's stuff (and use as a general identifier for him) is his drums are definitely non-standard, almost "exotic", though it pains me to touch that word. The third element is that Kyd's AC soundtracks all use a good amount of choir, and ACII featured a female choral sound (with Brotherhood using a good amount of male choral sound in the background).
But Balfe's soundtrack here isn't bad! He definitely learned and used SOME elements that Kyd did, most noticeably a somewhat period-appropriate strings sound, kinda reminiscent of the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies - hey, guess what Balfe was doing with Zimmer around that movie's development? Yeah, he has some experience with the style, and he knows how to do it well, plus it sounds appropriate. Have a look:
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - FIGHT CLUB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxU54NeKZJo&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - WELCOME TO BOSTON
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZDV5X67n8E&feature=player_embedded
And he's not only skilled at that sound, but is decent enough at the Native American sound, though I think that again non-standard drums could have been even better.
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - CONNOR'S LIFE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqUVC0jpZEw&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - HOMESTEAD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bED79E906-A&feature=player_embedded
A place where he seems to have utterly ACED the sound is actually in the modern times segements. His sound on the Apple Chamber-style pieces is simply perfect, and Modern Assassin is a great piece.
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - AN UNCERTAIN PRESENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00xztSjcftk&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - MODERN ASSASSIN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfK91tJjpoM&feature=player_embedded
But now let's take a look at something a little related, but not totally.
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - THEME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_rtbBuGAK4&feature=player_embedded
Wait, what? This sounds totally different. Astute readers will see that this is actually from the Vita game released alongside ACIII. The other important note is that it's not the same composer. ACIII Liberation is by series-newcomer game-soundtrack-veterans Winifred Phillips and Winnie Waldron. Now, SOMEBODY did their homework, because we have a quite, choral driven opening, thematic an non-standard drums, a choir counter-melody, and a high-string powered melody, with interspersed use of a male vocal noise and a soft atmospheric vibe. In other words, this is the spitting image of a Jesper Kyd ACII song. This soundtrack is awesome. It shares a couple sounds with Balfe's ACIII, and as a soundtrack taken as a whole I think Balfe's may be superior, but as an ASSASSIN'S CREED soundtrack, this succeeds gloriously. I will be very excited to hear these two names on another AC project some day.
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - STEALTH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INO_XSCMcUc&feature=player_embedded#t=0s
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - THE HUNT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_sSonctRaA&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - SHANTY TOWN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVO9PoOoTBY&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - MAYAN RUINS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDqJK7cz4cM&feature=player_embedded
So there we go. I think I did enough deconstructing of the soundtrack for today! I hope you enjoy all these videos and the new feature here. Now, I don't plan on doing this every week - I just really really wanted to talk in depth about what I like and don't like about ACIII's soundtrack.
End Recording,
Ego.
So, as the debut of this feature, I'm doing something a little more extensive, mostly because I want to talk about the soundtrack in detail. I'll be embedding all my videos, not just linking them!
You may have noticed that this is about Assassin's Creed, less than a week after the Songaday on AC. That's because videos for the soundtrack are popping up and I've actually played it some now to understand it and its place better! Link to the Songaday here, because I had a discussion about the series as a whole and then did a billion links, many many more than you'll see here.
http://the-logbook-project.blogspot.com/2012/10/october-songaday-day-30-assassins-creed.html
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - THEME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE0Y5VmkILQ&feature=player_embedded
ACIII released last Tuesday, as you may know. I'm playing it, slowly but surely. I'll save my opinions of the game itself until I review it upon completion. Instead, let's talk about its soundtrack.
Have you heard the soundtracks of the previous games? If so, you've heard the work of Jesper Kyd. Kyd has been the musician in charge of the series since the beginning. If you haven't here's a crash course on the music of the series.
Just click past the jump here! There are like a dozen embeds and I didn't want to slow down the main page's loading.
ASSASSIN'S CREED - CITY OF JERUSALEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngi8Eww4UAw&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED - FLIGHT THROUGH JERUSALEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPNhSzuxNwQ&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED II - VENICE ROOFTOPS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EaRHlo4B0Y&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED II - EZIO'S FAMILY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBUiu_m70KQ&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED II - FLORENCE TARANTELLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6YJ05t5iRs&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED II - DREAMS OF VENICE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvZHAT7xHO4&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD - CITY OF ROME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyee46OFCkc&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD - ECHOES OF THE ROMAN RUINS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdlmwwRcfog&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD - APPLE CHAMBER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIrovVoZsrE&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - THEME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKhNbKplIYA&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - THE WOUNDED EAGLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuAhtWqLpcw&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS -WELCOME TO KOSTANTINIYYE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSnOq9g5RIU&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - ON THE ATTACK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIFWD4rHsAQ&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - FIGHT OR FLIGHT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOHUXriHzXQ&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONS - SCHEDULED FOR DELETION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3njtBA0WuI&feature=player_embedded
A veteran of the Hitman series, doing music for them, he has in recent times done other things such as the Borderlands series and Darksiders II. He's easily one of my absolute favorite soundtrackers. I think its his very non-standard style. And here's where I say something controversial: I don't actually like Hans Zimmer's style all that much. To me, his stuff is painfully generic nowadays. I respect his skill, and he's probably the REASON it's now the standard, but I think in general the soundtrack industry needs a shakeup of styles. Kyd does a great job of providing that shakeup. If you want to know who else I'm respecting for this, Michael McCann is doing some real unique stuff, and in general the growing number of artists employing dubstep elements or carefully using electronica is a good trend. For example, Harry Gregson-Williams had a great implementation of these elements in Total Recall. Also fun is the complete stylistic replacing of an expected tone of music with an unexpected tone (I'm currently fascinated by Samurai Champloo. Hip-hop samurai is amazing). Zimmer is pretty much an incredibly well-executed Orchestral, and that's about it.
That's not to say I dislike all of Zimmer's stuff. I like quite a bit of it. But I think so many people see his style and his success and try to attain that same success by doing the same style.
Why the FUCK am I talking about Hans Zimmer? Because Lorne Balfe works closely with his film studio. Lorne Balfe also teamed with Kyd on AC Revelations. And he's now completely in charge of Assassin's Creed III's soundtrack. Yeah, if you didn't know, Kyd left the series for other stuff.
Let's see. Okay, you heard the song up top there? That's the main theme of the game. And, well, it bothers me. That, plus a lot of the songs in the game, don't quite seem like the right sound for AC. Now, maybe I'm just attached to Kyd's sound, but I think that Balfe's sound just isn't as unique or appropriate. From what I've been thinking, I'm pretty sure the main variance in the sound is from the lower end of the sound spectrum - Balfe uses a decent amount of low-bass drone that's quite common to orchestral soundtrack nowadays, and, more significantly, uses a very standard set of orchestral drums, most noticeably a traditional bass drum. Something I always notice in Kyd's stuff (and use as a general identifier for him) is his drums are definitely non-standard, almost "exotic", though it pains me to touch that word. The third element is that Kyd's AC soundtracks all use a good amount of choir, and ACII featured a female choral sound (with Brotherhood using a good amount of male choral sound in the background).
But Balfe's soundtrack here isn't bad! He definitely learned and used SOME elements that Kyd did, most noticeably a somewhat period-appropriate strings sound, kinda reminiscent of the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies - hey, guess what Balfe was doing with Zimmer around that movie's development? Yeah, he has some experience with the style, and he knows how to do it well, plus it sounds appropriate. Have a look:
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - FIGHT CLUB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxU54NeKZJo&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - WELCOME TO BOSTON
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZDV5X67n8E&feature=player_embedded
And he's not only skilled at that sound, but is decent enough at the Native American sound, though I think that again non-standard drums could have been even better.
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - CONNOR'S LIFE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqUVC0jpZEw&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - HOMESTEAD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bED79E906-A&feature=player_embedded
A place where he seems to have utterly ACED the sound is actually in the modern times segements. His sound on the Apple Chamber-style pieces is simply perfect, and Modern Assassin is a great piece.
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - AN UNCERTAIN PRESENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00xztSjcftk&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III - MODERN ASSASSIN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfK91tJjpoM&feature=player_embedded
But now let's take a look at something a little related, but not totally.
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - THEME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_rtbBuGAK4&feature=player_embedded
Wait, what? This sounds totally different. Astute readers will see that this is actually from the Vita game released alongside ACIII. The other important note is that it's not the same composer. ACIII Liberation is by series-newcomer game-soundtrack-veterans Winifred Phillips and Winnie Waldron. Now, SOMEBODY did their homework, because we have a quite, choral driven opening, thematic an non-standard drums, a choir counter-melody, and a high-string powered melody, with interspersed use of a male vocal noise and a soft atmospheric vibe. In other words, this is the spitting image of a Jesper Kyd ACII song. This soundtrack is awesome. It shares a couple sounds with Balfe's ACIII, and as a soundtrack taken as a whole I think Balfe's may be superior, but as an ASSASSIN'S CREED soundtrack, this succeeds gloriously. I will be very excited to hear these two names on another AC project some day.
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - STEALTH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INO_XSCMcUc&feature=player_embedded#t=0s
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - THE HUNT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_sSonctRaA&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - SHANTY TOWN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVO9PoOoTBY&feature=player_embedded
ASSASSIN'S CREED III LIBERATION - MAYAN RUINS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDqJK7cz4cM&feature=player_embedded
So there we go. I think I did enough deconstructing of the soundtrack for today! I hope you enjoy all these videos and the new feature here. Now, I don't plan on doing this every week - I just really really wanted to talk in depth about what I like and don't like about ACIII's soundtrack.
End Recording,
Ego.
No comments :
Post a Comment