Eino Keskitalo

Oooookay, this should turn out interesting.. now what would be the VGM track that I've always wanted to do a version of, but never had a deadline for before.. --Eino

Choice sent! Anniversary round, sounds interesting.. better make some time for it! My music making is pretty rusty, so participating should do good. --Eino

doublepostSubmitted! What I did is easily done in an hour - come on, don't give me a win by default! --Eino

Beuuutiful piece of music, that's a. --Eino

Continuing with the first disc mini-reviews. (the exam went well by the way, hehe) When the Smoke Clears has a great story behind it, and it's no wonder the track sounds so heartfelt emotional. The guitar sound is very beautiful, and I love that slap(?) percussive effect adding a little sting to the whole, poignancy even. I like the dressed-down solo guitar more than the more arranged section, but I've nothing to complain. Sequencing a full orchestral track on an album like this can't be easy. It's not entirely smooth here either, but damn Ship of Emotion and Song is a good piece. Hands-down my favourite from Vampire Hunter Dan yet. The piece covers a lot of territory, but stays both interesting and together. The final two minutes are my favourite. Take Flight sounds good, and is very fitting for the flight theme. The structure is a bit weird, aborting into something else that ends quite suddenly. The Last Fatima is easily my favourite piece from Avaris. Gorgeous sounds on top of restrained percussion. I've liked pretty much all things Fishy I've heard yet, plus this is one of my favourite themes from the game. The deliberately paced prog-rock treatment in Echoes goes down well with me, for the most part. There's a section with some conflicting notage at 03:06-03:46. The lead sounds jarring at 3:11, 3:14 and 3:20-3:22, but I think the main thing is that the descending background guitar figure doesn't quite gel with itself. My Child has probably the best DragonAvenger vocals yet, and the piece is quite gorgeous as a result. The lyrics are hard to hear for me too, but I don't mind that with this sound and melody. To nitpick, I hear some slight weak points with some beginnings of phrases and some intervals, but overall it's a powerful performance. The rest of the arrangement is good, but when the vocal is so strong, I wish the arrangement would have concentrated more on supporting it. Towards the end, it even seems to compete with it for attention. I believe a stronger overall piece could have resulted, although what is here is very good and enjoyable. The Treasure That Must Be Seduced is a pleasant combination of guitar and orchestral elements. I think there was a chords on the guitar that make me go a bit ???, but overall, it's good. In Joy and Sorrow is a romp with good, fun vocals. I find the rough sound fits the piece, although the drums (snare, hats and ride at least) sound sort of flimsy - a rougher, darker sound for these I think would've fitted in better. This one surprised me in a good way. New Day combos a fun bass line and chopped up drums with more orchestra elements effectively and interestingly. Welcome to the Human Race is a strange one. The orchestra and rock elements feel fairly separate in both mixing and arrangement. The 00:34-00:46 section and it's later variations sound quite dissonant and I can't quite grok them. But it seems to tie together somehow. When I stop listening for certain kind of cohesiveness, it starts to make sense in an "audio sculpture" kind of way. First Meeting has style and sound I enjoy, but it feels like it's constantly introing up to something for the whole duration. (It's also a bit quiet after the previous track.) I love the concept/story behind Akkadia Rising (Solo Sax Edit) and it's pulled off successfully. The floaty production, the sound and playing all work. The chill-out zone ending of the first disc closes with A Trace of Tears. Acid jazz! This is obviously a fruitful collab, good performances all around. Looking forward to disc two. The album has so far surpassed my expectations. I've played the game quite recently, and the moments where I recognize a theme and it's taken to a new place are really fun. --Eino

I'll upload something, and it will be crap. ^__^ --Eino

I should be studying for an exam too.. oh well. Nice to see the release happening. I'm also enjoying the disc one so far - just four tracks in, and it feels pretty good. Quickening was pretty, perhaps even beautiful. A calm opener - the subtle electronic textures used with the guitar were a nice touch. Of Sea and Fire was a fun jam on one of the themes that stuck to my mind the best from the game. I do agree with a previous comment that it could've been shorter. Shattered Dreams gave me goosebumps with it's twists and turns. The beginning sounded a bit quiet, but it turned out well and interestingly arranged. I'll return to this track for sure. Cybernetic Love had great groove, and I enjoyed the funky, distorted guitar. The website looks *very* good! Great job all around it seems! --Eino

Good to hear! --Eino

In my mind, I call him "halko", like "log" in Finnish. Of the wooden type. Like the Ren & Stimpy song. --Eino

Looking forwards to this. It's a game I've played, too. --Eino

The project has progressed quite a bit since I last posted in this thread. It's great to see. Kudos to Jade for working so hard! Heh, I suggested a "Frontier" title too, but I have to agree the Star Trek connection is not that good. --Eino

Looking forward to the meetup segment. --Eino

Congrats to the pair! I am now listening to my Disco Dan favourite, Green Amnesia, as a tribute to the happy news. --Eino

Whoa, this is an excellent piece. Very 90s. Regarding length, I like how concise it is personally. It takes exactly the time it needs to do what it does. This is a keeper. --Eino

I remember I had gotten some sort of an impression that OCR was for elitists who did vgmixes the wrong way. Then after getting some OCR mixes from somewhere, notably LastUnicron's Alisia Dragoon mix (I seem to recall so), I checked the site out for reals and turns out I'm an elitist who likes vgmixes done the wrong way. I registered in May 2007, but Shnabubula's mixes seem to have started me posting around the end of 2007. Most of my initial posts are reviews, and then I've progressed into WIP boards, People's Remix Competition and the projects for the most part. Fun times. --Eino

So nice to see good progress. We got our WIP started with Pleiade, nothing to show yet, but we'll try to keep a weekly pace of progress, so hopefully Jade will be hearing something soon! --Eino

Commendable project. I don't have anything to contribute at the moment, but did want to say that! --Eino

Nice and chill, this mix was in VGDJ's Russian Remix Roulette section in ep#069, but I've heard and liked this before as well. The sound feels kind of muffled, but it's a very complete and balanced piece, nice and soothing. --Eino

This is quite fantastic.. airy and delicious. Thanks for making the mix! I'm enjoying it a lot. --Eino ..damn that angry frown..

Can't say the same about games, but music, definitely. Horizons have been broadened. --Eino

Absolutely. Keep going! I'm seeing that friend of mine later this week, I'll talk to him if he was interested in doing a WIP for a track. --Eino

I agree with the final sentence 100%, and I'm very happy to see this idea of going with a similar approach. I like most of the projects but Relics of the Chozo and Delta-Q-Delta are the best listening experiences from start to finish as a whole. --Eino

Yah, I enjoyed that. Thanks for posting! --Eino

Bah, can I have a version with rapping all the way through? --Eino

Very nice, lots of different elements there and they mix pretty well. I don't like how the lyrics surprise me when they come in.. I didn't expect them as there's no "hint" or set up for them. Structure wise, I'm talking about a couple of lines earlier, alternating with instrumental parts/soloing. Just so that the whole thing flows well. I think lyrics alternating with lots of soloing/instrumentation ideas could work really well. The Vagrance's No Hope does the same thing lyrics wise, and it makes both of these tracks seem a bit half-baked, which is quite unfortunate as no individual aspect of the mixes are half-baked at all (including the lyrics!). Don't mean to sound this negative, it's a good track. I especially love comibining so many sounds and styles so well, plus the living, breathing strings. --Eino