Jump to content

VG Frequency: U Love VGM

Liontamer

By Liontamer,
in Projects

 Share

Should Larry bring back VGF as OCR's podcast?  

235 members have voted

  1. 1. Should Larry bring back VGF as OCR's podcast?

    • Yes
      9
    • [b][size=7]YES[/size][/b]
      103
    • Larry's merely part of the establishment now (i.e. yes)
      15
    • Yes, as this promotes affirmative action
      10

Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...
Liontamer Grand Master

Liontamer

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Someday, I'll have all the free time in the world. Until then, I plug away at the summer stuffs, this set of community releases from June 26th to July 2nd:

PICK OF THE WEEK: Dj Redlight - "inhibition" [http://www.djredlight.com]

Ashley Carr's mostly known for his Final Doom mixes, so to actually get the chance to hear some original work of his is a real treat. Red dropped not one, but FIVE new originals on his site this week, ensuring that if you take your time to sample things, you're highly unlikely to go unsatisfied. It's not February, but you can still enjoy the well-developed "dizzy valentine." With the sounds at Carr's disposal, he really reminds me a lot of Protricity's stuff. It's the kind of material Ari could have developed had he went more of a downbeat style and worked on integrating some acoustic guitar. For those looking for more of the techno-trance meat & potatoes, "epiphany" will hit you right. The beats were pretty tepid for some reason, but the groove be there. Sounds like something Leifo could make, only not quite as refined. Can't even stop talking yet. "inhibition" will please those of you going for melodic techno, so DO NOT pass it up. Awesome idea for the processed vox at 1:02, for example; just great development the whole way through. The key change at 2:43 might be hit or miss, but lemme say it was seamless. It was WITHOUT SEAMS. Wow, he needs to collab with any of the following OC ReMixers: bLiNd, Leifo, SGX, tefnek, or zircon. I'm just majorly impressed with the ideas here. Gotta move on to more pimpage, but go get the goods.

housethegrate - Megaman X1 "Light in the Fortress" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (July 2005)]

Alex stood atop the competition in a loaded free month with a SWEET take on one of the Sigma Fortress theme from MMX1, showing off some electronic range I never knew he had. Having played the game a lot after getting zSNES, I can really appreciate house for giving a very underrated theme some well-deserved attention. It's got the original in there, it's got some nice synths and beats, it's got the geetar kwak...it's the champ! Don't forget the plugs for other strong DoD track this month including the best showing ever for a solo piano piece, Dhsu with 2nd place for his CastleVania 3 entry "A Clockwork Vampire," and some nice collab action tieing for the 4th place spot with Ailsean, Chad Seiter & Victor Lawrence on one side and Ashane & LuIzA on the other. More good stuff from evilsonic, Ryan8Bit, norg, zykO, Master Hatchet, Midee & prozax, XOC, and the long-awaited (by me) "Dragon Warrior Radio Drama 2" helmed by XMark.

Just Us f/DarkeSword - "One Step Forward (DarkeSword Remix)" [http://www.justusmusic3.com]

Just Us is back with their usual thought-provoking, well-written verses, this time joined by resident OC ReMix judge, the deceivingly skilled hip-hop beat creator Shariq Ansari. One thing typical of Just Us, as well as other Urbanizm Music artists like Tony Montana, zyko, Malcos, and Skrybe, is that their lyrics are always so on point. Yet when you actually decide to listen to the lyrics underneath the flow, the content is there, the substance is right there on the page. With DarkeSword taking his turn adding beats, bass, e-piano and other bits & pieces, the texture is nothing but well-crafted and not your typical hip-hop instrumental. The quality of Just Us's material continues to take one step forward with each release. Those ready to enjoy a much more unique hip-hop experience are more than ready for Just Us.

Malcos - "I See" [http://www.urbanizmmusic.com]

Everytime I hear a new original from Stephen, I miss the understated but dedicated demeanor he had on the OCR judges panel. The first time I heard Stephen rhyme with his Street Fighter II remix "Throw Me a Tiger Uppercut," I'll admit, I didn't know he had that dimension to his material. But several Urbanizm Music releases later, Malcos's energetic, driven beats and absolutely gifted lyrics regarding the beautiful specimen known as "woman" have resulted in yet another mainstream-level original hit. The piano-driven hook that intros this track does nothing catch you off guard and leave you waiting to see how the track will unfold. The vocal harmonization here was excellent as well, and aside from wanting this to get some studio treatment (please), everything here leads me to believe that, in a perfect world, Stephen Malcom-Howell would be a UK-based multi-platinum millionaire with a womanizing reputation appropriately befitting his lady-obsessed lyrics.

Miguel F. Ettema - 1942 "Orchestral" [R:K:O #2741]

Ooooh, there's some spirited orchestral material from the Commodore scene. That's always the kind of stuff the C64 community needs. I'm always a fan of people there who take an unorthodox approach to material in the Commodore community, as they help broaden the offering there and help squelch the haters who bag on it for being nothing but electronica. OC ReMix knows how you guys FEEL! In any case, I never played 1942 much, but even so, Mark Cooksey's score for the game must be nothing but intriguing given the treatment Miguel's given it. All three subtunes of the original game's SID file have been tackled here in a very naturally woven medley piece that makes up in creativity and dynamics what it lacks in overly expensive orchestral instrument samples. The sound quality is definitely nothing to scoff at at all and definitely fits in with other people like Jeremy Robson, who's arrangements are always strong, despite not sounding like the real thing for the people who are actually that anal. Some pieces DO manage to pull it off. Good heroic vibes here that you should check out, even if you're wholly unfamiliar with the inspiration behind it. Hey, it doesn't stop me, does it?

Nixdorux - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening "The Sad Fish" [VGMix2 #4019 / OC ReMix #1370]

Nicolas brings it out with the delicate touch for the orchestral enthusiasts, indeed connoting the concept of a sad fish, whatever that may be. If a fish cries in the ocean, how can you tell? It's tears can't be more salty than the water. And what about a freshwater sad fish? On a mystical, MUSICAL level, Nix actually tackles these and other tough questions. If you're looking for a rich and emotive rendition of one of the newer highly-mixed themes in the community, this one does a great job of introing sparsely and delicately before adding other instruments to the ensemble. And the peeps that like curveballs in their ReMixes will love and appreciate the turn the track takes about 3/4s of the way through. Those who want their music to tell a story, you look no further than here.

The OneUps - Super Mario Kart "Koopa Beach" [The OneUps: Volume 1]

After years of Mustin hoping to have a OneUp Mushrooms album, this summer has made that goal a reality with OneUp Studios most ambitious project yet. After streamlining both their name and their lineup, the OneUps attempt to bank on their reputation within the VGM remixing community and, more importantly, build a reputation and a fanbase outside of that community with their debut album. I spotlighted "Koopa Beach" for its overall swankyness and smoothness, but there's a bunch of winners on here, many of them giving off a jam band atmosphere. The Bomberman track in particular is a huge expansion of the original, and others like "Michael's Theme" from Maniac Mansion and the new classic "Katamaritaino" from Katamari Damacy are sure to grab your attention as well. There's a bunch of jazzy cuts on the album, but dem OneUps rock it out as well with a nasty rock rendition of "Koopa's Theme" from Super Mario 64. And for those of you really familiar with OC ReMix, there's even a cover of po!'s Axelay ReMix "City Lights." Along with their CD, Mustin & crew are making the summer and fall rounds at both vgXpo & Video Games Live!, looking to make an impact and score the $$$ like we all dream of but can never hope to accomplish! Support them OneUps and buy their CD before they BlowUps.

Pixelated - Demon's Crest "Kill Your Children" [VGMix2 #4458]

Phil is a role-model, and don't you forget that. The beats kick in at :27 after some downright "WTFux" intro material. I'm just a huge fan of the breakbeat loops and sliced and diced effects. This is definitely bringing it if you like the crazy shit. If those damn rugrats of yours are acting up again, jumping on your bed and breaking the damn mattress, you grow a pair, listen to this on loop and KILL YO' CHILLUNS! (Note: The following review conclusion is not officially endorsed by Larry Oji. Larry does not, in fact, want to kill your children. MJ does, in fact, want to touch your children.)

pixietricks f/Rayza, Aurora & Fusion2004 - "RayzaMix" [http://www.vgdj.net]

Hahahahaha! Oh God, yea! Friggin' awesome! Starting off with simple beats and pads, pixietricks has ROFLed it again, this time sampling your VGDJs in this conceptual sequel to The wingless's "AuroraMix." I'll never get how the guys y gals here manage to take random vocal clips and make something musical out of them. Even the clips with music in the background generally work, which is a great coincidence given that you KNOW no effort was put into making all those little details sound good. This was awesome stuff that actually built the track gradually, predominantly with Rayza samples but also some judicious yet aurally stimulating usage of VGDJ co-host Aurora. You heard it here, thine lady pixie gives The wingless a run for his dirty little mind in this gem of a joke mix.

po! - Balloon Fight "da craziest balloon" [VGMix2 #4438]

Posu Yan be groovin' it with the Balloon Fight. Yet another piece of original VGM I didn't know until I heard of virt, Balloon Fight has some pimp tracks that get NO coverage at OCR. The original is some of the catchiest stuff around, you dumb bastards! po tackles the theme with some of the ever-familiar Posu groove. The arrangement is pretty conservative, so the goodness of the original isn't spoiled at all. Pretty good groove for the most part, though I thought some of the ideas in the latter half weren't hot, namely 2:46. Then things started to just get repetitive. :-( Pretty disappointing finish, but still not shabby. Balloon Fight needs and deserves your love.

Roetaka - "Rebellion" [http://www.soundclick.com/roetaka]

Alex get down and dirty with some thick beats and grungy, grimy synths. The intro was pretty lackluster, but things picked up at :14. Oy, dat volume be loud, and you can't pick much apart, but the groove is there and it wants to be appreciated. Some good stuff going on during the section at :54 to change up the feel a bit. Despite the fucked up cluster of sounds, there were some other nice motifs involved, though at 2:30 the track seemed to retread itself. The basic percussion was a repetitive aspect here; heard the same beat patterns going most of the way. Nonetheless, it sounds rather Perfect Dark multiplayer style for anyone desperate for a relevant VGM analogy.

Saxman - "Tequila" [http://www.garageband.com/artist/damiangrove]

Damian provides some old school stuff with a double shot of classics, "The Heart of Rock & Roll" and his featured song this week, "Tequila." While I'm implore Sax to provide more sax during the verses, the "Heart of Rock & Roll" cover hit the cheesy spots well with some backing chords from that instrumental that I can't put my damn finger on. Damn keyboard styles. I'm ALL OUT OF MY ELEMENT. Sax tends to make his vocals a bit too low, so he should punch them up, but other than that, some decent stuff for those of you who remember the 80s. "Tequila" was where the REAL action was, taking full advantage of the saxamaphone you've been looking for. Very loopable and full of energy. Straightforward and fun stuff you can DL for the quick & dirty.

Strike911 - Dead or Alive 1 "Helena's Trance" [VGMix2 #4388]

Jase K’s got some pretty cool trance going on. The grooves are pretty basic, and the production needs some sharpness, but the energy is good, and has some tasteful voice SFX sampling. Not much else to say, but that's not on account of the track being poor at all. Certainly worth that look, and solidly put together for shakin' it in your favorite European club. The excellent tracks from the Dead of Alive series really deserve most attention.

TO - "By Your Galactic Might" [Original Remix Competition 24]

Lee takes down the honors for ORC24 with this winning take on one of Ichitootah's originals. The strange world of the space genre is embraced here with some driving beats, warm vox, and all sorts of phasing, warping sounds. The introduction led me to believe this wouldn't be overly hot (though I LOLed at that clip; Is that Vincent Price?), but once things kicked in at :27, it was all uphill and apropo and oui oui, and all that. A bit on the loud side, but good stuff for the groove bias lover in all of us.

trickwaters - Lufia: The Legend Returns & Lufia: The Ruins of Lore "Riposo" [VGMix2 #4444]

Patrick goes back to some of the more bread and butter ideas that I recall seeing him post to VGMix when I first heard his name in the scene, i.e. posting several different movements that are all mixes from one particular game or game series, in this case material arranging two Game Boy entries from the Lufia series. The instrumentation is noticeably synthetic sounding and more exposed than Miguel Ettema's aforementioned 1942 remix this week (check out that brass note hanging at the very end), but the arrangement is still great, especially for someone looking for a relaxing classical music-style piece. Aside from the instrumentation not being der uber-samples, the composition here would easily fit in with other classical and orchestral music compositions featured on the FM stations that are early, early, early on the FM dial, making this, in my opinion, a very successful genre piece. That likely isn't the intent mind you, but you never know. Very intelligent stuff for those that want to feel cultured. Good stuff from Mr. Waters with another trick up his sleeve.

Ubik - Splatterhouse 1 "Graveyard Shift" [Four Mullet Tire / VGMix2 #3126]

Brian leads the Auld Lang Sine 2 charge with this self-described "early 90s dance music style" cut from his latest album for Hellven's now-traditional album creation initiative. Hitting some obscureness (made up a word) from the TurboGrafx-16 (yeesh), Ubik oughta to have called this "Zombie Be Shakin' That Thang." Nice work going for that throwback feel and creating a real winner for what's sure to be a great turnout once again over at Hellven. Glad to see more material from Ubik. Much like DoD, ALS is a good vehicle for getting otherwise missing-in-action artists to take the plunge and give the peoples more material.

X-formZ - Ghost Battle "The Haunted" [VGMix2 #4423]

I'm never a big fan of mechanical sounding piano, so the intro's not hot to me, but the chill groove here was excellent. The melody coming in at :41 is a pure gem, and doubling it at 1:02 only served to create an even better texture. The production is a little rough and could sound cleaner, but I was really feeling the arrangement here and kept on looping it. This was actually pretty upbeat and cheerful; certainly quite the contrast with the title of this Amiga remix. Some trademark X-formZ guitar action joined in at 2:28 to keep the texture evolving. The ending was abrupt (FOR SHAME!), but other than that, the arrangement had a lot going for it. I'd love to see this one handled with more polish, definitely, but you've really gotta check it out. Dimmignatt & Floaf have some ways to go in really being a polished act, but they're consistent in bringing promising material to both the R:K:O and VGMix scenes.

We'll live to pimp section another day. I'm gonna go listen to "Krystallyne" by The wingless…

Link to comment
Share on other sites
The Orichalcon Rookie

The Orichalcon

Posted
Posted
TO - "By Your Galactic Might" [Original Remix Competition 24]

Lee takes down the honors for ORC24 with this winning take on one of Ichitootah's originals. The strange world of the space genre is embraced here with some driving beats, warm vox, and all sorts of phasing, warping sounds. The introduction led me to believe this wouldn't be overly hot (though I LOLed at that clip; Is that Vincent Price?), but once things kicked in at :27, it was all uphill and apropo and oui oui, and all that. A bit on the loud side, but good stuff for the groove bias lover in all of us.

It's Betruger from Doom 3.

Also, I agree with Larry on the DJ Redlight front. If you haven't already, go to his site and download the mp3's he has up there. People usually charge money for music of that quality, so enjoy while you can. "Secret Symphony of Life & Death" is a personal favourite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RoeTaKa Newbie

RoeTaKa

Posted
Posted

Woot, I'll have to quit my job so I can stay up 5am onwards to hear this damn show! Or just wake up very early...that's even better. Good to see it back in any case, definately was a highlight when I had the chance. Good to see Larry's reviews back, it's harsh to see him comment on my loudness, I have finally moved on from that phase!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rexy Contributor

Rexy

Posted
Posted

And so that plots my timetable for the next few Sunday mornings:

Saturday Morning to afternoon time: Take time out in the music labs as usual

5PM: Return home and get a chinese

around 6PMish: Go to sleep for a bit

Sunday 2:30AM: Get awoken by alarm, boot up comp and listen to VGF; do phone-in if some kind of occasion was going on

Rest of Sunday: Survive in Music Labs with lots of hot chocolate...

...but whatif I'm too excited to sleep? 8O

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Compyfox Explorer

Compyfox

Posted
Posted

The rumors finally come to an end!

Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm proud to bring you some great news with the following sentences. But first of all, let us celebrate alltogether with a friggin loud "HELL YEAH!" to the following thing:

VG Frequency officially started with Season 5!

Nope, it's not a dream. And you didn't dream that either that last saturday (10th September) was officially the first show of the new season (VGF#61). It was a sudden thing and only a handful of peeps knew what's going on till it was too late. But it was the first official show after the "death of VG Frequency" in May 2005. *though I missed it myself*

:arrow:BACKROUND INFOS:

I had Larry on the phone in the last hour and I asked him a bit about his sudden decitions. He recently moved back to Atlanta cause he didn't know whether to stay at home, or be with his girlfriend. And even though he graduated from Emory campus, he still has access to the WMRE studios as "guesthost". From his final words from VGF#60.99 (that were available as bootleg shortly after the 24+h marathon) it was clear that VGF will and still lives on in his heart, his friends even secretly tried to get VGF on the road again - but it seemed like it was over forever.

Now Larry kicks back with a brand new season. On the phone he told me that he wants to at least "keep it up till December on a regular basis". Which means: Saturday Evening is reserved for VG Frequency. At the usual place, the usual time - and unfortunately at the same old stream (RealMedia).

So to all VG Frequency fans out there, gather again and give a warm welcome to our long missed (now hopefully relaxed) and "sexiest" radiohost from the other side of the globe.

Welcome back Larry Oji, with VG Frequency!!!!

Now that this is out, I can start the old riff-raff again, too. Hell yeah, nothing really changed anyway.

Tune in at 10pm (saturday, GMT-5/EST, Atlanta, GA). Here's a small overview of the most salient timezones for you.

Small World-Timetable

Los Angeles (CA, USA):       7:00pm *
Calgary (Canada):            8:00pm *
Atlanta (GA, USA):          10:00pm *
Rio de Janero (Brazil):     11:00pm
Reykjavik (Iceland):         2:00am (Sunday)
London (England):            3:00am (Sunday, *)
Oslo (Norway):               4:00am (Sunday, *)
Germany:                     4:00am (Sunday, *)
Paris (France):              4:00am (Sunday, *)
Helsinki (Finland):          5:00am (Sunday, *)
Kapstadt (South Aftrica):    4:00am (Sunday)
Moscow (Russia):             6:00am (Sunday, *)
Hong Kong (China):          10:00am (Sunday)
Tokyo (Japan):              11:00am (Sunday)
Sydney (Australia):         12:00am (Sunday, midday)


* currently observing daylight saving time (DST)

Have fun while listening to VGF#62.

Additional Infos:

:arrow:Torrent batches need seeds again. I'm actually helping out VGDJ to save some bandwidth. If you want the old shows for some nostalgic issues, please ask around if someone could seed in my place. Thanks.

:arrow: The missing shows are still in editing. Larry needs to get back to it again as soon as he has a bit more space on his Laptop HDD. We plan a full release (VGF#50 till VGF#60.99) in torrent form in the next weeks. We'll keep you informed.

:arrow: Unfortunately bad news too: Restreaming via Shoutcast isn't possible for me anymore. Hereby goes a big "sorry" to the users on dialup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Xerol Oplan Newbie

Xerol Oplan

Posted
Posted

:arrow: Unfortunately bad news too: Restreaming via Shoutcast isn't possible for me anymore. Hereby goes a big "sorry" to the users on dialup.

i listened on my dialup towards the end of the show, and i didn't have a problem. it hardly ever buffered.

The stream seems to be greatly improved over last semester. Panned correctly, volume's just right (I just had my speakers up too loud from CompoST 50) and only buffered twice (and during both times I was uploading crap to our server).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...