[OOC][Fun] Music thread? Music thread.
12-25-2018, 10:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-26-2018, 08:29 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
12-25-2018, 10:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-26-2018, 08:29 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
Okay.
So one of my favorite groups, VNV Nation, pushed out a new studio album this year in November called Noire. And the name suits this album PERFECTLY with the tracks alternating between dark and light tones. VNV Nation are among the few groups I know of that don't just slap a bunch of music onto a record and call it a day. This entire album is a work of art in its collective whole.
But what really caught me were two tracks. I'll do one here and save the other one for the second post so you guys can react to them separately.
The first of these, I think, would be a fitting theme (Opening Theme? Battle Hymn?) for either Seasons 2 or 3. Why?
Well...
Just look at the lyrics here.
A stranger in the crowd
Treading fire after dark
Lost in a city
Pulsing to a sound
Of the spirit and soul
A city that is breathing
Living through the cables
Alive across the wires
Faces without names
Playing devils and angels
Lit up by the strobes
Moving hypnotised
I caught your reflection
In the neon on glass
An electric silhouette
Against a static sky
It's a beautiful dream
It's a beautiful life
It's just a reflection
A world that must survive
We're children of the past
Who look beyond today
Designing the present
So when is the future?
We live in a dream
Keeping visions alive
It's just a reflection
A world that never dies
An image we create
In our image we design
It's a beautiful life
So when is the future?
Time moves so fast
In a single direction
Fighting with a present
Racing from the past
We're searching for something
That can never satisfy
The reality of answers
When lives are on the line
I've waited a lifetime
For the age of wonder
A place that I remember
In a splinter of time
A stranger in a strange land
Caught in the flow
Still searching for answers
Among the neon lights
It's a beautiful dream
It's a beautiful life
It's just a reflection
A world that must survive
We're children of the past
Who look beyond today
Designing the present
So when is the future?
We live in a dream
Keeping visions alive
It's just a reflection
A world that never dies
An image we create
In our image we design
It's a beautiful life
So when is the future?
It's a beautiful dream
It's a beautiful life
It's just a reflection
A world that must survive
We're children of the past
Who look beyond today
Designing the present
So when is the future?
We live in a dream
Keeping visions alive
It's just a reflection
A world that never dies
An image we create
In our image we design
It's a beautiful life
So when is the future?
Thematically, it's perfect. Cities that were never meant to be, dreams from the past becoming reality in the present, and we're all still reaching for an uncertain future. The sound is heavily industrial, with VNV's trademark future-pop sound, smoothly blended with just the right touch of 80's Retro Synthwave.
Here's the music video they did for When is the Future? It's minimalist, but it works very well.
I even have my own thoughts of how a music video featuring Ben might go.
First verse finds Ben in a Tokyo rave club, with hologram tanks and lasers everywhere. Hatsune Miku is DJing, and for the moment she is letting the music speak for itself. (Though I'd love to see someone do a rendition of this song using her!) As he moves smoothly through the crowd, tapping into Juraian sword kata learned under the tutelage of Prince Yosho, he's losing himself to the pounding beat, when he catches a glimpse of Hotaru through an idling holotank, her smile beckoning as he face was lit up by the fluorescing colors under the blacklights.
He makes his way over, only to lose track of her. And then he suddenly glimpses Homura, smiling as she disappears by a partition. Ben makes his way quickly over, only to find Fate beckoning him with a coy grin and a crooked finger. Ben gives chase, but finds Weis instead. Except instead of running, she grabs him by the arms and throws him into the throng...
The chorus kicks in and he suddenly finds himself in Ruby's arms. They grin at each other and break into energetic dance, the ravers naturally moving to make room. Every other line in the chorus, he is swung into the arms of another. Homura. Then Fate. Weiss. Kyoko. Yang. Nanoha. And finally Hotaru.
As we transition to verse two, the scene shifts. It's the dead of night in San Antonio, and its twisting and looping highways, which are the stuff of a racer's dreams, are deserted. Except for a gleaming black Saturn SC2. It has a body kit that maintained the S-Series coup's sleek lines. The engine has been modified to handle the big turbo that feeds the engine and the transmission was swapped for a built-up version of the SC1's transmission for the longer gears. At 100mph he was barely pushing 4000rpm's. Ben keeps focused on the road with steely-eyed determination as a false can send him screaming into the divider wall at speed.
But then he's joined up by a gleaming red Alfa Romeo SZ. A quick glance and, for a split second, Mamoru and Ben's eyes meet, wide grins on their faces.
Others join up as well. Sylvie, Meg, Priss, Mii, Yang, Keiichi, and Belldandy on their bikes. Fate in a yellow Ferrari Testarossa and Nanoha in a white Mazda RX7. Weiss in a silver Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS Gullwing. Ruby in a black-on-red Super Seven. Kyoko in a red Toyota Supra. Madoka in a fuschia Mazda Miata. Homura in a lavender Toyota MR2. Mami in a gold BMW M5 Sport E34.
As the chorus kicks in, they dive down into the southbound I-10 lower deck - what Ben likes to call the Death Star Trench Run - two lanes and barely any shoulder. It's not a race, but a cruise-turned-speedrun. Care must be taken here - small but sudden rises and drops in the concrete pavement can make you lose traction for a precious split-second. But for this crowd it only adds to the challenge. The walls and overpasses of the lower deck race by until the upper and lower decks merge once more and they turn south to stay on I-10, merging with I-35. On their left, Downtown San Antonio, now looking decidedly futuristic with new high-rises stretching up into the sky, set aglow with colorful LED lighting flashing a myriad of patterns, while the Tower of America's stands proud and solemn to the side - a treasured reminder of dreams from the past just now being realized today.
As the instrumental starts, the camera pans starward, and then pans over. Suddenly there is Starbase One with an eclectic mix of ships orbiting it. Another pan, and there is the Death Star, only now instead of a terror weapon, it's now a final line of defense. In the distance, a Forerunner's Halo hangs in solar orbit where a flock of engineering ships work to disarm it's terrible mechanism. On Mars, great basins are slowly starting to fill with water as magitech constructs contain the atmosphere, engage the magnetosphere, and stabilizes the orbits of its moons. Envoys from the Abh, Jurai, Federation, The Galactic Empire, and the Gamilons are arriving.
They have arrived for one reason.
To build the new future that is always just out of reach.
As the chorus starts again, we see a dark shape coming up from Earth. It is Benjamin in his personal gunship, The Punisher. He's not needed as a manager anymore. Instead, he is forraying out to do what he has always dreamed of: to see what's out there. He docks the stubbornly sturdy ship to its Transwarp module, and with a wink he is gone, off into the wild yonder.
Thoughts?
(Edited by Bob to remove the font markup which made it hard to read in San Felix. Sorry if that was for some special reason, BA.)
So one of my favorite groups, VNV Nation, pushed out a new studio album this year in November called Noire. And the name suits this album PERFECTLY with the tracks alternating between dark and light tones. VNV Nation are among the few groups I know of that don't just slap a bunch of music onto a record and call it a day. This entire album is a work of art in its collective whole.
But what really caught me were two tracks. I'll do one here and save the other one for the second post so you guys can react to them separately.
The first of these, I think, would be a fitting theme (Opening Theme? Battle Hymn?) for either Seasons 2 or 3. Why?
Well...
Just look at the lyrics here.
A stranger in the crowd
Treading fire after dark
Lost in a city
Pulsing to a sound
Of the spirit and soul
A city that is breathing
Living through the cables
Alive across the wires
Faces without names
Playing devils and angels
Lit up by the strobes
Moving hypnotised
I caught your reflection
In the neon on glass
An electric silhouette
Against a static sky
It's a beautiful dream
It's a beautiful life
It's just a reflection
A world that must survive
We're children of the past
Who look beyond today
Designing the present
So when is the future?
We live in a dream
Keeping visions alive
It's just a reflection
A world that never dies
An image we create
In our image we design
It's a beautiful life
So when is the future?
Time moves so fast
In a single direction
Fighting with a present
Racing from the past
We're searching for something
That can never satisfy
The reality of answers
When lives are on the line
I've waited a lifetime
For the age of wonder
A place that I remember
In a splinter of time
A stranger in a strange land
Caught in the flow
Still searching for answers
Among the neon lights
It's a beautiful dream
It's a beautiful life
It's just a reflection
A world that must survive
We're children of the past
Who look beyond today
Designing the present
So when is the future?
We live in a dream
Keeping visions alive
It's just a reflection
A world that never dies
An image we create
In our image we design
It's a beautiful life
So when is the future?
It's a beautiful dream
It's a beautiful life
It's just a reflection
A world that must survive
We're children of the past
Who look beyond today
Designing the present
So when is the future?
We live in a dream
Keeping visions alive
It's just a reflection
A world that never dies
An image we create
In our image we design
It's a beautiful life
So when is the future?
Thematically, it's perfect. Cities that were never meant to be, dreams from the past becoming reality in the present, and we're all still reaching for an uncertain future. The sound is heavily industrial, with VNV's trademark future-pop sound, smoothly blended with just the right touch of 80's Retro Synthwave.
Here's the music video they did for When is the Future? It's minimalist, but it works very well.
I even have my own thoughts of how a music video featuring Ben might go.
First verse finds Ben in a Tokyo rave club, with hologram tanks and lasers everywhere. Hatsune Miku is DJing, and for the moment she is letting the music speak for itself. (Though I'd love to see someone do a rendition of this song using her!) As he moves smoothly through the crowd, tapping into Juraian sword kata learned under the tutelage of Prince Yosho, he's losing himself to the pounding beat, when he catches a glimpse of Hotaru through an idling holotank, her smile beckoning as he face was lit up by the fluorescing colors under the blacklights.
He makes his way over, only to lose track of her. And then he suddenly glimpses Homura, smiling as she disappears by a partition. Ben makes his way quickly over, only to find Fate beckoning him with a coy grin and a crooked finger. Ben gives chase, but finds Weis instead. Except instead of running, she grabs him by the arms and throws him into the throng...
The chorus kicks in and he suddenly finds himself in Ruby's arms. They grin at each other and break into energetic dance, the ravers naturally moving to make room. Every other line in the chorus, he is swung into the arms of another. Homura. Then Fate. Weiss. Kyoko. Yang. Nanoha. And finally Hotaru.
As we transition to verse two, the scene shifts. It's the dead of night in San Antonio, and its twisting and looping highways, which are the stuff of a racer's dreams, are deserted. Except for a gleaming black Saturn SC2. It has a body kit that maintained the S-Series coup's sleek lines. The engine has been modified to handle the big turbo that feeds the engine and the transmission was swapped for a built-up version of the SC1's transmission for the longer gears. At 100mph he was barely pushing 4000rpm's. Ben keeps focused on the road with steely-eyed determination as a false can send him screaming into the divider wall at speed.
But then he's joined up by a gleaming red Alfa Romeo SZ. A quick glance and, for a split second, Mamoru and Ben's eyes meet, wide grins on their faces.
Others join up as well. Sylvie, Meg, Priss, Mii, Yang, Keiichi, and Belldandy on their bikes. Fate in a yellow Ferrari Testarossa and Nanoha in a white Mazda RX7. Weiss in a silver Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS Gullwing. Ruby in a black-on-red Super Seven. Kyoko in a red Toyota Supra. Madoka in a fuschia Mazda Miata. Homura in a lavender Toyota MR2. Mami in a gold BMW M5 Sport E34.
As the chorus kicks in, they dive down into the southbound I-10 lower deck - what Ben likes to call the Death Star Trench Run - two lanes and barely any shoulder. It's not a race, but a cruise-turned-speedrun. Care must be taken here - small but sudden rises and drops in the concrete pavement can make you lose traction for a precious split-second. But for this crowd it only adds to the challenge. The walls and overpasses of the lower deck race by until the upper and lower decks merge once more and they turn south to stay on I-10, merging with I-35. On their left, Downtown San Antonio, now looking decidedly futuristic with new high-rises stretching up into the sky, set aglow with colorful LED lighting flashing a myriad of patterns, while the Tower of America's stands proud and solemn to the side - a treasured reminder of dreams from the past just now being realized today.
As the instrumental starts, the camera pans starward, and then pans over. Suddenly there is Starbase One with an eclectic mix of ships orbiting it. Another pan, and there is the Death Star, only now instead of a terror weapon, it's now a final line of defense. In the distance, a Forerunner's Halo hangs in solar orbit where a flock of engineering ships work to disarm it's terrible mechanism. On Mars, great basins are slowly starting to fill with water as magitech constructs contain the atmosphere, engage the magnetosphere, and stabilizes the orbits of its moons. Envoys from the Abh, Jurai, Federation, The Galactic Empire, and the Gamilons are arriving.
They have arrived for one reason.
To build the new future that is always just out of reach.
As the chorus starts again, we see a dark shape coming up from Earth. It is Benjamin in his personal gunship, The Punisher. He's not needed as a manager anymore. Instead, he is forraying out to do what he has always dreamed of: to see what's out there. He docks the stubbornly sturdy ship to its Transwarp module, and with a wink he is gone, off into the wild yonder.
Thoughts?
(Edited by Bob to remove the font markup which made it hard to read in San Felix. Sorry if that was for some special reason, BA.)