V.A. Out Run Arcade Game Alternative Soundtrack (2010)

ARTIST`````Various
ALBUM`````V.A. Out Run Arcade Game Alternative Soundtrack
GENRE`````Kitsch, Nerdy, Electronic, Italo, Electro, Techno, Retro, Moog
YEAR````````2010

A Bleeding Panda Compilation

Out Run:

For some time now I wanted to make a nerdy tribute to one of the greatest arcade games of my childhood - the glorious 1986 Out Run by Sega. I too have lost tons of pocket money trying to beat the #1 record set by some mysterious local kid but I never really made it (I was either a shitty player or didn't carry around enough cash for coins). Anyway - for those who didn't play it or have a vague memory: Out Run was and still is considered to be one of the breaking points in arcade game history. It had supreme, smooth fake 3D graphics and a great FPS so you could actually feel the speed. It had a killer soundtrack with a revolutionary twist: you could choose a song you wanted to listen while driving (a concept obviously taken for the GTA series years later). Now, today this sounds like blah, but at that time - this was really, really important and really, really awesome + this was not the only choice a player could make. While driving through luxurious, detailed European scenery, you could choose different paths at predefined crossroads. Some paths were difficult while some were easier - this is the first time players could slightly feel "freedom of choice" which is mostly why this game is so praised (also, the blond in the Ferrari Testarossa added some pluses)."At least part of Out Run's huge success was down to it capturing the fun-yet-superficial spirit of the 1980s. Previous racing games had concentrated on the more serious side of racing, with the action usually taking place in a Formula One racing car, over a series of competent but uninspiring racing tracks. Out Run was different; in a decade that celebrated style over content, the game offered players the ultimate boy racer experience by putting them behind the wheel of that eighties icon of cool, a red Ferrari Testarossa; replete with a 'blonde bimbo' in the passenger seat."

http://www.exotica.org.uk

Why no Testarossa?
I know someone who knows the subject would ask so I am answering in advance: I didn't post Kavinsky's Testarossa track in this selection because I posted it already in one of my worst compilations so instead I inserted a goofy intro from the EP that really sits well here. Many critics (including the obnoxious Pitchfork sponges that dismissed the 1986 EP because it wasn't trendy and indie enough) have completely missed to notice that a few of Kavinsky's tracks are a goddamn DIRECT HOMAGE to this very game. Ok, the entire EP is not great but just the fact that at a time when everybody was farting in torture of being the indiest band on Pitchfork's homepage, a nerdy French dude was having lots of fun producing romantic Miami Vice/Out Run music makes me say YES! I go with the nerdy French dude.In general
The kitschy selection is a mix of early italo-disco tunes, a few romantic Moog moments and some fresher songs heavily influenced by 80's sound. Many of tracks are (or were) very popular club hits at some point but got lost or were simply to stupid & too 80's to last long. Since most of the older tracks were of really shabby quality I had to unskillfully "remaster" them ha HA! I used a VST plugin called Izotope Ozone which I highly recommend (can be easily found). Since I am quite unfamiliar with mastering I just browsed through a ton of presets and chose the ones I though sounded the best?! This is my first time in using shit like this and I hope your ears don't suffer too much.

Enjoy and I will see you in October - I am taking a sunny vacation in Lisbon::::-)
Tracklist
01 James Saunders - Launch Control (1981)
02 Patrick Cowley - Sea Hunt (1982) 256
03 Trevor Bastow - Light Industrial Motion (1980)
04 Alden Tyrell - Rendez Vous At Rimini (2006)
05 Claudio Mingardi - Star (Instrumental) (1984)
06 Alden Tyrell - Mindless (2006)
07 FPU - Crockett's Theme (FPU Original Mix) (2002)
08 Yello - Hawaiian Chance (1987)
09 Kavinsky - Flashback
10 Alan Hawkshaw - Technicolour (1981)
11 Mark Shreeve - City Of Angels (1989)
12 Roland Bocquet - Epsilove (1982)
13 Droids - Be Happy (1978)
14 Aavikko - Syntaksis (2009)
15 Rockets - Future Game (1982)
16 Morgan Geist - Palace Life (2008)
17 Mux Mool - Death 9000 (2010)
18 Sebastien Leger - Saturn (2007)
19 Astral Sounds - Velvet Mousetrap (1982)
20 Colossus - Raga (1978)
21 Hard Ton - Flawless (Tobias Bernstrup Italo Remix) (2010)

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Wu Fei - A Distant Youth (2007)

ARTIST`````Wu Fei

ALBUM`````A Distant Youth
GENRE`````Avantgarde, Chinese Contemporary, Traditional, World
YEAR````````2007

What?

Born and raised in Beijing, Wu Fei is a virtuoso composer, vocalist and guzheng (Chinese zither) performer. She spent her formative years at the China Conservatory of Music before coming to the US in 2000. A Distant Youth is her debut CD, recorded in the Italian Alps, Venice, Parma, and Guerrilla Studio in Oakland, CA. Wu Fei has composed music for solo instruments, string quartets, choirs, orchestras, modern and traditional dance, film, and various chamber ensembles. She is also featured on Fred Frith's newest album of film music entitled Eye to Ear II, which received high acclaim from The Wire in April 2004. Debut record "A Distant Youth" ranked #88 out of 913 on World Music Chart Europe (critics pick) 2008.

















Wu Fei website Wu Fei @ myspace

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V.A. Pomegranates: Persian Pop, Funk, Folk and Psych of the 60s and 70s (2010)

ARTIST`````Various

ALBUM`````Pomegranates: Persian Pop, Funk, Folk and Psych of the 60s and 70s
GENRE`````Psych, Folk, Funk, Pop
YEAR````````2010

Info:

Pomegranates is a 16-track collection comprising assorted vinyl 45s (or “chehel-o-panj dorehs”) released in Iran during the1960s and ‘70s. A fascinating assortment of sounds, the tracks on Pomegranates showcase the distinctive styles coming out of the Iranian music industry of the era, while at the same time offering a kind of fun-house mirror of the contemporaneous western pop industry. There are identifiable strands of funk, psych, folk, R&B and widescreen cinematic pop, though everything is funneled through the vibrant lens of a nation on the precipice of political and cultural upheaval.

Pomegranates stakes its claim in this narrative, filling in blanks in an essential story that is inherently political but also about something so much more enriching. Familiarity with the music here surely won’t halt a march to war. Such a thought would be both naïve and out of proportion with the subject. Nonetheless, I have to believe that possessing a deeper understanding of people through a common narrative — for our purposes the records, the singers, the songs — as opposed to a geopolitical one makes it much harder to want to kill them.

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Intrusion - The Seduction of Silence (2009)

ARTIST`````Intrusion

ALBUM`````The Seduction of Silence
GENRE`````Dub Techno, Ambient,
YEAR````````2009

Who?

Written by Todd Hutlock
Though individual highlights abound on The Seduction of Silence, the album works best when taken as a whole, an endorsement of Hitchell's vision for an expertly paced and executed album that raises the bar on the dub techno game to stratospheric levels. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better winter warmer than this; remember it with warm thoughts when winter returns later this year, when it's time for year-end polls.

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If you like this you should check out the "Submerged" compilation:)