Hey,
Good music always helps set the mood and feel of a game, so I thought it'd be cool to share music suitable for EP. I have a personal preference for background music, typically without intrusive lyrics, and I've got a LOT of links to free tracks released by various labels and groups (ambient, electronica, etc.), which I'll share over coming days. First though, soundtracks, because soe are obviously suitable. What is especially cool though is that some are free to download, legally (no pirates, thank you), such as the soundtracks made by fans for the Homeworld video games. Official soundtracks were never created, but the fans created some with the blessing of the game company.
To get the ball rolling, you can download the mp3s for the first Homeworld game here:
- http://homeworld.wikia.com/wiki/Relic_Community_Homeworld_Soundtrack_2.0
Don't bother with the "logo" tracks, but grab the others as they're very cool and ambient sci-fi appropriate.
By the way, if anyone else cares to share stuff, please post links to samples or what have you to make it cool for all concerned; I certainly will be.
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Okay, here we go. By the time I've finished posting you will have access to hours of freely legally downloadable tracks suitable for Eclipse Phase.
Machinae Supremacy have a few cool free tracks
http://www.machinaesupremacy.com/masusite/jngmusic.html
http://www.machinaesupremacy.com/musicfiles/jng_vol1/11-machinae_supremacy-insectoid.mp3
http://www.machinaesupremacy.com/musicfiles/jng_vol2/16-machinae_supremacy-kings_of_the_sea.mp3
http://www.machinaesupremacy.com/musicfiles/jng_vol2/24-machinae_supremacy-judgement_fray.mp3
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Atrium Carceri has some good free atmospheric 'uns:
http://atriumcarceri.coldmeat.se/
Their album Kapnobatai has some great creepy stuff on it.
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Inade produce some great stuff as well:
http://www.inade.de/media.html
http://www.loki-found.de/audio/inade_titan_in_shivering_sand.mp3
http://www.loki-found.de/audio/inade_samadhi_state_part_II.mp3
The Genius Loci tracks on the album, Burning Flesh, are probably the best.
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
When things get freaky and weird, you can count on In Slaughter Natives
http://www.inslaughternatives.com/
Freebie tracks!
http://www.inslaughternatives.com/downloads/Fifth%20skin.mp3
http://www.inslaughternatives.com/downloads/Clean%20cathedral.mp3
http://www.inslaughternatives.com/downloads/Angel%20meat.mp3
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Some good 'uns from Rage In Eden:
http://www.waroffice.org/music/Cold_Fusion_-_11_Sleepless_Thoughts.mp3 http://www.waroffice.org/music/01.neustrasse_-_emphasis.mp3 http://www.waroffice.org/music/LF_04_Quetzalcoatl.mp3
http://www.waroffice.org/music/invlab_-_07.mp3
http://www.waroffice.org/music/aethere_partVI.mp3
http://www.waroffice.org/music/Rukkanor%20-%20the%20fall%20of%20humanity.mp3
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
I've got a bunch more stuff to post if folks are interested, especially good for future-horror.
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
You've been a reliable source for game related pictures in the past, so yeah, I'm interested.
Great Job! All of you!!!
Yeah, this stuff is really good, so I'd definitely be interested in seeing what else you can link us to. Never really had the opportunity to use music in any games I've run before but EP's just screaming for it in my head. ^^
Contrary to popular belief, there is only one of me. ;)
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Okay, some more:
No links to individual tracks this time, sadly, but again, if you want to avoid torrents, you can download the second fan-community-produced Homeworld soundtrack here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=j33twxwk
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Something Transhumans might be listening to in a club, perhaps: http://www.waroffice.org/music/rage60.mp3 , some industrial throbbing, pounding relentless noise: http://www.waroffice.org/music/rage58.mp3
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
So, that's 18 free individual tracks and two free albums so far. :)
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Yikes! How did I do THAT???
Must have had EP on my mind, I thought it was your Fork!
You know to much for us..., I mean ME, to allow you to live, I'm afraid.
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
I've just bought the soundtrack to The Moon and it seems like a good fit for EP. Creepy and ambient.
Did you by chance see the film? That was always on my to-do/never did list. From what I saw it looked like cloning/mind duplication was a significant element.
"Moon" is worth seeing if you have the time. I guess you could say that both cloning and mind duplication are significant elements in the film. It has a lonely, stranded feel to it, like many of the EP characters might. It definitely gets moving by the end though, and resolves itself well. The mysteries are essentially wrapped up by the end, and it doesn't disappoint.
The film is supposed to be the first in a trilogy, all written and directed by David Bowie's son.
It's got a limited cinema release in the UK and isn't showing near to where I live. Guess it'll be the DVD release I watch.
I'm still not at home from Gencon yet but I'll try to post a more complete list once I am but I know that we've been using a lot of Memmaker (http://memmaker.cenobytes.net/) especially the 'Get Your Ass to Mars' track which was used in the EP Gencon video that played in booth. This is some of the music that we listened to while writing the book and at least, to me, makes me think EP.
Brian Cross
Posthuman Studios
The music from EVE Online is perfect for Eclipse Phase, as are the soundtracks from Deus Ex and some of the older Mechwarrior PC games. I'm also using the soundtrack from Mirror's Edge and GRID, since they have that serene but futuristic feel that just seems to fit for a lot of EP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex#Music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror%27s_Edge#Soundtrack
James Knevitt * jknevitt@gmail.com
eclipsephase.com Forum Moderator
EVE is good and was free I think. I'm sure I have the mp3's somewhere.
Come on, chaps, get with the free links! For example, the freely downloadable EVE mp3s are available here: http://www.eveonline.com/download/music/
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
It is good and STILL free! Cheers Colin. :)
For me, no song does a better job of portraying the future not quite coming out like you wanted it to than "Isaak" (based upon the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham) by Janus, (used in the promo of a German RPG called "Degenesis"... about another future that didn't quite turn out like folks hoped). Hard to find the album but the song can be found on a number of mp3 download sites... here's a "video" on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPmdPs9MvEc&feature=related
Great intro song in my book...
I guess the latency on the C&C channel between you and your fork was a little too high at the moment. ;)
Navicon Torture Technologies pops right into my brain for Earth runs. And the scum barges make me think of some of the dubstep artists out now.
Another science-fiction music track I think might work (especially for scum parties) is the Mechwarrior 2 soundtrack (especially Mechwarrior 2:Mercenaries).
Great soundtrack.
I like to use a lot of electronic stuff...Underground Bass Masters have a lot of music that's fitting.
http://www.myspace.com/ubm
Nineties trip-hop works for me. Sneaker Pimps' "Low Place Like Home" for the home-base/downtime theme, Massive Attack's "Angel" as the battle theme, Portishead's "It's A Fire" for the inevitable heroic sacrifice moment.
VNV Nation puts out some good stuff.
The song Further in particular seems to hit on a lot of EP's themes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ftP6N-b1d0
Or there is Genesis by the same band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kOHF4YS5r8
Think Tank: Mandroid - Chip-hop which would make excellent scum barge background music.
Porn On Beta: Brand New Road to Nowhere - Good music for a run on fallen Earth.
The Cruxshadows: Immortal - The video for this song could be an EP adventure in itself, with one of the Lost figuring in prominently. It also echoes parts of the story Lack.
8-Bit Weapon - Remixes and covers of C=64 chiptunes. Some informorphs really do remember their roots...
Alphaville - For some reason, their music makes me wonder what a hyperelite party might be like, especially The Jet Set and Fallen Angel.
Blind Guardian: Nightfall in Middle Earth - Lock and load. Shoot to kill. When you players absolutely, positively, must open fire on full automatic. Be sure that you keep the volume down so that it doesn't distract the players too much.
ClockDVA: Buried Dreams - Again, keep the volume down, but when the characters are pulling wires, calling in favors, collecting intelligence data, and getting ready to put their current lives on the line for thousands of people they will never know, this album makes a nice backdrop.
The Dresden Dolls - If you want your players to wonder what, exactly is going on in that seeming normal, peaceful, quiet, and orderly habitat, their music would make a good background. Then break out the tentacles, autonomous nanoswarms, and cheerfully demented biomorphs.
Ladytron - Whatever you do, do not go after the ship's cat.. more non-sequiturs and cheerful dementedness. I recommend their music as the soundtrack to an escape, countdown optional.
Leonard Cohen - His music reminds me a little of a solitary life in the asteroid belt, or perhaps just inside the Oort Cloud. Some anarchist habs may have a soft spot for him, too.
Null Device - Their music might be good for exploration, or perhaps getting lost in a crowded habitat to get away. Mournful. Longing. Perhaps a little silly in subtle ways (or maybe it is just my sense of humor). If your players' characters wind up on the skids, they may appreciate some of their music.
Great links here guys, much appreciated!
I feel I should make I contribution myself. This here gotta be the TITAN national anthem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg9wQ0WBBSo
or perhaps this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tidttl-zeN0
Don't forget folks, maximum base level required for these tunes.
;)
"People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes." - John Dee
Alien 1 is probably a must for this ambiance. Futuristic, without lyrics, tense, and great. Alien 2 and 3 may also be good for combat and other sides of the game too.
Blade Runner is also another very good option: strange, without lyrics, clearly futuristic. Very good option too.
Some of the tracks in The Matrix OST (specially the second and third parts, which lack lyrics) are also a good option for combat, clubs, or something like it.
Got no free links to them, though, I'm afraid.
The mind is information... hack it!
+4
http://tribulaciones.es/
They're a seminal band in their genre, but those not terribly familiar with electronic/industrial music should give Front Line Assembly a listen. FLA have been the soundtrack to my imagination since I was a kid, and the dark sci-fi atmosphere of their music is precisely in line with EP...
http://www.last.fm/music/Front+Line+Assembly
(Interesting note: in Lack, when the characters touch down at Kilimanjaro station, Berk's dialogue "This place is a tomb." mimics a line of dialogue from the movie Event Horizon. This line is sampled -with echo effect on the word 'tomb', identical to Berk's ping- on the FLA track Synthetic Forms, a track I happened to be listening to whilst reading the story - I'd be very surprised if the author wasn't doing the same whilst writing it!)
Time will perfect matter.
A descendant of the industrial sound established by bands like FLA, Skinny Puppy, SPK et al is the dark ambient genre, much of which is absolutely ideal gaming music, i.e. foreboding and atmospheric yet non-intrusive.
Even though it's all, well, dark, you'll find a pretty wide range of sounds converging within the genre, for example the subtly beautiful quasi-orchestral arrangements of Amber Asylum and Arcana, the swirling cosmic-chthonic symphonies of Kammarheit and Desiderii Marginis, the mind-bending auditory trips of Halo Manash and Troum, or the unsettling tectonic pulsations of Svartsinn, Vestigial, R|A|A|N and other followers of genre-granddaddy Lustmord. Atrium Carceri as posted above, while not on my personal list of favourites, are a fine example of the genre's variation.
Time will perfect matter.
For a more general, space opera-like feel, not so dark but futurstic, you can also get Mass Effect OST. And, what's good, in couple of days we should see part two of it. ;]
Madness and detachment from the world we know...
tUnE-yArDs - Lo-fi tribal trip-hop
Hatari
Fiya
Sunlight
Akira Yamaoka (every Silent Hill Soundtrack) - definitely a lot of ambient goodness for setting mood
Silent Hill - Moon Child
Silent Hill - My Heaven
Silent Hill 2 - Angel's Thanatos
Andrew Bird's tracks on the 'Useless Creatures' portion of the Noble Beast special edition
Useless Creatures - The Barn Tapes
Ragged survivors in space...
Battlestar Galactica (new version) soundtracks
Season 2 - Black Market
Event Horizon soundtrack
Orbital
Memories (Magnetic Rose) soundtrack
Chorale
Cosmos
(BTW, Magnetic Rose could make a fantastic inspiration for an EP adventure or encounter!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9mR7Rit4h8
Other stuff...
Boom Boom Satellites
Out Loud - Oneness (Don't turn it up at the start!)
Symphony of Science Downloads at their site
A Glorious Dawn - Captures EP with both the wonder in its lyrics and hint of sadness in its melody
We Are All Connected - Similar
Spiritualized
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - title track
Hooverphonic
2Wicky (live)
Blue Wonder Power Milk - Out of Tune
The xx
Basic Space
Well, we've been playing EP for the whole weekend, and have been using this as a music list. A couple other songs were chosen for specific moments, but it worked out rather great as sound ambiance in general:
-EVE Online OST
-The Witcher OST
-The Hunt for Red October OST
-Battlestar Galactica OST
-Alien 1, 2 and 3 OST
-Fallout 3 OST
-Gattaca OST
-Sin City OST
-300 OST
-V for Vendetta OST (though some of the songs in this one were taken out in the end)
-Blade Runner OST
-Homeworld 2 OST
-Ergo Proxy OST
-Deus Ex 2 OST
I'll probably continue expanding and adding music to it, but this base worked in general very well.
The mind is information... hack it!
+4
http://tribulaciones.es/
Hexnilium: The Logik Gate - The infomorphs are not threatening, they are just very, very busy.
http://www.ilike.com/artist/Hexnilium/track/Logic+Gate
Digida: Nanotek - Nanoassembly is *fun*! A game the whole habitat can play.
The Land Canaan: Wild Child - A love song from the Exurgent virus. Alive - a technoprogressive anthem.
http://www.youtube.com/user/emlynoregan#p/u/4/JSo4rXd4xoM
http://www.youtube.com/user/emlynoregan#p/u/7/pnbcr4cxdWc
Philip Glass: Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack. Minimalist classical music, suitable for alien landscapes to the crowded lunar mesh (The Grid) and mourning the Earth (Prophecies)
Propergol: Ground Proximity Warning System. Noisy ambient using flight recordings. Perfect for gloomy space environments.
I'm also fond of corporate anthems. Perhaps something for the hypercorps?
http://metalmonstermarketing.com/corporate-anthems.php
IBM's "We are rational" and TI's "Fast Forward" sound quite extropian. Unfortunately I cannot find my all-time favourite online, Deutsche Bank's (?) "Global Technology", which definitely should be the Planetary Consortium anthem:
We are fighting for solutions
and we strive for leadership.
Our vision...
our mission...
our vision is
mission is
success!
We see us as a global nation
We always go for innovation!
Perfection is what we dare
and teamwork leads us there
Like a target force
We make our way
We are here to stay!
Synaecide:
http://www.myspace.com/synaecide
"Close Bracket" and "Scientifica" definitely fit in nicely with EP. And for TITANs, who can resist a track with the title "Binary god"? (although "Taking Control" is probably closer to the splatter, upload-your-head-off style of TITANs)
Colony 5:
http://www.myspace.com/weseekcolony5
http://www.colony5.com/
"Plastic World" should be played during character generation :-) The text of "Colony 5" is almost perfect as a theme song for Firewall and/or the Argonauts:
"We have the technology
for destruction
Can we use that knowledge to survive
Reverse the process and make something great
Our calling is not to die we have to find a way to survive"
If you can round up a copy, the old Alien Trilogy game for the original PlayStation game console has loads of moody, atmospheric music tracks perfect for an Eclipse Phase campaign.
For something a bit more ethereal in theme, I recommend the musical works of Kitaro.
Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 soundtrack are good too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Morn%27_Omina
this too if you can find it- its tribal trance and very moody!
Colin you are a madman, and I think I love you. Between this thread and your pics thread, (along with Eclipse Phase) I think I will finally quit MMO's 100% cold turkey...I'm fallin' in love with rpg's all over again lol.
The original ambient outer space sound track by the great Brian Eno...
http://www.last.fm/music/Brian+Eno/Apollo%2B%2528Atmospheres%2B%2526%2BSoundtracks%2529
"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
- Ripley, "Aliens"
I made up a playlist for my EP game just off my ipod, it's not strictly future sounding, but i tend to think that as much as music evolves it also tends to stay the same in alot of ways. It's just got some themes and some of the feelings i need for my storyline
All of this music is commercial so it would cost to legitimately compile for anyone else on here.
Suffer Well - Depeche Mode
Available Light - Rush
Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
YYZ - Rush
Down by the River - Neil Young
Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine
Policy of Truth - Depeche Mode
Get Glint - Chemical Brothers
Climbing up the Walls - Radiohead
Land Of Confusion - Genesis
Satur9 - Smashing Pumpkins
The Friends of Mr. Cairo - Jon Anderson and Vangelis
Sunday Morning - velvet underground (INTRO SONG)
Blue Skies - various
Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson
Every me and Every You - Placebo
Stinkfist - Tool
Indifference - Pearl Jam
Everything in it's Right Place - Radiohead
Heart of glass - Blondie
Tears in the Rain - Vangelis
Tick Tock goes the clock, but time is standing still
I used The Moon soundtrack last night in a game, and it really worked.
The players had just created a diversionary gamma fork (they were basically being hunted by DA, and the fork was a distraction), and as the gamma woke up and asked how long it had I started playing the main theme from Moon - even for the players who hadn't seen the film, it was great, and for those that had, it was wonderful.
I found that linking forking to that sense of loneliness and sadness made the players really think about what they're doing when they create a limited fork :)
I'd like to recommend some Frank Klepacki (especially "Machines Collide"). It's mainly electronic-rock-industrial. There's also some ambient stuff he did.
"Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est."
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV - All instrumental and very creepy.
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