I am building a science-fantasy survival setting with horror elements, inspired principally by Firefly, Ars Magicka and Metro 2033. Does anybody know of some good music that evokes the uneasy solitude of the survival genre or the trepidation of an unfamiliar world?
At the moment it's mostly the soundtrack to The Proposition on an infinite loop, which is making me depressed.
like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcmYE407tvg
Yes. That. Exactly that.
The Last of Us is also a strong influence, and I can't get enough of its main theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssLAf5akbfU).
You might try some artists with ambient/space-themed music such as SETI, Carbon-Based Lifeforms, Steve Roach, Biosphere and Carl Weigarten. Some really spectacular sounds in their work.
Good suggestions.
Anything more explicitly musical? Perhaps even with lyrics?
EDIT: I should mention that while the setting is otherworldly, it is not a space setting. Think wormholes opened by summon circles; alter-Earths born of false history and unrealised futures, where man is not native; jungles fierce with demons and wyverns and chimerae; mosquitos carrying not malaria but spiritual parasites, wherefrom ghouls are formed... And midst all of that, the sorcerers who made the worlds so, or will in some later age. Magic is no friend to time and reason, so the sequence is unclear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrclNyck6HY ?
Did you already listen to NIN's Ghosts I - IV? (http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home)
Ghosts is the only hard copy album I've purchased in several years. Major inspiration for our cyberpunk games.
The next thing you should listen to is cEvin Key's The Ghost of Each Room.
Not to harp on a strict "music with titles that are about ghosts" theme or anything.
You mention Firefly as an inspiration, and that you want something specifically musical. Have you considered things from the Firefly soundtrack?
The songs Samhain by Wolfgang Kirchheim, and Samanos Delnan by Vilkduja seem to me like they'd fit the tone of your world though.
Resident Evil noises.
@ Seraphine: Vilkduja reminds me of an important point, which should probably be guiding my musical influences. In this arcane future India and China provided the predominance of interdimensional immigrants. I should track down electronic/alternative/post rock music either influenced or produced by those cultures.
Cui Jian ("balls under the red flag") and Edison Chen are some China recommendations... but they're more pop rock. Sparkletwist has some knowledge of good Khmer music from Cambodia... The name escapes me... but I'm sure she'll stop by this thread.
Dengue Fever is the Cambodian band that I would recommend. Try song: "Oceans of Venus"
For some reason Cui's song and Dengue's songs remind me of surf music... Dick Dale and his Deltones-like :D Surprised we haven't heard them in Tarantino yet.
--
Somewhat Indian
Flames in Heaven by Harri Kakoulli.
I thought Dengue Fever were Vietnamese/American? I saw them a few years ago at a WOMAD festival and I don't really remember much about them other than the name :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_Fever_%28band%29
And the other Cambodian I was thinking of was: Ros Sereysothea.
Quote from: Light DragonSparkletwist has some knowledge of good Khmer music from Cambodia... The name escapes me... but I'm sure she'll stop by this thread.
It seems I have been summoned! The kind of stuff I like from Cambodia is 60s rock, which is what inspired Dengue Fever's style, so the "surf music" comparison probably isn't far off. I'm not sure how appropriate it is to the original request, though.
To a Western audience, it definitely sounds rather
weird, so there is that. :grin:
Anyway, here's some Ros Sereysothea stuff, since she was mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf90Y9RZ420
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_fkNEuX-qw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAmw3bADVA
Now I am hungry for more. Curse you for pushing me into this rabbit hole of SEasian rock.