Epic Rock is Epic

Ok, So I’ve talked about Trailer Music and its awesomeness. But I think this is deserving of its own post. Immediate Music recognized how popular its music had become, and decided to refine it for a mainstream audience. Building upon the already fantastic instrumental and choir pieces in their “Themes for Orchestra and Choir” series, they created something new. A genre they call “Epic Rock.”

Basically, its a rock band. With 130 people, including a full orchestra and choir. And I absolutely love them, which is uncharacteristic for me to say. After all, they have a singer! The singing on the part of the main singer is decent – not fantastic, but certainly not bad. Were it just him singing with the usual assortment of a few electric guitars and a drum set, I would write the whole thing off. But its not. Instead you get the choir and orchestra adding to the song, which can stand on its own without lyrics (after all, that was their initial version), which I think is characteristic of most great songs.

It sounds epic. When you have a choir in the background adding to the lead singer, it creates an experience unlike anything I have ever heard before. It becomes incredibly more moving, more profound and powerful. What I can’t figure out is why I’ve never heard anything like it before, and why it’s not more popular. My theory is money- its hard to get 130 people together for something like this – an opportunity a production music company had.

In any case, ill stop blabbing and let you decide for yourself. I think their best song is “Europa” – with the choir I get the feeling that I’m hearing not one or two voices, but the whole of europe crying out, all the men and women who died in centuries of war. And that, my friends, is something that most bands cannot match. Take me Away also feels like a desperate prayer from a crusader or something.

Here are some links to their songs on Youtube. Try to ignore the mullet and the kind of un-fitting imagery in some. I have no idea whats going on.

• Europa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc56moy0poA

• Orchard of Mines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvepGKH4hds&feature=related

• Crusaders of the Light http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxwbXC0icU&feature=related

• Take Me Away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6KilO_AiZU

So, the question I pose to you is this: Does anyone know of any other groups that have lyrics with a full orchestra and choir? I suppose thats assuming I have readers!

The Epic Music that everyone hears but is rarely listened to……the world of Trailer Music

This is the first of three installments talking about Trailer, or Production Music (along with Epic Rock).

Firstly, know that I’m not going to talk about anything mainstream, nor will I mention the absolutely incredible Battlestar Galactica season 4 soundtrack that came out which you MUST buy (Damn it! That’s the last, I promise!). I’m going to talk about the rich, powerful musical world that few know exist or care to listen to. My favorite musical world. That i never get to talk about, thus I’ll post it on my blog . Prepare to be bored!

To sum up my musical tastes, I don’t often go for mainstream bands, or bands to begin with. Little of my music has lyrics (at least in english), and while I have pink floyd and Queen on my ipod, they have about 2 songs each that actually get played. But people also seem to assume that when i go on about my dislike of Lyrical music, i’m into classical. I like classical, don’t get me wrong, but I rarely listen to it. It’s too slow, too boring. It will put me to sleep. I like soft and pretty at times, but usually I want something with more pizzaz. I like music that carries with it as much dramatic force as possible – music that truly sounds epic. Strings playing as fast as the instruments will allow. Choirs screaming in the background, percussion slamming, to create…….Epic. A year ago i liked soundtracks (which are still awesome). But no longer are they my favorite type of music.

For years I was blissfully unaware of the world of  Trailer, or Production music (or Epic Rock, which i’ll get into in a bit). After all, as soon as i say that name I see people’s eyes begin to glaze over. At this point you are probably starting to loose interest. After all, its a bit unusual. But stay with me here! It’s a type of music that is nigh-impossible to find, or to get ahold of (the only explanation i can conjure as to why its not more popular, though this is changing). Most of the production music isn’t sold to the public, but instead licensed for use in trailers. It has to be pirated. (I discovered this stuff thanks to a Battlestar Galactica: Razor ad on Scifi, or as its now stupidly called “SyFy”) I’ve spent well over a hundred hours this summer, digging through the internet. Torrent Sites, Message Boards, Web-Based Flash players, all to find as much of this stuff as I can (I’ve accumulated a pretty decent collection). But, before I go on any more, listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0-DokExBgI

If you liked, read on. If not, you might not like this type of music (thats one example of many, but one of my favorites). I tend to try and make doing latin homework as epic as possible.

There are so many fantastic tunes hidden away in production music libraries, and while epic action tunes comprise a great deal of them, there are slow, beautiful pieces as well, in a plethora of different orchestral styles. Its a shame then, that most of this music will go unheard sans those few of us who are nerdy enough to discover and listen the albums.

The thing is, this is a unique type of music that sits beside soundtracks, but the two do not fully mix. A movie might have one big battle scene requiring the sort of epic-intensity used in a trailer, but there is rarely a full album of such power-packed tunes. I like instrumental, orchestral music, and this is some of the fastest, most action-packed, energetic and exhilarating stuff I’ve ever heard an orchestra perform.

The choir is the other part of it that is so exciting. We usually don’t hear choirs except in movies, or when we do think of choirs we think of evil bad guys in movies, or church or something. They can be such an incredibly powerful musical force, when used in tandem with the orchestra. I tend to see it as a sort of Triangular-shaped union in an idea piece of music. Orchestra, Percussion and Choir. Neither is more important then the other (though inevitably this happens in the music). An ideal piece of music would balance each aspect (poor percussion often gets neglected, used only to back up the orchestra. Back up each other!). The human voice can be extremely beautiful, and trailer music shows this beauty to its fullest.

The trailer music genre is picking up steam at a rapid pace. Two Steps From Hell, Epic Score, and Immediate Music have all caved to voracious demand for their music to be released commercially, and Immediate spun-off an epic rock band called Globus who are getting their own post. For those that haven’t, though the fan community isn’t too well organized, there are a lot of people who have devoted a lot of time to help me get what I have. (Thanks noogah and aakaido!)

I can now officially call Operation:EPIC a complete success. My Itunes library stands at 351 Albums. Most of it is of at least decent quality- probably a few below-par albums stuck in there, but most of it is very solid! And I’m still finding more, im sure ill be at 400 once I actually reach Sherman again.

I’m not dead! Though I was in a car wreck…..

Yes, I know it may be hard to believe, but I am in fact not dead! I have neglected this for too long, and I apologize. Life, as it always does, got in the way, largely involving me wrecking my car. I have so many things to write about: Love, My Car Wreck, Music, District 9…..where to begin? I see this blog is suprisingly getting hits. Well, NO MORE SLACKING!

I’ll start with my car wreck. I was braving the morning rush-hour on Interstate 35, on the worst stretch of the road (in Carrollton, between the George Bush Turnpike and I-635). Well, as usual, it was stop and go. It was the last day of my summer internship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Library, the last morning I would have to drive that road. My new phone’s alarm failed to go off, and I was running late. “Damned if im going to be late on my last day, but there’s not much I can do. If i am late, oh well”. I thought as the sound of crashing Taiko Drums reverberated throughout my Car. Next to me, traffic in the HOV lane whizzed past. “Boy, I wish I could be in that lane….makes me wonder how effectively they’re working since everything else is so clogged. I bet half the people don’t even have more then two people, I mean how are police supposed to enforce any sort of law in this gridlock?” My curiosity was aroused, and with it began the chain of events leading to my wreck. I glanced in my mirror at cars that came past in the HOV lane, counting. 40% seemed to have only one person. Traffic had sped up, and i was going faster. For about 3-4 seconds I was engrossed in my mirror. That was all it took. Traffic ahead of me had stopped suddenly, and I was still going forward. I slammed on the breaks as hard as I possibly could. I felt them lock up beneath me, and there was nothing I could do as I sailed into the back of the SUV. Or rather, into the undercarriage.

I found myself in shock. The first thing was the burnt smell as the airbags deployed in front of me, though i never hit them (I had already braced myself for a collision with my legs). More then that, the hood of my car was peeled back in a C shape, with the top of it cracking the glass on my passenger side. “What?!” I wondered. Initially, i got somewhat confused. How cheaply were cars made? I hadn’t hit THAT fast. In 100 years of making cars they were this crappy? A police officer had by luck been about 3 cars behind me, and he pulled into the HOV lane. As i saw him get out, It occured to me that I should be more upset. My car had just been wrecked. But honestly, I wasn’t particularly shaken up about it – nobody was hurt, that was certain. A car is just a thing, a bunch of plastic and metal and rubber. It dosen’t mean much.

The officer came and told me to wait in the car until the ambulance arrived (though i was fine). I quickly gathered my Ipod and other things, and called my dad. “Hello dad!” I said cheerfully “I’ve just had a wonderful car wreck! I think my car’s totaled!” He was on his way. The ambulance arrived, and after assuring them that I was perfectly alright I finally got out of my car. I saw that there were more then 2 cars involved- two more in front of the SUV were banged up but drivable, and they went on their way. I saw why my car had crumpled. My bumper, designed to take an impact, was sitting just fine and dandy, completely untouched. The SUV’s wheels were too big – instead the impact hit my engine, ripping it to shreds. Engines aren’t made to withstand impacts. The driver of the car i hit was very understanding about it and not the least bit mad, which was nice. I was depressed, largely realizing that my stupidity had done more then make my life more difficult- rather I had made several hundred people’s lives more difficult by backing up traffic. This was not a good feeling.

Anyway, my car got towed away, my insurance luckily didn’t go up, and I have a new cavalier. Its silver (a more awesome car color then white), has four doors (because you all want to go on rides with me now im sure), and is a 2004 model. Its otherwise identical (ok, so the steering wheel is designed differently and the stick-thingie that shifts into drive and whatnot has the button ON THE SIDE INSTEAD OF ON TOP!) . I had to spend all the money i made this summer on the new one (which i wouldn’t need to buy had i not had the internship). In any case, after the first 2-3 days of being depressed, it hasn’t been on my mind much at all. I have FAR more important matters to think about – like this coming semester, in which much of the course of my life to come shall be shaped, for better or for worse. That, however, is another tale for another time. I’ll probably post again tonight about music.

Rawr.