I’ve simply watched an experimental dance music gig created by an artist taking part in Half-Life. Graham Dunning has changed each single sound in Valve’s shooter with samples he says come “from 90s rave tracks and sample CDs”, giving Gordon Freeman drums for ft, making sentry turrets loop vocal samples, turning ambient sounds into pounding loops, blasting drum breaks out weapons, and all that. So he creates improvised music simply by taking part in the game. He carried out for 2 hours immediately on Twitch and it’s: so good. Come see immediately’s present!
Graham Dunning has carried out songs and dwell performances for just a few years now, and he’s about to launch a complete album of it. Which I suppose is why he’s treating us to Twitch streams like this, immediately:
That was cracking, that. Often he simply performed Half-Life, letting the music be no matter got here out when he performed. Other occasions, he consciously carried out. My favorite half was when he paused to stare at a cranium, flicking his flashlight on and off to play vocal samples that grew to become stuttering, nearly gasping, whereas distant environmental beats quietly ticked on a gentle fee. Another triumph for environmental storytelling’s love of skulls. You can see that bit at about 1:36:20 within the video.
There’s just a few parts to Dunning’s efficiency. Ambient sounds loop continually, making the Black Mesa complicated capabilities a large sequencer you progress by means of. Scripted sequences turn out to be intense little composed elements too. Dynamic parts are available in by means of what Gordon and all the opposite characters rise up to. The setting offers regular beats, totally different parts dropping out and in as he strikes round. Footsteps thump and crash drums. NPCs generate their very own little dynamic performances. Fights carry temporary intense moments. The manner Half-Life aggressively distorts sounds in sure areas works properly too.
I wasn’t into rave within the 90s however these sounds have been in all places, and I really like listening to them rearranged into this new type. And even I recognise bits just like the “let me feel your warm embrace” off Baby D’s Let Me Be Your Fantasy, which I consider right here replaces the looping ‘active’ beep of sentry turrets.
All that is main as much as the launch of his album Panopticon, which is out on Bandcamp this Saturday. Dunning has said he hadn’t deliberate to launch his Half-Life soundpack “but may look into it.”
He’s put just a few Panopticon samples up, together with this pleasantly easy track constructed from firing a gun turret in a hall. That’s simply the background sounds, the gun, and totally different devices coming in relying on the supplies the bullets hit.
So easy. So magic.
You can learn extra about Dunning and his different work on his website.
I can’t let this finish with out mentioning Devil Daggers, the FPS which comes out the field sounding like an unearthly gig of grinding enamel, roars, and warbling. Proper beautiful, that. And sizzling tip: should you view a replay slowed manner, manner, manner down you’ve acquired a number of hours of rumbling ambient music. Love that Devil Daggers.
Ta to my pal Pat Ashe for stating this stream.
