Music References & Inspirations

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

  After watching Dev Stream 28 with the sound team I was motivated to share some musical stylings that would make my heart explode if I heard them in Warframe. To be clear, music is Warframe is great, and the team is really knocking it out of the park. That is why I think/hope that these following examples will resonate with them.

 

  To be clear these tracks have examples of elements and styles that I would consider worthing of implementing into the compositions in Warframe, not that they should be used, or copied. Naturally, vocals aren't used for sound track/background ambient music 99% of the time, so ignore them if I can't find an instrumental mix. And this is all my opinion. And I have chosen to stay away from popular music and artist, for the most part. Personal choice.

 

  Everyone should feel to contribute songs that they feel have elements that mechanically add to the ambience, mood, emotion, and/or design of the game.

 

Pigface – Tiako

  

  Because, Tiako drums of course. Pigface made a very cool arrangement with this piece. The funky bass maybe a little out of place, and the singing obviously isn't germain, but the rest of the composition is very cool, especially around the 3:00 mark.

 

Techno Animal – Various Tracks (Kevin Michaels and Justin K. Broadrick are pure genius) 

 

1. Dead Man's Curse (version)

 

  Probably one of the most influential songs, on me, that I have heard ever. Still one of my top 10 favorite songs. Definitely slap on a good pair of headphones and prepare to head bob. Sorry, if the clip is over compressed. I own it, and love it.

 

2. Cruise Mode 101 (sorry, can't find an instrumental version) {Language Warning}

 

 Heavy bombast, crunchy and dirty, an absolute techno animal. Loud, caustic, and mean, are other descriptors that come to mind.

 

3. Robosapian

 

  Evokative, mesmerizing, and spooky, Robosapian is a journey through the eyes of an imagined techno animal. What I imagine the world looks and feels like to the Hyena pack, if you can imagine how sound creates worlds.

 

Honorable mention: (Practically anything Techno Animal, but here are some more highlights)

Hypertension –

Blood Money – 

Demonoid – 

FreeFall – 

Intercranial – 

Toxcicity – 

Bionic Beatbox – 

Cyborg Dread invokes the Phantom Priest – 

Narco Agent vs. Medicine Man vs. Toshio Matsumoto's experimental filmworks – 

 

  And so much, much, more. Techno Animal really is a wealth spring of imaginative and powerful compositions and musical arrangements, severely underrated, in my opinion. Justin K. Broadrick and Kevin Michaels will appear again on this list together or separate in other music projects, often.

 

Scorn – Various Tracks

  Scorn, predominantly Mick Harris, but originally was a collaboration between him, Nic Bullin and Justin K. Broadrick. All members of Napalm Death. If your familiar with early Napalm Death, then the work of Scorn may come as a surprise.

 

1. Silver Rain Fell

 

  Haunting and atmospheric, Silver Rain Fell's tones and orchestration lull the mind in phantasmagoric places.

 

2. Stripped Black Hinge

 

  Terror inducing hammer blows, leave your shattered world swept in the ebbs and flows of electronic reverberations and distorted jungles of dissolution.

 

3. On Ice

 

  Here we have some power guitar, that I don't think has made its way into Warframe yet, but I think could be done to good effect. On Ice, is again a dream like trip into disturbing territory. Melody, and rhythm evoke feeling of wonder and anxiousness, all good things when trying to convey the cosmic infinitesimal reality of outer space. Imagine the incredible vista the Tenno witness from their observation decks and the feeling that come from baring witness to nature on scales we can only dream of. These songs take me there.

 

Honorable Mention:

LT 94 – 

Glugged – 

Dreamspace – 

 

 

  And again, so much more. A search through the vast catalogue of Scorn is a worthy journey.

 

Godflesh – Various Tracks

Godflesh was a seminal influence on me during my youth. It is one of the greatest cited, lesser known industrial, heavy metal, sludge, grind, you name it bands their ever was. No surprise that Justin K. Broadrick is at the helm here again.

 

1. Slavestate

 

  1991, so the song may feel like its showing its age some, but to me it is a powerful combining of electronic and metal music. Such a electric energy flowing through this song. This is Tenno resistance personified.

 

2. Pure

 

  Pure is the one track that resonates the most for me out of all the Godflesh soundtrack. A burning condemnation of hypocrisy and tyranny. This is pure fuel for burning the tainted regimes of the Corpus and the Grineer from the solar system. (Ya ya, the Tenno may be the bad guys, blah, blah, blah. After the mind wipe the Tenno turned a corner, and they fight either directly or indirectly for the human colonist against the scourge of the three antagonist factions in the game, end of story.)

 

3. Witchhunt (Tyrant Remix) {Language Warning}

 

  I picked this one because it too catches the aggression I feel that, in this case, the Grineer and Corpus feel toward the Tenno. They are innumerable forces, legion to crash and swarm over their adversary. They are filled with a blind hatred of zealotry and righteous indignation that the minuscule , by comparison Tenno, would blasphemy by opposing their manifest destiny to rule the solar system. Witchhunt is a composition filled with grinding aggression and power.

 

Honorable Mention

Hunter – 

Mothra – 

Monotremata – 

Spite – 

 

  People seem to think that hip hop and metal are anachronistic or antithesis of each other. They couldn't be more wrong. Both forms of musical expression come from the same place and spirit. The unification and resistant of subjugation in urban society. The dehumanizing of people, by way of industry or racism, or other means. They both repurpose technology to reinvent and recode existing music to make it their own. It is lazy, ignorant and even racist to think that they are not similar. Godflesh was one of the first groups to merge the to styles, and some of it I enjoy greatly. Admittedly, JKB isn't afraid to experiment, and not all those experiments are as palatable, so to each their own.

 

Discodeine – Various Tracks

  Disodeine changes gears some, with a french electronic group. I find them refreshing and nostalgic at the same time, with the disco themes played nicely with the layered and atmospheric arrangements. 

1. Antiphonie

 

  Antiphonie, is perhaps a little more lighthearted than the average musical composition in a game like Warframe would suggest, but romantic sci-fi, space opera, and the cosmo are elating and inspiring concepts as much as they can be dwarfing and terrifying.

 

2. Joystick

 

  Joystick is the kind of music I can imagine being played in the a club in some neutral part of the solar system where human colonist, Grineer, and Corpus come together to get their collective groove on.

 

3. {&*$$}-Compatible

 

  Man, the best Discodeine songs are hard to find on Youtube. So, here is this pitch up version of the song. What's to say, this song is just amazing. 

 

Honorable Mention:

Ring Mutilation

Tom Select

Grace

Aydin – 

 

  Now I should point out that the obviously dance and club athletic of these songs are not the point. Only the elements that make the composition, the arrangements the various sounds and sample and how some are arranged to evoke certain moods and feelings are what I am showcasing here.

 

Curse of the Golden Vampire

COTGV is a side project of JKB and Kevin Michaels, of Techno Animal. It is their foray into the Digital Hardcore genre on the Digital Hardcore Records Label, made famous by Alec Empire, Atari Teenage Riot, Ec8or, etc.

 

1. Iron Ghetto Man Crusher

  

  I picked this song because Vey Hek's message to the Tenno during the Tethra's Doom event made me think of the total madness and rage that fills this beastly humanoid. I prefer the slower portions, but they do compliment each other.

 

2. Caucasian Death Mask

 

  Sorry, I can't find a higher quality version, but this track reminds me of the animal in Techno Animal, and has influences from JKB and Kevin's work on the projects Ice, and God. The sax, and bass on this one work to generate a dissonance that is disturbing and unnerving. Also this song, along with some others where direct collaboration with Alec Empire.

 

3. Low Tech Predator

 

  A moody and dark ambient track, great inspirations for Orikin Derelicts and the new Infested tiles.

 

Honorable Mention:

Ultrasonic Meltdown – 

Anti-Matter – 

 

  Curse of the Golden Vampire definitely evokes a sense of the monster outside. The key use of dissonance unnerves and set the mind into defense mode. These are the sounds of Infested, their home, and maybe mind.

 

Grey Machine

 When Justin K. Broadrick started his project Jesu and some pure ambient stuff, some people accused him of having gone soft. So, JKB teamed up with a member of the band Isis, and they made was is possibly on the hardest grind/sludge metal albums ever. Here is the sound of the apocalypse, Ragnarök, and mushroom clouds in the sky. The very horror that the Tenno rise up and enter the breach to prevent from spilling out and wiping out life from the solar system.

 

1. Vultures Descend

 

 

  Drone Sirens sound the approaching of Armageddon. This song burns with the fire of 50,000 apocalypses, and I can only imagine how powerful and dreadful it would have felt that, if, during Tethras Doom while Tenno fought desperately to remove the Fromorian power cores from the shipyards, right when the pass the threshold of the hanger door to the out side they can see the detonated power cores from failed Tenno assaults in the skyline. A brutally horrific reminder of the consequences of failure and tole on the Tenno ranks. This is the soundtrack to that devastating epiphany. 

 

2. Sweatshop

 

  This track speaks to the sound of the utter oppression I sense from the brutal régimes of the Corpus and Grineer. Their massive robotic and inhuman factories, strength maximizing, dehumanizing, exploiters, destroyers. This is the sound of a great machine that has spread over the solar system like a disease.

 

 

Honorable Mention:

Wolf At the Door – 

 

The Bug

 Kevin Michaels project in the expansive world of Dub. Hard street nihilism permeates most of these tracks, but they also carry Kevin Michaels signature haunting and terrifying sound.

 

1. Kill Them/Louder {Language Warning}

 

  This is actually a mash up of two bug tracks. Heavy dub beat, light and spry melodic tones, and a cacophony of terror.

 

2. Skeng

 

  So, whats so Warframe about this you might ask. Again, I remind everyone that this about the elements in the tracks, or the style or mood the arrangements make that could be implemented in Warframe. This track embodies the dirty work of the ninja assassins that the Tenno are, cleaning up the solar systems mess.

 

3. Catch a Fire

 

  A dense dub track with haunting attributes and ghostly apprehension. Makes me think of the incredible task it must be to calm the mind of a Tenno after battle, while meditating in the garden of the Dojo.

 

Distance – Various Tracks

  I like Distance, because it isn't your typical pop dub step music. It's sinister and scary.

 

1. Skeleton Grin

  

  It's that guitar dub step reverberation that gets me. Another great sound that would just send chills down my spine. Imagine this heralding a boss or invader.

 

2. Konkrete

 

 

Honorable Mention:

Traffic – 

V – 

Menace – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU7IAGq_GDE

 

Substep Infrabass – Voices from God

More wub wub's. 

 

 

Mobthrow – Deathstep ( WARNING: NOT WORK SAFE, unless your cool like DE)

Epic composition, and incredible video bonus.

 

JK Flesh – Various Tracks

One of Justin K. Broadricks latest projects.It is very much the marriage of many of this side project in one.

 

1. Obedient Automation

 

  Songs like this are the potent with their gripping build up and rising crescendos. There is a lot to discuss in a track like this that I am not qualified to extrapolate, would that I could, but I can imagine this being the most disturbing and anticipating effect as a group of Tenno speed through a level approaching a unknown boss behind a final threshold.

 

2. Rust on Metal (Cloaks - JK Flesh Remix)

 

  This has reached near the top of my top ten favorite songs. So much primal and vital energy.

 

3. cX31ø (Violetshaped - JK Flesh Remix)

 

Honorable Mention: The entire JK Flesh project catalogue. No, I am serious. 

 

  I think I will update this with more inspirations along the way. I hope that these suggestion are helpful and inspire the creative minds at DE like it inspires me. Thank you.

 

  Again I am only highlighting these tracks as possible influences, references, and stylistic inspirations, not hard coded definitions as to what Warframe should sound like. If you don't like a track, or any of them, that is cool, but please try to be constructive with criticism and not over stuff the thread with useless flame hate. Thank you, again.

Edited May 11, 2014 by (PS4)MoRockaPDX

[koolen]

not really my kind of music, but it's a very good initiative

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

not really my kind of music, but it's a very good initiative

 

  That's cool. It's not meant to be your preferred music, nor am I suggesting entire pieces of music like this be incorporated into Warframe. I am suggesting that there are elements that evoke feelings and mood that can add to the musical ambiance and key segments of Warframe. I am also not suggesting that this is, or should be the soundtrack to Warframe, or that everybody should like the songs themselves. That isn't the point. It is to imagine taking the most interesting parts and applying them as tools to enhance the game sound effect wise.

 

  Also, between the time I posted this thread and you replied you couldn't have possibly listened to more than 60 second of any one track on this list. 

 

  Maybe this is my fault. I should go into more precise detail as to what specifically in each track I think would contribute to Warframe. When I get time I will try to dissect the tracks and distill them down to their essential relevant components.

Edited May 14, 2014 by (PS4)MoRockaPDX

[RadiantProxy]

Oh, I like that initiative!

 

The new enemy design contest and the latest interview with the sound team made me wonder what would the appropriate soundtrack for the infested be. Something that doesn't use easily recognizable instruments, something eerie, dysfunctional and uncomfortable. So, I ventured into the depths of YouTube and tried to listen to a lot of soundtracks (most of them made me sleepy).

 

But then... I found it. Daym, I had chills down my spine while sitting in a sunlit room (I like creepy stuff, tbh, but this soundtrack... I couldn't listen to the end and let it be at the 36th minute).

Well, this soundtrack is indeed very uncomfortable (maybe because I was reading the Wikipedia article that was linked in the video's description?). There are some spoken words, which totally don't fit Warframe, but there is also some creepy guttural singing, which fits very well with the core theme of the game.

 

Is it really scary or just annoying? I seem to be too impressed by it to be able to stay objective. Damn those infrasounds!

It's a long soundtrack, unfortunately, a little over one hour long =(

 

The parts that would be interesting:

12:56 - 'guttural singing in an abandoned spaceship'

28:26 - 'Infested closing in/scratching the surfaces of the ship'

35:50 - Okay this guttural sound made me abandon the ship.

 

 

EDIT: Adding the direct link to the video, in case Firefox refuses to show it in the forums http://youtu.be/Y7Ux7gp1mYs

Edited May 15, 2014 by Polymelodic

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

Oh, I like that initiative!

 

The new enemy design contest and the latest interview with the sound team made me wonder what would the appropriate soundtrack for the infested be. Something that doesn't use easily recognizable instruments, something eerie, dysfunctional and uncomfortable. So, I ventured into the depths of YouTube and tried to listen to a lot of soundtracks (most of them made me sleepy).

 

But then... I found it. Daym, I had chills down my spine while sitting in a sunlit room (I like creepy stuff, tbh, but this soundtrack... I couldn't listen to the end and let it be at the 36th minute).

Well, this soundtrack is indeed very uncomfortable (maybe because I was reading the Wikipedia article that was linked in the video's description?). There are some spoken words, which totally don't fit Warframe, but there is also some creepy guttural singing, which fits very well with the core theme of the game.

 

Is it really scary or just annoying? I seem to be too impressed by it to be able to stay objective. Damn those infrasounds!

It's a long soundtrack, unfortunately, a little over one hour long =(

 

The parts that would be interesting:

12:56 - 'guttural singing in an abandoned spaceship'

28:26 - 'Infested closing in/scratching the surfaces of the ship'

35:50 - Okay this guttural sound made me abandon the ship.

 

 

EDIT: Adding the direct link to the video, in case Firefox refuses to show it in the forums http://youtu.be/Y7Ux7gp1mYs

 

  Yeah, I can dig up some good ambient tracks right along these lines. You can really find a lot of these atmospheric moments that the minds just automatically associates with Warframe.

[MejasX]

I have only a short time to reply for the moment, but i shall say this quickly and succinctly. That soundtrack, the one that made you "abandon ship" sounds very much like a leaper or one of the suicide units. At least, that's how i picture the scene along with that sound. It fits decently well with the setting and the theme of the infested. You did well to find this. 

 

However, i don't believe that the Warframe Devs will just throw this into the horror mix that is the infested. We need to gather a group of like-minded people. Once again, good find and a great fit. See if you can find anymore?