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Blockbuster: Excerpts from the Original Soundtrack's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #8 | 4.387 | 4.387 |
| Overall | #28 | 4.115 | 4.115 |
| Quality | #41 | 4.227 | 4.227 |
| Impression | #41 | 4.067 | 4.067 |
| Composition | #63 | 4.040 | 4.040 |
| Correlation to theme | #136 | 3.853 | 3.853 |
Ranked from 75 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Things haven´t been easy since dad left. Mom has not left the couch for what feels like months, excluding visits to the licquor store. Samantha, my sister, has been taking odd jobs to feed make ends meet. Even if the landlord is not kicking in our door, we are still stuck in the worst neighbourhood in town - maybe any town.
We have a VHS player. An old, broken down unit, but it works. I find myself watching dad´s old tapes. Tales of debauchery, adventure. Tales where you can make a better life for yourself. Every day, I pick a tape and forget my worries for just 90 minutes, our kitty rupert curling up next to me. This is my world, far from the troubles of the real one.
One day, it seems Rupert is not coming home from one of his strolls. Sam helps me looking for him, but she has to work. It has been three days since Rupert has come home. I put in the tape for Space Station Eta to forget my worries and, somehow, there he is. Rupert is in in the movie. I get close to the TV screen, feeling the gentle buzz of the tube TV´s electricity. Touching the screen to make sure I am not dreaming, suddenly I feel myself being pulled away...
Blockbuster is a unique take on a metroidvania and millenial nostalgia. Collecting VHS tapes, our hero can travel to different worlds represented by classic movie settings to save his cat Rupert. Items that he finds in one world may be useful in another, or even in the real world. Save Rupert and experience the magic of movies - in 4:3!
The soundtrack takes a needle drop approach. Urban sounding tunes for the real world, inspired by music trends from the nineties such as east coast rap and trip hop,clash with lush orchestral scores representing Cowboys, Outer Space or pirates.
3 of the 6 tracks represent their respective biome. "Desperation at the Space Station" is for a space movie type setting, "Ghosts of the Railroad" represents a western movie type biome and "The Pirate Queen´s Booty" represents a pirate theme. "City Streets" and "Home. Sour Home" represent the real world, and are therefore harsher, weirder and more strongly based on musical trends of the time period. "Home Video Escapism" is a short jingle signifying a travel to the other worlds. It involves sampling from a VHS recorder and heavy delay manipulation. Tracks involve both real instruments, sample libraries, warped samples and softsynths. Their application varies from track to track.
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
Movies have always been a kind of escapism for me. For a while, you can escape your world and enter a better one. The soundtrack is meant to capture this feeling.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://goatthroneaudio.bandcamp.com/album/blockbuster-excerpts-from-the-original-soundtrack
Number of tracks6
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any project
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Comments
City Streets is unbelievable.
Very interesting idea for the theme; I'm loving the sounds of these tracks. My fav is probably Desperation at the Space Station; good job!
Really love your work on this! Great sonic quality. Excellent groove. Lots of creative touches. Unique sound all the way around. Amazing work!
This song is filled with a yearning for adventure in the desert, and it feels like an exploration on another planet. awesome！
I love the variety of tunes, funky bass for the City Streets, Desperation at the Space Station has an organ for the "space feel" (I think this is popular ever since Interstellar). Home Video Escapism: I am old enough to recognize that VHS noise, haha. Ghosts of the Railroad: Other great instrument choice with the banjo (?), nothing creates a better Western vibe. Home, Sour Home: Love that soundscape. No idea how to create something like this (the echos and fade-in/out), would fit with a game like Oxygen Not Included. Pirate Queen's Booty: Instant pirate vibes with the 6/8 jig.
Tunes fit really well with the diverse pictures you want to paint. This shows experience. I think I can learn from you. Stay in touch!
Impressive! I really enjoyed this submission, although i haven't listened to many. very well written little story, and the composition and quality is great!
this is just amazing. Great work you've done here, with all those different tracks really matching the concepts of the movie genres. You really know what you're doing here, and mastering is really good too.
I am willing to accept most praise, but I think my mastering is middling at best. Thank you either way!
idk your mastering is at least way better than mine
maybe, but mastering is such a wide field, I feel I have so much to learn. Thank you for the compliment, though, it means a lot to me.
Love the concept here, definitely one of my favorite takes on the theme of "Inside My World" thus far.
Right off the bat, loving the sound of "City Streets." The bass is funky, the sax is groovy and the whole sound perfectly encompasses the vibe you described in your game synopsis.
"Desperation at the Space Station" has some very cool sounds; the organ/guitar combo at the beginning is powerful, and I love the wobbly tremolo on the guitar towards the end. This track does a good job of creating an atmosphere without being just ambient background music. My only complaint is that the kick drum feels very heavy on the left/right in the sub-bass region.
Good little story build-up track with "Home Video Escapism." All of your sound design and instrument choices up to this point in the album have been excellent - you have created a unique blend of sounds that fit very well into that pseudo-retro sort of vibe.
"Ghosts of the Railroad" immediately gives me the image of a chain gang (definitely some overlap between "chain gang" and "cowboy western" in the collective unconscious of acoustic guitar sounds, imo) Regardless, really cool track here, love the chanting type vocals in the background and the crunchiness of the percussion.
"Home Sweet Home" does a great job of staying true to the time period as you intended, the tone of the bass, drums and brass all feel very indicative of the time period. And whatever the hell is going on with that hip-hop vinyl record sound... I don't even know how to describe it, but it's such a cool vibe. Great work here.
"The Pirate Queen's Booty" immediately paints a picture of adventure aboard a pirate ship. The orchestration is very well done here!The bass drums here feel a bit too loud in the song compared to the rest of the track, I feel like there's a few tiny moments where the rest of the song is getting drowned from the drums hitting the compressor on your master bus? I could be imagining it, or if not then the issue is relatively minor.
Overall, this was a really fun listen! Great instrument choices, interesting sound design, solid composition and a wide array of music that still sounds pretty cohesive as an album and masterfully represents the game that you've described. Excellent work, definitely one of the best that I've listened to thus far.
Thank you for your long and detailed reply. I am glad you like it and appreciate some of the more targeted feedback.
A chain gang was indeed on my mind when I wrote it. 'Oh Brother where Art Thou's imagery has been burnt into my mind at this point and I maybe dug even more into that well that straight up western just as you suggested.
I try to find ways to emulate the production techniques of what I am referencing, so I tried to have a modern take on the boom bap tracks. I sampled old rare groove songs, splitting the individual voices with an app and then treating them with low pass and other effects. I cut them up and treated them in many ways so the original sound is no longer present. The warbly record scratch effect is an old group jazz impro, that I cut up and treated with a tape delay, automating the delay time that I had set to a note value. This led to them jumping between the reverb values in a jerky manner almost like manipulating a vinyl record. Just as the rap producers, you sometimes have to use gear in a way that isn't intended.
I am certain that the Pirate track hits the master bus a little hard at times. The loud low strings are intentional, but I might have toned it down if I had some more time - the finer nuances can get lost in such a tight timeframe, but I also was kind of numb to the track as it ate a lot of my time for the jam, while others were written in a more spontaneous manner.
Also thank you for noticing the sound design in the first couple tracks, particularly the short interlude. That one was done similarly quickly, but I just enjoy delay effects so much, it was a joy to experiment.
Loved the concept! City Streets was my favorite track
really good one, fits your theme really well but is very unique too. very well mixed as well.
This is great, The Track, 'Home. Sour Home,' Reminds me of a more relaxed version of the level clear track of hotline Miami.
I love that game and the warbly, detuned guitars were definetely on my mind when I made it.
You absolutely cooked with this one! I love the overall sound you went for here - it's very unique and distinct fr.
Great stuff, you paint a very vivid world with your music :)
im LOVING the variation between each track. the first track, "City Streets," is definitely my favorite, bc i'm a SUCKER for some sax and i love the funk feel you used to introduce your OST!!! you captured the feel of being "absorbed" into "worlds" of different kinds through the VHS. your story clearly has a lot of depth and i can tell that just by listening to your OST.
this was by far one of my favorite submissions to listen to!! i'd love to see your work implemented into a game of some sort, thanks so much for sharing!!!
I can totally imagine a grim arcadey world, somewhat like ps2 graphics kinda. This could be background to one of those psychological horror games. Really solid entry !
This is a very cool take on the theme and it lends itself so well to a video game OST.
Fantastic job!
Thank you Jofes. I see you rating in the lesser rated submissions a lot, and I wanted to thank you for putting in the work. Mine is popular enough, but I know how it feels to shout into the void. And beginners especially need feedback.
Absolutely phenomenal. I'm torn between "Home. Sour Home" and "Desperation..." for best track. Love the variety!
woww this is such a cool concept. i love seeing that someone else incorporated VHS as a way of shifting worlds in their game lore :D
i am in love with the first half of desperation at the space station. i am a huge sucker for organ, and the sound of that droning organ with the guitar bends is so amazing, i almost wish the track stayed in that state for longer!! city streets is also such a jam. great job on building such cohesive worlds!!
Thanks Scarlet! Nice to see someone else loves some crunchy 4:3 action. I will make sure to listen and rate to your OST later today.
Its funny you say that, as that track seems to be the most divisive one. I decided to set up a long, stagnant build with the droning note at the top, similar to how Zimmer has done it on the interstellar soundtrack, so when the track finally settles into a chord progression and clear melodic structure, it feels like a huge event. Many people disliked the stagnancy and the resulting dissonances from the drone (even though drones kinda always do that, but can´t argue taste) and liked the second half more. Interesting that its the first half you dig.
Funfact: I actually used the tuning pegs for the guitar bends. I had a tuning plugin set up on the DAW, then i would plug the string with my right hand while detuning with the left. That way I could get ultra smooth bends that feel just a little warbly. I like to think going the extra mile like this can add some additional character to a performance and as long as I don´t need to do it live, I can do whatever weird thing I like.
Love the add of the vinyle crisp in the mastering of the first track, it develop a great mood! Everything is so diverse and rich, really liked it!
This was really unique! Every track has it's own flavor that makes me want to just jump back into listening to it xD ESPECIALLY City Streets, absolutely makes me want to do some breakdancing in the middle of an intersection. Great work :D
I am glad you feel that way but please don´t get run over listening to my stuff XD