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Stainless Steel
Registered: Mar 2003
Posts: 966 |
Last ninja 2 music by Matt Gray
I remember back in the days, people (soedesoft f.ex) ripping on matt for his last ninja 2 tunes saying compared to daglish's LN1 stuff it sucked.
I always felt Matt Gray was underrated, any thoughts on this?
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John64
Registered: Apr 2011
Posts: 2 |
I couldn't agree more on that. I think he is very underrated and belongs in the same league as other greats like Hubbard, Galway and Jeroen Tel.
Personally I prefer Matt's LN2 music over Ben Daglish's LN1 score. As a game soundtrack it must be one of the best to grace the C64. I still enjoy playing LN2 these days and that's partly due to the great music.
It's a pity you cannot find much info about Matt Gray on the net. The last thing I know is that he was credited on the Pet Shop Boys album 'Yes'. |
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CreaMD
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 3057 |
What do you want o hear. Matt Gray fucking rullar. I would say that Daglish was master of rock subtlety, Matt Gray was master of trashy rock sound. Combine them and you get Steve Rowlands ;-)))
p.s.:everything meant as compliment. |
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Rough
Account closed
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1829 |
I'd rather rate Gray as trashy disco sound. |
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Stainless Steel
Registered: Mar 2003
Posts: 966 |
Nah his tunes usually struck me more like a heavy rock / rythmguitar / bass driven kind of thing.
As it must have with a lot of remixers on rko. Judging by the majority of hard rock / heavy metal style covers of last ninja 2 thats floating around.
I seriously dig his vendetta title music btw. And granted, he might not have made the most sophisticated sid tunes ever, but they were usually pretty solid and decent tracks. |
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Zyron
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 2381 |
Hunter's Moon is really good & Tusker #4. It seems he always used more or less the same sounds & style of bassline which makes him sound slightly boring/uninspired/repetative IMO. |
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DRAX
Registered: Oct 2004
Posts: 225 |
Completely agree with Zyron. My favorite tunes from Matt Gray are: Bangkok Night Loader and the music for Last Ninja... A pity he didn't change his sounds a bit more and the basslines eventhough I kinda like his rocky style which is very unique on the c64... He had a good sense for good melodies... |
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McMeatLoaf
Registered: Jan 2005
Posts: 108 |
I like reading these discussions, as you can get a different understanding of a certain musician's style and get deeper into his/her music and what makes it special, instead of just a typical thread "he/she really rocks" where there strengths/weaknesses of the tunes seem to look obvious to anyone but you, seeing how little they are mentioned... ("why mention the obvious?" ;))
(even if it means categorizing and trying to put tunes in certain "genres" where they don't necessarily fit)
I like the sound of LN1 better; Matt Gray's music for LN2 indeed rocks on it own, but in context with the game itself it reminds me more of 80's American ninja flicks. Good melodies and rock drive, but somehow lacks the sophistication from LN1. (not that it detracts from it...)
They ARE athmospheric in their own way though.
Zyron/DRAX: His overall sound strikes me as quite raw/garagey (especially the drums), and not very different among his tunes. I like the drive and rock feel of them though.
BTW, aren't there a lot of his tunes using Dorian mode (e.g. subtunes 1-3 in LN2)? It's quite frequent in his works, and often gives them a very special mood, dark but captivating. Reminds me somewhat of one unnamed musician who has >85% or so of his Future Composer work... in G! :) |
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Sixx
Registered: May 2005
Posts: 229 |
Have to agree with Zyron in this case, but..
I still regard Bangkok Nights Loader as one of the best sids ever made.. |
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NecroPolo
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 231 |
An instant thought on them:
Ben's SIDs = melodic roller coaster
Matt's sids = dark rock riffs
Ben is rather on the versatile/experimental side, Matt is rather on the "if ain't broke, don't fix it" side. Both refined their field to the max I think, besides both had good name in the industry back in time, created classics and inspired /directly or indirectly/ more people to do music than many obvious rock stars. They are legends of the SID, both created an array of classics. Objective comparison is as pointless as a typical "who's best" debate where folks viciously defend/attack their fav heroes - all subjective.
If Matt is/was underrated - maybe there's not as high hype around him as Ben's but in the golden ages he was involved in exciting paid assignments and as I look at the echoes of his music in RKO remixes, I don't think he is underrated at all. As I think about the live footage of Back in Time Live 2008 by 6581 or the memory of seeing people totally going mad when we started to play his Last Ninja2 riffs last year with SIDrip @ AROK & Function-X - he is quite popular actually :) |
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Stainless Steel
Registered: Mar 2003
Posts: 966 |
Yeah true but how many times do you hear his name when you ask people for their influental sid musicians of the past? (He's in my list btw) |
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NecroPolo
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 231 |
Quite many :)
You should have seen folks' reactions @ Function-X. Or you should have seen one of my buddies face when (I guess, after 20 years without a C64) I showed him Slaygon's Driller remix. Matt's riffs became genetically coded :)
As for LN2, probably it's my fav Ninja music collies out of the 3 because of its consistency. So many inspiring, timeless rock riffs and pressing atmospheres. I love all 3 of the Ninjas but there are "album fillers" in the other 2 packs for me.
Still, my least fav 'album filler' from the Ninjas' music collections (I've always regarded them as music collections that had nice games attached) gives more excitement and joy of listening (and include better ideas) than whole years of pop/rock crapola, let's say, after the mid-'90s. |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5094 |
I think that the LN1 music is more rich than LN2. It sets a strikingly different mood for each level. It can be laid back or fast. It has more fantasy in it, different styles, speeds, moods.
LN2 has great tunes too, but overall compared to LN1 its flat and bland. It's always the same hard rock feeling, which gets boring after a while. |
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Joe
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 229 |
Quoting an famous Architect "Why choose when you can have both" ;D
I like very much of what Gray did, especially when it turned out to be repetitious and with the same sounds. That seemed to imply the economy of things and knowledge. |
