This one's a chillax groovy tune I wrote!  I went for a spacey feel undoubtedly influenced by the hundreds of hours I poured into the Mass Effect series last year.  Melodically, this piece obviously draws heavily from my biggest influence, Nobuo Uematsu.  I aimed to come up with sentimental, memorable tunes that could perhaps serve as themes I could reference in other pieces of the soundtrack, just like how Uematsu-sensei would do it.  Rhythmically, I must have been going through a bit of a Shad K/Lupe Fiasco buzz :) .  I'm particularly happy with the intro theme, the intertwining string melodies, the descending electronic pattern and the choice of introducing the lower harmony below it.  As a hugely positive shift from the rest of the music I had written for Spectrum, Curious Again came as a refreshing change :).  Enjoy!

Curious Again

I decided to go for a dark/ominous prog rock tune that draws from the rhythmic feel of bands like Tool, Karnivool and Toe while blending in the melodic sensibilities of Yasunori Mitsuda and the general vibe you get from Diablo 2's act 1.  I went through several iterations of this track as the prog rock style drumming is very easy to overdo.  Thanks to some huge help from my brother Geoff Ong, I managed to tweak the drums to something pretty slick and not too overbearing.  I'm particularly proud of the shaker-panning, reversed-guitar melody and the String buildup towards the end.  Enjoy!

Dilation

I wanted to make a track with a menacing, terrifying feel to it.  I tried going for Zimmer-esque electronic pulses, topped with sweeping string melodies that suck you into a suspenseful feeling.  I threw in some guitar tremolo picking in the background, in an attempt to create a Mandolin-like sound, reminiscent of some of the pieces from the Diablo 2 soundtrack.  Over all, I'd say this sounds like something pulled right out of some intense dungeon music in an old school RPG.

Erupt

This one's a boss theme which combines the groove of Nu Metal/Alternative bands, carried by electronic bass rhythms with a symphonic kick.  I'm particularly happy with the bouncy, 'outside' sounding electronic tune at the 0:44 mark and the climax towards the end.

Inches Away

I wanted to create a theme that was more passive than my other work for one of the earlier levels of Spectrum.  Something that wasn't too intense yet still drew you into an ominous feeling.  This is what I came up with!  Drawing from grooves I picked up from some of A.R. Rahman's more Western sounding tracks and the melodic feel of some of Nobuo Uematsu's town themes, I came up with a tune that's split between an optimistic, curious vibe and a darker, hesitant vibe.  I had been playing around a lot with some dynamic panning and volume at the time and decided I'd apply it to the shakers in the background to add in a bit of texture to the rather repetitive rhythms.  Enjoy!

One Step at a Time

I'm a huge Toe fan.  Their soundscape is filled with beautiful rich, poly-rhythmic and just plain touching melodies.  I had to give their style a try, and here's my attempt!  I went for an unconventional use of clean-guitar arpeggios, each following an odd set of time signatures that layer on top of the 4/4 drum groove.  I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get to flesh out some parts to make them sound less passive.  Nonetheless, I'm pretty proud of the 'chorus' violin melody and the loosely tied together end.

A World Awake

The final piece I needed to write for the game, Spectrum was a dark epic that would make the final-level music before the final boss.  In the spirit of most game sound tracks, I wanted to go for a piece that tied in melodies and motifs from tracks I had previously written.  I wanted to bring back the backwards guitar melody from Dilation or one of the strong positive sounding melodies from Curious Again.  However as it turned out, I ended up writing a tune completely from scratch, only drawing inspiration from the groove of Dilation and the electronic poly-rhythms from various tracks from the game.  The slow, compelling buildup, fun use of poly-rhythms and the melodic climax featuring intertwining double-violin tunes made this one of the most fun pieces to write in the game and without a doubt one of my favourites.

Not Without the Hurt

I took some leave from work to have a nice long song writing weekend and the silence and solitude seemed to do wonders for my song writing.  I consider this to be one of my most inspired pieces.  My objective for this piece was to come up with something terrifying, like something out of the Silent Hill soundtrack, and I was bent on making use of a 'heartbeat' sounding rhythm to represent the player's anxiety.  I tried scouring the internet for an actual heartbeat noise but settled for some bassy, reverby drums.  I'm particularly proud of the buildup combining radio-static with a crunchy synth bass tune, as well as the over all foreboding aura of this piece.

Please

Following the game, Spectrum's general ominous theme, I went for a mega-dark vibe with this one.  This piece combines good ol Zimmer Trombone blasts and electronic bass pulses, sitting on top of a We will rock you/ Kuja's theme drum vibe (really wanted to record a whole lot of foot stomping and claps :( ) and drizzled with guitar sweep patterns turned String-melodies.  I'm particularly proud of the repeating distorted electronic tune, the sweeping arpeggios I wrote by noodling on my guitar and an organic rhythmic quality I'll let you figure out for yourself :).  Here's a hint: I was listening to the new Justin Timberlake album and drawing influence from Timbaland's production fingerprints.

I Don't Know

First cut of a new track of mine!  Tried going for an arabic/indian classical buzz.

A Desperate Advance

Video Game Music composer and Progressive Rock/Metal guitarist!  Enjoy the tunes, and hit me up if you're looking for a game soundtrack! :)

Shrikkanth Sreedharan