When you haven’t updated your blog in over a month.
Heh heh heh…
Oh, the internet
Over 20% of my visits comes from searches of "hobbes".... lol.
Electro-swing: A writing of my discovery and evolution of the awesome genre
When I was a kid, I remember seeing the movie Stewart Little. At the time, I loved that movie a lot. It was fun, entertaining, and had talking animals. What kid doesn’t like talking animals? Anyways, I distinctly remember always dancing to one song in the movie. This song was so epic, I had never heard anything so catchy, so beatalicious, so…. groovy. This song was Mambo No. 5.
If you’ve never heard the song before, you need get out under that rock of yours and listen to some epic music. Mambo No. 5 rocks. If you listen to the music, you’ll notice that the song is mostly electronic, but there are a decent amount of samples of trumpets, strings, and other classical instruments. If you think about it, this was my first introduction to the edge of electroswing. Roughly, of course. I wouldn’t call Lou Bega’s work anything like electroswing, but the sampling of those types of instruments and the overlay of electronically programmed beats sounds awesome. However, it wasn’t until about 3 or 4 years ago that I actually identified that song from the movie.
Over those 3 or 4 years, I’ve been occasionally listening to Mambo No. 5 as I’ve been exploring so many other genres, such as classic rock, indie, alternative, drum n bass, reggae, jazz, post-rock, experimental, electronic, trip-hop, rap/hip-hop, etc. Yet I never thought of exploring more background to sampling swing/big band music to hip-hop and house until I found someone by the name of RJD2.
I found RJD2 after finding trip-hop, and I don’t know what it is, but I love a damn good beat, and RJD2 knows exactly what I was looking for. My crave was satisfied!
Or so I thought.
After listening to Ghostwriter a considerable amount of times, I went back to some other genres to explore, and found a lot of atmospheric electronic, new indie rock, and some more post-rock. But it wasn’t until a friend of mine told me that electro-swing, what some people classify Ghostwriter as, actually existed. I was astounded. I wanted to listen to more, find more, discover, explore.
And I did.
First video/song I found was of Parov Stelar’s Catgroove, seen above, and LOVED IT. This new, yet nostalgic genre is so enthralling for me. It’s so energetic, yet classy. It’s my kind of dancing music.
Surprisingly, this epic genre is extremely small. Upon searching electro-swing, I barely find any results for it. Even last.fm has a minimal page for yet.
So where did this mysterious genre come from? According to Wikipedia, after some nu-jazz and lounge artists starting borrowing swing music elements, Parov Stelar (you genius, you) combined electronic, swing, and nu-jazz, and others followed, such as G-Swing and Caravan Palace.
As electro-swing is what I would call a branch off of nu-jazz, I can believe this genre may be the next best thing very soon, is more artists become in this movement. Sadly, electro-swing is mainly in Europe though, so no US tours anytime soon 
I’m loving this music so far, and I hope you do too. If you’d like to suggest more electro-swing for me or any other readers to listen to, or even suggest another genre for me to listen to and write about, feel free! I love contribution and discussion on my blog posts. 
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series and Metro 2033
A comparison between two atmospheric games which I have played recently.
Metro 2033's beautiful graphics
Any respectable PC gamer has at least heard of Metro 2033: one the most immersible game ever created. It’s graphics are simply godly (they’re up there with Crysis), the scenery and map design is just fantastic, and the gameplay is super.
Graphics in Metro 2033 are so crazy good, my GTX 260 has a difficult time running on highest settings (dat GPU temp). Over the time that I’ve played DirectX 9 or lower games all my life, never have I experienced such a wonderful lighting system. It is seriously fucking amazing.
This video above is the prologue intro of Metro 2033. From a watcher’s standpoint of a YouTube video, I was unpleasantly surprised by the graphics in the video compared to the rendering on my computer. The YT video felt much less exciting and awe-inspiring than the actual game. The actual game graphics, when played on your own computer, blow you away. If your internet speed is sweet, and you have some time, I recommend trying out the demo.
The artistic design of the game was quite beautiful. The amount of detail in all the textures of the people, the walls, the floor, and the different objects was jaw-dropping. They nailed the post-apocalyptic theme just right.
I can't get enough of this epic lighting system.
From many screenshots you may or may not have been, you may have noticed that there’s no HUD. Before I purchased the game, while scrolling through screenshots, I was a bit frustrated because I thought these screenshots weren’t in-game, but rather pre-rendered videos. Only until I started playing did I find out that the game was actually that way. Seriously, this game rocks my socks. I just wish I had more time to actually play and complete the game. If, sometime in the future, I may be able to stream me playing a bit of the game, but depending on if my comp can handle it and my available time.
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So now, you know the basis of how epic Metro 2033 is. But there’s another game I’d like to show you; or rather, a game series.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R., or STALKER (so I don’t get pissy about having to type all those periods) series, are 3 games (so far), set in a modern open world Ukraine/Russian environment, however, the post-apocalyptic themes are less exaggerated.
Majority of the game is grassy, cloudy weather conditions.
Contrary to what you might be thinking, no, this game is not about waiting for little boys to come out of the bathroom and rape them, rather, you are the little boy, and things come to rape you. Let me show you a few examples of how the internet thinks of the first installment of the STALKER series:
Let me give you a fair warning by stating that this game is difficult. I played on the second difficulty setting, and there were many points along the way where I became very frustrated. - CPU Gamer.com
“S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” is a very tough game to beat, even if you’re playing on lower difficulty levels. – gamepressure.com
Because of the realism, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl is a very difficult game to play. Death comes very quickly when you are not careful. It is already difficult enough with bleeding to death when you do not have bandages. – Positive Dynamic
Ok, ok, I’m doing good so far… Oh man, some soldiers. What should I do? Uhhh…. I’ll try sneaking from the s– oh crap, one sees me– AGH! Stop shooting me! Oh shit, my health is low, heal heal heal– RADIATION? NOW!? FFFUUU
“You have died”
- Myself, playing the game
The game, in summary, is really entertaining and atmospheric. The graphics are tolerable, sfx/music fine, the only disappointing thing about Shadow of Chernobyl (the first STALKER game) is the gameplay.
Call of Pripyat's awesome clouds and scenery
The entire concept of the game is pretty awesome: you run around in an open world, explore, steal, kill, and fend for yourself in this god-forsaken land. It’s sounds like something you’d love to play, right? Sadly, SoC is a disappointment for me. The idea is fantastic, but if only they actually built a solid game, I would have loved it. I can only like it. It’s the large number of the little problems that bother me: no autosaves, lots of bugs, no native resolution for my screen, etc. Plus, many STALKER players on the internet agree that the first game is much more enjoyable modded. I did download some graphics, autosave, and other miscellaneous mods, and I know I should be playing it now, but I’ve been too busy playing Metro 2033.. heh heh. Once I finish the game, I intend to purchase Call of Pripyat, the most recent installment to the series, and has been said to be as proficient in the atmosphere as the first, but without all the bugs.
Amazing magnet & plastic ball art
Don’t question, ask, or contemplate watching.
