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[Earthpainting]

I don't know enough about music to understand half of what is being said in this thread, but I've had some exposure to "unorthodox" music.

I once played an indie RPG called OFF which had some strange ideas of what game music was like. For intsance Pepper Steak is its normal battle theme and Unreasonable Behaviour is its idea of boss music. Everything sounds inappropriate, and ...well ..."Off".

 

[lazygecko]

Metronomes to the rescue

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66640537/44.mp3

This is the bog standard 4/4 time signature, which is the default template for the modern western music structure.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66640537/34.mp3

This is 3/4. The "waltz rhythm" when presented in its most basic form.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66640537/78.mp3

And this is 7/8. Basically you just remove half a unit from 4/4 and that's what you get.

 

[Parsnip]

A conversation about unique soundtracks would not be complete without these gems:

The Neverhood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGk1bQ9rcU

Skullmonkeys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK0LUdy84vg&list=PL5XIvY1jdiVgnxzQYQWf8Rz9Ew7iLLLN0

These are good picks that I wish I recalled when I saw this thread.

This is where someone pedantic would come in and say 'no no, 3/4 is a fraction we don't notate time signatures like that'. Well, Mr Pedantic, if there was an easy way to put two numbers vertically aligned in text I'm all ears, and everyone in present company understands we're not actually talking about fractions anyway so screw off.

Spoiler

*Mr. Pedantic is actually in Falk's head. I'm sorry Mr Pedantic.

 

[L Thammy]

LSD contains 490 unique audio tracks. Each area has its own 5 patterns, that can be heard in any of 7 different instrument sets: Ambient, Cartoon, Electro, Ethnova, Human, Lovely, and Standerd (spelt as it is in the game's files). Each area's music contains significant amounts of audio from the game's soundtrack, except with a different pitch, note arrangement, or speed.

The game will load the combination of pattern and soundfont at random, and will reset these every time one of the opening clips is watched on the main menu screen. One might originally start in the Bright Moon Cottage with its third pattern playing in the Lovely soundfont. But if they wait and watch a clip, they may then start there with its second pattern in the Ethnova soundfont.

Probably not exactly what you meant, but I think it's certainly unorthodox.

 

[Falk]

A pianist and singer are rehearsing "Autumn Leaves" for a concert and the pianist says:
"OK. We will start in G minor and then on the third bar, modulate to B major and go into 5/4. When you get to the bridge, modulate back down to F# minor and alternate a 4/4 bar with a 7/4 bar. On the last A section go into double time and slowly modulate back to G minor."
The singer says: "Wow, I don't think I can remember all of that."
The pianist says: "Well, that's what you did last time."

 

[microfolk]

I don't know enough about music to understand half of what is being said in this thread, but I've had some exposure to "unorthodox" music.

I once played an indie RPG called OFF which had some strange ideas of what game music was like. For intsance Pepper Steak is its normal battle theme and Unreasonable Behaviour is its idea of boss music. Everything sounds inappropriate, and ...well ..."Off".

Aaaah I came 5 minutes too late, I'm usually the one who talks about OFF in these types of threads.
To this day it's one of my favourite OSTs ever made, it's truly a work of genius.

Also Yume Nikki took an incredibly original approach to music, using incredibly short loops or going directly for ambient noises.
And it works!

darius thread?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfUvsxulQQd_0PHS39BeccwiWDWlXeW4z
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXFnYd-kkVY

x-multiply has some equally fucked up tunes

ZUNTATA is amazing and Darius music is so fucking good, but as much as I love Darius Gaiden's OST the true GOAT will forever be G-Darius. Kimera II was made for this thread.

 

[LowlySmokeGuy]

Maiden Astraea's theme in Demon's Souls sounds weird. Most of Demon's Souls did, but that one stood out.

 

[L Thammy]

I also think Opoona's soundtrack is pretty unique in that it largely consists of elevator music. Really good elevator music. No irony about it either. Also, half the songs contain the main theme in some form.

 

[MetalKnick]

Mario Kart 64 - Winning Results is in 11/8

Twilight Battle from Twilight Princess

 

[SoldnerKei]

What was Uematsu smoking? I'm pretty sure he murdered a parrot 3 1/2 minutes in.

bwhahaha didn't expect to hear that.

For a game that seems to be cute girls doing cute things, getting this kind of music dropped into the mix was kind of unexpected for me:

Atelier Meruru - Alcyone

nothing wrong with the track thou, I actually like it a lot.

 

[Falk]

bwhahaha didn't expect to hear that.

For a game that seems to be cute girls doing cute things, getting this kind of music dropped into the mix was kind of unexpected for me:

Atelier Meruru - Alcyone

nothing wrong with the track thou, I actually like it a lot.

I have no idea why every single YouTube upload of that track sounds like a pail of water being sloshed around :|

But Atelier (and GUST) soundtracks are always top-tier. So much variety yet with a cohesive aesthetic anyway.

While Totori's normal battle music isn't nearly as out of the left field in terms of genre, it feels like it should be in a game with 10 times the budget.

 

[ZerOmegaG]

Deus Ex Machina (1984) is up there with the weirdness.

https://youtu.be/G7Py_TyhXYY?t=101

I have no idea what's going on but it's pretty damn interesting.

 

[Violence Jack]

Plok - Beach
I didn't have much experience with 7/8 time signatures since high school band, but I'm sure this was pretty mind blowing back then.

Spiderman and X-Men in Arcade's Revenge
I wish I could find the sound clip with the clowns laughing in the background.

Silent Hill 3 - Prayer

 

[Leona Lewis]

This track from Opoona never fails to fuck with my senses.

Everything about it is slightly off.

Plok - Beach
I didn't have much experience with 7/8 time signatures since high school band, but I'm sure this was pretty mind blowing back then.

mindblown

 

[TheRedSnifit]

A pianist and singer are rehearsing "Autumn Leaves" for a concert and the pianist says:
"OK. We will start in G minor and then on the third bar, modulate to B major and go into 5/4. When you get to the bridge, modulate back down to F# minor and alternate a 4/4 bar with a 7/4 bar. On the last A section go into double time and slowly modulate back to G minor."
The singer says: "Wow, I don't think I can remember all of that."
The pianist says: "Well, that's what you did last time."

https://youtu.be/a3eTjBUZSRo

 

[cj_iwakura]

So Deemo is a rhythm game where you pretty much play relaxing or uplifting piano music.

And then you get this

Saw it was composed by M2U, knew what was coming.

 

[Erin S Kittens]

Etrian Odyssey IV - Library Of Puppets

Lots of 7/8 in this Koshiro track.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Gale from Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross has weird multiple time signatures if I'm not mistaken.

 

[mdzapeer]

Chrono Cross battle theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRkqWdE_Nd0

I am not a music buff, so I cant explain.

 

[SuperAngelo64]

Western composers are afraid of using 7 chords or anything more complicated than that so just use that formula and you're done.

 

[Easy_D]

This thread reminds me of Secret of Mana. Some of the time signatures and styles are incredibly unique(first two games).

Has a bunch of stuff like this:
Seiken Densetsu 3 - Frenzy
Secret of Mana - Mystic Invasion

The percussion especially in these songs were pretty damn advanced.



Some of those chants at 2:38 were also in Cruisin' World for N64 as well.

https://youtu.be/bYhAv1bzMRs?t=23s

Hiroki Kikuta doesn't get a fraction of the praise he deserves, fantastic composer, worked wonders on the SNES sound chip. Super hype that he's composing for Indivisble, the boss tracks are gonna be great.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Etrian Odyssey IV - Library Of Puppets

Lots of 7/8 in this Mitsuda track.

Koshiro, sir.

Gale from Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross has weird multiple time signatures if I'm not mistaken.

Chrono Cross battle theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRkqWdE_Nd0

I am not a music buff, so I cant explain.

9/8 (I think the bass is in 6/8 and drums in 8/8(?), in general alotta polyrythym fuckery for greatness going on here)

 

[Deft Beck]

I have no idea what's going on but it's pretty damn interesting.

It's all a metaphor about birth, life, war and death.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

A lot of horror games use extremely unconventional music, particularly during boss fights. Akira Yamaoka is the master of that. That screaming roll slicing through your head while you fight the last boss of 2 sure is something. Or whatever the hell this is during the carousel fight in 3.

Maybe it's cheating to pick music that was designed to unnerve you.

 

[openrob]

Someone posted this Mario Paint track in another thread somewhere and it is extremely cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb2jDNZ5JuQ&index=30&list=PLx13P1xE9Ste95F4T4fzLxo0HLOVljage

 

[KevinCow]

Wario Land 4 - Hurry Up!

Between Wario Land 4 and Wario Ware, Wario just had some really weird music on the GBA.

 

[djtiesto]

First things that came to mind:

Ouroboros Fiesta from Lightning Returns sounds like nothing else in the game and is quite unpredictable.

One of the best songs in FF history imo.

Surprised nobody has mentioned the Streets of Rage 3 Soundtrack - very atonal and discordant, I believe it was algorithmically generated too. A sharp

Spoiler

and disappointing

change from the house, rave, hip-hop and dance-pop influence of the first 2 games.

 

[Dice//]

Evergrace, the thread.

Evergrace and Forever Kingdom is like multiple band members improvising at once.