August 15, 2008
OverCoat: A Cyberpunk Adventure EP
Music Review By: Mr. Roboto
Year: 2007
Artist: OverCoat (Official Site)
Written by: Scott “OverCoat” Porter except “Bothersome” by Lackluster
Label: N/A
Track Listing:
1. Evaporative Air Coolers - 3:42
2. Bothersome (OverCoat Remix) - Original by Distance\Lackluster - 5:19
3. Genertater - 4:12
4. Shmorg - 3:20
5. Alleyways - 2:37
6. Laboratorious - 3:10
It started with a Google. I was looking for some cyberpunk images via “G” and found the pic above. Then I went to the site and found it was a cover for an album… EP in this case. Here’s how OverCoat describes it on his blog (2007-12-23 entry):
6 kindofbrandnew cyberpunk-twisted tracks. At first I tried to make the music sound like Blade Runner or Deus Ex but I failed hard at that, so I made my own musical take on the cyberpunk style. There’s a little bit of industrial, a little bit of breaks, doused in ambient and then downsampled to hell, as usual.
Ambient - No lyrics on how to hijack NSAT&T with a buffer overflow worm or what it feels like to surrender flesh to silicon and steel. Just some background music for reading Neuromancer or Altered Carbon, or for playing your favorite cyberpunk mod for whatever game you’re playing right now.
As you can see in this YouTube video of “Evaporative Air Coolers,” OverCoat used a music tracker program to create his works.
Being an EP, it’s a short but sweet bit of work, and it does sound like OverCoat has the general idea of cyberpunk. At least, the price is good. Maybe if he spent some time here to learn more about cyberpunk…
Best advice: Download it and see if it’s ambient enough for your favorite books and games. I’m going to try it by burning a CD.
Comments
August 15, 2008
Hammerjack said:
Awesome find! Thanks Mr. Roboto!
g07 said:
self promotion, wtf?
Klaw said:
This is very cool Mr. R.
August 16, 2008
Bax said:
awesome music, awesome cover too
Asper said:
“Cyberpunk paradise” compilation:
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1021
Very strange music.
August 17, 2008
johnny said:
Not bad, but it has the cheap ‘made-with-a-tracker’ feel to it.
If we are talking cyberpunk music, GRIDLOCK should definately be
mentioned. I have found nothing in IDM/Industrial that compares favorably
to these guys.
Links: http://www.last.fm/music/Gridlock
http://www.amazon.com/trace-Gridlock/dp/B00005K2K4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1219012861&sr=1-1 [Trace]
http://www.amazon.com/Formless-Gridlock/dp/B000120ZUM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1219012887&sr=1-1 [Formless]
http://www.amazon.com/Synthetic-Form-Gridlock/dp/B000003QES/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1219012909&sr=1-1 [Synthetic Form]
August 18, 2008
OverCoat said:
oh hi :3
glad you like it
August 19, 2008
owman said:
self promotion is really fuckable, all names are not registered as users, this sucks!
August 20, 2008
Gasmask said:
I don’t really know how the replies for this landed in MY mailbox but not a bad peice of music.
August 22, 2008
johnny said:
Regarding self promotions:
I am not affiliated with Gridlock, the band does not exist any more and
their albums are rare to find and some expensive to buy new from second hand
sellers. I posted the amazon links for the reviews as i think that they pretty
much nailed the cyberpunk feel in music in a way no other band has done before.
I think that their albums deserve a review here (Trace, Further and Formless).
August 29, 2008
Deckers said:
But it’s still not nice Johnny,
instead of giving overcoat some credit for his nice work
you bash him and intend to say nobody can do what Gridlock did…
Now i think Overcoat hit the nail with his album , or at least he opened my eyes (ears)
September 30, 2008
werner kajal m. said:
yeah, cool music…. would really fit well when reading neuromancer or playing system shock 2… breaks and drum ´n bass components do always fit well to cyberpunk…
nice work!
November 2, 2008
Adam Daub said:
Hmm… fun stuff. I always had the idea that cyberpunk music would be more dance-oriented like dark trance or EBM. At least I got this idea from Gibson’s mention of music in his stories. I guess the idea of japanese culture playing a large role (especially during the time these stories were written) in his stories had influence on me too. Electronica was really catching on then…. really, REALLY strange experimental electronica at that.
I don’t think there is a definitive sound to cyberpunk though, it’s sort of all how you imagined it while reading the stories. Music inspired by cyberpunk I’d assume would be about as close as it gets seeing as how the person writing is basically telling a story with their song.
At the moment I too am working on an EP of darker, dance-oriented, cyberpunk inspired material.
I think it would be interesting to see a compilation of work from the musicians who frequent this board.
October 23, 2009
Transverse City said:
Very nice. I found the first track on youtube.
You can get that effect on the cover using GIMP. There’s a script-fu effect called Predator.
November 27, 2010
oc said:
Having just remembered this awesome blog post recently, I decided I should probably tell you I did a “sequel” to this EP, called “OverCoat 2: More Stories from the Megatropolis.” It’s quite different, no spoons in this one, and you can download it here:
http://soundtempest.net/soc/album/OverCoat2/
I have also been uploading the fuck out of YouTube lately, as part of my next social networking foray. You will find streamable music with pretty pictures [mostly Hatsune Miku, derp] here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Pardessus
Thanks for listening everyone
December 17, 2010
Nosajfan said:
See when it comes to cyberpunk music what i think of is either some really sweet mysterious sounding techno or hip hop cause its future gangstas, I would recommend Nosaj Thing for those of you searching for music that will enhance your reading experiences http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWnf6U-nznQ
Overcoat has a few good tracks but most of it is a waste.
oc said:
Sorry you feel that much of my music is a waste of time, however I AM liking Nosaj Thing, thank you for the recommendation.