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Cybernet— | ||||||||||||||
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ell, it's different—no question about that. This is a soundtrack recording meant to be listened to while playing a board game. But don't laugh—it's good! Really good! Unique though the idea may seem, Stratos isn't the first to do it: Midnight Syndicate, a gothic horror group from Cleveland, composed the official Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game soundtrack, which was released about six months prior to Cybernet. Stratos has been a gamer for the better part of two decades. "Matching my music to my hobby was a dream come true," he says.
Stratos (also a character in the game) has done all the sampling here, and almost all of the playing—keyboards, bass guitar and some percussion—aside from the guitar, which was performed by his friends Micah Klotz and Eric George. Overall the music is quite good—well performed, well mixed and well produced, with more than 25 tracks on some of the cues.
What's most appealing about this disc is Stratos' melodic sense. The opener, "Plug In and Punk Out," has a sort of retro '80s beat with an overlaid sing-songy 14-beat theme done in strings, accompanied by an insistent jangling guitar. It's oddly compelling. Cue two, "Darkrider Returneth," is completely different and less melodic. It uses a very simple descending triad figure as the basis for a raga-like sequence.
The third band has a distinct Asiatic feel, appropriate for its name: "Beijing City @ 10 PM." There are samples of woodblock and Japanese flute over a rumbling electronic basis, and a blippy sort of gong sample. Stratos mixes this with a blurred string sample that smears the whole thing together nicely.
"Cloud Dancer Addiction," the next cue, benefits from some very tasteful guitar work over an ominous swirl evoking a slow arabesque through stormy skies. Again, oddly compelling. Midway through, the cue shifts gears and becomes more of a techno offering, with its busted-hump staccato drum beat mirroring the one from the opening cue. Stratos pulls off a nice ritardando in the extended coda, slowing the piece down to a simple heartbeat—which leads right into the next cue, "Livewire Voodoo," one of the best on the album. It builds up through a bongo-punctuated hypnotic guitar lick until a jazzy little sax-sample line comes in to shake things up. Occasional tympani rolls emphasize the changes.
Can't be "board" with Cybernet
There is not a bad track on the disc. Stratos works particularly hard on the percussion, which clatters and thumps along with plenty of authority. His guitarists work in several styles, which adds a lot of color to the musical palette. Just check out the choppy licks in "Dogs of War," another standout piece.
Stratos lists a number of favorite film and TV composers, primarily Michael Giacchino (Alias, Lost, The Incredibles) and Don Davis (the Matrix trilogy). Juno Reactor (the Matrix trilogy again), Dieselboy, BT and various others inspire the techno/electronica side of his music.
For Cybernet, Stratos ranged far and wide for his samples, including royalty-free loops from both Sony's Sound Series and Future Music/Computer Music magazines out of the U.K. "I also sample from my own keyboards and drum machines," he says, "plus odds-and-ends from around the house and studio including paint cans, trash cans, toys, etc." All of this ingenuity adds interesting flavor to what otherwise might have been the "usual suspects" of samples.
Bryan Borgman also performs as Stratos from time to time, and has other game-based projects in the pipe. He is currently working several other RPG companies to compose soundtracks based on their games and licenses. This is good news for his growing fan base.
This is a link to a brand-new Stratos song that is nothing like the stuff on Cybernet—it's a "south of the border" tune that he's targeting for a new film project. Worth your time. — Al
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