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Check out our first installment of “Oh, Hello” from Converse Rubber Tracks featuring Amanda Warner of MNDR. The electronic whiz chatted with Converse at our recording studio and offered unique insight into her world, beginning with what influenced Warner to get into music, to how she creates and writes boundary-challenging electronic tracks.
Hello. I am KIVΛ.
Over the past 3 years, I have been working under Rayark Inc. on the rhythm game title 《Cytus II》 as Sound Director, as well as music and sound effects production, together with story design and a portion of motion design. In June last year, I found myself going into different paths with the company, so I left the position as regular staff member, but continued to work with the remainder of the project until version 3.0, where the story finally reaches the finale, so did my journey and objectives for this game development journey. Having this opportunity, I would like to share some of my thoughts regarding this epilogue.
Since I joined this project, the focus of design has always been the joint experience of story and music. With the story reaching the end, I would like to potrait the overall ambient to be more film-like, which players might experience the tension of the climax through music. Having such thoughts, I was determined to unify the music genre in 3.0 as film-score like, blending in motifs from song lineup of each and every game character. I am totally aware that level design for symphonic music is difficult, especially in emphasizing the groove like how it was usually done in electronic music. I want to thank all level designers for their hard work in overcoming such challenges.
The epic vibe from combining contemporary electronic and symphonic music is something that I always wanted to attempt for, and in my previous works there has been appearance of such sound elements, but by using only virtual instruments it might just not reaching my expected result. I want to thank Rayark for being so generous to provide all the support, making the symphonic recording come true.
Having such opportunity, I went for two of my friends who I have never work together with: Shao-ting Sun, a recording engineer in Carnegie NYC; Chamber Chu, a symphonic music producer. They have been my game peers for quite a while, but I have always been admiring their aesthetics and abilities in sound design, and these two grandmasters have definitely outperformed themselves. I spent a whole week staying with Chamber for the arrangement of symphonic parts, which was a very precious experience in music creation. The recording team that Sun brought together, as well as the professional performers that participated in the recording session, is by no doubt astonishing. Recalling that we rushed for the full score of all the pieces until the very morning of the recording session (our sincere apologies), but it took no more than 5 takes for all sections to get the desired outcome. Absolutely fascinataing.
It is also worth mentioning that the entire team of roughly 60 were all Taiwanese. I guess we might have made another achievement in the history of Taiwanese game music production. I am so honoured to have the opportunity in leading such a groundbreaking project, together with all the grandmasters.
3 years isn't that long, but it is more than one out of ten for my life. There were other creation experience that were fun but painful, and many achievements were unlocked when I worked in this company. Standing on the stage in front of the screaming crowd, working with Japanese voice actors that I admired for so long, having so many supporters of my work, all these could never be possible without Rayark. Even I left the company going for different paths, I still wish for the very best of this company to become a even better one.
It is a pity that I can no longer work together with the fantastic members of Team Cytus. Perhaps they are fed up with my twisted personality and being stubborn for what I wanted to create. I would like to thank you all for your understanding and forgiveness. Each of you have the profession and passion, and I found myself so tiny and unintellegent working with all of you, and I have learned a lot over the years. I wish all of you could push the creative industry in Taiwan even further forward. I am returning as a mere artist, working hard on what I could. No matter how harsh life is, I am still working on it, as this is the only thing I am capable to do.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all of you players that have supported this game. Without you, this could never happen. No matter to me, to the Team and to the players, 《Cytus II》 might not be the perfect piece of game, we might have different imaginations on the enormous world settings, characters or even the game design itself. What in common was we spent 3 years to experience the creation and playing process. It is the story and music that linked us together. I believe this is the charisma of the game. I wish you are all loving this game, loving the characters, and loving the time that we created together.
There are so many more to thank, to apologize, the satisfaction and sorrows, and they are all included in this ending music. It is time for me to step down.
Thank you, and goodbye.
//A Cantopop star publicly supported Hong Kong protesters. So Beijing disappeared his music.
By AUGUST BROWN
The 2 million pro-democracy protesters who have flooded the streets of Hong Kong over the last few months have been tear-gassed, beaten by police and arrested arbitrarily. But many of the territory’s most famous cultural figures have yet to speak up for them. Several prominent musicians, actors and celebrities have even sided with the cops and the government in Beijing.
The protesters are demanding rights to fair elections and judicial reform in the semiautonomous territory. Yet action film star Jackie Chan, Hong Kong-born K-pop star Jackson Wang of the group GOT7 and Cantopop singers Alan Tam and Kenny Bee have supported the police crackdown, calling themselves “flag protectors.” Other Hong Kong cultural figures have stayed silent, fearing for their careers.
The few artists who have spoken out have seen their economic and performing prospects in mainland China annihilated overnight. Their songs have vanished from streaming services, their concert tours canceled. But a few musicians have recently traveled to America to support the protesters against long odds and reprisals from China.
“Pop musicians want to be quiet about controversy, and on this one they’re particularly quiet,” said Anthony Wong Yiu-ming, 57, the singer and cofounder of the pioneering Hong Kong pop group Tat Ming Pair.
Wong is a popular, progressive Cantopop artist — a Hong Kong Bryan Ferry or David Bowie, with lyrics sung in the territory’s distinct dialect. But he, along with such singer-actors as Denise Ho and Deanie Ip, have made democratic reforms the new cause of their careers, even at the expense of their musical futures in China. Wong’s on tour in the U.S. and will perform a solo show in L.A. on Tuesday.
“It’s rebelling against the establishment, and [most artists] just don’t want to,” Wong said. “Of course, I’m very disappointed, but I never expected different from some people. Freedom of speech and civil liberties in Hong Kong are not controversial. It’s basic human rights. But most artists and actors and singers, they don’t stand with Hong Kongers.”
Hong Kong protesters
Hundreds of people form a human chain at Victoria Peak in Hong Kong on Sept. 13.(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
The protests are an echo — and escalation — of the Occupy Central movement five years ago that turned into a broad pro-democracy effort known as the Umbrella Movement. Those protests, led by teenage activist Joshua Wong (no relation), rebelled against a new policy of Beijing pre-screening candidates for political office in Hong Kong to ensure party loyalty.
Protesters were unsuccessful in stopping those policies, but the movement galvanized a generation of activists.
These latest demonstrations were in response to a proposed policy of extraditing suspected criminals from Hong Kong to mainland China, which activists feared would undermine their territory’s legal independence and put its residents at risk. The protests now encompass a range of reforms — the withdrawal of the extradition bill, secured voting rights, police reform, amnesty for protesters and a public apology for how Beijing and police have portrayed the demonstrations.
Wong, already respected as an activist for LGBT causes in Hong Kong, is one of vanishingly few musicians to have put their futures on the line to push for those goals.
Wong’s group Tat Ming Pair was one of the most progressive Cantonese acts of the ’80s and ’90s (imagine a politically radical Chinese Depeche Mode). When Wong spoke out in favor of the Umbrella Movement at the time, he gained credibility as an activist but paid the price as an artist: His touring and recording career evaporated on the mainland.
The Chinese government often pressures popular services like Tencent (the country’s leading music-streaming service, with 800 million monthly users) to remove artists who criticize the government. Artists can find longstanding relationships with live promoters on ice and lucrative endorsement deals drying up.
“This government will do things to take revenge on you,” Wong said. “If you’re not obedient, you’ll be punished. Since the Umbrella Movement, I’ve been put on a blacklist in China. I anticipated that would happen, but what I did not expect was even local opportunities decreased as well. Most companies have some ties with mainland China, and they didn’t want to make their China partners unhappy, so they might as well stop working with us.”
Censorship is both overt and subtly preemptive, said Victoria Tin-bor Hui, a professor and Hong Kong native who teaches Chinese politics and history at the University of Notre Dame.
“Every time artists or stars say anything even remotely sympathetic to protesters or critical of the government, they get in trouble,” Hui said. “You can literally have your career ruined. Denise Ho, after she joined the Umbrella Movement, everything she had listed online or on shelves was taken off. Companies [including the cosmetics firm Lancôme] told her they would have nothing more to do with her, and she started doing everything on her own.”
So Wong and other artists like Ho have been pushing back where they can.
Wong’s recent single, “Is It a Crime,” questions Beijing crackdowns on all memorials of the Tiananmen Square massacre, especially in Hong Kong, where there was a robust culture of activism and memorials around that tragedy. The single, which feels akin to Pink Floyd’s expansive, ominous electronic rock, has been blacklisted on mainland streaming services and stores.
Wong plans to speak out to commemorate the anniversary of the Umbrella Movement on this tour as well.
“The government is very afraid of art and culture,” Wong said. “If people sing about liberty and freedom of speech, the government is afraid. When I sing about the anniversary of Tiananmen, is it a crime to remember what happened? To express views? I think the Chinese government wants to suppress this side of art and freedom.”
The fallout from his support of the protests has forced him to work with new, more underground promoters and venues. The change may have some silver linings, as bookers are placing his heavy synth-rock in more rebellious club settings than the Chinese casinos he’d often play stateside. (In L.A., he’s playing 1720, a downtown venue that more often hosts underground punk bands.)
“We lost the second biggest market in the world, but because of what we are fighting for, in a way, we gained some new fans. We met new promoters who are interested in promoting us in newer markets. It’s opened new options for people who don’t want to follow” the government’s hard-line approach, Wong said.
Hui agreed that while loyalty from pro-democracy protesters can’t make up for the lost income of the China market, artists should know that Hong Kongers will remember whose side they were on during this moment and turn out or push back accordingly.
“You make less money, but Hong Kong pro-democracy people say, ‘These are our own singers, we have to save them,’” Hui said. “They support their own artists and democracy as part of larger effort to blacklist companies that sell out Hong Kong.”
Ho testified before Congress last week to support Hong Kong’s protesters. “This is not a plea for so-called foreign interference. This is a plea for democracy,” Ho said in her speech. A new bill to ban U.S. exports of crowd-control technology to Hong Kong police has bipartisan support.
No Hong Kong artists are under any illusions that the fight to maintain democracy will be easy. Even the most outspoken protesters know the long odds against a Chinese government with infinite patience for stifling dissent. That’s why support from cultural figures and musicians can be even more meaningful now, Hui said.
“Artists, if they say anything, that cheers people on,” Hui said. “Psychologists say Hong Kong suffers from territory-wide depression. Even minor symbolic gestures from artists really lift people’s morale.”
Pro-democracy artists, like protesters, are more anxious than ever. They’ve never been more invested in these uprisings, but they also fear the worst from the mainland Chinese government. “If you asked me six months ago, I was not very hopeful,” Wong said. “But after what’s happened, even though the oppression is bigger, we are stronger and more determined than before.”
Anthony Wong Yiu-ming
Where: 1720, 1720 E. 16th St.
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Tickets: $55-$150
Info: 1720.la //
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Social Media:
▶ Download / Stream link : https://ffm.to/milesaway-bringmeback
👑Miles Away
https://www.facebook.com/supmilesaway
https://twitter.com/supmilesaway
https://www.instagram.com/supmilesaway/
👑 Claire Ridgely
https://www.instagram.com/overtheridgely/
https://www.facebook.com/overtheridgely/
https://www.twitter.com/overtheridgely/
___________________________________________________
Lyrics:
I've always been afraid
我一直很害怕
My best years have passed
風華正茂之時已經過去了
They say the good ol days
往昔的點點滴滴也終成回憶
Well they never last
美好總是轉瞬即逝
I've been running into you in my head
腦海中常常浮現出你的身影
In-between, what could of been
一遍遍卻總是揮之不去
Ya ya ya
Everybody seems to leave
人們竭力忘卻那些
Bittersweet memories
酸甜苦辣的回憶
Time does seem to fly
光陰似箭
Then it's hard to find yeah
我再難以找尋那所有的一切
Used to dine and dash
那些你我一同舉杯共飲
Run and laugh
一起盡情歡笑 追逐奔跑
Skinny dip off a ship
一起披荊斬棘 乘風破浪的回憶
Oh woah
Not a worry for a million miles
可相隔萬里又能怎樣
Driving off, be right back oh
你我的轉身便是踏上彼此的歸途
Cause baby after all of this time
親愛的 經歷了這些風風雨雨
We'll meet again, with time to spend
我們終會相聚再次歡度餘生
Cause even after all of this time
度過了這些艱難坎坷
Would you be mine
你是否會將我選作你的歸屬
Cause I'd drop it all just to get you
因為我所有的赴湯蹈火 只為將你擁入我的懷抱
Bring me back to life
讓我如鳳凰涅槃般
Bring me back to life
重獲新生
I've always dreamed too big
我總是心懷遠大的夢想
For this little town
卻難以實現
But now I can't remember how to slow it down
而如今我不知道該怎樣停止我的思緒
Time does seem to fly
光陰似箭
Then it's hard to find yeah
我再難以找尋那所有的一切
I've grown tired of being stuck in a race
我早已厭倦了自我欺騙
Office space, it's all fake
一切都宛如夢境 滿是虛幻
Everybody seems to cheat
人們總是互相欺騙
Best believe, that's not me
而我只想向你展現我全部的信任
Want a midnight sky, rolling high
我渴望在午夜的星空下盡情尋歡作樂
Take a trip on a whim, Oh
來一場說走就走的旅行
Not a worry for a million miles
相隔萬里又能怎樣呢
Flying off be right back, Oh
此刻我願插上翅膀 飛回你身旁
Cause baby after all of this time
親愛的 經歷了這些風風雨雨
We'll meet again, with time to spend
我們終會相聚再次歡度餘生
Cause even after all of this time
度過了這些艱難坎坷
Would you be mine
你是否會將我選作你的歸屬
Cause I'd drop it all just to get you
我所有的赴湯蹈火 只為將你擁入我的懷抱
Bring me back to life
讓我如鳳凰涅槃般
Bring me back to life
重獲新生
#MilesAway #BringMeBack #ClaireRidgely #ginamusic #Electronic #Pop #輕電音
[我們在這邊想向各位支持我們的觀眾們尋求幫助，一起來製做Youtube「社群協力字幕」，若你願意貢獻自己的時間以及精力，幫助我們上影片字幕的話，請主動聯絡我們]
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哈囉大家好～Giva Divas的新影片又來囉！
今天要帶給大家的主題是「如何快速推坑朋友進入電音世界」
我們大致整理了一下我們自己的想法以及建議
把整部影片分成三個階段來講
資訊量有點多
如果看不懂歡迎發問
有建議歡迎糾正
我們最喜歡看大家給我們的回應了～
另外
我們這次挑了很多首歌
有些是私心懷舊XD 有些是我們隨機挑選適合的
事實上每一個階段可以推薦的DJ跟歌曲絕對比我們選的多太多了
隨便列一列50首都沒問題
但是我們礙於影片長度所以只挑了三四首就極限了～
推薦給大家的一些youtube channel👇👇👇
Majestic Casual
Trap Nation
Proximity
Mr. Suicide Sheep
Trap City
Spinnin' Records
MonsterCat
Kontor.TV
Melbourne Maniac
Tribal Bass
Future Bass
Tribal Trap
如果喜歡我們的影片，希望可以給我們一個Like～訂閱～
然後去粉專按讚～
我們會繼續做出更多更優質的影片給大家看的！
你的支持就是我們最大的動力～感恩的心～
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Teri的粉專Coming soon!!!
Background music:
www.bensound.com
