Frank Klepacki - The Music Of Command & Conquer
From 1996, with the game Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer was one of the best known realtime strategy games of the mid 90's, I remember the first time I played it at my cousins, it was so much fun. One thing that struck me back then was the music, I still clearly remember liking C&C Thang from back then.
One day I got the game for myself, and with it came the soundtrack. The first time I played it at home, I remember it starting with those gunboats taking out the turrets and Act On Instinct started pumping out, that was such a cool moment for a 12 year old.
There is a good range of music including a majority of industrial rock, some electronic, and even some orchestrated music with that battle feeling written into it. There's some surprising musical ideas in there, still, it's all pretty easy to get into. Guitars, drums/percussion and synth/keyboard all appear very often, there's also some moody saxaphone in two of the tracks.
The music itself is kind of simple, there is some small scale technicality in it, but most of it seems to be written just for adding to the modern army theme, it gets you in the mood for fighting. It sounds like most of it would have been written in some midi or sequencer program using good sound fonts, with very little (if any) actual instruments being played. There are quite a few well placed vocal samples that help things along.
Well it's hard to think of what else to write, so it's just a short review.
Played with the game, this music works really well. By itself, it sounds a bit lonely.
Though somewhat simple, it is well written, and hardly anything sounds out of place, it's easy to get into, and quite good motivation while managing your army.
8/10 by itself.
10/10 along with the game.
Recommended Tracks:
Act On Instinct
Industrial 1
Prepare For Battle
Rain In The Night
Just Do It Up
C&C Thang
