“For when words are not enough…”

Music is the shorthand of emotion.
-Leo Tolstoy

Accelerando, NPCs!

So this post is about something new! Well, new-ish. It may be news to you or it might be old hat. It’s something I’ve been spending all of last week doing but I’ve only mentioned it once here in passing. I haven’t really explained it. I’m of course talking about TWRM Radio, a new expansion of our YouTube channel.

The original idea and the final result have a bit of difference between them but that’s explained thusly: the inception of TWRM Radio occurred whilst I was playing Monster Hunter: World with the Black Humor Mage and as we talked about the blog he said “You know, ‘TWRM’ kind of sounds like a radio station.” I could hear the fluorescent light tapping as it turned on. “What if you did TWRM Live as a live music stream on YouTube?” he said something like that. It’s not verbatim. I don’t have the best memory.

What I do remember is how Black Humor had told me how he listened to lo-fi beat streams just a few days before, which makes this scarily accurate:

The only Final Fantasy game he’s played is Final Fantasy VII, which, if you can’t read it, says: “You have listened to hundreds of hours of lo-fi hiphop from Soundcloud artists. You are pessimist[ic] and can be gloomy, but you never give up hope for what you desire. Convention veteran.” He admits everything is true about him in that statement minus the convention thing. My favorite FF is VI and that’s super accurate for me, too.

Anyway, I liked the idea. I mulled it over the in the massive, Euclidean machine that is my imagination until my much smaller brain, dwarfed in comparison, pulled out of it what was actually possible in my situation. I realized that I don’t have the hardware to run a consistent livestream, certainly not a 24/7 one. I also have some of the rubbishest internet service ever and there’s a monopoly by a single business in my town, so that wasn’t going to help, either. Shelved went the concept of a TWRM Live stream on the shelf that reads “Someday”.

But the idea was too cool to pass up entirely so that left me with two other choices: do a simple playlist of a bunch of songs organized how I want or make huge, hour-long mixes of songs based around a central theme. I ended up going with the latter and it was easy enough to adapt a lot of the concept of the early A-Side/B-Side series we did here at TWRM in our first year. Thus spake TWRM Radio! This new series is dedicated in loving affection to the great musical artistry of gaming.

I plan to have one new entry in the series up toward the end of each week but I ensured there would be a decent foundation for the series by uploading five mixes this past week. As mentioned, each mix is based around a central theme which ties the music together. “Aether” is a collection of sky themes intended for studying or relaxation (though of course you can use these however you like). Sky themes have in common a kind of elegance and an emphasis on wind instruments so that was the mentality with which I put “Aether” together. “Boss”, a mix of battle music for the gym, “Sylvan” a mix of lost woods themes for studying/relaxation, “Velocity”, a mix of fast paced music for exercise, and “Muse”, a mix of piano songs for (you guessed it) studying/relaxation, all follow suit.

“Funky”, “Quasar”, “Rags”, “Seaside”, “Stalactite”… I still have plenty more ideas for themes and for songs to use. Many of these pieces of music are among my favorites but I haven’t drawn from all my favorites yet. I’ve written to a few of these thus far and they’ve helped me focus! Also, I’ve had a significant health scare recently when I thought I may be dealing with kidney failure (you can call me The One Kidney Mage), so as I continue to seek medical expertise on that and my diet and activity regimen, I figured why not include a few mixes built for activity. Let’s face it, writing and gaming isn’t normally exercise for our bodies but I know I need that for good health. These mixes will pop up now and then to help encourage some physical fitness alongside the others designed for mental fitness.

Finally, no mage is an island.

I’m fully interested in hearing some of your ideas! What kind of mixes and themes would you be most interested in hearing, reader? What are some original video game songs (not covers or arrangements) which you think would make for a piece of a great TWRM Radio collection? What are some of your favorite video game songs?

I want you to know, I’m not fishing for comments asking you these things. I’ve enjoyed being a creator for a long time. I love being an entertainer. So share your musical delights and maybe, just maybe, if you wish upon a Super Star, they’ll appear in a future mix on TWRM Radio.

If you like these videos, pass them on! You can help us out by liking and subscribing, and thanks, as always, for your support! I really appreciate it!

Let’s play,

-The Well-Red Mage