Cicada Releases Technology Crisis II
Since our last interview with Cicada, aka Judson Cowan, he has been hard at work on a sequel to the incredible concept album Technology Crisis. The original album was a spacey sonic trip through a sci-fi landscape of a video game that was never created. Yeah, he is truly an original. The music moves you from stage to stage, allowing the listener to experience his vision of a 16-bit space opera.
Inspired by the great gaming musicians like Koji Kondo of Mario and Zelda fame, Nobuo Uematsu synonymous with Final Fantasy, and Kazumi Totaka from Animal Crossing, Cowan infuses his music with a rich musical heritage that is fresh and instantly familiar. His influences don’t stop there. You can hear some Aphex Twin, Nine Inch Nails and Orbital if you dig deeper than the 16-bit shell.
His industrial influences flourish on Technology Crisis II. The sonic landscape is richer, and more fulfilling than his previous effort. Tech Crisis II is definitely a companion piece to the original. Both pieces share the feeling of a lengthy and dangerous journey. Each track feels like it is leading up to something greater, something more dangerous. When danger falls, you can hear a boss battle right around the corner, and he delivers with sonic flair.
A trained ear can pick up pieces of Secret of Mana snuggled in the delicious beats. There are musical queues from the original title. I heard a little of Earth’s Assault on Central AI from the first album, on the track An Unsuspecting Town. That piece also reminded me of an innocent adventure like the cult classic Earthbound for SNES.
Cicada obviously creates his music out of love. A love of retro video games, electronic music, and the generous ideal of music for the masses. Every album, every song that he creates is downloadable for free from his website Cicadacom.com. So do yourself a favor, head over to his site and grab Technology Crisis II. You won’t regret the bandwith used once you hear his music. If you really like it, throw some dollars his way with his donate button, he deserves every dollar you can spare for his genius and generosity
Toots
Posted to Video Games on 27 June 2007
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