Happy Friday! I come bearing music recs. Please enjoy Minewest Emo (Midwest Emo Version).
Minewest Emo (Midwest Emo Version) is a cover album of songs from the Minecraft soundtrack arranged in the vein of Midwest Emo. The album was arranged, recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by saddyowner (real name Laureano Müller) with help from TanookiAlex, and quite frankly, it goes extremely hard for absolutely no reason at all. It’s perfect music for getting a bit of work done — chill and lyricless, but displaying a grasp of musical arrangement rarely seen in albums of video game covers. It doesn’t rely on familiarity with the Minecraft soundtrack to drive each arrangement. Rather, it uses these familiar songs as a basis for interpretation, expanding and contracting each song in interesting and surprising ways. It’s strikingly accomplished.
It’s great. You can listen to it here. I’ve embedded the whole record below.
If you’ve not heard the term Midwest emo before, a quick primer. For the Aussies, the Midwest is how the Americans describe the 12 states that comprise the upper middle portion of the national bloc. This particular musical sound emerged in these states in the 1990s but found greater prominence in the 2000s. Midwest emo has a distinctly melancholy sound to it. It’s sweeter and more tuneful than 90s alternative gear like Radiohead, and less heavy or down-tuned than Seattle grunge. The genre has retained a peripheral popularity ever since. Well-known bands in the genre include American Football, Chamberlain, Pavement, and Neutral Milk Hotel.
Always a good day when I get to write about music on Kotaku Australia. GGs to saddyowner and tanookialex, you smashed this one.
Image: saddowner, tanookialex
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