Hello and welcome to the, very late, first blog of 2020! Seeing as we are now living in The Future, I figured I'd treat you to some Post-Apocalyptical artwork (see more info below) just to remind that, no matter how shit the world seems right now, at least we aren't buying things with bottlecaps just yet.
Anyway, to the music. It's been a fair while since I did a themed mix, especially an artist-specific one (that was Regurgitator, almost two years ago now), so I present to you Miracle Of Sound!
Miracle Of Sound is actually just one man rather than a band as it may seem, that man is Gavin Dunne from Cork in Ireland. He sings, plays and records pretty much everything, though quite a few songs have guest vocalists and musicians on them.
The vast majority of his work is Geek (not Greek) themed, so video games, movies or cartoons etc. He tends to write his songs from the first person viewpoint of the protagonist (or antagonist occasionally) which gives them an immersive, narrative feel and draws you into their story. He also tends to tailor the genre to fit the song so his albums have a wildly eclectic sound. Though based around a base Alternative Rock sound, his songs veer wildly through Dance, Folk, Pop, Jazz Metal and weird Russian polkas.
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| Gavin 'Miracle Of Sound' Dunne |
Taking all that into account then it's no surprise that Gavin is a severely talented man. There's more to it than even all that though as his true strength lies in the fact that his songs are good enough that it doesn't matter if you're familiar with the subject matter or not. You don't need to know anything about Minecraft to enjoy Mining All Day Long, you don't need an encyclopedic knowledge of Far Cry to appreciate Welcome Home and it's not necessary to be familiar with Cortana or Master Chief to feel the sorrow in Reclaimer. In fact, half of the songs on this compilation are based on games I haven't played but I still love them anyway. He knows how to write a good tune and that's a far more important gift than any technical ability.
He also churns them out at an impressive rate too, releasing twelve albums, some of which are thirty+ tracks long, in nine years. For the sake of keeping things themed (and also to help trim it down to one CD's worth of compilation) I've not used anything from his instrumental album Vistas or his Metal album, Metal Up. I've only taken songs from his Level 1 to Leven 10 albums. A few of those albums have none geeky themed songs on them and I've avoided them too.
There's also a couple of songs that I would have included were it not for the fact I've already used them in the past:
The Ballad Of Clay Carmine - This Gears Of War themed song was the opening track on the first none themed mix I ever did for this blog, Mix #3 - The Devil's Right Hand
Friends - This cool, 70's Pop Rock inspired track is based on Guardians Of The Galaxy and was on Mix #18 - Top Albums Of 2016 Part One
This mix really does just scratch the surface of Gavin's music so if you like what you hear then please do follow up your listening pleasure by steaming/downloading/buying some more of his music, maybe buy yourself a T-shirt, modelled beautifully but Gavin himself in the photo above, check out his Bandcamp, add him on Facebook and all that. Links below!
Miracle Of Sound
Website
Bandcamp
Youtube
Spotify
Karliene (lead vocals on 'No One')
One last thing. I had an idea of what I wanted for the cover of this, so I was trawling Google for Post-Apocalyptical images that I could half-inch to use. I found the above picture, loved it and thought it perfect (almost perfect. I had to trim it a little and make it black and white to fit in with all the other covers). I had a look into the source of it and it was created by a French artist/photographer/digital manipuliser who works under the handle of Midnight Digital. All of his stuff is really good, especially if you're into smashed up shit.
Midnight Digital
Website
As usual with these blogs, there's my tuppence worth about every track included in the mix down below as well as a link to download the mp3's as well as a link to the mix on Spotify too
Cheers
Luke
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Tracklisting
Wasteland Soul
Reclaimer
Welcome Home
No One
Hard Cash
When I Swing By
Duke, You Used To Be Cool
Clockworks
Mining All Day Long
Roll Out
Dream Of The Sky
Upside Down
Wigglesticks
Commander Shepard
Shooter Guy
Never Alone
Keepers
Road Rage
Nord Mead
Deep Blue
Medal Of Honor: Doorfighter
Download the mix HERE
Listen on Spotify HERE
