Every generation of games technology leaves something behind. 2D practically died with the PlayStation, and this generation I think I’ll start to miss the clean textured look that’s being replaced by pixel shaders, bump mapping and so on.

Anyhow, the Amiga offered many wonderful games with a unique style of music. The technology behind it involves step sequencing audio samples and some of the music people made with the format was uniquely beautiful and pure. It saw some usage on PC too - Unreal and Unreal Tournament were probably the last games to use the music format as did the early 3D Mark releases with music by Teque.

Hear for yourself. Grab MODPlug and head to Exotica, the best place to find most great Amiga game tracks (often supplied by the composers themselves). Assassin, Cannon Fodder, Heimdall and Lost Vikings are some personal favourites. The menu music for Crusader: No Remorse on PC is also particularly memorable. There was of course also a thriving community of composers that made numerous excellent MOD music pieces. It’s not yet a dead audio format but its decline certainly continues.

Game musicians like Jesper Kyd (IO Interactive), Bjørn Lynne (formerly of Team 17)and Skaven (Peter Hajba of Remedy) also got their start in the demo scene doing tracker music and some of them still take part on a hobby basis.

Technological progress is inevitable and generally exciting, it’s just a shame when we no longer see games being developed with a certain visual or audio style because the technology has moved on. It’s almost like the limiting technology of the 90s encouraged some wonderful technical innovation and design creativity. Then again, mobile and web games have had a habit of reviving the art and music style of these classic games, for now anyway.

How on earth did they do this? Gorillaz (yes, the “virtual band” from Damon of Blur) Live at the MTV Europe Music Awards. 3D animated and projected - I bet even the chord playing is accurate, the drumming certainly looks it. Astonishingly impressive. (via I’m A Human In Box which incidentally just passed 1000 posts - the guy is a machine).

A great music video here for a song by French musician Lacquer. It’s edited down slightly but still offers some fantastic sights across America, even if they do flash by in seconds.

I’m already seriously impressed by Pandora. It’s like Music Plasma in that it’s a great way to find new music similar to what you already like. They’re very different in how they both work though, both come highly recommended for music lovers everywhere.

A rare musical interlude here. Yesterday I found myself sitting/lying through the Jazz Cafe Picnic. As I sat waiting for the first act to kick off I wondered why I didn’t turn up late. Royksopp were the only act I overly cared about, even if 40 quid is a bit steep for one band. But then the tight-fisted git in me was rewarded with something I previously thought an oxymoron - good jazz. Good modern jazz. Only Hendrix wandering onto stage could’ve shocked me more. Fitting, then, that this paradox of a band was called Acoustic Ladyland.

Quantic Soul Orchestra followed - more funk than soul but a lovely mix regardless. Thanks to them I’ll soon find myself 12 quid short down HVM. Next came hip hop act K-OS. I hate hip-hop. I liked K-OS. Just what the hell was going on here? An actual tune, variety, interesting lyrics… I threw on a second layer of sun cream, laid back with a smile and proceeded to get rained on.

Morcheeba and The Herbaliser followed. Clearly talented but they failed to get my neurons firing. Royksopp, thankfully, very much did. Royksopp’s Night Out kicked things off, up tempo from the album version and somehow more… thumping. Yes, thumping is the word. Other standouts were Alpha Male, the beautiful Only This Moment and the delightfully precise bleeps of Eple kicked off an electric roller disco up and down my spine. Full on buzz, chemicals not necessary.

To cap things off the drive home was a mere ten minutes. Twickenham needs more music picnics, so say I.

This is a little late, forgot to post it earlier. Oh well. Fantastic Nine Inch Nails video that, for a change, isn’t deeply messed up. Damn clever stuff, and surely one of the first music videos to prominently feature an iTunes visualisation!

The NiN gig I mentioned last week was fantastic, incidentally. I’m told we got a longer set than other stages of the tour too. It’s also the only rock concert I’ve been to where the crowd didn’t demand an encore, almost certainly because everyone quickly relised it could not possibly get any better than closing on Head Like a Hole.

You simply can’t make this stuff up. From the people that brought you SILENCE!, the musical of Silence of the Lambs. There’s even a song clip. I don’t know whether to call this dire, brilliant or both.

Hot sunny weather for weeks here in the UK, then all of a sudden Glastonbury starts so it just has to rain, doesn’t it? Poor sods, it’s almost like nature is keeping up with tradition. One year Lemon Jelly started playing Nice Weather for the Ducks, and what do you know it, the skies opened up seconds later.

You heard me, and yes I’m serious, genuinely top stuff. (I <3 The Shack)

Time to use the Music category finally. ffwd linked the excellent new Royksopp video. Not only are their tracks uniquely delightful their videos are always unfailingly original and clever. Check their site for a few more. Shame my friend told me about their upcoming London gig only AFTER they’re sold out, and all the tickets on eBay are pairs. Er, anyone want to go?

Watched Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy the other day. Good stuff overall - doesn’t quite hit all the notes it wants to, but I’d say it’s as true to the books as you could hope and funny enough too. Also saw Faithless recently - decent gig but nowhere near as good as the last one I went too sadly. Too many slow songs, and they sadly no longer have Zoe Johnston (she did Crazy English Summer and Evergreen) doing backing vocals. Next up is Kingdom of Heaven with which I have full confidence that Ridley Scott will continue his run of superb films. Oh, plus it’s got trebuchet sieges and Ed Norton as a Lepper King. I tell you, it can’t fail!

So ends this LiveJournal-esque diary post. These’ll be kept to a minimum, promise.