American Composers

What’s your opinion of them? I rarely get see people even mentioning any american composers, which in my opinion are as good as the japanese ones. I was PC gamer back in early 2000 and many games I played at that time were filled with fantastic musical scores. Here are my two favorite american composers
Matt Uelmen: (Former Blizzard Composer. He is most known for his scores in the 2 Diablo games)
Frank Klepacki: (Former Westwood Studios composer. He is most known for his scores in the early games of the Command and Conquer series)

So what do you think?

Hmm…Most of my favorite composers are from Japan or Europe. But here are a couple to add to your list:

Rod Abernethy (Hobbit, Dead Space)
Michael Land (Monkey Island series, The Dig)
Jeremy Soule (Secret of Evermore, Morrowind)

Oh yeah I completely forgot Jeremy Soule. His scores are impressive as well. Although I wouldn’t call him a favorite.

Gustaf grefberg..Stabreeze studios.

This man is a genius on how he composed his videogame scores.

Jorge and gullermo badolato are two spain native composers and they did the soundtrack to wheelman, they are very talented.

I generally remain unimpressed by American composers. I may have a few in my collection but, excluding Frank Klepacki, I don’t have much for any of them.

Matt Uelmen, unparalleled craftsmanship among game composers

Japanese game music are very melody driven and easy to appreciate, western game composer generally have stronger composition skills. Good Japanese composers remain in the industry, while best western composers all went on to compose for movies, I mean Michael Giacchino just beats the crap out of Nobou Uematsu, not that Nobou is the best japanese composer anyway.

Matt Uelmen, unparalleled craftsmanship among game composers

I completely agree, very particular sound & very complex are his compositions.

There are a few American composers that I like:
*David Schwartz – "Northern Exposure" (Notably, "Northern Exposure theme")
*Angelo Badalamenti – "Twin Peaks" (Notably, "Falling" & "Nightingale")
*Carter Burwell – "Raising Arizona" (Notably, "Dream of the future" & "R.AZ theme").

Stewart Copeland (Spyro 1 to Enter the Dragonfly)
Greg Edmonson (Uncharted series)

Angelo Badalamenti also composed the score for Indigo Prophecy, one the greatest games I have ever played.

Angelo Badalamenti also composed the score for Indigo Prophecy, one the greatest games I have ever played.

Hands down to Fahrenheit.

sandpaper kisses from Indigo Prophecy, one of the most played songs on my laptop. I was planning making a mv for v for vendetta with this song

sandpaper kisses from Indigo Prophecy, one of the most played songs on my laptop. I was planning making a mv for v for vendetta with this song
FUCK YES SANDPAPER KISSES

Although I was under the strong impression that it wasn’t specifically composed for the game,but rather licensed. Still,awonderful song.

Ontopic:
I’ve been waiting until one of y’all mentions Dan Forden (in b4 lol MKfag),but I see that,as per usual,even in threads devoted to Western VGM he is forgotten.

And that’s fucking bullshit. He is too damn talented to be completely ignored like that.

Soundtracks from the Mortal Kombat games are a magnificent mix of the obligatory deliciously dark ethnic motives and industrial,and have expanded in the later games to include ambient and orchestral pieces. Deception in particular,as flawed as some other aspects of the game were,was easily the most ambitious soundtrack in the series. Can’t wait to hear what’s he got cooking for the next game,since we know that he stepped back into the seat of the lead composer.