A Jazz sequel to our youth: Video Game Music. 

We are Grand Noise Consortium, a jazz combo comprising trumpet, piano, drums and bass, based in rural Victoria, Australia. Our debut album, Our Time Well Wasted is an instrumental jazz interpretation of significant themes from classic video games. 

Why video game music?

Anyone who plays video games knows how their theme music becomes permanently etched into your memory. Despite the endless repetition, no one gets sick of listening to video game sound.

When was the last time you muted the volume because you couldn’t handle hearing the Mario theme song one more time? 

That's because this music is some of the catchiest, smartest and most moving ever made. It was written on the most basic computing hardware under the tightest of limitations, yet the composers were able to extract amazing amounts of emotional depth and excitement from it. That music is what accompanied you running through that level in Mario in a record time, or entering that forbidden dungeon in Zelda for the 30th time.

Mario, Zelda and Tetris have all been around for thirty years now but the graphics, game mechanics and simple, yet elegant music are all cultural touchstones. Revisiting them all was such great fun and took us right back to those great gaming sessions of our youth.

The tracks included on the album are:

1. Megaman: Doctor Wily's Theme

2. Zelda Main Title Theme

3. Super Mario Brothers Main Theme

4. Still Alive: Portal End Credits Song

5. Pacman Arcade Theme

6. Katamari Damacy: Main Theme

7. Duck Tales: Moon Theme

8. Pokemon Red/Blue Theme

9. Tetris A Theme Song

It’s a miracle really that we actually got this done rather than whipping out our Gameboys instead.

How Grand Noise Consortium came to be.

We have often played around with our favourite video game themes in the past. We played in several instrumental funk bands during our early twenties but our musical adventures went on hiatus while Jeremy lived overseas, toured internationally with his ska/punk bank and then started a family in Daylesford.

However, when it was time to start this new creative venture, Jeremy knew it was his old partner in jazz, Stephen, who would be the perfect accomplice.

Late last year we began rehearsing as a new jazz combo and so began the Grand Noise Consortium. We started with a purpose: breathe new life into the great music that was the soundtrack of our childhood.

We then got a great group of guys on board with Willy Pleasance on drums, John Howell on bass guitar and Richard Pleasance on double bass.

We recorded the album in Richard Pleasance's studio on Elevated Plains just outside of Hepburn Springs in Victoria, Australia.

Why we need you.

Recording and releasing music outside of the old label/industry model is difficult, expensive (without any label support) and time consuming. However, Crowd funding has given us the exciting opportunity to record and release the music that we want to hear. 

Unfortunately the physical manufacturing and mechanical licensing are expensive (all the original composers must get their dues!) and so here we are.

Any help you can give us to get over this final hurdle and actually make this album a physical reality is gratefully received. We hope you will love it as much as we loved making it. 

We will be using the funds to finally bring this album out on CD and download, hold a great launch and make sure we leave all of our supporters flush with great swag.

The total costs to make this happen are $2550.00 which is our target for the project.

We have already invested $1950.00 to get this far and just need your help to get the last step finished.

The total breakdown for the costs of the album are as follows:

1. Recording and Producing the Album: $1950.00
2. CD Manufacturing 500 copies: $1520.00
3. Mechanical Licensing for 500 copies: $480.00
4. Swag Manufacturing costs (Pins, Keyrings, Prints): $550.00

Total Costs: $4500.00

We worked hard to complete the album and have it ready for release. A big challenge is to make sure that it gets to as many people as possible and by supporting this project you're helping us to do just that.

Otherwise our biggest challenge in this project will be to do the original composers proud. 

We think their work deserves all the respect we can possibly give it. Our way of making sure that this happens is to keep playing it and keep experimenting just as they did.

Only good things can come of that.

This album will only be the start of our Grand New Project and we already have lots of ideas in the works for new and interesting projects in the future.