Shadowrun Music, some background music for the runs? Options

[GM Lich]

The name explains most of it. Does anyone know any good shadowrunning music, the certain kind you hear in key scenes in movies. I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about hopefully.

[Saint Sithney]

Are you talking soundtrack, or "cantina scene" ambiance?

I usually play Neurosis as my interpretation of Goblin Rock when players are in a trog bar and maybe some God Lives Underwater when they're in a strip joint or such.

[EvilP]

I've got a lot of Juno Reactor which tends to go on at an ambient, low volume. It's pretty good, but I do need to find something new.

[Platinum]

There have been many many threads about this in the past.

For me, sisters of mercy, megadeth, frontline assembly and kmfdm set the mood, but I am old timer from the 90's.

[Kumo]

Sometimes native japanese music is good idea (when PCs meet Yakuza oyabun in luxury restaurant (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ). Or other native music, for some places or magic rituals.

Well, recently i thought about using this song in SR game (for non-polish gamers, of course... that's why I can't test it)... as something "exotic".

[Ayeohx]

I haven't used it for a while but I use to use Deus Ex's soundtrack (the video game) as background. Thanks for the reminder, I should bust that back out.

Oh, and for japanese music look up the Yoshida Brothers. omg... so good. especially Kodo.

[ravensmuse]

Industrial, random J-pop, some current rock:

KMFDM
Ohgr
Skinny Puppy
Rammstein
Depeche Mode
The Cure
Rob / White Zombie
Static-X
Tommy Heavenly / February
Ghost in the Shell soundtracks
Guilty Gear XX #Reload
Metric

That's what I've got on my ipod right now as I write SR stuff. We use about the same soundtrack when we game though.

[kanislatrans]

Combichrist
The cruxshadows
Razed in black
sisters of mercy
flogging molly or dropkick murphys- for that elffy celtic feel
Doria gray and the retrosic= welcome to the shadows just cause it is shadowrun related
Harmony Steele if you can find her stuff
Motorhead cause lemmy is God
Switchblade Symphony
Bjork cause her stuff is just wierd
Dragonforce
Fever ray
bat for lashes
Lacuna coil
did I mention The cruxshadow?....lots and lots of CXS(grin)

are just a few that i use as background music

[Blade]

With the search function, you should be able to find a lot of threads about this.

[Zak]

The Prodigy - Take me to the hospital.

when things go wrong again (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

[Phatom]

My group uses AIM to play so I can listen to euro dance club on Net radio as I play to get me in the right mind set. I don't know what the others listen to that play as well.

[Lass]

I guess Im the party pooper on this but find music at the gaming table to be nothing but annoying! Last thing I wanna do is talk over the soundtrack of someone's angst while figuring out how best to snuff some Lone Star guards.

[koogco]

All of the Ghost in the shell music is great, its very varried, and good for various situations in SR; Jpop for that japanese place downtown, classical stuff for that fine restoraunt, rock stuff (without singing) for those combat scenes, dance/tekno for the nighclubs, even some silly music for those times.
Mind you, i have not put this collection to use yet (we are starting up this Friday though) i also have:
music from the matrix (some cant be used, cause its too known)
music from blade runner (for when you want something that stays in the background more)
music from various CnC games (its made to be background music, and its great for tense situations between combat)
the music from mirrors edge (it does not fit the general grittiness that well, but its good for other situations with a different mood I think
I also use the following artist:
Apex Twin
Misen
Earthbound

I had to steer clear of my favourite music such as Muse or Daft Punk, cause that would get me out of the SR mood i think (not to mention that I would play it way too much (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif) )

EDIT: Oh, i forgot to mention the fallout games, music frmo the old ones are great background music, and from fallout 3 you get the old music that might work in the barrens or something, I'm not sure yet.

[ravensmuse]

Earthbound? As in the video game?

Have you listened to Bound Together yet, by chance? Excellent fan remix of most of the soundtrack. I've got it on my ipod too.

[Semerkhet]

Over the last ten years I've accumulated a huge amount of music for gaming, probably thirty hours worth. About 60% is from video/computer game soundtracks, 30% from movie/tv soundtracks, and about 10% rock/folk/world/techno/etc. Most computer games have the music files in mp3 format somewhere in the directory structure. For games you don't own, there are plenty of sources out there like usenet and bittorrent.

The reason I find video game soundtracks so useful is that they're composed to conform to exactly the sort of specifications we need as GMs. The music is designed to be playing in the background over long periods of time, enhancing mood but not being too obtrusive. They also have the advantage of few lyrics and low recognition factor, reducing player distraction from over-familiar songs. Now that I'm running Shadowrun instead of a historical game I'm leaning more heavily into non-soundtrack music for various nightclubs and restaurants.

I usually organize the tracks, by theme, into about a half dozen playlists with names like The Barrens, Downtown, Nightclubs, Combat, Creepy Ambiance, On the Run. I don't micromanage the music; if they're in the Barrens, then The Barrens playlist is on random. If they get into combat, I switch over to the combat playlist.

Anyway, this is what works for me. I find it adds a little something to most sessions, but every once in a while exactly the right musical cue coincides with some dramatic moment in the game. Those moments make the effort of acquiring and categorizing the music worth while.

[koogco]

That (@ Semerkhet) is exactly what i am doing. and to answer ravensmuse, its not the videogame but rather a Swedish group of people making dance music (quite a bit of it with no vocal)

[ravensmuse]

That (@ Semerkhet) is exactly what i am doing. and to answer ravensmuse, its not the videogame but rather a Swedish group of people making dance music (quite a bit of it with no vocal)

Aw, go and disappoint me, why don't you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Lordmalachdrim]

Savatage

[Blade]

I also do like Semerkhet, there are also a lot of great video game music available for free.