Apidya music plaigiarised by acid-house band?

[Marco]

I was listening to some Lords of Acid (Belgian acid-house group) last night when it hit me that the song I was listening to: "James Brown is Dead" sounded almost exactly the same as Chris Hülsbeck's music for world 4 of Apidya, the level where your honey bee gets turned into a mecha-honey bee and fights through an R-Type-esque level complete with enemies copied stylistically from that game.

The music for that level is one of my favourite bits of Miggy music and I was very surprised to hear basically the same chunks of melody slightly re-arranged with some weird vocals about James Brown over the top.

I also checked Chris Hülsbeck's remake that he did for the Apidya Soundtrack album, imaginatively named "Techno Party"; on that even the samples used sound identical.

Something was afoot, what's more there are vocals on Chris' remake that I recognised from somewhere else... Additional investigation led me back to LoA to find that at least one line on the remade Techno Party which has a woman singing/moaning 'the ultimate seduction' came from the LoA song "I'm F*cking Beautiful" (you can imagine the tone of the lyrics, which I can't repeat on a forum where younguns might be reading).

Clearly someone was ripping off someone else, but I don't know which way round, I know a lot of music on Amiga games was copied from other artists - most of Lemmings for example, but I doubt anyone would want to cover such an obscure song for an Amiga game... Chris Hülsbeck knew the guys behind LoA?

Anyway it was a nice discovery for me to be reminded of a great game like Apidya after all this time.

Anyone else hear Amiga game music re-used in places they never would have expected to hear it? I think I read somewhere that a black metal group from Norway covered Tim Wright aka CoLD SToRAGE's title theme for the side-scroller Agony without giving him royalties or even acknowledging the song was his, I've not heard their remake though...

[jmbattle]

May I ask if you have a link to the track/album in question - I tried googling for "James Brown is Dead" and "Lords of Acid" but was unsuccessful - are L.A. Style the same group?

Cheers,
James
x

[Chunder]

Check them out at Amazon - I'm pretty sure that they're not the same band; these guys have got some strange songs such as "Pussy" and "I must increase my bust" - and they also have some... um... interesting anime videos :-) ;-)

[midwan]

Just a quick note regarding Agony's intro music...

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agony_(game)

Norwegian black metal group Dimmu Borgir used the popular title tune for the track Sorgens Kammer on their 1996 album Stormblåst without crediting Tim Wright, the original composer of the tune. Wright later contacted the band, citing a breach of copyright. It transpired that Dimmu Borgir's keyboard player had lifted the track without informing the rest of the band of its origin. This track was not included in later releases of the album.

[golem]

I first heard "James Brown is Dead" on Reactivate #3 on REACT records (compilation of mostly Belgian techno around 1992). That was by LA Style. I think its fair to say most game music is lifted from original, usually better music that sells in its own right?

[Oliver]

I remember 'James Brown Is Dead' when it was released in '91.  It was definitely not underground.  It was a major dance hit of the time, making into the US market, and being played on Video Hits etc. in Australia.  It was definitely released by L.A. Style (Wessel van Diepen & Michiel van der Kuy).  I can't find any reference to Lords of Acid being responsible for that track.  I know a few tracks of LoA, and they're very different in style.

It's still interesting to know the track appeared in Apidya though.  I can't remember the game.  Maybe I missed that one.

edit- According to Wikipedia , Apidya was released in 1992, so LA Style probably wrote the track first.  Interestingly, both Chris Hülsbeck and LA Style released tracks on XYZ records.  Also, this forum post seems to mention the use of the James Brown is Dead track in Apidya, though I can't read German.

[Marco]

Hmm, I may have a misnamed track then, I got that one particular LoA track on a compilation CD a friend burned for me, oh well, I guess it was odd they avoided talking about sex for an entire song. :lol I better rename the track.

For those who don't remember Apidya, it was fairly standard side-scroller in the R-Type vein, including japanese anime-style characters in the intro and outro, your character turns into a honey-bee to get revenge on a sorceror who poisoned your girlfriend. The title had Japanese kana spelling out 'Abidya' presumably a the closest you can get in Japanese to 'Apidae' the name of the species-group that bees are in. Exotica have the soundtrack on their site at here: http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/unexotica/games/Apidya.html. You'll need Deliplayer to listen to it on a Windoze, as it is in the original 'TFMX' format.

Re: Agony and Dimmu Borgir, on the Unexotica page for Agony (http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/unexotica/games/Agony.html) they provide a couple of quotes from Tim Wright in which he says that the band were uncooperative and it wasn't worth him sueing them for 'the pennies' he'd get in compensation. I haven't listened to the album as I said (not really my kinda thing) so I don't know for sure if the later versions have the track or not. Wikipedia is not exactly the most reliable source of information, there're a large number of idiots there with fanboyish obsessions; though a few good articles do get through the mêlée occasionally.

[Oliver]

Hey Marco, thanks for the link to the Apidya music.  I just had a listen to the track for world 4.  I'm pretty sure it's not only borrowed from James Brown Is Dead, but also from some other tracks.  I think I recognise some Joey Beltram in there as well, and also perhaps some Warp records influence in the use of the bleeps.  Anyway, to my ear, it sounds like a compilation of styles, mostly Belgian.

btw, you know Apidya is being remade for PC, right?

[Turrican]

http://www.happycoin.com/wbboard/reply.php?threadid=342&boardid=27&sid=&sid=

info: Apidya ist ein klassischer Horizontalshooter mit bezaubernder Grafik. Du fliegst als Biene, allein oder zu zweit durch Felder und Wiesen, Abwasserkanäle und am Ende sogar durch eine Technowelt. Der Soundtrack stammt von Chris Hülsbeck und untermalt das jeweilige Thema perfekt, so dass man in Level 1 förmlich das Gras riecht und in der Technowelt von einem "James Brown is Dead"-Mix verwöhnt wird. Schöne Waffensysteme, harte Endgegner und eine fantastische Stimmung machen das Game zum Erlebnis.

translation from altavista.com

info.: Apidya is a classical Horizontalshooter with bezaubernder diagram. You fly as a bee, however or too secondly by fields and meadows, Abwasserkan? and at the end even by a Technowelt. The sound TRACK comes from Chris H?beck and under-paints the respective topic perfectly, so that one smells in level 1 f?lich the grass and in the Technowelt by a "James Brown is Dead" mixing is verw?t. Sch? Weapon systems, hard final opponents and a fantastische tendency make the Game the experience.

[foleyjo]

Lords of Acid's main site is simply www.lordsofacid.com !

[Marco]

Oliver wrote:
Hey Marco, thanks for the link to the Apidya music.  I just had a listen to the track for world 4.  I'm pretty sure it's not only borrowed from James Brown Is Dead, but also from some other tracks.  I think I recognise some Joey Beltram in there as well, and also perhaps some Warp records influence in the use of the bleeps.  Anyway, to my ear, it sounds like a compilation of styles, mostly Belgian.

Those crazy Belgians know how to make some damn-good music!

btw, you know Apidya is being remade for PC, right?

Yeah... I saw that site back when it was only 2 years over-due and thought it'd never be finished, now it's 4 years late... I had pretty much forgotten about that. Besides it looks like a straight port, with no alterations, not really something I'd play when I can just boot up UAE and play the original. The T2002 Turrican clone at least offered some new level layouts.