We at Johnny Outlaw Studios are proud to present a brand new release of the Johnny Outlaw Demo, Playable Here .
This update heralds a new age of efficient code, an age without lag, an age with improved story and animations, but beyond and soaring high above resides the realm of music.
Today we celebrate the music of Johnny Outlaw. Artists, writers, coders. Their work is empty.
Images? What are images? Images fall short. They deceive and beguile. There is no honesty in an image. No. In them we find only the fallibility of human reason and the impermanence of all things.
Words? Words alone could never convey the vast oceans of emotion, the immeasurable depth of the human experience. In the face of such a task, what is the value of a mere word?
You see, when words and images fail, we at Johnny Outlaw Studios turn to Maestro Matt Dunn.
If music be the wine of the soul, then Maestro Dunn is the chalice.
To inaugurate this new edition of the Demo, the good Maestro has given us several new compositions. Here I will take some time to review a selection of two. I assure you I will not go easy on him.
“A Well Travelled Man” (Featured in the Menu and Map screens)
A Well Travelled Man - Johnny Outlaw: Gun for Hire
– The anthem of the American West itself, the spirit of Manifest Destiny bottled for the modern listener, sold as a snake oil. It encapsulates the fear of the unknown, the thirst for adventure, the longings for a past that never was, and the brazen hope for a future that may never be. At the heart of this composition is a variation on the Johnny Outlaw theme, and an impeachable darkness. Perhaps the demons of our better nature have at last come to light. Is this is but a foretaste of things to come? 5 out of 5 stars.
“Man Mountain” (On temporary exhibition in Coyote Canyon)
Man Mountain audio - Johnny Outlaw: Gun for Hire
– A salute, or dare I say satire, of the industriousness of the l9th century. Touched by an air of militarism and measured rhythm, this piece is in many ways a dirge for society, the luckless victim of mechanization and bureaucratization. The only corruption in this new order comes from a familiar twang, a sound that is synonymous with outlawry itself. Is it a sinister force at work beneath the surface, or is it the last thread of humanity in a dehumanized world? Man has fashioned himself a mountain. It cannot be blown away by the winds, eroded by the rains. It can only be destroyed by a catalyst from within, by dynamite in human form. 5 of out of 5 stars.
“Untitled”
"Untitled" audio - Johnny Outlaw: Gun for Hire
- A song without name, only adding more layers to the mysteries it holds. A calculating piece, not entirely sinister, but one which you hesitate to put trust in. Yet, it would seem that if you hesitate for even a second, the music itself will overtake you, and swallow you into an abyss absent of all life, where only rhythm and melody may find you until the end of days. Hypnotic, but only because the listener desires to be hypnotized. The intermittent, brisk piano runs are your only salvation from relentless seduction by this conspiracy of tone and cadence. 5 out of 5 stars.
There are many more compositions in place, but the words I put down are pestering gnats to the mind. Music is the only salve. You must play the Johnny Outlaw demo and listen for yourself.
