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Otrev Niskangaasi (born 23.09YC50) is a Caldari musician and celebrity personality from the Dantumi system in Lonetrek. His career began in the YC70s when he played first as an unlicensed musician and then under a local contract with the cultural administration firm on Dantumi III. The YC76 hits "Silence on the Edge of Space" and "The Towers" propelled Niskangaasi to the closest equivalent to stardom found in the Caldari State: the rights to his music and image were bought by a major media corp. In the following years, Niskangaasi's music reached consumers in markets across the Okunda constellation and wider Lonetrek, where he has always enjoyed a loyal following among the lower-tier working classes.
Over the decades, Niskangaasi's musical style has been lumped in with the "industrial core", "state pop", and "new dirge" genres, but the artist has always maintained a style many consider unique to himself. The use of a marching drum cadence in his more energetic and patriotic tracks like YC81's "No More" is contrasted with the acoustic strings and lyrical honesty of songs like "Running in Place". Like many artists sympathetic to the plight of the common worker in the years prior to YC110, Niskangaasi often masked the political messages in his music with references to history rather than addressing issues directly. This was fairly common among musicians who enjoyed the support of a megacorp label during that era, especially in the Patriot bloc.
Niskangaasi's career went through a drought in the last decade and his popularity declined sharply after a disastrous tour in YC102 that was plagued by cancelled shows and the temporary dissolution of the band. The Provist Revolution of YC110 brought with it a renewed interest in Niskangaasi's music, especially given the theme of the common man and woman's struggle for survival in an unforgiving hyper-capitalist society that runs throughout his best known songs. Niskangaasi signed a contract with Echelon Entertainment in YC112 and entered the studio to begin crafting new music. The 08.08YC114 release of his eleventh album, "Back in Black", has been billed as a comeback for this once fading artist.
The first single released off the album, "Death to My Homeworld", is a cover of a patriotic anthem from the turn of the last century:
[spoiler]Yep, it's a direct rip off the Springsteen song on his latest album "Wrecking Ball", which is fantastic. Sung to the tune of the real song--YouTube link in the title.[/spoiler]
Death to My Homeworld (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UASyS-jUKKI)
Charged plasma did fly
Rail rifles cut us down
Bombs fell from the sky
Our blood soaked the ground
Laser flash blinded the eye
And deafening thunder sounded
Just as sure as the Maker moves
They brought death to my homeworld
They brought death to my homeworld boys
Their bolts ripped the evening sky
Our cities burning down
Ships stormed the skies for which we’d die
And their armies stormed the ground
High off on a quiet night
I heard every sound
The Gallente raided in the dark and brought death to my homeworld, boys
Death to my homeworld
They destroyed our stations, factories, and they took our homes
They left our bodies in the hills
Their robots picked our bones
So listen up, Caldari boy
Be ready, the day will come
For we'll be returning sure as the rising sun
Now get yourself a job to do and do it ’til you’re done
Yeah, do it hard and do it well
Leave the crooked liars right where they fell
The greedy thieves who came around
And stole the heart of everything they’d found
Whose crimes have gone unpunished still
Roam the stars as free men still
And they brought death to our homeworld, boys
Death to our homeworld, boys
Death to our homeworld, boys
Death to our homeworld