VG Frequency

Following up on news of the C64 Orchestra’s first album, Run 10, CNN.com recently spotlighted the Commodore 64 as part of the computer’s 25th anniversary. Andreas Wallström of C64.com (and featured in Makke’s Artura arrangement “Dublin Delight“), was interviewed on the legacy of the computer along with Harry McCracken of PC Gamer and Rob Kramer of productiehuis Oost-Nederland.

In the story’s information on the C64 Orchestra, CNN also noted the planned US release of Run 10 as January 15, underscoring the C64 popularity not just in gaming and emulation but music as well. The story also features brief video of the C64 Orchestra performing live, as well as over 20 user-contributed photos, a part of CNN’s I-Report.

Fan label OneUp Studios is eBaying a bundle of nearly every release they’ve ever been involved in to support Child’s Play this year with 100% of the winning bid money.

The current bid is only a little over US$202, a steal for 12 albums, many of them both rare and out-of-print, plus some shirts and sheet music. A pretty sweet deal if you can get it, even Music 4 Games is noting it.

eBay lists the auction as closing on Dec-12-07 19:56:11 PST. Just mentioning it here in the event that someone collects VGM albums and/or thinks they can grab this huge bundle at a pretty good price. Do it for the chilluns!

From the auction, linkage provided by me to further promote your laziness [read: help you size up what you’re potentially getting]:

In support of Penny Arcade’s amazing, gamer-centric charity, Child’s Play, video game music label OneUp Studios is auctioning off a collection of albums representing the entire span of its music history. This includes 12 albums (14 discs) of music, two limited editions T-Shirts, and sheet music. Here is a detailed list of the contents:

Project Majestic Mix - A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu (Gold Edition) #1426 of 1500
Project Majestic Mix - A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu (Silver Edition) #0036 of 3000
Project Majestic Mix in association with OneUp Studios Present SQUAREDANCE Limited Edition #52 of 1000
Project Majestic Mix in association with OneUp Studios Present SQUAREDANCE Standard Edition
OneUp Studios Presents Time & Space - A Tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda (Green Version)
OneUp Studios Presents Time & Space - A Tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda (Blue Version)
OneUp Studios The Very Best of SEGA
Xenogears Light | an arranged album
The OneUps - Volume 1
Dale North & Mustin present More Than Mario
Final Fanboy - Prelude
Earthworm Jim Anthology
Adult XL OneUp Studios T-Shirt (only 15 were made)
Small Womens Raglan The OneUps Shirt - Mushroom Style (only 30 were made)
“Broken Mirror” Sheet Music from Xenogears Light | an arranged album

Orchestral Commodore 64 arrangements aren’t new. Any fan of the yearly Symphonic Game Music Concerts would know that. But by no means are they old hat. In the same company as the Final Fantasy series or major Nintendo franchises, arrangements of soundtracks from the classic computer are comparatively hard to come by.

Last month, the European-based Commodore arrangement scene took its first steps toward physical media of an orchestral act exclusive to the SID chip with the C64 Orchestra’s release of their first album, Run 10 (which I’ve already added to VGMdb).

Legendary composer Rob Hubbard orchestrated the album, which features arrangements of both his work and fellow A-list C64 composer Jeroen Tel performed by the Ricciotti Ensemble, whose mission is to have fun bringing their music to crowds both large and small, no matter how atypical the audience may be. The concept of the C64 Orchestra was first launched in September 2006.

Published by productiehuis Oost-Nederland, the two-disc album rings up pretty pricey for any Stateside early adopters at €35, especially for arrangements of only ten games. But the set also includes copies of the original tunes as well as interviews with Hubbard and Tel among other features (including the tools needed to remix the Orchestra’s take on Monty on the Run). Keep in mind the album’s swanky box design as well.

The album’s European release supplements the group’s plans to continue touring with their concert series, while the official rollout of the album in the US is still ahead this coming January.

Last week, Jayson Napolitano of Music 4 Games interviewed Arnie Roth, the conductor and co-creator of the Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY concert tour. With the premiere concert in Stockholm set to begin any minute now tonight, it’s a great time to highlight Roth’s latest interview.

In it, Roth went over the reasons for creating Distant Worlds, the possibility of other Final Fantasy series composers besides Nobuo Uematsu having their work arranged for the tour, concerns about saturating the marketplace for VGM concerts, fan reaction during the performances, the substantial amount of brand new material developed for the concerts, the official CD and possible DVD releases, and why (if allowed only one choice) concert-goers should choose to attend Distant Worlds.

Solid questions, with some good insight from Roth, particularly in highlight the breadth of new material Distant Worlds will be showcasing. Audun “AkumuHau” Sørlie of Nitro Game Injection is in attendance tonight and is a friend of Roth’s, so hopefully he’ll share some thoughts on tonight’s performance in the coming days.

The November 2007 edition of Pelit, Finland’s top gaming magazine recently reviewed OverClocked ReMix’s Final Fantasy VII arrangement album Voices of the Lifestream. Translated from Finnish by fan Joonas Lehmusjoki, the 5-star review from Pelit’s Juho Penttilä is presented in full:

MUSIC FOR THE ANNIVERSARY

What happens, when fourty-two musicians remixes the soundtrack to a classic videogame? Even though the project is done by OverClocked ReMix, known for its quality remixes, my mind just kept telling me it’s not going to be good. But what does my mind know.

Voices of the Lifestream has been released just in time to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Final Fantasy 7. The album had been in the works for over one and a half years, including 45 remixed FF7 songs divided into four discs. The total running time for the album is massive three and a half hours. And all of this is downloadable for free from their website, including the cover and disc art.

There are almost as many music styles on Voices of the Lifestream as there are musicians who have been making it. The album is opened by the ethereal “Deliverance of the Heart,” where bright female voice is combined perfectly with Nobuo Uematsu’s beautiful melodies. After this you’ll be hearing all from techno and rock to classical music styles. The highlights of the first disc are the wonderful “Lunatic Moon,” strongly electric guitar based “Full Frontal Assault” and slow and atmospheric “Materia Junkie.”

The quality stays as strong with all the other discs. You’ll be hearing the majestic “Jenova Returns” and “Beginning of the End,” and beautiful, fully piano arranged songs “A Life Without Parole” and “Stone Eyes.” “Midnight at Club Corel” and many other great songs give their parts to the whole experience, before the album is ended successfully with “Golden Ivories of Gaia” potpourri.

The length of the album is also its weakest link. When you combine this many different styles and musicians there is bound to be few ugly ducklings. Thankfully there aren’t many of them. Unnecessary songs, like the million times heard Chocobo theme and “Golden Feathers” should’ve been left out of the album.

Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream is the most interesting event on the Internet music scene in a long time. Although there are a few flaws, the album surprises one song after another and stays interesting throughout its whole length - as long as you don’t listen to it in one go.

Voices of the Lifestream is a must-listen for all fans of Nobuo Uematsu’s music, but the music on the album works even for people who have never played any of the Final Fantasy games.

Juho Penttilä

Well, if you’ve ever considered yourself an artist, you know just how to deal with criticism: roll with the good, and utterly and totally disregard the bad. Don’t include the Chocobo themes? I can’t imagine how much bad press Voices of the Lifestream would have gotten had the team NOT included those themes.

As for the overwhelming positive, you don’t take our word for it of course. Page 19 of Pelit’s November 2007 issue is right here at VGF if you wanna check it out. For more information on OverClocked ReMix’s media coverage over the years, visit their Press page.

I mentioned a couple of months ago that the crew behind Video Games Live was going to release a compilation album of segments from previous shows called Video Games Live: Greatest Hits – Volume One. The announced release date for the album was October 15.

Well, that time has passed, and we’re still albumless. Tommy Tallarico was at the E for All Expo from October 18-21, and there he announced that, due to copyright issues, the CD was delayed until the Christmas season. Furthermore, the album could be delayed until 2008 if EMI Classics, the publisher, decides that they don’t want the album competing with other albums released around Christmas.

You can console yourself with this tracklist:

1. The Legend of Zelda® - Symphonic Suite
2. Warcraft® Suite
3. Civilization IV Medley
4. Final Fantasy® Piano Medley
5. Advent Rising Suite
6. Tron Montage
7. Sonic™ the Hedgehog – Symphonic Suite
8. Myst® Medley
9. Super Mario Bros.™ - Symphonic Suite
10. Mario™ Piano Medley
11. Halo® Suite
12. Final Fantasy® VII – “One-Winged Angel” Live

Check out the full composer/arranger/performer breakdown at the album’s listing at VGMdb.

So I definitely didn’t notice this until my man AkumuHau placed the album up on VGMdb a couple of days ago, but Jason “Xoc” Cox re-released his landmark Super Mario World tribute album SMW with various touchups to the existing tracks as well as several new tracks based on other theme variations. Xoc missed out on doing some new Halloween-inspired material, and has instead come out with SMW Goldinum Edition, revealed at The Shizz.

The track total’s been bumped up to 30 arrangements, including new “Map 2 (Overworld)” variants like “Cheese Bridge”, “Soda Lake” and “Cookie Mountain”. While the usage of “Do the Mario” from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! is still there, also added is an arrangement tackling the more apropos theme song to the Super Mario World cartoon series, originally written by noted game composer (and Devo member) Mark Mothersbaugh.

Why are you still here??? Go listen.

On October 28, François Bezeau, better known as Rimo, finally launched VGM Rush, a site dedicated to Western VGM; that’s “Western” as in American, European, etc. as opposed to Asian, not “Western” as in Wild West cowboys and outlaws. The site features composer credits for a bunch of different games, associated soundtrack, arrangement, and original albums, and composer biographies and full works lists. VGM Rush is still less than a month old and obviously still growing, but it’s got some very good content for something so new and is definitely worth checking out.

One example of the burgeoning content is an interview posted on November 7 with Alexander Brandon, who composed for such games as Tyrian, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, and Deus Ex. The interview is excellent, covering Brandon’s game compositions, original work (including his latest original album, Era’s End), thoughts on the industry, and a whole slew of other good stuff. Brandon himself stated that the interview is “the most in depth interview [he’s] ever done.”

VGM Rush: Were you ever limited by a director when composing for a certain project or did you always write with complete freedom?

Alexander Brandon: I felt Deus Ex: Invisible War was more sparse than it should have been. The design lead really pushed “Thief” as a reference. Don’t get me wrong, I love that game series and all the audio in it, however DX I think has more depth to its gameplay choices and the music should have reflected that.

For just about all my other projects I provided solid reasoning into my decisions for either my writing or composers I would hire, and sometimes I’d get the usual “that sounds like a synthesizer” argument, to which I have a very powerful arsenal of responses now, but for the most part its complete freedom these days.

Just read the whole thing already. You won’t regret it.

The ultimate new resource on video game music albums is growing like a weed. On November 3rd, VGMdb creator (and music curator of Slightly Dark) Ken “Secret Squirrel” Moore announced what he dubbed a milestone for the database. It’s hard to disagree:

I’m pleased to announce that, as of this morning, we’ve surpassed the 5000 album milestone. While not every one of those albums is a perfect entry, with fully researched tracklist/artist information, I think we’ve made some great progress towards that goal, and we’re now offering a significant amount of information that was previously not available anywhere.

In addition, earlier this week we exceeded 100,000 total album page views. I’ve been particularly pleased to notice that many of our pages have top billing in the Google search results for their catalog number.

So anyway, I’d like to thank all of you for everything that we’ve been able to achieve here. It’s made me very happy to see a lot of new names on the active members list, many of whom have already made significant contribution; keep up the great work.

I’ve personally added a number of albums onto VGMdb, and fellow VG Frequency writer ‘Ili “CHz” Butterfield is on staff there as well, so I’m definitely glad to see the concept take off and do a great job working with all of the VGM catalog sites out there to not only aggregate the information, but provide an even more comprehensive, interactive, more easily expandable destination to learn more about video game music. Any site with me in the database has to be good!

I mentioned last month that there is a Mega Man 1-6 rock arrange album coming out in the beginning of December. Well, since then, there have been a few developments that I haven’t reported because they happened during a phase where I just didn’t feel like writing anything (but I’m back now!): the tracklist was released, and a second arrangement album was announced, this time with “techno” arrangements.

The tracklist for the second album was announced as well recently, so let’s check ‘em out.

20th Anniversary Rock Man 1~6 Rock Arrange Ver.
KDSD-00173
Release date: December 5, 2007
Arrangement: Tohru Iwao (Guilty Gear guitarist)
[official site]

1. Boss mix medley
2. Cutman mix
3. Metalman mix
4. Dr.Wily 1 (Rockman2) mix
5. Shadowman mix
6. Get a Weapon (Rockman3)mix
7. Dr.Cossack 2 mix
8. Dr.wily (Rockman5) mix
9. Yamatoman mix
10. Tomahawkman mix
11. Title mix medley
12. Cutman (Original, Short Ver.)
13. Metalman (Original, Short Ver.)
14. Dr.Wily 1 (Original, Short Ver.)
15. Shadowman (Original, Short Ver.)
16. Get a Weapon (Original, Short Ver.)
17. Dr.Cossack 2 (Original, Short Ver.)
18. Dr.wily (Original, Short Ver.)
19. Yamatoman (Original, Short Ver.)
20. Tomahawkman (Original, Short Ver.)

20th Anniversary Rock Man 1~6 Techno Arrange Ver.
KDSD-00174
Release date: December 19, 2007
Arrangement: Shinji Hosoe
[official site]

1. Stage Sellect mix medley
2. Elecman mix
3. Dr.Wily 1 (Rockman2)mix
4. Quickman mix
5. Airman mix
6. Heatman mix
7. Snakeman mix
8. Magnetman mix
9. Dr.Wily 2 (Rockman4)mix
10. Starman mix
11. Flameman mix
12. Elecman (Original, Short Ver.)
13. Dr.Wily 1 (Original, Short Ver.)
14. Quickman (Original, Short Ver.)
15. Airman (Original, Short Ver.)
16. Heatman (Original, Short Ver.)
17. Snakeman (Original, Short Ver.)
18. Magnetman (Original, Short Ver.)
19. Dr.Wily 2 (Original, Short Ver.)
20. Starman (Original, Short Ver.)
21. Flameman (Original, Short Ver.)

While it’s nice that both albums have the original tracks on them as well, I’m a bit disappointed because that’s space that could be used for more arrangements. Both albums are currently up for preorder on VGM World, as are the Mega Man 7 and 8 soundtracks that I also mentioned in my previous post.

Stockholm, Sweden native Mattias “Another Soundscape” Gerdt helped kick off the inaugural edition of FF-XIII.net’s FXN Final Fantasy XIII Podcast, lending his Final Fantasy VII “Fanfare” arrangement, “Too Much Fighting”, fresh off the Voices of the Lifestream album.

The Final Fantasy XIII fansite obtained permission directly from the artist to use “Too Much Fighting” as the podcast’s first song presentation. Swing by FF-XIII.net’s podcast section to check out Episode 1, and you can jump up to around the 128-minute mark to hear the Canadian crew discuss Voices of the Lifestream and Another Soundscape before closing the show out with his excellent ReMix. FF-XIII.net is hoping to feature additional OC ReMix artists for future podcasts, so keep an eye out for additional episodes as they’re released.

After pimping several of their newest tracks in anticipation, this afternoon Powerglove released their latest album, Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man:

On the Glorious Day of Halloween Day, Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, the new album by The Powerglove Woodwind Quartet, has manifested itself.

There’s a button to order it on the main MySpace page.

It will be on CDBaby, iTunes and other places soon as well.

We’re tired and are fresh out of absurd hyperbole at the moment, so far now I’d just like to thank you guys for waiting for this CD and not forgetting about it.

So copying the band in the interest of brevity, lemme give you quick and dirty of the tracklist before we wrap up. I can do that because I also added the album to VGMdb in the very early hours this morning:

01 - So Sexy Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)
02 - Mario Minor (Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World)
03 - Fight On (Killer Instinct)
04 - Vanquish the Horrible Night (Castlevania II, Castlevania III)
05 - Blasting the Hornet (Mega Man X3)
06 - The Duck Grinder (Duck Hunt)
07 - Power, Wisdom, Courage (The Legend of Zelda)
08 - Omnishred (We’re Going to Need a Bigger Sword) (Final Fantasy VII)
09 - Holy Orders (Be Quick and Just Shred) (Guilty Gear)
10 - Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man (Mortal Kombat, Mega Man II)
11 - Red Wings Over Baron (Final Fantasy IV)

Lastly, the band also announced today that the entirety of the album will be rotated through their MySpace page’s music player, providing those of you sitting on the edge of the pool the chance to get your feet wet before giving in and putting on the ‘Glove. Give in, boys and girls, give in. Wasn’t buying the Power Glove worth it back in the NES days?

Don’t answer that.

From the ROFL file over at the OverClocked ReMix forums, I can’t even make this stuff up. Yesterday, OCR forum member Raziellink shat on the European remix soundtrack, Sonic the Hedgehog (edited for clarity), after initially believing it to be a potentially good find. Know this image and protect thine ears in response:

Alright, I was in our local music store yesterday, and I was going through some bargain bins. The fact that every CD in it was priced at €1, I thought I would check it out.

What did I find? An old Sonic soundtrack CD from 1996. What the hell? Such a CD, for only €1? I checked the back, and the songs were called “Sonic Metropolis Trance Zone”, or “Entering Death Egg Zone”. Though I am not a big Sonic fan, I understood that the songs were likely to be remixes of the original songs. I picked it up, and immediately bought it. “Wow, what a cool find”, I thought to myself.

Holy shit, what was I in the wrong. It did not take me more then the first couple of seconds of the first song to get sick. And the rest of the songs were equally bad! It hardly has anything to do with the original music, and if it does, it has been replaced by crappy, NO, horrible 90’s dance/trance, of which even the AVERAGE remixer here should be ashamed of.

I understood completely why that CD had been lying there for all those years, and why I can’t find an image on Google of it. It cost me €1, but damn, I regret buying it.

Apparently, one euro buys you earhurt in the Netherlands. As for an example of some of the crap on this album, let me hook you up with a cut from this disc entitled “They Call Me Sonic”. We got an awful remix submission of this theme a few weeks ago. Once I checked out the source material, I heard the old awfulness that inspired the new awfulness.

YouTube has quite a bunch of crappy AMVs that tackle this song. Let’s hook you up with one. Don’t worry, as far as these go, this is one of the “best.” Good luck:

Mustin has reassembled the Bad Dudes for OneUp Studios‘ new Halloween-themed EP, entitled Zombies Rocked My Neighbors. Let’s find out what’s up from the head Dude:

The Bad Dudes are back with another EP of some freaky business for you all. It’s Halloween and time to scare some kids. So we deliver unto you some scary tracks (and well, some not so scary tracks, but they rock anyway). Put them on your Haunted House playlists for the neighborhood kids or just freak out your friends by locking them in the closet for a few weeks, not feeding them, and making them listen to zyko. ouch. Enjoy this freaky business and we’ll deliver more sooner than later.

~m

Along with some scary uh…pumpkin-esque album art from Maximo Lorenzo, the tracklist from yesterday’s seven track release includes arrangements of several scary and otherwise trippy games that go bump in the night including Castlevania, Psychonauts & Silent Hill, as well as other soundtrack given the spooky treatment such as Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess courtesy of Diggi Dis, JigginJonT, Kaijin, ktriton, Mazedude, Mustin & zyko.

If your wallet is so inclined, the Dudes have a PayPal donate button on the album page you can hit in order to give them something they need a lot more than Halloween candy…or even worse, fruit. They don’t need no stinkin’ apples.

Well, it’s more like 35 hours if you’re reading right at the moment we’ve posted, but Powerglove’s done it before and, by Dracula’s heart, they’re doing it again.

Following up on the previous success of temporarily releasing material from their upcoming album Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, Powerglove has followed up the online sneak peek release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 “So Sexy Robotnik” with another medley exclusively available on their MySpace for 48 hours only.

This time, the Arlington, MA band has tackled Castlevania II with “Vanquish the Horrible Night.” Better crack that whip and check this one out before it’s too late.

A busy day for Arnie Roth and AWR Music Productions on Monday as news rolled out en masse for the new, upcoming international concert series Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY.

Produced by both Roth and Nobuo Uematsu, the first concert has been announced for Stockholm, Sweden on December 4, 2007, two weeks shy of the 20th anniversary the original Final Fantasy. The tentative Stockholm program currently lists selections from the first eleven games in the series, and will be performed at the Stockholm Concert Hall by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Allmänna Sången choir.

In conjunction with the debut of the concert series, AWR Music Productions will also be releasing a 75-minute CD at the premiere performance. Created by Roth and the Stockholm performers, the companion album features most of the pieces prepared for the first concert.

A March 1, 2008 performance in Chicago’s Rosemont Theatre with the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra and CPO Festival Choir is the only officially announced date beyond the concert series’ debut, with both dates featuring attendance by series composer Uematsu.

Thanks to Mustin for forwarding the news.

The OneUps‘ recent performance at Penny Arcade Expo continues to pay big dividends as the band was profiled yesterday by Seattle’s Kristin Kalning, games editor of MSNBC.com.

Kalning’s piece, entitled “Making music out of ‘Super Mario Bros.‘”, focused on the band’s struggles to find an audience since its formation, as well as the triumph of performing at this year’s PAX, painting an optimistic picture for the band’s future including upcoming gigs at Ikkicon & AniMix, as well as plans for a 2-disc follow-up album to The OneUps Volume 1. Audio samples from The OneUps Volume 1 were also included.

In terms of the angle of the piece, many of the same sentiments found in other mainstream media coverage of the VGM arrangement community were there including video game music being viewed as unknown, the hobby of VGM arrangement being viewed as strange, and the artists being characterized as struggling. Nothing out of the ordinary, but then again nothing untruthful in the major majority of cases.

However, the one direction the piece didn’t go in that I was grateful for was classifying older video game music as “bleeps and bloops.” Kristin Kalning, you have a new fan.

In an almost ironic follow-up to the madfiddler plagiarism situation a few days ago, OverClocked ReMix’s latest album, the Final Fantasy VII tribute Voices of the Lifestream, was plagiarized on October 9 by 22-year-old Tijuana, Baja California resident Israel Alcántar González, otherwise known as DjNeTisra.

In an October 10 blog post (in Spanish, and has since been deleted), González claimed 13 of Voices‘ tracks as a new album called Materia 2007, complete with new album cover. In an audacious facade, González fabricated reasons for creating the songs, attributing bLiNd & Leifo’s track “Fading Entity” as being inspired by the “plight of the planet” in the face of pollution and global warming. González also claimed that other remixes would follow “with a lot of dedication,” implying plans to gradually use other arrangements stolen from the 45-track album as new releases.

A fan from the Tijuana area who personally knew González had heard of the release of Materia 2007 and passed along the news to another friend, who instantly recognized the album as being stolen from OC ReMix and immediately notified site creator David “djpretzel” Lloyd, who then threw out a forum message condemning the artistic theft.

González was confronted that night via MSN chat by album contributor Juan “Sixto Sounds” Medrano, a Texan, a Spanish speaker and one of the victims of the plagiarism. After questioning González on whether he made the tracks himself and subsequently confronting him about the theft, González quickly closed the chat session.

OC ReMix Judge and Voices contributor Larry “Liontamer” Oji then flooded DjNeTisra’s blogs and art galleries with information about the plagiarism, resulting in access to those areas promptly being removed by González. Liontamer and Sixto then registered at a local website for LAN gaming, LAN Party Tijuana (where González is an administrator) and proceeded to post information of the theft on every forum where González did not have administrative access.

Within minutes, González, who is bilingual, acknowledged his theft of Voices of the Lifestream and apologized profusely for the plagiarism, hoping to stop the confrontation:

About the Album, i feel very very sry about that. I mean, Really sry making all those fake credits about me and my music.

i will put those tracks with his orignal composers in my blog so people can see that is your own work, not mine.

So far, no acknowledgment of these actions or proper credit for the album has actually shown up on González’s blog. 60 minutes after the initial confrontation by Sixto, González finally deleted the stolen tracks, along with several folders worth of other tracks he had stolen credit for since mid-2006, including tracks from OC ReMix, VGMix and Anime Remix. Among many other artists, González had also been plagiarizing the work of Chris “goat” Gates, attempting to pass off most of goat’s discography as an album called “GOAT” in order to justify the music’s identification tags, even going so far as saying he would submit the works to both OC ReMix and VGMix in the future.

Based on further information from the Tijuana source, González claims he is a DJ and would hand out mix CDs of music he claimed as his own to girls in order to impress them, as well as frequenting Spanish anime fan forums under the DjNeTisra name to promote his stolen music. As early as 2005 González linked to OC ReMix and OCR webradio station Ormgas.com on his old blog.

***Editor’s note: We’re so tempted…

I held off on posting news of two of these albums until I made sure that they were legit and not just a rumor, and during that time a third album was announced, so I’m particularly ecstatic over here.

On September 20, 2002, fifteen years after the first Mega Man game was released and nine years after the sixth, Capcom’s record label, Suleputer, released Capcom Music Generation Family Computer Soundtracks Rockman 1~6 [CPCA-1064~6], a three disc set containing the music from the first six Mega Man games. Noticeably absent from the album were the soundtracks from games in the classic series after 6, from the SNES and later.

Five years after the release of the 1~6 box, two more soundtracks, one for MM7 [KDSD-00171] and another for MM8 [KDSD-00172], are due out on November 21, this time published by TEAM Entertainment. Confirming their upcoming releases are preorders on Tower Records Japan’s web site for both albums.

And if that weren’t enough, due out on December 5, also from TEAM Entertainment, is 20th Anniversary Rockman 1-6 Rock Arrange Ver. [KDSD-00173].

20th Anniversary Rockman 1-6 Rock Arrange Ver.

Now if only a soundtrack to Mega Man & Bass were to be released, I’d be able to die a happy man.

OC ReMix Announces Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream Music Video Competition

For Immediate Release
October 4, 2007
Contact: David W. Lloyd, dlloyd@ocremix.org

FAIRFAX, VA–OverClocked ReMix today announced a music video competition related to the recently released Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream project (http://ff7.ocremix.org). This is the first official competition held by OC ReMix. Partnering with Piano Squall (www.pianosquall.com), and eStarland (www.estarland.com), prizes include signed limited edition promotional copies of Voices of the Lifestream, signed copies of Piano Squall’s album GAME: Game & Anime Music Emotions, Final Fantasy VII merchandise, and OverClocked ReMix shirts & hoodies. Additional prizes may be announced during the course of the competition.

There are three different categories for music video submissions, and each category will have prizes for the winner and runner-up. Submissions will be evaluated by the OverClocked ReMix Judges Panel and djpretzel. Winners will be credited on the VotL website and have their submissions shown at Otakon and other anime and gaming conventions that OC ReMix attends. The deadline for all entries is December 14th, 2007; details and rules for each competition are below.

Prizes (as of 2007-10-03):

• Winners
  • Limited edition promotional copy of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
  • Signed copy of Piano Squall’s album GAME: Game & Anime Music Emotions
  • Choice of OverClocked ReMix shirt or hoodie
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children action figure
  • Credit on http://ff7.ocremix.org and presentation of video on OC ReMix convention panels
• Runners-up
  • Limited edition promotional copy of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
  • OverClocked ReMix shirt
  • Credit on http://ff7.ocremix.org and presentation of video on OC ReMix convention panels

Final Fantasy VII Category

This contest involves creating a music video for any track from Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream using footage from Advent Children (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385700/), Last Order (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489134/), and/or the Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII video games.

Anime Category

This contest involves creating a music video for any track from Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream using footage from any anime. However, to distinguish from the FF7 category, please do not utilize footage from Advent Children or Last Order.

Original Category

This contest involves creating a music video for any track from Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream using only footage that you yourself create. It can be live-action, 2D or 3D animation, rendered from Flash, etc., but it needs to be your own creation, and cannot incorporate substantial outside sources.

Rules

1. The deadline for all entries is December 14th, 2007.
2. All submissions are made under the terms of the OverClocked ReMix Content Policy, available at http://www.ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy. Please read it before submitting.
3. You may only enter one submission for each category.
4. In the case of submissions that involved collaboration, you must designate a single point of contact for the prizes and coordinate amongst yourselves who receives what.
5. Only one song from Voices of the Lifestream should be used per video, no other music should be present, and the video should not exceed the length of the song selected.
6. Content should generally be “PG-13″, avoiding nudity, profanity, or extreme violence.
7. Video should be in HQ AVI DivX, XvID, H264, or MPEG2 formats, at a resolution of 720×480, with a 23.97 or 24 fps (progressive) or 29.97 fps (interlaced) framerate, with uncompressed 44.1khz stereo audio. Please utilize the WAV versions of VotL tracks (available via bittorent at http://bt.ocremix.org), not the MP3s, when creating your music video(s).
8. For the FFVII and anime categories, please try to follow common Anime Music Video contest guidelines, available on the websites of most major anime conventions. We want submissions in these categories to be submitted to as many different AMV contests as possible.
9. Do not utilize low-quality footage or footage with subtitles burned-in.
10. Do not include credits, bumpers, trailers, or other material in your video, only the actual submission content.
11. You may choose to post your video(s) on YouTube, etc., before/after submission, so long as the OverClocked ReMix Content Policy is followed.

Submitting

Include the name you want the video(s) credited to, your contact information (website, email), the name of your video(s), all sources (anime, games, movies, etc.) utilized in your video(s), and any additional information you feel is relevant with your submission, whether via email or physical mail.

Email (preferred):

Send an email titled “FF7 Music Video Competition Entry” with a link to your video(s) to submissions@ocremix.org. Do NOT attempt to attach the video itself, or any form of preview. Make sure that the link still functions on Dec. 14th and for as many days after as possible if you submit before the deadline.

Physical Mail

Send a CD-R or DVD-R only (no tapes!) to:

OverClocked ReMix
PO Box 223104
Chantilly, VA 20153

Postmarked on or before the Dec. 14th deadline. All physical materials submitted to OverClocked ReMix become the property of OverClocked ReMix and will not be returned.

Updates

Updated information and answers to questions regarding this competition will be available on an announcement thread at OverClocked ReMix (http://www.ocremix.org) - please check it often as prizes may be added or rules clarified. Winners will be announced before the end of the year, with the specific date dependent on the number of submissions received.

Good luck!

OC ReMix Albums on Last.fm, FF7:VotL Updates

For Immediate Release
October 2, 2007
Contact: David W. Lloyd, dlloyd@ocremix.org

OverClocked ReMix recently made all nine of its albums available for live streaming on Last.fm (www.last.fm), a music and social networking website. The albums are listed at http://www.ocremix.org/albums/, with credits and links to their official homepages, BitTorrent downloads, and Last.fm pages.

The most recent album, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream, was recently reviewed by SquareSound, one of the largest websites devoted to Square Enix music on the internet, at http://www.squaresound.com/reviews/ronin/ff7vol.php. Since its debut on September 14th, Voices of the Lifestream has been downloaded an estimated 70,000 times via both a BitTorrent distribution and MP3s available at the official album website, http://ff7.ocremix.org. Limited physical copies of the album made for promotional usage will be given away at the upcoming Anime USA (http://www.animeusa.org/) and MAGFest (http://magfest.org/) conventions and through online competitions that will be announced shortly.

OverClocked ReMix Albums, Newest to Oldest:

• 2007-09-14 - Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/final-fantasy-vii-voices-of-the-lifestream/
• 2006-11-19 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Project Chaos
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/sonic-3-and-knuckles-project-chaos/
• 2006-05-29 - Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Blood on the Asphalt
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/super-street-fighter-ii-turbo-blood-on-the-asphalt/
• 2006-01-03 - Chrono Trigger: Chrono Symphonic
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/chrono-trigger-chrono-symphonic/
• 2005-08-08 - DooM: The Dark Side of Phobos
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/doom-the-dark-side-of-phobos/
• 2005-06-25 - Kirby’s Adventure: Rise of the Star
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/kirbys-adventure-rise-of-the-star/
• 2005-03-09 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Hedgehog Heaven
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/sonic-the-hedgehog-2-hedgehog-heaven/
• 2004-09-12 - Donkey Kong Country: Kong in Concert
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/donkey-kong-country-kong-in-concert/
• 2003-09-12 - Super Metroid: Relics of the Chozo
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/super-metroid-relics-of-the-chozo/

A quick rundown of some goings on around OC ReMix for any curious on-lookers.

Reviews have been generally strong for the recent Final Fantasy VII album, Voices of the Lifestream. From this side, you generally have to have a thick skin, as a lot of the criticisms were hyperbolically brutal! Broadly covering most criticisms: Final Fantasy VII is overremixed so why not do “game X,” the album is all techno (note: it’s not), the arrangements aren’t recognizable enough (note: the source tunes are involved in the majority of every track), the arrangements are too conservative (?!?), the production was overdone, the production was cheap, Final Fantasy music shouldn’t have vocals (note: shows how little they know), video game music shouldn’t have vocals (note: shows how little they know…2), and other people liked it too much so there was too much hype. Props to everyone who enjoyed the album despite overwhelming “evidence” to the contrary. :-D

Stopped by with djpretzel over to eStarland today, who were having a huge sale at their physical location on a wide array of video games, systems and other stuff. djp hooked it up with an FC Twin (clone system makers have been bolder since Nintendo’s primary US utility patent on the NES expired in November 2005). We’ve snagged some goods for some upcoming community activities. Stay tuned and you may be a winner.

I also snagged several NES games for OCR scored by Tim Follin, whose Wikipedia page I massively updated a few days ago. They didn’t have Solstice or Silver Surfer, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get a hold of it soon. The scores [double meaning?]: Sky Shark, Kiwi Kraze, Target: Renegade, Pictionary, and Magic Johnson’s Fast Break. In short, I’m gonna be collecting them as long as I can find working copies at reasonable prices. Couldn’t find Lemmings for the PSP, but maybe I’ll luck out another day.

Speaking of eStarland, we’ve restocked the store with hoodies for all sizes, so that info should be updated on their site soon for anyone looking to fly the colors this fall and this coming winter as things proceed to get colder in the coming months. I finally snagged the large hoodie I’d paid for a while back. While I wear a medium T-shirt, I found I had to step it up a size on the hoodie or it felt too snug. Just something to keep in mind.

The site database has been getting some attention lately just to fill out some gaps and make things more accessible to our Japanese fans. Most game systems and games in the database have had Japanese names added into the database where applicable, courtesy of djpretzel. If you’re seeing a lot of “??????” and think it’s gibberish, you better install some Japanese character support.

Lastly, not counting anything coming in today, I’ve got 7 tracks left to judge before I can say that I’m caught up, not just in giving submissions their preliminary evaluations, but in judging everything that I subsequently pass along to the OCR Judges Panel. Wish me luck. Or if you’re a submitter, wish yourself luck on passing.

Quite a bit going on, with other exciting developments I’m leaving out. Once the house is in order, so-to-speak, then everyone will be let inside to take a look.

Year 200X is getting close to wrapping up their latest album, We are Error. But none of them are artistically inclined in the visual sense. It means these bros needs help obtaining some suitable (read: incredible) artwork for the actual CD manufacturing. Guitarist Tim Lydon (pictured sporting This Place is Haunted gear for the cross-pimp) put out the call Wednesday afternoon via MySpace:

We’re in the CD artwork planning phase, and we’ve pretty much decided…none of us are very graphically enclined. Plus we’re lazy. SO, here’s the deal. We’re looking for someone/some people to either design the CD artwork, or give us some ideas for the artwork. Here’s the specifics:

The album is going to be called “We are Error.”

We need artwork for a 1-fold (4 panel) insert, printing under the CD, the CD itself, and back of the CD case.

We’re looking for something cool looking, maybe tongue-in-cheek (seemingly serious at first glance, but silly under the surface). Nothing too cartooney. There will probably be 1 band photo in there somewhere.

It will also include a thank you list inside the booklet, and a track list on the back (13 tracks).

Pretty much anything besides what’s listed above is up to you. We don’t have a lot of money to pay, as we’re pretty much spending everything on recording/pressing the album, but we can offer free merch, credits in the CD booklet, and whatever loot we can come up with.

For any more specific questions, or if you have any artwork ideas, just message us. We really appreciate everyone’s support…with your help, our debut album will be as rocking as possible!

Look at that. You’ve got more information than you need to get it going. You may not become a millionaire, but getting rewarded with Year 200X shirts, CDs and/or other ancillary swag should be right up your alley. Like Tim said, they need help. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue Year 200X?

Well, since the MySpace announcement was made today at 3:31 PM EST, you’ve got only about 46 1/2 hours to check out Powerglove’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 medley “So Sexy Robotnik” over at their MySpace, fresh off their new album Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man.

And while you’re visiting the band, check out their latest FAQ released this past Friday and bone up on your Powerglove knowledge.

The “Mystic Cave Zone” portion of the arrangement is the definite winner all things considered. Check out “So Sexy Robotnik” free before you miss your opportunity!

The arrangement is sexy. Robotnik…ehhh, not so sexy.

I was just joking over at the OneUp Studios forums that I’ll kill Dale North and Mustin for not making the debut of the Final Fanboy website more prominent. I knew their MySpace was out, but beyond that I was in the dark. But as Mustin says, “It’s for the girls.”

Alright, so they’re trying to get some action from the feminines. Is video game music the way to do it? If you’re Minibosses…maybe. Even then, it’s probably a tough sell, as most women aren’t impressed with the Konami Code. But these guys are willing to cater to a really slim demographic. (Notice I said female video game music fans, not female gamers. For female VGM fans, try splitting a hair into four pieces.)

In all seriousness though, Final Fanboy performed on day 1 of the Penny Arcade Expo last month and managed to get the crowd going, setting the stage for only more asskicking the following day when the duo performed with the larger entity of The OneUps. They made some ladies swoon and they sold some CDs. But, no, they’re actually not foolish enough to limit their demographic that badly. So while you likely may not be a lady, Final Fanboy would still like the chance to make you swoon via their first CD, Prelude. If you are a lady, all the better. Taking a cue from Michael “Piano Squall” Gluck’s GAME, their 7-track EP features a mixture of game and anime music arrangements.

I freely admit, I fail on the anime side. (”Chobits?!?” - Exactly.) But when it comes to stuff I do know, Prelude features some solid cuts, including a very relaxed take on Katamari Damacy’s “Lonely Rolling Star” entitled “Not So Lonely Nova” with some simple but effective alteration of the source tune’s rhythms to help give it a nice chill flavor. That’s already available to listen to via Final Fanboy’s MySpace (along with the faithful-to-the-spirit-of-the-game Animal Crossing arrangement “Love Me All Night Long” from Dale & Mustin’s More Than Mario EP) in order to give you preview their style. If they sell enough albums, let’s just say watch out for these bros on the cover of the year-end issue of Tiger Beat. They’ve got their fingers crossed.