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.
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.
On January 25, 1987, the first album containing music from Taito’s sound team, Zuntata, was released: Taito Game Music [28XA-110]. In honor of their twentieth anniversary, Super Sweep, a sound company formed in 2000 by Shinji Hosoe, will be releasing four albums:
Arkanoid DS Audio Planet
The soundtrack to the upcoming game Arkanoid DS, composed by Hosoe, Kemmei Adachi, Hirokazu Oshio, Mitsugu Suzuki, Lil’B, Takafumi Wada, and Ryu☆.
Densha de Densha de GO!GO!GO! Revolution
An album somehow related to Taito’s series of train simulation games, Densha de Go!
Night Striker & Syvalion Perfect BOX
A four-disc set containing the original soundtracks to Night Striker (composed by Masahiko “Mar.” Takaki) and Syvalion (composed by Yasuhisa “Yack.” Watanabe”), a disc of arrangements by Hosoe and Ayako Saso, and a DVD with gameplay footage.
Darius Remix Album
An arrangement album of music from the Darius series of shmups by Taito, composed by Hisayoshi “OGR” Ogura. The arrangements are by Hosoe, Saso, and others to be named later.
In addition, Zuntata has placed more than fifty of its older soundtracks onto the Japanese iTunes Music Store for purchase and download. Unfortunately, to make an account, you’ll need a credit card with a Japanese billing address, so you’re pretty much out of luck if you live in another country. That is, unless you buy a Japanese iTMS gift card. J-List provides these gift cards for $18/$35 for 1500¥/3000¥, or about a 35% markup, along with instructions on how to set up an account. If you can get a gift card for cheaper, cool beans, and the directions will still work.
I’m not going to list every single album, but you can find most, if not all of them, through thesethreelinks. Take the time to peruse thirty second samples of Zuntata and Taito’s history.
One of the perks of heading up the blog is being able to post about whatever VGM-related related things I want. I don’t abuse it much, but had to mention that I’ve recently given Tim Follin’s Wikipedia articlea pretty significant expansion.
The article definitely needs more attention to works from 1995-2006, which I could not find many interviews about. Hopefully someone will take the initiative.
With all of my other responsibilities, I never seem to have the time needed to focus on the Dirge for the Follin tribute project that I’m maintaining over at OC ReMix, which is “floating” as one person called it. Rest assured that it will be completed, especially because the completed tracks are really exceptional. With guys like Xoc, Binster, Ryan8bit, Makke and Romeo Knight already on board with completed tracks, I’d just like to get an even wider spectrum of games represented to keep things going strong and highlight more of Follin’s career.
Though I loathe to think how long a tribute project to “Yack” Watanabe would take without me learning Japanese. :-)
Note: Your phone must be compatible with real/true tones and have internet capability.
Step 1. Download this file to your computer (owa.mp3)
Step 2. Go to www.myxertones.com and select the owa.mp3 file to upload, then type in your phone number.
Step 3. You will receive an SMS message to your phone with the download link. Use your phone’s internet to download the ringtone, and then set the file as your ringtone.
Alternatively, you can just download the MP3 and use Bluetooth/USB to upload to your phone and set it that way.
Pretty nice. And indeed, the ringtone MP3 provides you a full listen to Suzu’s chiptune goodness, as you get to hear the complete runthrough minus the orchestral buildup it normally segues into within “Black Wing” proper. As Ty says, “coming soon to a cellphone near you.”
It’s hard to find people that are truly original in any scenario, even in remixing. With the release of Voices of the Lifestream, it just got a little easier locating those truly unique remixers in the jungle of greatness that is OverClocked ReMix. So here’s a quick rundown of the most surprising and most innovative remixes on VotL according to me, Another Soundscape.
First out is the constantly evolving and amazing tefnek (Jack Kirkpatrick). Jack knows synths, and Jack most certainly knows beats. He showed this very much in his first remix for OCR but it certainly reaches new heights on Voices of the Lifestream with the 4.55 long “motor crazycycle” (bonus for second-best remix title on the project, surpassed only by “Airships Make Me Happy” by Star Salzman). The remix starts off with some neat percussion, soon joined up by some truly squelchy synth FX. After the sweet breakdown at 0.42 all hell breaks loose. Tefnek isn’t really using many different instruments here, he’s just using what he’s got extremely well. The modulation is ever-changing and always interesting to listen to without ever being too much. Some might argue that this is music for the synth geek or the lord of the DAWs, but I beg to differ. This is a quality arrangement that really evolves the feel of the original source tune. The dirty feeling of riding that motorcycle through Midgar is always present. For that tefnek, I thank you.
Second on my prestigious originality list is Pot Hocket. Michael Lee came into my world with an acoustic nylon stringed guitar and loads upon loads of love. He was indeed posted on OCR even before VotL but I am certain this is the first time most of you hear him. Michael plays with an incredible feeling that can make even the most bearded lumberjack man cry. With his simple yet beautiful arrangement “Daydreaming Again” he captures my heart. I might add that I didn’t really fancy his other remix, “Sleep, My Sephy,” since it strayed a bit too far from the original in my opinion. I didn’t recognize it at all. Putting that aside though, this is a truly original remixer with a very beautiful remix. Perfect for a cozy autumn evening.
The third one has to be my favorite of them all. JigginJonT’s Hydrophone Breakdown. With a groove sent from heaven JJT decends unto the uncharted lands of progressive indie rock á la The Flaming Lips. A sweet electric piano coupled with an acoustic piano tells us what Jon’s all about. Then he took me by surprise. When the noisy but oh, so pretty bass joins up with the drums to really push that track over the top, I’m speechless. Backwards guitar, awesome keys. Then breaking it down with a sweet organ and taking it to yet another level with…a trumpet for lead? How cool is THAT! It sounds great too. A very interesting combination of instruments and arrangement ideas really sets this apart from what you’d normally hear from any artist and makes it the amazing piece that it is. When the steel stringed guitar brings it down for a while everything feels complete. Jon is really a very talented multi-instrumentalist with some great ideas. This remix is his brainchild. It’s one for the books.
Last but absolutely not least on my originality list is LuIzA. Luiza is not your average metalhead with a guitar. She’s much more. With her remix “Materia Junkie” (that I’m proud to say, I came up with the name for) she introduces one of the hottest grooves OCR has seen in a long time. Not only did she remix my two favorite songs from the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack but she did it with the coolest styles possible. Mixing the dirty sound of 90’s grunge with some ska-influenced beat is pure genious. There is no room for the fastest tapping guitar solos in the world in this track, and I must admit I’m glad. Instead Luiza captures the feel of the slums with some playing that just screams. The fact that the organ and piano is pretty sweet to only makes me more amazed. A great track from LuIzA that really gives Uematsu’s originals the respect they deserve.
This is my top 4. I still think the rest of the tracks are pretty darn good and some very original indeed (You have never heard anything like Steffan Andrews‘ hollywood-like Jenova arrangement or the superb remixes of Jovette Rivera, FFMusic Dj, djpretzel & Vigilante). As I said though, these four is MY list as the most original remixes of VotL and I also think that these are remixers that deserves a lot of credit for what they do. But it’s my opinion, you don’t have to share it. Anyway, thank you, and thank you everyone involved with the project, everyone on OCR and everyone downloading this. You rock, and roll, all day long, sweet sweet Susie.
OverClocked ReMix Releases Free Fan Tribute Album, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
For Immediate Release
September 14, 2007
Contact: David W. Lloyd, dlloyd@ocremix.org
FAIRFAX, VA–Today, OverClocked ReMix released its ninth album, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream. The album, made by fans for fans, honors the recent 10-year anniversary of the Square Enix PlayStation video game Final Fantasy VII with 45 arrangements of composer Nobuo Uematsu’s original score.
Available for free download at http://ff7.ocremix.org, Voices of the Lifestream is not affiliated with or endorsed by Square Enix. More than 40 artists from the OverClocked ReMix community contributed more than three hours of music to the album, with interpretations covering a variety of genres and styles from jazz to electronica to rock to symphonic.
Voices of the Lifestream has already generated advance media and industry buzz. Music 4 Games (www.music4games.net) reviewer Jayson Napolitano called the album “one of the most impressive and encompassing listening experiences in the world of video game music.”
Tommy Tallarico, video game composer and co-creator of Video Games Live (www.videogameslive.com), said of the album: “OC ReMix has done it again! I’m always impressed with the amazing talent that comes from the OCR community. This album is a further testament to that quality and passion. It’s an honor for video game composers around the world to have their material be a part of the OCR community. This album rocks!”
A year and a half long effort that spanned six countries, Voices of the Lifestream is the largest creative project ever undertaken by OverClocked ReMix.
“We’re really proud of Voices of the Lifestream and I’m personally very grateful for the tremendous spirit of collaboration and dedication shown by the participating artists,” said album creator and director Andrew “zircon” Aversa. “Voices of the Lifestream really represents the heart of what OverClocked ReMix is all about: community and great music.”
OverClocked ReMix founder and president David “djpretzel” Lloyd agrees, adding that the project “…marks a high point in OverClocked ReMix’s history thus far, and stands as a powerful testament to video game music, Nobuo Uematsu’s enduring score, and the talent and dedication of fan ReMixers.”
OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Hundreds of free game music arrangements and a thriving community of game music fans can be found at OverClocked ReMix’s Web site, www.ocremix.org.
For Immediate Release
September 10th, 2007
Contact: David W. Lloyd, dlloyd@ocremix.org
Today Music 4 Games (http://www.music4games.net), the premier resource for news and reviews about Video Game Music, posted an exclusive advance review of the upcoming OverClocked ReMix album, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream. The review is available at http://www.music4games.net/Review_Display.aspx?id=97. This review marks the first time a freely available, fan-made album of game arrangements has been evaluated alongside commercial video game soundtracks on the site.
Reviewer Jayson Napolitano writes that it “doesn’t get much better than this when it comes to arrangement albums,” calling Voices of the Lifestream “one of the most impressive and encompassing listening experiences in the world of video game music.” More information about the album, which will be released freely online this Friday, September 14th, can be found at http://ff7.ocremix.org.
Hundreds of free game music arrangements and a thriving community of game music fans can be found at OverClocked ReMix’s Web site, www.ocremix.org.
Recently, Scotsman Ian “Psycosis91″ Kelly unveiled a Flash animation video on Newgrounds providing a tongue-in-cheek, but fitting video tribute to the track, complete with subtitles and Vega jumping around kicking every World Warrior’s ass while boasting of his looks, his skills and his claw.
Ian was kind enough to mention OC ReMix as well as a prominent link to José’s official homepage, ensuring that people interested in the track would be able to follow up. Always appreciated when people give the extra effort to link back. Meanwhile, the sprite-based video itself has gained some buzz in the few days since its release. Give it a playthrough, check out how “Spittin’ Narcissism’s” lyrics are adapted, and weigh in with your votes and comments over at Newgrounds.
Video Games Live: Greatest Hits – Volume One includes medleys from some of the biggest games ever released, including Zelda, Mario, Halo, Warcraft, Sonic, Tron, Myst, Civilization IV and Final Fantasy. The anthology CD was compiled by renowned video game composers and Video Games Live co-creators Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall.
The album was performed by the Slovak National Orchestra, Crouch End Chorus, and Martin Leung, the Video Game Pianist, and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, which in the past has recorded albums from big name bands like Pink Floyd and The Beatles, as well as many film soundtracks like those of Star Wars Episodes I-III and V-VI and the three Lord of the Rings movies. The album will be released on October 15, coinciding with the VGL concerts on October 19 at the E for All Expo in Los Angeles and October 22 at the London Games Festival.
Working alongside zircon and JigginJonT, I’ve just finished my work/suggestions on trying nail down the track order for OverClocked ReMix’s latest album project arranging Final Fantasy VII, Voices of the Lifestream. So while I had already heard maybe 1/3rd of the album by being on the judges panel and giving feedback to colleagues, tonight is the first time I’ve actually heard everything.
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THIS ALBUM IS AMAZING!
Straight up, it is a fucking amazing album, and I don’t even like Final Fantasy VII like that. Having never played it, I’ve just got no nostalgia for it. For the people that DO though, this is hopefully going to be greater than great. Forget the hyperbole of “best ever” or whatever. I’m just saying, this is a hell of a job.
A lot of us on staff are absolutely exhausted while we’re in the last stages of finalizing the album. As the project lead, zircon’s got the worst of it by far. Myself, I’m on my third day of no sleep.
But a lot of people are going to be impressed. I can’t wait for this one to drop.
One of my “failings,” as it were, in covering the VGM arrangement scene is giving fair representation to the European side, primarily focused on the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga computers (as well as lesser focus on the Atari ST and ZX Spectrum). I never have been as familiar with the Commodore scene as much as the U.S.-based one, so it’s certainly more difficult to familiarize oneself with the history AND goings-on.
However, the scene across the Atlantic has things covered well by Remix64, the first source on all things going on with the Commodorearrangement community. Unlike the American scene, the European side has a lot stronger ties to the demoscene as well as more acknowledgment and interactivity with the actual game music composers that inspired the movement. That means I’m extremely jealous!
If I had to choose one word to describe Reyn Ouwehand’s latest SID remix album, it would be “fun”. Because doesn’t matter what mood you’re in, I guarantee you will be 100% happier after you listen to it, even if you are not familiar with the original SID tunes the album is based on. The style of music here ranges from 70s rock to jazz, from carousel music to soundtracks, from the blithe to the blend, and even the bizarre…
The album clocks in at a relatively brief 40 minutes, but Weezer’s asked for more money for less muzak. Via C64Audio, not only can you preview every track in high quality, but you’ve already also got access to fully downloading 5 of the album’s 20 arrangements, perfect for getting a taste of the action. So considering plunking down for Reyn Ouwehand’s The Blithe, the Blend & the Bizarre and making a really sound investment for a change!
So CHz thought it would be clever to get up all in my grill/step on my turf by talking about S.S.H’s original work, while still including enough info about him in his writeup that a second entry would be practically pointless.
But I’m not going to let him stop me. No sir, not today. I’ll post about S.S. flippin’ H whenever I durn well please. And now with that out of the way, onto actual content…
Here we see the S.S.H in his natural habitat of ROCK’N. The S.S.H’s sound is very distinct, with complex sequenced electric guitar and synth “wank” a common identifier in the species. Anyone who’s heard the S.S.H could most likely spot it from an arbitrary number of miles away. Here we see one of the most famous specimens:
“The Decisive Battle” Final Fantasy VI (Super Famicom)
Okay, so silly nature show parodies aside, suffice it to say S.S.H’s style is fairly distinguishable. However, it’s also…shall we say…consistent, perhaps to a fault. To give an analogy, you could call S.S.H the DragonForce of doujin. That is to say, it’s definitely awesome for rocking out to when you’re in the mood, but after a while it starts to wear on you, and you begin to notice the structure and instrumentation of his songs becoming predictable and formulaic, despite the impressive variety in source material from classic favorites such as Castlevania and Final Fantasy to slightly more obscure titles like Shin Megami Tensei and Super Robot Wars.
Of course, there are exceptions, such as these poignant arrangements:
S.S.H has (at least to my knowledge) released only one solo video game album, entitled “Underworld Shade Saitama,” which is by now undoubtedly available only on Japanese auction sites. No need to despair however, as most of his work is still available on his site. As to his current whereabouts, unfortunately I must admit I’m completely in the dark on that subject. But hopefully he’ll resurface again someday and give all us doujin fans another big dose of ROCK’N.
You may have heard of The Black Mages. Formed in 2003 with, among other people, three Square Enix composers (including Nobuo Uematsu), TBM is the closest thing Square Enix has to an official band. Other game companies (especially during the 90’s) have had bands featuring one or more in-house composer, like Konami’s Kukeiha Club and Taito’s Zuntata, but TBM is probably the most prominent modern example.
Live performances of VGM have been not necessarily commonplace in Japan, but certainly more frequent than in the United States and elsewhere. However, in the past few years, there have been an increasing number of video game concerts like PLAY! A Video Game Symphony and Video Games Live. So, I figured it might be kind of cool to look at other, earlier VGM performances, including those by in-house bands and those like VGL. I mentioned the S.S.T. Band in “Composer Spotlight #3: Koichi Namiki,” so that’s as good a place to start as any.
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The S.S.T. Band was one of the first, possibly the first, official developer band, starting way back in 1988. “S.S.T.” stood for “Sega Sound Team,” befitting the fact that, of the six original members, three were Sega composers (Hiroshi Miyauchi, Jouji Iijima, and Koichi Namiki). A fourth member, Kimitaka Matsumae, would later become a Sega composer, as well as would two future band members who were not part of the original lineup, Hisanori Kumamaru and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.
I was going to make an info file about the S.S.T. Band’s members, discography, etc., but their Wikipedia article is very thorough, probably more thorough than anything I would have written, so I’ll pimp that out instead. The only full arrangement albums are MEGA SELECTION I & II and BACK IN THE S.S.T. BAND!!; all of the others contain both arrangements by the S.S.T. Band and original soundtracks.
An interesting thing to note is that every single S.S.T. Band member had a stage name, most of which were taken from Sega arcade games:
Jouji Iijima: GALAXY (Galaxy Force)
Shingo Komori: BURNER (After Burner)
Hisanori Kumamaru: SPLASH Wave (”Splash Wave” is the name of a track from OutRun)
Kimitaka Matsumae: HARRIER (Space Harrier)
Takenobu Mitsuyoshi: R360 (refers to the R360 arcade cabinet)
Hiroshi Miyauchi: Hiro
Koichi Namiki: Mickey or Pretty K.N.
Masato Saito: TURBO-kun (Turbo OutRun)
Takehiko Tanabe: THUNDER (Thunder Blade)
But the best part of the S.S.T. Band, even moreso than their rockin’ arrangements, is their appearance. Remember when sleeveless vests, ponytails, bandannas, and sunglasses used to be cool on musicians?
“After Burner” (arrangement of the track of the same name from the game of the same name)
video from the S.S.T. Band Live! DVD (1990 concert)
Jouji “GALAXY” Iijima: Guitar (red)
Kimitaka “HARRIER” Matsumae: Keyboards (right)
Hiroshi “Hiro” Miyauchi: Keyboards (left)
Koichi “Mickey” Namiki: Guitar (yellow)
Masato “TURBO-kun” Saito: Bass
Takehiko “THUNDER” Tanabe: Drums
The band’s arrangements always stayed close to the original, usually being covers with the occasional solo thrown in to retain the feel of the originals, all of which were from Sega arcade, Master System, or Genesis games. Since the band’s instruments were guitars, keyboard, and drums, they usually picked upbeat songs that could easily be converted to synthrock, like the title theme from After Burner seen above. However, as the material dictated, they were not above slower, jazzier pieces like their medley of Galaxy Force tracks and ballads like their cover of “Last Wave,” the high scores theme from OutRun.
“Omnishred” will take it’s rightful place on the group’s upcoming CD release Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, alongside tributes to Mega Man II, Mortal Kombat, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy IV, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Killer Instinct, Guilty Gear and Castlevania.
Not that you have to, but if you want to wait to pick up the album with the chance to get it signed by the band in person, you could always lay low until MAGFest 6…
July 22: It’s 2:26 AM, i.e. it’s pretty late. The current music of choice is a great new mix that has yet to be posted to OCR by DrumUltimA and his mom, who I’ve been given to go-ahead to now refer to as MomUltimA. It’s from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, so if you’re a fan of the series, you’ll definitely have to check it out. If you’re not a fan of the series, you’ll nonetheless have to check it out. It’s that well-done. Right now, I’m sitting in the darkness of djpretzel’s living room. His dual screens are dark. zircon’s laptop on my left is off and pixietricks’s Apple laptop on my right is running a very trippy screensaver. Over in OCR-land, we’ve had a quite an eventful weekend.
At Otakon 2006 last year, I had to wait in line to get into the Baltimore Convention Center, and I spent a lot of time worrying about the potential attendance in the back of my head. Being OCR’s first year at Otakon in 2006, I wondered whether the audience of a predominantly anime-themed convention would be there for a panel on video game music. That year, I only managed to get my convention pass and make it into our panel’s room with 2 minutes to spare. As I ran as fast as I could to join the OCR staff on stage, it was only having made it 3/4ths of the way into the room that I noticed the room was packed. For a 750-seat capacity room, I’m pretty sure we had about that almost number of people. For any scattered empty seats, we had people standing or sitting on the side.
This year, I was able to preregister and get in immediately, so I spent much of the hour before our panel handing out glossy OCR fliers and plugging the pending festivities. “Video Game Music, 10 o’clock, Panel 4!” was heard by many people over and over again as they neared the escalator that would take them up to potential VGM bliss. As I went up at 9:50 (10 minutes before showtime) to refill on fliers, the room couldn’t have been more than 15% full, and I was worried that we had a complete bomb on our hands. I mean, what could have rationalized not having a full house this year compared to last year?
So I grabbed more fliers and made sure I continued pimping the panel. It was only at 9:55 when I went back up that I realized how much traffic was actually going into our room. That’s not to say the credit goes to me, but I was certainly relieved to know that we hadn’t lost our touch.
The panel itself was absolutely great. I’m not sure why the lights were low, but the atmosphere was also brighter last year. But it was the fans who came by to see us that really made everything click. The crowd was more independently enthusiastic last year, perhaps because it was our first time there, but once we got more interactive with the panel (including a Name That Tune contest), things really lit up and we connected with our audience more. Plus I’m a big fan of keeping things fun and loose in terms of presentation. A lot of panels are too dry, and I felt we initially came off that way, so cracking jokes made the time fly by and kept the presentation light.
After the formal presentation was over, we sold a lot of t-shirts and hoodies, as well as originalCDsbySGX and zircon. The clothing was all non-profit and able to help pay for bandwidth costs and printing the gear in the first place. One thing we’ll definitely do next year with the presentation is upgrade things to more of a video format. We definitely don’t wanna have people staring at PowerPoint slides all day when we can do more to trick it out and give it a more entertaining feel. Feedback from OCR regulars as well as panel attendees encouraged us to make our presence felt at other fan conventions, so we’re now looking into expanding our con schedule, and hope to have some news in the next couple of months.
As per last year, Otakon was huge success in getting the word out on OCR. As I mentioned, this year (along with the great reception last year), has motivated us even more to pursue other convention appearances and performances in the future. When we get idea of when that will be, we’ll certainly let y’all know over at the OC ReMix main page and forums. Thanks to everyone who turned out at Otakon to learn more about video game music and show their support for OCR. We look forward to seeing you next year!
It’s a whole OCRemix arrangement project dedicated entirely to Sonic 3’s Ice Cap theme. It’s easily the most overmixed song in the gaming community, but that doesn’t stop anyone from putting their spin on it. This is 18 tracks of the same song, remixed by different artists. Honestly, ever since the Duck Hunt remix project, I didn’t think this kind of thing would fly anymore.
I guess why I didn’t see it is because, it’s not on the site projects forum of the web site. It’s merely the artists getting together on their own to put out this album. Is it any good? Not really. It kind of listens like a few guys just dicking around on their keyboards. Some more organized than others, but I refuse to believe it’s anywhere near a “best effort”. One even mixed Chrono Trigger’s Trial theme in the beginning and leads into some kind of weird crossover that should not be. It’s not to say that the songs aren’t worth checking out, it’s just some of them are just plain bleh. Of course, what can you expect from the community’s most single mixed song. There’s only so much you can do with it.
In any case, check out the above link and have a listen.
Only the review’s from June 28th. … Did I forget to mention this? How did he know about the Duck Hunt project, but somehow not pick up on this? :-D
Too bad he didn’t get into any specifics on the tracks. He probably thought mine was the best though, so I can understand him not wanting to tarnish the other songs in comparison. You know how it is.
Hey everyone, this is Fishy (also known as Cain irl). I would imagine only a few people know who I am, and I would wager that most of those people are on some of the ongoing OCR projects. This is because I’m what’s known as a ‘total project whore.’ The projects are probably my favourite aspect of the OCR community. It’s an astonishing feat for a large-scale album to be made and hosted totally through voluntary and unpaid contributions. A huge amount of work is put into them, and the end results are usually pretty damn cool, so I thought I would chronicle my thoughts and experiences on the projects here.
When I joined OCR mid-2006, practically the first thing I latched onto was the project thread for the Pokémon project. This was mostly because the track I ended up completing had “Reserved for awesome guitarist” in massive font written next to it and I was feeling cocky. Once I was in the forums and posting WIPs, I suddenly realized how preferable the environment was. For a new guy, it was pretty easy to be ignored in the WIPs forum, in fact the only person who replied to my craptastic first ReMix was good ol’ Geoffrey Taucer. In the project forums though, suddenly I was getting loads of useful help from some guys I was really looking up to at the time. I enjoyed being a part of a team, and getting involved and helping out so I set out in search of what would become a very long list of projects.
Recently, I started downloading many of the existing projects to check them all out. From the 60%-ProtricityRelics of the Chozo, to the latest Project Chaos, they are some really great moments out there. If you haven’t downloaded some of them yet, I really do recommend it. Theres always a few songs in every style, so there really is something for everyone.
It’s easy to see what has come, but its harder to see what is coming. I’ve seen some people only just realizing some projects exist even though they’ve been running for months. The mods have been kind enough to put them all in one place though, so now it’s a bit easier, but heres the list (of the officially recognized ones anyway) with who’s running what:
And they say they are too many projects going on. Sorry if I missed anyone but uh… I don’t think you can blame me. You may have noticed I left out one project in particular, but I want to talk about that now.
The humongous, and highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII project, Voices of the Lifestream. This game is the cream of the fanboy crop and the thorn in the elitist gamers side, but no one can deny its popularity or its significance, which is why it’s being run by zircon. If this project was going to be made, it had to be totally awesome to live up to its source, so who better then a judge to run it? I left this project until last because it is more or less definitely the next one to come out, and soon too. zircon will be announcing the date at Otakon, but I can tell you its not far off at all.
It’s also, interestingly enough, going to be my OCR debut. I’ve had a ReMix in the ‘to be posted’ queue for months now, but its not going to be released until the Pokémon project is released, much after the FF7 one. Funnily enough, its my highest quality ReMix so far, so when my other project tracks come out you’ll see a regression to my initial abilities, which is odd.
Lastly, I just wanted to mention two recently planned projects. The first one is Ladies of Legend of Zelda, which is DarkeSword’s quest to reveal the true pimp that is Link. The other (which was announced literally hours ago from me writing this) is a Final Fantasy VIII project proposed by kungfuchicken. I hope these both take off, as they should make great albums, but for now, I’m gonna gtfo.
Koichi “Mickey” Namiki (who has also had the nickname “Pretty K.N”) is an oddly system-specific composer. He’s also old guard as far as video game composers go, starting in 1987 with the game Super Hang-On, which he composed with Katsuhiro “Funky K.H” Hayashi and Shigero “Recruit O” Ohwada. For eight years, he composed solely arcade games, mostly ones published by Sega.
“Winning Run”
Super Hang-On (Arcade)
“Type II (BGM2)”
Thunder Blade (Arcade)
The soundtracks to many of Namiki’s older games have the same style: they’re not the strongest in the melody department, but they have enough hooks to get through the song and just groove along. Rail Chase stands as the most notable exception with its almost adventure movie-style score.
“Stages 1 & 4″
Rail Chase (Arcade)
Starting with 3D Shooting Maker in 1996 and reaching until his most recent game credit, Akudaikan 2 in 2003, he composed solely for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, with the exception of 2002’s Magides Fight for the Xbox. Even though he composed more games during this second time period, fewer of those games were released in the U.S. or even had soundtrack releases.
Namiki was a member of the S.S.T. Band, Sega’s official band composed partially of Sega composers who played rock arrangements of different songs from Sega games. He was one of two guitarists in the band (the other was Jouji Iijima, who composed the soundtracks to Galaxy Force II and Zero 4 Champ RR), and played for the full five years that the band was active. In some of his later compositions, Namiki wields his mighty axe.
I did mention in the first line of this post that this should be called “Sales Pitch #2,” so let’s get to that. Over the past couple of years, Sega’s Wave Master sound development studio has released soundtracks to classic Sega video games, such as the Monster World and OutRun series. They have also started the “SOUND!SHOCK SERIES” of albums, the first of which was released this month, SUPER HANG-ON 20th Anniversary Collection. In addition to the soundtracks of Hang-On and Super Hang-On (of which Namiki composed three tracks, including “Winning Run” above), the album also includes five new arrangements, one by Hiroshi “Hiro” Miyauchi and four by Namiki, all of which rock.
The second album in the series, Galaxy Force II & Thunder Blade Original Soundtrack, is set to be released on the 26th of this month. I mentioned Galaxy Force II and Jouji Iijima, its composer, earlier; its style of music is actually quite similar to Thunder Blade’s. This album will have another four arrangements by Miyauchi and Namiki. Both albums are available from VGM World, along with the ten disc Game Sound Legend Series Box 2 ~Platinum Box~, which contains the soundtrack to Bonanza Bros. and many, many more games.
Play-Asia.com has the GUITAR FREAKS 2nd MIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, which consists mostly of tracks from GuitarFreaks 2nd Mix, but also has three tracks from the original GuitarFreaks, all written by Namiki, as well as extended versions of each. Also available is SEGACON: The Best of SEGA Game Music - Vol. 1, which also contains the soundtrack to Super Hang-On, as well as those of other older Sega games.
Finally, CDJapan might have a copy of Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu 2 ~Otoko Jinsei Yume Ichiro~ Original Soundtrack. (”Usually ships within 3-7 days” means that CDJapan doesn’t know if the distributor has any in stock, but if they do, it’ll take about 3-7 business days to ship.) The tracks are all vocal like the sample above, and there are four vocalists other than Shoji Koganezawa.
I don’t own many albums, period. I tend to only buy stuff where a major majority of the album is enjoyable, i.e. I don’t purchase blind. So there don’t end up being many albums, or even EPs, where I can sit down and listen to the whole thing.
I’ll admit, I was lukewarm on Fitz Warine II…at first. It wasn’t a mediocre EP by any means. Indeed, something about the tracks made me keep listening long after I had downloaded them. Fully appreciating the album took me about a month, but it was well worth it. Before we get into the album, onto some background…
In my time at OC ReMix, Quinn Fox has been one of those modest guys who doesn’t like being overly praised. I once asked him (through GrayLightning) repeatedly over the course of half a year to submit a great Sega Rally mix he did, “Snow Tires”, and he said that if I ever asked again, there was no way he’d submit it. /shrugs
But he also recoils after being criticized. Much of the reason for criticism stems from his usage of out-of-the-box preset drumloops, a practice that Protricity’s constant decrying in the formative years of the judges panel ultimately made taboo around OC ReMix. (Though I’d definitely argue that for the community, it was a development for the better. Parts of the necessary “evils” of being on the judges panel. :-D)
Quinn Fox’s predominantly original album Fitz Warine II turned out to be 29 minutes and 32 seconds of really excellent material, full of driving beats, ‘verby soundscapes, and great hooks. Sure, many, of the drum patterns are essentially or verbatim preset loops. But one thing that Quinn does right that hardly anyone else does (so far, only Red Tailed Fox has been comparably decent at it), is actually integrating those presets properly within the context of a complete piece of music.
If I didn’t know any better, I could just as easily believe that Quinn wrote all of the drums. While it’s not rocket science, to me such successful integration of presets is indeed a matter of skill and experience.
Once you check the album out, you’ll see that there’s a lot of care taken by Quinn to fashion smooth, ethereal textures to accompany the evolving grooves at the foundation of each track. For anyone familiar enough with Fox’s OC ReMixes and other works, Quinn has a telltale style on account of his other sounds as well. The album is a nice cross-section of spacey pieces alongside some big beat-style material.
“Lonely Air Machine”, “No Proper Time of Day” and “When and How I Feel” in particular remind me of how the video game industry is missing out on someone who knows how to create very engaging tracks, modern in their approach, but hearkening of the old school in terms of catchiness and memorability. Somewhere out there, a simple but modern-looking space shooter game is crying for a Quinn Fox soundtrack. Meanwhile, his Ristar “H2O” arrangement will keep the VGM-hungry among you satiated for at least 3 minutes and 32 seconds.
Some of the louder tracks were mixed a little too hot for my tastes, and some of the textures could have been fuller for the quieter pieces, but everything turns out a winner overall, especially on the writing side. For the clock-conscious music listener, it’s not a huge time investment, so you should be willing to download this free album and see how it suits you. At a mere $0, the price is right. Have at it, and be sure to let Quinn know if you enjoy the album.
Jason “Xoc” Cox has has plenty of arrangements, side projects and concept albums come out since the ultra-popular Super Mario World tribute SMW, but the spiritual successor to SMW finally arrived a few weeks ago with the Kirby’s Adventure tribute album What’s Pink and Sucks?
Go for it now. You’re bound to find something that you like within the album. It’s over 30 minutes of Jason at his best, making creative use of a cavalcade of instruments and coming up with some great results. I don’t have any nostalgic ties to the Gremlins 2 NES game (that’s never stopped me), but Jason’s arranged that as well, so you should know G2EP is worth the download.
VG Frequency #084: Pull the Claado Trigger
Larry Oji - WMRE (Emory University Student Radio; Atlanta, GA)
Saturday, March 25, 2006 / 10:55 PM - 4:08 AM EST
Liontamer f/TCK, Rexy, KyleJCrb, Species8472, Fusion2004, Kevin “Lorenzo” Sisk & Compyfox
Eon_Blue: “I’m pretty sure Larry just called my artwork garbage.” (more…)
2005 has been another eventful year in the video game music arrangement community. Now that we’ve reached 2006, join us for an informal retrospective at some of the important goings-on in the scene last year. (more…)
Mazedude’s The American Album is an album of 15 video game music arrangements of material exclusively created by American video game music composers. The album is Mazedude’s first, and was conceived as an alternative to the overwhelming attention given to Japanese composers by video game music fans.
Having been released to the public weeks before its scheduled December 1 release date, the album also enjoyed a spotlight at OC ReMix coinciding with the posting of the Commander Keen: The Armageddon Machine ReMix “Slick Rippin Keen.” According to Mazedude, Slick Rippin Keen “has been acclaimed as the ‘catchiest’ track off the album,” arranging Bobby Prince’s “Make It Tighter.”
The album’s website features a feedback area where, alongside fan commentary, several of the composers honored on The American Album have already expressed their appreciation including Jack Wall, Tommy Tallarico, Jeremy Soule & Peter McConnell, as well as Doom lead designer John Romero, as it continues to pick up recognition.
In light of working on The American Albumfor over a year and offering the finished product for free, Mazedude has solicited for donations at any comfortable level from fans who enjoy the album. Along with feedback, those can also be made via the album’s homepage.
First out is the constantly evolving and amazing 
Second on my prestigious originality list is 
The third one has to be my favorite of them all. 
Last but absolutely not least on my originality list is 
This year, I was able to preregister and get in immediately, so I spent much of the hour before our panel handing out glossy OCR fliers and plugging the pending festivities. “Video Game Music, 10 o’clock, Panel 4!” was heard by many people over and over again as they neared the escalator that would take them up to potential VGM bliss. As I went up at 9:50 (10 minutes before showtime) to refill on fliers, the room couldn’t have been more than 15% full, and I was worried that we had a complete bomb on our hands. I mean, what could have rationalized not having a full house this year compared to last year?
