VG Frequency

Jason Vincion, who’s used more than a dozen nicknames in his music career, has released the Super Metroid arrangement album Dark Side of Zebes today. Released by Vincion under the artist name Amaranthine Skies, Dark Side of Zebes is the second album of his Concatenation Records label, following up The Shizz’s Minibosses Message Board community album Nevar Say Die! Compilation, Volume One.

At only 100 copies available and $7, you better order now if you want a part of this 2-track, 40+ minute journey. The galaxy is in captivity…the last Metroid is at peace.

More than 1,000 videogamers and videogame music enthusiasts will converge at the Hilton Mark Center at 5000 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Va., on January 3-6, 2008 for the sixth annual Music and Gaming Festival, a nonstop weekend of tournaments, concerts and workshops.

Three large rooms packed with videogames will be available free for all registrants at the festival, also known as MAGFest. In addition, video game tribute bands will perform rock, electronic, power-metal, and orchestral versions of popular game themes on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Unlike larger, more commercialized conventions, MAGFest aims for a laid-back atmosphere of fun.

“Our goal is to fuel the community of gaming and connect people with each other, whether they are industry leaders or casual gamers,” said Brendan Becker, 28, who runs the festival.

For starters, MAGFest will offer 24-hour access to virtually every kind of gaming – console, arcade, PC/LAN, or handheld. From the ancient Atari 2600 and the original Nintendo Entertainment System to the latest Wii, Xbox and Playstation consoles, all video game platforms will be available. Competitive types will be able to participate in dozens of tournaments for games such as Gears of War, Halo, Rock Band, Smash Brothers, and Wii Sports. Even tabletop gamers will have their space.

On the music side, Friday and Saturday night concerts will feature at least eight bands — with names such as The Advantage, Armcannon, and Powerglove — that specialize in videogame cover songs.

“We’ve become a videogame music mecca, of sorts,” Becker said. “It’s nothing short of awesome to watch all of these guys play on stage at MAGFest and see hundreds of gamers chant, rock, headbang, or sing along.”

Visual effects at the concert will be provided by No Carrier and noteNdo, who use modified Nintendo game consoles along with custom software and a technique known as “circuit bending” to project mind-twisting images on the wall behind the performers.

Two of this year’s musical acts defy the electro-rock stereotype and present classical treatments of videogame tunes. Select Start, a six-piece chamber ensemble which has been featured on National Public Radio, draws from a repertoire of more than 50 videogame theme arrangements. Daniel Brown, a solo pianist, will perform his arrangements of the soundtrack to Battletoads while the game is played on a large screen.

In addition to games and music, MAGFest will offer workshops by videogame artists, musicians and programmers, discussions on videogame culture, trivia and costume contests, dealer tables, an auction of videogame equipment, and a 24-hour video room featuring videogame-related movies and cartoons.

Other special guests include:

* “Stuttering Craig” Skistimas and “Handsome Tom” Hanley of ScrewAttack, which provides videogame content for MTV’s GameTrailers.com website
* James Rolfe, also known as the Angry Video Game Nerd, another regular on GameTrailers.com
* Brian Colin, CEO of Game Refuge, which has developed several humorous titles for Bally/Midway, others, and themselves
* Videogame-themed webcomic artists Applegeeks and Paradox Lost
* Jake “Virt” Kaufman, videogame music composer
* OverClocked ReMix, a site dedicated to fan-made arrangements of game tunes
* X-Strike Studios and Dark Maze Studios, two film groups that produce full-length feature films based on videogames
* Fargate Productions and Main Moon Productions, two more film groups who produce videogame-inspired projects and shorts
* Flavor Grenade Studios, a videogame design outfit headed by DJ Potatoe
* Robert Aldrich, who writes anime- and videogame-inspired stories
* Virtual Fools, a cadre of self-designated “videogame scholars” who offer academic critiques of videogames and surrounding culture

Registration for MAGFest is $35 in advance, and $40 at the door. Visit http://magfest.org/ for full registration information or http://magfest.org/section.php?8 for a complete, up-to-date list of guests.

Long after the preview provided by the music video for “Bank Holiday”, The Grammar Club have finally released their newest album, Bremelanotide. Frontman Shael Riley wants your attention:

I have a new album, with a new band, available free for download, at a new site. This is my first release since Toybox, so go get it.

The band is called The Grammar Club and the album is entitled Bremelanotide. Please support us on viral networking sites like digg!

Digg it:
http://digg.com/music/It_s_a_good_EP_It_s_a_free_EP

Go get the new album at thegrammarclub.com!

-Shael

The album is pretty awesome. I thought the soundfield was a little cramped, particularly for “Bank Holiday” and the overall volume could have been pulled back a little bit. But in the way of criticisms, that about all there was to it. The sound quality was otherwise hot, and all 7 songs on the album were well-written. “Girl Trouble” and “My Gay Shirt” in particular were my favorite cuts. Shael Riley, that boy can harmonize. The pimped-out bassline for the verses of “Girl Trouble” was genius along with the smooth and speedy vocal delivery, while the lyrics didn’t get any sharper or more hilarious with “My Gay Shirt.” Don’t be selfish, spread this gold around.

Fellow OCR judge JigginJonT was really feeling the album, definitely meaningful since Jon doesn’t go out of his way to give praise to anything. With that said, don’t delay in picking this up for your fill of nerdcore. If you’re an audiophile looking to support a good cause, you can buy the FLAC version of the album for $5, with all the money going to support the Penny Arcade charity Child’s Play. Lulz for the chilluns.

After a lengthy nomination phase, the Gamingforce Forums kicked off its first ever “Best Doujin Contest” yesterday as 256 fan-made (a.k.a. “doujin,” a Japanese term) video game music arrangements are pitted against one another in community voting until only one track is left standing.

The contest is initially broken up into eight brackets, each bracket containing eight matchups with four arrangements in each matchup. To help weed out many of the outliers, the top two from each matchup will advance and the 128 remaining tracks will be randomly reseeded.

Doujin video game music from all over the world is represented in the contest with music from OverClocked ReMix, Remix.Kwed.Org, Dwelling of Duels, and dozens of other websites and album releases from North America, Europe and Japan. For a great chance at getting exposed to a ton of fan-made material you may not be familiar with, stopping by Gamingforce for this competition is an absolute must.

Just giving a quick Happy Birthday to game music composer, enthusiast and legend George “The Fat Man” Sanger, who celebrates his 50th birthday today. His wife, fellow game industry veteran Linda Law, detailed what Fat was up to this week via the “Fat Man 50″ webpage:

For the most part George will be working on his Rolls all week while listening to music and hanging out with friends who are either helping or watching. Come by to hang out, have a drink, have a meal, bust a nut (because some of them are frozen).

While Sanger himself said over at Facebook…:

I get to work on Good-Bad (1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud SGE-302) all week!!!! This is a big deal because I love to do it, and because she needs it, being my daily driver. Come on by and help with the car, chat, share a beer, take me out for lunch, play us a song, or teach us welding.

Sounds like fun over in Austin, Texas this week. We at VGF wish The Fat Man well, as well as Rolls-Royces for the rest of us. We get tired of taking the Metro.

Gotta give it up to this man again. Andrew “zircon” Aversa is sponsoring a competition to remix either (or both) of two tracks from his recent original album, Antigravity. Announced at the OC ReMix forums, as well as several top audio message boards, “Warhead” and “Mindbender” were selected by zircon as the tracks du jour.

Did we also mention prize$$$? Lots of excellent music-creation software is up for grabs as well as presets created by the man himself, with the lucky winner also landing on a future album of zircon’s, including profit-$haring. One would have to infer that a slew of good entries could facilitate the creation of a separate album as well if all goes well. The deadline is January 31st, so you may want to get cracking. Without further adieu, zircon provides all the needed details:

Hey everyone - since I released my third album Antigravity earlier this year, I’ve gotten a bunch of requests from people asking if they can remix some of the tracks. So, here we are. :) I’ve compiled remix packs for two of the songs, “Mindbender” and “Warhead”, and you can download ‘em for free here (plus the original songs):

www.soundtempest.net/zircon%20-%20Warhead.mp3
www.zirconstudios.com/Warhead%20Remix%20Pack.rar

www.soundtempest.net/zircon%20-%20Mindbender.mp3
http://www.zirconstudios.com/Mindben…mix%20Pack.rar

Even outside of the actual contest, you’re free to create AND distribute your remixes, provided;

1) There’s no commercial interest - eg. you can’t sell them. If you want to do this, contact me privately.

2) You credit me as the original artist. Most remixes have a naming scheme like this: “Original Artist - Song (remixer name/remix)”, eg. Fear Factory - Cyberdyne (Junkie XL Remix), or The Crystal Method - Name of the Game (Hybrid’s LA Blackout Remix).

If you’d like to enter the contest, simply email me (admin at zirconstudios dot com) a link to your finished remix. You can do it in whatever style you want, and you can use as little or as much of the original audio files as you want, provided the end result is still recognizably “Mindbender” or “Warhead” in some fashion.

On February 1, 2008 I’ll pick the best of the bunch to be featured on my next album, and the winning producer(s) will of course get a cut of the sales as well. If there are too many entries, or I simply can’t decide, I’ll open up the voting to the public.

Post questions, comments, feedback here… and happy remixing! ;)

NOTE: You can enter more than one remix!

—

PRIZES

11/23 - Urs of u-he software fame has graciously offered up a copy of my favorite synth, Zebra 2, as a prize in this contest as well. I’ll also be throwing in all of my custom presets including my two current commercial banks (128+ sounds.) Considering it’s my weapon of choice, it seemed only appropriate. Please give a big thanks to Urs for his generous donation!

11/25 - Thanks to IK Multimedia and eSoundz, I have another excellent prize to offer: the T-Racks mastering suite! T-Racks is my mastering software of choice; I’ve used it on virtually every remix and original track I’ve ever made since 2005 and it’s just awesome. It consists of four low-CPU, analog modeled plugs - a compressor, limiter, EQ, and channel strip with all of those. This software is produced by IK Multimedia, one of the top VI developers in the biz, and distributed by eSoundz, a big audioware retailer which has a massive selection and fantastic deals for loyal customers.

ALSO included are 50 free loops produced by Sonic Reality, another company I love. I used R.A.W. material all over Antigravity, including on Mindbender. :)

Even if you don’t win, definitely hit up both IK and eSoundz next time you’re looking to make a purchase, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find some awesome, innovative gear at sick prices.

—

This contest is also posted on…

Nu Skool Breaks
KVR Audio
Reeemix (vote it up!)
Laptop Rockers

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.

Man, call me out of the loop. The album itself, Ritual of Battle, was leaked in September and the video itself was posted on YouTube in late October. Parental advisory and all that good stuff. Hell, one of ‘em is wearing it for a shirt. Don’t hate:

East coast underground hip hop supergroup Army of the Pharaohs remixed the Castlevania series‘ classic “Bloody Tears” theme in their track of the same name. Check out the video above, as well as the below “making of” YouTube clip that previewed Ritual of Battle, featuring footage from the music video’s production:

Manhattan art space The Tank and New York artist collective 8bitpeoples announce the Blip Festival 2007, a four-day music and multimedia event taking place in New York City November 29 - December 2, 2007. Focusing on the modern artistic exploration of primitive video game and home computer technology and featuring 40 musicians and visualists from around the world, the Blip Festival showcases artists adopting and repurposing familiar but forgotten hardware - such as the Commodore 64, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Atari game console and home computer line, and the Nintendo Game Boy - exploring their untapped potential and unique aesthetic character.

Blip Festival 2007 has come and gone, but the legend shall live on. The event featured Nullsleep, Blasterhead, and other big names from the modern chiptune scene getting down and dirty in New York’s The Tank. On Friday, November 30, one of the performers was Jake “virt” Kaufman, riding the wave of his most recently released game work, Contra 4.

Today, virt posted the six songs he played during his set. The set included arrangements of past songs he wrote (including one from a game he scored, Shantae), an arrangement of Jamiroquai’s “Love Foolosophy,” and a few original pieces. Check the video below for a short snippet of his performance of “DnB Chip Mix 07″:

“DnB Chip Mix 07″ gets my vote for best track by being an epic nine and a half minutes of FM bliss, but also worth mentioning is “Loli Fishing Next 20,000 Leagues,” a chiptune arrangement of a Kwakfest piece. Really, though, you can’t go wrong with any piece.

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.

Sometimes there’s so much going on that I neglect to give my own homebase, OverClocked ReMix, its due. A couple of weeks ago, the online arm of Australian mag 3D World interviewed site creator/CEO/CFO/CIO/president/grand poobah David “djpretzel” Lloyd.

Online Editor Darryn King conducted the interview for the site’s Lifestyle section, featuring several questions djp typically (and surprisingly) isn’t asked including what makes a good video game soundtrack, when he realized OC ReMix was becoming big, and why he feels the site has been so successful.

OCR remains the premiere destination for video game arrangements in the world; swing by 3D World if you want the latest points-of-view on the scene from the orchestrator of the movement. OC ReMix has its own forum thread regarding the interview, where you can also comment. You can always check out OverClocked ReMix’s media coverage at the site’s Press page.

The beginning of a new month means another shot of Dwelling of Duels results, this time focusing on Enix (the precursor of even bigger heavyweight Square Enix). With Dragon Warrior, Terranigma, Soul Blazer and more, the company was well represented with its crop of entries.

Master Hatchet took home top honors in the live performance compo with “Union Alpha” an excellent arrangement from the all-too-rarely tackled Valkyrie Profile, while Scaredsim followed in second place with the Brain Lord/Illusion of Gaia combo mix “Will is the Lord,” featuring some good 8-bit style leads before segueing into more serene leads for the Gaia section. norg was, in my opinion, the story of the month with his 18+ minute evolving super-medley of Japanese-exclusive Famicom release Just Breed entitled “Abduction.” Ryan8bit and Hat helped round out the top finishers in a solid turnout.

Wanted to throw special props out to Hope Fails for the Terranigma arrangement “Afternoon Tea with SnappleMan’s Mom,” which finished tied for 8th place, not just for a funny title, but a great composition as well, which I didn’t feel got enough support. It could have sounded a bit more polished, but the execution was fairly strong and had some good orchestration ideas rarely heard in DoD.

You look like you could use a breakdown. Don’t forget to check out how DoD rings in 2008 when this month’s Free Month competition creation phase wraps up late on New Year’s Day:

M-H: Valkyrie Profile - Union Alpha
Scaredsim: Brainlord, Illusion of Gaia - Will is the Lord
norg: Just Breed (Famicom) - Abduction
Fourth Place: Ryan8bit: Dragon Warriors 2, 4 - Wayfaerer
Fifth Place (tie): Hat: Soul Blazer - Get to Town
Fifth Place (tie): Riders, Ranger-X, ShinerCCC: Brainlord - The Audio Dragon
Fifth Place (tie): thesamareaye, The S.P.O.B.: Star Ocean 3 - Red Leaves of Autumn
Eighth Place (tie): Hope Fails: Terranigma - Afternoon Tea with SnappleMan’s Mom
Eighth Place (tie): Hydrasphere: Terranigma - Just for a While
Eighth Place (tie): Josiah Tobin, XMark: Brainlord - Master Of The Platinum Site Of The Tower Of The Abell Civilization Ruins
Eleventh Place: Theo Confidor: Paladin’s Quest - Wielding a Holy Sword
Twelfth Place (tie): bjkmenu: Bust a Move - hiroshortykittyn
Twelfth Place (tie): Bucedric Nosnik Rionediamn: The 7Th Saga - The Runes Ruse

Following up on unique works from VGMix regulars like Quinn Fox, OC ReMix Judge Waleed “zyko” Hawatky recently released his latest original album Circumstantial Zen as well. The artist described the long road traveled in the tale of the tape for the album via MySpace:

the new album is finally done and arrived.
as you can clearly see, i am not selling it like i said i would… it just didn’t make sense for me to do so and i’m sure you won’t blame me for the decision i’ve made. i’ve never taken this long on an album before… for the early stretches, it was driven by a slow roll of creativity… i was writing but not in the abundance that i’m usually accustomed to. stretches later on, i was simply curbed by my computer failure that lasted months amidst production. as a result, you’ll hear an, at times, unnerving mixture of contrasting musical ideas… some of this is all over the map and it’s really because within a year’s time, it isn’t a stretch how much of the “map” i, myself, have traveled … let alone my music haha. i eventually got back to it and then spent a few months in a seemingly unending state of obsessive revision. as a result, it’s a far more refined body of work than its predecessor, “Perspektiv”…

and at times, a ton more comprehensible - i tried to stay committed to making more sense this time around than with the last effort as stretches of Perspektiv didn’t seem to make sense to anyone which turned a lot of people off. of course, it neither moves me nor behooves me to worry much about my audience as i’m convinced that anybody who likes my music probably likes it because of the very attitude i have about it: it is what it is.

i’d be surprised if anyone listened to my work with the expectation that it was going to be orthodox

this may not have as many critical errors as most of my work because of how unrushed it was… but at times, i’ll have boring drums and out of tune guitars and bad vocal intonation, wonky strings and awkward transitions and lyrics that don’t make any sense…

http://www.zykomazika.com/zen.htm

and then after it’s all over, you’ll realize it was me and it’ll be ok.

If I had to confirm any “errors” alluded to in the info, I felt “Patience in Love” had a promising Santana-style vibe before everything started clashing something fierce, but that was about the only track I outright wasn’t feeling and would surmise you won’t be a fan of.

“Something about Laughter” was very laid back, a great listen if you’re just trying to chill. zyko tends to have a pretty loose style, but he’s managed to preserve that while really upping the level of polish on the overall presentation, as well as exploring quite a few interesting instrumentation ideas that I’ve either never heard him explore or never heard him use with this level of refinement. Check out the wind instrument action of the opening track “Something Wicked…” for an example of what I’m taking about.

The killer work of this album? In my opinion, it’s shared between two pieces. “Remember me?”, a remake of a 1998 track of his and easily one of weed’s best efforts in my many years following his material, and “Everythin you expect of a hero,” the most upbeat and straight-up catchy piece of the bunch thanks to some great percussion writing and the funky rhythm guitar work. Download Circumstantial Zen in full and take a listen to some of zyko’s strongest offerings yet.

Jayson Litrio, most known to OC ReMix denizens for his highly accessible Mega Man II arrangement “Dr. Wily’s Wedding” (which has legitimately been played by at least one fan at their own wedding), is set to go around the world next year as part of R&B singer Ashanti’s touring band.

Putting his skills on the keys to great use, Litrio gave details a few days ago on his first appearance alongside Ashanti at New York City’s Times Square, set for later tonight. Via MySpace bulletin:

For those who haven’t heard, I’ve officially joined Ashanti’s touring band as one of the keyboardists. I haven’t worked with her in almost two years as she went off to release her perfume, a book, and star in a bunch of films. Her latest album, ‘The Declaration’, finally drops in early February - which will be followed by a world tour. I’ll give more details later, but her new CD shows a lot of growth, and rehearsals with her and the rest of the crew have been a blast so far. Now I understand why they call her the Princess of hip hop and R&B.

This Thursday, we will be doing a special benefit concert at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Sean Kingston will also be performing with us that evening. It is fairly expensive for tickets as it is not part of the tour and is more of an intimate show, to help raise $$$ for bone marrow and cancer research… however, for those who can afford the cheaper $101 tickets, I’d love to have you there - and you’d be doing a good deed at the same time. But fear not, there will be many shows to come, and I’m not yet allowed to say who else we will be touring with, but it is going to be big.

More info:

http://www.ashantithisisme.com/ashanti/
http://www.stellasrainbowfoundation.org/

As Litrio noted in the MySpace blog, working with Ashanti has been a positive experience and full of good energy, always great to hear. We’ll keep you informed with any developments with Litrio on Ashanti’s tour if and when we hear of them, and of course congrats to the globetrotting Jayson on a wonderful opportunity.

Pro composer Tim “CoLD SToRAGE” Wright celebrated the Amiga demo tracks that got him his start in the video game industry, “Puggs in Space,” with the recent release of “Puggsy Theme Tune 2007 Remix.” More info from Wright’s homepage:

It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly 20 years since Tim composed the tune that launched his career in computer games!

Working with Lee Carus and Alan McCarthy as part of DIONYSUS (seconded in under the Jester Brothers International banner) he created 4 pieces of music and a flurry of sound effects for a demo that would fire the imagination of Ian Hetherington, the then Director of Psygnosis Limited, to sign them up on the spot at a London Computer fair.

Heady days indeed! :O)

To commemorate the fact, he has created a full-on CD remix of “Puggs in Space” for you to download right here.

Tim says, “I hope you like the remix, and it brings back some nostalgic memories… ENJOY!”

Wright actually submitted this to OC ReMix, but we unfortunately had to turn it down due to the source material being from a demo rather than being originally created for a game soundtrack. That’s also part of the reason OC ReMix had to pass on Markus Schneider & Mahoney’s amazing SID demo arrangement of “Sweet.”

I suggested to Wright that he submit the 2007 Remix to AMIGAremix, since I know they’d love it and don’t have any restrictions on demo arrangements. AMIGAremix’s submission system seems down at the moment, but Wright was definitely enthusiastic on the idea, so hopefully we’ll see the remix there as well in the near future!

I encouraged Wright to potentially submit an arrangement from something from his official game discography (Awesome, Shadow of the Beast series, Wipeout series), and he was really nice in his correspondence, so hopefully this isn’t the last we’ve heard from CoLD SToRAGE around the fan arrangement community! For more on Wright’s professional services, visit Tantrumedia.

Slipped under my radar last month, but I’d be remiss in not highlight Quinn Fox’s newest original album Music From Mars. No idea why the album isn’t properly linked and available on Fox’s homepage, but the VGMix forums have got what you need until then. The artist writes:

Well, here it is. I managed to finish this baby up and work to get started on even better possibilities, but this release is clearly new ground for me.

Music From Mars is easily the best, most accessible, and unique album or collection of songs I’ve ever created. Those familiar with my music and style (I’ve been in this scene for more than five years) should find things as alien and new as they are familiar and welcome. I’m positive if I’d spent another few months with this, it could be better, but I’m trying to become better at leaving well enough alone….

Anyway, I hope those who listen enjoy it and listen often. Reviews are welcome and encouraged.

Definitely go ahead and review this one. If, like me, you’re a fan of other works from Fox like Fitz Warine II, then Music From Mars should be solid as well. Fox definitely hits some unexplored territory with this effort, embracing vocal work a lot moreso than most of his previous releases.

In my critical opinion (clearly the most important one out there, of course), the drumwork frequently felt out of place, and the highs should have been toned down throughout, but compositionally this was a pretty sophisticated album.

I couldn’t help thinking I wanted the opening track of “Patience” to be twice as long, to hear the concepts worked with further, and that’s just the start of things. “Director” was also an example of some killer lyrics, spun from a great creative concept. The vocals in “Deimos” should have been punched up and better separated from the instrumentation, but was yet another extremely strong composition featuring some very emotive delivery from Fox. Aside from the percussion not clicking, the same praise and criticism fit “Obliterate Me” as well.

“Prosper,” I’d have rather heard Justin Timberlake or Robin Thicke give that one a go (not my style, but hey), and the transitions felt too jarring and disjointed, but this was a surprising dose of hip-hop/R&B flavor within his trademark sound (including drumloops).

Overall, I feel the album started off stronger than it finished, but the overall package was definitely worth the price ($0!) and the time (just over 35 minutes). Check it out and decide for yourself, then swing by Fox’s site for even more of his original works.

Terrible news today as confirmation came in from Singapore’s Straits Times that musician and arranger Reuben Kee, 23, was killed this past Friday along with four other Singaporean boaters in a boating accident in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The bodies of Kee and the other boaters were recovered today by Cambodian police, nearly a day and a half after the men drowned in a freak accident after the conclusion of the Cambodia-ASEAN Traditional Boat Race.

Community-wide, our thoughts and prayers go out to Kee’s family and friends.

Reuben Kee:

Homepage
@OverClocked ReMix - Memorial message board thread
@Anime Remix
@Blogspot
@Facebook
@Friendster
@Last.fm
@MusicBrainz
@YouTube

Reprinted below are two articles from the Straits Times, published before (print) and after (web, previously linked) the recovery of the missing boaters. More thoughts on this tragedy, as well as Kee’s brief career, will be covered here in the coming days:

Five missing Singapore rowers feared dead

Judith Tan
In Phnom Penh
Liaw Wy-Cin
In Singapore

When the search for the five missing dragon boat racers in Cambodia resumes this morning, chances of finding them alive appear to be bleak.

It would have been about 40 hours since the boat carrying 22 Singapore dragon boat racers capsized in the river on Friday.

Singapore naval divers will be using sonar equipment to comb the Tonle Sap River near the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, together with local rescue workers.

According to eyewitnesses, survivors and race officials, the Singapore team was making its way back to the starting point, after the race, when the tragedy occurred.

Instead of waiting for a boat to tow them back, the team had decided to row towards shore themselves.

When they were close to shore, a wave hit them, causing the boat to collide with a pontoon and overturn. Team members were sucked under the pontoon. Seventeen racers surfaced and five did not.

The missing racers are: Jeremy Goh, 24; Stephen Low, 31; Reuben Kee, 23; Poh Boon San, 27 and Chee Wei Cheng, 20.

It is believed that a combination of strong currents and fatigue after the race could play a part in the likely drowning of the five men. They could also have been knocked unconscious when the 500kg boat capsized in the 9m-deep water.

The racers were not wearing life jackets.

One survivor who declined to be named said the team panicked under water and the current was pushing them down, so they all kicked their way upwards. He was treated for bruises on his face.

Eyewitness Joey Paraiso said on television last night that the current was strong. “It happened so quickly. The Singaporean rowers, one by one, floated and saved themselves. There were some railings that they were able to hold on to.

“They were not able to swim normally, so they just looked for something to hang on to… The current was a bit strong,” he said.

The race was held to celebrate Cambodia’s Water Festival, which takes place each year at full moon to celebrate the changing of the Tonle Sap River course.

This year, more than 1 million people were expected to attend the three-day race, which is Cambodia’s biggest annual event. There were 432 participating boats.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday expressed his sadness at the accident.

“I share the deep concerns of the five Singaporeans. The Singapore Government will do all it can to provide the necessary assistance,” he said in a statement.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan said: “Our priorities are to find the missing, to provide comfort to family members and then find out what happened.”

Relatives of the missing men flew to Phnom Penh yesterday afternoon. On arrival, they went to the site of the accident before going to a hotel to be briefed on rescue efforts.

A brother of missing racer Jeremy Goh, who declined to be named, said Jeremy left fro Cambodia on Thursday and was due back tomorrow.

He said at Changi Airport yesterday: “We’re just going there to see what’s going on and hoping for the best.”

Reprinted below is the Associated Press article, published on the Straits Times online, confirming the death of Kee and the four other missing men:

Five missing S’porean bodies found in Cambodian river

PHNOM PENH - POLICE pulled the bodies of five young Singaporean men out of a Cambodian river on Sunday after they went missing when their boat capsized after a holiday race, officials said.

The bodies were spotted floating downstream from the accident site in the Tonle Sap river in the capital, Phnom Penh, said police officer Mom Sitha, a member of the 150-strong party searching for the victims.

‘The bodies of the five missing have all been discovered,’ Mom Sitha said.

He said the bodies were located at four different sites downstream, from one kilometre to four kilometres south of where the five Singaporeans disappeared after their dragon boat capsized on Friday.

Their grieving relatives gathered on Sunday at Phnom Penh’s Calmette Hospital, where the bodies were being brought for autopsy.

There had been 22 Singaporeans on the boat, which had just competed in a traditional Cambodian boat race festival. As they were returning to shore, the Singaporeans decided to continue rowing for leisure, but their boat hit a swirl and capsized, according to Cambodian officials.

Police boats were able to rescue only 17 of them at the scene.

Relatives of the missing had visited the search area Saturday evening, sobbing and hugging each other. One woman fainted.

Naval team
Singapore’s navy sent a team of eight - a mission commander, six divers and a medic trained in underwater rescue - to assist the Cambodian authorities in their search and rescue efforts.

The commander, Major Rayson Lim, said they used sonar equipment to probe underwater.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen sent a message to his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, ‘conveying his shock and sadness’ over the accident, Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The Singaporeans were among eight teams from neighbouring Southeast Asian countries that participated in the annual event. The accident occurred on the first of three days of racing.

Some 440 colourful dragon boats, mainly from across Cambodia, were racing to celebrate Cambodia’s annual water festival, which marks the start of the rice harvesting season and the time of the year when the Tonle Sap river reverses its flow from north to south. — AP

Fans of the arranger band Project X have long enjoyed their albums covering the Mega Man II and Mega Man III soundtracks, as well as the first radio show that gained traction with the US-based fan arrangement community, Super Radio X. And though Rawk and Rok haven’t pursued video game music arrangements in quite a while, they’ve kept the Project X spirit alive for years with their original band, Clawjob.

The Allston, Massachusetts-based duo of Mike Gintz and Nick Burgess are reaching out to their fanbase via MySpace bulletin to let them know about their new club, the Society of Clawjob Aficionados. More than just a mailing list, if you sign up for free, the guys promise to mail members something before the holiday season is upon us. The band gives you the info:

Lovers of Clawjob have one great reason to give thanks this year as the beloved conceptual rock band unleashes a brilliant new idea upon the world! The twin geniuses describe their invention as a “club” for “fans,” or as they call it, an “international society of Clawjob aficionados, united by promotional freebies delivered via the postal service!”

Click here to join the Society of Clawjob Aficionados and get free delights in the mail!

From newsletters, exclusive artwork, and lyrics to stickers, music, and piles of cash*, you’ll get a little of everything! Join now, as the band has made a blood oath that they will send out the first mailing before the winter holidays.

*Piles of cash currently out of stock.

Who knows what you’ll get if you sign up? If you’re not convinced, swing by their homepage or MySpace, get a taste of their “Mid-90s indie rock + the vast emptiness of outer space + dying and staring into the blinding eyes of Zeus” flavor, including the debut album Space Crackers. I know what’s good. I’m already signed up. Don’t miss out!

One way to both visualize and sequence music is to use a piano roll. A piano roll is essentially a graph of the music; the notes are represented by blocks on the roll, where the height indicates the pitch and length the duration. So, the higher a block is, the higher the note is, and the longer it is, the longer it lasts. The blocks can be color coded to indicate different instruments, so that you can have multiple instruments playing at the same time.

Now, what would happen if, instead of composing a song, you instead decided to use a piano roll to make a picture? Well, you could use different color blocks and draw different shapes, or letters, and so on. But it would probably sound like a jumbled mess of notes unless you take extra effort to make sure that the pictures you make don’t sound discordant.

Well, some fellow in Japan did just that. He’s remixed video game tunes as MIDI files, but also embedded pictures of the games he’s remixed inside the files. Now, if you were to listen to these files normally in an audio player, you wouldn’t be able to see the pictures. That’s where Music Animation Machine comes in. MAM generates a piano roll visualization of a MIDI file and plays it at the same time as a music file, either the same MIDI or perhaps a live performance of the piece the MIDI represents. The result is amazing:

1. 0:00-0:14 - Tetris (Game Boy): Tetris blocks, set to “Korobeiniki”
2. 0:14-0:43 - Dr. Mario: pills and “Dr. Mario,” set to “Fever”
3. 0:43-0:55 - Space Invaders: slowly descending alien craft, set to the minimal BGM
4. 0:55-1:03 - Gradius: the opening of the first level, set to “Beginning of the History (Stage Start - Dog Fight BGM)”
5. 1:03-1:16 - Gradius: the second, mountainous part of the first level, set to “Challenger 1985 (Stage 1 - Volcano BGM)”
6. 1:16-1:30 - Gradius: entering of the Konami Code (and subsequent gain of options and missiles) and fighting of the first boss, set to “Aircraft Carrier (Boss BGM)”
7. 1:30-1:31 - Gradius: the player dying, set to the dying sound effect
8. 1:31-1:39 - Donkey Kong: the first level, set to “25M (Level 1) BGM”
9. 1:39-1:43 - Pac-Man: Pac-Man eating some dots, set to the same tune as above

See more of these at Kotaku, including one featuring the previously blogged about Cheetahmen II.

Last week, Lee “LeeBro” Brotherton announced his departure from the UK music collective the Remix Factory in order to pursue his solo career under the stage name Bentley Jones. While Brotherton will still be involved in Remix Factory releases and remains on good terms with the group, he is currently attempting to use his songwriting talents, genre diversity and multilingual fluency to break out in the UK pop scene.

Brotherton’s most notable work in professional video game music are the lyrics and vocals to Silver the Hedgehog’s theme, “Dreams of an Absolution”, from the soundtrack to 2006’s Sonic the Hedgehog, written while representing Remix Factory. LeeBro detailed the refocusing of his career in a MySpace bulletin earlier this month:

It is with deepest regret to announce that I am leaving the Remix Factory, however this change is so I can concentrate on my album as an artist so it’s not all bad. So where does this leave the Factory? Well, this departure isn’t permanent as I will continue to contribute to Remix Factory productions where possible and I’ll be keeping one eye on things to make sure operations continue as successfully as they have done thus far, if not more so.

I can assure you that the music will remain unaffected as all the other producers and remixers (including Phunkstar and K-Klub) will continue belting out their banging tunes. I have secured a management team for the Remix Factory who will now be working to expand the Factory’s range across various genres and mediums internationally.

And as for me… I’ve been working under my alter-ego ‘Bentley Jones’ and it’s now time to focus on getting my music out to you guys. I’ll be adding the finishing touches to my album, promotion and doing a gig here and there so keep your eyes peeled. I have already – and will be doing so again in the future – worked with the Remix Factory on several tracks, so you can be sure that I’ll never be too far away…

The most notable change is that I will no longer be available through the Remix Factory MySpace. However any messages can be sent to my new home – www.myspace.com/bentleyjonesmusic - which is also where I will be keeping a blog as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes videos so you can follow everything that goes on in excruciatingly intricate detail…

I want to offer my sincerest thanks to you all for supporting my work at the Remix Factory. In hopes that you’ll continue to support me as an artist I’ve uploaded some brand new tracks from the album on the BJ MySpace for you guys to check out. I’m really excited to hear what you think.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the other side!!

// Lx
Aka… Bentley Jones

Late last week, the newly-christened pop act used YouTube to roll out a new feature promoting his solo career, “Bentley Jones: All Access”:

Take a pop musician, give him a video camera and brace yourself for the resulting footage.

“Bentley Jones: All Access” offers an insight into the hectic world of a breaking new artist. After previously making a name for himself as a producer for the Remix Factory, join Bentley Jones as he embarks on a journey to become a solo artist, offering you a behind-the-scenes pass to promotion, gigs, rehearsals and exclusive footage of the making of his debut album.

Got a question? Suggestion? Drop a line to allaccess@bentleyjones.com and your e-mail might feature in the next episode!

Check back on the official Bentley Jones website, MySpace and YouTube Channel to keep up-to-date with this ongoing web series.

The 22-year-old LeeBro has come a long way from the Sonic arrangements he had featured on OC ReMix more than half a decade ago, raising his game substantially on all levels. One of few amateur musicians in the community to harness their fandom and successfully take it professional, Brotherton has rubbed elbows with several Sega heavy hitters, including Jen Senoue of Crush 40, whose work he frequently arranged. As Bentley Jones, Brotherton bears watching as he now attempts to take his music to the next level.

Just wanted to drop some brief comments on the Peabody Opera Theater’s performance of The Turn of the Screw (note: content forthcoming), written by Henry James and adapted for opera by Benjamin Britten, including Jill “pixietricks” Goldin and her role as 8-year old Flora.

Though likely a staple of many operas, there were at least two instances of four singers at once coming together in what I felt was an indistinct cacophony of voices. Though performed in English, the opera being subtitled was thus a significant help in terms on following the show. A portion of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra provided excellent music through the duration of the story, greatly enhancing the overall mood, especially meaningful given that the stage setup was not overly elaborate.

Before I mention Jill, I felt the rest of the cast was very strong, but Adam Caughey really stood out to me with great voice control and strength in his role as the complete piece of shit child molester Peter Quint. Jill herself was great in her role and the playful and (as the performance wound down) hateful, Flora, really laying it into the character of The Governess in a big moment that left me realizing that this surprisingly dark story would definitely not have the trite happy ending one comes to expect in most stories of good vs. evil. Paraphrasing hint: “I hate you!”

I promised myself I would check out at least one of Jill’s performances before she graduated Peabody, and I’m glad I was able to follow through. The Lady, Jill’s boyfriend Andrew “zircon” Aversa, and fellow Peabody student Doug “DrumUltimA” Perry were all in attendance.

Afterward, I got to meet Jill’s mother briefly, and The Lady and I stayed the night at Jill’s apartment (thanks to me misjudging when the last train to DC ran). Talking to the judgy couple, I put on my radio host cap and inquired about both pixie and zirc’s histories in obtaining professional work, something that a lot of artists their age aren’t really good enough for or (when good enough) aggressive enough in pursuing while college undergrads. I’m always interested in that kind of stuff.

Leaving this morning for DC, it’s off to AnimeUSA in Arlington, VA for today’s OverClocked ReMix panel. I’ll be back later this week to provide a report on that, part of a very busy weekend with the OCR community.

Just some brief congratulations for Mustin of OneUp Studios, who’s involved with this week’s MTV Gamer’s Week on the music side, but not in the way that most of us would expect, i.e. The OneUps. Mustin, via MySpace bulletin:

All this week is MTV Gamer’s Week. If you happen to watch and catch the Gamer’s Week commercials, I wrote the jingles for them. Also, I played Chopin for a Wii commercial and did some 80’s rock inspired singing rock stabs for a PS3 commercial.

I got to see my music on television for the first time today.* Pretty sweet!

-m

*I’ve written stuff for TV before, but I’ve never gotten the channel it’s played on so this is my first time to see it live

Chopin, eh? Wonder how he feels about the Eternal Sonata soundtrack.

Video footage of the various Gamer’s Week spots has yet to surface, but we’ll be sure to follow up once it does.

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 November 3, the University of California, Berkeley California Golden Bears and the Washington State University Cougars. played a college football game at Cal’s Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, CA. During the halftime show, the Cal band performed tracks from several different video games, and lined up in formations involving those games as well.

Note that all the formations are upside down because the band performed facing the opposite side of the field.

The formations and songs are, as best as I can identify:

1. 0:03-0:35 - Pong: two paddles moving up and down with the ball bouncing between them (no music)
2. 0:39-1:30 - Tetris (Game Boy): descending blocks, set to “Korobeiniki”
3. 1:32-1:55 - Mortal Kombat: an “MK” in a box, set to “Techno Syndrome”
4. 1:55-2:21 - Mortal Kombat: the signature dragon logo (same music)
5. 2:21-3:10 - Pokémon: two Poké Balls and a Pokémon battle, set to “Opening”
6. 3:10-3:55 - The Legend of Zelda: the Triforce and Master Sword, set to “Overworld”
7. 3:57-4:17 - Super Mario Bros.: two pipes and five blocks, set to “Overworld BGM”
8. 4:17-4:44 - Super Mario Bros.: Mario entering from the top pipe, jumping and hitting the third and fifth blocks, and exiting through the bottom pipe, set to “Underworld BGM”
9. 4:44-5:10 - Super Mario World: Mario exiting a pipe and running in front of some configuration I can’t identify, set to “Athletic BGM”
10. 5:10-5:36 - Super Mario Bros.: a largely random configuration possibly intended to resemble an underwater stage, set to “Swimming BGM”
11. 5:36-5:38 - Super Mario Bros.: same formation, set to “Time Up Warning Sound”
12. 5:38-5:55 - Super Mario Bros.: castle and flag at the end of a level and Mario jumping at the flag, set to a sped up version of “Overworld BGM”
13. 5:58-6:07 - Super Mario Bros.: flag descending, set to “Course Clear Fanfare”

Incidentally, Cal won 20-17.

Last week, classical video game arrangement sextet (dirty!) Select Start were profiled by the Gainesville Sun’s Kyle Mitchell alongside other acts in the Northeast Florida area performing last Wednesday at 1982.

Aside from the article (”The legend of Koji inspires”) flubbing a reference to “Axel F”, Mitchell does the band proud, underscoring how playing the classic, catchy melodies of Koji Kondo turns out to be anything but simplistic when adapted to a six-piece performance.A quick read from the Sun, but a good one, so give it a look. Be ready when the group takes MAGFest 6 by storm this coming January in Alexandria, VA.