VG Frequency

I actually forgot to mention this since KyleJCrb took a while to get the archive posted up, but a few weeks ago I guest hosted Nitro Game Injection #110 alongside Kyle and Mae. We had a great selection of holiday-themed video game music, but not in the traditional sense of picking Xmas material. Kyle and I worked around that by picking lots of material with holiday/winter-themed names.

We three also reviewed 8bitpeople’s The 8bits of Christmas and the legendary Konami arrange album Kukeiha Club pro-fusion ~Salamander~. If you want to hear how some great stuff from Street Fighter EX2 Plus and D2 actually fits in with the wintery show format, definitely check it out.

Video game music news portal ThaSauce has launched the first full episode of their podcast, SauceCast, hosted by Dyne and injury, the premiere edition focusing on the events of MAGFest 6 along with other community news at developments at ThaSauce.

Aside from (or dare I say “including”) the comical overuse of the word “phenomenal” (that’s starla’s version of me saying “aight”, “tite”, “hot”, “yo”, and “bro” in my radio days), I was enjoying every minute. There were a few slight dead spaces in the convo I would have edited to make things keep flowing, but I’m anal. Regardless, this was way slicker than anything I’d ever put out, with iTunes sections and everything. Very nice.

Dyne and injury were able to keep things short and to the point while I felt like I’d gotten the info I needed. Granted, I was there for MAGFest, so none of the info was new to me specifically.I’m interested to see how it goes when news I’m not familiar with is tackled, but the team at ThaSauce sound up for the task. Lots of fun akin to the other girl/guy podcast teamups of VGDJ-past. I definitely enjoyed SauceCast and am looking forward to more!

Kyle “KyleJCrb” Crouse knows friends in high places, in this case through his co-director of the Tales of Phantasia/Tales of Symphonia arrangement album Summoning of Sprits, Aleah “Kureejii Lea” Baker, also the wife of Archie Comics scribe Ian “Potto” Flynn. Flynn, who has handled writing duties for Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic X, was interviewed on the most recent installment of Nitro Game Injection.

Besides discussing his career so far and future aspirations, Flynn selected three tracks for the podcast, two of which were from OC ReMix. After selecting Sonic R’s “Can You Feel the Sunshine?” (shamelessly close to “Super Sonic Racing”), Flynn also selected SnappleMan’s “Malicious Fingers” from the Sonic 3 & Knuckles arrangement album Project Chaos, as well as the five-way Sonic & Knuckles effort from zircon, Geoffrey Taucer, pixietricks, Shonen Samurai & D-Lux, “Lover Reef”.

Actually gaining his spot with Archie via unsolicited story submissions (typically discouraged in the creative industry), Flynn is currently living out his dream. If you’re a fan of video game-themed comics or are interested in hearing how Flynn views the games and music from the various titles in the Sonic franchise, you’ll pick up a great deal of info from the NGI interview.

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

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

Thanks to siven7 for forwarding the news.

Like I’ve said before, Kenley Kristofferson’s got some good energy as a radio personality on Into the Score. He’s so nice to people, you just can’t hate the guy. I’d almost love to see him swear up and down in his Canadian accent, just to verify that he actually can.

Early this month, Kenley interviewed Andrew “zircon” Aversa for the podcast’s 13th episode (released this past Thursday), covering the OC ReMix album that the latter directed, Final Fantasy VII’s Voices of the Lifestream.

A whole host of topics were covered including the many originally planned contributors dropping out, how Voices compared to other OCR album projects, what zircon would have done differently with hindsight, standout pieces arranging obscure material, the creation process of the popular “Black Wing Metamorphosis”, the diversity of fan reactions, celebrity endorsements, and the highlighting of upcoming projects on OverClocked ReMix.

In addition, several selections from the album were interspersed throughout the interview. Clocking in at nearly 72 minutes, even if you’ve already heard all of the arrangements that are played, you’ll end up learning a lot about the album from the head honcho himself.

As Kenley would say, “Right on!”

Kyle “KyleJCrb” Crouse has been busy with being a loyal Shizzy as well as project director of the upcoming Tales of Phantasia/Tales of Symphonia OC ReMix album Summoning of Spirits, but the one thing missing from his plate was his old webradio show Nitro Game Injection.

As of last Sunday however, Kyle and NGI has returned with 3 hours of VGM goodness. And now with twice the whiteness, with Norwegian firebrand Audun “AkumuHau” Sørlie joining the show as co-host. Akumu, who’s engaged to Dwelling of Duels/OC ReMix guitar god(ess) LuIzA and runs the authoritative Nintendo soundtrack destination Akumu’s NSF Archive, adds to the mix through his extensive knowledge of the Japanese doujin VGM arrangement scene as well as his own friendships throughout the VGM arrangement scene and demoscene.

One of the key features of the show remains the monthly Dwelling of Duels feature at the end of each month, as anonymous entries from the recently concluded creation phase of that month’s DoD are spotlighted. Fans and competition regulars frequently come by to listen to the show and get their point spreads ready to help determine the upcoming winners.

You can check out Nitro Game Injection every Sunday evening from 6-9PM EST by streaming http://kngi.servegame.com in your media player, and chat with the hosts and other listeners live via IRC at #ngi on the irc.esper.net server. Keep an eye on the Nitro Game Injection MySpace page for archived editions of each show as it makes its way to the masses.

In my regular perusal of the various blog trackers, I came across one blog/podcast yesterday that was very unique, so I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of it before. Kenley “siven7″ Kristofferson’s Into the Score is dubbed “the only podcast devoted to the academic study of video game music,” which is a hell of a format and one worth checking out as soon as possible.

In the second part of Into the Score’s tenth episode (entitled “…to the Orchestra!”), Kenley gives a great overview of arranger Jeremy Robson and Robson’s Final Fantasy VII “Philharmonic Suite”, the first and fifth parts of which are hosted at OverClocked ReMix. Included are a rundown of Robson’s musical influences, a reading of djpretzel’s writeup for the first movement at OCR, and complete playthroughs of all five movements in the suite.

Kenley’s a little rough on the delivery but no more so than me during my time with college radio, plus he’s got great energy, an earnest respect for video game music, and genuine knowledge about the technicalities and structure of music. He also claims to play a mean euphonium, having studied at the University of Manitoba. And he sounds like a nice guy. If you’ve heard Mazedude’s voice before, this guy is just as good natured. (Ironically, he also looks like Makke.) He’s got a good voice, and, with more poise on his delivery, could quickly be mistaken for someone on NPR or XM Classics.

For those that aren’t into music theory discussions or referencing the roots of classical music, Into the Score’s subject matter may feel difficult to access, at least for a bum such as myself. But whatever subject matter goes over my head pales in comparison to the enjoyment of what does remain accessible to me, that being a sincere appreciation of the medium of video game music. New episodes of the show come out infrequently enough that one can’t set their watch to it, which impedes the building of a large audience. But don’t sleep on Into the Score and this podcast’s unique and enlightening format; you may just learn something. Give it that look.

Uh…Cockbite Radio.

But yes, the developers of the upcoming Half-Life 2 mod Black Mesa were on episode 5 of Cockbite Radio (there’s that name again) this past Wednesday to discuss all things Black Mesa and how they’re remaking the first Half-Life from the ground up. OC ReMixer Kevin “Lorenzo” Sisk, one of the voice actors of the game, intros the podcast. (Check for him also at the 11-minute and 53-minute marks as well.)

Kevin adds: “That screenshot [below], other than the surface tension dam, is a prime example of how the team is trying to bring the original game up to date with today’s graphic standards, while preserving the game’s spirit.” Definitely give it that look.

Also of note for this podcast, 30 seconds in has a hilarious rant from Casey about 12-year-old boys on Xbox Live. Creepy, immature boys on the internet? Never.

Two foundations of the Commodore arrangement scene received facelifts late last night as Remix.Kwed.Org creator Jan Lund “Kwed” Thomas and C64Audio.com creator Chris Abbott each revealed their respective sites’ new looks.

Following up AMIGAremix’s redesign earlier this year, Kwed collaborated with John Mirland to streamline R:K:O, featuring the addition of randomized SID downloads to encourage the remixing of broader material, as well as community links, donor thanks, and better integration of the C64 Take-away podcast.

C64Audio, noted vendor of professionally released Commodore community music from both C64 arrangers & composers, debuted its first major redesign in roughly 5 years, with emphasis placed on frontpage listings of its CD catalog. Soon-to-be-available releases there include Makke’s new album It’s Binary, Baby, as well as the Back in Time Live DVD/CD Set.

Discussion of the revamped sites is ongoing in the thread @ the Remix64 message boards.