VG Frequency

Jon Titterington (known as JigginJonT on OC ReMix) toured around with Greg Laswell the past couple of months for Greg’s US tour, promoting his new album Three Flights from Alto Nido, out on Vanguard Records.

While in Atlanta for their performance at Variety Playhouse (a dual show with Ingrid Michaelson, which Jimmy “Big Giant Circles” Hinson and myself attended), Greg and bandmates Brandon Walters & Jon stopped by Decatur’s Paste Magazine to film a Live at Paste performance of “What a Day.” Jon’s featured on trumpet, so be sure to check it out!

DCT’s original netlabel Urbanizm Music has just come out with a new look courtesy of Joshua Morse. Urbanizm’s got some great hip-hop and R&B acts from around OC ReMix, VGMix and OneUp Studios, so check it out.

By: Larry Oji, larryoji@ocremix.org

“A good tune is a good tune. That’s basically it! If a melody can stand the test of time when it’s being played with a one channel sine wave, then it can stand being a fully orchestrated piece of music. I guess really it’s substance over style.”

- Tim Wright, OC ReMix Interview

June 5, 2008

Fairfax, VA — OverClocked ReMix today published its first video game composer interview, with pioneering British VGM composer Tim “CoLD SToRAGE” Wright. Wright helped usher electronica into professional game scores with his work on the landmark racing title Wipeout, released in 1995 by Psygnosis for the then-emerging Sony PlayStation. The interview touches on other career highlights such as Wright’s days composing for the Commodore Amiga, his development of popular music creation programs eJay and MUSIC (a.k.a. MTV Music Generator), and his upcoming original album, CoLD SToRAGE HD, which functions as an unofficial soundtrack to Sony’s latest title in the Wipeout franchise, Wipeout HD for the PlayStation 3.

The interview is available online at http://www.ocremix.org/info/Composer_Interview:_CoLD_SToRAGE_%28Tim_Wright%29.

Conducted by site staff, OC ReMix interviews cover major aspects of a composer’s career, featuring targeted questions unique to each subject, as well a standard list of questions that specifically delve into a musician’s formative years, creative inspirations, and views on the current state of the game music industry. This unique format presents both a contemporary look at a composer’s recent activities as well as more comprehensive questions about the nature of video game music composition.

About OverClocked ReMix

Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring hundreds of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.

Links

• Composer Interview: CoLD SToRAGE (Tim Wright)
• OC ReMix interviews
• Tim Wright Composer Profile at OC ReMix
• The Official CoLD SToRAGE Website
• Purchase the albums of CoLD SToRAGE
• Wright’s company, Tantrumedia Multimedia Solutions
• CoLD SToRAGE @ MySpace

…because The OneUps are also gonna be bringing The OneUps Volume 2!

Indeed, if all goes according to schedule, Mustin and OneUp Studios will have everything for the upcoming 2-disc album produced, packaged and ready to go.

So if you missed them last year, no worries. If you’re not sure whether you’re gonna plunk down for the double CD at PAX when you get to Seattle, just check out their performance and see if you’re convinced. No pun intended, they’re planning to hit you twice as hard for Penny Arcade Expo 2008!

8bitpeoples is an artist collective and netlabel centered on chiptunes. Their eighty-two releases, almost all of which are freely available to download from their website, span tunes written for recorded from an NES, chiptune rock, and even a release by virt (with a contribution by Shnabubula).

On March 15, they unleashed a brand new site design onto the world, designed by minusbaby and coded by openBack, two of the official 8bp posse. The site is not yet operating at 100%; several sections, such as the retro artpacks and hardware and software sections, are currently under construction for expansion, but all the music is available for consumption. Additionally, there’s now an 8bitpeoples shop, featuring a professionally produced copy of their two-CD fiftieth album, Blip Festival shirts and a DVD of the 2006 event, and a Little Sound Dj cartridge.

I’ve noticed occasional slow load times and generic errors while loading pages, hopefully both of which will be fixed once the new site is broken in. Check it out, and long live the chiptune.

Blue Dragon is an Xbox 360 game released on December 7, 2006, in Japan, and August 29, 2007, in the United States. The soundtrack, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, was released by Aniplex on December 13, 2006, in Japan.

A United States reprint will be released on March 25 by Sumthing Else Music Works, who publish a variety of different music, including the soundtracks to several Western games, like the Halo series, Gears of War, and Mass Effect. The album, which contains the same tracks as the Japanese release, is available for pre-order for $15.98 at Amazon.com.

Shnabubula was kind enough to let me check out the album on the sly back in January, but now that it’s finally out, I’m glad to post about it. Released via II (read: Pause), Controller 1 finally saw the light last week. That’s some pretty awesome concept art from Francis Coulombe, am I right?

Produced by chiptune scene fanatic Shawn Phase, this original chiptune-style album is inspired by the buttons of the classic NES controller, featuring titles all derived from the various controls. Quoth Somnambula:

Take a journey across the face of an old NES controller. Each button has a story to tell if you’re willing to listen. Some of them have been forsaken by their fellow buttons while others are living the good life. Come listen and find out what goes on inside your controller when you’re not around.

I’d recommend something specific, but you’re really not gonna go wrong checking any of this out. At just over 35 minutes and not costing you a dime, you’ve gotta swing over to II and grab this quickly. Tell your friends about it. This album is wild per Sam’s usual craziness.

KFSS Studios, creator of several of the first legally-released VGM fan arrangement albums in America (the Project Majestic Mix series), announced today that it’s closing its doors.

The label’s final, uncompleted project, was an ambient/chillout album, given catalog number KFSS-710 and planned for a two-disc release. The album, featuring both VGM arrangements and original compositions, would have contained material from Mustin, Daniel Baranowsky, Shawn “ABG” Overn, Jan van Valburg, Mazedude, Jonathan Geer, Chris Hülsbeck, Jan Zottmann, Fabian “Rapture” Del Priore and label owners Stephen & Jana Kennedy.

Since there’s only a short window of opportunity for the message posted by label owners Stephen & Jana Kennedy to be seen, we reprint their closing announcement in full: (more…)

Under alter-ego Saffron Slumber, Kevin Stephens recently announced the release of his newest album on DeviantArt.

I have just released my first “album” (it’s really a single/EP) on Skrow!Media (a friend’s netlabel). It is totally free to download, so if you’re interested, go to http://skrowmedia.com/skrow004.html and you will be able to download it. It’s short at just about ten minutes total length, so it won’t take you much time. Be warned, though - the two pieces are ambient/drone music that rely heavily on piano, so if that’s not your thing… well, it still won’t be your thing. =)

Featuring album art cropped from an acrylic and pastel piece of Stephens, this original ambient offering, Meditations on Autumn, is definitely an engaging listen, also described by Stephens as “two songs written as meditations on the season of transformation.” Considering there’s very little time investment, you should have no regrets taking a moment to check the EP out in full, some smooth stuff from Saffron Slumber. You may have to keep an eye out on Skrow!Media for potential future releases from Kevin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can console yourself with this tracklist:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20th Anniversary Rockman 1-6 Rock Arrange Ver.

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

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 these three links. Take the time to peruse thirty second samples of Zuntata and Taito’s history.

Mustin had the following comments yesterday in The OneUps‘ latest MySpace bulletin:

Check out the new video on our page. We’re playing “Demon Seed” from Castlevania 3. It’s teh hotness.

Also, we want you to leave a comment, shoot over a message, or just generally make some noise if you’d like to see the rest of this 35 minute show, “Front Row” on DVD featuring interviews and recordings of “Mega Man II: Airman,” “Sonic the Hedgehog: Green Hill Zone,” “Chrono Trigger: Secret of the Forest” and more.

We’re also looking to combine this with a live performance recording of a show from July featuring Moose on Bass and Elaine Li of Select Start on Violin. That would be an additional 40 minutes or so.

How many of you would like a DVD? Let us know and we might make some for ya!

Let Mustin and crew know, and if there’s enough support, DVDs’ll be in the works via OneUp Studios. We stress this because if DVDs are out by January, you can snag one and get autographed all purty-like by the musty one at MAGFest 6 in Alexandria, VA.

This morning, the EMI Classics record label and Video Games Live announced Video Games Live: Greatest Hits – Volume One, a compilation of segments played in live VGL shows:

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.

Ok, well in a perfect world, they’d have taken over Penny Arcade Expo. With prejudice. But as such, they’re just performing. Today. I’m jealous, but we wish these bros the best, for undoubtedly their biggest performance to date at Seattle’s Washington State Convention & Trade Center.

When they were announced for PAX back in March, what resulted was a humongous influx of traffic to OneUp Studios and new fans for The OneUps. They look to be going stronger than ever headed into the festival where they’ll be performing along with the NESkimos (also on today) and Minibosses (closing things out Saturday).

Andrew “zircon” Aversa is a long-time colleague of mine on the OCR Judges Panel, and has a remarkable business sense about him. He’s always trying to learn everything he can not just about the creation side of music, but the fiscal side as well. Currently attending Philadelphia’s Drexel University, he’s in a great place to soak up knowledge, and always passes along cool information he picks up along the way.

Via the July issue of Fast Company (#117), Andy clued me into something regarding Electronic Arts that I read about a year or so ago in the conception phase having recently resurfaced. The article by Cora Daniels features EA Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing Steve Schnur discussing his plans for a record label inspired by video game music.

Well, not in the traditional sense of releasing original or arranged soundtracks. But with the Artwerk label (a cooperative venture with Nettwerk), Schnur feels that the exposure from popular EA franchise games like Madden NFL and NBA Street have the potential to launch breakout bands with original albums after clinching fan interest via the game soundtracks. So far, the label’s first big signing in Tom “Junkie XL” Holkenborg this past March looks nothing but good. With such a conservative approach by Schnur and EA purposefully not aiming to create a big label, however, do you think a format like this could fully achieve its stated goals?

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 Commodore arrangement 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!

But back to the love, Imre “LaLa” Olajos Jr. has recently reviewed the album The Blithe, the Blend & the Bizarre by Last Ninja 3 and Flimbo’s Quest composer Reyn Ouwehand and put out by Reyn’s label Prevue Productions.

I don’t wanna crib Imre’s whole review, which you should go out of your way to check out at Remix64, but part of his opening paragraph sums things up nicely.

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…

That’s a solid endorsement from LaLa expressing accessibility and diversity, and one you should take to heart with this album. Check out the tracklist and preview clips available via the album’s page on C64Audio.com and you’ll find some solid stuff including arrangements of the works of Chris Hülsbeck (The Great Giana Sisters), Martin Galway (Comic Bakery, Wizball) and my personal favorite VGM composer Tim Follin (Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, Magic Johnson’s Fast Break). Track 6, arranging Ghouls ‘N Ghosts would be welcome on Dirge for the Follin, that’s for sure.

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!

Although Helen Trevillion hasn’t been around the OCR community for a while now, she has always been highly regarded for the Enya-quality vocal and instrumental work in her submissions to the site under the ReMixer name Destiny.

Helen’s first album is a 2-CD endeavor via her personal label Faefly Records, with a total of 22 tracks. The first disc is called Inside Myself and contains the bulk of the songs on the album, while the second disc is entitled Once Upon a Time, having a fairy tale theme. You can buy the whole shebang at her CD shop. Google Checkout only works for orders within the UK at the moment, unfortunately.

The price is a bit hefty at 8.49 GBP (~$17 USD), especially with international shipping if you’re in the US (another 2.00 GBP, for a total of about $21 USD), but most people who have heard her work will agree that it’s worth it for 2 CDs of Destiny goodness. In addition, each copy will be personally signed by Helen, with an optional message of your choice. Here are a couple previews from her site in case you’re still not convinced:

Inside Myself

Once Upon a Time

There are also additional full-length samples available on Helen’s MySpace. Better grab a copy while you can though: there are only 100 in print.

I loves me some netlabels. As a big proponent of free music (not ideologically, don’t worry), some of the most creative music you’ll find doesn’t cost you more than the time it takes to download.

Obviously, I spend a lot of time involved in the video game music rearrangement community, but netlabels feature great collectives of talent doing original music as well.

Like any hobbyist initiative, productivity can sometimes be intermittent. My favorite netlabel Hellven, run by Xavier “mv” Dang, has stopped and started on several occasions. This makes it difficult to find a really steady source of content to satisfy your fix.

On the chiptune side, Audun “AkumuHau” Sørlie, keeper of the most comprehensive NSF collection out there (and the only other guy I know who’s listed his hobbies as “VG, Wrestling, Comics” in that order), has been pimping the latest chiptune netlabel, II (i.e. Pause). Norrin Radd and Shawn Phase are there. I’ll be checking out their other material in the near future, but check out this cover art hotness for Radd’s album, Melodia di Infinità.

That art’s good enough to hang on your wall.

One of the other latest netlabels with strong ties toward the game music arrangement community that I’ve been made aware of has been Jonas “Platonist” Loman’s effort, Reunion, which announced last month that its site had gone out of beta stage into a final release. They have a lot of good artists I’m aware of from OC ReMix including FFmusic Dj, GaMeBoX, Saiko, SGX, Siamey, The Joker, and even guest releases by Binster and OverCoat. They’ve hit a pretty good stride, just announcing their 45th single release (courtesy of GaMeBoX), so give ‘em a look and bask in the free.

I’ve known Jordan “bLiNd” Aguirre and Randy “Leifo” Oxley for many years. Leifo first hit OverClocked ReMix in 2002 with a Mario Paint ReMix entitled “BLind is Dah BomB”, a tribute to the style of bLiNd. bLiNd’s music was an inspiration to Leifo, and, once the two became friends and musical collaborators, Leifo vowed to move from New Jersey to Las Vegas with the intent on making his name alongside bLiNd as an electronic musician.

Given Leifo’s own astronomical growth as an artist in the past 5 years and bLiNd’s staunch dedication to his craft, it’s not a surprise to me that these two have finally been able to gain some traction in the electronic music scene, under their collaborative name “Vega Projekt”.

Aaron “Global-Trance” Wu announced today at OC ReMix that renowned DJ Ferry Corsten has included Vega Projekt’s single “The First Day” on the playlist of his radio show “Corsten’s Countdown”, syndicated on Digitally Imported (di.fm) and XM Satellite Radio. If you register at the Ferry Cortsen forums, you’ll be able to vote at the Cortsen’s Countdown page for “The First Day” to make the monthly top 10 countdown. It’s a quick signup and will help Vega Projekt earn more recognition with an accomplished DJ and producer.

Wu also let it be known that the track may also be may also be incorporated into an upcoming DJ set of his and is also under strong consideration for pickup by Corsten’s record label, Flashover Recordings. Hopefully, this is a watershed event for Vega Projekt towards expanding their audience and gaining notice within industry circles. They’ve certainly given it their all thus far.

Alternate title: “Sales Pitch #2: Koichi Namiki”

Works featured in this post:

• Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu 2 (PlayStation)
• GuitarFreaks (PlayStation)
• Rail Chase (Arcade)
• Super Hang-On (Arcade)
• Thunder Blade (Arcade)

full list of works

~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

“Dream One”
Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu 2 (PlayStation)
vocals by Shoji Koganezawa

“J-STAFF”
GuitarFreaks (PlayStation)

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.

The Song of the Week competition (Week #98) currently has an entry from Tom “Junkie XL” Holkenborg from Nettwerk/Electronic Arts’ recent Music from SSX Blur album, the track being “Wanlong Mamoth”.

All I can say is that, after hearing it, I’m really disappointed that I didn’t have a chance to attend the Washington, DC part of the album release tour at GLOW on April 21st. That was back before I had my current (and thoroughly enjoyable) job, so all of my attentions had been going towards job hunting.

Nonetheless… :’-(

Great track, and I’ll definitely be checking out the rest of the album.

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.
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