Archive for the ‘Game Music’ Category

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Merry Christmas With Double Dragon

Saturday, December 24th, 2022

Hey this thing still works, cool.

Wanted to get one more post out before the year was up. I know that a lot of you who still read this site (thank you) aren’t all that into video game music, but I’ve been meaning to share this for a long time now, and it’s what I really want to write about, so either it’s this or several more months of radio silence.

Before we get to the music, hey, hi, how’s it going? It’s been a busy year for me. Cinema Oblivia, my movie podcast, is still going strong so I hope you all check if out if you can! Unfortunately, we had to call it a day on Alexander’s Ragtime Band, the amount of work involved in researching, recording, and editing was just too much for us. Hopefully it will be able to return someday.

The same goes for my YouTube channel. I really like filming YouTube videos! Unfortunately, I really hate editing YouTube videos, and I REALLY hate doing voiceover on YouTube videos. I’m trying to think of ways to streamline the process. I don’t know how people like Techmoan can bang out multiple videos a month. Must be easier when it’s your full-time job. I do mean to get back into it soon though, I keep getting new subscribers! I have nearly 700 people following me on that hellsite now, I feel that I owe it to them to update with something sometime soon. Maybe over the holiday break?

Speaking of hellsites, I’m still on Twitter. As I write this I’m coming off of a 12 hour “twitter timeout” for saying that cisgender people commit more crimes than transpeople (yes really). I vowed to quit that shitshow multiple times, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. If nothing else, I need to use Twitter to find guests for my podcast. I also follow a billion Japanese record stores too, and how the hell else am I going to know when a copy of Capcom Game Music Vol. 3 is available on vinyl at a Hard-Off on the outskirts of Tokyo? That’s important shit.

Anyways, as I’ve said before, this blog isn’t going anywhere even if updates have slowed to a glacial pace. Thanks for sticking around in 2022 and I hope to get more written in 2023.

Now, let’s talk about game music on tape.

Original Sound of Double Dragon Arcade Version

For those who don’t know, Akihabara is an area in Tokyo that’s well-known the world over for its abundance of “nerd” friendly stores. Most of the biggest electronics stores are there, as are several stores dedicated to other geekly delights such as action figures, comic books, video games, and hardcore pornography of both the animated and live-action varieties.

Of the gaming stores, the most famous is Super Potato. It’s a really good store, don’t get me wrong. But for me, the best store in the Akihabara is Beep, a much smaller store located a bit off the main drag. It’s a tiny basement, and most of the store is dedicated to things I have no interest in, such as vintage Japanese computers and arcade game boards. But I still try to make my way to the store every week or so because they have often great game music releases that I never see anywhere else.

I got a crazy selection of vintage flexi discs taken from old game magazines there, for example. I also bought from them about about three dozen game music releases on motherfucking cassette tape.

I’m not saying I don’t have a problem, okay? I know I have a problem.

Most of them don’t even have any unique or original music. And I even owned quite a few of them on CD and LP. But…they’re tapes! Yeah, they sound like garbage, cost too much, and I’m probably only going to listen to them a handful of time at most, but…they’re tapes! They look cool. Sound bad. Look cool.

But I did pick up a few that were legit rare, with some honest-to-goodness hard to find tracks. Like this Double Dragon tape, for example.

This is the soundtrack to the original Double Dragon arcade game. The game came out in 1987, this tape came out in 1988. It was never released on LP, only on this tape and on a mini-CD that I have never found anywhere ever – not even online.

While it calls itself an arcade soundtrack, the tape is comprised entirely of arranged versions that I think are unique to this release only. At least, I’m pretty sure. The tracks aren’t on any other Double Dragon soundtrack release I have (and I have a lot, trust me).

They’re really good too! They all have that unique, 80s video game sound, just punched up just a bit. They sound too good to be authentic to 80s game hardware, but still sound like game music.  This version of the main theme fucking slaps. And I really dig the version of “The Battle Is Over” and “Forest” too. “Forest” hits especially hard. Sounds like music from a lost 80s ninja flick like New York Ninja (you should watch New York Ninja, by the way).

Another stand-out, simply for how batshit bizarre it sounds, is “Abobo the Giant Appears,” which is a remix of the main theme comprised entirely of sound effects from the game. Imagine Art of Noise covering Double Dragon. Bonkers shit.

It also came with this rad double-sided poster with liner notes. Love the artwork on this.

And it’s nice to know that I am, canonically, the same height as Abobo.

Anyways, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, all that jazz. I’ll be back next year at some point – I promise.

Posted in Complete Albums, Game Music | No Comments »

Nintendo Sound Adventures REMIIIIIIX

Wednesday, March 17th, 2021

Another reminder that I just started a new movie podcast called Cinema Oblivia. Every week, a guest and I take a look at a different old movie that I feel more people need to see, or at the very least is interesting and under-discussed today. The first episode covered Flashdance, while the second was all about Streets of Fire. The next episode will go up Thursday morning, and it will be about William Friedkin’s masterpiece Sorcerer! Don’t miss it!

Now, Nintendo music because no reason.

Nintendo
Overture (Mario’s Jungle Intro)
Yoshi’s Story (Breakbeat Inferno)
Versus (M.I.R. Rampage)
Sound Of Lylat (Hip Hop Hype)
Hyrule (Princess “Z” Trigger)
This should be my last drunken Discogs purchase post in a while. Actually, wait, that might not be true. I have to see if an exceptionally needless eurodance purchase I made earlier this month is currently in print.

Regardless, this will definitely be the last video game related drunken Discogs purchase post I’ll be sharing in the immediate future. Every other weird video game release I want to buy right now is either too expensive or not for sale. And even if they do go on sale and I do buy them – I won’t be drunk! I won’t be drinking for a few months it seems, as alcohol does not play well with a new medication I’m on (nothing serious or worth mentioning, don’t worry).

These tracks are from an album that Nintendo put out in Europe, I assume as part of some sort of promotion or giveaway, in 1998. It’s the kind of thing you find if you go to Discogs and type in “NINTENDO” in the search field, as I am want to do in these trying times.

Most of the CD is just standard game music taken from various Nintendo releases. You got some Yoshi’s Story, Star Fox 64, Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It’s all very 1998. All very N64. That’s all good stuff, but they’re not that unique or worth mentioning.

However, the album also features these five remixes, all of which seem to be exclusive to this CD. I have no idea why Nintendo decided to do this. Why release a promo CD in Europe only and fill it out with remixes that can’t be found anywhere else? Nintendo’s gonna Nintendo, as the kid’s say. As you can probably piece together from the song titles, the first track is from Mario 64, the second from Yoshi’s Story, and the last from Zelda. The other two were taken from Star Fox 64.

These are some…weird remixes. They’re very obviously going for a late-90s “electronica” vibe. Lots of breakbeats, drum and bass, vocal samples, and such. Sometimes it works really well, great even. The Yoshi’s Story mix is rad as hell, and I’m not just saying that because I love Yoshi. The beat is bit on the simple side, but it has a good bass groove, and uses the Yoshi vocal samples in a hilarious, and dangerously catchy, way. Good breakdown in the middle too. You could totally sneak this into a club mix and no one would be the wiser.

“Versus (M.I.R. Rampage)” is really great too. That music had a very cinematic feel, much like a lot of the music from the Star Fox games. The beat, not surprisingly, add an intense energy to the track. While the seemingly re-recorded (or at the very least, resampled at a higher bit-rate) orchestral elements make it sound even bigger. The beats are corny, no doubt, but it still works. Big “late-90s action movie” vibes on this one. The same goes with “Hyrule (Princess “Z” Trigger), which uses elements from the main overworld theme of Zelda and adds in gaggles of beats and other electronic wackiness. Again, it’s a bit cheesy, but I love the original melody so much that it’s hard for me to hate on it too much. And they still focus on the melody, played wonderfully on a piano-sounding keyboard, and that’s always going to set off the nostalgia dopamine triggers in my brain no matter what. I can’t judge that music objectively. Nintendo has corrupted me I’m sorry.

However, even with Nintendo owning a large chunk of my childhood hostage, I can’t say that the Mario nor the “Sound of Lylat (Hip Hop Hype)” tracks are particularly good. For some reason, the remixers decide to add very strange vocal samples to each. In the Mario track, the vocals are nothing more than an exceptionally deep voice saying things like “This is the sound of Nintendo” over and over and over again for no reason. It’s exceptionally distracting and just ruins the track.

Ditto for the Star Fox remix at the end. The same vocals are nearly non-stop , and they’re made even worse with the occasional “yeah, uh huh” thrown in for bad measure. It’s just so weird. Again, it’s not like it’s singing, or even rapping, it’s just some dude with an artificially deep voice telling you that you’re in Lylat. Repeatedly. It song is just under four minutes long and it gets old and downright aggravating within the first minute. It’s a real bummer too, cuz the music itself is really good! I suppose it’s too much/too late to ask for an a capella rendition on a 12″ single of something?

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Super Mario’s first vinyl adventures

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021

In 1986 Nintendo released two Mario-themed singles. As far as I can gather, the songs on these singles were never compiled on a proper LP, nor have they every gotten legit CD or digital releases. They’re some of the rarest, and most interesting, music tracks that Nintendo has ever put together.

Across the two singles there are three songs (click on the links to download the songs):

マリオの大冒険 (Mario no dai boken), meaning “Mario’s Big Adventure”
“Go Go Mario!!”
クッパ一族かぞえ唄 (Kuppa ichizoku kazoe-uta) which translates to “Koopa Clan Counting Song.”

I’m going to start with “Go Go Mario!!” because if you’ve heard any of these, it’s probably this one. This is just the game’s various themes blended together with lyrics on top. The sound effects area little more clean than what’s on the game proper, but very little has been changed musically. Some vinyl rips of this track made their way online a few years back, and a lot of blog posts wrote about the “weird” lyrics. Here are said “weird” lyrics, newly translated by my boyfriend, who is a native Japanese speaker (he prefers to be anonymous here, thanks).

Today, too, Mario runs and runs vigorously.
He will go and rescue Princess Peach. Go.
Today, too, Mario runs vigorously.
Today, too, Mario jumps vigorously!
Today, too, Mario, find the coins vigorously.
Today, too, Mario, go ahead.
Get a Mushroom and you will be Super Mario.
Get a Flower and you will be Fire Mario.
Here come Goombas, here come Koopa Troopas, here come Buzzy Beetles. Beat them all.
Mario is always vigorous and strong.

Today, too, Mario runs and runs vigorously.
He will go and beat the Bowser Family. Go.
Today, too, Mario runs vigorously.
Today, too, Mario jumps vigorously!
Today, too, Mario, find the coins vigorously.
Today, too, Mario, go ahead.
Catch Stars and you will be invincible.
Go and rescue Peach right away.
Here come Lakutis, here come Spinies, here come Cheep Cheeps. Beat them all.
Mario is always vigorous and strong.

Today, too, Mario runs and runs vigorously.
Here is the Castle; set the fireworks off one after another.
Mario, dodge Hammer Bros. swiftly
And squeeze out every last bit of your strength.
It’s been a long journey but it’s going to be over soon.
You did it! You have beaten Bowser!
Princess Peach says Thank you! to Mario,
And his heart expands in delight.
Mario’s adventure has finished here,
But his dreams will go on forever.

What no one seemed to mention at the time, however, is that “Go Go Mario!” was just one version of the Super Mario Bros. theme with lyrics. Also released at the same time was “Mario’s Big Adventure,” a more full-featured arrangement with original instrumentation, not just game music samples. This is my preferred version. It’s more fleshed out. It has a livelier sound, and it makes use of the game’s sound effects. It also takes full advantage of the underwater theme. In “Go Go Mario!” the singer just talks over that part, this version features actual singing that goes along with the melody. “Mario’s Big Adventure” also adds in a full chorus that’s catchy as hell.

Here are the lyrics to “Mario’s Big Adventure,” again translated by my boyfriend.

Here goes Mario to slay Bowser,
Who is disturbing the Mushroom Kingdom’s peace.

Poor Princess Peach, held captive in the castle,
She is in tears, waiting to be rescued.

Trample Goomba the Traitor.
Kick Koopa Troopa down to Hell.

Super Mario, transform yourself with a Mushroom!
Super Mario, vent the wrath of Justice!

Quick! Jump! Run vigorously today, too!
Don’t miss the coins in the air!

After having gone through the flames, Mario finds Toad,
Saying, “Sorry, Princess Peach is in another castle.”

Mario, love is your force;
You’ll fight with your gentleness in your heart
That everyone has forgotten.

Super Mario, super star invincible,
Super Mario, miracle power!

Mario cannot make any mistakes, until he rescues Princess Peach
And breaks the Koopa Clan’s spell.

Super Mario, transform yourself with the Flower!
Super Mario, give Bowser your mortal blow!

Super Mario, Our hero!
Super Mario, glorious victory!

The B-side to “Mario’s Big Adventure” was “The Koopa Family’s Counting Song.” This song doesn’t feature any music from Super Mario Bros. Instead, it’s an “educational” song of sorts that uses the Mario villains to help teach children how to count. This may be based on an existing counting song, but my boyfriend didn’t recognize the melody. To me, this track features the strangest lyrics of the bunch. My boyfriend is steadfast in that the song refers to goombas as “bastards.”

Chorus
The Koopa Family’s counting song,
Here come bad guys one after another!
Koo-koo-koopas are desperate.

One:
What terrible bastards Goombas are!
They have betrayed the Mushroom Kingdom.
(Goombas are bastards, bastards!)

Two:
Trample and kick Koopa Troopas
When they are turned upside down, they are merely turtles.
(Let’s trample and kick Koopa Troopas!)

Three:
There is a big difference between being told about something and seeing it with your eyes.
The Piranha Plant is terrifying.
(You cannot buy it at a flower shop. It’s a strange flower.)

Four:
For heaven’s sake! In the sea,
Uninvited, Bloopers are coming up.
(Mario is good at treading water.)

*Chorus*

Five:
Fire comes up from the pond.
Mario can dodge it quickly.
(Fire Bars are turning round.)

Six:
Seeing it’s a reckless attack, Mario desperately tries to beat
Hammer Bros.
(Never does he fall without gaining something.)

Seven:
Spinies are scary enough to quieten a crying baby.
They are nasty guys because Mario cannot trample them.
(Who is the meek one?)

Eight:
Hateful Koopa Paratroopas!
They are turtles but flutter in the air.
(Cranes can live for a thousand years and turtles can live for ten thousand years.)

*Chorus*

Nine:
Straight-faced Lakitus go,
Dropping Spiny Eggs from clouds.
(They are cunning enough not to get off their clouds.)

Ten:
Be aware of Scull marks
As they are cannons firing Bullet Bills.
(The booming fireworks are beautiful.)

Extra:
Whether lucky or not,
After Mario has dodged a Buzzy Beetle, he falls.
(He looks self-important but very silly in fact.)

Finally:
A laughter is coming from the castle.
Devilish Bowser is hard to destroy.
Beat hell out of him!

 

The single with “Mario’s Big Adventure” and “Go Go Mario!” that I have is a promo release, most likely for record stores and radio stations. The cover advertises the 3/30 release date, as well as the 4/21 release date for the cassette single version. This promo record is the only release that has both “Mario’s Big Adventure” and “Go Go Mario!” on it. The commercial release of “Mario’s Big Adventure” (pictured at the top of this page) has “The Koopa Family’s Counting Song” as its B-side. “Go Go Mario!” was released separately as its own single, apparently only on cassette tape. That version has an instrumental version of “Go Go Mario!” as its B-side that is apparently exclusive to that release. So great, now I have to add that to my Discogs wantlist.

I tried to dig up more information on these songs performers, but I couldn’t find much. Aya are Nakayoshi Oendan credited as the performers of “Mario’s Big Adventure,” but I don’t think that they did anything aside from that one song. The singer on “Go! Go Mario!!” is listed as “Princess Peach” so good luck finding out who that actually is. The lyrics were supposedly written by fans, as a result of some contest or radio promotion.

Again, these songs are out-of-print. They’ve been out-of-print so long that I feel no guilt in sharing them today. Who knows if Nintendo will ever re-release them. I doubt it. Last year was Mario’s 35th anniversary and about the only thing that Nintendo bothered to do to commemorate it was release a shoddy collection of some old Mario games with barely any improvements or enhancements. Blizzard put more work into their recent release of Rock n Roll Racing than Nintendo did with their Super Mario 64 re-release, and that’s just messed up.

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lesser-known Mario Bros. arrangements. I have entire CDs of stuff like this. I might share some more in the future, but I don’t want to go too wild with it. Nintendo might throw me in a pipe and launch me out of the country.

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The Funky Monkey Magic of Donkey Konga’s Hottest Hits

Thursday, January 28th, 2021

I’ve been in and out of lockdown since March, but the one I’m currently in has been the hardest, and is soon entering its third month. And since Japan has not even approved a vaccine yet (because racism and stupidity), who knows when it will end.

What I’m saying is, the longer I can’t leave my house, the more likely it is I keep buying shit like this on Discogs. You can decide whether or not that’s good or bad.

Donkey Konga – The Hottest Hits
I never played Donkey Konga. It came out when I was living in a small apartment and had a roommate. Our relationship was already tumultuous, if I had started banging on plastic conga drums at all hours of the day he probably would’ve killed me. I love the idea though, and when its safe for me to go to Akihabara again and make regrettable purchases in person as opposed to online, who knows, I might pick it up. Does it even play nice on 4K TVs though?

I had no idea this album even existed. I stumbled upon it on Discogs just by typing “Nintendo” in the search field and digging through the results. Apparently it was a promo release that was included with some copies of a Nintendo magazine in Europe. It’s a very short CD. While it has seven tracks in total, each of them are very brief, leading to just a paltry 13 minutes of music, which is why I just went ahead and uploaded the whole thing.

 

The tracks included are:

  • Super Smash Bros. Melee Theme
  • Donkey Kong Country Theme
  • DK Rap
  • Donkey Konga Theme
  • Super Mario Bros. Theme
  • Rainbow Cruise
  • The Legend of Zelda Theme

Some of these are new arrangements, while others are just slightly modified or abbreviated edits of previously available versions. The Smash Bros. Melee Theme is similar to the original, from what I can tell. The DK Rap also doesn’t sound that different, although it is shorter. It cuts out after the third version. You can decide for yourself if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I think the Donkey Konga Theme and Rainbow Cruise tracks are identical to their original versions that appeared in their respective games also.

However, the Donkey Kong Country Theme seems to be a new arrangement, it’s definitely CD quality audio and not a rip from the SNES game, that’s for sure. It’s a fun take on the theme too, very big band in the way that many of Nintendo’s themes are when they get a proper CD release.

For me, the real highlights of this disc are the arrangements of the music from Zelda and Super Mario Bros. I think that both are original versions that were made for Donkey Konga, meaning that they were never released on any other CDs or games. As someone who has about a dozen different versions of the theme to Legend of Zelda, and god knows how many variations of the Super Mario Bros. Theme (official and otherwise) I can’t be 100% positive of that fact, but I’m fairly certain.

I really like both of these arrangements. They have that big band sound that I already mentioned, but they got a jazzy vibe to them. They’re a bit looser and goofier. This is especially the case with the Legend Of Zelda Theme. That’s not one that usually gets an upbeat, percussive, fun mix. Nintendo likes to treat that number with prestige and gravitas with a full orchestra more often than not. It certainly doesn’t often get remixed into a calypso jazz number. I imagine Link slaying some Moblins and then meeting up with Buster Poindexter for a conga line when I listen to this. Great stuff.

I have a lot of CD singles and other weird shit coming from Discogs soon. Some video game music, some not. If you were jonesing for some old-school remix-focused posts like I used to do “back in the day” I have at least two of those planned as well.

As always, stay safe out there. May the Donkey Kongas give you the strength to go on.

Posted in Complete Albums, Game Music | 2 Comments »

Re-arranged Tecmo Tunes

Wednesday, July 1st, 2020

Yoshihiro Kunimoto
Star Soldier (Arrange Version)
Championship Road Runner (Arrange Version)
Super Star Force (Arrange Version)
Mighty Bomb Jack (Arrange Version)
I stumbled into a riches of vintage game music this week, thanks to a soundtrack sale at HMV, walking away with two rare game music vinyl records.

The first was the single for the theme to Star Soldier, a 1986 schmup by Hudson. This version of the Star Soldier theme is different than the arrange version (Japanese game music English for “remix”) that appeared on the Hudson Game Music LP. The version from that LP was great, this version is RAD AS HELL. It’s so good, seriously it’s so good! It’s great! It’s like the theme music to V meets the theme music to Dallas meets the theme music to Knight Rider meets Tron. It’s bombastic and big, with massive power chords rocking those keyboards 80s style. The drums got that gated reverb to the nines, and whoever was playing them was smacking the everloving shit out of them. And the bassline (SYNTH BASS YES MORE SYNTH BASS) grooves and just keeps the whole thing moving until it builds to a fantastic crescendo that then fades away for that dope as all hell keyboard melody’s encore performance. THOSE DRUMS ARE SO GOOD.

The b-side is another arrange version, this one for Championship Road Runner. It’s very weird. Again, it’s still all synthesizers but the mood is 100% different. It starts out as a music box lullaby. Eventually more sounds are added to it, giving a robust and big sound, but still more low-key and relaxed and the theme to Star Soldier. It reminds me of the underwater music in a Mario stage, kind of ethereal or dreamy. It’s not as much of a HARDCORE BANGER as the Star Soldier music, but it’s a solid take nonetheless.

The other release I picked up was the Tecmo Game Music album, which also came out in 1986. Like the single, it was a GMO release. As I’ve mentioned before, GMO (Game Music Organization) was a sub-label of Alfa Records, set up by members of Yellow Magic Orchestra for the sole purpose of releasing game music albums. Almost all of their early album releases are compilations dedicated to single game companies. There’s Nintendo Game Music, Taito Game Music, Data East Game Music, and so on. Games didn’t get album-length soundtrack releases back then, I assume because no game had enough music to fill an entire LP. It wasn’t until Dragon Quest that we had proper video game soundtracks.

Like most of the GMO releases of the time, most of Tecmo Game Music focuses on straight rips of game audio. Sometimes they even had sound effects put over them, so it was more like you hearing someone actually playing the game than a proper recording of the game’s music. It’s honestly a little annoying.

But two tracks of Tecmo Game Music were arrange versions. The last track on side A is the remix of the music to Super Star Force, a strange-looking shooter that seems to be half Xevious and half The Legend of Zelda. It’s a space-themed game, but instead of going the over-the-top route of the Star Soldier arranged version, this one starts by playing up the “spacey” aspects of the music with more of a Close Encounters vibe. Very mysterious sounding. Then it picks up and goes full-on Giorgio Moroder in Electric Dreams. I dig it. Great keyboard melody.

Of the bunch, the Mighty Bomb Jack arranged version is the most video gamey. It’s very focused on the melody and sound effects from the game, and at times goes too minimal in my opinion, barely sounding like an arranged version at all. But the second half of the track picks things up with some great, light, upbeat synthesizer melodies and its saved. This sounds like the soundtrack to a children’s cartoon or something. It’s so damn happy. I needed that.

All of these remixes were by Yoshihiro Kunimoto, who was GMO’s in-house arranger for most of the mid-80s. I think he did the arrange versions on all their early releases. I wish it was possible for GMO (or whoever owns them now) to do a compilation of all his work, he was really good at this stuff. I assume legal rights to all of the music by all of the companies would make that an impossibility though.

Stay home and stay safe with arranged video game music everyone. And if you have to venture into the horrible, terrible, no-good world, for the love of dog wear a motherfucking mask.

Posted in Game Music, remixes | No Comments »

Game Music for Depression

Friday, June 21st, 2019

Sorry for the prolonged absence this month. You see, what had happened was, after I put up three posts in one week, I was planning on taking a week off from writing. After that, I got ridiculously sick and could barely sit up in front of a computer, let alone compose rational thoughts about obscure music. So there went another week. Then just this week I was planning on getting something together when…well, some bad things happened that made writing a complete impossibility. To be totally honest, said things are still on my brain quite a bit, so tonight’s post is more of a forced attempt to get back into writing something, anything, than it is an attempt to put something cohesive and well-researched together. Sorry about that.

One downside (for me anyways) regarding my blog’s slow shift to even more obscure music is that it requires a hell of a lot more research. Gone are the days of me just throwing a bunch of Depeche Mode remixes up and saying some variation of “yo Depeche Mode is dope so check these out!” Gotta plan this shit out now. I mean, usually I do. Sometimes I can just dig out some random video game remixes from a CD no one has ever even heard of and call it a night. I knew I was holding onto these tracks for a reason!

 

Namco
Xevious (Beat Mix)
Xevious (Tekno Mix)
Namco In The 80’s (You’re The One For Me)
These three mixes are from a remix album that I bought a few months ago called 765 Mega-Mix. Why the numerical designation? I have no idea.

The album features six remixes of game music from Namco titles. About half of them are from games I’ve never heard of (if you’re curious as to what those titles are, click here). I bought it for the two remixes to the Xevious theme. Game music fanatics reading this probably know that Xevious is an important title in the history of game music, as a remix of the game’s theme by Hosono Haruomi of YMO was one of the first prominent game music releases in Japan.

These are not additional mixes by Hosono. Instead they are done by one Koji Orihara, who is best known for…well…nothing. Absolutely nothing. Dude’s Discogs page is a near-blank. He’s on a couple of other compilations and that’s it. I dunno, maybe his uncle worked at Namco or something. His mixes are good though, Orihara knew that it was best to leave well-enough along, so on both of his takes on the track he lets that memorable melody play over and over, and instead of replacing it, augments it with game effects and some good beats. Gimme more remixes to the theme from Xevious, gimme 2 LPs worth. I want them all.

Even more fun is “Namco In The 80’s.” As the title suggests, this track is a medley of music from 80s Namco titles. Specifically, it features (in order) Galaga, Pac-Man, Rally-X, Dig Dug, Mappy, and Galpus. Sometimes the remixes are bare-bones (the Galaga remix is literally just the game’s music with a beat tacked on behind it) but others rework and remake the songs more. The Pac-Man section is pretty rad. It’s not “Pac-Man Fever” rad, but hey, what is?

Again, apologies for the bare-bones slap-dash post tonight. Hopefully I’ll be up to writing more soon. And even if I’m not, I’ll be sharing the final volume of that Bleachers set the millisecond I get it. So I guess that’ll motivate me if nothing else will. Yinz take care of each other and hug your loved ones if you haven’t already, okay?

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A Rare Zelda Theme Remix (and more)

Friday, May 31st, 2019

It must be said that 1986 was a hell of a year for video game music. According to the VGMdb, only one game music album came out the year prior; The Return of Video Game Music. In 1986, nearly 40 records and singles with some connection to video games were released. That’s nearly one a week.

Some stone-cold game music classics came out that year. The first GMO releases with music by companies like Capcom, Namco, Sega, and Nintendo all went to shelves in 1986. Same for the Dragon Quest Suite, the first commercially released LP featuring a symphonic arrangement of a game music soundtrack.

Those are in-demand titles by game music collectors, but at least most of them have been re-issued at some point. For example, you can pick up CD copies of Famicom Music relatively affordably online (and I suggest you do, that’s a fantastic album).

But a lot of key titles from 1986 remain out-of-print and command insane prices online. One such title is this.

Heroes 21
ゼルダの伝説 (The Legend Of Zelda)
謎の村雨城 (The Mysterious Murasame Castle)

This is a two-track 12″ single. The A-side, as you can guess from the image above, features an extended remix of the theme to The Legend Of Zelda. The B-side features a mix of music from The Mysterious Murasame Castle. There is also a 7″ single with the same cover art and tracklisting, but that does not have the same music. The versions on that sound absolutely nothing like the ones here. The 7″ arrangements are more traditional, while these are wacky sample-heavy and much more experimental. They sound like Art of Noise by the way of Koji Kondo.

Speaking of Koji Kondo….

Every source I could about this record credited Koji Kondo as the performer on the album. Even on Discogs and the VGMdb. This is not true. Yes, the two tracks on this album are both based on music by Koji Kondo, but it would appear that he had absolutely nothing to do with this release. The actual performers are someone or something called Heroes 21. Their name is right there on the Obi strip, with the kanji for “performed by” (演奏) right under them. But that fact was somehow lost to time.

So, that begs the question, who the hell is/are Heroes 21?

At first, I thought that they might be the same people who were behind Bonus 21, the group credited on the the equally hard-to-find Mario Syndrome release that also came out in 1986. The title treatment of both artists is identical, and both releases are from King Records.

However, when I compared the credits on each release, I saw that only two people appear on both, and they’re both engineers. The arrangers on both albums are different. Mario Syndrome was arranged by Shunji Inoue (currently the VP of Bandai Namco). This single was arranged by Hiro Yanagida, the keyboardist for the influential Japanese rock group The Apryl Fool who went on to a mildly successful solo career as a prog rock musician.

Doing further research (again, thanks largely to the amazing resource that is the VGMdb) I found that King Records also released a Solomon’s Key/Mighty Bomb Jack single in 1986. That release is credited to Replica 21. The arranger on that is Yoichiro Yoshikawa, a composer who put out a few albums and also worked with Togawa Jun, writing the music on her signature classic, “Suki Suki Daisuki.”

So all the artists are completely unrelated. Perhaps “_____ 21” was some kind of branding effort by King Records to lump all of their game music artists together? There’s so little information out there about these records, even less so in English, that it’s hard to say. I don’t think King Records kept the “21” formatting going in future releases either, so who knows what the deal was.

Even without the mysterious branding, these are must-have mixes for any game music aficionado. As I said, they’re really out-there, very indicative of what was happening with electronic pop music at the time. Samplers were a big deal when they came out, so there were a lot of tracks like this at the time, stuff composed almost entirely of samples. If you dig this, I recommend checking out Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Technodelic and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Furturista, both are great albums built almost entirely out of samples.

And keep checking here to see if I ever score a copy of the 7″ version! Like I said, it’s totally different!

Posted in Complete Albums, Game Music, remixes | 1 Comment »

This blog post is best viewed on a three-monitor display

Thursday, March 14th, 2019

Zuntata
SELF – BIG Beat Remix
Living in Japan has many benefits, amazing food, a fantastic public transit system, affordable health care, no guns, and of course, easier access to limited run special editions of games.

Taito just released the Darius Cozmic Collection, which includes several versions of early Darius games, both from the arcades and home. It comes in a massively-oversized box that also serves as a home for a wonderful book full of pictures and information about the games (albeit entirely in Japanese).

All that stuff is great, and I’m happy that I finally own decent home ports of these classic games. But I’m going to be real, the the main draw for me when it comes to Darius has always been its amazing music, and this collection is no exception. Included in the box set is the Darius The Omnibus II CD, a compilation featuring remixes of several classic Darius tunes, as well as a super-limited edition bonus CD. Most of that CD is dedicated to the soundtrack to PC Engine exclusive Darius Alpha, but it opens with this exclusive remix to the track “Self.” I might be mistaken here, but I think “Self” first appeared on Darius Gaiden. It’s hard to say though. Yo, there are a lot of Darius games.

While this track is impossible to buy without shelling out $300 for an import collection of 80s arcade shooters, it’s worth mentioning that most of Zuntata’s music is not only in print, but able to buy in America on iTunes. Want the complete soundtrack to Darius Gaiden? They got it, as well a soundtracks to deep cuts like Sonic Blast Man, Space Gun, and Kid Kaikai. Credit where credit is due, good on them for making all that stuff easy to get.

ALFH LYRA
Street Fighter II Medley (GMF Version)
Nearly all Street Fighter II music is in-print and easy to come by, thanks largely to Brave Wave and their amazing Street Fighter II re-issue from a few years back. But a few tracks have fallen through the cracks, like this live medley featuring the greatest hits of Street Fighter music. This was originally performed at the 1992 Game Music Festival in Japan, and was included on the CD of the same name.

The Game Music Festival was a thing in Japan for at least a few years in the early-90s and possibly the late-80s as well. The 1990 Game Music Festival CD bills itself as “Zuntata vs SST Band” and holy shit I’m jealous that I can’t track that disc down.

Again, if you like the music to Street Fighter II, be sure to pick up Brave Wave’s absolutely incredible release that features the game’s complete soundtrack, even both the CPS-1 and CPS-2 variations. In a time where so many game music releases are limited releases manufactured with scarcity in mind, it’s important to call out the studios that are doing it right.

 

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Arranged game music for the new year

Thursday, January 3rd, 2019

Capcom
Ghosts ‘n Goblins (Arrange Version)
Commando (Arrange Version)
These arrange versions are both from Capcom Game Music, a collection of tunes from Capcom games that was released by GMO Records in August of 1986 (according to the VGMdb). It was their sixth release overall, and their fourth collection of game music by a single company, following similar collections featuring Nintendo, Hudson and Konami.

While the Hudson collection featured an an entire side of arranged editions, this album copies Konami’s format, with just a pair of re-imagined tracks. Shame, I wish we would’ve been treated to arranged variations of music from games like “Section Z” or “Trojan” instead of ear-grating audio rips from “1942” and “Higemaru.”  Neither of those games feature much music, so their tracks are mostly just raw game audio, and are very hard to listen to.

Like many other early arranged versions featured on GMO releases, the arranged mixes here are by Yoshihiro Kunimoto. Unlike future arrange albums, which often featured full bands or sometimes even orchestras, these are still largely digital affairs with drum machines and synthesizers abound. Very fun stuff though. I always view arranged versions like these as what the game company wanted the music to sound like at the time, if they weren’t limited by game hardware limitations. Both of these are great, but the “Ghost ‘n Goblins” version is better, mostly because it’s just a better song overall, but also because it has plenty of dope synth bass. Said it before, I’ll say it again – I love me that synth bass.

Namco
Pac-Man A Go-Go
Solo Suite Xevious -No. 1-
Main Theme From “Rolling Thunder”
The early GMO releases would usually feature just a handful of arranged versions. The focus was always on the original music. But by the 90s this would change, and more companies would embrace the arranged version as the showcase tracks, even releasing albums comprised entirely of arranged versions. Makes sense to me. If you wanted to hear the original game music, you could always just play the game. These albums gave the companies and the composers more freedom with the music.

Like I said when talking about the Capcom albu, most arranged albums I have feature mixes that are largely still digital and based around electronic instruments.

But This is Namco!, the album from which these tracks came from, is really different. All of the tracks here focus on live instrumentation, and with some really odd choices too. The “One O’Clock Galaga ’88” track reworks the theme music from that game as a big band jazz tune, while “Solo Suite Xevious -No.1-” takes the game’s rather simple melody and transforms it for saxophone (I think – I’m not up on my brass instruments). It’s a really sparse mix too, so raw and quiet that I can even hear the player’s breath between notes and the clicks of the keys.

There are some bold choices here, but overall I think the variety is a little detrimental to the final product. There’s just too much going on, the album has no focus on defined style. Yeah, the lullaby version of Mappy’s music is alright, but it’s sandwiched between the jazzy Galaga theme and a bombastic as fuck 80s-rock take on the music from Dragon Spirit. There’s no flow. And also, some of this music just isn’t all that great or memorable. Maybe I would feel differently I was more familiar with games like The Return of Ishitar and Dragon Spirit, maybe nostalgia would help. But I have no feelings for most of the games on this album, so it’s just a collection of (sometimes not great) versions of music from games I’ve barely heard of.

There are a few standouts though! In addition to the awesome saxophone Xevious theme, the full-on jazz version of the theme to Rolling Thunder is just an absolute banger. It completely nails the suave, suit-and-tie spy aesthetic the game was going for.

Also “Pac-Man a Go-Go” is great. Because Pac-Man is great. And good on them for somehow making an entire song out of what is probably 10 seconds of original game music.

May 2019 bring us more impressively reworked game music, and less white nationalists hellbent on killing us all!

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Mega Game Mega Mixes

Friday, July 13th, 2018

Shinji Hosoe
Running UP! (Arrange Version)
Running UP! (Megamix Version)
These are remixes of the theme to Dirtfox. I have never played Dirtfox. I don’t know what Dirtfox is. (It’s apparently an arcade overhead racer.) I only know that the soundtrack I found at Book-Off was just 300 yen so I thought “hey why not?”

I’m glad I picked it up, it’s a fun, bouncy soundtrack with a good, upbeat theme. Although the theme is pretty much all the soundtrack is. It opens with the “Arrange Version” of the main theme, continues with the two versions of the theme actually hear while playing the game, and then concludes with the “Megamix Version.” Aside from that, there are just three other tracks, none of which top a minute in length.

Shinji Hosoe went on to do the music for Ridge Racer by the way, so I guess racing game music is in his blood.

 

Darrell Harvey, Rex Baca & Kip Martin
Dungeon Master (Mega Mix)
Chaos Strikes Back (Mega Mix)
I stumbled upon this one in Osaka and it immediately unleashed a flood of memories. I actually never played the original Dungeon Master, my family didn’t have a computer when it came out. However, my friend had it for his Apple IIGS, and I would sit and watch him play it for hours on end. I don’t think either of us were ever able to really wrap our heads around the game, we were both probably eight or nine at the time, but we just loved the look of it, and it would always inspire me to draw my own dungeon monsters, demons and heroes. Now that I’m a grown-ass adult with a (slightly) better understanding of dungeon-crawling RPGs, I really should try it again sometime.

I was surprised to see that the game had a soundtrack release (especially in Japan) as I didn’t recall the version we played having any music at all. Turns out that the game was released for the FM Towns computer in Japan, which came with a CD_ROM drive. And the version of Dungeon Master that was released for the FM Towns took full advantage of said drive, packing a Redbook audio soundtrack on the game disc.

Since you can play Redbook audio on any standard CD player, it’s kind of funny that they decided to released the soundtrack for the game and it’s Chaos Strikes Back expansion pack on a regular CD. I guess that might be why they included the above “Mega Mixes,” which were not featured in the games themselves?

Finding out that a few Western games made it over to Japan on CD for the FM Towns makes me want to scour the used racks for those games to see which others might have obscure soundtracks tucked away on Redbook audio. Wonder if there are any hidden gems there!

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