If you thought the bullets in Touhou games were hard to dodge, well then try dodging the amount of releases coming out of this event, because it’s pretty much equal number. Reitaisai is an annual event much like M3 and Comiket that has a more specific approach towards Touhou Project, the world famous doujin shooter that goes back to PC-98 and all the way up to today on regular PC. The series, which spans 12 or so official games, is made by one man named ZUN, and is today a media franchise which doesn’t seem to ever stop losing steam. The Reitaisai event started out as an event for ZUN to release new editions of his games, but today, it’s grown to be a central hub for Touhou releases of all kinds.
So far, there are 75+ CDs announced to be released there, and that’s just music albums mind you, you can expect an even higher amount of doujinshi (comics), fan games and fan-art collections being released there, not to mention that the announcements will keep coming until the day of the event, making it impossible to even consider catching all the releases. Some familiar names who are releasing CDs are TAMUSIC, IRON ATTACK!, XL Project, DDBY, IOSYS and ALiCE’S EMOTiON.
Reitaisai 7 takes place at the Tokyo Big Sight on March 14th.
You might be asking yourself why you’re seeing Macho Man Randy Savage on OSV today. What did he ever do for game music? Well, not much, but he did release a rap album called Be A Man, which should have won a Grammy. Good music is always overlooked, and I should know, I was the only one who bought Hulk Hogan’s Wrestling Boot Band album, Hulk Rules, and it can be very lonely at times knowing that, let me tell you. But the reason why all of this is here today is because one of the top trending things on YouTube today is Botchamania.
What is Botchamania? Well, it’s a collection of wrestlers screwing up moves, lines, and everything else you could possibly screw up royally on in this world. For years he’s been one of YouTube’s most viewed members and his seemingly never ending videos always feature game music of the most famous and obscure nature. He was awesome enough to take the time to talk to me recently and even if you’re not a wrestling fan by any stretch, there should be some laughs for you here and in his videos!
Get to know Maffew of Botchamania after the jump! (more…)
Rockman 10 is out on the Wii, and we’ve been greatly looking forward to the game’s soundtrack. As it turns out, the Rockman 10 Original Soundtrack will be released on March 23, 2010 while the arrange album, R10 Image Soundtrack, will be released on April 30, 2010. That’s some nifty artwork.
The original soundtrack lists composers including III, Akari Kaida, and many others. I thought Kaida’s inclusion meant that arranged tracks would appear on the soundtrack (she appeared on last year’s Rockman 9 Arrange Soundtrack), but I guess she’s involved with the original soundtrack itself. The arrange album, on the other hand, will feature a slew of artists including Manami Matsumae and Yoshino Aoki, which should definitely be interesting.
Have you been playing Mega Man 10 and have any thoughts regarding the music? Will you be picking up these albums over the next two months?
You know what my favorite instrument is? Acoustic guitar. But my other favorite instrument is piano and that’s why we’re here today. Right before Christmas times came rollin’ in, Dog Ear Records released a little treat by the name pia-com I – PianoXComputer. The premise was simple, a collection of Famicom classics arranged on piano by Keita Egusa, who’s piano skills have been showcased in videogames before. I’m always eager to hear more piano albums and quickly became excited as the news came in on this album.
Piano arrangement albums aren’t exactly a new idea when it comes to videogame music, but it seems there’s always a bit more prestige to them, being classical and all. It might be the elegance of the piano, or the over reliance on metal and rock in the Western arrangement communities, but whenever a piano album comes out, it seems fans are just a tad more excited than usual.
So is this album worth getting excited for? Find out as we take a look! (more…)
Despite some of Koichi Sugiyama’s radical political beliefs, he is one of my musical heroes. I recall turning on my NES as a kid just to leave the title screen running so I could hear his classic “Overture” from Dragon Quest. It’s one of my favorite tracks of all time, and still is able to move me with its simple yet elegant melody voiced by triumphant brass.
It came as a huge surprise then, when I read that it only took him 5 minutes to write. In a recent interview with Famitsu, Sugiyama noted that it took him only five minutes to prepare the iconic RPG title theme which has been featured in every sequel of the game to date. Falling back into modesty, however, Sugiyama noted that he already had 50 years of experience writing music by the time he crated the theme, and it therefore took 50 years and 5 minutes to write. I’m still amazed.
Do you think the Dragon Quest “Overture” has held up after all these years? Are you surprised that he was able to come up with the melody so quickly?w
We’ve talked a lot about headsets on the site, but I think it’s fair to say that these aren’t really a portable solution given their large size. If you’re anything like me, you probably can’t stand the stock earphones that come with iPods or a multitude of other products. I often find them too big, making it difficult to tolerate them on extended listens, and the sound quality they provide leaves a lot to be desired.
So I found myself on the market for a nice pair of earphones. There are a lot of options out there, but I consistently came across the name Ultimate Ears, which is actually a company that focuses on professional custom-fit earphones for on-stage performances. That doesn’t mean that they don’t cater to music enthusiast and audiophile as well, as they have a number of lines that have been created specifically with users on the go in mind. The Ultimate Ears 700s fall into their universal fit line for just this purpose, and while they will set you back $199.99, I was quite impressed with what I heard.
Yes, you read that price correctly! Hit the jump to find out if they’re worth the cost in our review. (more…)
Like many others, I was introduced to fan arrangements while randomly downloading game music on Morpheus, the ancient download client we all used back in the day. My friend had never heard Mega Man music before, despite being an avid gamer, and I wanted to fix that problem, and thought nothing was out of the ordinary as I downloaded a file named “Mega Man 2 Medley.” Turned out this was The Minibosses’ version, and I put the volume up so loud that pictures fell down from his wall, as we anticipated this would be simple chip music. I was never the same.
On the 27th of February The Minibosses celebrated 10 years together by throwing a concert on their home turf of Arizona, and from the looks of it, the show was an absolute blast. The set consisted of older and newer material, like GI Joe, Metroid, Contra and fan favorite Mega Man 2. I wish I could have been there myself, last time I saw them was in 2006 at MAGFest 4. Thanks for 10 great years!
I’ve endlessly gushed about Ragnarok Online. It was my first MMORPG, and probably will be my last. I loved that game, from the amazing Secret of Mana-esque graphics, to the Norse mythology-based universe, to the amazing pop and trance soundtrack provided by soundTeMP. I played the game since the alpha testing phase in the United States, so needless to say, I’m more than just a little attached to the game.
For that reason, when Ragnarok DS was announced, I was ecstatic. I don’t really have time for never-ending MMOs anymore, so the thought of having some of my favorite RO elements on the go was extremely attractive to me. We heard a taste of the music last month in the launch trailer, and even though it provided MIDI-fied versions of the original game’s music, they were great even in that form. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Is the game any good? A number of reviews that are already out there say no, so what’s the deal?
2 months late but who cares?! It’s finally here and ready to ship out. We’ve done plenty of coverage on this CD in the past, with artist interviews and updates on it’s progress along the way. Originally scheduled for release at MAGFest, the production company did a printing mistake and therefor, the team had to switch pressing companies and find a comparable price range.
In case you aren’t totally up to speed on the project, this is a full arrange album of the Contra 4 soundtrack, featuring Andreas “Snappleman” Kotsamanidis, Tony “Prince of Darkness” Dickinson, Dan Behrens from Metroid Metal and ARMCANNON, Marcos “Braincells” Pascoli and Jake “virt” Kaufman, the original composer of the soundtrack! Other awesome contributors show up as well.
Josh Whelchel, indie game music composer and good friend to many OSV staff members, last year collaborated on a special project to raise charity funds for the American Cancer Society.
The Indie Music Cancer Drive, headed by Josh Whelchel and others, is releasing a two disc set this year, “Songs For The Cure ‘10.” A number of indie game music composers, arrangers, as well as other indie artists contributed to the project.
Though you can always just give money to charity, the draw here is that you can get either a physical or digital copy of this set of music with a small donation. Here at OSV, we’re doing our part to promote the album by telling you exactly what interesting music, game-related or not, you’ll find on this collection. Learn more after the jump. (more…)
Chatmonchy is the name of the three-member all-female rock band that is well known among anime fans for their performance of the ending themes for the anime series Bleach with the song “Orange” and Hataraki Man with “Shangri-La.” And for those of you who enjoyed their works and live in North America, there’s an opportunity to see them live since they will be touring the United States.
Their tour kicks off in the South by Southwest 2010 (SXSW) media festival held in Austin, Texas on March 19 before moving on to New York on the 21st, Los Angeles on the 24th, two shows in San Francisco on the 26th, and back to LA on the 27th.
It will be interesting to see how popular their works prove to be with North American audiences since their Last Love Letter single released in February 2009 and their full-length album Kokuhaku both debuted on the Oricon charts in the top 10. As an added bonus, those hoping to give their a music a listen can hit up SonyMusic Independent Network because their Kokuhaku (Confession), Miminari (Ear Ringing), and Seimeiryoku (Life Force) albums are available digitally as of March 2.
More information about the group as well as a list of their tour dates, locations, and concert venues can be found on their Myspace page.
Any Chatmonchy fans here who will look forward to seeing Eriko, Akiko, and Kumiko live in person? And does anyone have any thoughts on their music or expectations as to the songs they’ll perform or ones that you hope they’ll play?
Noisycroak’s Hideki Sakamoto is at it again. Chris Ling informed us of a special event in Japan a few weeks ago hosted by Sakamoto, who you may recall from our 100 Million Ton No Bara Bara coverage and his previous Noisycroak panel in Japan. This time, however, the event featured a different group of composers, included live performances, and biggest of all, it was broadcasted live on Japan’s Internet video service, Nico Nico Douga. Composers Hideki Sakamoto, Takenobuo Mitsuyoshi, Michiko Naruke, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Nobuyoshi Sano were available for questions, while others joined them for the evening’s various performances.
We’ve been fortunate enough to receive a small summary along with an enormous number of photos of the event from participants Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Hideki Sakamoto himself, and we’re very thankful to them for providing us with this opportunity.
Hit the jump for our summary and for a photo gallery from the event. (more…)
