Well, as I always say, “Better late than never.” We know that while Valkyria Chronicles 2 was just released at the end of August in the United States, the game’s soundtrack (from Basiscape Records) was released all the way back in January of this year. Our review and exclusive liner notes article from the first Valkyria Chronicles was a big hit, so we thought it would be fun to follow it up with Hitoshi Sakimoto’s thoughts on the sequel.
Yes, I realize that we already published this review, but Sakimoto’s comments make a lot more sense in the context of my review, so if you’re simply interested in his comments, just jump to the boxed portions of the article after the jump! (more…)
These 2 guys came out of nowhere for me. During my time in Los Angeles and hanging with the little chip scene there, the name George & Jonathan seemed to have acquired quite strong word-to-mouth value. When I heard the track “Out With My Girlfriends” through 8BitCollective it all became clear to me why. These guys are absolutely amazing. This shouldn’t come as a surprise looking at the fact that one of the dudes used to be in Anamanaguchi. Their new album is called THE BEST MUSIC and rarely has an album lived up to its name like this one. If you don’t start dancing while listening to this release, then you deserve to have blood in your urine for the next year and a half.
THE BEST MUSIC contains 13 tracks and is made with Pixel’s (Cave Story) Piston Collage tracker. From the irresistible Woody Woodpecker beats of “No Ya Not & No Ya Didn’t” to the emotional fishy lovemaking of “Whale”, this is one of the best releases of 2010 and it’s free.
What’s that? You haven’t heard of Iris? While I can’t necessarily blame you for missing out on this talented synth pop duo among the sea of music out there on the Internet, Iris has for many years been one of my favorite electronic acts around. With Reagan Jones handling songwriting and vocals and demoscene legend Andrew Sega on keyboards and programming, the two make a deadly combination that you really ought to familiarize yourself with. Think Depeche Mode… but better.
What better time to check them out than with the release of their new album, Blacklight? While I fell in love with Jones’s ethereal vocals and Sega’s dreamy electronic backings on their 2003 album, Awakening, Blacklight takes a different approach, delving into darker territory with an emphasis on techno-like beats and brooding themes.
Hit the jump to find out if this new direction works and where to pick up Iris’s past work. (more…)
My time at Seattle’s Penny Arcade Expo this past weekend wasn’t an entirely wholesome experience: Delayed for 15 hours in JFK airport and denied entry to the Friday night concerts upon my arrival, PAX was, to say the least, not off to a great start. That all changed, however, when Alex Neuse of retro indie studio Gaijin Games revealed their next title in the Bit.Trip series, Bit.Trip FATE, during the Destructoid LIVE panel on Saturday morning. The game will act as Gaijin’s take on the ‘bullet hell’ shoot-em-up genre, and will star the series’ charmingly square-like protagonist, Commander Video.
It’s no secret that we love the Bit.Trip soundtracks here at OSV, and part of the reason why is that they feature a different chip music artist to accompany the varied gameplay styles exhibited in each title. This time around, it’s NYC’s Minusbaby, a smooth-sailing selector whose previous album, Left, won our vote as one of the top chiptune albums of last year. What’s even better is that the soundtrack is available for download right now, before the game even releases! You can get the whole thing for only $6 on CDBaby.
You may remember our coverage of Inverse Phase’s The Midnight Chiptunes release some months back, but Brendan Becker’s chiptune alias is at it again, this time with covers that reach beyond a single game or even games in general. There’s everything here from The Transformers theme to “Just What I Needed” from The Cars, “Song 2″ from Blur, “Say it Ain’t So” from Weezer, and numerous others. In addition, there are 8-bit demakes of some VGM cover band tunes, including tracks by The Megas and Metroid Metal. A remix of a remix, I guess? There are twelve tracks in all, and the album is available from Inverse Phase’s Bandcamp page for $5.
But wait, maybe you’ll be one of two lucky readers to win yourself a download code, courtesy of Inverse Phase himself. All you have to do to win is check us out on Facebook and interact with us. Whether you want to leave a comment or simply “like” something on our feed, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment or like as many items as you like, but we’ll be taking only one entry per person, and will pick a winner at random in one week, September 14, 2010 at 11:59 PST.
Get to it! What do you think of Retrocoded? Are you still trying to wrap your head around the remix-of-a-remix concept?
The all-female rock trio from Okinawa, “Stereopony,” has been pumping out hit singles, including TV anime and film themes, for the past four years. Today, we take a deeper look at one such theme to get a taste for Stereopony’s particular sound.
The theme song single in question is “Tsukiakari no Michishirube” (trans. “Moonlight Signpost”), which is the opening theme for the second season of Darker Than Black (the season has its own title: Ryusei no Gemini). Included on the single’s disc are two B-sides, and we’ll be talking about them as well.
Can this all-female group bring the noise, or will they drown in a sea of producers and executives trying desperately to keep them sounding chipper and radio-friendly? Find out after the jump! (more…)
Given that most videogames do not feature vocal themes, it isn’t often that we interview vocalists on OSV. When games do feature vocal tracks, however, it’s usually done to make an impact, and Susan Calloway has had the opportunity to tackle some of the most popular vocal themes from videogames as a part of the Distant Worlds tour. I first came to know her for her amazing rendition of “Memoro de la Stono” from Final Fantasy XI, but she was also featured on the recent Distant Worlds II album, recording English versions of both “Melodies of Life” and “Suteki da ne.”
In our interview, we discuss not only her work on Distant Worlds, including how she came to be a part of the production and the level of artistic freedom she was given with the pieces she’s worked on, but we also touch on her more pop-oriented solo career. From playing live piano to singing pop, rock, and even some country sounding tunes on her latest Chasin the Sun EP, there’s a lot more to Susan Calloway than just Distant Worlds.
Find out what she’s all about in our interview after the jump. (more…)
With all the political tumultuousness in this country, I am reminded of a kinder, gentler time when the only badguys we needed to worry about were the ol’ “Russkies.” That’s right. I’m referring, of course, to the Cold War where everyone knew who the badguys were, battles were fought discreetly for the most part and, ultimately, the “goodguys” won. But what if that were not the case? What if the building intensity between the two great superpowers completely boiled over to the point of invasion? This is the question posited by IO Interactive’s underrated gem, Freedom Fighters, from 2003. This multiplatform actioner built on the same engine that facilitated the beloved Hitman series flew in under the radar – much like the game’s antagonists – but its soundtrack arrived with fire and gusto thanks to Jesper Kyd.
Join me as we fight off the Soviet invasion of New York City with one of the best soundtracks of the last ten years! (more…)
Trust the Nico Nico Douga (NND) users to come up with something this big, this wild, and this insane. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if someone were to take a bevy of anime opening and ending themes ranging from the catchy Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ending theme, “Hare Hare Yukai,” to the more ethereal “Uninstall” from Bokurano and blend them together with a dab of VGM like the classic Super Mario World and Final Fantasy themes, the original “Nico Nico Douga Medley” is pretty much what you’re looking for.
The song was originally put together by Shimo in June 2007, and since then, the medley has become a series of sorts with other NND users chipping in, taking the original and singing it as a troupe (like the video above), arranging it for other instruments like guitar and orchestra, or drawing inspiration so as to create their own mishmashes. Quality isn’t as big a factor in judging this work; though the singing or arranging might not be top-notch, one cannot deny the pure passion that goes into its creation. An exemplar of passionate fans being passionate fans, I can’t help but feel dazzled every time I listen to it.
Yes, this be old news, but it’s still worth sharing all the same. If you’ve enjoyed (or are able to endure) this work, a handy list of songs and where they came from can be found here.
Since the time he helped form GEM Impact, Norihiko Hibino has explored a lot of different territory. But, a familiar place for him to go is always jazz. As a trained saxophonist, Hibino always does well in this realm.
Last year, Hibino released “Gentle Love,” which featured a jazz group (with Hibino on sax) covering a variety of American, Japanese, and Canto jazz/contemporary standards. This time around, for Gentle Love 2, Hibino comes to the scene with twelve original pieces. Can the Metal Gear Solid composer show his softer side in this original album? Find out after the jump! (more…)
While I hadn’t necessarily planned it, we’ve had quite an eventful Metroid week this week. With our Metroid Prime 3 interview on Tuesday, Pat’s review of Metroid Metal’s Expansion Pack EP on Wednesday, and our Metroid-heavy podcast yesterday, we have even more for you, and this one’s about the game in the series you’re looking forward to the most: Metroid: Other M.
When Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was released, I experimented with a feature format that I called an “audio journal,” an exploration of the game’s universe as experienced through sound. I thought I would do the same with Metroid: Other M given the unique atmosphere of the series and the emphasis on music and sound design. While Metroid: Other M isn’t long enough to warrant a three-part series like I wrote for Corruption, I hope you enjoy our audio-inspired journey into Metroid: Other M.
Dive into the aural landscape of Nintendo’s most recent Metroid title after the jump! (more…)
I know, I know. It’s been awhile since we gave you a podcast to listen to. Call it our summer break. Or blame the convention circuit. We’ve been busy, ‘kay?
On today’s podcast, we talk about Metroid: The Other M, the new Metroid Metal album (which, in the recording I claim to know little about, but after the fact I became quite familiar with it), and other Metroidian stuff. Metroidian stuff > Freudian stuff.
I guess we also talk about Ys SEVEN, Scott Pilgrim vs The World (cheers to Anamanaguchi!), Demon’s Souls, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows, our ongoing “game musiccontextualization” debate, and how much we love Josh “Zen Albatross” Kopstein. I’m sure I’m leaving stuff out. The podcast runs almost an hour, so there’s a lot of content packed in there.
And because Jayson let me handle the mixing of this one, be sure to enjoy the intro and outro from Falcom Sound Team JDK! It’s all iterations of Ys III music. Hurray for the fair use thingy-mabob they announced last year!
