Are you ready to lock yourselves in the bathroom, light some incense, and jump in the shower while listening to Subway Meditations? I certainly hope not, although that’s exactly what Patrick Gann did (or suggested?) in our review of Michael Bross’s Subway Meditations last month. I simply suggest sitting down and relaxing to the amazing musical ambiance that the CD provides.

Well, Mr. Bross was kind enough to give us an extra copy to give away to you guys. Hopefully you already bought the album, as I highly recommend doing so, but in case you hadn’t just yet, here’s your chance to win a free copy. All you have to do is send us a photo of yourself meditating somewhere special. What’s special, you ask? Whatever you want it to be. The entry that we find the most entertaining (again, we like humor) wins.

Send entries to [email protected] by 11:59pm PST on September 1, 2009 to be considered. Thanks, and good luck!

It’s almost here, the Metroid Metal studio album is right around the corner! Grant Henry, AKA Stemage is well known for his work on Metroid Metal where he has arranged the full soundtracks for Metroid, Metroid 2 and Super Metroid into pure metal glory, and has gone on to start arranging the music from the Prime series. Last year, he put together a live band consisting of Dan Taylor, Dan Behrens, Mike Molnar and Kevin Lawrence for an amazing performance at MAGFest 7 and also to record the long awaited Metroid Metal studio album! The release date is September 8, 2009, so get your wallets ready and be prepared for what might be the best game arrangement CD of 2009. They posted a preview on YouTube for everyone to enjoy.

You can also catch Metroid Metal live at PAX at September 4th, and pre-order their CD here. Be sure to watch for our review of the album soon!

Do you feel the Metroid spirit is retained in the metal style? And is there any other game you would like to see get similar treatment?

Okay, so maybe the Harry Potter Quidditch game was a sillier game to write the music for. But in terms of games with soundtrack releases, zOMG! takes the award for “most unexpected Jeremy Soule project.” Mr. Soule is generally open to composing for anyone who makes the offer and has a game that suits his style of composition. And he’s also been a hero among free-to-play-MMOers, because of his extensive work on Guild Wars and its expansions. But the game is called “zOMG!” I just can’t get over that. It definitely encapsulates everything that’s right and wrong with ‘net communities. Creating derivations of Internet slang (OMG = Oh My God, the “z” comes from people sloppily hitting the left shift key) is what makes virtual community unique. But that may or may not make it a good starting place for a videogame.

The game, produced by the good folks at Gaia Online, now allows community members of their site to play a proper, quest-based MMORPG. To help build a strong presentation for the game, they hired Soule to record over 25 melodies for the game. And considering Soule’s excellent track record (Morrowind, Oblivion, Icewind Dale), Gaia Online was able to, at the very least, ensure that people would be drawn into the game based on the music.

And while Soule is keen on using some of his standby orchestral techniques, I’ve never quite heard a score like this for any game before. It may not be his best work, but it is one where he, perhaps, learns to take himself less seriously. And in that space, we find something shiny and wonderful, if only because it’s so fresh and new. After the jump, check out our full review of zOMG! the Soundtrack. (more…)

To celebrate this week’s release of Phantom Brave on the Wii, we thought we’d check out the game’s music, as NIS Japan was generous enough to include a promotional “Tenpei Sato Selection” disc in Japan. While we couldn’t get our hands on this CD in particular, we have the next best (probably even better) thing: the PlayStation 2 Phantom Brave Bonus Sound Track disc, which features 15 tracks compared to the Wii’s 10.

So what’s here? Well, super happy upbeat stuff, just like we heard on Prinny. There’s a pretty wide range of styles featured, but they’re all happy, and some are even amazingly catchy. All in all, it’s a pretty sweet deal given that the official soundtrack never got a full release outside of the collector’s edition of the game.

Read our full review of the Phantom Brave Bonus Sound Track after the jump. (more…)

While many of you may have missed the news, the guys over at Noisycroak in Japan (who you may recall from our coverage of Castlevania Judgment) recently hosted a composer roundtable to answer fan-submitted questions and discuss a wide range of topics involving the game music industry in Japan. Composer and studio head Hideki Sakamoto hosted the unprecedented event, which our own Chris Ling attended along with a number of Famitsu staff, and the results were pretty amazing.

What we have here is Chris’s English translation of the massive transcript that Noisycroak posted in to their website (in Japanese) a few weeks ago. Yes, a complete English transcript of all 17,000+ words! I’m definitely grateful to Chris for doing this for us, as well as to Sakamoto-san at Noisycroak for putting this together, Mitsuyoshi-san for coordinating Chris’s attendance, and to all the participants for taking part in this event and for letting us post the English-language transcript here for your reading pleasure.

While it’s quite long, there’s a lot of great stuff here. Nobuyoshi Sano is particularly hilarious, and it’s funny reading how Sakamoto-san was constantly trying to keep everyone on track (with mixed results). I found some of the discussion towards the end about game music concerts and “young” heroes to be interesting, but let us know what you think!

Read the entire transcript of the event after the jump. (more…)

Remember when Little King’s Story producer Yoshiro Kimura told us at E3 that he wanted to make the game’s music available to fans? Well, he wasn’t kidding, as Marvelous has just uploaded 6 minute-long clips from the game’s soundtrack.

So, how do you get them? Well, Kimura-san told us in an email that it’s a “rare secret” just for you guys. Basically, go to this Japanese URL, and type the word “king” into the text box on the page. It will take you to another page where you can download the 6 music samples. They sound great, and this is definitely appreciated, but I wish they’d release that promotional CD to the public already!

Have you been enjoying the music in Little King’s Story? Does this “secret” sample site satisfy your LKS music needs, or does it leave you wanting more?

While I won’t claim to be the biggest fan of the Fantasy Zone series, I do have fond memories of the Tengen version of Fantasy Zone for the NES. I never owned it, but I rented it several times from the local game store and loved the quirky visuals, the amazing gameplay, and of course, the upbeat music.

Even though I didn’t play the other games in the series, I was just as excited as anybody when SEGA announced their Ultra Super Big Maximum Great Strong Complete Album (what a great name) that came out last year as a part of the retromazing Sound Shock Series. It’s super cool that SEGA put this together, and I’ll tell you right now it’s a pretty exhaustive collection spanning 4 discs. And yes, there’s even a new live arrangement that you’re probably going to love!

Hit the jump for our ultra super big maximum great strong review! (more…)