Arrangers

Game Music, Reviews

More BETTER or More of the Same? More SQ (Review)

March 9, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

The SQ series from Square Enix has admittedly been pretty hit or miss. The first album, Love SQ featured an eclectic mix of 10 arrangements from a pretty varied list of Squaresoft titles, while Chill SQ tackled the chillout genre to great results. While the “X’mas album” wasn’t an SQ album in name, it was in spirit, and we’re now getting the third official installment of the SQ album, More SQ.

Have they perfected the formula by now, or is this album just more of the same? With 13 arrangements and the longest run-time of any of previous SQ albums, there’s certainly more to consider.

Hit the jump for our review of More SQ. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Let’s Take a Fantasy Trip to Hell: Akumajo Dracula Tribute Albums (Review)

March 7, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

As much as Gideon doesn’t want to admit it, fans continue to and always will love classic Castlevania music. I guess the team over at GEONDAN agrees, as it seems they were tapped to work on two arrangement albums dedicated to some of the most beloved tracks from the series. This is probably that “big project” Yuji Takenouchi was referring to when we interviewed him shortly after GEONDAN was formed.

So what’s here? How about a slew of talented game composers, many of your favorite Castlevania tracks, and two discs taking two drastically different directions?

Find out if they’re worth your time and money in our review after the jump. (more…)
Featured, Game Music

OSVchannel: -Myth- The Xenogears Orchestral Album Unboxing Video

February 22, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 5 Comments Share this

It’s here at last!

I kid, of course, as this one really came out of nowhere, but there was certainly a lot of excitement surrounding -Myth- The Xenogears Orchestral Album once it was announced. Actually, if you dig back into our archives, you can find a blurb from Square Enix Japan’s promotions manager Akio Shiraishi and Music Licensing and Publishing Division head Izumi Tsukushi at Comic Con where we talked about a follow-up to drammatica, and they mentioned wanting to do something with Yasunori Mitsuda. I guess this is what they were working on.

While we’ll have our review in the coming days, I did want to draw attention to the album’s packaging, which is pretty awesome. The really neat plastic slipcase with its see-through red portions, the thick cardboard case, and the attached booklet full of photos, commentary, liner notes, and credits definitely show Square Enix’s dedication to making this album both look and sound great. You can get it here.

Check out the above video and let us know what you think of the packaging. Is this one of Square Enix’s best?
Game Music

Meet Hyadain Part 4: The World Warrior Based on Street Fighter II

September 23, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

We’re back with another Hyadain video. While our past “Meet Hyadain” posts have delved into remixes by the talented composer and arranger whose true identity we discussed in our Part 3 post, “The World Warrior” is actually an original song based on Street Fighter II. Similar to past Hyadain tracks, we get a variety of vocal performances (I find the Dhalsim parts to be particularly funny, and swear the Chun Li portions sound convincingly feminine), and of course, an amazing musical backing. I’ve always been impressed by just how catchy this track is, and it really does feel right at home with the game itself.

This is the fourth time we’ve featured Hyadain on OSV, but he has many more arrangements out there. What are some of your favorites that we haven’t covered yet?
Game Music

More “Groups” From Dog Ear Records: Meet the PiA-COMS

June 28, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on More “Groups” From Dog Ear Records: Meet the PiA-COMS Share this

We had a great time with the original PiA-COM album, but given that it was titled “PiA-COM I,” it seemed likely we’d be getting more PiA-COM goodness in the future. Well, the is approaching very soon. On November 25, 2010, Dog Ear Records will release PiA-COM II, a new compilation of classic game music tunes arranged and performed on the piano. There’s even an official website and blog dedicated to the project.

What makes this announcement even more special, however, is the fact that along with KALAYCILAR and PiA-COM veteran pianist Keita Egusa, performers Hiroyuki Nakayama and Masato Kouda will be forming a trio called the PiA-COMS. Some may remember Nakayama’s name from the Kingdom Hearts piano collections and from a number of Uematsu projects, including Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Guin Saga. Masato Kouda, on the other hand, is well known for his work on the Monster Hunter franchise as well as being a member of Square Enix’s Star Onions band. These additions should definitely make for an interesting PiA-COM II album.

What arranged tracks are you looking forward to hearing this time around? Are you excited that Nakayama and Kouda are joining the mix?

[via VGMdb]
Game Music, Reviews

Super Cool: Chillaxin’ With Square Enix’s Chill SQ (Review)

May 31, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 4 Comments Share this

That was fast! We only learned about Chill SQ on April 1, and now it’s already here. We mentioned a few weeks ago that Square Enix had posted samples of what we thought were several songs from the album (7, to be exact), but as it turns out, those were all the tracks featured on the album! However, contrasting with the eclectic Love SQ that we reviewed last year, Chill SQ, as the name suggests, focuses on a more cohesive idea of “chillout” music.

With artists like Square Enix’s own Mitsuto Suzuki, Love SQ remixer RE:NDZ (livetune), and a bunch of other talented arrangers covering a wide variety of classic Squaresoft titles, they can’t go wrong, right?

Well, find out in our review of Chill SQ after the jump. (more…)
Game Music

Paving The Way Forward: Jake Kaufman Travels West!

November 20, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on Paving The Way Forward: Jake Kaufman Travels West! Share this

Yes, it’s true! Jake “virt” Kaufman has confirmed to us in an upcoming OSV interview about his work on Red Faction Guerrilla that he will be moving to the Los Angeles area in January 2010 to work in-house as staff composer and sound designer at Wayforward Technologies, the creators of Shantae and Contra 4 (both of which he scored) as well as A Boy and His Blob, which we just featured this morning (in case you already forgot!).

This is huge news for a number of reasons. Not only will we be hearing a whole lot more of Jake Kaufman in his natural element of retro game audio, but we’ll likely be within the vicinity of any live shows he does in the area. Here’s hoping that he sets something up around the time of E3! Also, this likely means he’ll be working on their upcoming Shantae titles that everyone was pretty convinced he wouldn’t be working on.

Are you surprised by Jake’s big and shocking move to the West coast? Will you be looking forward to his music at Wayforward and possibly some live shows in the LA area in the future?