Katamari Damacy

Game Music

Tommy Tallarico Confirms Video Games Live Level 6 Album Kickstarter for February 2018

December 18, 2017 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Tommy Tallarico Confirms Video Games Live Level 6 Album Kickstarter for February 2018 Share this

On December 15, 2017, Tommy Tallarico confirmed that the next Video Games Live Album is in the works. The confirmation was made on Twitter when he re-tweeted Franklin Richard’s tweet which we’ve copied below:

Interestingly, it was also noted that the new album will feature the vocals of Jason Paige who is known for singing the original Pokémon theme song. Original Sound Version gave the last album, Level 5 a glowing review which you can read here if you missed it. I popped over to the Level 5 Kickstarter page this morning which revealed even more details:

Yesterday we made our big announcement by confirming LEVEL 6 for 2018 and revealing that we have partnered with original Pokemon TV show “Gotta Catch Em All” singer Jason Paige to do a powerful updated extended symphonic rock version of the iconic masterpiece AND that Jason will be joining us on future tours!

It was also revealed that I will be producing Jason’s next album which will focus on ALL rock/symphony/electronic recreations of the GREATEST pop-culture hits of the 80’s & 90’s! The setlist and album which will be picked entirely by the fans! Theme suggestions to include Pokemon (duh!), TMNT, Animaniacs, The Simpsons, Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, Duck Tales, Tiny Toons, Digimon, Scooby Doo, Full House, Spider-Man and MANY MANY more!

Check out our interactive Facebook Live chat we had in which you’ll hear Jason do some hilarious on-the-spot singing and answering questions! Sorry about the muffled audio in the beginning! New phone… didn’t realize I had my finger over the mic! 🙂 Hope you’ll take part in LEVEL 6! Coming in February!!

Tommy Tallarico

I can only speculate what other games will be covered on the Level 6 album, but I have a strong feeling that Undertale, Earthbound/Mother and Katamari Damacy might be strong contenders. All three were included as possible stretch goal tracks for the last album and it wouldn’t surprise me if they made the cut this time. Personally I’ve expressed to Tommy Tallarico I’ve love to see Tim Follin’s Silver Surfer represented. And I have to say, Jason Paige’s new album in the works sounds radical dude.

Is there a video game soundtrack you’d like to see on Video Games Live Level 6?
Game Music

Arrangement of the Week: Love Everlasting

March 18, 2016 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Arrangement of the Week: Love Everlasting Share this

A lot of the electronic remixes on this series have been either of the ambient chill variety or lean towards the more energetic dance genre. So this week I’ll be switching it up a bit and be taking a look at a remix that embraces the world of chiptune music.

For this week, we’re looking at a remix of one of my favorite Katamari Damacy tracks, “Lonely Rolling Star.” This chiptune arrangement “Love Everlasting” comes to us from artist DDRKirby, who has been a regular contributor to OC ReMix and is known for morphing classic game tunes into 8-bit inspired goodness.

Much like DDRKirby’s other pieces, the music is heavily influenced by the Game Boy’s sound and the music of the Kirby series. There’s plenty of nods to the sound design of Kirby’s Dreamland, such the iconic star sound effects, and it all adds to the cheerful tone of the remix. While certainly not limiting himself to the constraints of the handheld, DDRKirby’s Katamari remix perfectly celebrates the classic Game Boy sounds and tones.

The piece maintains a fair amount of complexity throughout its run. While the lead synth takes a majority of the spotlight as the instrumental place holder for the “Lonely Rolling Star” lyrics, there’s plenty of variation in the accompaniment instrument patterns. The accompaniment changes up frequently, but always maintains a bubbly and upbeat vibe. The chiptune and Kirby influences end being a perfect match for the music of Katamari, both thematically and in terms of the track’s tone, making for an excellent and memorable remix.

Have any favorite remixes, covers, or arrangements of the Katamari Damacy music? Let us know about them in the comments below. You can check out DDRKirby’s “Love Everlasting” on OC ReMix.
Game Music, Japanese

Know Your MAG: DJ Yuu Miyake

January 21, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Know Your MAG: DJ Yuu Miyake Share this Know Your MAG: DJ Yuu Miyake

MAGFest 13 starts in just two days, and thus it’s time to bring Know Your MAG to it’s apex with one of the special guests of the event as well as performing DJ, Yuu Miyake!

Yuu Miyake, born in 1973, was interested in music at a young age. Listening to late-’70s anime themes and Yellow Magic Orchestra during his youth, he became acquainted with video games during a a childhood hospitalization and began visiting Japanese arcades shortly thereafter. When Yellow Magic Orchestra released the first album ever heard of video game music, Miyake knew that his love of games and music were something he wanted to pursue seriously. (source: VGMOnline)

Miyake joined Namco in the mid-’90s, gaining his first musical credit on Tekken 3. After working with Namco director Keita Takahashi on the video project “Texas 2000”, Miyake impressed the man so much that Takahashi assigned him full control as sound director over the game soundtrack for the puzzle-action game, Katamari Damacy. This is where Miyake gained critical acclaim for the creativity and unique style he blended together when composing the majority of the soundtrack for Katamari Damacy along with his team. (Which also included fellow MAGFest 13 guest, Yoshihito Yano) The catchy and quirky tunes that comprised Katamari Damacy‘s soundtrack gained several awards, including IGN’s and Gamespot’s “Soundtrack of the Year” for 2004 as well as a nomination for “Outstanding Achievement in Original Musical Composition” at the 8th annual Interactive Achievement Awards in early 2005. This lead to Miyake composing for future games in the series, such as We Love Katamari released in 2005 and Me & My Katamari later that same year. Between these, he also worked on compositions for Tekken 5 and Ridge Racer.

Yuu Miyake worked on several more games for Namco, including 3 more Katamari titles, until he left the company to go freelance in 2011. While traveling Japan to give lectures and working on personal projects, he also began performing live as “Acid Eutron” alongside Towa Tei, Shinichi Osawa, Takeshi Nakatsuka and Taiji Sato. He current DJ’s across Japan whilst working on freelance projects in association with Namco Bandai, as well as teaching.

You can check out the interview Jayson Napolitano had with Yuu Miyake in 2009 for more about his life and works. His DJ set will be Saturday night starting at 11:30pm, with autograph signing earlier that morning. Check out the full schedule of events for MAGFest 13 for more details, and see you at MAG!
Miscellaneous

MAGFest 13 to feature Katamari Composers and LonelyRollingStars

September 30, 2014 | Brenna Wilkes | 2 Comments Share this

After a bit of a lull in announcements, MAGFest has dropped a nice assortment of features for their upcoming MAGFest 13 event in January. Or should I say, rolled up a nice assortment.

Yuu Miyake and Yoshihito Yano, both the composers of the Katamari Damacy series and both veterans of Namco Bandai, will be featured as special guests at the festival. Miyake will be be the featured DJ during the late-night DJ dance party, whereas Yano will be a special guest speaker with a panel for all Katamari fans to gather and listen to tales of how the music of the series came to be. As if that wasn’t enough, MAG 12 performers and super band LONELYROLLINGSTARS will be featured performers during this year’s concert lineup after nearly creating a crowd katamari of their own during their set last year. (now featuring guitarist Ryan “Mega Beardo” Postlethwait stepping in for a retired Grant “Stemage” Henry)

MAGFest 13 will be held on January 23 – 26th, 2015 with tickets and hotel rooms available, but better to get on them sooner rather than later.
Featured, Game Music

Know Your MAG: Lonely Rolling Stars

December 26, 2013 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this Know Your MAG: Lonely Rolling Stars

It’s time for more “Know Your MAG” with another brand new Stage 2 band gracing MAGFest 12 with the most glorious name – Lonely Rolling Stars!

LRS could be considered what is commonly known as a “super band”, and with good reason, as four of its five members are no strangers to the MAGFest stage. Pulling double-duty in his performance schedule this year is Grant “Stemage” Henry of Metroid Metal (also appearing with the previously mentioned Viking Guitar band), while also featuring George “Norg” Nowik and Sean “Ailsean” Stone from The Smash Brothers, Chris “cubosh” Dlugosz of Armcannon, and some guy named Chuck “finbeard” Simpson. How did this much awesome manage to come together to create such a menagerie of metal? If asked, the most probably answer would most likely boil down to “It seemed like a good idea at the time”, and I doubt anybody would be apt to disagree.

So what can you expect should you decide to take a moment and attend their debut MAGFest performance? Well, a healthy variety of game and pop culture music that rarely graces the MAG stage, for starters. Since the band’s name is based off the colorfully-odd puzzle game Katamari Damacy, it makes sense that their teaser track released prior to MAG to entice concert-goers would be steeped in such.

Based on the group’s Facebook, much ass was busted in order to produce the band’s first album, Carnivortex, in time to be sold at MAGFest alongside their concert performance. The majority of the rest of the album is masked in shadow and will have to be heard live at the band’s show (Sneak previews can be heard on the SML podcast with Stemage, Norg & Ailsean being interviewed). However, if the above taste of what’s to be expected from their debut is to be believed, the album should help alleviate any PMD or “Post-MAG Depression” sufferers after the melodious weekend is all wrapped up.

Lonely Rolling Stars will perform at Stage 2 on Saturday @ 3pm.
Game Music

Top 10 Video Game Theme Songs?

October 3, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 15 Comments Share this Top 10 Video Game Theme Songs?

I wanted to point our readers to an article written by Dale North over on his AOL Radio Blog where he counts down his top 10 favorite video game theme songs. As Dale has turned me on to a great deal of music over the years that I now enjoy on a regular basis, I figured he’d have some interesting picks. While the list is dominated by Squaresoft, he also pulls in Katamari Damacy and Silent Hill. I remember first looking at the list and thinking, “Well, he’s missed out on all sorts of things, and went for the rather obvious tracks,” but now that I think about it, I can’t really come up with much else that belongs on the list.

So, as a point of discussion, what vocal themes do you think are missing? The one at jumps out at me the most is “Song of the Ancients” from NieR. But perhaps you prefer “The virgin child makes her wish without feeling anything” from No More Heroes, or some Korean goodness in the forms of “Esa Promesa” from Granado Espada and “fly away” from PangYa Portable? Then there’s that guilty pleasure, “I am the Wind” from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Yes, I honestly do like it.

Tell us what tracks are on your list. While Squaresoft really got the whole “vocal theme song” thing going with the Final Fantasy series, are they necessarily the best? Let us know what you think.
Featured, Game Music, Japanese

Katamari Music Maestro: Yu Miyake Interview

December 15, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

Whether or not you like Katamari Damacy or not, you have to admire their creativity and sense of imagination. One of the highlights of each Katamari Damacy title has been an amazing soundtrack which usually feature quirky yet extremely high quality performances in both English in Japanese, many of which have become so popular that they’ve received their own chiptune arrangements.

We’ve been quite fortunate to get some time with the man behind the audio of Katamari Damacy, Yu Miyake, who has been working on the series since its inception. The main focus of this interview is the recently-released Katamari Forever and the high quality remixes of previous Katamari Damacy material that it features along with how he came to work at Namco and some other artists he admires. I also want to be sure to note that Tommy Ciulla and I collaborated on these questions, as he’s an even bigger fan than I am!

It’s a fun time, so join us in our interview after the jump. (more…)