Despite being a huge success for the UK’s Classic FM radio station I completely missed the first series of their video game focused show High Score. Between April and May, Jessica Curry — co-founder and composer of The Chinese Room’s Dear Esther and Everbody’s Gone to the Rapture — hosted the show to examine and celebrate orchestral game music. It proved to be a hit with fans of both games and classical music, garnered an audience of new, younger listeners, and was the most popular program on the station’s rebroadcast series, Listen Again. Unfortunately, there’s no simple way to go back and listen to High Score so it’s especially noteworthy to find out there will soon be a new series!
Between November 4th and December 9th Jessica Curry returns each Saturday for six hour-long episodes, beginning and ending with special all-request shows. Looking back at the tweets Curry received in the Spring there were a ton of requests and while they couldn’t comply at the time, the message was clearly received: there’s a new page on Classic FM’s site to submit your special requests for the show. The intervening four episodes will be based on themes and trends. Here’s the full schedule:
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to present a second series of High Score for Classic FM. The first series was so much fun to do and the huge response that the show received was absolutely incredible. I’m just over the moon that people enjoyed it. I’m raring to go on the next one and can’t wait to hear what people come up with for the requests shows!”
– Jessica Curry
Listeners in the UK can tune in on 100-102 FM, digital radio, at ClassicFM.com, and on the Classic FM app. Those of us outside the territory may have to type in a valid UK postcode but should still be able to listen live from the site. In the meantime, don’t forget about Music Respawn, Kate Remington’s game music composer interview show on WSHU public radio from here in the States.
Did you catch the original run of High Score? Are you looking forward to the new series? What requests would you like to hear? Let us know in the comments below.
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of “video games” that let you create things, music in particular. Mario Paint, MTV Music Generator, Electroplankton, and most recently Detune’s line of portable music workstations on the DS and 3DS. Fascinated, but not dedicated. I’ve fiddled with the virtual knobs of these apps in the past but never dug into them or even heard the work of those who have.
It makes Trotus and the Gameboy an especially interesting listen as the album was composed, produced and mixed with KORG M01D, the $34 audio workstation available on the 3DS eShop. Trotus released the album over a year ago on Bandcamp but just linked to it on the 3DS subreddit this past week and it’s generated the most exposure I’ve seen so far.
Self-described as encompassing “chiptune, chill beats, and boss battle house with groovy odd time signatures”, Trotus reveals among the positive comments that he’s drawn inspiration from the likes of Earthbound and Cave Story for some of the tracks.
In another reply he gives his thoughts on using the KORG app. “I love this program. Honestly it’s not too daunting and quite user friendly once you get the hang of it. Touch screen interface and the portability actually are huge draw-ins to me compared to computer DAWs (digital audio workstations for anyone out there unfamiliar.) It’s easy to just loop a drum beat, and sequence in chords, or record melodies/basslines, etc. (it has a nice little piano roll).”
Take a listen for yourself above, grab the album for pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp, and follow Trotus’ page if you like what you hear; he’s currently working on ten new songs. Let us know what you think of Trotus and the Gameboy in the comments and link us to some of your favorite made-in-a-game music while you’re at it.
With the late summer release date quickly approaching for the upcoming Harebrained Schemes BattleTech, we took some time to talk to composer Jon Everist his work on the music for the game. He has also composed music for the games Shadowrun: Dragonfall, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, Necropolis and Planetstorm: Fallen Horizon which recently came to Android. In the interview the composer shares details about his musical background, how he approached scoring Battletech, working with the Budapest Scoring Symphony and more. Read on for our full interview:
Ryan’s recent post on the Wipeout Omega Collection tracklist reminded me about my own Wipeout posts. Specifically, Psygnosis composer Tim Wright’s attempt at creating and producing an album of “chilled out” Wipeout remixes which has been in the works since, wow, December of 2015. Over the last year and a half the project has hit all the roadblocks you’d expect from a largely one-man production.
Through a series of updates on the official Ch’illout” facebook page Wright has relayed a job change that led to a move across continents, health problems, and most detrimental of all, a breakdown with the company handling the album’s physical production. With each announcement the date slipped farther and farther through 2016.
On May 18th Wright offered the latest update, admitting that the double disc CD release isn’t going to happen “at the moment”. The album is now lining up to release digitally alongside the Wipeout Omega Collection on PlayStation 4 in early June. Along with the sincere apology to those who pre-ordered the album, Wright offers all of his future digital music “for free for life” and hopes to be able to send out some kind of physical goods once the album is out; he mentions the gatefold poster that would’ve come bundled with the CD as a possibility.
At last count the album had grown to include 18 tracks, each one a slowed-down remix of Wright’s contributions to both the original Wipeout and Wipeout XL on PlayStation. Over the months Wright has released a few demo tracks on his Soundcloud page or you can take a listen above.
Full disclosure, I’m one of those folks who pre-ordered the album back when it was first announced. It’s disappointing to miss out on the physical release but I can appreciate the risk and challenges involved in bringing something like this out yourself. And the music’s still coming which is ultimately what I really wanted to begin with.
Two of the most well known forces in rhythm gaming teased a collaborative new title called Project Rap Rabbit late last week. Now they’ve pulled the wraps off of their pitch and launched its kickstarter campaign, shedding more light on the game and those involved.
Fronted by Masaya Matsuura and Keiichi Yano, Rap Rabbit will also include their respective studios: Nana-OnSha of PaRappa the Rapper fame for Matsuura, and iNiS J for Yano, best known for Gitaroo Man and the Ouendan series. The pedigree is obviously there, they just need the funding and support to create what the pair defines as “rhythm-action 2.0”.
As Matsuura explains in the kickstarter video, he got some flack for referring to PaRappa the Rapper as a hip hop or rap game back in the 90’s. Sure, PaRappa had some opportunities to freestyle but the game really only required the precise, “Simon Says” callback of patterns to succeed. What rap fans wanted was a game where they could change the lyrics while playing, and that’s what Rap Rabbit hopes to offer. Drawing inspirations from both RPG dialog wheels and the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, combined with the back-and-forth gameplay of both PaRappa and Gitaroo Man, you can start to picture what the game might play like.
Based on their past works, it’s probably least surprising to hear that the game’s story trades on finding the strength to do what’s right and conquering adversity; only this time it’s set against traditional Japanese art and folklore. Inspiration here comes from 16th Century Japanese picture scrolls all the way up to films like Spirited Away, Tekkonkinkreet and Kung Fu Panda.
That leaves only the music to address which Matsuura himself is heading up as Music Director and core composer. Despite the traditional look of the visuals we’ve seen so far, the music hopes to fuse Japanese and Western styles while incorporating the Epic Rap Battles mix of beats, unexpected encounters, and comedy. Obviously, music is the most important part of a rhythm game and as a fairweather fan of Matsuura’s work in the past, this is the part that really determines where I fall on Rap Rabbit.
As of this writing the project is nearly $100,000 of the way towards a $1.1 million goal with initial releases on PlayStation 4 and Steam. Some lofty stretch goals would see the inclusion of more content and eventually ports to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. No estimated release window has been mentioned so far but it looks like European publisher PQube is already on board to ship the game when it reaches its goal.
Take a look at the campaign video and kickstarter page and let us know in the comments if you’re already on board or patiently waiting for more details to emerge.
8 Bit Weapon, the long-running chiptune and electronic band formed by Seth and Michelle “ComputeHer” Sternberger, have a new album and it’s got quite the meta concept: what if the music industry followed modern game design? “How much of a song would you hear before you purchased the rest of it as DLC,” the new album asks.
The idea is to start with track 4, “DLC the OST (Standard Edition)” which features only the backing and melody. It’s nice, but wouldn’t it sound even better with drums? For a small charge the Drums DLC adds layers of percussive depth and really gets your toe tapping. Later in the product cycle, take your song to the next level with the Expansion DLC that lays on the style by adding new synths, percussion, and samples.
Gross right? Ultimately, they couldn’t bring themselves to nickel-and-dime their fans to put the concept to test so the album contains all the “DLC” and the full song, hilariously titled “DLC the OST (Season Pass Edition)”. Taking the next natural step, the album is considered the “GOTY bundle” edition and includes two wholly original bonus songs.
The answer to the question that DLC the OST poses is obvious: No. No one would pay for half of a song and then buy individual instruments as if it were a satisfying reward. Ok, maybe some of you interested in remixes or how the song was created would, but not the general music listening public. The real question turns the focus back onto games but that’s a discussion for a different kind of site, or maybe the comments section. I’m happy to say that despite the concept, DLC the OST still gives us three enjoyable (and totally complete) tracks for as little as $3.
Check it out and let’s discuss in the comments. What do you think of the song, 8 Bit Weapon’s concept, or our modern games with DLC and microtransactions?
Recently, PopCap Games announced a wave of layoffs at their Seattle development branch to “refocus on new titles and key projects”. There was no confirmation of how many where laid off or what departments saw the cut in staff, but at least one member of their audio team announced their position had been the victim of the downsizing.
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