YouTube

Featured, Game Music, Indie Music

Extra Credits Has A New Show On VGM Remixers

May 30, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Extra Credits Has A New Show On VGM Remixers Share this

The people behind the web series Extra Credits have started a new weekly video series titled Extra Remix. For those of you unfamiliar with Extra Credits, it’s a weekly show, narrated by Dan Floyd and written by James Portnow, that covers topics on how videogames are designed and how they can be improved. Over the past several years they’ve covered a wide range of topics including Free to Play Games, Combining Game Genres, Graphics vs Aesthetics, and many others.

Starting back in April, the Extra Credits team has been adding new types of content to their weekly rotation, including Extra Remix, James Recommends, and the just recently announced Design Club. Extra Remix is focused on discussing and promoting the work of videogame remix artists. Host Dan Floyd introduces viewers to a new artist each week, giving some background information on the artist and playing some examples of their work. Each episode ends with a full remix track to showcase the artist’s abilities. So far they’ve dedicated episodes to artists like Big Giant Circles, Zircon, and CarboHydroM. They even dedicated an entire episode to the site Overclocked ReMix (seen below).

It’s an interesting web series that highlights the work of some very talented remix artists. This is a great way to get introduced to some new music remixers, or to become more familiar with the people behind some of your favorite VGM remixes. A new episode of Extra Remix goes up every Tuesday. Be sure to check this web series out.
Featured, Game Music

VGO’s “Theme of Grandia” Video on YouTube

November 13, 2013 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on VGO’s “Theme of Grandia” Video on YouTube Share this

There were a lot of fantastic moments at last year’s VGO concert, “Live At Symphony Hall.” While we all eagerly await the album release, GameArts gave permission for the “Theme of Grandia” to go up, for free, on YouTube for your consumption. This may have been my favorite moment.

There was a lot of emotion involved with this one. The piece was self-arranged by composer Noriyuki Iwadare, who was in attendance. Also in attendance was Hiroko Miyaji, widow to Grandia creator Takeshi Miyaji (who passed away in 2011). This performance was a perfect tribute to a great man who created one of the finest RPG adventures ever.

Watch this video and get yourself psyched for the album release. I know I’m ready!
Featured, Game Music

CAVE Music History 2003 – 2012 Video Series

July 7, 2013 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on CAVE Music History 2003 – 2012 Video Series Share this

In 2011, I started an ambitious project: to collect every audio CD published by the developer/publisher CAVE (Deathsmiles, Dodonpachi, Espgaluda, Mushihimesama, etc). I completed this project earlier this year.

And now, even as I face the dreaded possibility of having to sell that very collection, I was able to glean so much knowledge and enjoy so much great music from a bevy of amazing Japanese composers. The man who introduced me to the quality of music from CAVE, Don Kotowski, joined me in a 3-hour audio recording wherein we listen to two songs from each album and give our commentary. My commentary tends to be focused around critique of the music, while Don has tons of expert knowledge about the music’s origins, having interacted with many of the musicians who worked on these albums.

It’s taken me 4 months since the audio recording with Don took place, but I’ve put together an eight-part YouTube video series (playlist here) corresponding with that audio recording for a full-on A/V experience to learn about this game company and their music. Most of their games are “bullet hell” shmups, though they stray into other, even more niche territory (such as the visual novel Instant Brain).

Don and I wanted to provide this video series as a method for game music fans to get up to speed on one very specific set of music, one whose fans tend to be even more hardcore than, say, fans of Nobuo Uematsu or Falcom Sound Team jdk.

Video embeds after the jump! (more…)
Miscellaneous

Gregory Bros songify and gamify 2012 election

September 28, 2012 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on Gregory Bros songify and gamify 2012 election Share this

The Gregory Bros have been doing more pop-culture than politics with their “autotune” / “songify” work. It’s been 3 years since we interviewed them, and in that interview they mentioned their love for game music.

Now they present a retro, 8-bit overlay of the two candidates (Obama and Romney) making speeches at their respective conventions (DNC and RNC). The music is super catchy too.

Just thought I’d share. Enjoy!
Miscellaneous

David Saulesco Improves Upon Gaga & Beyonce

September 20, 2012 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on David Saulesco Improves Upon Gaga & Beyonce Share this

Back in January, this crazy-huge a capella group from Slovenia called “Perpetuum Jazzile” performed a concert that only recently made it to YouTube. One of their selections was a cover of the song “Telephone” by Lady Gaga & Beyonce.

This particular arrangement was put together by David Saulesco (follow him on twitter! @withaknife), the composer for Derek Yu’s Eternal Daughter and other indie games (see our interview here).

On a personal note, I’ve loved David and his work for years, but I frankly had no idea he had this kind of choral arrangement prowess locked away inside him. He needs to do more of these arrangements! Maybe one for a VGM vocal theme! Imagine what Saulesco would do with One Winged Angel or Liberi Fatali…
Featured, Game Music

OSVchannel: iGMB Video Review

September 13, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 7 Comments Share this OSVchannel: iGMB Video Review

UPDATE (9/14/12): We said “14 albums,” but there are actually 15! This video totally skips over the soundtrack for “Mecho Wars HD” by Sean Beeson. As such, we will have an in-depth review of that album up in the coming days. Keep your eyes peeled!

Last week, when we announced the new bundle from gamemusicbundle.com, we asked you to give us ideas about what we should do to cover the new bundle. For GMB2 we interviewed every composer in the bundle; for GMB3 we reviewed every album individually.

One reader wrote in and suggested we do a single video review for all the albums on the iGMB. Dear reader, enjoy! We deliver!

The review comes off more like a commercial, mostly because I like (almost) every album in the bundle. Enjoy!
Game Music

Video: Heartfelt Message from Osamu Kubota

June 21, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 3 Comments Share this

It’s been awhile since we last mentioned our friend Kubota-san here on OSV. In the above video, which features Kubota recording at CSNO Studios (Czech National Symphony Orchestra) for Hanbitsoft’s MMORPG Heaven of Three Kingdoms, he shares some poignant thoughts and feelings about being a composer. Chief among them is this lovely quote, which I wanted to share with all of our readers:

I really have to redefine myself, every day — every day! Otherwise, I couldn’t survive as a composer. […] Forget about the Osamu Kubota of before […] and just listen to what’s happening.

Kubota goes on to talk about how “small” or “compact” the world becomes with technological advances. Considering I’m watching a video of a Japanese man speaking in English, with Korean subtitles (presumably for the game’s Korean audience), while recording music in Eastern Europe, and I’m sitting in America … yeah. The Internet is pretty awesome in that regard.

Please watch the whole video (it’s been up on YouTube for nearly a year and as of today is still under 200 views … this is a crime of neglect!). Hopefully we’ll be hearing more from Osamu Kubota in the near future. Thanks to our friend Don Kotowski for the link to this video.