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All About VGM  Today seemed as it would have another usual, boring day off from work. Just doing the usual like checking email, working on various reviews and translation projects. Around 1:30 PM, as I was played Raiden X on a Flash website, Sam starts barking. "Just the mailman" I say to myself. So I decide to go and see... just to see a delivery truck going away !! "Aw nuts, that was probably's Chudah's bundle !! >< I won't be able to grab until Friday since I work tommorow." So I just keep cursing myself for about 15 minutes... Then I decide to look outside my door. Lo & behold, snuggled in the corner of the porch was the highly anticipated box. So in there were the following: Battle Garegga Insanity DVD + Perfect Soundtrack + Art Book, Mushihimesama OST + Figurine, R-Type Delta OST, Daiva OST, Cotton OST, Dodonpachi I & II OST, Doki Doki Idol Starseeker Remix and Taito GSM 7 - Nouvelle Vague (Galactic Storm [OGR] and Rastan III ~ Warrior Blade [Mar.]). This was quite a surprise, but it wasn't going to end there. As I was about to clean the dishes, I noticed the actual mailman came by and besides all the bills and sales ads, there was a parcel. This was from Click-Stick, whom I dealt with on the Shmups.com forums. Lo & behold, the highly sought after Storm of Progear OST + Artbook was in there. So in one day.. I've acquired 4 out of 9 known Cave soundtracks, which is quite a feat ! For the VGM enthusiast, this couldn't have been a better day :D Current mood:  giddy.Current music: Manabu Namiki - Fly to the Leaden Sky (Stage1 - Valley). Self explanatory, here we go. I receive this package.... lost of goods within... this is just incredible =O It should be noted that this bundle was for a trade on a good number of mine that I was attempting to sell a while back. Let's go at em one by one... Salamander -Again- Contains the OST to Salamander in Arcade, NES and MSX platdforms. Wonderful old-school shmup music by Miki Higashino and other Konami Kukeiha Club members. Salamander 2 OST The first Salamander was quite amazing, this one blows it out of the water. Wonderful, wonderful synth-rock by Motoaki Furukawa. Xexex OST An amazing arcade shmup OST, Furukawa is accompanied by another Kukeiha Club member... oh and Kenichiro Fukui (Yes, the one and only) provides an awesome arrangement of the 1st level tune =D Tekken OST Composed by Namco composers that I'm unaware of... but the arrangements are by Shinji Hosoe, Nobuyoshi Sano and Takayuki Aihara =D Legendary Wings/Side Arms It's two OSTs on one CDs, both are shmups, released in 1986 by Capcom. Music by Tamayo Kawamoto, long before she joined Zuntata. Virtua Fighter - B-Univ Composed by Takayuki Nakamura, wonderful mix of funk, jazz, techno, rock Arrangements by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Koichi Namiki(Founder of Sega's S.S.T. Band). I'm really enjoying this one =D Ridge Racer 2 OST High-speed driving techno music by Hosoe, Saso, Sano and Aihara =D That should say it all =) Tekken Tag Tournament Domestic OST Some Namco unknowns, but Yu Miyake(Katamari Damacy), Yoshihito Yano (Soul Calibur), Keiichi Okabe(Tekken 3) and Nobuyoshi Sano are onboard =D S.S.T. Band - Mega Selection Arrangements from classic Sega games like Out Run, After Burner, Power Drift, Galaxy Force, Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier. Rockin' out with style ^_^ Trash 01-05 Special mini OSTs by the Super Sweep people for various Shockwave and Flash games released online. Most of it is by Hosoe, but Saso and Yano contribute on a few occasions =D Ok.... ok..... OK Now for the very best. La crème de la crème. S.S.T. Band LIVE ! Recording of S.S.T. Band's performance during the Game Music Festival of 1990. Just an amazing bit of VGM history I'll get the Zuntata LIVE 1990 CD some day =D Wait..... there's another one !!! Game Music Festival '92 Ah yes.... this is one of the "Holy Grails" of the VGM world ! Stuff by Gamadelic (Data East), Zuntata (Taito), Alph Lyra (Capcom) and last but not least, S.S.T. Band (Sega) Another bit of timeless VGM history !! Included were the OBI and the autograph cards, which left me breathless ^^ On Capcom's band, Yoko Shimomura was there as a keyboardist and possibly a singer too ! Can't you guys guess how estatic I am right now ? =D I can't beleive my luck sometimes =D Current mood:  ecstatic.Current music: S.S.T. Band - Last Wave. Been a while.... To the 3-4 people who follow my blog... you're probably wondering where I've been... I didn't want to use this blog to talk about my personal life, but I'll make an exception as an explanation for my absence is due. I've been out of town for approximately a month, hoping to get better work opportunities. It's a bit harder than I expected... I spent the first week doing job research and perfecting my resumé/cover letter and reference list. I really wanted to focus my time on a video game company by the name of Spielo, which specializes in Video Lottery Terminals, which is basically video games' answer to gambling (sorta). While not being about traditionnal gaming (ie consoles), Spielo is still pretty demanding when it comes to employees. I've sent my documents to them, including a copy of The Swarm: the video game I did back with three others at NBCC Miramichi from September 2003 to June 2004. I'm still eagerly awaiting news for a possible interview. Of course, this was not the only spot I applied at. I applied at various companies, some other gaming companies like UbiSoft, Sega of America, BioWare, Electronic Arts; several calling centers, employment agencies, etc... Even after 4 weeks away from home, I have been unsuccessful at getting a job so far :( Family members were looking at my hometown still and something came up... The local NB Liquor Store needed someone to do several chores like shelving, packing, ordering, cashier, etc... What is truly unfortunate is that this position is not even part time... just occasional. Even with all this going on, I am not giving up. I've learnt that Spielo is having a session on October 5th from 5:30 to 8:00 pm to meet potential candidates for employment. I'll be there with hopes to acquire an interview and convince them that I have the necessary skills (I do, by the way) to be of service to the company. OK.... I've gone far enough about personal issues. Time to get back to the main blog topic. Some of you certainly have heard about Video Games Live, the american produced concert by Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. At first, I was against this concert as I felt they are giving the wrong message to the masses. Recently, I had a change of heart and would be willing to assist one of the canadian venues if all possible. I would go as far as meeting Mr. Tallarico and Mr. Wall in person to encourage them, but also to provide some suggestions on how to make it all more accessible to the masses. Sure, orchestras are very nice. But video game music was first created with synthesizers, which gives VGM a unique flair that other genres of music lack. Personally, I would love it to have half of the show played by the orchestra, the other half could have live performers play music from the Golden Era of VGM. What I mean by that is to pay tribute to bygone bands like Gamadelic (Data East), Zuntata (Taito - Yeah, they're still hanging around today compared to the rest), S.S.T. Band (Sega), Konami Kukeiha Club (Konami duh), Alph-Lyra (Capcom), JDK Band (Falcom) and many more. There needs to be some synthesizers, guitars, drums, saxophones, etc... What's a video game music concert without the catchy, melodic material ? I'm not even sure at this point if I'll be able to make it... but I'll update should anything come up. Current mood: content.Current music: Shinji Hosoe - Prodigy Racing. It's a special update this time. For those of you who have never heard about Doukutsu Monotagari, better known as Cave Story to the english-speaking community, here is an introduction to it. This is a freeware adventure PC game developed by a single japanese programmer who calls himself Pixel. Cave Story is a tribute to classic games from the Nes and Sms era such as Castlevania, Mega Man, Metroid and even Wonder Boy ! So what does this have to do with game music you ask ? Well, Cave Story's music was done to mimick the old sound chip of the Nes, which gave Cave Story a charming soundtrack which easily ranks among the best as the compositions are fun and varied, despite the low sound quality. This game is a testament/example to perfect game design, it is basically flawless in all its parts. Anyways, I'm bragging, so I'll just put up the link here to download the game. Link: http://www.gameflaws.com/cavestory/ Current mood: cheerful.Current music: Pixel - Balrog's Theme. I usually don't forget to continue something I enjoy so much, but many personal issues kept me from being focused to write anything these past weeks. To keep with the main theme of the blog, there has been some new listening material recently. A friend of mine has recently purchased the Deluxe Version of the Shin Megami Tensei ~Digitial Devil Saga~ game for PS2, which includes a soundtrack CD. Knowing that I highly enjoy game music, my friend decided to lend it to me for a while. After several listens, Shoji Meguro's craft has finally grown on me, what mostly surprised me about this soundtrack is the extensive use of electric guitar, which functionned in laid-back town themes to blood-boiling battle themes. Aside Ys, I can't think of another RPG series that is mostly based on rock motifs. I'll need to dig deeper in the Megami Tensei series and see how the music has progressed along the way. Now let's see if I can update Monday evening... Current mood: busy. Current music: Shoji Meguro - Hari-Hara. Who's this, you ask ? Ryo Yonemitsu is Falcom's best arranger from 1987 to 1994. Mostly prominent with Falcom's Ys series, he has also arranged music for some of Falcom's other series such as Legend of Heroes, Sorcerian and then some. His best known and appreciated arrangements come from the PC Engine versions of Ys Book 1 & 2, Ys 3 : Wanderers from Ys and Ys 4 : Dawn of Ys. The original composition were already stunning by their quality and sound. Ryo Yonemitsu just made them even better than one could possibly imagine. The PCE Redbooks are filled with pumping hard-rock themes and glorious synth-rock. I believe the PC Engine games for these go for a fairly low price on eBay. If you put the game disc into an audio CD player and skip the first two tracks, you've got yourself some of Falcom's finest music from the early to mid '90s. Other than Falcom, Yonemitsu has created arrangements on a couple of Namco albums, namely the Megami Tensei 1 & 2 (VICL-40029~30) and the Namco Game Sound Express Vol.4 - Dragon Saber (VICL-40014~5) albums. It's a shame he hasn't been heard from since 1994, as his arrangements were brilliant, powerful and inspiring. Current mood: giddy.Current music: Ryo Yonemitsu - The Final Decisive Battle (Ys IV PCE). First off, my apologies to slacking on the job... Let's get down to business ! Tamayo Kawamoto Famed Series/Game: Ray Series (Force, Storm and Crisis), The Fear Kawamoto is one that had her start at Capcom before she joined Taito around 1990. At Capcom, she composed for Ghosts and Goblins, amongst other titles. OGR likely thought she was quite a competent composer as she was invited to perform at the Game Music Festival of 1990. She does some great techno music, but also does some orchestral work as shown in The Fear. She is definitely up there among Zuntata's best. Kazuko "Karu." Umino Famed Series/Game: Puzzle Bobble, Bubble Bobble(?), Gekirindan, Pu.Li.Ru.La., Akkanvader Karu. is one to compose the more lighthearted games. It is believed that she had composed the original Bubble Bobble, but it has yet to be confirmed. Puzzle Bobble is certainly a cheery soundtrack, as is Pu.Li.Ru.La., co-composed with Yack.; while Akkanvader is Taito's answer to Konami's Parodius. Gekirindan is an amazing shooter with just one track, but Karu. arranges the theme nicely that the diffrences are noticeable and enjoyable. Hideki "Dr. Haggy" Takahagi Famed Series/Game: Psychic Force Series, Dangerous Curves, Densha de GO! Dr. Haggy is an interesting one, who enjoys playing with voice samples more than others, as shown evidently on Dangerous Curves, which is reputed to be a "Ridge Racer Wannabe", but Dr. Haggy and Hosoe's use of vocals are done on a totally diffrent fashion. Dr. Haggy uses samples a bit too much, but I guess it fits the context nicely. Dr. Haggy is also known for directing his own band, J.A.M. (Junkie as Machine); who happen to be one of the wackiest VGM bands out there, if not THE wackiest. Their vocal piece on Densha de GO! is enough to see how good and funny they are. Shuichiro "Shu" Nakazawa Famed Series/Game: Landing Gear, Gamera 2000, Chase Bombers Shu is Zuntata's percusionnist, and I believe he did a splendid job during the Zuntata Live concerts of 1997 and 1998. For his work on Landing Gear, which is a flight simulator, only one word can describe its music : groovy. Tracks like Sublime Landscape and Midnight Jungling are just so fun to listen, especially when they are merged together for the Live shows. Honorable mentions goes to: Munehiro "Mu" Nakanishi for being a great sound programmer and drummer amd Tomohito Takahashi for doing some mighty fine guitar performances with Mar. during the live shows. And now for something a bit different... What soundtrack am I looking foward to aside Senko no Ronde ?? 1. Shadow Hearts : From the New World OST Just the thought of having Yoshitaka Hirota solo is enough to get me drooling with anticipation. As shown on various trailers, Hirota still does some really nice power-rock and also tries his hand on ethnic music. While I certainly didn't mind Mitsuda and Ito's presence during the past games, I was hoping to see him solo as I know he has the skill and experience to do a fine job. From listening to the trailers, it appears quite promising. 2. Ibara While it has yet to be announced by Cave, the mix of Shinji Hosoe and Metal is enough to get me extremely excited... Here's hoping Cave does a release, even if a limited one. 3. Final Fantasy XII Hitoshi Sakimoto is one of my favorites, I'm hoping FFXII will have a score comparable to that of Vagrant Story's. Other than those... I'll need to observe the GMRonline listings more closely to get any other interesting releases. It's with great excitement that I learn of the opportunity to own a copy of the Game Music Festival ~Super Live '92~ album... Having tracks from Zuntata, Gamadelic, S.S.T. Band and Alpha-Lyra plus official autographs by the artists is certainly a heavenly gift. I'd say this album would be among the "Holy Grails" in the VGM world. More to come soon... Current mood: excited.Current music: Koji Hayama - Biker Gang Music. A few days ago, I was writing on how much I hoped Senko no Ronde would get a full official release... lo & behold, I decide to check GMRonline... And I see an update for Senko no Ronde... I think to myself "Hmm.. just corrections to the Image Soundtrack". I click the link, and I notice it's empty of track listing... I check the title... I see Sound Track clearly then... I'm not sure if my emails to Mr. Watanabe had anything to do with this release... To. Mr. Watanabe, I say, "Thank you !!!!" Edit : I'm an idiot :P In my excitement, I forgot to include the GMR link. Link to awesomeness ------> http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNu Current mood: ecstatic.Current music: Yasuhisa -Yack.- Watanabe - Remember first rendez-vons. Yeah..... these past few days, I've updated every two days... I think that's a good timeframe between updates. I won't be writing anything else for tonight as I'm quite tired. Time will tell If I'll write something tommorow. Current mood:  tired.
Zuntata is the name of Taito's In-House Sound Team. It was started in 1987 when the Darius album(composed by Hisayoshi Ogura) was released. Since then, they've been known for their creativity with their unusual approach at game music. I'll start by introducing the main members of Zuntata and describe each a bit. Hisayoshi "OGR" Ogura Famed Series/Game : Darius/Rastan Saga II/Galactic Storm As mentionned above, it's thanks to OGR that Taito got these talented musicians on their staff. Ogura seems to enjoy dabbling with electronic music as the Darius series would prove. The most obvious example would be "B.T.Dutch" from G-Darius, which uses drill sounds as a rythm instruments, backed by electronic samplings. He has been at Taito since 1983 and is still around today, having composed Zoids : Infinity at the end of 2004 and recently organised the Darius Premium Box. Masahiko "Mar." Takaki Famed Series/Game : Rastan Saga/Night Striker/Gamera 2000 Mar. might be less popular than OGR, but his skill at the guitar during the Game Music Festivals is what made him known by fans. When his guitar skills are needed, he gives nothing but his very best. Night Striker is an interesting fusion of jazz and electronica which is the perfect fit for the game setting. He even showed hints of orchestral experimentation in the Rastan series. I'm not up to date on his works, so I'm not sure if he's still with Taito. Yasuhisa "Yack." Watanabe Famed Series/Game : Metal Black/Kaiser Knuckle/Puchi Carat Yack. is one of my personal favorites. As mentionned in my Super Sweep post several days back, it's his ability to create "living" themes that really makes me like him. What I mean by that, is that he doesn't stick with a basic rythm or melody, he keeps moving his music in various directions so you can never predict what he'll do next. This type of creativity is his greatest strenght best represented on Kaiser Knuckle and Metal Black. Kaiser Knuckle is of a particular taste... for a fighting game, the themes are really mellow and may sound out of place, but that's just half of it. Despite the mellowness, the tracks are infectiously catchy and plain fun to listen again and again. I never tire of his music, no matter how many times I've heard them, as I always find some new detail to focus on. Norihiro "Joutohei Nakayama" Furukawa Famed Series/Game : Densha de GO!/Grid Seeker/Light Bringer Furukawa is another talented individual within the team. By far his most inspirational work at Taito was Light Bringer, a Fantasy-Styled Beat-em-up which featured one of the most gorgeous soundtracks ever to grace the Arcade. Themes were epic, in an orchestral fashion, and would easily rival most RPG scores of today. Yes, it's that good. Grid Seeker was a bit diffrent as he took a militaristic approach for the most part. It featured a few tracks with some lovely piano solos ever to grace a shooter. Having quit the company in 2000, he has collaborated with G.Rev and Super Sweep just as Yack. did. He's definitely got a bright future ahead of him. Actually.... I'll stop for tonight. I'll cover the remaining people tommorow. Current mood: excited.Current music: Hisayoshi Ogura - Olga Breeze. |
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