Album

Chip Music, Game Music

Marshall Art to Release “Gallery” Compilation Album

June 30, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Marshall Art to Release “Gallery” Compilation Album Share this

The chiptune-rock duo of Marshall Art are celebrating their 5th anniversary of their band formation, and passing the awesome onto you!

On July 1st, the compilation album Gallery will be released on digital retailers and will feature music from Marshall Art’s entire 2011-2016 discography, which includes covers of game music such as Undertale, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country 3 and a whole lot more including more obscure game covers from Shura no Mon and non-vgm compositions. If you’re not familiar with Marshall Art, their work of NES-style chiptunes layer with guitar rock has included collaborations with several other artists and inclusion on tribute albums such as Danse Macabre and Chronicles of Time. They’ve also been a staple within the chiptune community and performed at several MAGFests as well as 8static Fest to high praise.

“Battle Theme 1” – Shura no Mon (Marshall Art)

The new release will also have 25 limited edition, hand-painted cassettes available to the most eager of fans to purchase for their collection.

“We wanted to give these songs a proper physical release. I’m a huge fan of unique, hand-crafted merch items. This compilation made for a good opportunity to make an album that is an art piece on its own.” – Jeffrey Roberts, Marshall Art

The 13-track Gallery album spans 60 minutes worth of game music covers and other works, and can be purchased digitally tomorrow July 1st on Loudr and Amazon MP3, while the limited edition cassette tapes will go on sale the same day at noon on Marshall Art’s music website.
Game Music

Shovel Knight Will Be Getting a Vinyl Release This Fall

June 27, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

It seems vinyl has completely made it’s resurgence into video game music a solid staple. Brave Wave Productions has announced that Shovel Knight fans can expect to see a 2xLP release of its soundtrack later this fall.

Coming this autumn, our release of Shovel Knight The Definitive Soundtrack has been specially mastered for vinyl, under supervision and with final approval from original composers Jake Kaufman and Manami Matsumae. This edition will include the full soundtrack on two discs, with new artwork (not pictured) by Mega Man and Pokémon illustrator Hitoshi Ariga, as well as a composer interview and various series artworks.

A preorder date has yet to be announced for the release, but fans who wish to capitalize on the chance to pick up the fantastic soundtrack on vinyl should subscribe to Brave Wave’s mailing list in order to keep abreast of new news regarding timeframes, and also check back with us here at OSV as we’ll be sure to keep you informed.
Doujin, Game Music

The OneUps New Album “Part Seven” Now Available Online

February 26, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on The OneUps New Album “Part Seven” Now Available Online Share this

If you hadn’t heard, game band The OneUps recently debuted their newest album, Part Seven featuring arrangements from F-Zero, Earthbound, Megaman 2 and more. Done in their signature mashup of smooth jazz-funk-rock fusion, this marks their seventh studio release. (If you couldn’t tell.)

Physical copies of the 11-track album were released at MAGFest last week, and digital format was supposed to be released at the same time but complication lead to a delay until today. Part Seven has now been released for purchase on Loudr, with releases to iTunes and Spotify soon to follow.

Songs off the new album were performed live at this past MAGFest 2016 via the MAGFest Youtube channel. Worth the check out for a preview of their new music.

The OneUps – Part Seven | Twitter | Facebook
Miscellaneous

Gaming Villains Come together to form boy band, Big Bad Bosses

December 23, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Gaming Villains Come together to form boy band, Big Bad Bosses Share this

If you ever wondered what would happen if Eggman (still Robotnik for some of us), Bowser, Ganon and Sephiroth managed to one day meet and combined their evil forces, you now have your answer: they’d form a boy band. Because what’s more nefarious than that?

Big Bad Bosses (or B3) is the collaboration between game composer Jake Kaufman (Shovel Knight, Contra 4) and a slew of faces from across the gaming community, such as Jirard Khalil (Big Bow) of the Completionist and Super Beard Bros, Nathan Smith (Sephy) of Nate Wants to Battle, Alex Faciane (Ronik) of The Dex and Super Beard Bros, Satchell Drakes (G-Ca$h) of Satchbags Goods, and several special guests. Their first album, Power Overhwhelming, features the team parodying some of gaming’s most recognizable baddies as they rap and chatter their laments of being the bad guys. You can get a taste of their antic in their released music video, “I’m the Boss”.

“Big Bad Bosses has been in the works for a long while. I’ve been wanting to work with Jake Kaufman for years, and after hearing the Shovel Knight soundtrack I knew it was time. I always thought it would be funny yet endearing to see into the hearts of the most famous videogame villains and to try to understand how they feel in the form of song, and the album came together better than anyone involved could have imagined.” – Jirard “Big Bow” Khalil

Power Overwhelming features ten tracks with a bunch of guests, including Grant Kirkhope (Banjo Kazooie), Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson (Game Grumps), DJ Cutman and a bunch more. The album can be purchased on iTunes and Bandcamp. For more, check out the official Big Bad Bosses website.
Game Music

Halo 5 Soundtrack to Release October 30th

September 7, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Halo 5 Soundtrack to Release October 30th Share this

It might not be a very Halloween-inspired release, but the soundtrack to the upcoming Halo 5: Guardians will be releasing via Microsoft on October 30th. Currently, the album is up for pre-order on Amazon in both a 2-disk CD as well a a 2-vinyl LP for $24.98 each, and will also presumably be released in digital formats around the same time.

Halo 5: Guardians is composed by Kazuma Jinnouchi, who also worked on Halo 4 alongside Neil Davidge, and was also a composer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Check out sample of the soundtrack from MathChief’s second channel.
Game Music, Reviews

Enter Retro Commodore Goodness with The Amiga Works (Review)

August 29, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Enter Retro Commodore Goodness with The Amiga Works (Review) Share this

I’ve made it no small secret that my computer gaming experience growing up rested solely with the Commodore Amiga. I grew up with it alongside my Sega Genesis, and had a small collection of games I played religiously, and as can be told by my dedication to games like Turrican, I grew to love Amiga music just as much. When I was an adult and reclaimed my love of the system, I went back and samples the music of an even greater variety of Amiga games that I hadn’t had the pleasure of experiencing as a kid, and I can say that I’ve enjoyed them just as much.

Several of the games whose music I ended up delving into as an adult while rekindling my appreciation of the Amiga had soundtrack done by composer Allister Brimble. In 2013, Brimble released a compilation album that consisted of remastered version of themes from the games he composed for on the Amiga, titled The AMIGA Works. I was graciously given a copy, and despite my shame in only getting to it until now, I can report it to be a worthy addition t Brimble’s legacy.

(more…)
Chip Music, Demoscene

Demo Album “The Blossoming Years” by MmcM Released

April 16, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

If you’re a fan on the international chip music and demoscene, you’ll be pleased to know that earlier this month saw the release of “The Blossoming Years” album by Russian demo artist Sergey “MmcM” Kosov. Composed entirely on the ZX-Spectrum computer using a Yamaha YM2149F sound chip in ProTracker 3, the album features music from the height of Kosov’s career composing between 1999 and 2001. This is his first release since his 2012 eletronica album “Detuned”, and further expands his repertoire of demo and chip music, which has gained him a long-standing following.

The 18-track album has been released by our friends at Ubiktune and is currently available on Bandcamp, Loudr and Amazon for around $5.

“The Blossoming Years” by MmcM – Ubiktune