Albums

Indie Music, Miscellaneous

Hiroki Kikuta Releases ANGELICFORTRESS Original Albums

February 1, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Hiroki Kikuta Releases ANGELICFORTRESS Original Albums Share this

Secret of Mana composer Hiroki Kikuta has released two original albums to fans in the form of ANGELICFORTRESS and ANGELICFORTRESS DOUBLE HELIX. ANGELICFORTRESS is an album series created to combine Kikuta’s love for progressive rock, jazz fusion, and game music as well as to say thank you to patrons of music in general.

<a href="http://hirokikikuta.bandcamp.com/album/angelicfortress">ANGELICFORTRESS by Hiroki Kikuta / Hidehisa Sasaki</a>

“I was exposed to an endless catalog of awesome progressive rock and jazz fusion albums throughout high school. It had the biggest impact on the formulation of my view of the musical world. Now I want to mix up these genres with modern day videogame music.” – Hiroki Kikuta

Both five-track albums are currently available on Bandcamp: ANGELICFORTRESS and ANGELICFORTRESS DOUBLE HELIX

You can also keep on top of Kikuta’s other upcoming works and news by following him on his official Twitter.
Doujin, Game Music

ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed Now Available

January 24, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed Now Available Share this

If you’re a fan of the Final Fantasy spinoff games and their music, then Materia Collective has you covered. ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed is a 63-track mega album devoted to the music of Final Fantasy Tactics and pays tribute to the game’s composers, Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata.

Final Fantasy Tactics was released on the Playstation in 1997 in Japan (1998 in North America) as a spin-off to the main Final Fantasy series. Deviating from the roleplaying of the main series, Tactics instead relied on tactical RPG gameplay. The game’s soundtrack was first released on two CDs by now-defunct DigiCube on June 21, 1997, and was re-released by Square Enix on March 24, 2006. ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed presents covers of the game’s music in a variety of styles with one hundred artists contributing, including John Robert Matz, Dale North, Doug Perry, Annie Rosen, Sean Schafianski, Laura Intravia, Jack Menhorn, Amanda Lepre and more.

“The Final Fantasy Tactics soundtrack was darker and more atmospheric than other Final Fantasy soundtracks. In some ways, that makes doing straight covers of the songs tricky, so it has been really amazing to hear the interpretations that arrangers have given each piece. Especially for the pieces where the original had an organic, open ended structure, it has been really cool to hear what arrangers have done.” – Stephen Robert Froeber, Producer

ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed is licensed and is now available for purchase on iTunes and streaming on Spotify

Disclosure: OSV writer Michael Hoffman is featured on ZODIAC as a contributing musician.
Doujin, Game Music

New Super Guitar Bros Album “Nice” Now Available

September 21, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on New Super Guitar Bros Album “Nice” Now Available Share this

The acoustic duo known around as the Super Guitar Bros. (aka. Sam Griffin & Steve Poissant) have at long last released their second full-length album as a follow up to their self-titled premier album in 2013. The new album, “Nice”, features 17 tracks spanning several classic games such as Donkey Kong Country, Chrono Trigger, Castlevania III and of course several Super Mario titles. It also features some of the most interesting album art for a VGM release I’ve seen since entering the community, which can take as you may.

<a href="http://superguitarbros.bandcamp.com/album/nice">Nice. by Super Guitar Bros</a>

<a href="http://superguitarbros.bandcamp.com/album/nice">Nice. by Super Guitar Bros</a>

The album is currently in digital format on Bandcamp at a “Pay What You Want” price, or as a physical CD for $10. The duo recently performed at San Francisco Comic-Con and PAX West 2016, and, you can also catch the Bros. streaming regularly on their Twitch channel for live practice, mini-performances and other shenanigans.
Doujin, Game Music

Celebrate 21 Years of Chrono Trigger with Chronology Jazz Tribute Album

August 23, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

Yesterday marked the 21st anniversary of the American release of Square’s beloved time-traveling JRPG, Chrono Trigger. Now that Chrono Trigger is legal to drink here in the states, the good folks at Overclocked Remix decided to throw it a party; in the form of a jazz tribute album! Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger features eight tracks from the Overclocked Jazz Collective; a group featuring artists such as Nostalvania, DrumUltima and the project’s own director, Dylan “Wiesty” Wiest.

Through some fluke, I was able to assemble my own “dream team” of musicians and arrangers on OC ReMix who all shared a passion for jazz and video game music. I felt Chrono Trigger would be an ideal candidate for our first release given the game’s quickly approaching 20th anniversary and the fact that Mitsuda’s music lends itself so well to jazz and improvisation. The musicians and artists on this album have put in countless hours of practice and recording to produce an album which I think sounds authentic and natural. Jazz is a social music best captured in the moment… and while the production process of this album was anything but “in the moment,” I think the album’s sound and cohesiveness will speak for itself. – Dylan Wiest, Chronology Project Director

This marks the second album Overclocked Remix has produced in tribute to Chrono Trigger; the first being Chrono Symphonic in 2006.

You can download the entire Chronology album for free on several mirrors hosted on their OCRemix website. Between this and the Chronicles of Time mega album from earlier this year, Chrono Trigger and it’s gorgeous soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda is definitely getting the love it rightfully deserves.
Chip Music

Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 5 Compilation Album Now Released

July 21, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

Rejoice lovers of all things chiptune! The good people over at Chiptunes = WIN have released their 5th album in the main series of chiptune releases!

After what seems like an eternity of consideration, the roster for ‘Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 5‘ is complete. All judges have locked in their votes and comments and I’ve used the subsequent collective data to form the final roster. Per the usual, this was not an easy process. To be frank, it never is. And with the extraordinarily high quality of the top submissions this time, it was even tougher. Honestly, I’m just as excited for the inevitable expansion release as I am for Volume 5!

All the same, one thing at a time. ಠ‿↼ – Brandon “President Hoodie” Hood

The album features a slew of returning artists from former WIN albums such as Auxcide, Chipzel, Petriform and more, and also introduces a whole new roster of fresh artists including PROTOFLIGHT and chip-favorite artist Shirobon.

<a href="http://chiptuneswin.bandcamp.com/album/chiptunes-win-volume-5">Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 5 by Shirobon</a>

<a href="http://chiptuneswin.bandcamp.com/album/chiptunes-win-volume-5">Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 5 by Chipzel</a>

Volume 5 has an extensive 51-track list and the whole thing is available at the Name Your Price level on the community’s Bandcamp.
Doujin, Game Music, Reviews

Coming Up All 7’s – Part Seven by The OneUps (Review)

March 28, 2016 | Sebastian Urrea | Comments Off on Coming Up All 7’s – Part Seven by The OneUps (Review) Share this

The OneUps have just released their seventh studio album, appropriately titled “Part Seven”. The OneUps are a video game music cover band that performs arrangements of a wide variety of music, oftentimes in variations of jazz and rock styles. Their latest album, released just prior to this past MAGFest last month, continues this trend with new covers in a funk rock style. It includes a nice selection of songs, including some fairly familiar ones and some less so. Read on for the full review.

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Chip Music, Featured

Keiji Yamagishi’s Retro-Active Pt.2 Coming February 5th

January 11, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Keiji Yamagishi’s Retro-Active Pt.2 Coming February 5th Share this

Keiji Yamagishi’s Retro-Active was originally planned as an overarching, three-album journey to be released across 2015. While we got the first installment on February 5th with Retro-Active Pt. 1 the follow up has taken a bit longer than expected. One year, to be exact.

Brave Wave has revealed that Retro-Active Pt. 2 will be released on February 5th, 2016 bringing listeners back to Yamagishi’s “futuristic emotional chiptunes world”. Along with new solo tracks the famed Famicom/NES composer will be teaming up with Ninja Gaiden II composer Ryuichi Nitta. The first track from the album, “Chaotic Code”, will be released on January 14th to give listeners a taste of Part 2’s sound in advance of the full album release on February 5th.

For now we’ll have to settle for the new album art above which is a continuation from Part 1. That’ll make for one sweet panorama once the final part is released. Are you excited to finally hear Retro-Active Pt. 2? Did you pick up the original album or the remix album? Let us know in the comments below.