Arrangement Album

Doujin, Game Music

Final Fantasy 9 Arrangement Album “Worlds Apart” Releases Tomorrow

September 8, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | 4 Comments Share this

Fall seems like it will be a good season for huge remix album releases. Tomorrow marks when you can expect the release of Final Fantasy IX: Worlds Apart arrangement album by Overclocked Remix. The 4-disk album will feature a whopping 58 tracks arranged from a large cast of artists new and old and directed by Cain “Fishy” McCormack. The album will span the entire soundtrack of Final Fantasy 9, originally composed by Nobuo Uematsu.

“There are so many variations that we actually had to limit the number of versions of similar themes. Twice in interviews, Mr. Uematsu has said that the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack is his favorite of the series, and you can definitely tell he got carried away given the depth on display. Even if you don’t agree that it’s his best, I definitely think it’s the most cohesive effort in the series.” – Cain McCormack

This marks the fifth full Final Fantasy arrangement album released under the game music arrangement community Overclocked Remix‘s label. Like the past mega-albums released, Worlds Apart will be released digitally for free. Go to the website for Final Fantasy IX: Worlds Apart tomorrow for more details about the release, and let us know what you think.
Game Music

RobKTA & GameChops Release Ridge Racer Remix Album

August 30, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on RobKTA & GameChops Release Ridge Racer Remix Album Share this
RobKTA and GameChops’ latest release, Ridge Racer Forever, is out now to celebrate Summer jams and Namco’s storied racing franchise. With the PlayStation’s 20th Anniversary coming up next month in North America it also serves as a fitting tribute to the console that helped launch the Ridge Racer series. For Rob the album has a much more personal backstory as it inspired him to get into video game remixing in the first place.

“I think the time has come to pay the proper tribute to this series, picking some of my ever favorite tracks and putting my own spin on them, house, electronica, experimental flavorings – all to pay tribute to a series of racing games that was special to me. This EP is dedicated to all Ridge Racers worldwide that keeps the arcade racing spirit alive!”

The album contains six tracks spanning the history of the series from Ridge Racer Revolution up to its 2005 debut on the PlayStation Portable. The tracklist includes:
1. Cruisin’ 110 (Disco Ball – Ridge Racer PSP Remix)
2. Shady Movement (Silhouette Dance – Ridge Racer Type 4 Remix)
3. Ridge Racer Forever ft. Mykah (Ridge Racer Remix)
4. Dopamine Road (Euphoria – Ridge Racer V Remix)
5. Terminal (Departure Lounge – Ridge Racer PSP Remix)
6. Don’t Lose Your Grip (Grip – Ridge Racer Revolution Remix)
Ridge Racer Forever is available now for $4.99 from all the major online shops, take your pick! It’s on Loudr, iTunes and Google Play Music and streaming on Spotify and Soundcloud.
Game Music

Chrono Trigger Arrangement Project Drops Preview Tracks

August 23, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Chrono Trigger, and thus some announcements of arrangement music projects have surfaced. One is from the same people who created the Secret of Mana arrangement album back in 2013, Spectrum of Mana. This project, called Chronicles of Time, will feature an obscene amount of tracks from some of the biggest names in the video game music arrangement community, much like Spectrum. Said to be spanning five disks, a 13-track preview for the project has just dropped, “A Premonition”.

We’re still hard at work, but you can expect even more diversity than what Spectrum of Mana offered at the same level of quality. In celebration of Chrono Trigger’s 20th anniversary in North America, we submit to you…a full 13-track preview of what’s to come!

Join us as we wish a Happy Anniversary to one of the greatest videogames ever created and celebrate one of gaming’s greatest composers, Yasunori Mitsuda!

Chronicles of Time is currently slated for a December release, with the preview being free to download (or throw some coin at, if you wish). We’ll keep you posted as news of the album is released.
Game Music, Indie Music

Multiplayer II: Co-Op Album Offers 26 Collabs for Charity

August 18, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Multiplayer II: Co-Op Album Offers 26 Collabs for Charity Share this

Multiplayer II: Co-Op, the follow-up to last summer’s video game remix album, is out now with all proceeds going to the Child’s Play Charity Network. The 26-track album collects the efforts of over 50 artists working together on unique collaborations to put new spins on classic video game themes.

There’s String Player Gamer working with Tera Catallo & xclassicalcatx to arrange “Metal Man’s Theme” from Mega Man 2 for orchestra and rock band. A ukulele and electric guitar rendition of the Crash Bandicoot Warped theme by Motion Ocean and Knife Mom. Josiah McDaniel & RichaadEB’s ultra-fast metal version of Gauntlet. An incredibly smooth acoustic and synth take on Streets of Rage from Mitchell Cairns & Songe. A metal rendition of “One Winged Angel” from Final Fantasy VII by LittleVMills complete with a choir of ten other collaborating composers.

And there are so many more; over 90 minutes of music in total. Check out samples and pick the album up on your digital storefront of choice: Loudr, Amazon, Google Play Music or iTunes.
Doujin, Game Music

Fan Arrangement Album for Splatoon Released

June 30, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Fan Arrangement Album for Splatoon Released Share this

If you were hoping for an official soundtrack from the game Splatoon, you’ll at least be able to get your hands on an fan arrangement album while you wait for the official release. The group GameChops have gone ahead and released Splatunes!, which features 14-tracks of remixed goodness from group founder DJ CUTMAN, as well as fan arrangement artists such as bLiNd, Benjamin Briggs, Ralfington and more. What’s more, it’s fully licensed by Joypad Records, so no Nintendo law patrol will be after our fine GameChops friends.

SPLATUNES is a celebration of Nintendo’s new video game SPLATOON! The GameChops “Squid Squad” came together to create this mixtape of remixes and re-imaginations of some of our favorite tracks off of the Splatoon soundtrack.

The album is currently “Name Your Price” up on Bandcamp and is sure to keep appetites satiated.

GameChops – Bandcamp | Twitter
Game Music

Aarbron’s Aria – Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix Album

June 15, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Aarbron’s Aria – Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix Album Share this

Games like Shadow of the Beast were unique in a couple different ways, in my opinion. The cover art was surreal, aesthetics of the game felt almost alien and yet indigenous, and the mechanics were deceivingly basic yet challenging. The game’s music mirrored it’s visuals quite a bit with its ethnic instrumentation, that was tweaked and played upon with it’s sequels.

The original Shadow of the Beast OST was written and composed by David Whittaker, who was prominent in the realm of music creation for the Commodore 64, Amiga and ZX Spectrum. (Bit of trivia; he’s also the composer of Lazy Jones, whose track “Star Dust” would later be bought and sampled by Zombie Nation to help create the song “Kernkraft 400”.) Shadow of the Beast 2 and 3 were both composed by Tim Wright, whose other popular works spanned from Lemmings to Wipeout. With these two men at the helm of the franchise’s music, the games were given an almost ethereal value with it’s soundtracks.

Fast forward about two decades, and we have the Kickstarting of a book; The Amiga Visual Compendium, which celebrates the imagery and graphics of the games of the Commodore Amiga personal computer. My personal desire to get my hands on this book was one of pure aesthetic nostalgia, as the Amiga was the only other gaming machine I owned growing up beyond our model 1 Sega Genesis and the games we owned for it (or at least, had been burned to disk by the previous owner, since Amiga games were laughably easy to copy) held a special place in my childhood memories. My sole focus was the book, and I passed by any of the additional swag that had progressively been added as additional content as the campaign broke it’s stretch goals. So of course I was pleasantly surprised when I received my hardcover book full of Amiga visual goodness, and along with the typical trinkets was a CD that contained a remix album of the music of Shadow of the Beast; my eyes focusing on the byline “Tim Wright vs David Whittaker”. Cue my mounting giddiness.

(more…)
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: Brave Wave’s Retro-Active Pt.1 Remixed

June 5, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: Brave Wave’s Retro-Active Pt.1 Remixed Share this

Retro-Active Pt. 1 Remixed contains remixes of Ninja Gaiden composer Keiji Yamagishi’s acclaimed debut “Retro-Active Pt. 1”. Artists such as Chipzel (of Super Hexagon), Kozilek (Nuclear Throne), ABSRDST, and others lend their unique touch to Yamagishi’s high-energy tracks. The opening remix of “Kaleidoscope” by Daliesk was the Grand Prize Winner of Brave Wave’s March 2015 remix contest.

If you pre-order now you will get a copy of the winning track, and the remainder of the album delivered to you on release day which is June 10, 2015. As you can see from the tweet below it has Mr. Yamagishi’s full approval. I have also given it a few listens today and highly recommend it!

Retro-Active Pt. 1 Remixed by Keiji Yamagishi

To pre-order head over to Brave Wave’s website, the album will set you back $7.00 and from my experience (as a huge fan of their In Flux album), it’s a solid investment as Brave Wave continues to produce fantastic releases.