CDs

Film, Television

Film and TV Soundtrack BLOWOUT at Barnes and Noble USA Online Only

May 19, 2016 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Film and TV Soundtrack BLOWOUT at Barnes and Noble USA Online Only Share this

If you’re in the USA and also a fan of Film and Television soundtracks Barnes and Noble is blowing out over 50 titles at 75% Off for $4.49 each with some titles as low at $1.74. All of these release are from Varese Sarabande Records who is one of the best Record Labels in the soundtrack business today.

The titles available include: Pain & Gain, Monte Carlo, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Sanctum, The First Grader, The Smurfs 2, White House Down, Microcosmos, Green Zone, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, The A-Team, Another Year, The Last Legion, Winged Migration, The Cabin In The Woods, Himalaya: Rearing Of A Chief, True Blood Season 2, I Am Legend, Beatles To Bond And Bach, The Princess Of Montpensier, The Family Way, 24: Seasons 4 & 5, The Idolmaker, One Track Heart, Ender’s Game, Lost Season 1, Nanny McPhee, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Ghost Rider, Hancock, Prime, The Pacific Flow To Abbey Road, Super 8, The Borgias, The Thing (2011), Changeling, A Very Harold And Kumar 3D Christmas, Jig, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Rise Of The Guardians, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Brake, The Apparition, Duplicity, Skyline and Scream 4.

You can check out the sale at this link here. Are you going to pick up any of these deals?
Game Music, Miscellaneous

Expanding your Game Music CD Collection on a budget and finding rare gems

February 24, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | 3 Comments Share this

Over the past couple of years I have been growing my soundtrack CD collection and picking up things that I always wanted but missed out on because they were out of print, or a limited edition release. There are game music collectors around the world that occasionally decide its time to thin out their collection or start to convert to digital because they don’t have the space for CDs anymore. In this article I will share the locations of where I’ve found some great deals, and where you can too. I also want to know where you’ve found a rare item, or your experience buying game music online. It’s time to start shopping, click here to find out

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Chip Music, Demoscene, Reviews

Taking It All The Way Down To The Root: Tree Of Knowledge (Review)

May 4, 2011 | Audun Sorlie | 2 Comments Share this

To make an arrangement is not an easy feat. The challenges of not only doing the source justice with the proper amount of recognizable motifs and cues, but also showcase your own sound and originality puts the pressures on the artist’s talent and tools and turns the extra critical eye on things from the listeners. But what is even harder is to create a tribute to tip the hat to a whole genre, creating a sound and melodic landscape that sounds appropriate and true that is made with the free nature and uninhibited imagination of the composer. That is exactly what surasshu and coda set out to do with their new co-produced Eroge tribute album; Tree Of Knowledge.

And yes, I can make any article title sound dirty.

Find out if the album bears fruit after the jump! (more…)
Chip Music, Demoscene

Lay Down And Feel My Wisdom, Woman! Tree of Knowledge -Eroge Tribute-

April 27, 2011 | Audun Sorlie | 4 Comments Share this

Most of the Western audience has little idea or knowledge on the subject of Eroge games, more commonly referred to as hentai or to a smaller extent bishoujo games. Usually, the mention of such games will be centered around the fact that anime characters are engaging in coitus, which is much more silly than say a country which manages to believe in Donald Trump as a possible future president. But truth be told, Eroge games have had a huge impact on game music history and many of today’s big wigs had their start in the genre, producing some of the very best soundtracks ever crafted for video games, especially on the Japanese based home computers NEC PC-88 and its successor PC-98.

Dutch imported Sweden based composer Steven Velema, better known as surasshu and the equally great Ken “coda” Snyder have taken notice of the incredible musical material, and got their hands out of their pants to make a tribute CD based on the style of music found in the steamy video games found on PC-98. Taking cues from legendary names like Ryu Umemoto, their tribute CD is structured much like those soundtracks, and on the website it even offers a back-story and “screenshots” as if it was a legit release from the 90s. The music itself is luckily as good as the awesome presentation, and the international duo have managed to craft a a faux soundtrack that is close to as good as the real deal. In addition, the CD comes with authentic styled art and drawings by Diana Jakobsson and pixel artist Jordan Chewning.

The CD goes for $12, and is scheduled for release on 1st of May. Celebrate the real labor day by unloading with the sounds of PC-98 done righteously.

Check out YogurtBox for order info and their official trailer.
Chip Music

The Raddest Man Alive Releases Raddical New CD!

April 15, 2010 | Audun Sorlie | 4 Comments Share this

In my humble (but always correct and the only acceptable) opinion, Norrin Radd is one of the very best chiptune artists out there currently. Some might be saying “Norrin Radd isn’t a chiptune artist, he’s a space surfing astronomer”, but I can assure you, while they are not the same, they are equally awesome. Norrin always used Konami as the backbone of all his compositions, and released many songs which became dearly loved, and was also featured on Rocked ‘n’ Loaded. Lately he has been working on something to set himself apart from the mold a bit, and he’s finally ready to showcase how he set out to do this.

Anomaly is an NES death metal album which took 4 years to make, and features 15 songs with vocals. The way the vocals were added however is quite different, as he converted them into 1bit DPCM files and expanded the NES sound hardware with 2 additional channels to fit the vocals. The result is a mix of technical death metal, progressive rock and jazz in the familiar setting of the NES sound.

You can hear samples and order the CD from the man himself at his MySpace.
Doujin, Game Music

A Classic From The Year 2008: We Are Error By Year 200X Sale

April 14, 2010 | Audun Sorlie | Comments Off on A Classic From The Year 2008: We Are Error By Year 200X Sale Share this

We Are Error was one of my favorite releases out of all music published in 2008. The high production values, great arrangements and metal mayhem of Year 200X has always stood out to me since I first heard them at MAGFest 5. The album features a plethora of great sources and fan favorites such as Mega Man 3, DuckTales, Ghosts ‘N Goblins, Journey To Silius, Castlevania 3 and Ninja Gaiden 2 to mention just a few. It also had guest appearances from chiptune artist Alex Atchley and housethegrate.

To celebrate the opening of their BandCamp store, and for the amount of fans and support over the years, Year 200X announced on their Facebook page they are offering a sale on this fine album. As always with this store setup, you can stream every track for free before purchasing.

Just go to Year 200X’s store and insert the promo code “facebookdisc200x” and enjoy!
Game Music

Sonic Boom Trio Part 2: True Colors Review

April 7, 2010 | Audun Sorlie | 1 Comment Share this

A few weeks ago, I did my first review of this series of albums which was released late last year over a small period of time. All 3 CDs features the different works and projects of Jun Senoue, one of SEGA’s most prolific composers and more or less the current Sonic The Hedgehog composer, as they have been bringing onto that series time and time again since Sonic 3 in the 90’s. As you saw in the review of Jun Senoue THE WORKS, he has worked all across the board at SEGA, working with AOR stars and Japanese idols and voice actresses, but nowadays he’s back working with Sonic on Sonic The Hedgehog 4, composing the soundtrack for the download title.

So it’s fitting we look at True Colors: The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog Part 2 today. It’s not exclusively a collection of Senoue’s work on the series, but a good chunk of what is featured is by him, and it was released in the album wave dedicated to his works. Sonic is somewhat of a sensitive subject for gamers, as fans either hate the games since it jumped ship to 3D or they dress up as Tails and defend every step Sonic takes in gaming. Let’s see if I will be wearing a furry suit by the end of this.

Hit the jump to read the review! (more…)