MAGFest 13

Chip Music, Events, Game Music

MAGFest 13: Recap

March 25, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on MAGFest 13: Recap Share this MAGFest 13: Recap

It’s time, once again, for the MAGFest recap. Every year we try to present a small sample of what we experienced at the Music and Gaming Festival. This year’s MAGFest was a little different from previous years. The event not only took place later in the month of January, it also conflicted with the new PAX South event down in Texas. This unintended scheduling dilemma left potential attendees and guests torn between the two events. While it would have been fun to check out the latest addition to the PAX convention circuit, MAGFest has always been the traditional destination for members of the Original Sound Version team. This brings us to today’s recap of the events of MAGFest 13. While it’s impossible for us to experience and cover every panel and concert that the festival has to offer, we always like to provide a glimpse of the madness and excitement that is MAGFest. With that said, here is my brief recap of MAGFest 13. (more…)
Game Music, Japanese

Know Your MAG: DJ Yuu Miyake

January 21, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Know Your MAG: DJ Yuu Miyake Share this Know Your MAG: DJ Yuu Miyake

MAGFest 13 starts in just two days, and thus it’s time to bring Know Your MAG to it’s apex with one of the special guests of the event as well as performing DJ, Yuu Miyake!

Yuu Miyake, born in 1973, was interested in music at a young age. Listening to late-’70s anime themes and Yellow Magic Orchestra during his youth, he became acquainted with video games during a a childhood hospitalization and began visiting Japanese arcades shortly thereafter. When Yellow Magic Orchestra released the first album ever heard of video game music, Miyake knew that his love of games and music were something he wanted to pursue seriously. (source: VGMOnline)

Miyake joined Namco in the mid-’90s, gaining his first musical credit on Tekken 3. After working with Namco director Keita Takahashi on the video project “Texas 2000”, Miyake impressed the man so much that Takahashi assigned him full control as sound director over the game soundtrack for the puzzle-action game, Katamari Damacy. This is where Miyake gained critical acclaim for the creativity and unique style he blended together when composing the majority of the soundtrack for Katamari Damacy along with his team. (Which also included fellow MAGFest 13 guest, Yoshihito Yano) The catchy and quirky tunes that comprised Katamari Damacy‘s soundtrack gained several awards, including IGN’s and Gamespot’s “Soundtrack of the Year” for 2004 as well as a nomination for “Outstanding Achievement in Original Musical Composition” at the 8th annual Interactive Achievement Awards in early 2005. This lead to Miyake composing for future games in the series, such as We Love Katamari released in 2005 and Me & My Katamari later that same year. Between these, he also worked on compositions for Tekken 5 and Ridge Racer.

Yuu Miyake worked on several more games for Namco, including 3 more Katamari titles, until he left the company to go freelance in 2011. While traveling Japan to give lectures and working on personal projects, he also began performing live as “Acid Eutron” alongside Towa Tei, Shinichi Osawa, Takeshi Nakatsuka and Taiji Sato. He current DJ’s across Japan whilst working on freelance projects in association with Namco Bandai, as well as teaching.

You can check out the interview Jayson Napolitano had with Yuu Miyake in 2009 for more about his life and works. His DJ set will be Saturday night starting at 11:30pm, with autograph signing earlier that morning. Check out the full schedule of events for MAGFest 13 for more details, and see you at MAG!
Events, Game Music

Know Your MAG – Do A Barrel Roll!

January 19, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Know Your MAG – Do A Barrel Roll! Share this Know Your MAG – Do A Barrel Roll!

Prepare to press Z or R twice for this next group performing at MAGFest 13. Do A Barrel Roll! is a group of seven self described warrior-musicians. Their music style is a playful mixture of funk, metal, and acoustic arrangements of game tunes, and they will often blend these genres on a single track or make surprising switches midway through any given piece. For example, the track “Can’t Let You Groove That, Star Funk!,” off their latest album Boss Rush, features a blend of rock and synth instruments, but also includes trumpet, violin, and acoustic guitar solos. The result is a unique sound to their arrangements that makes them easily distinguishable from other game music cover bands.

Many of the pieces that Do A Barrel Roll! arrange come from well known game series like Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, and of course Star Fox. They also perform a handful of less frequently covered tunes from games like Diddy Kong Racing and Mario Kart. Do A Barrel Roll! also likes to incorporate sound samples from the games that they are covering, adding some extra nostalgic flavor to the arrangements. One of their performance trademarks for live events has included inviting members of the audience to play games while they perform on stage. There’s nothing quite like playing a round of Mario Kart while a live band plays the music.

Do A Barrel Roll’s approach to performing and their eclectic blending of music genres gives the group a sound and style all their own. Definitely check out their albums on Bandcamp, if you haven’t already. This year they will be performing as part of the supporting bands line-up at MAGFest 13 on Sunday at 3:30 on the main stage. Be sure to check them out and the other bands’ performing times on the MAGFest 13 Schedule.
Chip Music, Events

Know Your MAG – Marshall Art

January 14, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Know Your MAG – Marshall Art Share this Know Your MAG – Marshall Art

Time to switch gears for Know Your MAG and start giving the chiptune performers a bit of love. At MAGFest, rock music great and chiptunes are great, and when you mash them together you go a step beyond. Much like the stylings of fellow performer Danimal Cannon, the duo of Marshall Art take this concept and sprint like hell with it.

Hailing from opposite ends of the globe, the duo of Canadian Jeffrey “jmr” Roberts (host of Open Circuit on Arecibo radio) commanding the soundchips & VRC6 and Russian native Mikhail “streifig” Ivanov (current manager of the Dwelling of Duels) jaming on guitar actually started performing at MAGFest last year during MAG 12. Attendees might remember the pair set up in the hallway corner of the Gaylord Convention Center on the Chipspace stage and throwing out some amazing music for the crowd that gathered around.

Marshall Art have appeared on several compilations in the past few years, including Danse Macabre 2, and will be debuting their self-titled album at MAGFest 13 before they hit the big stage for a full-fledged concert rock-out this year on the big stage, Saturday at 3PM! Check them and all the rest of the MAG bands performing times on the MAGFest Schedule!

Marshall Art – Bandcamp | Facebook

Disclaimer: The members of Marshall Art and the author have a casual friendship outside of the MAGFest professional arena.
Events, Game Music

Know Your MAG – Triforce Quartet

January 12, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Know Your MAG – Triforce Quartet Share this Know Your MAG – Triforce Quartet

Need something different from the usual rock and chiptune groups at MAGFest? How about a videogame music string quartet? On today’s Know Your Mag we are looking at the Triforce Quartet. Founded by cellist and arranger Chad Schwartz, the Triforce Quartet performs arrangements of classic videogame tunes. The group covers music from many favorite videogame soundtracks, including Super Mario Brothers, Banjo-Kazooie, and The Legend of Zelda. At last year’s MAGFest they even did a special encore with the intro theme from Game of Thrones. They recently contributed to the Super VG Christmas Party album with an arrangement of “Main Theme” from Blades of Steel.

Currently, the Triforce Quartet is comprised of two violinists, Chris Ferrara and Jacob Roege; one viola player, Stanley Beckwith; and the cellist and founder, Chad Swartz. The group has performed at a number of events including PAX Prime and the previous MAGFest. Most of their arrangement work includes medleys from entire game franchises. On their new album The Legend Of, released last year, they have a medleys of The Legend of Zelda and the Super Mario Bros. series.

The Triforce Quartet will be performing as one of the featured groups at MAGFest 13. We will be providing updates for the times and days of all the performances for MAGFest 13 as they are released. Be sure to check out the rest of what MAGFest has to offer, and be sure to register for MAG if you plan on attending.
Events, Game Music

Know Your MAG – Super Soul Bros.

January 9, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Know Your MAG – Super Soul Bros. Share this Know Your MAG – Super Soul Bros.

MAGFest has been getting pretty diverse with its performers throughout the years, going from rock and metal to classical and jazz, and this Know Your MAG helps showcase a little bit more in the form of the soul/funk/blues fusion of the Super Soul Bros.

Hailing from the Bay Area, the band consists of several talented musicians: Robbie Benson (keys), Brian Sheu (guitar), Alfredo Vega (drums), Chris Haman (percussion / drums), Frederick Paclibon (bass), Luke Borello (bass), Bernard Sapitola (trumpet), Lionel Briones (alto sax), Alex Popoff (tenor sax), Christian Manzana (trombone) & Matt Michielin (trumpet). Starting in 2011 as the brainchild of Robbie Benson and slowly building up as they went, the band intrigrated more members into their ranks, until a fully-fledged video game band was formed and started making a name for themselves across San Jose venues and surrounding areas.

Dealing in game music with a hardy helping of soul (as well as blues, jazz, funk, rock and more), the Super Soul Bros. performed recently at Game Over: San Jose and have a incredible amount of style in their music, yet an incredible casual feel to their performance (much like fellow jazz/funk band The One Ups). Their most recent album, “Live at San Pedro Square” features a combination of NES and Sega Genesis tunes in true blues fashion.

If you’re looking for some smooth grooves with a bit of bite to them, then be sure to catch Super Soul Bros. at MAGFest 13 in just a few weeks! If you can’t wait that long, be sure to grab their albums on Bandcamp!

Super Soul Bros – Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter
Events, Game Music

Know Your MAG – Super Guitar Bros

January 8, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Know Your MAG – Super Guitar Bros Share this Know Your MAG – Super Guitar Bros

Our next group on Know Your Mag features a music style that is a little different from what we’re used to hearing at MAGFest. Super Guitar Bros is an acoustic guitar duo with a unique take on game music. While Steve Poissant and Sam Griffin may not be actual brothers, they are a talented music duo that have been producing some great videogame music remixes.

Steve Poissant performs on a Steel String Guitar and Sam Griffin performs on Nylon String Guitar, creating a very chilled out and mellow set of game music arrangements. Their concerts tend to have simple set ups. Just the two guitarists sitting on their chairs and performing for the audience. Nothing flashy or over-the-top. Simply well arranged acoustic guitar pieces being played by two friends. Their arrangements cover a wide field of game franchises, but tend to focus on the older, more well known game tunes. They’ve covered music from Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross, Ninja Gaiden, Sonic the Hedgehog, and (of course) the Super Mario Bros franchise.

Back in October of 2013 they released their first full album on Bandcamp, simply titled Super Guitar Bros. The album contains many of the covers I’ve mentioned above. They also have a Youtube channel featuring many of their other arrangements. This year they will be one of the featured groups at MAGFest 13. We’ll update with the performance times of the all the performers when they are released. Make sure you register for MAG if you haven’t done so already.