In this 11th edition of Game Soundtracks for Your Soul, like Spinal Tap I’m turning things up to 11. What I mean by this is I am looking back at some game music that at the time took game music to the next level.
There are some tracks that once you heard them you knew that what you were about to play was going to be the next level of gaming. So turn your speakers or headphones up to 11 (if you can) and come listen to some of the video game music tracks that for me, took the genre to places I never thought possible.
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.
News announced for the upcoming Game Music Connect 2015 conference in London on September 15th is that Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound will be premiering an exclusive preview screening of it’s expansive look at gaming sound and music through the years. The preview, Beep: Big in Japan, will look at several different Japanese composers, such as:
Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy)
Yoko Shimomura (Mario & Luigi RPGs, Kingdom Hearts)
Hisayoshi Ogura (Taito sound director behind Legend of Kage, Ninja Warriors, Darius series)
Shinji Hosoe (Namco sound director turned SuperSweep music producer: Ridge Racer, Street Fighter EX2,3)
Tenpei Sato (Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Valis, the Disgaea series)
Yoshino Aoki (Mega Man series, Breath of Fire series)
Michiko Naruke (Wild Arms series)
Koichi Namiki (Daytona Racing, Virtua Fighter, Sega Sound Team band)
Documentary director Karen Collins, associate professor for the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo, will be presenting her exclusive interviews with “Japan’s game music royalty”, all as a preview to the full documentary’s release in Spring of 2016. More about the project cane be read about on their website, as well as the Game Music Connect website, which still has tickets available for the show at The Purcell Room at London’s Southbank Centre.
There’s been a lot of excitement about the remake of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII. I myself am cautiously optimistic about the game, but I’m still quite excited. To help celebrate the announcement of the long requested remake, I thought we’d take a look at a Final Fantasy VII cover for this week’s Arrangement of the Week.
There are of course tons of covers, remixes, and arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu’s original soundtrack. With so much to choose from, it was definitely hard to pick out a favorite. This week’s arrangement is called “Still More Fighting” and comes to us from guitarist Brian Autumn. The cover is of the Final Fantasy VII boss fight theme, “Fight On!” aka “Those Who Fight Further.”
The video does a great job of showing off Brian’s skills at electric guitar and bass, and features footage from one of Final Fantasy VII’s boss fights. Oddly enough, it’s not a boss that actually uses “Fight On!” for its battle music. While it’s very common to find rock guitar arrangements of this piece, this arrangement goes beyond being a pure guitar cover, with inclusion of organ, synths, and string pads. It all fits well with the style of the original piece and with the original game footage. Uematsu’s battle themes do have a strong rock influence, particularly in Final Fantasy VII, so this cover stays very true to the original in terms of tone.
The source material is broken up by occasional but brief deviations and improvisations. For example, at around 1’30” he launches into an impressive series of rapid arpeggios on the lead guitar. My favorite moment though is the sudden switch to an orchestral arrangement at 2’30” for the summon in the battle. It’s a cool switch up that, in addition to matching the battle on screen, gives the cover a little more variety.
This was a nice little find from Brian Autumn. This actually appears to be his only videogame music cover, and an excellent one at that. If you’d like to listen to or download a copy of “Still More Fighting” that doesn’t include the video’s battle sound effects, you can do so at the artist’s Soundcloud page.
Have you heard any interesting new arrangements, remixes, or covers this week? Let us know in the comments below.
With the recent news about Final Fantasy 7 being remade, having a world tour celebrating its music is a pretty appropriate measure to take in get fans hyped for what’s to come.
“PIANO OPERA : music from FINAL FANTASY” is the official piano concert dedicated to the music of the video game series FINAL FANTASY. Supervised by original composer Nobuo Uematsu, the PIANO OPERA series comes live on stage in 12 countries, and for the first time outside of Japan. Relive the most beautiful and famous music of the series through the noble and majestic sound of a grand concert piano, focusing mostly on the popular FINAL FANTASY VI, VII, VIII and IX ! To enhance the experience, a never before seen in-concert video edit of game footage will be displayed on the giant screen along with the music, portraying all the most intense moments of action and emotion of the saga ! The concert will feature belobed songs such as Ami, The Man with a Machine Gun, Roses of May, Not Alone, Liberi Fatali, Melodies Of Life, Fight On!, Cosmo Canyon and Words Drowned by Fireworks among others. A brand new musical experience filled with emotions!
Press Release
The concert series itself will start in France this coming November, and make visits to London, Stockholm, Brussels, New York City and Los Angeles, just to name a few of the stops. Tickets are currently on sale on the tour’s website for these first six cities, and updates can be found on their Facebook page. In addition to the concert tour, the albums that the tour is based from are being sold together as a special edition with collector’s box for 49 Euros. ($54.92 American dollars)
So if you’re a Final Fantasy music fan and have wanted to get in on seeing Nobou Uematsu and Hiroyuki Nakayama playing some of the most iconic pieces in gaming history, this might be right up your alley.
All of the big presentations at E3 have now been completed, and here on Original Sound Version I have compiled a list of my top ten most anticipated soundtracks to the games that are coming soon.
The games showcased this during this year’s conference were impressive, and some long overdue. I have not made the jump to a next-generation console and what I saw this week have made the decision much easier. Come read about the first five games I think will deliver the best soundtracks and share your thoughts about the games that did not make my list and come back tomorrow for the final five.
The fine people over at OverClocked ReMix have released their 51st community arrangement album in the form of Final Fantasy II: Rebellion. If you couldn’t already guess from the title, the album covers Nobuo Uematsu’s music from the 1988 Famicom title Final Fantasy II. There are a total of twenty-one tracks from a group of eighteen different artists, with a wide range of music styles including folk, jazz, heavy metal, and many more.
Artists and groups contributing on this new album include Jeff Ball, Viking Guitar, XPRTNovice, and Sixto Sounds. Like previously released OverClocked ReMix community projects, Final Fantasy II: Rebellion is available for free download in a variety of formats. So if you have any interest in hearing some new interpretations of some classic Final Fantasy music, be sure to give this album a listen. You can check out Final Fantasy II: Rebellion on the album’s main page.
