Radio

Events, Game Music, Music Production

Jessica Curry’s ‘High Score’ returns to UK radio in November

October 18, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Jessica Curry’s ‘High Score’ returns to UK radio in November Share this
Despite being a huge success for the UK’s Classic FM radio station I completely missed the first series of their video game focused show High Score. Between April and May, Jessica Curry — co-founder and composer of The Chinese Room’s Dear Esther and Everbody’s Gone to the Rapture — hosted the show to examine and celebrate orchestral game music. It proved to be a hit with fans of both games and classical music, garnered an audience of new, younger listeners, and was the most popular program on the station’s rebroadcast series, Listen Again. Unfortunately, there’s no simple way to go back and listen to High Score so it’s especially noteworthy to find out there will soon be a new series!

Between November 4th and December 9th Jessica Curry returns each Saturday for six hour-long episodes, beginning and ending with special all-request shows. Looking back at the tweets Curry received in the Spring there were a ton of requests and while they couldn’t comply at the time, the message was clearly received: there’s a new page on Classic FM’s site to submit your special requests for the show. The intervening four episodes will be based on themes and trends. Here’s the full schedule:
- November 04: All-request Show
- November 11: Depictions of Love
- November 18: Quests!
- November 25: Spoken and sung voices within games
- December 02: The Best Video Game Music of 2017
- December 09: All-request Show
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to present a second series of High Score for Classic FM. The first series was so much fun to do and the huge response that the show received was absolutely incredible. I’m just over the moon that people enjoyed it. I’m raring to go on the next one and can’t wait to hear what people come up with for the requests shows!”

– Jessica Curry

Listeners in the UK can tune in on 100-102 FM, digital radio, at ClassicFM.com, and on the Classic FM app. Those of us outside the territory may have to type in a valid UK postcode but should still be able to listen live from the site. In the meantime, don’t forget about Music Respawn, Kate Remington’s game music composer interview show on WSHU public radio from here in the States.

Did you catch the original run of High Score? Are you looking forward to the new series? What requests would you like to hear? Let us know in the comments below.
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

Free Google Play Game Music Station is Surprisingly Good

July 13, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Free Google Play Game Music Station is Surprisingly Good Share this

With each new streaming music service that launches I always have a poke around to see what they consider to be popular video game fare. The results are usually spectacularly disappointing. A handful of Halo. Some licensed rock and rap tracks that featured in a Tony Hawk game. A playlist of pop music from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Now that Songza has been folded into Google Play Music, and with a time consuming project unfolding at work, I decided to have a poke around.

I wish I could tell you what I typed in to find it but at the hands of Google’s search algorithm I was deposited in front of the Aperture Science Psychoacoustic Laboratories station. True to its name there’s plenty of Portal 2’s excellent soundtrack in store but it also serves as a good sampling of the modern video game music scene. If it weren’t for a few tracks from Mass Effect and Portal I’d even call this the Indie Video Game Music station.

There’s a good mix of albums and artists here with a focus on atmospheric EDM stuff. Fez, Minecraft, Frozen Synapse and Sword & Sworcery mingle with the peppier sounds of PPPPPP, Super Hexagon and Scott Pilgrim: The Game. Every now and then you get a nice acoustic/orchestral break with Bastion, The Banner Saga, Thomas Was Alone and Trine 2. Rounding out the mix is a helping of original tracks from artists including Anamanaguchi, Big Giant Circles and Chipzel.

It’s been a nice backdrop for my work lately and I really appreciate that it never goes to extremes causing me to scramble for the skip button. Did I mention it’s free, streaming and available from your Android or iOS device? Check it out the next time you find yourself itching for a new playlist.
Game Music, Miscellaneous

Game Music Radio Roundup: Go-To VGM Streams for Your Listening Pleasure

March 28, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

We’re in that age where we want everything at our fingertips without the need to go searching too extensively. We subscribe to feeds and bookmark databases so we always know where we can go for all of our information and news on any particular topic.

Streaming has become a popular thing in this age where traditional radio is becoming quickly antiquated. When you have the ability to create and stream nearly any amount of any genre of music, why limit yourself to stations that cater to a larger demographic? Video game music is no different, with entire online stations dedicated to just game music and VGM arrangements. So where are some of the best places to go to get your steady game music fix?

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Game Music

This Smooth Jazz Track Sounds Like Flashman From Mega Man 2

April 15, 2013 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on This Smooth Jazz Track Sounds Like Flashman From Mega Man 2 Share this

Okay, so maybe only briefly. Skip to 1:30, and you’ll hear how similar the chorus sections are. Not that the melody from Mega Man 2’s “Flashman” is groundbreakingly original, but after hearing this song several times on the radio and thinking, “Man, this sounds like Mega Man,” I thought I’d share.

What do you think? Know much about smooth jazz artist Mindi Abair? She’s all over the radio lately despite having been at the smooth jazz thing for awhile.
Chip Music, Demoscene

5 Quick Questions: Noise Channel (Kristina Kaufman)

September 19, 2012 | Audun Sorlie | 3 Comments Share this

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Chip Music

Catch Noise Channel, a New Radio Program Featuring Chiptunes

October 13, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on Catch Noise Channel, a New Radio Program Featuring Chiptunes Share this

Schnabubula, Supercomuter, George & Jonathan, Starscream, YMCK, Anamanaguchi, Bud Melvin, virt, minusbaby, Sabrepulse, Rushjet, Bit Shifter, and Nullsleep. Yes, it’s a rather impressive list of artists, and you can now hear these and many others on Noise Channel, a new radio show hosted by Kristi “TrueStar” Kaufman dedicated to chiptunes over on Arecibo Radio on Thursday nights between 10:00 – 11:00 PM EST.

With our own resident chiptune artist, Joshua “ZenAlbatross” Koppstein on staff, I’ve been meaning to get more into the chip music scene, and this provides a pretty easy way to do it. In addition to playing the best music (see what I did there?), Jake Kaufman acts as the show’s producer and also takes questions about chip music and how to make it.

Be sure to check it out and let us know what you think. We’ll be tuning in as well! And feel free to follow the show on Twitter at @NoiseChanRadio.
Game Music

Uematsu Getting Play Time On Terrestrial Radio Stations

July 10, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 7 Comments Share this

This is something I randomly came across today. I was listening to 104.9 XLNC1 classical radio down here in San Diego, and my song identification software on my phone wasn’t working properly when I was trying to identify a song. I immediately checked the website’s playlist, and noticed that the song before the one I was trying to identify was none other than “Maria and Draco” from the Distant Worlds album. While I didn’t hear it myself, I was surprised to see that it had been played.

Who would have thought growing up that Nobuo Uematsu’s music would be playing on public radio stations around the world? Have you come across any occurrences like this, and do you think it’s a sign of the acceptance of game music and of Uematsu as one of the industry’s most influential composer?