Sony Music

Anime, Television

The 1984 G1 Transformers TV Soundtrack Debuts on Vinyl March 9!

March 7, 2018 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on The 1984 G1 Transformers TV Soundtrack Debuts on Vinyl March 9! Share this

On March 6, 2018, Enjoy the Toons Records announced that they were releasing the soundtrack to the G1 Transformers cartoon. The music has never been released in any form since the show’s airing in the early 1980’s. The music for the show was composed by Robert J. Walsh, and Johnny Douglas who worked on a number of 80’s cartoons including G.I. Joe (TV and Movie), Jem and the Holograms, and My Little Pony.

The album will go sale this Friday, March 9, 2018, on their website at noon Eastern Time. The album is limited to 2000 copies total, and is spread across three character color themed variants, and traditional black record. The colored albums include Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Bumblebee version which will be an exclusive on ThinkGeek. The track list for the album is detailed below, it contains music from seasons 1 to 3 of the show which were personally selected by composer Robert J. Walsh.

Enjoy the Ride Records has confirmed that they will not be releasing this album digitally or on CD as they only licensed the album for a Vinyl LP release. Enjoy the Ride Records have also been hinting at this release since Thanksgiving of 2017 via their Instagram account. I also noticed that the labelling on the album reads: “HASBRO STUDIOS PRESENTS: 80’s TV Classics Music From” and asked the label over twitter if this meant if they planned to release more Hasbro music? They liked my tweet, so I am expecting more releases in the future. If you check out what’s been teased on Instagram I’ve seen pictures of the villains of G.I. Joe, and Thundercats too.

Original Sound Version has reached out to Sony Legacy Recordings for details on the possibility of additional releases but has received no response. Composer Robert J Walsh has been teasing the release of his music to Transformers, G.I. Joe and Jem and the Holograms for years now on his Facebook page, and with members of many Transformers fans. He has also hinted that he re-mastered the Transformers music in 5.1 audio for a potential Blu-Ray Audio release. OSV will be sure to report on any additional releases as information becomes available.

To purchase this album be sure to check out Enjoy The Toons Records site on Friday, I don’t think these will last long!

Are you excited for the first official release of the music from the Transformers cartoon?
Anime, Japanese

Anime Expo 2011: Hatsune Miku Mikunopolis Impressions and Gallery

July 11, 2011 | Chris Ling | 4 Comments Share this

Although it has been a few days since Anime Expo has concluded, it is clear what impact a certain virtual idol has had on the West. Hatsune Miku, a Vocaloid software developed by Crypton has risen to the levels of super-stardom with a multitude of artists utilizing her mesmerizing voice, figure lines, and concerts in Japan which thus brings her to Los Angeles for her first international experience.

With concert tickets sold out in 4 days, it was a packed house of leek-shaped glowsticks at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles as everyone anticipated this groundbreaking concert. I had the opportunity to attend this concert and not being a fan I was certainly curious to know if this concert would change my opinion of Hatsune Miku and her virtual diva friends.

Did the concert deliver? Am I now a convert? Hit the jump and find out! (more…)
Game Music

GENKI ROCKETS Release ‘make.believe / Flow (Child of Eden Mix) EP’

June 24, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

I’m a huge fan of the GENKI ROCKETS. You may know them for their track, “Heavenly Stars,” which was featured in LUMINES II and No More Heroes. While much of the talent behind the group remains a mystery, Tetsuya Mizuguchi at Q Entertainment and Kenji Tamai of Agehasprings Corporation are known to be involved.

When we first saw Child of Eden at Ubisoft’s press conference at E3 2010, I thought I was hearing the distinctive voice of Lumi, the group’s fictional vocalist. I was right, and here’s an EP that celebrates GENKI ROCKETS’s contributions to the game as well as an additional track that was used as a promotion for Sony’s “make.believe” brand slogan campaign.

Find out if the EP is worth your time in our brief review after the jump. (more…)
Japanese, Reviews

Women Without Sleeves: no3b’s Kimi Shika Single (Review)

April 15, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on Women Without Sleeves: no3b’s Kimi Shika Single (Review) Share this

We’ve featured No Sleeves (no3b) a few times here on OSV. The trio is an offshoot of the immensely popular AKB48 super group, and I’ve been pretty impressed with their past singles. Kimi Shika is the group’s fifth single which was released in 2010.

The single has been used for a variety of purposes, including the NTV Shiodome Expo 2010 theme song, the ending theme for the TV show Jack 10, and as the theme for the mobile drama, Kotodama no Onnatachi.

Find out if it’s worth checking out in our review. (more…)
Japanese, Reviews

K Does The J-Drama Thing: Aitai Kara Single (Review)

March 18, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on K Does The J-Drama Thing: Aitai Kara Single (Review) Share this

We’ve featured K a few times on the site. Yeah, he goes by just “K,” which is apparently to acknowledge his Korean background despite the fact that he has now made a name for himself singing J-pop. I loved his playful Traveling Song album as well as his goofy Christmas album a couple holidays ago.

Here we have a single of from 2010 titled “Aitai Kara,” which was featured as the main theme to the Japanese film Shun Matataki. The film is a drama about a young woman who loses her boyfriend in a fatal accident along with her memory from the shock of the event.

Does K effectively capture this with his ballad? Find out in our review. (more…)
Japanese, Reviews

The Young and the Talented: Galileo Galilei’s Yotsuba Sagashi no Tabibito Single (Review)

February 21, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on The Young and the Talented: Galileo Galilei’s Yotsuba Sagashi no Tabibito Single (Review) Share this

It’s kind of frustrating that as you get older, all the incoming stars in the music business become increasingly younger than you. This group is no exception. Galileo Galilei is a 4-member rock group out of Japan who are all aged 16 through 18, but provide an amazingly mature sound.

While their first studio album just out (February 16 in Japan), we’re taking a look at their third single, Yotsuba Sagashi no Tabibito, which acted as the opening theme for CDTV (Countdown TV, a late night music program in Japan). There are also some B-sides here that are worth your attention.

Find out about them in our review after the jump. (more…)
Japanese, Reviews

SAWA Soars: I Can Fly EP (Review)

December 31, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this SAWA Soars: I Can Fly EP (Review)

We’ve covered SAWA quite extensively on OSV. If you don’t recall, however, she’s the Japanese vocalist responsible for much of the vocals heard in The World Ends With You. Since then, our reviews of her releases have been pretty mixed, but I think she just may have corrected her trajectory this time around with a much softer release.

[Update: we’ve since been informed that this SAWA is not the same artist as the band, SAWA, that was featured on The World Ends With You. The band has since disbanded, and this SAWA is not associated with the band in any way. While this is an interesting coincidence, this SAWA stands on her own. Thanks Cait!]

Hit the jump for our review of SAWA’s I Can Fly EP. (more…)