Stemage

Doujin, Game Music

Listen to Classic NES Tunes Reversed in Stemage’s RETROGRESSION

July 7, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Listen to Classic NES Tunes Reversed in Stemage’s RETROGRESSION Share this

Here’s a fun little treat to close out your holiday week. Grant “Stemage” Henry of Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar Live renown has decided to take some of the most iconic tunes from the NES library and literally spins them in reverse with RETROGRESSION VOL.1. The resulting reversed tracks prove that the musical library of many NES games, such as Super Mario Bros. and Punch Out! are just as amazing backwards as they are forwards.

<a href="http://stemage.bandcamp.com/album/retrogression-vol-1">RETROGRESSION: VOL.1 by Stemage</a>

Henry proves the legitimacy of his retro reversals by also releasing the tracks themselves reversed into their original compositions in order to hear exactly how on-the-mark he hits with the backwards transcriptions.

You can grab RETROGRESSION VOL.1 (meaning we could see more volumes in the future) at the name-your-price tier on the Stemage Bandcamp site.
Television

Composers Aivi & Surasshu reveal tracklist to Steven Universe Soundtrack Volume 1!

May 18, 2017 | Ryan Paquet | 1 Comment Share this

On May 17, 2017, composers Aivi Tran and Steven “Surasshu” Velema revealed the tracklist for the upcoming Steven Universe Soundtrack: Volume 1 on Facebook Live. In the video you can go behind the scenes of series favorite songs like “Cookie Cat” which I learned was written using a GameBoy, “Giant Woman” which creator Rebecca Sugar first played on her ukulele, and many more. I was thrilled to hear that Stemage was brought back in to re-record some of the acoustic guitar for “Let Me Drive My Van Into You Heart”. You can see the full tracklist below.

1.We Are the Crystal Gems (Main Title)
2.Let Me Drive My Van into Your Heart
3.Cookie Cat
4.Giant Woman
5.Strong in the Real Way
6.Steven and the Stevens
7.Big Fat Zucchini
8.Steven and the Crystal Gems
9.Dear Old Dad
10.Be Wherever You Are
11.On the Run
12.Comet
13.Destiny
14.Lapis Lazuli
15.Wailing Stone
16.Stronger Than You
17.Full Disclosure
18.We Are the Crystal Gems (Full Theme Song)
19.Jam Song
20.Do It for Her
21.What Can I Do (For You)
22.Tower of Mistakes
23.Haven’t You Noticed (I’m a Star)
24.Something Entirely New
25.Peace and Love on the Planet Earth
26.Don’t Cost Nothing
27.Empire City
28.Mr. Greg
29.It’s Over Isn’t It
30.Both of You
31.Don’t Cost Nothing (Reprise)
32.I Think I Need a Little (Change)
33.Here Comes a Thought
34.Still Not Giving Up
35.I Could Never Be (Ready)
36.What’s the Use of Feeling (Blue)?
37.Love Like You (End Credits)

Steven Universe Soundtrack: Volume 1 will be available digitally for purchase on various platforms on June 2, 2017. The video also hints at a special surprise for later this year which could be a physical release. Do you have a favorite Steven Universe song?
Doujin, Game Music

MOBIUS Album Celebrates 25 Years of Sonic Music

June 22, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since a certain blue hedgehog graced the screens of our living rooms and became the flagship title for the Sega Genesis. However, as of tomorrow, that’s exactly what anniversary it is – Sonic the Hedgehog came into being on June 23rd, 1991 and helped change video gaming for a generation. Likewise, the music of Sonic the Hedgehog became as iconic as its contemporaries such as Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda and Mega Man.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, the video game record label group Materia Collective have put together a tribute album that spans so much of the Sonic franchise and some of the most well-known music within the series. MOBIUS: Sonic the Hedgehog Remixed features a whopping 58 tracks of arranged Sonic music from a wide variety of musicians and performers within the game music community, such as Stemage (Metroid Metal), DJ Cutman, Videri String Quartet, John Robert Matz (Gunpoint) and a whole lot more!

“Sonic the Hedgehog is quite literally one of the main reasons that I became a musician. It was also one of my earliest musical influences. Now that I have three kids of my own (who are also Sonic fans), and I am actually a working musician for my career, and it’s the 25th Anniversary of Sonic…there was no way I couldn’t do an album like this as an homage to where it all began.” – Stephen Robert Froeber, MOBIUS director and producer

The album has a huge assortment of genres its draws from, as can be heard within the preview clip. Jazz, electronica, orchestral and rock are just a sampling of what you can expect to hear from the 80 contributing artists attached to the project. MOBIUS: Sonic the Hedgehog Remixed launches tomorrow, June 23rd on the Materia Collective website. Speaking as a girl whose first introduction to video gaming (and thus, video game music) was Sonic the Hedgehog on a snowy Christmas Day in 1991, this should be an album worth checking out.

Materia Collective – Website | Twitter
Game Music

BRAVE WAVE Continues to release awesome music: Retro-Active Pt. 2 by Keiji Yamagishi is here!

February 6, 2016 | Ryan Paquet | 10 Comments Share this

After a year of exhaustive work, Ninja Gaiden composer Keiji Yamagishi is back again with “Retro-Active Pt. 2”, the followup to his chart-topper debut Retro-Active Pt. 1. The new album finds him exploring various styles and genres, in addition to a special collaboration with Ninja Gaiden II composer Ryuichi Nitta. “When it comes to musical expression, I believe there’s a greater potential to be found within the chiptune genre”, says Yamagishi about his new work. “I expanded on the ideas found in Retro-Active Pt. 1, and I tried to fuse different genres in an effort to make a unique soundscape.”

Brave Wave

You can listen to the new album which spans a total of 7 tracks below. I have listened to the whole thing already and can say that its a wonderful follow up to the first album. Stemage provided the guitar work for tracks 2, and 4 to 6. The seventh track on the album is a sweet remix of the album’s sixth track “Eastern Sky” by Saori Kobayashi, who is currently working on her next Brave Wave release TERRA MAGICIA.

<a href="http://store.bravewave.net/album/retro-active-pt-2">Retro-Active Pt. 2 by Keiji Yamagishi</a>

Retro-Active Part 2 is available at Brave Wave’s online store as a digital download for $8 USD. What do you think of this latest release from Brave Wave Productions?
Featured, Game Music

Game Soundtracks For Your Soul: Level Eight

June 12, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Game Soundtracks For Your Soul: Level Eight Share this

This week I am looking back at the music of three games I played on the Sega Dreamcast, one of my favorite consoles and *SPOILER ALERT* one of the winners of Wired’s Video Game Console Wars which had me floored in laughter and a huge grin on my face.

The music of these games are at all from different ranges of the sound spectrum. The first soundtrack is beautiful, awe inspiring, and epic in scope and a great score by two composers Tim Follin and Attila Heger. The second is much darker and has a unique creepy, abandoned carnival grounds sound composed by the late Betrand Eluerd. The third is an cover EP album by Stemage of Noriyuki Iwadare’s music from a masterpiece of a JRPG which is coming soon in remastered form on Steam!

These are my thoughts of the soundtracks to Ecco The Dolphin: Defender of the Future, Evil Twin: Cyprien’s Chronicles and Stemage’s Frets of Valmar: Grandia II .

(more…)
Game Music

Rogue Legacy Reborn Arrangement Album Now Available

November 18, 2014 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Rogue Legacy Reborn Arrangement Album Now Available Share this

If you were a fan of the music of Rogue Legacy, you now get to enjoy a second round of the indie rogue-lite’s tunes with Rogue Legacy Reborn.

Risen with a vengeance in the shadow of its forebear, comes an album for the generations: ROGUE LEGACY REBORN! A whole new breed of remixes and covers of all the songs you loved from the original soundtrack by a litter of amazing artists from the gaming world and beyond.

Comprised of 22 tracks, Rogue Legacy Reborn features arrangements of the original soundtrack done by composer “Tettrix” and “A Shell in the Pit” done up by a number of names in the game music arrangement scene, such as Stemage (Metroid Metal), Videri String Quartet, A_Rival and Careless Juja, plus a ton more.

The album is available on Loudr starting at $10, but if you feel so inclined you can throw the artists (and subsequently the original composers) a little extra.

Rogue Legacy Reborn – Loudr
Chip Music, Featured, Game Music, Japanese, Reviews

In Flux (Review)

August 11, 2014 | Richard McDonald | 1 Comment Share this In Flux (Review)

I wasn’t sure what to make of this album. I have listened to and reviewed game composers remixing game music before, but I have never reviewed an album of original compositions by game composers, that aren’t attached to any games. I admit I was dubious. Also, looking at the list of composers, I was only familiar with a few of them, most notably Akira Yamaoka, composer for the Silent Hill series. This album raised another question for me. Do I listen to game music because I associate the music with the game, or is the music good in its own right? I personally believe that there are elements of of both and I find an album comprised of original music from game composers to be very interesting. Will the music follow gaming tropes and conventions, or will the composers write music purely for the album and allow their music talents to flourish. Let’s find out what this “East meets West” album had to offer. (more…)