Game Music Revue: Streets Of Rage (2015 Data Discs Edition)
- Credited Composer: Yuzo Koshiro
- Released September 2015
- Label: Data Discs
- VGMdb Information Page
A few years ago Death Waltz Records opened up shop and promptly took the the record geek community by storm with its high quality vinyl re-issues of classic horror soundtracks, presented with heavy duty sleeves and pressed on creatively-colored vinyl.
Since then, we seemingly become lousy with labels looking to cash in on this sudden re-issue trend. Some, like One Way Static and Invada, have done good by releasing quality soundtracks that sound great and feature amazing art. Others, like the atrocious Waxworks and the flipper-friendly Mondo (who bought Death Waltz rather than compete with them) have often sacrificed audio quality and consumer friendliness in efforts to put out ultra-limited edition items that not only sound horrid, but become impossible to find thanks to their finitely small print runs.
So I was a little skeptical at first when I found out about Data Discs, a new label dedicated to releasing classic game music on vinyl. With the vinyl craze continuing to reach new heights, I feared they were just in it for the money, hoping to snag a quick buck off of hipsters who put presentation and nostalgia over actual audio quality. Still, when I saw that they were releasing the soundtrack to Streets of Rage on vinyl, I had to take the bait and grab a copy.
I was hoping for the best and fearing for the worst – but thankfully I was pleasantly surprised. Continue reading
Game Music Revue: The 30th Anniversary Super Mario Bros. Music
- Credited Composer: Nintendo (Koji Kondo, Hirokazu Tanaka, Kazumi Totaka, Shinobu Tanaka, Mahito Yokota, Ryo Nagamatsu, Asuka Hayazaki)
- Released September 13, 2015
- Label: Columbia/Sony
- VGMdb Information Page
Super Mario Bros. 30th Anniversary Festival
Here in Japan there have been various promotions all year celebrating this, the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. We’ve had special promotions at Tower Records, exclusive merchandise for sale at various Otaku stores, and of course the release of Super Mario Maker for the Nintendo Wii U. But things hit a crescendo this past Sunday, the actual anniversary date, with Nintendo’s official Super Mario Brothers Anniversary Celebration Festival, held at Duo Exchange in Shibuya, Tokyo. Continue reading
YMO 101: The Albums
This is part one of my guide to Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Part 2: The Live Albums
Part 3: The Compilations and Remix Records
Part 4: The Solo Records
Part 5: The Pre-Cursors and Side Projects
Part 6: The Protégés, Associates and Etc.
I’ve long championed bands that very few people have heard of. This used to bug me a great deal, but by now I’ve gotten used to the fact that my musical tastes and what most people are interested in just don’t jive. But there’s one band whose complete lack of respect or notoriety in the states continues to drive me up a all; that band is Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Yellow Magic Orchestra are the greatest electronic act of all-time, and the fact that more people don’t know this is a damn shame. Continue reading
Game Music Revue: Famicom Music
Famicom Music
- Credited Composer: Nintendo Sound Team (Koji Kondo, Hirokazu Tanaka, Yukio Kaneoka, Akito Nakatsuka)
- Released May 25, 1986
- Label: G.M.O./Alfa Records
- VGMdb Information Page
This was the first compilation release that G.M.O records put out after the original Video Game Music, and way to start the show with the showstopper guys. Continue reading
Nostalgia as a Genre: New Wave Revivals and Midlife Crises
The frontman is sporting tight jeans and a New York Mets tank top. His clean cut appearance is accentuated by his musclebound arms and square jawline. He looks like he was the star player on his high school football team, but oozes a boyish charm: if he was the football team captain, he wasn’t the asshole jock type. He sings lyrics pining for a love lost and a simpler time as a soaring keyboard riff plays behind him. He guides the audience into clapping with their hands over their heads. He then screams the city’s name and his bandmate rushes out the stage to deliver an absolutely epic saxophone solo that would make the dude from Lost Boys a very happy man.
It’s a song and a scene straight out of an 80s movie, a moment that feels like it should’ve been lived by Molly Ringwald. But this happened last week, in 2015, at the Summer Sonic music festival in Tokyo. It blew me away, and I’m still trying to figure out why. I think it may be that my midlife crisis is affecting my musical tastes.
I don’t know how to feel about that. Continue reading
Vinyl Review: The Adventures Of Kohsuke Kindaichii
It’s Saturday, which means I’m in HMV minding my own business looking for new wave records.
I got a routine going when I’m not working.
Anyways, so I’m in HMV, browsing the alt rock section when I start to hear some strange 70s mid-tempo disco/funk. It’s cool. I’m grooving to it. Then traditional Japanese instruments start to kick in over it. I’m hearing what sounds like a biwa and a koto mixed in with some radical wah-wah guitar and a groovy bassline. I’m digging it hard.
I decide to buy the record right when the slide whistle and flute kick in.
I’m pretty happy with this purchase. Continue reading
Scrunged: Days Of The New
Scrunge (second-rate rip-off grunge) is a largely forgotten genre, and every few weeks I’m going to examine a scrunge act or two and see if they deserve a second chance. Today’s band: Days Of The New.
I feel safe in saying Days Of The New is the last “scrunge” band. In fact, with their first album coming out in 1997, the case could be made that the group isn’t scrunge at all, and are in fact post-grunge like Creed or Fuel, whose albums also came out around the same time.
But to me Days Of The New is a scrunge band simply because they were trying so damn hard be a grunge band. I don’t think you can say that about Creed or any of the countless forgettable bands that came after them. They were never attempting the realness or rawness of grunge. They just took the broadest and most radio-friendly aspects of the genre and slapped 50 coats of polish and sheen on it. It’s a cliche to say it, but the post-grunge bands come off as being in it for the money more than anything else.
And while you can say a lot about Days Of The New (and trust me…I’m about to) overly commercial sure as hell isn’t one of them. No one goes out to make predominately acoustic depressing rock ballads under the assumption that it’s going to lead to top 40 success. It just kind of worked out that way, for a thankfully brief period of time. Continue reading
Vinyl/CD Review: Demons Original Soundtrack
Demons isn’t exactly a good movie, but it’s definitely a memorable one. A low-budget 1985 Italian horror flick about a movie theater overrun by, well, demons, it features quite the ludicrous plot; amazingly bizarre characters; and some wonderfully over-the-top and disgusting gore effects. It’s a solid piece of 80s eurocheese and it has only gotten more gloriously bizarre as the years have gone by.
Probably one of the only aspects of Demons one can appreciate non-ironically (aside from the killer make-up effects) is the score by Goblin’s Claudio Simonetti. It’s a creepy little piece of music, composed almost entirely on synthesizers. As such, it’s just as dated as the film it came from, but in the most wonderful way. And now it’s back in print via new limited edition CD and LPs, but are they worth the price? Continue reading
Vinyl Review: Babymetal
I’ve been living in Japan for a little over a year and a half now, and let me be the bearer of bad news: Japan really isn’t that weird.
Sure, you see the occasional mascot roaming the streets and everyone on TV seems just way too excited about everything (especially food), but it’s really not that different than anyplace else. And, let’s be honest, a lot of the “weird Japan” concept comes from misunderstandings at best and flat out racism at worst. I also can’t see how a country like America, where walking into a Wal-Mart with a semi-automatic weapon in your hands is legal, has any right to call any other country weird.
All that being said, Babymetal, a heavy metal/pop hybrid featuring a trio of pre-teen girl singers, is the kind of weird shit that could only exist in Japan. Continue reading