Gravity Falls Soundtrack- Vinyl Review

Gravity Falls was a phenomenal animated series. Over 39 episodes, i grew to love a town that felt like it was just a stones throw from Twin Peaks and a hop skip and a jump from the island in Lost. In this land oddities including rainbow vomiting gnomes, mermen and ghosts roamed free. With a narrative similar to The X-Files in structure in that there is an overarching story, as well as Kolchak’s 'monster of the week' episodes, the many questions and mysteries came to a stunning and satisfying conclusion.

There are very few series that are as well conceived, written and executed as Gravity Falls was. When an animated series leaves you thinking about parallel dimensions, alternate universes and man's place in the cosmos then you know there's something special. Beyond all that, the soundtrack for the series was phenomenal. I loved the music as it added so much to the series so when the vinyl soundtrack came up I bought it on pre-order. I had to wait a while to get it, due to Covid slowdown, but when it arrived I was ecstatic.

The package is handsomely homed in Ghostshrimp's superflat art style which houses red vinyls. It also has hidden cyphers which adds to the prestige of the whole piece.

So what of the tracks themselves? Well, there's a lot over 2 LPs. The track list is:

A Side
Gravity Falls Main Title Theme
Let's Rewind
Gobblewonker Chase
Pig Is Soos
Book Discovery - Gideon's Theme
Wax Battle
Boyz Crazy Medley
Let's Do This
Is It Bottomless - Triangulum Entagulum
ybmaL A stnaW ohW
Fight Fighters - Battle Suite
Blanchin

B Side
Finally I Have Them All
Gideon's Song
It's All Let Up To This
Working Girls
Gnome Chase
Gideon Rises - End Credits
Who's That Girl
Fiddleford Hadron Magucket
Stan Wrong Song
A Very Tricky Triangle

C Side
A World of Enchantment or Whatever - I Came Up With A Plan
The Two Kids Who Ruined My Life
Everything Changes Today
TIME BATTLE!!!
Blackened Skies
Don't Let Them Escape
I Wanna Be Exes
I Need That Machine To Stay On
Yeah Dude Friends - Your Fighting Only Makes Us Look More Rad
Takin' Over 2 Nite

D Side
Mabel It's Bill
Goat and a Pig
Weirdmageddon Pt. 1 - Suite
Giggle Creek
Bill Tricked Me
My Heart Is Made of Rainbows
I'm a Flippin' Corduroy
Saying Goodbye to Gravity Falls
Weirdmageddon Pt. 4 - End Credits
Grvatiy lFals ehTme (s'lliB deppohC dna dewercS ximeR)
We'll Meet Again

I've listened to the album a few times and have some thoughts on some of the tracks:
Intro- A wonderfully start to the album and with a spoopy sound mixed with a poppy vibe.

Let's do this (score)- Wonky electro cheese that sounds like wonderful chiptuney games music. It's just over half a minute but it's great!

Is It Bottomless - Triangulum Entangulum- This captures the essence of the show, starting off quite layed back with gentle strumming then gets all shimmery horror-like. It then gets into John Carpenter/ Stranger Things heavy driving synth with a discordant wailing sound. Very unsettling in the best possible sense.

Fight Fighters - Battle Score- This is like a loving mega mix to fighting game music of old starting with an 8-bit chip tune to Street Fighter-ish 16bit music, then boombastic Mortal Kombat music (the one where toy feel the need to shout out the name of the game really loudly) then to full on Yuzo Koshiro Streets of Rage love-in. It's epic in every sense of the word!

Blanchin'- One of the standout tracks from the series. It's so memorable for its happy rap styling.

Finally I Have Them All- a dramatic Hans Zimmer-esque score where the driving rhythm carries the melody forward to a crescendo.

It's All Led Up To This- A dramatic theme with a chugging strings sound that is dramatic and powerful. Beautiful.

Fiddleford Hadron McGucket- This is a beautiful twinkly track full of yearning and sadness. A light arpeggio plays over a wending synth sound, adding a winsome nostalgia to the piece.

Don't Let Them Escape- This tune slaps HARD! It sounds like an 80s hair-metal track in places as it is frenetic and chaotic.

Yeah Dude Friends - This is a cheerful whimsical piece that is only 30 seconds or so long but is emotive.

Takin' Over 2 Nite- A great ensemble song from the three main characters and full of joy.

Weirdmageddon Part 1 (suite)- This is a trippy prog-rock track which consists of about 4 pieces which move from spooky to energetic to cautious. Its a great track.

Saying Goodbye to Gravity Falls- This is a beautifully written piano piece which is full of sadness and feels full of memories.

The album is gorgeous and was well worth the wait. Obviously, it isn't the compete soundtrack of the entire series but what is here is gold. I love how they created 'suites' to connect themed tracks together. I do miss the absence of Disco Girl as that was one of my favourite tracks from the series but I'm not going to be too upset as this album is a magnificent gift that I don't think anyone was really expecting after so many years of the series ending.

What Remains of Edith Finch- Video Game Vinyl Soundtrack Review

What Remains of Edith Finch is a wonderfully atmospheric exploration adventure game, sometimes called in derogatory terms, 'walking simulators.' I am a huge fan of the genre as I find them a palette cleanser from the regular games I play and I would say that Edith Finch is the peak of the genre so far.

In the game the player controls Edith, a young woman exploring her ancestral home to uncover the mystery behind her family history and what happened to the various occupants there. The story is told through a series of immersive vignettes and each is powerful and emotional in different ways. The stunning yet understated music score is a huge part of why Edith Finch is so affecting. The album is one I've been listening to continuously over the last year or so on my mobile since the games release and with the recent vinyl release from iam8bit I have been listening to it in that format too.

Jeff Russo, who composes the music and has scored Altered Carbon, Star Trek: Discovery and much else, understands that silence and ambience is just as important as music to create a mood and it is this knowledge that lends the game an eerie and creepy atmosphere as you explore the strange house. Music is introduced when elements are interacted with or when certain narrative points are reached.

The whole score is peaceful and sombre with soft piano interweaving with yearning strings. The interplay creates a profound feeling of sadness yet has tinges of hope.

The tracklist is:

01. Edith's Theme

02. The House

03. Molly's Room

04. Molly's Hunger - Owl

05. Molly's Hunger - Shark

06. Molly's Hunger - Monster

07. Calvin's Swingset

08. Walter's Bunker

09. Gus' Kite

10. Milton's Tower

11. Lewis' Coronation - Daydream

12. Lewis' Coronation - Marching Band

13. Lewis' Coronation - Sailing Ship

14. Lewis' Coronation - Palace

15. Lewis' Coronation - Crowning

16. The Finale

17. The End

The standout tracks are Edith's Theme, Lewis' Coronation- Marching Band and The End. Edith's Theme never fails to put a tear in my eye, it's gentle piano and sad strings create a powerful and moving piece that is touching and beautiful. Lewis' Coronation- Marching Band is an haunting piece as it is so upbeat and oompahpah yet is probably the most tragic story. The End carries the motif of Edith's Theme but adds some haunting ambient vocals that is a beautiful way to finish the soundtrack.

The whole soundtrack is stunning and works well as a tapestry of the Finch family's stories. The pieces complement the game but work just as well as musical compositions in their own right. The soundtrack is stunning and this pressing by iam8bit is marvellous!

Streets of Rage 3- Video Game Vinyl Soundtrack Review

The early to mid 90's were a great time for gaming but it was still seen as a childish past time by many. When the Playstation released it tapped into to the burgeoning dance market where House and Trance tracks were popular and consistently hitting the charts. It seemed like a perfect mix; edgy games and oh-so-zeitgeisty music. However before Sony's miracle machine we 16-bit gamers did have a saviour of coolness and that was the inimitable Yuzo Koshiro. The composer behind the first two Streets of Rage games was a pioneer when bringing the sounds of the clubs into games. The Streets of Rage soundtracks are amongst the most highly regarded of the 16-bit era and rightly so. Whilst The Orb, The Prodigy and Orbital were getting into the charts, Koshiro was applying the music styling of the genre into his soundtracks.

Streets of Rage 2 was a high watermark on the Megadrive/ Genesis for both gameplay and music, so it was with bated breath that people waited to see what Sega would produce with the highly anticipated Streets of Rage 3 which would be released on a 24 meg cartridge!

The Streets of Rage Vinyl Soundtracks are things of beauty!

Upon release the Streets of Rage 3 game was made harder for the Western market, frustrating many with its butchered state and missing elements. The soundtrack was the same but tonally very different from what had come before and as a result quite divisive. The soundtrack was once more created by Koshiro but this time he was joined by Motohiro Kawashima, who had also worked on Streets of Rage 2 alongside Koshiro. The soundtrack was influenced more by the hardcore and minimal techno scene and so wasn't instantly as catchy as the original two soundtracks. The techno scene hadn't reached mainstream in the Western markets and so the grindy, repetitive discordant sounds didn't appeal to many.

At the time it was politely forgotten by the masses but as time has passed many have cited it as formative and an important video game soundtrack. So is the Streets of Rage 3 soundtrack worth your money and time? 

Well, first of all, being a DataDisc product the vinyl is impeccably produced and the sound quality is second to none. The double disc set contains the remastered version of the soundtrack that you remember from years ago. It has a lot to follow in the undeniably stunning SOR 2 soundtrack but in terms of production it succeeds. The soundtrack itself however is more difficult to judge. I have been a fan of old skool trance and dance since the early 90's but the discordant sounds and constant thumping, often without a discernible pattern, makes it a difficult soundtrack to listen to in its entirety. There are some standout tracks like Disco, Boss, Shinobi Reversed and stunning The Poets I but these are few and far between. The rest of the soundtrack is fine but nothing that you would want to go back to and revisit in your down time.

So is the soundtrack worth buying? For a completist a definite yes but for someone looking for a soundtrack to listen to and love? No. I'd go for Streets of Rage 2 or 1 as these are more instantly likeable and listenable. However, this being a Koshiro joint, you can't go too far wrong... even when he experiments and goes a little too left-field.