I am very excited to have received the Streets of Rage 2 vinyl from DataDiscs today. The classic soundtrack has been remastered and optimised for the vinyl format by Yuzo Koshiro, the famed composer of the game. The double disc set contains a few bonus and remixed tracks but overall is the same quality soundtrack that you remember from years ago. The soundtrack is one of the greatest in video gaming history and to have it on vinyl is very cool. I feel so hipster it hurts but vinyl is a fun way to collect 16-bit soundtracks of yore.
Streets of Rage Soundtrack on Vinyl
Over Christmas I was lucky enough to receive the Streets of Rage soundtrack on vinyl from my wife. None more hipster maybe but the idea of playing a remastered album from a 1991 Sega video game on an outdated piece of analogue music technology in a time of pervading digital media appeals to me.
The classic soundtrack is by Yuzo Koshiro and at the time was totally different to anything heard in video games, it was a time of trance and dance, when The Orb, The Prodigy and Orbital were getting into the charts. This soundtrack stood out among its contemporaries as it was not the usual bleeps and bloops of video games at the time... It spoke to many youths at the time, it was zeitgiesty and hearing the vinyl now it still feels special.
I've heard the music hundreds of times before, playing the game for months on end but I've never heard it like this. Now I'm no vinyl snob and I don't know which format of audio sounds better but I will say that on vinyl it does sounds different, but in a good way.
I would definitely recommend getting this album and hope DataDiscs continue to release more video game music soundtracks, Sonic 3 and Thunderforce 3 and 4 would be nice but beggars can't be choosers!
8-Bit Matrix
The Matrix sequels were awful, plain and simple. However there were some standout moments and Philip Raupach has used a scene from The Matrix Reloaded and created an 8-bit sound mix... it has turned a pretentious overblown film into a action comedy movie. Check it out below!
The Advantage Plays Rocking Moon Theme from Ducktales NES
Whilst listening to a podcast I heard about a band who play rocking covers of classic NES chiptunes. The Advantage is an American rock band from California, USA that formed in 1998 and specialises in doing covers of music from old NES games. The band is considered to be one of the original pioneers of the Nintendocore genre and widely praised for bringing video game music into the spotlight. This is a piece I particularly like, check out more videos on youtube!
Classic Advert Used a Chiptune
I'm in the process of writing an article on great chiptunes, great music from 8 and 16 bit computers. Whilst doing my research I made a discovery although I'm sure loads of people already know... I'm a bit late with these things.
There was an advert on in England in the 80's that annoyed me as it seemed to go on and on, funnily enough that was it's sales pitch... it was Ariston. The music it used was from the Gameboy Robocop game, I had the Amstrad CPC 464 version and the game and music were both class. Anyways check it out as the advert retrospectively is actually very impressive.
2 hours 45 minutes of ZX Spectrum 128K game music
The ZX Spectrum is a legendary computer. Whilst most people remember the chiptunes from the NES, SNES, Megadrive/Genesis the older computers are forgotten. But no more, listen to this amazing mix of ZX Spectrum classics!
Chiptune Rockers Anamanaguchi Touring in UK
It is with extreme excitement that I am writing to inform you, our lovely readers, that the amazing chiptune rockers Anamanaguchi are touring in the UK. For details of dates and cost of tickets go to their official site. I have purchased two tickets and Simon and I will be going to the gig in Heaven, London.
For those who don't know Anamanaguchi are a 4 piece band from New York who play music with hacked hardware from the 80's and 90's, namely the Gameboy and NES. This chiptune band have been around for a while but rose to prominence for producing the soundtrack for the Scott Pilgrim vs The World Game. They have slowly gained in popularity and broke into the mainstream mid-last year with a performance on the Jimmy Fallon Show (not quite the Ed Sullivan Show and the Beatles but pretty impressive I assure you).
I leave you with their favourite tune of mine and with a promise to upload pics from the gig. For those who are interested in getting tickets there were still plenty at the time of writing. Good luck!