Continue? (Or, how I stopped worrying and learned to love VGM arrangements again)

Ok ok, so I've gone back on my word.

I said that I would stop recording more VGM arrangements, but whenever I start to play my guitar or keyboard, I end up trying to work out a tune from a video game. This being the case, I've nearly finished another arrangement - the theme from Wizball by Martin Galway (nearly wrote 'Martine' then, I sure he wouldn't have appreciated that).

I'm quite proud of it so far, though I'm up against some seriously stiff competition, mainly from Reyn Ouwehand. Look up his 8 minute epic (I think I've linked to it in an earlier post) version of Wizball, it's absolutely fantastic. My version won't be half as good as his of course, him being a true video game music God and all, but hopefully you'll all get something from it!

I've also got some other arrangements on the go as well: Dire Dire Docks from Mario 64 and Carnival Zone from Sonic 2 (they'll probably be released in that order as well) so if you'd like to see how they are going, please follow me on Twitter:

Unlikely Melody

Game Over Man! Game Over!

A bit dramatic isn't it!

I knew it would come sooner than later, but I've decided to put a lid on my video game arrangements. There's still a few more left to do as I've made promises to various people, but after they have been (hopefully) fulfilled, I will call time on the project.

I've had so much fun recording them, but I want to focus on my own compositions now, and maybe somewhere down the line I hope to become a video game composer (a man can dream). I'll be sure to let people on here know what I'm up to!

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Review

I've just written this on Living Social as part of my facebook profile, but wanted to share it here as well.

This is a beautiful re-imagining of the first Silent Hill. Climax took a brave step removing the combat element, but as it was broken in the first place I applaud them for trying something new. It may not be the injection of life that Resident Evil 4 was to Resident Evil, but its certainly getting there.

Whilst utilizing the same locations from the original, the story this time is more akin to David Lynch than the traditional J-horror of the original three stories in the series. Having said that, the ending scenes left me with the same gut wrenching feeling I got watching the 'videotape scene' from Silent Hill 2. Just when I was completely confused and tempted to write the story off completely, the end moments brought everything together to unite what turns out to be a wonderfully sad tale.

Of course, something must be said of the soundtrack. Unfortunately, this was Yamaoka's last project with Konami, and many argue its was Yamaoka's composing that was at the core of the Silent Hill universe. The soundtrack is more minimalist in scope than previous outings, with its focus more on incidental sound than sweeping soundscapes, but it nevertheless perfectly compliments the vision of the game. Yamaoka is a Angelo Badalamenti fan, and elements of this soundtrack are testament to that.

This game will undoubtably get overlooked by most people, but taken out of the Silent Hill universe, it is still a great game in its own right with some brilliant puzzles and plenty of atmosphere.

Happy New Year!

Well, it has been a long while since my last one! There have been a few reasons why I haven't updated this blog and youtube channel, mainly because I had a near disastrous bug infiltrate my Mac's desktop. Basically I accidently tried to export a music video into a picture format which generated 4000 separate images onto my desktop, forcing the Finder to crash and reload again and again, disabling most of the core functions required to operate the machine normally and consequently not letting me back up my files. In other words, all my music projects, my iTunes folder and movies seemed to be all but done for.

Luckily, I was able to force a program called Pathfinder to open when I booted the computer up, which is like OS X's own Finder, but more functional. It enabled me to erase the offending files and back up all my files before erasing the hard drive and installing OSX afresh. Phew!

Super Mario Bros Theme - On One Hand

Kotaku have reported on a remarkable young man (youtube user RigorMortis999) who plays the entire Mario 'Overworld' theme on piano, using just his right hand!! Considering I can't even play the first bar using both hands on ANY instrument, I have to give the guy the respect he so rightly deserves........


Click!


Youtube videos of people playing the Overworld theme are nothing new, with many people performing and arranging the theme for a myriad of different instruments. However, some certainly stand out more than others: take Zack Kim, who plays the theme on not one but two electric guitars at the same time; and Greg Patillo, who BEAT-BOXES a hip-hop rhythm whilst playing the theme on flute!

However, I think the winner has to be this group of talented people. I won't say what it is, you'll just have to watch and see!


If you still haven't had your fill of Mario, then check this video out. It's a parody of another video where someone got really angry at the fan made 'Frustration' level of Super Mario Bros. Made me laugh so much!

Hope you like it!

Jamie

When Clapton saw Hendrix.............

..........he allegedly nearly gave up playing guitar. The following video makes me feel exactly the same way.....................

Click!

Brilliant.

The guy in the video is no other than Reyn Ouwehand, the composer for the game that got me into video game music (and indeed music in all its forms) in the first place - Flimbo's Quest!!!! Legend!

Michael Jackson's Involvement with Sonic 3 Confirmed

Not exactly breathtaking news considering the rumours and theories that have been doing the rounds on the internet for YEARS, but according to "Black and White" - the official French Michael Jackson magazine, his involvement in the composition of various Sonic 3 themes wasn't credited due to Jackson feeling that his works were ill represented by the gaming technology of the time.

By this I'm assuming Jackson wasn't a fan of chiptune then. But what did he expect from the Megadrives humble architecture? The poor old Z80 sound controller and its measly 8Kb of dedicated RAM could only handle so much (that being said, the Mega Drive's two internal sound chips were capable of some brilliant percussion, see the soundtracks to Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage 2 and Mega Turrican for good examples)!

Jackson wasn't the only one who had ideas above his station though. Nolan Bushnell wanted the sounds of roaring crowds to be included in 'Pong'. As Stephen Kent points out in his book 'The Ultimate History of Video Games', the now infamous ‘blip’ sound effect, whose sole function was to indicate successful contact between ball and paddle was actually created by mistake when designer Al Alcorn experimented with the sync generator found inside the game machine. And look how iconic that sound is! Sonic 3's tunes were and still are celebrated all over the world, and surely Jackson must have noticed, so I do not know why he would've been so coy as to have his name attached to such a great game.

Anyway, click here for what is arguably Sonic 3's most famous tune: Ice Cap Zone.

Enjoy,