Here‘s an odd one - it’s “club” remixes of a bunch of Saturn games.
I think I would’ve hated this in 1996 or whatever but now that it is 2020 I am pretty into it. Enjoy an oddity!
Sorcerer‘s Kingdom is an odd one; a next-to-unknown Genesis/MD RPG by NCS/Masaya, released in North America by Treco. Visually it’s a bit weird and off-putting at first. The design is neat and small and focused, though; it's this closed system where everything you do matters. Clear an area of monsters? It becomes a safe route and people start to develop it or move back in. And so on.
And the music.
So you know how that other weirdo Genesis RPG Sword of Vermilion has this rocking score, that almost has the energy of an arcade shooter... which makes sense because it was by Hiroshi Kawaguchi? Well, this... I don't know either of these composers, but again this is an NCS/Masaya game, right. So:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3MbC4s6vxU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtwIVbGYmW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0t28NknWRs
(I mostly include that third one for its inspired title.)
Ah yeah, you tend to like those real harsh genesis tones! this composer duo is interesting because, as you say, they haven't done too much else, though one of them worked on linda3 I guess, which is something.
While we're on the mega drive subject, I was just listening to the Demolition Man soundtrack. It's done with the much-maligned GEMS driver, but you can tell composer Nathan Grigg knew what he was doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuZ5bmmG29I
I have a larger thought about this that I'll share in a separate post eventually, but I never really thought of these "instruments" as guitars, or trumpets, or whatever else, I thought of them as just genesis sounds, basically until adulthood. And I like it better that way!
Yamaha FM is best when jagged and rusty, yes. That physical GRAWNK you can get.
Oh yeah, I can hear that empty, dead "TWERNG" tone of so many late-era Genesis soundtracks.This is neatly atmospheric, though. It works kinda like a film score, which... makes sense. When the guitar synth comes in, it reminds me a little of demoscene pitch-bending.
All of which is to say, GRAWNK > TWERNG.
I like a bit of a BWOONNNGGGG myself, but that‘s exclusively late-era :P
This here might be what sits in between our FM synth tastes - it’s got the low grind that I like, and the shrill piercing that you seem to enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xOgWzJb46A
It's also basically a doom metal track in genesis form.
Oh, the texture. This is so uncomfortable. It's great.
Made it to the synth theremin. This was a good choice.
(Maybe that's a warbly organ. Either way, this thing is all texture. Often very contrasting.)
Time for me to do my duty.
Let's start with some later Toshiharu Yamanishi work--mainly, his contribution to SEGAGAGA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2L3K2lID9s
And now, the best cut from Tatsuhiko Asano's work on Doshin the Giant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t94DyU_h2Jc
(Yes, these are just the most notable tracks I once uploaded.)
Let's cap this with some of my latest J-PC tune picks.
https://twitter.com/DragEnRegalia/status/1235341998883835904
June Chikuma's work on the Bomberman series is consistently mind blowing, and she has a pretty active Soundcloud as well:
https://soundcloud.com/junechikuma/saturn-bomberman-no-15
Here are some of my favorite game soundtracks
[World of Goo](https://kylegabler.com/WorldOfGooSoundtrack/): I feel like, maybe, people have forgotten about this game a little? But it did so many good things mechanically and storytelling-wise and the audio threaded into the game so perfectly (everything felt so absurdly heroic!). Track I like: "Are you coming home"
[Hero Core](https://brotherandroid.com/album/hero-core-ost-stereo-expanded-edition): This was a Daniel Remar game (remember Iji?) with a Brother Android soundtrack and the soundtrack basically my favorite chiptunes album ever. Track I like: "Natural Caves"
[Sonic Spinball](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Zzb1yu_x4): The Genesis actually had an unbelievably powerful FM synthesis chip in it, it was made by Yamaha and is a sister chip to the one in the infamous DX-10? Sonic Spinball I think is overlooked in exactly how hard it pushed the chip, that and [Toe Jam and Earl 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEwEX3JnJ8o&list=PL-vD6rIjXrcKEgXId929BkDHoXyGP6Qrc&index=9).
["Ufouria" by Sunsoft has a decent soundtrack by the same composer as Blaster Master but what really makes it important is that there was a bug in iNES 0.9 for Mac OS 9 that resulted in the noise chanel playing much too loud and turned the entire thing into a terrifying industrial sludge-a-thon that I have never been able to forget](https://data.runhello.com/ufouria.mp3)
@azure Oh, this oompah-NYERP piece is something new.
@mcc This is how it should sound. The universe knew better than the original coders.
there's no way trials of mana has better arrangement than sd3
well that's interesting, these days I work with Nate; he's been at Monolith for, something like ever
In this time of plague, I’ve been listening to this remix of the (very nice) Machinarium soundtrack on repeat! Floex does incredibly good shit for all the Amanita games.
oh, I‘d like to talk to nate on a podcast some day @BustedAstromech, let’s get in contact!
lotta hot tunes in here
@PasokonDeacon, really feeling this doushin the giant track - gonna have to listen to the whole dang thing now.
and @vmu_beep totally agree on June Chikuma - she was really ahead of her time, and worked on these kind of very “forward” mixed songs that have this real lush tone in the mid range. I keep asking vince to write something explaining to me how it works, ha ha. Did you get her album that came out recently? It's neat and weird, and shows her earlier inspirations. June Chikuma - Les Archives. Bleep.
btw @PasokonDeacon, really feeling this doushin the giant track - gonna have to listen to the whole dang thing now.
OH!!! I have to add to all the synth madness with this absolutely bonkers track from Star Cruiser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSkI0VkQm1I&t=1643s
the whole soundtrack is amazing, but this one is like - it communicates directly with my soul or something. also everyone should learn about star cruiser creator and big time inspiration to all humans Kotori Yoshimura: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/kotori-yoshimura-and-star-cruiser-how-twitter-revived-a-piece-of-japanese-gaming-history
@exodus yeah, let‘s kick the tires on this site’s private message function and see if we can set it up
i like this song, idk why. please enjoy it