You can check out, download, and subscribe to the podcast at
Feedburner
iTunes

Welcome to the fourth episode of This Week in VGM, a weekly podcast of news and music from the video game inspired music community. This episode is a very lengthy special in which we check out the sites, but most importantly the sounds of Beep City.

This entire podcast is all about the first release from Beep City, Love Songs From the Future Volume 1. You can download the album free at http://www.beepcity.com/music/beep-city-presents-love-songs-from-the-future. This episode clocks in at nearly an hours worth of music, talk, and more!

I go over all 12 tracks from the release. I also talk with Beep City founders Moldilox and Djinnocide, as well as many of the musicians from the album.

If you would like to get in touch with news, questions, or perhaps to be a guest host alongside me in a future episode, you can email me at gamemusic4all@gmail.com

So on my usual wanderings on Kotaku, I came across a post that linked me to this video, “Pokemon, what happened to you?”.    It’s a video of man called Alex Day singing about old Pokemon games and old memories of them. This simply made my evening. After listening/watching this I had to see if Alex had anything else like this. Surely enough, he did, a recent release of an EP called “117% Complete” with a total of 3 tracks. Hopefully, this a start of possibly more nerd-esqe music from Mr. Day.

Each track covers over a video game classic, Mario, Pokemon, and Sonic.  It’s electronic, chiptune, upbeat music fits right in with the feel of these tracks.  Nostalgia fills the room when “Sonic Doesn’t Need A Story” plays going over all the various Sonic games and just why the speedy blue hedgehog is awesome!  You’ll also get a kick out of “I Hate Mario Kart Wii”.  Going through different events that can happen in a race with Donkey Kong, Mario, Peach, etc.   Getting hit with a blue shell or sliding over a banana setting you back a few places, all the reasons you can think of just why you get utterly frustrated every time you play Mario Kart Wii (or the other Mario Kart games).  The song that led me to this finding, “Pokemon, What Happened To You”, will bring a smile on your face (possibly a tear) and have you wondering as well what happened to all those classic Gameboy games that had you stay up in the late hours of the night obtaining all the badges.

“117% Complete” is quirky, fun, and will have you singing along sitting/standing/hovering/etc wishing for a 4th track.   I hope that Alex will do more of this and if so, you can bet I’ll get my hands on it asap.  It’s only $2.97 on iTunes or you could get the CD bundle which comes with buttons and a t-shirt!  Get this EP, we need to encourage Alex that his lovely listeners needs more!!!! (please)

Spring is almost in the air, people aren’t snowed in anymore, I do believe it’s time to get out of the houses, and into those clubs. Although since we are nerds, perhaps just sit inside some more and listen to some club music. To that effect I present a new EP by Jeff Ramos!

The album is available now for free download on the official release page for Hideki Naganuma Tribute

Jeff Ramos has created a DJ Mix album paying tribute to the music of this enigmatic composer, and simple called it “Hideki Naganuma Tribute.” The album is a half hours worth of club ready, dance making tunes brilliantly blended together for the maximum effect that Jeff Ramos believes Naganuma may have been aiming for.

GM4A Records very own resident chiptune champion Comptroller has secretly been working hard on his efforts in the RPM Challenge. For those who don’t know, the RPM Challenge is simply to “record an album in 28 days, just because you can.” Comptroller has stepped up to this challenge by boarding himself up in his room, with only a Gameboy, and a Commodore 64, and no food or water…well except he did have food or water. Nourishment or not though, Comptroller has laid down ten tracks of chiptunes which are available for free download and streaming over at his brand new Bandcamp page.

From the heart thumping intro of Open to the glitched out reprise of Exapno Mapcase, the ten tracks certainly lead you on a whirlwind journey through the month in the making land comptroller has set before us in his self titled sophomore release. This album takes on a glitchier more electronic style then his hard rocking debut Challenge! But is every bit a worthy successor, and an amazing album well worth checking out! So go, check it out! right now!

The Megas are at it again, and this time, they have dimmed the lights to tell you the epic ballad of a man. A Mega Man. This new album is dubbed the simple but sense-making Get Equipped and is available from their online store as a digital download for $10. Here is some more info direct from their website.

What started as a recording of one track just for a fun recording project/something to give the forum fans turned into an entirely new album!

Get Acoustic is a track for track remix of the Get Equipped album, done with acoustic instruments… but there’s a twist! We are accompanied on the album by the Monsteropolis orchestra (programmed by Eric) to give it a new layer of epicosity.

That is the basics of it really. If you were a fan of The Megas debut Get Equipped, you will definitely love this simplified style which hosts 13 tracks, including a new acoustic version of their hard to find release (It’s actually on our compilation Welcome to World 2) The Message From Dr. Light/Level Select. Not to mention all the original tracks from their debut album.

Stand outs for me included the awesome recreations of old favorites, like the even more Ballad like Promise of Redemption/Bubbleman. Also the orchestral backing to Programmed to Fight/Crashman creates a strangely appropriate build for this song, and probably creates a song even better than their original! My personal favorite from the album currently though, would have to be this newly arranged version of The Quick and the Blue/Quickman who’s western duel style riffs work just as well as imagined with the acoustic guitar sounds of this album. This is definitely an album worth checking out, but I am sure if you are a fan of The Megas you have already headed over to their site to grab a copy for yourself.

Sydney, Australia’s Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families (aka 10k aka 10kfreemen) has just released his debut physical EP. MKE OR BRK (pronounced “Make or Break”) is a collection of low-bit, low-brow, low-cost chipunk songs that are both fast paced and full of fury. MKE OR BRK is a huge departure for the one man, 8bit band. He leaves behind the various instrumental demos, netlabel EPs and collaborations that have floated around the World Wide Web and pushes himself further into a niche of a niche by capturing the raw energy that erupts from his vocally driven shows. For those who have not yet had the pleasure of witnessing a 10k performance, it is nothing more than one man, one mic, one Nintendo Game Boy and the time of your life. With solid production and mastering assisted by Chris Mylrea – also known as cTrix in the chipmusic world – MKE OR BRK is as close as you will get without being on the floor with 10k at a show.

MKE OR BRK is for sale as a professionally packaged CD-R, presented in a cardboard wallet. Alternatively it is up for download for very fair price of absolutely free. Visit 10kfreemen.com for access!

Songs for the Cure ‘10 from Josh Whelchel on Vimeo.

Like the past couple years, Josh Whelchel has been hard at work organizing compilations among the video game composer, chiptune, and VG remix communities and more for a noble cause. That cause is the Songs for the Cure 2010 compilation. The goal of the album is to raise money for the Relay for Life event held specifically at the University of Cincinnati and the American Cancer Society through music. The goal is to raise 10,000 dollars for cancer research by April 23rd, 2010. As of the time of this writing they are at exactly $3,194…No wait. $3,198 dollars. With your help the goal of 10,000 can be reached, and hopefully even surpassed over the next two months!

RIght now until March 1st (which is only a few days away!) the album is available with a donation right now. Head over to cancerdrive.org and send $10 to this great cause and you will receive a digital copy of the album in both MP3 and FLAC audio formats. If you want to really help though, a donation of $25 will net you a fancy free hard copy (and no S&H either). These prices only last until March 1st though, so be sure to place your orders right away!

What do you get on this album you might be asking though. Well you will be getting amazing music from the following list of performers, which include some of the best and brightest from VG Rock, VG Remixes, chiptunes, VGM, and independent music.

Two Seconds Away, Stemage, David DiMuzio, Alec & Eileen Holowka, Josh Whelchel, Jay Tholen, Big Giant Circles, Jessi Bair, Inez S. deDeugd-McComas, Morgen La Civita, Michael Huang, David Saulesco, Renee Winter, Tara Morrow, Helen Austin, Chiwawa, Inverse Phase, Michael Tanenbaum, Average Joe Crane, Roth Herrlinger, Melinda Hershey, Rich Brilli, Midnight Prophet, Bradley Burr, Rob Westwood, Terry Whitehead, Fever Pitch, FFMusicDJ & Postgoodism, Battlecake, Craig Stern, Danny Clay, T.R. Beery, Martha Mingle, Zen Albatross, 5 of 6, Barry van Oudtshoorn, J.W. Hendricks, 12 Followers/Meteo Xavier, Poolside, Gonçalo Lourenço, and more!

And to give you a taste of some of these amazing tracks, Josh Whelchel has sent me a demo for you to check out or download below. And remember, donate now at cancerdrive.org!

Songs for the Cure 2010 preview featuring Stemage – The Challenger; Tara Morrow – Your Name; Battlecake – Time Scar (Chrono Cross Arr.); and Josh Whelchel – Sing Gloria (feat. Tara Morrow, Melinda Hershey, Rich Brilli)

Unfortunately I missed last week’s Week in VGIM but oddly enough it was quite the slow week for VGM news and wasn’t too tough playing catch up this week. I do hope I did not miss anything though! Up above we have some fantastic artwork by GaryStorkamp aptly named The King of Kong. Also there are plenty new podcasts out from the past two weeks, as well as a good couple interviews and more. GM4A also had it’s very awesome second chiptune show, Pizza and Chips 2, which was a pretty rousing success, and a great show was given by all the performers involved. Watch out for a bigger update on that soon. Now for the links!

NEWS

• GameCube and Famicom Disk System feature same tune via Tiny Cartridge
• Pizza and Chips 2 recap via Letters VS Numbers
• “It often feels like a huge family gathering at our concerts!” Interview with Arnie Roth via GameMusic.net
• Whispers Of the Plains: Garry Schyman via Higher Plain Music
• Beep City Presents: Love Songs From The Future Vol. 1 album review via Game Music 4 All
• GameSetInterview: ‘Morsel Team on Bringing Indie Colors to Kaleidoscope’ via GameSetWatch
• Love SQ compilation album review via Game Music 4 All
• Nobuooo Five for 2009 via Nobuooo
• 
  Hironobu Sakaguchi shares sound equipment tips via Mistwalkercorp and Nobuooo

PODCASTS

• Nerdy Show Season 3, Episode 4: The Secret of Mike’s Success
• This Week in VGM 002: 02/07/10 & 003: 02/14/10
• Letters VS Numbers episode 023: “I Hope You Like Bodily Functions (and pokemon)”
• Overclocked After Dark Episode 13 – Big Lips Turn Stevo On
• Ballad of the Wind Fish for 2/16/10 and 2/18/10

REMIXES
Latest Remix:ThaSauce releases

• Cave Story ‘Welcome to Hell’
  by Divine Wrath

Latest OCReMix releases

• Xenogears ‘Echoes’ by Fishy
• Mega Man 2 ‘Cold Metal’ by Willrock
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past ‘Farore Lies in Wait’ by chthonic
• Wave Race 64 ‘Serenity’s Wake’ by Sole Signal
• Chrono Trigger ‘…And in Her Self-Loathing and Despair, She Found Wrath’ by LuIzA
• Final Fantasy VI ‘Desertion’ by zircon
• Final Fantasy VIII ‘Seasons’ by Ziwtra

Other singles and releases

• The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap ‘Mt. Crenel’ by Zelda Reorchestrated
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks ‘Final Train Exam’ by Zelda Reorchestrated

VIDEO
The video today is one I recorded myself, and is from our recent Pizza and Chips 2 show which was held February 18th in Rosemead, California. This is a performance by Wizwars of his awesome track “Intergalactic Disko Dance Party’ from his Handheld Heroes release of Gameboy Rock!!.

Remember to leave a comment with awesome articles, songs, videos, art, etc. for next weeks round up as well!

You may know Beep City from an earlier trek through the local ‘burb. But if you haven’t visited lately, you’ll notice that things have changed quite a bit!

Beep City has released their first compilation to rousing success. The lovingly titled free download known as Beep City Presents: Love Songs From The Future Vol. 1. The album includes many heavy hitters as well as incredible surprises from up and comers from the scene. Let’s hit the road to Beep City and find out what this “Love Beam” is all about then!

We drive up and down the streets to hear 12 incredible, brand new tracks from the town denizens. Starting off with it’s smallest of creatures, the lowly but noble mouse, or Bit Rat as it were, and his show starter Warm Green Something. Things start off with a fuzzy step to it, as if heading into early traffic on the way downtown amidst the fog and noise. Things start to clear up though and a star like pulse infiltrates the song creating a more childlike atmosphere of beeping cars and breezy open roads. The song holds it’s upbeat blips until the very catchy fading ending. This leads us right into a demon! No wait. Daemon. Daemon9623 no less, and his track Battle For Bifrost. Yes it seems we have stepped right into a climactic battle for the unclaimed souls of the city. A foreboding drum/lead riff quickly break into an over the top RPG like battle theme. With swirling highs and heavy lows all moving at an ever increasing pace. We hit a break of glitching riffs and double drum pedal badassery that builds into an ever escalating tension. This comes crashing down in the last 30 seconds of the track, as the music suddenly takes another turn. As if Daemon9623 has taken on another form, and makes his escape to battle another day.

The town slows down for a bit thanks to local highly respected citizen Alex Mauer playing the laid back Nicole Shippo. The song has a nostalgic windswept quality to it, reminding one of those hot summer days gone by in Beep City. Crunchy drums along with a relaxing lead and many small flourishes create a wonderful song to just purely enjoy. And now that you are nice and relaxed, let Nario tell you The Tale of A Pirate. The thumping bass/chip intro quickly throws you into the tale, with it’s manly melodies and ship swaying rhythms. This song is certainly one of many highlights of the trip, especially as we get about a minute in and things get a bit fishy, and very funky for this band of pirates. This is one of the longer legs of our journey, but the song remains varied and entertaining through to the fantastic ending of this tale.

Enough dawdling though, time to get back to work! Who’s work? Moldilox of course! What work? why he’s a beekeeper at the Honey Hive! This song is quite fast paced, and upbeat, just like one of many buzzing bees zipping around. Perhaps my favorite track here as well. Things start smple enough with a catchy riff, that much like a hive, continues to gather layer upon layer to it’s well made foundation. At about the 40 second mark, in comes a great wailing bit of chiptunery that that continues to build and wrap around itself as ever more layers are added throughout the song. Everything comes to a halt in the end though, save for that lovely little riff we started off with, but even that heads out too, and work is done for the day.

Looks like we aren’t done with our labors yet though. We reach the longest part of our day with the lengthiest track on the album. This is Temp Sound Solutions, and it is time for Infernal Shell. Things start out glitched out and scratched up. an ominous cacophony of sounds that may catch you off guard at first listen, but as you descend further into this cave of sounds, you rely less on your eyes, and every one of the many complex sounds starts to find it’s place among the others as we head further along the song’s path. At about a minute and a half we reach a relaxing cave of crystals and open air, and are surrounded by a mellowing silence. This does not last for long though, because it’s as if the cave wanted to give you a breath before the darkest depths are plunged. Two minutes in and things have taken on a deeper more sinister tone. The song ebbs in and out of it’s foreboding moods until we make it to the other side of the caves.

Here we run into the intrepid explorer Norrin Radd to escape and Never To Return. Somehow evoking both a cosmic race through the stars and an old western shoot out and train heist, the track really blends an incredible amount of thoughts, ideas, and elements into one short, fast paced chase song.

Now that we escaped though, where are we? This is a part of Beep City I have never seen before. We need some help. We need Captain Tortilla. He’ll help us escape with the power of Kludge. This track evokes the feelings of a classic NES side scrolling platformer taking place in an urban cityscape well past dark. Captain Tortilla takes us across roofs, through back alleys, and over chain link fences in this track. The low ends of the song, along with the meandering highs evoke a dark mood, as if seeing the seedier side of Beep City most folks try their best not to acknowledge. As the song continues things kick into a faster, more fearful tone. Like we have run into an end of stage boss in this alley’s dead end, and judging by the track, we lost.

Now it’s as if we are in a dream, brought to us courtesy of Prizmatic Spray. It appears to be the Flight of The Peacock Lords, and we are an observer to this rare spectacle. Starting with a droning buzz of sounds that quickly wrap around each other, shortening and taking form as more elements come together and create shapes and twists and tones. Things continue to build until the drums really kick in at about the one minute mark, and turn a dance like, dreamy atmosphere into a rocking out soundscape of bleeps and bloops battling it out. The song comes to close with an amazing breaking down of sounds, as if slowly stirring in and out of sleep.

We finally awaken, and take a look around. Appears we are once again in familiar territory. The dim atmosphere and glowing screens tell us we are at the ever popular Beep City arcade. We see a group surrounding one cabinet in particular. It appears that it’s Zio and TEH LOLZ, and he is going for the world record in the classic game Air Raid The Ocean! He plunks a quarter in and we hear the familiar monotonous bass kick in, a woosh of jet fighters, the kick of drums, and we’re off. The song hits home for fans of classic Shoot-em-ups with it’s great use of sound effects, and driving, but continuously threatening sounds. Enter the final boss at about the two minute mark, and the song kicks into high gear for the maddening ending. HIGH SCORE! Enter Initials: Z I O

Stepping out into the now dark Beep City night, we take a longing look to the sky. THere is something you catch in the corner of your eye. A UFO? Nah, of course not. Beep CIty regulars notice your confused glance and assure you it is simply Wizwars launching another Sputnik. The launch starts with a scratchy lo fi beat that quickly kicks into a catchy soaring rhythm carrying a fast moving beat. Adventurous riffs define this ever changing track, like the sporadic movements of an alien craft, you never know quite where this song is heading. The song hits a very funky lead at about 2:15 which is impossible not to enjoy, before picking back up. As if the rocket just ran out of fuel and took a short slowing breather before making it’s freefall towards earth.

It’s almost midnight in Beep City. It’s time to say goodbye to all the friends we have made today, and as the crowd gathers, who is here to see us off but one of Beep City’s very founders, Djinnocide along with Jungle Jim’s Jelly Bean Jamboree. Starting off a little somber as we wave goodbye, the song gets a kick in it’s step as we set off towards the horizon. the soft upbeat tones and clapping drums create a fantastic, almost credit sequence like mood that create a perfect closer to this album, and to this fantastic day in Beep City. See you next time!

All kidding aside, This album is simply fantastic. All the tracks are of the highest quality, and make for a fantastic listen when heard all the way through. Beep City has been a great site for not only top notch tunes, but also a method of chiptune creation that is very original and always interesting. Head over to Beep City and grab Beep City Presents: Love Songs From The Future Vol. 1 right now! Here’s to looking forward to Vol. 2!

For those who, like me, have not had the chance to attend PAX in person, or those who are attending the brand new East coast iteration (like me also) and want to do the proper research before diving in. Good news. Penny Arcade brings us an insanely sized six disc behemoth of PAX 2009. The package is available for $39.99 over at the proper PA merch page, and recorded fully and lovingly by the folks behind REFORMAT THE PLANET and other VG inspired music endeavors, 2 Player Productions.

The album not only covers the several days and tons of events at PAX, but also includes plenty of behind the scenes footage. Not to mention more 2 Player Productions produced material like the pilot episodes of Penny Arcade: The Series, and two fully made documentaries Omegathon 2009 and The PAX Experience. Most importantly to folks who read this site I imagine though, is the amazing recordings of the nightly concerts by incredible performers such as Metroid Metal, MC Frontalot, Anamanaguchi, and more!

Check out a preview of the footage from the DVD below.