For this time, I've chosen a few more items from my ever-growing and constantly expanding selection. The chosen albums for today all come from one of my favorite labels! (I don't normally memorize music industry labels like this, but they're an exception in my opinion.) I bring to you three random yet carefully chosen GameChops albums in...
Video Game Band Awareness Explosion! #4
GameChops Mega Trio Random Selection
As with all the VGBA Explosions!, I'll be keeping this short, sweet, and full of fast-takes of lotsa good video game music you should totally drop down on and get! But first, let's go into the intro of what GameChops is.
GameChops is a netlabel, created by Chris Davidson (Dj CUTMAN), for video game music peoples. All of the music released through GameChops is focused on remixing classic (not necessarily old) video game music. There's a pretty good variety of artists, video games remixed, and styles of remixary. There's just about something for everybody!... Everybody that enjoys video game music. Heck, if you don't believe me, go check out their site and look around at what all they got.
Now it's time to explore a few of those albums and give my suggestions. I tried my best to pick these at random and not follow any specific pattern. Now, GameChops used to be almost exclusively on Bandcamp (my main site for video game music in general really), but they've since moved to Loudr for various reasons. (My understanding is that Loudr offered an easier option for getting the video game music copyrights or whatever.) They still list their stuff on Bandcamp, but it basically points you towards the other site for actual purchase and downloading of it. HOWEVER! Bandcamp still allows you to fully listen to the song whereas Loudr only gives you a sample. So I'm going to post links to both!
Another minor note before I get into the albums, Loudr does this "Get Loudr!" thing where you pay more money for the album that they're asking. In general, it supports the artist more, but with most GameChops albums, if you "Get Loudr!", you're rewarded with an additional album or two depending on how much you're willing to give. It's just something nice to keep in mind, and you generally get a good deal out of it while also supporting the artists more! Hurray! ANYWAYS~
For the first album, I chose...
Another minor note before I get into the albums, Loudr does this "Get Loudr!" thing where you pay more money for the album that they're asking. In general, it supports the artist more, but with most GameChops albums, if you "Get Loudr!", you're rewarded with an additional album or two depending on how much you're willing to give. It's just something nice to keep in mind, and you generally get a good deal out of it while also supporting the artists more! Hurray! ANYWAYS~
For the first album, I chose...
Dj Jo - Tales of EDM
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| $5 on Loudr |
Sites - Listen at Bandcamp / Purchase on Loudr
Game Choice - Tales of Symphonia
Genres - Dubstep, Drumstep, EDM, Electronica.
Favorite Song - Beat The Angel
Now, I did play quite a bit of Tales of Symphonia back in the day. Unfortunately, I never beat it. Even got to the final boss... (Story for another time.) Tales of Symphonia (and "Tales" series in general) are pretty great RPG time. It's also hella long RPG time, but that's besides the point. Tales of EDM offers a small selection of them Tales' music, but it's been... ELECTRONICA-FIED! The mix here is a lot of Dubstep, so if that's not your thing, I'd say give it a chance regardless. Really, REALLY like Beat the Angel here. It's just so much fun and in your face! To be honest, I didn't remember the music so much until I got this album. I also proceeded to purchase the HD Collection almost purely because of this. Haven't played it much yet, but what I did play really brought back memories...
Next up in our album selection is a jump from RPGs to CASTLEVANIA!
Joshua Morse - VLAD
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| $4 on Loudr |
Game Choice - Castlevania series.
Remixed Genres - Chiptunes, Dance, Dubstep, Electronica, Techno.
Favorite Song - Vampire Snap 2 (Castlevania - Vampire Killer)
The Castlevania series is well known for it's vampire escapades and often highly challenging but fun-to-the-core gameplay. The flagship title in the series still remains to be Symphony of the Night... AND FOR GOOD REASON! It defined great action-platform-RPG-ary with plenty of exploration and pushing you to do better and better and BETTER! Seriously, there's a pair of sunglasses that if you don't get, the game ends on the worst possible ending. If you do get them, you're thrown at one of the greatest ideas ever! You do the entire castle again... UPSIDE DOWN! (The genius of it...) I've nostalgia'd enough here though. Only other statement is to do yourself a favor and play Lords of Shadow. (First one. Second one is just okay in comparison.)
Beyond the actual games, Castlevania has always brought along some great music. I know that several of the first games introduced music that's pretty prevalent in the video game music scene. (Tears of Blood, Vampire Killer, Wicked Child) Now, VLAD brings in some pretty heavy dubstep elements, and I know how people can feel about that. I'd still highly recommend it though since you get some dope remixed Castlevania beats out of this. (If it's all still too much for you, do yourself a favor and listen to the originals. Too good to miss!)
I believe the kids are saying "epic drops", "totally killer beats", and other various music slang word stuffs. VLAD's an album that even one of my friends, who isn't a VGM nut like me, really enjoys. Get your dancing vampire on with... VLAD!
Now we come to the (previously planned) final album, and it's Final Fantasy-related!
Beyond the actual games, Castlevania has always brought along some great music. I know that several of the first games introduced music that's pretty prevalent in the video game music scene. (Tears of Blood, Vampire Killer, Wicked Child) Now, VLAD brings in some pretty heavy dubstep elements, and I know how people can feel about that. I'd still highly recommend it though since you get some dope remixed Castlevania beats out of this. (If it's all still too much for you, do yourself a favor and listen to the originals. Too good to miss!)
I believe the kids are saying "epic drops", "totally killer beats", and other various music slang word stuffs. VLAD's an album that even one of my friends, who isn't a VGM nut like me, really enjoys. Get your dancing vampire on with... VLAD!
Now we come to the (previously planned) final album, and it's Final Fantasy-related!
Mykah - Final Fantasy - Triple Triad
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| $8 on Loudr |
Artist - Mykah
That's right. I actually brought around some Final Fantasy remixes to mah Final Fantasy style blog. Triple Triad is aptly named after the card game in Final Fantasy VIII. (Easily the best card game in a game ever!) Alongside FFVIII are various songs taken from FFVI and FFVII. The variety contained within is pretty astounding really, and the title track, although based on the card song, is pretty damn dope. Personally, I prefer my two favorite songs, but I also really enjoy the originals.
Sites - Listen at Bandcamp / Purchase on Loudr
Game Choice - Final Fantasy VI, VII, and VIII.
Remixed Genres - Chiptune, Dubstep, Electronica, House.
Favorite Songs - The Man with the Machine Gun and J.E.N.O.V.A.
Game Choice - Final Fantasy VI, VII, and VIII.
Remixed Genres - Chiptune, Dubstep, Electronica, House.
Favorite Songs - The Man with the Machine Gun and J.E.N.O.V.A.
Every song has been remixed with plenty of love and care. You get a nice mixture of the old sound which is then dropped down with some great bass sounds. Again, it is dubstep, but I'd say that 90% of the songs are handled and mixed so well with the dubstep-style that you won't even notice. They're just really well done and a great listen for any fan of the games and songs covered here. I'm going to be honest. This is easily one of the best GameChops releases to date. I enjoy almost every album that comes down the line, but this is among one of my favorites albums and offers great repeated listenings. Enough said.
And this final listing is why I said "previously planned" up above. I had planned for only three albums here, but then I realized I could do four. Thus, I end today's little VGBA Explosion! on another great GameChops album that takes from possibly one of my favorite game series of all time... Donkey Kong Country!
halc - Club Kong
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| $5 on Loudr |
Artist - halc
Sites - Listen at Bandcamp / Purchase on Loudr
Game Choice - Donkey Kong Country series.
Remixed Genres - Chiptunes, Electronica, Jazz Fusion.
Favorite Song - Swept Away (Aquatic Ambience)
Game Choice - Donkey Kong Country series.
Remixed Genres - Chiptunes, Electronica, Jazz Fusion.
Favorite Song - Swept Away (Aquatic Ambience)
I'm going to try and keep this one short since I tend to droll on where I shouldn't. Club Kong opens with a nice funny bit from brentalfloss, and then it goes on to cover a couple songs from Donkey Kong Country. Now, that series has some incredibly amazing music to it. Seriously, hit up the Youtubes and look up Donkey Kong Country. (Personal suggestions would say Aquatic Ambience, Stickerbrush Symphony, and Kannon's Klaim.)
The track selection is limited (kinda short album), but they're all really good picks. Rather than doing a huge assortment, we're given a great taste of what music at this "Club Kong" most possibly sound like. I can tell you right now... I'd definitely go to Club Kong, but I also really enjoy the Donkey Kong Country series. Thus, I'm a bit biased.
You'll be happy (I think) to know Club Kong goes a bit different than the other albums in that... It's not dubstep! So if you were shying away from the rest purely for that reason, than look no further! (I'm giving dubstep quite a bit of heck on this review, but I mean it no ill harm. I just know that opinions on it are pretty well split.) Club Kong brings us in with a final club-y style to a great conclusion on an amazing set of albums.
The best part? There is sooooo much more to explore from GameChops! Don't stop here with my paltry list of four albums. You should go out and explore the rest of their library. Who knows, you might find something you like more than what I've listed here.
So! What does this post really say? That GameChops consists of a large amount of Electronica. I'd say that's completely fine, but I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more variety. Of course, this is like 50-60% of video game music remixes in general. The other half is generally rock and metal. I know there's something in the 5% margin that really gets out there with acoustic or something way different, but here's not the time for that. Maybe... MAYBE NEXT TIME! (Or something else, you'll just have to wait and see!)
And so we see the end of another explosion of Video Game Band Awareness. I could go on and on for hours and list a countless number of albums to post up and talk about here, but that just means I've got more for next time! LOOK FORWARD TO IT!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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