02 October 2013

Episode 153: Free Play 15.3

For this free play, Brent is joined by Erich Beckmann and Ryan Olson of the video game music cover band, Kirby's Dream Band.  They talk a lot about Kirby music and a lot about orchestra hits.  Full track listing below.



Game - Composer - Song - Company - Console - Year (North American release unless otherwise indicated)

LandStalker - Motoaki Takenouchi - Let's Go on an Adventure - Climax Entertainment - Genesis - 1992

Classic Road - Hayato Matsuo, Hitoshi Sakimoto (prog.) - Training - Opera House/Victor - Super Famicom - 1993

Wagyan Paradise - Eriko Imura - Sunken Ship - Namco - Super Famicom - 1994

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - Yasunori Shiono - Watchtowers of the Seal - Neverland/Natsume - SNES - 1996

Monster*Race - Kennosuke Suemura - Organized Race - Koei - Game Boy (Japan) - 1998

Kirby's Dream Course - Hirokazu Ando - The Tricky Stuff - HAL Laboratory - SNES - 1995

F-1 Grand Prix Part III - Naoki Itamura - Qualify - Video System - Super Famicom - 1994

Konami Wai Wai World - Shinya Sakamoto, Shigemasa Matsuo, Atsushi Fujio - Konami Man - Konami - Famicom - 1988

Operation Logic Bomb: The Ultimate Search & Destroy - Yasuyuki Suzuki - Base 2 - Jaleco - SNES - 1993

Last Bible III - Hiroyuki Yanada - Field Theme 2 - Atlus - Super Famicom - 1995

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - Jun Funahashi, Yukie Morimoto, Hidenori Maezawa - Aquarius - Konami - NES - 1990


Relevant Links:

Kirby's Dream Band on Bandcamp...


Kirby's Dream Band on Facebook...

14 comments:

  1. Downloaded Pink Album already and its awesome! Instantly puts you in a good mood. This Legacy Music Hour user salutes you.

    Great work on the podcast. Another great episode. The Classic Road track was so good.

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    1. By the way, if you listen to Pink Album, the Chrono Trigger track contains fantastic versions of Secret of the Forest and The Floating Continent. Two of my all time favorite CT songs. I would keep a save file in Zeal just to go back and listen to the song (SPOILER ALERT: since the location wasn't available later in the game).

      Anyone else every keep save files just to go back and listen to the tracks pre-Internert?

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    2. Thanks for the kind words, man!! We really try to be as precise and honorable to the songs we cover as much as possible. <3

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    3. Will Oliver:
      Yes! I used to keep save files of my MS-DOS games, even after I uninstalled a game, so I could listen to sections when I chose. I had a save file just before the end on Conquest Of The Longbow, by Sierra. The credits would play a medley of all of the songs, I would put on head phones, and lean back in the chair, and close my eyes. Also, the ending to Space Quest III had great music (The intro does too!)

      Erich, I listened to some of the Pink Album today, and that Sonic II medley was awesome! It really got me pumped!

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  2. That Operation Logic Bomb track was my favorite of the episode. Speaking of Operation Logic Bomb, that game was one of my best finds on the SNES. I've made it a tradition to play through it to completion at least once a year (along with Secret of Mana, M.U.S.H.A. and Sonic CD). It's definitely an overlooked SNES classic that should be in every retro gamers library.

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  3. So I realized my favorite Kirby track is actually Ripple Field 1. (sorry for forgetting the title) It's just.. SO PERFECT. It's so dancey and everything I love about the music from the game.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRjEBqGsI2o

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  4. Kirby's Dream Course was probably my favorite Kirby game. The game itself was a lot of fun, but even when it was frustrating the music would make you feel better.

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  5. The Wagyan Paradise track reminded me of the theme from Taxi Driver.

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  6. That Landstalker track was a slight bit off... I can't explain it exactly but it was one of my favorite games and I have the soundtrack memorized haha. It sounded like it was 10% slower or blurred.

    I have the soundtrack that I can up to a video, because both the versions I found on youtube had the same problem.

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  7. Lehjani, I know what you mean. It felt like the percussion was lagging. I've heard that a few times throughout different episodes of the podcast, pretty much only with the Genesis tunes. It may be the way the file is created(in parts), I don't know. But I do know Landstalker sounds better than that!

    Nathan Daniels

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  8. Man, I always get excited every time you guys play some Lufia II. You were pretty much right, Brent: Watchtowers of the Seal is played during the penultimate dungeon(s) of the game. My favorite part about that track is that it sounds like Shiono basically took the standard tower dungeon theme and souped it up for the game's final push.

    Also, thanks for the personalized invite to the upcoming SF event and the compliments. I'll be there and I'll give the song another shot! Hopefully I can live up to the expectations...

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  9. I'm not exactly an expert on this, but the Operation Logic Bomb track is unusual because, as far as I can tell, it adds or subtracts beats during transitions that throw off the ear in addition to changing the time general time signature.

    I'm confident that the first section after the intro is straight 4/4. Everything after that is shaky.

    The second section seems close to 4/4, but it doesn't start on the downbeat of the first measure; the first snare strike of each couplet is the downbeat, but with the way that section starts (as well as the way the other voices interact around it) the brain wants to be an upbeat instead, and it scrambles you. The third section is 12/8, but I think it's shaving off a fraction of a note at the end of each 12 beat measure.

    The thing to remember is that game music doesn't need a time signature at all. Each possible fraction of a beat is of equal weight, like squares on a grid of graph paper, and they don't have to be grouped or conceptualized in a way that a person can "feel" the rhythm for real-time human playback. I bet this composer shifted their musical phrases around and/or deleted random blocks in experimental ways simply because coding allowed that kind of freedom, and then they loved the brain lockups that occurred when trying to locate the beat of this track's final version so much that they kept it this way. So really there may not be any "real" time signature in sections two and three at all -- just a rough approximation of one, in theory.

    Apologies if you addressed any of this on later episodes -- I'm still catching up.

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  10. This episode introduced me to LMH, because Mr. Olson was my college roommate and is my friend. The first time I listened to this, the Operation Logic Bomb track was my favorite, but Erich's enthusiasm for the Last Bible 3 track won me over, and now that one can make me emotional!

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  11. It was so interesting that one of the guys, either Erich or Ryan, said that Last Bible 3 sounded similiar to Klonoa on PS1, because I actually thought that exact thing about an earlier song in this episode, Sunken Ship, which I found out actually IS the Klonoa composer!

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