And Time Here Forked

“Limitless” by Nobuko Toda (戸田信子), for Sentritsu no Stratus, an anime-styled PSP game unreleased in the West. Previously, Toda was one of the composers for Metal Gear Solid 4 and other Metal Gear titles.

This is the start of a mini-series highlighting aggressive, militant cues by female composers.

First up is a track by Erina Niwa (丹羽 映理納) called “North Airport ~ Argus 2 Battle” for PlatinumGames’ Vanquish. It takes a little while to develop and open up, but around the 2:30 - 3:00 mark it turns into something beyond just the usual full-spectrum background beat.

The true range of the human voice is underused in almost every type of modern music. Film and game soundtracks in particular so often resort to generic sample library “hooh, hah” and Latin phrases in tedious attempts make things feel “epic.” Why don’t we ignore those and listen to this: David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir, in Trio Meditation Three, pointing towards the sublime potential hidden in our very own vocal chords.

Would you believe that the same composer who wrote the subdued, atmospheric music for the PlayStation 2 classic ICO also wrote this old-school monster movie theme for 2002’s Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla? The professional chameleon in this case is film and video game composer Michiru Ōshima (大島ミチル).

Update! Thanks to James McCawley for pointing out that while the main themes of ICO were composer by Ōshima, the ambient pieces were actually created by Koichi Yamazaki (山崎 耕一), also known as pentagon.

For fans of irregular meter in games, this is “Mountains” from the original Vandal Hearts. Music by Hiroshi Tamawari (田廻弘志).

Joe Hisaishi summons all of his Miyazaki-movie stylings for the score to Ni no Kuni, Level-5’s vaunted collaboration with Studio Ghibli.

It takes a lot of nerve to cover Super Mario Brothers in the grand year of 1991 when it wasn’t cool to do so, when chiptunes and nerdcore and post-ironic low-fi didn’t exist. Check out how angry the crowd is (not safe for work).

Mr. Bungle had that nerve. Now of course frontman Mike Patton has been The Darkness from The Darkness and the Bionic Commando from Bionic Commando (and the Anger Sphere from Portal), and any band doing this today is likely to get a much warmer reception. It all goes in great big circles.

This is “The Castle” from Machinarium. The composer is Tomas Dvorak. In 2009 he discussed this track with an interviewer:

The song is in two parts. One is more rhythmical, with these concrete instruments (the pizzicato from the string instruments). Later, in the second part, it’s collapsed into more ambient stuff, but you can still hear the melody from the original part through the granular effects. It’s derived from the original tune, like maybe if you went to sleep and heard it from a dream. They’re like different faces of the same tune.

The phrase is exposed in different interpretations through the sound. I like this kind of approach. 

Surely the most majestic music ever composed to accompany a zombie invasion of 16th century Japan, this is Samanosuké Shirabe (Samanosuke’s Theme) from the original Onimusha, released in 2001. The composition is by Mamoru Samuragotch (佐村河内守) who is said to have lost his hearing during the production of the music for this game. I wonder what has become of him.

1994: a 19-year-old Jeremy Soule is hired by a short-lived branch office called Square USA to compose the music for its only title, Secret of Evermore.