Friday, March 15, 2013

Game Music Online: Game Music Mashups: Chrono Jigga and Ocarina of Rhyme

My partner sent me a link to 2Mello's mashup of Jay-Z and the Chrono Trigger soundtrack, Chrono Jigga.  My daily work has me firmly in the classical music scene and I don't really follow pop music very much at all, so while I like all styles of music, I have to rely on others to keep me in touch with pop music and especially rap, which lies outside of my normal musical radar.  If you like game music and you like rap, you should check this out because it's really well done.  My favorite track is unquestionably An Encore in Time.  Not only do I love Mitsuda's Corridor of Time, but the rapping seems to fit so seemlessly with the music.  And then there are tracks like Masamune Problems, where the game music is quite altered to make it fit with the rap-- significantly less clever for me, but still interesting to hear.  

This album was eye opening to me because I'm not familiar with the idea of a "mashup." At least, not that word, although the idea is definitely one that I've worked with, but under the guise as a "multiple piece arrangement" or a "medley."  I just heard similar techniques on Glee last night with Bye Bye Bye and I Want it That Way Mash-Up.

I also found an Ocarina of Time Remix by Team Teamwork when I was looking for more information about this kind of music.  Perhaps for a game music audience, coming at game music from a more popular vantage point, this kind of music is already known or expected.  For me, though, it's very creative, new, and interesting.  While I haven't ever made a piece like this, I understand the principles of how it's done with audio software.  Very cool.

Do you know of other mashups involving Video Game Music?  If so, let me know about them so I can give them a listen!

4 comments:

  1. I know I've been commenting a lot lately (sorry, just discovered your blog and I need to catch up), but I have a couple mashups I enjoy, both for FF7. One is Jay-Z and The Specialist's "The Mako Album," and the other is Random & Lost Perception's "Black Materia: Final Fantasy 7." Oh! And there's also Alex Kresovich's "Gold N' Fly: 007" for Goldeneye. All good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please feel free to comment! I created a blog instead of working on a book/article in part because a blog allows for interaction. Thanks for these suggestions; I'll definitely check them out. The whole idea of a mashup is new to me, so I kind of feel like a kid in a candy store with it right now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Two of those are true 'mash-ups', but the one that is most intriguing of the albums I mentioned is Random & Lost Perception's 'Black Materia.' While 'The Mako Album" and 'Gold N Fly' are mashups featuring already-written and produced rap songs, 'Black Materia' is an album with original lyrics by Random that actually have to do with the game. Each song is written based around the game story when the song is played. If there is one album I can recommend, it would be Black Materia.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'll definitely give these a listen and update with a blog entry once I do. Thanks again for these suggestions!

    ReplyDelete