Friday, June 3, 2016

Game Music Online: Ultima Final Fantasy Podcast

Often when we're road tripping, Vince will play podcasts as we drive, switching it up from radio all the time.  He recently put on an episode of the Ultima Final Fantasy Podcast.  I'd never heard of it before but enjoyed hearing the episode he put on.  It's a spotlight on Nobuo Uematsu, part one.  Part two will hopefully be out soon.  The podcast is made by Joseph Degolyer and Kaleb Schweiss and has been around for several years-- guess I'm late to the party.  Not all of the episodes have a musical focus, but the Uematsu one definitely does and would be so much work to put together.  Wow.   

While I wish there were more technical explanation about some of the music discussed, the coolest part for me was simply to hear so much of Uematsu's work chronologically.  From early games that I didn't know he had a hand in through Final Fantasy VI, this episode consists, significantly and happily, of a lot of listening.  I didn't love the fact that they opted so often to play remixes of the music; I like to hear the originals!-- and they have too much of a preference toward rock remixes that sound like the Trans Siberian Orchestra.   That said, remixes are a cool way to involve a huge fan group and base online.  

I find Uematsu to be one of the greatest composers in game audio and one of the most influential composers living today.  I think history could easily look back on him as a Beethoven in the game audio genre.  If you love his work as much as I do, his sweeping melodies and fascinating harmonies, you'll really enjoy hearing his progression in game audio in this podcast.  

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