Baiyon is a DJ, art director and graphics designer based in Kyoto, Japan. Several years ago he released the album “Like a school on lunch time,” an experimental approach to minimalistic electronic sounds. He has collaborated on a variety of visual design projects and museum exhibitions, which can be sampled on the website wetside.jp. For [...]

Uppsala-based videogame cover artist Lie Mf B has been reinterpreting 8-bit game themes since he released his first album in August of 2004. His songs primarily involve live instruments marked by a funky, raw sound, while the arrangements themselves are methodically fine-tuned. The juxtaposition between spontaneity and careful consideration can be heard on his latest [...]

In attendance at last night’s Press Start Symphony of Games taking place at Shibuya’s Bunkamura Orchard Hall were a number of Japan’s videogame music luminaries. Koji Kondo took the stage to introduce Super Mario Galaxy, Nobuo Uematsu offered a pre-Final Fantasy Square medley, Motoi Sakuraba was there to represent Baten Kaitos, and for a surprise [...]

It can be a strange feeling walking into a Virgin Megastore in Los Angeles and finding only a handful of videogame soundtracks. By contrast, today in Tokyo the staff of Tsutaya Shibuya recommends Echochrome Original Soundtrack, Tower is calling attention to the score for Siren New Translation, and Rockman 9 OST has just hit the [...]

Fifty judges comprised of industry experts were asked by the organizers of the Penny Arcade Expo to select ten outstanding independent games for this year’s PAX 10 showcase. The finalists ranged from ambitious takes on familiar genres like 3D action adventure and RTS to off-the-wall story and gameplay ideas.   Dylan Fitterer created a rhythm [...]

Nico Nico Douga’s popular fan remixer has released the fourth installment in his series of Mega Man vocal arrangements. This time Hyadain paints a picture of Metal Man by way of electronic metal, a brooding loner who insists his heart is made of… well, metal. It follows the stories of cool FLASH!, hyperactive Quick!! and [...]

Last year, 5pb Records organized a concert during which prominent videogame composers performed renditions of their own compositions and remixed their favorite tunes from the history of videogame music. The free range of the selections at the Extra – Hyper Game Music Event has made a planned DVD release unlikely due to licensing issues, but [...]

The PAX 10 is a selection of independent games recognized by the organizers of the Penny Arcade Expo.  Among them this year is Audiosurf, the first game to use Steamworks, a free development suite based on Valve's game design technology.  The PC title allows players to participate in rhythm-action gameplay to the beat of the [...]

  In July, music publisher Team Entertainment announced a best-of battle remix album would be offering up reinterpretations of themes from Namco Bandai's "Tales of" series.  The album is on sale today in Japan, and the official webpage has been updated with six energetic-sounding samples. They can be found at the bottom of the linked [...]

Ian Hartley is a Tokyo-based DJ hailing from London who publishes drum'n'bass, acid jazz and electronica mixes through his independent label, kikaizuki.  He and Matt Baggiani have collaborated under the group name Ante on Final Fantasy Remix, an album featuring club style arrangements of songs from eight different Final Fantasy games.  The project was directed [...]

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is in open beta on XBox Live Arcade until September 5.  The full game is headed to XBLA and PSN, with high resolution sprites by artists at Udon Entertainment and an arranged soundtrack by members of OverClocked ReMix.  London-based musician Malcos has been contributing to the online remixing [...]

  Other E3 parties had free beer and free swag, but did they have an R&B cover of the password screen from Faxanadu?  Level Up! Level 2! took place the day before the Business Summit at the nearby California Institute of Abnormalities in North Hollywood.  The second anniversary celebration of GameMusic4All showcased the talents of [...]

1994 marked the first time for many listeners in English-language regions that videogame soundtrack albums became available. Through promotional offers in gaming magazines, Nobuo Uematsu’s score to Final Fantasy VI was released as the three-disc album "Kefka’s Domain."  The soundtrack to Donkey Kong Country went on sale under the name "DK Jamz."  Around the same [...]

When the musical score for Final Fantasy IV debuted in 1991, videogame audio was at a turning point in Japan. The game's inclusion of a theme of love attempted to approximate an emotional moment on the newly released 16-bit hardware. History suggests that composer Nobuo Uematsu pulled off the experiment.  For many players the song [...]