06/14/2019

A Hip Hop Tribute To Yasunori Mitsuda & A Song So Catchy You Won’t Believe It’s From Ultima 3 (From The Attract Mode Archive: #050)

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

The following post originally appeared on attractmo.de, on April 15, 2013.
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I’m surprised it hasn’t made a bigger splash elsewhere, so may as well pass along the following: have you heard of MITSUDA? It’s tribute mix tape that’s dedicated to the one and only Yasunori Mitsuda. You know, the composer who helped to define what JRPGs should sound like? And almost single-handedly, via his Chrono Trigger score.

MITSUDA is the brainchild of Julian Wass, who previously tapped into Xenogears for Main Attrakionz’s Cloud Skatin. Besides featuring a who’s who from the hip hop and electronic music scenes, Derek did the cover! Best part? It’s a free download, so nab your copy here. Also, special thanks to Ryan Sands for the heads up.

Anyhow, since we’re talking about music anyway, may as well pass along a few related odds and ends…

- Back to the subject of mix tapes, I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned Ventla already. He’s based in Japan and is “in the process of releasing 100 digital albums for free over the coming months or years.” Myself, Adam, and especially Asif are totally in love with the guy, and you honestly can’t go wrong any one of the 22 albums he’s released thus far.

His Tumblr is equally awesome; a few weeks back, he highlighted the soundtrack to the Famicom/NES version of Ultima 3: Exodus, which was composed Tsugutoshi Goto, who hails from the 80’s Japanese electronic scene. Here we have the arranged version of the game’s theme song, Knife of the Eye, sung by Noriko Hidaka…

 

Here’s another cut from the game’s arrange album. The uploader states: “I ripped this song from my old cassette tape, so sound quality is the worst.” And Ventla’s response pretty much encapsulates perfectly why I dig his taste in music and body of work as a whole: “I do love this hiss and hollowness.”

 

- Sticking with Japan; I’m heavily into chiptunes, as well as giant robots. And it’s not often in which the two intersect, which is why why Studio Me-Gaane is especially awesome (and you can depend upon Mecha Damashii to be the first to report on it, as is the case here).

It’s either some person in Japan, or a few couple of people, who create 8bit covers of mecha anime, mostly the classics, like Gundam, Macross, and Patlabor, as well as some contemporary staples, like Evangelion…

 

You’ll also find covers of non-mecha anime, like Ranma 1/2, and even some American shows, like the X-Files?

- Remember my Instagram dump right before Christmas, in which I showed a pic of chiptunerBatsly Adams with two different Sega Nomads? Well, apparently, one of them is used for just visuals. And here he is showing everyone how such a device can be used to do such a thing:

- While on the subject of visuals, I also need to give a shout out to the phenomenal chiptunes coverage that has been gracing Tiny Cartridge as of late, largely due to the efforts of Dannel Jurado. Perhaps my most favorite highlight from him is from last month, which shows off how banging the Montreal chip scene has become…

 

- And finally, another great place to keep abreast of game related tunes is Original Sound Version. Their
most recent post asks if the following slice of smooth jazz has hints of Mega Man 2. Specifically the 1:30 mark. You be the judge…

 

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