What are you listening to? [VGM Edition]

[strangenova]

I love this track! That upbeat sensual jazz guitar just sells it

[Xeogred]

Castlevania Chronicles, the one nobody talks about...

The master that was 90's CD VGM:

[marurun]

Super R-Type stage 1 (Solo Sortie) was in my head throughout my entire morning walk. It was almost driving me bonkers. Had to listen to it on YouTube a bunch to actually clear it out of my head before showering.

[Xeogred]

Dead or Alive 1 has some amazing music. Some of it sounds like Capcom and Konami fused.





The arcade version is awesome too:

[J T]

Super R-Type stage 1 (Solo Sortie) was in my head throughout my entire morning walk. It was almost driving me bonkers. Had to listen to it on YouTube a bunch to actually clear it out of my head before showering.

I love this track! The game is great too, though damn near impossible.

This is my favorite kind of SNES era music where the musicianship is really ambitious to compensate for the simple synth instrumentation. This track has some great funk bass and rhythm guitar, with heroic synth horn, electric piano, and synth guitar solos.

It may be harder to fully appreciate this music for people that didn't grow up in that time period, but this really takes me back to that point of transition from 8-bit to 16-bit where music was suddenly more than synthetic noises, but actually became discernible representations of real instruments like strings, guitars, and trumpets. At the time, this increase in musical realism was just as incredible as the increases in graphical realism when you switched from the NES to the SNES. Today, it seems strange to apply the word 'realism' to SNES graphics or sound, but it was a huge jump from 8-bit. And today, I now love listening to this kind of stuff where seriously talented musicians did everything they could with the limited tools available to make something catchy and exciting that didn't become too repetitive, which is really hard to pull off with any success given the simple instrumentation.

I think this track is a great example with the many solos layered over the multitracked funk backing of bass, drums, rhythm guitar, and synth pads, along with the many orchestra hits that come at the most exciting parts. It's equal parts cheesy and skilled, which hits this musical sweet spot of being something that you can appreciate for the technical skill in the musicianship, but the music is still difficult to fully take seriously, yet it's still really fun and adds to the sense of adventure in the game. Great tune!

[Xeogred]

I see what you're getting at. To think that some of my earliest exposures to SNES games after Super Mario World ended up being Super Turrican (Ocean) and Donkey Kong Country... yeah the sound in those was life changing haha.




I just don't get how my parents and others couldn't respect music like this at the time.

Then my neighbor had a Genesis, and Shinobi III which to this day is probably the most nostalgic videogame soundtrack ever for me.

I was just listening to this arranged (maybe official) track of Shinobi III, that sounds a LOT like the Chrono Trigger soundfont to me haha.

[Sano]

Lufia II - The Final Battle

[Stark]

I've been listening to the end boss theme from Dark Souls since beating it. So good.

[Xeogred]

I've been listening to the end boss theme from Dark Souls since beating it. So good.

Such a weird yet perfect piece for a final boss theme. Duality!

[BoneSnapDeez]

Just nabbed this game off of Steam. Haven't played it much, but I found the soundtrack extremely engaging.