Diggin' In the Carts: A video game music documentary

[drpepperfan]

Dunno if there's a thread about this, but it's cool so I want to post it here.

Red Bull Music Academy (yeah, Red Bull, it's weird) is posting a series of documentary videos about the history of video game music featuring interviews with Japanese vgm composers, video game historians and some western musicians like Flying Lotus for good measure. I wasn't expecting too much going into it, but based on the first episode alone, I found it pretty interesting. The highlights so far are easily the interviews with the actual composers, as it's pretty rare to see interviews with people like Junko Ozawa and Hip Tanaka.

It's being posted in chunks, only episode 1 is up now. Episode 2 should be posted next week.

Here's the link to the site, hope some other people enjoy it too.

www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/diggin-in-the-carts

[zilliont]

So Gimmick's soundtrack was inspired by "long bike rides surrounded by nature"? Wow, sounds like something Myiamoto would say about one of his games. Japanese people take inspiration from everything and anything, don't they?

[bakudon]

I think any artist can take inspiration from things both mundane and extraordinary, regardless of nationality.

[drpepperfan]

Figure I should bump this, considering I forgot to mention new episodes are out. Episode 2 deals with more of the 8 bit era and the end of it, while episode 3 involves the beginning of 16 bit game music. Subjects include Konami, Sunsoft, Sega Genesis and Capcom and interviews include Akio Dobasi (LaGrange Point), Masashi Kageyama (Gimmick. Gimmick gets a special mention!), Hayato Matsuo (Master of Monsters), Hitoshi Sakimoto (Magical Chase) and Yoki Shimomura (Street Fighter 2).

[zilliont]

I've already watched Episodes 1 and 2, and now I'm going to watch the third. Thanks for reminding me of it!

[Deleted]

Awesome, thanks for sharing this.

[drpepperfan]

New episode is out: The Cool Kid. This episode is about the Sega Genesis.

Interviews this time include Hiro / Hiroshi Kawaguchi (Space Harrier, Outrun, Hang On etc.) and Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage duh). Oddly enough, no interview with Masato Nakamura, even though they talk about Sonic. I guess he's busy with his actual j-pop job.

[drpepperfan]

Episode 5: The Role of Role Play. As the title implies, this episode is about Role Playing Games, or more specifcally, Final Fantasy.

This entire episode is based around Nobuo Uematsu's work on Final Fantasy, so the interviews are only with him and the people behind the Distant Worlds and Final Symphony concerts.

fun trivia included in this episode: the opening of one winged angel is based on Purple Haze

[Trickless]

I wasn't too sure what to expect but these are all brilliant! Some excellent interviews, and surprisingly high production values.

[drpepperfan]

Last episode is up: The End of an Era. It deals, as you would expect, with the end of the 16 bit era and the rise of the PS1 and the change in music that came with it. Interviews this time are THE ENTIRE TEKKEN SOUND TEAM. ALL OF THEM. (Tekken) and Hideo Kojima and the MGS Phantom Pain Sound Team (Metal Gear Solid).

And that's the end. Overall, I was very impressed by this. Red Bull did great work on this series.

[Gilder]

Looks like the Red Bull Music Academy updated the site, and removed ALL of the mixes provided by artists for the series.

Does anyone outside of North America have the mp3 to the mixes or are able to get them/listen to them?

Anamanaguchi
Ikonika
J Rocc
Groundislava
Hally
Ladyhawke
Rolling Uchizawa

EDIT: I've surprisingly found them in mp3 form.

[Gilder]

Unsure if this should be in a new thread, but Diggin' in the Carts is back as a RBMA Music Academy Radio show for eight episodes! Every Thursday 7 PM EST (with replays on Saturdays at 1 PM EST).

RBMA Radio Diggin' in the Carts

Episode 1: Manabu Namiki, Capcom, Mumdance, Hip Tanaka
Airing: Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. ET

Episode 2: Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Konami, Ryan Hemsworth, Kenji Yamazaki
Airing: Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. ET

Episode 3: Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Sunsoft, Space Dimension Controller, Tsukasa Masuko
Airing: Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. ET

Episode 4: Yuzo Koshiro, Namco, Claude Speeed, Hitoshi Sakimoto
Airing: Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. ET

Episode 5: Shinji Hosoe, Square Enix, Kidkanevil, Soshi Hosoi
Airing: Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. ET

Episode 6: Yellow Magic Orchestra, Nintendo, Qrion, Goblin Sound
Airing: Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. ET

Episode 7: Samples, Sega, Thundercat, Nobuo Uematsu
Airing: Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. ET

Episode 8: Diggin' Deeper in the Carts
Airing: Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. ET

[Gilder]

Upload of Episode 1 on Mixcloud for anyone who missed this when it first aired:

Diggin' in the Carts: Episode 1

[Gilder]

Diggin' in the Carts has returned for a second season! (I am very late on this). The episodes have been great thus far, with interviews with Soichi Terada (Ape Escape), Motohiro Kawashima (Streets of Rage 2 and 3) and Osamu Sato (LSD)! Airs every Wednesday at 7 PM EST and reairs Friday 7 PM EST. You can stream most of them through RBMA Radio (not for North America unfortunately).

Diggin' in the Carts has also now become an international tour, having already played in LA, Tokyo, and London. Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima played each one with a live set of their music. This is the longest video of the performance I could find from their LA show.

AND, Hyperdub records released a video game music compilation called Diggin' In The Carts, A Collection Of Pioneering Japanese Video Game Music. It is a great collection with music from games I've never even heard of.

In promotion of the compilation (and at that point, their performance in London), Nick Dwyer and Kode9 discuss the album at Radar Radio:
Radio Radar - Diggin' in the Carts