It’s sad how predictable this blog has become, eh? What was once a powerful conduit of the labyrinth of forgotten videogame music lore has become just another YouTube middle-man. O! the humanitee! But maybe things will change around here for the better soon. *wink*

Ah, but Synth music! Yes, I seem to be bridging some sort of gap between cheesy-but-endearing, well-crafted catchy movie soundtracks from the 70s-90s and video game music from said same period. I’m sure there’s a scholarly analysis of it to be found in there somewhere, but don’t expect me to find it. Who the heck has that kind of time? What do I look like to you — some sort of trustafarian Portland grad-student in tight jeans and dyed hair, moving to Portland and inviting you to visit so I can string you along for a relationship that will never happen?!? *froth*

(Ahem…)

In the early ’90s, Jerry Bruckheimer and co. made the supremely awful film, Days of Thunder, the target of the later terrible spoof, Talladega Nights. But from all this badness came some fun music from Hans Zimmer, with the help of Jeff Beck. Unfortunately, the two only do a handful of soundtrack score pieces — the majority of the soundtrack being top-40 major label swill. So it goes.

I usually give Hans Zimmer a lot of guff. But he’s better than John Williams (Hollywood composer) realistically. I can jive with some of Hans Zimmer’s stuff, but he’s no traditional western musical-academic master. He’s not exactly a maestro of the modernist compositional school. He’s more like an epic rocker who has a good sense of scoring. Why, this is the difference between a good metal guitarist and Hans Zimmer: Hans Zimmer can score his music on a grand staff.

As I said, this music is a lot of fun. And it is yet more endearing when you realize it’s for a supremely douchey movie starring Tom Cruise, Lizardman, Esq. Really, this music is way too minimalistically epic to accomodate such a profoundly mundane and shitty story. I would almost call this music unintentionally ironic.* This music should accompany some kind of soul-changing mystical endeavor. But coming back from defeat to win a big redneck car race and finally impress all the shallow, macho assholes you surrounded yourself with in the first place? WAIT A MINUTE, THAT’S WHAT I CALL A STORY! (maybe you guys could ghost-write my bio-pic?!)

But check out Jeff Beck on the guitar, baby! Cool stuff, esp. since he’s using that over-the-top ’80s saturated guitar tone, and with tube amp to boot! No joking around here — none of that dialed-in, direct-in crap found in modern movies and videogames. And Beck is a tasteful little puppy, too. He can play some fun notes and uses his Stratocaster whammy bar for good measure and in good stead.

Anyway, just something to brighten up your otherwise mundane day in which you go through an estranged world interacting with a variety of products and establishments that bear none of your craftsmanship or personal imprints whatsoever (or favorite on Youtube). No biggie.

As you may have surmised from the recent post on King of the Kickboxers, I’ve been wading through tons of B-movies from the ’80s and ’90s as of late. There are actually some real gems in there if you know where to look. One well known B-movie action series is the Tae Kwon Do propaganda vehicle, Best of the Best. The original starred James Earl Jones, Philip Rhee, Chris Penn and Julia Roberts’ brother. But by the third and fourth movies, the only remaining character was Rhee (it was his showcase all along, after all). It is worth mentioning that Philip Rhee is/was actually Loren Avedon’s martial arts instructor in real life (Avedon being the star of the aforementioned King of the Kickboxers).

The movies are cheesy, weirdly paced, and full of violent action scenes. Rhee’s pants are consistently too tight and his shirt is always tucked in, further accentuating his obscene T-shaped body (guy looks like a filet mignon, ya dig?). He’s just too hunky to be true. As per usual, the themes are the crazy action baloney of a ridiculously good-natured person with killing and maiming techniques taking out scores of one-dimensional hate-mongers (wouldn’t a malicious person inspired to learn killing techniques be more effective than a moral person? Hrmm, I wondaz…).

But, in bizarre B-movie fashion, there is a pretty rockin’ soundtrack! I sometimes wonder if I’m not just some B-movie weirdo who likes crappy low-budget stuff like some snobby lo-fi indie rock twerp, or a creepy giallo horror buff. But I have bigger philosophical quandaries to solve, so I pay little attention.

The theme song this time around is by Barry Goldberg, infusing some swaggering Nashville country rock with a smoky blues vibe. Nice! I thought the soundtrack it was so cheesy and intolerable the first time I saw this movie a number of years back, but I think the aesthetic is really cool now. The movie still sucks unbelievably hard, but hey — almost every movie does that and has nothing admirable to show for it.

Today’s endearing, lesser-known music track is from the late ’80s-early ’90s cheeseball martial arts extravaganza, King of the Kickboxers (starring none other than ingenious Tae Bo creator, Billy Blanks, as the villain!). The choreography is tight and outrageous, and the expressions, script and acting are beyond terrible. Seriously, this last fight scene is so precious, an extreme blend of acrobatic and choreographic talent as well as utterly tacky film cliches.

The music is fun, reminiscent of classic ’80s fare, like John Woo’s The Killer. It was composed by Richard Yuen, a Taiwanese (?) composer, who scores soundtracks and writes for pop musicians in East Asia. Or something. I don’t know, really, as I didn’t find this song because I was listening to Richard Yuen’s back-catalog of nuanced synth-wind/reed instrument-laden work. No! I was searching for the ultimate in martial arts foolhardiness and exciting cornball bravado.

I think the film had a Asian production staff, not to mention the choreography was done by Tony Leung Siu Hung, whom did several other movies in kickboxing’s hey-day, including the boldly cheesy but impressive, No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers. That one also starred Loren Avedon (from King of the Kickboxers) and had supreme, in-house, synth music — since it seemed to be produced by the same film firm.

Why the rights to the lousy Double Dragon movie weren’t handed over to this production crew and staff is completely beyond me. This stuff is basically Double Dragon live-action, only more rad (and it’s also unnecessarily violent).

Anyway, enjoy the ending titles. Somehow, really soft, explicitly melancholy ending themes on studio keyboards set against obnoxiously violent stories with minimal character development always really tickle my heart-strings. I’m no stranger to good taste, it’s true!

I was poking around YouTube and I found a video interview with a really great local DC guitar teacher, Jake Sheffer. Jake’s a seasoned player whom I had the privilege of taking classical and jazz guitar lessons from for a couple of years. I keep meaning to hit the dude up again these days, and see if he has time to show me some more tricks for a few bucks (maybe he’d be interested to hear that I’m now a guitar teacher myself!)! Unfortunately I’ve been in and out of financial straits and different time-consuming music projects since I last saw him a couple of years ago. Hence I keep putting it on the back-burner. But life is short, so I’m gonna do it soon.

Anyway, Jake showed me music by a lot of different cool musicians in the time I practiced with him, and he is a pretty mean and seasoned guitar player in his own right. Besides this, he is a ridiculously friendly, nice guy. I know people casually describe each other that way these days; rest assured that with Jake, it’s a legit personal description. He is a truly cool dude, through and through — doesn’t have a single touch of egotism, cynicism or pretense, but has also been around the block and loves the instrument and is always finding new stuff to play and share. If you’re looking for a sick jazz or classical guitarist to study with, you might go see if you can’t register for some private lessons over at Montgomery College in Maryland, where he’s been the primary guitar chair-in-residence for a while. At the very least you might be able to get a good recommendation on where to study in your area.

In the coming posts I’ll probably link to a bunch of mean guitar players that Jake inspired me to take influence from. But today, see for yourself what he’s about:!

One of the better songs by neo-folk (pagan folk?) luminaries, Death in June, is the title track from their album, But What Ends When the Symbols Shatter? Besides this, my favorite album by them is the out-of-print classic, 93 Dead Sunwheels. The band is socially linked to the bands Coil, Current 93, Sol Invictus, Nurse With Wound, and The Legendary Pink Dots, and has also been an influence on many modern post-black metal bands.

The band is notoriously surrounded by controversy via their use of Nazi imagery, symbolism and motifs throughout their band history (never mind the long-standing alliance with ex-Neo-Nazi/Satanist, Boyd Rice). The band side-steps all accusations with press statements (Douglas P. is gay, our friends are Jewish, these songs are actually about something else, etc.) and claim to have no interest in actual white supremacist views.

This is actually all probably true, because the band is only interested, above all else, in being antagonistic, subversive, and emotionally manipulative (energy vampires!). So the controversy is intentional. A poor excuse for artistic integrity, but sometimes they write catchy tunes.

(Why the fuck am I posting this on Yom Kippur?)

I don’t know how I missed it the first time around, but the Playstation 2 Berserk game (a Japan-only release) featured a second original song by Susumu Hirasawa — one which is unsurprisingly incredible. ‘Coz with this guy, you know to expect a soundtrack emotionally unfurling the cosmic essence of ambition, perseverance, valor, and other epic qualities;  as would be expected and necessary from whomever was conscripted to score music for the greatest story ever told (Berserk, genius).

Anyway, he revisits the theme from the first song off the soundtrack, “Sign”, in much a similar way as he reprised the theme from “Forces”. I really can’t say much more worthwhile information on the track. Listen to the song, watch and then read Berserk. In that order.

Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films are an international cultural staple. Everywhere I go on this forbidden planet, total chowder-heads and dilettantes alike will proclaim his genius with an exuberant zest almost equal to that of yours truly — and this is a pretty cool thing.

Ah, but what’s the secret to the consistent quality? It isn’t merely a result of the innate talent and hard-work of the director, producers and staff of Studio Ghibli. It’s also the case that Miyazaki maintains nearly total control over every aspect and stage of the project. Little of the animation and drawing is outsourced from their studio, he still hand-draws some of the project frames himself, and everybody on the Ghibli team is forced to actually care about their job. This is similar to gain-staging in recording audio — keeping a careful watch over the audio levels when recording, mixing and mastering, so as to maintain optimum balance and quality. You don’t have to keep an eye on it, but those who do come out with the most controlled and intentionally detailed work.

Studio Ghibli is the pinnacle of hand-drawn animation, and it’s amusing that I still encounter people who won’t watch it or give it a chance just because it’s anime: “kids’ movies.” But when someone tells me such a thing, I recognize it just means that person really just doesn’t know anything (plus it’s an inherently racist Euro-centric notion that because Euro/American cartoons are mainly aimed at kids, all cartoons are aimed at kids). You can be the most brilliant surgeon or aeronautical engineer or political analyst or business executive in existence — but if you don’t get Miyazaki, you’re a fucking shadow in this world. Your genes are deficient and it’s a fluke that you even have a sex drive.

Joe Hisashi does the music in nearly every Miyazaki film; one of my favorite scores is that of Kiki’s Delivery Service. This youtube video does us all a great service by binding together the two brilliant catchy ending soundtrack pieces of the film. The first song is an inspiring pop gem, and the second is a catchy throwback to ’50s doo-wop. I suggest you listen to these songs, as there are few other things in the world that mean anything at all.

Been trancing out lately to the master, Yuzo Koshiro. One of his really excellent soundtracks, in which he dominates yet another genre of techno-dance music is Wangan: Midnight Maximum Tune 3. The Streets of Rage (Bare Knuckle in Japan/Europe) games had ingenious soundtracks which built upon and developed a sound in the niche of early-90s Detroit house techno and then (in Streets of Rage 3) progressive house/glitch.

If you haven’t heard of them, the Wangan: Midnight games are an intense arcade-racing series from Japan. They’re originally based upon a manga of the same name. The term Wangan refers to the Bayshore hi-way route in Tokyo, noted for its illegal street racing (via Wikipedia). The games themselves are renown for having super-killer techno music composed by the aforementioned Koshiro.

Seriously, even if you don’t like hard trance or club techno, listen to this stuff! The guy really is so clutch — using his academically informed, western-classical wizardry to write gorgeous melancholy inspiring dance music. Yuzo was actually a child-prodigy training under the venerable Joe Hisaishi (the maestro behind all the Miyazaki anime soundtracks!).

Unfortunately, for the moment, it sells on sites like Amazon as an import and costs a pretty penny. So if any of you know of a place I can pay for a legal download or a cheaper hard copy, I’d be much obliged.

Yuzo Koshiro – Phantom Blue - Wangan: Midnight Maximum Tune 3

You’re beautiful, brah.

New music posts coming up (on Locusta/Artillery Breath, some classic VGM, random Youtube songs, etc.) but not today, unfortunately! I am…. in a mood.

***

Basically, I’ve been listening to Katatonia non-stop again. I remember Aversionline was talking about them a lot when their back-catalog was reissued a while back. One of the best bands of all time at the very least; some of the greatest songwriters of all time. So genuinely honestly melancholy and depressed without resorting to vulgarity or blatancy — and featuring really potent lyrics.

Ha! Or don’t listen to it, you cynical, privileged, humanities graduate.