Yay, new Video. ^^ And I see that you got a GameCube streak going. 🤩

Musical Analysis: Continuing on with our communist agenda here is now the Pikmin series which exemplifies how you can accomplish all of your party goals as long as you are willing to make personal sacrifices and work together for the benefit of the cause; there is definitively strength in numbers. This time the cause is the rescue of Captain Olimar-a pseudo anagram of Mario just as his companion Louie is analogous to Luigi- who has become stranded in a not so foreign planet with high concentrations of oxygen that are deadly to our miniature hero. The game proves that sometimes micromanagement, in the absolutely most literal sense, can be fun. The last brainchild original series from the man with the Midas touch-Nintendogs is just Tamagoshi on steroids-developer Shigeru Miyamoto conceived the idea of combining his recent hobby of gardening with the way insects operate in colonies and the capability of the new console to generate multiple characters on screen-this is what became of the legendary lost title Super Mario 128-generating the whimsical Nintendo version of the real time tactical strategy gameplay that does not involve armies of medieval soldiers but plants whose cuteness make you question twice wether they deserve to be sent to the battlefield for your selfish goals of survival. This is pretty much Lemmings in 3D. For some reason the titular Pikmin take a liking to you and, as their new dark overlord, you decide what is best for them, which is you yourself. You use their hive mind services to recover the stranded parts of your S.S Dolphin ship, which just like Delfino Plaza is named after the codename for the GameCube console, and making it spaceworthy again. The Pikmin themselves are named after ‘ippiki’, the Japanese word for counting small animals, which during development evolved to Piki", then "Picky" and finally "Pikmin. an example of how language evolves at (literal) work. As you explore this curious planet and find some large objects that you recognize, you start to realize the implications that the cute front of the series is just an excuse to tell one of the darkest post-apocalyptical Nintendo stories, a tale of how humans are long gone and the flora and fauna we knew has been replaced by strange creatures most likely product of some nuclear holocaust; the geiger counter is constantly in action after all (or perhaps the Pikmin are just some kind of alien Von Neumann machines that take up the resources of planets as they continue to expand through the galaxy). So take care of nature-or not because it would be cool to have Pikmin around. The planet ended up being named PNF-404 - “humanity not found” And it is nature the protagonist here. You are stranded, alone, surviving in the wilderness, and the music lets’s you breath it. You can feel the thickness and the heavy air o the environment through this track. Sometimes nature need not be enchanted or mystical to be dangerous. All by herself, sister nature is enough to become a hazard and the greatest threat you encounter. The Pikmin main theme, as used for the first time in the time screen of the game, captures this devoid of magic nature, the savage aspects of being in the mud of a deep jungle grasping for survival. After all, The jungle is a harsh and hostile place, frequently deadly for its denizens, but even more ferocious to outsiders no matter what gear they bring with them. You should treat this jungle as a semi-sentient entity that is always hungry and has not evolved yet a protective mechanism towards cuteness; it is merciless........................

since you have the skills about deep knowledge on musical data...... would it be possible to also extract MIDI instruments from GameCube games like Wind Waker uses sample-based synthesized sounds for audio sequences ? We would like to see this entire soundtrack visualized in the future if it is technically possible or not

When those drums hit I was like mmmph! Still an amazing soundtrack by the great Grant Kirkhope.

WE MAKIN' IT OUT OF THE SOVIET UNION WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥🗣🗣🗣🗣

Exquisite craftsmanship. Hope to see more of the Perfect Dark and Goldeneye soundtracks.

The communist flag behind the notes💀

☭

Yay new Video :D And I like to read your Comments under the Video (even if I maybe read a bit rushed) ^^" Even though the placement of the Tetris theme is weird in Super Smash Bros Brawl, I would still say that the arrangement from Yoko Shimonura did bring across a spooky vibe, fitting for the Stage.

Musical Analysis Music: Korobeiniki Composer: Random Slavic Dude Arranger: Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka Plattform: Anything Melodic and Harmonic Profile: Russian Boom! Тетрис for Game Boy Inaugurating our music program from the portable console of Nintendo that took aver the world is none other than the incredibly addictive, infinite, play anywhere, anytime Tetris phenomenon, the only sneaky way the Soviet Union ended up conquering the West during the Cold War and, ironically, creating the best selling video game in the capitalist market during the process-before being taken over by Minecraft proving that if you wanna sell a lot you have to develop games about cubic building blocks-It was the Game Boy killer app long before you could carry monsters in your pocket. It is also a very profound allegory of the Berlin wall and how if you fit into its system you can construct a solid wall, the primary goal of the game; if you climb it all the way up and don't fit into the system it means you escaped and did not help the Motherland. Game Over. The history of how such a game from the most unexpected region ended up conquering the Western market is a saga in is own right, full of conspiracies, betrayals and espionage. So much that even a film and books have been made about it. the gist of it is that it was developed circa 1984 just for fun at the Soviet Academy of Sciences by a computer researcher, comrade Alexey Pajitnov, who didn’t receive a penny from it for many years. He was just trying to have fun and recreate a favorite puzzle game from his childhood featuring pentominoes but that was too complicated so he scaled the concept down to tetrominoes. The game was titled Tetris, a word created from a combination of "tetra" the Greek word for "four" and his favorite sport, tennis. The game exploded in popularity across the institute and then to pretty much any other institute with a computer, going so far as to decrease the productivity of the workers and making bosses ban it. By serendipity, a copy of the game ended up catching the attention of a visiting Londoner from a software company; he got addicted and had to do a lot of research in order to uncover its origin. After very difficult and confusing negotiations riddled with Tetris stumbling blocks due to language and cultural barriers, the man got the license (or at least he thought he did) for the game and began exporting it to the rest of the world. The Russians had never done software licensing before; somehow, lots of guys ended up claiming that they also got the copyright, people were selling rights they didn’t actually own and everything became a huge mess, with many versions of the game circulating in multiple platforms. Meanwhile, in Moscow, the government took over the negotiations since the Academy of Science was an academic institution and couldn't indulge in commerce anyway, making things more complicated. Amidst the chaos Nintendo entered the picture, also by serendipity, to try and secure an actual, real contract for the game. They wanted something easy to plug and play for their then-top secret and upcoming Game Boy system; something that appealed to the everyday salaryman. The game was brought to their attention by an European associate and they basically sent him to infiltrate the negotiations, uncover who actually owned what and bypass all the middlemen in order to get the actual rights, at least for the handheld since it appeared other rights were already given. In a few days, the spy got the rights to the handheld versions, and made the discovery that the Soviets had never actually licensed anything except the PC version. The ruthless president of Nintendo saw the opportunity and also got the rights for home console, suing everybody else who thought they owned those rights, including Atari who had to stop production of its Tetris game, and whose version quickly became a collector's item. The rest is history. The Game Boy was a smash hit, and Tetris became as well known as Mario. years later the Nintendo ambassador helped Pajitnov, the Tetris creator, emigrate to the United States. Pajitnov was able to secure the trademark and rights to the Tetris name soon after, eventually buying the rights fully. it was not until 1996 that he began receiving royalties for his own intellectual property. He formed The Tetris Company in the late 1990s, and it continues to release Tetris games today, which are found in pretty much every electronic device you can think of, from calculators to the most powerful consoles to even an entire building-and people have the nerve to say Doom is the game that runs anywhere; ok, maybe running on a pregnancy test takes the cake. Soundwise, the original music for Tetris was…absolutely nothing; just the sound of silence, not even sound effects. The first version of Tetris with music was from Spectrum Holobyte in the United States, who were eager to exoticize and emphasize the Soviet origins of the product; a puzzle from a far away land. The art was full of red and yellow, images of the kremlin, they plastered the iconic Saint Basil's Cathedral all over the place among other Slavic imagery and started the trend of including Russian music, putting in Tchaikovsky's "Trepak" from The Nutcracker and Reinhold Glière's "Russian Sailor Dance" from The Red Poppy. Those are the original Tetris themes. This approach differed from other versions of Tetris from other countries at the time: Mirrosoft's Commodore 64 version in Europe used an atmospheric soundtrack, and Sega's arcade version in Japan used a synthesized pop-influenced soundtrack-as you can see the rights were all over the place-Yet, other developers jumped on the bandwagon, always including Russian folk songs arranged for the different systems...........................

Imagine playing this at a wedding

Holy, super highly quality rip. And nice sound-font. Thank you for sharing! I would love to keep seeing this

Mario Sunshine is like one of my favorite Mario games, and the music is just INCREDIBLE!

Can’t wait for a series of these. Would love to see these tunes broken down instrument by instrument.

Yay new Video. :D And I always love how much information you're bringing to the Table. The Motel 6 Commercial caught me right off-guard xDDD

Awesome! This sounds just like the original!

Musical Analysis Benvenuti a Plaza Delfino! Where Mario will finally get the chance to reconnect with his Italian ancestry. Perhaps they even decided to visit some relative or Mario wants to show Princess Peach where he comes from; the important part is, that we are no longer in the Mushroom Kingdom or its surrounding wacky worlds. We are now in the era where both Mario and Link are attuned to expansive bodies of water and the period where both Mario brothers decided to expand their body moveset with specialized devices attached to their backs (developed by the same inventor as it happens). Like all things Mario everything begins with a functional gameplay idea and then a locale and story are fitted to it. This time around, for the awaited successor to Super Mario 64-which took a whopping 6 years to come out proving this series is not as milked as it could be-the best way they found to expand upon the fluidity of movement from the first 3D entry was in the figure of the Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device, better known as FLUDD, an specialized multipurpose water hose and pump that Mario uses as a backpack; the brand new shoulder buttons of the GameCube controller that allowed precise graduation inspired the developers to create a water pistol where you could control the flux of water. From there the water motif inspired the concept of summer and then developers decided to create a town with various buildings and roofs for players to experiment with their water device; and since water is now the protagonist what better than to change the setting to an island out in the sea. This is Isle Delfino, a mediterranean tropical paradise that brings Mario to his most realistic and cohesive setting yet-at least before the ridiculously realistic New Donk City literally appeared on the map-The entire game is a single location with the vacation theme where you can see every world on the horizon. The water and paradise concept makes it so that the enemy this time around is their opposite concept: pollution. There aren't any goombas or Koopas around. Here you can use water to pretty much interact with anything and clean graffitis and goop. The realistic setting means we find ourselves now at the southern coast of Italy, whith Isle Delfino having Italian names for its various locations and Italian signs coexisting with the strange dialect of the local Piantas (naturally, Italian for plant); the place where Mario and all of our musical terms come from. The dolphin shaped island is based around the Il Gallo Lungo island at the western part of the Amalfi Coast, whose main town directly inspired the architecture of Delfino Plaza. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalfi_Coast#/media/File:Amalfi_panorama_I.jpg If you ever wanted to live in Isle Delfino this is the closest you will get. If this was The Legend of Zelda then composer Koji Kondo would already have the work laid out for him, just use an Italian tarantella or any other popular folk dance from the region since the music from Zelda is based around location and environment; but Mario music is all about movement so a pleasant gondola tune won’t do-perhaps only in an alternate reality where Mario’s vacation is not ruined-Instead, Kondo uses the typical melodic phrases and Italian folk instruments like acoustic guitars, mandolins and accordion (or organetto which is the Italian equivalent) as starting points; and since Yoshi is also here, he decides to once again capture the frenetic Mario movements with the fast paced rhythms of gypsy jazz, the preeminent European jazz music that serves as foil to the Latin jazz heard all across the Mushroom Kingdom and its surroundings, just like the rhythmic style was used for the main theme of Super Mario World, a callback to their first ever ruined vacation in a tropical island. Even though back in the SNES era Koji Kondo wanted game music to be completely original and did so by pairing instruments you would not normally see together in a real world example, by the time the GameCube came along with more realistic samples and the realistic setting of Super Mario Sunshine he now decided to use instruments you would hear on a real Italian ensemble; but his originality ambitions for game music still remain by using the instruments to play the gypsy jazz style. The GameCube had now the potential for a big instrument set and much more recorded music. Despite this, Koji Kondo did not change his approach, going for the simplicity of a small sequenced ensemble. He focuses more on the dynamics of the samples and manipulate volume and vibrato to create realistic articulation for his instruments. The Italian organetto phrases and guitar lick chorus are laid on top of the fast paced staccato guitar and possibly a mandolin accompaniment straight from the gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt, a Romani musician that established the genre conventions in part due to an accident where he lost the movement of two of his fretting fingers, forcing him to develop a workaround for this and the result was coming up with a style with certain chord shapes and melodic lines where chromatic movements, chord that are close together and diminished shapes are king. Another aspect of the style is based on the chord shapes Reinhardt was forced to use due to his injury. Standard barre chords are not as common in gypsy jazz. Major and minor chords are almost never played, and are replaced by often broken major 7th chords, major 6th chords, and 6/9 chords implied by just three notes. Gypsy jazz groups generally consisted of a lead guitar, violin, two rhythm guitars and bass. The rhythm guitars supply the percussive rhythm called la pompe, which, in conjunction with strongly syncopated bass lines makes a percussion section redundant. Unlike American jazz that features prominently the horns, gypsy jazz is based around guitar, making it sound more acoustic and folkloric. kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2bbfnuPj998mNE Just replace the fiddle with the organetto and you get yourself your Delfino Plaza Italian gypsy jazz................................

You may not like what he's done to the world............but you gotta say........respect to Ganondorf.

A relatively simple melody, but it adds to the playful friendliness of the Gorons. And the nice texture of the instruments adds so much atmosphere and personality to it! Koji Kondo is amazing!

New Video, yay :D But you kinda confused me at the beginning. I never played the Perfect Dark Games so I never heard the theme. It sounded so dark, so atmospheric, so... creepy without the main melody. In the end were every part comes together, now the themes invokes the spy influences it strifes for. Always love it when you play the theme with only the base instruments at the beginning and ad the other instruments piece by piece. 🤩

Musical Analysis In the year 2023 cars will fly, the governments of the world will be controlled by reptilians waging wars with big corporations, AI has gained conscience and laptops become weapons. These are all the accurate predictions made by Perfect Dark-they just don't want you to know the truth-the tech noir sequel to GoldenEye 007 in a parallel world where the James Bond series jumped the shark and went into a mega futuristic direction (even though the series has come close to it). In a video game though, it allowed the GoldenEye team to do a more ambitious story and permeate the gameplay with all kinds of wacky mechanics that only the freedom of thinking about the future and not dwell in the set on stone past brings to the table. The Rare team are not longer limited by the constraints of the Bond franchise. They can now lean into any kind of influence in order to advance the FPS genre thanks to the bold decision of trying to establish a brand new IP as opposed to the well known spy film that gave them the GoldenEye success-it also didn’t help that Electronic Arts basically outbid them for the rights to the next 007 film-This freedom permitted this spiritual successor to be a, literally, more advanced sequel with exciting new plot points, devices and weapons that otherwise wound not have been possible. The game is a love letter to classic cyberpunk staples like the films Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell, TV shows like the X-files or full on conspiracy theories on the internet. To differentiate further the game from its predecessor it was decided that this time around you would be put on the heels of a female protagonist, Joanna Dark, possibly named after the historical patron saint Joan of Arc and modeled after the actress Winona Ryder; she is the titular Perfect Dark due to her perfect scores at the Carrington Institute. The developers might have come with the name of the game due to its cool sounding properties or maybe the character was named first after Joan of Arc and then the name followed. The music once again was going to be in charge of the team made Grant Kirkhope and Graeme Norgate-at least before the later decided to leave Rare mid-development alongside half of the team to found the company Free Radical Design, which would take with them the futuristic concept of a FPS to create their own TimeSplitters series; Grant Kirkhope actually had to com into the project after this incident since he was already in charge of two other big projects-They were joined by new hire Dave Clynick who did the cinematic sequences and multiplayer. The score, just like the game itself, is GoldenEye 007 with an additional layer of futuristic and sci-fi paint applied. Graeme Norgate brought in most of the new sounds used. We now have brand new synthesizer sounds directly inspired by the famous Blade Runner electronic score and the iconic whistling sound from the X-files on top of the industrial, beat based production of the Eric Serra’s GoldenEye movie score. Analogous to the game itself, the composers are no longer constrained by the musical tradition of 007; we no longer have the reliance on the James Bond theme but all originals. The main menu theme composed by Grant Kirkhope exemplifies this brand new mix of sounds, having the GoldenEye sound at its basis with additional sci-fi elements and a more mysterious sounding use of notes. Bringing his signature tritone based compositions from the Danny Elfman inspired Banjo-Kazooie series, which is now forever in his DNA, Grant shapes the new conspiracy tone of the Perfect Dark series, using the diminished fifth as the basis for both the harmony and melody of the theme. The 007 roots are still there, with a distorted version of the chromatic 007 vamp. For the 007 vamp you must retain pedal root note and then advance the interval chromatically from a perfect fifth to a minor sixth then to a major sixth and back to the minor sixth; that is James Bond. Like CG - CAb - CA - CAb. For the Perfect Dark one, as can be seen on the electric piano ostinato, you get the same idea of advancing chromatically and then back but this one is more dissonant, reflecting the vibe of the game; instead of going up to the major sixth interval it goes down to the tritone so the vamp is now based around CG - CAb - CGb; you are no longer a cool, sophisticated spy but a heroine trying to solve an otherworldly conspiracy. The instruments also serve as an additional spoiler-just like the alien Elvis being reflected in the eyes of Joanna-for the sci-fi and alien elements we will encounter. The industrial percussion made now of sounds UFO engines would produce are aided by the theremin, a staple of otherworldly science fiction and alien invasions since the Bernard Herrman score for The Day the Earth stood Still, plus the Blade Runner synth sounds. These are no longer sounds coming from soviet submarines or nuclear industrial facilities; these are now sounds made by non human made weapons, UFOs and other space ships. The filtered out arpeggiator-like sound was inspired by Blade Runner-similar to the Stranger Things theme song which also takes inspiration from 80s film scores. It is a modular analog synth sound inspired by music sequencers. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYGZZHWIr7CgeJI The electronic based score from musician Vangelis has inspired all things cyberpunk. Could the N64 actually replicate this sound of a dynamic filter that evolves the sound in real time of a synth patch as if it was some kind of organic based alien technology? Not at all. So what you hear here are the results of the sound designers painstakingly recording different samples of the synth sound with different filter settings applied and then putting them together manually to give the effect of an electronic musician turning the filtering knob in a musical manner-which is basically an EQ that modifies the frequency content of a sound, altering its timbre and creating this pulsating effect. The idea of the electric piano ostinato and sinister sounding notes combined with industrial percussion and distorted cymbals might have also come from the Blade Runner soundtrack kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJOrkGlteNuBoJY We also have other unnatural sounds like reverse cymbals which is something only musicians with access to alien technology can produce. The 007 submarine sonar is also back, but this one is a different metal percussion clank pitched down, creating continuity with the previous entry and making this a true spiritual successor in presentation, gameplay and sound. The synthesizer used for the bass has a very metallic attack, so much that at the lower frequencies it is practically another percussion instrument. Musically, the theme goes between a C Aeolian/minor profile and a C Lydian one due to the tritone, figure that is then transposed to F when the theremin plays. There is an interesting rhythm contrast between the dotted quarter note basses and the electric piano ostinatos changing every two beats, since the bass notes arrive faster to the chord than the ostinato. The strings play the same melody on the C based progression. The transitions are marked by the reversed cymbal, which is when the attack and sustain of the note are interchanged, creating a strong sense of anticipation before the cymbal hit arrives in sync with the new section. A full progression that would work is Cm - Ab Cm - F# - C - F# Fm - Db Fm - B - F - B The two favorite harmonic movements of Grant Kirkhope, going to the minor sixth and going to the tritone. This adds the something-not-quite-right layer to the Perfect Dark tone. Perfect Dark was the first ever Nintendo published game to get an M-rating since there was more blood depicted than in GoldenEye. Since all eyes were on what the developers of GoldenEye would come up with, unlike the first time, the team expanded to three times its size and decided to expand on all fronts, with lots of content and customization for the multiplayer. The less realistic setting allowed the team to have carte blanche and go wild with ideas for gadgets and weapons. The series has continued sporadically, witht even a long forgotten Game Boy game companion to the N64 title. trying to establish a new franchise and heroine on subsequent platforms. There is a next installment coming up and apparently Grant Kirkhope auditioned but was not selected since the landscape of video game music today is more incidental film score type based than a level theme looping endlessly, which is what the composer is maybe more closely associated with. Special thanks to @JukeDenton for help in getting the sequences ♫ Support the Channel: www.buymeacoffee.com/musictracks ♫ Media files, requests and support for future interactive tools (Patreon): bit.ly/officialmusictracksmedia Or give thanks and join as a member.

I think this is missing instrument channels?

Angklung my beloved. Favorite part of the tune honestly.

Kinda reminded me of rainbow tylenol after a bit.

Yessss we're getting to Final Fantasy stuff. Sometimes it's hip to be Square

You honestly put to shame other theory channels. these are like dissertations. This is a complicated piece!

The legend did it! The legend diiiiid iiiiiiiit!!! 🥳🥳🥳

Musical Analysis The original ‘Why do I hear boss music?’ moment. It’s the end of the world as (the music let’s) we know it. This is what happens when you fight a biblically accurate angelical being, or rather fallen angel, in the figure of Sephiroth, the titular one winged angel who has ascended to godhood. Obviously this moment needs a piece to match these dramatic heights and Nobuo Uematsu goes to town by delivering a multi part, driving orchestral piece that sounds as if Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Carl Off’s O Fortuna just had a baby. It is also the missing link of video game music that is destined to unite the old world of MIDI sequencing with the new paradigm of recorded music that will follow thanks to the addition a real life choir recording on top of the sampled orchestra. Even though Sephiroth already had a musical theme for him (Those Chosen by the Planet) he will forever be associated with One Winged Angel as his theme song, song since this now has lyrics that even proclaim his name. Of course they are obligatorily written in Latin since how would you be divine otherwise. Uematsu had already employed the holy organ card to convey the divinity of his previous villain Kefka so now the only option left on the table for this fantasy setting is the classic ominous Latin chants. You then surround it with loudness on all fronts and you get yourself the ultimate final boss battle of your series. Somewhere over the past few centuries, Latin became the language of doom; not only is it the dead language of a once-mighty civilization that collapsed over a thousand years ago but it's also the traditional language of the Roman Catholic Church and, in the same way as the church organ, thus associated with divine power, spirituality, mystery, death and all things high and mighty. It is also a mysterious, uncanny language that sounds like many others we currently speak since they share it as an ancestor; so it has the perfect ingredients to become used for the supernatural and mythical. Even though the actual meaning of the words is not important in order to convey epicness-you could be singing a Latin nursery rhyme, read from a Roman phone book or jut add 'us, -icus, or -ium' to any word you like for all we know and nobody would notice-Uematsu took on the work to actually take meaningful words from the same source as Carl Off’s O Fortuna, the Carmina Burana medieval poems, in order to convey the state of mind of Sephiroth, an entity now full of dread, threat and malevolent, manic violence; the main choir lines say something like: Burning inside
with violent anger Burning inside
with violent anger Sephiroth With the name Sephiroth screamed at the top of the lungs serving as a hook and motif that will occur throughout the piece. Sephiroth could be seen as as the Biblical Seraph, a celestial or heavenly being with six colossal wings that literally means Burning Ones. He has a seventh wing in place of his arm which is how we get the name of the piece. Even though this Latin choir seems huge they were just 8 people (2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors and two basses); their names are listed on the liner notes of the soundtrack CD. Uematsu initially wanted to feature recordings of vocals throughout the entire score but decided against it due to how the memory needed for the real audio affected the load times of the locations; so since gameplay comes first he only used it for the final boss theme, inadvertently creating an even bigger impactful moment when players hear for the first time a real choir on their synthesized game. Nobuo Uematsu explained that he composed this cue not in his usual manner but rather by creating various motifs and little phrases first and then piecing them all together like puzzle pieces. He wanted it to be different from his previous battle and final boss music and this was a way to create a suite where short bursts of dissonant melodies come and go, creating the frenzied tone of the final battle and reflecting the fragmented state of mind of the villain; this was the first and only time he tried this method of composition, doing some 2 to 4 bar phrases each day for a period of over two weeks and then sitting down to put them in a coherent manner. This in classical terms would deem the piece a Fantasia form, perfect for the name of the series. and the fact this is the final battle means this is the final fantasia, capisci? The main influence of the piece was specifically Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" in terms of form and orchestration, down to even use a version of the "augur chord", one of the most famous motifs Stravinsky came up with, at the beginning of the piece with the same aggressive staccato rhythm that made the Russian ballet so disquieting for audiences back in the day. Uematsu has also said he wanted to create something that would sound like '60s or '70s rock music performed by a full orchestra, and for the piece to have the same destructive impact as rock music; he still thinks of the piece as a rock song, saying that the culmination of it was when he performed it with his progressive rock outfit ‘The Black Mages’ and an orchestra. The rock influence is mainly the driving rhythm in 4/4 which became a staple of rock music thanks to featuring prominently the drum kit and the time signature changes of the piece must certainly came to Uematsu from his progressive rock influence rather than classical. The stomping rhythm was taken by Uematsu from the intro to the Jimmi Hendrix song ‘Purple Haze’. We also have the Carmina Burana Latin choirs and finally the fear inducing Psycho strings which Uematsu himself said he took from the Afred Hitchcock film. So structurally, it means we have multiple sections followed one after another, with just the main choir chorus and the Sephiroth motif being the anchor points. The piece has an extended intro just for this over the top battle with the highest stakes possible (it comes to the point that the animation for one of Sephiroth attacks lasts for an extravagant 2 minutes; a "blast of such despair that it can send destruction even into other dimensions” because destroying just one dimension is not enough for a Final Fantasy boss. When physics equations appear on-screen breaking the mathematical reality of the spacetime continuum that's how you know Sephiroth is the real deal). Uematsu throws in all the possible hallmarks of despair: loudness, Psycho strings, choirs; even when confronted with the difficult decision of choosing between the Western timpani or the Eastern Taiko drums he did not hesitate to say he wanted both and added a rimshot snare and an orchestral bass drum in good measure if maybe you felt it was not big enough. In general the instrumental sections follow E minor profiles while the choir sections flutter around D minor ones one step down. There is also a section later that flirts with the Bb minor profile. Having said that, tonality is not what this piece is going for, using dissonance, the tritone and chromaticism at every opportunity it can to convey the tone and despair of this battle. It would be closer to the E and D octatonic profiles due to the amount of dissonance of this scale that emphasizes minor seconds and diminished fifths....................................

This is REALLY Cool! You should make the OST!

Crazy! It’s the same chords as the “level complete” music, but just arrangement differently! SO Cool! Edit: Okay so the same chords are used, BUT it’s a different order. “Level complete” is Ab, Bb, C, but this is C, Ab, Bb (all major chords)

:40 by far the scariest part of the song. XD

Yay, new Video ^^ I never played GoldenEye, but I see that 007 goes around the world. xDDD

Musical Analysis Everyone talks about the GoldenEye pause music but that is only because few souls managed to finish the Aztec mission on 00 agent-guilty of doing it with save states on the Switch-and discover the true banger waiting to become a hit whenever a savvy rapper decides to sample it. This particular track was written by Rareware in-huse composer Graeme Norgate who was the original composer for the game and also ended up finishing it when Grant Kirkhope came and went from and to other projects. He already had action oriented experience having worked on Blast Corps and Killer Instinct, and was adept at programming beats and synthesizer parts. Who would have thought that, just like Link himself before him, Bond now has to also go to ancient temples, solve cryptic puzzles, get the dungeon item and kill the final boss with it. The el-Saghira Temple, more commonly known by its mission select name Egyptian, was the second of the two bonus missions after the main campaign was completed, ramping up the difficulty and introducing elements from Bond films other than GoldenEye. Unlike the futuristic Aztec paving the way for Perfect Dark, this level isn't based on any specific James Bond film, although its general appearance is no doubt modeled after the Egyptian scenes in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me; instead it features a variety of elements taken from various classic Bond films merged into a plot designed to follow on from those movies. Here, you must recover the legendary Golden Gun, the notorious gold-plated weapon owned by professional assassin Francisco Scarmanaga (Man with the Golden Gun) capable of instantly killing targets and must battle Baron Samedi (Live and Let Die), a dangerous vodou sorcerer who is seemingly incapable of dying, resulting in a clash between the deadliest villainy forces in the James Bond franchise. Samedi has stolen Scaramanga's legendary weapon and Bond must retrieve it in the temple, though it is clear it is a trap set by the villain. Baron Samedi is the only supernatural entity on the 007 Franschise, making this level an horror fest where even the lights are turned off. The villain is based on one of the Lwa from vodou lore; He is the Lwa of the Dead and is usually represented by a black man with white painting resembling a skull and dressed in a top hat as if to resemble a corpse prepared for burial in the Haitian style. Same inspiration for the villain of The Princes and the Frog. Somehow all this is still in line with the Bond franschise since the spirit Samedi has been connected to secret societies before. So yeah, this level is an eclectic mix of exotic cultures thrown into a James Bond setting and this is reflected on the music which takes only the vamp of the Bond theme and no other elements, making it the most original theme from the game; the one less based on the main theme of the series. The hip-hop based production is because of the use of the drum machine and the syncopated 808 type bass sound that is almost another kick drum due to its sharp attack, they are accompanied by various percussion elements that would be used by ancient cultures; this is straight from some ritual Baron Samedi would perform. The score makes use of the exotic profiles like the Phrygian dominant scale which is Egyptian enough, occurring in Arabic and modern Egyptian music, in which it is called the Hijaz-Nahawand or Hijaz maqam; it is created out of the harmonic tetrachord on the head and the Phrygian tertrachord for the tail. The ancient Egyptian music which would presumably been heard when this temple was on its prime is lost to history, so we just use modern Arab themes for pyramids even if they are anachronistic. The orchestral flute is also made to sound like a more exotic middle-Eastern flute due to the use of pitch bends to create those microtones we identify with the region. The magical quota is given by the mystic pad and here the famous GoldenEye Soviet submarine sonar metal clank makes its debut as a pitched instrument, being used by Graeme Norgate with a more melodic, hypnotic effect. We also hear the traditional spy orchestral triangle that sounds sneaky yet sophisticated. The piece trades back and forth between middle-Eastern phrases and the chromatic 007 vamp taken from the main theme of the series. then there is the terror inducing outro which sounds straight from the deepest reaches of the cursed pyramid. Ancient unnatural voices also sound to contribute to the spooky, ancient atmosphere. So with this the James Bond music goes full circle by reconnecting with its Middle-Eastern origins. As a fun fact the Baron Samendi laugh is actually an edited version of a stock sound effect named Evil Laugh CRT023801 from Cartoon Trax Volume 1, slightly slowed down. Rareware would later reuse this laugh sound effect for King K. Rool in Donkey Kong 64. ♫ Support the Channel: www.buymeacoffee.com/musictracks ♫ MIDI / Media files, requests and support for future interactive tools (Patreon): bit.ly/officialmusictracksmedia You can also join as a member or give thanks.

I cannot find the sheet music for this theme specifically. Anyone have any sources? I'd love to play this. Although the final few parts might be difficult.

Love it, this track is burned into my mind from childhood it's cool to see it broken down like this

Musical Analysis The bandicoot went into the final frontier of space years before Mario did-that is, only if we count out the idiosyncratic star world or Rainbow Road-And even if he pretty much lifted his brand new move-set from Super Mario 64, the jet pack levels are a significant change of pace from the plattforming; it is unlike any other gameplay type in the game, paving the way for the alternative type of levels we will find on the sequel, like the underwater ones or racing with the bike. The music is also very different from your typical Crash Bandicoot fare, ditching the cool marimba riffs in favor of a multi suite space opera that uplifts the experienced action and lifts its sound from ubiquitous sci-fi tropes, albeit while still retaining some bluesier and cartoon influences. From the title screen we could already see and hear the change in tone in comparison with the first game, leaning more into the technological/industrial side of the equation in favor of the Indiana Jones temples sparser jungle beats. The Crash Bandicoot main theme is rearranged with more synthesizer and electronic tones, reflecting the technologically drenched ambients we will encounter; there is more oomph to the sound. For the Rock It cue, returning composer Josh Mancell even decided to create the most complex track for the series, arranging it with multiple sections and creating a long buildup meant to reflect the wonder of trying to slowly acclimatize with the new jetpack controls which are a big overhaul for players; and then it morphs into a rocking drum fill filled composition kicking in, presumably, when you have dominion over zero gravity space movement. Unsurprisingly, the theremin, or a synth that closely matches its wobbly radio sound, is one of the lead instruments featured prominently as the representative of the sci-fi movie tradition that began way back in the Bernard Herrman score for 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' from the 1950s which used the instrument effectively to convey the otherworldly feeling of space, UFOs and aliens; the instrument just has that flying saucer sound. Even today the instrument seems from the future and what an outer space civilization would conceive since it is an electronic device with an antenna that you don’t even need to touch in order to provide musical sounds that are characterized by a smooth portamento across a pitch range and sounds like a radio transmission from another planet. It is difficult to use nowadays in an effective non-cliche manner but that is not a preoccupation for a cartoon character like Crash; in fact, it is the incentive. including this instrument on any soundtrack has become common shorthand for the presence of the paranormal, such as aliens or ghosts, generally with the implication that the subject matter is not going to be treated very seriously. Perfect for the marsupial first foray into space. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXvCmHuNa9hlrLM Back when the theremin was not parody but a true disquieting sound from other alien civilizations. The space age was upon us. The original track meant to accompany the space levels in Crash Bandicoot 2 was also going for a more frightening sci-fi sound that payed homage to these famous scores, like the use of a waltz to parody in comedic fashion the use of the Johann Strauss II's waltz "The Blue Danube on the 2001: A Space Odyssey film and then a dissonant sounding action orchestral cue as opposed to the uplifting one of the final version. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gorNZnako7-fi80 The original version for Rock it! at the very least already had the idea of the long buildup that seamlessly transition into a different orchestral sound (On this version, you never learned to dominate the jetpack controls). The revamped track that ended up on the final product retains the ideas of making it the longest Crash tune to date, buildup and using the non-Crash orchestral language straight from space operas like Star Wars and 2001: A Space odyssey, themselves born out of the tradition from Gustav Hoist’s The Planets.........................................

I like the counter melody. It's enjoyable in its own right, but it also restrains the mood of the melody. I wonder what a heroic or triumphant version of Termina Field might sound like.

Man, I never caught that subtle harp part until now!

Could you do Jolly Roger's Lagoon?

This song is a masterpiece. The off time pan flutes adding dissonance is just icing on the cake.

To me, this song works as well as it does because of how well the percussion/rhythm ties everything together. The melody part is fantastic for sure--I love the warm, playful sounds of it--but the rhythm section is what really gives it that brisk, hip energy that the song is so beloved for.

Are you ever going to do an Oscilloscope breakdown of music from Spyro The Dragon? Id love to see an analysis of Dark Hollow from the first game!

Yippee Yippee! 😊

Musikal Analysis You are on a pirate boat fighting a crocodile because they are water creatures. So you hear some sea shanty-inspired Irish track that then transforms into an Iron Maiden song bekause you are against evil and metal is evil ♫ Support the Channel: www.buymeacoffee.com/musictracks ♫ Patreon: Media files, requests and support for future interactive tools: bit.ly/officialmusictracksmedia Or join as a member

This track reminds me alot of Ventolin by Aphex Twin... just without the high pitched shriek.

Holy Moly this is a very obscure theme. The game wasn’t even released outside of Japan 😂

As you might see the moniker Official from the name is being dropped as a recommendation from KZbin since it can be seen as misleading some into thinking these come directly from the companies represented. Some followers have also said it might be easier to find the channel. So since Im too lazy to think of another logo or name we will be just putting Visualizer to reflect the nature of the videos better-or VMT for friends. Comment what other soundtracks should be visualized or deconstructed. ♫ Support the Channel: www.buymeacoffee.com/musictracks ♫ Media files, Requests and support for future interactive tools (Patreon): bit.ly/officialmusictracksmedia Or join as a member on KZbin

Musical Analysis: In true hip fashion we can also delve into the deep cuts of the discography from Koji Kondo in order to uncover hidden gems and having the rare treat of seeing Nintendo and its team at their most Japanese, especially since their main series such as the likes of Mario, Zelda, Metroid or Star Fox have at their core a Western origin. Here we not only hear Koji Kondo lean onto his own Japanese roots but also find what is his most involved and large soundtrack of the 8-bit era; while his famous scores for Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda are comprised of like five level tracks and some small cues, the Shin Onigashima one, as a kind of visual novel/adventure game, needs to get more mileage out of its soundtrack in order to carry a full, more static narrative, getting us much more than a mere 10 minutes worth of music. We can also hear the differences between the standard Famicom/NES sound chip and the add on known as the Famicom Disk System which included one more audio channel into the 8-bit machine sound capabilities, allowing for slightly richer scores for some games due to the more expressive wavetable channel. It does not get any more Japanese than Shin Onigashima, whose translation would be something like 'New Demon Island'. Naturally released only there till this day, the game is a story driven adventure part of a series featuring a mix of interwoven traditional Japanese fairy tales, more specifically the ones known as Momotarō and The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The game is one of those select command and click visual novels games popular in Japan which make the characters talk to, use, or examine various objects or interactions depending on the action you choose; you then advance the narrative. This means the composer is not limited to his philosophy of just capturing the movements in the action or the environments but has to treat the project as kind of a film score focused on story-driven presentations, where the music has to convey more emotions of the narrative and has a more prominent role since the visuals are just 8-bit sprites with minimal, if any, facial expressions and there is no voice acting to convey much sentiment. Like the game story, the music is inspired by more traditional Japanese folk melodies, albeit not pure folk since the true traditional music of Japan would end up being a pentatonic fest that would sound formally Chinese or Oriental to Western audiences. Instead, it is more inclined towards the line that evolved after the American influence into Japan that brought its jazz and Latin styles to the music; the music forms known as Kayōkyoku and Enka would be the most fit genres for the what we identify today as that particular Japanese way of creating tender, melancholic and nostalgia infused melodies that ended up influencing video game music in one way or another. Kayōkyoku is just the standard Japanese traditional pop, the equivalent to the American Brill Building sound that in the East never really went out of style since in Japan corny is more embraced and accepted. Though it still had its boom throughout the XX century. The archetypal example of this sound would be the worldwide hit Sukiyaki by singer Kyu Skamoto: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipC6pniVdrtpock Kayōkyoku music has simple melodies that are easy to follow and play along to but still pack a lof of emotion and nostalgia even if you have never heard it before. Even though the music ends up with the Western instruments and stylistic influences it still retains the Japanese reliance mostly on pentatonic scales that give it something of a child-like wonder quality; the pentaronic scales are the ones you can get out of playing exclusively the black keys on the piano since the intervals are already laid out there for you. Just like the church modes you get the different pentatonic scales by starting the pattern on any of the five black keys. The cue we hear throughout the chapter four of the visual novel captures this highly sentimental sound, with Koji pulling out a memorable melody that only needs a a short time to develop into what could have been a standard ballad from the Japanese songbook or signature lullaby in some alternate universe. The context for the story is that the protagonists have arrived at some village that has been sunken beneath a lake. So this was one of Kondo’s first village themes; Kakariko Village before Kakariko Village was a thing. There are just two melodies here, three sections if we count the small outro. The phrases use pretty much all the notes from the A minor scale plus the Db chromatic note as an ornamentation. Both melody and harmony have descending contours following a standard minor progression that leaves us with the chords: F - Em - Dm - C - Bdim - E in Section 1, where the unexpected E major disrupts the descending pattern of both melody and harmony in order to add the color of the harmonic minor scale to the proceedings while the melody answer ascends. The harmony begins changing every two bars for the first couple of chords and then gets faster transitioning every one bar. The phrases for the Section 1 of the cue consist of three question-answer chunks that follow a specific pattern plus the ascending tail. The melodic pattern expertly balances the concepts of repetition and novelty that are required in order to construct a memorable melody. You hear the first question-answer block: (F G E - C A C) which itself would be ok being answered by the mirrored pattern (C D B - G E G) But Kondo spices it up by replacing the question with its ornamental version in order to introduce the novelty quota into this repeated pattern. So instead we get the chromatic (D Db C B - G E G). Then for the answer for the entire phrase the pattern appears to be repeated in the form of (G A F - …) but then this block is answered with a different ascending form melody. It ends with the ascending tail phrase for the Bdim to E chords. These are just examples elucidating how to construct a melody using the key concepts of variety and repetition which need to be balanced expertly. The rhythm of the melody notes between question and answer also lives by this principle; the piece could work maintaining the same rhythm for both question and answer phrases (for example both could be in eight notes as the question is), it just would not be as interesting for a listener. The melodies for both sections are also in what is known as anacrusis or pickup beat which is when a note or sequence of notes precedes the first downbeat in a bar in a musical phrase. The melody then goes on into the second Section with a pedal pattern where the underlying harmony goes into a classic jazz and romantic progression that gets its flavor out of the descending chromatic bass note while the upper notes remain the same, giving us the sequence: Am - Abaug - C - C (b5) then we get back to the firs part of the A Section harmony F - Em the composer capping it all off with a reprise of the ornamental chromatic phrase from the first Section (D Db C B) giving cohesiveness to the entire piece. But wait, there is more. Even though the composer could now comfortably end the piece on the tonic chord Am, he felt the need to add a little spice of novelty by allowing a little bit of the Phrygian profile to shine with the chord Bb thrown in as a bonus content just for the sake of coloring the outro. There is no noise channel on this romantic ballad. This is a piece that allows us to see the formative years of Koji Kondo as a video game composer, back in a time where you had to work only with the basic elements of music and don’t worry that much about the production or orchestration side of things. Just melody, harmony, rhythm and a little tune that needs to be memorable enough to be looped multiple times. The expressive melody is aided by the new Wavetable synth channel added to the what was known as the Famicom Disk System, a peripheral only released in Japan that allowed games to have more memory and better sound. This device served as enabling technology for the creation of new types of video games like the vast, open world, progress-saving adventures of the original The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, which would otherwise probably not happened. It is still the most successful console add-on of all time even though it was not released overseas. Its games had to be ported to the NES with some necessary changes like the save battery for Zelda or the music changes due to having one less audio channel. The mini wavetable synth included with the FDS allowed for some interesting new timbres for 8-bit games, expanding the sound palette of chiptune music. The games used bell like sounds or in the case of Shin Onigashima this melodic lead that sounds more mellow and permits a more prominent vibrato effect that brings the NES sound as close to reality as electronic beeps can. Super Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai has a video game development channel where he discusses the audio from this era: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6q0hJWVqahjfMk And speaking of Super Smash Bros, this digital interactive museum brought back from obscurity Shin ONigashima, featuring its characters and a full medley, remixing sub-sections from the Famicom game. Within this medley we find the Title Scree and also a remix of this very same Neighboring Village theme. The entire arrangement is nowhere close to how the original tone is supposed to go, envisioning the pastoral Japanese village instead as a speed metal track with full blown electric guitar. For a closer sound to the original soundtrack go to the Super Famicom game Heisei Shin Onigashima which is some kind of port/prequel to this game and features most of the same tracks but this time with Super Nintendo samples which are closer to real instruments.

Thanks for the shoutout! But I’m surprised you’re starting out of order with the songs from Banjo-Tooie.

Musical Analysis: The return to Banjoland is not a pleasant one for the bear and the bird. The tone and atmosphere has shifted, twisted slightly; everything feels more somber, dirtier and larger than life. The game follows the returning protagonists two years later as they attempt to stop the plans of the witch Gruntilda alongside two of her sisters, who intend to vaporize the inhabitants of what turns out to be an island setting. This is not anymore a fairy tale Snow white parody but a world threatening affair. The sequel goes for the bigger, more is more approach; more expansive worlds , more moves, darker and more difficult and, as required, more music. It also has a decidedly more surreal and cynical sense of humor. The witch Gruntilda is now a living pile of bones, Jinjo families go extinct and main characters are seen being killed or converted into living dead. The music for Banjo-Tooie, composed alongside the games Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64, is also decided more ominous; Spiral Mountain is no longer a banjo featured bluegrass tune but an elegy for a world that has been lost. The main hub world is the Isle o’Hags, the grander world from which the entirety of Gruntilda’s castle is but just a small part. The track is the direct successor to the Gruntida’s Lair cue, returning with the skipping through the forest oom-pah rhythm with the witchcraft association of the bassoons dating as far back as the piece The Sorceress’ Apprentice and the orchestral bass drum. Yet it sounds decidedly less playful, with composer Grant Kirkhope relying on his disquieting and more mysterious side of his characteristic playfully sinister style. With the mallets gone are also gone their cartoony or childish associations, Isle o’Hags sounding more like an orchestral piece, retaining the playful rhythm but tingeing it with a depressing harmony, melodies and tone; more tenebrous. Jumpy pizzicatos are replaced by their standard strings counterparts and the comical baritone saxophone is no more here. After all, we are against not one but three witches running a killing machine. the song captures the more somber and dirtier tone of Banjo Too, with a word that is still cartoony yet more decadent and polluted. Pretty much what a normally happy world threatened by destruction would sound like. Of course we still rely mostly on the C key with all kinds of modal craziness. The tritone progression is back with a vengeance, appearing not even in its major form but the harsher diminished chord; stuff is bleak indeed. Grant himself feels the music of Banjo-Tooie is more sophisticated, complex and mature. Indeed for the overworld the melody itself is not a question-answer phrase then transposed to a major key as in the original melody of Gruntilda’s Lair but a long form melodic phrase that serves as the basis for various sections, playing and transforming this motif like some classical composers would. The main vamp that opens the hub world is Cm - F#dim with the less playful strings when compared to the pizzicatos of Gruntilda’s Lair. Then we get to the next favorite chord combination for the composer, the bVI giving us the harmonic progression: Cm - F#dim Ab - Ddim G(5)7 The melody playing within the melodic minor and natural minor profile of C for the head and tail respectively plus its tritone note F# following the harmony progression. The entire phrase is then repeated with the clarinet added on top and a small flourish variation on the melody at the end. For the B section it changes to play around with a B diminished profile going from Bm to Ab and then to a Dm; yeah, Banjo-Kazooie did not have such a depressing chord progression. Only Grant Kirkhope could get such a catchy tune out of such dissonant intervals and harmony B section harmony: Bm - Ab - Bm - Dm The melody for the B Section also has the same rhythm profile as the main melody of Gruntilda's Lair from Banjo-Kazooie. But then the shenanigans of going back to a C key in preparation for the A Section reprise take the melody over the the Kirkhope cadence (bII - V - i) which is based around the tritone chord of the dominant or what we could call the secondary tritone of C which would be the zany harmonic language of Grant kirkhope and his Banjo series based around tritones. So we go to the Db to G7 vamp while the melody plays with the harmonic minor tetrachord of the C key until we finally reach the first note of the A section in smooth fashion. Since the Banjo series songs are longer than standard N64 fare like Mario 64 we end up in a revamped A section with more accompaniment. This new A section only repeats the melodic phrase once before going into the C section which plays around with the main motif of the the cue, creating a kind of fugue with the strings and the flute melody which is a more distorted tune than the original that uses the natural minor profile as opposed to the melodic minor. The oom-pah rhythms become more playful and the bassoon starts a walking ostinato yet the harmony, same as in A Section, is relentlessly sinister, creating this uncanny sound of what a normal cartoony happy world would sound twisted. The piece then transposes aggressively the melody one step and a half to what could be now deemed an Eb Lydian profile by way of the Bb major chord. The rate of chord changes also slows down, maintaining a Eb now major chord and then Bm alongside its respective B Aeolian/Minor profile for longer. The same melody has a different flavour due to being now on top of a major chord and it is cut short in order to reach its tail faster, which is a variation of the original tail from A Section. Then we get one last B section in its original key which connects us back to the beginning. The melody is now played by the strings while the flutes play what was the string accompaniment. As the responsables for the low end of the piece, tubas limit themselves to playing the standard muddy-less root plus fifth of chords. tthe justaposition between playful rhythms and sinister harmony is what makes the Banjo music have this uncanny tone. As Banjo-Tooie was a larger game than its predecessor, Kirkhope had twice the memory space in the game's cartridge for sound effects and music, allowing him to create even more variations of his dynamic scores. Like the game's predecessor, the themes heard in the game were designed to be interactive, which dynamically change to reflect the player's location. His favorite cue for the game was the one for Atlantis, another pretty underwater level. ♫ Support the Channel: www.buymeacoffee.com/musictracks ♫ Media files, requests and support for future interactive tools: bit.ly/officialmusictracksmedia Or join as a member Thanks to Juke for getting the original MIDI files for Banjo-Tooie