Artist Feature #21: Alberto González

[@Nikos8BitStereo]

Nothing gives me as much happiness as this Artist Feature for Alberto Jose Gonzalez, to me he's on the same level as Tim Follin, Yuzo Koshiro and David Wise, but at times I appreciate more of what Alberto has done, because he's still consistently active in chatting and sharing facts/history of what he's done in VGM, it brings me such tears of joy with the tunes he's created and your Mix absolutely does the greatest justice to his career. I love so many of his OST's and the mindset he had making music, and I think this contributes to why I admire and love him so much, he really just made everything he composed for be memorable and his compositional talents are beyond legendary, and it's great learning the programs he created and used to compose his music, and of course all the facts and tidbits throughout are so engaging, you nailed everything for what makes this such an amazing Artist Feature, some of your best picks and transitions ever! And what else can I even say about his work, just perfection and dazzlement across the board, he is without a doubt the greatest and best Game Boy composer. I absolutely love what he did using a ZX to compose most of his soundtracks even into the GBA, he really got the most out of it. And without wall of text for every showcase, I can say my favorite OST's of his are The Light Corridor, Bomb Jack, Metal Masters, Asterix (NES), The Smurfs (NES), The Smurfs Nightmare, Turok 2 Seeds of Evil, Turok Rage Wars and Radikal Bikers, but practically all his NES/GB outputs I discovered when getting into retro games in the late 2000's through emulation which likely contribute to why I love his work so much. I am saddened he never got to do more for the NES & SNES, considering how incredible the soundtracks are he did for those, but thankfully his GB/GBC/GBA line of work are enough to have such an amazing legacy. I'm also glad his work gave a lot of licensed IP games good talk and memorability, credit as well given to all at the Bit Managers team! Also Happy 20th to Abylight Studios! I just love the clear passion and dedication he took to composing music, always learning, always trying new things, always getting the most out of the hardware he has to work with, in my eyes, just the most lovable and greatest video game music composer of this era, also one of the few composers I've had the pleasure to interact with and he is just a great guy, he deserves all the praise and success for the joy I'm sure he brought to so many people, same for you anosci, thanks for one of your best Artist Features! 🤍💚

[@tomhas10]

Alberto has to be one of my favourite VGM composers. The Bomb Jack game over theme and Another World from Smurfs Nightmare are godly!

[@velxen77]

The game over of bomb Jack is the most sadest music in game boy

[@supmattboy]

I really like how the melodies follow each other like a medley (with pitch and tempo variations as transitions). It's beautiful.

[@striga314]

Like every video on the channel. Its awesome.

[@SonNeoKaku]

This man is a LEGEND! Thanks for showcasing his work and story ❤️

[@ChrisE72]

Spirou was the first game I bought with my own money when I was 6. Still love that soundtrack and often listen to it.

[@MathieuBurgerhout]

Wow. Awesome to see Alberto used his ZX this late into its lifespan. Great video, as always

[@liberispuritatem]

Always respectfully caring about the artist works! Your "Artist Features" must feel like the ultimate appreciation to them.

[@CosmicZ2222]

oh heck i listen to this guys music FREQUENTLY.

[@rudeboyspodcast]

Shoutouts to Alberto and Abylight for being humble and helping other devs publish their obscure games. They released updated ports of Hydorah and Maldita Castilla by one of my all-time favorite retro game devs, Locomalito, and it was a huge boon! Love those dudes.

[@Adrian.R850]

You know what's up.

[@mariowario5945]

His music is damn good I can hardly even play the games his music is in, because I keep standing in place to admire the beauty of his compositions without interruptions. They are surprisingly long for what youd expect from 8bit music.

[@averageguy6242]

lovely and interesting, great video

[@DaVince21]

Always been a fan of this guy's work.

[@dillontam9752]

I've been waiting for this video ever since your series started. Alberto was probably the first name I ever connected to any sort of video game music, and made me truly realise that chiptune as a medium which held as much weight as any other form of music. And with tunes as soulful and beautiful as McAlby's, who wouldn't be swayed to that conclusion?

[@ashthedragon]

Amazing video for an amazing composer, Alberto is not only a great musician but also a great guy. Grew up with Bombjack, Asterix and many of the games he worked at. Also regulary talk to him at Twitter. Lovely video as always,GST. Keep up the good work!

[@AgsmaJustAgsma]

I'm genuinely surprised that Metal Masters wasn't featured in this video, probably the most well known soundtrack made by Alberto after The Smurfs' Nightmare. Either way, amazing mix as usual, this time around from a childhood hero of mine.

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

It just didn't fit with the vibe I was going with at that era / part of the mix. it's one of his most well-known soundtracks for a good reason though!

[@AHcollege]

the goat

[@ricardoemanuelsaezlabrana3778]

My always favourite 8 bit tune is the Stork from Smurfs.

[@fco64]

Alberto never lost his magic

[@helloween76]

Thank you soo much for this look back in history. Composers like Alberto and his fellow composers will be seen as the Hero's of gaming music in the future. I only wish I could have worked with them and been a part of such a wonderful body of work.

[@RT55J]

the 8x8 speccy font is a nice touch

[@CassandraTheScalie]

Wow I know way more of these soundtracks than I thought I would.

[@yofyo]

this was SUCH a great mix. it started a little slow but he made some serious bangers and I love the progression and transitions

[@professors84]

I love this channel, I can't tell you how many times I'd play a crappy licensed game as a kid that had inexplicably amazing music.

[@4ppleseed]

Some of those transitions were fire! I loved this, I wasn't aware of Alberto but he's clearly a genius when it comes to the ZX/GB era.

[@Elrinth]

Very impressively put together!

[@quadpad_music]

HOLY SHIT I've wanted this since seeing your amazing Tim Follin artist selection, my hype is unmeasurable rn, can't believe it slipped by my radar.

[@d4t4b4s3f4c3]

"Kick Ass" and "Bitchin" are all I can conjour up to describe the kickass and bitchin phrasing in these songs.

[@VGMFan20XX]

THANK YOU!!!! Asked for this on a premier video a while ago, I’m sure many others did too XD. What a Legend. [Both you and composer] ^_^

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

indeed, I think Alberto might be the most-requested Artist Feature on my channel, going back at least 3 years!

[@mariowario5945]

Damn, bitmanagers had the best, ambitious, and unique 8bit games with killer osts period

[@Terkzorr]

The transitions are so incredibly done and the order of songs is chosen perfectly. Great work!

[@VitalikNerdChannel]

A month ago, on the Russian channel Kinamania, he talked about European composers and at the end he changed about Alberto J. Gonzalez!

[@MarekRetrogaming]

...I literally bought Operation Carrot Patch today and wondered why I vibed with the music so much... turns out there's a very specific reason!

[@RAZKEN.]

Been loving Alberto's music ever since Obelix & Asterix on SNES even if I didn't know the composer's name back then. Later found Turok games on Gameboy and loved every track - and what do you know there he is again.

[@awanderer5446]

Hey, that picture of the Emulator SE is mine. Still have it but never really used it... As always, very nice video, thank you!

[@livvy94]

Lucky!! I wish those things were better known about. The N-SPC music tools (gakufu editor etc.) were in the gigaleak, but they're useless without the physical machine plugged in... If you're not using it I'm sure there are a lot of SNES musicians or homebrew folks who could get some use out of it.

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

wow that's a rarity! I'd love to see it get some use. kankichi is still so mysterious...

[@awanderer5446]

​@@livvy94 I'm a part of the (very small) active SNES homebrew community, actually. Nowadays, debugging on an emulator running on your computer is just way more comfortable than on such a bulky device. I still need to get a compatible SCSI card and then I will try it out, eventually.

[@julienbraudel7109]

Amazing work, as usual.

[@GXSCChater]

Wow this was an awesome ride as always!!

[@StuartKReilly]

I had Looney Tunes Carrot Crazy and I used to just let the game idle and listen to the space level music for a long time. Glad to finally know the amazing discography the composer had

[@andersdenkend]

Oh man, I loved his Lucky Luke (GB) OST! Gotta check out all his other stuff he did, most of the games I didn't play back then.

[@KTJohnsonkidThunder]

Awesome mix. Though, I am kinda perplexed that Metal Beat from Metal Masters (GB) wasn't added in it given that was Señor Gonzalez's best work despite being the only song in the game given he was part of Bit Managers back then. That song in particular really showed that the GB was a beast in producing awesomeness in chiptunes.

[@NesrocksGamingVideos]

Didn't listen to music that wasn't chiptune?? I can totally respect that!

[@YuukoLeMog]

I made a little video about Alberto's career! I'm still learning things ! Un grand merci (Thank you so much in French !)

[@StarLightNow]

Great mix!

[@flmalegre]

Jesus fucking Christ this guy is a beast

[@rudidellama3718]

Awesome work, you got me introduced to a tons of composers that I never heard about it, you have others composers you want to cover in the future? On the more unknown side that I know about it is Ryu Umemoto, love his work in Xenon and YU-NO. Thoses japanese PC "consoles" had a tons of composers

[@omegabyss]

I thought I was the only one that could rock to game music and wanted to reproduce modern music after too🎶 I hear mad hits, I guess we da futuristic visionaries and just too heavy for da present massives✊🏾👾🎶🖖🏾Nu££ R€$P€CT GST¤

[@matheusdiasg.soares6416]

The intro for "Main Theme (Pop Up/ Cool Boy - Game Boy) reminds "Der Komissaar" from Falco

[@blog2geeks]

In 2023 I will publish an interview I have done with him with subtitles 😊

[@sabo-vf3xj]

Do you plan on covering either Hitoshi Sakimoto or Masaharu Iwata sometime in the future? Just curious.

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

Maybe? It's hard to say because I want to at least try to interview each person I feature, and that's harder to do when there's a language barrier. These guys (and everyone associated with Troubadour Record) have super interesting histories though....

[@AWISECROW]

5:51 D: );

[@thelocaldiamondvideoeditorplus]

don't be sad dude, it's gonna be okay! (●) ::: (●) :::

[@DaVince21]

Y'know, people speak English in Europe... Specifically the UK.