A history lesson

This really has nothing to do with anything, but I guess this is my blog, so I can post whatever I want.

I was listening to Inner City the other day. For those of you who don't know, Inner City was a techno/house band from the late 80s that featured Kevin Saunderson and Paris Grey. Kevin Saunderson is considered one of the originators of modern techno and house music. His stuff is really rad, so you should check it out if you haven't heard it. (Also unrelated: Here is a fun remix of "Big Fun" done by Simian Mobile Disco)


So anyway, I was listening to "Paradise" by Inner City when I suddenly remembered something. I had always thought this song sounded eerily similar to Yuzo Koshiro's "Go Straight" from the 1992 Streets of Rage 2/Bare Knuckle 2 soundtrack. I decided to compare them and you know what? Yuzo ripped off Kevin! The songs are sufficiently different I guess, but to have a main riff that's so similar that early in the house style is still kind of cheap. Don't get me wrong; I love Yuzo's soundtracks, but it sure made me raise an eyebrow. Well, I guess it wasn't the only one.


Compare for yourself:

Paradise
Go Straight

Well, I think it's definitely time I segue into talking more about Streets of Rage 2/Bare Knuckle 2. Great soundtrack. I used to love this game back in 1992. I remember I must have rented it about 30 times from Blockbuster. I never did buy it, which is a shame. Fortunately, it was one of the first games to come out for the Wii Virtual Console, so I finally got my copy. Granted, I was more than 15 years late. I WAS SO HAPPY!

Here is a link to a playlist of the full Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack. Please listen to it, it's damn good. Some people might complain about the sound quality, but you know what? I'd like to see what they could do with a Genesis soundchip. It's no secret the Genesis soundchip was garbage. They neglected it so much that the later models used a chip that was out of sync with the rest of the system and produced distorted sound. I'd say this is really good stuff considering what he was working with. In fact, the soundtrack for this game is so beloved by video game enthusiasts that someone convinced Yuzo to do a live DJ set with this soundtrack. It's crazy!

Streets of Rage 2 playlist

While I'm on the topic, you know who else was really good? Andrew Sega. I don't know if that's his real last name, but I guess it suits his job. He did the music for a bunch of PC games that were all gobbled up by EA (isn't everything?). My personal favourite of his was Crusader: No Remorse, but his work on Unreal Tournament was also really good. You can tell he's a big fan of Orbital...Anyway, check out these samples:

Crusader: No Remorse - Dimension 2012
Unreal Tournament - Skyward Fire

Yeah they're really techno-ish, but it's music from video games where you shoot people with rocket launchers. What do you expect?

For good measure, here is a mix he did (as his pseudonym "Necros") of an Orbital tune I featured in a previous blog post. He changed the name, although I don't know why. Did he think he was fooling anyone into thinking he wrote that song? I don't know. Still, I like it!

Andrew Sega - Shadowcaster

I looked around recently and found out what Andrew Sega has been doing lately. I'm not terribly impressed, but maybe it's that awful vocalist he's working with now. The backing tracks still sound pretty decent. Even so, it still sounds like Linkin Park's even more emo little brother:

Iris - Sentimental Scar

Hm. What was my point again? Oh yeah. Video games have a weird history. I think it's kind of fun to see the influences from trends in popular music on what gets put into these things. Yuzo Koshiro's soundtrack for Streets of Rage 2 is definitely inspired by the whole Detroit house scene, and a number of other American styles of the time. Andrew Sega is still hounding after an Orbital-style sound, and there's nothing really wrong with that. He does it pretty well. There were a whole bunch of composers over the years that put together some really cool soundtracks, and I'm only just kind of scratching the surface here on what was done. Then there's me, a kid playing a bunch of games through the 80s and 90s and somehow getting a taste of some interesting modern music styles without ever knowing it. I think that's pretty cool.

Nowadays everything has to be epic (not EPIC MegaGames!) in videogames and have a symphonic score. What ever happened to composing original soundtracks that played off current styles and is appropriate to the subject matter? (IRONY!!)

Anyway, there's a little history lesson. Thanks for reading! Here is your reward.