XTRA 2008 piles on the videogame music nostalgia

      There were so many renditions of classic game tunes performed at this evening’s EXTRA Hyper Game Music Event at Shin-Kiba’s Studio Coast that it was hard to keep track of them all. The yearly event organized by 5pb Records assembles game composers to perform their own songs and revive classics from yesteryear by way of pulse pounding techno arrangements. The Korg DS Trio comprised of The Black Mages’ Michio Okamiya, Ridge Racer’s Nobuyoshi Sano and Chrono Trigger’s Yasunori Mitsuda (seen above) started the night off with “Korg de Chocobo,” followed by songs from the Ridge Racer and Chrono series arranged for the Nintendo portable console.

       There were so many renditions of classic game tunes performed at this evening’s EXTRA Hyper Game Music Event at Shin-Kiba’s Studio Coast that it was hard to keep track of them all. The yearly event organized by 5pb Records assembles game composers to perform their own songs and revive classics from yesteryear by way of pulse pounding techno arrangements. The Korg DS Trio comprised of The Black Mages’ Michio Okamiya, Ridge Racer’s Nobuyoshi Sano and Chrono Trigger’s Yasunori Mitsuda (seen above) started the night off with “Korg de Chocobo,” followed by songs from the Ridge Racer and Chrono series arranged for the Nintendo portable console.

         While it was expected that Yuzo Koshiro and Norihiko Hibino would be performing songs from their recent Etrian Odyssey piano and strings album, there followed a totally unanticipated symphonic arrangement of the Filmoa stage theme from Actraiser with Koshiro on the keyboard and a saxophone performance by Hibino of the main theme of the anime Blassreiter. By the time Shinji Hosoe got on stage to play a medley of ten or so of his classic game themes, beginning with the 1987 shooter Dragon Spirit and ending with the upcoming DJ Max Fever, it was clear that EXTRA was going to be chock-a-block with a wide variety of retro gaming audio.

         Other highlights of the night included hearing Motoaki Furukawa of the Konami Kuheika Club playing the theme of the first stage of Castlevania on the electric guitar. The Sega sound team dubbed H. brought triumphant hard rock renditions of Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone. Hip Tanaka supplied a trippy techno revision of his Dr. Mario theme, while Uraken supplied a breakbeat version of the Pac-Man song. While the five-hour event was perhaps more than even the most ardent of videogame music enthusiasts could fully take in in one night, plans by 5pb for a soundtrack and DVD release will offer those interested a chance to listen to all the EXTRA hyper audio, and at a leisurely pace.

– Taken from Siliconera