Hey everyone, welcome back to SNESology!

Chrono Trigger (+) meets Final Fantasy IV!

Here’s a great new gem from the returning, MeteoXavier/12Followers!

He writes:

Years ago, my first album was going to be a concept album based on my own version of a Prequel for Final Fantasy IV based on Cecil and Golbez’s father, KluYa. This was the ending song - designed to be like the ultra-emotional ending songs from SNES Squaresoft in those days. Unfortunately, the FFIV soundfont, at the time, was borderline unusable and I got the most mileage out of this Chrono Trigger/Secret of Mana/Final Fantasy V and VI concoction that I found on Zophar’s Domain. 

Great work on making a moving theme.  It’s very calming, yet upbeat.  It drives you on.  The use of the pipes, the Secret of Mana synths, and the strings all meld into an nice emotional landscape.

Check out the Youtube video above, and don’t forget to hit like and share!  

Also don’t forget to download this song for free!

There’s more to come, so thank you for your patience and you’ll be seeing much more of us from here on!

Time for some Gradius III with Txai!

Newcomer to SNESology (but not to music), Txai Viegas has contributed a marvelous Gradius III entry.  It’s exciting, incredibly varied, has that token Gradius bass, orch hits, and basically does all the wonderful things that you’d expect a Gradius song to do + more…

My guess is that if this were a level in the game, it’d be quite precarious and really tough, near the end… You know… THAT one level you have to do over and over and would rage at without an emulator.  The end kinda progresses into what feels more like a credits song… Slow and rewarding of a job well done.  I love some of the Konami references he’s included just for fun, see if you can pick them out!  Great job dude!

LINK TO THE SONG IS HERE

 

SNEStale (Preschtale Arrangement)

Shannon Mason a.k.a. Pongball has given us a delightful submission:

It is her take on C-Jeff’s amazing album Preschtale and part of the new album Preschtale Variations, which is an album of covers of C-Jeff’s masterpiece from various artists (including SNESology artists Shnabubula and coda).

Shannon’s song is a beautiful rendition of parts 2, 4, and 5.  She uses a very colorful palette of SNES libraries to really give a wonderful sense of atmosphere and purpose to the songs she’s touching upon.  Lots of very thoughtful touches for a very cerebral set of music.  Highly recommended!

In fact, basically every hotlink here is super-highly-recommended for anyone who adores music.  Get to clicking!

seltaire:

How embarrassing. I just realized the last video wasn’t looped properly and it cut off abruptly. I fixed it and re-uploaded it for your viewing purposes. This is the theme song for the main character, Foster, the spirit of the sea, a lonely creature that belongs nowhere. Born under strange circumstances, he was adopted by English colonists, and lived through the worst early American history had to offer. After a Powhatan raid of 1622, he slipped and fell back into the sea, where he was lost for over one century, waiting on a promise that had been forgotten. On a tree besides his home, there are 133 marks, one for each year he spent alone. 

Hey everybody!

Sorry we’ve been on break for a bit, we should be back with a vengeance pretty soon with lots more original SNESology music for ya’ll.

To start with, here’s a beautiful use of the FFVI sound-set by the up-and-coming compositional super-star Mari Lascelles.

Mari decided that Mt. Zozo, “Mt.Koltz’ less popular younger brother” needed a song of its own, so he wrote it one. Go check it out and enjoy!

Chrono Trigger is awesome!

And so is Velathnos, who has rejoined Zeal or No Zeal, his new CT title!

It’s a really interesting take on that Zeal sound, and as it builds and weaves around, you can tell you’re listening to something special.

Jeremy writes:

Hey! This is a song I made, in all humility, as a tribute to one of my favorite soundtrack of all time. Hope you enjoy!

Nice job dude!  It has a real bluesy, melancholic feel to it, but also keeps that mysterious edge, and that sense of peace the original Zeal theme brought us.  It’s definitely worthy of repeat listens.  So get it!

DOWNLOAD THE MP3

CHECK IT OUT W HIS .IT FILE


I’d also like to take a second to mention that Alex Roe got a cool mention on Facebook for his previously posted Lords of Shadow track by Konami! (scroll down and check it out!)  Congrats!  It’s always nice to hear good things from the people that inspired you in the first place!

And by the way, our Contest is officially over, and the winners will be announced within the coming days.  Thanks to all who entered!

No, John.  You are the demons.

So let’s party!  It’s time for song #3 of our Halloween Flood!

Speaking of floods, SNESology creator and NYC Resident Shnabubula had a song written for us to post yesterday, but his power will be out for a few days because of Sandy!  Otherwise this would be song #4!  So let’s send him our well-wishes and hope those without power get it back quickly! 

Taking the reigns is awesome guy Alex Roe returning with a new SNES Generation track, covering the modern Óscar Araujo score for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow using Super Castlevania IV samples, which is a great idea to say the least.

It’s a very dark and emotional track, perfect for Halloween:

Happy Halloween! An appropriate time for some Castlevania and the first SNES Generation song that’s in the same franchise as the soundset. Lords of Shadow I think has a wonderful soundtrack and I feel great about arranging it. I love the older Castlevania music, but I think Lords of Shadow has great emotion and power, I hope that translates well in this arrangement. I salute you Oscar, cannot wait for Lords of Shadow 2.

Thanks Alex!  Orchestral songs of this nature are very hard to capture w/ such a limited library… Which is part of the fun of using SNES samples and limitations in the first place, but he sure does make it look easy!  There’s always an incredible amount of detail-work going into these arrangements to get that sound just right.

And while I’ve got my terrible Halloween pun urges in control, here’s one last post about our Contest!  Let me reiterate 1st prize.  You win a/an SNESology song, written by game and/or genre, just for you, named by/after you, and then played on the piano by master pianist, Shnabubula.

And then John was a zombie.

Halloween Flood #2:

Why hello there, how’s the weather?

Our friend, sleepytimejesse just got done w/ directing the Make Music, Throw Music album, released recently on Ubiktune.  But he’s not done with SNES music… not done… by far…. mwhahahaha….

Undead Carnivore Crashers is the name… And I think it pretty much fits the bill.  Menacing… Evil… The stuff of true nightmares is in this song.

Jesse writes:

When I wrote this single, I knew I wanted two things: the undead, and to steer clear of a kind of cliche spookiness. I have a tendency to go pretty dark with my music year-round and instead I wanted to paint a more whimsical picture of an undead infestation. Something like if there was a Pixar short made about Zombies Ate My Neighbors. 

For SNESology.com’s Halloween week. In celebration of this spookiest of seasons this download includes the prominently-featured Earthworm Jim 1 soundfont I made some time back but never released. 

Disclaimer: Bonus item may be aquatic.

I’d say his ghouls have been met!  

But really, ZAMN, that was good! Entertaining use of samples.  It’s to DIE for!  

(can’t… fight… puns… blame… demonic… possession…)

So anyway, get the song in the above link!

ALSO ENTER OUR CONTEST ZAMNNIT!

“Creepy Halloween Countdown Flood of Doom” commence!

OooOoOoooOOooOoooOooo

Toby is back from the dead to bring us a killer track that sounds like Super Castlevania IV but uses a bunch of other SNES samples instead!

He writes in his own blood:

Halloween’s coming so BOO IM A GHOST ZOMBIE ILL EAT YOUR GHOST BRAINS AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…

I think he had too much Radiation or something (hurrrrrrr)…

DOWNLOAD VLAD’s PAD

Also final countdown to the apocal…I mean our *CONTEST’S END* on November 1st!  So if you haven’t already, enter now!  If you don’t enter already, we’re going to hunt you down with KNIVES and eat your brains as well as possess your soul while revving chainsaws into the night and blogging about it all later on creepypasta sites!

Don’t make us do this…

p.s. Stay tuned every day until Halloween for more spooky songs!

It’s time for some Yoshi’s Island~!

There’s a cool new album on Ubiktune, presented by cool guy sleepytimejesse:

Make Music, Throw Music

Make Music, Throw Music - A Yoshi’s Island Tribute

This album is all about SMW2, featuring SNESology artists such as Toby “Radiation” Fox. and Monobrow who wrote the above song.  She says: 

Basically I always enjoyed watching Yoshi get high as a kite when he ate a Fuzzy.  This song is dedicated to that “warm and fuzzy feeling” ;).  I wanted the song to feel like you’re floating up in the clouds, and it’s a little precarious at times, but overall you’re doin’ just fine.

Get this album and while you’re at it, you should probably check out every album available on Ubiktune, just sayin’.

Also Monobrow has been kind enough to incorporate some original artwork with her YouTube video as seen above.

THE HIGH RES VERSION OF THE YOUTUBE ARTWORK

DOWNLOAD THE INDIVIDUAL MP3

LINK TO THE ALBUM ON BANDCAMP

Now that’s a lot of free stuff!  Get to downloading!

Listen to this!

It’s from the improvisational album Fading Light, which is out today!

Fading Light

 What does that have to do with SNESology you ask?  Keep reading.

SNESology’s founding artist Shnabubula has just released this beautiful album of solo piano music, with album artwork by our lead administrator, showrunner and frequent musical contributor Katie Kinkel (Monobrow).

So we ask you, how cool would it be to hear one of these songs arranged for the SNES?  You get to decide!  Let us know which track and what game you’d think it would fit!

To Tumblr, Love Pixel Union