[RERUN] C2E13: ”Songs of the Unsung” [Masters of VGM] - orig rel. 06/01/2023 (see 2025 show note addendum!)

[2025 Addendum….sorry for the long-winded]

Our second of three reruns which we’re releasing for July, and second of three reruns celebrating the memory of Masters of VGM (“MoVGM”), and the second of three of my bids to drum up excitement for the “VGM Hall of Fame” (“HoF”)  series spearheaded by Alex “The Messenger” Messenger of “A VGM Journey” (https://terraplayer.com/shows/a-vgm-journey), Professor Tom from “Shujin Academy VGM Club” (https://terraplayer.com/shows/shujin-academy-vgm-club), and myself (as well as any other shows which have elected to join us in the time since my drafting this on July 2nd) is just one of, this time, four contributions we made to the series that year. I’ll share links to the other three below, as well as two other bonus links which are acutely relevant to two of them (as well as to C1E96, our “fresh episode” from last month).

The Theme of 2023’s MoVGM was sort of the opposite of the year prior. 2022’s theme was a celebration of “big named composers”, like Yuzo Koshiro or Nobuo Uematsu, or The Follin Brothers and so on. Names that probably EVERYBODY already knows, 2023’s theme was “unsung and undersung composers”. Names that were not nearly as well-known as they should be. And so, our Channel 2 contribution followed the same format and design philosophy of our 2022, only with the opposite theme. It’s a little longer, though, because in addition to the same “four and four” as before, we added a ninth and final pair - tracks by unknown composers”.

Production notes on this episode relative to the 2022 rerun: by this time, two major changes had happened: 1) I had upgraded from the $100 RODE Podmic I had been using to the current $400 Shure SM7B that I use today, and 2) I had started actively editing out “Umm”s from our conversation. I can’t guarantee that I caught every single one of them. But they’ll certainly be much less present and much less invasive. It still won't rise to the level of a 2025 production (and sounds a little worse with the SM7B’s presence boost turned on at the time, which I’ve since turned off), but it comes appreciably closer than C2E8.

Links to the other 2023 Nerd Noise Radio MoVGM contributions:

C1E76: “The Big Sound of the Little Guy - vol. 2” (originally released 06/01/2023 - the episode which kicked off MoVGM 2023 at large):

https://terraplayer.com/shows/nerd-noise-radio/ch-1-noise-from-the-hearts-of-nerds-c1e76-the-big-sound-of-the-little-guy--vol-2

 

Ch F: “Highlights from ‘Stray’” (originally released 06/29/2023):

https://terraplayer.com/shows/nerd-noise-radio/channel-f-highlights-fromstray-masters-of-vgm

 

Ch F: Composer Mini-Focus: rayjkayj (originally released  07/26/2023 - also, this might’ve been the final MoVGM 2023 episode as well, meaning, I might’ve gotten to provide both “bookends” to that year’s celebration!)

https://terraplayer.com/shows/nerd-noise-radio/channel-f-composer-minifocus-rayjkayj-masters-of-vgm

 

Lastly, two bonus links which relate to the above:

1) C1E30: Big Sound of the Little Guy - vol. 1 (originally released 09/14/2018 - apologies for the atrocious production quality and anemic intro, but the music collection itself is GREAT!) - not only is this obviously relevant to C1E76 above, but it’s also relevant to last month’s C1E96, which was (unofficially, but for all intents and purposes) “Big Sound of the Little Guy vol 3”:

https://terraplayer.com/shows/nerd-noise-radio/nerd-noise-radio-channel-1-noise-from-the-hearts-of-nerds-podcast-c1e30-the-big-sounds-of-the-little-guy-vol-1

 

2) C1E73: “UNKAYJ THE RAYJ” (originally released ) - guest-hosted by rayjkayj himself, the above minifocus on rayjkayj was comprised of outtakes from this original episode:

https://terraplayer.com/shows/nerd-noise-radio/ch-1-noise-from-the-hearts-of-nerds-c1e73-unkayj-the-rayj

…and with that, I’ll leave you with C2E13: “Songs of the Unsung” (originally released 07/06/2023) - a title which I came up with, and if we’re being honest, I’m probably WAY too proud of!). :-D

Enjoy!

 

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Original Show Notes:

Today’s broadcast, for Theme Thursday, July 6th, 2023 is an episode of the Masters of VGM - season 2 (www.mastersofvgm.com) and is a focus on music from unsung and undersung composers - on an episode we’re calling “Songs of the Unsung”.

 

Tracklist:

 

01) John’s 1st composer (of 4): C418 (aka Daniel Rosenfeld)

 

1. John’s Track: Dreiton - Minecraft - Multiplatform
   1. Earcatcher - 00:00:00
   2. Music - 00:00:07
   3. Introduction - 00:08:16
   4. Top of the Show pt 1 - 00:09:12
   5. Discussion - 00:12:00
   6. Top of the Show pt 2 - 00:14:19
2. Hugues’ Track: Enforcer Brittanica - Catacomb Snatch - PC
   1. Music - 00:28:44
   2. Discussion - 00:32:23

 

02) Hugues’ 1st composer: Takahiko Abe

 

1. Hugues’ Track: Templo del Sol - Asuteka II - PC88
   1. Music - 00:37:18:
   2. Discussion - 00:39:31
2. John’s Track: Machi - Susanoou Densetsu - PC Engine
   1. Music - 00:46:36
   2. Discussion - 00:48:24

 

03) John’s 2nd composer: Soichi Terada

 

1. John’s Track: Subspace 2 - Fantavision 202X - PC
   1. Music - 00:56:06
   2. Discussion - 00:59:27
2. Hugues’ Track: TV Tower - Ape Escape on the Loose - PSP
   1. Music - 01:03:30
   2. Discussion - 01:06:54

 

04) Hugues’ 2nd composer: Katsumi Tanaka

 

1. Hugues’ Track: Memories of Puyo Puyo - Puyo Puyo CD - PC Engine
   1. Music - 01:11:09
   2. Discussion - 01:13:25
2. John’s Track: Black Hole Anomalies - Space Megaforce - SNES
   1. Music - 01:19:17
   2. Discussion - 01:21:41

 

05) John’s 3rd composer: Hikoshi Hashimoto

 

1. John’s Track: Zena Lan (Heavily Armored) - Cosmic Carnage - 32X
   1. Music - 01:23:57
   2. Discussion - 01:25:50
2. Hugues’ Track: Halftime - Pat Riley Basketball - Genesis
   1. Music - 01:31:15
   2. Discussion - 01:31:47

 

06) Hugues’ 3rd composer: Toshio Murai

 

1. Hugues’ Track: Office  Theme - Wall Street Kid - NES
   1. Music - 01:37:29
   2. Discussion - 01:39:16
2. John’s Track: Stage 6 - Cyber Core - PC Engine
   1. Music - 01:43:31
   2. Discussion - 01:45:01

 

07) John’s 4th composer: Joris de Man

 

1. John’s Track: Eternal Conceit - Horizon Forbidden West - PS4 / PS5
   1. Music - 01:48:22
   2. Discussion - 01:53:09
2. Hugues’ Track: Violet’s Theme - Black Belt Challenge - GBA
   1. Music - 02:02:56
   2. Discussion - 02:04:59

 

08) Hugues’ 4th composer: Yoshihiko Miyazaki

 

1. Hugues’ Track: Search Break - JB Harold Murder Club - PC88
   1. Music - 02:10:56
   2. Discussion - 02:12:43
2. John’s Track: Dream of the Murder - Manhattan Requiem - LaserActive
   1. Music - 02:18:37
   2. Discussion - 02:21:011

 

09) BONUS: “Unknown composers”!!!

 

1. John’s Track: Login Screen - N/A (System Music) - PS5
   1. Music - 02:24:25
   2. Discussion - 02:27:28
   3. End of show discussion - 02:31:12
   4. Masters of VGM shout-out - 02:34:26
   5. Closing track Discussion - 02:36:13
   6. Sign-off - 02:39:39
2. Hugues’ Track: Track 5 - Hyper Catalog - PC Engine
   1. Music - 02:39:48
   2. Masters of VGM earcatcher (feat. Ed Wilson of “The VGMbassy”) - 02:41:51
   3. Outtakes - 02:43:48

 

Total episode runtime: 02:51:22

 

Produced using a mix of Audacity and Ardour (various versions of each), primarily in KDE Neon (Linux) on St. John’s main laptop, and secondarily on St. John’s Gaming PC “Big Rig” running Garuda KDE Dr460nized Gaming Edition (also Linux).

 

Retro Game Club can be found here:

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/retro-game-club/id1453018680

 

You can also follow Retro Game Club on Facebook and Instagram @retrogameclubpodcast and on Twitter @rgcpodcast.

 

Hugues’ blog can be found here: 

 

https://huguesjohnson.com/

 

The referenced Hugues articles can be found here: 

 

JB Harold Article: https://www.huguesjohnson.com/guides/jb/ 

 

Ultravox Article: https://huguesjohnson.com/features/ultrabox/

 

X-Files DVD Article: https://huguesjohnson.com/features/xfiles-dvd/

 

You can find Nerd Noise Radio on Facebook and on Twitter each @NerdNoiseRadio. There are also two Facebook Groups: Nerd Noise Radio “Easy Mode” where we just have general video game and nerd fun, or for the gearheads among you, Nerd Noise Radio “Expert Mode” where we deep dive sound hardware, composer info, and music theory. 

 

You can find the blog at www.nerdnoiseradio.blogspot.com. Where we sometimes share additional show notes, and inside info. You can also find Nerd Noise Radio on Archive.org, where we have remixes and super bonuses only available there (such as a music-only alternative version of today’s show).

 

Nerd Noise Radio is also a member of the Retro Junkies community, which can be found at www.theretrojunkies.com. And we are a member of the VGM Podcast Fans community on Facebook. St. John is also the admin of the Podcasters of Des Moines Facebook group, which features a number of other podcasters and great programs from the greater Des Moines area.

 

Thanks for listening! Join us again later this month for a Ch 1 on an unnamed soundtrack (and very likely featuring a guest), as well as another Channel F on the VGM compositions of a fellow VGM podcaster, collectively wrapping up our involvement in MoVGM 2! Delicious VGM on Noise from the Hearts of Nerds, and Try Before You Buy on Channel F! And wherever you are….Fly the N!