Singing Mountain, A VGM Podcast
129 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 93 ratingsHi. This is a podcast about video game music from the 16-bit era Singing Mountain is hosted by Drew Mackie, who feels most at home in the music from 16-bit RPGs.
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Episodes
Lonesome Journeys
May 24, 2018 09:27 - 1 hour - 107 MBA hero’s journey can be lonely. Think about what it was like to start a new game, see your tiny sprite on the map screen for the first time and then wonder about what all you might be doing in this new adventure. This episode is all about music that captures that feeling: being a little excited, being a little lost, and feeling all the freedom of setting off on your own. Track listing: 0:16: Eternal Wind / Final Fantasy III (Famicom) / Nobuo Uematsu 4:50: Wanderer / Live a Live / Yoko Shimomu...
Staring Into the Stars and Seeing Something Staring Back
May 15, 2018 07:11 - 1 hour - 87.7 MBThis is an experiment in which I'm trying to tell a story using video game music. I'm not sure if the story will translate, but even if it doesn't, you're going to hear some awesome, spacey tracks. If you're wondering what the story is, the title is a hint. Track listing: 0:08: Title Theme / Phantasy Star / Tokuhiko Uwabo 1:30: Dr. Andonuts' Lab / Earthbound / Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka 2:51: Title Theme / Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for Famicom Disk System / Akito Nakatsuka 4:34:...
Dixie Kong's Double Soundtracks
May 09, 2018 11:02 - 1 hour - 111 MBThe third Donkey Kong Country title is the black sheep of the series for a few reasons, but I'm here to sing its praises. It's especially unique in that it got two different soundtracks: one by Eveline Fischer for its debut on the Super Nintendo and a second by David Wise for its re-release on the Game Boy Advance. A lot of fans of Wise's work may not have ever heard this "lost" Donkey Kong Country soundtrack, and in this episode I look at the best of both. Long live Dixie Kong! Track listing...
Super Mario B-Sides
May 02, 2018 10:04 - 1 hour - 112 MBThis is a celebration of the less famous songs from Mario games and Marioverse games. These are not the familiar, nostalgic tracks that get redone again and again. No, these are the catchy, weird and otherwise notable tracks from Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi and Wario games that haven't made their way into the go-to Nintendo songbook. Trigger warning: I will make you listen to a Virtual Boy song. Track listing: 0:12: Let’s Play “Geno” / Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars / Composed by Ko...
Night Fight in Facepunch City
April 25, 2018 11:11 - 1 hour - 89.9 MBThe Streets of Rage series had one of the best soundtracks ever, and that music helped define the early '90s era of muscled vigilantes walking city streets and punching bad guys. This episode celebrates Yuzo Koshiro's incredible compositions for those games while also looking at other titles that get at a similar sound: a city at night, glowing with neon, riddled with crime and in great need of a face-punching. Track listing: 0:07: Title Theme / Streets of Rage / Yuzo Koshiro 1:39: In the Bar...
Hey, Gang! Let’s Explore the Music of the Commodore 64!
April 17, 2018 10:16 - 1 hour - 114 MBIf you're like me, you encountered the Commodore 64 as a classroom edutainment tool only. But if you did, you missed out on a whole library of "real" video games and some of the most epic and most intense video game music you'll ever come across. Thanks to an episode of PixelTunes Radio, I had reason to jump neck-deep into C64 music, and this episode collects the brightest gems I found in this treasure hunt, including tracks by Rob Hubbard, Jeroen Tel, Tim Follin and more. Track listing: 0:15...
The Queen of Trees
March 30, 2018 19:22 - 1 hour - 152 MBI want you live in the 16-bit fantasy world you used to dream about, but giving you the soundtrack for that world is the best I can do at the moment. This is a mix of music that I can only call "medievalish" -- dreamy, melancholy, wistful, adventurous and hopeful, and all of the tracks plucked from the best fantasies that video games have offered so far. Get lost, but in the good way. 0:13: The Place I’ll Return to Someday / Final Fantasy IX / Nobuo Uematsu 3:55: Cavern 1 / Shining Wisdom / M...
Race to Your Death! Or Don't!
March 19, 2018 06:30 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MBThink about what a racing video game sounds like and you'll come up with an answer pretty quickly. But what about VGM tracks that kinda-sorta-maybe sound like they're from racing games when they're not? What if you heard a piece of video game music out of context and had someone suggest it was from a racing game? Could you picture what kind of track you'd be racing around? I think so, and this episode thinks so. Track listing: 0:06: Crazy Motorcycle Chase / Final Fantasy VII / Nobuo Uematsu 5...
The Laidback Fighting Game Mixtape
March 10, 2018 04:20 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBThis is a music only remix of my last episode, about laidback music in fighting games, in which "laidback" = relaxed, cheerful, atmospheric and in any other way unusual for the background music of a stage in a fighting game. In addition to the tracks from that original episode, I included a few more that either didn't make the cut or had been used in recent episodes. It's about an hour of music altogether. Track listing: 1:30: Floating on a Harp and Piano Fantasy for Yvonne Lerolle / Fatal Fu...
A Most Chilled-Out Fisticuff
March 05, 2018 20:54 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBTypical fighting music is exactly what you'd want as a soundtrack to two people kicking the crap out of each other, but sometimes composers throw in a random laidback track. This episode is all about these: the inexplicably peaceful or cheerful or otherwise not-super-face-poundy songs that are nonetheless in fighting games, featuring tracks from Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, Tekken and more. Track listing: 0:12: Guile’s Theme / Super Street Fighter II / Yoko Shimomura 3:3...
Disney Afternoon, Presented by Capcom
February 22, 2018 10:10 - 1 hour - 67.8 MBCapcom gave us a generation of NES games inspired by Disney’s animated series but set these games to soundtracks that were wholly original. Sure, games like DuckTales and Rescue Rangers also have 8-bit versions of the show theme songs, but the rest of the music is awesome all on its own. This episode is all about that classic Capcom platformer sound, as it was defined by greats such as Hiroshige Tonomura, Harumi Fujita, Minae Fujii, and Yasuaki Fujita. Track listing: 0:08: Moon / DuckTales / ...
Bad Girls Club
February 15, 2018 03:03 - 1 hour - 63.3 MBI'm celebrating Valentine's Day with the video game characters I love most: bad girls. This is a collection of music associated with big bads, supervillainesses, henchwomen and general badasses who don't fit the mold of damsels in distress, with music from DarkStalkers, Shovel Knight, Sonic, Breath of Fire, Battletoads, Final Fantasy, Samurai Shodown and more. You go, girls. Track listing: 0:13: Morrigan’s Theme / Darkstalkers / Takayuki Iwai and Hideki Okugawa 2:09: Medusa Battle / Kid Icaru...
Music From When I Missed Video Games
January 29, 2018 09:57 - 1 hour - 82.4 MBHey, do you need to listen to some low-key, ambient video game music? Half a lifetime ago, your host was a college freshman sorely in need of both video games and downtime, and he made a mix to get him through his workload. Today, this playlist has been revived for your benefit, podcast listeners, and you can now enjoy a nostalgic reminder of Final Fantasy, Donkey Kong Country, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Secret of Mana and more. Track listing: 0:11: Hometown Domina / Legend of M...
Terra / Tina
January 20, 2018 00:22 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBIn this short episode, I talk about how Terra's theme is reused throughout the first half of Final Fantasy VI, and how that might trick players into thinking she's the main character and that there's not a surprising (and depressing) second half to this 1994 RPG masterpiece. This plus all due praise for Nobuo Uematsu's finale to the series' Super Nintendo era. Track listing: 0:11: Omen (Parts 1 and 2) / Nobuo Uematsu / Final Fantasy VI 1:31: From That Day On... / Nobuo Uematsu / Final Fantasy...
The Best Saxophones in Video Game Music
January 09, 2018 00:50 - 1 hour - 65.6 MB"No, there atcually *are* some kickass saxaphones in video game music," Drew said, responding to no one. Yes, this is an unabashed appreciation of saxophones and their digital reproductions as they've been used in video games, all because I wanted to include Edea's theme from Bravely Default in an episode and ended up building other sax-tastic tracks around it. I have tracks from Mario Kart 8, ToeJam & Earl, Street Fighter 3, Undertale and Bayonetta and more. Bonus? I avoided making an "aural...
Diamond Dust
December 23, 2017 10:22 - 1 hour - 57.5 MBWhat if you celebrated Christmas in a 16-bit ice cavern? That's the mood this episode wants to create for you. In this end-of-year installment, I'm trying to get together the best of the less holly-jolly music from ice levels. Think crystal blue. Think sparkly. Think about there being nary a jingle bell in sight. And don't worry about sliding off a ledge and plummeting to your doom. Listen to all the Singing Mountain winter music episodes: https://singingmountainpod.com/episodes/playlist-wint...
Bonus Episode: The Cuphead Vinyl Mixtape
December 07, 2017 20:17 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBCuphead features an old-timey aesthetic that is well-matched with a retro throwback soundtrack by Kristofer Maddigan. However, it was pointed out to me how great the game's mostly big band soundtrack would sound being played on an old scratchy record, and I decided to make that happen. Here's a seven-song sampler of the game's soundtrack, gussied up with the pops and hisses you'd hear listening to well-aged vinyl. Track listing: 1:17 Inkwell Isle 1 5:05 Threatenin' Zeppelin 8:31 Treetop Troub...
Moonlight Drive
December 05, 2017 09:50 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBWhat does a nighttime drive through the city sound like? Here are thirty video games that attempt to answer that question. Starting with the theme to Toad's Turnpike from Mario Kart 64, this episode explores a lesser-known type of video game music: "chill metropolis" or "skyscraper nocturne" or whatever else you want to call it. Featuring titles from Sega, Nintendo, Capcom, Square and more. Track listing: 0:07: Intro / Takashi Tateishi / Mega Man 2 1:30: Crash Man / Takashi Tateishi / Mega Ma...
An 8-Bit Halloween
October 26, 2017 23:56 - 1 hour - 59.3 MBHalloween + video game nostalgia. If your old NES was haunted, it would sound like this. This extra episode features music from Castlevania, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Megami Tensei, Splatterhouse and even some non-horror-themed games that happen to have some great, Halloween-appropriate music. Playlist: 0:07 Transylvania / Yoshihiro Sakaguchi / DuckTales 2:25: Vampire Killer / Castlevania / Kinuyo Yamashita 5:17: Title Theme / David Wise / A Nightmare on Elm Street 8:00: Stage 1 Theme / Ayak...
The Vengeful Ghost of Super Mario
October 16, 2017 20:03 - 1 hour - 64.2 MBYes, the Mario games have often been relentlessly cheerful, but sometimes Nintendo allows the mustachioed one and his pals to tread into darker territory. And the music that accompanies these ventures into what I call "creepy Mario" is often some of the best in the game. Featured in this episode: the most Halloween-appropriate music from Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Galaxy, Paper Mario, Super Mario RPG and more. Track listing: 0:07: Haunted House BGM / Super Mario World / Koji Kondo 2:13: Hau...
Let's Journey Together!
September 18, 2017 19:20 - 51 minutes - 47.6 MBSeiken Densetsu 3 was never officially translated and brought to the U.S., but you can still enjoy the game's soundtrack. In this episode, Drew talks about how this sequel to Secret of Mana sounds melancholy but every bit as beautiful as the original. Track listing: 0:08: Meridian Child 4:47: Witchmakers 6:14 Another Winter 8:39: Female Turbulence 9:48: Different Road 9:50: Evening Star 13:32: Lefthanded Wolf 18:44: Hope Isolation Pray 20:28: Harvest November 24:01: Innocent Water 24:02: Inno...
The Legend of Deep Purple
August 13, 2017 21:40 - 15 minutes - 14 MBDiscussed herein: The likely (but not yet proven) connection between the original Legend of Zelda and the British rock band Deep Purple, as well as Koji Kondo's past in a cover band, those people who don't regard video game music as being as legitimate as "real" music, and Hayley Mills, for some reason. Track listing: 0:05: April / Deep Purple 2:03: Smoke on the Water / Deep Purple 3:00: Hush / Deep Purple 5:45: Dungeon Theme / Legend of Zelda / Koji Kondo 7:57: Death Mountain Dungeon Theme /...
One Toot on This Whistle
August 08, 2017 22:28 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBThe flute noise from the original Legend of Zelda has resurfaced in later games, woven into the soundtrack in sometimes hard-to-notice ways. In this episode, I'm attempting to round them up, all while celebrating Koji Kondo and the other composers who have defined this series' sound. (Note: This episode has been updated from the version I originally uploaded to include a track from Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.) Track listing: 0:06: Title Theme / Legend of Zelda (FDS) / Koji Kondo 3:34: Ov...
Bonus Episode: The Forest Mixtape
August 02, 2017 00:38 - 52 minutes - 48.4 MBA little something extra! Here's all the tracks from episode five (plus a few more that got cut from the final edit) mixed together into one uninterrupted longplay. Think green. Chill out. Norfest Forest / Terranigma / Miyoko Takaoka and Masanori Hikichi Secret of the Forest / Chrono Trigger / Yasunori Mitsuda Forest Interlude / Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest / David Wise ??????? Powell, the Moonlight Forest / Seiken Densetsu 3 / Hiroki Kikuta Windy Cliffs / Do-Re-Mi Fantasy / Jun ...
What the Forest Taught Me
August 01, 2017 23:16 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBIt's hot, and I'm taking refuge from the heat with some of the most beautiful forest themes composed in video games. Among the titles featured: Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country 2 and Shining Force. Stay cool. 0:10: Norfest Forest / Terranigma / Miyoko Takaoka and Masanori Hikichi 4:34: Secret of the Forest / Chrono Trigger / Yasunori Mitsuda 8:17: Forest Interlude / Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest / David Wise 12:22: Powell, the Moonlight Forest / Seiken Densetsu ...
Ric Ocasek in Moonside
July 06, 2017 01:24 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBIt's a deep dive into the wonderfully weird music of Nintendo's Earthbound/Mother 2, but it's also a personal essay of sorts, as Drew tracks his association with a Ric Ocasek song that he didn't even know he knew. Track listing: 0:07: Battle With Kraken / Earthbound / Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki 1:55: One Day for Sure (Threed) / Earthbound / Keiichi Suzuki 4:15: Battle With an Unsettling Opponent / Earthbound / Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki 5:54: Onett's Arcade / Earthbound / Hiro...
Giana from Germany
June 26, 2017 22:35 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBThe Great Giana Sisters is a Commodore 64 title best known for imitating Super Mario Bros., but the game's soundtrack is actually pretty awesome. In this episode, we look at how the Great Giana Sisters music makes for a handy entry point into the work of one of the most talented video game composers around: Chris Huelsbeck. Track listing: 0:03: Overworld / Great Giana Sisters / Chris Huelsbeck 3:33: Title Theme / Great Giana Sisters / Chris Huelsbeck 5:53: Castle Theme / Great Giana Sisters /...
Wet Metal
June 17, 2017 21:55 - 17 minutes - 16 MBMusic is a big part of the Mega Man games, in more ways than you might think. This episode looks at the relationship between the games' stage music and the boss waiting at the end of those stages. The goal here is Splash Woman's theme from Mega Man 9, about which Drew has some crazy, unfounded theories. Track listing: 0:06: Needle Man / Mega Man 3 / Harumi Fujita 3:51: Pharoah Man / Mega Man 4 / Minae Fujii 4:51: Shade Man / Mega Man 3 / Yuko Takehara, Toshihiko Horiyama and Makoto Tomozawa 6...
It's Raining Swords
June 12, 2017 03:22 - 8 minutes - 7.78 MBThe first episodes kicks off with a track from Super Mario RPG. This selection quickly told players how this game would be a radical departure for a Super Mario game, and more than twenty years later, I still have it stuck in my head. Track listing: 0:08: Welcome to Booster Tower / Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars / Yoko Shimomura 2:15: Inside the Earthen Pipe / Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars / Yoko Shimomura 4:07: The Sword Descends / Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seve...