Episode 72 :: Manawave, W/F Music from Final Fantasy 13

Show notes and gallery: https://videogamegrooves.com/2020/11/25/episode-72-manawave-w-f-music-from-final-fantasy-13

It's time to talk turkey about video game music on vinyl record, and we're going to start with the drunken uncle at the gathering: lo-fi hip-hop.  We're joined by Caleb Denney, formerly of Debug Records but newly of Channel 3 Records, to talk about some great and noteworthy feature picks!  We begin with the cross-label release of Manawave, an ostensibly low (but not-low) fi (but not-fi) hip (but not-hip) hop (but not-hop) adaptation of Secret of Mana. We admire its aspirations and discuss the album's flowing intentionality and mood, as well as the improbable path to approval by Mana's original composer, Hiroki Kikuta and the album art by Hiroo Isono. We continue to Anthony's pick of W/F Music from Final Fantasy XIII, and champion the unusual divergence the divisive game's music takes from the rest of the canon. A tiny bit of soapboxing and gushing later, and we ponder Square-Enix's vinyl trajectory toward mediocrity from this serendipitously wonderful release.

We take care of the news and releases, as always, keeping you informed just in time for those spendy, spendy holidays. And for our final segment, we decide to deeply interrogate the idea of "exceptional" music in the game music vinyl space. What qualifies as exceptional? Are we getting exceptional releases? Do we deserve them? What does the future hold? Is Mass Effect's music really that good? Listen and find out!

Outro: "Can't Catch a Break!" - Final Fantasy XIII, by Masashi Hamauzu

VOTE: Video Game Music on Vinyl's Best of 2020 Community Poll, by BlipBlop.net

Twitter – @vg_grooves, @jeremy_lamont, @ch3records

Channel 3 Records Website

Links:
SteamWorld Tower Defense Reimagined (Thunderful)
The Pathless (iam8bit)
Radirgy Swag (fashionstore.jp)
Carrion (Materia Collective)
Guacamelee (Ship to Shore)
Guacamelee 2 (Ship to Shore)
The Music of Destiny Vol 2 (Bungie US) (Bungie EU)
Haven (G4F Records)
Resident Evil 6 (Laced, Limited Ed) (Standard Ed)
Art of Fighting 3 (Bigwax) (Limited Run Games)
Shenmue III (Standard Bigwax) (Standard Limited Run Games)
Blossom Tales (Respawned Records)
Serious Sam 4 (Special reserve Games)
Zelda & Chill 2 (Bandcamp crowdfunding) Ends Dec 11
Firewatch (Kickstarter) Ends Nov 30

Image Gallery