Mazedude's music featured on Capoeira Nation

The members of the VGM fan arrangement community are a diverse bunch. But arguably no one stands further away from the mean than Chris "Mazedude" Getman. Not only are his sound programming and composition styles unique unto themselves, but he's got some attention-grabbing hobbies.

He's a stuntman. And he can dance while kicking your ass, because he's a disciple of capoeira. A truly lucky individual is able to mesh his hobbies with his professional life, and Mazedude has done just that yet again by providing music and video production to a website promoting instructional videos on the art of capoeira, Capoeira Nation.

Chris says, via the OC ReMix forums:

I am very proud and excited to announce the launching of a new website. It is the first of its kind - to teach the martial art of Capoeira via Instructional Videos on the Internet.

I am even more delighted to share the kickass news that I am the composer for the website, and all of their video productions. For those who are not aware, Capoeira is from Brazil, and the music that accompanies the martial art is very unique and ethnic. The vocals are in Portuguese, and the beats are performed by such instruments as the berimbau, atabaque, and pandeiro. I play each of these instruments, and am fluent in the various traditional beats and songs. However, for this project I have been given the freedom to fuse the traditional style with that of my own, and I've had just oodles of fun putting it together. :)

I invite everyone to check it out: http://www.capoeiranation.com

Even better examples can be heard in the Promo videos [...] although the timing is off slightly due to YouTube's conversion.





Enjoy the music, but furthermore, enjoy the site. If you're at all interested in learning Capoeira, but don't have any teachers near you, well, that's what this website solves!

I was brought here by HUMANS who wish to pay ME tribute

During my periodic search for the word "Dhsu" on Google and YouTube (for reasons completely unrelated to stroking my own ego), I came across this vid by YouTuber Dekreme:



To say that I'm flattered would be an understatement. To say I'm impressed would also not be enough...even though it isn't my most complicated arrangement, learning the whole thing by ear takes a special kind of dedication. Mad props, my man!

As surprised I was by this though, I'd be lying if I said this sort of thing hasn't happened before...



Though my name isn't specifically mentioned in the description, the source of the arrangement is obvious. Kazamajin1, the performer in the video, asked me directly for the sheet music to "A Clockwork Vampire" and kept me personally updated on his progress in learning this piece. The culmination of his efforts was the video you now see here.

As for the implication by certain smellyjdgfgts that I might be jealous of or threatened by these rising talents, I can assure you such claims are preposterous. I am in fact quite glad that "Nayru's Love" is fulfilling its purpose of getting people to give the Zelda Oracle games more, well...love.

Ayako Saso Chronology

A month ago, I blogged about two composer chronology videos, looking at works by two Namco composers, Shinji Hosoe and Nobuyoshi "sanodg" Sano.

The creator of those two videos, TYKUN, now has a third video about a third Namco composer, Ayako Saso:



Lots of love for the Ridge Racer series.

"Shinji Hosoe chronology" video at YouTube

Shinji Hosoe is one of VGM's most prolific and longest-working composers. From Dragon Spirit, an arcade game released in 1987, to Folklore, a PS3 game released on June 21 this year in Japan and set to be released some time in November in North America, Hosoe has worked on the soundtracks to more than fifty games. His highest profile works are those in the Ridge Racer series, those in the Street Fighter EX series, and the in-game music to Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse (the much more well-known cutscene music was done by Yuki Kajiura, who fully scored Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra).

A friend gave me a link to a YouTube video by TYKUN called "Shinji Hosoe chronology," which samples eighteen of Hosoe's video game and original works, along with title screen or box art pictures for each work. It's a fascinating look at one of the industry's distinguished veterans:



TYKUN also has a chronology video for one of Hosoe's colleagues at Namco, Nobuyoshi "sanodg" Sano. Be sure to check it out too.