Music is probably my biggest addiction next to games. I remember game soundtracks were always getting caught up in my head and I would sing or hum them incessantly. While everyone I knew eventually turned to commercial radio and pop stuff, I kept my own tastes unique by exploring all kinds of music that reminded me of games, would make good soundtracks to games, and captured the attitude and vibe of some of my favorite games (primarily PC shooters).

After high school I fell in love with the art of mixing music and the hobby of collecting records. I was always the kid in the music shop at the mall trying to find cool new music I liked that I could share with my friends so learning the craft just felt like a natural extension. Just like finding obscure indie or doujin titles to share with your peeps, sharing tunes with people is just a lot of fun and I bet I'm not the only one who agrees.

So without further ado, here's some equilibrium for your ears to harmonize—or bleed—to.

Tonikom



Kinda dark ambient electronic music. Most of it more down-tempo like this track while other songs can be more akin to drum and bass. Lots of atmospheric synth pads and melodies in a sort of soothing minimal kind of way usually. Tonikom uses a lot of percussion in her stuff and maintains an overall scifi vibe, especially on her first release, Epoch. If you enjoyed Kenji Yamamoto's work for the Super Metroid and Metroid Prime soundtracks, I think you'll dig this. It'll make you want to throw on a Varia suit and go space pirate hunting. With the Metroid Prime Trilogy not far from release, I figured everyone should check out Tonikom. Also worth a look if you enjoy Akira Yamaoka's work for Silent Hill.

Ambassadors of Funk: Super Mario Compact Disco



Funky oldschool hip hop breaks with Super Mario samples composing most of the beats. Of course, the rhyme schemes are cheesy at best but they're easy to tune out compared to the beat arrangements which are catchy like nothing else. This release is long since out of print and I obtained my copy Dyson style at my local Goodwill so good luck finding it in any stores. There are torrents for it, but the bitrate quality is so shitty on them that I wouldn't bother in my opinion.

La Manade: Taser 08



Sample Player

This is actually a vinyl record I find myself listening to all the time for the A1 side. Basically a remix of the classic Mario Bros. theme, but it's one of the best I've heard in a long time. One way you can get this is to order from overseas; provided you actually have a working turntable to play vinyl on. This one's for the highly caffeinated who like fast bouncy techno. If you fancy yourself a raver, you should try to obtain a copy of this vinyl off Discogs unless you really want to pay shipping from France.

Megadriver

Check the guitar body...

Ok, just for you people who prefer music made with actual instruments don't feel neglected, here's some retro flavored metal for ya. This isn't the first time Megadriver has been brought to your attention, but new bloods should be made aware of them, as I'm sure a lot of gamers have run across videogame metal bands like Powerglove already, but when I bring up Megadriver I usually get blank stares. Well know this, these guys love their game music and it really shows in their metal recreations of some of the best Sega tunes to hit the console. From Sonic to Shinobi, Megadriver hits hard and melodic like it should be done. Best of all, most of their releases are free to download at their site, so if you like metal and you're not stupid, you should probably get on that.

So be sure to check out these artists and spread the word about their music. I don't know if I will eventually turn this into a regular column but it possibly could; seeing as I spend too much damn time navigating the net looking for this stuff. Until next time...