Thursday, April 12, 2012

Jet Set Radio - Part 3 - Musical Beats


JSR Remix Part 3

Beats in my head – From lush visuals, to an open world design JSR was well known for another feature. Its sound, unlike any other game soundtrack, opened up a paradigm of music lovers to a whole new world. Given the fact that many of the artists or DJ’s were popular at the time (99/2000). One of the interesting transitions of JSR was that the US version contained tracks that the original Japanese version did not, and a whole new set of playgrounds.

Jet Set/Grind Radio
Hideki Naganuma – A well-known composer, mixing funky beats and unique sounds. Sega Retro compiled a very diverse bio regarding this “wave master” http://segaretro.org/Hideki_Naganuma

Deavid Soul – created by two former members of the band “Hi-Speed”, the duo mixes electro-funk with dance tunes and a splash of rap.

Guitar Vader – a duo by the same of Miki Tanabe(lead vocal), and Ujuan Shozo(bass/ alternate vocal). Mixing fun lyrics, and rock plus a diverse sounds made this band popular. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Vader

B.B. Rights – tough bio to find, but is an underground nickname

Castle Logical – guess they were a one hit wonder

F-Fields – Honestly this is even more bizarre, VGDMB gives credit to two characters. But hey could be psuedonym’s. “Yellow Bream” is also known as “Hip Hop Hokkien

Idol Taxi – comprised of two sounds, one beat (Ken Katsumata & Shinichi Yatabe) or aka “Arche Type”
According to BBC UK, odd place to find that nugget of knowledge.

Reps – This UK band is still going strong, and keeping their fans going. Although they are beginning to sound like “The Rolling Stones” wonder if that’s a sign. http://www.myspace.com/therepertoires

Richard Jacques – Another familiar name in the vgm scene, mostly known for composing Sonic CD US versions OST and a unique theme song (it’s quite catchy) http://segaretro.org/Richard_Jacques

Toronto – a mysterious entity that has adorned other projects, some from classic tunes and somewhere they made it into dance and techno. http://www.last.fm/music/Toronto/+wiki

Cold (US version only) – (aka Grundig) later changed their name when meeting certain characters along the way. Their sound is dark, edgy, and a complete contrast from the rest of the game’s OST.  http://www.coldarmy.com/ Some years back the band took a break, and came back together in 2008.

Mixmaster Mike (US version only)- from underground DJ, to a brand name DJ MixMike is still going strong. http://www.mixmastermike.com/

Professional Murder Music (US version only) – What began as a collaboration, birthed a mixture of energy and words that can only be dished out in lyrics. http://www.murdermusic.com/

Rob Zombie (US version only)- noise maker, director, producer, this character has done literally everything. And he is still busy with more horror movies. http://robzombie.com/

Jurassic 5 (US version only) – formed in the early 90’s a collection of five talents delivered a message of peace and love to all that listened (in an early Dreamcast magazine, there was a bonus promo video on one of the demo discs) Sadly they fell apart after 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_5

Feature Cast (EU version only) – An interesting group that wasn’t added to the US version of JSR, but their track “Recipe for the Perfect Afro” was within the EU edition. And still going strong!
http://web.mac.com/featurecast/iWeb/feet/Home.html
http://soundcloud.com/featurecast/

O.B. One (EU version only) Another unknown (to us stateside) name, but a steady DJ keeping the beats alive. Actually an MMA fighter as well.  Er, wait there’s more than one person with the nickname.

Semi Detached (EU version only)- Make that one more unknown name to this list for JSR. A bit more beats than the other track. Might say it’s the outsider of the JSR OST. But the track featured on the OST is a bit more 60’s retro jazz/funk style. Wonder why this one didn’t make it stateside.

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