["Morning after" edit: it was a late night, last minute production in a new studio, so I apologize for the slightly hot, slightly clipping voice, and the intro music that runs two loops instead of one.]
Now, on a much lighter note, onto our regularly scheduled program! :-)
"Noise from the Hearts of Nerds" - “C1E45 [PART 1]: The Best of 2018 - pt 1: Listener Picks”
It's the most wonderful time of the year….for Nerd Noise Radio! :-) Today’s broadcast is C1E45 [PART 1] for Wayback Wednesday, June 26th, 2019. Today’s Episode is "The Best of 2018 pt 1 - Listener Picks"
Track# - Track – Game – System – Composer(s) - Episode(s) - Listener(s) - Timestamp
(NOTE: Tracks in bold and italics were tracks that I had on my list for my episode (part 2) that the listeners claimed for theirs. I may get the last word…but they get the first….and first dibs on any tracks).
01) Intro - 00:00:00
02) Go Straight - Streets of Rage 2 - Genesis - Yuzo Koshiro and/or Motohiro Kawashima - C1E31 - Rebecca - 00:02:26
03) Central Park - Last Ninja 2 - C64 - Matt Gray - C1E35 - Rebecca - 00:05:28
04) Prairie - Devilish - Genesis - Hitoshi Sakimoto - C1E36 - Phillip & Purnell - 00:10:58
05) Sting Chameleon - Mega Man X - SNES - Setsuo Yamamoto, Makoto Tomozawa, Yuki Iwai, Yuko Takhara and/or Toshihiko Horiyama - C1E26 - Purnell - 00:13:44
06) Metal Crusher - Undertale - Multi - Toby Fox - C1E40 - Jeshua & Rebecca (originally contributed to C1E40 by Jeshua Lack) - 00:14:56
07) Simon's Theme - Super Castlevania IV - SNES - Masanori Idachi and/or Taro Kudo - C1E37 - Hugues - 00:17:00
08) Strike the Earth - Shovel Knight - Multi - Jake Kaufmann - C1E30 - Phillip & Purnell - 00:20:02
09) Flame Mammoth - Mega Man X – SNES - Setsuo Yamamoto, Makoto Tomozawa, Yuki Iwai, Yuko Takhara and/or Toshihiko Horiyama - C1E26 - Purnell - 00:23:40
10) Wily's Castle 1 - Mega Man 2 - Takashi Tateishi - NES - C1E32 - Jeshua & Phillip - 00:25:37
11) Energy Zone - Contra - NES - c: Kazuki Muaoka a: Hidenori Maezawa and/or Kiyohiro Sada - C1E34 - Purnell - 00:28:14
12) Do or Die - Retro City Rampage - Multi - Norrin Radd - C1E30 - Hugues - 00:29:22
13) Stage Select (Mavericks) - Mega Man X - Setsuo Yamamoto, Makoto Tomozawa, Yuki Iwai, Yuko Takhara and/or Toshihiko Horiyama - C1E26 - Phillip - 00:30:08
14) The Tunnel - Metroid Metal - N/A - c: Ryoji Yoshitomi a: Stemage - C1E28 - Phillip - 00:31:07
15) Surface of SR388 - Metroid 2 - GameBoy - Ryoji Yoshitomi - C1E32 - Purnell - 00:35:13
16) Wicked Child - Castlevania - NES - Kinuyo Yamashita, and/or Satoe Terashima - C1E33 - Purnell- 00:37:23
17) Into the Thick of It - Secret of Mana - SNES - Hiroki Kikuta - C1E21 - Hugues - 00:40:13
18) Map Screen - Wolfchild - SNES - Martin Iveson - C1E27/C1E33 - Rebecca - 00:42:02
19) People of the Far North - Final Fantasy X - PS2 - Masashi Hamauzu, Junya Nakano, and/or Nobuo Uematsu - C1E32 - Hugues - 00:43:44
20) Title Theme - N/A (Metroid Album) - N/A - c: Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka a: Luminist - C1E29 - Phillip - 00:45:56
21) Action Screen - Spellcaster - Mastersystem - Sachio Ogawa - C1E27 - Hugues - 00:48:19
22) Shadow Man - Mega Man 3 - NES - Yasuaki Fujita - C1E22 - Phillip- 00:51:11
23) Woods Test - Whomp 'Em - NES - Tsukasa Tawada - C1E24 - Purnell - 00:53:16
24) Castle Lololo - Kirby's Dreamland - GameBoy - Jun Ishikawa - C1E40 - Purnell (originally contributed to C1E40 by Brian Peterson) - 00:55:20
25) Black Mage Village - Final Fantasy IX - PS1 - Nobuo Uematsu - C1E32 - Hugues - 00:57:17
26) Onett - Earthbound - SNES - Keiichi Suzuki and/or Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka - C1E40 - Purnell & Hugues (originally contributed to C1E40 by Phillip Vaughn)- 01:00:31
27) A Curious Tale - Secret of Mana - SNES - Hiroki Kikuta - C1E21 - Purnell - 01:02:52
28) Elm Street - Nightmare on Elm Street - NES - David Wise - C1E27 - Purnell - 01:04:16
29) Underhalls - DOOM II - PC (Midi) - Bobby Prince - C1E27 - Hugues - 01:07:09
30) Resurrections - Celeste - multi - Lena Raine - C1E40 - Rebecca (originally contributed to C1E40 by Chris Murray) - 01:11:55
31) Stage 4-3 - Bram Stoker's Dracula - Genesis - Matt Furniss - C1E32 - Rebecca - 01:21:28
32) Dance of the Pales - Castlevania: SOTN - PS1 - Michiru Yamane - C1E36 - Phillip - 01:24:19
33) The Chandeliers - Super Castlevania IV - SNES - Masanori Idachi and/or Taro Kudo - C1E37 - Phillip - 01:26:52
34) Riddle - Castlevania III - NES - Konami Kukeiha Club - C1E40 - Purnell (originally contributed to C1E40 by Valerie Wedgeworth) - 01:29:27
35) Boss 1 - So Many Me - multi - Christopher Gechan and/or Daniel Byrne McCullough - C1E38 - Phillip - 01:30:30
36) Back to the Industry - Streets of Rage 2 - Genesis - Yuzo Koshiro and/or Motohiro Kawashima -C1E31 - Purnell - 01:32:53
37) Spirit of Night - Secret of Mana - SNES - Hiroki Kikuta - C1E21 - Phillip - 01:36:29
38) Race Results (Track 4) - Jaguar XJ220 - Sega CD - Martin Iveson - C1E24 - Hugues - 01:38:07
39) Current of the Times - Gran Turismo 5 - PS3 - Yudai Satoh - C1E22 - Rebecca - 01:40:53
40) In the Bar - Streets of Rage 2 - Genesis - Yuzo Koshiro and/or Motohiro Kawashima - C1E31 - Purnell & Hugues - 01:46:00
41) Submerged City - Super Castlevania IV - SNES - Masanori Adachi and/or Taro Kudo - C1E37 - Purnell - 01:47:50
42) Dire Dire Docks - Super Mario 64 - N64 - Koji Kondo - C1E32 - Purnell - 01:52:15
43) End Credits - Resident Evil - PS1 - Makoto Tomozawa, Akira Kaida, and/or Masami Ueda - C1E40 - Jeshua (originally contributed to C1E40 by John Jekel) - 01:55:16
44) Outro - 01:58:16
Music Block Runtime: 01:55:52, Total Episode Runtime: 02:15:10
Meet the contributors and support their projects:
Contributing Listeners (listed in order of first to last to submit tracks):
- Rebecca Gruber (aka Zinn) - Jinxed Thoughts (blog) – Sweden
- Phillip Vaughn - Phoxmonkey ("Let's Play" and Artwork livestream on Mixer) - USA (Sylva, NC)
- Jeshua Lack - USA (Des Moines, IA)
- Pernell [Thrillho] Vaughn - Rhythm and Pixels (VGM podcast) - USA (Willmington, DE)
- Hugues Johnson - Retro Game Club (VG podcast) [and former co-host of The Retro League (VG podcast)] - USA (Chicago, IL)
Phoxmonkey: https://mixer.com/Phoxmonkey Also, a HUGE special thanks to Phil for having now appeared in EVERY SINGLE listener-based NNR outing to date! He's the only one to have that distinction!
Rhythm and Pixels: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rhythm-and-pixels-video-game-music-podcast/id1061486328, on Twitter @Rhythm_n_Pixels and on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/rhythmandpixels/
Also, should you ever find yourself in Des Moines on the last Wednesday of the month, join Jeshua and I for board game night at the Des Moines Social Club (Adam Huisman from C1E40 can be found there as well)!
SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT THIS "THE BEST OF 2018" PROJECT (these will also be repeated near-verbatim in the show notes for part 2): This is a once-a-year project that appears in two parts: today's installment, a listener-picked part 1, is more or less a standard episode, other than that the tracks are all pulled from episodes we released in the previous calendar year, and that those tracks were selected by the listeners, rather than myself. Next week, you will hear part 2, which is all my picks, and is a MONSTER! 75 tracks, 3hr 45min! There are several reasons that we only resort to that kind of length just once a year. In part, to make it special and an event when it does happen, in part to not overwhelm the listeners and chase them off with it, and lastly…because it's a TON of work! :-D
One thing I like about the format of this once-a-year project is that it favors both the listeners and your host in differing ways. The listeners get the first word, with their episode releasing first. The listeners also get first dibs on any tracks, so if we both want the same track(s), they get them, and I don't. In this case, that happened with 16 tracks. In all those ways, this project favors the listeners. But then, where I come out on top is that I get the last word. Whereas the listeners only get 30-50 tracks to split amongst however many contributors we have (in this case, five), I come along afterwards, with an unreasonably gigantic allowance of 75 tracks….that I get all to myself.
Also, while the regular episodes are me trying to balance tracks I love with tracks that I think the listeners will like (which admittedly has something of a me-centric slant already), this 75 track outing is my one and only time a year where I don't have to worry about that balance at all, but is my lone shot of the year for complete, wanton, reckless hedonism. This one is all about me, baby! It's Papa's birthday! :-D But, if you ever wanted to get the clearest possible glance at where your intrepid host's own personal musical heartbeat lies…the 7X track John's Picks Best of 20XX episodes will be the best place to look, as all the filters are off…
...well, save one: I make it a personal rule to include at least one track from every episode in my collection, even if that episode didn't have anything that would've otherwise made the list. Taris Apartments from C1E9 likely wouldn't have made my Best of 2017 outing last year, and neither Copacabana '93 from the April Fool's Episode (C1E26a), or maybe even Chill Penguin from C1E26, or Base 1 & 2 from C1E34 would've been likely to make my list this year either had it not been for my hard and fast rule to include at least one track from every episode. On the other hand, Taris Apartments, Copacabana '93, Chill Penguin, and Base 1 & 2 are all at least my actual favorite tracks from their given episodes.
Before I ever even approach any of the listeners for tracks, I already have a list of my own made up with a shorter auxiliary list of backups, and even a third list of "backups to the backups", so that even if every single track the listeners pick is on my list, I still have enough in reserve to make my full 75. I get my 75 no matter what, but I can also stay completely out of the listener's way in picking tracks, and let them have everything they want. A win win for the both of us!
One last note about the Best of 20XX series (and this is true of both installments):
While it’s totally a labor of love, not only for myself, but also for the contributing listeners, it is also quite an undertaking for me - and in ways deeper than simply putting 105-125 tracks together! What it amounts to, metaphorically speaking, is my lining up all the statues I’ve sculpted over the previous year, and slicing little chunks out of them to use as building blocks to create an all new statue with the goal of making the new statues resemble the previous statues as little as possible.
A good song flow is more important than any of the following rules (and so any of the following are breakable – and were all broken at points – to make the flow work), but what else is going on besides simple song flow management is that I’m also trying to avoid placing tracks from the same episode too close together, or placing too many of the tracks in the same relative vicinity within the new music block as they were in their old music blocks, and even things like trying (in part 1) to limit the number of times where I feature tracks from the same listener back to back (though this rule was my lowest priority, and was the first to go out the window when there was a conflict).
I’m trying to use pieces of music that already have relational connotations in my mind to other pieces of music by way of the earlier episodes to create all new connotations with them. I will tell you that that’s much harder than it sounds. It adds a lot of cognitive "weight" to the processing load, because it creates reflexes with each piece that you now have to work against, more or less. In fact, each of our music blocks saw one or two scrapped iterations before I finally arrived at a track order that worked. And as is the case with part 2, when you’re staring at a list of 75 tracks, and asking yourself “what the hell am I supposed to do with these?”, it really makes you want to just curl into the fetal position on the floor!
But it’s also a lot of fun, and most of all, it gives me a chance to create all new art from existing art, and all new journeys and experiences from existing journeys and experiences. And so, at the end of the day, it’s all joy for me. I hope it will be for you as well, as the listener, and most of all, I hope that the contributing listeners will feel like I did their picks justice. Each of their contributions, from Jeshua’s three tracks all the way to Purnell’s twenty all mean the world to me. These episodes – both theirs and mine, are my love letter back.
…..alright, and now, for all the regular "housekeeping" stuff. :-)
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Thanks for listening! Join us again this same bat time next week for C1E45 [PART 2] (Channel 1, Episode 45 [PART 2]): The Best of 2018 - pt 2: St. John's Picks (ULTRA MEGA KING KONG SIZED)” - Delicious VGM on "Noise from the Hearts of Nerds"! And wherever you are - Fly the N!
Cheers!
