Brave Wave Productions | |
---|---|
Founded | 2013 |
Founder | Mohammed Taher |
Status | Active |
Genre | Video game music, chiptune |
Location | Tokyo, Japan |
Brave Wave Productions is a Japanese-based record label founded in 2013. It specializes in video game music artists, often those who were active during the chiptune era of the 1980s and 1990s. [1] One of the stated goals of the label is to bridge the gap between Japanese and Western game music composers. They are known for re-releasing soundtracks of older video games for CD and vinyl, which were often out of print for many years, as well as producing fully original solo albums for some of their signed artists.
Brave Wave was founded in 2013 by Mohammed Taher. Taher originally started communicating with musicians while organising a small EP collaboration, but ultimately began to draw the attention of veteran chiptune artists such as Keiji Yamagishi. At the time, Yamagishi had not worked on a video game in ten years. The first results of this were the 2013 album World 1-2, which featured Austin Wintory, Akira Yamaoka and many others. [2] From there, Brave Wave would go on to produce solo albums from these artists, such as Yamagishi's Retro-Active and Manami Matsumae's Three Movements. [3] [4] [5] Five further artists joined the label in 2020 including Shinichi Sakamoto. Later that year the label shifted their entire original catalogue to "pay what you want" on Bandcamp, in the interest of allowing people to relax and listen to the music during the COVID-19 Pandemic. [6]
Brave Wave Productions are also known for their restoration work, mastering and preparing the soundtracks of older video games for CD and vinyl re-release. The "Generation Series" includes major license titles such as Street Fighter II , Shovel Knight , and Ninja Gaiden . [7] Their vinyl collection Ninja Gaiden Trilogy marked the first official release of the Ninja Gaiden III soundtrack. [8]
Chiptune is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce, as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles. It has been described as "an interpretation of many genres" since any existing song can be arranged in a chiptune style defined more by choice of instrument and timbre than specific style elements.
Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin, known as Amon Tobin, is a Brazilian electronic musician, composer and producer. He is noted for his unusual methodology in sound design and music production. He has released eight major studio albums under the London-based Ninja Tune record label. He has also released two albums under the alias Two Fingers with collaborator Doubleclick. His latest release, Nomark Selects V.1, was released on April 28, 2023.
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Hexstatic are an English electronic music duo, consisting of Stuart Warren Hill and Robin Brunson, that specializes in creating "quirky audio visual electro." Formed in 1997 after Hill and Brunson met while producing visuals at the Channel 5 launch party, they decided to take over for the original members of the Ninja Tune multimedia collective Hex that had disbanded around the same time. They soon collaborated with Coldcut for the Natural Rhythms Trilogy, including the critically acclaimed A/V single "Timber".
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Olivier Derivière is a French video game composer, best known for his work on the Alone in the Dark, Obscure, Remember Me and Streets of Rage 4 soundtracks. His work on Remember Me won the 2013 IFMCA award for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media.
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Niamh Houston, better known by her stage name Chipzel, is a musician from Northern Ireland. She is best known for making chiptune music, particularly with a Game Boy. She is also a video game music composer, and is known for the soundtracks of games such as Super Hexagon, Interstellaria, and Dicey Dungeons. Her music is also featured in other games such as Just Shapes and Beats and Spectra.
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Keiji Yamagishi is a Japanese video game music composer. He is known for his work on Tecmo's late 1980s and early 1990s NES titles, such as Ninja Gaiden. Yamagishi has been considered a pioneer of chiptune music, producing the soundtracks of numerous titles in the 8 bit era.
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