Thank you for being so devoted, I almost can’t believe it. It’s been 18 months since the last episode and yet there are people commenting on the boards. You inspire me
A new episode would be awesome, but I just don’t have it in me right now. I’ve been composing a lot and for many different mediums. One of my choral pieces is getting published, one of my works for wind band is competing right now (and maaaaaay get published) and I’ve got some corporate work on the go. Oh, and teaching music full-time
I’m going to put the entire ITS library on my new website, http://www.kenleykristofferson.com, including functioning episodes 4, 5 and 6. You can hear some of my other work there too.

You guys are awesome, seriously. Happy Christmas and New Year!
Kenley

Just stopping by to let you know there are still people checking in to see if any new ITS is on the horizon. No pressure, though, I know how life can get in the way. But if there’s ever time to get back to it, you’ve still got an audience.

I know you’ve been busy for a while now, but if you’re taking show ideas, I’d love to see an episode about the Myst series.

Anyway, great podcast and I like look forward to any more episodes you might bring us fans.

So, at this point - I really don’t know, but it’s on my mind. It’s not really a good answer, but I’m doing my best
But please, stay subscribed and let’s see where it goes Kenley

Those were some fun 3 hours! Especially the 7-1-5 motiv you mentioned was an eye opener. I had kind of noticed it before playing through both piano arrangement books, but I had never thought of it as something the composer did conciously to provide continuity to the series, but now suddenly it all makes so much sense.

But enough of the praise (though I could continue endlessly), what I really wanted to comment on is something I missed in the thematic comparison between both Chrono games: Chronopolis.
When I was playing through Chrono Cross, THIS was the point when I first really felt a connection between the two games, in part because of the story and the scenery (I don’t remember the details, but there were some artifacts from the future that were clearly identifyable as coming from Chrono Triggers future), but mostly because of the music.
Until Chronopolis the Chrono Cross Soundtrack has a very “worldy” feel to it, which is different from Chrono Trigger. Chronopolis is the first to have a more “synthy” feel to it (excuse the laymans terms…), reminiscent of Chrono Triggers future music. Aside from the overall feel I can see a few direct burrowings from Chrono Triggers future:
1. I believe that strange percussion that plays throughout Chronopolis to be a direct quote of the distant bell-kind of sound in Chrono Triggers Ruined world. The sound is similar and the rythm identical
2. This may be a bit far fetched, but its actually the first similarity that really struck me when I heard it for the first time: I think the base line in Chronopolis that enters around 1:35 is a variation of the base line in “Remains of Factory”
3. Of this one I’m not so sure, but I have the feeling the harmony of Chronopolis is similar to the harmony of Remains of Factory. The piano score doesn’t provide any chords in Remains of Factory and I think it would be tough to figure out an chords that make sense (at least I couldn’t do it), but there is a kind of downward progression with 5 chords in both pieces (part “B” in Chronopolis, part “D” in Remains of Factory according to the piano score)
4. Another similarity that I discovered after listening to your analysis is the galloping shaker in both pieces
5. My last Point has nothing to do with Chrono Triggers future, but the piano ostinato containing the 7^1^5 motif(0:50 in Chronopolis) is similar to the one in “Memories of Green”. Actually, forget the harmonic similarities to Remains of Factory, I’m noticing right now that the two ostinatos are indeed identical as are the harmonies of Memories of Green and Chronopolis. How exciting!

I think Chronopolis is one of the most remarkable pieces concerning the musical Trigger/Cross similarities: Chronopolis is the only PLACE that burrows elements from Chrono Triggers future, thus Chronopolis is also the only PIECE that burrows elements from Chrono Triggers future. That way the music complements these suprising plot connections to Trigger in a very effective way (at least that’s how I percieved it)

Anyway, just wanted to throw my point of view into the mix. In any case I’m looking forward to the hours upon hours of informational entertaining videogame music analysis ahead of me, thanks a lot for that!

By the way, I know its a two year old argument (over in the comments to episode 5), but I’ve also always heard the bell/piano ostinato in Life as Strong Weak Strong Weak Strong Weak. Perhaps the 4/4 notation in the score is just to improve readabilty?

good to hear from you again, as always, and looking forward to the next entry for sure.

Thanks for the comment and the post! Awesome to hear from you - thanks for the kind words. I’m a big fan of “Grim Fandango’s” OST and I love the work that Peter McConnell does!

Thanks for the update on the shownotes - I forgot to upload them! BUT, they are uploaded now and all is well!

Thanks again!
Kenley

PS: The shownotes’ link has a problem, it leads to a white screen.

Grim Fandango was my first Puzzle game. I really should replay it.

Sad about The star Ocean OST, Star Ocean 2 my favourite game of all time for me [The Villians are the most vile than any other RPG which immensely improves the game] but the OST was less than great.

I say you should focus more on the composer Motoi Sakuraba that’s done much better games like Valkyrie Profile, Tales of Symphonia, Rogue Galaxy and much more.

Great episode, and how did I know that as soon as you picked up the wind instruments you were gonna start playing Time’s Scar?

(Also if you’re looking for material for the show… Okami’s soundtrack is one of the most sadly overlooked ever. I’m not really the type to ask for requests or anything, but I’m just gonna put http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m_9woIhoVY over here and not imply everyone who stumbles across it should give it a listen at all)

As always, the promise of more ITS gets me excited and I will be one of those among your many listeners waiting eagerly for whatever the next episode is.

Matt - Thanks! Also, a “hardy-har-har” to your pun
Kyle - Our studio, NDB Studio Productions (www.ndbstudios.ca, new website in the near future, a temp one is up right now) has been scoring/foleying a lot of demos, casual games and prototypes, which has been keeping us super busy. When the links come up and the head honchos let me promote it, you’ll be the first to hear Also, a whole lot of teaching… just a year of insanity, but still really good… just “a lot of good.”

glider - You bet! Thanks for listening!

Shadow780 - MGS is a really good idea… that one should come up in the near future!

Rhythmroo - Thanks! Interviews are fun, it’s fun talk about music, but “off the page,” especially with other VGM enthusiasts!

Your dialogue is always appreciated! Have a great rest of March!
Kenley

Hope everything’s well with you and good to hear new episodes are coming! Looking forward to your next one!

PS: Love some Metal Gear music if you are interested

I’d love to hear what you’ve been doing in the meantime. You mentioned that you had been doing some writing. What for?

You said that you could come back to the mario RPG series. That a really good ITS podcast.

Hope your doing great.

Thanks for writing - to be honest, I doubt it. However, I’m sure that somebody has painstakingly transcribed a MIDI version of it. From that, you could boost it into a notation program like Finale/Sibelius and print off the parts. I can’t promise you that they’d be right, but you never know!

Let me know how it goes!
Cheers,
Kenley

http://infiniteammo.ca/blog/aquaria-ost-launches-saturday-w-live-pj-jam/#comments

One thing I love about ITS is that even when you’re delving into topics that aren’t necessarily my favorites, you still manage to hit upon something new and interesting to me. I’m passingly familiar with baroque/classical/romantic music, but it hadn’t occurred to me before to think about how the chords we use as basic building-blocks today first arose as more of a side-effect of early polyphonic music than as something that was used intentionally. Pretty cool.

One technical note - I think you might want to play with the balance of the podcast, especially when there’s a lot of orchestral clips as in this episode. I know you don’t want to mix the music too high to avoid clipping, but I found myself repeatedly turning my volume way up - say, to catch subtleties in what the strings were doing - only to find myself confronting Very Loud Kenley after the clip was over. It wasn’t about to blow out my speakers or anything, but it was a bit disconcerting.

Anyway, minor quibbles aside, the podcast is still awesome. Keep it up!

There is also a character in the game called “Jenka” whose theme is a well-known folk tune from Finland (”Letka Jenka”). I only know this from living in Finland, but I wonder how the guy who made the game and music got to know this, and why it was included.

Anyway, without writing the episode for you, I hope you’ll choose to focus on “Cave Story” on your podcast soon.

m a t t - thanks! It’s important to pick up scores from some indie and underground games, because sometimes there’s magic I fell in love with Aquaria and I hope that you pick it up, it’s like “Super Metroid” underwater and is a gloriously engaging game. ALSO, the soundtrack is SO beautiful! I think that the game is only $30 (maybe $40), but it’s really worth it! Also, I haven’t played “Cave Story,” but I’ve heard that it’s terrific - should I pick it up? Again, thanks for your kind words!

Atreus - I’m glad that you found your way over here! Thanks for listening and please feel free to comment on further posts!

Cheers, team! Talk soon!
Kenley