Load Game? (Club PlayStation Vol.6)

Hey all, I'm very aware it's been a while. Work has been kicking my arse as of late in addition to general life things. I do have some posts cooking but it'll be a couple of days yet. So I thought I could do with something nice and quick to post to just buy me a bit of time, and wouldn't you know it, recent friend of us and fellow lover of the PS1 Sean Seanson dropped another entry in his themed series of mixtapes. Volume 6 is a bumper edition of all Namco soundtracks, which gives him an absolute goldmine of material to work with - from Ace Combat to Ridge Racer, from Tekken to Klonoa - there are no shortage of tracks to choose from.



Namco's sound team around that time was absolutely on fire, not just in terms of the sheer amount of work they were putting out but how stellar a lot of it is. Ridge Racer Type 4's soundtrack alone is a masterclass in House and Drum & Bass - Pearl Blue Soul in this mix is a perfect demo of the overall funky vibes that it has in spades. Stay tuned immediately after that for the Tekken block - the mix of Chicago's theme into Nina's Theme from Tekken 2 is excellently done, and Nina's theme itself is a primo slice of sassy 90's house.

Some other random highlights that stood out to me: Times Square from Smash Court 2 is a delicious jazzy Drum & Bass number that wouldn't have been too out of place on some Moving Shadow compilation of the time, fans of my previous Ape Escape posts might also hear a tinge of similarity with Soichi Terada's work as well. Beats From Above from the Klonoa OST is fittingly fit to burst with breakbeats, not the first thing you'd expect from a cute 2.5D platformer, though it is a boss theme if I recall right! Meanwhile Be Warped Time sounds much older, though that's perhaps to be expected as the original arcade version was from 1993 - still, those bombastic, almost 80's drums and euphoric synth riffs give it an air of modern Synthwave.

There's plenty to enjoy here, I highly recommend the full series of mixes even if you're not super into VGM as Sean and I, there are plenty of hidden gems to be had out there. And once again I'm considering making my own bootleg entry to this series, especially as Sean actively encouraged it over on Twitter! I'm going to try and get another post out this week but until then, as always, stay safe and and enjoy the music.

-CVF