Data Discs, renowned purveyors of beautifully mastered and presented classic game OSTs on vinyl, have dropped the news on two amazing new soundtracks.
Yoshitaka Azuma’s soundtrack to cult favourite Panzer Dragoon will be released as a 2-LP set with all the usual finery and trimmings we’d expect from Data Discs. The game itself was released back in 1995 as a launch title on the Sega Saturn in the the US (and locally in Australia later that year). The game was later ported to Windows 95 by Sega’s then-dedicated PC porting division and also made it to the original XBox as a bonus in the final game in the series, Panzer Dragoon Orta. I fondly remember firing the game up for the first time after I bought a second-hand copy of the game in the month following my purchase of my Saturn in September 1996 and sunk hours into mastering it’s unforgiving yet unbelievably rewarding gameplay. The orchestrated opening tracks were truly special and I’m looking forward to taking it all in for this upcoming release.
The second OST hitting the interwebs at the same time is another heavy-hitter in the Sega back catalogue – Revenge of Shinobi. Released in Japan as the Super Shinobi, the music in this iconic hit from 1989 was composed by the legendary Yuzo Koshiro who would go on to show the world how to make the Mega Drive’s audio chipset sing in ways you wouldn’t think possible. Fans of Streets of Rage will see some really interesting plays on the console’s internal synth from this title that would go on to pervade the amazing trilogy of brawlers that followed, as well as Koshiro’s interest in European dance music and new school hip hop emerging from the US at the time.
Both OSTs will be on sale this coming Saturday, along with some re-presses of their previous albums. Sales as always will be through the Data Discs website.
The other delightful news Data Discs shared is that 2017 will see releases of Gunstar Heroes and Streets of Rage 3 on vinyl, along with a number of other unannounced releases. Sounds like it’ll be another spectacular year for lovers of classic game audio.
