Despite the fact that many classic video game tunes are indelibly seared into my brain, it has become less and less often that I actually get to go back and hear the original music that made me start this website in the first place. Luckily the debut release, Boss Chamber Music, from the duo of Frog & Cid have collected and rearranged a variety of vintage RPG jams. F&C do them up right with live arrangements from classics like Chrono Trigger, several Final Fantasy titles, Pokemon, and the Legend of Zelda. Over a dozen tracks, including several intriguing medleys that will take you through not just different scenes, but different games entirely.

I can't help but be taken back to the good old VGMix days of intriguing, if random, multi-game medleys. Odd to say, but F&C take me back to a few years back in the VGM scene when great chamber inspired bands like Select Start and that other video game orchestra were all the rage.

Since F&C were kind enough to share the track above for readers to enjoy, I'm going to focus on this arrangement of some of the most disorienting music of the Zelda series, Lost Woods, along with the emotional Song of Healing theme. The Frog & Cid arrangement starts off appropriately slow, letting each note rise and fall up until the Skull Kid's sudden appearance. The mood shifts quickly into the upbeat sounds of Lost Woods, and seems to careen out of control up until the end.

Frog & Cid tackle several of my own personal favorite tracks with great musical precision, including best FF track ever, Clash on the Big Bridge from FFV. The classic Uematsu theme is reimagined as a thrilling whirlwind of piano and violin. The duo's titular track Frog & Cid (a medley of their respective themes from FFVII & Chrono Trigger) plays out in a surprisingly ominous tone as each note slowly wanders past my ears. The wonderful Dragon Roost Island theme from Legend of Zelda Windwaker also gets the dark and foreboding treatment, at least until the halfway point of F&C's rearrangement which explodes into the uplifting theme I (and you) love. There is definitely something for RPG fans new and old in this collection, so be sure to grab the album for approximately $10 from Loudr, iTunes, Spotify, and/or Google Play.

“Boss Chamber Music is the debut album of video game chamber music duo Frog & Cid. It comprises dozens of original arrangements for viola and piano of video game music, including music from classics like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy VII to titles like Ni No Kuni and The Last Story. The arrangements range from simple to virtuosic, and from straight-ahead arrangements similar to the original track to unexpected reimaginings and medleys that highlight subtle connections between tracks.”

— VGMdb album description