Although one of the more frequent of musicians at album releases, it always feels like a long time between every new release of the Now Your Playing With Powar series from Temp Sound Solutions. So after this excruciating wait, I am proud to present to everyone, Now Your Playing With Powar 9: Welcome to the Next Leval.
The album is nearly twenty tracks of straight up chips, drums, and guitar work. Released over the weekend of MAGFest 8 and now available online for a donation of $10 plus $1 shipping and handling over at the official album page.
As you can tell from the title, this one is heavily influenced by Sega Genesis tunes this round. If you don't get the title, this will become abundantly clear when you hit play, and your ears are introduced to phantasy star 3 opening. Starting out with the original intro, and bringing drums in to give it a strong, tone that evokes a very important, hallowed feeling. As if you are attending a young king's coronation. As the ceremony ends we kick things up a notch for wwwwrasslemania (make you humble). This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, with its upbeat score, and awesome TSS style ending that fades out with the original chiptune track.
Temp Sound Solutions has saw fit to release some tracks for free for people to get a sample of the great album. The first of which is mariopaint/wii plaza. The song is a laid back tribute to the more relaxing songs from Nintendo. Starting with the classic track from Mario Paint. After a rousing round of paint it's time to upgrade to the Wii and hang out in the Mii Plaza for a bit. TSS continues their trademark sound throughout the medley and melds two seemingly innocuous songs to great effect. Another catchy track worth grabbing while it's free is from the amazing but rare Snow Bros. snow bros stage 1-1 is a short catchy tune that was in need of a great remix.
Of course we hear from more Genesis classics with the rough and tumble rendition of ecco the dolphin island zone as well as the mix of grunge tones and island rhythms in sonic labrynth zone. One of the bigger surprises to hear was a rendition of the often heard, but rarely acknowledged Nintendo WFC music. A relaxing wash of drums, and guitar, along with the fluttering sound of connection finding.
This brings us to a set of tracks I am more than a little happy to see on the album. As mentioned recently in my Bacon EP review, I love me some Area 88/UN Squadron music. TSS presents us with double the Area 88 goodness with two rocking, boss battling tracks, the cave, and personal favorite, carrier forest.
From hose tracks we Hear back from our trusty old Genesis with a series of adventurous Phantasy Star covers. Starting with phantasy star 2 mystery and vio which takes an upbeat tone, but builds into a darker, ominous mood. We then skip ahead straight into the foreboding phantasy star 4 terrible sight. Breaking up the series of PS songs is a lengthy medley in tribute to the NES classic super mario bros 3. This fades into what feels like the albums final track, which is the appropriate phantasy star 3 staff roll, which provides a longing look back at the journey that brought us to this point.
The album is available over at tempsoundsolutions.com and is well worth checking out. Of course I am a highly biased fan. Although I am a fan for good reason!
But wait, what is that? Encore!? The adventure ends, with a new beginning... A journey...
