At the moment (or this past few weeks) I've been getting back into my Summer classics mood. Basically, that's Dragonball Z3 OST, Racing Lagoon OST, Tobal 2 OST and the Rockman EXE Transmission soundtrack. Either that or it's anything from Hosoe, Saso, Watanabe, or Aihara.

Well, there's at least two exclusive tracks - the Title/Main theme and the Menu theme - and two incidentals - gong for victory, taiko thump for Game Over- but none of them are in the in-game sound test for whatever reason. I wish I could say if there's an ending theme, but that friggin' ninja monkey keeps killing me.

Oof. That's a bit cold.

Cool.

It was the first cd I've physically bought in a long, long time, but I finally got the Best Classics 100 Trance cd.  Thanks again for bringing it to my attention, Angela.  If you or anyone else have or know of anything else similar, cds or individual tracks, let me know.  I know that PIU, DDR, and the like have remixed classical songs, so if any of those come to mind too just let me know.

And always, there's my general Canon fetish.

Yes, we have another convert!

If you liked the Part 1 or Part 3 of Best Classics 100 Trance, you might also be interested in the classical Speed series:
classical Speed
classical Speed 2
In fact, many of the tracks from Part 1 were originally made for the classical Speed series, but were reworked for inclusion on Best Classics 100 Trance. Canon isn't on either CD, unfortunately, but how awesome was MIZ's version on BC 100 Trance?

Also highly recommended is Speed SFX, which has killer interpretations of the Terminator theme, "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "Rebel Blockade Runner" from Star Wars. Personally, I'm itching for a Best Cinema Classics 100 Trance release.

If the trancier portions are more to your taste, you might want to give Classical Trance (also released by EMI) a try. It's admittedly nowhere near as energetic and fun as BC 100 Trance, but still offers a nice easy-listening experience (i.e., it tends to make me fall asleep).

Avex also has a few related releases:
Classical Trance Masterpieces
Classical Trance Masterpieces - Heaven
A friend of mine sent me samples a while back, but I don't remember liking them all that much.

I'll ask a more knowledgeable friend of mine about the DDR stuff. I seem to remember that Mario Mix had some interesting renditions of "Carmen's Prelude" and "Pomp and Circumstance." From the main series, I believe "V," "End of the Century," and "Kakumei"  were based on classical songs.

If you're interested in any of the EMI releases, let me know and I'll cut some samples for you. In the meantime, a special treat: MI2TAKA's alternate take on "Amazing Grace"

http://dancemania-ex.com/classical/MI2T … %20ver.mp3

Thanks, shdwrlm3.  Classical Speeds 1 and 2 and SFX all interest me.  That and one track from Classical Trance Masterpieces---the one track that supposedly is Canon.  I'd pay for them but I really don't care to have the cd; I'll just turn around and sell it off on eBay or Half.  Is there a digital way to obtain those?

On a side note, I never considered "Amazing Grace" a classical song.  And I am curious if there are any remixes of the 1812.

Glad you enjoy Best Classics 100 Trance.  Yeah, Speed SFX comes doubly-recommended, if just for The Raiders March and the end-be-all kickass rendition of the Mission: Impossible Theme.

shdwrlm, did you get to listen to the 10th Anniversary TREASURE album yet?  The selection looks solid enough, but I'm more curious about the mixing work.

And how about "Beautiful Awakening"?  Did you opt for the Japanese release or domestic?

The Speed albums aren't available online, unfortunately (at least not legally). However, the full-length versions of some of the tracks can be downloaded for 0.99 euro a piece at www.saifam.com  Just do a label search for "SPE - Speed Records."  classical Speed tracks have catalogue numbers SPE 42-46, Speed SFX tracks are SPE 54-62, and classical Speed 2  tracks are SPE 91-97. They provide 30 second samples, so you can listen before you buy. If you do buy, you have 3 chances to download, and all MP3s are LAME 1.96 192 CBR.

Be advised that you must have Visa or Mastercard, and the transaction counts as a foreign one. I actually got a call from my bank asking why I was making so many purchases from Italy, heh.

Anyway, I'll have some samples up for you tomorrow. I'll also ask my friend if he still has Classical Trance Masterpieces, but I think he lost a lot of stuff recently in a hard drive crash.

Yup, I've got a mini-review here:

In short, the mixing is much improved over EX 9's noticeably lazy effort. The new tracks also add just enough freshness to keep it from becoming a Best Red/Yellow redux.

By the way, make sure to vote for Speed Giga Best!

The domestic release was pushed to January, so the Japanese release was really the only option for me   To be honest, the album is a bit disappointing overall, with nothing that truly captures the pop goodness of "Stuck" or "More to Life."  The lead track, "So Simple," comes really close, but many of the other songs are too R&B for my tastes.

My second-favorite new track isn't even on the album. "Tantrum" can only be found as a B-side on the "I'm Not Missing You" single. Speaking of which, I highly recommend the UK CD 2, as the Shake Ya Cookie remix is the only dance remix so far: http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProd … sku=544535

Ah, nice impressions!  I'm definitely looking forward to hearing Interface's You Raise Me Up, but it is disappointing that they didn't go with the Momo Mix for "www.blond Girl."  The lack of Bus Stop is surprising, and I too would've liked to see the Q-Tex version of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" over the original Flip & Fill.

Easy choices for me:

All About You / CJ Crew feat. Ellie
I've Never Been To Me / Rose
Joy To The World / Violent String Ensemble

Though I would seriously consider swapping out one of those for the aforementioned kickass DJ Speedo's M:I Theme.

Wow.  Why so far back, I wonder?  In any case, I've got the Japanese version on order from CDJapan, along with TREASURE - though maybe I should wait for Cover Trance now as well?

I've uploaded some samplers for classical Speed 1+2 and Speed SFX here:
http://dancemania-ex.com/classical/

I basically just took the full mixes and edited them down to half their lengths, so any sudden jumps or cuts are my doing. Hopefully you'll get a good idea of what they sound like.

I'd wait until the final tracklist is unveiled. The early one doesn't look too promising, but things could change.

I just fired up a sweet-ass playlist on my iPod of a bunch of albums I haven't really given the "proper" listening treatment to. Having these play on shuffle has been quite an awesome experience!

ABANDONER OST
beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD
Dirge of Cerberus -FFVII- OST
Hako no Niwa
Nanosweep3
No Reality OST
Shadow Hearts FTW OST
Tekken 5 & Dark Resurrection OST

Hoo boy.

.

Hahaha, totally forgot about that. Edited for obvious reasons.

Myself, I've got Patty Smyth on constant rotation these days.  How in the world did she escape my ragin' 80s radar?  Her songs with Scandal were great, but her solo stuff turned out to be just as good -- "Heartache Heard Around The World," "Never Enough" and "I Wish I Were You" (yep, the song featured in Armageddon) are my current favorites.  She's truly awesome for cruisin' and road trips. 

Sample of the above mentioned tracks.

Oof. That's a bit.. cold?

Hey Angie, do you already have the SH3 ost?

Didn't you say you have some sort of ps2 cheat device that lets you unlock the whole soundtest without playing through the game?

If you mean Silent Hill 3, then yep.  Of the four current SH soundtracks, though, it's the one I've listened to the least.  I still find myself frequenting SH2 the most, followed by SH1 and SH4.  I also ripped the entirety of the movie, which I plan to throw onto my iPod for listen.

Yeah, I've got an AR MAX, and while there is a code that unlocks all the songs in the music test, it still doesn't include a handful of tracks, like the menu BGM, shopping area, and yes, the mini games.

With that said, I really do hope to finish up the recording very soon, hopefully within the next week or two -- that is, if Okami doesn't begin to eat up all my free time.  ^_^

.

I picked up Justin Timberlake's new CD "Futuresex/Lovesounds" last week, and this shit is amazing. Laugh, throw rocks at my mouth, burn my house down; I don't care. This CD is fantastic. It's just so... sexy. Highly recommended to anyone who's willing to give it a listen. Lots of great beats and sexually charged lyrics.

Hmm, I read in the paper that he didn't fare so well without Pharell (like so many artists who split with their producers). I'll probabely see some if it on TV one of these days.

Oh and, if you don't like Timberlake then you don't like getting jiggy with a girl in the club

Figures it'd be a good time to give Niki's thread a plug here. Much doujin stuff here (for the record, this is the guy who introduced a lot of information and files of the releases of the various albums which were pretty much Japan-only):

http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/my-st … finds.html

Much older stuff here, but some extremely recent as well. Most anything Mintjam, Crow's Claw, Lukar, Woodsoft and Magical Trick Society (among the ones here) are on constant play on my randomized 5-star playlist. So I guess that would be a recommendation.

Other recents include a large number of anime OP/ED songs (with Love Tropicana=Hare and Guu, Kesenai Tsumi=Full Metal Alchemist, Jounetsu=Tokyo Underground and Tomorrow=Full Metal Panic landing the most amount of hits), Hinoi Team's Super Euro Party, Atelier Iris 1 and 2 Arranged, Ace Combat Zero: Belkan War OST, Jailbreak (Jesus is Dead), the rip of Megaman ZX (the Remastered Album is going to be amazing, even if it's just a simple upgrade with no arranging), Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles/X, Wild Arms ~ Feeling Wind and the Legend of Heroes VI SC Super Arrange/Vocal albums.

Futuresex vs. !Futurelist for Most Futuristic Album of the Year

( ;

Well, I got my second wind back last night, and finally finished the recording; just need to ID tag a few more songs, and make sure everything is in proper track order.  Expect an email soon.  :)

Woohoo! Many thanks for your efforts.