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The “Diggin’ In The Carts” compilation is now up for preorder via Hyperdub

Back when the “Diggin’ In The Carts: A Collection Of Pioneering Japanese Video Game Music” album was first made available for CD and digital it had a small note at the store page saying a vinyl version would come later – and now it’s available to order!

Curated by Nick Dwyer and Kode9 as part of Red Bull Radio’s “Diggin’ In The Carts” online radio show on Japanese game music, the album features 34 tracks from 32 different Japanese games from 9 different gaming systems.

The following games are represented: ActRaiser, Alcahest, Alien Soldier, Chatty, Cosmic Wars, Dezaemon, DragonGun, Esper Dream 2, Genpei Toumaden, Gofer no Yabou Episode II, Golden Axe: The Duel, Gradius, Gradius 2, Hisou Kihei X Serd, Illusion City: Genei Toshi, Liquid Kids, Mahjong Touhhaiden, Megapanel, Metal Black, Metal Stoker, Motocross Maniacs, Mouryou Senki Madera, Quarth, Solomon’s Key, Super Royal Blood, Tarot Mystery, Thunder Force IV, Time Cruise II, Valkyrie no Densetsu, Vixen 357, Xak II, and Youjuu Kikouhei WerDragon.

The release will be a 180g 2LP with one orange and one green disc. It will be housed in a gatefold jacket with original artwork by Koji Morimito. It will also includes 3 12″ cardboard art prints with a manga, cover art and notes about the creation of this album.

It is priced at £30 and is scheduled to release around July 20, 2018. It can be preordered via Hyperdub’s Bandcamp here now.

Diggin' In The Carts - Contents

Ship To Shore PhonoCo. brings back Taito and Konami goodies from Japan

As some may be aware, Ship To Shore PhonoCo. went to Japan a few weeks back and since they returned they’ve been dropping hints on what they’ve been up to.

To begin with they announced a partnership with Japanese game company Taito spanning several releases from Taito’s catalog of classics.

They haven’t officially announced any titles from these releases yet, but I’ve been in touch with them and have been allowed to let you guys know a bit more about these upcoming Taito releases.
First of all I can announce that they’re currently working on 3 releases and the plan is to continue the Taito partnership with more releases after those.
Secondly, I can say that they will do at least one compilation release and that you can expect music from Bubble Bobble, Night Striker, PuLiRuLa, and Gun Frontier. I know of one more title, but you’ll have to wait for an announcement from Ship To Shore themselves to learn more about that.
Finally, they have told me that all the music will be sourced from files that come directly from Taito’s archives. They let me listen to a few samples and I can safely say that you have every reason to be excited about these releases! It should also be noted that these first 3 releases will be arcade soundtracks and not arranged music.

But Ship To Shore have even more licensed Japanese titles lined up! Yesterday it turned out that they didn’t just meet up with Taito – they met with Konami as well and have shown images from two Konami releases that they will be giving the vinyl treatment along with the text “Coming soon”.

The first game they teased is the 1991 space RPG Lagrange Point, whose soundtrack was composed by Akio Dobashi, Noriyuki Takahashi, Katsuhiko Suzuki, and Atsushi Fujio. The game is the only one to ever release with Konami’s special VRC7 sound generator integrated circuit, which allowed for an impressive increase in sound and music quality. It was teased with an image of a lagrange point as well as these in-game screenshots:

Lagrange Point - Screenshots

The second game they teased is the 1988 cyberpunk adventure Snatcher (written and directed by the legendary Hideo Kojima) whose music was composed by the Konami Kukeiha Club. The game was teased with this game animation:

Snatcher - GIF

For the Konami releases Ship To Shore have tweeted that they will not be vinyl reissues of existing CD releases, but rather new releases in their own right, so it will be interesting to see the tracklists when more details are revealed.

So far no release dates or estimates have been mentioned, but if Ship To Shore’s Twitter-activity is anything to go by, then I think we can expect more news very soon. Stay tuned for more updates!