If I Spoke Japanese I Could Tell You What They Say Between Songs

September 30, 2006 9:54 AM

Mario and Zelda Big Band Live. I know we've done this sort of thing any number of times before, but this two-hour clip of orchestra music from Japan may be the best of the genre. It starts with a one-guitar blugrass version of the main Mario theme and goes from there.
posted by BackwardsCity (10 comments total)

Bluegrass. Damn.
posted by BackwardsCity at 10:10 AM on September 30, 2006

If I Spoke Japanese I Could Tell You What They Say Between Songs

"Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle."
posted by carsonb at 10:35 AM on September 30, 2006

Ashura Benimaru Itoh's guitar reworking of the Super Mario Bros. is sheer brilliance

Out of tune sheer brilliance, but sheer brilliance. Why on earth didn't that guy tune his guitar first?
posted by milnak at 10:50 AM on September 30, 2006

Why on earth didn't that guy tune his guitar first?

A Clapton-esque attempt at bluegrass authenticity? The guy can obviously play so I can't believe there's any other reason apart from maybe a problem with the recording. I vote for the latter since there are also a couple of big band unison sections where the intonation grates more than a little.

Stillm pretty cool although I still think Marty O'Donnell's work on the Halo series is some of the most beautiful and evocative video games music ever produced.
posted by NeonSurge at 10:59 AM on September 30, 2006

Koji Kondo!
posted by iconomy at 12:07 PM on September 30, 2006

Here's the album of that performance, if anyone's interested.
posted by May Kasahara at 12:22 PM on September 30, 2006

Thanks for this -- it's neat.

But then I would say that, since I posted the 'any' you link to.
posted by reklaw at 12:49 PM on September 30, 2006

This is like when you translate something into another language on babel fish and translate it back to the original.

Japanese musician....bluegrass....video game music...
posted by furiousxgeorge at 1:12 PM on September 30, 2006

Wow - there's some absolutely beautiful Crystal Chronicles stuff in there around 49:30. I always thought that game had one of the most underappreciated soundtracks.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:27 PM on September 30, 2006

There was a DVD of it, eh? I own the CD and don't regret a bit of the $30 purchase price (hooray for expensive Japanese CDs. : \).

God bless piracy.
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:19 AM on October 2, 2006