📀 Hang on to Your Hat | Black Screen Records | Vinyl | Review | (A big band take on the music of Mario 64) 📀 @blackscreenrec #Vinyl #VGM

A huge part of Mario’s charm is in the music and you’d be stretched to find a more fondly remembered title in Mario’s canon than Mario 64, the 1996 release on the Nintendo 64.

Quite different from other vinyl orchestral releases that I’ve heard/covered, Hang on to Your Hat is recorded in a big band style by the Video Game Jazz Orchestra and is all the better for it with the original tunes completely fitting this particular swinging throwback style.

📀 Zelda & Chill | Vinyl Review | Black Screen Records | "it’s all about the tunes baby, and it delivers (Ocarina of) time and time again" 📀 @blackscreenrec #VGM #Vinyl

My partner @kingdomofcarts first came across Mikel’s Zelda & Chill on Spotify a year or so ago, it popped up as a recommended listen and we were both instantly hooked.

The blend of familiar, timeless Zelda melodies with trip-hop beats is a real winner and an album we continually return to, several times a week.

🎶🎧💿 Creaks Soundtrack on Vinyl 🎶🎧💿 #Vinyl #VGM

As a fan of Amanita Design’s previous game Machinarium, I was looking forward to covering Creaks and my subsequent review (https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2021/06/creaks-review-xbox-series-x-910.html) cemented them – for me - as a developer with a really unique perspective and masters of their craft, especially in terms of presentation, mood and atmosphere tied to richly-textured and yet accessible gameplay.

Before listening to the album, Lukas Kunce at Amanita Design sent me a link to a documentary put together by the man behind the Hidden Orchestra – Joe Acheson – that turned out to be not just an invaluable resource for understanding the creation of the music for the Creaks soundtrack but is also just plain awesome in terms of being a really relaxing and incredibly interesting documentary, full stop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67S-rAyku3U I urge you all to watch!