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The SSSS (that’s the Sonic Stadium Soundtrack Squad) launch their regular soundtrack review program; to kick off we take a look at the recent Crush 40 Best of album, Super Sonic Songs…
Continue reading The Sonic Stadium Soundtrack Squad Review: Crush 40 – Super Sonic Songs
I think one of my all time top ten fantasies (after the one where I’m trapped in an elevator with Tia Carerre) would be to sit around a table with some of the musical geniuses who have worked on Sonic music past and present. Well, to commemorate the launch of the second best of Sonic the Hedgehog album “True Colours”, The big names in the Sonic music Universe, namely Tomoya Ohtani, Hataya Hisashi, Jun Senoue and Kenichi Tokoi gathered to reflect on some of their masterpieces from the past….
Continue reading Sonic Music Artist Roundtable On True Colours Album
Yup! Be sure to tune into the 24-hour radio livecast on SEGASonic:Radio on Sunday to have a chance of winning yourself a very snazzy CD!
Continue reading Win a signed copy of Jun Senoue’s The Works on Project 24!
With only 10 days to go until Project 24 kicks in, it’s about time we showed off just some of the reasons you should tune in!
Project 24 is an all-day radio livecast on SEGASonic:Radio, the Sonic Stadium‘s much-loved radio channel with 24/7 music and shows hosted by a swarm of SSR DJs, taking place from 0:00GMT on Sunday the 15th of November and continuing until Midnight the next day! Spearheading the organisation of the project is resident SS:R DJ and Sonic Remix Expert BlitzChris, who has painstakingly promoted the event and even ressurrected some DJs from the bygone days of the SS:R airwaves such as Hawkz and Iceman to brush off the dust on the headset and to take to their shows once more! Also joining the ranks during the day are TSS Staff writer and fangirl heart-throb Slingerland, Scottish random-rambler JayZeach, a delicious slice of Speedknux Pie, the husband-wife antics of AAUK and EchoHawk on Radio Redux and the all-too hillarious flagship show The Sonic Hour with our hosts Dreadknux and Roareye…just to mention a few! Even I will be cracking out a collection of my favourite face-melters and metal monsters for a T-TIME! special!
Not only do you have a whole day of back-to-back tunes, requests, programming and chat on the Sonic Stadium IRC, there will be a huge hoard of prizes to be won during the day including T-Shirts, Sonic Unleashed Beachballs, SEGA Superstars Tennis branded controllers and Smash Brothers Prima Guides. Because this simply is not enough, we’ve even got a signed copy of Jun Senoue’s new album “The Works” to giveaway, yes, GIVE, to one of you lucky hedgehogs or hedgehogettes, complete with Sonic Adventure 2 stickers and an official Jun Senoue guitar pick, used by the man himself! How do you win this you ask? Well…we’ll have more details of that next week! All I can say is, keep Sunday the 15th of November free in your diary! (Props to Roarz for the awesome artwork!).
Check out more Project 24 details on the Project 24 forum thread!
Jun Senoue is a man who needs little introduction. He’s had his hands in the Sonic pie since way back when, working alongside others such as Howard Drossin on the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 soundtrack. Mr Senoue really stepped into the spotlight with the launch of Sonic Adventure back in 1999, when Jun’s band Crush 40, fronted by Johnny Gioeli, blew most of the community away with its blistering soundtrack of fast-paced rock and epic power anthems. He’s just as awesome in real life too!
Well as most of you know Jun has been busy then, and not just with Sonic stuff. “The Works“ is a selection of tracks from other games such as the NASCAR and Daytona USA racing titles, along with music from the only-released-in-Japan titles, Managing Baseball Team Game / Managing J-League Football Team Game. Those of you who are fans of Ted Poley and Eric Martin will be pleased to know they both feature heavily on the album providing more awesome-sauce vocals.
Anyway, for a limited time Jun Senoue will be personally autographing copies of the soundtrack, which can be purchased on the official Jun Senoue fansite for the meagre price of $30 plus a small postage charge (works out at about £22 in total for UK peoples). Not bad eh? It also looks like Jun will be doing a similar thing with the Best of Crush 40 album “Super Sonic Songs” that will be released next month. The full track listings for both of the albums are listed on the website should you wish to examine them before purchase.
Head over to the Official Jun Senoue Site and follow the instructions to buy
If you’re feeling a little tight fisted, or you simply haven’t got enough pocket money to blow on a copy, then don’t fret! There will be a chance to win yourself a copy of the album over the SEGASonic:Radio Project 24 livecast on the 15th of November! Keep your eyes peeled for more info!
Props to Martin aka SOA, webmaster of junsenoue.com, for helping sort out this amazing offer for us lucky, lucky fans!
In a news blast to his fan community website, Jun ‘Parfect’ Senoue has followed up on our last story by revealing that he’s actually working on three CDs, with the intention of them being released this year. The brand new Crush 40 album that was announced previously is no longer to be released within the September – November window, but the musician promises that work will continue once he and singer Johnny Gioeli have some spare time.
The three CDs include a new compilation of Sonic themes to compliment the recent ‘True Blue’ release, a Crush 40 Best-Of collection and a profile of Senoue’s works in non-Sonic games and other soundtracks. Sayeth the guitarist:
Crush 40 : The Best of Crush 40 – Super Sonic Songs
– Sep.16, 2009
– The previous one we released through Frontiers Records had been out of print for years and also we have released several songs since then. This CD will have most of our songs we did for Sega video games.JUN SENOUE : The Works
– Oct. 21, 2009
– I have worked on several non-Sonic related games like ‘Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition’, ‘Sega Rally 2’ and some others. Also there are some rare tracks I provided for soundtrack releases as well. This is the compilation of my works from mid of 90’s through 2009.The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog Part2 : True Colors
– Sometime in November
– ‘True Blue’ was the collection of music of world famous blue hedgehog, Sonic. And ‘True Colors’ will be the compilation CD featuring theme songs for characters of the world of Sonic the Hedgehog.
When asked if there would be any unique or special material included on any of these projects, Senoue seemed optimistic about throwing in some rare, unreleased tracks and alternate versions to popular songs. But so far, nothing has been confirmed on that front.
Even without the long-awaited sequel to Crush 40, it looks like fans of Jun are going to be treated well this year.
Thanks to bcdcdude for the tip!
Beautiful Sound Produce Team Unite!
Fans of Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli’s rock band Crush 40 will be delighted to hear that, confirming hints Senoue made on his website, there will two new records hitting Japan this Autumn.
An interview with Famitsu online has revealed the nature of the two CDs – one will be a sequel to their self-titled album with new non-Sonic material, while another will be a 10th Anniversary compilation of modern Sonic themes.
Additionally, Senoue has hinted that the Anniversary CD release may be released on multiple discs – although Deviantart user manaita translated the Japanese interview and suggests that there will be multiple releases over the course of three months, which leaves the possibility of a two-disc collection being sold in ‘parts’.
Jun Senoue has been trying to release his domestic works to the Western market, but so far success has been limited. If you’re after a copy of these CDs when they hit Japan, your best bet as always is to import.
Cheers to Snatcher2047 for the heads up!
Source: Famitsu Jun Senoue Interview
Sonic Channel, for the uninitiated, is Japan’s official Sonic the Hedgehog website. It’s about ten thousand times better than the American counterpart, Sonic Central, and is currently 100% better than the European Sonic City, which doesn’t exist yet (expect that to change when it re-launches though). It’s updated on a regular basis and provides plenty of decent fanservice for Asian fans of the blue blur. Every so often, we’d like to track the updates we find on Sonic Channel, so you don’t miss out on some good stuff.
Every month we’re treated to a new desktop wallpaper and calendar PDF, which features the talented artwork of Yuji Uekawa (who should really do more artwork for promotional purposes like game boxes – too many CG pieces flying around) – and every so often a little bio written by SEGA Europe’s Community Team as well. Recently the character art has been in a sketch style, which is a cool way of seeing how Sonic and Tails are usually drawn.
February’s calendar character is none other than Chip from Sonic World Adventure / Unleashed. I guess it makes sense – Valentine’s Day is the time of love, and Chip just happens to ‘looooooooove’ chocolate. We’re glad the little random sprat is getting some facetime. Even though it’s pink, it’s on my desktop. Because hey, I’m comfortable with my sexuality. Are you? Click here to grab the wallpaper and here for the calendar PDF.
The other main activity on the Japanese website appears to be on the official microsites of Sonic World Adventure and Sonic and the Black Knight, with the latter updating with a pretty cool video featuring Jun ‘Junny Baby’ Senoue and Johnny Gioeli performing ‘Knight of the Wind’ in a SECRET LOCATION. Well, a studio. A studio in a SECRET LOCATION. It’s pretty good stuff, head to the microsite and click the video called ‘Hey All’ to see it.
Finally, even though they’re really old items on the website, we want you to take a look at this video featuring Junny Baby and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (of the SEGA Sound Team live performance band) singing Happy Birthday to Sonic (totally epic), and some awesome ‘Basic Sonic’ stationary that you wish you could buy.
This has been coming for a long, long time.
Finally! the mighty guitar skills of the legendary Jun Senoue, and the vocal tenacity of Axel Rudi Pell lead singer Johnny Gioeli have reunited to perform what can only be described as an electrifying medley of classic Crush 40 tracks at the Tokyo Game Show on the 12th of October. I had been talking to Jun about a month ago, and although he told me to keep it all very hush hush, he said there would be a little surprise for those in attendance; that being a live performance of the new title track for the upcoming Wii title Sonic and the Black Knight, “Knight of the Wind”.
Johnny and Jun crash onto stage with an extra long opening version of “I am…All of Me”, before burning rubber into their version of “His World” (which we all know rocks the hardest, sorry Zebrahead). Other performed tracks include the “Sonic Heroes Theme”, “What I’m Made of” and of course, the obligatory “Live and Learn” theme from SA2. Continue reading Crush 40 Rock Tokyo Game Show
Who’s looking forward to the Tokyo Game Show this year? We certainly are now, because it looks like Johnny Giolei & Jun Senoue will be making live appearances at Sega’s booth for TGS. There are rumours of a possible performance due to the fact that both men are involved in the band Crush 40. For those who don’t know, Crush 40 have performed many different theme songs to Sonic the Hedgehog games since Sonic Adventure, but has recently been on hiatus while Jun and Johnny pursue other interests. Seeing them together again would be pretty awesome for fans of Open Your Heart and Live & Learn.
Apparently, the best of British will be present at the Tokyo Game Show too, as Sonic plushies from our British Isles are also said to be appearing. Here’s a translation from one of todays updates over at official Japanese Sonic site Sonic Channel:
<物販booth> COSPA: “The reversible T-shirt, Sonic Adventure World”, “Sonic” Goodies, TGS announced in advance! Three British trade: “Sonic stuffed toys” selling all five points!
Quite. I hope they give us some of those reversible t-shirts in exchange for our exclusive stuffed toys. Greedy buggers.
Sonic Unleashed is kicking all sorts of arse, and it’s just round the corner. Has you thinking a few things. Things like, “OK, this is like the third game in a row that Jun Senoue (a person that for some reason TSS strikes a similarity with Ken Watanabe) hasn’t had an involvement in the soundtrack. What gives? Is he gallivanting with roadies on stage or something?”
That’s a good question, but fear not! Rather than sitting in a palace garden reminiscing about Cherry Blossoms (maybe), we have it on good authority that Jun may be busy preparing for the next Sonic the Hedgehog title, and our sources tell us that Lee Brotherton (Sonic Rivals, Silver’s theme in Sonic 06) and Richard Jacques (Sonic Chronicles, Sonic R) is to meet with the Japanese rocker soon to discuss possibilities (maybe ‘Endless Possibilities’?.. Oh God, that joke really will get old very quickly).
According to our super-secret-squirrel, this new Sonic project is very likely canon and not a spin-off – Jun’s involvement only reinforces that. But still, such a project is eons away; given the usual time frame for Sonic games, we’ll probably see this one in late 2009 or 2010 unless it’s continuing to use the Hedgehog Engine. It’s just nice to know these things though isn’t it?
So for now enjoy Sonic Unleashed, safe in the knowledge that Junny Baby is not out, and that as clockwork SEGA are planning the next game in the franchise. Can you imagine a possible soundtrack involving Senoue, LB and Jacques though? Epic. If there’s a God, He better well make it happen.
Official Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog site has released the tracklist to new Sonic album True Blue: The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog
01. LIVE & LEARN
02. IT DOESN’T MATTER (SA2 Version)
03. ESCAPE FROM THE CITY
04. HIS WORLD
05. SUPER SONIC RACING
06. SONIC – YOU CAN DO ANYTHING
07. SONIC BOOM
08. SONIC SPEED RIDERS
09. RACE TO WIN
10 SONIC X THEME Continue reading True Blue album tracklist released
Sonic composer extraordinaire Jun Senoue gave visitors to his website a nice surprise on Christmas Day as he announced a new ‘Best Of’ compilation album, to be released soon in Japan. No information has been revealed other than the title, ‘True Blue’, the fact that it has 21 tracks and the rumour it may well include the ‘Open Your Heart’ Remix from Lee Brotherton that had ears wagging way back in 2006. Continue reading Senoue Announces New Sonic Album
Video game and anime reporting site Rocketbaby has conducted interviews with four SEGA composers who worked on the soundtrack to Sonic Adventure 2! Jun Senoue, Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumatani and Tomoya Ohtani all speak out about their experiences working on the game as well as their careers in general. Read on for Jun Senoue’s interview; the rest are linked below.
Continue reading Sonic Adventure 2 Composers Speak Out!
