4 out of 5

Produced by: James Plotkin (remastering)

Label: Mondo

This rating applies both to the music and the Mondo vinyl pressing.

To the reproduction: I know I’ve read some nasty things about Mondo’s vinyl productions, but either this is a good pressing, they’ve since worked out their kinks, or my non-audiophile ears just can’t discern problems, but the work sounds clean to me.  While maybe a little less “rich” than the amazing Data Disc productions, the full range of sounds come through and fill the speakers, levels appropriately set to offer range but not lose the depth, especially noticeable on more complex tracks like “Out of Time” and particularly “Nothing To Lose.”  Digital manipulator James Plotkin did the remastering for this edition, so while I haven’t heard the previous editions, I’ll give him the bulk of the credit for making whatever source he was given sound great.

Becky Cloonan’s artwork is fantastic – wonderful color choices, and well-framed on both the front and rear – and the grey smoke vinyl is a good color choice and looks sweet.  Plus: Two more unique Cloonan pieces on the vinyl labels.  The interior (the vinyl is gatefold style) is another Becky piece, a full-spread side view map of the castle and an icon legend from the game.

Some nits: Something a little nicer than the plain black sleeve would’ve been nice (like a plastic lining) and I find it weird that the artist credit – Konami Kukeiha Club – is only credited on the Mondo barcode sleeve and not the vinyl itself.  That barcode sleeve is also a bit dinky.  A slide over would’ve been cool; once you take this out of plastic, that piece is loose, so you’ll have to store it some other way.  It also feels more like an ad for Mondo than something intrinsic to the release, adding to its somewhat throwaway feel.

To the music, the most frustrating part here is just how little there is.  From the era of 8-bit, that’s understandable, but I’m at a bit of a loss regarding how I feel about half of the tracks being, essentially, less than a minute “cues” of sorts.  I recognize these might be looped in the game, so that’s my question to music purists: Do we loop the tracks for release to extend the listening experience?  It’s rather underwhelming the way they play one sequence and then just fade out.

Otherwise, my era being nostalgia kings influencing my opinion, but it never ceases to astound me how awesome this stuff sounds through modern ears.  You dig it when playing the games, and certainly these tunes would / could get stuck in one’s head, lending to their iconic status which has informed the current slew of remasterings and releases, but I think regardless of your feeling toward the artistry or listenability as standalone music, isolating it like this does show off how easy it is to overlook that… Someone created it.  And it’s not just one or two notes repeating, but a tune, and often a fairly fast-paced, complex one.  I love it, of course, but setting that aside, I also love thinking about how this was (or is, with modern games) just one small part of our experience with these games and yet how it can be extrapolated to give it its own identity.  Again: That recognition that there’s a person or people behind it.

So my first experience with Mondo was positive, which means my bank account unfortunately is going to have to deal with more.