Discord & Rhyme: An Album Podcast

Discord and Rhyme is a podcast where we discuss the albums we love, song by song.

017 (feat. Shivam Bhatt): Takashi Tateishi - Mega Man 2 OST (1988)

“There weren't a lot of games with rock motifs at the time. If you look at Super Mario, that's more like classical music, right? So with Mega Man 2 I did imagine as if the music would be played by a guitar.”

—Takashi Tateishi

Discord & Rhyme is breaking format this week to talk about ... a video game soundtrack! This week’s host, Rich, has a love for the classic Capcom NES series Mega Man that may run even deeper than his love of music, and composer Takashi Tateishi’s legendary soundtrack combines the two with panache. Mega Man 2 was a true passion project, developed on the side while its team worked on games that were deemed more profitable. To give Tateishi inspiration under such stressed circumstances, producer Akira “A.K.” Kitamura encouraged him to build the level design into his compositions, giving him a series of punchy phrases (“Keep moving along at a brisk pace… don’t stand in one place for too long!”) to use as frameworks. The result is routinely considered one of the greatest video game soundtracks of all time, and a fine standalone piece of electronic music, to boot. Rich takes Phil, Will, and special guest Shivam Bhatt through the soundtrack’s most important cuts — including a handy primer on the NES sound chip!

Miscellany

  • For our listeners who aren’t already equipped with Mega Man knowledge, here’s a playthrough from YouTube. It’s a longplay, so you don’t have to worry about anybody talking over it.

  • Our special guest, Shivam Bhatt, is a retro video gaming expert, host of the Magic: The Gathering podcast Commanderin’, and a longtime friend of our host’s. He also officiated Rich’s wedding, which did indeed contain Mega Man-related content.

  • Special thanks to Patrick of the podcast Retro Game Audio, who allowed us to use several clips from his YouTube series NES Audio to illustrate elements of the NES sound chip. The YouTube series is worth watching in full, and was one of the inspirations for this episode.

  • Rich is actually relatively new to the the subject of chiptunes and produced this episode out of journalistic curiosity, so it’s quite possible he got some of the finer technical details wrong. If you have any corrections or clarifications, email us or @ us on Twitter — but be nice about it!

  • In case you were wondering, the cassette of Rich’s early-‘90s Discord & Rhyme audition is lost to time, as is all of his Mega Man fanfic. (That’s probably somewhere on the deep web, and if you can find it you are much more technically skilled than he is.)

  • Amanda was not on this episode, but would like to note that the Flash Man theme also sounds like the Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man,” and that everybody passed up an opportunity for a Beatles reference when Rich mentions entering Mega Man 6’s castle through the bathroom.

Other links

Rich’s Perler Mega Man madness:

Discord & Rhyme roll call

  • Rich Bunnell (host)

  • Phil Maddox (moderator)

  • Shivam Bhatt (special guest)

  • Chris Willie Williams

Mega Man OST tracks covered

  1. Metal Man

  2. Wood Man

  3. Heat Man

  4. Flash Man

  5. Bubble Man

  6. Crash Man

  7. Air Man

  8. Quick Man

  9. Wily Stage 1

  10. Wily Stage 2

  11. Robot Master

  12. Final Stage

Other clips used

Mega Man 2 tracks we played but didn’t discuss:

  • Introduction

  • Title Screen

  • Enter Password

  • Stage Select

  • Enemy Chosen

  • Get a Weapon

  • Wily Saucer + Skull Castle Map

  • Dr. Wily Defeated!

  • Epilogue

Other Mega Man tracks:

  • Manami Matsumae - Elec Man (Mega Man)

  • Minae Fujii - Boss (Mega Man 4)

  • Yasuaki Fujita - Snake Man (Mega Man 3)

  • Yasuaki Fujita - Magnet Man (Mega Man 3)

  • Inti Creates - Concrete Man (Mega Man 9)

  • Setsuo Yamamoto - Chill Penguin (Mega Man X)

Other video game tracks

  • Koji Kondo - Super Mario Bros.

  • Koji Kondo - Legend of Zelda Overworld

  • Koji Kondo - Super Mario Bros. 2 Overworld

  • Koji Kondo - Super Mario Bros. 3 - Sky Land Map Theme

  • Hero Quest

  • Bad Dudes Level Clear

  • Jake Kaufman - Shovel Knight Main Theme

  • Yuzo Koshiro - Ready Funk (Streets of Rage 2)

Non-video game tracks

  • Rush - Spirit of Radio

  • Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere

  • John Mitchell and Tom Keenlyside - Mega Man Cartoon Theme

  • Journey - Faithfully

  • Raymond Scott - Powerhouse

  • Elvis Costello - 5ive Gears in Reverse

  • Steve Miller Band - Jungle Love

  • Ellie Goulding - Burn

  • The Advantage - Flash Man

  • Metallica - Seek and Destroy

  • Rush - Time Stand Still

  • Aqua - Barbie Girl

  • Aqua - Lollipop (Candyman)

  • Stereolab - Miss Modular

  • Crash Test Dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

  • Crash Test Dummies - Keep a Lid on Things

  • Christopher Cross - Ride Like the Wind

  • Madonna - Ray of Light

  • The Moody Blues - Gemini Dream

  • Plaid - Dang Spot

Songs we mentioned but didn’t clip

  • Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

  • They Might Be Giants - Particle Man

  • Jethro Tull - Songs from the Wood

  • Emiliana Torrini - Jungle Drum

  • Asia - Heat of the Moment

  • Glenn Frey - The Heat Is On

  • Deep Purple - Burn

  • Prodigy - Firestarter

  • The Rolling Stones - Miss You

  • Blind Guardian - Time Stands Still

  • Aqua - Barbie Girl

  • Crash Test Dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

  • Dave Matthews Band - Crash into Me

  • Judas Priest - Riding on the Wind

  • Air - Kelly Watch the Stars

Band/album personnel

Takashi Tateishi - composer

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:

  • Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

  • The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

  • Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

  • Herbie Hancock - Hornets

  • Kraftwerk - Autobahn

  • Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

  • Takashi Tateishi - Mega Man 2 Title Screen (this episode only)

You can’t buy or stream this album anywhere because it doesn’t really exist, but there are cover versions on Spotify and we’ve linked to a long-play video above. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Follow Rich @zonetrope, Phil @pamaddox, and Shivam @elektrotal. Special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production, editing, and aggravating Rich. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.

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