Classic 8-bit Konami music makes it to the west with soundtracks for Esper Dream 1 and 2.
Many of us outside of Japan are familiar with the amazing NES soundtracks by Konami’s music team, the Konami Kukeiha Club. They created the memorable tunes seared into our memory while playing classic series like Contra, Gradius, and Castlevania. Over the years, we learned that some of the Japanese versions of these games have different soundscapes. Some games, such as Castlevania II, were released on the Famicom Disk System, which has a extra audio channel. Others, such as Castlevania III, have Famicom cartridge based chips with expanded audio capabilities. While the NES lacked these extra sound features, at least we still got to experience a version of these amazing games and soundtracks.
Esper Dream is an action RPG series by Konami game that was never localized outside of Japan. The first game in the series was released in 1987 on the Famicom Disk System, and featured a soundtrack by Castlevania composer Kinuyo Yamashita. The sequel, Esper Dream 2, was released for the Famicom in 1992, and utilized the same VRC6 chip that Castlevania III used. Its soundtrack features Mega Man composer Manami Matsumae.
A western release of the soundtrack to both of these games was announced by Ship to Shore, and is available for pre-order on a single vinyl. Each side of the vinyl contains the soundtrack to one of the two games. Considering these are classic 8-bit Konami soundtracks to Japan-exclusive games, one of which utilizes the Famicom Disk System, the other which utilizes the VRC6, this is a super interesting release.