We are excited to announce that we will be releaseing MITSUDA on Tuesday April 2nd. Check out the two lead tracks now: Ryan Hemsworth’s “Proto” via Pitchfork and KeyBoardKid206′s “Secret Forest…(Tree Music)” via XLR8R!

MITSUDA is a hip-hop tribute to the work of innovative and beloved video game composer Yasunori Mitsuda, whose music has soundtracked some of the greatest role playing games of all time: Xenogears, Shadow Hearts, and the near-perfect Chrono Trigger and its sequel Chrono Cross. The album is the brainchild of composer/producer Julian Wass, who, after sampling Mitsuda’s Xenogears soundtrack for the Main Attrakionz/Danny Brown classic “Cloud Skatin”, approached his friends to contribute original beats flipped off of Mitsuda’s soundtracks.

And many luminaries of the current hip hop and electronic music scene stepped up to the challenge, with genius DJ/producer Ryan Hemsworth contributing the grandiose banger “Proto”, and wavy duo Friendzone melding JRPG orchestral majesty with 808 swagger on “Dreams of the Shore”. #Legendary #Based producer KeyboardKid206, who has a long history of sampling video games, pitched in 3 epic tracks, each one a journey worth it’s weight in SNES cartridges. In addition to curating the album, Wass contributed 4 beats, highlighted by “Omoide”, his synthed-out meditation on bygone days spent gaming, and the previously unavailable “Cloud Skatin” instrumental.

The tracklist is rounded out by 4 beats from Wass’ production partner .L.W.H., including a rare unreleased instrumental from his debut album The Tape Hiss Hooligan.  Internet rap veteran and Rad Reef mastermind ZachG makes an appearance next to motivated newcomers like Japanese boom-bap enthusiast ギラ BLADES and lo-fi dance trio Paladins, who contributed the emotional album closer, “L.T.I.”  The sludgy drones of 20xx envelop vocalist C.I.S.C.O.’s Japanese language pieces on “Prologue” and Credits”, narrating the legend of Yasunori Mitsuda, and introducing the diverse lineup of remixers, respectively.

The 16-bit cover art, a Chrono Trigger style portrait of Mitsuda, was created by renowned pixel artist and independent game designer Derek Yu of Aquaria and Spelunky fame.  While it’s more than possible to enjoy the album at face-value, active listening is highly encouraged; to add to the fun, and in a reverent nod to video game tropes such as side-quests and collectable items, Wass has very special prizes for the careful listeners who can successfully identify the most samples from MITSUDA.