I noticed this as well. However, I didn't have much of a problem with it because of the way they were implemented and characterized.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWe7ECVtzwI In regards to the Emotions == Labyrinth Zone discussion. I find this version interesting just because the instrumentation is very Sonicy. Found this guy reading Masahiro Andoh's (The guitarist of T-Square) blog and he was cited as an influence, which has been interesting already because it appears at least that T-Square had a heavy influence on Sonic music. Edit: Holy crap Mercury, that song is like, as mentioned, Sonic 3 in a blender.
Actually I posted this a few pages back. It has some similarities to Sonic 2's 1-Player mystic cave zone music. Another one I posted was Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step" and Spring Yard Zone from Sonic 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkJDkXhFI This song sound remarkably similar to me to Flame Core (Caverns) from Sonic 06. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VROsVZClChU[/youtube]
Reply a year later, ho! Yeah, I noticed that a few years ago. I was holding off until whether or not I could figure out if it came from a drum machine or not. The RX-11 would've been my guess, but no. I currently think that they are a little too high quality to have come from the games. It's especially apparent on the high ends of the snares around 3 minutes, which are gone from the Genesis samples. I know the actual drummer (machine programmer?) is from Kraftwerk (Karl Bartos) on the album, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was some obscure drum machine I've never thought of. :P (Also, a DX7 and PPG or Korg wavetable make for some real 80's goodness in the song.) ETA: Just went through a bunch of free Yamaha drum machine samples I got just recently. None of them match, but I'm convinced either the RX-21 or RX-120 were used for the drums in Palm Tree Panic's Japanese music. The Agogos are identical. :P
So has anyone yet mentioned that an instrumental version of Feliz Navidad sounds melodically similar to the Sonic 3 Save Select screen in some sections?
It was mentioned a while ago that Jeh Jeh Rocket has samples from another song. This sample is actually part of a sample library from Zero-G, Ethnic Vol 1. As it was stated before, the Zero-G libraries were used on the soundtrack for Sonic CD/Jet Set Radio/etc. He probably took the sample from there. Here's a demo of the sample cd. Listen if you can hear anything familiar. I don't have a copy of the CD though.