So... reading the credits from Sonic CD (U): Special Edition for North America Music Composed and Produced By: Spencer Nilsen, David Young Vocal By: Sanday Cressman, Jenny Meltzer, Becky West Drums & Percussion By: Brad Kaiser Guitars By: Erik Frykman Recorded and Mixed By: Sega Multmedia Studio(Sega Of America), Intermix Addtional Music Composed And Produced By: Sterling Bass: Bobby Vega Percusion: Armando Peraza Engineer: Charles Albert Assistant Engineers: Roosevelt Hoover, Maurice Jackson So what is this additional music? Well, from "Sonic the Hedgehog Boom" album we can see what songs he composed: 17. Collision Chaos (3:19) (Music: Sterling w/Armando Peraza & Bobby Vega) 18. Metallic Madness (2:17) (Music: Sterling w/Armando Peraza & Bobby Vega) 19. Robotnik (1:28) (Music: Sterling w/Armando Peraza & Bobby Vega) They clearly stand out from the others mainly because of the bass and percussion. Well so I was able to find information about Bobby Vega Armando Peraza but... Sterling? I found a lot of Sterlings, even a band, but none seem related to THE Sterling I'm looking for. Do you guys have any idea on who is he?
I actually tried researching this band a few years back and similarly, came up nothing. My guess is that they are just a couple of musicians working together under a pseudonym for one project (Sonic CD). I found out the same thing when I started looking into the bands from Jet Set Radio.
Your post inspired me to contact Spencer Nilsen. As I contacted Naganuma-san and he was very nice! You should try talking to him, he even told another fan about the origin on some sample on facebook!
Just today you contacted both of them? I know Spencer Nielson should be a pretty easy dude to get a hold of since he's president of a music college up in Oakland, but how did you track down contact info for Naganuma? Plus, I thought he only spoke Japanese?
I contacted Naganuma on the end of November through facebook, he's fluent in English (it should be a piece of cake compared to Jap hahahahahah) and is very nice! I contacted Spencer yesterday through his email, I'm wainting a response.
Sorry for the double post but Mr Nilsen was very kind to answer my e-mail! My email: His response: And with that I even found an interview with Armando Peraza, where he mentions Sterling Crew on that time period of early nineties! His name is Mark "Sterling" Crew and his discography can be found here.
I've talked about this before and no one thought anything of it. Those three songs happen to be the "weird ambient ones" that (IMO) have always been really out of place in the Sonic CD soundtrack, and that's why -- they're composed by different people.
I like Collision Chaos myself; I dig the mix of atmospheric ambiance and rock music. I think the Boss theme happens to come off a bit too strongly for its own good - it's strictly boss music, not necessarily "Eggman's boss music" if that makes any sense. Meanwhile, Metallic Madness has always just come off to me as "generic American ambiance for the sake of ambiance." Contrast this to most other US themes, which despite being part of a replacement score, still have a pretty good sense of composition and pretty decent melody lines - not quite as instantly catchy as their JP counterparts, but still fine on their own. Well, for instrumentals at least. Pastiche's vocal scatterings don't enhance most tracks quite as much as they seem to be going for. I like them fine in Tidal Tempest, they're decent enough in Sonic Boom, but that's about it. Most other attempts are just kinda... there, when they don't necessarily need to be. Anyway, very cool to have it confirmed, at least. Nice job!
Not all of the tracks with Pastiche were fully utilized. Nilsen added some synths later on or parts with vocals unused in the game with "Sonic Boom!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTHrJiw-6jk Or here, skip to 1:55: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ml4jlJ0lk
Not even all tracks from Sterling were used, on Collision Chaos, there is an extra guitar playing with the lead melody, and there was a guitar for the bad future version of Metallic Madness, UNLESS they were recorded later and added by Nilsen.
