The Retro​-​Active Experience
Keiji Yamagishi

Welcome to THE RETRO-ACTIVE EXPERIENCE! This project is 6 years in the making, and marks the first collaboration between Ninja Gaiden composer Keiji Yamagishi and Brave Wave director Mohammed Taher. This new release combines the 2 previous EPs, 2 NEW tracks, extra remixes, and a full live album featuring Brave Wave’s in-house band Super Strikers.

Keiji Yamagishi is a Famicom-era pioneer and has composed music for some of the most beloved gaming franchises, notably Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo Bowl, Captain Tsubasa and Gitaroo Man. 30 years later and surer of his place in life, Keiji Yamagishi and Brave Wave are releasing the definitive version of his first-ever solo project. Inspired from his Famicom days and fueled with more passion and inventiveness, Keiji Yamagishi sends us all into a “futuristic emotional chiptunes world”, as he himself has described it.

In addition to the 14 studio tracks, the album includes extra remixes from Takahiro Izutani (Bayonetta, Metal Gear Solid 4), Chipzel (Super Hexagon, Octahedron), KOZILEK (Minit, Nuclear Throne), and Brazilian newcomer Daliesk.

The album also includes the 2018 MAGFest performance by the Brave Wave in-house band, Super Strikers. The band is made up of Stemage (Metroid Metal), ap0c, Dino Lionetti and Kev Ragone (Cheap Dinosaurs). For the live show, a large portion of what you hear is actually not Yamagishi’s original stems, but instead is made from scratch by ap0c and Dino using authentic VRC6 sounds. The end result is a live album that’s uniquely different from the studio album!

Keiji Yamagishi: “This project already feels so nostalgic for me, but I think that’s a good thing, given the rose-tinted title of this album. I’ll be very happy if returning listeners and newcomers alike can find the same satisfaction in this new release. I offer all the best to my beloved listeners.”

“A bright and energetic collection … Yamagishi is able to create music that sounds both comfortingly familiar and refreshingly new.”
– THE VERGE, Andrew Webster

“Yamagishi is a living legend.”
– CHIPTUNES WIN, Glenntai