The Listening Chamber: The NESkimos - Battle: Perfect Selection (2002)

Nerd Up returns from a Holiday break with another installation of The Listening Chamber.  Not every VGM cover band is successful, and not all successful VGM cover bands play what would be called “good” covers.  Determining what constitutes “successful” or “good” is rather subjective, and opinions on styles vary from person to person.  This can lead to a polarizing situation where different people might love or hate the music, and that is the case with the topic of today’s discussion. 

The band in question is The NESkimos, and the album is Battle: Perfect Selection, self-released in 2002.  The NESkimos are based out of St. Augustine, Florida, and although they had hung up their instruments in 2008, they started making some appearances at conventions and other events again in 2012.  In general, The NESkimos play rock covers of music from video games from the NES and SNES, but the group does perform some songs in different styles such as surf rock and bossa nova.  The group currently consists of two guitar players who also provide vocals on some tracks, a bass player, and a drummer.  Between the period of their last album release and their reformation, they had no drummer and used sequenced drum tracks instead.

Most of the differences in opinion on the band’s quality arise from the fact that they do not always attempt to recreate the songs they are covering note-for-note, and they will often create additional parts to songs, change the way the song is played, or add lyrics to the arrangement.  While none of these things is unheard of in cover bands, The NESkimos were the first widely known VGM cover band to do this.  Some people had issues with the improvisation.  Others thought that the songs were simply being played poorly or incorrectly since the notes were not the same as the original music from the games.  I’ll leave it to each individual to decide for themselves if they like the style or not.

The NESkimos - Battle: Perfect Selection (2002)

Battle: Perfect Selection contains 23 tracks – 22 covers and 1 original skit – and runs for roughly 1:12:08, making it longer than most other VGM cover albums. 

The first track is The Drawbridge / Simon’s Theme (6:37), and it consists of the music at the beginning of Super Castlevania IV on the Super NES, specifically the music at the drawbridge entrance to the castle and the music played during the first stage of the game.  The improvisation on this track mainly consists of a guitar solo segment towards the end of the song.

The second track is Punch-Out!!: Beyond the World Circuit (A Tragedy) (3:06), a compilation of segments from Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! – or, later, Punch-Out!! after the licensing deal had ended.  The track includes the introduction jingle from the bout with Glass Joe, the start of bout theme, the sound effects of the official counting a downed boxer, the theme played during a bout, the theme for a knocked down boxer, the sound effects of the official declaring a TKO, and the Continue / Retire theme.

Track three is Super Mario Bros. (8:01), a medley of songs from the NES game of the same name.  The track contains the overworld theme, the invincibility star theme, the end of level castle theme, the underwater theme, the invincibility star theme, a slightly sped-up “low time” version of the underwater theme, a more metal version of the overworld theme, the underworld theme, and a modified version of the overworld theme, more or less in that order.

Track four, Metal Gear (2:42), is the Jungle theme from the NES game of the same name.  There is some improvisation during the third loop of the theme.

The fifth track, Mega Man 2 – Intro (1:49), is a modified version of the introduction and title screen track from Mega Man 2.  This is the first of several songs from Mega Man 2 that are covered on the album.

Track six is Mega Man 2 – Wood Man (2:41), which contains the Boss Select and Wood Man stage music.  The first part of the song is the stage theme played at regular speed, but then the song is slowed down and sped back up again at the end of the track.

Track seven is Mega Man 2 – Bubble Man (3:57), which contains the Boss Select and Bubble Man stage music.  There is some improvisation of the stage theme throughout the track, but the song is still recognizable as the Bubble Man stage theme.

Track eight is Mega Man 2 – Crash Man (3:14), which again consists of the Boss Select and Crash Man stage music from Mega Man 2.  Again, there is some improvisation of the stage theme, but the song is still recognizable as the Crash Man stage theme.

Track nine is Mega Man 2 – Air Man (3:02), containing the Boss Select and Air Man stage music from Mega Man 2.  As with the three previous tracks, there is some improvisation of the stage theme, but the song is still clearly recognizable to people who know the original tune.

The tenth track is Double Dragon (4:10), a medley consisting of the Main Title Theme, Mission Screen, and Mission 1 (Billy & Jimmy’s Theme) tracks from the game played slightly faster than they were in-game.

The eleventh track, Ninja Gaiden 2: Act 2 / Scene 2 (2:32), is the song from the level of the same name from the game of the same name.  To be slightly more descriptive, it’s the theme from the first level that showed off the new “wind” physics in Ninja Gaiden 2, where the player could be blown backwards or forwards depending on the direction of the wind.  This combined with the enemies in the stage made some jumps… troublesome.  This track is slightly more metal than most of the other tracks on Battle: Perfect Selection, and also contains slightly more improvisation than most of the other tracks.

Track twelve, Contra – Prologue (2:43), is an original skit wherein The NESkimos attempt to start a game of Contra while having to blow on the cartridge, and then have difficulty entering the Konami Code to give themselves extra lives until they find an old issue of Nintendo Power to help them out.  This is the first of six songs dealing with Contra on the album.

Track thirteen is Contra – The Code (1:35), which is mostly an original composition that includes the Konami Code being sung out loud, but ends with the Press Start jingle from Contra.

Track fourteen is Contra – Jungle (2:07), which is the music from the Jungle stage.  This is a more metal improvisation of the original theme, but the modifications aren’t that different... for someone who knows the song but isn’t very familiar with it – for example, someone who last played the game over a decade ago – the differences may not even be noticeable.  The track ends with the Stage Clear jingle.

Track fifteen is Contra – Base (1:55), which is the music from the Base stages where you are advancing “forward” into the screen room by room until you reach the boss fight.

Track sixteen is Contra – Waterfall (2:28), which is the music from the Waterfall stage.

Track seventeen is Contra – Boss (2:56), one of the more modified tracks on the album.  The original boss fights was extended with small extra segments added in to the whole, as well as several tempo shifts.

The eighteenth track, Vampire Killer (3:32), is a modified version of the song of the same name from Castlevania.  The song is slower than the original, has more improvisation, and is more metal than almost all of the other tracks on this album.

The nineteenth track, Mega Man 2 – Password (1:22), continues the Mega Man 2 covers with three more songs.  The original song is so short that it’s practically a jingle, so the improvisation on this track is actually (to me, at least) the best on the album.

Track twenty is Mega Man 2 – Wily (Part 1) (2:47), containing the Dr. Wily Stage Map as well as Dr. Wily Stage 1 themes.  The cover is good, but the bass guitar is a little difficult to hear in this version.

Track twenty one is Mega Man 2 – Wily (Part 2 / Showdown) (2:27), containing the Dr. Wily Stage Map along with Dr. Wily Stage 2 themes, and ends with the Wily Boss Battle theme.  The original Dr. Wily Stage 2 theme is only a few notes repeated in increasing pitch, and the modifications to the track add a little bit more substance to it.

Track twenty two is Mega Man 2 – The End (1:52), the ending track to Mega Man 2 without the accompanying Staff Roll track.  For some reason, the NESkimos didn’t use this as the last track on the album, even though it’s “the end.”  Oh well.

The final track on the album is track twenty three, The Legend of Zelda (4:33), which consists of several loops of the Title theme to the game of the same name as well as an original breakdown thrown in as well.  Some of the loops are closer to the original theme, and some are heavier or more metal modifications to the theme.

The NESkimos did not release any of their albums on CD, but did make them available free to download on their website.  While the tracks are no longer available on their website, their official fansite does currently host the albums as well as several live performances, an unfinished and unreleased album set for 2007, B-Sides, official and unofficial artwork, and a slew of other things (including the unofficial alternate cover art for Battle: Perfect Selection shown below).

The NESkimos - Battle: Perfect Selection unofficial cover art

The NESkimos do have a bandcamp page, but their albums are not uploaded to that page.  Hopefully, with the band reformed and playing together again, we’ll see more out of them in years to come.  They followed up Battle: Perfect Selection with a release the following year, Bloodshed, that we will look at in a future session of The Listening Chamber.

So, “what do you personally think about the album?” asked no one ever.  I’d have to say that, for some reason I can’t precisely pinpoint, this album winds up missing the mark for me.  It’s certainly not the worst VGM cover album I’ve ever heard.  On first reaction I’d say that I tend to prefer covers that are closer to the original songs than what is found here on Battle: Perfect Selection, but there are some incredible arrangements of songs out there that I’ve enjoyed more than the original theme.  Almost every part of every song covered here is identifiable, which is not always true of these types of arrangements.  Each instrument is easy enough to hear in most of the tracks.  The song selection includes a lot of tracks that have been covered many, many times by various other VGM cover bands, but you can’t really blame The NESkimos for that since their album came before most of the others.  I think that it boils down to the fact that while I don’t dislike the album itself, there are other versions of each of these songs that I like more than the version on this album.  Let me and everyone else know what your opinion of Battle: Perfect Selection is in the comments below and contribute to The Peer Review.