Japanese MSX music scene overview

In order to stay up-to-date on the latest MSX news, obviously people tend to choose their favourite website(s). For most Western users that might be this site, but for the Japanese MSX community it seems that Twitter is the key nowadays. Anyone who dives carefully into Twitter will find that Japanese MSX scene is very active on this social network.

Lately the interest about composing music for MSX has been revived among Japanese users mainly thanks to the useful MSXplay online application. MSXplay is a sound player by Digital Sound Antiques and supported formats are KSS, BGM (MuSICA), MGS, MPK and OPX. MSXplay also lets us export MML compositions to MGS file format and enjoy them on our MSX computers afterwards.

If listening to MSX music is one of your greatest pleasures and you want to know more about the most active and relevant Japanese MSX musicians in the Land of the Rising Sun, please read on to find out who they are and don't forget to follow them from now on. Thanks go out to Giangiacomo Zaffini for helping with the creation of this list. In alphabetical order:

• @ym2413, Digital Sound Antiques(DSA): author of emu2413, MSXplug, MSXplay.com and other MSX related applications focussed on MSX sound. You can download some of his MGS songs through MSXplay (Snatcher - One night in NeoKobe city, NTT Captain Service, Capcom01). Also more music in mmlbox's Github repositories.
• @NudiDrm, aka drm, aka Atsushi Sugiyama: music composer of the Monster Hunter game soundtrack. From time to time he uploads some links to MSXplay (Don't forget your light, SDI : We are desirous of peace (ending), FOA MUSIC 0 by Liking! - PSG version)). You can also download several MSX songs in MGS file format on his personal website, DRMDigitalwork.
• @keijiro_im, aka Gary: music composer who recently started to write MSX music again. You can download more music on his @garymsx GitHub account.
• Gyabuneko: well known MSX chiptune musician. He occasionally tweets some MSXplay links (Xak III - The Eternal Recurrence (The voice of Moon), Terra Cresta (main theme)). You can watch and download a couple of MSX renditions of the Gradius II soundtracks in MGS format from popular Japanese video site NicoNico, such as the PC-Engine version and Famicom version. The download links are included into the text.
• @HamCutlets, aka ハムカツ: musician who shares lot of MSX music composed with the Pico Chipper application for iPhone on his Youtube channel.
• @Yakimeshi_Taroh, aka K.H.（焼飯太郎）: music composer who recently started to write MSX music again and shares it via MSXplay links (Ultima - kyōfu no Exodus (Peace town), Ultima - kyōfu no Exodus (The mystery of Ambrosia), Super Mario Bros (Bowser stage), F-1 Spirit (Random Approach), Sonson (main BGM), Catherine Warwick - Pollyanna (I Believe in You), Chester Field (ground BGM)).
• @msxworks, aka Koichiro: music composer well known for his awesome SCC arrangements. Although there are no new songs, in the past we regularly reported about the new compositions uploaded to his MGSDRV works website. Unfortunately it is not available anymore (though a Archive.org WayBackMachine archive is available), however, Koichiro uploaded all his MSX music to a shared Google Drive.
• @liking birds, aka らいきんぐ! (Raikingu!): musician who shares MSX music on MSXplay. You can download all his recent MGS songs from Togetter.
• @Ma2_yuki_opll, aka まつゆき(Matsuyuki): musician who uploads videos with new FM music written in MSX-BASIC.
• Mstz80ax: thanks to him, we enjoyed the awesome Zanac EX OPLL soundtrack which was included in the Zanac EX patch last year. On the other hand he also developed his own music file format and player called XPL-A. Very active on Twitter, Mstz80ax is continuously sharing his progress in MSX music composing and coding.
• @naruto2413 aka なると aka Kazuhiko Naruse: a veteran music composer on the MSX scene and the main music composer of the MSX-FAN magazine. He also contributed to the Caravan Boomer soundtrack. Recently he uploaded the After Burner II (After Burner theme) song to MSXplay. You can also download more music from his personal website.
• @parupu_x_nagae, aka ぱるぷ (Parupu): musician who shares MSX music through MSXplay. Recently the Gradius SCC soundtrack was uploaded to his personal blog.
• Pt.Macumba: YM2413 soundchip composer. This Twitter thread has a list of their MSXplay links.(Deleted)
• @Uniskie, aka うにスキー from time to time shares some MSXplay links via Twitter. You can also download a lot of MSX music from uniskie's GitHub repository in MGS and BGM formats.
• xaviel@フィ: musician who regularly is tweeting new videos with MGS compositions. He also uploaded some MSXplay links (Sorcerian (ending), Space Harrier (main theme), After Burner II (Final take off)). In his blog you can find some MSX music in MP3 format too.

Other:

• @junpei_11, aka じゅんぺい (Junpei): (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Temple theme)).
• @soryumi, aka Teppei Hongo: (Street Fighter EX2 (The infinite Earth)).
• @RETmodels, aka Yukihiro7: (Parodius (Space combat theme), Parodius (1st planet - Uru star), Shin Megami Tensei II (Battle theme)).

Finally, since the majority of these tracks currently seem to be shared on Twitter via MSXplay links, a Twitter search for MSXplay.com might come in handy too. :)