Hideki Kanazashi

Hideki Kanazashi

Local	金指英樹 (かなざしひでき)
Born	1963-09-18
Birth Place	Mishima, Shizuoka, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Aliases	Escaper Kanagushi, Zap Rodeo, Zap Ajisai, Rodeo Kanagushi, Nige no Kanazashi, Nigeta Zap, Jumper Kanagushi, H. Kanazasi, Rodeo
Website	Unknown

Hideki Kanazashi is a Japanese former music composer known for his work with HAL Laboratory. He started working for HAL around 1984 and left around 1990. He is perhaps best known for composing the music for the Adventures of Lolo series (in which he also contributed game design). He also is known for composing the music to the game Mach Rider, as well as Rollerball, Uchuu Keibitai SDF, and Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally. Most of Kanazashi's work was done on the NES, but he also did a few games for the Game Boy, as well as the MSX. Kanazashi is known for his complex musical style, consisting of odd time signatures, and combining the limited sound channels into a chord. In all of the games he worked on, he worked with HAL's main sound programmer Hiroaki Suga.

Hideki continues to play piano.

Audio Development

Most of the music he composed was jazz but he also composed rock and Latin tunes as well. Most of the music he composed consisted of notes coming together as chords making the music much more enjoyable to listen to. Hideki's most notable works are probably the Adventures of Lolo games on NES. Hideki's musical style sounds similar to David Wise.

Kanazashi also occasionally wrote in odd time signatures. A couple examples include Air Fortress Interior from Air Fortress (7/4) and Opening from Famicom Grand Prix: 3D Hot Rally (9/8). Another example is Yama from Shanghai (GB) (5/8). While the later HAL composer Jun Ishikawa is known for the same thing (dubbed the Ishikawa-bushi by fans), he most likely picked this up from Kanazashi, as the two had worked together.

FDS/NES

According to Hideki, he started out handing his compositions to the programmers, who would implement his music into the game (most likely by Hiroaki Suga). Later, due to the criticism from other employees about his work, they created Music Maker around the Famicom Disk System era, so he could create music easier. In the program, the user would input music in a custom Music Macro Language. First, the note pitch, followed by the length. The program most likely ran on an MSX computer.

Gameography

Released	Title	Notes
1984-11-02	F1 Race (FC) (Ｆ１レース)
1985-??-??	Eggerland Mystery (MSX) (エッガーランドミステリー)
1985-??-??	Mach Rider (VS)
1985-10-18	Mach Rider (NES) (マッハライダー)
1986-??-??	Eggerland 2 (MSX2) (迷宮神話)
1986-??-??	Gall Force: Defence of Chaos (MSX)	Composer?
1986-04-25	Keisan Game: Sansuu 1 Nen (FC) (けいさんゲームさんすう１年)
1986-04-25	Keisan Game: Sansuu 2 Nen (FC) (けいさんゲームさんすう２年)
1986-04-25	Keisan Game: Sansuu 3 Nen (FC) (けいさんゲームさんすう３年)
1986-10-13	Othello (FDS) (オセロ)
1986-10-30	Keisan Game: Sansuu 4 Nen (FC) (けいさんゲームさんすう４年)
1986-10-30	Keisan Game: Sansuu 5+6 Nen (FC) (けいさんゲームさんすう５＋６年)
1986-11-13	Othello (NES)
1986-12-10	Gall Force: Eternal Story (FDS) (ガルフォースＥＴＥＲＮＡＬＳＴＯＲＹ)
1987-01-89	Eggerland (FDS) (エッガーランド)
1987-08-17	Air Fortress (NES) (エアー・フォートレス空中要塞)
1988-01-07	Satsui no Kaisou: Power Soft Satsujin Jiken (FC) (殺意の改装殺人事件)	Music Data Arrangement (Arranged Tohru Inoue's music.)
1988-02-01	Fire Bam (FDS) (ファイヤーバム)
1988-02-01	Jumbo Ozaki no Hole in One Professional (FC) (ジャンボ尾崎のホールインワンプロフェッショナル)	With Hiroaki Suga. (Composed all music?)
1988-04-14	Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally (FDS) (ファミコングランプリⅡ ホットラリー)	All songs except Monster Dance by Soyo Oka. Arranger of Monster Dance?
1988-08-09	Eggerland: Meikyuu no Fukkatsu (FC) (エッガーランド迷宮の復活)
1988-08-20	Eggerland: Journey to the Creation (FDS) (エッガーランド創造への旅立ち)	Uses music from previous Eggerland games.
1988-12-20	Rollerball (NES) (ローラーボール)	With Hiroaki Suga.
1989-04-??	Adventures of Lolo (NES)	Uses music from previous Eggerland games.
1989-07-28	Shanghai (GB) (上海)	With Hiroaki Suga.
1989-10-18	Revenge of the 'Gator (GB) (ピンボール66匹のワニ大行進)	Verified by composer.
1989-11-17	Gozonji Yajikita Chin Douchuu (FC) (御存知弥次喜多珍道中)	Music Tone with Hiroaki Suga. (Arranged the music of Tohru Inoue, Shigeharu Isoda, and Kenichiro Isoda.)
1990-01-06	Adventures of Lolo 2 (NES) (アドベンチャーズオブロロ)	Uses music from previous Eggerland games.
1990-12-26	Adventures of Lolo 3 (NES) (ＡＤＶＥＮＴＵＲＥＳＯＦＬＯＬＯ Ⅱ)
1990-09-07	Uchuu Keibitai SDF (FC) (宇宙警備隊ＳＤＦ)	With Jun Ishikawa.
1990-??-??	Othello (GB) (オセロ)	Uses music from Othello (NES).
1991-02-23	HAL's Hole in One Golf (SNES) (ジャンボ尾崎のホールインワン)	Uses jingles from Jumbo Ozaki no Hole in One Professional (FC). Arranged by Jun Ishikawa.
1994-09-30	Othello World (GB) (オセロワールド)	Uses music from Othello (NES).
Unreleased	Air Fortress (FDS) (空中要塞)

Aliases

Hideki used many aliases in his career. Some of the aliases he used included the words Rodeo, Nigeta, and Zap. Some games also credit his surname as Kanagushi. Nigeta means "to run away", and he has also gone by the alias Escaper Kanagushi. It is unknown what the etymology of this alias is. However, Japanese Twitter user @camelletgo explained its possible origins:

“

Hideki Kanazashi, one of the key figures in the early HALKEN sound, is a man of many mysteries, but in an interview with Jun Ishikawa in Keyboard Magazine, there was an amazing story about him, who seemed to disappear every payday. I wondered if Mr. Kanazashi's alias credits, "NIGETA ZAP" and "JUMPER KANAGUSHI," might be derived from that.

„