The Mix: January 2025

For the inaugural episode of The Mix in 2025, we have a lot of jazz and chamber music. But as usual, independent artist communities and labels surprise us with mixes and genres ranging from ska to metal.

To start off, Makoto will be responsible for selecting the franchise for our episode art, and therefore the opening song for each episode. This time, the protagonist is Makoto Nijima (the fact that she share’s her name with our resident photographer is purely coincidental), the “Queen” of the Phantom Thieves in Persona 5. So we decided to open with the recently released version of “No More What Ifs”, courtesy of the famous 8-Bit Big Band and singer Martina DaSilva. This emotional song composed by Shoji Meguro has never sounded so nostalgic and retro!

In January, some communities focused on releases from the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise to coincide with the release of the third movie. GameGrooves in particular, offered us the “Skanic the Hedgehog” album,, which we definitely recommend. But our spot as “album of the month” goes to the pianist PurpleSchala with her intense tribute to the Castlevania franchise, also in sync with the premiere of the new season from the Netflix animated series.

Apart from the multimedia-related releases, we will hear an eclectic selection in our usual segments: the best of OverClocked Remix and Dwelling of Duels, culminating with our favorite song so far this year, courtesy of TheManPF.

Opening Theme: “No More What Ifs” by The 8-Bit Big Band.

Album of the Month: “Castlevania: Collection of Piano” by PurpleSchala.

The Best OverClocked Remix: