Artist Feature #31: Chris Hülsbeck

Chris Hülsbeck is famous for his work on the Great Giana Sisters and the Turrican series, but what else has he done? Let’s go on a musical journey as we explore Chris’s beginnings and progress to where he is today.

Tracklist:
0:00 GST♥ Presents...
0:10 Planet of War Title (Planet of War, 1986 C64)
1:30 Shades (filter corrected) (64er Magazine, 1986 C64)
2:34 Bad Cat Title (Bad Cat, 1987 C64)
3:24 Title (The Great Giana Sisters, 1987 C64)
4:13 Title (Hollywood Poker Pro, 1989 C64)
5:13 Danger Freak Theme (Danger Freak, 1988 C64)
5:40 Danger Freak Theme (Danger Freak, 1989 Amiga)
7:03 High Score (X-Out, 1990 Amiga)
7:50 Title (Turrican, 1990 Amiga)
9:02 Intro (Masterblazer, 1990 Amiga)
9:55 Intro and Title (Turrican 2, 1991 Amiga)
10:21 Turrican (Medley) (Huelsbeck Vol. 1: Shades, 1991 CD)
11:52 ingame3 (Apidya, 1991 Amiga)
12:26 Sewer's Blast (Apidya Soundtrack, 1992 CD)
12:55 Mutant's Forest (Jim Power, 1993 SNES)
13:58 Stage 3-3 (Mega Turrican, 1994 MD)
14:34 The Wave (Chris Huelsbeck's Sound Factory: Digital Audio Collection I, 1994 CD)
15:37 Rogue Title (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, 1998 N64)
16:42 Jim Power in Mutant Planet (Main Theme) (Symphonic Shades, 2008 CD)
17:57 Hypnotic Groove (Dressed to Chill, 2024 WEB)

Additional footage from...
Planet of War
Soundmonitor
Ultimate Soundtracker
Great Giana Sisters C64
Hollywood Poker Pro C64
Danger Freak Amiga
X-Out Amiga
Turrican
Masterblazer
Turrican 2
Apidya
Jim Power SNES
Mega Turrican
Star Wars Rogue Squadron

Sources cited:
[5] STIL/HVSC

Chris can be found at…

GST♥ can be found at...

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[guksack]

My kind of video. What a legend he is. Spent a many a night as a kid leaving these games on just to listen to his music.

[Vaporbomb]

Chris Hülsbeck is one of the best to ever do it! Thank you

[frannydai]

Thanks for the in-depth research. It's cool to see how involved he was with the software side of things, like the tracker software. Also, impressive that Bad Cat was one of his first commercial titles--that main theme is badass.

[Nightshft]

1) BITD I bought the 64er mag featuring shades. Iirc they printed the type in listing.
2) So many great soundtracks. Giana Sisters and Turrican 2 (Amiga) are some favs.
3) Great research and presentation!

[Peepimus]

A time I got to watch it all go down live…!

[nchastan]

For all the fan of the composer, a modernized remake of X-Out has just been announced, and the trailer drops him by name

[ezyto]

god what a beautiful mix again, hülsbeck’s music is incredible

[doctorstrangehere]

That first track Planet of War is so good that it sent me down a rabbit hole of trying to see where I could get hold of it, only to discover that it is on Chris's bandcamp in one of the SID anthologies. It's tracks like that which really bring it home to me how there are some incredible pieces tucked away in soundtracks to not wholly well known games. Once again another incredible Artist feature I look forward to these every time as I learn so much from them and come across great music

[Mcklain]

The Shades song sounds like Kraftwek's "The Model" 😄

[lutzosterkorn]

It's so crazy, even 30+ years later it gives me goosebumps whenever I hear the Turrican 2 title track.It's pure perfection.

[DeskoDev]

Absolutely love Huelsbeck's music. Awesome mix!

[KTJohnsonkidThunder]

Thanks for posting. I'm a big fan of Chris Hüelsbeck and this mix was worth the wait given one time you stated a lot of his composition history is varied.

[AWISECROW]

I love star wars rogue squadron and it's music. It's nice to hear some of the other work he has done. I definitely need to get my hands on some of those albums.

[Vicky-Hugh-Martini]

Another great video mix with informative details along the way. Thanks again!

[andyawardian]

This is such an amazing compilation of Chris Hülsbecks work! Of course you could have named even more legendary soundtracks, like To be on Top, Rock'n'Roll or Tunnel B1. But I understand, that this would have been too much for one mix.

So, I have only one complain: You should have ended the video with Interstellar Sentinel. This amazing soundtrack is clearly one of his best works ever and proves, that he still has this magic within him, which made him famous in den 1980s and the 1990s. And his contribution for Tiny Thor was also really good, even in this case he was outshined by his friend and collaborator Fabian Del Priore. ^^

[BurstError]

another GST banger video, great work 🦾

[LavaCreeperPeople]

TURRICAN 2 AMIGA OST GRAAAAHHHH!!! 🔥🔥🔥

[supmattboy]

I love Hulsbeck's music so much, especially Bad Cat, Turrican 2 and Jim Power.

Or and "Turrican Soundtrack Anthology" is awesome too.

[LeonjayCampbell-chxd]

This was a good video. I love the music for Jim Power on SNES. I hope you can do Artist Features on Jason Page, Paul Gladbois, Keith Tinman, Steve Collett, Andy Brock, Tommy Tallarico.

[TrueNeutralEvGenius]

Well done.
I would highlight "Battle Isle" start of the series, but personally overall like Chris music in a lot of projects.