As I continue my struggle to re-acquire a working iPod, I been browsing through albums of mine that happen to be on Youtube. While listening to music at work the other day, I got through most of the excellent soundtrack to Kessen, yet another Koei strategy game. Kessen, like Nobunaga's Ambition, is based on the Sengoku period of Japan, although it focuses mostly on the latter two unifiers of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa.
The music is composed by Reijiro Koroku, who I first encountered via his soundtrack to the 1984 Godzilla reboot. I enjoyed the music of Kessen immediately upon listening to it, but my most recent listen has made me appreciate it even more. Every song on the soundtrack is excellent, and Reijiro uses recurring themes very well, sometimes as standalone pieces, other times mixing two or three together for a more cinematic piece. "Western Army" is one of the main themes that occurs in the game, the western army itself being the Toyotomi clan and that of his heirs. This is the standalone version of that theme, with a bit more development than its other instances. I especially like the strings section at 0:29, which is unique to this track. Enjoy!
Album info: http://vgmdb.net/album/350
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Begin - Kimi O Miteiru
Today's post is some "not really otaku in Japan but probably still otaku n the U.S." music. Begin is a Japanese band from the Ryukyus, better known as Okinawa Prefecture. Formed in 1988, their music for the most part hasn't intersected with film or television. One notable exception however, is "Kimi o Miteiru", which was used as the closing credits theme for the anime Zipang. After watching the classic 1971 film Tora! Tora! Tora! yesterday, I was reminded of Zipang and its moving closing theme. Enjoy!
Album info: http://www.amazon.co.jp/君を見ている-BEGIN/dp/B0006BA0XA
Album info: http://www.amazon.co.jp/君を見ている-BEGIN/dp/B0006BA0XA
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Suikoden: The Divine Oath - The Ryousanhaku Suite
My iPod just crashed a few days ago, and after taking it to Tekserve to inquire about what the problem was, they told me the hard drive had failed, and sold me a new one... which just crashed again (grr). Anyway! ...while I go about trying to solve this dilemma, here's the last song I listened to before my troubles: a nice long track from the arranged album "Suikoden: The Divine Oath".
"Suikoden", or "Bandit Kings of Ancient China" in the U.S., is another strategy game by Koei, released in 1989 along with its official arrangement soundtrack. Like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the game is based on another of the four Chinese classics, "Water Margin". (I'm pretty sure there's a "Journey to the West" game out there, so that only leaves "Dream of the Red Chamber" ...maybe a potential dating sim?) Being released in 1989 (only a few years after game soundtracks first started to see releases in Japan) the "Bandit Kings" album has an older sensibility to it. The main theme is crooning ballad sung in Japanese, and the instrumental tracks are performed by a small orchestra, heavy on the brass and underscored with some funk-infused bass lines. It's not the type of music you hear much past the mid '90s, when full orchestral arrangements made a comeback, but it's an enjoyable style nonetheless and one I wouldn't necessarily mind making a comeback.
This track is named "The Ryousanhaku Suite". It's the longest track on the album because it arranges six separate tracks from the game. The tracks featured (rough translations and all) are: "Good China and the Town it Goes", "You Desire to Game", "Decision of Victory", "Leader", "Fanfare of Victory", and "When Resting". The arranger for the album is Norio Maeda, an older composer (born 1934), who sadly hasn't seemed to do produce anything new since 1993. This track is one of my favorites from the album if only for its length and variation. I also really like the xylophone motif that plays from 0:00 - 2:12, and gets reprised at 4:10 - 4:30. The song overall is one of the most upbeat tracks of the album, before bringing the mood way down at 7:14 for a somewhat ominous closing section. Enjoy!
Album info: http://vgmdb.net/album/924
"Suikoden", or "Bandit Kings of Ancient China" in the U.S., is another strategy game by Koei, released in 1989 along with its official arrangement soundtrack. Like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the game is based on another of the four Chinese classics, "Water Margin". (I'm pretty sure there's a "Journey to the West" game out there, so that only leaves "Dream of the Red Chamber" ...maybe a potential dating sim?) Being released in 1989 (only a few years after game soundtracks first started to see releases in Japan) the "Bandit Kings" album has an older sensibility to it. The main theme is crooning ballad sung in Japanese, and the instrumental tracks are performed by a small orchestra, heavy on the brass and underscored with some funk-infused bass lines. It's not the type of music you hear much past the mid '90s, when full orchestral arrangements made a comeback, but it's an enjoyable style nonetheless and one I wouldn't necessarily mind making a comeback.
This track is named "The Ryousanhaku Suite". It's the longest track on the album because it arranges six separate tracks from the game. The tracks featured (rough translations and all) are: "Good China and the Town it Goes", "You Desire to Game", "Decision of Victory", "Leader", "Fanfare of Victory", and "When Resting". The arranger for the album is Norio Maeda, an older composer (born 1934), who sadly hasn't seemed to do produce anything new since 1993. This track is one of my favorites from the album if only for its length and variation. I also really like the xylophone motif that plays from 0:00 - 2:12, and gets reprised at 4:10 - 4:30. The song overall is one of the most upbeat tracks of the album, before bringing the mood way down at 7:14 for a somewhat ominous closing section. Enjoy!
Album info: http://vgmdb.net/album/924
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Nobunaga's Ambition: Tendou - Thoughts of Different Possibilites
If I had to personally pick which game series had the best music in video game history, it wouldn't be Super Mario, Zelda or even the powerhouse that is Final Fantasy. Eking out Nobuo Uematsu's classic soundtracks would be those of Nobunaga's Ambition, a series of fairly obscure (in the U.S.) strategy games based on the Sengoku period in Japanese history. The reason is that, from its beginning in the 1980s, Nobunaga has been in the hands of two fantastic composers: Yoko Kanno (who I've introduced before) and Kousuke Yamashita. Although Uematsu has crafted classics themes in all of his soundtracks, Kanno and Yamashita's albums contain a home run in nearly every single track. Although Final Fantasy has more recognizable music and far more popularity, it's Nobunaga's consistent excellence that puts it over the top.
I posted one song from Nobunaga's Ambition before - "The Beacon", which was performed at the second Game Music Concert. That one was composed by Yoko Kanno, and where Kanno's soundtracks excelled in their diversity and eclecticism, Yamashita sticks to straight orchestral arrangements. The result, when looking at the series as a whole, is an interesting evolution in the games' music, especially since Kanno began transitioning into mostly orchestral scores just before Yamashita took over. Today's song is from Tendou, which is the most recent game in the series (released in 2009) and is scored by Yamashita. It is the main menu music to the game and contains an unusually powerful arrangement for a menu screen, which are usually more restrained in game soundtracks. If Nobunaga's Ambition can keep up this level of soundtrack quality, here's hoping another game isn't too far in the future.
Album info: http://vgmdb.net/album/15339
I posted one song from Nobunaga's Ambition before - "The Beacon", which was performed at the second Game Music Concert. That one was composed by Yoko Kanno, and where Kanno's soundtracks excelled in their diversity and eclecticism, Yamashita sticks to straight orchestral arrangements. The result, when looking at the series as a whole, is an interesting evolution in the games' music, especially since Kanno began transitioning into mostly orchestral scores just before Yamashita took over. Today's song is from Tendou, which is the most recent game in the series (released in 2009) and is scored by Yamashita. It is the main menu music to the game and contains an unusually powerful arrangement for a menu screen, which are usually more restrained in game soundtracks. If Nobunaga's Ambition can keep up this level of soundtrack quality, here's hoping another game isn't too far in the future.
Album info: http://vgmdb.net/album/15339
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Gantz - Resurrection in the Gantz Field
After being intrigued by some previews for a "Fathom Events" presentation of Gantz (the English dub), I was lucky enough to see it, and its sequel, in their original versions at the New York Asian Film Festival last Fourth of July. I deliberately went into the two movies (screened back to back) without reading anything about the plot before hand, and the result was one of the best movie experiences I've ever had. It's not because Gantz, a Japanese sci-fi movie based on a manga of the same name, is necessarily a masterpiece. But watching the eccentric/creative plot elements unfold from a completely blank slate, combined with an incredibly enthusiastic audience of fans, was a very entertaining experience.
The music of Gantz is composed by Kenji Kawai, who I was introduced to with his soundtrack to the game "Nobunaga's Ambition Online", but who has worked much more extensively in movies and anime. His soundtracks include some classics like Ghost in the Shell, The Ring, Death Note, and the Chinese movie, Ip Man. Kawai has a very distinctive style - he seems to use orchestras and other live instruments, but he mixes them so heavily as to make them sound almost synthesized. The result is a "perfect" orchestra, with its richness and nuance stripped in favor of precision and mood. It's an effect that took some getting used to, but one that I've come to enjoy. The majority of his music goes for atmosphere over melody, but when he hits on a theme, he does it very well.
This song is an example of that. It's the final track of the first movie, used in the scene that sets up the cliffhanger. It's a heroic melody, repeating a motif a number of times as it proceeds up the scale, resulting in a nice crescendo around 4:30. This song, combined with my audience experience, definitely made the end of Gantz one of the most memorable cliffhangers I've seen. Enjoy!
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Album info: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=VPCD-81693
The music of Gantz is composed by Kenji Kawai, who I was introduced to with his soundtrack to the game "Nobunaga's Ambition Online", but who has worked much more extensively in movies and anime. His soundtracks include some classics like Ghost in the Shell, The Ring, Death Note, and the Chinese movie, Ip Man. Kawai has a very distinctive style - he seems to use orchestras and other live instruments, but he mixes them so heavily as to make them sound almost synthesized. The result is a "perfect" orchestra, with its richness and nuance stripped in favor of precision and mood. It's an effect that took some getting used to, but one that I've come to enjoy. The majority of his music goes for atmosphere over melody, but when he hits on a theme, he does it very well.
This song is an example of that. It's the final track of the first movie, used in the scene that sets up the cliffhanger. It's a heroic melody, repeating a motif a number of times as it proceeds up the scale, resulting in a nice crescendo around 4:30. This song, combined with my audience experience, definitely made the end of Gantz one of the most memorable cliffhangers I've seen. Enjoy!
>
Album info: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=VPCD-81693
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