Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind - Opening Theme

I posted a song of Joe Hisaishi's before - the main theme to the moving Korean war film Welcome to Dongmakgol - but Hisaishi is much better known for his soundtracks to the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki.  Miyazaki is sometimes called the Japanese Walt Disney, not because of any real stylistic similarity between the two, but more because both animators are known for a series of consistent masterpieces, and because both have significantly impacted the national culture in which they lived.  Just as images of Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Peter Pan can be found plastered on merchandise all over the United States, Totoro, Jiji, and the Catbus pop up all over Japan (although to be fair, Disney characters are fairly common in Japan as well.)

Much like Spielberg continues to use John Williams for all of his scores, and James Cameron relies on James Horner for his, Hayao Miyazaki has formed a lasting collaboration with Joe Hisaishi.  The animated environmentalist film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was the beginning of that collaboration.  Although Hisaishi goes mostly for orchestral styles nowadays, this 1984 soundtrack contained a great deal of synthesized music, popular both here and in Japan at the time.  This is the opening theme to that movie.  The song begins with the aforementioned synthesized motif, which plays from 0:00 to 1:17.  It accompanies the pre-credits scene which introduces the dystopian world of the distant future, a world rendered toxic by centuries of pollution, in which humans are sparse and giant mutant creatures run rampant.  The orchestra kicks in at 1:18, where the beautiful main theme accompanies the opening credits of the film.  These credits are accompanied by ancient paintings that depict mankind's downfall one thousand years before the beginning of the story.  The synth returns at 3:53 where we are introduced to the teenage girl, Nausicaa.  Even this early in his career, Hisaishi is as good as ever.  Although I could do without some of the more ethereal computer music, his orchestrations are more than enough to make this a worthy soundtrack, and they establish the film's universe wonderfully.  The moment Hisaishi's main theme started as I watched the movie for the first time, I new that this was going to be a great film.



Album info:  http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TKCA-72717

Napple Tale - Green Wings

Ah Yoko Kanno, it's been too long.

Part of what makes the Japanese game music industry so unique is its fairly large number of female composers. Along with fan favorite Yoko Kanno there's also Kinuyo Yamashita (composer for the original Castlevania), Miki Higashino (the Suikoden series, Gradius and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade) and the other Yoko, Yoko Shimomura.  (A legend in her own right, Yoko Shimomura has written the soundtracks to the Legend of Mana series, Kingdom Hearts, and the insanely popular soundtrack to Street Fighter II, not to mention my favorite video game of all time: Super Mario RPG). It's difficult to determine why so many female composers have succeeded in the Japanese video game industry while female composers are almost non-existent in Hollywood and American game music. Perhaps a restrictive labor market in Japan during the 80s and 90s opened a niche for female artists in the low-tech, startup industry hungry for talent. Any theory is just speculation of course, but suffice it to say that women got their foot in the door early, and are now a major creative force in Japanese game industry.

Twenty years or so later, Napple Tale was the culmination of that creative force. A Dreamcast game with a development team consisting entirely of women, Napple Tale was scored by Yoko Kanno in 2000, after having been absent from the game industry for six years.  Sadly, as is the case with most unique games, Napple Tale was only released in Japan.  I've only posted one song by Yoko Kanno before (criminal, I know).  It was her theme to the 1990 game Nobunaga's Ambition: Bushou Fuunroku as performed at the Game Music Concert the following year.  After six years of anime and film work, her soundtrack to Napple Tale is a much better introduction to her current style.  This song is "Green Wings", with vocals performed by Maaya Sakamoto.  Sakamoto is a voice actress/singer and frequent collaborator with Kanno.  "Green Wings" displays Kanno's playful style, as well as her frequent fusion of orchestra and synth.  More than anything however, it demonstrates Kanno's capacity for truly beautiful music, and not just exercises in different genres.  The entire soundtrack to Napple Tale is filled with songs as good as this one, and any Yoko Kanno fan (or potential one) owes it to themselves to get this album.  Enjoy!



Album info:  http://vgmdb.net/album/2435

Godzilla vs. Mothra - End Titles

I'm not sure how I've gone this long without posting part of a Godzilla soundtrack, but it's time to remedy that.  Like many other six year olds, I was a big fan of Godzilla movies after being introduced to them by my cousin and a friend from elementary school.  I wasn't a superfan, but I had one or two Godzilla toys and owned what might be the worst of the Godzilla movies: Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster on an English dubbed VHS.  My fandom died down as I entered my teens, but in college, a film teacher screened the original Japanese version of Godzilla from 1954, and I was hooked once again.  I then began to collect Godzilla movies - the Japanese versions this time - and became well acquainted with the three separate series that resulted after two reboots (series reboots were commercial ploys in Japan long before they became popular here).  The Showa series includes the movies made between 1954 and 1975.  The Heisei series are made up of the movies from 1984 to 1995.  And the Millennium series are the movies produced between 1999 and 2004.  My collection is far from complete, but it continues to grow.

One artistic thread that tied the first two series together, from 1954 to 1995, was the music of composer Akira Ifukube.  Ifukube did not compose every soundtrack, but in spite of different composers trying their hands at Godzilla, the producers would routinely go back to Ifukube a few years later.  Godzilla fans praise Ifukube's music, but I have to admit I didn't quite see the appeal at first.  His music seemed very generic, bass-heavy and lacking of any complex melody.  I preferred the more recent composers, like Reijiro Koroku (yep, the composer who later went on to do Kessen) and Takayuki Hattori (composer for Romance of the Three Kingdoms, my first post on this blog).  However, as time went on I started to warm up to Akira Ifukube, particularly when I began listening to his Heisei-era soundtracks.  For those movies, Ifukube reused his old themes, but expanded upon them.  Those expansions, combined with the much higher audio quality of the later 20th century, resulted in some really wonderful soundtracks.  Today's song is from one of those.

Godzilla vs. Mothra, being part of the rebooted series, is a remake of the film Mothra vs. Godzilla (see what they did there?)  The original film was released in 1964, while the remake was released in 1992.  Akira Ifukube composed the soundtracks for both.  This song is from the end credits of the 1992 film - the "Sacred Springs" melody from both films.  In 1964, a vocal version of "Sacred Springs" was performed by the super popular singing duo, The Peanuts, and released on an LP along with "Mothra's Song".  In 1992, the songs were again released as singles, performed by a different female duo.  Here however, the song is an instrumental version, performed by an orchestra and a chorus, sans lyrics.

It might have been more appropriate for my first Godzilla post to be the actual theme of Godzilla, composed in 1954 and used repeatedly by different composers.  However, I think that this particular composition captures the beauty of Ifukube's soundtracks that often goes unappreciated.  Akira Ifukube's powerful anti-melodic compositions have become the standard for monster movies in Japan and beyond, but just as the monsters are used to frame human stories in those films, his simple few-note themes are supplemented by richer and more complex ones like this.  This will certainly not be my last Godzilla post, but until then, enjoy!



Album info:  http://www.godzillamonstermusic.com/G-019.htm

Dracula Battle Perfect Selection - Cross a Fear

Castlevania music often reminds me of summer (and vice versa).  It's hard to know the reason for sure, possibly because the only Castlevania game I ever played in earnest was "Circle of the Moon" for the Gameboy Advance - a portable game that I would have played in the car on various summer road trips.  Maybe because Castlevania's most popular music dates from the 90s, a decade when Konami's team of composers worked on other games that I surely played at boardwalk and beachside arcades.  Or maybe it's just because summer was the season I typically acquired the soundtracks I now have.  Regardless of the reason, Castlevania is one of those series that I can feel nostalgia for without actually having played the games.  Konami games in general, and Castlevania games in particular, have a stylistic consistency to their soundtracks, and they've been omnipresent in my gaming life at least as far back as 1990.

Summer is certainly here now, and to kick off the hottest months, here is a song from the arranged album, "Dracula Battle Perfect Selection", released in 1994.  This album is the third in a series of Dracula Perfect Selections (Dracula being the Japanese name for the series we know as Castlevania).  The first, from 1991, was an album very specific to its moment in time.  It was made up of synth-heavy tracks, many of which contained New Jack Swing style rythms and little vocal flourishes.  The second, released in 1992, took a different approach, combining synth beats and instruments with a live chamber orchestra.  "Battle Perfect Selection" opted to go the heavy metal route, and proved to be the most popular of the three (a second album of the exact same style was released the following year).  I actually enjoy all of the albums, but these rock-style tracks are the ones I listen to most often, and "Cross a Fear" has proven to be my favorite.  The original song is from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, released in 1993 - one year before this album.  Enjoy!



Album info:  http://vgmdb.net/album/552

Estradasphere - Super Buck II

I first discovered the indy Californian band Estradasphere (yes, that would be a sphere made up of Eric Estradas) after downloading one of their submissions to the website ocremix.org.  Overclocked Remix is a community of amateur game music arrangers (essentially doujin, mentioned earlier in this blog) and Estradasphere's contribution was a jazz arrangement of the theme to Super Mario Bros. 2.  Some years later, I bought the album on which that track can be found, and discovered a crazy mix of styles ranging from jazz to death metal to string ensemble to disco and beyond.  Estradasphere specializes in instrumental tracks, just as I like, although they do use vocals on occasion - generally nonsensical or humorous phrases that serve to add to the given songs eccentricity.  The album, Buck Hunter, has a videogame-y feel to it at other points as well.  Several of the tracks are chiptunes - original compositions made with soundboards meant to resemble those of old school video game systems.

Today's song is that very first track I heard from Estradasphere - a cover of the overworld theme to Super Mario Bros. 2.  Compared to the other tracks on the album, this one is one of the most conventional, as well as one of the shortest.  It's a straightforward jazz arrangement, featuring a nice extended bass viol solo from 1:03 to 1:40.  I'll probably be posting more Estradasphere in the future as well as buying some more of their albums.  I certainly recommend them.  Until then, enjoy!




Album info:  http://www.amazon.com/Buck-Fever-Estradasphere/dp/B00005NKIS/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_4