Back when the Muramasa soundtrack was released in 2009, we were impressed by the traditional Japanese score and the attention to detail that went into the compositions. The quality level was already fairly high, and when the game went on to sell rather poorly, Muramasa was seemingly the last game I thought would receive an arrange album. But here it is.
Basiscape’s Yoshimi Kudo, Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Kimihiro Abe, Azusa Chiba, and Noriyuki Kamikura team up to provide a number of arrangements from the game as well as some new compositions based on unused boss artwork by George Kamitani. Finally, a recording of the Press Start 2010 medley is also featured.
Is the music from Muramasa worth revisiting with this arrange album? Find out in our review. (more…)
I don’t know about anyone else, but to me, the Japanese vocaloid scene is truly an amazing phenomenon. It shows some of the best sides of Japanese indie spirit, which is marked by a huge supportive community and a sort of pride in being small-time. This is especially interesting when compared to the relatively small music communities you see in other countries–they tend to focus on making it big above all else. While there are certainly downsides to this underground spirit, one thing you can’t deny them is productivity. Hundreds of songs are being made by the various composers of the vocaloid scene. Apparently all the Japanese composers needed was someone who could sing… like a robot.
Anyway, ElektLyze is a group of three people: composition by Treow, lyrics by NaturaLe and art by Ichijou Meguru. Their best-known work (and the one I know them from) is on the superlative collection of vocaloid tracks called Supernova. Their track, “Blindness,” which was also their debut track as a group, is one of the darker and edgier tracks on the album, employing some great jazzy melodies and very creative sound effects to build a sound that strays quite far from most of the piano-rock that you hear in the vocaloid scene from the likes of supercell and iroha. It’s certainly one of my favorite vocaloid songs. I can’t say much about the lyrical content, since I’ve never seen a translation of their songs, but I’m sure it’s solid.
So will Intolerant Space measure up to the standard set by “Blindness?” Find out after the cut! (more…)
Now that you’re done vocalizing with Hiroto Saitoh’s catchy Vocalize album that we reviewed last month, it’s time to look into his other music release from Comiket 77. This one is titled Usotsuki to Inugamitsuki Music Collection, and while I’d never heard of the game, the Japanese-styled artwork on the cover immediately caught my attention.
Just as the Japanese title and artwork would suggest, there are a lot of traditional Japanese sounds here. There are lots of Asian-inspired melodies with woodwinds and various other ethnic instruments, but that doesn’t mean that we miss out entirely on Saitoh’s sometimes funky style. Given that I knew nothing about this album, I was surprised by what I heard.
Hit the jump for our review of Hiroto Saitoh of Many Color’s latest album, Usotsuki to Inagamitsuki Music Collection! (more…)
