Just a quickie basically. This site is taking off and getting a lot of hits a day. This is really spurring me to make the site better for everyone so I have created a poll and clumsily plopped it on the side bar. Please do take the time to choose any features you’d like to see here and I’ll try my best to add them!
As a side note, I have a couple of interviews in the pipeline so fingers crossed we’ll have your favourite artists popping on here for a good old chat!
I’m relatively new the this magical group. Mediaeval Baebes have been around for a while with an ever changing line up but the core of the music is always witchy and powerful. Here’s two fantastic live performances. The first is called “Adam Lay Ibounden” which is a beautiful charming number while “Dringo Bell” is more haunting and hypnotic of the witching hour. Fantastic!
As a bonus here’s a poor sound recording of “Kinderly” but even then the harmonious voices are crystal clear bliss.
Artists sometimes have some of their best work hidden in b-sides and Tori Amos is one of those artists that seem to have songs almost lost to the general public that should be shown to the world.
“Me and You” was written for the soundtrack of a film called “Hand of Fate” that was never released. Of course songs leak or are recorded at theatres and somehow this song was missed off of “A Piano” but this is probably the best quality that I’ve heard it – a nice gem from 98/99 era of Tori. Enjoy!
Sometimes people break the mould, do something different, something original, something inspired. Medley’s of songs have always been a staple of video game arrangements, maybe not so much now, but in remixes and arrangements from a decade ago and beyond. However an arrangement that still divides people over 10 years later as much as it probably did back then must be given credit for breaking the mould.
Hiroki Kikuta, an extraordinary talent (severely underrated/underused in today’s VGM world despite making a comeback on his own label) gave us “Secret of Mana +” – a single track arrangement of his Secret of Mana soundtrack that is 50 minutes long!
After an almost space odyssey introduction, the ambience of tweeting birds and beautiful electric keyboards take over and off you will go on a journey. The arrangements of various songs throughout this trip are both beautiful and original. There is real thought into how each piece transitions into the next one and they are all smooth and brilliantly executed.
The originality comes from some excellent use of various household objects around us. Phone key tones bleeps, pinging cash registers, flicked tables, ringing telephones, outside ambience, animal noises… it all lends a hand to create a unique world to have the music housed in.
As for the actual sound, it is very much of its mid 1990′s time. It sounds dated in places but to no extent is it ever really horribly dated. It just helps its unique tone.
I won’t spoil how arrangements are done but they are very true to the originals of the soundtrack, and I think the main criticism of “but you can’t fast forward to your favourite arrangement” is very much missing the whole point of the CD. You have to experience it as a whole piece to appreciate your favourite parts more. Sure on hindsight it would have been nice to keep everything seamless and just insert places to start off on a cd, but this is an artistic cd. It won’t appeal to everyone and its easy to see why, but when an artist goes the whole hog on an idea, its refreshing to see there is no compromise. A daring thing to do in a commercial age and we should all congratulate Kikuta for his uncompromising genius.
