Daily Archives: April 15, 2010

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Tom Salta – Red Steel 2 OST Review

Something of a coup HPM has today, is the access to the seemingly never to be released Red Steel 2 Soundtrack. Ubisoft – we will start a petition! Tom Salta’s beautiful soundtrack needs to be released to the public…yesterday!

A strange hybrid of several genres, Red Steel 2′s soundtrack is never boring. “Red Steel 2 Theme” opens like a sundown showdown from a Western. Tumbleweed, whistles, clicks and twanging guitars are at the ready for this atmospheric opener that slinks its way into your speakers. It suddenly breaks out into a Wild ARMS-esque finale section at the end with flowing percussion, chinese instrumentation and light vocal chants.

“Kusagari Blues” makes you remember why the blues were called the blues in the first place. It has a very isolated feeling to its intricate workings and is a beautiful piece. “Caldera Trap” is more frantic with lots of shrieking Shakuhachi and some very fast paced Chinese percussion. “Desert Secrets” is more desolate with its echoes and whistles setting the scene like you can only see yourself in a massive panaramic landscape.

“Ninjas in the Mine” has a real bounce to it as the Pipa  and Fue really come to the fore and the blend between East meets West really starts to absolutely shine in these tracks where you have the Western guitar twanging over an undercurrent of traditional Chinese instrumentation. “Let’s “Dance”" is more ragtime to the dosey-doe! The harmonica playing here is exceptional, as the violin – going along at a meaty pace. You could do a whole barn dance with this track alone!

“Pursuring the Shadows” is more dramatic with its tonal qualities, although the previous tracks haven’t been a picnic either, but this is going for the drama more than the previous ones with its heavy percussive smashes. “Into the HQ” sounds like it’s using a Jew’s Harp in there somewhere which gets the automatic thumbs up from me! It’s another high octane easts meets west fusion and Pipa player Xiaofen Min deserves a special credit for playing one of my favourite instruments so well!

“Enforcers Mood” is more ambient atmosphere with spacious cold clangs and echoey shakuhuchi’s langishing behind brooding electric guitars. This song feels more arabic than everything else so far in places. “Back to the Old Temple” however is the one track in what is generally a very fast paced soundtrack, that is a place of solace. It’s beautiful jangles and vocals layered with encirculating chords from the guitar, pipa and fue, all complimented with tuned percussion – bliss.

“Invaded City” returns to the more cowboy side of things with a guitar heavy track with lots of finger sliding that makes a western a real western. It holds great presence in your ear when its done right like it is here. “Vultures’ Prayer” has a manic little electric guitar riff as it interacts with the vocals and the chinese instruments. The boing of the Jew’s Harp is back, and so the energy really bursts through in this track. “The Ghost Town” takes the previous energy and then uses the solomn whistling of a lone ranger to be layered over the top. The result means the short track packs a bunch whilst still having a sad element. “Sheriff Judd” is another short track that’s led by tuned percussion and the jews harp which is a nice interlude. “Ambush” starts off atmospheric before bursting into life with an army of drums and a fist full of basslines to keep you more than tapping your foot to the beat.

“Opening the Water Gate” is another track full of glitter and jangles although it has a more mysterious and forboding edge to it, especially when the pipa joins in for its solo. Then for the last fourty seconds, the taiko-esque percussion booms in for a big climax. “Roots at Night” for a while feels like the soundtrack has suddenly gone electro-western with all kinds of a computer wizardary involved rewinding and reverbing noises back and forth. It makes for a disorientating track that feels different and unique to the rest of the collection and therfore stands out as an ambient highlight – especially with the drum n bass beats diving in at half time!

“Canyon Melody” is a guitar based track that’s then embellished with all the chinese instrumentation over the top and this track really feels like a roadtrip track, or one that signifies a long journey – it just has that weary feel to it. “Poisonous Wind” has thick atmosphere with the woodblocks knocking away and the whispering voices far off in the distance.

“Exploring Caldera” is the only song over three minutes long and that is because it encompasses the entire ambient side of the soundtrack in a single piece. From its  guitar string scratches and wind instruments leading the way to the owl guiros and clappers in the background, it paints a desolte desert picture. Fantastic. “Fight With the Snakes” is a minute of pure adreneline as the track goes for the simple two chord rising trick but its completely effective with all the instruments pounding away. “First Tension” is a dusty guitar riff driven track with long pauses between each line as if you need to swallow after each one. “The Old Mine” is an underplayed ambient piece where the woodwind comes to the fore and the final track of this masterpiece “Tamiko” rounds off in a ragtime piano led track that reminds me so much of a cleaned up Silent Hill 3 track its quite spooky and completely removed from the rest of the collection.

I have absolutely no idea why this hasn’t been released! It’s amazing from start to finish. The complete fusion of cowboy meets 3000 year old oriental mage in a studio is phenominal. The way how everything blends seemlessly together in the desert environment is a stroke of genius and Tom Salta has produced a unique soundtrack I will return to time and time again. We will be starting a petition!

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Yuzo Koshiro & Meiko Ishikawa – “Original Sound Version of Dragon Slayer IV – Dragon Slayer Family” Review

Dragon Slayer IV is not a game I have played but then with many OST’s, I have not really hand first hand experience of the games. This soundtrack is a real old skool sounding one, having been released back in 1987. The casette is quite rare to find these days but knowing the composer is Yuzo Koshiro along with Meiko Ishikawa should be the seal of approval everyone needs to know this is going to be good.

The “Opening Theme” is nice and pleasent but doesnt really have a hook. “Inn & Residence Theme” however is very catchy and up tempo song that is uplifting. It uses a bass key to make a strong beat and it really makes the song.

“Select Screen” is an echoey piece that uses long, thin snyth sounds to make a beautiful opening to the song before a drum beat starts up and some cute high pitched arrpegios take centre stage. The “Overworld Theme” has a strong theme to it and uses a bass synth for a military drum line which helps it through.

“All Together Now” is a manic song that has a slow enough melody but has fast pulsating basslines around it which go back and forth between each speaker giving a marvellous effect. Interestingly “Shop Theme” is actually faster! Taking away the bassline and replacing it with a speedy drum track. After around 40 seconds the track stops and then a new, slower song starts with a strong tune again and shows that the older tunes can still mix it with todays technology.

“Theme Of Xemn” is a fantastic song. Its rich with tune, tempo and bass. Dragon Slayer 4 has its sound very much in the speakers making from a slightly ear piercing high end pitch and very bassy low end tone all at once. Here it really works in its favour and shows off a classy song. “Battle Of Tarantuness” also benefits from this sound producing but have the most bizarre effect I’ve heard in a while. In stereo – one speaker has the tune and the other the bass. Upon every new line or two, they swap speakers! Its very original and makes for a dramatic song to be upped in action even more. Tremendous stuff!

“Theme Of Pochi” is a complete change. The tune is very catchy, playful and churpy. The drums and synths work very well together here too. After a minute the song changes again to a more dramatic piece that too uses stereo sound to convey itself very well.

“Battle With Erebone” is like a hyper song that goes up and down three chords at high speed before a spooky but jalting ending. Its more a piece of art than a song and takes a few listens before you’ll love it.

“Theme of Lyll” is enjoyable and reminds me of an old cowboy film when the lone ranger rides across the land and you get the music in the background! Another very well done song. “Battle With Archwinger” also works well with a more conventional battle piece with strong melodies.

“Theme Of Meya” is a strange beast. The instrumentation is very forthright but the song itself is actually fairly happy and so is hard to judge for a while and takes repeated listens to understand. A good song nonetheless though.

“Battle With Rock Gaia” is only a 30 second song and suffers from a lack of bass for a battle song and not enough time to get into it. “Dragon Showdown” however gets it perfect and is right into the swing of things before letting out some sound effects which sadly marr the second half of the song. Its good to have sound effects in places, but it really goes into overdrive!

“Ending Theme” is a delightful track full of bursting energy while “Teatime Melody” is the calm track of the album with a nice village town track with good use of echo. Even the short “Death Theme” has nice neat touches to it!

“Theme Of Roas” is a quick little number that like the Ending Theme is full of energy and a catchy tune. To round off the album you have a quick run through of all the sound effects which are run to the background of various pieces of the OST.

Dragon Slayer 4 OST is the kind of music that could be easily regarded as classic old school VGM. It has character, catchy tunes, big meaty synthersizers and all done on a shoestring budget. If you want to go back to the heart of VGM, this is one place where you can start and for the rest of us, you can enjoy some high quality music. Superb!

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Utada Hikaru – Hikari Single Review

“Hikari”, the theme song for Kingdom Hearts (A PlayStation 2 Game) is a delightful song sung by young Japanese sensation Utada Hikaru. Refreshingly for a main theme, it’s not a ballad; it’s a pop song. With a real beat and a catchy chorus, Hikari can easily be ranked up there with the great vocal theme tracks for anything.

For the single, the Japanese version is used, and while the actual song only differs by a few vocal notes in the chorus to the English version, it still comes across as as fresh and delightful as this is actually the original cut! It’s electronic drums are fresh, it’s acoustic guitar chords bouncey and its vocals are restrained passion.

Also onboard to make this a very worth purchase are 3 other versions of the song. First up is the PLANITb remix, which turns the pop song into a light techno song. The song speeds up the lyrics a little which can make for some funny chipmunk moments, but on the whole the remix, which is also used in the games opening sequence (albeit in only half its entirety), is a great success and is great to dance too. The “Godson Mix” is a previously unreleased one, which turns it in a summer’s day pop song. While it still sounds ok, the cutesy child-like version is more of an alternative, rather than an improvement. The final version is the Karaoke version, which is great for those who want to sing it in English instead!

If you have the Kingdom Hearts OST, your wanting for this single will be diminished by the lack of any other songs, but getting the full PLANITb version and a karaoke version to sing along to should sway you into spending your hard earned cash. “Simple and Clean” the English version is on the “Colors” single from Utada Hikaru.

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Noriko Matsueda & Takahito Eguchi – The Bouncer OST Review

The Bouncer OST is one that is full of life and energy. Coming across like something from late Tekken soundtracks rather than the fighting/RPG hybrid the game tried to be, the bulk of this soundtrack is a techno rock fusion. Sadly, its these tracks that prove to be the soundtracks downfall.

“Prelude: The Bouncer” is a superb but short opening track capturing the life of the music is a short space of time, which is followed the guitar hook filled “Sion Barzarhd” and possibly the best track on the album from the techno side “Volt Krueger” which incorporates a great bag pipe snyth into the song making it stand out.

Sadly after that, the music begins to drop off. “Kou Leifoh” has no hook to the song so is instantly forgettable, while “Echidna” struggles to get going at all. “Mugestu” has some nice eastern touches to it that brings it out of the gutter, and some nice dramatic rising chords also propel “Kaldea Orchid” into the top songs list on the album.

“PD-4″ is a panic driven piece that shows exactly what this album could have been. The song is dramatic throughout with lots of hard-edged instruments to get your pulse racing.

“Dominique Cross” takes a bizarre stance with a lush string background, which is just too quiet and despite its best efforts to catch your attention, fails to do so because the percussive instruments drown it out leaving this track as a missed opportunity.

“Mugetsu: Destruction” suffers from a lack of production polish. A drum roll is present throughout most of the song and had it have been made more of, it could have made the song more dramatic and compelling. As a result, the song is very muffled as all the instrumentation fights for the same space in the speakers. “Dauragon C. Mikado” seems tired by the time you get to this point in the album. Once you’ve listened to the same beat with the same guitar churning out half-hearted riffs, each song becomes tedious. It’s at this point I must declare that The Bouncer OST is much easier and more rewarding to listen to if you dip in and out of the tracks so they don’t blend into one long dirge. Then the weaker songs feel more alive.

Thankfully “Dauragon C. Mikado: Madness” adds some new material to the mix with some vocal snippets and some exceptionally fast acoustic guitar overlays making for a piece of disarrayed music, which holds its own. “Dauragon C. Mikado: Awakening” actually spends the first 25 seconds or so without guitars before giving us a more clear up, riff rock track that stands out because it doesn’t slip into a river of sound and lose its definition and form as a song.

“Prologue” suddenly hits you in the face, as a completely vocal and orchestrated piece full of suspense, fear, adrenaline and also peace and is the most mature piece of music on the album. “Disquietude” is another orchestrated piece that is very disjointed and eerie to listen to, especially in the dark, and shines through as the most ambitious piece on the album. “The Escape” is a dramatic orchestral piece that doesn’t go wild very often but keeps the suspense to the highest level.

Suddenly, The Bouncer has become like the game, a jack-of-all-trades. “LUKIS Covert. Op” sounds like something from Metal Gear Solid with its funk induced keyboards and its quick fire string bursts that personify sneaking around so well. “Distant Rain: The Cross Children” is a sad piano lead piece that once again has an eerie haunting presence, like most of the non techno rock orientated music. “The Pursuit” rounds off the orchestrated section with a dramatic discordant piece that is very basic but does its job.

“OWARNAIMONO: Forevermore: The Theme from The Bouncer (Japanese Version)” is a real treat for getting to the end of the album however. A beautiful heartfelt string introduction brings us to the song proper, with song strong vocals from Reiko Noda which impacts you with some soaring string arrangements with a great ballad beat.

“Kou Leifoh Remixed Version” ends the CD with a slightly stripped down version that works just as well as the original, but one feels that ending on the vocal track would have left people thinking the soundtrack was better than what it really is.

The Bouncer is a tale and an OST of two halves, and it suffers by having them completely separated. Maybe if the orchestrated pieces were scattered between the techno songs, maybe they wouldn’t seem so mundane, and with many of them sounding so very similar, it ruins the great tracks left. If your not a fan of rock or techno dance music, I suggest you try before you buy as this is not a traditional soundtrack by any means. Like the game itself, it tries to be a jack of all trades, but fails to master any.