Xenocats

Here's an update to try and lift this place out of the doldrums. Not pictured in the thumbnail is the Xenogears orchestral album, 'Myth,' which didn't come out so hot in the picture. It's encased in a black and transparent, acrylic slipcover, which contrasts the white and pastel slipcase for The Last Story OST quite appropriately. Both hit on the same day, and both cost me a decent chunk of change, both are also quite brilliant.

The Last Story Original Soundtrack is the biggest surprise. When playing the game, very few tracks stood out, and the ones that did didn't set my ears on fire. I therefore wrote off the entire thing as uninspired. After popping the disc into my PC (ripping the tracks, and uploading them to my digital audio player) I'm of the impression that these are some of Nobuo Uematsu's best, and most interesting works to date.

My personal issue with Uematsu's works in the past has been their monotony. Every piece was as simple as could be. From the compositions, to the arrangements, and instrumentation. This was obviously due to the fact he got his start composing for the anaemic NES hardware, and stayed in the chiptune ghetto until the PSX allowed him some freedom. To my dismay, he did not take full advantage of it until the PS2 and Final Fantasy X. Now with a decade of full-bodied sonic compositions under his belt, Uematsu is going experimenting.

The most significant, and welcome, aspects of the works presented here are the abrupt changes in tempo and melody. It feels as if most songs are made up of multiple, disparate parts that were stuck together at random. This is a style of composition I've only ever experienced in experimental heavy metal music. I've said it before, and this just further reinforces it, Nobuo Uematsu rocks. He's pulling out all the tricks he's learned from The Black Mages and splicing orchestral segments with metal riffing, and some off-key screeching vocals in just because he can. In an ironic twist, the OST for The Last Story is more varied and interesting than the actual game.

In keeping with my Last Story (,The) porn, here are some pics of the discs, and jewel case cover.

What's there to say about Xenogears? It's fantastic. This is the soundtrack that put Yasunori Mitsuda on the musical map, and it remains the only reason to keep him there. The orchestral arrangements here actually match the songs perfectly. I was sceptical at first, due to the game's heavy sci-fi leanings (and Xenosaga's mediocre score), but the ethereal sound of a full piece orchestra helps lift the superb compositions far above what can be accomplished with a KORG synthesizer.

I give both albums 40 out of 44.1KHz.

Disaster report

On Friday, March 11th a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the North-Eastern coast of Japan, triggering a large and fast moving tsunami which has obliterated several sizable coastal communities. The earthquake was the largest ever recoded in Japan since official record keeping began, and was felt through out most of the country. The official death toll is currently over 1,000, but is expected to sky rocket once rescue workers reach the North-Eastern communities hit by the wave. The Prime Minister has called this the worst disaster to afflict Japan since the ravages of World War II.

As a gamer, and just as a consumer of pop culture in general, Japan has given me much. In this time of crisis, I feel obligated to give a little back, and I ask any one else who shares my views, and is hence reading this blog, to do the same. Donations to the American Red Cross can be made directly at their website, or Amazon.com. Several Japanese game publishers are also donating in numerous ways, with 5pb discounting the price of their iPhone Memories Off port, and donating all proceeds to relief efforts. Internet retailer J-list.com offers pre-paid iTunes cards which can be used to purchase the app from the iTunes store, and are themselves donating 5% of all orders to the Red Cross.

The worst is yet to come as Japan has to recover and rebuild from this disaster. Good luck my friends, and thank you.

Favouritism

And now for a bit of actual news. In an effort to spruce up this joint, I've been hitting up various old websites I have bookmarked. One of which belongs to my favorite chiptune composer, Go Sato (ex- Seibu Kaihatsu). I haven't missed much since last time I was there, and he hasn't done any game soundtracks since 0 Day Attack On Earth. He did conduct an interview with Square Enix Music Online, which is a wholly respectable internet establishment, and joined Geondan, which is considerably less so. Either way, it's nice to see he ain't dead yet.