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Demoscene, Doujin, Featured, Japanese

Even Fruitier Than Before! Fruited Vagabond Vol.2 (Review)

08.30.12 | Patrick Gann | Comment?

Over 150 game, anime, and related albums were released this past August at Comiket 82. That’s a lot of music: I’ll never hear 95% of it.

But I sit up and pay attention to the second album in a new original works / demo series from Pinokiti Records, “Fruited Vagabond.” Featuring music from some of Namco’s best in-house composers, as well as some new faces that generally only work in the doujin scene, these albums feature some really enjoyable dance/electronic music.

After the jump, we have the Soundcloud demo reel for the album, as well as my impressions of all five tracks. (more…)
Demoscene, Doujin, Japanese

Favs of Comiket: Fruited Vagabond (Review)

08.29.12 | Patrick Gann | 3 Comments

Every six months, Comiket sweeps Japan, and a boatload of doujin music albums are released (alongside some legitimate game and anime soundtracks, as well).

Generally, it’s just too much for one person to take in. You could easily spend $1000 there and still miss something cool. Especially if you’re down with all things Touhou-related.

Recently, one of our friends at SEMO (Don Kotowski) pointed us in the direction of “Fruited Vagabond.” It’s essentially a demo reel of music made in FL Studio, one track per composer, and the composers being some of Namco’s greatest assets (AJURIKA, Ryo Watanabe, Hiroshi Okubo, etc).

Tomorrow, we’ll have a review of the album newly released “Fruited Vagabond Vol.2″ from Comiket 82. But before that, we have a review of the first album, which is four tracks and runs 24 minutes. After the jump, our review (alongside some soundcloud samples, hurray!). (more…)
Experimental, Japanese

Let baiyons Be baiyons

Let baiyons Be baiyons 08.25.12 | Patrick Gann | Comment?

That was supposed to be a pun.

This marks the end of “baiyon week.” We hope you enjoyed it, learned more about this particular artist, and perhaps scouted out a few more tunes for your musical library.

But we didn’t get to everything baiyon has ever done. So we just wanted to point out here that baiyon does have plenty of other work out there, if you’re willing to look for it. Some of those items include:

Evening Glow of a River – an EP released around the same time as In The Collaborations 04, you get the title track (10 minutes long), a remix of the track by photographer/musician/producer Eamonn Doyle, and a B-Side “Lupe.” For my money, “Lupe” is the better track.

Dejerabi – a techno/electronica/Arab-ethnic single from Ryoma Sasaki. Buy it, and you get the B-Side (baiyon’s remix of Dejerabi) too.

Vibes Against Vibes (Vol. 1) | (Vol. 2) – Almost everyone that worked with baiyon on the various “In The Collaborations” singles, and plenty more, release their own singles on these two “various artists” collaborations. Vol.1 has two tracks where baiyon collaborates with another artist, and Vol.2 has a baiyon solo track.

Have any more hot baiyon leads? Feel free to leave them in the comments section! Thanks again … and now, let’s go clubbin’! (Seriously, I gotta go to a decent club sometime … just, please, no designer drugs … )
Experimental, Japanese

More Insight for “Like a School on Lunch Time”

08.22.12 | Patrick Gann | Comment?

Last night I had a chat with baiyon via twitter about his 2006 album “Like a School on Lunch Time.” I learned some cool things that I wanted to share with you. For example, the video above is a music video that covers two songs from the album and features incredible visuals by catchpulse. The footage is of the elementary school baiyon attended in his youth. In fact, that’s also where a lot of the sound samples come from.

Yes, baiyon revisited his school to get some field recordings. He told me that of the musicians that use this technique, he was most inspired by Aki Onda’s Cassette Memories series. As I mentioned in the album’s review, I’d heard the technique used prominently on Michael Bross’ Subway Meditations.

Finally, for those of you that can read Japanese (or who are okay with a rough translation provided by google), you’ll want to check out this 2006 interview with baiyon from Jet Set. It provides more background and insight on that full-length album; a little something to help you appreciate it more.
Experimental, Japanese

Time To Get “In The Collaborations” – Vol. 01~05 (Review)

08.22.12 | Patrick Gann | Comment?

So baiyon released a series of four singles between December ’09 and April ’10, each one had him working with different artists. Of note to the VGM community was his “Hue / Saturation / Brightness” single (vol. 03) where he collaborated with Hip Tanaka.

The series seemed be over after the fourth volume. Nothing happened through the rest of 2010 or any of 2011. But then, in June 2012, baiyon surprised everyone by dropping vol. 05, “Take Away My Eyes,” a track that sounded so thoroughly like a PixelJunk Eden tune that one cannot help but wonder if this track was an outtake from PixelJunk 4am (a game whose soundtrack I’m still anxiously waiting for…).

After the jump, we’ll be exploring all five “In the Collaborations” singles and speculating on what might come in volume 06. (more…)
Indie Music, Japanese

Electro-Nostalgic: baiyon’s “Like a School on Lunch Time” (Review)

08.21.12 | Patrick Gann | Comment?

I remember when one of my best friends introduced me to “noise” as a genre. He started me off with Hanatarash(i), a 1980s group featuring this dude who went by the name “Eye.” This was some pretty hardcore stuff. All noise samples, no tonality whatsoever.

Since then, I’ve heard “noise” albums with different layers or levels of tonality mixed with the non-musical sounds. Many of them come from electronic artists. I was a big fan, for example, of Michael Bross’ “Subway Meditations” — nothing but hand-picked samples mixed in different ways.

After the jump, we’ll take a look at one of baiyon’s contributions to the genre with his 2006 album “Like a School on Lunch Time.” (more…)
Featured, Game Music, Japanese

Introducing!! baiyon week

Introducing!! baiyon week 08.20.12 | Patrick Gann | Comment?

A few months ago we did a special week’s worth of content focused around one musician, Jim Guthrie. That was a lot of fun. Let’s do it again, shall we?

No, not a second week for Jim. He’s a cool cat, for sure. But this week we’re going to focus on baiyon.

Born Tomohisa Kuramitsu, baiyon has gone on to become a major influence in electronic music all around the world. He and his art have been presented at events in Japan, South Korea, USA, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, and elsewhere. He is best known, at least among gamers, for his work as audio-visual lead (all music, plus the art styles for each level) in PixelJunk Eden, which we reviewed after its Steam release earlier this year.

One thing baiyon and Guthrie have in common, besides having a week’s worth of content written about them for OSV, is Sword & Sworcery. Guthrie is the composer, and baiyon arranged a track on the Scythian Steppes remix album, which we also reviewed this year.

Throughout this week, we will be taking a close look at all of baiyon’s original works, including various EPs and LPs he’s released, the “in the collaborations” series, and we’ll even discuss his work (among the work of many others) for DARIUSBURST. So stop by each and every day this week to learn more about baiyon and his music!
Featured, Game Music, Japanese

Seven Sword-Swinging Beats: The Scythian Steppes (Review)

06.26.12 | Brenna Wilkes | Comment?

Last year, an indie adventure game was released for iOS called Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP that ended up being an underground hit amongst indie gamers. It ended up winning Independent Games Festival Mobile Achievement in Art award, and gained more notoriety by being included on the Humble Indie Bundle V pack last month. It was also ported to PC and is now available on Steam.

Not a bad go of it for Capybara Games or game composer Jim Guthrie by any means.

Now that Sword & Sworcery is about to be released in Japan for gamers in the land of the rising sun to enjoy (with big thanks to the two-way localization house 8-4), some of their local and best-known composers have decided to put their particular spin on the game’s music for the localized debut with the arranged album The Scythian Steppes. The names of these composers should ring a bell with some: Yamane, Yamaoka, & Suzuki are just a few of them.

Take a listen to the new spin on Guthrie’s “Thrillmarillion” soundtrack after the jump.

(more…)
Japanese

HearJapan To Go Unheard

HearJapan To Go Unheard 06.18.12 | Patrick Gann | 1 Comment

We received some sad news over the weekend.

HearJapan, a digital music distribution service with a lot of Japanese pop/rock, as well as some interesting game and anime soundtrack selections, is closing down on June 30, 2012. In a statement on their website, they explain that one of the reasons they have to close down is that they invested a lot of money into a “2.0″ site redesign (which launched back in February), and they’ve been unable to recover the costs for that update.

On a personal level, I’m saddened about this. They’ve released some good albums to the English-speaking market, including some we’ve reviewed over the last couple years.

Again, however, we’d like to note alongside the folks at HearJapan that there are still two weeks left. So be sure to scour the site and purchase anything you think you might want before the site shuts down!
Experimental, Japanese

Era-Spanning Imagination: After 4406274 Days… (Review)

05.29.12 | Patrick Gann | 1 Comment

Basiscape member Kimihiro Abe (alias “emanon”) is one of the few Japanese composers to embrace the music distribution service that English-speaking composers (especially of the indie variety) use almost universally. Yes, I’m talking about Bandcamp.

Abe’s Bandcamp page currently features one free track he released on New Year’s Eve called “21seiki Techno Shonen 2011,” and a new original concept album called “After 4406274 Days…” — which is what we’re going to talk about today. After the jump, you can follow along with the bandcamp embed while reading my thoughts on Abe-san’s strange and wonderful new concept album! (more…)
Featured, Japanese

Swimming in IMERUAT’s “Black Ocean” (Review)

05.07.12 | Patrick Gann | 6 Comments

When we last spoke to Masashi Hamauzu, he expressed much excitement over his then-upcoming album with Mina, “Black Ocean.” Up to that time, all we’d been able to hear from them was the IMERUAT debut single, which featured 3 songs (all included on, and remastered for, “Black Ocean”).

With the full album in our hands (presently available CD-only in Japan and Europe), we’re ready to talk about the duo that made Final Fantasy XIII so beautiful and vibrant. After the jump, our review of IMERUAT’s “Black Ocean.” (more…)
Japanese, Miscellaneous

Let’s Go! Dekoboko Gym With Takenobu Mitsuyoshi!

04.27.12 | Audun Sorlie | Comment?

Ever wondered how Takenobu Mitsuyoshi has managed to look as young and fit as a 20 year old for his entire career? Well Dekoboko Gymnastics of course! The SEGA music veteran is these days doing promotion for the Dekoboko Motors activity, a LEGO inspired go-kart track for children that is presented at various arcades and game centers in Japan. As usual, the charismatic clown prince of VGM produces an unforgettable video to go with his catchy beat. This is his second video for the Dekoboko Motors product.

Mitsuyoshi is keeping busy these days, having also provided music to the new Operation G.H.O.S.T., the sequel to SEGA’s classic light gun game Ghost Squad, and his own live event Takenobu Mitsuyoshi LIVE & TALK.