Black*Rock Shooter is an interesting phenomenon. It started off as a piece of art that inspired a song that begat an anime, manga, and now a video game. This action RPG features a stylish soundtrack by Manabu Namiki that complements the look and feel of this cyberpunk girls-with-guns adventure.

Electronica is the order of the day here, and I'm personally happy the cheesy alt-rock song I heard in the trailers is not present here. Sure, some pieces like "Black Trike" or "Aliens Conference" start off in a predictable fashion, but they take those elements and re-interpret them into something unique and sonically satisfying. This goes along with the theme of the Black*Rock Shooter mythos where a piece of art was re-imagined in multiple other, and unexpected, forms of audio-visual media.

Whatever tempo the song, the music is all quite atmospheric, and I love how layered the compositions are. Each layer breathes nicely, and the melodies and harmonies vary from each other in ways that both complement each other and feel like a pleasant explosion of flavors. There's even some neat polyrhythmic stuff happening here, making this more "listening" techno than "dance-y" techno. I could definitely see myself putting this soundtrack on before I go to sleep at night to induce funky and colorful dreams. The melodies and harmonies have the unique quality of grabbing your ear and making you bob your head, but are complex enough that, though they may not get stuck in your head right away, they will stick with you nonetheless.

I was pleasantly surprised by this soundtrack. I was wary of Black*Rock Shooter because everything about it and its source material read "trendy" or "flavor of the month" to me, so I was happy to hear cool and complex music that did not feel phoned-in or just hanging on the coattails of a trend. Manabu Namiki has crafted a pretty cool soundtrack here and I hope to hear more of her stuff in the future.

Reviewed by: Neal Chandran