I think it may be important that, at this point, we no longer refer to the music of Sakimoto as the "Sakimoto style." It is important that we now call it the "Basiscape style." Over time, the rest of the Basiscape crew have learned to compose using similar instruments and create even more music using the full orchestra, the harp, the choir, all somehow magically synthesized. So it is with this three disc set, the soundtrack for the Nintendo DS RPG "Deltora Quest."

Though each artist from Basiscape has significant representation on the soundtrack, the key contenders are Hitoshi Sakimoto and Mitsuhiro Kaneda. This is the first time, among the many Basiscape-composed soundtracks I've enjoyed, that I found myself most interested in Kaneda's work. Kaneda's compositions are consistently fresh and interesting, whereas Sakimoto's work, while still solid, tends to sound too much like a collection of unused b-sides from Final Fantasy Tactics. It's interesting to note that the composer with the smallest contribution was Masaharu Iwata, who only worked on four tracks. Surprisingly, it was one of Iwata's tracks that I found to be the cream of the crop for battle themes (disc 2 track 12).

The first two discs are "original sound source" discs (that is, the way they were originally written). Disc 3 is a compilation disc, cutting some of the music (or merging it into one track), and presenting it in its "DS sound source" format (that is, the way it actually sounded on the DS). It shouldn't come as a surprise that the least enjoyable disc to listen to is the third. However, even in this compressed, "dirty synth" format, the music sounds surprisingly bright and bouncy.

Do I recommend this soundtrack? Well...did you like everything else Sakimoto and crew have done in the last decade? Because honestly, this is more of the same. There is some variation in style, with a little more ethnic (African/drum) influence this time around. But ultimately, if you really like harp glissandos, of course you'll like this soundtrack!

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann