We’re now two-thirds into the 33-day Shigematsu Kiyoshi short story marathon and for the last third I decided to kick it off with my third favorite track from the Lost Odyssey soundtrack. The latest “Song of the Day” is the simple and playful tune “Small Recollections”.
This track gets used a lot in the game’s collected dream-memories. It’s usually used in concert with other music when the dream involves children Kaim has met through his 1000-year and more journey as the eternal warrior. I like this song for it’s simplicity. It’s a solo piece done on a calliope and made to sound like it’s coming from a child’s music box. It’s really quite a great use of this instrument and one I’ve rarely heard used in a soundtrack for a film or game.
It’s hard not to listen to this song and not think of the simpler times when one was a kid and the biggest worry in our mind’s was whether we’d get to eat ice cream, cake or both at a birthday party. “Small Recollections” is definitely something one can hear at a fair or a carnival and always something that would make one smile like a kid again.
Happy Labor Day! In honor of this holiday, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge a unique genre of film that truly sparked my love affair with cinema. That genre, as you may have already guessed, was Italian horror.
Today’s song of the day comes from one of the greatest of the Italian horror films, Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2. While the film’s very true artistry is often overshadowed by its infamous reputation and the score itself is clearly a product of its time (the late 70s), I think that Zombi 2 was a cinematic high point in general and a masterpiece of horror in specific. And a large part of that was due to Fabio Frizzi’s operatic yet foreboding score.
Here then is today’s song of the day, Fabio Frizzi’s Main Theme from Zombi 2.
My love for metal continues to grow with each new recommendation and post made by site music writer necromoonyeti. I will admit that outside of thrash I do gravitate towards the more power and symphonic subgenre of metal. This is why for the latest “Song of the Day” to end the day and usher in Sunday I’ve picked my favorite song from Dutch symphonic/gothic metal band Within Temptation’s latest album, The Unforgiving, which also was used by AMV creator Chiikaboom for her AMV, Devil’s Game. This song is “A Demon’s Fate”.
This song just comes at you right from the beginning like a soundtrack to some fantasy or urban gothic film. This is an appropriate response since the album was created as if the band was composing a soundtrack for a film. This album is a concept one and while it doesn’t hit and win big with every track in the end they’re all worth listening to and my ears leaned towards “A Demon’s Fate” the moment I heard it.
The gothic sound of the band in past album’s has been tempered somewhat to make way for an even more symphonic metal sound. In this song, frontwoman Sharon den Adel (she definitely blows up the misconception that women who front metal bands are not hot) just sings her heart out. Sharon definitely has some impressive vocals and lungs with some of the chorus she had to belt out. At times, her vocals almost overpower the power of the music behind her but luckily she never crosses that line.
While Within Temptation doesn’t have fantasy themes of Blind Guardian or the speed and rough edge of thrash bands like Metallica and Slayer, they do seem to be making their stand as symphonic metal’s premiere group and all thanks due to Sharon den Adel.
A Demon’s Fate
Too many times Seeing the violence It’s feeding my mind No one is saving you How can you find A heaven in this hell?
Leave it behind Hearing your silence It screams our goodbye Cannot believe it’s an eye for an eye Love is gone to waste
Angels have faith I don’t want to be a part of his sin I don’t want to get lost in his world And this playing this game
When the shadows remain in the light of day On the wings of darkness he’ll retaliate He’ll be falling from grace Till the end of all his days
From the ashes of hate It’s a cruel demon’s fate On the wings of darkness He’s returned to stay There will be no escape Cause he’s fallen far from grace
What have you done? Is this what you wanted? What have you become? His soul’s not forsaken You’re walking alone From heaven into hell Now that you know Your way in this madness Your powers are gone Your chains have been broken You’ve suffered so long You will never change.
Angels have faith I don’t want to be a part of his sin I don’t want to get lost in his world I’m not playing this game
When the shadows remain in the light of day On the wings of darkness He’ll retaliate He’ll be falling from grace Till the end of all his days
From the ashes of hate It’s a cruel demon’s fate On the wings of darkness He’s returned to stay There will be no escape Cause he’s fallen far from grace
Angels have faith I don’t want to be a part of his sin I don’t want to get lost in his world I’m not playing this game
When the shadows remain in the light of day On the wings of darkness He’ll retaliate He’ll be falling from grace Till the end of all his days
From the ashes of hate It’s a cruel demon’s fate On the wings of darkness He’s returned to stay There will be no escape Cause he’s fallen far from grace
For the latest “AMV of the Day” I decided on an anime music video which uses the seinen anime series Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (Oreimo for short) as the foundation for the video. This video comes courtesy of amv creator S.A. Robert whose work I’ve just begun to notice.
“Furor” is the title of the amv and matches up Oreimo with the song “Touchin’ On My” by the electronic rock duo 3HO!3. For those who haven’t seen the Oreimo series the premise of the anime may just surprise the uninitiated. While it dances around the topic the series may make some viewers going into it blind quite uncomfortable as the two main characters in the anime are the Kosaka brother and sister, Kyosuke and Kirino. Without ruining the surprise of the series let me just say that the title of the series when translated into English is: My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute.
The video is actually quite well-made. 3HO!3’s song lyrics gives the scenes used in the video double meanings and the inclusions of the anime easter eggs throughout the video makes it a fun one to watch over and over for anime fans.
Creator: S.A. Robert
Anime: Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai aka My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute
The latest “Song of the Day” is another favorite music track from the Lost Odyssey soundtrack by Uematsu Nobuo. The title of this particular track is “Eclipse of Time” and one of the most beautiful pieces in the game’s soundtrack.
“Eclipse of Time” becomes a sort of motif for one of the game’s characters, Queen Ming Numara who also happens to be another immortal like the game’s main protagonist, Kaim. We first hear this music playing when we enter her Ming’s room and it creates an ethereal musical backdrop which accentuates the Queen Numara’s eternal beauty. The track is quite simply played as a harp solo and it’s a rare thing to hear the harp as the main instrument in most game soundtracks. It’s Uematsu’s inclusion of such an instrument which raises the Lost Odyssey soundtrack to classic status.
This particular track reappears time and time again in different version and tempo throughout the game. It usually means that Queen Numara is either the focus of the scene or something she’s involved in a way. Unlike “A Return, Indeed…” this song doesn’t really appear in any of Kaim’s 33 dream-memories which is a shame, but understandable since the piece doesn’t really match the tone of Kaim’s dreams.
Of all the pieces of music in the Lost Odyssey soundtrack this is the one I can listen to over and over and not get tired of it.
When I saw necromoonyeti post that Tom Waits will have a new studio album out this October 25th I instantly went over to Amazon and placed a pre-order. As necromoonyeti has mentioned in his post Waits is a one-of-a-kind musician and definitely one of America’s treasures. There’s really no way to describe his style of music since he experiments so often and, at times, his style is more performance art than anything.
For the latest “Song of the Day” I pick the one song that’s almost like a gateway to the aural drug that is Tom Waits. There’s nothing else to say other than listen and marvel at Waits’ “Pasties and a G-String”.
Pasties and a G-String
Smelling like a brewery, looking like a tramp I ain’t got a quarter got a postage stamp Been five o’clock shadow boxing all around the town Talking with the old men sleeping on the ground Bazanti bootin al zootin al hoot and Al Cohn sharin this apartment with a telephone pole and it’s a fish-net stockings spike-heel shoes Strip tease, prick tease car kease blues and the porno floor show live nude girls dreamy and creamy and the brunette curls Chesty Morgan and a Watermelon Rose raise my rent and take off all your clothes with the trench coats magazines bottle full of rum she’s so good, it make a dead man cum, with pasties and a g-string beer and a shot Portland through a shot glass and a Buffalo squeeze wrinkles and cherry and twinky and pinky and FeFe live from Gay Paree fanfares rim shots back stage who cares all this hot burlesque for me
cleavage, cleavage thighs and hips from the nape of her neck to the lip stick lips chopped and channeled and lowered and louvered and a cheater slicks and baby moons she’s hot and ready and creamy and sugared and the band is awful and so are the tunes
crawlin on her belly shakin like jelly and I’m getting harder than Chinese algebraziers and cheers from the compendium here hey sweet heart they’re yellin for more squashing out your cigarette butts on the floor and I like Shelly you like Jane what was the girl with the snake skins name it’s an early bird matinee come back any day getcha little sompin that cha can’t get at home getcha little sompin that cha can’t get at home pasties and a g-string beer and a shot Portland through a shot glass and a Buffalo squeeze popcorn, front row higher than a kite and I’ll be back tomorrow night and I’ll be back tomorrow night
Tom Waits announced yesterday that he would be releasing a new studio album, Bad as Me, on October 25th, his first since Real Gone in 2004 (if we exclude live albums and compilations). In conjunction with the announcement, he released the above comedy sketch and album sample, along with a single of the title track. I can’t offer you the single–you’ll have to buy it or use more nefarious means of acquisition–but I can assure you he keeps it weird. If the single and sample video are any indication, I expect this to be yet another solid effort that upholds his stature as the most unique musician America has ever produced. The album will contain thirteen tracks, with three additional ones available on the pre-order and deluxe editions of the album. I’m pretty damn excited.
If you aren’t familiar with Tom, it’s hard to say where to begin. In the 38 years he’s been releasing albums he’s ranged from a jazzy barfly to an eclectic staple of American folk, always easily identifiable by his cool, loner image, phenomenal gravely voice, and consistently thoughtful, often clever lyrics. I would say start with Small Change and Swordfishtrombones, but it’s hard to go wrong with any of his nineteen studio albums. Just pick one, dive in, and be sure to mark October 25th on your calendar.
Okay, so basically this is just a commercial for a show that I don’t watch but it’s just so adorable that I had to feature it. The show, by the way, is called Psych and it’s on the USA network. I know a lot of people who love this show but I’ve honestly never seen it, largely because I always forget just where exactly the USA network is located on AT&T U-verse.
But if I do end up tracking down the USA Network and watching an episode, it’ll be because of this commercial. Seriously, it’s just so adorable!
One of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in the past ten years was from a title that was the creation of the man (Sakaguchi Hironobu) who made the wildly-popular Japanese role-playing game franchise, Final Fantasy, before he left to start up his own company. This company would be called Mistwalker and they would release two rpgs for the Xbox 360 between 2008 and 2009. The second of these two titles was Lost Odyssey and this was the title of which I spoke of above.
The title was a nice throwback to the classic Final Fantasy titles Sakaguchi was responsible for while dressed up in nextgen visuals. But what made this game so memorable an experience for me wasn’t just the visuals but the great storytelling and music it also had in great abundance. The music itself was the product of one (if not the greatest) of the greatest video game music composer in the industry, Uematsu Nobuo. It’s from Uematsu’s soundtrack for Lost Odyssey that I pick the latest “Song of the Day”.
“A Return, Indeed…” (“Kaette kuru, kitto…” in Japanese) is part of the game’s soundtrack which makes several appearances throughout the game, but it was during the first found dream sequence (the game’s greatest highlight and reason to play it) which really sold the song and the whole soundtrack as whole as being great. This version is the piano solo one which is really the best version which appears in the game. This piano solo version was arranged by Satoshi Henmi from Uematsu’s original composition and it fully convey’s the song’s sorrow melody in the beginning but gradually transitions into a sound full of hope before finally ending in a simple few notes. Those few notes giving a hint that hope is always a possibility but in the end always fleeting.
What better way to inaugurate 33 days of “A Thousand Years of Dreams” than the song which kicks it off in the game.
While I find my thoughts on how to continue my review on one of my favorite films of all-time I began to listen to it’s soundtrack for inspiration. So, while listening to the Vangelis composed score for Blade Runner I came across what has to be my favorite track from the many different editions of this film’s soundtrack. This track I picked to be my latest “Song of the Day”.
The track I chose is simply the “End Titles” which plays during the film’s end credits sequence. This version of the Vangelis ambient score comes directly from the Esper Edition of the soundtrack which was a bootleg edition that made the rounds in 2002. More specifically, this version of the “End Titles” track is a demo version of what would finally end up in the film.
Vangelis was one of my favorite film composers growing up and it’s saddening that he hasn’t done as much work in the last decade or so. But then his work on Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was his best and it’s been difficult to top since. Everything about the “End Titles” track was able to convey each and every genre influence the film would mash together to make it into the masterpiece it has become. It’s ambient and electronic synthesizer melody has hints of film noir and, of course, the very science-fiction the film’s foundation has it’s origins in. This was a soundtrack that was one-of-a-kind and as much as others have tried to copy and emulate it they’ve never succeeded.
