LogFAQs > #954025916

Altered Genos
Sanctuary-SHU
Fairfrozen: Selicy's Theme

One of the patterns I've noticed in what I gravitate towards this year is that I'm looking for a certain feel in the percussion, both in texture and rhythm. Looting the Louvre doesn't seem that far off! The main percussion loop is pretty cool. I think the track is let down by what I feel is overuse of the instrumental hit-- it demands too much attention given the frequency with which it appears, like constant confetti burst effects laid over a video. It suggests a context but without knowing it, it feels, well, invasive. [Later note: after writing this up I decided to check out a video of the gameplay associated with this track. Haha, that's actually super charming.]

There's something about Saori Kobayashi's music that just feels inimitable. Altered Genos's combination of instrumentation and composition expresses a sort of primal feeling I'd have a really hard time finding in other vgm. The way the track opens is full of ambiguity, wispy layers that suggest a progression but not letting it get too concrete. (I love the main instrument here.) Then the drums come in and it's just great. Kobayashi uses electronic elements here in a way that makes them clearly present but in a way that doesn't insist THIS IS AN ELECTRONIC TRACK NOW THAT I AM HERE. They work themselves in by expressing their own sense of mystery fairly subtly on top of the drums and flutes. It's a track that's really cool to re-listen to, focusing on different aspects each time.

You know, at some point in the past year I'm pretty sure I thought something like this: "I feel like listening to a new track with a minimalist feel, ideally expressed by piano, and some sharp percussion, maybe with an electronic flavour, occasionally doing that thing I like where it deliberately misses the first beat of a bar. And why not-- put some mallet percussion in there too that plays cool countermelodies off the piano, and choral vocals or vox to give it sort of a mysterious feeling. Let the track keep its unique flavour throughout but introduce small variations to keep itself fresh." I'm only half-joking. It's wonderful that this game and OST came out just before VGMC, to scratch that particular itch.

Let It Die reminds me of music I encountered more frequently during my high school/early university days. I don't really run into or seek this style out now, but I think this is a decent example of it. The lyrics feel mostly meaningless but one little quirk I like is that the singer doesn't "let it" finish until the second-last iteration, like the whole track is a denial of it. (I also think the idea of asking a whole bunch of artists make a song called "Let it Die" for the game's soundtrack is a neat idea.)