LogFAQs > #946221501

132th
Game: Ys Seven
Title: An Assault
Composer: Falcom Sound Team jdk (Masanori Osaki)
Nominator: Janus5k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWOyNx9G_3I

RIDLEY IN 13/16 TIME. odd time : ) and some pretty interesting odd time at that, 13/16, grouped 3+3+3+2+2, but with the accent on the second beat of those groups of 3. [xXx][xXx][xXx][Xx][Xx] is a pretty unusual accent pattern! on top of already being an [prime number]/16 superfast timesig. but it also still sounds fairly natural and bouncy? at least it doesn't sound super mechanical the way ""[prime number]/16 superfast timesig"" can often sound. those groups of 3 help it feel bouncy and natural-ish, but if you focus on the accent pattern, it also feels very wonky on top of that!

accent patterns where the second 16th note is accented have a REALLY cool feeling to me, one Well Known song I've been a big fan of for a long time because of the feeling its similar accent pattern gives it is the Champion Battle theme from pokemon red/blue/yellow, especially the anime's rendition of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmxaBv89NfE

rby champion battle is like, really simple, mechanical 4/4 on paper, but it's decision to accent that second 16th note beat in every bar (like you hear in that super cool synth orch hit chord sound a lot throughout :16-:43) REALLY shakes the feeling up. I think because it can cause a brain offset so you hear that accent as beat 1? and knock your perception of the barlines off by a 16th note? sometimes feeling the song as if beat 1 starts exactly one 16th later than it does. it's like a really simple, but unusual way of being syncopated i guess. this song would probably be really boring and plain without that single minor detail, but it's enough to make it actually one of my favorite pokemon battle themes (particularly this anime version)

anyways this starting section of this ys7 track gives me an equivalent feeling to that, except even more weird because it's in 13/16 intead of 4/4.

i still enjoy it even after the odd time bit goes away, it transitions out of the 13/16 with a single 15/16 bar and goes into 12/16 (or 6/8, 12/8, 3/4, however you want to count it, i'm weird and really find '12/16' the easiest to read/understand with 3+3+3+3 at this tempo for some reason) for the rest. it turns into N(ORMAL FAOLCOM music eventually, and that's fine, it's cool how it transitions into that out of the much more chaotic start. particularly like the brass melody at :51. it is very DRAMATIC hero epic song music and i like that : )

one other element i really appreciate is all the tiny blips of mallet percussion throughout the atmosphere of the whole song. marimbas are one of my favorite instruments! and they make this feel very jungle-y and aDVENTUROUS, even if they're pretty quiet in the mix. I have not listened to ys7 in full, but my favorite song i know of from that game has quite a lot of marimba focus as well, wonder if that's just a general widely used instrument on the soundtrack?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqnlkoPNpgk

i feel like if i just heard these two songs, primitive deep leaves and 'an assault', i would assume that i would be a BIG FALCOM MUSIC FAN and that i'd love ys7's ost as a whole. (and maybe i would, but from the other tracks i've heard i'm pretty sure neither are really representative of this soundtrack). It's crazy how honestly diverse falcom music is and how one's impression of what falcom music is can even be completely different between two people. a friend of mine is really really into falcom music and it surprised me at first, didn't seem like it fit with what i knew of their taste at all, until i realized they were talking almost entirely about 80s-90s Ryo Yonemitsu arranged stuff

also worth noting:
janus just went from [36th place] (with an average ranking of 254.5 between his song to go out 255th & 254th) to..........[27th place] (avg ranking of ~213.67) !!!! sorry it took so long between you seeing your picks ranked super low and seeing a 3nd one actually show up.
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