Anime Instrumentality’s 6th Year – Kicking Off with Some Masterpieces

Anime Piano
There’s nothing like a blog anniversary to give me a shot in the arm, a kick in the rear, and a punch in the nose, sending a jolt to my system that’ll have me increasing my output. I say this because last year was a down year when it came to reviews; we succeeded in writing just 16 reviews, most of which came during the month of May. We made up for that with a wider variety of content where we struck a chord talking about Asia’s Chord Progressions, filled people in on what composer Jun Maeda has done through the years, and went the N-list articles route by talking about some of our favorite waltzes.

Most of those articles and reviews came out in May, which suggests that blog anniversaries are indeed good for output! That said, May did coincide with my stint of NEETness, so you can pencil that in as a possible confounding variable. In terms of other disruptions, around late summer, the Animusic Tourney went into full swing, taking a good chunk of time away from reviewing and general musical musings.

So to be honest, I’m not sure what this year will hold. I can guarantee you that I’ll still be around, pecking away on my keyboard as I attempt to make a dent in the mountain of anime music that seems to come out every single year. Sometimes, the album will be such that inspiration comes easy and I can whip it out without sparing too much brain power. At other times, I’ll be grinding it out for 6 weeks before a review goes to print. Within the releases for this coming year, most will go untouched, but the ones that are on top of my radar will get a much-deserved treatment. Such is my work rate.

But in the pursuit of good music, we at Anime Instrumentality have this bad tendency to go after all the new crap, most of which is, admittedly, crap. So it’s worth taking the time to look back upon past works that are truly great and now’s a good time to do it as any. If there are albums we’re sure you readers would like to read more about, it would be those albums that transcend mere excellence so as to be masterpieces.

For this next month, my team and I would like to go unearth soundtracks from anime long gone and revel in the musical moments that have turned us into a gaggle of schoolgirls swooning and squealing over awesome music. After all, finding good anime music in an idol-poppin’, ambience-saturated arena is already difficult; finding masterpieces that move you in a way that stands the test of time is nigh impossible unless you’ve built up an internal database of OSTs that leave you in breathless wonder. So I hope you all look forward to Anime Instrumentality’s Masterpiece Month and can find some new avenues in which to explore in your musical journey.

zzeroparticle

Anime Instrumentality's Founder and Editor-in-Chief. As you can probably guess, I'm a big anime music junkie with a special love for composers who've put out some beautiful melodies to accompany some of my favorite anime series. I tend to gravitate towards music in the classical style with Joe Hisaishi and Yoko Kanno being a few of my favorite composers, but I've come to appreciate jazz and rock as anime music has widened my tastes.

10 thoughts on “Anime Instrumentality’s 6th Year – Kicking Off with Some Masterpieces

  • May 1, 2014 at 3:59 am
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    Part of the problem is that some of the best soundtracks go out of print and with a few welcome exceptions (e.g. Genesis of Aquarion OST2) don’t get re-released.

    Also, some great music of anime concerts go out of print (e.g. Kenji Kawai Cinema Symphony, Ga-Rei Zero – The Live), and it can get expensive chasing up used copies up for sale.

    Reply
    • May 5, 2014 at 11:06 pm
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      @Arthur
      Thank goodness for the internet to archive the awesome soundtracks of yore that deserve more attention. Writing about them is the least we can do to raise awareness.

      Reply
  • May 1, 2014 at 9:53 am
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    I admit, I have notice the lack of activity of recent… Of course, I have been busy focusing on my master’s degree, so that time went by so quickly.

    Aside from that, congrats on making the 6th year mark… I will probably get there in 2015. :p

    Reply
    • May 5, 2014 at 11:04 pm
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      @chikorita157
      Good luck with the masters program! Time does indeed fly pretty quickly when you’re absorbed in your studies. I’ve finished mine recently and it feels like the two years have gone by in a flash!

      Reply

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