Tracklist

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Review: As difficult as it may seem, when it comes to orchestral arrangements of anime themes, I’m actually not that hard to please. All the music has to do at the bare minimum is take the theme and transcribe it in such a way that it’s melodically pleasing. Doing so gets you more than halfway to an arrangement that’s listenable, but given the scope of disasters like TAMusic’s pitiful efforts that are far from enjoyable, this must be a harder task than how I’ve envisioned it. Because of this, the bar for orchestral arrangements has been set pretty darn low.

That said, a doujin group arranging under the name Melodic Taste, has been able to meet this low bar through their Anime Song Orchestra album. Their arrangements are fairly innocuous; they might not consist of grand, orchestral flourishes, novel interpretations, or dynamically-arranged pieces that sweep you off your feet, but they get the job done. What you get are arrangements that are about as straightforward and orthodox as can be; pieces that generally don’t strive to be anything more than their originals.

So given the orthodox nature of these arrangements, the key to enjoying this album is the curiosity in hearing how these songs turn out. The opener, “Moon Signal,” is a straight-up transcription of the original, featuring the woodwinds in the early parts of the verses before letting the trumpets take over about halfway through and going all the way up to the end of the chorus. “Moon Signal” maintains its intensity and exuberance as it sticks steadfastly to the verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure, making it faithful if just a bit repetitive.

Moon Signal

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
As you can probably guess from my earlier remarks, this faithfulness is pervasive throughout this album, with very few deviations. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s “Hare Hare Yukai” still retains its bouncy, fun melody, though novelty does come through the bassoon’s delivery during the bridge. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun’s “Level 5 -Judgelight-” successfully translates fripSide’s trance-pop into a saxophone-driven arrangement. Although there are no meaningful departures from the original, this take is still enjoyable because it draws strength from the original’s catchiness.

The best two tracks, however, materialize in the much-loved “Renai Circulation,” and “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.” The former’s interpretation is very straightforward, but it does an excellent job of capturing the bubbly cuteness that made the original such a joy to listen to. In addition to using the xylophone’s and the flute’s timbre to convey a sense of child-like innocence as well as depict Kana Hanazawa’s little vocal outbursts, the most unexpectedly delightful section is when the snare drum and brass join the flute during the “KOI TSURU KISETSU WA YOKUBARI circulation” chant because I just didn’t think Melodic Taste would actually try to arrange that part nor did I think that it’d turn out so well.

Renai Circulation

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
In “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni’s” case, the differences between this and the original are slightly more pronounced. The screechy, dissonant flutes in the introduction are a tad annoying, but once the piece gets underway, the lower-registered instruments come in, emanating an aura of doom and gloom. The pizzicato from the strings add to the tension, giving this arrangement a creepy feeling, before the bombast takes over during the chorus to evoke a sense of dread borne from imminent destruction. Given what the eponymous anime focuses upon, this arrangement captures the harrowing atmosphere of the anime well.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
As enjoyable as some of these arrangements are, there are going to be quite a few duds. Tracks like “Strike Witches 2 ～egao no mahou～” comes off sounding the way you’d expect an upbeat, generic pop song to sound if it were orchestrated: like a generic orchestral arrangement of an upbeat, generic pop song. Tautologies aside, there’s nothing in this arrangement or the original that’s so engaging that it’d make me want to pay closer attention. Other problems include messy harmonies, which keep tracks like the perennial favorite, “Sousei no Aquarion,” from being enjoyable (it doesn’t help that the woodwinds during the bridge sound a tad off). Finally, “Ai Oboete Imasuka,” the only track that isn’t bombastic or energetic, falls short in delivering the original’s sentiments. This is a great example of a case in which an orchestral library is unable to deliver upon a song’s emotional components. The inflections and nuances of a human performer are where this piece can shine, and the sound samples used here just cannot replicate that human performer.

Strike Witches 2 ～egao no mahou～

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Ai Oboete Imasuka

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
In spite of the faults and the album’s tendency to play it safe with its arrangements, Anime Song Orchestra still represents a competent effort. Having experienced so many terrible doujin orchestral arrangements, if the work that Melodic Taste displays here doesn’t put this group at the top of the heap in this tiny niche, then they surely are very close to the top at least. And what this proclamation does is say more about the state of the doujin orchestral music scene than it does about this particular group or these arrangements.

Rating: Decent

Hiroki Kikuta isn’t exactly a household name in the realm of video game music, at least, when you compare him to giants like Uematsu and heck, even Hitoshi Sakimoto, but he’s got a resume that stretches pretty far back. I remember really enjoying the music he composed for Secret of Mana on the SNES while playing through that and more recently, adored the whimsical melodies from his Alphabet Planet album. Otakon goers may also know him as the composer of “Shackles of Night,” which served as Otakon 2010′s opening theme.

Anyhow, there is a video of him talking (presumably) about the music that he’s composing for his Touhou arrange album, titled Touhou Zerokyo Kitan ~ Sophisticated Insanity, set to release this December. He also previews a rock arrangement of “Maiden’s Capriccio” (also known as Reimu’s theme) from Imperishable Night which you can watch below. I’d summarize the video more, but the lack of Japanese knowledge is hampering here, so I’ll just let those interested take a peak at what he’s got to offer. Anyone who can shed more light on what he’s saying, feel free to do so!

Tracklist:

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Review: TAMUSIC is notorious for taking perfectly serviceable pieces from visual novels, Touhou games, and anime music, filtering out all traces of what made the piece interesting to begin with, and arranging it to the blandest violin music you’ll likely ever come across. Somehow, their Angel Beats! arrange album avoids the specter of boredom that characterized their previous works, but just because this album is a massive improvement doesn’t make it good. Still, I’ll take it since Angel’s tracks succeed in catching my interest rather than put me into a stupor.

It’s still a long ways from being superb though. TAMUSIC has no grasp for composing music suitable for two violins. Their arrangement of the OP for two violins only works when the violins are playing the same melody in unison. Otherwise, good luck making heads or tails of the clashing tones in “My Soul, Your Beats!” When each violin veers off onto a separate melody, the cacophonous result is unbearable and comes pretty close to violating my musical sensibilities.

My Soul, Your Beats!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

“Brave Song” doesn’t suffer that bad a fate, but I suspect that’s because the arrangement is more straightforward, and so, still fails to appeal to me because of TAM’s lack of creativity even if the jarring violin duo is toned down. The piece sounds like a straight-up violin transcription of the original, except slightly blander and I just wished they’d put more effort and emotion into their music.

In the Girls Dead Monster tracks, TAMUSIC doesn’t seem to realize that just because a song exists doesn’t mean that it can be easily arranged for violin and unfortunately, TAM doesn’t have the musical talent to elevate the arrangements beyond inoffensive blandness. “Crow Song’s” execution borders on clumsy at times, since it never has quite the energy that the original strove for and its melancholy take is not compelling, “Alchemy” is decent, but too close to the original to warrant notice, and “My Song” doesn’t deviate from the original much while its violins are at their most grating in this piece more so than in any other.

Crow Song

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The three tracks that keep this album from becoming a tedious listening exercise are the Angel versions of the OP, ED, and the insert song, “Ichiban no Takaramono.” These tracks have me utterly convinced that TAMUSIC can make good music; all they have to do is to let the piano take the reins or let one violin propel the melody forwards while the piano stays in the background. Making such pieces sound good is no easy task when you consider that Angel Beats! soundtrack itself has piano arrangements which have set a very high bar, but they have done it.

Ichiban no Takaramono (Angel Ver.)

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

“My Soul, Your Beats!” starts out slowly, taking its time to build up and develop its melody, and as it does so, I’m swept in by how well the entire piece is put together. The piano’s pace, with its light touches, is rich in emotion as it conveys its love through its serene, poignant delivery. Its efforts at deviating from the original through a few bars of improvisation feel like a welcoming departure from the blandness of the previous tracks. “Brave Song (Angel Ver.)” isn’t that different from the original, but its intro, while long, helps set the piece’s foundation wonderfully, putting all of the loving emotions out in the open to help immerse you into its warm sentiments.

Brave Song (Angel Ver.)

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Angel Beats!’s music is joined by three tracks from Key’s visual novels. These pieces feel more like a return to TAMUSIC’s bad form; the violins are a bit overbearing, especially in “Promise,” which would have done better to let the piano take charge of the whole thing. “Natsukage” isn’t that bad, but I feel that TAM’s approach is a little off somehow. Perhaps its stately air feels like a mismatch and that a poignant approach would have worked better in being true to the original’s spirit. Finally, “Nagisa” has most of the touches of the original and here, the violins aren’t too obtrusive, making it a decent way to finish the album out altogether.

Nagisa (Clannad)

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The most surprising part about this album was that it proved to be a listenable experience though the reasons for why that is can range from them improving musically or because Jun Maeda’s music is difficult to ruin. Whatever reason it is, Angel is TAMUSIC’s best work in recent memory. Sure, that statement might not mean much, but any step towards improvement is a positive one. Now whether they can keep up that momentum, we’ll have to see.

Rating: So-so

Good doujin music is hard to find. That’s the message I’ve gotten when I was unfortunate enough to have to listen to either of the Anime House albums or TAMUSIC’s godawful Haruhi arrange album. Hell, if it weren’t for kevo’s post celebrating the better Japanese doujin electronica works, I’d probably be giving up on the endeavor altogether.

My chief complaint with doujin music lies in its lack of creativity; most groups seem content with taking a well-known melody, be it an OP, ED, insert song, or, even more rarely, BGM, and slapping some UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ on top of it. Such a method feels so half-assed that I just become disenchanted by what passes for effort, and head off to better anime music pastures. I realize that such pastures are thin indeed, but the one that has stood out has been the works at AnimeRemix.org.

Back when videogame music dominated my listening charts, OCRemix.org was a site that I’d check out a lot. Not only did it (and still does) offer a whole lot of video game remixes, the ones that were posted there were generally pretty good. You didn’t have lazy techno beats draped on top of an anime melody, straight up transcriptions of game scores, or anything that simple. The people whose submissions were put on the site demonstrated a good amount of effort and creativity in their works, which made listening to their compositions a very fulfilling experience.

AnimeRemix is pretty much an offshoot of OCRemix and their goals are the same, except their focus is on music from animated works (be it Western or Japanese). The scale to which they’re operating isn’t quite as large as OCR because anime music is still an underdeveloped area within the anime fandom, but that it even has more than 100 remixes housed on the site is something to celebrate.

After going through their cache of remixes, I figured I’d showcase some of my favorites in no particular order. If you want to download the track in question, I’ve linked to the track’s downloads page for your convenience.

Dale North – Close Your Eyes (Witch Hunter Robin)

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
This is, by far and away my favorite piece on the site. Composed by Dale North (yes, that Dale North), this composition stands out not only because it combines some of my favorite BGM from Witch Hunter Robin, the work remains cohesive as it weaves that mysterious aura that one feels while watching the show. I’m also fond of the the quote Dale takes from the Prophecy movie in the beginning of the piece. It helps to establish the piece’s tone while giving you something to think about as you connect those lines to the anime.

David Hsu – Castitatis (Elfen Lied)

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
David Hsu (or Dhsu as he’s more commonly known), is a fantastic arranger, dealing mostly with piano arrangements for video game music, but here, you’ll find his anime contribution in the form of an arrangement of Elfen Lied’s “Lilium.” Though the initial impression that one gets is that this is nothing more than a softer version of “Lilium,” do give it a listen to the end. You might find yourself dazzled by the departure around the middle as the piano picks up and the syncopation towards the end of “Castitatis” times the pauses just right to give you room to ruminate further.

Tepid – Something Special (Spirited Away)

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
What can I say? I really love the way the way the piano and the guitars work together in this remix so as to create a feeling of sweetness that Chihiro might experience after reuniting with her family at the end of this movie. I could attempt to expand my thoughts further, but I find that I just can’t. My thoughts are silenced by how well-executed this piece is, reducing me into a state where all I can tell you is to listen to the interplay between the instruments.

Vampire Hunter Dan – To Fly (Anime Medley)

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
I’m not sure whether people know this or not, but I really love “Decisive Battle” from Evangelion, so when this arrangement opened up with that piece, I was immediately hooked by the orchestral treatment that it got. I didn’t know this would be a full-blown medley, so the first time I listened to this, you could imagine the shock of delight on my face when a well-known Rurouni Kenshin arrangement came on. Still, of the pieces that got to share time on this medley, I really enjoyed Escaflowne’s “Yakusoku Wa Iranai.” Vampire Hunter Dan works that piece in the medley in such a way that it really seems like the subject is dancing through the skies. It’s a wonderful feeling, that’s for sure!

Final Thoughts:
Looking at the pieces I’ve selected, I’m afraid they do reflect my musical tastes/biases towards piano/symphonic music. My apologies for those who were looking more for electronica, which you’ll find more of in the Japanese electronica post I referenced earlier.

Thanks to Overcoat and Xaleph for keeping the Anime Remix ship steady! I hope to see more stuff posted in the future and that one day, it gets as much attention as OCR!

Rest assured that Anime Remix won’t be the only ones to get a chance to shine. I’ll do Josh Agaraddo next since I really enjoy his piano performances and arrangements quite a bit. Especially when he puts together medleys like this one.

And yes, as long as I can keep finding good arrangements, this segment will continue.

So don’t worry if you know nothing about this stuff. For this post I’ll talk about five albums that I particularly find are outstanding examples of the genre. Whether you are a techno virgin or the most hardcore junkie ever, come along I take us on an adventure though the wondrous world electronic music in Japan! Bring a nice pair of headphones and turn the bass up on your mixer!

Aura Qualic – Crystal Flow

Lets kick things off with some good progressive trance. The trick to trance (and many other kinds of electronica music) is patience. Trance tracks typically are composed of a nice build, where different melodies add and permutate with each other, eventually culminating into some kind of climax, where the bass is “dropped” and the song is driven by a combination of the beat and melody at the boldest. The interactions between the beat and the melody is crucial in good trance track. The mixing should be complex, but still natural enough for a nightclub full of people who want to have a fun time and dance to follow.

Wanna hear?

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Let it sit for a bit, then when the song starts to pick up 20 or 30 seconds in, close your eyes, press your headphones to your ears, and just let the music envelop you. The builds are simple, but very nice. You really feel the climax and anticlimax. The bass isn’t overwhelming and the melody is soft and sweet.

Aura Qualic is a trance artist hailing from Japan. Active since 1998, he’s one of the shining stars in Japanese progressive trance. His calling is trance, but he does lots of pop and dance remixes, too. He contributes often to compilations like Bastard Pop Terrorists, which is a multi-artist compilation of dance/hardcore anime doujin remixes.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Crystal Flow in my opinion is his tightest album. Though it lacks some variance in mood between the tracks, the entire composition is creative and rhythmically sound. All too often you see rhythmically retarded artists pumping out albums at Comiket with just a song and UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ in the background. Aura Qualic sounds more like a mainstream trance with a distinctive Japanese flavor. I can imagine some tracks off this album blasting in a nightclub being very very sweet.

Spy47 – Ticket to Sweetland

owww! What is it, zzeroparticle? Huh? Yeah I see the title of your blog. Oh, you want me to talk more about anime music and remixes. Oh fine then let’s start with this, then.

Ticket to Sweetland was one of the most popular and surprising albums on the scene back in Comiket 76. While Aura Qualic is generally trance, Spy47 is J-core. J-core (categorizing music is a nightmare so just bear with me) is a style of music that’s characteristic of melody driven heavy beats and sped-up singing. It draws its origins from happy hardcore influenced by gabber, drum and bass, and progressive house. Before I spew any more random musical terms that half the world disagree on let’s just share a track.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Ticket to Sweetland is truly a doujin remix work. The Drug That Took me to Heaven is mixed from the eroge Yume Miru Kusuri. Other tracks on the album are based off of Lucky Star, Nursery Rhyme, To Aru Majutsu no Index, and I’m pretty sure the rest are random eroge. Our First Time is an entertaining track that samples various sound clips from the sex scene in a loli eroge and as the sex progresses towards climax the beat structure literally breaks down in random overmixed noise. Unfortunately I did not know of this before hand and I almost blew out the speakers in my car with this song. At least it’s pretty creative.

Though it’s been remixed about 200 times, I find Spy47′s rendition of the Nursery Rhyme opening theme to be pretty good. It sounds like pure sugar but not too out of control. If you ever thought what Kishimen would sound like if ave;new was even more high pitched, today is your lucky day!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

DJ Sharpnel – Running All Night

If you’ve ever even heard of anime hardcore, you at least know DJ Sharpnel. Sharpnelsound is one of the most well known doujin labels in the scene and I always pick up whatever they shit out at every Comiket. My personal favorite of theirs is Running All Night from Comiket 73. Stylistically, imagine Spy47 but just totally nuts off the deep end. This is basically what J-core is.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Took me a while to actually figure out that was a remix of Utada Hikaru’s Beautiful World. While Sharpnel is creative and pretty fun to listen to, they are totally hit or miss. You either love them or totally hate them, and I can see why. J-core is simply too much for some people. Above that, half of their tracks in my opinion are just plain terrible. Running All Night simply had an unusual number of really good tracks. Remixes of Moetan, Lucky Star, Bokurano, Dennou Coil, and other shows at the time make the album a pretty fun listen if you like that stuff.

I’m gonna cheat and share a track from one of their more recent albums from Comiket 76.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

One of my favorite parts of this track is how they use the clapping in beginning of Fuwa Fuwa Time to set a beat up. And my is it one heck of a beat.

onoken – Swell Strings

So after all that loud crazy hardcore, let us return to the world of trance. Swell Strings, by onoken, is one of my favorite albums of any genre, ever. onoken’s diverse work spans from goa to techno. His best stuff, in my opinion, is his instrumental and melodic trance as seen heavily here in this album.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The foreground, rather than the bass, dominates most of the song. onoken creates this immersive atmosphere of sound that is bold yet very calming.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

This great vocal track, thank to the talents of Aki Misawa, has a funky little feeling to it. I love the piano arrangement.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Progressive trance. The song builds up to this nice melody before just totally cutting into a stop at 2:50 just when you were expecting a climax. A vocal with a simple yet bold piano arrangement and a faint ambient backing comes in, quickly and gradually building into a beautiful climax that you ride all the way to the end of the song. This, my friends, is what trance is all about.

Halozy – H ~Heart and Beat Technology~

I always imagine Halzoy as much of what Aura Qualic or onoken would sound like if they remixed more anime stuff. H Heart and Beat Technology is jammed full of pure awesome doujin anime song remixes. This was released in May last year, before Halozy went to the dark side and just spat out Touhou remix albums at Comiket.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Unlike what many lesser artists do, which is just play an anime song and add a generic background bass beat, note what Halozy does here to Air‘s timeless track Natsukage. Resample the melody with a cool instrument, add neat ambient arrangements, and like a good DJ, create a clever build into a monstrous crescendo of awesome. Remixing is addition — it’s about having people enjoy a song from a different point of view.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Quick, how many times has Uninstall been remixed? 10? 20? Among the knee-deep pool of the stuff, I love this one the best. Wait for about a minute for the song to get kind of revved up. When the bass cuts about 1:30 into the song, leaving just the singing, the emotion of the song is portrayed pretty well. Then we go into a nice, unique and creative reimagination of the song. It’s amazing to me how different you can make a song feel with good remixing.

Well that’s all I have. Doubtless I have neglected to cover some aspects or artists in this wide genre. cranky immediately comes to mind. I love his happy hardcore style that resembles European dance music. His new album Hard Re:MIX 2010 is especially great. REDALiCE I guess as well, but I’m not a huge fan of that group.

I know this isn’t the type of music zzero’s readers are used to seeing on this blog, so I hope some readers were able to hear some new kinds of sounds today. Whether you enjoy this kind of music or not, isn’t trying out new types of music what us music lovers are all about? Thanks for reading what I have to say! I’d love to hear feedback in the comments.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Tracklist and miscellaneous album information provided by VGMdb.

Review: I enjoy experimentation and heartily endorse efforts to mix and arrange music just to see how another person’s creativity can breathe new life into a musical work. But the ever present danger is the potential for the effort to backfire, resulting in a travesty.  While that word is too strong of a term in this instance, there are a few tracks in this ANIME HOUSE PROJECT album that are discordant enough to antagonize my eardrums if I listen for too long.

That IOSYS is inconsistent is nothing new. My experience with them comes from their remixes of Touhou music, and each track in any album will vary in quality.  For example, their Touhou Suisuisusu album includes fantastic big band jazz and gothic lolita themes, but those are offset by strange monologues in which the speaker appears to be stuttering or singers who screech horribly. The good generally outweighs the bad, but on the whole, an IOSYS album is like a box of chocolates.  You just never know what you’re gonna get.

Unfortunately, we really must have gotten unlucky with our box since ANIME HOUSE PROJECT vol.2 fails to reach the bar that IOSYS’s previous works have set. The main problem lies in the lack of a truly outstanding, memorable track to compensate for all the terrible ones because the better pieces lack the dynamism and creativity that we have seen from the group in the past.

It doesn’t start off too badly though.  “TOMARE!’s” jazzy flavor mixed with A~YA’s laid-back vocals showcases ARM’s ability to remix the original’s pop rhythms into something new while retaining the original’s energy.  The bass and keyboards that accompany the vocals during the verses and the trumpets that set the tone during the chorus section sculpt out a vibrant atmosphere that makes this arrangement a fun and enjoyable listen.

TOMARE!
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

But immediately, “TOMARE!’s” creativity is offset by “Cagayake! GIRLS’s” sheer awfulness.  The background beat is about as bearable as being hit repeatedly by a sledgehammer, leaving one to ponder whether ARM was feeling particularly sadistic when he arranged this piece.  Though the vocals themselves aren’t terrible, it’s difficult to fully judge its quality when that pounding beat overshadows anything else in the song that could have been worth mentioning.  I knew this arrangement was doomed when it took me five tries to even get through this song.

Cagayake! GIRLS
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

And just when you thought that “Cagayake! GIRLS” is about as bad as it could possibly get, the album decides to slam “Motteke! Sailor Fuku” in your face.  The song’s guitar groove catches your attention, giving you the false hope that minami’s arrangement will be ROCKIN’.  Unfortunately, the vocalist, Yuko Hirabuki, comes off sounding like some aging has-been rapper whose deep voice has seen better days.  When you keep in mind the shoujo rap origins of the song, this performance is so off-putting that it’s difficult to figure out whether you’re supposed to laugh or cry after listening to this disaster.

Motteke! Sailor Fuku
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The other songs are a bit of a mixed batch, but are decent enough.  “You’s” arrangement adds a techno beat on top of Chata’s calm vocals, but otherwise, the song doesn’t get a major facelift as the original’s poignant atmosphere is preserved well.  On the other hand, “Dango Daikazoku” manages to be a bit more enjoyable than its source and that’s because the techno beat along with a more dominant singer helps carry the song a bit better.  Same goes for “Super Driver.”  In spite of the weird keyboard opening, I found miko’s voice synthesizer-like vocals to provide an engaging experience since it is better than Aya Hirano’s boring rendition in the original.

you
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Dango Daikazoku
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Old school shows also get a nod in “Do You Remember Love” and “Tsuki no Mayu.”  The former song gets dressed up with a techno beat and through anporin’s singing, the song keeps its solitary feel and subdued, yet passionate feelings.  “Tsuki no Mayu’s” arrangement has more of an early presence because of the throbbing beat, but once Misawa’s voice enters, one cannot help but be entranced by the arrangement’s etherealness.  The feeling of loneliness is pervasive throughout this piece, bringing to mind a person drifting out in the far reaches of space without having a traveling companion.

Tsuki no Mayu
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Lest the good arrangements like “Tsuki no Mayu” lull you into a false sense of security, you can always expect ARM to unleash a bit of silliness at the very end in “Fuwa Fuwa Time.”  The opening notes sound like some psychedelic piece from Katamari Damacy as it uses a vast array of synths to grab at your attention along with Ayu’s distorted vocals.  Once more, ARM goes overboard with the synth since it obscures the vocals far too often, making it really hard to enjoy the performance.  The whimsical nature of the original is retained save for the part where the singer has to speak some lines – that part has been changed to a rap – and though this is not usually my kind of music, I think the execution is amusing enough for it to pass by a razor-thin margin.

Fuwa Fuwa Time
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

There are a lot of things wrong with this album and I suspect that a part of it is because IOSYS, and ARM in particular, has not been able to draw me in the way the way they used to lately, and this is a problem that plagues this album too.  The variety of tracks to be had range from headache-inducing to enjoyable, but none are truly outstanding.  If there’s one thing that I’ll praise it for, it’s that none of the tracks are boring.  But anyone looking for consistent, quality anime music arrangements are well advised to search elsewhere.

Track List:

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Review: As much as I love listening to and reviewing anime soundtracks one after another, there are always those moments where I want to get away from it all and listen to something tangentially related to anime, but is different enough to be refreshing. That situation cropped up fairly recently for me and when I saw that seiyuu/anisong blogger j1m0ne released her debut album Limited Chords Works Vol. 1 seemingly out of the blue, I knew that this was the change I was looking for. After all, it’s pretty rare that I ever get a chance to listen to an anime doujin album to begin with; it’s even rarer that such an album originates from someone in the English-speaking blogging community.

Alas, my eagerness was tempered somewhat when I actually read her post talking about this album since her commentary seemed closer to the sort of thing you’d see on a jar of rat poison. It seemed to shout out to me, “DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM!!! IF YOU MUST, DO NOT CONSUME WITH FOODSTUFFS OR LISTEN TO IT WHEN WORKING WITH HEAVY MACHINERY!!! MUSICIAN IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR RUPTURED EARDRUMS!!! IN THE EVENT OF ACCIDENTAL USE, DUNK HEAD IN ICE-COLD WATER AND CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN OR PSYCHIATRIST!!!” Such a disclaimer seemed overblown, and I figured that since I had been listening to Aya Hirano a few days prior to this, I was fully inoculated from whatever j1m0ne could possibly throw at me.

So with that, my journey began as I explored the album, filled with 33 anisong covers featuring j1m0ne and her guitar. The first thing that struck me about it was the title of the album, Limited Chords Works, which serves as a preview for what is to come. I suspect the name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the guitar part, which, when you listen to the arrangements, doesn’t deviate all too much from the base harmony that it provides for the vocal part. That is, there’s nothing wild or experimental about the guitar work and it serves its role as mellow background music well enough, even if it does pique my curiosity as to what an Unlimited Chords Works album would sound like.

The other thing to notice are the track names which range from the hilarious “HERUPPPU MIII.” to the curious “D=.” Some track titles clues one in as to which track is being covered like with “Banana de Fly (Tokyo no Juice)” (it wasn’t that long ago that I praised this track from the Taisho Yakyuu Musume soundtrack) while others are jokes based on the song lyrics like in “Futari ni Got BREAD” (“God Knows” from Haruhi). Either way, scanning the track list provided good amusement value and the choices of songs to be covered that I could identify looked fairly promising. It was time to plunge into this album!

Banana de Fly (Tokyo no Juice)
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
The best way to describe the listening experience here is to compare it to a journey of discovery where you’re not looking for breathtaking sights so much as for the perverse delight to be had when you stumble upon j1m0ne’s rendition of a song that you recognize. It’s not that she’s a bad singer by any stretch since her mature voice earns a nod of approval from me given my disenchantment with artists who try to pass off high-pitched screeching as actual singing. Rather, it’s in the hilarity, especially when her performances of songs like “Ichigo 100%” contrasts so sharply with the original, in this case, Ichigo Mashimaro’s OP “Ichigo Complete.” Hearing a mature voice in place of the sugary original leads to a weird dissonance, but the results had me laughing and I was thoroughly delighted. Given her vocal range, it also makes me wonder how it’d go if she were to mirror the original as closely as possible, though I think this is one of those questions best left unanswered.

Ichigo 100%
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Things get even better when you come across a familiar tune and then realize with a feeling of shock and horror just what song j1m0ne is covering. Such was the case with “Nomo no Ekiaki Uta” and what an experience that was. At the time, I didn’t have access to the romanized tracklist, and so, hadn’t readied my mental defenses for what was about to come and when the song started I was feeling quite content since it moved at a slow, relaxing pace with a warm, mellow voice that made for an enjoyable listen. It wasn’t until the words “Fine Purayy” came up that I realized where the song had originated. All I can say is that I’m thankful I heeded the warning not to listen to this while eating or my keyboard would be in a sorry state from the laughter borne from a mixture of delight at hearing the Nomo drawing song from Cross Game and horror along the lines of “ohmygodwhatisthisIdon’teven-.” Needless to say, it was great and I approve of this cover!

Nomo no Ekiaki Uta
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
If there’s one thing that this album made me realize, it’s how weak my power level is as far as anime music knowledge goes. There were many instances where I’d hear a familiar tune and scratch my head, trying to figure out the name of the original track before giving up completely. As expected, there were also tracks whose originals I had not listened to before, and though I enjoyed it regardless, I would like to know the source of the pieces since it would help me appreciate the arrangements all the more. (She did say she’d put a list up, so I’ll be waiting for that!)

So yes, like j1m0ne says on her site, there are times where her timing is just a bit off and she sings slightly out of tune, especially in the lower registers, but when dealing with fan-created works such as Limited Chords Works, I’m willing to give a bit more leeway, especially when it’s done in good fun. The most important requirement then is that a fan-made album be entertaining; I’m not concerned whether it’s done by impressing me with the quality of the arrangements or the artist’s amusing antics. Through this criterion, this album largely succeeds on the basis of keeping me delighted and amused even if it could have been made a bit better by being more cheesy and going all out. But boring it isn’t and if you’re looking for a change of pace, I’d definitely suggest giving Limited Chords Works a shot!

Rating: Good

Author’s Note: The album can be found in j1m0ne’s post here. The Surgeon General warns that those listening to this album may experience fits of nostalgia and delight, prompting those affected to declare it’s AWSM. Enjoy.

Review: TAMUSIC has been well-recognized from the doujin community as being one of the few groups that have set music from games (notably Key visual novels and Touhou shooters) to violin and piano. Although I enjoy piano and violin pieces, I am continually disappointed by TAMUSIC’s arrangements because their works have a tendency to be above average at best and soulless at worst. The chief problem lies in their music which lacks creativity and tends to be loaded with superfluous flourishes, and usually ends up leaving me disappointed.

So when I heard that TAMUSIC had released an album with music from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, I was morbidly curious to see how this one would turn out. I had braced myself for the usual TAMUSIC material, and while they managed to exceed my low expectations, it wasn’t by a whole lot.

The first track is an arrangement of the ever-popular “Hare Hare Yukai,” which sounds energetic because the violin does a pretty decent job of capturing the feel of the original without deviating too much from the source material. Next up is their rendition of “Koi no Mikuru Densetsu” which starts off pleasantly with a very smooth violin introduction before they get into the heart of the actual song itself around 0:40. Like “Hare Hare Yukai,” this piece also sticks closely to the original and is generally a pleasant listen save for the segment around 1:39 – 1:45 where the harmony is over-emphasized, creating a rather jarring effect.

TAMUSIC’s arrangement of “God Knows…” doesn’t try to take too many liberties with the original (see a pattern yet?), leaving us with a straight transcription. While it’s mostly enjoyable, the piece begins to unravel around 1:09. Most of the blame can be placed on their attempt at putting two violins together, which makes the piece all the worse because the melody is discordant, making it grating to the ears. The music still keeps its core base, but TAMUSIC’s inability to have the two violins complement each other leads to this piece’s undoing, taking an above average effort down a few notches.

Unfortunately, “God Knows…” is only the first in the series of pieces that would bring this album’s rating down. “Bokuen Desho, Desho?’s” melody feels utterly uninspired because the music feels empty in a way that the energetic original piece never was. Instead it introduces flaws in its harmony and counterpoint, which range from being too chaotic at times to overpowering the melody completely at other times. The follow-up, “Lost My Music,” continues with the emotionally void feeling because the arrangers seem to have given up and resorted to copying the original note for note. Although this effort yielded a pleasant refrain from the two violins, the rest of the piece lacks substance and sounds far worse than the original.

This finally brings us to the last three pieces, which are a second take on the three pieces this album started with. And all of them have taken a turn for the worse. “God Knows…” becomes much more melancholy before going in with the second stanza that feels really heavy and soporific as it just drones on and on. “Koi no Mikuru Densetsu’s” 2nd version has shoddy harmony and ends rather poorly because the music just gets dragged out to the point where the last 30 seconds felt more like 30 minutes. With this sort of downfall, a good piece is practically required to close out the album and they almost succeeded through a light-hearted version of “Hare Hare Yukai” that nonetheless shocked me by being completely soulless. How a song filled with joy can be reduced to this sorry state is anyone’s guess.

In light of this, it’s evident that listening to TAMUSIC’s works is a frustrating exercise because violin and piano arrangements of anime music can be done, and done well. The Aria piano albums have proved that much, so to see such a mediocre effort is always going to be disheartening. The fact that they get positive recognition is a shame, and only leads me to ponder just how bad the other groups are if TAMUSIC is considered good. Granted, I haven’t listened to a lot of other doujin groups who’ve done anime works, but the Western doujin scene (conveniently located here) has produced consistently better quality music despite having a smaller body of work. As an example of a good remix, try checking out Dale North’s hauntingly beautiful arrangement of Witch Hunter Robin’s music.

When all is said and done, I probably hold the minority opinion here and that people do see something great from TAMUSIC’s works that I’m just not “getting.” But I cannot see past their soulless arrangements devoid of creativity. To be great, arrangements have to be more than just transcriptions from one instrument to another. So for those who share my opinions on music, give this album a pass unless you insist on getting your hands on any and all Haruhi-related doujin works or if you really need a quick fix for some anime violin arrangements, regardless of how good or bad they are.

Rating: Not Good

Music Sampler