Anime Music Double Duty (Yes, I've been poached… again)
This will be fairly short and sweet and will mostly serve to update people on my activities and why this blog isn’t as updated as often as it should be. I think there are only two or three people who already know about this (family doesn’t count), so it’s about time I made this a general announcement. I have been working on building up a decent amount of content on the Eminence Symphony Orchestra’s website. My primary duties on that site are to submit anime soundtrack reviews, the occasional anime music feature article, and of course, anime music news snippets that I’ve gathered from around the web. Aside from the news articles, these are things that I’ve regularly posted about on this blog, so in that regard, it’s not exactly a new experience. What does excite me though is being able to mesh with artists like Minorin and composers so as to expose the English-speaking fan community to them.
So the obvious question will be what will change on this site. The short answer: not much. Though one would think that by contributing to Eminence, my output on here will see a decline, I’ve been contributing since February and have been doing so consistently since then. So no, there will not be any change of pace as far as output goes for Anime Instrumentality. After all, it is kind of nice to be able to have my own space where I can do things like post music clips alongside the reviews to be able to give the reader an idea of what the soundtrack sounds like. It’s not something that has been implemented on Eminence’s site (and I don’t know if it ever will) and seeing the positive response that step has garnered on here, it’s worth having a webspace where I have the freedom to do just that.
And of course, my other sphere of activity will continue on. The #MALKeionbu (the MyAnimeList Anime Music Piece of the Week Club for the uninitiated) has been going strong and Omo’s post discussing how fun it is to be exposed to new artists and composers captures my sentiments exactly. It’s definitely been an enjoyable voyage of discovery every week and I have always managed to learn something new, whether it’s some piece that flew under my radar or even rediscovering some old melodies that I’ve forgotten.
Taken in sum, this represents a tremendous opportunity. The potential for raising a greater amount of awareness of anime music is just too good to pass up and by contributing to the Eminence website, this blog, and the MALKeionbu, I really hope to see a stronger, more active anime music community.
Also, for those who haven’t done so already, you should follow me on Twitter at zzeroparticle (and for that matter, Eminence has a Twitter account as well). Sending me a message through AIM to the nick zzeroparticle works as well. Hope to see some familiar faces poke around the Eminence website!
OMG that is awesome! I wub eminence. Maybe you can now finally tell them to get their feed to work properly XD
I hope all this extra work isn’t going to weight your spirit down!
better than any gig I’ve gotten =p
@omo
That site has issues… to state it plainly. The people who are in charge of running the website have run into no end of problems and are trying to patch things up as best they can. To give you an idea of how bad things are, the site was supposed to have launched sometime in April. Well, the bugs are being taken care of… one at a time. I’ll pass the word along =p
Also, I think I’m hitting the point where I’m feeling somewhat stretched for time, but I figure that as long as I have a steady source of anime music to listen to week after week, I’ll pull through!
@lelangir
Call it a stroke of luck more than anything else. It’s a matter of me somehow being in the right internet forum at the right time when they were looking for anime music writers.
Eminence is amazing, must be great working for them.
Ask them to come perform in San Francisco! ^o^
Speaking of introducing people to new music and composers, although I’ve been quietly watching this website for the past few months, there’s one soundtrack I really must recommend to you… even if it’s not extremely or directly anime related.
And that is, the soundtrack to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within by Elliot Goldenthal.
No matter what your opinion on the movie itself is, the soundtrack was virtually the only part of it that was met with almost universal acclaim. You’re really missing out on some of the greatest music ever written if you choose to ignore it. A word of warning, though! Nobuo Uematsu country it definitely isn’t… however, that’s not a bad thing. Like most of Goldenthals work, it might be a bit hard to get into at first- but after a full run through, you’ll really begin to appreciate it.
So, as if I hadn’t made it clear enough, I really, really must recommend to you the OST to The Spirits Within. It’s excellent stuff, perhaps the finest from the Pulitzer prize nominated composer, best enjoyed on a good speaker system (or stereo) at ear shattering volumes.
Anyway, keep up the great work.
@Reltair
They are amazing and the Echoes of War CD is one of those things that I’ll listen to when I need a good dose of epic arrangements. As for your request, I just submit articles, but I can drop that suggestion though it’s ultimately up to the people who run the concerts to decide on the schedule.
@Blue123
Always good to hear from lurkers like yourself 🙂
I have tried to give Goldenthal’s compositions from FF:TSW a shot before, but that was right when I had been tainted by the general feeling of dislike that I had for the movie, so I wasn’t able to give it a real chance. Perhaps now that the movie has faded from my consciousness, I can give it a shot at last. Yes, it’s not Uematsu, but it deserves a fairer shot that what I’ve given it so far.