Well, this gives me opportunity to post some more Inai.




The Film Music of Keiji Inai
Victor Studio Orchestra
Arranged and remastered by myself



Sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4alTaQ4TK4)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!27YCQICR!i3d4Ef7vv4yBjASvB4Ao9zwqBF1Xv1xAk6_daEaSiCk)




Keiji Inai had humble beginnings and started as a synth programmer for Tanaka as well (he just has an eye for talent), and from 2014 onwards his career slowly started. Next year will be his dream year I bet because up until now he has scored television series but at heart he wants to score for the big picture. Next year he has two film scores, Arrow of the Orion and Royal Tutor Heine: The Movie. He also has the second season of Girl in a Dungeon coming up and I'm looking forward how far he will take his quintessential Hollywood Silvestri theme.

That is the key word why I like him. You don't have many Japanese composer that 100% sound like Hollywood composers, he encapsulates everything from the 80s up to the 2010s. You have references or homages but Inai really "thinks" with a western composer mind, and I find that fascinating.

So, take a listen to a growing collection of film music Keiji Inai has written for Television, often teaming up with Kohei Tanaka and Meiko Iuchi.




@Fujisawa

I would say the one thing that Fujisawa has going for him is that amidst all the Hollywood bombast, both classic and modern, there's heart. NGNL Zero caught me completey offguard how much emotional core it has, coming from a silly late-night show with no orchestral music whatsoever. Likewise in Gate, you have all the classic Hollywood bombast and even Ride of the Valkyries bombastic action cue but the standouts are the emotional cues. This is true for all his music. I connected with his NGNL on an emotional level a little when I watched the film and thats what a good film score should do. Just like any good Horner score. Maybe not the best music ever written but certainly effective.

Why I like Fujisawa (https://mega.nz/#!v3gkSYJI!LoVQuqCsvUbpFAXgbsWitAHqOuDtiL9UZCvKC1tDT_Q).




That Sahashi FMP video is fantastic, but oh my god he really does look, sound, and move like a man in his mid-70s. Did becoming a college professor sap out all his vitality?

It's certainly concerning, if you look at Kohei Tanaka, Kaoru Wada or Akira Miyagawa you wouldn't believe they are around the same age, jumping around the studio. Some people really do age faster than others but maybe its just his attire and hair style that make it worse. As long as he still writes a cue that smacks me I'm not yet worried however.

To me, Inai has always seemed like someone who's *just* on the cusp of greatness, but it feels like he's holding back. I don't know if that's just the projects he gets to work on, but I think we've yet to hear him at his full potential. As to why I like him, he has a good sense of melody and structure, he uses a wide variety of instruments (can anyone think of another anime composer who includes a viola da gamba in their scores?), he isn't afraid to let the woodwinds carry the music...it's just solid all around.

I don't have a very strong opinion of Fujisawa, but I did enjoy his score for Land of the Lustrous, minimalist though it is.

Definitely the projects if you ask me. With the exception of Dungeon and Alderamin (which are surprise, his best work and even then not the cream of the crop you can score for by any means) he scored rather trashy or REALLY trashy projects so far. That's why I set my eyes on Arrow of Orion, they are at least making somewhat of a prestige project out of it it with "Silver Screen Adventure presented by Warner Bros."

He definitely has the potential, especially if the projects allow for set piece scenes: Argonaut (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrWQfLZ3DcM&t=21m07s)

Remember when everyone here thought the latest Imaishi Trigger work would have Iwasaki again?

lolnope



https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-10-12/1st-promo-video-for-trigger-xflag-promare-anime-reveals-theatrical-release-in-2019/.138071

In what way has it gotten worse? I've not watched that much Doctor Who (of any era; not just the recent stuff), but I do remember asking about the music before and hearing that the newer stuff wasn't too great, to put it lightly. So I'm curious to know how it seems to be even worse than before.

Talking about the 2005 series onward. The music was one of those things that wasn't much noteworthy to talk about (perhaps in my early days of discovering soundtracks it was) but it had "it's moments (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhNQ8EtCuRs)" thanks to Ben Foster's orchestrations and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. At it's best, it was a dramatically overblown quasi sci-fi film score, and at it's worst it slowly went to modern Hollywood (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy3Z5JHQ-yo&t=318s). Now that Gold, Foster and live performances are all gone, you have this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4se87Vnu7WY), be the judge yourself. As mentioned previously, not surprised in the slightest considering how this industry works today.


Remember when everyone here thought the latest Imaishi Trigger work would have Iwasaki again?

lolnope

I didn't, I knew it was going to be either Hayashi or Sawano ;).

@Fujisawa: NGNL Zero was a great film score, but I still believe he hasn't reached his peak. His music has some great sense of drama complimented by the nice orchestrations that show he's clearly a film score and classical music fan (quoting from William's JAWS to Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries) for the most part. My favorite piece is still from the "minimalistic" Land of Lustrous (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9D3YI6kD7Y), term which I wholeheartedly disagree with, and this piece shows it by starting with a wonderous piano, string and flue section that eventually becomes more rhythmic as it's still keeping up with the orchestra that collides into a heroic tone that plays into the main theme. If there is a problem I'd had with his music... it'd be he's hardly recognizable. When I first saw Revue Starlight all blind, I had a hard time thinking who could've been the composer in the credits, my guesses ranged from Tatsuya Kato to him. With Suheiro, I don't seem to have that problem, but that's because he's still in that shade of Yugo Kanno's trademark sound. All in all, Fujisawa is young talent with potential that I'll be gladly to see more of.

Re: franchises with music getting worse over time

Anyone have a chance to listen to Yugo Kanno's latest Jojo yet? It's recycled Ajin electro-organ wallpaper noise. You can forget attempts at Puccini like Iwasaki's glorious opera piece in Battle Tendency, or anything else sounding even remotely Italian. Despite having a setting with such a rich history of music and musicians to take inspiration from, with a story revolving around the mafia, Yugo Kanno somehow ignores it all. He becomes more and more complacent with every new Jojo adaptation he's given. Though that could be said of literally any big-name franchise Yugo Kanno has taken part of in the past decade.

Late last year, composer and conductor Yong Eun Kim of South Korea recorded the score for Lost Ark with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road and AIR studios. He also recorded additional music with the Synchron Stage Orchestra in Vienna.

Most of the older music was recorded and performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra (with the L�čnica Chorus) in October 2014. Not sure if that music will be used in the final release or not.

Brian Tyler is just a guest composer and there might be others. Open Beta release is in november.



Passing the Torch: Part 4




A nextday/Vinphonic Co-Production:

Ryunosuke Kasai, Yoshitake Wada, Kaito Aso, Yuto Moritani, Toshikazu Noguchi and Naoki Mori
Crossover Classical
Tokyo College Of Music Special Orchestra, conducted by Ryo Nakanishi and Ryunosuke Kasai



Sample (https://picosong.com/w2dxZ)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!DqZlRCyL!wR3iH7zEJcljRKudvxDNzgdUGRFEHFqfD8gtT1qpFGI)

Crossover Classical is a term used to describe artists that adopt strong classical influences in their music, but ultimately they have an accessible and popular sound or a marketable image to reach out to a wider audience. This is a special event organized and performed by the very young composer and musician generation of Japan, this time from the Tokyo College of Music. These musicians are very much part of the new generation of anime and game music composers in its infancy.

This year's concert was solely held and conducted by Ryunosuke Kasai and the theme was to write music for a fictional fantasy RPG of which currently only Kasai's Overture is available. The other pieces are from last years performance, recorded and distributed by the composers themselves.



Just like JAGMO, the musicians and composers are VERY young but full of vigor and passion and fully bathed in classical style. I'll await the concert contribution for this years fantasy RPG and Part 2 will be added as soon as the other composers make their concert pieces available. Here's the preview. (https://mega.nz/#!viZlkSRT!PdrrA_W1yXLT3eLj8CmBC0Qn6oZt6RfOAj9pC8WsFe4)


If you hear some resemblance to Akira Senju, Joe Hisaishi, Kohei Tanaka or Koichi Sugiyama, it's not coincidence ;)

Speaking of Senju, next year he will score an NHK History program (unfortunately not the Taiga drama) so he's not retired from media composing yet.




@Jojo: Aside from twenty minutes of Iwasaki and the twenty of Stardust Crusaders, there's not really anything to note so not hearing something good in an episode of Jojo was expected. I don't understand why they stayed with Yugo, especially if they even change the art style. Grancrest remains the best score he did in a while and even then, its been a really long time since a score like Birdy Decode or Shaolin Girl. I really dig his classical inspired pieces in Psycho-Pass, Gundam, Grancrest and his recent drama however, so I take anything I can get.


And for franchises changing for the worst, nothing worse than the Harry Potter franchise: I recently discovered this music channel and I really like it:

Harry Potter: How NOT to compose for a Series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b7-3lOgb24)

@Jojo: Aside from twenty minutes of Iwasaki and the twenty of Stardust Crusaders, there's not really anything to note so not hearing something good in an episode of Jojo was expected.Well, twenty minutes of good music for a 12-episode arc is a much better ratio than twenty minutes for a 50-episode arc. The ratio gets even worse for Yugo if you count DiU. Not to mention that Yugo's budget was substantially higher than Iwasaki's in both shows.

Outside of the technical quality of the music or whether it has an orchestra, so far I've been really underwhelemed by Yugo's lack of musical direction. Part III can be somewhat excused for its inconsistencies due to its constantly shifting settings and its almost Saturday morning cartoon format, but Part IV had no identity to speak of outside of the rehashed Stardust Crusaders main theme and some literal elevator music to represent Morioh as "just a boring town". And I'm not sure what to make of his Iwasaki imitations like that horrendous cat-step. But now with Part V, I don't even recall hearing Yugo's SC theme within the actual episodes, or anything that could be considered a consistent musical element at all other than the two or so Ajin carry-overs.

I'm also not sure the Harry Potter comparison is the best, because the direction of those movies was all over the place with its myriad of directors, and so of course the music followed suite. If anything it makes Yugo look even worse for working in three arcs in a row (totaling over 100 episodes before part V) and STILL not having given any sort of musical connecting points with the various arcs, or even within their individual series. Other than that same SC theme that he somehow makes more bland with each series. And it's sad because Yugo Kanno is a much better composer than this and fully has the potential to accomplish what I just spoke of. But so far he's treating this whole franchise as nothing more than a paycheck. At this point he might as well hand Jojo over to Suehiro, because at least that guy would put in more effort.

Nowadays, I actually think Suehiro surpassed Yugo, which would be the case of an apprentice surpassing the master, who is stuck in his ways and too much in favor of sound design. Too many projects he's attached to recently lack any personality, as you say. Its probably all just paycheck. He's overworked and needs some timeout, I've been saying that for quite some time now and he would have knocked Grancrest out of the park if that was his sole project for a year.


But on to more pleasant things, here's the score of the season (for TV anime at least):




Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad GRIDMAN (https://picosong.com/w2iVb/)

As if there was ever any doubt. Warsaw is back on the menu boys! And finally an optimistic heroic score full of Leitmotif after the dies irae of Berserk, the furious arabian nights epic of Magi and the horror onslaught of Attack on Titan. This will rock the house. After Planet With, two powerhouse scores in a row.


I am relieved by the good reputation my work on Planet With has recieved.

Burning battle songs are the most prominent part of the score but I was especially focused on composing "The way to the evolution of love" as a present for Mizukami and SciFi fans.

After one listen, you're suddenly invited to a Planet full of love.

It is not an overstatement if I say that this piece contains all my thoughts on this work.

Please do listen.


I'm only slightly worried about Ulysses since we have yet to hear that 2000 orchestral style from the pvs but the other trailer pieces made it in so I suspect its only a matter of time.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

It's tangotreats here - or, at least, it's what used to be him, just stopping by to wish you all a happy October. This is not a comeback; think of it as a guest appearance, or a cameo. I come here to share some music, and disappear back into the night. As this is a new account, I have no PM ability, but if anybody would like to keep in touch please do email tangotreatsisaman (at) gmail.com - you're very welcome.

Anyhoo, I heard this album and I knew I really had to post it here...


REBECCA DALE (born 1985)
Requiem For My Mother
Materna Requiem#
When Music Sounds*



https://mega.nz/#!UKZxiYZT!bnt1HUCsXCoPJa56TbvfEBj9aFNaSz6y65oCyQSsFV8

# Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Kantos Chamber Choir, conducted by Clark Rundell | | Louise Adler, Soprano | Trystan, Tenor | Hannah Dienes-Williams, Girl Soprano | Edward Hyde, Treble | Dave Hinitt, Organ
* The Studio Orchestra, The Cantus Ensemble, conducted by Jeff Atmajian | Nazan Fkiret, Soprano

The headline piece, "Materna Requiem", was written for the composer's mother, who tragically passed away in 2010 from Breast Cancer. So many Requiems in musical history are dedicated to historical figures, great artists, noble statesmen, and the like... but how many do you find that are an expression of such personal grief as losing your mother - particularly at the age of just 25? This piece is... powerful, and utterly heartbreaking... but so beautiful.

The second piece on the album, however... I think this is the standout.

"When Music Sounds" is a paean to the joy of music itself. It's something of a modern day equivalent to Vaughan Williams' "Serenade To Music". It takes the form of a thirty minute choral symphony of six movements which are all tied together by a four-note, unifying leitmotif. I haven't heard such a well-orchestrated, unabashedly tuneful, exuberant piece of contemporary concert hall music in so many years.

The musical language is positively filmic - but the good kind of filmic. There's shades of Goldsmith and 70s Williams running all through this piece; a constant outpouring of melody, reveling in the joyous sound of a large orchestra and chorus. This is equal parts orchestral showboating, lyrical beauty, and a classical heart beating beneath. This is no mere "film score without a film" - it's a serious concert work that just happens to speak with the direct emotion, shameless theatrics, and singable themes that are hallmarks of the very best film scores.

Dale has just signed with Decca Classics, so expect this to be only the beginning.

Only MP3 (at -V0 - I'm not totally heartless) for this one, I'm afraid - this is available internationally and for a sensible price. There's no excuse. If you want the best sound quality, put down the money and do your bet to show Decca that it's still worth recording and releasing new classical music.

As ever, enjoy - and take care. :)

Cool, thanks. The Dies Irae alone makes this a keeper. Could easily be a Final Fantasy end boss fight.

Well, well, look who's finally posting back here, and in such a tasteful way. Great contribution, thank you! And PLEASE BUY THIS ONE IF YOU LIKE IT, GUYS!!



Although, I'm not quite convinced that you're really who you say you are. So I've made this quick test to check. Let's see if if you're an impostor or the real deal.


What is Tango's favorite type of music?
a) Orchestral
b) Gangsta rap
c) Nazi punk (actual music genre)


Who is Tango's favorite composer?
a) Ramin Djawadi
b) Kanye West
c) Jerry Goldsmith


What is the average size of a Tango post?
a) 10 words
b) 10,000 words
c) The mathematical concept to describe such size hasn't been invented yet


Who is Tango's favorite anime character?
a) Ikumi Mito from Shokugeki no Souma
b) Unchou Kanu from Ikki Tousen
c) doesn't matter as long as they have big boobs


Now let's see if it's really you...

Well, well, well, well, well, well, well... that is some beautiful music indeed. Such music needs the spotlight (and your money), there's too much atonality in the world. My favorites are "Ave Maria" and "The Earth I know". But I'm confused, if this is a one-time-only post, why the name pun. If you truely are who you say you are, good sir, you're fooling nobody.


c) doesn't matter as long as they have big boobs beautiful feet

Only way to be 100% sure ;)





Shiro SAGISU & Masamicz Amano are
SAGIMANO
The Warsaw Philharmonic National Orchestra of Poland
The London Studio Orchestra and Voices



In the year 2012, mysterious things happened. New Shiro Sagisu scores appeared but they somehow sounded a bit different than usual, far more brass acrobatics and different voicings that were quite untypical for Sagisu. Not to mention a very familiar style to any fan of orchestral anime music from the 90s. It took a few more years and a couple of more scores to realize that after almost ten years of absence, 90s orchestral powerhouse anime composer Masamichi Amano was once again working on anime projects, as arranger and orchestrator and sometimes guest composer for another 90s anime legend, Shiro Sagisu.

It is a curious collaboration, even more interesting are the similarities: Both are the same age, both have a love for traveling, both stayed, studied and lived in Paris, both are Hollywood and film music nuts and both are major plagiarist hacks (heh), both scored popular shows in the 90s and quite a lot of prestige projects and both celebrated their 60 years with musical celebrations. They truely deserve each other.

The music of SAGIMANO is larger than life, full of excellent orchestration, sometimes Golden Age quality and full of furious brass acrobatics in trademark Amano style. Often, there's a Leitmotif or whole theme available in two variations, one in Shiro Sagisu's style and the other full on Masamicz Amano.

In fact, Amano is actually quite popular in the Japanese concert scene, so much so he is on tour this very year:



What both unites is an abundance of prestige projects they get to score for, up to this very day, with plenty of ressources other anime composers can only dream of. For each and every project the Warsaw Philharmonic National Orchestra of Poland, conducted by Masamicz Amano himself, provides at least part of the score. The rest is recorded in London no less, with a studio orchestra and chorus. These can be heard most often in pieces that are very much Shiro Sagisu, but not everytime this is the case.


The maestro at work in Warsaw, together with his friend and colleague.

Masamichi "Masamicz" Amano was absent on the scoring scene for almost a decade, but it didn't happen overnight. He became a college professor, had a son and students to teach and wanted to continue his "pure" music compositions for wind band and the concert hall and to this day, writes new concert works, even released on iTunes. I don't yet know how, when and why they both decided to make a team but it must have happened around 2010/11, they have known each other for quite some time since Amano arranged for the Evangelion Symphony and the Wind pieces in the 90s. To this day he arranges for Sagisu, like the smashing Evangelion Jazz Night from 2014.

You instantly notice Amano's close involvement with Sagisu if you examie the Rebuild of Evangelion scores and how drastic the orchestral writing changed from 2.0 to 3.0, where Amano stepped in. Night and day.

The sound that those two conjure is very much the biggest and most bombastic in the anime world (or the whole Japanese media landscape in general) and in the best possible way. At its peak this music rocks your socks off with how powerful and excellent it is. And when Amano gets to contribute his own compositions for a project, (often loosly) based on Sagisu's themes, wonderful things happen.


Amano very much transforms Sagisu's compositions into excellent concert-grade pieces


Now, without further ado, lets dive into their work. I completely revised every one of their projects, rearranged the tracks, included pieces I'm 99% sure were from the same session and edited various pieces so that its pretty much only pure orchestra (Eva 3.0 being the most prominently edited of course). This library focused not exclusivly on Amano but presents Amano and Sagisu as one entity:



Sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVQwr_Pd_0I&index=3&list=PLg0McXZeBSsgu-0XfTPec_m1XQWEOG9Sx&t=10s)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!qjpS3aoC!Zln5hED4LaaeOPlACr8qAO77ntAZ117FrJ1FJqwtYbM)

Evangelion 3.0 was very much their first collaboration and not quite on the level of later works but some of the orchestral material is already excellent. I've edited out any looping or other unsatisfying parts and focused entirely on the orchestral material. With the recently released outtakes from Evangelion, the material forms a nice one hour album of powerful brass fanfares and occasionally gravitas and beauty. There's no comparison to the previous films.

The next collaboration project was something special indeed. Berserk is a very popular manga series and its best and much acclaimed story arc was to recieve a "dark medieval fantasy epos" in the form of a film trilogy depicting the rise and fall of a warband, a kingdom and the whole world. While Sagisu goes mostly with a fully modern approach in his own pieces, Amano's orchestation and his Warsaw pieces provide the necessary gravitas and terror to match the epic scope of the story. Counting the TV score (which still isn't fully released because the series continues), this is over 90 minutes of excellence. The musical takes a very dark turn in the second half and even becomes quite avantgarde-esque with devilish woodwind centric chamber pieces. Highlight is of course the best use of the Sagisu chorus with the mournful and tragic "Death comes to us all".

The third major project, MAGI, would mark a new musical highpoint in their collaboration. This time Amano goes all out and woves Sagisu's and his own themes into an epic arabian nights adventure, furious and relentless in its momentum and incredibly dense and powerful in orchestration. His main leitmotif and how he plays around with it is straight out of his Mushiking score. His piece "Magie et sorcellerie" deserves special mention in how energetic and powerful it is. After all these years its still such a thrillride. Ever since the later scores for Berserk, he has very much become an equal partner, musician and friend. Sagisu often refers to Amano as "the maestro" and here he left him a playground.

The fourth major project was not for an anime but for the live-action adaption of Attack on Titan, and in many cases this is what the anime score should have sounded like, classic bombast and furious brass from hell. Here Sagisu's own style very much merged with Amano, to the point were it becomes a cohesive whole. I suspect Gridman will move further in that direction so that you can not quite tell were Giant Robo ends and Evangelion begins ;)

A special mention also goes to Shiro Sagisu's Songbook were Amano was also involved. This is quite a dreamy one, pop tunes performed by the Warsaw Philahrmonic and the London Orchestra. It should be noted Shiro Sagisu is one of the best pop composers working and here he goes larger than life and without the guitar for once.

Aside from major projects, SAGIMANO also contributed for a lot of prestigeous events or projects. A few pieces for Shin Godzilla, a few for a late-night anime adaption, a piece to celebrate Hideaki Anno's career and a concert piece for a major incident in Japanese Anime history, the Nihon Animator Expo, which is used as the promotional theme.

This anime season is towered by Gridman, which marks both Sagisu's and Amano's return to the Mecha/Tokusatsu genre and is in contrast to the previous works, more lighthearted, optimisitc and heroic so far. I dearly hope its successful, gets a second season and a whole film trilogy.

Aside from Gridman, SAGIMANO work on the upcoming Evangelion 4.0 film and various tba projects. They recently had a session at Air Studios and the Warsaw session for Gridman might include other projects.
Since their conception, they are active every single year and I anticipate what next year has in store for us. Who would have thought twenty years ago that the composer of Evangelion and the composer of Giant Robo would fuse together...

Last but not least I made a nice compilation album of their best pieces and its over an hour of some of the best kind of orchestral bombast you can find. A toast to these two gentlemen and long my their collaborative career continue. The best there is after Kanno/Mizoguchi. SAGIMANO is currently the best promoter of Anime as a medium for wonderful music and if there's a big prestige project on the horizon, chances are high they rush to Warsaw and London to bring you glorious, timeless classical film music.

Finally, as it is always noticed, Japanese media composer are a close-knit community:

requiem for my mother is hidden treasure prime material.is like passion of the christ symphony plus don bluth tribute symphony or something.tears of joy.

Michiru Oshima
Haikara-san ga Toru
The Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra & The Sofia Session Orchestra



Sample (Part 1) (https://picosong.com/wnMpw/) / Sample (Part 2) (https://picosong.com/wVFUK)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!fipnSQgY!eoyMgJ4bhfZffZ9A3fM_tgw3O2sFTq4o0A3I1uFHctw)


Oshima really shows her mature side for this 70s remake. This is marvelous stuff from start to finish, full-fleshed romantic and delightful film score with a love theme to lift your heart, few militaristic intermezzi and some standout over-three-minute pieces with rousing reprise of the love theme in the second part.

Whether you count Part 1 and Part 2 as one entity or two separate scores is up to you, but I advise it is best to listen back-to-back. You can combine them if you want into one folder.

The only downside is that the Bulgarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is not the Russian State Orchestra, unfortunately, and she doesn't employ a lot of brass. But this is nonetheless a timeless romantic film score like the good-old days.

She continues to be on a roll: New concert works, new upcoming anime, game and tv scores and she might even work on this new project:



If you consider how Yamato and Haikara-san turned out, I'm really looking forward to this Zero Century film trilogy. If there's justice, we get Yamashita for Harlock, Oshima for Emeraldas and Tanaka for Galaxy Express again.
But based on the director... another possibility is much more likely, just scroll a bit up the page ;)

Is the official soundtrack for SSSS Gridman available now? It only aired for 2 episode and i haven't seen any news about a soundtrack release

A new Oshima score means my day just got much, much better! Thanks!

What happened to Mitsumune-san with VRAINS? Why are yugioh soundtracks so low-budget?

Thanks for sharing both parts together. Though it would help to include the original cover art so people realize they probably already have part 1. I always get confused because I don't learn Japanese names very well and end up downloading something a second time when Vinphonic posts it. So of course when I checked I already had part 1. But Thanks so much for sharing them together and including the new Part 2.

Also, for tag purists, you might want to change the album artist to Michiru Oshima unless you like album artist to be the orchestra performing the music as Vinphonic tags things.

Michiru Oshima
Haikara-san ga Toru
The Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra & The Sofia Session Orchestra



Sample (Part 1) (https://picosong.com/wnMpw/) / Sample (Part 2) (https://picosong.com/wVFUK)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!fipnSQgY!eoyMgJ4bhfZffZ9A3fM_tgw3O2sFTq4o0A3I1uFHctw)


Thank you a lot Vinphonic!!! :)

You're all welcome! I'm also working on a Moscow version like I did for Aerial Legends. Needs some finetuning still but its going well.

Moscow Sample 1 (https://picosong.com/wVyDx/) / Moscow Sample 2 (https://picosong.com/wVyze/)

The music is lovely, lyrical, romantic- what we've come to expect from Oshima in the past 5 years. But you're right, it would be nice to have more powerful brass. Oshima with an army of horns and trumpets at her disposal is how I like her best. It's been a while since we've had something from her quite like Tempest and FMA.


If there's justice, we get Yamashita for Harlock, Oshima for Emeraldas and Tanaka for Galaxy Express again.It's too bad there isn't a Queen Millennia on that poster, because I'm sure a certain semi-retired harpist wouldn't mind having the task of scoring for it again. ;)

I'll be amazed if Gainax can even get this project off the ground, Blu Uru has been in production hell for almost a decade now. It's a zombie studio at this point.

Oh you, as if that would ever happen ;)

Rokka no Yuusha was enough to satiate my need for that and in her concert pieces she goes full guns blazing so its not yet distant memory for me. But coming after working on SAGIMANO it definitely was dificult to adjust to the lack of brass fanfares but the story really doesn't allow for anything than sugary romance despite the military backdrop.

Speaking of powerful Brass, I sure am glad this fall season just keeps on giving:


A preview of Captain Tsubasa's new recording session for the second half which starts next week, its Matsuo we know and love. Hopefully, plenty more where that came from,

Captain Tsubasa: The Second Half



I was not prepared! (yes, this is all from a single episode!) (https://picosong.com/wVyCP/) / Soundtrack (TBA)

I almost forgot Rokka no Yuusha was from 3 years ago, not 5. My bad. But I wouldn't mind having more...

I find it quite refreshing, the lack of prominent brass. Such a lovely mix of woodwinds and strings for the most part. Also, i didn't mean anything critical but I wonder Vinphonic if you could post something indicating at least that you had previously shared part of a score before when you post it. I doubt I'm the only one confused by the Japanese names sometimes.

Ah, I will do it Sirus, I posted both parts for those who didn't grab it but I will ad the extra info or two when I remember it, rest assured.
I finished my Moscow version of Haikara faster than expected so here it is:



Michiru Oshima
Madmoseille Anne: Romance of Flowers
The Russian State Cinematic Symphony Orchestra [Remastered]



Sample (https://picosong.com/wVqcX/)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!i7ZRgIZJ!WTZC8oBRqa4gkMQ0IxpuRZkwTsn3oqmE85TonYAxzQ4)


Haikara-san ga Tōru, also known as Mademoiselle Anne, is a Japanese shōjo manga series by Waki Yamato. It was serialized by Kodansha in the magazine Shōjo Friend from 1975 to 1977. The series was later adapted as a 42-episode anime television series produced by Nippon Animation, which aired from 1978 to 1979.

Two new anime films have been released in 2017 and 2018 with Music composed and orchestrated by Michiru Oshima and recorded in Sofia, performed by the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, remastered by myself to sound closer to the Russian Orchestra sound so inherently linked to Oshima's music.

Enjoy this alternate take on the score.

Toshihiko Sahashi.
New Saint Seiya.
December.
Your Welcome.
http://columbia.jp/prod-info/COCX-40605-6/

... oh yeah, take this little score for the recent ReZero OVA I guess (no reused tracks) (https://mega.nz/#!ry42zAqA!-unxQyVifU0ydIpAluZRyR1ZT4I2nEIyYj6jGMD4_r0)

Toshihiko Sahashi.
New Saint Seiya.
December.
Your Welcome.
http://columbia.jp/prod-info/COCX-40605-6/


Sahashi sure is busy this year.

Well, thank you gentlemen. :)

The name was a new account I registered after I realised that I was banned and because I'd torched my original account (changed the email address and password to random nonsense) I couldn't find out when I was going to be unbanned. And frankly, I still wanted to lurk. (Not to nosey around on what people were saying about me - I was actually alerted to that by another poster - but just because I like to keep up on the news, what's coming, who's scoring what, what might be worth a listen, etc - I don't have anywhere near as much time as I used to have, and you guys are still helping me enjoy music - so thank you.)

That said, my intention is to stay substantially gone, though I don't think there's any harm in stopping by every now and then to share something.

When I heard that album I knew exactly what group of people might get pleasure from it and, well, it just had to happen.

As to the question of my identity, well, I've really got to answer arthierr's questions.

Favourite type of music:
Well, I do love a bit of gangsta rap, but I'm really into grime at the moment.

Tango post:
I was always a man of very few words... Ten words, I guess...? Who writes 10,000 words? Nobody wants to read a wall of text.

Favourite composer:
Who the hell is Jerry Goldsmith? Does he make watches or something? Kanye every time, man.

Anime:
Anime? I'm not really into those Chinese cartoons...

...but I guess Ginrei from Giant Robo is kinda awesome.



I've got a few more posts to make in the next week or two (I do genuinely intend to post the Sugiyama vinyl albums, and a couple of other bits and bobs as well) then I'll sod off again - but for the time being I'm floating around. :)

I even bought Ponyo's Doncos album in the end... I'm afraid the sound quality isn't all that amazing after all - though it is better than the buzzy, noisy, weird-speed transfer on YouTube.

Well, allow me then to bid your prominent presence farewell properly, for all you have done for me and the thread throughout its ten year voyage, in a manner better than words. I speak only for myself of course, but I would prefer to let all bygones be bygones if we can leave things not in bad spirit, I would love if this place continues to be about the joy of sharing, experiencing and talking about lovely music, from any place, from any time and if you continue to be part of it, no matter how small, its a better place for it :) To return you the courtesy I, too, will share some beautiful music, don't worry, it's from your favorite period:




Michiru Oshima
Sayonara Tango Sensei
Moscow International Symphonic Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!6vJVHKSS!-hndrwKJ83brBRbwzD60HY4oM6aFhk1_O6lwx8ECXwc)


I would say this is Oshima's answer to Sahashi's Madams. And something for you Zipper ;) She's on her transition from Golden Age Cinema to Fullmetal Alchemist a few years later. It's certainly bold. I believe it has never been shared before and I aquired it recently. If it was indeed shared elsewhere I aplogize for not looking hard enough.

In regards to Bloom into You, its definitely shaping up to be in Adiantum Blue territory, its absolutely lovely, and its a full orchestra to my ears this time: pure romanticism (https://picosong.com/wVYUF/)

Let's hope her mysterious game project "Nikki" is surfacing soon.



Btw there's plenty of wonderful music out there but it can be difficult to see, thankfully I have a friend next to me who keeps an eye open: What's Kow Otani been up to lately (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjg0eS_OJ3Y) (It will be shared here eventually, soundtrack out in march next year but its not commercially available, but we're sort of specialsts in getting our hands on that kind of music ;)).




As for the other questions earlier, my SAGIMANO collection only has Gridman as a placeholder. The soundtrack will be released Dec, 19.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--rmjiz2UE--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/hwgdwsdldqu6huocnshq.jpg

Amazon Prime anime shows get simulatinous soundtrack releases, apparently. It can fit right into the other gems of the fall season.

You know the irony of it is Yasuharu Takanashi is composing the OP and Sahashi is doing the score... oh poor Sailor Moon...

Sahashi on Knights of the Zodiac seems a given now.

Don't stop now, Japan! Sahashi for Ultraman! Make it happen ! You're so good to me lately. Let's give this "old man" a resurgence.

Part 3 of passing the torch, in places you might not expect, prepare for an onslaught of eastern scales and melody upon melody:



[CENTER][FONT=Century Gothic]Tsubasa Ito & Ryunosuke Kasai
Touhou Orchestral Suites
TOHO Philharmonic Orchestra


I've listened to it serveral times during the last week.

It's lovely, thank you.

---------- Post added at 05:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:24 AM ----------

[QUOTE=Vinphonic;3832826]
Michiru Oshima
Sayonara Tango Sensei
Moscow International Symphonic Orchestra



THANKS A LOT!

I even bought Ponyo's Doncos album in the end... I'm afraid the sound quality isn't all that amazing after all - though it is better than the buzzy, noisy, weird-speed transfer on YouTube.

That was a nice surprise and I genuinely cannot wait for your share. I do not have money to buy a good vinyl player or the good ripping apparatus, so I'm glad you came by and brought the album. I happened to came by this man's stuff this summer (I already knew the man's job when I was a kid but mostly his fantastic singing work as Scar in The Lion King and one or two other movies. I'm not from Catalunya, also.) I'd like to inform you that there's also a second volume out there. I don't have any idea if it's any good, worse or better than the first one in terms of compositions because there's not samples of it anywhere. It seems to be rarer but you can find it in Spain in todocoleccion and not for a super expensive price either. At least in rare vinyl standards. https://www.todocoleccion.net/discos-vinilo/lp-jordi-doncos-una-historia-catalunya-vol-2~x47293177 and https://www.todocoleccion.net/discos-vinilo/jordi-doncos-una-historia-catalunya-vol-2-raro-lp-phonic-1978-sinfonico-banda-sonora~x47666766. Jordi Doncos also has one mini EP based on some catalan children's books. You won't like it, because it's a children's songs, but I like the catchiness of the melody and how well written it is and there's two or three instrumental compositions for it too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C2VE0Vtzqk&t=88s

I think the Youtube video sounds perfect enough for me, so if you think that's bad, I cannot imagine how your transfer ought to sound unless you got a vinil copy that wasn't well taken care of. I also thought the speed was correct, compared to the digital version they sell in stores, which I think is OBVIOUSLY badly sped up. And If I showed you now I think you'd notice. I guess a problem with vinyls is you can never know when is the correct speed and pitch.

But, I was really glad to share a orchestral album rarity no one knew before, often I find them and when I do I'm the most joyous, it feels enormously good to find a random album from somewhere with fantastic compositions. So I'm glad you loved it enough to buy it. Hell, I remember even suggesting it, saying "If Tango was here he could probably buy it and rip it." Heh.

I forget the Tamagotchi album, too!

Oh, yes! Tamagotchi...

I could've swore that I posted that already... Somehow I had it already uploaded and everything... If I didn't, oh well, here it is again.




KOHEI TANAKA
TAMAGOTCHI: The Movie
Studio Orchestra



My rip - FLAC - Scans included - Track Titles in Romaji

https://mega.nz/#!oCwGTQzY!tosoSeBp7strQJ35ZiywrmmJvcqAw1rc8qgSlu8TyMk

So, this is the Kohei Tanaka's score for the 2007 movie adaptation of Tamagotchi. There's not much to say... It's not my cup of tea. Tanaka is clearly a genius but kids movies, cues of less than a minute, and crazy genre-hopping do not make for a coherent, mature score... Nonetheless, there's about 10 minutes to enjoy in here, even for a stick-in-the-mud orchestral "purist" like me.

I have tried to get the later movie score, scored by Shiro Hamaguchi, to no avail. I almost had it about half a dozen times, but it always fell through or my order got cancelled or someone beat me to the auction... so maybe in the future, I don't know... I've given up searching for now.

Still, it's worth having this one.


Doncos

So, you see, while I was lurking I wasn't just reading the "Thank f*** that prick has gone"... :P

The vinyl I have is not quite mint, but not far from it. The recording just sounds weird. The stereo separation is so narrow I wasn't even sure it was stereo to begin with.

I worked on it a little some weeks ago - this is about as good as I can get it: https://picosong.com/wVCc6/

You're right about the pitch - I compared my transfer to the vinyl transfer on Youtube and the speed roughly agrees. I would have gone with the MP3 as being correct, but the fact that two vinyl transfers agree with each other and at least one of them is made with a turntable that's verified as rotating at the right speed... well, that confirms it.

I did indeed love the album; I might try to get the second volume.

Thank you for the Tamagotchi CD. That's one I had been wanting for a few years ever since I took a look at the movie and noticed some nice orchestrations in the backgrounds. Kohei Tanaka is great and has done many a good score for children stuff. One that comes to my mind most is Kaiketsu Zorori because I watched that in my pre-teens. A few good themes and all, it's never gotten out in any form though, sadly. This score is not perfect, and yes, I agree with you perfectly but since my standards are less (not to be taken in offense) I kinda enjoy it a bit more so I'm thankful for the share. Good luck if you ever happen to find the second one, but I've no idea how that one sounds like. There's no samples for it like the first one, I think?

As for Doncos, looking at the Youtube rip and your attempt, they seem to be fairly similar (I am aware the test result you've showed up is after probably a hard work of audio editing, I don't know if the Youtube uploader also had to edit his own rip or not) I'm not sure if it's because you've used it as some kind of reference or that's how it's mastered. I know the album was recorded in stereo, for sure, because it's 1978, and Phonic (the label of the album) even used one or two tracks of the album for some STEREO album demonstration. Perhaps, because it's Spain, and not UK, EMI, or USA, the Stereo mastering is not as good as you're accostumed. But going back to how it sounds, it seems similar to me, except Youtube's seem to be just a tiny bit more clearer, perhaps bass is boosted. At this point we cannot tell if the album was mastered this way or your copy had been played a few times and well, had lost a bit of quality in the stereo. But I think if you continue working on your rip and the editing perhaps you could make a very good archival edit. Try to use the Youtube one as reference, though the more I listen to it the more I realize there's a more of a stereo feel (specially again in the bass) and there's not much you can do with your source, adding fake stuff won't make it sound good. And yes, it'd be nice if you got the second album since this is rarer, and I'm kinda curious to listen to it. It's the final one, as far as I know there wasn't a third one. If you need help with anything I'm here. I don't know Catalan, but know Spanish which is fairly similar, so it can be good to help with actual name tagging and track separating (the test you gave out actually had two tracks together, 2 and 3. But in the Youtube video, there's a tracklist too that you can follow.)

I look forward on more about this album and the second and I'd be willing to give help on anything necessary (spanish aid in case you need to buy it from someone in a Spanish place.) I haven't found the album in any other place than Todocolecci�n, which is similar to an Spanish Ebay. It's a fine place, but you might need help buying it because of Spanish, but I've bought from it before, so I can assist. It'd be much easier for you if I just was the one who bought it and sent it to you but that makes it more time and I dunno how to deal with packages sent to the UK and stuff.

On the topic of discovering new, wonderful orchestral albums, which I mentioned a bit in my latest post - it's very exciting, and I've found a share bit of few orchestral albums from Spain movies, since this summer, and in streaming places sometimes I discover new stuff. I'd be glad to, when I have the time, talk to you people about these discoveries. Maybe some of you will love it as much as me or others don't, but it feels insanely great not to only discover fantastic music in a random movie out of nowhere, from a random country or whatever, but it's also even greater to share it with others who will enjoy it, too.

This is the raw transfer of the album with no work done at all:

https://picosong.com/wVCBg/

Whoever did the Youtube video, they must have done something... I don't think I like the bassier sound in the Youtube video and I think there's too much in the raw transfer, but I think I lost too much. When you widen the stereo field, the bass tends to vanish because of the peculiarities of vinyl. When something is being mixed to vinyl, bass frequencies are mixed to mono to insure against knocking the stylus out of the groove during playback. The problem is you have to drop the centre channel to "push" the stereo out wider - and if most of the bass is in the centre channel, goodbye bass.

I'll fix it, no worries. :)

The copy I have is definitely a good one, and generally Spanish vinyl is mastered very well.

Heh, I've got not much to say to that, dumped all I could say on my last reply, just let me know if anything comes along or you need any help.

Have anyone knows about Michiru Oshima score in Osamu Tezuka's Buddha - The Great Departure? I don't see it anywhere

Star Echoes (Mobile Game)



Music: Toshihiko Sahashi
Release: Spring 2019

https://scontent-ort2-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/b1a6c10251c08cb7c15235724c214739/5C43FC4C/t51.2885-15/e35/s240x240/14714402_1788483324726451_5917214248001339392_n.jp g
A recent picture, may or may not be related


Kinda related, Date A Live Season III starts in January and Go Sakabe returns.
And its always a pleasure to listen to a new project pv and after 10 seconds at most you know who scores it, Inai is on a roll next year: https://twitter.com/i/status/1053912366767759361

Have anyone knows about Michiru Oshima score in Osamu Tezuka's Buddha - The Great Departure? I don't see it anywhere

I don’t think they brought it out.
Good news for Date A Live but I wish they woulda brung out his live-action Mob Psycho 100 or not make Basilisk 2 cost like $700. Oh well.

I've been out a few days and Vinphonic has posted like 3 billions things already. Why am I not surprised?

And that SAGIMANO post is a strong contender for best post of the thread - or the whole forum. A real masterpiece of a post, if you ask me.




Mr. Nicks: Ah, very good, that's a GREAT decision, congratulations. You're pretty much at home here, and you're genuinely a passionate lover and huge connoisseur of orchestral music and all things related to it (much more than I am, nowadays), so you continuing to post here makes total sense and is absolutely the right thing to do. Looking forward to see more from you! :)






You know, she really does look much better now that she has shaved her moustache and ditched her monocle for contact lenses.

(Note to thread newcomers: this is an inside joke of the thread. Don't bother getting it if you're new here.)

Official Orchestral Guide of the Anime Fall Season (TV)

New samples and information


Super Samurai Syber-Squad GRIDMAN (Shiro Sagisu and Masamicz Amano)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9Fp/) / Soundtrack (Commercial) (https://vgmdb.net/album/80930)

This is a fusion of Giant Robo and Evangelion. For as little music as they use in the series (refreshing) its almost always Warsaw with the occasional Sagisu Rock and Electro you've come to expect from him in recent times. In any case this needs a continuation and a movie trilogy. The dichotomy of badass Tokusatsu and sexy anime tropes... $$$$$$$.


Bloom Into You (Michiru Oshima)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9yn/) / Soundtrack (Commercial) (https://vgmdb.net/album/81114)

A purely romantic and piano heavy score is quite a nice change of pace compared to Haikara Part 2 were she is scoring a War & Peace story but this is shaping up to be even better. Its already in Adiantum Blue territory and absolutely lovely, makes me all fluttery inside. She is the PERFECT choice for a romance series in hindsight.


Ulysses: Jeanne d`Arc to Renkin no Kishi (Taku Iwasaki)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9QY/) / Soundtrack (Commercial) (https://vgmdb.net/album/80542)

Woodwind pieces straight out of Black Butler, marching pieces out of his 2000 work (Oban, Yakitake, Uncharted Waters), Gregorian chant moment and this gorgeous violin and piano dance which is straight out of Bungou Stray Dogs. The soundtrack has even two discs, chances are very high for Opera and an orchestral score in his 2000 style. Its a must listen regardless.
As of episode 3, there is an orchestra and its a big one... and its a classical waltz of all things. More were that came from. We still have to hear the Obanesque march.


Yamato 2202: The Final Act (Akira Miyagawa)

https://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/2499b51a80d313ddeec6e59180d8edaf1527273707_full.jp g

SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9C8/) / Soundtrack (TBA, but I expect January)

Miyagawa goes all out for the final into good old Space Opera territory. I LOVE 60s and 70s Television scoring and the whole project pays homage to it in full force. Part of the reason Gundam the Origin is one of my favorites this year. I LOVE the whole Yamato project and the unashamed bravado of "Warriors of Love" and I expect some truely glorious cues for the finale. A must buy even if broke for me.


Saint Seiya: Saintia Shou (Toshihiko Sahashi)



SAMPLE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGnnzCIX5Eg&t=7m28s[/url) / Soundtrack (Commercial) (https://vgmdb.net/album/81471)

Something tells me this one will be big. Bigger than Soul of Gold. This is Shojo Seiya and you know what happened the last time Sahashi wrote for the genre... It might be nothing but another Soul of Gold or worse, no budget Seiya... but you know me, hope prevails. Give this man his resurgence.


Captain Tsubasa: The Second Half (Hayato Matsuo)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9fL/) / Soundtrack (TBA, I expect commercial when it ends)

It's everything I wanted. A biggerer Keijo with plenty of furious brass and catchy orchestral play. There's of course the delicious 80s synth, far more prevalent here than in Keijo but the recent fanfares and romantic cues alone make it worth it. Must buy.


Gyakuten Saiban: Sono Shinjitsu Igi Ari 2nd Season (Kaoru Wada)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9dh/) / Soundtrack (TBA, I expect enclosure)

I don't know whats going on but Wada is on fire this year, he pulls off 80s Guitar riffs for christ's sake. And the orchestral material is much better than for the first season. He's pretty happy nowadays and has quite the resurgence. Puzzdra continues to be Wada on steroids, depending how many episodes there are there might even be a third session: Sample (https://picosong.com/w2BWp/). No soundtrack announced yet, hopefully together with Puzzle X Dragon Cross.


Inazuma Eleven: Orion (Yasunori Mitsuda & Mariam Abounnasr)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9Pa/) / Soundtrack (TBA, but will be commercial)

It's seemless with Inazuma Eleven: Ares and will probably be included in a soundtrack box. It's another big orchestral score from Mitsuda like you've come to expect from him. If you like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, you will like this one.
He recently hired another orchestrator btw, looking forward to his debut, chances are he will rock your socks off:




Million Arthur (Go Shiina and Daisuke Shinoda)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV6sq/) / Soundtrack (TBA, its two cours, so probably next year)

Go Shiina recorded a full orchestra for this anime show, at least orchestrated or even co-composed with talented orchestrator Daisuke Shinoda and they did go all out on this one. Daisuke Shinoda also worked together with Ryuichi Sakamoto on the upcoming My Tyrano film and I very much look forward to hear it.


Space Battleship Tiramisu & Zwei (Junpei Ishige)



SAMPLE (Zwei) (https://picosong.com/w2Kgy/) / Soundtrack (maybe Enclosure)

This is such a promising debut from a classically trained newcomer Junpei Ishige. A jack of all trades score but most of the orchestral pieces are pure SciFi or classical. Here's the full Main Title (he's got that powerful melodic gene of the likes of Kan Sawada): Space Battleship Tiramisu: Space Century (Main Title) (https://picosong.com/w2KgV/)


Goblin Slayer (Kenichiro Suehiro)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9ei/) / Soundtrack (TBA but enclosure seems likely)

I really like the choral pieces and the mood they set. The rest is more of a mixed bag and I hope more classical pieces will turn up as it goes along. Even the recent ReZero OVA, while mostly cutesy, had two or three pieces in a style I very much dig from Suehiro. I'll await the OST.


Radiant (Masato Coda)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/w2Kje/) / Sountrack (TBA, but most likely commercial)

Masato Coda continues with the Yoko Kanno references and it will probably be a biggerer and betterer Knight's & Magic, considering the length. There's certainly some lovely wind and string pieces and even an action piece free of modern tools he likes to use occasionally. He continues to be on a roll and I'm looking forward to his Konosuba movie.


Conception (Masato Coda)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9VL/) / Soundtrack (TBA)

I feel scoring comedies is really his strongest forte. Full orchestra and joyful with that special dose of Japanese jazzy cliche.


Tsurune (Harumi Fuuki)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9uw/) / Soundtrack (Commercial) (https://vgmdb.net/album/81284)

What a lovely theme! (especially at the end of the sample). Even lovlier is the playful brass. I really dig this. Btw she recently had her final session for Segodon in which she employed a lot of brass so expect more of her symphonic cues from the second OST.


Kirakira Happy Hirake! Cocotama (Kuroda Ken`ichi)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wVf4s/) / Soundtrack (TBA)

A Precure score in all but name. Kick Hayashi out asap.


Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet (Masaru Yokoyama)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/w2KjM/) / Soundtrack (TBA)

Masaru Yokoyama with a symphonic ensemble is surprisingly pleasant. Considering he did alright with a huge orchestra before and even wrote a professional and nice Overture for an NHK Work there might be a surprise or two on the soundtrack. My opinion has not changed.


Sword Art Online: Alicization (Yuki Kajiura)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV9kb/) / Soundtack (Enclosure) (https://vgmdb.net/album/81174)

I really really like this Kajiura score which is perhaps the closest she will come to Fate/Zero in a while. Plenty of her usual eletronic droning but the string and wind pieces are lovely and she has real brass, so lets hope she doesn't completely waste it.


Senran Kagura: Shinobi Versus (Yasushi Asada)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV94a/) / Soundtrack (Commercial) (https://vgmdb.net/album/81288)

Despite the modern tools I really like how its scored, sonorous trumpet and soprano and some good action writing. A full ensemble is present. Hideki Sakamoto and his peers expressed they want to branch out into anime much more from now on so expect Sakamoto's company "noisycroak" to be involved in more anime productions.
Btw, since Joshi Ochi!! they don't give a single fuck anymore. If a straight-up hentai gets a classical orchstral score by Taku Matsushiba and some Harem trash gets a full symphonic ensemble, ANYTHING can.


As for the rest, Uchi no Maid ga Uzasugiru! (little russian waltz), Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san (cutesy Psycho homage) and Golden Kamuy S2 are very pleasant, with a real ensemble present. Maybe a surprise or two on the soundtracks.

Finally, have the most cheapest, most garbage looking, absolutely obscure crap show I can find from this season, have some Silvestri: Devidol! (Matsuoka Miyako) (https://picosong.com/wVfqS/)

As an appendix, I was actually shocked that Tanaka wasn't involved with this: Glad anime is still weird as fuck (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDXVqicnWeo)

Vin: Thank you for Tango-sensei. ;)

Recent Oshima has been nice... but dear lord, even you have to admit it's about time she did another one like that again... Oshima somehow did her big movie style in a crappy drama.

Also, thank you for the round-up... There's a handful of good ones in there, though I'd be lying if I said I was enthusiastic for them all.

Gridman... I just love the logo of that show. And the music, well, it's about time we had another MAGI - hopefully some great things are coming. I'm worried if the show is sparsely scored that this will mean very little Warsaw score... I will lose my marbles if it turns into another Black Bullet. That said, any new Warsaw score is good news. I can't help but feel like the Sagisu / Amano partnership would be a lot better if Sagisu left it, though...

Bloom Into You... Wonderful, but really want some big-scale Oshima now. In 2012 we got Big Oshima in Tempest and Romantic Oshima in Shirayuki, both at roughly the same time... Looking forward to something new - though I was massively underwhelmed by her choral "symphony"...

Saint Seiya... OK, fine, you were right - Sahashi is scoring Saint Seiya. :P Hope it's something nice. Omega was a cheapie, but a music budget suddenly appeared near the end and SoG had a decent-ish budget too. I know you love the percussive Sahashi (so do I) but I really think it's about time he did something exuberantly orchestral again. These low-key electronic drama scores aren't his forte, and while he's good at the funk stuff, he's also REALLY good at the traditional orchestral thematic motivic score. If he's really making a comeback, let's see him do something big again. It's unlikely he'll ever do another Gundam Seed, but at least another Element Hunters should be within the realms of possibility? (I still LOVE Element Hunters.)

Tsubasa... This needs to be released. Not a lot there that I enjoy, but probably enough for a solid ten minute suite and new Matsuo is always a good thing.

Gyakuten Saiban... I hate Wada (entirely a personal opinion - I just don't like the sounds his music makes) but he's a genius and it's so nice to have him back again. I really thought he had done an Amano and moved to orchestrating. Strange things do happen from time to time.

Inazuma: Is Abounassr composing as well as arranging? Like the samples, it's all a bit predictable, but it's still got a lot to enjoy.

Million: Go Shiina sucks but I cannot resist his music. I give up pretending I don't like it. Really looking forward to this. Hope Sachiko Miyano is on board again...

Tiramisu: Surprisingly decent, pity the show is short and a release is unlikely... but agree, a promising start for a newcomer.

Radiant / Conception: Who'd have thunk it? Masato Coda makes good. Yeah, Kanno quotes all over the place, but that's not really a bad thing.

Tsurune: Meeeh, I wanted to believe in Harumi Fuuki... this is pleasant, but nothing special to my ears... The end of Segodon will be interesting. Do we know who's scoring Taiga 2019 yet?

Devidol: Wow, a smaller orchestra than Alison to Lilllia! Is that Silvestri? For some reason I'm getting a Mark Mancina / Twister vibe!

I would say this is Oshima's answer to Sahashi's Madams. And something for you Zipper She's on her transition from Golden Age Cinema to Fullmetal Alchemist a few years later. It's certainly bold. I believe it has never been shared before and I aquired it recently. If it was indeed shared elsewhere I aplogize for not looking hard enough.Oh no, this is definitely new. I'm not too familiar with Oshima's live-action scores though, so it fell off my radar. "Will to Victory" is just awesome. This was from around the same time as FMA was it not?

Not too enamored by her attempt at jazz though (Workingman). I guess not everyone is blessed with the funk bone like Sahashi or Tanaka. Thankfully that's not what I listen to Oshima for. ;)

Is this some kind of joke or has Nicks been actually banned???

If so, WTF is going on here?

Some feed-back on this would be highly appreciated, especially from mods.




Vin: thanks for the massive heads-up!

Is this some kind of joke or has Nicks been actually banned???

If so, WTF is going on here?

Some feed-back on this would be highly appreciated, especially from mods.




Vin: thanks for the massive heads-up!
The reasons behind his ban do not concern you, arthierr, so, mind your own business. Yeah, that goes for the rest of you, too.

A moderator.

First, what a civil and courteous way to reply, Leon.

Then, when we talk about one the main contributors of this thread for more than TEN YEARS, as well as a friend of many of us here, yeah, it certainly does concern us in this thread, and beyond.

I'm not asking for details of course, but just a *quick justification* is totally in order, so we're not left in the dark and simply pretend that nothing happened. It's only in tyranical regimes that people just "disappear" one day and nobody is allowed to ask why.

First, what a civil and courteous way to reply, Leon.

Then, when we talk about one the main contributors of this thread for more than TEN YEARS, as well as a friend of many of us here, yeah, it certainly does concern us in this thread, and beyond.

I'm not asking for details of course, but just a *quick justification* is totally in order, so we're not left in the dark and simply pretend that nothing happened. It's only in tyranical regimes that people just "disappear" one day and nobody is allowed to ask why.
Main contributor of this thread (and I'd add the board, personally)? Yeah, he was. Still, I've only applied what I know has been done to others that took the same course of action he did. If we were to take into account the amount of contributions a user has to his/her (nick)name, there would be quite the amount of users allowed to tell others to fuck off/die or, generally speaking, breaking rules without facing consequences.

My reply didn't need to be civil, technically speaking, Tango is the only one who has any right to ask why he got banned; also, due to terms of service we've all agreed to abide by when registering, every user also accepts that the staff is free to not give any reasoning for "its" actions, actions that… I shall remind you (and this is explicitly stated in the terms of service)… Are not supposed to be questioned. Just to put your minds at ease, though, I'll say Tango did get to know the reason, even if other users inquire about such things, Staff members aren't required to answer to them. I made myself clear, time to move to another "topic" now. 'Tis an advice. Forums are akin to a dictatorship, any semblance of democracy you might have is due to the way individuals choose to behave, don't forget that those who hold the "power" in any community, if we can even call it power, are free to do whatever they want… Almost always.

The reasons behind his ban do not concern you, arthierr, so, mind your own business. Yeah, that goes for the rest of you, too.

A moderator.
Hi. I'm that guy who stopped posting here due to tango's behavior. This is my first post since March.

Maybe you should mind your own business, Leon. A trigger happy moderator like you is more of a danger to this thread than tango ever was.

I'm going back to sleep now. Please don't wake me up again.

Hi. I'm that guy who stopped posting here due to tango's behavior. This is my first post since March.

Maybe you should mind your own business, Leon. A trigger happy moderator like you is more of a danger to this thread than tango ever was.

I'm going back to sleep now. Please don't wake me up again.
I am minding my business, because, you see… I am supposed to enforce the rules. Don't like it? Not my problem. I assure you, I'm not being trigger happy right now, what I've done to Tango befell countless others for the exact same reasons, years before I even registered here.

If the reason Tango was banned was for using a sock puppet, he couldn't remember the log in to his original, which was unbanned before.

I mean.. I believe in second chances and redeeming, but okay, pal.

Fair enough for the terms of service argument. But cold, detached technicalities are one thing, and seeing a buddy being banned without the slightest explanation is another completely. You know this. But fine, if you insist on not wanting to give us even a *simple, basic reason* for this bizarre ban - because there was strictly nothing wrong in the five posts he made - then I guess we'll have to find out by another mean...

Oh, and just FYI what you said about "power in communities" being absolute and unquestionable is completely wrong (I even wonder how someone can say that!), but this is not the time nor the place for such discussion.



Nextday: great to see you back! Let me use this opportunity to tell you how much I appreciate that you contributed so much to the thread. Thank you immensely! :)

I was a bit confused last time, now I'm really baffled. Especially if things were moving along fine. I don't like this at all but what can you do.


If a certain someone wants to send me a PM but is unable to at the moment, be reminded the Backup Thread (https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/orc/) is still up and running. Its only for a few days, but I will keep an eye out.

Also a good opportunity to make someone new aware that there is a backup in case the shrine ceases to exist or is gone for a long period of time.

I have to say as a whole I like Drive Head more than Shinkalion.
But there’s something in Shinkalion that I like more? I Dunno.

I swear I had nothing to do with this! (but it was a good example I guess). Always back your stuff up.


Meanwhile:

(another round of applause for me guys?)



Like my good old times! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU9gGmf_usY)

One of my favorite illustrators, one of my favorite directors, one of my favorite composers...
what's not to love.




Million Arthur (Go Shiina and Daisuke Shinoda)



SAMPLE (https://picosong.com/wV6sq/) / Soundtrack (TBA, its two cours, so probably next year)

Go Shiina recorded a full orchestra and chorus for this anime show, at least orchestrated or even co-composed with talented orchestrator Daisuke Shinoda and they did go all out on this one. Daisuke Shinoda also worked together with Ryuichi Sakamoto on the upcoming My Tyrano film and I very much look forward to hear it.


And be relieved that Gridman is the hottest topic in Japan right now (Bloom Into you and Ulysses are also doing fine)... and you know what that means, the biggest but most pleasant and genuinly passionate milk machine on the planet will take care of things:


In words this means movies, OVAs, concerts and a second season.

Anyone here expert in classical music can link me to a very Williams-like or film music like interpretation of Gustav Holtz' The Planets? I like the tempo to be sorta moderate, not too slow, but not too fast either. My favourite orchestra is LSO but there's so many recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isic2Z2e2xs&t=722s Something similar to this?

It so happens that my favourite kind of orchestrated music is action type.

(Touhou Orchestral Suites)
Thanks for sharing this! It's quite well done, and a nice surprise to stumble upon.

Ulysses: Jeanne d`Arc to Renkin no Kishi (Taku Iwasaki)

Wow, the piano + violin piece sounds really fucking good. Can he compose like this all the time??? And hi, everyone! Not sure what happened but sad to see Tango banned...

A lovely surprise Akashi San! Welcome back :)

Hope you're well. You know Iwasaki, he would rather be strangled than write a pure orchestral score (a joke from him) but he must have really soften up in recent times if writing a classical waltz is not benath him :p

As for the unfortunate ban, we can only hope the matter sorts itself out.

First, Akashi-san, great to see you back, I remember you too have made some remarkable contributions to the thread (Renai Neet was you, right? What a lovely score!), so I wanted to say thank you very much, since I didn't have this opportunity in the past. :)

Yes indeed, this ban is regretable, but things shouldn't be left this way. I think Tango should directly contact Sarah and sort things out with her about this deplorable situation.

Despite his flaws and past mistakes, Tango is by various aspects an essential part of this thread and forum, and he should absolutely be given another chance (but no more giant fuck-ups, and a better attitude this time, okay?). I think maybe Sarah would be okay with this, since it's in her forum's best interest.



On other news, I've got various uploads coming for ya, bunch of voracious music lovers, so stay tuned!

Anyone here expert in classical music can link me to a very Williams-like or film music like interpretation of Gustav Holtz' The Planets? I like the tempo to be sorta moderate, not too slow, but not too fast either. My favourite orchestra is LSO but there's so many recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isic2Z2e2xs&t=722s Something similar to this?

It so happens that my favourite kind of orchestrated music is action type.

Anyone? I know it's a tough one because it's up to preferences, but I'd appreciate a recommendation. You're all huge orchestral lovers, you ought to know better than me :P

Vinphonic, did you ever post a collection of Yoshihisa Hirano's music? This is something that I would live to have.

Ulysses is better than what I think most of us expected, but honestly I would take something like C or even Jormungand over it from what I'm hearing so far. Iwasaki is playing it a bit too safe, and the music, while technically good, doesn't do much to surprise like his other works. I know people don't like when he goes crazy with his electronics and percussion, but I find the music underneath those kind of pieces tends to be quite interesting. What the brass and strings are doing in this piece alone is more creative than anything I'm hearing in Ulysses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI_vIVLp6v8

Of course, we're only on episode 3, and with two discs of music, I'm sure there is a lot more to listen to before making a full judgement. But so far, this is just another "sober score" like the Mahouka movie.


Also, I know we joke a lot about Iwasaki's antagonism towards the orchestra, but the more correct assessment is that he doesn't prioritize writing orchestral music for the sake for orchestral music. In something like Kenshin or Agito or Black Butler, he writes with excellent technical mastery but never with a sense of exuberance along the lines of say, Kanno or Tanaka or Asakawa. He never writes more than what is needed. Even in his more experimental pieces, it's almost as if there is a certain "goal" he wants to achieve with the music rather than showing off the orchestra. Does anyone else feel this same sort of attitude with his music?

---------- Post added 10-28-2018 at 12:34 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-27-2018 at 11:41 PM ----------

On a side note, I don't know what Tango is doing or why he's been re-banned, but if he is browsing this thread at all still, I would like to draw this to his attention- another glorious, very contemporary Higuchi piece (also IN SPACE) that I don't think has been presented in this thread before:

https://youtu.be/b10ulgWVhxU

Anyone here expert in classical music can link me to a very Williams-like or film music like interpretation of Gustav Holtz' The Planets? I like the tempo to be sorta moderate, not too slow, but not too fast either. My favourite orchestra is LSO but there's so many recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isic2Z2e2xs&t=722s Something similar to this?

It so happens that my favourite kind of orchestrated music is action type.

I'm not an expert, but I immediately think about Gundam Seed Symphony by Toshihiko Sahashi, try this if you have not listened yet. And from classical music try to listen to Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 4 and Edward Elgar Enigma Variations. It's not much, but that's all that came to my mind.

@MonadoLink: Sure, I did: Hirano (Thread 219651)

@Ponyo: The recording by James Levine and the Chigago Symphony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6HUVYQ63GY&list=PL3B82ACDB323ADD8C) should fit that bill.
Otherwise, what suro-zet suggest and of course Star Wars IS the planets for large portions so can't go wrong with that...



For those interested, Tango did write an apology in "the other thread". He also had this to say:



"Williams himself recorded The Planets with the Boston Pops Orchestra - though it's arguably an example of Williams being a better conductor of his own music than of others - it certainly does have hallmarks of Williams running through it, and not just because Star Wars basically is The Planets with some notes switched around!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzJd-zlaGvY


Stokowki and the Philhadelphia Orchestra in 1956 may be the most theatrical, filmic performance - and the tempi are brisk but not too brisk. He takes some amazing liberties with the score and I don't particularly enjoy the performance, but if you want a film-score experience it's hard to beat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV-86bsFXW8


There's also Herrmann and the London Philharmonic... Boy, does it drag - one of the longest "Planets" on record, but again fascinating from an interpretational point of view and for how Herrmann manages to make the music sound like North by Northwest.


ONE TO AVOID:

Coates and the Gramophone Symphony Orchestra in 1926. This is what happens when the conductor is under pressure to squash eight minutes of music into six minutes and everybody is eager to get off work and go to the pub. A brisk tempo in Mars can actually work, but this is just "play it as fast as you can" - ensemble falls apart, notes that should be clear and concise in attack are all squished together in a syrupy mess of sound, and it ends up sounding not like war but Benny Hill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RgTk2ZiF8

I have good quality recordings of all of these - the Youtube versions are variable in quality and I just wanted to give you a taste. If there's any you're interested in getting your hands on I'll certainly get them uploaded. Somehow."

I'm not an expert, but I immediately think about Gundam Seed Symphony by Toshihiko Sahashi, try this if you have not listened yet. And from classical music try to listen to Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 4 and Edward Elgar Enigma Variations. It's not much, but that's all that came to my mind.

Thank you, but what I wasn't looking for wasn't compositions that sound similar to it, more like renditions or arrangements of the Planets that sound a lot like film music or something akin to Williams. I've tried going through streaming services like Deezer or TIDAL to test, but they seem to have the same all over and none of them convinced me. They also had a very old recording conducted by the composer himself. However I'll have your recommendations in mind.


@Ponyo: The recording by James Levine and the Chigago Symphony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6HUVYQ63GY&list=PL3B82ACDB323ADD8C) should fit that bill. Otherwise, what suro-zet suggest and of course Star Wars IS the planets for large portions so can't go wrong with that...

That is good enough, I'll keep it on my list. Do you know by any chance from what album does the interpretation I shared from Youtube comes from, also? Cuz I like it too.

Thank you for you recent edit that helps a lot, too! :D

Ah, there it is! https://picosong.com/wVAZ7/

There's also a flute + piano piece so its safe to say he really goes all impressionistic on this one. And for how big the orchestra sounds, I doubt he recorded just five minutes with it. As you said Zipper, best to await the OST, who knows, perhaps some pieces on there will not be used in the show (not the first time that happened).#




EDIT: So Mashin Hero Wataru gets a new anime project and you know what that could mean... never say never.






and OH MY GOD! SHOJO SEIYA!!!!!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=VGnnzCIX5Eg&t=7m28s

HE's BACK!!!

Vin: I just visited and sent a few messages at the backup orchestral thread:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/orc/

I just recently learnt about its existence thanks to your posts above. What a wonderful surprise and a fantastic idea! Thank you so much for this project, guys! I greatly encourage the fans of this thread to visit it too, for bonus content. ;)

Also I checked Tango's (big) explanation. Indeed it confirms what I suspected... Let's hope the last resort will work.

EDIT: So Wataru gets a new anime project and you know what that could mean... never say never.

Wow!!! It's Wataru Hokoyama or another Wataru? :)

Unfortunately, images are not displayed, so I can't see what anime it is.

Tatsuya Kato & Yoshiaki Fujisawa
Musical Assistants: Ryunosuke Kasai, Megumi Suzuki, Yuki Sekine, Naoki Tani, Satoshi Hono, Hiroki Masutani, Yuma Bando, Hal Ogawa, Yukina Kageyama, Toru Yamazaki
Shōjo Fantasy
Hanebado! / Musical Animation: Girl's☆Opera Revue Starlight / Slow Start!



Sample 01 (Hanebado!) (https://picosong.com/wVB8V/) / Sample 02 (Girl's☆Opera Revue Starlight) (https://picosong.com/wVB8X/) / Sample 03 (Slow Start!) (https://picosong.com/wVB8S)

Download (https://mega.nz/#!SmA33SiT!U-Lw_LPaB7amVNdLFrXmcv_CwQ4XDbR-oQZ3lwHDxuY)

There is a lot to enjoy in their latest work. Both Kato and Fujisawa have a love for classic film music, a trait they share with their many assistants, including Ryunosuke Kasai, and I hope you're familiar with him. In their recent work you actually can hear it clearly this time. And this very season Fujisawa pulls a few winks at Herrmann with a cutesy variation of the shower scene for comedic effect. In any case, their recent collaboration on one of the first "Musical Animation" animation projects like Lost Song, proofed to be very fruitful, although there's no denying Fujisawa is obviously the more talented composer, although Kato doesn't need to hide in his Jazz and rock pieces. He very much matured over the years, though that is no doubt in part due to the milliion assistants he has working for him. But vice versa Kato arranged many of their songs and arranged the string sections for Fujisawa so it was a very close relation.

Kato very much assembled a next generation of composers and arrangers around him, classically trained by our old favorites and in a few years ready to launch on the scene.
Fujisawa doesn't need any of that and continues to be a rising star. His NGNL Zero Film concert hopefully will be released soon.

These "Musical Animation" projects will continue and there might be more coming from Revue Starlight. Tbh the songs are the best part about it: Stage Musical: The Animation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLH6arii4sE)

Wow!!! It's Wataru Hokoyama or another Wataru?

HAHAHA! No, it's not that Wataru, my friend. It's an anime called Mashin Hero Wataru. But indeed hearing more from the very talented Hokoyama would have been wonderful.




I'd like to recommend this excellent share by our friend Kooke:



A Broadway Evening With Sutton Foster
Keith Lockhart & Boston Pops
Boston Symphony Hall, 2016-05-26 [MP3|OGG]



Cover by aescalle.


"With two Tony awards to her name, she's the kind of star only Broadway can produce. But Sutton Foster's talents go well beyond the Great Wide Way. Now she brings those talents to the stage of Symphony Hall joining with Keith Lockhart in music by Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and much more.

Her own personal story could have been the plot of a Broadway show, but it's so improbable that even at the theatre it's a story most wouldn't believe. As a young understudy, she was thrust into the spotlight taking the leading role in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Amazingly she won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Lead Actress In A Musical. But Sutton Foster was only getting started. She went on to star in Little Women, Shrek the Musical and The Drowsy Chaperone before taking on the role of Reeno Sweeny in Anything Goes, a role that won her a second Tony Award in 2011.

Now she's here In Boston to sing with the Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart during the second half of the concert you're about to hear. And before that, Keith and the Pops have really good music by Pops Laureate Conductor John Williams, and a young cellist performs one of the most elegant oboe of Tchaikovsky's works."





I discovered Sutton Foster a few months back when I saw Shrek the Musical, and fell immediately in love with her great singing (she's one of the best singers I've heard), and her remarkable, intelligent, funny acting. She's a real music-hall beast, a show-business performer of the highest caliber. One of these multi-faceted talents that Broadway manages to produce.

So, what a nice surprise it was to see her in this special concert with the Boston Pops. As usual, she doesn't disappoint. Her performance during this event is nearly flawless, with even some moment of pure grace that deeply strike your heart (I recommend you first listen to "Anyone Can Whistle / Being Alive" as an exemple of this).

Also not to be missed here, a bunch of nice instrumental pieces (including some rare Williams pieces) by the Boston Pops, my favorite being "Dracula: Night Journeys", a dark, eerie, mysterious piece by Williams which clearly reminds of the - exceptional - suspense music of the first Indiana Jones.

I'd also like to salute Kooke's amazing work of ripping from the broadcast, trimming, tagging, writing a neat post, and uploading this beauty for us to enjoy. Great job, mate!



http://forums.ffshrine.org/showthread.php?p=3812811#post3812811
Enjoy and please leave thanks and reps to the well-deserving poster!




Vin: Thanks for this new one! When I see those cutesey gals on the picture, the first thing that comes to my mind is: great symphonic music! (Nothing from Japan surprises me anymore... at least musically ;))

HAHAHA! No, it's not that Wataru, my friend. It's an anime called Mashin Hero Wataru. But indeed hearing more from the very talented Hokoyama would have been wonderful.

Oh, that's my mistake, thank you arthierr.

Well, I will take it that this is due to an error with the image, and not because of my strong wish to hear something new from Hokoyama :-(

So Mashin Hero Wataru gets a new anime project and you know what that could mean... never say never.If you mean Sahashi, yeah there is a good chance. But Asakawa? Well...

Composers of Wataru: Jun'ichi Kanezaki, Kohei Tanaka, Michiru Oshima, Toshihiko Sahashi, Tomoyuki Asakawa

Whoever returns will make me smile... but of course, if I had a wish to make, you know who I would choose ;)


Thanks arthy, will check it later. (I see my mental conditioning was a resounding success :D)

Did any of you see that John Williams was hospitalized a few days ago? I hope he recovers quickly.

He's already recovered.

https://comicbook.com/starwars/2018/10/30/star-wars-john-williams-health-scare-recover/

How about some 1991 Asakawa orchestral game arrangements?

https://youtu.be/jGSbLxaQzdU
https://youtu.be/X1i8KR-v1u4
https://youtu.be/9H2UDi-eKCI

Should have probably shared this back when the Nier symphonic album came out, but better late than never.

Space Battleship Tiramisu & Zwei (Junpei Ishige)



SAMPLE (Zwei) (https://picosong.com/w2Kgy/) / Soundtrack (maybe Enclosure)

This is such a promising debut from a classically trained newcomer Junpei Ishige. A jack of all trades score but most of the orchestral pieces are pure SciFi or classical. Here's the full Main Title (he's got that powerful melodic gene of the likes of Kan Sawada): Space Battleship Tiramisu: Space Century (Main Title) (https://picosong.com/w2KgV/)


Nande??
https://vgmdb.net/album/81707

For an 86 years old man, what happened isn't very surprising. What *is* surprising is how he continues to be active and to compose some of the best, sorry, THE BEST film music in the world. This man is a true force of nature.



Btw, long time no see, Doublehex. How is it going?

ORCHESTRA '89


1. Shin-ichiro Ikebe: Spontaneous Ignition - for Orchestra
2. Akira Nishimura: The Navel of the Sun - Music for Orchestra and Hichiriki
3. Shigeaki Saegusa: Orchestra '89 [1945-86-815 HIROSHIMA]+[SUMMER]
4. Shuko Mizuno: Symphonic poem ''SUMMER''
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!5Y5iUYyb!FMvspIBQoI4PMWVgj78axKfft8I6s8zQVVD9D6ioq1k)


Re: (Thread 57893)
Symphonic Suite ''Tokyo'' (1986)
Yuzo Toyama, Shigeaki Saegusa, Maki Ishii, Yasushi Akutagawa & Ikuma Dan
Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra

FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!NBRyxDIZ!xTjeOu-LYajQNKhIEgNqKmZK6sngN1jiVQiMWbDrfaU)

@Zipper: Thanks! Hopefully Nier won't be his last arrangement duty.

@ladatree: Keep being the bringer of good news, buddy :D

@amish: Lovely surprise. Keep bringing the good stuff.


In return, take this:






Takayuki Hattori
Moshidora
What If the Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team reads Peter Drucker's Management Book?



Sample (https://picosong.com/wVzmT/)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!OiIlRQCZ!BoQ7Nq0UvNgqp08JjbJrbzOSwZvUugChJ3ndbEpZ2h8)

It's not Princess Nine, but it has perhaps the biggest finish he ever wrote.

@Zipper: Thanks! Hopefully Nier won't be his last arrangement duty.

@ladatree: Keep being the bringer of good news, buddy :D

@amish: Lovely surprise. Keep bringing the good stuff.


In return, take this:






Takayuki Hattori
Moshidora
What If the Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team reads Peter Drucker's Management Book?



Sample (https://picosong.com/wVzmT/)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!OiIlRQCZ!BoQ7Nq0UvNgqp08JjbJrbzOSwZvUugChJ3ndbEpZ2h8)

It's not Princess Nine, but it has perhaps the biggest finish he ever wrote.

Thank you so much, Vinphonic: Is it Takayuki Hattori? https://vgmdb.net/album/26627

It's the live-action movie but I couldn't find decent pics of that one. Both anime and film were part of the same project and this is Hattori coming from Taishou Yakyuu Musume so it might as well be. The original anime score by Jun Sato is not so hot unfortunately.

It's the live-action movie but I couldn't find decent pics of that one. Both anime and film were part of the same project and this is Hattori coming from Taishou Yakyuu Musume so it might as well be. The original anime score by Jun Sato is not so hot unfortunately.

Thank you so much Vinphonic. I understand.

Vocal ver. of Ultimate theme

https://youtu.be/EhgDibw7vB4

Takayuki Hattori
Japan's Biggest Composer Family



Interview with Mr. Takayuki Hattori (2018/10/19)


Q: Who is the composer behind Gundam: The Origin?

 

Mr. Takayuki Hattori: My Name is Takayuki Hattori. I was born on November 21, 1965, I'm 52 years old and I live in Tokyo. I studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris National School of Music, Department of Counterpoint Course.

After I returned to Japan in 1988 , I arranged a wide range of artists' albums and concerts, from rock to classical and composed for various films and television shows. I won the Japan Academy Award of Excellence in Music.

My career includes a wide variety of prestigeous projects such as NHK Taiga Drama, Japan-China collaborative production with Shanghai Citi Dance Company "Theatrical Performance" and well-known works such as Godzilla and Doraemon.
Besides this, I am active as a composer with a wide variety of music genres, from "commercials" to "game music".


Q: Could you tell us about your family? The Hattori clan is famous for its musicial legacy.


TH: My wife is a professional violinist, which is highly appreciated in Japan. I also have one daughter, who is also a violinist and has an interest in composing (lol)

Surprising, family composition will continue (lol).

It is a wonderful music family!

My aunt is a singer and my cousin a ballet dancer. My father, grandfather and relatives are both composers too and really amazing. My father, Katsuhisa Hattori, is regarded as one of the most important musicians in Japanese music history.
Classical music always flowed throughout the house. I was handling a lot of music throughout the years and during that time I've become interested in electronic musical instruments as well, even rap. An interest I share with my father (lol)

My Clan is almost a music family and everyone has amazing talent...
Maybe that musical talent is incorporated in DNA ?
It is no exaggeration to say that I was born to do music.

If you are living in such an environment I hope there will be a lot of masterpieces to be born in our family.



Q: What is the annual income of Mr. Hattori Takayuki? I would love to know what is considered average income for your profession.
 

First, because composition is music work, income is copyright royalties. So it depends on whether the music is adopted, and how well the commerical product is known.
If royalties are popular, songs or pieces, there are also cases where royalties can be hundreds of thousands every year.

Based on such accumulation, I would say the approximate average annual income of composers who work in my field is between 300,000 (3000$) and 15 million yen (132.000 $), which can change drastically each year.

I handle composing and arranging for many years, moreover, for well-known works. The dimensions are too different and it is dangerous to talk about it (lol)


Q: Hattori's family composition and annual income are pretty god level, aren't they?

 
TH: Normally there is not such a privileged environment but I am very blessed. I think that my daughter was born in a pretty happy environment for musicians and I wonder what future children who are born into it will do, I would like to support the future and success of my family with all I have.


Q: I would like to support the future and success of Takayuki Hattori as well. Thank you for seeing us.


TH: My pleasure. Thank you very much.

 
Now, prepare for some of his very best work you probably have never heard:

Takayuki Hattori
FAREWELL, MR.PREMIER & The history of our house



SAMPLE (FAREWELL, MR.PREMIER) (https://picosong.com/wVdVf/) / SAMPLE (History of our house) (https://picosong.com/wVdVm/)
DOWNLOAD (https://mega.nz/#!WmYBzKIR!rek_ZRY5NfPWqo7u7aNMTlvERNhhA8o7sjkYAzy5Iys)


The first is a glorious answer to Sahashi's Madams and Oshima's Ozu Sensei. It's actually a lot simpler than his current work but bold and triumphant, think James Newton Howard's Dave but more epic fantasy, using the full orchestra and chorus, a bit overblown for a mundane political comedy but sort of a Japanese tradition, like Naoki Sato's Priceless. It will lift your spirit. YOu can hear lots of his later scores in that one and apart from the rather muffled sound and one weird fade-out, its among his very best. The recent clips of the final Godzilal movie actually reminds me of it, but with Hattori you never know...

The history of our house feels like a very personal score for Hattori for reasons in the interview above. Its pretty much a musical reflection on the history of a family throughout the decades. Like his Moshidora, the finale is among his very best cues. Its warm and wonderful with lovely melodies, written at the beginning of the decade where he really became a star in the scoring scene.



Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
Symphonic Red Comet



LINK (https://vimeo.com/298489230)

Having now actually watched the Origin in earnest, back to back, without skipping I gotta say it's dope SciFi opera. The score is full on 60s and 70s Television excellence mixed with Hattori's musical sense of humor in using elements from "Batman Begins" which is deliberate since its the origin story about an anti-hero who wears a cape and a mask... but Hattori wouldn't be one of my favorite if he doesn't fuse that with good old classic film music scoring tecniques. But its only sprinkled throughout the score, never taking away from the good old SciFi moments. It's my favorite Gundam score since Gundam Seed Destiny without question. Some parts of the score are scored to picture and then later reused, which is about the only fault I can give it, other than never giving me a heroic military version of the Main Theme but since its a tragic story and a subdued prequel, I guess that's to be expected.

This little suite is essentially the story of the OVAs I've arranged in a musical sense, the rise of a tragic hero and the beginning of a legend.

If there's ever a remake of the original Gundam, I hope the staff from Origin returns. Its a proper tribute to an old franchise with a series of OVA that not only spans an epic story but has gorgeously animated bar scenes. I also don't mind his electronic canvas much:


Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin [Score Moments]



Space Battles (like they don't make em no more) (https://vimeo.com/298556607)

Doraemon, Gundam, Godzilla (live-action and anime), Romance of the Three Kingdoms, multible Taiga Drama, it's save to say, if you want Japan's equivalent to someone like Hans Zimmer in terms of getting all the prestige projects, he is the one. I'm really happy an orchestrator and composer of this caliber stands now at the top of an industry, with a very "unpopular style", 60s and 70s orchestral televsion and film writing mixed with his own band music style and love for electronics, a whole decade apart from Sahashi and Tanaka. Since I actually like him as a sound designer as well, I anticipate the coming years.



Doraemon's Treasure Island
Symphonic Sea Adventure



LINK (https://vimeo.com/298476154)

I've extracted the essence of Hattori's gorgeously orchestrated Sea Adventure from the rather disappointing body. You can tell he was called in at the last minute to replace Kan Sawada because he hasitly threw in together parts from Battle Athletes, Gundam Origin and some kids movie cliches. But marvel at these 20 minutes of excellence on a tight schedule, the music of lesser composers would have totally fallen apart. Master orchestrator. I think this is representative of his current musical style when he chooses not to use the electronic scoring tool canvas.

Take on a wild sea ride across the waves, with crew bondings, sea storms, ship battles and sailing into the sunset.



I could have done one for Godzilla but I will wait till its out in a few days, some little Golden Age moment in the trailers and lots of five-minute cues on the soundtrack but you never know what he will do... Let's hear what he conjures up for the big finale to Godzilla: The Animation and what sound he will use for "The Planet Eater".

A Herr Salat / Tangotreats Co-Production

DOWNLOAD THIS RIGHT NOW - it's FANTASTIC.

SENIOR CONCERT �78

Featuring music by: W. A. Mozart, F. Chopin, M. Oshima, Y. Tanaka, H. Satoh, and Y. Hirabe
Osaka Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and Yamaha Orchestra
Kosuke Onozaki, Hiroshi Koizumi (conductors)
Fumiko Kawai, Yumiko Katoh, Yayoi Hirabe, and Roman Kaieda (piano)
Michiru Oshima, Yumiko Tanaka, and Hiromi Satoh (GX-1 Synthesizer)



Total playing time: 1 hour, 36 minutes, 16 seconds. WARNING - BIG. Download size 485mb.

FLAC @ Mega.co.nz - https://mega.co.nz/#!A5QykYoR!I6Fy2rU1AI4C2pDF5WoBsjYMT-IJtBWDQq2kzhzTprc
MP3 (LAME -V0) @ Mega.co.nz - https://mega.co.nz/#!hlQjBCDL!MI9JUmLzLq48yC5yiVz-Cs-gp-VnunaQAyt-04G0enU

My transfer from Herr Salat's vinyl collection. FLAC at Level 8. LOG/CUE requests will, as ever, be attended to with the aid of a funnel, a box of pissed off bot flies, a large and sturdy carrot, a cricket bat, and a roll of duct tape. In that order. ;)

Scans included. No scan of the back cover as it is completely blank except for the following text printed along the bottom: "PRODUCED BY Genichi Kawakami PRESENTED BY Yamaha Music Foundation 3-24-22 Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan. 19-259 STEREO"

Most people who follows our posts will know that Herr Salat sends me stuff every now and again. Sometimes, what comes out of the box makes me cry with joy. Sometimes it confuses and worries me. On this occasion, the effect was fascination and excitement, mixed in with just a little slight sadism-oriented curiosity at just how this fellow manages to find these things; not just RARE things, but things that you didn�t even realise EXISTED. Around this point when posting our collaboration projects, I always get tied up in knots trying to think of different ways to say the same thing � namely, �thank you� � so I�ll keep it simple this time:

Herr Salat, my friend � thank you.

From what I can piece together from the (Japanese) sleeve notes, this is a recording of a concert sponsored and funded by the Yamaha Music Foundation in 1978. It features students� original compositions as well as student performances of classical standards.

Brief technical notes:

Another album almost forty years old but in genuinely mint condition. My usual restoration/remastering regime has been applied. The original recording is absolutely beautiful, but affected by tape hiss (the original analogue master) which I have made a conscious decision to reduce only slightly - allowing the natural, airy sound of the concert to be heard. Oshima�s piece featured close-up brass and castanets, both of which confuse noise reduction algorithms, so it was restored with a lighter manual process � slight and occasional instances of click and crackle may be audible. Additionally, throughout the recording are the typical sounds of a live performance � audience shuffling in their seats, coughing, squeaking music stands, creaking chairs, etc. I have not touched these natural atmospheric sounds at all. They represent the reality of a live concert performance and in my view should be preserved unless they are loud or otherwise obtrusive to the extent that they compromise listenability.

Finally, these LPs were cut hot and absolutely stuffed to capacity. Minor high frequency degradation near the end of tracks 3, 5, 7, and 8 is present and is just another facet of glorious old vinyl. Can't be helped!

On Side A and the first track of Side B, Mozart�s 20th Piano Concerto in D Minor and Chopin�s Grande Polonaise are both delightful performances by pianist and orchestra alike, although they�re unlikely to become your reference recordings. Also on Side B, our very own Michiru Oshima, aged just seventeen, performs her own piece �La Alegria� for GX-1 synthesizer and instrumental ensemble. It�s a lovely, bouncy piece that demonstrates just how well planted the seeds of Oshima�s compositional genius were, so early in her life.

Though Oshima�s name is undoubtedly the most well-known today, I don�t think her piece is the highlight of the album. The really good stuff appears on the second LP of the set.

On Side A is Yumiko Tanaka�s (aged 19) �A Chapter For GX-1 and Orchestra - The Boundless Plaine� � a thirteen minute tone poem which features a Yamaha GX-1 synthesizer performing with a full orchestra. The composer performs the synthesizer part accompanied by the Osaka Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hiroshi Koizumi.

Also on Side A, Hiromi Sato�s (aged 20) �Essay For GX-1 and Wind Instruments � Hymn To The Earth� � another tone poem that expertly blends synthesizer with the traditional orchestra. The composer performs the synthesizer part, accompanied by the Yamaha Orchestra, conducted by Kosuke Onozaki.

Side B is given over to one piece � Yayoi Hirabe�s (aged 19) fully acoustic (no synthesizers at all in here) �Symphony for Piano and Percussion Instruments�.

These pieces are JUST BRILLIANT. The maturity, melodic gift, and orchestral technique demonstrated by these young composers � all but one still in their teens � is jaw-dropping. All three are completely tonal (unabashedly, exuberantly so) - stuffed with great tunes, orchestral acrobatics, and a remarkable sense of structure and form. They�re not just showing-off pieces, although they certainly are that; they all bear the hallmark of young geniuses overwhelmed with happiness at the opportunity to write for a full-sized professional symphony orchestra� More than that, they�re artistically sound, and musically interesting. The use of the synthesizer is mostly pitch-perfect; although some people will find their sound extremely dated, I am of the opinion that the music is so good it just doesn�t matter. These pieces were written � from the ground up � with the synthesizer in mind.

All in all, this is a genuinely FANTASTIC album � 96 minutes of musical excellence, 50 minutes of which are unique, virtually completely unheard pieces by contemporary, living Japanese composers.

As always, enjoy! :)
TT

Is there any chance that somebody has this and could reupload? I'll give you my first-born child.

I gave Hattori's Code Breaker a listen a couple weeks ago and was very impressed. I'm not sure how to describe it, but unlike a lot of his other recent scores, I felt more "conviction" within the music. It was far beyond the well-orchestrated cliches of Doraemon and The Origin or the dull wallpaper that is Godzilla. Hattori wrote a dark and emotional score and gave it a clear sense of identity.

And yes, I hear very much the sound of those 50s and 60s dark orchestral tropes in all his recent works. Iwasaki is the Japanese composer most inspired by Herrmann, but the one composer in Japan who actually sounds the closest to Herrmann is Hattori. And I think that's more of a result in his style rather than any direct inspiration from Herrmann. The swashbuckling theme of his Doraemon doesn't sound anything like Korngold, but instead more along the lines of Herrmann's Sinbad. And Code Breaker could have been written for a film like Cape Fear. Unfortunately, Hattori can't write with any level of conviction near Herrmann, but he certainly has a unique style even among the current crop of Japanese composers.

Also, the complaints about the ear-shattering percussion have already been made, but I'm honestly more put off by the ridiculous level of artificial reverb in his mixing.

LOL, now Yugo Kano is using the same gospel choir funk in Jojo that Iwasaki did years ago in Gatchaman:

https://youtu.be/g0HNAxZXmXE?t=83

Yugo doesn't want his music to sound Italian, he wants it to sound what he thinks is Iwasaki... at least this is a better attempt than his "cat-step".

@Hattori: I never really considered the Herrmann-Hattori connection but now that you mention it...

As for anyone confused by Hattori's rap statement... luckily I watched anime from the 90s so if you want Golden Age Hattori you better pray Hattori Jr. never really gets that much into rap like his father otherwise Gundam Origin would have sounded like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR5ndU8sors&t=2m38s

@Hattori: I never really considered the Herrmann-Hattori connection but now that you mention it...Yeah...

https://youtu.be/zp1HnaBhHnI
https://picosong.com/wX3cK/

Obviously the music is different, but the same "sensibilities" are there so to speak. Hattori writes his music as if it jumped right out of the 50s and 60s. Unlike Iwasaki, who will use fragments of Herrmann in otherwise fairly modern Hollywood approaches (i.e. Invisible Hand from [C]), Hattori will write as if he was asked to compose for the same movies that Herrmann worked on.

The great irony is that even though this approach makes Hattori literally the ideal candidate for Godzilla, his music is some of the weakest in the franchise, because of his lack of conviction.

I just discovered one song arranged by Tomoyuki Asakawa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwmMHEwoC6c&index=7&list=PL5aFkH_wvAxRqdtDDYD0oPvBgxmNds46W
From album KOKIA : Remember me:
https://www.nautiljon.com/jmusic/kokia/remember+me.html

woah... (https://picosong.com/wXRcE/)

woah... (https://picosong.com/wXRcE/)

Wow! It's Magnificent!

Takayuki Hattori (again...)
GODZILLA: Planet of the Monsters
Tokyo SOUND INN Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus



Download (https://mega.nz/#!K7onmYSZ!OJn2nPtAwh-NDGDcUgnIKE4-VqKQtqz2HwNOao3En48)

This is all the orchestral cues plus the vibe pieces with thematic material. I've edited some cues to remove some parts of Hattoris weird tendency of mixing hip-hop/rap beats with 60s Television out of nowhere, in a six minute piece otherwise devoid of it. I think you will not notice nor miss its absence ;)

To sweeten the score a little bit I've also included the outtakes (a few orchestral cues from otherwise electronic heavy scores) from the same session (I'm 99% sure) that were later reused for some television drama and some weird late-night anime. Trust me, they fit right in: example (https://picosong.com/wXysu/) and they belong here. They cannot stand as their own scores but they fit perfectly within the context of the film scores.



This is certainly a weird trilogy, if you can even call it that, its more of a three-part film if you ask me, because the film scores can not stand on their own, but if you combine them, you get the full picture. Hattori really turns it into another Codebreaker in the final film and the sounds he conjures for "The Planet Eater" and the aftermath is certainly among his very best efforts.

In total you look at three hours of score, full of dark brooding textures and orchestral bombast, fitting for a Planet of Monsters. I also like the little musical hints or styles he employs for Japan's most famous monsters, he also has his very own musical humor in using metal percussion and metal guitar for Mechagodzilla.

The context for the score: Humanity was driven from Earth by Godzilla and after 20.000 years humanity returns to take back the Planet, only to find its crawling with all kind of terrible monsters. After a first attempt at colonization all hell breaks lose. There's a secret hidden under ancient ruins of Earth's long lost civilization and a ritual that calls forth a terrible beast to cleanse the Planet.

The main theme (for the protagonist) is introduced in the piece "Haruo and Godzilla" and it gets a hell of a work out in the final act. Secondary themes and motifs include a homage to Starship Troopers, heard in full in "Leland's Kamikaze Attack", the King of the Monster himself, heared in "Sign", on basson, contrabasson and basses, ancient earth civilization, heard in "20.000 years" and the terrible Planet Eater, which appears in full glory in "Ghidorah". Then there's the theme of recolonization of Earth (in my arranegd album), heared in the very first piece. Then there's various other motifs and musical hints to famous monsters in there so discover them yourself.

The main attraction is the action, in full 50s and 60s glory or with an armada of drum batteries and electronic fury, used deliberately as a storm/stampede of Monsters clashing with human Space Forces in a battle to take back Planet Earth. There's also some attempts at a romantic core/love theme but this is not a happy story.

The musical finale on this arrangened album is one you don't want to miss, the main themes get their last great reprise and if you endure all the terror and claustrophobia, you might make it to a well-earned warm cadence.
As a whole its not his best work but it certainly has some of his best work in it, from the homage to Starship Troopers to full orchestral terror of the 50s and 60s, overall, its a score fitting for the King of Monsters.

His final piece for his Godzilla trilogy is among his most accomplished pieces, pure Golden Age:

The Last One (https://picosong.com/wXyxy/)

Currently Hattori stands at the top of the scoring scene and can get any project he wants. If he decides to lay down the electronic scoring canvas more often (and his hip-hop rap beat elements), I highly anticipiate his next works. Speaking of which I just have this feeling:



It's coming, you can bet on it (https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2018-08-31/1st-new-slayers-novel-in-18-years-ships-on-october-20-in-japan/.136190). Imagine this music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6dT24DH7Gc) with his current orchestral writing, oh my! It depends if he wants to work on it but I doubt Osamu Tezuka will come back.

There are certainly more Hattori projects to land in the near future and don't forget, our last hope he is not, another Hattori there is...

So that concludes my little Hattori intermezzo.

Enjoy

As expected, no Yoko Kanno on the next Watanabe project.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-11-07/shinichiro-watanabe-bones-original-anime-carole-and-tuesday-reveals-more-staff-netflix-streaming-story-ad-visual/.139169

From the description and director, it would not have been orchestral anyway. She did appear writing another pop song for a new arcade game and there was the recent Macross pop single so she is working in the field at least. I think her next project will come out of nowhere when we least expect it.


EDIT: In regards to Hattori's string piece. Here's another one taking a shot:

Naoki Sato - I love you (https://picosong.com/wXCKE/)

An outtake from Anemone (used for some cheap TV drama)? Seeing how Godzilla turned out, Sato might turn it around with this one. The footage suggests at least some kind of romance...


A similar approach by another composer a few years ago:

Yoshihiro Ike - Eternal time (https://picosong.com/wXCTH/)

He's also a true buddy, he shares every new recording session on his website, for his new anime in winter he recorded a full orchestra and chorus (in latin) with additional Japanese instruments and some Jazz. He also tries to get his concerts released so we might get his Bahamut concert eventually. He's also quite underrated (https://picosong.com/wXCTe/).
If anyone has his "Shonen H", please let me know. Its the biggest orchestra of his career and a real shame his Bahamut did not have this ensemble.

I purchased some more J-Drama albums by Toshihiko Sahashi. One of them is called Emergency Room 24 Hours. The series is divided into 5 separate seasons, with different composers for each entry. Sahashi only composed for Seasons 2 and 3. The one I bought was Season 2, which aired in 2001 during Sahashi's glory years, as Vinphonic calls it. :D

Right now, I'm translating the tracks and converting them into my computer. I'll let you know when I'm done.

As for anyone confused by Hattori's rap statement... luckily I watched anime from the 90s so if you want Golden Age Hattori you better pray Hattori Jr. never really gets that much into rap like his father otherwise Gundam Origin would have sounded like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR5ndU8sors&t=2m38s

That was a remix but good god do I love that show and the soundtrack. It's hard to tell whether I like the Hattori stuff or the M.I.D. more. I wish they'd re-release it in an English country on Bluray. Also his Argentosoma is really good too and I could say the same about that. Another example of his beat was the theme of Banner of the Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzbb7ru_xmg
I'm surprised he's still going at his age, though I could say the same about Sugiyama.

---------- Post added at 07:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:10 PM ----------

Also my picks from Revue Starlight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu3cl_8HFNY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TudJNguXFX0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJA_2TYlBjQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioIMgxxxIbY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoTZP1isSDg !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcihfAi5f7o !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWu0UwyrZrg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNG6xzkt_4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxsm80ep1J8 !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BoOoUhOeGQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BigxOazmXPw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6T9bo1D5uI !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWGJrSVzfDU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf2aU3692Fk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfi9wxrU6as
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq03xrlU3e0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWzsAKFEQD8 !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ch35y_otQk !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8FHpDYmJjA !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6s-2hLazs !!!


Also surprised at the song at the start of Conception: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwkPzDMmwv8

So the entire soundtrack? :p

Oh yeah forgot about all the hip-hop beats in Banner of the Stars (one of my favorite series). It escapes many people that aside from being a concert composer he also works as a DJ. Nowadays he's like a Godfather:



Iwashiro is almost cracking a smile here.

And another prominent composer-director relationship bites the dust.

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/11/ennio-morricone-quentin-tarantino-cretin-1202019650/

Not that this was surprising at all for any composer working with Tarantino.

On a lighter note:

Happy Birthday, Toshihiko Sahashi!

And another prominent composer-director relationship bites the dust.

Now here's an odd twist to that:


Was the whole thing faked? Or did Morricone's agent tell him this was really bad publicity and he backtracked on everything?

It's no secret Morricone has "certain" views on Hollywood and would rather burn it all down, but he would not say that too loudly I'm sure. I doubt he would ever say that about a collaboration that brought in serious cash and reputation in a public interview, but I did catch some things he said over the years in that "fake" interview, so who knows atp? Nonetheless, that he's still alive and was composing for films until recently was a miracle, and with such a clear mind not touched by old age as well. He's a living legend.



On another note, an update:




Satoru Kosaki, Ryuichi Takada, Keigo Hoashi, Ken Namba
FATE/EXTRA ~Last Encore~
MONACA Studio Orchestra



Sample (https://vimeo.com/300417654)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!LzoTjaLQ!KoBpvJ6uF9Ales5bd6YxbcGLBWuhj2-RmAqNyXjl9KU)

This is proof good music can come from anywhere, even the most unlikely projects (maybe I need to point out what you hear is because of the success of a porn game). This is very much good old MONACA from Star Driver, just more mature (less bravado, more introspective). Their love for film music is very evident here, of course my favorite being a variation on Mina's Theme from Coppola's Dracula, a tribute to Wojciech Kilar, one of my favorite love themes in a film.

Ryuichi Takada's Dracula (https://picosong.com/wLEA5/)

With the second OST we have quite a few lovely new pieces and the complete score remains one of MONACA's strongest effort, an introspected answer to Captain Earth. Ryuichi Takada and Keigo Hoashi did the bulk of it and its full of their classical sensibilities.,from a enchanting waltz to a tribute of Kilar's Dracula, to a swasbuckling piece to a wild action ride with full orchestra and chorus. Kosaki evokes a bit of Vanishment with a very Satie inspired piece and you can find all kinds of classic film music influences, from Zimmers early 90s work to Swashbuckler to Sword and Sandals, spiced up with a very minimalistic rythm approach with the inclusion of electronic percussion.

In regards to passing the torch, MONACA's new composer, Ken Namba, has his first true orchestral debut and what does he like to write? Have a listen:

The thounderous cheers to my name (https://picosong.com/wXgMg/)

Ken Namba studied composition, analysis, Japanese traditional music, conducting, piano, harpsichord and saxophone. His output include compositions for orchestra, choir, chamber music and electronics as well as choreographies and written works. He's also a lecturer at music schools and voice actor training schools. He's also an anime and games enthusiast from the first hour and loves visual novels especially, he started his career with composing for various titles.

This score is labeled "produced by Satoru Kosaki" so whenever you see his name solo on a project it just means he produced the music. Ryuichi Takada, Keigo Hoashi and Ken Namba are not far away where his name is. I really hope they land more fantasy and scifi projects in the future. Takada, Hoashi and Namba just needs some gravitas prestige project and they would really soar.

This is the complete orchestral score in FLAC, plus something extra.

Enjoy

Do my ears deceive me, or is this Hayato Matsuo? For some reason he wasn't credited anywhere for the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8MzzVoSA8U

Almost all the orchestral pieces from this soundtrack just scream Matsuo. Recorded by an enormous LA Hollywood orchestra no less! Way back in 2001.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR9P6N3NVgg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEfXVsnK-Vo <- Someone must have been listening to Don Davis's Matrix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6muNs-a5F_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq2Ega1kv6Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EFhY0r6L7w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__oD1whJmGU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0ewI8bADJU

Matsuo's take on Giant Robo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=068V6OaIces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYI5NG6Upw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_7GoPO37UI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKJm8JIvWlY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H7K7IDkMN8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCoGo2s0BTs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCDexbrjIGA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yrz2TiWLag

Some of this stuff is on a higher level than even his work on Hellsing and Drifters... just unbelievable. Using dissonance in ways that would make Hirano blush. And more Don Davis inspirations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXBGuFqp1Dw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ2qda6POlY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0gCgJ2Hmws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFv4vloCWcg

Combining something as modern as the Matrix with Williams's Superman, only in Japan.

This is only a fraction of the goodness btw, there's three entire soundtracks worth of it. And unlike all his other big orchestral efforts, Matsuo gets the lion's den share of the music, mostly done in LA (with a handful smaller pieces recorded in Tokyo), with like maybe 10 out of the 70 or so pieces done by other composers. Quite ironic for a soundtrack where he received no credit.


EDIT: There's no doubt it's Matsuo, because his mentor Sugiyama had worked on this same series in the past:

https://vgmdb.net/album/52917


This is unquestionably the best Matsuo soundtrack I have ever heard. It might even be better than the best of Tanaka and Amano. And Matsuo doesn't even have his name on it? What blasphemy is this?




(On a side note, it's hilarious how Matsuo beat Don Davis to putting his own music over a drumkit a couple years before Matrix Reloaded: https://youtu.be/VLwyPpnApL4?t=70)

Oh good, the link is still there.


Hayato Matsuo's Uncredited Masterpiece

Featuring Los Angeles Studio Orchestra (Conductor: Randy Waldman)

Cyborg 009 (2001)- Cyber Music World Series (mp3)

://st.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/l/16/25/AVCA-14406.jpg?v=1

Download (https://mega.nz/#!V050wAbJ!vDeEJLo2MmzPC-pFkhegX-hXqYHK1S4Hg56ZgNk665g)(Courtesy of Amish)


Vinphonic, this would make a pretty good symphony wouldn't it? ;)

Damn 0_0

How on earth did I miss this?!

You also forgot to mention Akifumi Tada, this score is a dream collaboration, Tetsuya Komuro did a fair share and the Main Theme and its variations.

I would not say it tops Hellsing or Drifters, but it has its moments that puts it among his best: God's War (https://picosong.com/wXuyy/)


I made a nice 90 minute album for me but maybe I will do something with it.
Speaking of Akifumi Tada, I have something in the works (but not anytime soon) ;) Teaser (https://picosong.com/wXukP/)



EDIT: As if this wasn't enough to brighten my day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RobxOGatwgE

Not sure how much involvement Tada had because he wasn't credited just like Matsuo (and I can't say I hear much of Tada in this, because he's not much of a dissonant composer- then again IMAGINE composers work pretty closely together so it's not as distinguishable as say Sahashi and Asakawa's work on Wataru), but anything involving the big orchestra wasn't written by Komuro, who is a synth/rock guy. It's likely he wrote the main theme, but it was orchestrated by Matsuo.

What puts this over Hellsing and Drifters for me is that there are many more fully fleshed out orchestral pieces rather than bits scattered among a sea of rock and cheap chamber arrangements. That, and the heroism in this is such a fresh of breath air next to the brooding nature of the other two works.

I checked and CDJapan lists Tada and Matsuo but only on the first soundtrack, and at least on the first soundtrack Tada is responsible for tracks 4,5,19,20, on the second 2, 3, 16, 19, 20, 21 and on the third 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 21
I might be wrong about one or two but I think this is it.
Tetsuya Komuro did track 1, 2, 3, 13, 16, 18, 21 on the first, on the second 1, 7, 22, 24 and on the third track no. 1.
Randy Waldman arranged track 1~3, 13, 16 on the first, track 1 on the second and track 1 on the third.

Also, here's a cover:


EDIT: After a second listen this is actually a close race but I still put Hellsing above because Matsuo hit all the marks of mine. It's just more memorable on an overall more impressive scope. And I wouldn't say over an hour of Warsaw with a few domestic studio orchestra pieces to fill in the gaps is unsubstantial. Infact Matsuo's orchestral score sans the Don Davis ripoffs is roughly the same as the Warsaw score so Hellsing has it beaten by sound and size. And as I keep saying, the best stuff is only available in subpar quality or cut short in the show. I doubt the final Blu-Ray Box will have a cd or an official release, hope dies last of course.





Back to Morricone, I don't care if its fake, this is gold:


What comes out of Hollywood today is trash, frankly shit you have to be ashamed for, only shallow action-movies, remakes and cartoons for toddlers. This sadly applies to soundtracks as well and the state of film music at large. Its an industry of blowhards who have no clue what they are doing, no art, no skill, nothing. They can't make films anymore. There is no love and heart for film and music anymore, they have no ideas so they recycle everything made by people who knew what they were doing and inflate all that craft only to make a profit. It's just a factory line of trash, don't bother anymore.

The only one I respect is John Williams, he is and oldschool guy like me, he loves what he does and he has the skill to match it but everyone else... has no substance, a monkey playing random notes on a computer can do better.
It's not nice but its the truth! Its terrible music for terrible films and these presumpteous douchebags (Brian Tyler, Hans Zimmer) even have the guts to go on concert tours and let themselves be celebrated for the crap they write like rockstars! Hans Zimmer especially is just terrible, when he goes on his live tours with his gigantic shows, with the gigantic film screen because otherwise people wouldn't know where the music is from because its all the same. Without visuals the music wouldn't work anyway.

In contrast my concerts don't need gigantic screens, my music is from the heart and well-written enough that it captures the heart and mind of the audience without any visuals. If I conduct Once Upon a Time in the West, everyone closes their eyes and listens, they know the film by the first notes without a gigantic screen. As a musician and composer it is your DUTY to write something for the grey cells in peoples heads and make it stay there for a person's lifetime. I have achieved that and this is an artform that has died out in Hollywood. (it continues but the rest is not released yet)

Maybe he spoke his mind here and wasn't aware this would blow up and now backpaddles hard but if anyone has seen him live, he has all the marbles in his head and why fake an interview that anyone with a musical heart knows is true. In any case, fake or not, this sums up my feelings very well (I would include Seth MacFarlane and his microcosm to the respect list), though, I don't mind what happens over there anymore to be frank so I'm not the best person to judge it. I'm fully occupied with "a pretty happy environment for musicians" atm.

And as if on schedule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM

Fortunately, Shinji Miyazaki and Akifumi Tada are still alive, otherwise they would be rolling in their graves. I still don't know how they are doing it but they manage to make music that should in theory not sound bad in any arrangement sound like crap. I'm honestly amazed each and everytime a "classic" theme pops up in Hollywood trailers.

Henry Jackman writes produces the score so don't even bother.

Btw Battle Angel Alita will be scored by everyone's favorite composer Junki XL

:D:D:D




"It's all trash, don't bother"

-Ennio Morricone

Going from the excerpt, that interview is completely in-line with Morricone's prior interviews, especially the berating of current Hollywood trends and composers, and even his own belief that music should stand on its own outside the silver screen. Can you share where you got it? I can't find anything online.


I also checked IMAGINE's site and Tada did indeed credit himself on 009. Still, these official credits don't make any sense as a whole and I question if Randy Waldman even arranged any of the pieces- going from what I'm hearing from him on Youtube, he hasn't written anything for a symphony orchestra and specializes in chamber and small jazz band stuff (he himself was trained as a performance pianist, not a composer), while the main themes sound very much like the type of thing you would hear from Matsuo like Captain Tsubasa. That's why I think Waldman is the conductor, since that was one of his credited specialties, and this is LA we're talking about. And maybe he did arrangement for some of the piano pieces. Since the disc couldn't even credit Matsuo and Tada, then I can't trust it to credit anyone else properly either.

As a whole, it's really tough to figure out who wrote what because the entire collection is so homogeneous in its orchestration and even motifs (the Matrix bits are used on both the alleged Matsuo and Tada tracks), right down to the same drumkit, that I think it might just be easier to say that Tada and Matsuo both worked on this together. But to my ears, the entire soundtrack sans the small scattering of chamber and electronic pieces is much more reminiscent of Matsuo than Tada. Or maybe Tada decided to write in a similar dissonant style to Matsuo. Being composers from the same music production company means that they are very aware of each others' musical tendencies. If it happened between Suehiro and Yugo Kanno, it can happen here. Whatever the case, Tada's work on here far surpasses the rest of his output, including the Pokemon movies.

If we put together all the orchestral pieces regardless of who wrote them, I think there's more music here than on Hellsing, at least what was released anyway. Even some of the weird drumkit pieces have a substantial orchestra underneath.


The Matrix rip-offs, I like them! It does the same thing as Yoko Kanno's work where it pieces together the bits in a more interesting and coherent manner than the original, not confined by the on-screen events that defined the construction of the music.

I made a nice 90 minute album for me but maybe I will do something with it.
Speaking of Akifumi Tada, I have something in the works (but not anytime soon) ;) Teaser (https://picosong.com/wXukP/)


What will you need assistance?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4FjxYPZg1Hc
Again. ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!!

I would not say it tops Hellsing or Drifters, but it has its moments that puts it among his best: God's War (https://picosong.com/wXuyy/)

Sounds suspiciously like Ron Jones's Best of Both Worlds (specifically "Intervention") from Star Trek TNG.

Morricone probably does believe that, but some of it seems a little too over the top to believe that he actually said it in an interview. Or perhaps he just doesn't care who he offends. I suppose it might not matter to him at this point.

The first paragraph is something said by someone who only watches 10 (big-budget) movies a year and then comes to the conclusion that they represent the entire industry. It would be like watching a bunch of recent live-action anime adaptations and deciding the Japanese have forgotten how to make movies. Japan still produces some great stuff, but also has its fair share of duds. There's a lot of crap coming out of Hollywood, but there's also still a lot of excellent filmmaking to be found, you just can't rely on it being introduced to you by advertisements on billboards and the sides of buses. South Korea has also (contrary to popular belief) produced some terrible films over the last 20 years, but the best Korean filmmakers have produced some of the greatest films this century so far, you just have to make an effort to find them once you've exhausted the filmographies of Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Jee-woon etc.

The rest is fair enough if that's his opinion, though could be put a little better. He's absolutely right about audiences needing a screen, because it's overwhelmingly clear that the majority of his newer fans can only appreciate his music if it's accompanying a film they love. That's the only explanation I can think of for why his Amazing Spider-Man 2 score was widely ignored by his otherwise adoring fans. Had the exact same thing been written for an MCU film it would have been lapped up.

Zimmer goes on concert tours because people want to see him and hear his music live. The end. Doesn't matter that the last 10 years have been by far the worst of his career. If people want it they're gonna get it, and he's getting richer every day. Can't blame him for that.

Yeah its speaking from the high horse but from a composer with 90 years of life-experience and over 500 scores under his belt, with many killer melodies and pieces that will probably live on forever.
Still, I also agree that there are things you love still being made out there, you just have to make the effort yourself these days to find your comfort bubble.


@Zipper: Its an english translation from the german interview. Maybe he said it all with overblown italian theatrics that got lost in German translation but here is:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10212177234239939&set=pcb.1870249079759147&type=3&theater

But what he said is essentially what Seth MacFarlane said on Williams celebration, MacFarlane was just nicer about it.

Morricone also stated in another interview that this will be his final year composing for films, next year he will have his final concert tour and then be at peace, so I guess he doesn't care anymore (but his lawyer sure does). I bet Williams will decide to have his more than well-earned rest in the upcoming year/s as well... so you better savour whatever their last projects will be.



@streich: Of-fucking-course! (and good to see you again)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTstNuaJXqM

Is there anyone on that Island that does not love TNG?

I’ve been wondering, are Naoshi Mizuta, Mitsuto Suzuki and Taku Iwasaki clones?

So La La Land claims their newest Die Hard is a massive audio improvement over previous versions. I am not very familiar with the score to tell if the sound quality is much of an improvement. Can any in this thread hear a major improvement on the samples?

I tend to drop by when I hear something interesting.

For example, these two tracks sound strangely familiar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ije9lDHXWpw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0BDDtAeAVI

I’ve been wondering, are Naoshi Mizuta, Mitsuto Suzuki and Taku Iwasaki clones?You'll have to elaborate because I don't hear any connection between their music.



@Zipper: Its an english translation from the german interview. Welp, I'm out of my league here.



Asakawa's dog movie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lybu2ZedhBc

Brings back so many memories of Binchou-Tan with that ondes martenot.

Ah, absolutely Lovely!

And excuse me but Fuck yeah! Wada's Puzzdra gets a complete soundtrack release in a few weeks. I gotta save some money.

https://vgmdb.net/album/82042

The only catch is that Yamashita's Dragon Cross is now in limbo. It's still too early to say it gets no release since Iwashiro's Kado took a year after it aired before it was announced but its strange they put so much effort into this little kids show and don't bother with a release. The Japanese ain't like that. I hope it gets a 2-Disc release soon. It would be insane to just not release it. Unlike Keijo, this is impossible to isolate.

Oh and speaking of Yamashita, he scored this film from last year that might get released soon AND he returns with the third season of Chihayafuru in april: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EghblZ4U5fY

So we already have a new Hamaguchi and a new Yamashita for next year.
Btw the next Shin-Chan movie directly rips of Indiana Jones, so you know what that means: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmBmLBaNtAg&t=12s (they should really hurry up with another soundtrack box, and Pokemon TV and the Doraemon as well).

Harumi Fuuki scored another film that will release in two weeks and she already shared the Main Theme on her twitter: https://twitter.com/gababon2013/status/1061896725219037184
Here's the full orchestra ver.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx7VaMSXUkA&t=6s


@Sirus: I very much like the score in the film but I've never been into it outside of that. It's like his Iron Giant, it works like a charm in the film but not something that apeals to me standalone. It's damn good film music that's without question. But the samples sound pretty good I would say.


@streich: No way!

@Zipper


Iwasaki

https://youtu.be/T-SXhgTfi-8
https://youtu.be/DkcbMksqzfU

Mizuta

https://youtu.be/CXfHooTIReM
https://youtu.be/0ssSXi0gjCA

Suzuki

https://youtu.be/WoFRVdAeraw
https://youtu.be/kOxRsaw_qR0

Extended harmony, Neo-Riemannian slide

Uhhh... I don't agree but you're entitled to your opinion.

This is far more reminiscent of Iwasaki at his core- impressionist or Tristan-esque harmony, heavy usage of chords, and a occasional rhythmic background device. It gives the music this "longing" feel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGu81DZ8Peo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2b8_dO_yU0
vs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRBBLCJKYmA

All these aspects are here again, with his other tendency of using Zimmer's rhythmic devices:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXrriGaQm0U

Here's something from Seth MacFarlane's microcosm: http://www.andrewcottee.com/showreel.html

I hope the Orville is so successfull he can expand his whole business. He's got such a love for the Golden Age he might turn it around.

I'm still waiting for the soundtrack sets by La La Land. No idea why they haven't happened, I'm sure they have to be in thee works. Literally the music is composed by most of TV science fiction's fetishe composers. It'd have to sell just for that.

I don't have much hopes for Orville having a third season though

Uhhh... I don't agree but you're entitled to your opinion.

This is far more reminiscent of Iwasaki at his core- impressionist or Tristan-esque harmony, heavy usage of chords, and a occasional rhythmic background device. It gives the music this "longing" feel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGu81DZ8Peo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2b8_dO_yU0
vs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRBBLCJKYmA

All these aspects are here again, with his other tendency of using Zimmer's rhythmic devices:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXrriGaQm0U

I agree with the Wagnerian lack of cadences thing

https://youtu.be/hseLvd-qT1s

How about this one by Mizuta

https://youtu.be/kIhG4_vfYwM

While we were on the topic of Morricone, it is perhaps time to state just how much he has influenced musicians over his century of film music. From the days of his friendship with Maurice Jarre to his collaboration with Tarantino's Hateful Eight. He is one composer who simply has written TOO GOD-DAMN MUCH but I have my dozen of favorites of course: Once Upon a Time in the West (Finale) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibRMQjGzagY)

He has not many good things to say about Hollywood, even when he scored Mission to Mars, only a reminder of what could have been, if he didn't instantly resent the atmosphere of the place: Mission to Mars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17kEXx1u-AE&t=2m47s). But on the other side of the world he was deeply humbled to work on a Television program for a certain Island nation: NHK Taiga Drama "Musashi" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFQaV1HmUoY).

His influence on the Japanese scoring landscape can not be overstated, from Kohei Tanaka taking his nickname after the maestro to Sahashi and Takayuki Hattori incorporating many elements of his music into their works, to a whole new generation of composers who start out right now who are listing him among their favorites.

And not just strictly orchestral composers, do you hear it?

Vatel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AARNA759YeQ&t=1m36s)

In any case, he is one of the titans, in one league with John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, one of the greatest composers who ever lived. With a teary eye I say, thank you maestro, for decades of wonderful timeless music. May you be forever immortal with your music.

https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/media/thumbs/c/c0644b313a3eaf256a0fea7754c0657fv1_max_755x425_b35 35db83dc50e27c1bb1392364c95a2.jpg?key=cd815a









Actually, related to him, and in regards to my recent Hattori shares, take this:





Takayuki Hattori
Slayers: The Best from the Motion Pictures
Remastered (for the upcoming 30th Anniversary)



Sample (In regards to Morricone) (https://picosong.com/wXEZS/)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!r3p0BSpR!EEyXmP39UyYmQGwfhJvOcGZOGCGhVcqGLUcWHW8dX9g)

Next year Slayers will have its 30th Anniversary, and you know what I suspect, something big. In any case, this is a new arrangement from all the Slayer soundtracks by Hattori, remastered by myself. An hour of Hattori at his best. You can make the case for many of his scores to be the best, but this one is very high up there. Its also full of that cymbal action from Planet of the Monsters and it even has one or two pieces very similar to Godzilla and Gundam Origin. Rediscover one of his gems.

Btw, Hattori especially loves this score by the maestro: The Untouchables (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu2FekMaTQc).

In regards to anniversaries, Gundam has something big on the horizon for the 40th Anniversary. It will be announced next week. Always remember its a roulette game who will compose for it but please let it either be that goddamn SEED movie in limbo or the remake of the original series with the staff of Origin.

Ah, absolutely Lovely!

And excuse me but Fuck yeah! Wada's Puzzdra gets a complete soundtrack release in a few weeks. I gotta save some money.

https://vgmdb.net/album/82042


Yeah! This is great, but you look this too: https://vgmdb.net/album/80303

And as if on schedule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM

Fortunately, Shinji Miyazaki and Akifumi Tada are still alive, otherwise they would be rolling in their graves. I still don't know how they are doing it but they manage to make music that should in theory not sound bad in any arrangement sound like crap. I'm honestly amazed each and everytime a "classic" theme pops up in Hollywood trailers.

Henry Jackman writes produces the score so don't even bother.

Btw Battle Angel Alita will be scored by everyone's favorite composer Junki XL

:D:D:D




"It's all trash, don't bother"

-Ennio Morricone

It makes me worried about the original Ifukube themes in �Godzilla: King of the Monsters�. Of course, Bear McCreerie is a better choice than Junkie XL, but his love for percussion can turn Ifukube themes into typical Hollywood music with only a shadow of past greatness.

A new Star Wars theme "Galaxy's Edge" by John Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryorxnoVWxQ

Oh, and it was performed by the LSO. Maybe he will return to London for IX.

L'oeuvre de john williams es formidable bravo a williams

It makes me worried about the original Ifukube themes in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”. Of course, Bear McCreerie is a better choice than Junkie XL, but his love for percussion can turn Ifukube themes into typical Hollywood music with only a shadow of past greatness.

McCreary has become a much more versatile composer than he was during his genre show days. Percussion is still a major part of his style, but it is no longer the only part of his style. I think he will do just fine for King of Monsters.

McCreary has become a much more versatile composer than he was during his genre show days. Percussion is still a major part of his style, but it is no longer the only part of his style. I think he will do just fine for King of Monsters.

I thought God of War had moments.

I'm really unsure how there's two discs of music for Ulysses when the show uses only the same 3 pieces in every episode- and we're already more than halfway through the series. How much longer until Iwasaki starts throwing another fit on Twitter?

The project that I was involved with from the beginning of spring was completed the other day, and was a project which I kept waiting for a long time, I got all the things done with putting my soul into it. Now I want to take a day off without thinking anything.

https://s15.directupload.net/images/181117/xcrnrfy6.jpghttps://s15.directupload.net/images/181117/u4mbfkjg.jpg
https://s15.directupload.net/images/181117/2a96ptdi.jpghttps://s15.directupload.net/images/181117/7po8k885.jpg

Kaoru Wada likes this



Kohei Tanaka's World Seeker will be out March, 15. It will be included with the limited edition of the game. But we will need a gamerip or wait for a 4 Disc set because he wrote a lot of music. It will be another Gravity Daze with more TV One Piece moments.




In addition to busy everyday composing life, I will be appearing on radio programs in January and live broadcast on Net TV next week.

In the future, in order to promote Japanese Animation and Anison culture, I want to be even more active. Even during overseas performances next year, I will increase exposure of Japanese Animation a lot more and will work closer with the local mass media.

I will continue to do my best.


Super Robot Wars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=107&v=zQVZ2aPtm5A&t=1m47s) is expanding a bit, and whoever did this must really love Prince of Thieves and Independence Day.

And looks like we might get that SEED movie eventually:


Sunrise plans to make Gundam movies for every 1-2 years (https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2018-11-16/sunrise-plans-to-release-new-gundam-theatrical-film-every-1-2-years/.139616)

McCreary has become a much more versatile composer than he was during his genre show days. Percussion is still a major part of his style, but it is no longer the only part of his style. I think he will do just fine for King of Monsters.

As xrockerboy I also like McCreary's music for God of War (especially calm and emotional parts) and also his soundtrack for Outlander series, so i will be optimistic with King of Monsters.

It's funny to think that at one time Horner's name was attached to score Cameron's Battle Angel Alita many years before Avatar. It would have been interesting to see if Horner acknowledged Wada's original theme for Gally from the OVA considering Horner may or may not have borrowed a theme from Wada's 3x3 Eyes for Braveheart (see 3x3 Eyes OST 1 track 3 around the 4:30 mark.) Ironically it was Horner's Braveheart that reunited him with Cameron for Titanic and later Avatar.

Horner and Cameron were reunited after a falling out from working together on Aliens. Coincidently 3x3 Eyes borrows a theme from Goldsmith's score to the original Alien movie (see 3x3 Eyes OST 1 track 7, even in the same key as Goldsmith's Alien theme.) Be careful with this information.

And despite being the 40th anniversary, the only truly "new" Gundam project announced is the Hathaway's Flash movie. Yugo Kanno will be still be farting out Saturday morning borchestra with the G-Reco movie, Hattori won't be making anything new since Origin is being edited for a TV series, and we all know what to expect from another Build Divers.

Taunting us with that violinist too...

I’ve still only seen the original and the recap movies.

Hmm... not a really a disapointment but more business as expected.

The Hathaway's Flash film trilogy... depends who scores for it. I really like the classical piece in Reconquista, even if there was not much but something tells me there won't be a new score and Yugo is not high on my list these days.

I actually expect an announcement of the continutation of the Origin arc when it finishes airing and you're right it is very unlikely he will write any new music for the first 13-episode season.

There's also a new SD Gundam, they can be hits or misses too, it all depends who scores for it of course:



Yoshihiro Ike
Hollywood Studio Orchestra



Sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gx5EUR0h1M&list=PLyTjhEgyReV9EF78-Mb-AZFw-SBuzTp0W)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!v2AGVQIb!haqn1tmRqAW7OTK7_O0w3UxtjkDtvmb2ci1BEDpPtPk)


In regards to Gundam... I really like Origin (the best), Thunderbolt (but only the first movie) and 08th MS Team (similar soundscape to Origin and Tanaka with a full symphony orchestra is hard to beat). Basically I like everything about Gundam except the Gundam :D
Now, Escaflowne... that is some Mecha I dig (shame it has never been done like that again). I also dig Akito the Exiled but the best mecha movie is of course Slayers Great ;) (I recently rewatched the first three Slayers movies + the three special episodes, don't care much for the rest of the series, but these are gold.)

I just now remembered that Sawano has a good chance of writing the music for Hathaway's Flash because he's already been involved with Unicorn and its first sequel (Narrative). Yeah, business as usual.

MONACA and Keiichi Okabe on the Seven Deadly Sins phone game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Uluk5F0tc

Sounds like Nier-MONACA, not more Takada/Hoashi/Namba-MONACA I want more of right now, but there's some nice melodic writing so I will check it out.
An interesting thought: Now a property gets even THREE variations: Anime, Live-Action and (Smartphone)Games. And for each a different composer. The more times the roulette is spun, the better.


I recently thought it might be interesting to share thoughts by professional musicians on some music that somehow ended up among my youtube recommendations:

Whiplash is not about Jazz (by a Jazz musician) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFYBVGdB7MU&t=18m25s)

A band kids love letter to Hibike Euphonium (also every fingering during performance is accurate) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsZ-yl65lbI)

Why do Movie scores seem to suck now? (14m13s is pretty funny) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF0GHLRoUs4)

What makes Shirobako's Theme great (The melodic writing of Shiro Hamaguchi) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfaQ4QR9qN0&t=8m28s)


And this little gem, just pure fun between musicians:



Super Mario by a full Jazz Orchestra
Orchestrated and arranged by Charlie Rosen



Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cRPzzZV8u0)
Making Of (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crLxHC48xwM)/ Buy the music here (https://the8bitbigband.bandcamp.com/track/lets-play-live-super-mario-bros-no-sfx-soundtrack-from-youtube-video)







In regards to Jazz, Kaoru Wada is not the only one who is on fire this year:

http://www.cdbanq.com/thumbnail.asp?file=http://cdbanq.net/img/shop18/COCX-40336.jpg

Takaki's Jazz (https://picosong.com/wj3gw/) / Takaki's Orchestral Score (https://picosong.com/wj3gq/)

Preview of the great things to come from Lupinranger VS Patranger. (https://picosong.com/wj3gB/)

Look forward to next year. His Noble Musketeers will get a full soundtrack release in January: https://vgmdb.net/album/81412

Thanks for SD Gundam Force -- wonderful score!

Hullow, awesome people. I haven't posted here since quite some time because I'm busy AF for the moment, so I just wanted to reiterate my appreciation and admiration for the great work you're doing (with special kudos for Vin's uncanny posting powers - more like superpowers, actually).

I should have more free time soon, which will allow me to FINALLY post a few things that were in my intentions since some time now (better late than never, eh?).

Hope you're doing all well, and see you soon!



Oh, and just for the fun, since you guys talked about Gundam rap recently, I couldn't resist using the Eminem Rap Generator (https://www.song-lyrics-generator.org.uk/create.php?song=6) and quickly combine it with random Gundam-related words (mostly found in Wikipedia) to generate this MASTERPIECE (better than an actual Eminem song):



The Big Swords Hip Hop

By Char Aznable

In the style of Eminem


May I have your attention please?
I'm not afraid (I'm not afraid)
To shoot (to shoot)
Everybody (everybody)
Come take my Guncannon (come take my Guncannon)
We'll walk through Principality of Zeon together, through the storm
Whatever weather, cold or warm

His gun are lasers, big swords, armors are cool
There's food on his mobile suit already, sibling's ramen noodles
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to shoot,
But he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down,

And I am, awesome
If I wasn't, then why would I say I am?
In the paper, the news everyday I am
Radio won't even play my jam
'Cause I am, awesome
If I wasn't, then why would I say I am?
In the paper, the news everyday I am
I don't know it's just the way I am

You better launch a missile
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to shoot
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo
You better launch a missile
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to shoot
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

So lets go back
Follow the the One Year War as we go on another episode
Journey with me as I take you through the Principality of Zeon
I once used to call home sweet home

Well, gotta go, I'm almost at the Space now

And when I'm gone, just shoot, don't mourn
Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my laser gun
Just know that I'm looking down on you flying
And I didn't feel a thing, So baby don't feel no pain
Just launch a missile

And when he's gone, just shoot, don't mourn
Rejoice every time you hear the sound of his big sword
Just know that he's looking down on you hitting
And his didn't feel a thing, So baby don't feel no pain
Just launch a missile in your mobile suit.

Anyone happen to have the Aimer special concert with Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra "ARIA STRINGS" rip? It actually has some nice orchestrations from various anime composers such as Kanno and Kajiura. It was released as a blu-ray and not a simple album.

@arthy:

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/648/700/947.gif


@Josh: It should be up in the usual places I think. I saw it apper somewhere but I don't know where exactly at the moment.





Actually, in regards to Coda, lets expand on that request:


Some time ago, Masato Coda was just "the guy who wrote that Monster Hunter theme" (https://picosong.com/wjCp7/) (given two stellar renditions by Shiro Hamaguchi and Kaoru Wada) but in the second half of the 2010s he decided to make a name for himself as an anime composer and I suspect he will continue to grow rapidly. He is a vivid fan of anime music from Iwasaki, Yoko Kanno, Toshihiko Sahashi, you name it, so I guess it made sense he switched from game to anime.




Shiro Hamaguchi adapted the original Monster Hunter themes for the orchestra. I'm a big fan of his orchestral work for Final Fantasy and his work with Kohei Tanaka on Sakura Wars and One Piece. He places tremendous care in the treatment of my original compositions. Beyond that, he invents devices which accentuate details of the piece that I would never have come up with, so it was an invaluable learning experience. Especially with Monster Hunter he was careful to preserve my choice of chord progressions. The theme of Monster Hunter is in the key of E Flat whichis difficult for musicians to perform. If you lower the key, it becomes much easier to play. Now, there is a huge difference in the sounds of a D and E Flat chord. The way I might describe their textures is that D is like a primary color, while E Flat is like a mossy green. Hamaguchi-san respects this subtle distinction and he chose to keep the arrangements in E Flat.

For Monster Hunter, originally I had underestimated the impact that the title would have on the game industry. My perception was that it was a modest idea for a game. When I saw it in motion, I was deeply impressed and I knew the soundtrack needed more of the intensity of a feature film score. In that category I admire John Williams of course.
I've learned a lot about composition and arrangement from him. When I first heard the music for Jaws and Star Wars, I was blown away. I got excited every time a new film of his came out.

The first Hollywood movie I ever saw in the theaters was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In that movie of course there is this UFO flying around, communicating with people telepathically. Do you remember how the film ends? It starts with that simple melody emanating from the saucer and then grows more and more elaborate until the ship flies away. It's just perfect. One of my favorite scores of all time.

All in all the Super Nintendo changed my perception of game music entirely. It was the start of conveying orchestral sounds in games. Just around that time I was in a band playing keyboard, so I was starting to learn how to write electronic music. When I heard the background music in Final Fantasy IV, I started thinking about a career in the game industry. I remember the scene with the Red Wings and their airships at the very start of the game. Also, the "Theme of Love" is a great song. Then there is the incredible opera scene in Final Fantasy VI. Kefka's theme is great, too, especially how it pops up again in the final battle. Doesn't the battle theme switch to a major chord midway through? That really made a lasting impression on me.

These days it's common to make music all by oneself, from the composition to the arrangement. For videogame music it's natural to go about doing all the encoding and mixing alone. However, that way I feel you never come to understand what actual guitars and other instruments are capable of. Playing in a band is important to become a composer. I would recommend this to aspiring musicians who are interested in becoming game and anime composers. Having an in depth knowledge of various instruments' characteristics can be essential to fulfilling your potential, even as an electronic musician.



With Konosuba he got that project that will launch your career and shortly after, he scores shows left and right.



Masato Coda
Give Blessing to this Wonderful World!
EKS Masters Orchestra



Sample (https://picosong.com/wjFfn/)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!CyhUXKaJ!35mHuxtjQkpnAGdKYZwt6zi2e4Y1TJJazXnQGwGKzqM)

What is this? A compilation from all the soundtracks of course!
Konosuba (Give Blessings to this Wonderful World!) was the score that really put Masato Coda on the map for me and sure enough, a few years later and he is slowly rising to the top, scoring multible shows each season, I at least enjoy, and next year continues to write some pretty classy music: http://domekano-anime.com/

But what I'm really looking forward to is his Konosuba movie. Which brings me to the score for the TV show(s). Here we have a lovely, playful score full of Japanese Orchestral and Jazzy cliches I dig, part Hollywoodesque, part Classical, part Jazzy. But that's not all:



Yep, another anime concert, featuring music from the series (and maybe the upcoming film). Performed by the Tokyo New City Orchestra. It will get a CD release.


Masato Coda
Orchestral Anime Collection

[

Sample (Maria) (https://picosong.com/wjCGW/) / Sample (Chain Chronicle) (https://picosong.com/wjCpc/) / Sample (Knights & Magic) (https://picosong.com/wjCpS/)

Download (https://mega.nz/#!zvwFhQKL!6JmJtjBprDWTI_xUwAD6jVWM_-3aa5hmKBrhAt53Hf8)

I think its appropiate to share the rest of his work up to now. I've trimmed the fat considerably and here's three little orchestral scores that show of his skill plus a few score suites from Ars Nova and Magical Warfare. He especially likes Baroque techniques, John Williams (Superman march rythm) and Yoko Kanno. It's certainly interesting that he's a game composer who was well into his career who switched to become an anime composer. Konosuba was his breakthrough in that field and thankfully he loves scoring for it.

On that note, just to show how much passion is pured into that project, they included a full-fleshed 2D sidescroller (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjUPcb_MIDw) from the days of yore as a Bluray bonus. In general the second season had a huge upgrade in budget so I have a good feeling about the movie.

Last but not least Coda also has a wide range of styles. Good luck trying to categorize this as anything other than "anime-style" (https://picosong.com/wjCie/) (I especially like the Disco Strings).

Enjoy!






EDIT: Hot news! Who scores Ultraman? Completely unexpected... it's FILM SCORE (https://www.filmscore.jp/) (Nobuko Toda and Kazuma Jinnouchi). So that big orchestra recording was not for Space Bug. Nobuko Toda stated it is a massive projects so I guess she recorded it in LA or in Tokyo with the Film Score Philharmonic Orchestra (her very own orchestra, specialized in John Williams tribute concerts).

Anyone happen to have the Aimer special concert with Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra "ARIA STRINGS" rip? It actually has some nice orchestrations from various anime composers such as Kanno and Kajiura. It was released as a blu-ray and not a simple album.

A fairly recent upload on nyaasi seems to contain the items of your desire.

Remember when I mentioned I orchestrated and recorded the largest arrangement I have ever done? Well, I can finally reveal it! I have done an orchestration of One Who Bares Fangs at God from Xenogears. This is my first time doing such a large arrangement that isn't for a full group in the same room. It is quite different when you have over 90 stems of audio to work with lol. Every single instrument except some percussion is played by a person. The choir sings in Bulgarian to maintain the feel and tone of Mitsuda's brilliant score. Since my original chor parts weren't entirely up to my standards, I got someone to edit/slightly re-arrange the parts and add lyrics, then we got a translator to put the lyrics into Bulgarian. I hope this arrangement tells a good story and possibly will be played in a concert someday ;).

Now I am at the judgment of my peers. *braces for impact*

https://materiacollective.bandcamp.com/album/omega-a-tribute-to-xenogears?fbclid=IwAR0uoeW1bTIYELnnCH-RWux55Bg3H9HWBXxhTP9Bh0aNqmlgohpfTxnaxFY

Gave Gundam Narrative a listen in hopes that Sawano might have been able to pick up some semblance of his Unicorn-era sound, and as expected there was none of that. It's post-2010 Sawano through and through.

@Zipper: I admire your courage. I'm dead sure all the interesting orchestral parts in Gigantic Formula and Unicorn were ghost-written or orchestrated by Ryosuke Nakanishi but hope dies last, as I love to say.
Still, he has his voice, and nobody does that overblown juvenile shreddage better than him (though I have to be in a specific mood to enjoy it) and he even writes some electronic free pieces in Narrative (SymphonicSuite No5 is pleasant).



You don't need no cover here, Josh. We don't bite :D

Honestly, get on Mitsuda's twitter or whatever and send him the piece and ask him what he thinks. I garantee you he will reply back to you. If you see him on his concerts, he is a nice fellow ;)

I tell you, his new talent will be the next Mozart, at the very least Mitsuda will soar into new heights:




But lets be real... fine work, Josh. :) I actually like it better than his original piece, honestly. But the original was very much a vibe piece to begin with so that's not surprising.


Honest critique: I have some mixing related issues but nothing major. But I made some notes on things I would have done differently, in general I would have added more sleighbells ;)

At 0:10 I would have included a triangle swell
At 0:45 I would add some accented percussion.
At 1:16 I would have answered the winds.
At 1:26 I would have added a countermelody in the lower register.
At 2:13 I would have answered the violins with cellos + basses
At: 2:44 I would have included a little counter melody in the trumpets
At 2:59 I would have doubled that with bones, at 3:08 with trumpets
At: 3:17 I would have gone all out with percussion, bass drum and timpani. Could also work with adding extra motion to the snares.
At 3:40 I would have included some brass acrobatics, Horn rips and trumpet fanfares.
At 3:57 I would have included a melody in the violin + soft choir, alternativly solo trumpet.
At 4:09 I would have included the pipes again for one final rendition.

Maybe more thoughts at a later time.

That's a pretty good piece! I listened to it several times in row, something I only do when I really like what I hear.

Good job, really, and congratulations, because recording your first live orchestral piece is a great achievement, one you'll be proud of your whole life. Now you can say: I DID IT, and it's only the beginning!

(When you think about it, it kinda is like your first sex experience. There's really a before and after this point)

I'm overall satisfied with this piece (for a first orchestral effort), but there's also a few things I would have done a little differently. Mainly, I would have mixed it so it gets a much more epic and cinematic quality to it (think Braveheart).

Here's an example of this. I simply edited the frequencies so it results in more of this "big score" sound, notably by enhancing the low brasses (2:52 in particular).


https://picosong.com/wjfV4/

Too accurately experience this "remix", watch this picture to better understand its spirit.

But lets be real... fine work, Josh. :) I actually like it better than his original piece, honestly. But the original was very much a vibe piece to begin with so that's not surprising.


Honest critique: I have some mixing related issues but nothing major. But I made some notes on things I would have done differently, in general I would have added more sleighbells ;)

At 0:10 I would have included a triangle swell
At 0:45 I would add some accented percussion.
At 1:16 I would have answered the winds.
At 1:26 I would have added a countermelody in the lower register.
At 2:13 I would have answered the violins with cellos + basses
At: 2:44 I would have included a little counter melody in the trumpets
At 2:59 I would have doubled that with bones, at 3:08 with trumpets
At: 3:17 I would have gone all out with percussion, bass drum and timpani. Could also work with adding extra motion to the snares.
At 3:40 I would have included some brass acrobatics, Horn rips and trumpet fanfares.
At 3:57 I would have included a melody in the violin + soft choir, alternativly solo trumpet.
At 4:09 I would have included the pipes again for one final rendition.

Maybe more thoughts at a later time.

I actually didn't do the mix as mixing my own music is still something I don't know much about. I get others to handle the task of mixing and mastering. I think it could have used a bit more reverb to make it have a concert hall sound. I am still not entirely satisfied with my orchestration. I felt there could be more moving parts in some areas such as counterpoint as you mentioned. I very much like your notes and if I do an official sheet form I will definitely make more edits.

@Arthierr Thank you! Doing this piece helped me learn a TON. I will be doing more of these for sure! Love the sex metaphor lol!

Live-action Bebop

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/cowboy-bebop-live-action-series-netflix-1203038458/

JUST WHAT EVERYONE ASKED FOR

(featuring Brian Tyler Bates)

Well, good morning - I'm back in business, and shortly (hopefully) tangotreats should be making a comeback so this dumb account can go away.

My thanks to everyone who supported me during my exile, and to Leon Scott Kennedy who decided to let me come back.

Some big'ol posts coming up - finally those sodding Sugiyama albums, too!

:treknod:

Live-action Bebop

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/cowboy-bebop-live-action-series-netflix-1203038458/

JUST WHAT EVERYONE ASKED FOR

(featuring Brian Tyler Bates)

Based on Brian Tyler's effort of using jazz music in Crazy Rich Asian and similar music material in NYSM2, he would be an very interesting choice following Yoko kanno's step

Wada just can't be stopped anymore. He scores this film next year: https://konomichi-movie.jp/

And another example of Takaki on fire this year: https://picosong.com/wj42F/
You can add that to his Sentai score since its most likely from the same session.

@Zipper: I'm sure Watanabe will be very happy about that check and Kanno will most likely get royalties so no biggie.





Yosuke Kato
Zombie Land Saga Voice Cast
Adabana Necromancy (Full + Action Ver.)



Sample (https://picosong.com/wj4hN/)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!riByWQwT!GznizpG3xuKpB170Kp56pReL1RMaEd984ZGRMa2i99A)

Probably one of the most Japanese covers if I ever saw one.
Now this is just a lit anime song (about time for another one of those). You know it is if you take out the vocals and its still functional as a jazzy action cue if you chop and edit it a little. I only had to include the vocals for the finale because the chorus is missing in the instrumental version. Originally I thought this was Tanaka's song for the season he talked about but he was refering to this: Gegege no Kitaro ED3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pf2CnFGOKs) (The only reason Tanaka didn't score the show is that he's too damn busy these days).

Update: Jessie bought tangotreats back to life, I don't seem to be able to post though... but we're getting closer.

Thanks again all. :)

Oh nooooooo! You mean you won't be Fee Nicks anymore?! Oh crap, it was so hilarious to see you being an "Onion Kid" again.

I had so much fun looking at you and saying: "HA HA, ONION KID, ONION KID, HA HA!!"


https://thumbs.gfycat.com/VillainousUnripeDavidstiger-small.gif



Welcome back aboard, you big freak! ;)

BWAHAHAHA! ;)

Remember when I mentioned I orchestrated and recorded the largest arrangement I have ever done? Well, I can finally reveal it! I have done an orchestration of One Who Bares Fangs at God from Xenogears. This is my first time doing such a large arrangement that isn't for a full group in the same room. It is quite different when you have over 90 stems of audio to work with lol. Every single instrument except some percussion is played by a person. The choir sings in Bulgarian to maintain the feel and tone of Mitsuda's brilliant score. Since my original chor parts weren't entirely up to my standards, I got someone to edit/slightly re-arrange the parts and add lyrics, then we got a translator to put the lyrics into Bulgarian. I hope this arrangement tells a good story and possibly will be played in a concert someday ;).

Now I am at the judgment of my peers. *braces for impact*

https://materiacollective.bandcamp.com/album/omega-a-tribute-to-xenogears?fbclid=IwAR0uoeW1bTIYELnnCH-RWux55Bg3H9HWBXxhTP9Bh0aNqmlgohpfTxnaxFY

The part at 2:07 sounds like Philip Glass's Koyaanisqatsi, was that intentional? The original does have a Glass feel to it, so using him for inspiration is a good idea.

Western soundtracks can really surprise me sometimes.

https://picosong.com/wj2w6/

The Red Canvas is deeply overrated as with most modern Hollywood soundtracks that even hint a bit towards the Golden Age, but this piece is something truly magical that is unlike anything else on the album. Please listen!

I've heard people say that The Red Canvas is the 21st Century's Star Wars.

I actually enjoy the score overall, particularly the cue you posted... but the score on the whole... well... it's no masterpiece.

The track everybody raves about - "Ballet for Brawlers"... just listen to it... Basically themeless, and musically goes nowhere. Eleven minutes of freewheeling, orchestrated in a very florid Rozsa/Zador-esque style, but internally, constructionally, melodically, it's a fantastically overlong modern film score cue through and through. Imagine what Rozsa would have done with an eleven minute uninterrupted cue, and weep - eleven minutes of swirling strings, ostinati, dissonant brass stabs, and suddenly a corny big finish... and the orchestra is literally dying by the end - 10:34 through to the coda is painful...

The earlier cue "Grease Monkey Brawl" is essentially a three minute version of "Ballet for Brawlers" - and it manages to be ten times more musically satisfying; it contains all the thematic material in the longer cue but doesn't overreach, and doesn't outstay its welcome.

The Jazz Caf� cue makes me think of Yasuo Higuchi - those harmonies are delicious.

I think of this score like Cutthroat Island. It nails the sound. But when I listen more closely, I realize just how pale of an imitation it is compared to the work of the Golden Age masters it emulates. Ballet for Brawlers is the prime example of this, and you pretty much summed up how I feel about it. The piece commits the most common crime of modern soundtracks- being repetitive and structureless music that hides its tedium underneath a mountain of orchestral flourishes. It's what allows composers like Powell and Giacchino to fool listeners into thinking they are more competent than they actually are. A great composer can take even pure RC elements and make something well-structured and exciting out of it.

The rest of the soundtracks has its moments, and Peterson really knows how to orchestrate. He is definitely a notch above most others in Hollywood, including the aforementioned PG duo. But if this is the best he can do with 80 musicians and almost no restrictions from producers, then I can't help being disappointed. Especially when compared to my recent listen to Tada/Matsuo's Cyborg 009.

I can see why people were excited about this, but it just screams "overreaction" to me because the Hollywood well is so dry. And this was released a decade ago too. If it were released today, could you imagine the crazy fervor on FSM and all the other sites?

Monster Post alert!



It comes down to a simple fact: The level of musicianship in Japanese media is just in a whole other league to Hollywood, at least since the 2000s.
Even the supposedly "modern equivalent" to Zimmer & Co, which I nowadays laugh at, because its no comparison at all, regularly meet and gig: (Hayashi, Tachibana)


Hayashi: Session (Jazz) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j69ZNfsMk0c&t=1h56m00s) / Classy (https://picosong.com/wj2tU/)

Tachibana: Emotional Climax (Orchestral) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQaVGxVCTBI / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf8i6Tp_CvY) / Jazzy/Fusiony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jegfht8cPCs)


Musically at least, Hollywood is not a place where I would want to be right now. Where's the fun?!

I must confess even John Williams with the LSO left me completely cold (technically brilliant, but so is serial music -_-). Give him a Taiga Drama or something were he can freely and fully write from his heart (like Born on the Fourth of July), then you have me excited like a little schoolgirl, but for a vapid and dull blockbuster, and furthermore, a now vapid and dull franchise attraction, I doubt it was just a bad day for my ears. It would actually be quite something if Mike Verta's amusement park ride suites would end up better than the work from one of the greatest composers who ever lived.


I must confess, I also don't get these film score places at all.

For example this is hailed as the work of the next John Williams:

The Voyage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwQ2ezisSZQ)

I have no words... Have a mundane thing by comparison like the history of photography and listen what a Japanese composer has to say about that:

LUX CENTURIAE - A Century of Light - (https://youtu.be/oiBssu7krUU)



Or the Landing on the Moon

This is the best Hollywood has to offer:

The Landing (First Man) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcev7yEPeF8)

I had to listen to Space Brothers right after, listen what a Japanese composer had to say about an Astronauts Landing:

The Landing (Space Brothers) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFdvL_9oaoY)

Two scores this year from Hollywood composers about Mankind's greatest triumph and there are frankly "not-so-good" and not about triumph at all. Its not even a tenth as good as Horner's Apollo 13 and he was on auto-pilot on that one. This is even praised by pretty much all popular sites for film scores: That scene is weird! It's like all they listen to is just the hottest new score in town from 2008 onwards.

Old score releases (like Kilar's Dracula getting a new 3CD Box) or related projects (like Tadlow's The Vikings) are why I still stick around those places (that and people far more passionate and knowledgeable about film music than even myself).

I really tried to give these new breed of composers a chance and even tried to understand what those raving praises for new Hollywood scores at FSM and JWFan were all about but to my view and experience they are all completely off the mark to put it diplomatically. No ill intention at all btw. I'm just at a loss with those places. I suppose it all comes down to familiarity and not branching out into the world's concert, indy and entertainment scenes or places like Japan.

But in comparison to my previous rants some may remember way back I'm not angry, salty or even upset about this. Times change, empires rise and fall, that's just the way things are.
There will always be a place for musicians. Music is just a too powerful force.
I'm happy and content. I get the music I want in a quantity these days that is truly astounding so I have no reason to complain. Music can still be fun elsewhere.


But just to show what another scoring world has to offer, how about some atonal concert music as a TV score, no problem these days: Symphonic Chimera (Full) (https://picosong.com/wj2Tv/)

Or a symphonic suite for a television score, encouraged: Segodon Finale (https://picosong.com/wj2a6/)

Film Score beauty and homages: Nameless Forest (https://picosong.com/wj2H9/)

Silver Age Hollywood: Super Robot Wars DD (https://picosong.com/wj2ip/)

Golden Age Hollywood: The Last One (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfFZytlgpUU&t=67m22s)

European Film Score: Squadron of the Wild (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU9gGmf_usY)

Baroque: Highschool DxD Hero (https://picosong.com/wj2iL/)

Classical: Tada-Kun (https://picosong.com/wj2iN/)

Wind Band: Liz and the Blue Bird (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF6--ut3T0E&t=1h32m15s)

All-kinds Big Band: Royal Flash (https://picosong.com/wj2rx/)

All-kinds Jazz: Fierce Fight! Great Sentai (https://picosong.com/wj2Wy/)

All-kinds of Modern Hollywood: Final Confrontation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL8YLJNmHgM)

All-kinds Metal: The Rattel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylp3-BxZ2KM)

80s Orchestra and 80s Hard Rock: Saintia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGnnzCIX5Eg&t=7m28s)

80s Rock: Pastel Memories (January 2019) (https://picosong.com/wj2rR/)

80s Sax: Invisible Newcomer (https://picosong.com/wjV8D/)

70s Orchestra: Warriors of Love (https://picosong.com/wj2ME/)

60s (https://picosong.com/wj2Gt/)

50s (for a visual novel of course) (https://picosong.com/wjV2t/)

etc.


All from this year. Every style under the sun gets soaked into that musical cultural preservation machine. I could nowdays easily write a whole book about it but maybe another time.

On that note, it always makes me smile when they went out of their way musically for a series that doesn't need it at all. For the upcoming ecchi series OVA Eromanga_Sensei they are actually doing a Big Band concert and put serious effort into animating musicians. (I also always love the "serious" motion picture 90s vibe they are going for, especially for Girls und Panzer Der Film"): Already better than La-La-Land :D (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfOsJLSiA-4)

It's been truely astounding how much big band and jazzy scores and pieces there have been this year with the glorious Revival of Lupin (which gets some new projects btw).

Even Hirano has some fun this year: Yes, Girl! (https://picosong.com/wjVCc/)



Not to mention the insanely strong lobby and bond of muscians, composers and arrangers. The high standard of music education across the whole country (Wada's new film is actually about this very subject, the birth of the world's finest music education system) and the general attitude of the Japanese in strive for perfectionism and religious spiritualism, even more amplified by the incredibly nerdy "Anison (Anime and Game) culture" which is cultivated by Tanaka in addition to a strong desire to pass the torch by everyone.

On that note, here is a composer that activly works to keep the torch lit and has written some wonderful music before he went on to become a music teacher:





A nextday/Vinphonic Co-Production

The Legacy of Japan
Unsung Composers
Reijiro Koroku



Here we have a wonderful symphonic poet from the 80s and 90s that went on to compose for a Historic Battle game series in the early 2000s with the Moscow Symphony and then went into education and teaching at univesities together with Saegussa and Sugiyama and occasionally scores some projects, from a NHK TV show to contributing music for 2016's Precure film. Koroku very much inspired the generations that came after him and was inspired by Golden Age greats, Rozsa and Waxman.

Rozsaism (https://picosong.com/wj2Ny/)

I feel he's best with free-flowing symphonic albums like that and Film and TV series were he gets to write long and developed cues. A score like Godzilla for example, falls a bit on the shorter side compared to his first class albums. But on the whole he is a wonderful composer who also wrote three baller game scores for orchestra and chorus for the rather popular game series back in the day "Kessen".

The only downside to his music is that sometimes there's heavy narration and sound effects involved. I took it upon myself to present his NHK Taiga Drama Hideyoshi realtivly SFX free. He was also one composer not afraid to incorporate rock and synth elements into his music, similar to Kohei Tanaka. Like Katsuhisa Hattori, he occasionally visits the studio from time to time and this might not be the last we will hear of him. Seeing Tamiya Terashima returning with a symphonic Image album for a manga this year makes me optimistic he might do one more in the future.



DOWNLOAD (https://mega.nz/#!3qpThYIB!DJcB0OjCOqZu8_x15dx5IvZrTOP5ZVulGfQEmWgdImk)

The credit for these albums belongs to nextday, myself, DaveKramer and Leon Scott Kennedy.

Indulge!

Getting back to it, as promised... Let's begin Tangotreats' second life with a big one:




THE GENIUS OF FILM MUSIC (volumes 1 and 2)
The London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by John Mauceri (volume 1) and Dirk Brosse (volume 2)



Volume 1 - Hollywood Blockbusters 1960s to 1980s
Volume 2 - Hollywood Blockbusters 1980s to 2000s

Recorded in concert at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall on 8th (volume 1) and 29th (volume 2) November 2013

https://mega.nz/#!gaA1mQKK!mHrWZrCFJ_YAPY3RqmJG_NkxEXfWKR9g1DZ8SCeBEMs (LOOK OUT - big download - 941mb)

My rip @ FLAC Level 8 - High resolution scans included

So, compilations of famous film scores come out every thirty seconds. Why is this one special? Well, for starters, it has a few happy surprises in its programme - sure, we get warhorses like Star Wars and The Raiders March... but there's also Alex North's uncompromising Cleopatra in a delightful 25 minute extended suite, suites from Nino Rota's The Godfather, Herrmann's Psycho, Danny Elfman's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and even from Don Davis' The Matrix Reloaded - amongst many others, some well known, some not so well known. To top it off, Nic Raine's orchestration of Hans Zimmer's Gladiator actually makes that score sound rather lovely.

The London Philharmonic play very well throughout - even in notoriously difficult scores like The Matrix Reloaded, which would require oodles of rehearsal time and lots of retakes to get absolutely perfect, and the sound quality is quite sumptuous. This "live" recording is, as is customary these days, actually supplemented by rehearsal takes to cover flubs and audience noise - so you only hear the music here, no noise, and no applause.

I'm still somewhat out of practice posting, so if I've mucked anything up please don't be shy. :)

Please note - both album is two discs, but it's one of those "con job" double-disc sets - the total time of volume 1 is just 1 hour 29 minutes, and volume 2 is 1 hour 36 minutes, adding up to a total of just over three hours.

Can't be sniffed at, I guess.

Thank you, all, and it's a pleasure to be back.

Enjoy! :)
TT

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

It's tangotreats here - or, at least, it's what used to be him, just stopping by to wish you all a happy October. This is not a comeback; think of it as a guest appearance, or a cameo. I come here to share some music, and disappear back into the night. As this is a new account, I have no PM ability, but if anybody would like to keep in touch please do email tangotreatsisaman (at) gmail.com - you're very welcome.

Anyhoo, I heard this album and I knew I really had to post it here...


REBECCA DALE (born 1985)
Requiem For My Mother
Materna Requiem#
When Music Sounds*



https://mega.nz/#!UKZxiYZT!bnt1HUCsXCoPJa56TbvfEBj9aFNaSz6y65oCyQSsFV8

# Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Kantos Chamber Choir, conducted by Clark Rundell | | Louise Adler, Soprano | Trystan, Tenor | Hannah Dienes-Williams, Girl Soprano | Edward Hyde, Treble | Dave Hinitt, Organ
* The Studio Orchestra, The Cantus Ensemble, conducted by Jeff Atmajian | Nazan Fkiret, Soprano

The headline piece, "Materna Requiem", was written for the composer's mother, who tragically passed away in 2010 from Breast Cancer. So many Requiems in musical history are dedicated to historical figures, great artists, noble statesmen, and the like... but how many do you find that are an expression of such personal grief as losing your mother - particularly at the age of just 25? This piece is... powerful, and utterly heartbreaking... but so beautiful.

The second piece on the album, however... I think this is the standout.

"When Music Sounds" is a paean to the joy of music itself. It's something of a modern day equivalent to Vaughan Williams' "Serenade To Music". It takes the form of a thirty minute choral symphony of six movements which are all tied together by a four-note, unifying leitmotif. I haven't heard such a well-orchestrated, unabashedly tuneful, exuberant piece of contemporary concert hall music in so many years.

The musical language is positively filmic - but the good kind of filmic. There's shades of Goldsmith and 70s Williams running all through this piece; a constant outpouring of melody, reveling in the joyous sound of a large orchestra and chorus. This is equal parts orchestral showboating, lyrical beauty, and a classical heart beating beneath. This is no mere "film score without a film" - it's a serious concert work that just happens to speak with the direct emotion, shameless theatrics, and singable themes that are hallmarks of the very best film scores.

Dale has just signed with Decca Classics, so expect this to be only the beginning.

Only MP3 (at -V0 - I'm not totally heartless) for this one, I'm afraid - this is available internationally and for a sensible price. There's no excuse. If you want the best sound quality, put down the money and do your bet to show Decca that it's still worth recording and releasing new classical music.

As ever, enjoy - and take care. :)



This is now my favourite post by Fee Nicks (tango). I am a veritable tango-post connoisseur... as many of us have inevitably become.

Great one as always. And I always buy the stuff I really love. Not just because I have a desire to support artists that I want to keep working, but I also have an inextricable need to own things that give me joy physically.

Take care. Norvegia says hi.

I quoted the entire post so now you all have to see it again. Psychopimping audible eventualities.

For example this is hailed as the work of the next John Williams:

The Voyage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwQ2ezisSZQ)

I have no words... Have a mundane thing by comparison like the history of photography and listen what a Japanese composer has to say about that:

LUX CENTURIAE - A Century of Light - (https://youtu.be/oiBssu7krUU)

I think Giacchino's piece is written for concert band. You could swap out the strings for extra flutes, clarinets, and saxophones and the piece would not sound any different. It's even in Bb major which is the easiest key for concert bands to play in (concert bands tune to Bb the same way orchestras tune to A) so maybe he intends for high school and college bands to perform it.

Williams's The Olympic Spirit is written is the same vein (also in Bb major.) By taking away the string section as the backbone of the orchestra it opens up that option. Just a theory.

Oh, so this is what Bebop died for.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2018/11/29/crunchyroll-and-adult-swim-team-up-for-all-new-blade-runner-black-lotus-anime-series


Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) and Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex) will direct all episodes of the premiere season. Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) is a creative producer.

It's time. She's coming back, boys.

I'm currently watching Kamen Rider Zi-O. Not only do I enjoy the series, but I'm also observing and listening to its soundtrack by Sahashi. He's no stranger to eastern instruments, as he used them as far back as Gundam Seed.

Track 27 in OST 2, 'Ground War', is a prominent example: https://picosong.com/wjgyL/

Hey guys, just thought I would pop in and let you know I am still alive. I know in the good old days I would write a well meaning but poorly executed defense of The Red Canvas, but I am too lazy these days. Or I would come in with a gamerip with a custom cover and all that jazz, but it's harder to do that nowadays with music archives in games being harder and harder to crack. I've mostly just been busy writing, trying to be the best writer my meager talents can summon.

I did recently listen to Frostpunk - it was so melancholic, the type of music I tend to love when it's not in full blown epic action mode with everything dialed to 11.

But of course, since I like it, you will all probably hate it. But that is a road well paved by now.

Vin -- this Lux Centuriae is a bloody masterpiece! Do you have it in downloadable form?

Vin -- this Lux Centuriae is a bloody masterpiece! Do you have it in downloadable form?

I actually have it. If Vin can't find it, I can fix you up.

Thank you!!

Thank you!!

Come now. We are all manly men with stiff upper lips. One one exclamation point is permitted, and even then under the most dire of circumstances.

OK!!!

---------- Post added at 01:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:04 PM ----------

Actually just realized I already have it -- downloaded Vin's Kaoru Wada tribute awhile ago and hadn't fully explored it. Thanks guys!

Glad you enjoy it!!!!

And good to see you, Doublehex. Your craft in custom covers is well known around these parts ;)


We are all manly men with stiff upper lips
I love Japanese cutezy Jazz :D


@Tango: Glad to see you back :) In regards to your share, of course there's always that one Zimmer cue. Some interesting choices on the second volume. Did not expect Mulan. Chariots of Fire by the LSO remains unbeaten. But I prefer the first volume, although Taras Bulba is the one score that was tailormade for the Prague rerecording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrPZvpzmOVg


@BladeLight: Actually, I have some new Sahashi that probably escaped everyone's ear.

Toshihiko Sahashi: The Ying Yang Master ~ Heian Picture Scroll Musical (https://mega.nz/#!yuZBiKIR!7YFbywwC-W0tzRfTwMmVdFNuWRXTuriIYF6_xqtxzq0)

That's right, Sahashi's Musicals are getting soundtrack releases, which just increased the chance of his Opera to appear by a substantial amount. We actually learn where his newfound love for electronic percussion comes from. It's bascially a 20 minute theme park attraction. It leans a bit into his Majin territory and is not so much my cup of tea, like his Saimin and similar scores, but there's lots of his anime work shining through.

I'm really looking forward to your next Sahashi shares btw, particulary his first anime work.


@streich: Makes a lot of sense.

@Zipper: I doubt it will be orchestral at all but if she returns it's a must-listen regardless.

Believe it or not, I just saw this yesterday, completely by chance, and it instantly made *TILT* in my mind, because it really goes well with the current mood of the thread:


High School Musical 3 - The Boys Are Backhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvBk1WxcIZA

Yes, they are indeed!

@BladeLight: Actually, I have some new Sahashi that probably escaped everyone's ear.

Toshihiko Sahashi: The Ying Yang Master ~ Heian Picture Scroll Musical (https://mega.nz/#!yuZBiKIR!7YFbywwC-W0tzRfTwMmVdFNuWRXTuriIYF6_xqtxzq0)

That's right, Sahashi's Musicals are getting soundtrack releases, which just increased the chance of his Opera to appear by a substantial amount. We actually learn where his newfound love for electronic percussion comes from. It's bascially a 20 minute theme park attraction. It leans a bit into his Majin territory and is not so much my cup of tea, like his Saimin and similar scores, but there's lots of his anime work shining through.

I'm really looking forward to your next Sahashi shares btw, particulary his first anime work.

THAT IS SO COOL! Though there are some tracks that I really like that aren't in the suite after I listened to the samples on Itunes (like that cool jazz soundtrack). If it's not too much to ask, do you have the actual soundtrack for it? The suite is amazing! I'm just curious. I'm only looking for the individual tracks with orchestral instruments (or a hybrid of synth and real instruments).

Arthierr: I'd be lying if I said I didn't finally feel like myself again. It was good for me to be away... for my benefit and for everybody else's... but, well, I'm just happy to be back. :)

Modern Prague is awfully good. If they're well rehearsed and they have good quality parts, they're not far off world class. Sadly, Fitzpatrick keeps hiring that deaf idiot recording engineer and recording in Smecky Studios. Still, you're right, the Taras Bulba recording is fucking amazing. (Pardon my language but, you know, I think it's justified.)

My "dream team" for pretty much anything Golden Age is still John Wilson and his orchestra.

FRANZ WAXMAN
Ride Of The Cossacks (from Taras Bulba)
The John Wilson Orchestra
conducted by John Wilson

from the BBC Proms 2013, concert 59

https://mega.nz/#!wXxixC4S!b6_NAEI2y1S0E2aRKp9I2VvA8mN3rIXIgMjAi7ORUY4

Sometimes when I think that this stuff is actually put on the radio and broadcast at this quality year after year I have to pinch myself.

Wilson in concert is something everybody who enjoys film music should try to experience at least once in their life. I've been lucky enough to experience it twice (2007 at the Proms, 2011 at the Festival Hall) and believe me, if I had more money I'd go to every single concert the guy ever conducted...

arthy, that was surprisingly right on the mark :D

Oh, and if you know the Smash Bros. Ultimate meme (awfully catchy Theme by Sakamoto I have to say), I would have done one myself if I had not another project I somehow have to finish before the year ends because EVERYONE is making a comeback in 2018/19. Ladies and gentlemen: Everyone is Here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PpA_ci8A_I




@BladeLight: I only have these few cues, I had a some yen left and decided to go for it. If someone could buy the whole thing, that would be appreciated.



@Tango: Wilson is a National British Treasure I'm sure. His Tom & Jerry Suite, what a thrillride that was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYrUWfLlYI0

On that note, Taizo Takemoto actually recorded some previously never before performed music from Scott Bradley's powerhouse.

Karei Naru Cartoon & Musical no Sekai

They made even How to Train Your Dragon sound really lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKbmKLsYd-U

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KIZC-495?s_ssid=e361c25c01e81ccb1a

Ladies, Gentlemen, and variations thereupon, I give you my Sahashi collection.

1991-1998: Vintage Era. There's his first work, Agedama, and some light jazz albums from obscure J-Dramas.
https://mega.nz/#F!C6AkCaqC!rLQmGV4shrh6qZjESPx09A

1999-2006: Glory Years. They speak for themselves.
https://mega.nz/#F!T2BiHSYS!rNxbNUhScZc5OAy0uWpB0Q

Now don't worry about some tracks missing. That's because the tracks I didn't include were either subpar synth tracks, or tracks that aren't up to his A-game. This is my own compilation and I want to show the best of the best. Enjoy!

Side Note:
FMP Invisible Victory
"Onmyoji" Musical
Kamen Rider Zi-O
Saint Seiya Saintia Shō

Man, 2018 is truly Sahashi's comeback! It's on the same level as Kohei Tanaka's comeback last year in 2017!

Vin -- this Lux Centuriae is a bloody masterpiece! Do you have it in downloadable form?

Where can I buy this on CD? Thanks!

@Zipper: I doubt it will be orchestral at all but if she returns it's a must-listen regardless.If we're lucky we might get some hybrid like this:

https://youtu.be/x0TV0X4sdE0

In case anyone is interested, I came across the following albums in FLAC:

1. Heidi, Girl from the Alps (composed by Takeo Watanabe)
2. Shoujo Cosette (composed by Hayato Matsuo)
3. Marco: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (composed by Koichi Sakata)
4. Remi, Nobody's Girl (composed by Katsuhisa Hattori)
5. Romeo's Blue Sky (composed by Kei Wakabusa and Taku Iwasaki)
7. The Dog of Flanders (composed by Taro Iwashiro)
8. The Long Journey of Porphy (composed by Moka)

I see we are starting Christmas early :D

BladeLight, all I can say is wow! I think its safe to say we can now close the book on Sahashi because now we seem to have every score he ever wrote. I'm actually surprised how diverse they are. In some you can already hear how he will eventually use electronic percussion when he went digital but others have this eclipsing quality of a Jazz/Funk musician slowly becoming more classical with the orchestra, there are even blueprints of Steel Angel Kurumi. Small Citizen Kane is a powerhouse although far too short. I have not lisened to all of them but you deserve a massive rep for this.


@Zipper: You know what, Kanno with Warsaw on Macross seems like a given now as well, 2019 will be a year to remember:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=Euj8XSLin0c (I think this will make streich happy in particular)

Soundtrack already announced: https://vgmdb.net/album/82214

What? Is that Kotaro Nakagawa?!

Doesn't sound like a domestic orchestra... Code Geass in Warsaw? Dare an old cynic hope?

In case anyone is interested, I came across the following albums in FLAC:

1. Heidi, Girl from the Alps
2. Shoujo Cosette
3. Marco: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother
4. Remi, Nobody's Girl
5. Romeo's Blue Sky
7. The Dog of Flanders
8. The Long Journey of Porphy

Thank for this quite generous offer, joaoseya2! Personally, I don't know what to choose since I'm not familiar with any of those shows / OST, but anything orchestral or semi-orchestral would be very welcome here!




BladeLight: what an extraordinary treasure stash you just gave us access to! As a Sahashi fan, I didn't know the existence of most of this material, so you can imagine my surprise - and excitement. As Vin said, massive credits to you, Sir!

My only little complaint would be that your post isn't *visible* enough! People browsing this gigantic thread (especially in the future) can very easily miss this important contribution. Give this lady the cool make-up and the beautiful dress she deserves, my friend!





I must confess, I also don't get these film score places at all.

For example this is hailed as the work of the next John Williams:

The Voyage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwQ2ezisSZQ)

I have no words... Have a mundane thing by comparison like the history of photography and listen what a Japanese composer has to say about that:

LUX CENTURIAE - A Century of Light - (https://youtu.be/oiBssu7krUU)



Or the Landing on the Moon

This is the best Hollywood has to offer:

The Landing (First Man) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcev7yEPeF8)

I had to listen to Space Brothers right after, listen what a Japanese composer had to say about an Astronauts Landing:

The Landing (Space Brothers) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFdvL_9oaoY)


Giacchino's "Voyage": love this piece! Some really interesting harmonic work, with some appropriate, meaningful dissonance in the first part which beautifully evokes the mystery (and dangers?) of Space, and a rousing second part that - i assume - evokes mankind's conquest of it. A very fine concert piece, IMHO.


LUX CENTURIAE: absolutely splendid and masterful. Hands down the best thing I've heard from Wada. I'd also like to request a flac or mp3 upload, please!


"The Landing (from First Man)" by Justin Hurwitz: should I be polite or honest? I would certainly have done something better when I was 12. Such repetitiveness and simplicity of composition is generally the sign of some immature, amateurish musical skills, or some serious lack of talent, or both.


The Landing (Space Brothers): Space Brothers features some Watanabe's best music I've heard. He truly understands what "space music" means and delivers a remarkably stellar (hehe, easy one) and inspiring score.

May I request the reupload of the complete Space Brothers score? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=Euj8XSLin0c (I think this will make streich happy in particular)

Maybe. That's Kotaro Nakagawa, right? My favourite track by him (probably due to the Silvestri influence): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Q50VmjCVc

"The Landing (from First Man)" by Justin Hurwitz: should I be polite or honest? I would certainly have done something better when I was 12. Such repetitiveness and simplicity of composition is generally the sign of some immature, amateurish musical skills, or some serious lack of talent, or both. I don't really understand the hooplah around Hurwitz. It seems the only reason he's paraded at all is because of La La Land and Whiplash, which were more about music than having good music.

I've got fibre direct to my house now, so I'll take care of Space Brothers... :)

https://mega.nz/#!UOwUVY7C!O_7PDbepw-8kimfnOT-BA8oIBqf5qzHKDqSgGrF8as4

This is all three OSTs - the link says it's in FLAC format but it's actually in lossless M4A - tagged in Japanese with scans included. I think this was a LeatherHead333 upload and I've just re-uploaded exactly what he provided all those years ago. What's missing is the film OST, but I gather that there's not much there... I don't think it ever surfaced online and I never bought it...

As a bonus, here's a ten minute suite Watanabe conducted in concert in 2013. (Actually in FLAC, this time. Original ripper unknown.)

https://mega.nz/#!8P4wlQQJ!vPSaTf6yTNRTD6v4V96Cr0K-csBZtc6ZNCR9pF9w1h8

There's a lot of guff - the inevitable silly bouncy stuff that plagues almost every anime score, and the naff electric guitars and drum kit all over every other cue... but there's also a lot of brilliance, and across the three CDs you get a genuinely lovely, mature Watanabe score. The good bits are wonderful and make this score the model of elegance. I really think it starts to pick up steam in the third soundtrack - we get some delightful variations on familiar themes, proper expansions of themes hinted in the previous two scores, and some brand new ones. A wonderful three-minute mini ballet which forms one of those genius moments where diegetic music becomes the score in show - just watch episode 77 and weep. There's some lovely underwater beauty, and some brassy heroism to round it off. Space Brothers never becomes an action score, and I think it's stronger for it. There are hints of action in the first soundtrack, but that's not what the show's about.

I'm still cut up that Space Brothers ended. It's been four years and I haven't entirely given up (naive) hope for a second season...

Space Brothers is a favorite -- and I hadn't heard that 10 minute suite before. It is really magnificent! Thanks so much for sharing!

Dude, I JUST had fibre set in my home a few days ago! Pretty nice upgrade indeed: both my upload and download are 10 times faster!

Thanks for Space Brothers! Actually, I only miss OST 3, and if I asked for a complete re-post it was more for the people who haven't heard it yet, so they can conveniently have the whole score in one place.

It would really be great if you could make your post more visible (with covers and stuff...) so no one inadvertently misses such a wonderful upload. ;)

I haven't checked your latest posts yet, but I'm very, very interested in listening to that Matrix Reloaded by the LSO. Not something very usual indeed.



Zipper: is that so? As a matter of fact I didn't know anything about this composer (I mean would-be composer), so I judged that piece only at face value, without any preconception. Knowing that this guy is considered "hip" in the business makes the whole thing even more ridiculous.

Arthierr: Hurwitz composed (and orchestrated) this in 2016: https://picosong.com/wjE3M

I think this is why people are so pissed off with First Man... ;)

I will make a proper post of Space Brothers tomorrow, definitely.

Regarding Space Brothers, it will continue I believe but they have to wait for the Manga to have enough chapters to do another 100 episodes or at least 52. Actually Space Brothers is frequently performed in concert and last year on Television and this year on the Senozoku Gakuen New Composers festivals.

Space Brothers by the Yokohama Sinfonietta, conducted by Toshiyuki Watanabe (https://picosong.com/wjEFK/)


This and the LUX CENTURIAE suite were originally included in my massive Japanese collection from 2017 (Thread 221737).

But here's the whole "soundtrack" if you will (https://mega.nz/#!67JwCQRB!uTtuEbbMk26xt6Dxwz3idbRVuEyn9XacSIgGIINN634)

Wada smiles a lot these days.


EDIT: Regarding Watanabe and his students (from my Passing the torch series):

Prof. Watanabe has done good behind the scenes, as I'm certain most of my darlings constantly have done.

Newcomers like Yokoseki are very much a product of the efforts of our favorites, more specifcially of a certain music course at Senzoku Gakuen:




I'm first and foremost an educator these days. In 2010, I became a professor of music and sound design at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music.
I teach the techniques of composition and arrangement for pop songs and soundtracks as a project director at the music and sound design course.
My motto is "giving energy to warm gentle minds and positive feelings that people carry on through their music." Music should inspire the soul and that's what I teach. I shall keep producing and teach music to give courage and hopes to people in the world, music that sings to the heart.

- Prof. Toshiyuki Watanabe



Music has been inherited while changing with the history since human beings have existed. How to adapt over 2000 years of music history with current technology? The spread of technology has been remarkable, now it is time to create music and images by anyone even if using a personal computer. What should young people do in such times? I think the most important thing is "to learn from history, in our case music history". In order to produce new things, we must learn from old things. Otherwise we can't strive to our fullest potential. I'm glad to be given the opportunity to work as an educator. My mission is to be a good guide when everyone is about to get lost in learning!

- Prof. Keiichi Oku



In recent years, I feel the thought is becoming more familiar that anyone can now work as a composer when in the past it was only a few professional people. I see it as a very favorable thing and I think that the base of various opportunities is spreading to everyone. But because we live in such times, learning that matches this development is an absolute necessity. In this music / sound design course, there are many curriculums that meet the needs of those times but never at the expense of musical history. In addition, I think it is important for students how to approach this course and how to spend time in college life. This course can offer you great opportunities if you want to work in professional environments. It is a course full of great possibilities towards future dreams.

- Prof. Kosuke Yamashita


"This is a place where you can do what you want to do / a place where dreams come true". Many interactions with other courses are offered, as well as performance systems, as well as voluntary projects with ballet and classical music courses. It is a very blessed environment to learn practical acoustic and orchestral composition and arrangement with current technology. Also, teachers who support you are nearby. The connection obtained in the student life becomes an important property after graduation. Please embrace the things you want to do in your chest and search for the musician you want to be.



Tsukasa Usui, Chiang Chun Dian, Kazuha Oka, Mai Taira, Junko Nakajima
Music Design Symphonic Orchestra
Senzoku Gakuen New Philharmonic Orchestra / conducted by Toshiyuki Watanabe, Keiichi Oku & Kosuke Yamashita



Sample (https://picosong.com/w2L2S/)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!rqoy3Kwa!7Cuaxko6j_JaYREq7Ih55b0H7JXOtqtQvYmtE_h6IYo)

Held at Madea Hall at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music on 08.01.2018

This is very much the next generation of Japanese media composers in its infancy. The concert was moderated and produced by the Music Design Director Toshiyuki Watanabe and featured together with an "Electronic Carnival" which was a hologram of Hatsune Miku dancing with orchestral hybrid mixes and some pop ballads with a drumkit that was not mixed well. I've omitted all that for the main course, concert pieces by students of the Music Design course, just so you can get an impression of what it is Prof. Watanabe, Prof. Oku and Prof. Yamashita are teaching their students (also Yamashita fights barehanded).

The highlight for me is Junko Nakajima's ATLANTIS, such a delicate and sweet lady but such a bold musical voice. The only weird thing about it is the inclusion of synth choir. Nonethless its fitting for a swords and sandals epic and considering one of Watanabe's students, Kota Yokoseki just wrote something of the sort, I guess its just a matter of time before we see her name on a new project.

It's also nice to see who's best buds with who in the Japanese scoring community, truely a fabulous trio:



Enjoy!


After Junko Nakajima's Atlantis I had to search for more of her work and true enough, nextday quickly found it (he's just the best). She clearly takes after Watanabe:

Memoria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zlssaf_ANk)

It won't be long until she gets her first anime project, Senzoku Gakuen has established direct business ties with the anime industry and Kota Yokoseki will not be the last of Watanabe's/Yamashita's/Oku's students to launch on the scene with a big ensemble.

Good thing I just had fibre because I'll clearly need it to grab Vin's monster 2017 concert post!



Tango: aaaah, now we're talking. This planetarium piece isn't really exceptional but it's MILES ahead of that lame First Man piece. It's really competent and well-written, and it almost seems like it's been composed by a japanese composer, due to the overall romantic grace and charm it features, something that has become very rare in western music.

So, given these new elements, I retract what I said about Hurwitz's incompetence. He just did a really shitty job with First Man. ;)

If nothing else Hurwitz is classically trained, which is more than can be said of most others currently working in Hollywood. That piece that Tango posted was a solid indicator of that, but I find it a bit lifeless. He doesn't really have much of a personal voice. Had he not scored a couple smash hit films like La La Land, he would have most likely ended up as another in the army of Hollywood orchestrators.

Gentlemen, since we're on the topic of Christmas, I have a favor to ask. We're making a Christmas production, and I want to do something different for pre-show music before the show.

I'm looking for a selection of orchestral music that sounds like Christmas, but not really Christmas music. So I'm turning to this incredible place of knowledge, hope to pick your brain on this matter. It's pretty fun for me so far, looking for this stuff. It can be any kind of orchestral music and doesn't need to be these traditional Christmas song in orchestral form. It actually doesn't even need to sound like Christmas, as long as it sounds like Christmas to you.

Thanks in advance guys and looking forward to your suggestions.

One of my favorite Christmasy pieces of film music is the end credits from the Royal Tenenbaums:
https://picosong.com/wjEtK

Korngold's Baby Serenade is about as Christmas as you can get before going into Tchaikovsky and Broadway territory:

https://youtu.be/37hghfcqk00

I'd also recommend Asakawa's Rex- it's a kid movie about Christmas that doesn't fall into the usual musical cliches associated with Christmas films. The lullaby in particular is such a standout, gorgeous piece. The main title is excellent as well.

Thread 171849

LLL showed that he has the potential to do something good - that he has an instinct for melody, and an ear for orchestration. It's not particularly good of itself - it's The Red Canvas all over again. That Planetarium cue... sounds lovely, pushes all the Hollywood old-school musical buttons, harmonies are thick and romantic, emotions are theatrical and larger-than-life... but listen again, there's nothing going on there. No spark, no frisson, no life. It's just the theme over and over again - and the theme itself... I don't know, it feels uncomfortable with being as long as it is. It's a modern film score cosplaying as a 1950s musical score. It's a very good cosplay, but it's still a cosplay.

Ah, Hollywood...

Asakawa's Rex... boy, that score is the musical embodiment of a lazy, warm Christmas evening in front of a crackling fire with mulled wine and mince pies... <3

There's a score that's through-and-through what it sounds like.

@banoime:

Ain't a christmas without Johnny, Home Alone is too easy so have this: Hook - Returning Home (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEnrxiLiV0s)

I always thought Shiro Hamaguchi's choral pieces have this "christmasy feel": Hanasaku Iroha - Ray of Light (and the choral pieces from Ah My Goddess) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxZQOSktM3Y)

Alternativly Wada's orchestration for the first Inuyasha ending: Inuyasha Symphony - My Will (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZSp37m8WaE)

Oshima's Jeiko no Okurimono is a good one too: Samples (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMd9YV-Leb4)

Prokofiev - Troika
Sviridov - Troika
Mahler - Symphony No. 4
Rimsky-Korsakov - Christmas Eve
Horner - Balto
Elfman - Edward Scissorhands

I believe John Wilson was mentioned here? I have to agree on the general consensus that he and his orchestra stuff is simply fantastic. The best renditions of old movie magic fare. I have a few of his albums downloaded.

I barely finished The Ballad of Buster Scruggs last night. What a slog. But there are some lovely themes from Burwell in what might be one of his best scores in a while. Take a listen but beware the songs. You could tell that the Coen brothers were having fun with doing sequences that had little dialogue and were almost short ballets. This gave Burwell a chance to write something a bit more prominent than he might otherwise.

Yep, 2019 can't come soon enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhInW-T33QI

Sounds larger than Victor Studio.

Yikes, it's been a while since I last posted on here! I've been keeping up with things, but a lack of time combined with not having much to say in general is why I haven't been talking too often. Still, I'd like to pop in and comment on some things that I do have thoughts on.

Tango's return: Wa-hey! I'm happy to see you back, man! I hope you're doing well, and it's great to see everything's been resolved! (I'll also message you in a day or two about something I've been meaning to ask for a while, but I'm just putting this reminder here so you know to keep an eye out for it.)

Orchestral music I've been listening to at the moment: This might get some eyes rolling, but I've been listening to Sagisu/Amano's music from Evangelion 3.33 and Shin Godzilla (and a little bit of the Attack on Titan films). This is mainly because I'm using it as a custom soundtrack for Earth Defence Force 2017, a game where you're a foot soldier of the military being attacked by countless giant bugs and monsters. There's an enormous scope to the battles, and the music goes very well with the "monster movie" vibe this game wears on its sleeve (that said, I'd love some recommendations of music from other works that fit the bill).

About a month ago, I decided to finally sit through Gunbuster for the first time. It's a pretty good series, and while I'm more interested in it for non-musical reasons, the soundtrack composed by Kohei Tanaka is quite good. Perhaps my favourite track is the sweet, melancholic Smith, which plays at the beginning of episode 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU2dpn47W_I) - it may just be a violin accompanied by and an electric piano, but it conveys a lot of feeling in its short runtime and is such a gorgeous piece. (Also, I don't mean to start another plagiarism debate, but the way this track quotes Mars, Bringer of War is really funny to me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzJG2YkPtHE)

Another one is actually just one song from the soundtrack to Sailor Moon R - Love (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBWXILEcVPc). I ended up watching the Sailor Moon R movie a few days ago thanks to an acquaintance's suggestion, and the music stood out to me enough that I think I might start checking it the shows' soundtracks. Love is a particularly beautiful, relaxing piece that makes me think this might be a soundtrack I'll get addicted to in the new year. It's composed by Takanori Arisawa, a man whose name I haven't seen mentioned on the thread that often because I confused him with Tomoyuki Asakawa when I wrote this post (blast the habit of creating similar looking names!). Thank you for pointing this out, Zipper. Anyway, it's pretty lovely and I might check out more of his music.

Christmas songs: You'd think that since I'm working on a collaborative Christmas album, I'd know at least one or two songs that aren't the usual suspects. Sadly, the only one I know of that screams Christmas to me isn't orchestral, but I'll still link to it all the same. (Christmas on Dobuita St. from Shenmue - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xq-q30Y-IE) I've still not gotten round to playing the original game, but this song in particularly really makes me want to at some point. It's sad, but there's a calm serenity that kinda symbolizes the nostalgic feeling that I feel people often associate with Christmas, and that I'm beginning to associate with over the last year or thereabouts.

It's composed by Takanori Arisawa, a man whose name I've seen many times on this thread but never heard anything of until now (besides the music to that dog movie Zipper linked to a while back), and if this track is anything to go by, I can see why he's brought up so often.Err... that was Tomoyuki Asakawa. Similar names, but very different composers (i.e. Taku Iwasaki and Taro Iwashiro). But you're right, I don't think Arisawa is mentioned often in this thread. Unfortunately I can't say I have too high of an opinion of his work, but it was a tragedy that he passed away at the mere age of 54.

@ FrDougal9000 If you like Gunbuster, you'll love Diebuster and speaking of Arisawa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVmMMJx2Tj8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2PUy7ab_x4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhLdAINWM08

The part at 2:07 sounds like Philip Glass's Koyaanisqatsi, was that intentional? The original does have a Glass feel to it, so using him for inspiration is a good idea.

I wish I could say it was intentional but I actually am not familiar with that particular Glass work. It was quite the challenge to keep this piece from becoming too repetitive as the original tended to be so I decided to do some variations between the key changes. That moment was more of me trying to keep the music moving, while still releasing the tension from the previous few bars so that it could build again later. I did make a John Williams reference at 2:53 with the eighths in the horn and clarinets. A similar motif was used in films like A.I. and Memoirs which at the time I had been listening to and really loved the effect.

Good to see you back Father ;)

Yeah, Tanaka has this very soothing quality in his music that certainly comes from his lounge playing background. It's all over Gravity Daze 2 as well. Sometimes I just don't do anything in that game and just float around and take in his music with the stellar visuals. In regards to his orchestral writing from classical works he also has a very big influence that is often overlooked:

Ex1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rPZ3evVsdc&list=PLkLimRXN6NKywy3VAFTI8F2YDwHSv5ecF&t=2m58s)
Ex2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BikRqRbAeuY&list=PLkLimRXN6NKywy3VAFTI8F2YDwHSv5ecF&index=7&t=2m10s)
Ex3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q6WCdQm2Jo&t=2m04s) (my favorite Goldsmith cue)

A very good video (they just seem to find their way to my recommendations list) about why this is one of Tanaka's (and Asakawa's and many other Japanese composers) favorite musical influences: The Artist vs The Machine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htwFCb4ndVw)



In other news, since you mentioned SAGIMANO (honestly, you're well off with your choice, doesn't get more "epic" than those two fused together):

On this episode of Japan never changes: The Perfect SAGIMANO moment doesn't ex-... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiESfolX4iM&t=18m10s) (Shame the cue starting at 18:42 is cut short at 19:30 but that's what soundtracks are for). They also somehow forgot to name the score cues for the soundtrack, unless Sagisu wants to be wacky like Sawano: https://vgmdb.net/album/80930

Gridman is GREAT.. but it's just Giant Robo again, after nearly thirty years, with a few notes switched around. It was already great - in 1991. Amano's plagiarism is hardly new, of course - he's been doing it since the 80s - but this all feels like a quick copy and paste job in comparison to, say, Magi.

Amano, for Christ's sake, get back to composing again...

For all the Goldsmith fans, Intrada just released Reincarnatin of Peter Proud. Half is stereo while the other half is mono source but it is still much better than the previous boot.

They also somehow forgot to name the score cues for the soundtrack, unless Sagisu wants to be wacky like Sawano: https://vgmdb.net/album/80930

If memory serves me, Sagisu did this in Rebuild of Evangelion soundtracks and Godzilla Resurgence. Perhaps there are more examples, that I forgot.

@suro-zet: You're right, it was the Outtakes from Eva and Godzilla. Guess its his style now.

@Sirus: Thanks for the heads-up!

@Tango: Magi is also a show that needs to continue someday, I don't know whats taking so long for that one.

Sagisu shared a few more sessions at Abbey Road on his twitter, so more SAGIMANO aside from EVA 4 is definitely coming next year.
On the one hand, I doubt Amano even wants to separate himself from Sagisu after what happened to Yamamoto but on the other, this is the time of seeing familiar names again.



Hideki Sakamoto, Katsuro Tajima, Keisuke Ito, Junichi Nakatsuru
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
The Orchestral Session / Arranged by myself (no loops)



Another season, another orchestral opening with a rousing finish.

Super Smash Bros. Official Anime Intro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oHqUNSRXc0)

Variations on the Ultimate Theme (https://mega.nz/#!P3oDWSQa!bGlSUOTHdts_vSan_A78ekJicA8_XhvjEC6YnWTmyX4)

A common practice. Main Theme, Menu, Final Battle and special events all have a real ensemble. Hideki Sakamoto composed the theme and these veterans of game music put their own spin on it.
This is an overblown superlative game so it makes sense Smash sounds bigger than ever. The Main Theme doesn't reach the elegance of Melee's Theme, which is far more suitable for classical arrangements but Ultimate's theme has far more interesting variations from orchestra and chorus to funk and is more catchy.

I expect an official concert for Smash Bros. in the not-so-distant future with the usual suspects (Yamashita, Kameoka, Miyano) arranging. Yamashita and Kameoka teamed up for this years Zelda concert, focus is on Breath of the Wild.



EDIT: Actually, a CD is already announced: https://vgmdb.net/album/82435

I wish I could say it was intentional but I actually am not familiar with that particular Glass work. It was quite the challenge to keep this piece from becoming too repetitive as the original tended to be so I decided to do some variations between the key changes. That moment was more of me trying to keep the music moving, while still releasing the tension from the previous few bars so that it could build again later. I did make a John Williams reference at 2:53 with the eighths in the horn and clarinets. A similar motif was used in films like A.I. and Memoirs which at the time I had been listening to and really loved the effect.
If you're ever in the mood for an existensial crisis, you can't go wrong with Glass. Check out the concerto fantasy for two timpanists and orchestra, it's great.

UP YOURS THREAD!

I'm LEAVING!

(For two days, on a business trip to Geneva. See you soon!) ;)

TT

UP YOURS THREAD!

I'm LEAVING!

(For two days, on a business trip to Geneva. See you soon!) ;)

TT

This joke would be better if it weren't for the fact that you actually DID leave. For a month.

(You do know Switzerland has wi-fi, right?)

... That's the joke. I'm taking the piss out of myself for my over-theatrical and never-very-long-lasting past departures.

> (You do know Switzerland has wi-fi, right?)

Well, yes - I've had an office there for three years. But I will be either at work or at parties or asleep so I won't really have a chance to come to the forum.

How are you? Long time no see. :)

Hrm, not only have you mellowed out, but your jokes have gotten worse. I will take the trade, all things considered.

And as for how am I? Bro, I did a decently sides "Hey, I'm not dead, how you doing?" post just a few days ago! Tango may be a man, but he sure as hell doesn't know how to read.

I was asking after your well-being and trying to put aside what sounded like a distinctly antagonistic tone of your message. Perhaps I misread the situation, as I am often wont to do.

Still glad you're back and pleased you're in one piece. :)

Off now, back in a few days - seeya later folks!

Hey man, I am sorry. You know how I often have more sass than sense.

I am doing well enough in the boring dystopia known as the USA. Trying to balance work and my writings and trying to save money for school AND a new pc makes me think I should join a circus. At least then I would get paid for a balancing act.

https://media1.tenor.com/images/f430f317908b16c4648fdcba2b3d427c/tenor.gif?itemid=11009081

I really don't know how it's even possible to not see the obvious humour and friendliness behind Doublehex's lighthearted sarcastic pokes.

Anyway, have a nice trip, and make sure to protect your ears from that MONSTROSITY that is yodeling. There should be laws against this.

Thanks for sharing the Super Smash Brothers music!

I was tired, give me a break Mr Frenchman. :P

Very grateful for the clarification... I'm still a bit jumpy, I guess. I feel like I kinda got "reset" in this thread, like I'm the new guy again!

No yodelling so far, thankfully... but to be honest most of my trip has been either in a bar or in a meeting room so far... Apparently there's going to be hurricanes and snow storms later today and I'm actually leaving in a few hours so hopefully I won't get stranded in Geneva...

Thanks DH - really glad you're OK< even if life is hard right now. I know what you mean. People seem to think you can just clone yourself and do sixteen different things simultaneously, and at the same speed that you could do just ONE thing... Life is an exercise in constantly finding out ways to do more with less time and less money and somehow do it better. Where in the US are you, if you don't mind me asking?

glad to hear classic hollywood scoring in shaimans mary poppins returns.pretty wild at times.

Err... that was Tomoyuki Asakawa. Similar names, but very different composers (i.e. Taku Iwasaki and Taro Iwashiro). But you're right, I don't think Arisawa is mentioned often in this thread. Unfortunately I can't say I have too high of an opinion of his work, but it was a tragedy that he passed away at the mere age of 54.

Wait, what? (looks it up) Oh bollocks. I'll have to fix that now. XD Thank you for pointing that out.

Actually, I thought I'd just say that while I was looking up stuff on Arisawa for name-checking purposes, I found out that he started out as a self-taught composer who learned to play piano at the age of 20. I know that might not seem terribly significant, but I find that kind of inspiring as someone starting off on a similar boat. I taught myself how to play piano at 16 and started composing music at 18, but I've only learnt how to apply music theory and terminology towards writing and playing music within the last year and a bit, but I sometimes doubt my ability to create good music.

A lot of good composers seem to start playing at a much younger age, and I've read of a few folks who have created really good music around the age I finally figured how to play black and white keys on a piano - and it makes me wonder sometimes if I'll be able to create anything good when being comparatively late to the game. (Of course it's possible, but lingering self-doubt doesn't operate on a sensible sort of logic most of the time.) But then reading about Arisawa cheered me up a little, considering how beautiful that Love piece is. He only learnt how to play piano when he was 20, but he still managed to create some really good music. It gives me the hope that maybe I can make something as good as that one day, and I really appreciate that.

I was tired, give me a break Mr Frenchman. :P

Very grateful for the clarification... I'm still a bit jumpy, I guess. I feel like I kinda got "reset" in this thread, like I'm the new guy again!

No yodelling so far, thankfully... but to be honest most of my trip has been either in a bar or in a meeting room so far... Apparently there's going to be hurricanes and snow storms later today and I'm actually leaving in a few hours so hopefully I won't get stranded in Geneva...

Thanks DH - really glad you're OK< even if life is hard right now. I know what you mean. People seem to think you can just clone yourself and do sixteen different things simultaneously, and at the same speed that you could do just ONE thing... Life is an exercise in constantly finding out ways to do more with less time and less money and somehow do it better. Where in the US are you, if you don't mind me asking?

I live in Wisconsin (yes, the state that elected a Democrat governor whose executive powers could be heavily reduced by the Republican house before he even takes office), but I may move back to NC if I don't manage to get back to school this time next year (and yes, the same state that pulled that same shit two years ago!).

Interesting piece of film music history!

http://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/09/admiration-for-tomita-planets.html

Ridely Scott originally planned for Alien to be scored by, not Goldsmith, but Isao Tomita. The only reason he didn't end up working on it was because Fox (obviously) wanted someone more well-known in America.

Makes you wonder how many fledgling directors who grew up with anime like Eva or Bebop asked to work with Kanno or Sagisu just for the producers to tell them "Nope, never heard that name before. You're getting Tyler Bates." But with anime being more mainstream in the west now more than ever before with young audiences thanks to legal streaming platforms, it wouldn't be completely impossible to consider that a decade from now, some courageous new director who grew up with Full Metal Alchemist may want Michiru Oshima to write music for his big-budget sword-and-sandals blockbuster. One can dream.

@FatherDougal: You already have the existental crisis and severe inferiority complex phase you need to be a good composer ;)




https://s15.directupload.net/images/181210/myhqrxfn.jpghttps://s15.directupload.net/images/181210/v359iwjl.jpg

How much have I missed this music... ah... Anime was not the same without it! (https://picosong.com/wj7rK/)

A cross between Gundam SEED and Ultraman Mebius + a little Soul of Gold.

What a comeback, Toshihiko-san!




"Saint Seiya Seintia Sho" Original � Soundtrack!
An interview with Mr. Toshihiko Sahashi
From December 24, 2018, on the Amazon Prime Video channel (SKY perfume! Anime set for Prime Video) Saintia starts!
On December 26 (Monday), the theme song CD of this work and the original soundtrack are released! We held an interview with famous anime composer Toshihiko Sahashi who was in charge of the composition.



I want to draw a professional female statue

- Following "Saint Seiya Ω" (2012), "Saint Seiya Golden Soul - soul of gold -" (2015) is followed by the animation "Saintia Sho", but what was the impression of the story of a girl fighter Seiya Seintia?

Sahashi: �What is next for the Saint Seiya series?� I was thinking. Then, listening to the story of women, this is a bit new. I became interested in how the women are made active in the world of Saint Seiya. As I read the original work, I understand that there are maids of Athena, girls who protects this person, so I wonder were that would go.

- What is the image of Sainia Sho, captured by Mr. Sahashi?

Sahashi: "Saintia sho" does not put the word "female" in the foreground. When thinking about women who fight so far, I think that there were many things with idle nature that are fighting but cute. I follow the Precure series with great interest in that regard. But, the Holy Warrior (Saintia) is basically a warrior and does not appear to be idle cute. I thought that it was impossible to compose music unless I made that difference clear to myself.

- Originally in the world of "Saint Seiya" there was a setting that a woman's saint's warrior appeared and wearing a mask to throw out "women", but the Holy Tightly Woman (Saintia) is a special force since they show their faces.

Sahashi: That is not the same as before. It is not true that they are abandoning their womanhood. Like Precure, I think that "Sainia sho" is a proposal of a contemporary women's image. Many women are working now, and many women are active in the front lines, even in my profession. They should not be expressed with idle feelings, they will be working as professionals with the same vigor and force as men. I wanted to draw a female statue of that strong professional with my music. It should match the present age.



The sound that expresses the Holy Girl Warrior (Saintia)

- What is "Saint Seiya" for Mr. Sahashi?

Sahashi: In the first place, the first time I participated in "Saint Seiya" was the musical version in 1991. At that time, I did not watch anime (oh, if only I knew�), so I thought "Oh," Saint Seiya "was such a work" at that time. It is obviously different from other robot animations. There is a view of the world closer to Wagner something which is large in scale, and whatever you do, it is in constrains with the fate of gods.

- What kind of story did you discuss in the music meeting?

Sahashi: I got a screenplay and the director looked forward to meeting me after I read it all. However, since the animation of "Saint Seiya" is the third work in a series, I can share the musical background with the previous series. As director Tamagawa Masato said, you can do it similar like for "Saint Seiya Golden Soul - soul of gold -". I thought that the scales and organization of the music should follow the previous work. But as a request from Aco Director Takeshi Takasa, he wanted longer, more developed cues "Because I want to use music for long scenes, there was a certain length and he asked for songs with a dramatic structure, music telling a story".

- Have you thought about differentiation from past "Saint Seiya" series?

Sahashi: It is just how I express the female statue that is active in the front lines we said earlier. Musically speaking, in the past the main theme for �Saint Seiya� is represented by brass instruments. I decided to stop it and express it with a string instrument this time. When saying the warriors of "Saint Seiya", there is an image of a brass pipe by all means, even among "Sainia Sho", Gold Saints just have to be Brass (lol). But, the Holy Girls (Saintia) are trying to do their duty with different sounds. Even stringed instruments are not weak instruments at all and I thought about trying out more strength in the strings. That is a different attempt at composing from now.



Music suitable for contemporary anime

- Through the series of "Saint Seiya", is there anything you take over musically?

Sahashi: I think that it is "I am not doing new things" without fear of misunderstanding. Even in the first "Saint Seiya" (1986), Dr. Yokoyama who was in charge of the music kept a classical worldview, even when using contemporary Disco elements. So, I thought that I should not leave the classical routes. Technically, it is a magnificent essential to the elements of classical Western music centered on baroque music in"Saint Seiya". I take care of these two as a big theme. For me, "Saintia� is a work that inspires such classical parts and makes me more motivated with the various scoring experiences I have.

- It seems like to return to the origin of music.

Sahashi: However, Dr. Yokoyama's music also contains elements of rock and contemporary music, and there are parts that are not completely classical. Conversely, the current "Saint Seiya" has a more gothic feeling than Mr. Yokoyama.

We are doing "magic" in musical ways according to the story and theme of the work. I hope that people watching it will find it. Although it may not be obvious unless you listen to all themes properly, I think that there is much on the soundtrack for those who understand music. It is important to match the soundtrack to a picture, but I think that the real purpose is to express a theme behind it.

You can not draw complicated themes with concise music. Wagner is very good at such things and goes out of tonality while drawing masochistic things. Although it becomes slightly difficult from the musical point of view, I think that it is necessary for the soundtrack. This work is a suitable work for the female warrior of the modern age and I thought about trying this time

In "Saint Seiya Ω", I felt that the picture of the temple conveyed the space and the feeling of air more realistically in three dimensions. Anime is getting more and more fresh by incorporating CG and there are so many stellar works made right now that I�m very excited for the future. Along with the evolution of such animation, I think that music must follow with a three-dimensional approach, like a synthesizer's spatial PAD sound in a raw orchestra.

While preserving the classical world, we will incorporate contemporary technology and update it, creating a new style of music that will succeed it, �Anime-style�. That's something I've been thinking about a lot in recent years, and as long as I'm making music of the "Saint Seiya" series I will continue to do so. Saintia in particular is a work that is such great fun.

I would like to make music suitable for more modern animation so I will be more active from now on. Actually I want to record in London again, with a pipe organ this time.
Please look forward to the soundtrack release for Saint Seiya Saintia Sho and I hope you will have as much fun listening as I had making it.

- Toshihiko Sahashi (11.12.2018)



For those who cannot wait 3-4 years until the next soundtrack box for Doraemon (unless they release them annually now), I've put togther the highlights from Sawada's two stellar scores for 2016 and 2017 (the soundtrack box only covers 2015).

Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan (2016)



LINK (https://vimeo.com/305515971) (Seriously, this is just perfect film scoring, that finish filled with emotion so strong it bursts out of the screen!)


Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure in the Antarctic (2017)



LINK (https://vimeo.com/305520048) (Epic adventure score for full chorus and orchestra, Sawada fires the guns again, one of his best ever)

Going back to the 80s and 90s, Doraemon always had sweeping scores on occasion, a shame most of it remains unreleased. Btw, I strongly suspect the orchestral trailer composer for Super Robot Wars is Kan Sawada. No one else can do that Hollywood grandeur language like him these days and it doesn't sound like a rookie.


In regards for next years Dorameon, I have no worries that Sawada returns, he already returned to score the christmas special and has in addition quite a few movies and drama he scored for. Then there's another similar score I'm anticipating next year.

Apparently this might be Sawada-san

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3TqqYsFBAc&list=PL4495D1FEDB50B589&index=13&t=0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG_lvqaT8yU&index=13&list=PL4495D1FEDB50B589

I expect an official concert for Smash Bros. in the not-so-distant future with the usual suspects (Yamashita, Kameoka, Miyano) arranging. Yamashita and Kameoka teamed up for this years Zelda concert, focus is on Breath of the Wild.



EDIT: Actually, a CD is already announced: https://vgmdb.net/album/82435[/CENTER]
Oh my god, I cannot wait! This looks exciting and I hope the included Links Awakening Medley is the one from 2015. That one got destroyed by laughing audience.
Hey my 1000th post yay!
As always, thank you so much Vinphonic!

@Vinphonic
After listening to that, now I'm more eager for the soundtrack to come out. Maestro Sahashi, you are back indeed!

Actually I want to record in London againThere are many, many other composers in Japan who can only dream of being able to say such are sentence. It's interesting that he would say that though because I was certain the SEED symphonies were a one-off thing.

Still, working on anime again after his hiatus must have also revitalized him because he no longer looks like a 75 year old man!


New Yuasa film is going to have Oshima as composer again:

https://twitter.com/kiminami_movie/status/1073130147111268352

Hopefully this one actually gets a soundtrack release this time, which we never got from Walk on Girl.

I wonder when her new game will be announced, can't be too far off now.

Also, CDJapan has LOTS of preorders on Sahashi's new soundtrack and thats just overseas. If you noticed not many anime composers get their name on the cover. The parallels to Kohei Tanaka's Gravity Daze 2 are uncanny.


More Hamaguchi next year (aside from the TV series, the GuP movie and the Shirobako movie). What a stellar franchise, hopefully it gets the Girls und Panzer boom and becomes a mega-hit:



Squadron of the Wild: Mobile Game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgeYnf2jNbY)


And even more from IMAGINE:



Princess Connect ReDive (RPG Suite) (https://picosong.com/wgqWU/)

I guess a soundtrack will appear eventually. Mobile Games are truely a blessing. I believe Dragon Quest is in good hands when Sugiyama retires.

Oh and World Seeker gets a complete soundtrack release when the game drops: https://vgmdb.net/album/82569

And the whole One Piece franchise gets a new CD-Collection for 15,000 yen.

Who knows, maybe Tanaka can finally get his Royal Philharmonic album from all the Royalties.

I believe Tanaka and Keiji Inai are also working on the big One Piece movie next year, the trailer sounds very Inai-esque.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsxGhl-RTuQ
For you Oshima fans.
Also if Inai is part of the new One Piece then there�s a chance that he�ll take Higashiohji with him. Because he was the one who found him not Tanaka.

大学在学中劇伴に興味を持ち、井内啓二氏との出会いをきっかけに劇伴現場に関わるようになる。
Speaking of which the new kid did that game you just linked.
Opening Theme: Kohei Tanaka
BGM: Kenta Higashiohji

A nextday/Vinphonic Co-Production


Symphonic Gamers III
Ancient Legends / Arranged and mastered by Vinphonic
JApan Game Music Orchestra & New Japan BGM Philharmonic Orchestra



Sample (https://picosong.com/wgeW2/)

Source (https://mega.nz/#!O6gX3AKB!dlirqP27gLHOsDneV0e_Yqjd3GunfkPTjnV4rqEVHqo) / Remastered (https://mega.nz/#!q3IVnChL!rz8nQsIWVKHVhQReY1LINAScNaluuur2nEEHRw47kNk)

Endorsed by Joe Hisaishi

Concert recordings and tags provided by nextday. I arranged and mastered the album. This an album made from two game concerts this year, Symphonic Gamers III by JAGMO and the Ancient Festival: Yuzo Koshiro in concert by the NJBP. These two are the rising orchestra units in Japan specialized in video game music. A proper Cd release for the Yuzo Koshiro's concert was announced, including orchestral suites from FMTowns games and more. And in the not so distant future JAGMO will eventually release an album recording of their Symphonic Gamers concerts.

I love how true to the original the SF64 credits are but of course Kirby Super Star takes the spotlight, well other than the new Symphonic Poem for ActRaiser, Milky Way Wishes never sounded better.
After the classical part, the encore is pure fun and wild.

EDIT: The first version I uploaded had some errors on the NJBP side, the channels were switched and the volume balance was a little off, now I fixed that and you should finally be able to enjoy ActRaiser in its full glory. I advise to download again.

Enjoy (and perhaps have a dose of music nostalgia).

That's probably the best we've heard from Sahashi in perhaps seven or eight years, and his remarks are very encouraging. Perhaps pessimistic Tango was wrong and he really has just been having a bit of a snooze for the past few years. That said, we'll see - in order for this to be a genuine comeback, a) it has to be good (and we won't know that until we've heard it), b) it has to be the first of many new Sahashi scores which are good, and c) there has to be some music in there that rivals his best. I'm not going to say "he's back" until I've actually heard the whole score, as if nothing else this thread must've learned by now not to judge a score or its composer or the state of the industry based on thirty seconds of music heard in a trailer. ;)

Good feelings so far, but judgment reserved until the whole thing has been heard.

Thank you both, from the bottom of my heart, for the latest JAGMO concert - Vin, I love you to pieces... but I really, really don't like your remastering... and this latest one has the left and right channels switched around, which is most disconcerting... :(

As for the arrangements... they blow hot and cold for me. Every time a drum-kit comes in, I hit "skip" and I've been doing that increasingly often lately. Japanese orchestrators really need to stop feeling the need to give everything a percussive beat - it seems like we can't go more than three seconds without, at the very least, a snare drum going ta-ta-ta, ta-ta-ta, ta-ta-ta, every beat. (Yeah, I know, whine grumble complain... you didn't expect me to change THAT much, did you?)

That said, the Actraiser suite is lovely (it really deserves a studio recording or at the very least a proper release of this concert recording) - the original score's classical thrust comes through, and it's very nice to hear it outside of that grim 1991 Symphonic Suite recording made by Wada and Japan's Smallest Orchestra. It sticks awfully closely to Wada's orchestration, but Wada's orchestration stuck close to the original score, so I've got no complaints. Is it just me, or has there been a bit of subtle re-writing to significantly tone down the 20th Century Fox fanfare plagiarism in the last few minutes? :D :D :D

I was logging in to check something, and for whatever reason, the page I had bookmarked for this site was of this thread from around two years ago. I started absent-mindedly reading whatever post was at the top, and it was talking about the difference in sounds between different recording studios (Air Lyndhurst vs Sound Inn, for example). And while I think I might have asked before about which studios/orchestras suit certain types of music, I must admit I can't really tell the difference between a 'dry' recording and a 'wet' recording. But I figure that the best way I can start to learn is through direct comparison - by which I mean listening to the same piece of music that's been recorded in different studios over the years so that I can more easily tell the difference between each one (because otherwise, I'll just assume it's the way the piece of music is written or performed more than the acoustics or anything like that). Can anyone post examples of any piece that's been recorded in multiple studios and tell me what to look out for? Thank you. :)

@Tango: Ups, you should be disconcerted because that is not the version I intended to share (it was already switched on the stream, don't ask me why I ignored that -.-)

EDIT: All fixed now. Now everyone should be happy.


Well, you liked a symphonic gamers share, so... baby steps ;)


As for Saint Seiya, the first episode is already out so hear for yourself... I already love his main theme and I have in my mind various directions it could go. (I also believe I heard him quote a theme from Saint Seiya Omega in the trailers somewhere).

I see it differently, physically and musically, he's already back for me. I already think FMPIV is pretty good with a killer track and good old (alive) 80s. There is some gold in his Kamen Rider score and he scores another mobile game next year. He's out there working. But since you don't find GD2 the best thing since sliced bread (unlike me) I hope we can still have both great fun with his new line of work.




Btw, if anyone has not checked out my and nextday's Reijiro Koroku collection, there's a lot of work in there and I doubt you all have heard his Godmars.

This is one of the best arrangement albums I've ever heard. The only one that was lacking was the Undertale one.

I forgot Miklos Rozsa scored Star Fox 64.

Excellent choices for Kirby Super Star. Gourmet Race has been done to death, and the orchestration of the final battle is a revelation.


That said, the Actraiser suite is lovely (it really deserves a studio recording or at the very least a proper release of this concert recording) - the original score's classical thrust comes through, and it's very nice to hear it outside of that grim 1991 Symphonic Suite recording made by Wada and Japan's Smallest Orchestra. It sticks awfully closely to Wada's orchestration, but Wada's orchestration stuck close to the original score, so I've got no complaints. Is it just me, or has there been a bit of subtle re-writing to significantly tone down the 20th Century Fox fanfare plagiarism in the last few minutes? :D :D :D

How did I not know Wada arranged this?

They might have removed the 20th Century Fox fanfare, but there are still obvious references to A New Hope (22:34) and Clash of the Titans (around 27:00).

Those strings at 13:42 are pure Vaughan Williams. 19:05 is very Holst-like, as is 23:04. Great stuff.

Gotta give props to the bass trombone and timpani. They made the orchestra sound huge. But I think they were lacking a harp and used a piano instead.

Since Iwasaki's Ulysses is coming out in a couple days (and hopefully turns out better than those same 5 pieces reused in every episode), now is a good time to dust off one of his forgotten works.

Back in 2011, Iwasaki wrote a 10-minute piece for a sax quintet. But rather than using it to churn out some jazz tunes like you would expect from this type of ensemble, he arranged the saxaphones to sound almost like clarinets, writing this impressive impressionist piece that wouldn't sound out of place in Binchou-tan, with a bit of noir thrown in. Unfortunately, like most other Iwasaki soundtracks, this was split into multiple fragments in Ben-To and buried under a sea of electronic and vocal experiments. And that is why I decided to dig it out and compile it together, free from the rest of the baggage.

https://soundcloud.com/user-507695647/iwasaki-sax-quintet/s-4xT3P

Outside of the piece itself, I'm also impressed just how recognizable Iwasaki's sense of harmony is no matter what instruments he uses.




I started absent-mindedly reading whatever post was at the top, and it was talking about the difference in sounds between different recording studios (Air Lyndhurst vs Sound Inn, for example). And while I think I might have asked before about which studios/orchestras suit certain types of music, I must admit I can't really tell the difference between a 'dry' recording and a 'wet' recording. Ultimately, it boils down to reverb. A 'wet' recording is usually done in a large recording studio that has a lot of natural reverb, so you can here the music "trail" away with each note, almost like an echo. A 'dry' recording would be done in a tincan like Sound Inn where there is almost no reverb, and so every note comes out as-is, clean and crystal clear. Think of the strings from Psycho.

You like Sagisu, right? Go listen to the Eva TV pieces and compare them to their London counterparts in Rebuild. You'll hear the difference immediately.

Wow thanks Vinphonic for this JAGMO collection! You wouldn't happen to have 1 & 2 anywhere would you?

Sure Josh, right here (Thread 220609) :)


Streich: NJBP during the concert was a 50-piece orchestra and you're right on the money, no harp but two people on the piano. I also really like that they choose less popular tracks, a SotC arrangement without "The Opened Way" is really surprising.

In contrast to the two previous concerts, this one makes less use of the drumkit for rock but since Symphonic Gamers is a "classy" pop concert and not a classical concert like ActRaiser, I wonder if they change the arrangements for an album recording.


For the CD/DVD release of the ActRaiser concert, they might also include Sky Kid, Fantasy Zone, Space Harrier, After Burner II, Mamorukun Curse!, Dragon Saber, Tactics Ogre, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy VI, and Xenogears from their previous concert.



@Zipper: Ah, a lovely day, a lovely piece of music to start it with. The soundtrack for Ulysses has over 40 tracks (https://vgmdb.net/album/80542) but a lot of variations. My eye is on "Requiem from hell".

In regards to ladatree's Oshima sample preview (a dreamy album for sure), looks like next season will continue with that "pure" music approach for a certain genre, like a lot of recent animation, very french (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbVaFnx-uAw) ;)
Now there's also a "CyPictures" and with that plus their own music distribution, CyGames is already an industry within an industry. To recall my thoughts about their artist/illustrator brand Cydesignation, one has only to watch Maquia to be mesmerized by the absolutely wonderful background art. I couldn't really concentrate on the film all that much for a while because all I could think about was a FFTactics movie with the same style and staff, with Hitoshi Sakimoto and the LSO... that would be heavenly.


EDIT: Wow, Sahashi wasn't kidding at all: Saintia Soundtrack - Preview (https://picosong.com/wg24W/)

it took forever but finaly there is a new album by andrew pearce who brought us the delightful cinema symhony.le visionnaire is also fantastic.its on spotify.

Since I mentioned Cygames:



Yoshihiro Ike - Shadowverse: Suite for Orchestra and Chorus (https://mega.nz/#!u7gyDCzR!i8N4toW_S55ShMrISxC6kdEX5uedjqj_3hCHgG24D2o)

Recently, he has traveled to Nashville again and then had a little flight to LA and in addition, another domestic recorded orchestra session. He is a busy bee.

This is just a precursor to the next few days, which will culminate in Saintia (and then some...), so happy listening.


@hater: Now that is a nice surprise! Ist schon bestellt ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic3YYrwoTO8

WOW!!!

Christmas comes early courtesy of Sagimano Claus


SSSS.Gridman
Shiro Sagisu + Masamichi Amano
Recorded at Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall (Warsaw), Air, Abbeyroad (London), Beethoven (Paris) and Ro-JAM downstairs (Tokyo)


Sample (https://picosong.com/wgmhE/)/Download (https://mega.nz/#!mb4WRCwC!Ajq9GXMIKfo5m-MJEb-jQicApAGak_mCqMoGn8q7aRc)(MP3)

Wow!! indeed.
My tracklist for Gridman: 12, 1, 2, 24, 5, 8, 13, 15, 23, 25, 26. 1801 C Type is the standout and the most concert-esque of the tracks and the Sagiso chorus becomes more fitting with Amano's style with each new project. Killer score.


Let me join in the fun :)

I won't share anything else from Dec, 19 because even I can't buy everything (there's like a dozen all at once, who can even buy them anyway?!) . Everything else needs no arranging but Space Battleship Tiramisu has the Sentai illness so it needed some editing. Everyone is encouraged to add to the (hopefully) growing list ;)


Shunpei Ishige
Space Battleship Tiramisu



Return of the Space Opera Suite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-0Y2YKXmEk)
Download (https://mega.nz/#!r2p11K7C!jFZGDOqUdFBTDB3lOmeSu7vxU4GzrTkFGkFnjeYmpgc)

wow did Xmas come early? OSTs for GE3, Gridman, Tiramisu, Bloom Into You all in one day. also Ulysses but that one seems like a mixed bag.

btw Vinphonic the name of the composer Shunpei not Junpei :)

https://hikarinoakariost.info/ulysses-jeanne-darc-to-renkin-no-kishi-original-soundtrack-taku-iwasaki/

I ordered a few of these on Disc but maybe I should download them to cure my ever-growing impatienceness.