Entries by mDuo13

So today I received the OP single to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, by Eiko Shimamiya. Considering that the CD was officially released in Japan this very same date, that is freaking fast. The title song, 奈落の花 (Naraku no Hana, or "Flower of the Abyss") is pretty much exactly what I expected out of it - a long (5:01) version of exactly the same thing the opening is. It has an extended intro consisting of some more filtered, reversed sounds (actually the reverse of the ending few seconds of the long version, it seems), which is pretty creepy-atmospheric. Some segments in the longer version that remind me a little of the first Higurashi OP - at least, moreso than the TV size version does. That's a good feeling. There's also what's almost a solo of the extremely synthetic sounding guitar lead (I suspect it's just very filtered, not actually "fake") which leads into a wonderful breakdown with just the chorus over some slight pads. It works beautifully to provide a refreshing pause before the climax of the song. I was also impressed with the strength and quality of the bass during the second verse. Overall, the song is still quite what I expected, in a very good way.

What I didn't expect was how interesting it would be to listen to the "instrumental" (read: karaoke) version, which omits not only the main vocal track, but the reversed versions of the old Higurashi intro. There's a lot of interesting audio texture and composition going on here that's lost behind Eiko Shimamiya's (admittedly wonderful) vocals. There's a lot of good string composition, some generic but nicely played, quiet background guitar, a few more filtered sound effects that I didn't notice, and an overall different feel - the emphasis goes on different beats and it feels much more laid-back when just the kick/bass/sfx groove takes over during the verse or the pads take over during the bridge.

The B-side, "FLOW", is not bad, but it's not up to par with Naraku no Hana, in either incarnation. It's getting closer to traditional J-pop, with an upbeat and totally overdone chord progression - though it doesn't develop into much else, as huge chunks of the song are spent switching between only two chords repeatedly. It has a nice, slow-attack, rhodes-esque synth lead laying down the main melody, while the stereotypical J-pop guitar riffs over drums, which are so obviously sequenced it's painful. There are some interesting effects here and there, but the song doesn't do much by comparison, and the instrumental / karaoke version really doesn't go anywhere, without Eiko Shimamiya's vocals.

As for packaging, aside from the cover which looks like it's trying to be Henry Matisse, the back is a picture of Rika and Hanyuu back to back, apparently naked except for a bed of flowers and flowing hair. The inside of the booklet is plain, just mostyl red, grey, and blue, with some inversed flower pictures and the lyrics; the CD is a nice texture and shade of plain, empty grey, except the title written in small red text. There's also a "Character Card" inserted in the pack - I don't know if they're all the same, but mine has a couple images of Hanyuu on one side, and part of a larger picture on the back: I got most of Rena plus what looks to be Shion's hair and a bit of her cafe uniform. Honestly, the card is not worth really noting, despite the sticker they put on the packaging proudly advertising its inclusion.

Overall, it was quite a tasty album, and the karaoke version of Naraku no Hana is a pleasant surprise, but the main point of the single is the one, title track. And when shipping (¥2000) is almost twice as much as the already-pricey CD (¥1200), that means that this song comes at a very dear price to fans. Is it worth it? Probably not. But is it good? Oh yes.

ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━!!!!!

My El Cazador CD arrived via DHL today. Well, at this point, it might be more accurate to say yesterday. It came in just before noon while I was at work. "El Cazador Original Soundtrack 1", as it is labeled (not getting creative like they did with the Tsubasa Chronicle "Future Soundscape" OSTs here) contains 17 tracks for a total of 51 minutes, 1 second of bliss music. All keyboards and programming are by Yuki Kajiura, while various other musicians sit in for a few songs each, providing a variety of live instruments, from the ubiquitous string section to the swanky harmonica and the impossibly rocking accordion. Booklet and inner cover art consists of just various caps from the series; the front cover is a rather bland picture of Nadie and Ellis floating amidst rose petals. [I'll be able to provide some scans later, hopefully.]

Overall, this first El Cazador soundtrack is very solid quality, with Yuki Kajiura sounding a lot less restrained than in some of her other recent endeavors. The level of traditionalism and experimentation is about on par with her Madlax soundtracks, which is high praise. Many of the tracks, such as #1, "Maxwell's Witch", are sort of less interesting songs that get used often in the background of the anime; #14 ("hotel del sol") and #13 ("small fry") are all passable quality but not worth frothing over. There are a number of subtle but good tracks, such as the mood-setting acoustic guitar solo "ennui", the haunting pan-pipe piece "murderous intent", the rocking "hit it and run!", and the bluesy "ballad of a bounty hunter", each of which is definitely worthwhile in its own way - but it cost me $50 to import this thing (international shipping on CDs still feels like banditry to me). Thankfully, there are three songs of such incredible quality that I don't regret it at all:

• Track #6, inca rose, is the main killer in the soundtrack, for me. It starts with an entrancing melody played on what sounds like an organ, supplemented by plucks from an acoustic guitar, some beautiful pads, and a nicely layered techno groove. But there's also room for a heavenly chorus and some heartful electronic guitar solos. But don't take my word for it: download a 30-second sample clip!
  El Cazador - 'inca rose' Sample [30 seconds; 780k mp3]


• Track #12, el cazador, is the trademark action insert song. It starts out with a string progression and techno beat that sounds like it was plucked right off the Tsubasa soundtracks, which had practically dozens of this sort of thing, but within the first minute, that gives way to an acoustic guitar backing up Yuuka Nanri (the vocalist half of "FictionJunction YUUKA") in what appear to be Spanish lyrics. 1:31-1:56 also houses an accordion solo that puts "Romance" from the Noir soundtrack to shame. After a beautiful breakdown, it picks up where it left off and eventually finishes roughly where it started, which is not bad at all.


• And finally we reach track #17, forest, the only song on the soundtrack whose vocalist (Emily Bindiger) is labeled on the back of the case next to the track name. And for good reason: this is the same vocalist who performed some of the most memorable English-language tracks from the .hack//SIGN soundtrack, and the resemblance is crystal-clear. This halfway-upbeat song was used as an insert song for a powerful scene of episode 14. Strings, bell synths, a wonderful flute solo, and all the usual suspects are present here. The lyrics, as included in the insert booklet, are [apparent typos and all]:
  
  summer rain falls on the apple branches
  lights from heaven dancing with the shadows
  
  come take my hand
  let me be in your forest
  
  sometimes you think loneliness is better than pain
  and you sink deeper in your valley
  
  is this the place to be, in your memory?
  
  no, I never wanna lose you in the forest of the night
  in vanity's lair
  yearning for the angel calling
  hear the lonely prayer ringing through the land of rain
  across the thin air
  they sing voice to voice
  the ancient melodies
  calling you
  
  autumn goes by
  combing twilight into my hair
  I look back on the passing tenderness
  
  let me stay by your side
  In your memory
  
  no, you never gonna find me in the forest of the night
  In vanity's lair
  no more holly angel calling
  hear my lonely prayer ringing through the land of rain
  across the thin air
  we sing voice to voice
  the ancient melodies
  I'm calling you
  
  

Anyway, the gist of this is that if you're familiar with Kajiura, you probably don't require this review to decide whether or not you want the soundtrack. However, it's up to you whether you're willing to import it at that price. Roughly $30 for the CD plus $20 in shipping adds up to highway robbery (heck, for that price you could get an entire season of Emma), but for a soundtrack like this, I'm willing to suffer the cost.

Yes, Hinamizawa.

This song is, apparently, the character single for Keiichi and Detective Oishi in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The images are just a MAD put together by a fan. I think they only complement the incredibly amazing song, though.

SANK YOU.

As an aside, I got an email from Amazon Japan this morning - I didn't get a chance to look at it closely, but I think it means my El Cazador OST shipped. I'll be sure to review it when it arrives!

For those of you who followed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni last summer, the ending was probably pretty disappointing, because it didn't wrap up the most important questions and issues that the series posed. However, luckily enough, we found out some time ago that a sequel would be animated, to finish out the story contained within the doujin games. Well, it has started, and it seems pretty good. The initial arc appears to be "Yakusamashi-hen" (Disaster Awakening Chapter), which is an anime-original story intended to clarify, refresh, and revisit last season before we get into the true answer arcs. It's 20 years after the main Higurashi arcs, featuring the detective Mamoru Akasaka from Himatsubushi-hen, as well as Detective Oishi, and a coworker of Mamoru's. They revisit the destroyed Hinamizawa and meet with a grown-up Rena (apparently the only survivor among the main characters, in this timeline). It's serious business and seems like it'll be good stuff. But furthermore, with a new series comes a new opening and a new ending - and Higurashi has some interesting stuff in that regard. Higurashi's original OP was quite good, mysterious electronic type of song. The new song is a bit of a more laid-back, sad song, but with a bit of a techno edge. (Gee, I'm not feeling particularly articulate today, if you can't tell.) It also contains an interesting feature: parts of the original Higurashi OP, played in reverse. Though, take note, that that link ends up going into the normal forward-version of the OP about halfway through. In the meantime, enjoy the forwards version embedded here.

There's a lot more coming out this summer season, though I'm not sure what to think of all of it. Some of the shows that seem worth investigating are Moetan (based on the otaku-targeted half-joking English teaching books - so they should be a hoot), Zombie Loan (all I know is it has neat art and it's about zombies), the last two episodes of Code Geass (airing together July 27th, I believe), a Zero no Tsukaima sequel (if you liked the first one, which was..., well, it was OK). Actually, to be honest, I know very little about the summer season. There's no new Kajiura or Kanno so far as I can tell, though both Darker Than BLACK and El Cazador de la Bruja are continuing so it's not like we'll be deprived. I can tell you this: initial word on Nanatsuiro★Drops is that it's an incredibly horrible eroge adaptation. I'll keep you posted as more comes up.

For those who haven't heard yet (all three of you) it turns out that with as many attendees as they had, and in the new location in Long Beach, the Anime Expo staff and the Long Beach Convention Center couldn't get it together, and the result was what people are calling the worst AX ever. Apparently they spent so much money on the silver bullets, they forgot to buy a gun. Guest Momoi Halko dissed the con on her blog and canceled everything except her main concert. The SKIN concert (with, I didn't even realize, Yoshiki on drums, wow!) started hours late, the SOS-dan event was (according to my friend ININ) "30 minutes of talking and 30 minutes of karaoke", and the signing session with the SOS-dan consisted of about 100 pre-signed posters being given out to the first few fans in a poorly-managed line while the seiyuu themselves weren't there. There are other negative reports floating around, including rumors that the American voice actors were rude to the Japanese seiyuu, though that's just the way it was scripted, according to Johnny Yong Bosch (American Itsuki). But I'd really rather not go on in detail about old, depressing news, so if you really care to know, you can read the AX thread.

More importantly, El Cazador's soundtrack has a release date and a tracklist! Since the music in this show has been top-notch (as expected), I'm just dying for it to come out. Oh yeah, and as another anime blogger mentioned, the last track on the CD is an insert song from episode 14 sung by Emily Bindiger, who has performed English-language vocals for both Yoko Kanno and Yuki Kajiura before. It definitely resembles some songs like "To Nowhere" from .hack//SIGN, though, a little happier, I suppose. Flutes, chimes, strings, great solos, and Kajiura's distinctive touch. Fans like me will be dying to pick it up come July 25th.

So that's about it for now, but tomorrow, I'll be back with word on the summer anime season, which is just now starting. Ja, ne!

So I thought it was enough that they were getting Gackt and the main Haruhi cast, but no, Anime Expo 2007 isn't done there. The caliber of musical guests has just been increased again, because Chiaki Ishikawa and savage genius are both going to be present as official guests of the con. For the uninformed, Chiaki Ishikawa is the vocal half of "See-Saw", the group that created the music for Noir and .hack//SIGN (with my favorite composer, Yuki Kajiura). She has since moved on to a solo career, performing the OP single to shoujo-ai/mech series Simoun. She's also working on a full debut album. And, great news for attendees - she'll be performing a concert on Sunday, July 1st, as part of the convention.

Meanwhile, savage genius is another performer who has collaborated with Yuki Kajiura - "they" are responsible for the high-energy techno opening to Erementar Gerad Elemental Gelade, "Forever...", as well as Kajiura-composed opening to El Cazador de la Bruja, "Hikari no Yukue". On that note, El Cazador is starting to pick up speed both in the story department and in the quality of the background music. Rumors on certain other blogs are that the OST is dated July 25th, though I'm suspicious that's the date of the DVD. At this point it's looking more and more like I'll have to do whatever it takes to make it down to Anime Expo this year... oh, the agony of it all! No word on whether or not savage genius will be actually performing, though.

Source: ANN

Many of you may already know this (I've known it for a week or two, but have been procrastinating on blogging it) but Aya Hirano, voice actress of Haruhi Suzumiya, will be one of the guests at Anime Expo 2007, along with Minori Chihara (Yuki Nagato) and Yuko Goto (Mikuru Asahina) and a number of others. They will be performing a concert, too, which probably means Bouken Desho Desho and God Knows, live, at the very least. I can't speak for everyone, but I am so jealous of AX attendees that I wish a lifetime of eternal suffering upon them. I would love to go, but Fanime Con has left my wallet so drained that there really is no way. Oh yeah, Gackt will be there too.

Extraneous information for those who aren't convinced: they also have the character designer and the director of the Death Note anime there. Combined with the fact that Aya Hirano is also Amane Misa's seiyuu in Death Note, that's a sizable chunk of Death Note's staff, too. And being as Death Note and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are basically the hottest two shows of 2006, it's safe to say that the guest list is pretty crazy. *shakes fist in despair* Curse you, Anime Expo, for taking all the best guests! (Though, now that I think about it, Inui-san and Takamura-san were pretty awesome guests, too.)

Anyway, consider this a belated heads-up for the uninformed. With any luck, I can get something of a con report from people who can afford to attend.

Now that Fanime Con 2007 has finally ended, and I've gotten a good fifteen hours of sleep, I can give a good report on just WHAT happened at the convention with regard to anime music. And boy, was there a lot.

The con unofficially started on Thursday, with a free (with pre-reg) concert at 8pm by Japanese rap-rock band ZZ, the group responsible for One Piece ending theme #11, "A to Z". If that's not enough, they're also featured on Ouendan 2 with one of the bonus songs, "Samurai Blue". Anyway, ZZ is great. They were a really fun band to watch and their music is very cool, even if they used a recording of the rhythm guitar during the concert, since they've only got one guitarist. But they rocked the crowd, played some great music, and I got their "ZZ Best" CD with all their signatures. Nevermind that I paid an import $28 price for it (and therefore 28% of my con budget). "ZZ Best" doesn't have Samurai Blue on it, but it has the similar song "Samurai Crew" on it. (Samurai Blue has similar lyrics, but it's a very different song that was created to promote Japan's World Cup 2006 team. Perfect for a song about a cheer squad.) Good times overall, though. Among other events of Thursday night, the swap meet was bargain central. I also scored an unopened $10 copy of the first volume of Erementar Gerad Elemental Gelade, an anime with an outstanding soundtrack, complete with bonus materials; a $1 Nadesico pencilboard, and a $5 copy of Polarium for the DS.

Friday night had the Fanime rave/dance, among other things, and while I was unable to attend, I've heard great things about it. Someone posted a video on the Fanime forums, which I'll repost here. It includes some pretty neat remixes of recognizable anime themes. I'm hoping I can convince the DJs to submit their mixes to Anime Remix.

Saturday I was looking forward to with a passion, since that was the night that the PLAY! Video Game Symphony came to the Center for Performing Arts diagonally across the street from the convention center. It was seriously amazing. Starting with Super Mario Bros, continuing through many other arrangements, recognizable and not (Sonic, Metal Gear Solid, Halo, Zelda), it was just over two hours of pure aural bliss. The San Jose event featured the premiere of Play!'s renditions of Oblivion and Blue Dragon music, as well as the as-of-yet-unreleased Lair for PS3. I can confidently say that all three of these were quite good. The Lair arrangement for play was conducted by special guest Kevin Kaska, who was one of the two composers for the game; it was an intense piece of music but it went on almost too long, thanks to anticipation for other big hitters like the Zelda medley, which hadn't yet been played. The one that brought tears to my eyes, though, was the Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross medley, in spite of the flute coming in half a beat late. It was just too amazing to hear Frog's Theme and all the rest played in a full, live orchestra right in front of me. Now, I didn't get the $100 seats, but I was still in row 11, and I still got a fair number of freebies, including posters for Dear Friends, Lair, and Play!, the program for Dear Friends, and a 14-day sample of World of Warcraft (ugh - gave that away, to someone I didn't know). I had to buy the T-shirt, though, for $15. A couple of composers, including Jeremy Soule of Morrowind and Oblivion, were there but I didn't get their signatures. I think OC ReMixer Hemophiliac, whom I met at the con, might have managed to get them. He told me he chatted with Jason M. Paul, the producer of Play!, before the show, and - get this - Jason said that he checks what's going on with OC ReMix once in a while because it's his job. Man, I wish it was my job to check OCR. Anyway, Jason was also pretty enthusiastic about a big-band arrangement Hemo did of Castlevania, but I don't know all the details so I'll let you know what happens later. After the show, I chilled with a friend who was actually in the choir, and he let me in on some juicy (and frustrating) gossip - six pieces were dropped from the show, including Dancing Mad, Aeris' Theme, and Liberi Fatali, because the orchestra's union won't allow them to play for more than two hours. Boo to that, eh? Regardless, it was an awesome concert, and those of you in Sydney and Stockholm have even more goodies to look forward to.

So that about covers it for Fanime 2007, as far as anime (and game) music goes. There were some other bands I didn't end up seeing, and a box set of .hack soundtracks I couldn't quite afford, but that's life. Now I just have to live with post-con depression syndrome.

P.S. Out of at least 3 Haruhi cosplayers, I was deeply disappointed that none of them wore a ponytail.

I really should have mentioned this earlier, too, but one of the series that's ongoing this season in Japan is "DARKER THAN BLACK", with animation by BONES. In the warped future city where it takes place, there's a huge wall that separates the city from a land that humans dare not enter. Ever since it appeared, the night sky has been replaced by an imitation, whose stars represent various people with special powers. There are Dolls, soulless bodies that follow others' orders; and Contractors, who gain supernatural abilities but have to perform a certain remuneration (such as aligning stones in a grid or cracking one's finger bones) every time they use their powers. Li Shengshun (or alternate spellings, depending on how you like to write your Chinese in English) is one such person performing certain tasks for his boss. The show is slowly developing its plot through a series of episodes focused on individual characters Li meets, so it's kind of similar to Cowboy Bebop in that regard, though the content of the plot (and the animation style) makes it feel a little closer to Witch Hunter Robin. The animation is pretty dynamic and smooth, plus it's in gorgeous 720p, like many of the shows this season, too.

Of course, the reason I'm writing about this show is not for the plot (interesting as it may be) but rather because of the music. The soundtrack is by the incredibly professional Yoko Kanno, the brilliant composeress behind both Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex soundtracks and many, many other famous works. Her work on this series so far is pretty muted by comparison: there are some mysterious string melodies and bell-synth stuff, maybe one or two instrumental rock tracks as background, and nothing that stands out particularly as of yet. It's still pretty decent music, though, and I expect that as the plot picks up pace, so will the quality of the music.

As for opening and ending themes, the opening is a pretty cool, if generic, rock track by up-and-coming band "abingdon boys school", whose only other credit on AnimeNewsNetwork just yet is for the opening to last season's (and continuing) Shounen Jump series D.Gray Man. The ending is sung by Rie fu, who's probably most recognizable from Bleach's first ending theme (the one that starts, "Nobody knows who I really am") though this time she's singing in Japanese, so it sounds a little better, though very much in the same vein.

In any case, this is another show this season that looks pretty solid, so go ahead and check it out. This, Hayate, and El Cazador are definitely much farther up on my list than some of the other things I've started watching this season, including Gigantic Formula (the character designs are fugly), Idolm@ster Xenoglossia (just... weird), and Shining Tears x Wind (it's based on a bad SEGA RPG, and it shows so much that it's unintentionally hilarious). I'll post an update if/when I hear anything about the OST for Darker Than Black coming out.

I must admit, I've been remiss for not posting this sooner. But until recently, I had sort of misplaced the link. Anyway, for anyone who's interested in arrangements of anime music, LevoLution is a must-visit. The "Sound" page has several remixes by a guy named "Lix", who is a very skilled electronic artist. Titles remixed include a lot of games, several of which have been made into anime, including Tsukihime (月姫) and AIR, plus anime-style games like Imperishable Night (which has amazing music of its own), and the Final Fantasy series. They are seriously hot stuff, especially if you like trance, dance, and similar stuff. There has been some talk on Anime Remix lately about anime remixers outside of the United States, and most of us have been hard-pressed to actually find any. The game remix scene also seems to be very biased towards the English-speaking part of the world. If you know of any other cool Japanese remixers - so far all we know of are CROW'S CLAW and Lix - then please let us know!

Oh, how I love the season of new anime starting. And that means this month. Expect a stream of good stuff, since this season looks like it's going to be amazing. After El Cazador, next on my list is Hayate no Gokuto, also known as Hayate the Combat Butler. It's animated in high definition in a style that matches the manga almost too closely: seeing such simple character designs in such detail is kind of off-putting. It's easy enough to get used to the art style, though, because the plot of the series is so absurdly hilarious.

The idea is that Hayate, a 16-year-old with the most irresponsible parents ever, has been abandoned with a debt and the yakuza are coming after him. Following in the vein of GAINAX's maid-comedy "He Is My Master", Hayate comes upon a rich young girl who is in need of a butler. After saving her life from kidnappers, she offers to protect him with the resources of her family, in exchange for his protecting her... from giant robots!

In terms of music (we like to forget it sometimes, but that's what this blog is really about), there's a great opening theme by KOTOKO, the singer you may recall from the excellent OP to Please Teacher! (and its sequel, but let's just forget that existed, ok?) as well as one of my favorite opening themes of all time, "Re-Sublimity" from Kannazuki no Miko. The ending theme is a surprisingly mellow song by the same group that did the Black Lagoon OP - only, this time they aren't trying really hard to speak Engrish and sound badass, so it works alright. It's still more or less your standard ED fare, though. The background music is provided by Kotaro Nakagawa, who's not exactly a newcomer (he did 1998's Geobreeders) but he hasn't worked on a lot of big series in the past, GunXSword and Code Geass being the recent exceptions. The sound he creates is average, so it's decent for scene-setting but nothing special on its own. At least it doesn't actually detract from the anime. (Black Lagoon for example had some moments where the songs being played were just... not appropriate to the mood. No problems like that here, so far.)

One of the weirdest and most distracting parts of this anime is that the "Voice of Heaven" is by Norio Wakamoto, the seiyuu of Onsokumaru from 2x2=Shinobuden ("Ninja Nonsense" in the States), in the exact same voice. I mean, this show is hardly more serious than that one, but having it be narrated by a perverted yellow spherical shapeshifter is a little odd nonetheless. The main voices, for Hayate and Nagi, are by Ryoko Shiraishi (Kaede, the ninja girl, from Negima) and Rie Kugimiya (Alphonse from FMA) respectively, but neither of them sounds very much like past roles I've heard them in. Apparently they were chosen on the recommendation of the manga artist, who named them and one other in an interview before the anime was made.

Overall, this is a pretty silly show, and it knows it, so it's pretty funny. Neither the music nor the animation is remarkable, but at least it's in high-definition, so it's probably worth watching more of. The concept alone is worth bearing out a little longer.

ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━!!!!!

Finally, the series I've been waiting for is here. El Cazador de la Bruja (Spanish: "Witch Hunter") or just El Cazador for short, aired. At the time of this writing, raws are out as are subs in Spanish and Chinese, but no English just yet. Anyway, the series looks like it's everything I hoped and expected. Animation is Bee Train Digital, in 720p high definition, so it looks like a cross between Madlax and .hack//Roots. The character designs are pretty good; they look a lot more... cheery than usual. Nadi (the brunette) kind of reminds me of Nono from Gunbuster 2. Elyse bears a strong resemblance to other Bee Train characters, in case you hadn't noticed.

The plot so far is this: Elyse is on the run, because there's a bounty on her head for murdering someone, but she doesn't know how or why; she doesn't remember much. She does, however, seem to have some subconsciously-controlled witch powers. A mysterious company is observing her and it seems she is the subject of a "Project Leviathan". Nadi is just a bounty hunter of sorts (she tries never to kill if she can avoid it) who has decided to protect Elyse because a nice old woman asked her to. The old woman has told them to travel south, and given them an uncut red gem, which seems the same color as the stone on a necklace worn by a woman in the mysterious company.

The opening theme is "Hikari no Yukue" ("Whereabouts of the Stars") sung by savage genius, who also did the opening to Erementar Gerad ("Elemental Gelade" in the States). I'm willing to bet the song is composed and sequenced by Yuki Kajiura, though. It sounds like her type of deal. It's a great song and very catchy - sort of ethnic-influenced JPOP. The ending theme, "romanesque" is FictionJunctionYUUKA, which is Yuki Kajiura with Yuuka Nanri, a pairing we've seen several times, including the MADLAX opening and ending themes, a couple Gundam Seed insert songs, and most recently the OP to .hack//Roots. It sounds a lot like their regular stuff except with a much stronger focus on Spanish-style acoustic guitar. Being as the show takes place in Central or South America, that's pretty appropriate. The single for romanesque comes out April 18th. Background music is basically the same Yuki Kajiura that you've seen everywhere: mysterious chants, calm piano pieces, and excellent string-heavy electronic action songs. The sequence at the end of the episode has a great song with some nice guitar strumming and lyrics in Spanish - otherwise it sounds incredibly like the music from Tsubasa Chronicle. One song stood out as unusual tracks consists of some bluesy riffing on a harmonica, apparently catching some of that "wild west" feel. It works pretty well.

Oh yeah, and if you're a fan of voice actors, Nadi is voiced by Shizuki Itou, who's done a lot of roles that I mostly haven't seen, and Elyse is by Ai Shimizu, the voice of He Is My Master's Mitsuki, among others. Both are sort of medium-level talents so far as I can tell; they're alright for the roles but I'm not seeing anything special coming in Nadi's voice just yet.

In short, the show is more of the same from Bee Train and Yuki Kajiura; if you were a fan of Madlax and Noir, you'll love it, being as it's the same thing with a Central American twist. If you didn't like those shows, or if you're not looking for more of the same, forget it. But I know I'm going to be loving every bit.

So this comes a little bit late, but I might as well throw it out there - Anime Remix added a new song the other day, an old little sample-remix called "Totoro's Groove" by po! It's a goofy little groove with a chopped up sample from that fun old Ghibli movie, "My Neighbor Totoro". Not a totally complex or amazing remix, but it sounds pretty cool anyway.

What's more fun about this remix is what it signals for Anime Remix, which is that straight-up remixes - not just rearrangements - are now fair game for the site. Anime Remix, which has been hosting rearrangements of anime songs since 2002, made a decision that, legally, straight-up remixes weren't any less of a gray area than rearrangements, so catchy little songs like "Totoro's Groove" are just the beginning of what's possible. Check it out:

This is a bit of a follow up to a couple entries ago. Basically, starting at episode 20, Death Note has new opening and ending themes by Japanese metal band Maximum the Hormone. They're already drawing praise and criticism for the style, which is much more hardcore metal than the previous pop-rock themes by Nightmare (Thanks for the correction, Souzou!). Personally, I like the first pair a little better, but there's definitely something exciting about the blood-pulsing energy of the second opening. The visual style of the OP sequence is pretty interesting, too. Ryuk and MisaMisa are totally awesome in it. Take a look:

Edit: Youtube link moved, since the first one went down.

As for the ending theme, "Zetsubou Billy", I'll just give you a 30-second demo download.
Death Note 2nd Ending Theme Demo [.mp3, 742kb]

First off, let me apologize for the utter lack of posts in the past couple weeks. We've been following up various leads, and some of us are finding our free time less copious than usual: My spring semester started, and OverCoat (I'm glad to say) got a job. Congratulations! That's enough apologizing, though: let me introduce you to today's feature, a new type of article we're trying out: a remixer interview. Kicking off this process, I've interviewed Fray, also known as Nathan Monteleone of Arlington, Texas. Fray has one Anime Remix and one OC ReMix to his name, and has been an active member of the remixing community for some time. To let you in on a secret, I'm a big fan of his and find myself singing along to Shine embarrassingly, all the time. Then again, it seems like a lot of people who listen to the song have that experience.

mDuo13: Hello, Fray, and thanks for joining us. You've got one complete anime remix so far, yes? Care to tell us how you got into anime remixing in the first place?

Fray: Well, I remembered seeing the website in people's sigs on OCReMix. Seeing Haibane Renmei revived my interest in anime, so I hit up AR looking for Haibane remixes. And since I'd already been involved with video game remixing, the transition to anime was pretty natural from that point.

mDuo13: Ah, so how long have you been involved in video game remixing?

Fray: My first attempts go back to around early 2002, culminating in me actually getting a remix past the judges' panel on OCR in 2004.

mDuo13: So, what sort of musical training do you have?

Fray: I took 10 years of piano lessons starting around age 7. For all that I never got to be nearly as good as I should have been, but I could play some pretty technical pieces by the end of it. Scott Joplin rags were always my favorite. I played bassoon throughout high school, plus a few other wind instruments... and then completely slacked off of music in college after I got kicked out of the community orchestra there for being a bum.

mDuo13: *laughs* Bassoon, really? How is that?

Fray: Bassoon? It's really a fun instrument to play. Looks bizarre, sounds about as strange, and attracts lots of attention. There are a few problems with it though -- One, they're expensive as all hell, as are the reeds. To top it off, you can't just buy a reed and play on it, you usually have to do some work on them with a special knife, etc... Two, they're quiet, so no one hears you most of the time in an orchestra, and three, they're delicate.

mDuo13: Ah, well, that's too bad. I take it you haven't played any bassoon recently, then?

Fray: I've been wanting to use it in a remix sometime, actually. But I'm horribly out of practice -- you're right, I haven't played it in a couple years.

mDuo13: I look forward to seeing it. Anyway, that brings me to another question: what hardware and software do you use for mixing?

Fray: First, a disclaimer: I have more money than I have free time. As such, I have way more gear than is really necessary, and much of it I haven't used to the fullest. So if you want to get into remixing, don't think you need even half this stuff. People have sounded better than me using less than $100 worth of software.

mDuo13: *laughs* I'll keep this in mind.

Fray: So! I use Cakewalk Sonar 5, Producer edition as my main software. It's one of the best MIDI sequencers out there, and the audio stuff is starting to contend with the big daddies. I use it for just about everything -- recording my outside gear, fixing mistakes in MIDI tracks, mixing, effects, all that. It's also got some really nice software synths that come with it (Pentagon I is my favorite).

My Roland RD-600 is my main MIDI Controller; it's a stage piano, so it's got builtin sounds of its own -- they're pretty nice, but kinda limited to pianos, EP's, and organs. It has a few synths and things, but they're kinda crappy, so I turn to other sources for many of my sounds. The main draw, for me, is the keyboard feel. I wouldn't say it's a convincing replica of a real piano, but it definitely allows for very expressive playing, so generally, I lay down tracks using it. For some really simple stuff I'll click the notes into Sonar with a mouse, but generally I record MIDI off the RD-600.

A lot of the other sounds come from a Roland XV-5050 rack synth. It's more a jack of all trades; it's got everything from strings to brass to wacked out synths, and all the patches are very editable too. I also use a dave smith evolver -- it's a monophonic synth. It has real analog filters and oscillators in it, but it's got digital ones too - it's a hybrid. I use that when I want cool leads and basses, because it has a lot of its own character.

mDuo13: Anything else?

Fray: That's the main stuff. Other than that I have an Oktava MK-219 mic that I picked up on the cheap at Guitar Center. They were blowing them out for like $70. Oh, and autotune (haha). Couldn't live without that. I have decent pitch but I can't control my voice very well. Recently I got a novation remote 61 MIDI controller, which sits directly on my desk -- that can be really handy when I'm going back and forth between playing things on the keyboard and making edits in Sonar. The RD-600 is so huge that there's no way for me to access it and my computer keyboard/mouse easily at the same time.

mDuo13: Yeah, I can imagine.

Fray: Drums I usually get off my XV-5050. It has some really nice sets on it, but to be honest, I've never quite found a drum setup I'm comfortable with. I've tried a bunch of different ways of going about it, and all of them seem to be more of a pain than really necessary.

mDuo13: I see. So, what's your remixing process like, in general?

Fray: My best ideas definitely start with me banging around on the piano. I pick out the chords (or some variation on them) from a theme I like, and the remix usually grows from some way of riffing on that. From there I generally just layer stuff on for a while - synths, strings, that sort of stuff. I'll put down some real simple drums to begin with; the final drum part tends to come last. I probably should, but I never think much about the overall structure of the song from the beginning. I more lay down a section and think "ok what would sound cool after this?" I feel like I'm still in the noob phase when it comes to remixing process. I think I get away with it because I had so much music training in elementary-high school.

mDuo13: Now I wish I had actually stuck with piano lessons for more than a couple months.

Fray: I might add that I don't really think about effects much until the end. To me, the music is in the notes more than the production tricks -- which is not to say I don't enjoy the work of people who focus more on the latter. It's just how I think when doing my own work.

mDuo13: That makes sense. But, the real question is, why does it take you so long to make a single remix?

Fray: Damn good question. *laughs* Ultimately I think it's a matter of time. I serve too many masters, if you catch my drift.

mDuo13: I think a lot of us are familiar with that feeling. Do these other ''masters'' include any other musical stuff, like playing in a band?

Fray: Well, I was pretty involved with a band over the last year, although I just quit. I played my last show with them last weekend. Also, being married takes up quite a bit of time (but in a good way). Warcraft 3 also chews up quite a bit, at least if you play it like I do.

mDuo13: So tell us a bit more about this life outside of remixing. What do you do for a living? What's your wife like?

Fray: I'm a programmer for a living. I work for a defense contractor, so sometimes the work is interesting, and sometines it's mind numbing. Ultimately I'd like to do something else with my life; I'm not particularly crazy about the defense industry. My wife's a scientist for Mary Kay cosmetics. We met in college, on the first week actually. A couple months later I asked her out and we've been together since. She's quite literally the only girl I've ever dated. Guess I got lucky on the first try ^.^ I was kinda starting a relationship with someone else at the time, but I ditched her because Amanda was hotter and smarter. *laughs* Writing is her real passion, by the way, not science.

mDuo13: Writing? Do tell.

Fray: Yep, her foundation is gothic romance, although she's been pushing her stuff in a slightly more literary direction... In the Romance world, if you wanna get published, you kinda have to follow these preset formulas. She's taken more to ignoring those and writing whatever the heck she wants. She posts some of it up on her livejournal.

mDuo13: I wish her luck. More to the point, is there any chance of getting her involved in a future remix?

Fray: Actually, yeah, she has a really cool soprano voice that I'd love to use in a remix.

mDuo13: What sort of remixes do you have in the works, anyway? Anything right now?

Fray: Yes, two. One's a remix from the game Crystalis - that's sort of your usual epic trance video game affair. I still love that style, even if it's been beaten to death a bit. And the other one is a Chobits remix that's very much styled after Ben Folds Five ballads. It has its genesis in a compo very, very long ago.

mDuo13: Is there anything else you want to add before we go?

Fray: I'd like to say that I seriously love the remixing scene. Compared to playing clubs in a band, I feel like there's a much greater appreciation for musicality and creativity. I've always found it really inspiring, and I might have let playing music slip out of my life entirely if I hadn't been introduced to places like OCR and AR.

mDuo13: Well, thank you very much for joining us, and good luck with your remixes. I'll be sure to post them here when they're finished.

And that's that for our first interview. It was a lot of fun putting it together, and I'd like to extend my thanks to Fray for lending me a bit of his time, and to all of you reading it. If you're interested, Fray's two remixes are a Morrowind remix called Fear Not and a remix from Voices of a Distant Star, Shine. Fray has also generously granted us permission to host a direct download for Shine:

Fray - Voices of a Distant Star 'Shine' [mp3, 4.73mb]