Ken Hisuag

A few names hold an unofficial honor in indie game music for their work in the emergent times of the industry, back when indie developers were considered more amateur. I got used to seeing Ben Prunty, Austin Wintory, and Laura Shigihara high up on lists of the most important people in the development of indie game music, and I took this as an indication that I ought to seek out their work. My expectations were set by a different stage of the industry, however, and it took me some time to understand what made these soundtracks special apart from other projects. The one that confused me most was Plants vs. Zombies.

This is a relatively simple soundtrack, with limited instrumentation, lesser quality VSTs, and little variance in style. On the other hand, the melodies are competently constructed, and the leitmotif usage is excellent. While not [initially] a mobile game, the sound is similar to mobile game projects; few mobile games of similar size would put this much effort into their music, however. I'm left wondering about the significance of this title when it released, and whether it incentivized a greater degree of effort in the wider indie game industry.

Sawawa / Maria - Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's Kappa ~ High Speed Cucumber
Given the character, I wanted something techno or otherwise electronic. The original being 3/4 timing may incentivize artists toward more classical-sounding styles (or maybe I was fighting the algorithms), but I eventually found this one, which was exactly what I wanted.

nori - Autumnal Waterfall
I've searched enough for this piece around Thanksgiving that I didn't expect to find much this time around, but this one pleasantly surprised me. It feels a bit short, but the instrumentation is excellently arranged for the melody; folk really suits this track, doesn't it?

Mikkie - Youkai Mountain ~ Mysterious Mountain
Expectations were to contrast the previous pieces, and I had to search quite a while to find something satisfactory. I don't personally listen to the original much, but I didn't think it was that unpopular; yet I struggled to find many remixes that weren't from the big circles, and I was determined to use something more obscure. I'm glad I stuck it out.

I don't normally post out-of-schedule here, but given the missed week and future plans, I want to avoid wasting a regular slot on a Fracture Feature, and I'm trying to get these tracks off the to-do list.

Almost forgot (it's been a while, after all); I intended to link this thread for posterity's sake, same way I link some Touhou music threads to Musical Discoveries. I prefer to have things organized and consolidated for ease of reference.

I got sick, and it was bad. Over a week later I still haven't fully recovered, but I should be able to get back to business.

Despite knowing that Penny's Big Breakaway was being made by the team behind Sonic Mania, I did not assume Tee Lopes was part of the project until I saw his name on the soundtrack, and I was very excited. He is accompanied by Sean Bialo, whose role seems to have primarily been boss music, but that's purely conjecture on my part based upon the way his pieces sound in comparison.

Coinciding with the game's bright and colorful aesthetic, the music is overall light, bouncy, and full of happy energy; even pieces that otherwise differ in tone maintain this spirit in context. Instrumentation varies a bit between zany sounds and more typical electronic rock, but always arranged in strong melodies. The soundtrack is of good length, and I had plenty of options for this feature (I could do a second easily); I've tried to avoid a few end-game tracks that seemed potentially spoiler-inclined, while including some of my personal favorites and favoring the game's primary leitmotif.

For my usual commemoration of Resurrection Day, I've selected the work of John G. Elliot. His style shows a remembrance of the classical style, often utilizing large orchestral arrangements in his songs. His lyrics are adapted directly from Scripture, setting him apart from the majority of CCM artists and further establishing a feel of older times. His album Here I Stand was a staple of my childhood, and has continued to be an encouragement to me till now.

'Nuf said.

Oshio Kuimu - Road of the Mistfortune Deity
Touhou 10 is full of great pieces, and it's a joy going through them for these features. This is a methodically paced arrangement, strong in the melody and deliberate in its accompaniment. It's also a bit louder then typical, so maybe adjust your volume before listening. I don't really understand the visuals, but I appreciate the effort put into them.

Jerico's Law - Dark Enchantment
A remix that puts the "dark" in Dark Side of Fate. This is similarly paced to the previous piece, but has moments of higher energy due to the instrumentation. I know a couple of exceptional arrangements of these pieces, so I'm impressed to have found something comparably unique.

Zawapee - Moist Gensokyo Beloved
Translation subject to adjustment. Another piece I've heard a lot of great renditions of, but this one stood out for being notably more relaxed while maintaining the tone of the melody.

Finally, I am prepared to feature Undertale Yellow. I'm still haven't fully completed this masterpiece, but I believe I've sufficiently progressed to provide an informed selection of tracks. Most of the music was composed and arranged by team lead MasterSwordRemix and MyNewSoundtrack (very inconvenient titles, but they don't often use their real names so I'm hesitant to favor them myself). A selection of additional tracks were done by NoteBlock and Figburn, with some notable contributions from emBer (other names in the credits had minimal involvement).

Stylistically, the music is very faithful to its inspiration; not Undertale only, but also Deltarune, as the release of that game took place mid-development and subsequently influenced the project. Leitmotif usage isn't quite as prevalent, but certainly isn't absent either, especially regarding the "Justice" motif that features in the game over screen. Character motifs are usually introduced early and then expanded upon (although I suspect they were usually composed in reverse order). Energy is balanced well (with one exception that I've noticed so far), and many themes are given variations for changes in setting, which I always appreciate.

Normally, when featuring a soundtrack with multiple composers, I try not to only use tracks from one contributor. In this case, however, I'm hard pressed to do so for several reasons. First, some tracks are simply too spoiler associated, however much I may enjoy them. Second, I already featured some tracks back before the game released, and I don't want to reuse them. Finally, the spread is anything but even, and I can't afford to go out of my way to ignore some of the best tracks in the game without severely shortchanging the feature. Maybe I'll come back to this soundtrack at a later date, when I'm less concerned about providing a superior impression.

I put this as the third best soundtrack of 2023. Now I wonder if I should have put it higher; ultimately I'm happy with the ranking, but I want it on record how impressed I was with this as I experienced more of it.

Higashino Seizon Penguin - Fragments
Admittedly I was more impressed with the circle name than the remix itself, but it's still a fine arrangement (I ran out of time this week, found all of these literally within the past half-hour).

SUMIty Piano - Touhou Fuujinroku Stage1 Theme
This is a really great piece, and I was continually finding arrangements that didn't quite live up to what I wanted for it. So instead of going big, I've gone simple. While I wish the sound quality was better, there's no denying the impressive skill in the performance.

Minazuki - Autumn Zwei
This track has always suffered from having too little to work with. Most remixes I've heard use explosive high energy to keep things going, and it works, but I still feel bad that such effective motifs are so tightly regulated to these styles.

Posts in the general music thread put me in mind to re-feature Mad Rat Dead. I remember finding this soundtrack back in 2021, and it was the most memorable OST I heard that year. At the time, only one of the names among the collaborating composers was familiar to me, being that of Camellia, who also worked on Dweller's Empty Path. I've since become more acquainted with the work of DYES IWASAKI of TOPHAMHAT-KYO and FAKE TYPE. (why is it all caps?). Other significant contributors were a_hisa, Yo Oyama, and Kazuya Takasu, although I've yet to recognize them elsewhere. There is a strong influence of electro-swing throughout the soundtrack, but several tracks stand out from the rest with contrasting styles mixed in, including folk, orchestral, and other electronic forms. I used some of the best tracks for the first feature, but there's still plenty of high-quality options to work with here.

Every year since 2021 I've posted Irish folk for St. Patrick's Day, and though I may be running low on fresh material, I believe I can make it at least another year.

MTK - sunset stage groovin'
I'm not really a fan of funkot, but that hasn't stopped me before. Given the context of the original, the tonal conflict embodied in this arrangement style is almost thematic.

IZMIZM - Night Daydream
This may initially seem like a direct contrast to the previous piece, but as it progresses I think it starts to resemble the other a bit; more like the other side of the coin, perhaps.

Grimoire Technlogy - Fairly Brilliant
To complete the trifecta, I've settled on a simple and straightforward arrangement for this track. Overall I'm very pleased with my findings this round.

Sorry I didn't get to this initially, I needed time to watch the video. It's well presented and organized, and uniquely personal, which makes it especially effective in communicating the theme of the film its reviewing. It's difficult for me to engage with it too well, though, as I'm lacking sympathetic perspective. Remember that the purpose of a story is to make its message relatable; a story portrays the understanding of the storyteller, who themself is capable of being right or wrong. I can appreciate the masterful way in which this particular story is told (and believe me I do), while also judging its message independent of its delivery. I do not believe the value of one's life is in either themselves or in their worth to others; rather, I understand each and every person to be a special creation of God, loved by Him, and therefore transcendentally valuable.

Now, to the thread subject:

I love video essays, as they often serve to explain the appeal something has to others when I either can't or have no interest in experiencing it myself (Internet Historian, Pyrocynical and Bricky are some good examples). Other times they can help deepen my appreciation for something I already enjoyed. Story theory and music theory are major hobbies of mine, and a major area where the two overlap is musicals. Sideways is one of the best in this field when it comes to analysis and commentary, both for his presentation and his original theory work (please check him out: https://www.youtube.com/@Sideways440).

But in the interests of linking only one video to this post for sake of emphasis, I'm going to prioritize Joseph Anderson's The Villain of Edith Finch. If you haven't heard of Joseph Anderson, he's known for his professional-level analysis of story and game design. This particular video wasn't the first I saw from him, but undoubtedly had the biggest impact on how I viewed games as a storytelling medium.

It isn't often I can say I know literally nothing about the game from which a feature's music originates, simply because to find the music I must usually learn something about the game itself. In this rare intense, I discovered the soundtrack to Viscerafest through GeoffPlaysGuitar/Geoffrey Day, a heavy metal remix artist who specialized in adapting various pieces to sound like Doom Eternal. By checking his Bandcamp, I found the Viscerafest: Chapter 2 OST, which in turn sent me seeking the Chapter 1 OST by Markie Music/Michael Markie. I was impressed by both, not least because there was a definite distinction between the two while still maintaining a similar style (although there's an inexplicably prevalent oriental influence in the Chapter 2 album that I assume is thematic to the game). For all I know the game is finished, but if it isn't I wonder if they'll get a third person to compose for the next part?

Pot Still Records - Japanese・Lofi・Saga
This same artist did two more remixes of the same piece, and I have to respect it. Out of the three, this was the one I appreciated best. The strength of lofi lies in its atmosphere and mood rather than its progression; this is a "chill" arrangement, perfect for background listening.

aocha - Child of Are
The marking of progression checkpoints is a nice touch, but it can be distracting, so I recommend listening without looking at least once. The original piece catches attention with its initial discordance, so I was intrigued by how the motifs sounded in a different setting.

NIZI-RINGO - Child of Are (ginkiha house remix)
I couldn't initially decide between this and the previous feature, so I decided to do both of them (it also transitions better into the high-energy piece that comes next). This is pleasantly bouncy while also having a smooth oriental folk feel; a happy sound, to be sure.

VAGUEDGE - Girlish Aspiration
High-energy vocal to balance out the post. Proper remixes of this piece seemed scarce, most simply adapting the original PC-98 sound into modern Zunish. While there's nothing wrong with that, there's also plenty of strength in the motifs for more standard use.

For something more relaxed this week, I'm going with Superliminal, a perspective puzzle game. I'm rather fond of these sorts of experiences (e.g. The Witness and Manifold Garden), and this is probably my favorite take on the genre so far, primarily because there's an actual thematic direction resembling a story. The music is mostly minimalist jazz composed by Matt Christensen, establishing a relatively calm (but not always comforting) mood throughout, even for the more tense moments.

A classical orchestral offering, because I was here and felt like it. I wonder who can guess where I first heard this piece?

minimum electric design - Gutenberg's Scientific Century
I have my doubts over the title translation. The arrangement itself has excellent energy; a lot of Music Collection vocal remixes will feature duets as a thematic gimmick, but only a few will sound like it's a part of the arrangement itself.

Macco-ya - Winding Spacewalk
The problem with finding a G Free remix is that I'm inevitably going to compare it to Final Dream, and subsequently find it lacking. So instead of choosing something expanding upon the original's tone, I've gone with something more experimental. There's a commitment to atmosphere that keeps the piece going, even if it takes awhile to get anywhere particular.

Unprepared Orchestra - Magical Astronomy
To make up for the lack in the previous remix, I've found a nicely realized orchestral arrangement for this spot. Too many similar pieces have bad mastering, usually featuring poor instrument balancing or amplification problems; so I'm always impressed to find another artist that seems to know what they're doing.

CHRONOS RECORD - Legacy of my Grand Father
Y'all get four this week; don't question it. Obviously my love for folk is showing, but it helps that this is an appropriately reflective remix in tone, thereby capturing the theme of retrospective ending.

To finish off the month, I bring you the soundtrack to Kirby: Planet Robobot. I don't have any particular reason to feature this game over other entries, but I'm committed to it nonetheless. After the overwhelming volume and variety of Return to Dreamland, this entry seemed refreshingly straightforward, though no less innovative. More mechanical sounding instruments are emphasized in these arrangements as part of the game's theming, possibly contributing to an ever-so-slightly more serious tone overall (it's still Kirby, though). Leitmotif work is also very strong here, this time for actual thematic purposes, which I appreciate very much. Especially noteworthy are the final boss tracks; the modern series has a reputation for dramatic finishes, and the music lives up to this.

Relating to this, it's interesting to note the split between Ishikawa and Ando; while the former is responsible for most of the series' iconic longstanding motifs, the latter seems to have composed the leitmotifs for this particular entry, and is also responsible for the more climactic tracks. Maybe this is more common than I'm aware, but I appreciate that both composers seem to be equally skilled and relevant to the musical development.

Groovy Trancer - Spacefaring
Magical Astronomy is among ZUN's best work, imo. I picked this arrangement to start out with because it fits the theme of space. It's a tad bit long and lacks sufficient progression to justify it, but there is variance between parts if you wait long enough, and that keeps it interesting.

AKANEIROTOWN - Labyrinth of the Starry Skies feat. Sarah_
I've heard so many Greenwich remixes that I wasn't expecting to find anything too interesting. This, however, impressed me; by intentionally contrasting the melody with a discordant vocaloid, the arrangement cultivates a disturbing mood, which both compliments the melody and enhances the impact of the drop later on.

Yayayayayaa - The Wheelchair's Future in Space
Far less refined a remix than I usually favor, but perfect for showcasing what I consider to be the most defining attribute of the original piece: the major key intro. I was surprised to find most remixes failing to incorporate this aspect into themselves; it sets the tone for the rest of the piece, and provides an uncommon contrast of mood. Being so unique in Touhou music, why not use that?

After some deliberation, I chose to favor Kirby's Return to Dreamland over Crystal Shards or Triple Deluxe, and I'm ultimately glad I did. Ishikawa is joined by Hirokazu Ando, both contributing fairly equally to the soundtrack, which is very large with reasonable but limited variety of style. It is so large, in fact, that choosing a few tracks to represent the whole has been a very difficult task. Even cutting out some tracks I very much appreciated, this is still an unusually large feature. I hope it sufficiently garners interest in the larger whole.

I want to point out the significance of release platform for music: As previously alluded to, older consoles had limited audio ability, resulting the development of unique styles tailored to these limitations. Each new generation came closer to proper audio transmission, culminating in the 2010s. As a Wii game, this soundtrack represents the progression of the series' instrumentation to full realization (from a technical perspective, at least).

I believe a thread becomes locked if inactive for too long, so here's something to keep it available.

I saw this video with the intriguing subject of "pneumatic instrument." Even after watching said video and reading its description, I'm not entirely sure I know what's going on, but it shows impressive mechanical and musical competence.

Being thus engaged, I checked the channel for other examples; as of yet there isn't much available, but it turns out the guy has a variety of projects related to melding experimental tech and music.

greenscarf - Synthetic Shore
Piano would be too obvious; here's a synthwave remix instead! This motif lends itself to almost any low-energy style, so it's no surprise it works so well in this form.

ti - Song of the Secret Sealing Club Meeting a Dangerous Cult
Iffy on the translation here, but it definitely matches the song. Something this unique only turns up in my searchings once in a blue moon (as they say), and I'm always excited by the discovery. Maybe using strange sounds as instrumentation to achieve the weird atmosphere could be considered "cheap," but then again it doesn't seem very common, and one can't deny it works.

Irohaya - Izanami
Reversing the approach from the previous feature, we have a soothing acoustic remix of a weirder ZUN composition. This is the ideal guitar performance, too, with enough improv to keep unique without losing the mood.

Not entirely sure what's motivated me to post about this now, but such is the way of things.

A film project will usually go through a variety of iterations before it reaches a stable state, at which point it usually pursues production and release. On very rare occasions, bits and pieces of these developing ideas reach near full realization before being scrapped, resulting in some of the most obscure media hidden about on the internet. Especially interesting to me are the completely written and recorded songs that sometimes just don't get into the movie for one reason or another. These two are among my favorites, and I wonder how many fans of their respective sources are completely unaware of their existence.

Happy Valentine's Day, btw!