The Borrowers (2010) - Original Soundtrack

Genres: Celtic
Music Composed by: Cecile Corbel

Tracklist:
1. "The Neglected Garden" - (4:12)
2. "Our House Below - Movie Version" - (3:29)
3. "Our House Below - Instrumental Version" - (2:29)
4. "The Doll House - Instrumental Version" - (2:59)
5. "Sho's Lament - Instrumental Version 1" - (2:47)
6. "Arrietty's Song - Instrumental Version" -(3:31)
7. "Sho's Waltz" - (2:44)
8 "The Neglected Garden - Instrumental Version" - (1:14)
9. "Spiller - Instrumental Version" - (2:01)
10. "Rain - Instrumental Version" - (1:08)
11. "The Wild Waltz" - (3:03)
12. "Sho's Lament - Instrumental Version 2" - (3:13)
13. "An Uneasy Feeling" - (3:13)
14. "With You" - (2:38)
15. "The House is in Silence" - (1:28)
16. "Sho's Song - Instrumental Version" - (3:17)


For some reason I haven't really been wanting to blog lately, and I've just pretty much stayed away from the blogging site, and not even visiting the blogs that I have subscribed to. Now I feel like its time for a change of pace and get back into blogging. Its not like I don't have enough music to recommend, far from it sometimes its just, picking the right albums, and having the will power to do it.

First blog after the break will feature the soundtrack from the Japanese animation feature film The Borrower Arrietty, not yet released outside Japan.

Anyways on to the album itself, this is what inspired me to come back and write about music again on my blog. I've been listening to it religiously since friday, and believe me this one is truly a gem of musical soundtrack, worth every second of my time listening to.

My first impression when listening to this soundtrack wasn't all positive. The Borrowers is Ghibli movie and I had certainly expected that Joe Hisaishi would be the one to compose the music for this album so I was certainly surprised when I took a look at the playlist and saw the name Cecile Corbel. Cecile who? This isn't Joe Hisaishi, and I've never heard of her. Looking past that I gave it a listen, and for once I'm actually happy Hisaishi wasn't doing the soundtrack to this ghibli movie. Cecile's musical style fits like a glove to the environment and the setting itself the movie is set to.

I actually just skimmed past the few songs, and I loved it just like that, at some times you just know you like an album even just skimming past a few tracks, and this is one of them. What surprised me even more is that Cecile Corbel does all of the lyrics herself, and her voice is absolutely breathtaking. If you are into some cheerful celtic music, or just like movie music in general you cannot miss out on this release.

The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Graves

Genres:  Folk, Acoustic

Tracklist:
1. "I Won't be Found" - (2:47)
2. "Pistol Dreams" - (3:34)
3. "Shallow Graves" - (2:37)
4. "Honey Won't you let me in" - (2:56)
5. "Where do my Bluebird Fly" - (3:17)
6. "The Gardner" - (3:56)
7. "The Blizzard's Never Seen the Desert Sands" - (2:01)
8. "The Sparrow and the Medicine" - (3:06)
9. "Into The Stream" - (2:47)
10. "This Wind" - (3:24)


Normally this isn't quite my music, but The Tallest Man on Earth certainly has made me change my mindset. All this great Swede needs his guitar and his voice and out comes beautiful and catchy songs. People don't always appreciate his vocals, due to its somewhat rather odd nature and to me it sounds very American.

All of his songs are short, easy to listen and simple in nature. Even with its simplicity it really is great. As words say much less than music itself ill just give you some examples of his songs. All his albums are of pretty high quality, and Shallow Grave is his debut album and a good place to start. If you ever get the chance to watch this guy live don't miss out on as it might just be even better than his albums.

Yasunori Mitsuda - Kirite

Genres: Celtic, Japanese, Orchestral

Tracklist: 
1. "Is Kirite Burning Up?" - (4:25)
2. "The Market in Volfinor"  - (4:28)
3. "Promise with Winds - Petal's Whereabouts" - (4:51)
4. "The Forest of Lapis Lazuli" - (3:19)
5. "The Azure" - (5:27)
6. "Scorning Blade" - (3:53)
7. "Upon the Melodies of the Moon" - (2:02)
8. "Fated Encounters - The Fall of Darkness" - (2:58)
9. "Nocturne" - (2:33)
10. "As Autumn Passes Away" - (3:40)
11. "The Snow Howling" - (3:29)
12. "Prayer Tree" - (2:10)
13. "The Name of Our Hope" - (4:53)
14. "Circle of Eternity" - (1:32)


Last weeks has been quite hectic with little time for making new posts, checking other fellow bloggers blogs and such. Hopefully ill have more time for this now, and today will feature a double update to make up for lost time.

First out is Yasunori Mitsuda's album Kirite. Mitsuda is most known for his works in the video game history providing the soundtracks of such games as Xenogears, Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger.What most do not know about him is that he has released a non-videogame album that actually holds quite high quality.

The album Kirite is based around the story The Five Seasons of Kirite written by Masato Kato where the story itself is set in a fantasy inspired world

While listening to this album you might notice that compared to Mitsudas video game soundtracks you can hear the melody has the same feel as his video game soundtracks. Other listeners might be put off at the Japanese Vocals that features in most of the tracks of this soundtrack.

While Kirite isn't Mitsuda's best work it is worth a listen to see what else he is capable of other than making video game music. Some of the tracks like Nocturne and Circle of Eternity is as well almost if not at par with some of his more memorable tracks from other albums like Time's Scar from Chrono Cross. Unfortunately the album is of some variable quality and not all songs are as good. But overall it is a solid album.

Carissa's Wierd - I Before E

Genres: Indie, Shoegaze, Slowcore, Sadcore

Tracklist:
1. "Phantom Fireworks" - (5:32)
2. "Die" - (5:18)
3. "Blue Champagne Glass" - (4:48)
4. "Heather Rodes" - (2:53)
5. "One Night Stand" - (3:45)
6. "Drunk With The Only Saints I Know" - (3:28)
7. "Brooke Daniels' Tiny Broken Fingers" - (3:27)
8. "Bathtile Green" - (3:34)
9. "September" -(5:43)
10.  "Ignorant" - (3:19)
11. "Blankets Stare" - (4:06)
12. "Fluorescent Lights" - (4:59)

Carissa's Wierd is a dissolved band that lasted from the period 1995 to 2003. After that period 2 of the main members from the group spawned the vastly inferior group "Band of Horses".  Which is quite a shame because in that eight year period they didn't release a single bad album.

Their music is frankly quite depressing, the overall atmosphere and the lyrics itself are all rather depressing. You can even see it in song titles such as their top hit "Ignorant Piece of Shit".

Figured it could seem fitting for those who aren't the biggest fans of valentines and don't have anyone to share it with. With all the lovey-dovey there and there, lets have something depressive here. But seriously this band produced some pretty great music and its very much worth listening to.

Pure Reason Revolution - Amor Vincit Omnia

Genres: Prog Rock

Tracklist:
1. "Les Malheurs" - (5:02)
2. "Victorious Cupid" - (3:39)
3. "I) Keep me Sane/Insane" - (0:54)
4. "II) Apogee III) Requiem for the Lovers" - (5:22)
5. "Deus Ex Machina" - (5:40)
6. "Bloodless" - (4:55)
7. "Disconnect" - (5:54)
8. "The Gloaming" - (9:10)
9. "AVO" - (4:46)

Pure Reason Revolution brings a rather unique sound for being a prog rock band, and there isn't actually any band I can directly say sounds similar to them. This is particularly because they mix a lot of electro into it, and some songs might come of more similar to pop than prog rock actually.

I haven't had the chance to listen to their latest album as of yet, but Amor Vincit Omnia is a pure quality release, rivaling or maybe even beating their debut album The Dark Third.  For some this album might come of as a bit of grower and need a few listens, and maybe the debut album is actually a better place to start.

The highlight of their music is probably the vocals which fit very well into their style of music, and in particular the songs where both the woman and man sings it is very easy to fall in love with the vocals.

All in all this is one of the best records I've heard in the last 5 years and I can easily recommend it.

Heroes VS Villains

HVV Official Page (Download for soundtrack here) 
 
Tracklist: 
1. "Big Giant Circles - Samus Aran (Metroid)" - The Bounty of a Brain (3:55)
2. "Mazedude - "Mother Brain (Metroid)" -Diesel Brainage - (3:55)
3. "audio fidelity feat. Eric Griffin, Derek Meler, Marcus Affeldt -Guybrush Threepwood (Monkey Island)" Pirate Shout - (3:32)
4. "Diggi Dis feat. Alex Jones - LeChuck (Monkey Island)" - Voodoo, Root's n Grog - (3:45)
5. "Brandon Strader - Kratos (God of War)" -Born of Ashes, Baptized in Blood (5:25)
6. "Kunal Majmudar - Zeus (God of War)" - Wrath Industrial  - (3:01)
7. "WillRock - Axel (Streets of Rage) - Bare Knuckle Blitz - (4:00)
8. "zyko - Mr X (Streets of Rage) - Mr.Z - (5:56)
9. "Mattias Häggström Gerdt - Mega Man (Mega Man) - Screw Wily, I'm taking a vacation (4:08)
10. "Joshua Morse - Dr. Wily (Mega Man) - Screw Mega Man, I'm taking over the world - (3:19)
11. "bLiNd - T.M.N.T (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) - Go Ninja, Go - (4:13)
12. "Danimal Cannon - Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) - Enter the Shredder - (4:09)
13. "José the Bronx Rican feat. zyko - Link (Legend of Zelda) - He Ain't a G - (4:22)
14. "zyko feat. José the Bronx Rican - Ganon (Legend of Zelda) - Bladewalker - (7:19)
15. "zircon, Joshua Morse - Ryu (Street Fighter) - Satsui no Koto - (2:57)
16. "posu yan, Joshua Morse feat. Stacy Morse - Sagat (Street Fighter) - Coconut Milk  - (3:39)
17. "Insert Rupee (Benjamin Briggs, halc) - Kirby (Kirby) - The Life and Death of Kirby - (3:54)
18. "Mazedude - King Dedede (Kirby) - Hot Air Penguin - (3:37)
19. "Mustin - Simon Belmont (Castlevania) - The Prodigal Son Returns (3:49)
20. "Ailsean - Dracula (Castlevania) - A Walk with Death - (4:16)

(Note the arrangers name are listed first, then song, then arranged song name)

So some of you might know of this little place called OCremix where they make musical arrangements of video game music. I frequent this site, and can say that much of the work is of very high quality and really shows off what you can do with video game music. It turns out there is another big release from some of their members this month with a soundtrack called "Heroes vs Villains"

Unlike many of the earlier projects I've listened to that has been compiled into albums, this album does not take music only from one or two games. Instead it has quite a big variety in terms of which videogames the music comes from, totaling into ten different games from Castlevania to Kirby. For each title, there is one song for the hero, and one for villain. Such as in the Monkey Island category you have one theme centered around Guybrush Threepwood and one for LeChuck the evil pirate.

Ill admit I haven't really got around to listening to much of it as of now as its not all that long ago since it has been released. I can say you can look forward to enjoy music from very much different genres, and that there probably is something for everyone there. Personally I fell in love with the Monkey Island tunes as this is a series very close to me, and it makes for some very interesting takes on two of the medleys.

Give it a go, after all its free made by fans for fans and these guys have done a fantastic job with this project.

Chrono Cross ~ Memory of Music

 

Music Composed by: Yasunori Mitsuda
Arranged by: Kou Ogata 

Tracklist:
1. "A Dream to Watch of Chrono" - (2:21) 
2. "Galdope Home" - (3:59)
3. "Telmina Another" - (3:38)
4. "Voyage Home" - (3:20)
5. "Telmina Home" - (2:45)
6. "Magical Dreamers" - With wind and a star and wavelet" - (3:07)
7. "The Girl Who Stole a Star" - (3:37)


Just some more video game music. Most are aware that Chrono Cross has a fantastic soundtrack, what many are not aware is of this little arranged album by Kou Ogata. The album is played in a rather celtic style. Disappointingly there is no Time's Scar on this album. What on earth where they thinking? That they possible couldn't perfect it anymore. Well I guess that could be it, it should be pretty damn hard to do that.

So yeah I've been listening a lot to Yasunori Mitsuda's work lately, and next one update is likely from the same person as well. It could prove slightly difficult in finding this CD, but its well worth it if you can.