Hindsight

Yoko Kanno and Grand Funk have released “CM Yoko” on iTunes - it’s available in both the iTunes Japan and iTunes U.S. stores for Y1,500 and $9.99, respectively.

The album is a compilation of compositions Mrs. Kanno created for CMs (short for commercial music) in Japan for many many clients (KDDI, Lexus, etc.).

“Exaelitus” is definitely derived from Vangelis’ end theme for Blade Runner, don’t you think? It’s still a fantastic and breathtaking song.

The latest soundtrack release for the “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” series is a pricey, 6-disc package that should also have an equally long acronym: GITS SAC LE CD Box. I purchased mine from Amazon.com Japan.

For Kanno collectors, all previous soundtracks from Stand Alone Complex are included: OST Volumes 1, 2, 3, “be human” and the Solid State Society movie soundtrack. The sixth disc is really what you’re trying to get if you already bought the previous discs.

What do I do with my previous CDs? Do I keep them as a collector or sell them off now that I’ve gotten this box set? I’m still holding onto the former since all the individual discs have great art and inserts.

The sixth disc in the Box Set is authored as a single audio track and carries the title of “OST 4-” along with “Smooth in the Shell”. There aren’t any breaks to skip to automatically but I’ve seen fans online mention making their own .cue files to make a CD with 16 tracks (seen in a comment stream over at the fantastic GabrielaRobin.com blog).

It’s a great disc… mostly instrumental and ambient, but an excellent selection that was previously unavailable. Around the 40 minute mark, one of my favorite compositions played - I felt I got my money’s worth right there. I love the disc - I can let the entire soundtrack play on the train to work and back home.

Included in the package is a USB flash drive. It’s got a 256MB capacity and has a Tachikoma design to it, very cute. Wallpapers, sound files and some incidental music snippets are included in the drive.

If you haven’t purchased any of the previous GITS SAC soundtracks, this is a must-buy since it contains all of her work for the series. It can be purchased at CDJapan (www.cdjapan.co.jp) or Amazon Japan (www.amazon.co.jp).

Last week I received my order from CDJapan. Some of you may not know that CDs in Japan can be pretty expensive: a full album might be, say, 2900 yen.. that’s over $20 for one CD. Thankfully I chose wisely. I’ve been wanting the middle two albums for quite sometime. The first and last albums were icing on the cake…

Joze to Tora to Sakana-tachi (Original Soundtrack)

Artist: Quruli

Although I’ve not seen the film, the soundtrack stands on it’s own. With bits of what are probably dialogues/monologues from the film, the soundtrack to “Joze…” is very relaxed. There is a piano solo which reminded me of solitude. A few of their vocal tracks brought a “road trip”-esque feeling. It’s a wonderful piece of work, easily playable on loop. Highly recommended.

All About Lily Chou-Chou
Original Soundtracks “Arabesque”

Artist: Takeshi Kobayashi

I thought “All About Lily Chou-Chou” (Lily Shou-Shou no Subete) was a raw, amazing film. The tracks on this disc are original compositions for the film as well as a spattering of DeBussy tracks as well. Feelings to best describe this album: despair, exploration, reflection, helplessness, hope, deviancy. Not in that particular order, though. It’s certainly not upbeat - I think of it as something for introspection.

Lily Chou-Chou “Kokyu (Breathe)”

Artist: Takeshi Kobayashi

This is the other soundtrack to the film. However, this features all the vocal tracks that feature the fictional “Lily Chou-Chou” that is portrayed in the film. The first song “Arabesque”, is also the first song that plays as the film begins. This is some very soft but haunting stuff.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex O.S.T.2

Artist: Yoko Kanno, et. al.

I’ve been following Yoko Kanno’s work for quite sometime now. She is probably the only artist whose music is something I’ll actually buy on impulse. I’ve done this for awhile now, and I’ve never really been disappointed. Stand Alone Complex is a science fiction, cyberpunk series of sorts that’s airing in Japan pay per view. So my favorite musician and my favorite subject make for good music. There’s a little bit of everything here: an opening song that injects energy, some edgy electronic songs, ambient music and vocal tracks that almost seem like they don’t belong into the science-fiction theme/mold. I didn’t think too much about this album at first. But I’ve listened to it the most out of the above CDs.

I suppose my iPod is happy. And the four albums above are really quite good, so that makes me happy, too.

Monday. May 10th.

Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Performing: Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale

Conducted by: Miguel Harth-Bedoya

Composed by: Nobuo Uematsu

Final Fantasy Concert Program. Autographed: Nobuo Uematsu (Composer). Yoshitaka Amano (Illustrator). Hironobu Sakaguchi (Executive Producer). James Arnold Taylor (English Voice Actor: Tidus).

Los Angeles to Encinitas: Midnight to 2am.

It was a privilege to be in the presence of Uematsu, Amano, Sakaguchi-san and Mr. Taylor after the concert (even if for just a signature and the chance to say “thank you”). Because this was something personal, an experience matured since childhood, the signatures are for keeps.

Imagine listening to some of your favorite music and finally having the chance to say hello to that artist. I grew up playing Final Fantasy games. So for me, this was an amazing thing. It was, for lack of a better term, surreal. The whole thing.

Hearing the music live was amazing. Fantastic. And, even though I sat alone during the concert, the music put me in the company of memories. Memories of the past, some I hadn’t recalled until the songs came along.

Collective chuckles by the audience as the Chocobo theme came into play. Collective and intense applause when certain melodies were recognized. Again, fantastic.

I hope this happens again in the future.

Very, very special thanks go to my friend and former coworkers who gave me the chance to attend the concert and follow them through the evening.

http://quruli.d4k.net/

Quruli’s latest album, Antenna, is definitely more intimate and approachable than their previous albums (Zukan, Team Rock, The World Is Mine). It’s almost entirely rock. As in, pure guitar, drums in the spotlight. A subtle hint of a digitally created sound here and there, but almost nothing. It has to be their most minimal album. But it speaks so much. They have a new drummer now, Christopher Maguire. And I like his work, as traditional as it may be. It’s still solid. I think he is also their first non-Japanese band member. I think Quruli is composed of four people right now.

“Good Morning”, the first track on the album, relaxes me but makes me quite blue at the same time. Yet I prefer to think of it as a security blanket song. That sort of thing.

I think it’s admirable, really. Their previous albums had their variety of rock as well as pop tunes. “Bara no Hana” was the first song I heard by them and I wanted to make a music video about it for years. Later, “Guilty” (from their album “The World Is Mine”) was a good opening song and possibly an even better song for some opening sequence.

Now, they revert to a simpler sound. But it has so much energy and warmth. I wonder where they will go with their next album?

From: Joel Hardy (xxxx@xxxxxxx)
Subject: Request: humret.xm
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.sounds.mods
Date: 1997/12/15

A long time ago (I think back when I was on AOL),
I found a mod, and to the best of my memory, it was
called "The Humble Return", HUMRET.XM, by J. Wong.
If anybody has it and would post it or email it to me,
I'd be very grateful :)

--
Joel Hardy (xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx)
--

I found this message through GoogleGroups today after my friend e-mailed me old music I used to “create” on my old Windows computer in the early 90’s. I had a 486DX/33mhz processor at the time. I think I had 16MB of RAM.

A very long time ago I used to mess with a music tracking software program caled “FastTracker II” It looked very cool and it was such a blast to work with. And I don’t even know how to write music.

Today a high school buddy e-mailed me three tracks I made. I found my final composition online at someone’s web page, which is quite the surprise. Someone found my file? I think I uploaded it to a music newsgroup once but it was so long ago.

As far as I know, these files are playable in the latest version of Winamp. They are .XM files. Consider them MIDI files of sorts, except that the samples are built into the file so it sounds the same across sound cards.

I made these files sometime between 1993 and 1995.
Download file: old_xm_comps.zip

myung.xm
This is the Myung Theme for the animation Macross Plus by Kanno. I listened to the CD I had and tried to filter out each melody/harmony (is that even the right word?). By doing this I was able to mimic the original song - only with a ambient -styled instrument.

cybercor.xm
Generic techno track I created just to see if I could arrange something. The main notes sound like Rob Dougan’s stuff for The Matrix. Except I did this what, in 1993? I consider it a “generic” theme - it’s easy to create a mood.

cfodder.xm
Another test. This song belongs to a shareware game that was released a long time ago, I just made my own arrangement. Yet another test.

humret.zip
The Humble Return. This was probably my first serious composition. Near the end it borrows from some electronica at the time, but the other stuff tries to be original. I didn’t really have any reference. I just tried to make it sound richer by adding more instruments. I worked with 12 channels supposedly on this one.

Realize that I don’t know how to make music. I started with empty tracks, ripped out samples from other .XM files and made the arrangements myself. Thinking about how I pulled it off back then, perhaps I should start doing it again soon. It was so much fun creating sound like that.

Viva granted me access to his VCD of Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” so I watched it this evening. It turned out to be a gorgeous film. Fluid fighting (never enough but then again never too much either) and a moving story and soundtrack. The use of slow motion never seems quite overdone - it’s all quite the poetry in motion.

I realized later after doing an imdb.com search that Yimou is responsible for “The Road Home” and “Happy Times” - both are films I’ve been wanting to see.

I just did a double take reading user comments at imdb - someone had the same thoughts and observations that I had while “Hero” progressed: I thought to myself “…Rashomon”.

Rashomon is Akira Kurosawa’s film that was probably recently adapted as a modern tale through Edward Zwick’s “Courage Under Fire”. The same event is told from the three characters involved. Each perspective is different. The same happens similarly in “Hero”.

I suppose after seeing the same, predictable Hollywood movie, seeing recent films like “Solaris” and “Hero” are extremely refreshing and, more importantly, challenging.

While I’m at it, I noticed that imdb lists Wong Kar Wai’s next film, “2046“, as in post-production. I’m curious to see what his next work is - I still need to see “In the Mood for Love”.

It hasn’t stopped with films. I am still addicted to Beck’s “Sea Change” album. Undoubtedly a downer, it’s so beautiful I can’t help but listen to it over and over. Lonesome Tears and Lost Cause are undeniably infectious.

Yesterday when Takashi sensei pulled out a CD to show us I tried to remember why the name on it sounded familiar. George Winston. And then I realized that he was on the Windham Hill records label - publishers of instrumental and piano works.

When I was in junior high school I used to listen to 94.7 on the FM dial. At the time it was simply called “The Wave” and they played new age and ambient music. Although I was 13, some of my friends could not understand why I liked instrumental and new age music so much. They just thought I was weird.

Years later they re-themed the station to play “smooth jazz”. I didn’t listen to the station anymore.

Road to Perdition = beautiful. I watched it with my father today. I don’t remember the last movie we went out to see together. Am glad to have broken that hiatus, finally.

“For movies no one knows, for anime and games that get oppressed by
people in our society, for commercials that are merely consumed and disposed
of, every day I work out beautiful melodies that leave impressions,
sacrificing my social life…what on earth am I doing? The time is yet far
when I can proclaim myself to the world a composer…”

Kanno Yoko