Song of the Week - WEEK 185 Voting/WEEK 186 Nominating
 

Song of the Week. 175 Weeks and counting.
Week 185 Voting is on full permanent lockdown.
Week 186 Nominating is banned for life.

Results:
1). [23] Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet
2). [18] WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'
3). [12/8] First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro
4). [12/7] Ray'z PREMIUM BOX -BEYOND- - PENETRATION
5). [10] POPOROGUE Original Soundtrack - Pietro's Journey (instrumental)
6). [6/6] Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt
7). [6/4.5] MediEvil - Resurrection Original Soundtrack - Hilltop Mausoleum (Hilltop Mausoleum suite)
8). [3] Silpheed - The Lost Planet (Game Rip) – Ranking

Tracks:
Permanent links
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: MediEvil - Resurrection Original Soundtrack - Hilltop Mausoleum (Hilltop Mausoleum suite)
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: POPOROGUE Original Soundtrack - Pietro's Journey (instrumental)
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Ray'z PREMIUM BOX -BEYOND- - PENETRATION
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Silpheed - The Lost Planet (Game Rip) – Ranking
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'

Voting Rules:
Voters must distribute 6 points among the 8 nominees, giving points to at least 3 songs, giving no song more than 3 points, and giving no more than one of their choices 3 points. Possible ways of voting include:

Notes:
Please remember to upload your nominations to the SotW server! Uploaded noms mean a faster, smoother SotW experience for everyone. Server information:

Week 186 Nominating:
The Nominations Queue can be found here.
The rules for nominating can be found here.

Actually got a planned nomination this week. :)

Nomination #26

Composer: Blueberry&Yogurt
Album: Shikkoku no Sharnoth Original Soundtrack
Track Title: Tar slan
Track Number: 12
Year: 2008
Catalog Number: N/A
Additional Information: Can anyone translate the track title from Gaelic to English? I'm curious to see what it means.

Slan'ing to the FTP of tar??

Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet Very light and airy, as you'd expect from a game about clouds, with an energy and slightly melancholy tone that I really like. I wholeheartedly recommend the whole OST, and hopefully "Flower" by the same composer gets a release someday.

First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro Not very ninja-y…sounds more like something from an old school urban beat 'em up. It's got rhythm but not a whole lot else.

Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt Is Hurrican related to Turrican? The music is in that same hyper shmup style, though this lacks the flair I've come to associate with the latter. The title "Flugsack Ritt" sounds like a comic relief alien from the new Star Wars.

MediEvil - Resurrection Original Soundtrack - Hilltop Mausoleum (Hilltop Mausoleum suite) I think the new version of MediEvil has a much better sound than its predecessors, though I'm not sure if this kind of dark and heavy choral work will resonate with SotW voters at large.

POPOROGUE Original Soundtrack - Pietro's Journey (instrumental) I'm always up for a good acoustic guitar piece, and this one's a treat. Not the most complex song in the world, but satisfying.

Ray'z PREMIUM BOX -BEYOND- - PENETRATION The title had me thinking this would be porno music (come on, you were thinking that too!), but it's really closer to Sonic in style by my estimation. Decent if unspectacular.

Silpheed - The Lost Planet (Game Rip) – Ranking Decent shmup stylings with a few parts that stand out above the norm, though the comm noises at the beginning are annoying and a little amateurish.

WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough' Energetic and pleasant but not especially memorable.

The Point Spread
Fluffy Sweet – 3 pts.
Pietro's Journey – 2 pts.
Hilltop Mausoleum – 1 pt.

EDIT:
Yahoo Answers to the rescue!

Translated from German that title would be "Flying-bag Ride" by the way. I suspect that "Flugsack" is a bad attempt at translating "Jetpack" to German.

That's what i thought but i nominated it anyway...

That is quite possibly the best thing ever :D

Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet is gorgeous, and very easy to listen to. There's no catch or complexity to this one, it's just a lovely instrumental piece that flows exceptionally well. The numerous textural builds make for fantastic highlights as well, like fireworks on a starry night.

First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro has some catchy rhythms and enjoyable beats, but none of them really combine to create a very alluring or appetizing whole. Yeah, I don't know, this sounds decently involving, but something about it rubs me the wrong way!

Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt had me half-asleep until 1:40 or thereabouts. That section's pretty sweet, and things developed fairly efficiently from there. Unfortunately for flugsack however, the cons outweigh the pros here for me, since my ultimate impression is overwhelmingly one of apathy.

To the credit of MediEvil - Resurrection Original Soundtrack - Hilltop Mausoleum (Hilltop Mausoleum suite), despite it being the kind of song I dislike on paper, I found myself being somewhat entranced by this one. It has all the cliche "creepy mansion" elements; and they execute a sound melody and compliment one another's sounds quite nicely. Pleasant surprise~

The thing I love about POPOROGUE Original Soundtrack - Pietro's Journey (instrumental) is that it's simple but has a great deal of instrumental variation and intricacy. It makes for a nice balance and contrast, and it really helps that the melody is spot-on. Wonderful carefree vibe, too! Perfect music to start a journey to. :)

Well, Ray'z PREMIUM BOX -BEYOND- - PENETRATION has failed to penetrate into my subconscious, because honestly, I hardly noticed anything about this track as it played. No definable, distinguishable hooks; no real melody to speak of; and an odd sense of tempo. Nah, this one's not my cup of tea I'm afraid.

I hate to deprive a track of decent feedback, but everything I said for the above applies to Silpheed - The Lost Planet (Game Rip) – Ranking. lol lazy

Hey, guess what? My comment for WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough' ---yeah..

not even the POINT could muster up a word of encouragement

3 points: POPOROGUE Original Soundtrack - Pietro's Journey (instrumental)
2 points: Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet
1 point: MediEvil - Resurrection Original Soundtrack - Hilltop Mausoleum (Hilltop Mausoleum suite)

Not a great week. Point distribution was excruciatingly simple.

(2 points) First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro
(1 point) Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet
(1 point) Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt
(1 point) MediEvil - Resurrection Original Soundtrack - Hilltop Mausoleum (Hilltop Mausoleum suite)
(1 point) WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'

3 points: WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'
1 point: Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet
1 point: First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro
1 point: Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt

3 points - Ray'z PREMIUM BOX -BEYOND- - PENETRATION
2 points - WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'
1 point - Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt

Really liked Breakthrough.

Somehow i ended up with this:
3 points: MediEvil - Resurrection Original Soundtrack - Hilltop Mausoleum (Hilltop Mausoleum suite)
2 points: Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet
1 point: POPOROGUE Original Soundtrack - Pietro's Journey (instrumental)

3 Points: Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet
2 Points: POPOROGUE Original Soundtrack - Pietro's Journey (instrumental)
1 Point: First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro

2 points - First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro
2 points - WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'
1 point - Ray'z PREMIUM BOX -BEYOND- - PENETRATION
1 point - Silpheed - The Lost Planet (Game Rip) – Ranking

3 points: WOLF FANG / TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'
2 points: Ray'z PREMIUM BOX -BEYOND- - PENETRATION
1 point: First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro

(3 points) Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet: I'm completely on the Cloud bandwagon. No instrumental pretense here, just sheer beauty start to finish. Oh yeah, it has piano too.

(2 points) WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough': Hardly a unique track, but in a lacking week it stands out from the rest with consistent synth work and enough rocking to carry it through.

(1 point) First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro: Definite '80s vibe here, with some newer-ish techno elements thrown in (I mean, what would sound new now. I'm assuming the song is old, considering it's Amiga and all).

As for the rest, a couple tracks were okay, a couple weren't, not the best of weeks.

3 points: PENETRATION
2 points: Ranking
1 point: 'Breakthrough'
Just Missed: Fluffy Sweet, Flugsack Ritt, Intro,

Woah, Penetration in SOTW. Didn't see that coming. After listening to it over 800,000 times it's kinda growing off me, though it's still good.

Man it's been over a year and I've still only heard like 40% of the Hurrican soundtrack. I was watching a youtube run but stopped at the end of stage 4 for some reason; the music was pretty cool. Flugsack Ritt is pretty crazy though, especially for it's length, I assume it's the final boss theme?

Enjoyed this week a lot, especially new favorite 'Breakthrough'.

Oh wow, it's still voting. IF that's the case...

3 points: Fluffy Sweet
2 points: Penetration
1 point: Breakthrough

Rather like the tracks this week. Quick votes:

(2 points) POPOROGUE Original Soundtrack - Pietro's Journey (instrumental)

(2 points) Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet

(1 point) Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt

(1 point) WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'

Special mentions to MediEvil and Ray'z.

I was thinking about closing voting tonight, but I just took a gander at the ol' nomination queue, as I am wont to do, and I found that there are in total only seven tracks lined up. This presents a problem for an event that traditionally pits eight tracks against each other. :(

We have been running fairly tight on nominations for quite a while now, but especially so within the past couple of months. Weeks 182-185 have each had at least one nominator who also had a track for voting in the previous week (although it's been different people every time). We need some sort of plan in the future to deal with a low number of nominations, especially if the trend continues: allowing people to have multiple tracks in one week, reducing the number of tracks per week, etc. Assuming we all want this thing to continue, of course. I for one am certainly not out of music yet.

(a few more votes for this week's batch wouldn't hurt as well)

• Album: In The Lounge with No One Lives Forever
• Artist: Becky Kneubuhl
• Disc #: 1 (of 1)
• Track #: 05
• Track Title: Elevator of Love
• Catalogue Number: N/A
• Year: 2001
• Source: N/A: In The Lounge with No One Lives Forever - VGMdb

And I was just typing in my next nomination when you posted. But yeah, we certainly could do with more participation (heck, I'd make my friends join in if any were VGM fans.) Or we could ultimately reduce the number of tracks. Say 6 tracks a week? That sounds alright to me.

2 points ~ First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro
2 points ~ Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet
1 point ~ Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt
1 point ~ Ray'z PREMIUM BOX -BEYOND- - PENETRATION

I think that changing the nomination number to 4-5 instead of 8 would be a good a good idea. In the past, making two weeked weeks (yup, my english is the worst in the world) hasn't done anything to dramatically improve the enthusiasm of the participants, and the extra votes/nominators weren't that much in the end.

With less nominations, there is less stress for nominating things every week and it should take less time to give a good review to all of them.

I think that reducing the number of tracks per week might be a good experiment to improve nomination turnover. Cutting it to 5 or 6 seems about right, which would fit better with a pool of 14-16 regular participants than 8. I'd also consider a little inter-forum advertising--maybe a nice modpost/modpimp--and possibly PMing some lapsed members to see if they're interested in coming back to the True Faith.

Also, nomination:
Album: Magna Carta
Artist: Sung-Woon Jang
Disc: 2 (of 2)
Track: 06
Track Title: Town of Notia
Catalog Number: FCCT-0026
Year: 2004
Source: VGMdb
Notes: Looped for your pleasure.

I don't mind cutting nominations per week, too. I'm thinking 6 noms up for voting each week would help to some extent. Plus it still fits with the current point distribution system when it comes to voting.

Nominations you say?

Album: Osaisentoka no Karaoke
Catalog Number: IO-0138
Year: 2008
Disc: 1 (of 1)
Track: 03
Title: Alice->Dere (Karaoke)
Original Composer: ZUN
Arranger: ARM

Note: Arrangement of "The Doll Maker of Bucuresti" from Touhou Youyoumu

Not too late, I see:

<<2 Points>> First Samurai (Amiga Game Rip) – Intro
<<2 Points>> WOLF FANG - TUMBLE POP - MIDNIGHT CHASER - 'Breakthrough'
<<1 Point>> Hurrican (Game Rip) - Flugsack Ritt
<<1 Point>> Cloud OST - Fluffy Sweet


Not too late, indeed:

• Composer: Daisuke Achiwa
• Arranger: Saitama Saisyu Heiki
• Album: Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING
• Track Title: The Legacy
• Track Number: 8
• Year: 2006

Ideally the solution would be finding new participants, but in cases where the number of nominators drops to a critical level (e.g. below 16), a special rule could be introduced of temporarily featuring less tracks per week (e.g. 6).