Song of the Week - WEEK 186 Voting/WEEK 187 Nominating
 

Song of the Week. 175 Weeks and counting.
Week 186 Voting is watertight.
Week 187 Nominating is welded.

Results:
1). [22] pop'n music 12 Iroha AC ♥ CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
2). [15] LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus
3). [14] Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)
4). [12] 11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon
5). [9] Magna Carta: Tears of Blood (Game Rip) - The Town of Notia
6). [8] JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version)
7). [7] Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING - The Legacy
8). [3] KANON original arrange album 'anemoscope' - Sunny Street

Tracks:
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING - The Legacy
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version)
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: KANON original arrange album 'anemoscope' - Sunny Street
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Magna Carta - Tears of Blood (Game Rip) - The Town of Notia
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)

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.

NOW WHAT WERE WE TALKING ABOUT, ah yes, drastically low nominations. Cutting the number of tracks we vote on per week seemed to have some support. I'd prefer six, which was the number most often mentioned, if we go with that. The current method of point distribution would also work pretty well with six tracks (save for the 1-1-1-1-1-1 distribution, which would be moot for obvious reasons); any amount lower than that and we should consider changing how we allocate points too.

Rimo suggested sticking with eight and only reducing the number of tracks when we need it, which could work.

Also, this is going to sound incredibly rich given the current topic, but I skipped Blah's nomination for this week in case people want to discuss it, because some people are probably going to throw a fit over it:

This is a fan arrangement, and to the best of my knowledge, ARM has written six pieces of music total for games: four tracks for The Rising Sun -Oceanic Suspense Adventure- (some eroge), a character song for Little Busters! (I don't think this was actually in the game), and a theme song for Paitouch (Blah insists I do not want to know what this is).

SOTW NOM SQUAD DO YOU THINK THIS IS OKAY.

Feel free to discuss whether or not you think the situation with the queue should affect the decision if you want to see if we can spill blood over this.

Aren't we of the mind that doujin arrangements are verboten regardless of the composer's other credits? It's not actually in the game, not from an official album, and not a completely original composition from an established composer. Aren't those the three strikes we use to disallow a track?

New Nomination!

Album: Ryuusei no Rockman 3 Gamerip
Title: Grave Joker Stage
Track: 37 (of 48)
Composers: Akari Kaida, Yoshino Aoki
Year: 2008 (Japan)

We've been allowing them for a very long time, as long as the arranger meets whatever the conditions are for being a "VGM composer." The earliest one I can remember is the winner of Week 49, but I didn't go through the nominations up to that point so there may have been some before then.

Oh. I guess I've been operating under extremely outmoded rules, then.

Well, as long as the composer has some legitimate credits, no matter how unknown or unpalatable, I guess it's okay with me.

As far as I remember, the rules boiled down either 1) in a game, 2) on an official album release, or 3) composed/arranged by a VGM composer. (Then there's the licensed tracks restriction.) I'm not even sure if #2 was stated or approved, but I believe it was at the very beginning.

This wasn't meant to completely diss doujin tracks. Rather the point is that they already have a lot of attention from their respective communities, and we needed to draw the line somewhere. But most importantly, it's what people voted for in the polls posted several years ago when I started SotW.

I'd be willing to allow Blah's nomination. After all, he did nominate a BATTLE winner recently. I'm willing to ease up on the rules a tad if the track is something that can approach the previous quality. ;}

Low on nominations? I currently only have ZTS tracks (but a bunch of them) that I can nominate, if you guys don't mind. I actually intended to stretch them out more. But here goes:

ixion <zts, Kazuhide Nakagami> - [03] End of a dream, false memories -others-

Hey, if ARM gets through I'll be probably legging in some (more) Touhou tracks.

I've got a nomination that's a bit problematic, it's from Okami (hope that's not too popular anyway), it's a piece that has two parts on the original soundtrack (the second part is a more energetic version basically), so nominating either one would be odd because each has a cutoff at the end or beginning respectively. Because of that i have taken the liberty to merge both tracks like this: [Link]
I hope that is not too much of an infringement, also i wonder what one would call the album since no such track is on the original soundtrack and it's not directly from the game either.

I'll just upload it for now; here be more info:
Album/Game Title: Okami
Composer: Masami Ueda
Artists: Masami Ueda, Yoshinobu Takeshita, Ayaka Hirahara
Track Title: Wep'Keer
Year: 2006
Source: CPCA-10166~70: Okami Original Soundtrack - VGMdb
Theoretically
Catalog Number: CPCA-10166~70
Disc: 4 of 5
Track Number: 6 & 7

What a mess...

I'd think this isn't so obscure, considering it's from a well know Rockman game. >_>

I didn't realize that particular Rockman series had such a following. If others think it's too popular, I'll gladly change it, but the fact that it didn't even receive an OST, unlike the first two games, made me choose from this soundtrack, rather than the others.

Well, I don't know. I'm sorta just curious as to what others think, seeing as Rockman seems to be considered taboo.

Anyway... Average week. =/

(2 points) Magna Carta - Tears of Blood (Game Rip) - The Town of Notia
(1 point) 11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon
(1 point) Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING - The Legacy
(1 point) LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus
(1 point) Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)

Game Title: a bug's life (PSX Game Rip)
Artists: Andy Blythe & Marten Joustra
Track Title: Atta Flight (Riverbed Flight)
Year: 1998
Additional Information: The game has three ports (PC, PSX, N64), all with the same music, but seemingly some music is swapped in some of the ports. Regardless, the composers don't seem to be posted anywhere on any game credits on the web; however, I have beaten the game before and the credits show the composers listed.

We had another Rockman song before.

As for the current nom, I'm not very familiar with the game or the soundtrack, so it's okay with me. As far as I'm concerned, the only true mainstream Megaman games are the original 1-9, and the X series. Everything else has been a side-venture for diehard fans. Those games got overlooked by a lot of the game playing public.

I think this nomination should be okay.

They're both separate pieces of music that play in Wep'Keer. I believe it's the in-game clock that determines which version of the piece you get, because if you sit in town for long enough, it'll transition between the two very much like how it does on the soundtrack.

We've had tracks before which have been edited from the OST. As a ridiculously convenient example, I do believe orion_mk3 modified his current nomination, The Town of Notia, from the soundtrack, adding a loop because the CD version doesn't loop. Since the Wep'Keer themes are variations of each other that do transition into each other in the game and are split into two tracks on the CD that transition into each other, I'm okay with your joined version.

For our purposes, I'd just call it a game rip like I did the Magna Carta track, for lack of a better term.

Also, re. Mega Man Star Force 3, we've had noms from X8 and Battle Network 6, so I'm okay with that too. I for one haven't played any of the SF games or checked out their music.

Next nomination:

Album Title: Kirby 64 OST
Artists: Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando
Track Title: Ripple Star
Track number: 29
Megaupload link: MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

I have no problem with Blah's nomination either.

3 points: Reduced Occult Moon
2 points: Sleets from Stratus
1 point: Warblade In-Game Music

Re: the potentially questionable noms, I'm inclined to let them all in. We're having enough trouble rounding out the nom queue as it is; I'd be more inclined to protest some of them if rejecting the songs wouldn't put a huge kink in the process.

11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon Like the gothic stylings, dislike the 1970's guitar. There's a precise balance that needs to be struck when creating that rock opera sound, and this misses it by a mile.

Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING - The Legacy Our 12th nomination from the Atelier series and 5th from Eternal Mana 2 attempts the same sort of rock opera sound as the previous song. It's a little more successful, but still pretty far from the gold standard.

JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version) Lazy early 80's lounge jazz funk. Not my favorite style of music, but not bad for what it is.

KANON original arrange album 'anemoscope' - Sunny Street "Anemoscope" sounds like some kind of colonoscopy instrument, though the music is more pleasant than that would suggest. It's pleasant if not terribly memorable.

LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus The all-new Linear Compi 2007, from Compy--if it doesn't say Compy, it might not be a computer! Like an obsolete piece of computer hardware, this takes a long time to boot up and isn't particularly powerful even when running at full power.

Magna Carta - Tears of Blood (Game Rip) - The Town of Notia The rhythm and melody are terrific, but what I really like about this is its creative combination of all kinds of disparate instruments and styles into a cohesive and enjoyable whole, much like good ol' Nobuo did during his golden age.

pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER Ah, capella...treading that fine line between awesome and annoying. Still not sure which this is, but at least it makes an impression.

Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD) It's got a nicce tracker style to it, and if it's lightyears behind Alex Brandon, it's still got melody and phat beats to spare.

Meh week. Good thing we have so much else to talk about!

The Point Spread
Town of Notia - 3 pts.
In-Game Music - 2 pts.
Magical WTF Shower - 1 pt.

Nomination
Album: Coded Soul Uke Keigareshi Idea
Artist: Hitoshi Sakimoto
Track: Gail's Theme
Track #: 26
Notes: Looped for your pleasure. Will upload on Monday.

=== Kaleb.G ===
* Album: Alphabet Planet
* Artist: Hiroki Kikuta
* Disc #: 2 (of 2)
* Track #: 8
* Track Title: T
* Catalogue Number: NSLCD-0004~5
* Year: 2007
* Additional Info: Wanted to pick something from Disc 2 of the album since it has more "serious" sounding compositions. This isn't "dark" sounding like some of the other Disc 2 tracks, but it's possibly my favorite.
* Source: VGMdb, my own album, etc.
* File Location: nom folder

3 points: pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
2 points: Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)
1 point: LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus
Just missed: The Legacy

2 points: Magna Carta - Tears of Blood (Game Rip) - The Town of Notia
2 points: pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
1 point: LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus
1 point: JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version)

Pretty good week here (it must be for me not to show a Shinji Orito composition any love). Special nod to the fun nautical sound of the Magna Carta track, which is perhaps the first Magna Carta track to ever intrigue me. (and something about cheesy sax just works with me..)

Also, my 2 cents: six noms.

Quick votes:

(2 points) pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER

(2 points) LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus

(1 point) KANON original arrange album 'anemoscope' - Sunny Street

(1 point) JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version)

My next nomination (not sure if it's considered popular):

* Album Title: Mirror's Edge (PC Game Rip)
* Artist: Lisa Miskovsky
* Composer: Rami Yacoub and Arnthor Birgirsson
* Track Title: Still Alive
* Source: Game Credits for Mirror's Edge
* File Location: Nominations folder (upcoming)
* Disc Number: NA
* Track Number: NA
* Catalogue Number: NA
* Year: 2009

3 points - 11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon
2 points - Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING - The Legacy
1 point - LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus

11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon
In light of the closeness to the 31st of the month, this is a fitting nomination. At first I thought it was somewhat generic, but in the end I believe it's solid, notably the guitar work. Reminded me a little of Death Smile.

Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING - The Legacy
I never got down to listen to the arranged albums from the series, but after hearing "The Legacy", I should definitely check them out one day. Not mindblowing, yet the mix of asian and rock music is nice.

JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version)
Nice smooth jazz with a slight funky edge. Can't complain much other than I would have preferred more funk or a more aggressive tempo. But it's still great for what it is, my qualm is a personal preference. More sax in SotW please!

KANON original arrange album 'anemoscope' - Sunny Street
Pleasant enough with a style reminding me of Breath of Fire III. Without the nostalgia of the latter, this one comes a bit short with me though (didn't get down the street).

LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus
Namiki is unquestionably an ace of electronic music. While I enjoyed this track to a good degree, I must admit it didn't hit me as a fabulous piece. I guess it's my impression of a lack of rigidity in the melodies (found them to be formless) that drags it a bit down. The rhythm and sound are pretty good though.

Magna Carta - Tears of Blood (Game Rip) - The Town of Notia
Undeniably RPG in style, "The Town of Notia" is a good example of the genre. It's definitely interesting, although not highly elaborate in development. Could have felt like home in an early Suikoden game.

pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
An original approach to the classic theme. Yet not one I particularly enjoy, sadly. The kind of pop and bubbling vocals featured tend to annoy me, but I can still appreciate the novelty of the track.

Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)
Groovy shmup music from Australia. I really like the beat with the slap bass and the various melody lines (especially at 2:17). The sound could have been richer, yet at the same time it's part of the tracker charm.

(3 points) Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)
(2 points) 11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon
(1 point) JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version)

----------

Nomination:

Album: Neotokyo
Artist: Ed Harrison
Disc #: 1
Track #: 1
Track Title: Annul
Catalogue Number: N/A
Year: 2009 (March 5)
Additional Info: Neotokyo is a Half-Life 2 mod.
Source: VGMdb

3 Points: pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
2 Points: JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version)
1 Point: Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)

MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER is the coolest SotW nomination I've heard in months. They sound a lot like DaVinci's Notebook and that absolutely made my day.

The rest of the week was fairly average for me. I wanted to like "Reduced Occult Moon" a lot more but there's very little space within the "spooky rock" genre that isn't already owned by Castlevania; you need to be pretty darned special to share that scene, and Reduced Occult Moon was just too much of a copycat and not enough of an innovator.

The rest just sort of came and went for me. They were fine in the moment but lacked anything that memorable.

Nomination

Album: Melody of Legend ~ Chapter of Dream
Composer: Masanori Adachi; arranged by Yuji Yoshino
Track Title: Final Movement ~ Florid Funeral (featured in MADARA 2)
Track Number: 3
Year: 2001
Catalog Number: KICA-1242

Posting from a library in France.

2 POINTS - pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER: thqt's something awesome, which I only noticed later on
2 POINTS - 11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon: caught me in the beginning, not so later, but still had a few fine parts
2 POINTS - KANON original arrange album 'anemoscope' - Sunny Street: lol, Key music, I think I've become sorta partial to it, very tranquil and keyish