Song of the Week - WEEK 77 Voting/WEEK 78 Nominating

Week 77 Voting is closed.
Week 78 Nominating is restricted.

Week 77 Voting
The rules for voting can be found here.

Tracks:
Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner Soundtrack CD - Muladhara
Gate of Thunder (Red Book Audio) - Dark City
Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl
GRANDIA III ~original sound tracks~ - Sabatal
Phantasy Star Online Songs of RAGOL Odyssey -Soundtrack EPISODE1&2- - 'IDOLA' have the divine blade
Space Station Silicon Valley (Game Rip) - Fun in the Sun
Tokimeki Memorial 2 ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK vol. 1 - Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental)
www.ssh.ne.jp - Ultimate Destroyer

Notes:
A .miniusf (N64) version of the Space Station Silicon Valley song is available in the Extras folder.

If you are a member at more than one of the forums which this event is being held at, please nominate and vote in only ONE of the forums. You may, however, comment in the threads at any of the other forums.

Week 78 Nominating
The Nominations Queue can be found here.
The rules for nominating can be found here.

Here are the links to the corresponding threads at the other forums:
- Soundtrack Central
- Chudah's Corner

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Just some quick comments.

Ultimate Destroyer <S.S.H.> :
A great start, to hopefully a great week. I love the instruments used, after a while it kind of dulled, a very little bit though, actually, almost not at all. Great song.

Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental) <Metal Yuki, Atsushi Sato, Nories M. (Norikazu Miura), Hana Hashikawa, Sayaka Yamaoka> :
Is it just me or is that a lot of composers for one song? HAH! Another pretty good song, maybe I'm just in a good mood or something >.>. Great melody, I'm definitely keeping these first 2 songs to listen to later. This week might be a hard one to decide who will get points and who wont.

Fun in the Sun <Stuart Ross> :
I remember playing this game a long time ago, but I can't remember anything about it, heh. Good song, but it doesn't live up to the first 2 songs. The style isn't my favorite, the bass melody (whatever it's called. . .) was kind of boring, the flute (or "flute" like instrument) was alright. Overall an "alright" song.

"IDOLA" have the divine blade <Hideaki Kobayashi> :
Hmm, hard to pin-point the bad and the good in this song. I like some of the melodies, out of the ton that are displayed in this song. Maybe that was a problem? No, probably not. Some parts of the song is kind of out of place, some isn't though. Can't really give this song a non-vague title, we'll see if it gets any points.

Sabatal <Noriyuki Iwadare> :
Much shorter than the other songs, but that's not a bad thing is some cases, nor a good thing is some either. Unlike everyone else it seems, I haven't heard any of the Grandia III soundtrack. Decent melody, the beginning was great, but it kinda stuck to the same kind of theme, what am I saying... shouldn't most songs stay theme'd? Anyways, I'm guessing it's a town theme and "Sabatal" is the name of the town, hmm, maybe someday I'll play Grandia III. Decent song, nothing spectacular.

Supercooled Girl <SoundTeMP> :
This week will definetely be a hard one to divide the points up right. This one has a good overall composition job, great use of piano. Although, the only slight problem would possibly be the constant techno theme going, but that's nothing really bad. This'll be a keeper.

Dark City <T's Music> :
Wow, another pretty good song. I like this week. This just might lose out on getting a point, considering the other songs, but it is a pretty good song. Another keeper. A little long for how the song develops, but it did keep me interested throughout.

Muladhara <Shoji Meguro> :
My nomination, I obviously like it. A more mellow song for this week, but it sure doesn't decrease the quality of the week. This song is also shorter than most of the other songs, just like "Sabatal", but I don't think thats much of a problem, it develops at the right pace. I like the melody and percussion in this song particularly.

Hmmm, great week. Now for the points!

*briefly re-listens to the songs*
I actually have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked song, didn't think thats how it'd turn out. Very close between First and Second place. There might be a slight sub-consious bias towards my nom. (whatever...) but I think it's my favourite anyhow.

Muladhara: 3pts.

Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental): 2 pts.

Supercooled Girl: 1 pt.

4th: Ultimate Destroyer
5th: Dark City
6th/7th (tie) : "IDOLA" have the divine blade / Sabatal
8th: Fun in the Sun

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner Soundtrack CD - Muladhara
Not bad of a song, it's a very light rock tune with a decent melody and background synth. For me, it's a song that's either not simple enough or too simple. It's almost like a single instrument with a same background rhythm. But nevertheless, it's pretty good.

Gate of Thunder (Red Book Audio) - Dark City
This song is quite interesting, and it's definitely a surprise. Although I feel that especially for songs like this, one repetition of each phrase is enough, the repitition doesn't take away from the melody. The solo section towards the middle adds an extra point!

Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl
Has this soundtrack on repeat a while back. This song is relaxing and quite soothing. I think this song builds up in a pretty decent fashion, and remains interesting throughout the song. The initial melody phrase stays a bit too simple and repeats too much throughout the song, however. So this is one of the songs in the soundtrack that for me, can't last too long.

GRANDIA III ~original sound tracks~ - Sabatal
This soundtrack is way too familiar for me. Sabatal is a pretty nice song, but I've also heard it 5000 times. It's lightly simple and melodic, and never remains truly boring. It's a good pick, but I don't know what other people have to say about this song.

Phantasy Star Online Songs of RAGOL Odyssey -Soundtrack EPISODE1&2- - 'IDOLA' have the divine blade
This song is a bit too strange for me. I'd understand the strangeness if the song was depending mainly on its instruments, but unlike IDOLA strange fruits, this song is extremely dependent on its melody. The song just doesn't really hold together, unfortunately.

Space Station Silicon Valley (Game Rip) - Fun in the Sun
The bassline in this song is extremely repetitive for me, and seriously becomes a tad bit annoying after a while. I know the melody is alright, but with the same bass line 5000 times, I don't feel I can listen to this song for too long

Tokimeki Memorial 2 ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK vol. 1 - Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental)
Instrumental to a vocal? That's seriously what this sounds like, and it's not really that bad either. It's really done so nicely and simple, that I enjoy listening to this song over again. The strings are done so simply and nicely, and really get me into the song.

www.ssh.ne.jp - Ultimate Destroyer
I like the melody, despite the fact that I'm sitting at an airport and falling asleep in the middle of this song for no reason at all. It's certainly composed well, and pretty decent enough for a vote.

Totals:
3pt: Happy Ending (Instrumental)
2pt: Dark City
1pt: Ultimate Destroyer

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner Soundtrack CD - Muahaha Tunefully done techno-rock. If there were a little more variation, I'd be loving this; as is, a nice melody and restrained performance make the song enjoyable if unspectacular.

Gate of Thunder (Red Book Audio) - Dark City You have the power! ...to spurt generic 80's hair metal rock without lyrics. A bit of a melody creeps in eventually, but it's buried under layers of sound design. Frankly, this sort of thing could have been written by a computer program using library loops.

Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl Super cool track name. Falters a bit in execution, since it's essentially a trance song, which means endless repetition and buildup with no payoff. Maybe if a melody was thrown in there somewhere...

GRANDIA III ~original sound tracks~ - Sabatal My opinion of Iwadare has improved since people stopped nominated his godawful "battle" themes; much like Sakuraba, he's far more listenable when composing field themes. This is a pleasant little confection, decent all around but not exactly spellbinding.

Phantasy Star Online Songs of RAGOL Odyssey -Soundtrack EPISODE1&2- - 'IDOLA' have the divine blade I hate to compare contestants to tracks that aren't nominated, but the IDOLA name compels me. I expect "Strange Fruits" or "Cry For," or "Pray For" quality from my Phantasy Star. A bland and underachieving tune is doubly so because of the expectations involved; while there are some good parts where the synth lead and percussion interact, the entire undertaking seems curiously limp.

Space Station Silicon Valley (Game Rip) - Fun in the Sun A slight Eastern lit to this one, which isn't entirely unwelcome. The melody is quite nice, though the supporting instruments are a little dull, and when they take over, the song is a snoozefest. Not perfect, but not without its merits.

Tokimeki Memorial 2 ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK vol. 1 - Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental) Mmm, not bad, but I couldn't remember a note of it two minutes later. This kind of music just drifts right by me without leaving much of an impression.

www. ssh. ne. jp - Ultimate Destroyer Definitely has Dark City beaten in the techno-rock area. I foud it a little annoying, as I do with all songs in its genre, but not as bad as it could have been.

I wasn't feeling this bunch for whatever reason. Guess it's time to bust out the 12-gauge again...

The Shotgun Blast
1 point to everything except "Dark City" and "Supercooled Girl"

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

An acceptable week, if not just slightly underwhelming. I think most of the nominations were merely "okay", which has made it trickier than usual to pluck out my favorites.

Nothing was horrible, nor was anything head and shoulders above the competition, so I'm just gonna hand out points based upon which songs match my tastes best.

3 Points: Tokimeki Memorial 2 ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK vol. 1 - Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental)
2 Points: GRANDIA III ~original sound tracks~ - Sabatal
1 Point: Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl

I was speaking idiomatically.

Reinstating a previously withdrawn nomination:

=== Kaleb.G ===
* Album Title: Under Defeat -Extended Tracks-
* Artist: Shinji Hosoe, Masayuki Ozaki
* Composer: Shinji Hosoe
* Track Title: tears which died
* Source: http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=T-46704M
* File Location: nominations folder
* Disc Number: 1 (of 1)
* Track Number: 05
* Catalogue Number: T-46704M
* Year: 2006

How ya doing, buddy?

Nothing this week was really that great. There were okay songs, and songs with one fun section, and songs that had a catchy part but nothing else, and completely unmemorable songs that sounded nice, and a whole lot of average all around. I couldn't pull anything out above the rest and say it was good.

1 point to all these songs:
Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner Soundtrack CD - Muladhara
Gate of Thunder (Red Book Audio) - Dark City
Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl
GRANDIA III ~original sound tracks~ - Sabatal
Space Station Silicon Valley (Game Rip) - Fun in the Sun
www.ssh.ne.jp - Ultimate Destroyer

FELIPE NO

Yeah, I kinda figured my nomination would do terrible. The only reason I even nominated it is because someone requested a PSO track. Ahh well, I still love it. It also helps that it gives me a nostalgic feeling for one of the best boss battles ever. My points:

3 points - Phantasy Star Online Songs of RAGOL Odyssey -Soundtrack EPISODE1&2- - 'IDOLA' have the divine blade
2 points - www.ssh.ne.jp - Ultimate Destroyer
1 points - Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner Soundtrack CD - Muladhara


And my next retro nomination!

Game: Final Fantasy Legend 3 (Gameboy)
Song: Battle Against Xagor (Last Boss Theme)
Notes: I have no other info about this song, but I can upload it if needed.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Let's spread some points...

1 point - www.ssh.ne.jp - Ultimate Destroyer

1 point - Gate of Thunder (Red Book Audio) - Dark City

2 points ~ Phantasy Star Online Songs of RAGOL Odyssey -Soundtrack EPISODE1&2- - 'IDOLA'

2 points ~ Tokimeki Memorial 2 ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK vol. 1 - Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Manny Biggz

And my next retro nomination!

Game: Final Fantasy Legend 3 (Gameboy)
Song: Battle Against Xagor (Last Boss Theme)
Notes: I have no other info about this song, but I can upload it if needed.

I remember constantly going back to my save file at the last boss of the game just to hear that song when I was younger. Good choice. All the songs from that game were on the "All Sounds of SaGa" CD, which you might want to check out.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by TheKnightOfNee

All the songs from that game were on the "All Sounds of SaGa" CD, which you might want to check out.

Linkage? Thanks for the compliment too! I used to do the same thing. Only thing about it was that Xagor freaked me the hell out. Especially when all those mouths (or whatever they are) open when he's dying.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/141

It's all 3 FFL games (SaGa something or other in Japan). And I believe "Spiritual Battle" is the battle against Xagor.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Yeah it is "Spiritual Battle". The one on that site is a much better version than what I have too. The one I have has this annoying beeping sound, and it loops for a bit too long.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Manny Biggz

And my next retro nomination!

Game: Final Fantasy Legend 3 (Gameboy)
Song: Battle Against Xagor (Last Boss Theme)
Notes: I have no other info about this song, but I can upload it if needed.

Not bad (although I'd have gone with Opening or Stronghold from FFL3 myself).

Curious as to how many people have heard this before, though.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I don't think too many have, but if I catch a lot of flak, i'll change my nomination.

FELIPE NO

Good week. Though only three tracks really caught my fancy; two ROCK'N where I couldn't favor one above the other, and one that had me mesmerized since I first laid ears upon.

2 points apiece to:
Gate of Thunder (Red Book Audio) - Dark City
Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl
www.ssh.ne.jp - Ultimate Destroyer

Quickly now:

2 points - Space Station Silicon Valley (Game Rip) - Fun in the Sun
2 points - www. ssh. ne. jp - Ultimate Destroyer
1 point - Tokimeki Memorial 2 ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK vol. 1 - Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental)
1 point - Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner Soundtrack CD - Muahahalol
A nice chill-out track that creates a... nice chill-out atmosphere. It's a bit short, and the repetition is quite felt. If certain percussive elements are repetitive, it's isn't so grave as when melodic fragments do. Chiptunes can be repetitve.

Gate of Thunder (Red Book Audio) - Dark City
An intense track with an ok melody. I'd wish the timbre was more diverse though.

Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl
A really "cool" track. Hardly a memorable melody, but still very interesting music. Timbre does wonders here, if you directly compare it to Dark City.

GRANDIA III ~original sound tracks~ - Sabatal
Grandia is as popular as hell. I refused to say anything simply because I thought it was obvious. Never mind. A nice laid-back, does nothing wrong, but let's see whether it can hold up to the more elusive ones... like

Phantasy Star Online Songs of RAGOL Odyssey -Soundtrack EPISODE1&2- - 'IDOLA' have the divine blade
It sure is elusive. In my opinion this track simply lacks the focus in the chaos that the strange fruits had. Strange fruits had a really awesome melody, in some parts creating stark contrast to its wickedness. That said, it's still a nice track, the chaos of which is interesting to hear.

Space Station Silicon Valley (Game Rip) - Fun in the Sun
I mostly enjoy the beginning (first minute or so), then it doesn't add something new, instead goes into percussion mode, towards the end it gets a bit "samey". It's rather unfortunate, at least have the high points somewhere in the middle or towards the end. Still a decent track as a whole.

Tokimeki Memorial 2 ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK vol. 1 - Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental)
Tokimeki Memorial music is very sentimental, I'd say it's half-hentai. Even though the track is uplifting, some kind of reservedness is still present. I bet there is a vocal version for this song, as some half-melodic-half-percussive parts are ideal for that, end then the repetitive roll-out, just perfect for a vocal song. I like it, still I can't get rid of the feeling that it's missing something.

www.ssh.ne.jp - Ultimate Destroyer
Awesome track, reminds me of his last strike, Tobi Tsukihime - Stage 5 amVirus a bit.

In conclusion, a "grood" week. Even the track I didn't give points to had something going on for them.

Wrongly Non-Integer Rounded Up Point Spread

3 Points Supercooled Girl (2,5)
2 Points Ultimate Destroyer (2,7)
1 Point Uhh... IDOLA-chan (1,?)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Manny Biggz

And my next retro nomination!

Game: Final Fantasy Legend 3 (Gameboy)
Song: Battle Against Xagor (Last Boss Theme)
Notes: I have no other info about this song, but I can upload it if needed.

Are we actually going to let this one slide? C'mon. It's Final Fantasy. I don't care if it's on the Gameboy or not, the franchise is still the largest name in RPGs and you could probably never convince me, personally, that it qualifies as "obscure".

I think there's been a little bit of a double standard recently, in which tracks from portable versions of otherwise taboo franchises are admitted for nomination. Sonic the Hedgehog will always carry high name recognition, as will the Mana series, Kirby, Mario, etc. I carry the opinion that it slightly undermines the "obscurity" mantra to allow tracks from such high profile licenses into SotW. With the veritable cornucopia of VGM available, we really shouldn't have to resort to the most well-known series for material.

I'm sure it's a good track, but this is why we have the BSC.

How ya doing, buddy?

The FFL games are actually misnamed SaGa games if I'm not mistaken, like how the first Mana game was named Final Fantasy Adventure (supposedly to raise its profile?). I guess it's a fine line for FFL in terms of popularity. I'm rather neutral on the case. We've allowed FFA arrangements in the past and SaGa song/s (I think; please correct me if I'm wrong) before but maybe opinions have changed over time?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Final Fantasy Legend 3 is a Final Fantasy game in the same way that Tetris Attack is a Tetris game. FFL3 is part of the SaGa series, which we have had nominations from: Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song and SaGa Frontier II. The name "Final Fantasy" was slapped onto the three Game Boy members of the series to capitalize on name recognition in an attempt to boost sales, just as Panel de Pon was Yoshi-ized and released with the name "Tetris Attack" in the U.S. to create a puzzle-buying frenzy.

I think evaluating a game's popularity using that of its series isn't very good, since all* series have dark horse members that aren't as well known as the big titles: Dice de Chocobo, Sonic Pinball Party, Friends of Mana, Kirby no Kirakira Kizzu, Yoshi's Safari, etc. I'd wager nominations from all five of these games that aren't arrangements of vastly familiar themes would pass the obscurity tests (assuming they exist, since I haven't heard the soundtracks of DdC, SPP, and FoM).

This doesn't mean I think these songs should get a free pass; if anything, they should be given a little more scrutiny because of their association with massive franchises. But at the end of the day, being related to someone famous or having the same name as someone famous doesn't necessarily make you famous yourself.

In fact,...

Originally Posted by SotW mission statement, emphasis added

The purpose of this event is to promote the proliferation of quality video game music that is seldom heard amongst the society of VGM fans.

... given the fact that these games laying off to the side have been overshadowed by their high profile brethren and sistren, I quite like the idea of them being nominated from. But I'm just whimsical.

Originally Posted by Elorin

We've allowed FFA arrangements in the past and SaGa song/s (I think; please correct me if I'm wrong) before but maybe opinions have changed over time?

The case regarding Final Fantasy Adventure (Mana/Seiken Densetsu series) is notably different, because we haven't had any tracks from the game, but rather three arrangements. The obscurity test for arrangements is different because it involves both the obscurity of the source and the arrangement itself (established mainly because of my nomination of one of those arrangements).

*: well, not all; I had to go digging for Friends of Mana (a mobile phone game released last month) and you could probably find some big name series, all of whose members would unequivocally fail eligibility, but the point was that most well-known series have some "overlooked" titles in them that I'd be willing to accept nominations from

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I want to get my votes in now, albeit without comments, so that I don't end up forgetting to vote tomorrow.

This was a pretty bleh week. It seemed repetition was the common theme.

3 pts. - Fun in the Sun - This is the only track that I really like, but even this got a bit repetitive. Nice to hear music from SSSV. My cousin used to have it, and we played it a bunch. I'll have to track down the rest of its tunes...
2 pts. - Meeting With You
1 pt. - Sabatal

And nothing wrong with FFL being nominated. Like CHz said, it's not really part of the Final Fantasy series. And even if it were, I don't think many people have heard its music, which is really all that matters.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

It's becoming impossibly hard to maintain my stage 5 streak with so many other tunes I want to nominate, so I'm going to only have a stage 5 theme every other nom.

So here's my next nomination:

Composer: S. Yamaguchi
Game: Phalanx
Track: Underwater (Stage 2)
Track No: 4 on the Snesrip at SNESmusic.org
Catalogue: n/a
Year: 2279
Source: http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/profile....selected=15836
Additinal info: Stuff

This week is very good BTW, though there wasn't a single OMFG WIN track.

FELIPE NO

Some really smooth tracks this week.

(2 points) Granado Espada Soundtrack CD - Supercooled Girl

(2 points) Phantasy Star Online Songs of RAGOL Odyssey -Soundtrack EPISODE1&2- - 'IDOLA' have the divine blade

(1 point) Tokimeki Memorial 2 ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK vol. 1 - Meeting With You ~ Happy Ending (Instrumental)

(1 point) Space Station Silicon Valley (Game Rip) - Fun in the Sun

"Ultimate Destroyer" just missed.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Don't have time for comments... But I enjoyed this week.

3 points - Muladhara
1 point - Happy Ending (Instrumental)
1 point - Supercooled Girl
1 point - 'IDOLA' have the divine blade

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