[SotW] Song of the Week - WEEK 101 Voting/WEEK 102 Nominating

Song of the Week. 100 Weeks and counting.
Week 101 Voting is closed.
Week 102 Nominating is restricted.

Week 101 Voting
The rules for voting can be found here.

Results
1). [25] Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune
2). [19] Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Daijiten Original Soundtrack - Bedtime Puzzler
3). [16] Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki ? Non Stop Megamix - This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix)
4). [12] FolksSoul ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Skilled Spear
5). [9] The Lost World: Jurassic Park Original Game Soundtrack - Primordial Forest
6). [8] Phantasy Star Collection - Sound Collection II - LANDEEL
7). [4] "GURUMIN" ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK - Guruguru Tonight
8). [3] Koi ha Balance - Battle of Lovers (SPC Rip) - Goal 2

Tracks (links):
FolksSoul ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Skilled Spear
"GURUMIN" ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK - Guruguru Tonight
Koi ha Balance - Battle of Lovers (SPC Rip) - Goal 2
Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Daijiten Original Soundtrack - Bedtime Puzzler
Phantasy Star Collection - Sound Collection II - LANDEEL
Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune
Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki ? Non Stop Megamix - This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park Original Game Soundtrack - Primordial Forest

Notes:
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 102 Nominating
The Nominations Queue can be found here.
The rules for nominating can be found here.

Here is the link to the corresponding thread in the other forum:
- Soundtrack Central

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Why is this pending?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Drakken was having internet problems and couldn't finish uploading the tracks. However, they're all up now, so fire away!

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The tracks are now linked and ready for voting.

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

I got time tonight, might as well post comments.

FolksSoul ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Skilled Spear: The beginning of this track was the best part, as the rest dwindled into a monotonous pile of high-tension brass and drums - in other words, the usual militaristic stuff. Not for me.

"GURUMIN" ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK - Guruguru Tonight: I enjoyed this track. It's one of the few occasions wherein the music makes up for the largely unintelligible lyrics. Great tempo, nice layered effects and a strong melody all make it worth hearing again.

Koi ha Balance - Battle of Lovers (SPC Rip) - Goal 2: This piece suffers from classic "Kenji-Itoitis"; it's inoffensive but thoroughly lacking in substance, nothing sets it apart from a hundred other "happy day" themes. Ito is perhaps the reigning champion at creating the least with the most.

Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Daijiten Original Soundtrack - Bedtime Puzzler: This is really, um, schmaltzy. Though there's really nothing horrible about Bedtime Puzzler, the super-sticky-sweetness is quite difficult to swallow. I usually favor airy, cheerful tracks but this might be just a bit too airy, even for me. The style of pop/R&B here isn't my cup of tea, though I did like some of the synth effects.

Phantasy Star Collection - Sound Collection II - LANDEEL: I hope this is our last Phantasy Star nomination, at least for quite a while. But the series steps out of SotW on a positive note, with a song that's got a lot of groove and character. Jazz fusion tracks are either really cool or really bad and this lands squarely in the "diggin' it" category. Good nomination.

Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune: I didn't think that much of this track during the first listen, but I'm glad I gave it another go. It has a lot more depth than I initially realized, reminiscient of a Russian ballet, almost. It's not something I'd listen to all the time but when I'm feeling introspective, it'd be quite suitable. Not bad.

Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki ? Non Stop Megamix - This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix): My nomination, and a guilty pleasure. This song is nothing but fun, fun, fun, with a hell of a lot of style thrown in for good measure. The melody is so strong that it once managed to get itself lodged in my head for four days. And the vocals are in English, so you can sing along! Fun for all ages!

The Lost World: Jurassic Park Original Game Soundtrack - Primordial Forest
: This one retains that "cinematic" feel, but more like it was ripped out of a Tim Burton film, and not a Spielberg one. On the whole, I find the cinematic VGM entries to be a bit lacking, due to a personal opinion that they feel as though they were never meant for the game in the first place. Primordial Forest is better than some, but still feels oddly misplaced.


Points! Points! Points!

3 Points: Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki ? Non Stop Megamix - This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix)
1 Point: "GURUMIN" ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK - Guruguru Tonight
1 Point: Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune
1 Point: Phantasy Star Collection - Sound Collection II - LANDEEL

Mixed week. Some good, some less exciting. Pretty normal, it'd seem.


Oh right - New Nomination

Album: Tourist Trophy Original Game Soundtrack
Track Title: CALIFORNIA WIND
Composer: KASAI
Track Number: 19
Year: 2006
Catalog Number: FLCG-3120
Source: GMROnline
Notes: GMR lists the composer as MAKOTO, but the track is tagged "KASAI". I'm unsure which is correct.

I was speaking idiomatically.

FolksSoul ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Skilled Spear The pulsing percussion of this track is its great strength, at the beginning especially and in the middle. There's not much melody to speak of, and the middle part of the loop is a tad mushy, but the drums help keep it in the black.

"GURUMIN" ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK - Guruguru Tonight A heavy dose of quirk and funk, this. The lyrics are completely garbled (it actually sounded like Simmish to me) but it was fun in a cheesy, over-the-top way.

Koi ha Balance - Battle of Lovers (SPC Rip) - Goal 2 Definitely an Ito piece, as his stylistc trademarks are all over it. It could easily be slotted into any of his other SNES-era projects, with nothing to distinguish it save a nice melodic twist near the loop. I find Ito to be at his best when he goes over the top or quirky, rather than going for peaceful.

Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Daijiten Original Soundtrack - Bedtime Puzzler I like the synthy edge this song displays, although it winds up sounding more like a late-90's end credits song than anything.

Phantasy Star Collection - Sound Collection II - LANDEEL Very different than the gaggle of PS tracks that preceded it. For this same reason, it struck me as rather bland, though that's as much a function of the genre as anything.

Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune Some terrific piano work here, combined with a small supporting ensemble to create some fine, dark music. Not as compelling as I hoped it would be given its potential, but good nonetheless.

Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki ? Non Stop Megamix - This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix) The voices at the beginning had me fearing for the worst. Luckily, the song turns out to be a spiritual cousin to GURUMIN; I couldn't understand a word of the lyrics, but the instrumentals had energy.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park Original Game Soundtrack - Primordial Forest Michael Giacchino is often at his best when he's imitating John Williams; in this case, he's adopted Williams' sound for Hook and Home Alone into a nice comic piece. The melody's good and the pizzicato strings are terrific.

A fine week, with nothing unlistenable.

The Point Spread
3 pts. - Primordial Forest
2 pts. - Skilled Spear
1 pt. - Larmes de la lune

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Skilled Spear: It blows you away the first second you listen to it. It has interesting harmonies. Maybe it's my imagination but I hear some Nakano vibe in it.

Guruguru Tonight: I can believe people like such songs, but I'm not a pop music fan.

Goal 2: It immediately reminds me of the "ocean song" in Saga Frontier. Very good participant here. Nomination from me for the win, because of the nostalgia I felt.

Bedtime Puzzler: Hey what a surprise, this was not the song I had in mind. The version I have here is the instrumental version. Interesting. The vocal version is of better quality than the instrumental version.

Landeel: I don't like the percussion here, it sounds too old and unsophisticated. Overall pretty laid back and ambient, very anime stylish, not my kind of thing.

Larmes de la Lune: It started pretty good but the piano after that made me puke a little bit. I like the barok feeling of the song, the use of sequences of modulational phrases. The instrumentation is a bit blurry at times.

This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix): I laughed in the beginning, but after a while I realized it's not going to do it.

Primordial Forest: I give it an A+ for orchestration, but the song/melody itself is not interesting to me.


Skilled Spear: 3 points
Goal 2: 2 points
Larmes de Lune: 1 point

I can't think of any rare albums right now so:

Album: Dark Cloud 2
Track Title: Fish Race!!
Composer: Tomohito Nishiura
Track Number: 1/42
Year: 2002
Catalog Number: SCDC-00243/4
Source: RPGfan

Dark Cloud 2 isn't that popular I hope.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by katchum

I think arrangements of Chrono Trigger are allowed here?

No. Fan arrangements and doujin are generally not allowed, and Chrono anything is far, far too popular even if they were. Sorry.

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

Last week I forgot to vote in the last moment, so this time I won't wait until Sunday:

1 point ~ Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Daijiten Original Soundtrack - Bedtime Puzzler

2 points ~ Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune

3 points ~ The Lost World: Jurassic Park Original Game Soundtrack - Primordial Forest


And now my next nomination:

Album: --
Track Title: Childrens suite
Composer: Richard Jacques
Track Number: --
Year: 2002?
Catalog Number: --
Source: Well, it was part of some downloadable material from his official website, it was in a directory apart from film, commercials and video game music. It was just for promoting himself. The problem is that after remodelating his website, now I can't find a source for it.

So, this is the actual website: http://www.richardjacques.co.uk/
And this is where I took the mp3 file (now removed, I suppose): http://www.richardjacques.co.uk/downloads.html

I will upload the mp3 to the server as soon as I'm finished with the Enemy territory Beta 2, unless you decline it, of course ^^U

Jam it back in, in the dark.

IMDB and Mobygames confirm that Richard Jacques is primarily a VGM composer; all his listed credits are for VGM. While I repeat my wish that people would nominate more actual music found in video games, "Children's Suite" looks fully eligible under the current rules, so upload away

There's nowhere I can't reach.

2 points: "GURUMIN" ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK - Guruguru Tonight
2 points: Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune
1 point: Phantasy Star Collection - Sound Collection II - LANDEEL
1 point: Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki - Non Stop Megamix - This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix)

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I accidentally broke the SotW Wiki for a day or two. It's fixed now.

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

3 points : Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki ? Non Stop Megamix - This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix)
2 points : FolksSoul ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Skilled Spear
1 point : The Lost World: Jurassic Park Original Game Soundtrack - Primordial Forest

I was speaking idiomatically.

Interesting week. For the first time in a long while, some comments! :P

(2 points) Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune
Hauntingly beautiful best describes this for me.

(2 points) FolksSoul ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Skilled Spear
I like the energy of the song. I'm even more surprised it's a Hosoe track (!!!).

(1 point) Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Daijiten Original Soundtrack - Bedtime Puzzler
Nice instrumentation and melody. Really like the beat in this song.

(1 point) Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki - Non Stop Megamix - This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix)
Tom Jones?!?! Nice song, though. Accompaniment is very neat.

The Lost World was very close to getting a point. I'm rather fond of whimsical tracks such as these but I do prefer them to be less orchestral. Heavy orchestration adds a certain amount of seriousness that prevents the song from reaching the level of silliness I like so much.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

(2 points) Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune
(2 points) Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Daijiten Original Soundtrack - Bedtime Puzzler
(1 point) FolksSoul ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Skilled Spear
(1 point) Phantasy Star Collection - Sound Collection II - LANDEEL


Nomination:

• Album: Genso Suikoden III Music Collection ~Rustling of the Wind~
• Track Title: The Wind and the Earth
• Composer: Michiru Yamane
• Arranger: Jiro Okada
• Track Number: 9
• Year: 2002
• Catalog Number: KMCA-170
• Sources: http://www.chudahs-corner.com/lyrics...=KOLA-018&id=4 (Composer verification)
• Notes: In most of the sites, "Bosque Aroma" is given arrangement credits ,and while this is true, it's not complete. "Bosque Aroma" is a group that consisted of Shusei Murai, Jiro Okada, and Mantell Nonoda. Therefore, Jiro Okada is the only arranger of "The Wind and the Earth".

FELIPE NO

I'm close to requesting that all Suikoden music be deemed ineligible. I realize there are arranged albums out there that people might not have heard, but still, we've seen more than our fair share of Suikoden music here at GFF, and there have been some arranged tracks nominated for SotW in the past.

It just doesn't really fit in with the purpose of SotW, in my mind. But if others think music from arranged albums is still unknown and thus fitting for SotW, then that's fine. Let's get some opinions, though.

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

Originally Posted by Drakken

Let's get some opinions, though.

Are we sure it's an actual Suikotune, and not a pseudo-Suikotune of the sort Crash nominated some time back?

Incidentally, Drakken, would it kill you to vote while you're commenting on eligibility

Jam it back in, in the dark.

This is an actual Suikotune.

Current Suikoden nomination statistics are:

Suikoden 1: 1 in-game, 2 arrangements (1 placed)
Suikoden 2: 1 in-game
Suikoden 3: 2 in-game, 1 arrangement (1 placed)
Suikoden 4 & 5: none

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Crunkz & Hyphyz

Suikoden 4 & 5: none

Hmm, I seem to recall something from 4 being in SOTW one week. It was the port town music from the first part of the game...Nothing else from 4 or 5 that I recall though. Can't tell you if it placed or not, but I gave it points.

Eh, I don't feel Suikoden has quite reached the level that, say, Wild Arms has with exposure (2 WA in the top 8 of BSC most likely and around a dozen in the entire contest, from various series composers). It's another case where the composers have changed a lot, so a Suikoden III tune isn't equivalent to a Suikoden 1/2 tune. And I'm not a fan of anything related to III's music, but I love 1/2 and some of 4/5, so that should give you some idea of how different each composer/group was. On that same note, from something I saw earlier...Phantasy Star isn't equivalent to PSO music, despite the name. Totally different styles of music, totally different composers, etc.

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

Originally Posted by GoldfishX

Hmm, I seem to recall something from 4 being in SOTW one week. It was the port town music from the first part of the game...Nothing else from 4 or 5 that I recall though. Can't tell you if it placed or not, but I gave it points.

You're half right. The track was A Certain Port Town [Razril BGM] from Suikoden Tactics (Rhapsodia), which didn't place. Completely forgot about that one until you said something.

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

3 points - Snow in Saigon - Larmes de la lune
2 points - Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Daijiten Original Soundtrack - Bedtime Puzzler
1 point - FolksSoul ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Skilled Spear

"Larmes de la lune" and to some extent "Bedtime Puzzler" were the only two that particularly caught my ear. Last week had a much more satisfying spread; even the tracks I didn't vote for then were good.

I was speaking idiomatically.

So are we making this another 2-weeker? It seems like the inertia is pointing that way, anyway.

As for a definitive answer re: Suikotunes, I think that the series can remain eligible until it racks up a few more nominations, and then should be retired. That's what happened with Phantasy Star tracks, and it seemed to work well enough.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

A 2-weeker sounds good. Will allow me to toss in my next nomination. =}

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Kaleb.G

A 2-weeker sounds good. Will allow me to toss in my next nomination. =}

Then, by the power vested in me by, uh, you...I declare it to be thus.

Two week SoTW! Get those votes and noms in!

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

Great! Now for that nomination... I'm picking from an album I just acquired a physical copy of. One that, to my surprise, has not been nominated from so far (unless the nomination archive list is wrong).

Senko no Ronde -Sound Tracks- <Yasuhisa Watanabe -Yack.-> - [03] assemble

=== Kaleb.G ===
* Album Title: Senko no Ronde -Sound Tracks-
* Artist: Yasuhisa Watanabe -Yack.-
* Track Title: assemble
* Source: #gamemp3s, GMR, the OST itself
* File Location: Nominations folder
* Disc Number: 1 (of 1)
* Track Number: 03
* Catalogue Number: SRIN-1025
* Year: 2005

Jam it back in, in the dark.