Hitoshi Sakimoto ~discuss~

I'd probably list Sakimoto in my Japanese Top Four, alongside luminaries like Uematsu, Mitsuda, and Shimomura.

This is largely becuase of the nature of most of Sakimoto's music, which tends to be orchestral, melodic, and densely "orchestrated" (even though there's no actual orchestra involved; I'm talking about how different sections play off one another and hand melodies around). While this can equate to a "wall of sound" in some cases, it's certainly not the sort of music that trades coherence for volume, like Sakuraba's Battle Theme.

Someone might describe "Tieger and Neesa" from "Vagrant Story" as a wall of sound, for example, because it is quite loud. But despite the overwhelming percussion work, the piece is still very melodic--so much, in fact, that the melody is reprised in "Limestone Quarry" in a much softer form.

Sakimoto, for me, is at his best when he's gone baroque--music that has a slight old-timey Renissance feel--or when he's putting together martial action music. Most of his best work (can't speak for FFXII, since I've only heard a few tracks) has been in this area; I'm less impressed with albums like "Gradius V" though they have their moments.

Of course, if you're a fan of contemporary pop or rock styles, there's very little of that to be had in Sakimoto's body of work. If orchestral and/or melodic material is your thing, though, Sakimoto's a treat. He's like the best of both worlds, combining complexity and a degree of experimentation with strong, traditional melodies. I find it a bit frustrating when composers are all complexity with no melody (Hamauzu) or all melody with no complexity (Kenji Ito); so Sakimoto is in many ways a best of both worlds for me.

Oh, and in my now-abandoned project to equate every Japanese VGM composer to an American film composer, Sakimoto = Danny Elfman.

Jam it back in, in the dark.