[Album] Ibara REMIX TRACKS (INDV-0111)

On August 29, I was reading the Wikipedia article on Tatsuya Uemura, a composer I rather fancy. At the time, the article said that, after Toaplan folded, he eventually joined Cave, the game company responsible for such shmups as the DonPachi, ESPGaluda, and Mushihimesama series. (That statement has since been removed.)

I was intensely curious about that, since it was the first time I'd heard he worked for Cave. I was fairly certain that he hadn't worked on the soundtracks to any Cave games, but just to be on the safe side, I decided to ask Dragon God if he knew of any Cave Uemura soundtracks. That conversation started like this:

9:10:33 PM chz16: How much do you know about Tatsuya Uemura, a.k.a. Toaplan musical genius?
9:10:40 PM zttfanatic: Not much
9:10:54 PM zttfanatic: I've only heard his Outer Zone music
9:11:13 PM zttfanatic: Tho I'll be hearing a remix of Ibara from him soon
9:11:23 PM chz16: =o!

I knew about the Insanity DVD series, but I didn't know there was one an entry for Ibara, and I espcially didn't know there was an arrange album included with it. Since this was Uemura's first new work in twelve years, my ears immediately perked up. When he said that Hyakutarou Tsukumo, an ex-Technosoft rockmeister whose only real work lately has been the occasional remix over at Factory Noise & AG, also had an arrange on the album, I began to drool with anticipation.

And now the day is finally here.

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The CD starts off on a low note with the weakest track. Why Weapon Select didn't make it into the OST, who knows, since there was more than enough room for it. The track isn't too bad; it's a grungy synth affair with a nice, meaty bass. It gets the groove on, but it's not terribly impressive. Still, I would argue that the best place for the weakest track of an album is at the beginning, so that not only does it lead into tracks of higher quality, but also it prevents disappointment later.

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So we move along to track 2, the arrangement of Show Time by Uemura. Show Time is one of my favorite tracks from Ibara, and after a slow, synthy intro with an oddly-placed girl's laugh, the track starts proper at 0:13, sounding a lot like the original, except slightly slower. Expansive material comes in at 0:39 with a new, light melody that leads into the main Show Time melody at 1:03. It has the same synth as the original, but it's quite a bit lower in pitch, which in addition to the slower pace give it more power than in the original.

And then we have the guitar solo at 1:42, which solidifies the power rock feel for the rest of the song until the switch to music box at 3:13. Uemura successfully took the high-energy original and made it slower, more methodical, and much more powerful. Great song? Yes. Better than the original? Absolutely.

But maybe that's just my bias showing, and the arrange really isn't as special as I make it out to be. There are still three more tracks on the album to investigate.

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The third track, an arrangement of Bonds of Steel, was written by the only person on the album I hadn't heard anything from prior, WASi303. His arrangement is more liberal than Uemura's, and is also more dance oriented, getting its groove thing on. It starts off with a solid two and a quarter minutes of BOOM TISS BOOM TISS which is decent enough, if not particularly exemplary.

It's about this time that the track decides to slowly metamorphose into an NES chiptune. The fade is slow, first with the synths being replaced with 2A03 waves. The background noises remain until 2:34, when everything but the chippy goodness handles the melody for ten seconds. Lengthwise, it's a pretty insignificant portion of the song, but it adds enough variety to keep things interesting until the end and, of course, chiptunes are awesome.

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So, we have one great arrange, one merely above average arrange, and one average track. Still, we're averaging better than even as we move into the fourth track, an arranged version of Rose Garden by Hyakutarou "SYNTHROCKIN'" Tsukumo. If anyone can launch us back into the statosphere and beyond, it's him.

We start off with strings and piano for the intro, with percussion, a warbling synth, and vox soon to follow in the back. At 0:31, the song kicks into gear with The Riff. The Riff that signals the oncoming of rock. The Riff that presages guitar wankery. The Riff that is Tsukumo.

But wait, we have no wailing. The guitar's stuck in rhythm. When the melody comes in at 0:55, it's the same synth from the original, and not the guitar churning away.

Well, carrying along. The song continues similar to the intro, except with the synth on top playing the melody. It all functions to build, to move forward, to progress to 2:04, when the melody is taken over by a guitar. We get a little new material, but it stays well behaved. The song continues.

Wait, what's that at 2:36? The Riff again? Oh, here starts the ride.

Let us call everything prior to the solo the "Countdown," so that we may deem it "Liftoff."

At 3:30, we begin the rehashing portion of the song. Of note is 4:09, which took me completely by surprise on the first listen. The listener gets lulled into the complacency of anticipating repetition, when BANG! Out of the blue, we have three big hits to shake things up. It's a very minor touch, but I love it. The guitar returns again wailing at 4:19 to lead us into the end of the song.

Okay, so that's two great, one above average, and one average. One more track to go.

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The final track is an arrange of Endless Train (Engrished on the album as "Endress Train") by A' and Namihei, folk who are tied to Tsukumo, having also composed for several FNAG albums. Their arrange is the most liberal of the lot, transforming the uptempo Endless Train into a power guitar ballad. The melody, which is jumpy and full of pep in the original, is infused with grace and aplomb, beautifully floating above a piano and drumkit.

I'm writing the least about it of the four arranged tracks because it's the simplest of the songs, but while intellectually it may have the least presence, it has significant pull at the base, heartstring level. You feel the highs, you feel the lows, and by the end, you feel escorted through the air, flying to the end of the album.

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The final tally is: three great tracks, one above average track, and one average track. When listening to the album, one burning question manifests itself:

Why wasn't this a full arrange album?

The only thing that can possibly detract from the greatness of the music involved are what-ifs: what if many more tracks from Ibara were arranged? What if these arrangers had produced multiple tracks of the same quality instead of just one apiece? What if, instead of looking at an amazing bonus feature to a shmup DVD, we had in our hands the best arrange album of the year?

But I prefer not to dwell on such matters. What we have is what we have. And what we have is an amazing bonus feature.

5/5

Jam it back in, in the dark.