Song of the Week - WEEK 89 Voting/WEEK 90 Nominating

Week 89 Voting is closed.
Week 90 Nominating is restricted.

Week 89 Voting
The rules for voting can be found here.

Results:
1). [33] Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99
2). [24] The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road
3). [22] Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams
4). [18] Sound Locomotive - Sound Locomotive
5). [14/11] Nano Breaker (Game Rip) - Downtown
6). [14/10] Klonoa of the Wind 2 ~Something Forgotten Wished by the World~ Original Soundtrack - Going to Lunatea - The Sea of Tears (After Polly's Entry)
7). [11] Capcom Music Generation Area 88 Original Soundtrack - Front Line Base
8). [8] Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Common Battle ~Stuck in Amarah~

Tracks (links):
Capcom Music Generation Area 88 Original Soundtrack - Front Line Base
Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams
Klonoa of the Wind 2 ~Something Forgotten Wished by the World~ Original Soundtrack - Going to Lunatea - The Sea of Tears (After Polly's Entry)
Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99
Nano Breaker (Game Rip) - Downtown
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Common Battle ~Stuck in Amarah~
Sound Locomotive - Sound Locomotive
The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road

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 90 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.

I think you gotta fight your track list. The KOF track name blends in with the track before it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Fixed.

And no, I didn't have to fight with it; I just had to reason with it. That's how real men solve their problems

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I don't know why I typed fight. -_- I think it's because I had Tekken on the brain.

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

Awesome week!

(3 pts.) Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99
(1 pt.) Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams
(1 pt.) Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Common Battle ~Stuck in Amarah~
(1 pt.) The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road

I was speaking idiomatically.

I think I've figured out why the streaming players occasionally don't work. I think they're choking on apostrophes in the URL; the same thing happens with links at STC. The solution is to replace each apostrophe with "%27" (no quotes). Check it:

Going to Lunatea - The Sea of Tears: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
Seoul Road: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by CHz

I think I've figured out why the streaming players occasionally don't work. I think they're choking on apostrophes in the URL; the same thing happens with links at STC. The solution is to replace each apostrophe with "%27" (no quotes). Check it:

Are the streamed links this week not working for you? They're fine for me.

Nevertheless, I've replaced the links just to be safe.

FELIPE NO

Yeah, those two wouldn't play before; now they will. That problem came up a couple times in BCC, I think, too. Thanks for the fix, CHz.

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

Watch people start hating on Route 99 =)

3pt: Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99 (8.5)
I can say that I'm definitely pleased by the main melody. Although simple, the melody is something I can seriously hope to remember and playback again; it's after all, memorable. The beginning sounds like the introduction to one of the old Blizzard Terran themes with the intringuing string instruments, but it quickly branches to become original. The song begins to speed up before playing a few sequences of the major theme, then finally branching off to a long solo. My only regrets on this song are the fact that the solo starts a bit too relaxed, and I feel that it could start off with a bang. However, the the end of the song makes up for this minor regret.

2pt: Klonoa of the Wind 2 ~Something Forgotten Wished by the World~ Original Soundtrack - Going to Lunatea - The Sea of Tears (After Polly's Entry) (8.0)
This track to me has a certain degree of freedom, especially with a decent mix of of the drums and strings in the background with the main melody of the flute. The melody is something of an excitement and seems to represent some sort of journey to a location far away. It's songs like this I like to listen to in order to relax from a long day of stress, so this song will naturally recieve a high ranking from me. My only slight gripe is that the melody continues to repeat the same phrase over and over, and it becomes noticeable after a while. Good song, however.

1pt: Capcom Music Generation Area 88 Original Soundtrack - Front Line Base (7.5)
Doesn't this particularly remind you of the old Megaman music, with a few touches of happy-anime childhoodness added into the song? I quite frankly have a certain degree of nostalgia with the simplicity of this theme, and it's probably enough to secure at least one point.

Nano Breaker (Game Rip) - Downtown (7.0)
Recently, there seems to have been an influx of scary themes that are designed to make people feel goosebumps. This song is no exception. During the first minutes, I felt that the theme was not obvious enough, but the song definitely isn't supposed to have an obvious melody. There's a resonating phrase that keeps hiding itself inside the song over and over, and it really seems somewhat freaky in the end. In the end, this is a pretty decent song, but I don't have a huge affinity for listening to scary tracks every day. By the way, the game rip recording could have been recorded in better quality (not VBR/CBR, but the stream itself), but this does not detract from the point score

Sound Locomotive - Sound Locomotive (7.0)
I don't know if choosing an electronic guitar was the best idea for the melody, because the song tries to achieve easy listening (like a credit theme) moreso in my opinion than rock. Understandably, the melody is done decently, but for me, it's not significantly memorable. The song is still a decent pick in my mind, however.

Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams (7.0)
This song is pretty catchy, and that is a neccesity for me to really consider a chip tune at all. I just consider the neverending bassline a bit jarring when compared to the melody (which happens to make up of a bunch of similar sound effects). All in all, this track is something that I find a degree of interest in.

The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road (6.5)
Again, I feel that the bass rhythm really overshadows the actual melody in this case. At certain points, I with that the melody itself was just a lot more clear (and by clear, I simply mean LOUDER). The melody itself is pretty decent, but the track for me does not try to achieve something special in comparison except for the solo towards the end.

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Common Battle ~Stuck in Amarah~ (6.5)
The song is a decent background song while playing SMT, but it really lacks the melody that makes the song distinct. In this case, melody is the most important because the song only has a bass line (of symph chords) followed by a singular melody, which means that this song isn't particularly amazing. Also, I have this thought that the background bass really muddles the melody itself, so I'm listening to the rhythm in the background the entire time.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Capcom Music Generation Area 88 Original Soundtrack - Front Line Base Definitely has the Mega Man X series feel about it--limp melody, dull rhythm, and a total lack of anything interesting. Where's Bun Bun when you need him?

Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams Hmm, I wonder what system this is from. Rhythm's nice, but the melody line's all about repetition, and the trills don't really help.

Klonoa of the Wind 2 ~Something Forgotten Wished by the World~ Original Soundtrack - Going to Lunatea - The Sea of Tears (After Polly's Entry) Damn track title, longer than Klonoa's ears. This is a nice lil' bit 'o bouncy with a fair melody, though I feel like with a little push it could have been something far more memorable--more things like the finger piano interlude could have done it.

Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99 The steel guitar style here reminds me a bit of Starcraft, which was one of the few OST's to use the instrument. I like the general sound of this piece, and the string melody that eventually shows up is pretty good, though the synthy one tha follows is less so. The piano part, though? Terrific. More please.

Nano Breaker (Game Rip) - Downtown Dark tune, this. Not much in the way of melody, but it does put together a good atmosphere. The charm wore a little thin by the end, but not bad overall.

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Common Battle ~Stuck in Amarah~ Fast-paced, yes, with the technish/rock vibe that's expected from the Digital Devil Saga. A bit weak in the melody department, as expected from the Digital Devil Saga.

Sound Locomotive - Sound Locomotive The song starts promisingly, with a nice contemporary groove to it. Then the guitar kicks in, and suddenly it's 1980 all over again. As was mentioned above, the 'tar isn't the optimum instrument for the melody here at all.

The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road I know that a song was playing because the bar was moving, but all I heard was the trash rock from my neighbor's stereo. He really needs to turn that thing down.

A very meh week all around. Severely lacking in the melody department, most of them, which is odd given the (stated) preference for strongly melodic works hereabouts.

The Point Spread
Route 99 - 3 pts.
Going to Luntea - The Sea of Tears (Polly's Theme) VERSION 1 ~Limited Edition~ Live Remix [Extended Track] - Be Soulful (Mindful) of the Chilidogs - 2 pts
Downtown - 1 pt.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Excellent week, although point distributions aren't terribly difficult...

Front Line Base - VERY familiar feeling here. This is definitely that Capcom synth rock sound I've come to associate with them. Killer melody that feeds off the underlying harmony, plus great programmed drums...Exactly what I wanted to hear and exactly what is missing from so much modern VGM.

Visitors from Dreams - Mmm...Kinda loud. The trills actually do suck in this one for a change, although I find the bass and poor melody far worse offenders here. This would have been 1st round fishfood in the chiptune contest.

Lunatea - I've learned one thing from playing Klonoa 2 extensively: The music is just not that good. I'm not sure what it is...The synth annoys me all around, but the tune contributes little overall as well. This has a couple parts that reach "decent", but completely subpar overall. Bad synth.

Route 99 - Runaway winner? I can see why...It's one of the more varied and interesting pieces this week. Is it better than some of the nonvaried and less-interesting-but-still-awesome pieces...Well, maybe. It's got still competition. Not a shame at all if it were to win in a landslide...Metal Saga music isn't exactly the most overbearing spectacle of fanboyism around and is well worthy of the attention. Onward.

Downtown - Teeters between good and not-so-interesting. I'm willing to try the gamerip out at least, based on this. Pleasant surprise, but is probably ranked out.

Common Battle - Yum! Too good...One of Meguro's best rock melodies set to a killer electronic pulse beat. One of the highlights of the SMT3 OST. I knew this was getting points as soon as I saw the name.

Sound Locomotive - Again...Jazz-fusion has completely lost it's allure to me for some reason. I can't really listen to this style of music all that much anymore, although the melody is quite nice in some spots. This is pretty typical Furukawa-sounding here.

Seoul Road - BEAST!

Points:

3 - Seoul Road
2 - Common Battle
1 - Front Line Base (could go either way between this and Route 99, but FLB is getting hosed at the moment and is refreshing despite being so familiar-sounding)

Support Korea! Vote Seoul!

Excellent week.

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

Capcom Music Generation Area 88 Original Soundtrack - Front Line Base: I've never been a fan of the SNES's soundcard. Everything sounds so hollow and metallic. Even the best tracks suffer for it, which is the case here. There's definitely a workable melody trying to get out, but the SNES just isn't having it. If an arrangement of this track existed, I'm sure it would be worth hearing.

Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams: One really has to wonder why this wasn't submitted to the BCC. It could've made the bracket quarterfinals easily, if not further. I'm sure orion will detest this track for all its trills and such, but I enjoy that sort of reverb. I don't believe that Rob Hubbard composed this, but it's a good homage to Hubbard's landmark style.

Klonoa of the Wind 2 ~Something Forgotten Wished by the World~ Original Soundtrack - Going to Lunatea - The Sea of Tears (After Polly's Entry): Why are these nomination titles getting so long? Anyway, this is a nice, upbeat piece. I wouldn't call it a breakthrough on any level but that doesn't stop the progression from being very natural and the mood pleasing. It's the "dependable" kind of quality that makes for a good nomination.

Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99: So far, everyone has highly approved of this track. Me, I find it to be only above average, not quite a knockout. The piano, however, is wonderful. My one complaint is that this song is a "builder" and by the time I'd fully taken notice was as the end approached. I felt as though it had finally hit its stride and was moving into a highly enjoyable ballad sequence. Then - oh, it's over. The whole track is pretty good but I gotta give a thumbs down to the premature ending.

Nano Breaker (Game Rip) - Downtown: Dissonant ambience. Sometimes it works, less so here. The piece is fraught with rests that become so disconnecting that I felt there was little progression. Everything in between is high-tension thriller music that is no doubt amazing in-game, but not so spectacular out of its intended context. There's some stronger cohesion toward the end but it's not enough to save this track from being too discordant for my taste.

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Common Battle ~Stuck in Amarah~: While it's one of the better MegaTen tracks to have been heard in SotW, it still fails to grab me completely. There were a couple moments that I liked but their fires were snuffed by the highly repetitive guitar work. I still don't know what people see in these MegaTen tracks.

Sound Locomotive - Sound Locomotive: The obligatory jazz-guitar track! I was wondering when it would show up. It's not too bad, if but predictable. It narrowly avoids generic side of VGM lite-rock, mostly due to a few interesting bridges, particularly the synth solo 2:10 - 2:27. Still, I've got a soft spot for this genre and I can't find anything truly displeasing about Sound Locomotive. Predictably good is still good.

The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road: KOF Arrange Trax songs are like the kids at science fairs who get little, yellow ribbons simply for showing up: they didn't impress anyone, nor were they original in any way, but they went through the motions. At least they did something. They tried. Not everyone can get first place, but everyone here is a winner, yessiree.
That's how I feel about KOF tracks. They show up in SotW, collect their participatory ribbon, then go home, satisfied with their mediocrity. They didn't win but at least they didn't get laughed out of the auditorium like the fat kid who brought in his whole Dungeons & Dragons book collection in an attempt to prove that elves exist.


Points, points, points.

2 Points: Klonoa of the Wind 2 ~Something Forgotten Wished by the World~ Original Soundtrack - Going to Lunatea - The Sea of Tears (After Polly's Entry)
2 Points: Sound Locomotive - Sound Locomotive
1 Point: Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99
1 Point: Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams


A slightly above average week. No complete stinkers, which is always a relief.

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

I've just about listened through all of this week's nominations once (as I type this, I'm listening to the final track of the batch: Seoul Road). My initial impression is that this is a pretty cool week, featuring all kinds of different songs. Each track does its own thing quite well. There aren't many that are actually all that similar in style, from my perspective. Sound Locomotive and Klonoa stand out to me the most for now. In-depth comments to come later in the week~

I also have a nomination!

Artist: Kenji Yamamoto
Album: Dragon Ball Z ~ Super Gokuuden Kakusei Hen (Assault Chapter)
Track Title: Encounter
Disc Number: only one
Track Number: 03
Catalog Number: FMCC-5061
Year: 1995
Additional Information: rockin'
Sources: GFA, GMR, Chudah's

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Originally Posted by Crash Landon

Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams: One really has to wonder why this wasn't submitted to the BCC. It could've made the bracket quarterfinals easily, if not further. I'm sure orion will detest this track for all its trills and such, but I enjoy that sort of reverb. I don't believe that Rob Hubbard composed this, but it's a good homage to Hubbard's landmark style.

It would have indeed been a strong track. It wouldn't have been eligible for the contest, though. Darwinia is a PC game, released less than two years ago. It just happens to have unusual music since composers from the mod-scene worked on it (iirc).

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My next nomination:

Artist: Sebastian "cdnalsi" Spanache
Game: Knytt (Game Rip)
Tracl: Tutorial Music
Track #: n/a
Year: 2006
Source: here (song is incorrectly labeled "Introduction"). Also here for confirmation of tutorial music.
Additional Info: I can loop the song if need be.

cdnalsi is awesome

FELIPE NO

2 points - Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99 because of the delightful piano section.
2 points - Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams because BCC made C64 sound like crack to my ears now, plus it's a very engaging track.
2 points - The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road because past a slow start, the interplay between the rock elements and melody make for one of the most pleasing (if standard) listens of the week.

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

I've been listening to this week's batch for the duration of the downtime, and I must say, amazing stuff!

(3 points) The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road
(2 points) Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams
(1 point) Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99

Klonoa and Sound Locomotive just missed out.

Not too fond of this week, nevertheless, here go my points :

1 point ~ Capcom Music Generation Area 88 Original Soundtrack - Front Line Base
1 point ~ Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams
1 point ~ Klonoa of the Wind 2 ~Something Forgotten Wished by the World~ Original Soundtrack - Going to Lunatea - The Sea of Tears (After Polly's Entry)
2 points ~ Sound Locomotive - Sound Locomotive
1 point~ The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road

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Funny how GFF went down while I was typing this post. At least I made a text file out of it so I don't have to type my thoughts again. So with the magic of copy and paste!

3 points - The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road

I love this whole damn soundtrack. I preffer the original, but I figured I nominate the more up to date arranged versions. Also because they actually are more like full songs than 1:30 looped 2 - 3 times. I decided to go with nominating this track, and I really don't know why. I plan on having other nominatinos from this track, so maybe it's because I was just listening to it at the time. It's a good rock track, that's not too in your face like most Guilty Gear tracks are. It's also the best Team Korea theme yet.

2 points - Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99

The beggining of this track sounds almost exactly like one of the Terran battle tracks from Starcraft (the one that was nominated recently). The song picked up into something quite nice though. Caught me off guard, but in a good way.

1 point - Capcom Music Generation Area 88 Original Soundtrack - Front Line Base

Nice and catchy. Simple as that!

How ya doing, buddy?

Voting will be extended an extra week because of downtime knocking everything for a loop.

Remember, in the case of future downtime, we have a second thread over at STC for this very reason. Forum registration is mostly painless and they don't bite. If you need to find the URL and can't get to the first post here, there will always be a link at the front of the SotW wiki at http://wiki.sotw.info/. If that's too much to remember, there's a link to the wiki on the SotW frontpage.

If even THAT'S too much, then I don't know what to say.

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

Phew, at least this got extended a few more days. I didn't actually think of signing up at STC until today, so it's good that you mention it now in case of future problems.

I've got some points ready now!

3 points - Capcom Music Generation Area 88 Original Soundtrack - Front Line Base
2 points - Darwinia Soundtrack - Visitors from dreams
1 point - Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99

I was speaking idiomatically.

I really dislike the idea that we can't possibly run two SotWs concurrently. Anyone whose nomination was due to be up this week is innocently made to wait. Meanwhile, those of us who managed to vote before the downtime get to sit about and twiddle our thumbs for seven more days.

Week 90 can easily be extended until Wednesday or Thursday to account for the downtime. Anything beyond that seems a bit unfair, since most other weeks only get seven days for voting. Why should these songs get 10 or more?
Meanwhile, Week 91 can easily begin on its own. It'll give those of us who vote earlier than the weekends something to do. And the weekend laggers would still be able to do their thing this coming Saturday and Sunday.

(Before people get upset, I know some people wait until the weekend because of school/work/etc. But this fact doesn't preclude my belief that no particular week should receive a total or more than seven days of voting time, regardless.)

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

^Agreed.

FELIPE NO

Quote:

I really dislike the idea that we can't possibly run two SotWs concurrently.

I concur wholeheartedly, but by extension of this logic, why can't we have a normal week run concurrently with battles (Like we used to do?) I much preferred it that way.

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(3 points) Metal Saga ~Chain of Sandstorm~ Original Soundtrack - Route 99: Steel guitar, piano, I'm a sucker for it all.

(2 points) The King of Fighters '96 Arrange Sound Trax - Seoul Road: Nothing scathingly original, but enjoyable nonetheless.

(1 point) Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Common Battle ~Stuck in Amarah~: Like the tempo.

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