[D] First Round #7 (Intelligent Sea vs. Professor Layton's Theme)

Listen to both songs and select the one you prefer.

Download Links:

Opoona - Intelligent Sea
Professor Layton and The Curious Village - Professor Layton's Theme

Streaming:

Intelligent Sea: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
Professor Layton's Theme: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:

Opoona - Intelligent Sea: Being a hard sucker for H.Sakimoto, I will support this one. I rarely meet such cool chord progressions in such ambient songs. The first (five) seconds are very typical. However, the 7s to 17s passage is novelty, a pretty solid and much appreciated pattern. Right after, the song was already well built up and gets rather progressive. I don't know how much Sakimoto contributed to the piece, but I believe it is his influence that caught my ears.


Professor Layton and The Curious Village - Professor Layton's Theme: I am a bit confused here, I might be wrong but the song seems synthetic to me (it's the violin which made me say that). Whatever, I like the song, it is pretty colorful. It doesn't get the vote though, it doesn't suit my tastes, apart from being somehow emotionless.

Opoona - Intelligent Sea
No need to even listen to this one; I tagged it form squaretex's info earlier this year, and it was a toss-up between this and Bravo Company for my number one spot (so props to whoever put it up!) Opoona is the Sakimoto/Basiscape score for people who hate Sakimoto/Basiscape--full of innovation and spacey new-age atmosphere. The juxtaposition of piano and synth melody here is absolutely divine, equal parts goofy and beautiful. Frankly, I'm just glad to see it here getting more exposure.

Professor Layton and The Curious Village - Professor Layton's Theme
A cute and appropriate tune, if a bit short and a bit simple. Also, it reminded me of a terrific Penny Arcade, so props for that.

Layton is nice, but Intelligent Sea is on a whole other level.

That's an evil match-up. I love both equally for different reasons. Opoona has nice representation in this contest and Intelligent Sea is basically "Bravo Company" ver. Ambient (don't quote me on that, to me it's a good thing), so I just went with Layton.

Layton gets my vote just because there are so many more better songs that Sakimoto's done. That, and I'm still reeling over Tomohito Nishiura's soundtrack to Dark Cloud 2.

Mike Oldfield versus Final Fantasy? I never did like Mike Oldfield.

Opoona's incoherent mushy drivel is barely keeping me awake, which is I guess what people really like, songs that barely keep you awake. I was hoping for something good since people keep saying that the Opoona soundtrack is the best Sakimoto's ever done, but uh, I guess people who like Sakimoto just hate music.

So yeah, voting for whatever that other OH SHIT IT'S LAYTON. Awesome. I win!

Opoona - Intelligent Sea
What a weird song and heavenly chords!!! Damn. Super nice find. And the harmony makes me think about Hiromi Uehara jazz music. I haven't listened to the second song yet and I already know this one will get the vote. Whoever nominated this, thanks a lot. I like the part at 020-0:26, nice transition.

Professor Layton and The Curious Village - Professor Layton's Theme
Damn, I like gypsy rhythm and harmony music.

These are both wonderful songs, but the first one gets the vote and we'll need more for the song to win this pairing!

Intelligent Sea is somewhat airy and atmospheric, so even if I didn't see that this was Sakimoto, it still doesn't do me any favours. Professor Layton, however, makes me smile when it blends chromatic piano clusters and accordion, contributing to the whole macabre image of the remote village.

...wait, what? Of all the awesome Opoona tunes to nominate, this one managed to sneak in? =/ Huh. I like the reverb effect on the "Bravo Company" melody at the start, but after that? An absolute snore-fest, with painfully generic aquatic sound features and echo etc. I prefer the waterway version of this "Intelligent Sea" track 10x more.

!! "Professor Layton's Theme" was one of my favourites from the game, and I still really enjoy it. It's a pleasant surprise to see it nominated, actually! Ripe with character and piano-accordion-violin quirkiness, this one's an entertaining tune right from the start. Definitely will be getting my vote here.

"Intelligent Sea" - 3.5/10
"Professor Layton's Theme" - 8.5/10

Bah, I'm still kicking myself for not nominating "Blue Desert Hotel" or "Industrial Side of Lifeborn" from Opoona.

Intelligent Sea-
Beautiful chords and effects on this one; the sounds are nice. If this track had a melody it'd be a massive contender. As-is, i'm keeping it, but it's not phenomenal.

Professor Layton's Theme-
Quirky is a good word for this one. Piano is especially nice, and it has a very strong feel to it.

Surprising even myself, I gotta give this one to Opoona. Listening to both a second time through and it just feels better to me. I want it to have a melody though. :/

Layton's Theme is catchy and has a piano part that doesn't suck. The fake string synth is just a bonus. The ending was really good, I assume it just loops that segment over and over again.

I'm hoping Sakimoto didn't compose Intelligent Sea just so everyone else in this thread would be wrong. I read somewhere that he actually contributed very little music to the entire soundtrack, though I guess we'll never know until a soundtrack is released (lol).

As for the song itself, it's... really weird. I'm a sucker for unusual chord progressions, but damn this is inconsistent. Loving the electronic everything going on, though, but I don't think it's good enough to beat Layton.

I find both tracks appealing. "Professor Layton's Theme" is very nice and listenable. Good melody and nifty development. "Intelligent Sea" has a good atmospheric quality and the subtle build-up is quite nice. But I must admit I found Layton a more charming listen.

Huh. THIS is Sakimoto? Nice. Pretty. Reverb-y. Oh. Wait. Maybe it's not Sakimoto, since there's like, 2 billion composers listed for this one track. Still, it's pretty, laid back and not offensive. I can dig it.

Oh wow. Layton's Theme is whimsical and then it has that accordion synth that's all over Dark Cloud 2. Fantastic. Oh, and it reminds me slightly of the four tracks from that Rule of Rose promo cd or whatever the hell it is. Anyway, it's the better of these two tracks. Not that the other is HORRIBLE or anything, but it's great.

This is a top-notch matchup here. Layton's a perfect lovely track packed with enough kooky-Euro appeal (that one instrument, which I cannot name, always makes me think of Paris). Intelligent Sea is ethereal and has sublime piano, which is basically double attraction for me.

Also, I can't name one VGM track with the word 'Sea' in it that sucked. They're all good.

: Professor Layton and The Curious Village - Professor Layton's Theme
: Opoona - Intelligent Sea

I was pretty pleasantly surprised by the music of Professor Layton; I didn't really think Tomohito Nishiura could pull something off that well. Didn't know there was a rip of this around. Professor Layton's Theme has nice piano and lead writing, and I really like the bit at 0:57 where the piano and percussion tone it down a bit. This is my second-favorite track from the game, so nice pick.

I'm seriously drowning in the reverb of Intelligent Sea, can someone throw me a life preserver. The whole thing is weird, and I kind of like it, but I've already had enough of it by the time that it ends. Interesting stuff going on, but I can come back to Layton again and again.

I might be biased to vote for the Opoona track beacuse I've been listening to this album constantly over the last several months. However, I think there are far better tracks than Intelligent Sea.

Professor Layton's Theme is nice. I haven't heard it before, and I'm a bit surprised because in the small amount of time I spent playing the game, I didn't encounter anything of this caliber. I'm not "captivated" by it, but it's a good track, and I'm giving it the vote here.