Song of the Week - WEEK 98 Voting/WEEK 99 Nominating

Week 98 Voting is closed.
Week 99 Nominating is restricted.

Week 98 Voting
The rules for voting can be found here.

Results:
1). [31] FX3 - Choppastyle
2). [18/10.5] Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Original Soundtrack - you
3). [18/10] Landstalker ~The Emperor's Treasure~ - Treasure Hunter Lyle
4). [13] Music from SSX Blur - Wanlong Mamoth
5). [12] Tick! Tack! Deluxe Soundtrack - Be Ambitious, Guys! -Arrange ver.-
6). [10] Nobunaga's Ambition Zenkokuban - Sangokushi - Mt. Hiei Burns
7). [7] ResQ (Game Rip) - Level 4A
8). [5] Atelier Iris GRAND FANTASM Original Soundtrack - Grand Fantasm

Tracks (links):
Atelier Iris GRAND FANTASM Original Soundtrack - Grand Fantasm
FX3 - Choppastyle
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Original Soundtrack - you
Landstalker ~The Emperor's Treasure~ - Treasure Hunter Lyle
Music from SSX Blur - Wanlong Mamoth
Nobunaga's Ambition Zenkokuban/Sangokushi - Mt. Hiei Burns
ResQ (Game Rip) - Level 4A
Tick! Tack! Deluxe Soundtrack - Be Ambitious, Guys! -Arrange ver.-

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 99 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

Grand Fantasm wasn't interesting enough, didn't have an inventive quality that could pull me in.

You is too simple for me. Nice but too normal.

Treasure Hunter Lyle. Not my thing.

Wanlong Mamoth. Sorry, not my thing.

Mount Hiei Burns. I just love the ending progression: 3 times repetition of a chord progression I especially like. It starts at 2:06!

Choppastyle amazes me how bad sound can still give such nice and cute things.

Level 4A. Worthy sounds but uninteresting melody.

Be Ambitious Guys. Nice soothing song with the kind of guitars I like.

3 points: Be Ambitious Guys
2 points: Choppastyle
1 point: You


Nomination:

Artist: Satoru Kosaki
Game: Kotoba no Puzzle Moji-Pittan
Track: 11 Bedtime Puzzler
Year: march 2006
Catalog number: PCCR-90020

Before I take care of anything else, I'm gonna throw up a new nomination.

Album: Space Channel 5 Part 2 Uki Uki ★ Non Stop Megamix
Title: "This is My Happiness (Tom Jones A-Go Go Mix)"
Track Number:14
Composer: Tetsuto Yoshida
Year: 2002
Catalog Number: MJCG-80097
Source: Chudah's Corner
Additional Notes: A vocal track, yes, but they're in English, they're surprisingly decent, and it's a song that's so incredibly unique and addicting that it must be nominated.

Since the first round of the BSC is finishing up very shortly (Dr. Uzuki = speed demon), I'm going to try to go for a normal week here this week instead of extending it again. Unless we run low on voters again!

Also, I've made polls about the two issues brought up last week.

PLEASE READ AND VOTE HERE:
Definition of "Professional VGM Composer"
Original Piece Time Restriction

They'll close in a week, so drop it like it's hot.

Heh, I will just nominate for now, the BSC second round is eating up all my voting time for now... whew!

Artist: Icarus Watanabe
Composer: Falcom Sound Team JDK
Album: Gurumin Original Soundtrack
Title: Guruguru Tonight
Disc Number: 1 (of 2)
Track Number: 1
Year: 2005
Catalog Number: GRM-OST1/2
Source: Game Music Revolution
Additional Notes: It is the opening song to the game Gurumin by Falcom. Apparently the album was never released for sale, but was only included in the limited editions of the game.

Oh and I realized that the link to the nomination rules have been changed to:
http://wiki.songoftheweek.info/index...on_Phase#Rules

And my votes are:
(3 points) You
(2 points) Be Ambitious Guys
(1 points) Grand Fantasm

Nomination time..


Artist/Composer: Jeremy Soule
Album: The Secret of Evermore Complete Soundtrack
Title: White Castle Town
Track No: 20
Year: 1995
Catalog Number: N/A
Source: Chudah's Corner

Additional notes: I nominated this one after seeing the recent Soule interview. SOE is one of my fav. soundtracks, and why it got the reviews it got I have no idea. IMO Soule showed brilliance in his ability to walk the line between peaceful yet suspicious moods. But anyhoo..

As I said before, I'm not sure how iffy this track is re: obscurity level, but Crash made a good point earlier saying that this game wasn't really revered for its music. I'll be posting a link to the file later on, as I'm at work, mmmmkoy?

Here's the link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/1bcau2

Atelier Iris GRAND FANTASM Original Soundtrack - Grand Fantasm: I've heard this entire album, but "Grand Fantasm" never really stood out to me. I don't mind the ASIA influence, but the whole track still comes off as being average. Don't hate it but I don't love it.

FX3 - Choppastyle: This is pretty slick. Definitely reminds me of the chiptunes that Konami-owned Ultra Games produced for several years. I don't know much about Kaufman; perhaps he influenced that sound? Anyhow, this track is fun and exciting. Simple as that.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Original Soundtrack - you: Can I assume this is from a Hentai game? I don't know much about the technical aspects of piano compositions, but from a purely aesthetic vantage, this is quite nice. Good emotion in this one.

Landstalker ~The Emperor's Treasure~ - Treasure Hunter Lyle: My nomination, submitted because it's just a really cool track. No other reason. Good intro, cool hook, nice synthy feel, awesome nostalgia factor and a lot of character. Motoaki Takenouchi is a swell guy.

Music from SSX Blur - Wanlong Mamoth: Different but what I've come to expect from the SSX series. It makes for some good background music because it has a strong beat and sounds interesting even when half-ignored because you are far too concerned with the IFFY STIFFY 540 to worry about your funk level. As a stand-alone piece, Wanlong Mammoth is acceptable. Not legendary, but there's far worse in the SSX catalog.

Nobunaga's Ambition Zenkokuban/Sangokushi - Mt. Hiei Burns: Yoko Kanno phoning it in again. Really, once you've heard tracks like "Dance On A Cape of Good Hope" and "Blue Whitecaps", this just feels flat. I much prefer Kanno's more flowing compositions over the spastic stuff like this.

ResQ (Game Rip) - Level 4A: Could this be the same team that did the music for Sonic Spinball? Sounds amazingly like it. This is near unmistakably Genesis music, but I've never heard of the game. It's still cool, well, the parts that sound like Sonic Spinball, anyhow. The filler between is less satisfying.

Tick! Tack! Deluxe Soundtrack - Be Ambitious, Guys! -Arrange ver.-: The beginning held promise, but the middle section felt too light. For a track whose name is "Be Ambitious, Guys!", you'd think something might happen, something that didn't feel like every stock "Happy Stroll Through a Sunshiny Field" RPG theme. If you define ambition as "wanting a nap", this is the song for you.

POINTS!

3 Points: Landstalker ~The Emperor's Treasure~ - Treasure Hunter Lyle
1 Point: Music from SSX Blur - Wanlong Mamoth
1 Point: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Original Soundtrack - you
1 Point: FX3 - Choppastyle

Atelier Iris GRAND FANTASM Original Soundtrack - Grand Fantasm - I'm pretty impressed with all these Atelier Iris tracks that are popping up in SotW. They're quality stuff. This track, in particular, has nice instrumentation, mood and atmosphere. I guess you could consider it a feel-good track, because as soon as that fluffy woodwind melody kicks in, you just can't help but smile, forget all your worries and feel good. ^__^

FX3 - Choppastyle - Time for some ROCKIN' NES action! And this tune delivers. I really liked those "riff" sounds, as they're the coolest sounds to be ever heard from the NES. The melody is catchy as hell, especially the "chorus" bit. Listening to this seems to give me visions of great NES games and their catchy music, such as Batman and TMNT. Jacob Kaufman rules.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Original Soundtrack - you - The piano here is solemnly romantic, and quite majestic-sounding. Latter half of the track is even nicer when the flutes and piano interchange passages. Not boring in the least (unlike a piano track in BSC bracket H that will remain unnamed).

Landstalker ~The Emperor's Treasure~ - Treasure Hunter Lyle - More cool synth-rock action. Though less on the heavier side of things, and more of a quirky, heroic theme for the protagonist. I definitely remember the chiptune version from the game. Isn't the guy's name Nigel, btw? Must be a region thing, I guess.

Music from SSX Blur - Wanlong Mamoth - Cool track, though the repetitive nature was a turn-off for me. I think it would be nice background music when going down snow slopes fast or something.

Nobunaga's Ambition Zenkokuban - Sangokushi - Mt. Hiei Burns - Kanno is usually a hit or miss wit me. Unfortunately, this was a miss. I know she has the talent to write beautiful music with touches of ethnicity, such as this piece. Though it was lacking for some reason.

ResQ (Game Rip) - Level 4A - The intro with those percussions and bits of ambience was awesome and sounded promising. The melody proper was limp and not as interesting, but still ok and enjoyable.

Tick! Tack! Deluxe Soundtrack - Be Ambitious, Guys! -Arrange ver. - This track was the least engaging of this week's bunch. It felt like anybody with basic knowledge of guitar strumming can be able to play this. I felt nothing after listening to this track.

The verdict!

2 points: Choppastyle
2 points: you
1 point: Grand Fantasm
1 point: Treasure Hunter Lyle

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

FX3 - Choppastyle: This is pretty slick. Definitely reminds me of the chiptunes that Konami-owned Ultra Games produced for several years. I don't know much about Kaufman; perhaps he influenced that sound?

It'd actually be the other way around. FX3 came out this year.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Original Soundtrack - you: Can I assume this is from a Hentai game?

It's actually a series of murder mystery games.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

ResQ (Game Rip) - Level 4A: Could this be the same team that did the music for Sonic Spinball? Sounds amazingly like it.

Spinball was Howard Drossin; this is Matt Furniss and Shaun Hollingworth.

Originally Posted by Draconis

Landstalker ~The Emperor's Treasure~ - Treasure Hunter Lyle - More cool synth-rock action. Though less on the heavier side of things, and more of a quirky, heroic theme for the protagonist. I definitely remember the chiptune version from the game. Isn't the guy's name Nigel, btw? Must be a region thing, I guess.

Yup. His name's Lyle in the Japan version (or Rairu or however it's Japanified), but it was changed to Nigel in the translation.

Atelier Iris GRAND FANTASM Original Soundtrack - Grand Fantasm Interesting oriental-style mashup. The melody's nice and the Nipponese Classique isn't overbearing and lacks bowel movement noises.

FX3 - Choppastyle Takes a while to wind up, but it's solid chiptunage once that point is reached. A little trilly, but very nice melodically.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Original Soundtrack - you Ah, piano. I love a good piano-based track, and you delivers, you does. A bit sedate for people that need to have their eardrums blasted every second, but pleasant and enjoyable.

Landstalker ~The Emperor's Treasure~ - Treasure Hunter Lyle More piano goodness, this time synthy and and accompanied by a 1980's ballad guitar. Some iffy parts, but very good overall.

Music from SSX Blur - Wanlong Mamoth Sounds like a skipping CD more than anything else. Polish that sucker so the music rips right!

Nobunaga's Ambition Zenkokuban/Sangokushi - Mt. Hiei Burns Kanno is hit and miss for me, penning some remarkable stuff but just as often underachieving. Not terribly impressive melodically, and very sedate in a bad way.

ResQ (Game Rip) - Level 4A Meh. A bit to unstructured and chaotic for my taste, though the melody's nice when it's not being drowned out.

Tick! Tack! Deluxe Soundtrack - Be Ambitious, Guys! -Arrange ver.- I like the fact that there's acoustic guitar here, but I just wish it would be a little more, well, ambitious.

Good week. I was tempted to grease up the ol' shotgun, but decided against it.

The Point Spread
Choppastyle - 2 pts.
You - 2 pts.
Treasure Hunter L - 1 pt.
Le Grande Fantasme - 1 pt.

Wow! Where did SotW crew go? Guess that goes for myself as well, I didn't even vote in 97 with its two week time span. Sorry guys, I've been playing Odin Sphere in all my free time busy.

FX3 - Choppastyle - 3 points
Music from SSX Blur - Wanlong Mamoth - 2 points
ResQ (Game Rip) - Level 4A - 1 point

These chiptune surprises this week were hella nice. Was Choppastyle amazing enough to elevate over my own nomination? You bet it was. Treasure Hunter Lyle and Be Ambitious, Guys! are the honorable mentions. Ambitious may have a name that comes back to bite it in the ass, but it's light enough to float on a cloud (which is a <3 thing). The Landstalker track is great, but I think the slight cheese factor kept me from ranking it.

Mt. Hiei Burns started out well, but then the rest of the track started. Both parts are cool, but to my ears, it's a clash between the backbeat and strings.

Grand Fantasm is typical out of the Atelier Iris series and certainly not a stand out this week.

That "you" song resembles the Air track "Summer Lights" waaaay too much.

I may nominate something later. It will most likely be borderline admissible.

Mayhap another extension is in order...?

2 points - FX3 - Choppastyle
2 points - Music from SSX Blur - Wanlong Mamoth
2 points - ResQ (Game Rip) - Level 4A

All three of these songs were just dripping with awesome. I kind of want to give another one or two songs a point, but I couldn't decide which of these to take points away from.

3 points ~ FX3 - Choppastyle

2 points ~ Landstalker The Emperor's Treasure - Treasure Hunter Lyle

1 point ~ Tick! Tack! Deluxe Soundtrack - Be Ambitious, Guys!

Let's hope that people will start voting soon, as I don't want another vote extension

Nice selection. My votes for this week:

(2 points) FX3 - Choppastyle

(2 points) Nobunaga's Ambition Zenkokuban - Sangokushi - Mt. Hiei Burns

(1 point) Tick! Tack! Deluxe Soundtrack - Be Ambitious, Guys! -Arrange ver.-

(1 point) Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Original Soundtrack - you

Atelier Iris was very close to getting a point.

Ahhh, too many good tracks this week!

2 points
Choppastyle - I'm glad this track is doing so well. Some of you may know Kaufman better as virt, founder of VGMix (currently on hiatus, but nearing re-release). His work is distinct among most other Western composers in that it is very melody-centric and has a distinct energy to it, due to strong Konami influences as others have pointed out. And I've yet to hear anybody make chiptunes as ROCK'N as his (check out "Bedtime Story" on the same album for a great example of his signature chipwank). Also, I've mentioned this before, but I think the most impressive thing about this is that it was composed in an hour. O_o

Treasure Hunter Lyle - I gotta admit, I'm a sucker for the cheese. Tranquil and unassuming piano intro gives way to totally sweet guitar and synth. What more could you ask for?

1 point
Wanlong Mammoth - I've got a Wanlong Mammoth for ya riiight...errr, ahem. Vulgar euphemisms aside, pretty funky piece here. Think I'll give it a GROOVE BIAS point.

Mt. Hiei Burns - I'll be the first to proclaim my undying love for Ms. Kanno, but the accompaniment here got repetitive fairly quickly. Still, loved the violin and piano interplay.

0 points
Be Ambitious, Guys! - Best of the rest. Nice melody, relaxing guitar. It was hard choosing between this and Mt. Hiei, but whatev, a point either way isn't gonna matter too much.

you - Sweet little ditty...but maybe slightly too sweet and too little. The left hand accompaniment is about as lazy as you can get with piano pieces.

Grand Fantasm - This one's alright. Not a big fan of that reedy lead though.

Level 4A - Hrm...not bad I guess, but didn't strike me as notable either.