This is it people.
This is what you have been waiting for.
I just finished writing my first Touhou Music CD Review.
I really hope you will like it, and I would very much appreciate any comments about the review and what you think about it. I’ve been spending a couple of hours listening to the same cd over and over while writing to try to include everything in there.
CD Name: 文弾奏結界 文花風師曲 Arietta Incalzando
Circle/Artist: どぶウサギ (dBu Music - Dobu Usagi)
Retail Price: 735円 (yen) [Toranoana Link]
Track List:
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01 天狗の手帖～ the Harbinger
02 風の循環～the Wind Wishes with Wisdom
03 天狗が見ている～the Crow’s Eyes
04 東の国の眠れない夜
05 Retrospective of Kyoto
06 文化ヲ風刺スル烏
07 魂みたいに紅い鬼灯
08 ファイナル少女マスター綺想スパーク
09 東方酔無想
10 失恋色全方位光線☆(センチメンタルノンディレクショナルレーザー)
————
01 天狗の手帖～ the Harbinger
The title song for Shameimaru’s game, Shoot The Bullet.
This remix is, although pretty similar to the original song, more calm and balanced.
It binds together a soft white noise very well with a clear piano and leaves
a very familiar feeling of the image of Gensokyo.
It’s the perfect beginning for this album which appears focused on our tengu Aya.
I give it a rating of 9/10 for it’s very nice handling of the soft noise intertwined
with a really clean piano and strings.
02 風の循環～the Wind Wishes with Wisdom
With the stage 1 song from STB, the album directly follows up the slow intro theme and
creates a perfect balance which will make you feel like you are playing a more crisp
remake of the actual game. It has some very nice guitar parts in it with just the right amount of upbeat to it, and this makes a great addition to speed up the pace a bit.
I will give it a rating of 10/10 for a great remix and an undeniably impressive followup from the introduction.
03 天狗が見ている～the Crow’s Eyes
This song is a kind of Jazz version of “Tengu is Watching ~ Black Eyes” the Photo Theme 2 from STB. It starts of with some hihats with trumpet backing and a jazzy piano set to a bouncy bass. I have to say that it is a completely different take on the song. But the trumpets can sound a bit flat in some parts, which brings down the feeling a bit. They make up for this with a really nice drum sound which fits very well in with the rest of the song. However it also doesn’t quite follow up as well as the previous song. And based on this and the trumpet I will have to give this song a rating of 7/10.
04 東の国の眠れない夜
The fourth song in the album is a very nice remix of “Sleepless Night of the Eastern Country” which is photo theme number 3 from STB. Straight from the start of the song, I get a feeling that it is heavily inspired by the works of Motoi Sakuraba, the composer behind the Star Ocean series.
It starts of with a church organ sound in the exact same style as Sakuraba’s trademark organ vamping and goes straight into integrating it with a fast piano playing the lead to the song.
This is directly followed up by a really good synth sound which is comped by some really nice drums.
I have to say that this song is a impressive addition to the album and it manages to capture the feeling of the original song and make it so much more. The second half of the song also features a sweet guitar solo.
This song has earned a rating of 10/10 without a doubt as it managed to cover all the aspects of a well composed song and doesn’t fall short in any area.
05 Retrospective of Kyoto
The album’s fifth song is as the name suggests an remix of STB’s Photo Theme number 4 featuring the same name in the game. It is a bit of a calmer song than the fourth song on the album and could almost be seen as a cover of the game’s original tune. Like previous songs on the album, this song also features a great piano, this time backed up by some basslines and a wavering synth.
Since I see this song as a cover of the original I will have to give this song a 7/10, mainly because it doesn’t add as much to the original song as the previous songs did to their respective counterparts.
06 文化ヲ風刺スル烏
Here we are rushed straight back into a more upbeat version of “Wind God Girl” which is Photo Theme 5 from STB.
And straight from the beginning we can also hear the Motoi Sakuraba-like organ streaks. Since I really love Sakuraba’s music I can’t say that this is anything but a great thing. The bouncy background bass is also handled with great skill and winds up a nice impression straight before we are brought into a really nice guitar section.
This song also manages to bring out the feeling from a live concert, in that it in several places slows down for a second only to build up to an even greater outburst straight after. Bringing all this together this is a mixup that certainly deserves a 10/10. Again a very nice job.
07 魂みたいに紅い鬼灯
This seventh song in the album has a definite underground feel to it with a deep bass that makes itself known straight from the beginning of the song. It is accompanied by a kind of minimalistic drums and some strings, and also has a few sections with short attacks from trumpets followed up by a soft flute.
I’d say that this could be considered as lounge music with a bit of dance beat to it. A very nice tune which is also very fitting as background music if you are just relaxing or working with something.
I give this a rating of 8/10 for keeping it kind of simple but yet interesting.
08 ファイナル少女マスター綺想スパーク
Now this is probably my favorite song on the cd. Strangely enough it’s a remix of Reimu’s theme from Imperishable Night unlike from what the song name would suggest. However, it also features Marisa’s Theme from IN, coming in somewhere around the half of the song.
It begins with a slow buildup and shortly afterwards bursts into a direct synth and guitar section which just sounds completely marvelous. Moments later we are treated to a synth solo that builds up to another attack of the synth+guitar combination which leads up to a fantastic guitar solo.
This song always left me with an impression that it is designed for an rpg. It has all the right elements that would make it into an amazing theme for a battle or victory theme, and it never ceases to impress me.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone when I say that I rate this song a 10/10.
09 東方酔無想
The ⑨’th song on the cd starts out with the feeling of an ending theme and is shortly initiated by a leading electric guitar solo that branches into a backing track fronted by some nice strings. This song has that kind of feeling that you might expect from a ending song of an album and comes with both piano, flute and violin parts that binds everything together into a complete experience.
It features both guitar and piano solos and has a clean and nice finish that makes it a really good song. I think this song deserves a rating of 9/10.
10 失恋色全方位光線☆(センチメンタルノンディレクショナルレーザー)
This as the last and final song of the album has a very cheerful feeling to it. It kinda makes you feel like you have just beaten a game, in a silly and uplifting way it could probably make you smile. This is a remix of Marisa’s theme from IN, and plays out using mainly a combo of bass and piano together with a lead synth.
It is a song that brings out a pretty silly feeling, which probably fits very well with Marisa’s image. I’m not really sure how to look at this song in this perspective so I will give it a rating of 6/10.
To sum everything up, 文弾奏結界 文花風師曲 Arietta Incalzando by dBu or Dobu Usagi (どぶウサギ) is a very nice and strong album with much variety that should be loved by many Touhou fans out there.
I strongly suggest anyone to buy it if they come across it.
Special Note:
The back side of the album has only 9 songs listen, so the 10th track of the album is a bonus song.
This means that even though the album’s cover lists 9 songs, you will still get 10.
As for the complete rating of the album, I would say that it lies somewhere between a 8 and a 9.
And therefore I will have to give it a complete rating of 8.5/10.
The retail price for this album is only 735yen, so pretty much anyone should be able to afford this great cd.
Reviewer’s Note: No matter how clean Notepad is, I suggest not writing in it firsthand. I had to reformat pretty much the entire text because of formatting errors. I also think I may need to change theme because the text area is very cramped and makes the text formatting look really mashed up.
I hope that you enjoyed this first Touhou Music CD Review. And please leave your opinions and comments.
//Sai