Ken Hisuag

Silent Hill 3 remains consistent with its preceding entries, blending their respective emphasizing characteristics into a solid middle-ground between them. The ambience of the first game is more prevalent than in the second, but often spliced with rhythm-centric melodies; to my perceptions, this makes it the most balanced album overall, even as it retains the peculiarities that have thus far characterized Yamaoka's style. On the other hand, individual tracks are standing out less than usual, since they all seem generally composed in similar mood and progression. Technically this should be my ideal for a horror game soundtrack, emphasizing atmosphere through music rather than mere atmospheric soundscapes; yet I can't help but feel the contrasts of Silent Hill 2 made for better presentation. Regardless, I continue to be impressed with this series in defiance of my preconceptions.

I might consider this an addendum to last week's Fracture Feature, since it's another vocal track, but on the other hand it somewhat functions on its own. Back when Alan Wake II was being nominated for The Game Awards 2023's "Best Score" category, I chose not to investigate the OST due to having too many other things to prioritize at the time, in addition to my general reservations concerning horror game soundtracks. However, I was inadvertently exposed to "Herald of Darkness" through its performance at the awards ceremony, and had to acknowledge the merit therein. Likely due to my recent investigations into the Silent Hill franchise, I ended up with the song in my recommended recently, and subsequently did a bit of exploration into its various forms. I still haven't looked further into the soundtrack itself, but IMO this song is noteworthy enough on its own to justify an early feature in this manner. I presume there's a dynamic quality to the piece that triggers its separate phases according to gameplay progression, based upon various ways the parts are complied in different publications of the full performance. To illustrate: The music video comes to about eight-and-a-half minutes, but the official audio is thirteen-and-a-half, while the "Complete Edit" is a full half-an-hour! Due to the lyrics being heavily contextualized to the game's story, I have less reservations for it as an English song; on the other hand, someone interesting in the story ought to be warned of heavy spoilers. I'm undecided as to the best order in which to listen to the different iterations; some parts of the shorter versions make more sense with awareness of the longer one, but the middle one is probably the best version on its own. I've made effort to include credit to composers in my features since early 2024, but I'm not sure of the proper attribution for this piece. Alan Wake II's soundtrack was composed by Petri Alanko, but the song is performed by the band "Poets of the Fall," who may have written the song themselves upon request. Likely someone else knows the truth of it, but this is the best I can do.

Little Matchstick - Kitchen Music Accurate translation or not, the performance stands upon its own merits. I don't usually go in for this sort of "adaptation," but this is a bit more tastefully creative than the usual. It's also [kinda] thematic; a silly party trick type gimmick for the proceeding carnival! UnknownEX1 - A Popular Location I was blessed to find this at all. This is a refreshingly dynamic arrangement for a piano solo, especially given the obscurity of such tracks. As y'all will see shortly, I have reason to appreciate anything I find for certain pieces, and this goes beyond what I'd usually expect. Missing Tracks: {U2 Akiyama - An Unpopular Location} {U2 Akiyama - Today's Front-Page Headline} I note the tracks I can't make good on for the sake of future reference, but also to highlight their availability for the uniquely ambitious fandom musician. That being said, I couldn't reasonably expect to find anything for "Unpopular Location," given it's nearly indistinguishable from its ironically titled counterpart. Esme - Futatsuiwa from Gensokyo I almost despaired on this one, as the source is understandably overshadowed by its preeminent "Sado" variant. Finding obscure remixes from obscure artists is exactly why I committed to this gimmick, so there's a certain satisfaction in such discoveries as this.

Silent Hill 2, as with a surprising number of other franchise's second installments, is considered the definitive entry of the series (hence the recent remake). Akira Yamaoka continues in his role as the series' composer, but this time around his arrangements seem to favor more melodic progression over the previous entry's heavy ambience. To be sure, the style is still the same overall; but where over half of the original Silent Hill's OST could arguably be categorized as soundscapes, its sequel contains a surprising quantity of synth jazz (some Youtube comments have indicated "trip hop," but I lack sufficient experience to commit to that identification). In unexpected consequence, the continuing interconnected style of the album comes across more choppy than before, with too much contrast between tracks for the flow to be preserved; y'all will doubtless notice the sudden cutoff of certain tracks. Nevertheless, the arrangements live up to their collective reputation; for once, I can understand the genuine enjoyment of a true horror game soundtrack out of context (although I found the rock tracks somewhat confusing; in what circumstance does such a game have use for such a juxtaposition of genre?).

As the son of a software engineer, I was raised with intimate awareness of how bad pretty much every reasonable option of operating system was; as with many things in life, it can sometimes seem like a "pick your poison" scenario. I personally continue to use Windows 11 despite despising so many aspects thereof, simply because I'm too intimated to change over to something else with different but ultimately comparable problems. If you want a perfect operating system, you ultimately have to build it yourself, and if you have the time and skills for that, you probably don't even need to. On the bright side, this is a relatively mundane problem to have, so nobody should be losing sleep over it.

I've got too many tabs open, so I'm doing a Fracture Feature (it makes sense from my end, don't worry about it). Bit of a theme this time around, centering on vocal tracks. I usually struggle with these, but I still try to appreciate the musical and/or technical accomplishments. How do I usually do these again?

ATELIER ATMOS / at the mercy of sounds - Agartha Wind This isn't a new discovery for me, but I haven't featured the artist before, so it's just as well this came up in the searches. ATMOS has done some great folk adjacent arrangements, but remain a more obscure circle. The style is probably as fitting as could be asked for this piece! INMG Sound - Izanagi Object I presumed there wouldn't be too many high energy arrangements going through this album, but then I found this piece, and found it especially ideal for the contrast. As eurobeat goes this isn't trying anything too experimental, but it has some good variety in its instrumentation, which does well to reinforce its progression (as it should be). efs - Return to the Old Town Contrary to the previous piece, I fully expected a variety of vocal performances for this one, and was subsequently surprised to find the selection limited (granted I wasn't looking at any artists I'm already familiar with, so my presumptions may yet be accurate). I almost passed this one over simply because I had difficulty believing the circle's title was really "efs," but a bit of research clarified the authenticity of the citation. Still think it's a strange name, but the arrangement holds up regardless.

I cannot; the link is missing.

My allotted time for a series feature has arrived, and this month I want to more properly experience the potential range of horror game music by delving into one of the most iconic horror franchises of the medium: Silent Hill. For this first week, I listened through Akira Yamaoka's OST of the first game, and found it largely adherent to my preconceptions. Soundscapes and ambiences take up the majority of tracks, though admittedly there are tonal fluctuations in some which resemble melodies at times, and in all cases the instillment of atmosphere was admirable. Interestingly, the album seems constructed to be interconnected, one track transitioning into the next with very few breaks throughout. This had an unusual effect on my perception of the individual pieces, and in some cases I considered it advisable to consider two separate tracks as a single "performance." I've included two of these pairs in the feature; the first is "Never Again" into "Fear of the Dark," and the second is "I'll Kill You" into "My Justice For You." Pieces of more standard composition were also present, especially at the conclusion of the album with the various ending themes. These appealed more to my preferences, and are fascinating instance of emerging VGM styles of the time, but are not technically representative of the soundtrack overall, so I limited myself to one ("She"). "Claw Finger" and "Fear of the Dark" are also melodic tracks, but have a clear atmospheric intention, showcasing the employment of melody for such purposes; that being said, I think "Never Again" was the track I was most impressed with, successfully instilling a degree of foreboding in me that no other track could accomplish. Ultimately I have to respect the variety in Yamaoka's "compositions" of all sorts, and I'm curious to hear the ways in which they developed over time.

This has been stuck in my head for several days. On the one hand, I'm firmly against uninvited "roasting" (a joke isn't funny unless it's shared between everyone involved); on the other, it's hard not to appreciate a clever comment, and even harder when they're utilized in an equally creative endeavor such as this.

TOGAKISAN - Unopened Gensokyo Open to more accurate translations of the title. The soundfonts are a bit rough on this one, but the arrangement makes up for it with originality. It seems to me that attempts at "classical" style remixes often end up like this, for better or worse. This circle has done other experimental arrangements of this sort, so I get the impression that's their gimmick. Makita Step - I tried arranging "Green Sanatorium" from Izanagi Materials in 4 parts with MC-101 Probably not the intended title, but it is the given label. I've considered performances from this artist several times in the past, but usually found something else I wanted to prioritize. Well, this time I'm committing. Zunish arrangements are sometimes too close to the original, but in this case the prioritization of melody over original's style ironically makes it stand out. kayou - Attracted (RETAKE) "Zenkou Temple" is really about the percussion, and surprisingly few of the arrangements I found respected that. I would never have expected a vocaloid to be what met my expectations, but here we are! Unfortunately projects of this sort are almost impossible to find translated lyrics for, so I'm out for that.

While I typically seek out VGM that works outside of its intended usage, soundtracks must of necessity be for the purpose of accompanying a larger production, and the measure of a objectively "good" soundtrack is technically contingent on how well it performs this accompanying function. One of my earliest experiences of this principle in practice was the game Thomas Was Alone. This is a case of the little things supplementing each other for the full impact; the aesthetic is very basic, being entirely depicted with colored blocks, and the entire story is conveyed via dramatic narration and out-of-context quotations. Yet despite the relatively simple design, the game manages to portray itself as to be taken seriously, and I believe the music plays a major part in this. David Housden maintains a consistent sound across the soundtrack, but also clearly conveys the shifting moods of the game through it, resulting in a dynamic unity that acts as the games primary means of emotional impact. For all the game's merits, I don't think I'd remember much about it so long after if it weren't for the music reinforcing all its other elements.

You know how ZUN always adds comments to his musical compositions? The Music Collection "stories" are told through those comments, a series of snippets that coalesce into a fuller (but still short) account. Since the Touhou Wiki documents these aspects of the releases, it's possible to read through them on that site, and as said in the video, they hardly take any time with how short they tend to be. Here is the link to Trojan Green Asteroid's comments as an example (I already had the page open for today's Musical Discoveries post): https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Trojan_Green_Asteroid/Story Forgive me if I presume too much replying to this, or if my response seems unintentionally pedantic. My understanding of myths and folktales is that they always originate from some real experience; the details will more often then not become corrupted over time, but there is still truth behind them, however obscured (consider the legends of dragons, supposedly mythical creatures resembling unusually large reptiles, and compare them to the relatively modern acknowledgement of dinosaurs, creatures similarly resembling unusually large reptiles). Furthermore, I believe in God; not in a relativistic sense, where God is my God and not necessarily yours, but in an objective sense, as truly God Almighty, Creator of all that is. Given this presupposition, it is impossible for me to conceive of His being completely forgotten. I also believe that creativity and imagination are reflections of God's character, an intrinsic part of every human being by way of the Imago Dei. Thus, regardless of inconclusive observations that might indicate the plausibility of a dystopian future devoid of such things, I understand (believe, if you prefer) them to be impossible to truly eradicate. I agree with the video essayist that Hifuu Club is entirely a way for ZUN to express his philosophical considerations, and I enjoy the stories for this purpose. Obviously I'm not going to agree with some of his reasoning, since he has a different worldview than I do. This also means I will consider some of his proposals lacking viability; this doesn't mean I don't appreciate them for consideration.