I’ve never actually had a proper listen to the BBC Radio programme, but I thought I’d list a few of my all-time favourite albums. I might add to this page later.
So, I’ve recently arrived in Japan for my year abroad at uni, I’m living on my own for the first time in my life, and I have a bit of cash in my wallet. More money than sense, perhaps, but this one time, I happened to make a sensible choice at the shop. I had known of Yasutaka Nakata from Perfume and I wanted to know what the deal was with this “Capsule” thing he was also doing. I got this and maybe a few other albums (I discovered Denki Groove right at this time, too—fun group), and I head back to the dorm and stick this disc into the CD player in the shared kitchen, and then after the faux spaceship pre-flight announcement as the intro track, I’m hit with this.
Well, it’s at this point that I’ll admit I can’t really do music writing very well at all (Why did I decide to write this post in the first place, you say? Good question!), but I’d like to give it a try. Now, “space station No. 9” starts off with a piano riff that it will come back to often for the rest of the track, plus the vocals of Toshiko Koshijima. It already has a lot of energy in the first seconds, but then it goes even louder with these huge brass chords at the 20-second mark. This is the point at which I understand that I’m in for a really good time—I can’t remember exactly what I did all those years ago, but I think I was just standing there stunned for a while, before considering taking the CD to my dorm room to listen to it with headphones.
After listening to it so many times, and especially now as I listen to it while trying to dissect it and pin it down with words, I can see how the structure of it is so very simple: the piano riff, the Toshiko Koshijima riff, the other vocal riff (with a clave rhythm, and I have a soft spot for that), the brass, the drums, and other short phrases mixed and matched together in alternating high-energy/low-energy segments. But still, I will always remember the impact this track gave me in the first half minute, and how it ends with all the elements playing together, plus the synth lead switching up the melody to give an extra surprise. The nostalgia of it brings me back to this track now and then—it’s nice to listen to and reminisce.
This is my absolute go-to for “underwater music,” if that makes any sense. Again, the first track never fails to blow me away: the steady percussive sounds are joined by a staccato just-about-melodic loop to keep time moving forward, in contrast with the slow, graceful, sawtooth tones. And yet, even as I re-listen to it now, I’m not quite sure what is going on with the meter in a lot of these parts! I try to count but I always get confused, and instead of admitting to simply being bad at music theory (well, that too, but), I’m gonna say that the sense of disorientation in these polyrhythms echoes the feeling of being without a map in an expansive depth of water, of being witness as a stranger in another world of fish and undersea flora and darkness.
This review contains spoilers! Not game or story spoilers, but spoilers about what is included in the CD. Yes, I do believe that this warning is appropriate in this case—I recommend playing the game and then listening to the soundtrack for yourself first.
You have been warned! Okay, here’s my review.
I’ll admit that I’m terribly biased about RS34’s games for reasons that will become evident soon enough, but I adore this soundtrack, particularly the first of the two CDs. Part of what struck me so much about this release is that almost every single track has been extended compared to the in-game music, and this was done without any fanfare at all. The teaser video on youtube did indeed tease some slight variations, but I really didn’t expect anything as major as a transition into a completely new tune in the middle of a track, as is the case with Drowning in Green, the track for the second stage with Murasame! It was such a pleasant surprise to hear that for the first time, which is why I’ve put a spoiler warning above for this album.
The game already had a music player in it, so I imagine that Daisuke Nagata wanted to make the CD release really worth getting. He definitely did a good job in that respect. This is one of the albums that I turn to for a bit of respite from the stress of housework and working at home, alongside the Ape Escape soundtrack. There’s something about these two albums specifically that helps me feel grounded.
By mojilove on 2024-09-23
Last updated on 2025-11-02