Gradius Tribute music CD

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:17 pm

Last 20 December this audio cd was released in Japan:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-8l- ... -1p60.html

I searched info on the forum but it seems that it wasn't discussed at all.

Since I enjoyed Furukawa's Under the Blue Sky I was wondering if someone got it and can comment on its quality.

elbarto · Post by **elbarto** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:58 pm

I passed on it at the time, thanks to the Arcadia write-up only mentioning three tracks, so I naively assumed that was all it had on the disc, heh

Now I'll be picking it up the next time I do a Japanese CD order, cheers for the link with the full track list.

Is "Under the Blue Sky" worth getting then? I haven't checked that one out yet either.

Hopefully both are better than the tracks on "Gradius Remixes", not a fan of that one at all..

rtw · Post by **rtw** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:02 pm

Turrican wrote:Since I enjoyed Furukawa's Under the Blue Sky I was wondering if someone has got it and can comment on its quality.

I have it and I like it. Been using it as BGM while working, fits nicely. Track 6 is very "Rez" style. And track 1 Morning Music is just lovely!

rtw

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:17 pm

Under the Blue Sky is very typical Furukawa style - baroque arrangements with excellent guitar solos.

Basically, if you already listened to other Furukawa's works (like the third track in the Detana!! ost),

I enjoyed the cd, although keep in mind that there are only four Gradius-related tracks: Burning Heat, A Shooting Star, [Kazan] Stage (aka Gradius 1 first stage) and Farewell, which has vocals which many might find annoying.

Still, Burning Heat and A Shooting Star are amazing imho.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:20 pm

rtw wrote:I have it and I like it. Been using it as BGM while working, fits nicely. Track 6 is very "Rez" style. And track 1 Morning Music is just lovely!

rtw

How are the tracks, so "reworked" that you can't even distinguish the original composition, or pretty faithful? How would you describe the music: dance, techno, pop, fusion?

Thanks!

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:40 am

I found this album to be extremely disappointing, it's basically a cash grab on the Gradius name of tracks that couldn't make it on a real Gradius arrange album. Furukawa only has 2 tracks and one of them is from "Under the Blue Sky". The rest of the album is dominated by 3rd rate techno, which is like the worst and most uncreative music ever. If you like this style of music, you'll be in heaven, otherwise due yourself a favor and track down either of Gradius Perfect albums, especially part 2.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:53 am

Nemo wrote:otherwise due yourself a favor and track down either of Gradius Perfect albums, especially part 2.

You gotta be kidding, vol.1 is way superior to vol.2! Cosmo Plant > everything!

Err, about the Tribute, so it's technoish, huh? Kinda like the Gradius remixes huh?

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:24 am

I love part 1 too, but Jun Irie killed it with Ancient Planet Theme, Dracula New Classicesque. Plus, Gofer is sweet and gets little love.

Here's a breakdown of the tracks of Tribute:

1. Morning Music - Boring orchestral piece, and this coming from someone who likes the Gradius in Classic albums.

2. Gradius Medley - Just noticed this track didn't rip to my HD back when I first bought the CD for some reason, so I don't have it nearby, but I recall it being crap.

3. Challenger 1985 - Actually a decent track from Sakimoto, but it's a freakin' minute long.

4. Final Attack - One of the two Furukawa tracks, it's decent, but not up to his standards.

5. Burning Heat - The other Furukawa track, it was already on "Under the Blue Sky", though it actually sounds worse here.

6. ipdrv/Synthetic Life - Absolutely insufferable techno track.

7. Gradius 2 Final Stage Medley - Pretty basic arrange, but a nice medley overall, probably my favorite track. And it's still not that good.

8. Aqua Illusion - Another technoey track, not as bad as ipdrv, but still lame.

9. Gradius 3 Medley - Another pretty uninspired arrange, but they didn't screw up the compositions, so it's listenable but mediocre.

In all, the CD is completely void of creativity and freshness, and in most cases the songs were ruined.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:32 am

Jeez, thanks - doesn't sound like my cup of tea - certainly not for 29 usd.

p.s. Ancient Planet Theme is from G2, not Gofer, iirc.

Klatrymadon · Post by **Klatrymadon** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:12 am

Damn, I was really looking foward to this. Sounds rubbish!

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:33 pm

Turrican wrote:p.s. Ancient Planet Theme is from G2, not Gofer, iirc.

No doubt, I was just mentioning Gofer since the album contains handful of arranges from that game.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:27 pm

Since I was given the opportunity to listen to this CD, for which I'm grateful, I was asked to comment on it, so here's my breakdown.

1. Morning Music (Takayuki Aihara) - Nice introduction to the cd - it's an instrumental version of the loading in the Gradius PCB so it really fits as a prelude.

2. Gradius Medley (Kimitaka Matsumae) - this is by far the most weird track on the whole album - each sound is warped and twisted so that you cannot help but to think to Parodius music if it were played under the dizzy spores in Yoshi's Island. Yeah, it's that weird. The author is Matsumae, of Tamamayu Monogatari fame. This is strange, but not bad. Perhaps the most interesting track.

3. Challenger 1985 (Shinichi Sakamoto) - Sweet! My favorite track, but yes, alas, very short. It's a guitar play of Gradius first stage. Not by Sakimoto, but Sakamoto Shinichi: Wonder Boy III composer according to Moby Games.

4. Final Attack (Motoaki Furukawa) - Excellent arrangement, a very powerful tune that is one of the highest points of this cd! Then, again I'm a sucker for Furukawa's music.

5. Burning Heat (Motoaki Furukawa) - This is not the same Burning Heat that it was in UTBS, it's yet another all-new arrangement of Burning Heat! I agree that the UTBS one was better though.

6. lpdrv/Synthetic Life (Wataru Kobayashi) - I'm with Nemo here, the track is quite boring and eight minutes long. More than Rez it reminds me of the dreaded Castlevania Remixies. I think Synthetic Life was the right choice for this kind of remix, but the execution is lacking.

7. Gradius 2 Final Stage Medley (Ryo Sakai) - I didn't like this medley that much - perhaps it's just too barebone and predictable. it doesn't end with Farewell, but includes the high-score tune oddly enough.

8. Aqua Illusion (Takayuki Aihara) - actually, this is quite nice - it's an arrangement of the bubble stage. It might be seen as just another techno filler, but this actually does a good job to recreate the liquid atmosphere of stage 2.

9. Gradius 3 Medley (Yukio Nakajima) - despite being a medley this is my second favorite piece in the whole cd. Shorter, more focused (it's basically a Cosmo plant arrangement) and better arranged than the G2 one.

Things weren't as blue as Nemo wrote, for me. The album's biggest problem might be that three medleys out of nine total tracks are too many. There are definitely a couple of subpar tracks. At the very least least, Gradius Tribute offers 47 minutes of Gradius memorabilia, instead of the 18 gradius-related minutes found in UTBS. I think it would be unfair to compare it to the Perfect Selection volumes, which clearly aimed at a more epic flavor (and also less modern).
In the end, not a bad purchase (the good tracks definitely surpass the weak ones), although certainly there is more essential gradius music out there.

High points of the CD: 3, 4, 9

Lowest: 6, no doubt on this.

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Gradius Tribute music CD

Gradius Tribute music CD

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Re: Gradius Tribute music CD