Gurumin Original Soundtrack

	Album Title: Gurumin Original Soundtrack
	Record Label: Nihon Falcom
	Catalog No.: N/A
	Release Date: December 25, 2004
	Purchase: Buy Used Copy

Overview

The Gurumin soundtrack is a remarkably fresh and energetic collection of game music from the PC and PSP game. With a unique mix of well-composed techno and other genres, it’s sure to catch some ears but also possibly irritate others. The game and soundtrack were created by the folks down at Nihon Falcom, who are distinguished for always keeping their soundtracks top-notch. After almost thirty years, can Falcom keep up with their acclaim?

Body

The album starts of with a bang with the song, “Guruguru Tonight”. Using an ultra catchy running guitar lick and drum, it’s sure to grab you in. It has a bit of a J-pop feel to it and is also pretty well composed. I’m not a fan of the chords used in the melody sung by Icarus Wantanabe, especially in the chorus, but it’s still a catchy intro song nonetheless. “Guruguru Tonight” is deceiving as it’s not exactly the style of music that’s on the album, though the rest of the album is equally well thought out. Well, most of it at least. I feel that it tends to gradually become deeper scrolling to the end tracks. The second track, “Phantom Days”, definitely shows off the style of the album more. It has this influence of 8-bit music, but sounds very polished and new. You’ll be hearing these sounds throughout the album. Along with that style comes much more new age electronica. There are also many real instruments, like pianos and guitars, to be heard that accompany this style and I think they are necessary to this album’s charm. “Phantom Days” isn’t particularly one of the stronger tracks though.

“Soaring Through the Melancholy Skies” stood out the most out of all tracks and it’s a good example of the depth that this album can have. It’s a lot more organic, but it keeps the electronic feel of the album. There’s an interesting running acoustic guitar, which is why it stood out in the first place. After a couple seconds, ambient vocals start to chime in along with an amazing guitar solo melody. It made me think that, in the slightest way, this album is kind of like Mega Man Music mixed with just a hint of Yasunori Mitsuda. But not all tracks are exactly like this one. On a more electronic note, “To Make the End of Digging” is an amazing highlight on this album. It’s an extremely energetic boss-style track. The fast paced synthesizer is very fun and the dynamics of the piano break at the end show very nice attention to detail. It’s actually a variation of the same melody used in a couple pieces like “The Fight Ends and Night Falls”. The melody fits the upbeat version tremendously compared to “The Fight Ends and Night Falls”. It’s obvious that this album’s forte is faster and more upbeat music.

There is a some slightly ambient music on this album that isn’t exactly worth listening to on its own. Usually this music is slower and further helped me realize that energy is this album’s forte. While tracks like “Nightmists” fall into this category, there are a scare amount of slower tracks like “Memories” that are a bit easier to listen to. “Memories” is a very pretty piece and shows that the composers are pretty versatile since this piece is a straight up piano ballad. One more characteristic this album has going for it is that it’s good at integrating sounds effects into the music. “Bomber Girl” is just the perfect example. It has an upbeat feel like “To Make the End of Digging”, but instead of a real melody we can hear some very interesting sound effects from the first second the piece starts. It can get a little immature and out of hand at times, but overall the mixing is handled well and some silliness makes sense given the nature of the game. Other tracks on the album can get a little overdone at times too. For such a long piece, “Friends” seemed to wreak a little too heavily J-pop and elevator music.

Summary

Chances are that, if you like this idea of polished upbeat electronic meets organic music, then you’ll most likely enjoy this album. Electronic music is an extremely accessible genres these days, but Falcom definitely rises above the mass. There’s a large portion of quality tracks to choose from and practically no filler. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone as some may find even the more well-composed tracks to be a bit on the loud and annoying side. However, it should be a delightful listen to those who don’t mind the style and mood.

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