 | Album Title: Music of FM Tone Generator |
| Record Label: hosplug | |
| Catalog No.: HSPL-008 | |
| Release Date: January 20, 2016 | |
| Purchase: Buy at iTunes |
Overview
Earlier this year, Soshi Hosoi released an original album titled Music of FM Tone Generator, featuring music that was written for an imaginary shoot ’em up game. Given its nature, it is a very retro soundtrack reminiscent of the early days of arcade music. How is the overall album?
Body
As with many arcade-era soundtracks, many of the tunes are quite short. “Map Select” starts off the album with an upbeat, adventurous tone with a decent melody, while “Plains Stage” carries the adventurous tone a bit further with heavy percussion and a fanfare style melody. As expected, “Boss” features a somewhat chaotic sound with a mysterious air helping to create tension.
“Heights Stage” has an airy quality to it with an adventurous melody, but is a bit repetitive. “Desert Stage” features a nice melody and a focus on driving percussion while “Desert Stage -Night-” utilizes the same melody but is a bit more picturesque. “North Sea Stage” features a more serious tone overall, giving it a determined sound, with a fairly memorable melody. “Rotten Sea Stage” is slightly ominous in tone and, while featuring a melody, is a bit more atmospheric.
More towards the end of the album, “Last Boss” is one of the more memorable tunes on the soundtrack. It features a sinister and tense sound with a nice melody as well. Finally, “Ending” gives off a standard congratulatory atmosphere and a pretty nice melody.
Summary
In the end, this short album isn’t Soshi Hosoi’s best work, but it isn’t bad. Fans of his older arcade works will certainly appreciate the music, but much of it is short and hence doesn’t offer great value for the asking price. For those unfamiliar with his work who want to try something new, I would recommend some of his other hosplug albums over this one.
