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Composed by:
Junko Ozawa, Hiro Kawada, Shinji Hosoe, Yoshie Takayanagi, Ayako Saso |
Arranged by:
Kei Takanishi |
Publisher:
Pony Canyon |
Catalog Number:
PCCB-00040 |
CD Info:
1 CD - 23 Tracks |
Released:
September 21, 1990 |
| Review by: Dragon God |
Namco is known for a lot of things, from having revolutionized the early Arcade with Pac-Man and Galaxian to having created other known series including Tales Of, Tekken and Ridge Racer during the '90s (Ed: don't forget about Katamari Damacy!). During the late '80s, there had been a series of relatively decent racers and shooters for the Arcade made by Namco. Some these include Dragon Spirit, Final Lap 2, Dangerous Seed, Winning Run Suzuka GP, Dirt Fox and FourTrax to name a few. While I've never played any of those aside Dragon Spirit, I can say their music was well designed for such early projects. This disc is basically a compilation of soundtracks from FourTrax, Final Lap 2, Winning Run Suzuka GP, Dangerous Seed and Galaxian^3.
So, how did I come across this little marvel of sound design? I was looking at Mr.Soundtrack's auctions on eBay and saw the disc “Final Lap 2 G.S.M. Namco 3” for about $25. I didn't want to pay that much and emailed him asking if I could get it for a lower price. He agreed to let it go for $15 if no one would claim it. As I was closely monitoring the last minutes of the auction, no one claimed it as I hoped. $15 and two weeks later, it popped up in my mail and quickly got into the ol' Discman. After listening to it completely, I had come to the conclusion that I had quite an exquisite gem in my collection. Let's look into the details of this disc.
First off, 6 composers were showcased; the only ones I was familiar with were Shinji Hosoe and Ayako Saso. The others are Junko Ozawa, Hiroyuki Kawada, NUAN and Yoshie Takayanagi. Each of these composers had a firm grasp on the sound limitations at hand and worked around them to create some fun and memorable melodies.
The first two tracks are arranged, the first one being Final Lap 2 originally composed by Shinji Hosoe and the second one being Winning Run Suzuka GP originally composed by Hiroyuki Kawada. Kei Takanishi with assistance from Junko Ozawa provides the arrangements for these racers. Final Lap 2 starts off with Hosoe's “Eye Catch”, which was cut out of the game for unknown reasons. It features bass samples and electronic rhythms, which leads to hearing a racing car whistling by, loudly might I add, in an electronic SFX, which opens up to Hosoe's “Ending 1”. This theme has a calm piano melody backed up with bass and drums, which makes an excellent piece to drive to as you head on the highway for a joyride. Winning Run Suzuka GP starts rocking from the get-go with “Winning Run”. After a rocking intro, it calms down for a little bit until the arrangers decide to give some hot guitar and bass & drum love, which could make you drive a bit too fast to the beat and earn a speeding ticket (oops). A calm piano and bell solo appears a bit more than halfway till we hear a car crashing into something, then it gets back for more hot guitar and bass & drum love. The theme ends on a rocking note, which definitely leaves a good impression of things to come.
Then we move on to the original music. The first of these games to be presented is FourTrax, a happy-go-lucky racer composed by Junko Ozawa and Yoshie Takayanagi. As it starts off, you hear the one thing which made the disc become priceless: some rusty motor effects, that sounds like an old, rusty chainsaw. I'm sorry, but I can't help but imagine the following scene during the recording.
Ozawa & Takayanagi: Ok, we need some sound for the motor, let's make it real!
Director: How about we rent a car and record that?
Ozawa & Takayanagi: That's too expensive! Let's just get an old, rusty chainsaw instead!
Director: WHAT?! You've got to be kidding me…
Ozawa & Takayanagi: Nope, we're serious. By the wau, we happen to have brought one for the occasion.
Director: Oh, dear God!
Ozawa & Takayanagi: Recording Engineer guy, you ready?
Recording Engineer guy: Yep! Let'er rip!
Chainsaw: *Sputter* *Sputter* *Brrrm* *Brrmmmm* *Sputter* Sputter*
Director: That's no good! Just use some cheesy rights-free SFX instead.
Ozawa & Takayanagi: Awwww, you're no fun!
Anyways, after the cheesy motor SFX, we're treated to an equally cheesy “Enter the Race” tune. After that, the motor SFX returns with some voice effects counting down and yelling “GO!!” and the motor SFX gets ripping for a few seconds, I can't help but chuckle every time I hear it. At least what follows isn't so cheesy and is quite enjoyable.
After the hilarious FourTrax, we move on to Hosoe's Final Lap 2 music. “Eye Catch” shows up in original form and is decently enjoyable. The two ending themes are fairly enjoyable as well, but that's all we're getting for Final Lap 2. Moving on to Kawada's Winning Run Suzuka GP, the first track is basically a simulation recording as we hear the “Enter the Race” tune then we hear SFX of racing, screeching and bumping, which eventually leads back to the “Enter the Race” tune. The second track being “Winning Run” starts off by hearing a racing car dashing by, in a fairly realistic fashion, then the rockin' melody shows up and makes up almost the rest of the track, which ends in a jingle of sorts.
Now that the racers are done, we're moving to the second half, which are the shooters. Next we have Dangerous Seed, which is composed by NUAN, and it gets the full OST treatment. Most of the tracks comprise of a level theme and move on to a boss theme at 60 or 70% into the track. The level themes are fairly lengthy(almost a minute or more), while the boss themes range from 30 to 45 seconds or more. While being short, the boss themes still give a decent impression of danger while shooting these monstrosities.
The last bit of this disc is from Galaxian^3, which has Shinji Hosoe teamed up with Ayako Saso. This is one of the rare occasions that we see both compose in an orchestral style, which compliments the sci-fi image of the game. The most noteworthy track here is “Theme of Galaxian”, which has trumpets and brass playing a heroic and epic theme, which ends with an organ, followed by drums and brass. It's barely a minute long, but it's a great track no matter how you look at it. The other tracks are simulation/drama tracks in which you hear the music, SFX and voices yelling out notices in Japanese.
In order to give this soundtrack a fair chance, it helps to be able to appreciate simple melodies. If you're looking for complex compositions, this CD is not for you. Otherwise, this is a treasure trove of old-school melodies and early arcade sound synth. It appears once in a while on eBay, but often goes real cheap on Yahoo Japan Auctions. With nearly an hour of playtime, this CD is definitely worth adding to your collection.
Bottom Line: A |
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