Technictix Remix Vol. 2 :: Review by Don

	Album Title:	Technictix Remix Vol. 2
	Record Label:	Sweep Records
	Catalog No.:	SRIN-1049
	Release Date:	October 22, 2008
	Purchase:	Buy at VGM World

Overview

Technictix Remix Vol. 2 is the second of a set of three arranged albums dedicated to the Technictix soundtrack, composed by SuperSweep and pals. This arrange album contains arrangements from SuperSweep members, Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso, and Yousuke Yasui, as well as arrangements from guest composers, Hiroto Saito, Masashi Yano, and Yasuhisa Watanabe.

Body

For this review, I'll start things off with Yosuke Yasui. For this remix album, he also contributes two arrangements, "Let's Rebuild," an arrangement of "Let's Select," and "Night Life 22," an arrangement of "Night Life". I must hand it to Yasui. Even though his first arrangement is quite repetitive, he manages to make it a much livelier arrangement than his "Inside One, Deep" arrangement from Technictix Remix Vol. 1. In addition, it was pretty ballsy choosing to arrange a 30 second piece from the original. The overall atmosphere is pretty funky and offers a nice blend of different synth sounds and different vocal inclusions. To me, these really help make the arrangement much more tolerable and, in fact, quite fun. Just like the first volume, his other arrangement is awesome. "Night Life 22" is a club piece at heart. From the pulsing rhythms to the undeniably catchy melody line, it manages to energize, but most importantly, entertain. As the piece progresses, it changes up its rhythms a few times, includes some vocal samples, and is just a blast to listen to. In the end, I think he did a much better job on this volume than the former.

Shinji Hosoe again offers three arrangements on this album, "1980 Retro," an arrangement of "1970 Modern," "Cagey Dog," an arrangement of "Dizzy Dog," and "Teresa," an arrangement of "Sasia". Out of his three arrangements, "1980 Retro" is easily my favorite. It features an intoxicating synth rhythm that manages to give it a nice retro sound. In addition, the melody manages to be equally as catchy. However, the star of the show is the classic vocoder usage, which takes the vocal work from the original and transforms it into something a bit less discernable. The musical interlude in the middle gives a bit of a futuristic sound, but it doesn't detract from the overall feel of the piece. "Cagey Dog" is the "crazy" Hosoe arrangement this time around. While not nearly as crazy as "Noom ad Neetor" from the first volume, this one features a variety of elements that come together quite nicely. From the intoxicating synth samples to the random vocal samples interspersed throughout, it manages to maintain its catchiness throughout the entire duration and also create a robotic sound. "Teresa" is another fantastic club piece at heart. This arrangement manages to combine that extremely catchy synth lead-in, in a on-off again motif in the beginning, and combine it with a driving rhythm throughout the piece. Eventually the intense section leads into a spacey, futuristic soundscape reminiscent of Phantasy Star Universe.

Ayako Saso contributes her talents to three arrangements, "Very Hard Head," an arrangement of "Hard Head," "Shake Marinade Dance," an arrangement of "Snow Marine Dance," and "Robo In Hell," an arrangement of "Suicide Robot". It's quite hard for me to pick a favorite out of Saso's contributions because they are all top-notch. "Very Hard Head" features some excellent synth work over an equally impressive bass line. The melody can be masked at times, but in the end, it's the vocal work that is really the star of the show; it helps give the piece some edge that works well with the electric guitar line that makes its way into the piece every once in a while. The middle of the piece includes a bit of a funky interlude and manages to bridge the more intense sections together quite nicely. "Shake Marinade Dance" is another one of those club pieces that I adore oh-so-much. Out of all of Saso's contributions, I think I enjoy the beat to this the most. It almost has a distorted sound to it and the beeps and boops used in the melody line help to give it a nice retro feel. The trance accents that are added when the vocalist, who unfortunately is a bit unintelligible, starts her stuff are absolutely awesome. It's an engaging piece, regardless of whether or not you can hear the vocalist's words.

Saso's last arrangement, "Robo In Hell", reminds me of the style heard in "Noom ad Neetor". It's another industrial-themed arrangement with an intense bass line and some nice robotic sound effects. Throw in some beeps and boops in the slower sections, and you have a piece that is just chock full of energy. Moving on, Masashi Yano contributes a sole arrangement to the album, and what an arrangement it is! "KA-10," an arrangement of "TE-20," is easily one of the best things this album has to offer. Originally a melody from Fighting Layer, this arrangement is a beautiful combination of futuristic synth and wailing electric guitar. The melody is absolutely superb and is extremely motivating. Overall, this is the most melodic of the arrangements and the synth solo in the middle does nothing but propel it into my top three for this album.

Last, but definitely not least for this album, is Hiroto Saito. His two arrangements, "Hedgehog," an arrangement of "Hectic," and "Suite Pack," an arrangement of "Sweet Patch" are probably my favorite things on the album. What I like most about "Hedgehog" is the variety heard throughout the piece. There are the futuristic synth sections that also feature some nice percussion beats and set a nice motivating tone in the beginning of the piece. Eventually it slows down a bit and features a nice jazzy piano section that really helps to mellow out the entire piece, while featuring some nice industrial sounds and some distorted vocal work. From there, the beginning section repeats briefly before moving into a more industrial section that relies on some distorted vocal work and some intoxicating scaling synth and percussion before ending with the same futuristic synth heard in the beginning. If I had to choose a favorite piece, this would be it. The other arrangement, "Suite Pack," is also quite full of variety. Showcasing some bubbly synth leads, combined with some more rhythm intense sections, the opening manages to already set a nice little standard for diversity. As the piece progresses, the soundscape evolves into something a bit less melodically fragmented and into a beautiful spacey soundscape. In the end, it's probably my second favorite contribution to the overall album.

Summary:

Technictix Remix Vol. 2 was a huge step up from its predecessor. Here, each arranger decided not to take any prisoners. While the overall feel of the first album had a jazz sound, this one definitely had a more of a club scene to it. Interspersed throughout the variety of intense club-like themes, there were gems such as Hiroto Saitoh and Masashi Yano's work. In the end, this arranged album manages to blow its excellent predecessor out of the water and that is one of the reasons it was my favorite arranged album of 2008 and one I listen to on an almost daily basis.

Overall Score: 10/10