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Genso Suikoden III Music Collection :: Review by Simon
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Album Title: | Genso Suikoden III Music Collection ~Rustling of the Wind~ |
| Record Label: | Konami Music Entertainment | |
| Catalog No.: | KMCA-170 | |
| Release Date: | September 11, 2002 | |
| Purchase: | Buy at Game Music Online |
Overview
Genso Suikoden III Music Collection ~Rustling of the Wind~ is an arranged album compiling Genso Suikoden III music funnily enough! Under the banner of Bosque Aroma, a collective of musicians give us an ethnic jazz hybrid series of arrangements of ten original tracks.
Body
"Duckling" is the opener and possibly the strongest track on the arranged CD. It starts off with a strong hookline and evolves around a jazzy Spanish / Asian circle with a nice simmering piano passage in the middle. It stretches the legs of the instruments and the players and is definitely a highlight of the arrangments. "The Rustling Wind" then offers electric pianos in a soft arrangement that reminds me of the type of music you hear in every Japanese high school love anime! All very Loveboat if you will with a saxaphone leading the way but shadowing keyboards that gives it a slightly different tone in places. "Koroku's Theme" starts off in a light jazz fusion manner before once again becoming more traditionally structured. The main tune itself is quite catchy and the saxophone once again streches its legs for an intelligent solo.
"Town on the Bridge" reminds me, especially at the beginning, of very old comedy movies from the 1940s. Its low brass arrangment is excellent and the bouncy rasping of the instruments fits the tune here excellently. Once it's joined by the surrounding instruments, you can tell the piece works 100%. As I'm not a fan of jazz music and tend to shy away from it even in the game music world, it can mean arrangements like this take a longer time to please me. However, if I know I like something jazzy and really enjoy the track, then at least I know it definitely works! This track definitely does! "Detective Kidd" is a very stereotypically super-sleuth song, however I have no quarms with it at all as it pulls off the sneaky tap danciness to perfection. Dare I say "Dandy Richmond 2"?
"The Great Cave" gives us latin jazz fusion again done to perfection. It's been such a long time since I've heard a jazzy salsa dance so I'm more than happy to welcome it aboard! "Journey" returns to the more lounge music we had at the start of the CD with another catchy melody interrupted by some nice Asian-influenced percussion and electric guitar. "Conversation 2" is a much more subtle affair with gentle drums, sympathetic strings, and some wonderful piano and flute work. "Wind and Earth" features a theme running much slower than the percussion and it makes for an interesting time switch. "Seeking a Former Hero" ends the arranged CD with some beautiful bells and forest ambience. It slowly evolves to into a beautiful closing goodbye with completely different instrumentation to the rest of the album.
Summary
Not being a fan of jazz, I must admit I sometimes found one or two of the saxophone-led songs ever so slightly too long as most arrangements come in around the five minute mark. However what I didn't expect was to be pleasently surprised and wanting to relisten to some of the songs again. Fans of jazz music and the suikoden series music will enjoy this arrangment (we know there's so many of them but this is a good one) and while non-jazz fans may struggle at first; repeated listens should draw you in.
