Tag: Art

Top 50 Instrumental Songs (Part 3/5)

This is the third in a five-part series to be released daily, in which I unpack my favorite instrumental songs in the history of, well, ever. Narrowing this list down was obviously difficult. There were four “waves” needed to thin out the contestants from my library of thousands, and once we got below one-hundred it was like pulling teeth.

Yet, I stayed true to my original goal of fifty, for my own sake, and not compromise that number. I wanted to know for myself what I believed were my favorites among the gallery of songs I so dearly love.  This following list is the conclusion of those struggles.  They are not in order.  Simply getting a pool of them was hard enough.  I do wish to leave with my sanity.

Many are favored because of their execution and style, while others, because of a particular attachment or association they have with my personal life.  With each entry will be a short blurb, explaining why it belongs. And for a disclaimer: if I couldn’t understand what language they were singing in, I considered the vocals as their own independent instruments, and thus things like Gregorian chants do not disqualify songs from being “instrumentals.”

Enjoy.

 

#21 – “Space Lion” by Yoko Kanno

I have never in all my life heard a song quite like “Space Lion” from Cowboy Bebop, and won’t even pretend like I can do justice to it with one or two meager paragraphs.  While this song makes its debut in a stand-out moment within the series, it holds its place in my top 50 just because it’s so…beautiful.  The dreamlike ambiance, the soul-soothing saxophone—and the way they slowly fade together with an African children’s choir and bongos? Outstanding to the nth degree.

#22 – “Carry the Sun” by Glitch Mob

I think of two things when I hear “Carry the Sun.” I imagine a Captain Falcon montage from Super Smash Bros, as that’s where I found the song.  But more importantly, I am thrown into a deep desire to go skiing.  I discovered this track right before going on my first real skiing trip and so it kind of became the theme song of that week.  Now I can’t hear the hook kick in without it being followed by a blast of endorphins, restless fingers, and a need to move around.  This is the only electronic song in my top 50, and has one of the most visceral knee-jerk reactions tied to it.  Simply thinking about it is urging images of snow-capped mountains into my head space, powder exploding in my wake.

#23 “Beth’s Theme” by Ólafur Arnalds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTmXbUEbjnM

That first violin note is drowning. This entire song is drowning. This is the song of a drowning girl.

I never had a sister, and always kind of wish I did.  It’s a difficult thing to capture in words.  I’m not sure what to say about this song, as it often casts all thought from my mind.  All I know is it makes me feel.  Not sadness, necessarily, though I suspect that’s what the composer was aiming towards.  It’s just a sort of…stillness.  A bastard of depression and apathy, unwanted.  Every time I hear this song, I recognize sad things, but from a sort of observable distance.  That piano—as with many minor-key pianos—acts as a sober lens by which to see the fractures—hairline or glaring—in our world.

#24 – “Dragon Rider” by Two Steps From Hell

 

I’ve never seen a song so perfectly capture the essence of its title.  As evidence, I once played it for my college roommate and asked him to imagine what the composer wanted him to feel, without telling him the name of the song. He’d never heard it before.

He answered: “I feel like I’m riding a dragon into battle.”

Short and to the point, the way the song builds to its apex, you can already piece together the film montage of putting on your chain-mail, saddling over your lizard’s scaly back, and diving from the mouth of a cliff-side cave into the ravines of warring soldiers below.  The velocity of the song gives credence to the intense, romantic power of the dragon, this most legendary of creatures.  Any scene, real or imagined, is made better by having this in the background.

#25 – “Passion” by Yoko Shimomura (performed by the Kingdom Orchestra)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPLbCs48DlU

Before we continue, please understand everything from Kingdom Hearts is spectacular and only picking one song was impossible.  The Kingdom Hearts soundtrack at large is in my top 3 of all time.   I eventually landed on two (second to come later), though getting to that point was like peeling off my own skin.  Seriously, I could make a top 50 list of only the Kingdom Hearts gallery and there’d still be some quality material left over.

This brain-child franchise of Disney and Square Enix has created an unconventional game series, beloved far and wide.  The music is a heavy influence on the outcome of its popularity, wielding the power of a live orchestra and the triumphant genius of Yoko Shimomura as its helm.  “Passion” expands quickly to fill the horizon of your attention, just long enough to know it’s got its hooks in you.  Then it slows down into a fragile, criminally delicate progression of notes, which isolates a new instrument every couple of measures.  It’s almost vain, as if to say “look how beautiful my music can be.”  Cue the transition into a slow march, like brave toy soldiers off to the front lines.

There is perhaps no phrase greater, or which could more accurately depict the core principle of “Passion,” than the one which is most apparent, should you take some time to consider it.  That being, this is true ‘Disney Magic.’

#26 – “Shelter” by Porter Robinson and Madeon

(To see the original song in its debut video, rather than the above piano cover, click here.  The video is…quite special.)

If my writing can somehow create the feeling this song gives me, in someone else, then I’ll have made it.  The unadulterated innocence combines with the up-and-up of the melody, and they materialize into a thing of beauty. Yet, underneath the major key is a subtle, curious sadness, like somebody waiting, but they aren’t sure what they’re waiting on.  As mentioned above, this song was originally an electronic track, composed for an animated short video.  I hope I can say without hyperbole that the animation is one of the most heart-stirring and contemplative things ever found in the medium, and this song always brings me back to how I felt when I first saw it.

This is the song I hope one day might be characteristic of my daughter’s soul, should I be so fortunate as to have one.

#27 – “Attack on Titan Theme” by Hiroyuki Sawano

Oh hey.  Sawano again. That’s three times, now.

Created by recurring favorite composer, Hiroyuki Sawano, there are many things going on with this song in a technical sense, so I will focus less on that and more on the overall feeling, as I don’t want this entry to be an essay.

Basically this is the song of inevitable and unquestionable destruction.  It is armored in a sort of demented marching vibe, punctuated by distant church bells and a Gregorian chant.  This is appropriate, because it plays when a bunch of gigantic freakazoid monsters who resemble people in only the most horrifying way begin to descend on humanity and eat them like cattle, without discrimination.  It is the march anthem of death, trampling innocence and the semblance of safety we build around ourselves.

Plus those discordant noises spread throughout the song.  They’re so creepy.

(Btw the entire AoT soundtrack is worth a listen. There were many other contenders for this list.)

#28 – “Mortal Kombat” by The Immortals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpE0lvSJdik&t=1s

Specifically, the metal version by Youtube creator Erock.  And no, I don’t count the occasional use of soundboard recordings as “lyrics,” so this still qualifies for the list.  Song begins at 0:22 in the video.

I need to be careful not to listen to this song while I’m driving. The adrenaline in my blood gives me a bad case of tunnel vision, which is great for kickboxing and not much else.  Most audiences have some level of exposure to the Mortal Kombat theme song, but this cover takes it to a different plane of intensity.  This is one of my go-to running tracks.  It makes you want to sprint, to fight, to dodge, to ascend.  There’s not much to talk about for this one.  I just like it a ton and it’s virtually unskippable when it crops up on my playlists.  As the name suggests, I consider it one of the ultimate fight songs, and Spotify has a version without most of the gaudy soundbites, but this was the best video I could find for our purposes.

#29 – “To Zanarkand” by Nobuo Uematsu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRU5dl8lSE

Regarded as one of the most recognizable songs in the vast Final Fantasy archives, this lone piano captures so much of what made FFX special.  You can sense the fiction of the world behind the notes, its fantastical qualities, yet even further down is the story of a heart.  “To Zanarkand” captures the importance of its subject matter on multiple levels beyond its role as a simple song: it provides world-building, character development, and tonal improvement, all of which amplify the narrative at large.  It is almost ceremonial in its identity, carrying with it a sense of history which does not actually exist.  And to create that illusion, to seem like a tradition at first hearing, is a rare and magnificent boast for any song.

#30 – “Reverse Situation” by Toshio Masuda

This is Naruto music at its prime. Naruto has some next-level music, but in terms of raw enthusiasm, this is the peak.  I don’t attribute this song to any one moment from the series, mostly because I prefer to read it, but regardless it satisfies many scenes.  My imagination sets the track while I turn the pages, allowing me to control the direction and pacing.  There are many Naruto songs which almost made the list, but ultimately this was one of the only two which made the cut.  It’s just so invigorating.  The tables have turned, the situation has flipped.  Things are in your favor now.

Top 50 Instrumental Songs (Part 2/5)

This is the second in a five-part series to be released daily, in which I unpack my favorite instrumental songs in the history of, well, ever. Narrowing this list down was obviously difficult. There were four “waves” needed to thin out the contestants from my library of thousands, and once we got below one-hundred it was like pulling teeth.

Yet, I stayed true to my original goal of fifty, for my own sake, and not compromise that number. I wanted to know for myself what I believed were my favorites among the gallery of songs I so dearly love.  This following list is the conclusion of those struggles.  They are not in order.  Simply getting a pool of them was hard enough.  I do wish to leave with my sanity.

Many are favored because of their execution and style, while others, because of a particular attachment or association they have with my personal life.  With each entry will be a short blurb, explaining why it belongs. And for a disclaimer: if I couldn’t understand what language they were singing in, I considered the vocals as their own independent instruments, and thus things like Gregorian chants do not disqualify songs from being “instrumentals.”

Enjoy.

#11 – “Tsuisou” by Ooshima Michiru

While I hold the standing opinion that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has the better overall soundtrack, the original series has this single trump card over it.  “Tsuisou” is one of the most romantically bucolic songs I can think of. This is a “we are on a long road” sort of adventure, which understands life without the need for questions.  The slow progression from one landmark to the next, enjoying the fundamental nature of the journey along the way.  It also makes me feel nostalgic for a childhood unfulfilled, in a fantastically alternate version of our own world. Listen, and depart.

#12 – “Dragon Rises” by Hiroyuki Sawano

(I told you to get used to that name. This won’t be the last time Sawano shows up on the list.)

Listen to this song. Now listen again, except imagine it as the theme of some really intense medical drama.  Kinda fits, doesn’t it?  It is from a medical drama.  Thanks, Japan.  The violins sound like an alarm, or an ambulance siren.  The shouting which fades-in half way through the song represents the tense degrees of emergency we so often see in those kinds of settings, with medical professionals relaying information in strict, punctual accuracy.  I can’t help but see an epic montage a la Death Note (unrelated series, but if you’re familiar, you know what I mean) in which a team is prepping and executing surgery.  The pace is made breakneck by its quick-cutting back and forth between images: filling a syringe, creating an incision, asking for varied medical tools, wiping sweat off the brow.  It’s just so, so awesome.  And just to clarify, this isn’t from an anime.  Japan makes their own television series too, you know.

#13 – “The Burning Bush” by Hans Zimmer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsKuotiv7LA

As you might have gathered from the title, this song is a direct reference to the God of the Bible, who spoke to Moses through a bush which had been set aflame, yet did not burn.  More specifically, this is from the epic and wonderfully-crafted animated film, The Prince of Egypt.  Let this song empty your mind, and top you off with wonder.  In my mind, this is what God is supposed to sound like, if humanity could do our best of capturing such an unfathomable essence.  This is God without the inevitable bullcrap we inject into our perceptions of him.  This is God, unhindered by us.  It moves, it captures, it rises.  And then it explodes into overpowering, all-consuming might after about two minutes, very briefly, just enough for you to know this is God, an entity of insurmountable power, before it pulls back into something tender and welcoming: a father, resting a reassuring hand on your head when you feel you’ve gone too far.  A father in armor, inviting your enemies who feel they’ve bested you, to take a crack at him instead.

#14 – “Opening Stage: Vile” by Undetermined (from Megaman: Maverick Hunter X)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEv3lW5PGWk

Perhaps the first video game character to ever inspire fear and a personal grudge in my heart, Vile of the Mega Man X franchise has a theme befitting his lethality.  Never before had I encountered an enemy in a video game which was literally unbeatable—who was supposed to defeat you.  I remember the first time I faced him, and the frustration I felt.  He’s the very first boss, and he’s ruthless in how he toys with you, bludgeoning you while you sit there struggling, because this is so unfair, what am I supposed to do?  It was David and Goliath, but as it would be without divine intervention.

Eventually salvation comes in the form of your comrade and savior, Zero.  Zero is awesome, and way stronger than you are, but even he only manages to force Vile into casual retreat.  Later, once Mega Man (you) has overcome many new obstacles and augmented yourself in a dozen different ways, you hunt down Vile, who has by this point battled and enslaved Zero.  You fly in, ready to set the record straight.

And he’s still too powerful.  You can’t even dent his impenetrable armor.  Nothing has changed, you haven’t gotten stronger at all, and your best isn’t good enough.  In a final, desperate gambit, Zero sacrifices himself in an attempt to obliterate Vile once and for all.  This, too, fails.  Zero’s sacrifice does shed Vile’s second layer of shielding and armor, but this is mostly just an inconvenience.  It will have to be enough.  Vile is no longer invincible.  He’s still stronger, better, faster, and more confident in his ability than you are, but Zero has given you a chance.  It is one of the hardest battles in the game, and insanely rewarding when, after an inevitable try-fail cycle where you suffer defeat at his hands over and over, you finally put him in the ground.

A demon clad in metal, Vile’s personality and corruption are captured in the beast-like guitar riffs which scream and slaughter their way through his song.  They carry the same distortion found in most Mega Man X music, but still manage to be uniquely recognizable as belonging to his character.  It is a simple track, and does not last long before looping, but my god if it doesn’t do a good job of punctuating just how traitorous and superior Vile is seen to be.

#15 – “Osiris” by Valentin Wiest

In my head canon, I call this the “wedding song,” which might not be immediately apparent upon listening.  Let’s put it this way, in an ideal and highly unlikely world, this is the song which would play when my eventual bride walks down the aisle.  More specifically, it would play out like this:

We’d have to use an edited cut, otherwise it’d be too long, but the wedding party would start to approach the stage, slowly (so we can hear the song of course, as that’s clearly the most important part), around 2:40.  As they fill in the altar and all appropriate individuals take their seats, we allow the song to bleed into the violins and chants for a little bit.  Anticipation builds.  The walls begin to whisper their excitement.  Hushed conversation floats beneath the orchestra.

Then it happens.  Four minutes in, everybody stands to welcome the bride, and boom, 4:05, she makes her way down the aisle.  The world bends around her and time surrenders.  

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve played this out in my mind.  I get chills just thinking about it.

#16 – “Lit” by Kensuki Ushio

“I’m deaf.” 

While I enjoyed the original version of this song and its function within the film A Silent Voice, I am particularly enthralled by this piano rendition of the song by Youtube creator PianoPrinceofAnime.  PianoPrince takes the inherent beauty and simplicity of the original track and transfuses it with an extra layer of emotion and majesty. The added cello gave the final product some much needed synergy which was missing from the original track.  While this cover stands on its own, I admit part of my admiration is rooted in the source material, which inspired me to start learning some American Sign Language, as well as piano, as a result of its influence. 

#17 – “Gourmet Race” by Jun Ishikawa & Dan Miyakawa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAByWyvuu7s

No matter its incarnation (of which I love many), “Gourmet Race” never fails to get the heart pumping.  In its original context, Kirby is in a mighty dash against King Dedede through a treacherous obstacle course.  The original song maintains a lot of the retro charm of the 90’s, and the sound often associated with Kirby games in general.  In its inevitable hundreds of covers and remixes which have since spawned from its popularity, I have several favorites, especially the rendition found in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, an a capella, a dubstep, and an epic metal version.  I love this song for its duality of adrenaline and pop-fantastical qualities (the latter being aforementioned characteristic of Kirby soundtracks).  “Gourmet Race” could be appropriately labelled a “light-hearted battle to the death,” being both incredibly fierce, yet undeniably upbeat in style.

#18 – “Kiss the Rain” by Yiruma

If somebody asked me to present a song which captured the essence of ‘healing,’ I’d be hard-pressed to choose anything other than Yiruma’s masterful “Kiss the Rain.”  It generates its own imagery and has its own beating heart.  The human soul is rarely captured so purely, least of all by a single piano.  That piano strips away your walls, your infection, leaving you vulnerable and clean, ready to start again.

#19 – “Sadness & Sorrow” by Toshiro Masuda

Oh my god, the feels this song has made me feel. I distinctly remember the first time I heard “Sadness & Sorrow.” I was watching the first arc of Naruto, which I’d recorded on VHS in 7th grade.  When the deepest narrative I’d seen in my young life to that point took the form of Teen Titans, this song, and the scene of Sasuke ostensibly dying in Naruto’s arms…well, it took my standards to a new level.  This song forged that scene into something excellent, and gave birth to my love for that entire series, which now stands atop my pantheon of pop-culture familiarities as the reigning king.

This is that addicting kind of sadness.  It is works like this which made me crave to learn piano.

#20 – “You Say Run/Jet Set Run” by Yuki Hayashi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-eTG3pDXbo

*Deep breath*

BOOOOOIIIIIIII THIS SONG.

The national motto of Spain is “Plus Ultra” or “further beyond.”  We can give more, do more, be more—our limitations are what we make of them.  “You Say Run” is a song I’ve probably heard no less than 500 times in the last year and a half since first discovery, and my god does it go plus ultra.  It is the most memorable track from the sensational new anime My Hero Academia, and has played no small hand in its meteoric growth in the industry.  Championed by one of my favorite new composers (the same brilliant mind as behind the Haikyuu! soundtrack, which isn’t on this top 50 list, killing my soul a little), this song is a whirlwind of heroic energy.  Seriously, do you feel like a single thing in the entire universe could stand in your way?

Didn’t think so.  You could probably flip a tractor-trailer.  Go try it.  I’ll wait.

Not only is this song noteworthy in its own stature, but the musical director of My Hero Academia uses it marvelously to punctuate scenes and moments with the precision and lethality of a sniper rifle.  As soon as that echoing note fades in, you know something insane is about to go down, and with each successive hearing of the song, it builds momentum from the last, until you inevitably have it on repeat.  You want it as the background of your life.

You want to be a hero, too.

Thoughts From the Kitchen – (#2 My War Against the Beginning)

I used to think the beginning of stories were the easiest parts to write.  Lo, ’tis not.

The more I develop my knowledge in the minefield of writing, the more I am convinced the original conception of a story might be the most difficult, especially in the case of fabricating entirely new universes and/or timelines.  It’s all so front-heavy.  The balancing game between when to exposit and navigating exactly how much is insidious.  What’s more, at the same time, creating this framework is one of the most invigorating parts of the whole process.  The contradiction isn’t discouraging, though whether it’s daunting or not is hardly a question.  I am madly daunted by the act of creation.

We are in Quarter 2 of the year, and I’m well on my way to reaching my writing goals. (Wait, did I forget to make a post about my writing goals? Whoops.) But hey, I’m a fully functional and cognizant human being with a head on my shoulders only half filled with brick, so I’m able to recognize a decent chunk of the patterns which pass me by.  Try to pick up the trend:

  1. “Write an installment for the Puppet Kitchen at least once a week.” (25%) (About to 37.5% baby. Word up.)
  2. Write two short stories (0%)
  3. Read at least one short story each week. (37.5%)
  4. Write 10,000 words of long-form (0%)
  5. Read at least two full books. (100%)
  6. Determine new outlining system/method. (100%)
  7. Build coherent image reference gallery. (100%)
  8. Finish the “Trope Project” (50%)

There’s two goals in there with zero percent accounted for, and would you look at that, they both tie back to writing the beginnings of new stories.  Wow.  Thematic relevance.

Now, I’ve always sucked at writing short stories, so I’m honestly not bothered by that so much. In fact, I’ve got more going on in that department than the long-form.  I’m a-brewing a nasty little romp tentatively titled “The Priestess” which will count for 50% of that goal, I just haven’t filled in any of the percentiles because, well, I don’t know how far along I am in the projected 3,000 word process.  Hard to say.

The subject which frays my edges a little more violently is that long-form catastrophe. My progress has been somewhere between horrifyingly abysmal and you should just quit and die, but I’m buoyed by the knowledge that, at least, I haven’t been entirely stagnant. The outlining aspiration did give me decent reason to step back a bit before plunging into a new cosmic, supernatural urban-fantasy landscape. But you see, I’ve since figured out my new outlining format, and still the world-forming pen stays idle.  Oh, it’s not that I haven’t done any worldbuilding, either.  I’ve taken care of all that silliness and more.  No, I just can’t seem to actually write the damn thing.

Sort of.  I technically have three chapters. But this story surpasses all of my earlier endeavors in just about every regard, including the quantity of nuts and bolts. I have a pretty healthy understanding when it comes to the first draft and how it’s pretty sufficiently doomed to be a dumpster fire, regardless of who you are (unless you’re Stephen King, who I’m convinced has better first drafts than most people have final manuscripts). But I can’t seem to grasp the foundation of the story.  There’s such an abundance of available detail, and I know I have to key in on only a small handful of the most relevant information and characters, else risk death by a thousand cuts and an early grave.

But choosing those details and doing them well, while maintaining the extracurricular world which must be at least vaguely consistent around the events of the early narrative, is harder than it’s ever been in my life. In a way, I feel as though this is a good thing. My plotting, characterization, world-building, and general ideation are all objectively better than say, when I was crafting “Doubting Puppet,” my last true plunge into long-form.  But I’m not quite good enough to wrap myself around the story.

It’s like I’ve been training to overcome a wall of my own construction.  I wanted something to test myself, so I formed a wall which would loom, clad in ornate platinum or polished marble.  Something which could tower and stretch a great shadow.  I even figured out how I’d climb it.  Running start, one or two vertical steps skyward on shoes made to grip, deep breath to focus and reach.  I grab the lip of the wall!

But I can’t crest the edge. My arms are so tired from building the blasted thing, I can’t so much as lift my own body-weight enough to steal enough leverage to gracelessly yank myself over the top.

That’s where I am.  I have the wall, a tapestry of stones alchemically chosen to be unlike any wall I’d seen before.  A wall which captures my voice, with a tonal and environmental aesthetic which performs beautifully and has never been done in the scope of my knowledge, yet isn’t contrived or steering too close to the anime curse of prioritizing a unique premise over a functional one.  It plays to my strengths in its emotional narrative, character social webs, mode of conflict, and low-key moral agendas.

It’s a beautiful wall.

Which I can’t seem to climb.

Not yet, anyways. I do hope to turn the tide soon, once I shrug off this inky black creature on my shoulders with the upside-down smile I like to call procrastination.

For the moment, I take solace in that I’m not simply twiddling my thumbs.  I’m definitely enabling myself to divorce the responsibilities of certain goals from my daily schedule, but the distractions are wearing thin. Here’s hoping that when I finally become lucid enough to kick myself in the tail and just buckle down, that lucidity will come with something I haven’t felt in a long time and sorely miss: my inherent and volcanic indignance to be better.

So here’s to cracking open the crude, molten shell which has swallowed my fighting spirit, and resurrecting something worthwhile for the sake of writing a story which might, I pray, eventually evolve into something bigger than myself.

Time to write.