Bana had the privilege to sing both the opening and ending to the anime Witch Hunter Robin - and a good choice they made. You’ve already heard the instrumental version of the opening track, Shell - one of the original songs posted on Something Chewie, so now lets hear the ending! Bana’s voice is lovely and pleasant on the ears, and the music is catchy and enjoyable to boot. Put it all together and what have you got? One great tune! Here is Bana’s “Half Pain”:
Last Exile is an anime series from 2003 that was set in a steampunk, Victorian-inspired universe, where pilots fly through the air in “vanships” and two countries are engaged in a long war, who fight in the clouds. Today’s track sets the mood for the two main characters - a pilot and a navigator and their small airship in a morning in their gentle home town of Norkia. Dolce Triade, the composer for the series soundtrack brings a folk-y, gentle and relaxing piece with a variety of instruments - flutes, chimes, lots of percussion and good composing to beat. Enjoy today’s “A Morning in Norkia”: (don’t misread as Nokia as I always do!)
Yoko Kanno, as I’m sure you can now gather from numerous previous featurings - is a firm favourite of mine: coupled with the ability to produce great music in such a variety of different styles, she’s also linked with a lot of great projects. Today’s track comes from the Darker than Black - a science-fiction anime show about paranormal beings with special powers (and its far more complicated than that) - but there is a gentler side to the show to prove its not all scifi, and today’s track, I hope, will exemplify this quality. It is a piano piece played by “Yin” (literally meaning Silver, for her silver hair) who is supposedly an “emotionless doll” - one of the themes explored by the show. The music is touching and of real quality - as both the show and the soundtrack are. Here is “Yin no Piano”:
For today’s post we’re revisiting the previously featured band Monoral - and to the reason why it was featured in the first place - the first song I heard by them, and the song that, with good reason, pushed them to public appraisal and international recognition. A 1 minute 30 second version of “Kiri” was used as the opening theme tune to the sci-fi/psychological anime show “Ergo Proxy” and from its feature starting in the second episode, fans desperately clamored for the song. As one of said fans, I can tell you I listened to it over and over again as soon as it was mine! Their recent album released earlier this summer, “Turbulence”, featured the track and was used as their opening for their live performance for the celebration of the new album. If you’ve liked what you’ve heard on Something Chewie so far, I can guarantee you’ll love this:
So, we’re taking another one of our wild changes from the current mood and swirl right into another classical soundtrack piece. This time, we’re going to my second favourite film of all time, Hayao Miyazaki’s anime production “Mononoke-hime”. It features excellent story and animation, but the soundtrack will completely blow you away. Today’s track is one of the last pieces in the movie, and centres around the two main characters of the film, Ashitaka and San. The entire soundtrack is incredibly moving, and hopefully this will give you a glimpse of what the entire collection sounds like. Enjoy Joe Hisaishi’s excellent “Ashitaka and San”:
Apart from keeping most of his personal life a secret, Hyde is in the public eye in Japan a whole lot of the time - part of the successful J-Rock band, L’Arc~en~Ciel (who will no doubt get a feature here some day) and a successful solo artist, marrying a model, starring in a couple of films and many albums - yet no one knows his actual name, or his birthday or any of the bitty details! Still, the music’s good and that’s all that counts - it’s quite a gentle piece: acoustic and mellow and using the softer sides of his voice. From his first solo album, “Roentgen”, here is “Shallow Sleep”:
Molmott, a four-piece rock band from the Mie Prefecture, Japan started way back when in 1997, before finally deciding on their name in 1999. They aren’t a particularly big band, unlike some of my previous Japanese presentations, and in fact, I found them completely by accident, whilst searching for “Monoral” - a result came up with “Monoral Wonderland”, the name of their latest 2004 album. Unfortunately since then, nothing else has been released, and according to the Japanese Wikipedia article, they are considered inactive. This track, taken from the album, is called “Park”:
Saddled up and sanctified, GET9! Time for some super-poppy, rocky, hip-hoppy (*snerk*) music from Japan to get you movin’ and possibly, groovin’! GET9 is yet another product of Yoko Kanno’s Stand Alone Complex soundtrack, but it doesn’t need to be considered as only part of a compilation - it’s a tune that’ll hopefully get you jumping and feeling good. Take a listen to, “GET9″ by “Jillmax”:
This isn’t a first appearance for Steve on Something Chewie - he’s not that long ago featured with his brother under The Contes. Steve Conte, like Scott Matthew before him (see previous post) is a vocalist often used by the Japanese soundtrack composer Yoko Kanno. And there’s a good reason for her picks - once again an amazing voice! And put that to good use with Yoko’s excellent music, and you’ve got another winning formula. “Living Inside the Shell” is taken, once again, from “Ghost in the Shell” and features the vocals of Shanti Snyder. Take a listen, if you will:
Reminder: I’m currently away on holiday and unable to reply to comments or emails until Monday 9th. Tracks have been posted in advance during my absence. Please keep on visiting every day for new music!
It’s somewhat unorthodox to post music from a game soundtrack, but then again, this weblog’s here to help you find new and interesting tracks - I don’t think it really matters where it comes from! Jun Senoue is a Japanese video game composer who has worked with the Sonic series since Sonic the Hedgehog 3. For the later entries in the games, Jun turned up the rock as the music when from bleeps to full audio streams. This particular track I’m very fond of - “Snowy Mountain” starts off very atmospherically, and gradually brings out the rock. It was definitely a really cool soundtrack for the fast-paced “Sonic Adventure” game:
Reminder: I’m currently away on holiday and unable to reply to comments or emails until Monday 9th. Tracks have been posted in advance during my absence. Please keep on visiting every day for new music!
Bana had the privilege to sing both the opening and ending to the anime Witch Hunter Robin - and a good choice they made. You’ve already heard the instrumental version of the opening track, Shell - one of the original songs posted on Something Chewie, so now lets hear the ending! Bana’s voice is lovely and pleasant on the ears, and the music is catchy and enjoyable to boot. Put it all together and what have you got? One great tune! Here is Bana’s “Half Pain”:
Last Exile is an anime series from 2003 that was set in a 
Yoko Kanno, as I’m sure you can now gather from numerous previous featurings - is a firm favourite of mine: coupled with the ability to produce great music in such a variety of different styles, she’s also linked with a lot of great projects. Today’s track comes from the Darker than Black - a science-fiction anime show about paranormal beings with special powers (and its far more complicated than that) - but there is a gentler side to the show to prove its not all scifi, and today’s track, I hope, will exemplify this quality. It is a piano piece played by “Yin” (literally meaning Silver, for her silver hair) who is supposedly an “emotionless doll” - one of the themes explored by the show. The music is touching and of real quality - as both the show and the soundtrack are. Here is “Yin no Piano”:
For today’s post we’re revisiting the previously featured band 
Apart from keeping most of his personal life a secret, Hyde is in the public eye in Japan a whole lot of the time - part of the successful J-Rock band, L’Arc~en~Ciel (who will no doubt get a feature here some day) and a successful solo artist, marrying a model, starring in a couple of films and many albums - yet no one knows his actual name, or his birthday or any of the bitty details! Still, the music’s good and that’s all that counts - it’s quite a gentle piece: acoustic and mellow and using the softer sides of his voice. From his first solo album, “Roentgen”, here is “Shallow Sleep”:
Molmott, a four-piece rock band from the Mie Prefecture, Japan started way back when in 1997, before finally deciding on their name in 1999. They aren’t a particularly big band, unlike some of my previous Japanese presentations, and in fact, I found them completely by accident, whilst searching for “Monoral” - a result came up with “Monoral Wonderland”, the name of their latest 2004 album. Unfortunately since then, nothing else has been released, and according to the 
Saddled up and sanctified, GET9! Time for some super-poppy, rocky, hip-hoppy (*snerk*) music from Japan to get you movin’ and possibly, groovin’! GET9 is yet another product of Yoko Kanno’s Stand Alone Complex soundtrack, but it doesn’t need to be considered as only part of a compilation - it’s a tune that’ll hopefully get you jumping and feeling good. Take a listen to, “GET9″ by “Jillmax”:
This isn’t a first appearance for Steve on Something Chewie - he’s not that long ago featured with his brother under 
It’s somewhat unorthodox to post music from a game soundtrack, but then again, this weblog’s here to help you find new and interesting tracks - I don’t think it really matters where it comes from! Jun Senoue is a Japanese video game composer who has worked with the Sonic series since Sonic the Hedgehog 3. For the later entries in the games, Jun turned up the rock as the music when from bleeps to full audio streams. This particular track I’m very fond of - “Snowy Mountain” starts off very atmospherically, and gradually brings out the rock. It was definitely a really cool soundtrack for the fast-paced “Sonic Adventure” game: