It’s almost spring time, and its time to get this show back on the road with some quintessentially awesome songs that you will hopefully appreciate, enjoy and maybe even grow to love! Statements of my death have been grossly exaggerated, but I will apologise profusely for my lack of new content. I hope I can make it up to you by bringing you back to some great new music. This time, we’re going to gently ease you into some into some smooth and gentle music courtesy of Martin Tillman. Famous as a cellist on many American film soundtracks (including credits on Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman Begins and even Team America), Tillman has also produced and created his own albums. 2000’s “Eastern Twin” featured this lovely track as the ninth and final piece, so please do enjoy “Rue Sibelius”:
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”:
And we’re back! Noel Gallagher, who I’m sure you’ll know as one fifth of the band Oasis, contributed to the album for the X-Files movie and the song as the credits began to play. I’d hope you’ll notice a distinct change in the music - an instrumental, electronic, new-age piece that is always good listening for me for a chillout track. As for the name, we can only presume he refers to the Teotihuacán. It’s a long track at over seven minutes long, perhaps it’ll help you take solace in the fact I’ve been missing for over a week! Enjoy Noel Gallagher’s “Teotihuacan”:
Today’s short, sharp and snappy (alliteration rules) punk rock track comes from “Reggie and the Full Effect” - a band consisting entirely of Jason Dewees, formerly of The Get Up Kids. His latest album released in 2005, “Songs Not To Get Married To”, was quite a breaker for the musician - finally reaching more mainstream audience, especially with inclusion on EA’s Burnout 3 soundtrack. The band is quite a magnet for drama - with a lot of his music being based on nasty personal situations and various oddities on his MySpace (where all the cool kids hang out, of course *cough*). Still, there’s a reason the songs being played - its awesome, and its only downfall is its upsetting length, and the very abrupt end it has. Here’s “Congratulations Smack and Katy”:
My apologies for the lack of updates - a combination of being away since Thursday, some general feelings of ephemeralness and then plain stupidity prevented me from getting the goods out on time. If something changes on Something Chewie (see what I did there?) regarding planned schedule changes, you’d be the first to know!
Continuing a theme of theatrical, trailer-like music from previously featured E.S. Posthumus (check their website - there’s details and a sample of a new record coming soon!) comes Clint Mansell’s “Lux Aeterna” - latin for ‘eternal light’ - taken from the soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream, and subsequently used in several film trailers, such as Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, and an adapted version for The Two Towers, aptly called “Requiem for a Tower”. It starts of quiet, but once you hear it, you’ll recognise it and be incredibly captivated by it:
Today’s song was recommended by my friend David who had this very astute sentence to say: “I’ve got a banging song you can put on Something Chewie!” I couldn’t say no, so here we are with The Cult’s “Painted On My Heart”. You’ve most likely heard about their background, so there’s no need to go into detail - but this song was released in 2000 after their reunion from their 4 year hiatus, and was part of the soundtrack to the film “Gone in 60 Seconds”. It’s rocking, so give it a listen!