In Japan Origins
Original Soundtrack
Artwork:
The Music:
In Japan Origins: The Boys
Music by Elmer Bernstein
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In Japan Origins: Matt
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
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In Japan Origins: Megumi
Music by Yoko Kanno
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Liner Notes:
In Japan Origins:
Pardon me folks for jumping ahead a bit when I haven't even finished OST2 or OST3 yet... Never mind any of the as yet unstarted OSTs for the rest of Year One! But after the recent writing of the "In Japan Origins" trilogy, those stories were much on my mind, including thoughts of what music might hypothetically accompany them. And so, I started working on soundtracks for these stories.
I thought it might be fun to pick one composer for each story, although there might be the occasional tiny bit of another composer's work snuck in if necessary.
These soundtracks are presented in the same order as the stories are published, The Boys - Matt - Megumi. However, they were assembled in reverse order. Thus, the notes for them are likewise presented in reverse order, in order to best preserve my train of thought throughout them.
Megumi:
Well, here is the final part, although of course chronologically this story comes first. Fittingly, it was also the one of these three soundtracks I assembled first. For Megumi, a Japanese character who is a big fan of anime, I decided to go with a well known composer of scores for anime series: Yoko Kanno. In particular, I selected pieces of music she composed for Cowboy Beebop, Escaflowne (both the TV series and the film), Macross Frontier, and Macross Plus.
One tiny bit of music used, however, was from a different composer. As an accent to the scene where Chris, cosplaying as Urd from Oh My Goddess!, it felt only right to use a piece of music from that program, composed by Takeshi Yasuda, used when Urd herself made a similar entrance.
Anyway, the final result hopefully makes this soundtrack sound as if it belongs to an episode of an anime series! Seems a fitting sound to accompany Megumi's tale.
A technical note: This was the first soundtrack video I produced which actually ran afoul of Youtube's content restrictions. (It seems the Macross Plus tracks, specifically, are forbidden.) Thus, it has been uploaded via Dailymotion, instead.
Matt:
Now we come to the second one, and as the middle child it would be second in either order. This one was definitely trickier to assemble then the previous one. Yoko Kanno's music is, from what I understand, usually composed independently of the show it is intended for. Then the music is adapted to suit the scenes it is to be used with. That makes her music quite more adaptable in general, and easier to place into new contexts.
To contrast, most music a composer such as Jerry Goldsmith writes is intended for one specific use. It is written to match one specific scene, and can seem out of place if used elsewhere. (Indeed, director Ridley Scott somewhat famously treated Goldsmith's score for Alien more as Kanno's scores are usually used, much to Goldsmith's displeasure.) And so I wanted to avoid very easily recognizable themes. For example, you'll find no uses of music with the main title theme Goldsmith first wrote for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
I thought I would have a wide selection of music to choose from, having many Goldsmith scores available to me. With such quantity, I thought, that should help alleviate the problem of many pieces being too specific to one scene. But when I delved in, I hit another snag. When I started listening to his music with an ear for re-using it, many entire scores just had too distinctive a sound to be divorced from their source. Planet of the Apes would always sound like Planet of the Apes. Likewise, Logan's Run, Gremlins, Poltergeist, or Total Recall (1990) all had music with too distinctive a sound to associate with anything else.
My options began to become quite limited!
I ended up using a lot of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (omitting any uses of well known themes) and Explorers. The pieces I used do have some reoccurring themes within them, but I felt they were themes not quite well known enough to the average listener so as to be easily identifiable as, "Hey, that's the music from that other thing!"
Also quite nice were a few unused pieces from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. These were early pieces written by Goldsmith before he developed that film's main themes, nicely circumventing any worries about including them! Featuring them here is hopefully a treat to listeners who may enjoy Goldsmith's work, as since they are not in the final film you otherwise would not typically get the chance to hear them. (Unless, of course, you happen to own the right soundtrack album!)
Even with the above mentioned pieces forming the backbone of the soundtrack, I still tried to be a bit diverse with some of my music choices. I tried desperately to fit in a piece from Gremlins 2: The New Batch, but in the end I decided it just wasn't working. Most of Alien was too distinctive to use, but for quite a while I tried to get one piece in. (More on that later.) But there were some other films that managed to make contributions: Capricorn One, The Secret of NIMH, and Star Trek: First Contact & Star Trek: Insurrection.
There are a few select non-Goldsmith pieces. Rather integral to the story is the use of "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. I was not about to subject you to the horror of my singing, so alas Jason's new lyrics for "Pure Japanimation" are not included. Still, I could hardly include the original version with Gene Wilder singing the original lyrics! Thus, an instrumental version had to be found. There was not one on the soundtrack album, which I own. Searching the internet for an acceptable instrumental version, however, was proving rather fruitless. Eventually, however, I found one! There was an instrumental version nicely close in arrangement to the film's version on an album called, "Ballet Meets Disney." (I was slightly confused by this, as Wonka is not a Disney film... But I suppose, if current trends continue, Disney's eventually going to own anything, anyway. So perhaps they were just getting ahead of themselves a bit!) This was the first piece of music I specifically purchased for use in the Boy Scouts ½ Soundtrack Project, although I suppose "purchase" might be a bit strong of a word: Amazon was selling the MP3 of it for 99¢, and I was able to use a $1.00 promotional credit to pay for it.
There are two songs included that do have vocals, both songs mentioned by Jason as being performed in the story. For "Cruel Angel's Thesis," I decided to go again treat listeners to a version they may not have commonly heard. Rather then the original vocalist, the version featured here (and originally on an album called Neon Genesis Evangelion Addition) features three vocalists: the actresses who played Misato, Rei, and Asuka. In the context of the story, however, one should imagine a trio of female anime fans that just have impressive singing voices.
The other vocal is "The Conqueror Jinnai." For this, there was no choice other than the original. But this is just fine, because how else would John sing it?
There is one final piece of music that isn't Goldsmith's -- the music underscoring the skit that John and his CAML friends present during the masquerade. Since their skit is based around the anime El Hazard, I thought it only fitting to score their skit with music from that series. Elements from three pieces were used, two from the original OVA and one from the subsequent television version.
Anyway, that all being said, the majority of the score is Goldsmith. And, of course, that begs the question, "Why Goldsmith?" Well, to quote the movie Free Enterprise, "He'd probably enjoy that. Killed by a naked blonde who doesn't wear underwear to the strains of a Jerry Goldsmith score. Come to think of it, I'd sort of dig that myself." To be fair, perhaps that quote is not the best example, as I am pretty sure I'd rather not be killed by anyone, even if it is a naked blonde who doesn't wear underwear. But, this is the "Matt" story, and having my life (albeit a highly fictionalized version) scored by the late, great Jerry Goldsmith? That I would sort of dig, myself.
This particular story in the In Japan Origins trilogy was penned by another: Jason Bertovich. I did ask for a tiny bit of feedback on my music choice for the El Hazard skit, but other than that, he will only hear it once it is online for everyone to read. I hope that he in particular enjoys the soundtrack I arranged to go with his work!
One final note: I'd mentioned I'd tried to fit in a little bit of Alien score. The place I tried to use it was to underscore the scene when Sam kisses Matt. I figured this was a shocking moment for Matt, and I wanted the music to reflect this. Alas, after reflection, I felt the music from Alien had the wrong connotations: this should not be a terrifying or horrific shock. (Even if Matt would be somewhat horrified* if he knew he was being kissed by -- spoilers, but hopefully you've read all of the stories in the In Japan Origins trilogy before reading this -- a guy.) It should be a comedic shock! So I searched for a suitable replacement, and the music from Alien was out.
Still, I had put a fair bit of editing work into the piece, and rather liked the result. Be a shame to not feature it! So, in the tradition of many "hidden tracks" on CDs, if you listen to (or fast forward through) a few minutes of silence at the end of the album proper, you will be treated to a bonus track featuring this music.
* Just to be clear, "horrified" is not intended to imply homophobia on the part of the character of Matt. (Or on the part of myself, the real Matt!) It is more meant to reflect the mindset that any non-bisexual person might feel if being unexpectedly kissed by someone of their non-preferred gender, or indeed by anyone of any orientation upon being kissed by someone else (regardless of gender) who they would not find attractive.
The Boys:
And finally, we come to the first part! For Megumi, I wanted the sound of a quality anime score. For Matt, I wanted an epic score. For The Boys, I wanted a score reminiscent of so many of the great comedy films of my youth, and the name that comes to mind for that is Elmer Bernstein.
Unlike with the Matt soundtrack, where I tried to avoid using too many easily recognizable themes, this time I actively embraced a few such themes! For a story in which a good chunk of the plot takes place in an aircraft, it only makes sense to throw in some music from Bernstein's score from Airplane! (This includes the usage of the Notre Dame Victory March for the end credits, which may otherwise seem like a non sequitur to anyone not familiar with Airplane! By the way, if you are one of these people, what are you waiting for? Go watch Airplane!) Likewise, the main theme from Ghostbusters (not Ray Parker, Jr.'s main theme, but Bernstein's) became the theme for the boys, and Winger's theme from Stripes became a theme for Matt. Other music from Ghostbusters helped underscore some of the more mysterious aspects of this story, and Trading Places and Canadian Bacon also contributed a bit of music.
Sadly, I didn't find anyplace to sneak in anything from Spies Like Us or ¡Three Amigos! It just happened that I found what I needed elsewhere. But maybe someday I'll find use for a bit of that music elsewhere!
Well, that wraps things up for the soundtrack for the In Japan Origins trilogy! Hope you have enjoyed it!
Pardon me folks for jumping ahead a bit when I haven't even finished OST2 or OST3 yet... Never mind any of the as yet unstarted OSTs for the rest of Year One! But after the recent writing of the "In Japan Origins" trilogy, those stories were much on my mind, including thoughts of what music might hypothetically accompany them. And so, I started working on soundtracks for these stories.
I thought it might be fun to pick one composer for each story, although there might be the occasional tiny bit of another composer's work snuck in if necessary.
These soundtracks are presented in the same order as the stories are published, The Boys - Matt - Megumi. However, they were assembled in reverse order. Thus, the notes for them are likewise presented in reverse order, in order to best preserve my train of thought throughout them.
Megumi:
Well, here is the final part, although of course chronologically this story comes first. Fittingly, it was also the one of these three soundtracks I assembled first. For Megumi, a Japanese character who is a big fan of anime, I decided to go with a well known composer of scores for anime series: Yoko Kanno. In particular, I selected pieces of music she composed for Cowboy Beebop, Escaflowne (both the TV series and the film), Macross Frontier, and Macross Plus.
One tiny bit of music used, however, was from a different composer. As an accent to the scene where Chris, cosplaying as Urd from Oh My Goddess!, it felt only right to use a piece of music from that program, composed by Takeshi Yasuda, used when Urd herself made a similar entrance.
Anyway, the final result hopefully makes this soundtrack sound as if it belongs to an episode of an anime series! Seems a fitting sound to accompany Megumi's tale.
A technical note: This was the first soundtrack video I produced which actually ran afoul of Youtube's content restrictions. (It seems the Macross Plus tracks, specifically, are forbidden.) Thus, it has been uploaded via Dailymotion, instead.
Matt:
Now we come to the second one, and as the middle child it would be second in either order. This one was definitely trickier to assemble then the previous one. Yoko Kanno's music is, from what I understand, usually composed independently of the show it is intended for. Then the music is adapted to suit the scenes it is to be used with. That makes her music quite more adaptable in general, and easier to place into new contexts.
To contrast, most music a composer such as Jerry Goldsmith writes is intended for one specific use. It is written to match one specific scene, and can seem out of place if used elsewhere. (Indeed, director Ridley Scott somewhat famously treated Goldsmith's score for Alien more as Kanno's scores are usually used, much to Goldsmith's displeasure.) And so I wanted to avoid very easily recognizable themes. For example, you'll find no uses of music with the main title theme Goldsmith first wrote for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
I thought I would have a wide selection of music to choose from, having many Goldsmith scores available to me. With such quantity, I thought, that should help alleviate the problem of many pieces being too specific to one scene. But when I delved in, I hit another snag. When I started listening to his music with an ear for re-using it, many entire scores just had too distinctive a sound to be divorced from their source. Planet of the Apes would always sound like Planet of the Apes. Likewise, Logan's Run, Gremlins, Poltergeist, or Total Recall (1990) all had music with too distinctive a sound to associate with anything else.
My options began to become quite limited!
I ended up using a lot of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (omitting any uses of well known themes) and Explorers. The pieces I used do have some reoccurring themes within them, but I felt they were themes not quite well known enough to the average listener so as to be easily identifiable as, "Hey, that's the music from that other thing!"
Also quite nice were a few unused pieces from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. These were early pieces written by Goldsmith before he developed that film's main themes, nicely circumventing any worries about including them! Featuring them here is hopefully a treat to listeners who may enjoy Goldsmith's work, as since they are not in the final film you otherwise would not typically get the chance to hear them. (Unless, of course, you happen to own the right soundtrack album!)
Even with the above mentioned pieces forming the backbone of the soundtrack, I still tried to be a bit diverse with some of my music choices. I tried desperately to fit in a piece from Gremlins 2: The New Batch, but in the end I decided it just wasn't working. Most of Alien was too distinctive to use, but for quite a while I tried to get one piece in. (More on that later.) But there were some other films that managed to make contributions: Capricorn One, The Secret of NIMH, and Star Trek: First Contact & Star Trek: Insurrection.
There are a few select non-Goldsmith pieces. Rather integral to the story is the use of "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. I was not about to subject you to the horror of my singing, so alas Jason's new lyrics for "Pure Japanimation" are not included. Still, I could hardly include the original version with Gene Wilder singing the original lyrics! Thus, an instrumental version had to be found. There was not one on the soundtrack album, which I own. Searching the internet for an acceptable instrumental version, however, was proving rather fruitless. Eventually, however, I found one! There was an instrumental version nicely close in arrangement to the film's version on an album called, "Ballet Meets Disney." (I was slightly confused by this, as Wonka is not a Disney film... But I suppose, if current trends continue, Disney's eventually going to own anything, anyway. So perhaps they were just getting ahead of themselves a bit!) This was the first piece of music I specifically purchased for use in the Boy Scouts ½ Soundtrack Project, although I suppose "purchase" might be a bit strong of a word: Amazon was selling the MP3 of it for 99¢, and I was able to use a $1.00 promotional credit to pay for it.
There are two songs included that do have vocals, both songs mentioned by Jason as being performed in the story. For "Cruel Angel's Thesis," I decided to go again treat listeners to a version they may not have commonly heard. Rather then the original vocalist, the version featured here (and originally on an album called Neon Genesis Evangelion Addition) features three vocalists: the actresses who played Misato, Rei, and Asuka. In the context of the story, however, one should imagine a trio of female anime fans that just have impressive singing voices.
The other vocal is "The Conqueror Jinnai." For this, there was no choice other than the original. But this is just fine, because how else would John sing it?
There is one final piece of music that isn't Goldsmith's -- the music underscoring the skit that John and his CAML friends present during the masquerade. Since their skit is based around the anime El Hazard, I thought it only fitting to score their skit with music from that series. Elements from three pieces were used, two from the original OVA and one from the subsequent television version.
Anyway, that all being said, the majority of the score is Goldsmith. And, of course, that begs the question, "Why Goldsmith?" Well, to quote the movie Free Enterprise, "He'd probably enjoy that. Killed by a naked blonde who doesn't wear underwear to the strains of a Jerry Goldsmith score. Come to think of it, I'd sort of dig that myself." To be fair, perhaps that quote is not the best example, as I am pretty sure I'd rather not be killed by anyone, even if it is a naked blonde who doesn't wear underwear. But, this is the "Matt" story, and having my life (albeit a highly fictionalized version) scored by the late, great Jerry Goldsmith? That I would sort of dig, myself.
This particular story in the In Japan Origins trilogy was penned by another: Jason Bertovich. I did ask for a tiny bit of feedback on my music choice for the El Hazard skit, but other than that, he will only hear it once it is online for everyone to read. I hope that he in particular enjoys the soundtrack I arranged to go with his work!
One final note: I'd mentioned I'd tried to fit in a little bit of Alien score. The place I tried to use it was to underscore the scene when Sam kisses Matt. I figured this was a shocking moment for Matt, and I wanted the music to reflect this. Alas, after reflection, I felt the music from Alien had the wrong connotations: this should not be a terrifying or horrific shock. (Even if Matt would be somewhat horrified* if he knew he was being kissed by -- spoilers, but hopefully you've read all of the stories in the In Japan Origins trilogy before reading this -- a guy.) It should be a comedic shock! So I searched for a suitable replacement, and the music from Alien was out.
Still, I had put a fair bit of editing work into the piece, and rather liked the result. Be a shame to not feature it! So, in the tradition of many "hidden tracks" on CDs, if you listen to (or fast forward through) a few minutes of silence at the end of the album proper, you will be treated to a bonus track featuring this music.
* Just to be clear, "horrified" is not intended to imply homophobia on the part of the character of Matt. (Or on the part of myself, the real Matt!) It is more meant to reflect the mindset that any non-bisexual person might feel if being unexpectedly kissed by someone of their non-preferred gender, or indeed by anyone of any orientation upon being kissed by someone else (regardless of gender) who they would not find attractive.
The Boys:
And finally, we come to the first part! For Megumi, I wanted the sound of a quality anime score. For Matt, I wanted an epic score. For The Boys, I wanted a score reminiscent of so many of the great comedy films of my youth, and the name that comes to mind for that is Elmer Bernstein.
Unlike with the Matt soundtrack, where I tried to avoid using too many easily recognizable themes, this time I actively embraced a few such themes! For a story in which a good chunk of the plot takes place in an aircraft, it only makes sense to throw in some music from Bernstein's score from Airplane! (This includes the usage of the Notre Dame Victory March for the end credits, which may otherwise seem like a non sequitur to anyone not familiar with Airplane! By the way, if you are one of these people, what are you waiting for? Go watch Airplane!) Likewise, the main theme from Ghostbusters (not Ray Parker, Jr.'s main theme, but Bernstein's) became the theme for the boys, and Winger's theme from Stripes became a theme for Matt. Other music from Ghostbusters helped underscore some of the more mysterious aspects of this story, and Trading Places and Canadian Bacon also contributed a bit of music.
Sadly, I didn't find anyplace to sneak in anything from Spies Like Us or ¡Three Amigos! It just happened that I found what I needed elsewhere. But maybe someday I'll find use for a bit of that music elsewhere!
Well, that wraps things up for the soundtrack for the In Japan Origins trilogy! Hope you have enjoyed it!