Looking forward to this. Really enjoy Hisaishi's work with Miyazaki, and just started to explore some of his other work earlier this year. He's just a talented guy.
> -----------------------
> Techno Police 21C / Tekuno porisu 21C (1982) - ***
> Discovery #3.
> Quite possibly the first film score where Hisaishi was the credited lead
> composer, this music accompanies an animated robot police action movie
> distributed by Toho (yes, that Toho). Most of the tracks are scored like
> the halfway point between city pop and 1970s cop TV music (complete with
> some outrageous electric bass and sax solos), not dissimilar from what
> Lalo Schifrin or Patrick Williams might have done with the concept -
> although the fusion of jazz and synths perhaps suggests the influence of
> Chick Corea or Ryuichi Sakamoto instead. One track has wailing electronics
> akin to the otherworldly sounds Elmer Bernstein would summon from his
> ondes Martenot. Jazz flute appears. A harmonica, an instrument Hisaishi
> would occasionally use throughout the decade, dominates a bluesy romp for
> a few minutes. There are more proto-Dante / Goldsmith synth farts at
> another point.
> Adequate though anonymous, the score does have one nugget that suggests
> the composer’s own compositional voice starting to emerge: the piano lines
> and pseudo-Barry romantic strings in the first minute of the track Love
> Theme.
> Score album - https://youtu.be/w-16cKzl5Oc
This title sounds familiar to me. Like I watched some of this or saw trailers for it back in the early 90s, when anime was just starting to appear more frequently in video stores. Curious to hear his work on this.
> -----------------------
> Genesis Climber MOSPEADA / Kikō Sōseiki Mosupīda
> (1983-84) - **½
> Discovery #4 - and the earliest Hisaishi score that’s available on U.S.
> digital / streaming services, credited as a 1994 work because that’s when
> it was released on CD; an LP release came out around the time the show was
> on the air.
> Unlike many of Hisaishi's later scores, the writing is a lot more
> straightforward - city pop, big 80s synths, jazz interludes, valiant anime
> brass heroics, and so on. But considering this is a sci-fi series
> involving transformable motorcycle armor, perhaps the show didn’t need
> anything more profound from its music. Unlike earlier image / score albums
> which were interspersed with rock songs that the composer didn’t write,
> here we have five such songs actually arranged by Hisaishi, all of which
> are likable and a coherent fit with the surrounding score. Like Techno
> Police 21C, this score makes for a fun romp that is very much of its
> time but also goes right in one ear and out the other.
> Score album -
> https://open.spotify.com/album/3MciipMTb0y2wUtJ0p9D8w?si=Qr12PYwDT0WAXUbka1VhHQ
Now as part of the Robotech generation of anime fans, I'm very familiar with Mospeada as the "third generation" of that series. It has been years since I've watched Robotech, but I do remember the music for each generation feeling unique - of course this is because they were three different anime series smashed together to make one super-plot. This series had an idol singer as a main character, so it makes sense that there was prominent placement of songs. Neat to see that Hisashi wrote those. Kinda want to check it out again.
> -----------------------
> Next time: THAT score, a forgotten gem of a track, and one of the worst
> things I’ve ever heard.
Now I'm really intrigued. Looking forward to it.
