Music: wac - 音楽 (Ongaku)

First new post in a while. Mind the empty spaces! *ahem*

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Track list:

1. I
2. Little Rock Overture
3. ポップミュージック論
4. 面影橋
5. garden
6. On top of the world
7. Ensemble Forecast 3/28
8. murmur twins
9. 少年リップルズ
10. Little Prayer
11. neu

It seems very inevitable for BEMANI artists to stay with just one musical genre. wac (real name: Jun Wakita) is just one of those multi-musical-genre guys with a somewhat impeccable taste and design, thanks to years of being sound director for every (yes, every) Pop’n Music game starting from PoMu 6. I myself don’t know more about him as much as the next new-coming Bemani gamer but from what I inferred in his album "音楽" (Ongaku), there are bits and pieces of him scattered about every BEMANI game you can name. A behind-the-scenes kind of guy if you may, working behind more than 20 known used aliases (which probably explains why I don’t know that much about him, only a few songs are credited by his proper alias), apt for his own real-life image; almost every publication of wac has him wearing a black-and-white cat mask, similar to how his fellow in-house colleague, Asaki, always obscures his face with either his hair, an object, or just deliberate Photoshopping.

But we’re not here to talk about public image, are we? Or any other artist for that matter. Like I’ve said, wac is somewhat all over the place in BEMANI with over fifty tracks to his repertoire. This album can be said as a collection of only twelve out of those more-than-fifty songs he considers his best. And when I said his songs are all over the place, I literally stress, all over the place, and in many forms of sound as well.

The album opens innocently enough with an original track simply titled “I”, its soft ballad-like piano leading the inconspicuous listener to a ten-minute orchestral piece with all its highs and lows of contemporary classical music, from the soothing, to fickle, to tragic as indicated with its subtle change in ‘movements’ which pattern is then repeated in “ポップミュージック論” (Pop Music Ron) and “Little Rock Overture” with an added swing rock intro (yee-haw!). “On top of the world”, and “Ensemble Forecast 3/28” which are contagiously upbeat and he somehow manages to insert a couple of strings and pianos without it ruining the song (i.e. not making it sound like a different song altogether).

Like most Bemani artists, wac’s anthology wouldn’t be complete without the very least a few collabs from, once again, commissioned female vocalists. “garden” employs Rie Aono (unknown to me as of this moment) with a sound that could rival colleagues 亜熱帯マジ-SKA爆弾 (Anettai Maji-SKA Bakudan) sans the excessive trombones and more laid-back with a kicking organ solo to boot. “murmur twins”, a signature song of his, features Yuu Tokiwa in a jubilant and delightful atmosphere that would almost bring a smile to your face, if you’re willing to get past its slightly broken lyrics. She is immediately brought into play again in “少年リップルズ” (“Shounen Ripples”), one of my favorite songs to play in Jubeat if I may add, which is highly contrast to the former; dark, brooding streams of electric guitars, fast punk-like drums, and Tokiwa’s gentle voice singing in almost uncontrollable giddy per chorus. The end track “neu” brings her back once more in a rather detached medley of all his finest electronic works, among others Spica, Votum stellarum, Ganymede, Babel, and the rest of his electronic family. It might intrigue first-timers, but long-time fans would want to steer clear of it unless they want to hear wac indulge himself in twelve minutes of overproducing and butchering his own brainchildren. Then again, it's the last track so it's pretty much inevitable.

But the main highlight of the album, and one you should immediately listen to, is “Little Prayer”. Sung by former Cymbals frontwoman, the ever-so-lovely Toki Asako, this song, a staple of one of DrumMania GuitarFreaks’ notoriously high-leveled songs, represents the pinnacle of wac’s non-electronic music achievement. Nothing can beat its nighttime soundscape mixed with start-stop dynamics, highly bassline sticking out like a sore thumb, and Asako’s soaring ambient vocals backed with a relentless flurry of shuffling prog-like drum beats; it feels to me like wac has totally outdone himself with this song. The chorus with its enticing chord progression will definitely burn into the listener’s ear upon the first line (“Kagami no...”).

All in all, wac is a musical force to be beckoned with. Songs in the spectrum of rock, classical, electronic, to mixes of both at once sometimes, and his experience which is unparalleled and surpassed only by DJ Taka. His music is still news to me, but all the more reason to fully and deeply appreciate it. wac’s sounds and scapes, old and new, that have subliminally seeped up into the unsuspecting Bemani player’s ears can be heard all over the series and from his long list of those fifty plus songs, he couldn’t’ve picked a better twelve to both draw in new fans and delight his loyal long-time listeners.

Rate: 4/5