LogFAQs > #964604141

5rd
Game: Splatoon 2
Title: Frantic Aspic
Composer: Ryo Nagamatsu (-3)
Nominator: @-hotdogturtle--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xq1WQxcroY

for convenient use of this topic; here's someone playing through the rhythm game version of this song (you can see the barlines and rhythm placement of everything in general there, so it makes this very slightly easier to understand):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrqo0h2fNVM

[timestamps, and transcription based on the rhythm game video here]:
(0:01 - 0:04) 2 bars of 7/8
(0:04 - 0:13) 4 bars of 5/4, 1 bar of 5/8
(0:13 - 0:59) 21 bars of 5/4, 1 bar of 5/8
(0:59 - ) 10 bars of 5/4, 1 bar of 5/8

it's mostly numerically not super insane. just 5s and 7s. but those only have the purpose of being "containers", because the rhythms that exist within those containers...stretched tuplets, totally challenging-to-follow over-the-barline stuff all over the place. I think this takes the cake for the most Rhythmically Challenging song nominated for my topic! Given that this was a status it's obvious a lot of people were trying to hit, you should feel proud of that.

another one of my favorite things about this is how that 7/8 bit at the intro; it's repeated throughout the song, but in ways that are not 7/8 at all, totally deconstructing and reconstructing the rhythm layered atop everything else in precise and distorted fascinating ways. some of the coolest "polymeter" I've ever heard in a vgm track tbh

honestly those "containers" are fairly meaningless when it comes to a song this complex. the bars of "5/4" start off with a ton of stuff that feels more like half that length---5/8 inside of them. The REALLY weird rhythms like ~0:17ish are mostly the cause of immediate unwarned sporadic alternating between the triplet grid and the 16ths grid. This is honestly nearly impossible to follow and I can not imagine playing this in a rhythm game and i'm saying that as someone who was hired as an instrumentalist for oddball experimental performances specifically because i specialize in complex rhythms that no one but me could read that they knew... I mean I CAN read this if i tried probably, and it's one of my favorite types of music, but at this moment, even after having known this track since it came out, I still can't naturally parse it at a precise "knowing which exact 16th beat or triplet beat this note lands on" way. I only know it by "feel" which is /more/ useful in some ways?...but there's no way i'd succeed at playing this in the rhythm game hahaha, i wouldn't mind trying someday tho. or just trying to perform this live if i could find a group willing to tackle something like this...

I found this sheet music transcription which is pretty useful for reference, though I haven't carefully crosschecked it for accuracy. but i'm finding it really fun to follow the score here:
https://flat.io/score/5f3c5efb5bf9f4067f7254fe-frantic-aspic-salmon-run-w-3-unfinished

so yeah I know i kept talking about that rio/avant-prog subgenre of music...really it's incredibly diverse in terms of how it can sound but. THIS song is probably teh song out of my entire topic that feels the most similar to what i look for in that category. Here's some examples:

Yugen - Cinically Correct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce-gWYI5NIQ

Yugen - Corale metallurgico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAvNXP61ylc

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - Petrophonics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e43KCiLAyk

- really i should be clear. the whole imaginary band omega-3...whether or not it was intentional, is /literally/ a rock-in-opposition /avant-prog band. it has like every trait. "totally absurd instrumentation" (typmani instead of 'drums'. cello. and some guy who does a bunch of random electronic effects [patricia dalilio?! is that you?].) this is literally like, three-person version of Art Zoyd or Birdsongs of the Mesozoic or whateve

their description of the electronics member:
"With a considerably rough temperament, he's an individual that seems to take an attitude in opposition to most else. ", even using that word OPPOSITION Hahahahaa/ iI DONT KNOW IF IT WAS INTENTIONALLY SUPPOSed to specifically be a reference to this very small subgenre of music that not even many prog fans care about that much. but i'm happy that it's at least taken a convergent evolution to being the same things I love about all these weirdass bands.

i thought it was possible that "Frantic Aspic" was a reference to "Larks Tongues in Aspic" by king crimson, but the japanese title was completely different, so if it was considered---it wasn't the original composer making that reference anyway. given that i have mentioned king crimson i might as well link a song that is loosely comparable(not really)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQDEm-iXlIo

anyways, thank you for this absolutely ridiculous trio of noms!