LogFAQs > #953972997

97st
Game: Kirby's Return to Dreamland
Title: Snowball Scuffle
Composer: Hirokazu Ando, Jun Ishikawa
Nominator: @Mr_Lasastryke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbUEtAPdW-g

feel like kirby songs where the specific composer isn't known of these two are rare to come across; but apparently this is one of those where we dont know which of the two it is. my guess would be that it's ando because of the pace and chords/progressions feeling more ando-style than ishikawa-style to me. it's so melodically floaty in a metheny-esque way (and i have that reaction to confirmed ando stuff way more often than confirmed ishikawa stuff). like i know lasa has gotten on my case about how i compare literally everything to pat metheny group but i feel like he has to see what i mean here. just imagine that melody line on lyle mays's distinct hollow square synth lead, imagine everything else as if on guitar or piano, etc. It's that unpredictable destination in chord changes that makes me enthusiastic the most out of anything in music, and pat metheny group is the non-vgm artist i associate most with that so that's why i compare so much music that i love to him.

one thing i'm noticing right now: I often talk about when i like these sorts of floaty progressions, how i like that it forces the melody line to change what scale is being used, what notes are allowed diverge and no longer fit over the previous chord. This song is nOT like that actually, despite having the same sound, and that's actually really cool!! It's more like what i like about the melody to g-darius kimera ii, the melody is actually extremely extremely simple. it's the same thing basically repeated a few times for the first 30 seconds, but the chords around that repetition change and make it /feel/ like the melody is playing different notes when it's not (since the function of the same notes being repeated, changes with different chords surrounding it). This is still among the forms of melody/chord interaction i'm most emotionally enthused by, so i absolutely welcome it here. It makes the bits a bit after where the melody's scale /does/ change (:28 - :43 especially, probably my favorite section of the song) way more impactful

it make me FLOAT IN THE AIR which is fitting for an enthusiastic pink sphere that inhales very many things and rides on top of a star sometimes. it feels like a dream. just like kirgby. just like KLOPNOA (this song reminds me a lot of one of my favorite klonoa songs, hey...you nominated a song from this game!!! maybe you just like PAT METHENY DREAMS; he has to have like, at least 5 songs with the word dream in it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpzHBwG1DSs

back to kirby: I LOVE OBOES (the klonoa song has an oboe in it too)

i like how i don't really see Snowball Scuffle as particularly cartoony, even though it is in the kirby series, and yet it still fits right alongside all the more in-your-face goofy kirby stuff. I think it's because the composition style broad stroke traits shared between most given kirby songs (complex chords, the recognizable melodic styles both ishikawa and ando each use, fast fluttery constant 8th or 16th layers...and also the instrumentation) threads together the consistency in sound, while still being able to evoke a variety of different moods and emotions, within those constraints.

i said not long ago (and within this very topic series i'm pretty sure) that Kirby is my favorite ""popular series"" for vgm. but i'm not sure that still holds true. it really depends on where you cut off the threshold for popular, and if it's inclusive enough there's plenty of things i like more. and honestly i probably like zelda music more these days BUT I NEVER STOPPOEd liking kirby music anyways. it's great. for all the reasons i described, the lead duo of ando/ishikawa just loves going for slightly jazzfusiony or proggy composition traits, even if the exterior is more synthetic and cartoony than either of those categories. everything from the happiest fun song to the slower more emotionally diverse stuff still feels like ""kirby"" in 99% of cases. and i value that, a lot. I love when the music to series can sound like [series] and you know exactly what it's from so instantly

with kirby though, unlike (say. touhou), i think there's a lot more diversity. every kirby song feels like a new song, no matter how much they keep these distinct ""this is definitely a kirby song"" traits insistently ingrained in their sound. no matter how much they recycle themes and melodies from older kirby games. no matter how much they reuse instrumentation. every kirby song feels new to me, there's so many different emotions it can evoke, no matter what the surface pink happy exterior may mislead you to believe. all while still being recognizable as what it is.

""I love complex chords"" - very first line said by Hirokazu Ando in an interview once
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