Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2011 May 30 • Monday

The 167th Soundtrack of the Week is Chuji Kinoshita's music from the Japanese TV samurai series Mito Koumon.

There are 51 tracks on two CDs but the first fifteen tracks of disc 1 are different versions of the theme song, a march-like tune with Japanese lyrics.

It gets much more interesting after that. Track 16 is only whimsical but after that there are a cool guitar instrumental, a piece with interesting percussion and a weird electronic instrument (and always the bass guitar thudding away like a metronome).

Various other moods follow, some more dramatic, some more experimental. There's even a piece that's in 7/4 with some great keyboard and saxophone playing.

The instrumentation and arrangements are consistently interesting and rewarding. You just have to get past that initial onslaught of the same song fifteen times in a row.