Chicks With Mechs On a Spank Mission: POWER DoLLS 1 Soundtrack Resonance (Review)

Sounds like hentai, but it’s not. I guess POWER DoLLS is a strategy game series for the PC centered on an all-female combat unit that utilizes mechas. DoLLS interestingly is an acronym for “Detachment of Limited Line Service.” Is it all starting to make sense to you? Well, not for me either, but what I can tell you is that Hiroto Saitoh’s music for the series is amazing.

This album goes even further though, providing you with three different versions of the original POWER DoLLS soundtrack. There’s an FM version (awesome!), a MIDI version, and the focus of this release, an all-new arranged version featuring remixes from Saitoh, the SuperSweep team, and even ESTi from Korea!

This is quite the dream team, so join us after the jump for our review of POWER DoLLS 1 Soundtrack Resonance.

Strangely, the jewel case ships with the arrange album inside, while the second disc containing the FM and MIDI versions is housed in a separate sleeve that’s shrink wrapped together with the jewel case. It has a definite fan-made feel that I totally dig, and I’m all for a unique presentation.

Getting to the music, it’s cool that these arrangers took what was one or two minutes of source material and created 4-5 minute arrangements out of it. Saitoh opens with a jazzy hip hop take on “POWER DoLLS,” complete with brass, bongos, a groovy upright bass, and some scratching. It definitely generates a hip mood that has me wanting to learn more about these POWER DoLLS girls!

SuperSweep’s Ayako Sasao comes next with one of my favorite tracks, “Land Around,” incorporating the fat bassline and amazing ascending synth lines from the original. The melody is voiced by a razor sharp synth lead with lots of vibrato, sounding spacey and futuristic. Another favorite of mine is “Alternative Walls,” originally composed by Kayoko Maeda and arranged by Shinji Hosoe. It’s as quirky as you’d expect with these warbled synth accents that sound like… well, fat baby ducks from outer space. Digitized ones. Definitely an interesting sound. The last SuperSweep member to make an appearance is Yousuke Yasui with his jazzy arrangement of “Defense Suppression,” which is a track that’s strangely absent from the FM and MIDI versions of the soundtrack.

Masashi Yano of StudioSigmaFace remixes “High Altitude Circle,” turning it into a synthy techno track that sounds like it could have been created by Hosoe. Nakayama Raiden’s “Silky Ground” features an awesome electric guitar and piano backing for his retro chip lead that cries out into space. Maeda’s bizarre progression from “Gust of Wind” gets a fitting synth-only treatment from Saitoh, and the varied melody creates the sensation of movement. “Eclipse” and “Daybreak” are both pretty repetitive tracks, but Saitho’s arrangements breath new life into them, each in Saitoh’s preferred style: jazz.

We finally get to ESTi’s track, “Spank Mission.” Yes, the best song title ever. Oh how I love the music of Jinbae “ESTi” Park. Sweet woodwinds with lots of reverb and high-pitched synth lines scream out over a funky bassline and snappy percussion. It’s simply perfect, and it’s amazing that a Korean game music composer contributed to this album along with a bunch of Japanese composers!

That’s all for the arrangements, but it’s not over yet. I adore the FM version of this soundtrack, and while the MIDI version is probably my least favorite, it’s certainly not bad. The FM version of “Land Around” is downright funky, while “High Altitude Circle” sounds like the chemical plant zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Also, I swear “Daybreak” borrows the first 10 seconds or so from the star theme from Super Mario Bros.!

Anyway, I already sort of discussed the packaging, but the album artwork is sleek and professional as well, provided by LILT Reocords’ own Nima. A random lady appears on the cover (A POWER DoLLS soundtrack tradition), and the booklet is entirely in English. Even the thin sleeve that houses the second disc has an insert with some hand-drawn artwork and a track listing on the back. Between the three versions of the soundtrack presented here, you’re bound to find a version that you like, which means you’re going to have some awesome new music to listen to if you pick this one up. I highly recommend checking out the album’s official website (which includes samples!) and buying a copy.

Are you at all familiar with POWER DoLLS? Are you at all surprised to see a Korean composer contributing to a Japanese arrange album?