When we last spoke to Masashi Hamauzu, he expressed much excitement over his then-upcoming album with Mina, “Black Ocean.” Up to that time, all we’d been able to hear from them was the IMERUAT debut single, which featured 3 songs (all included on, and remastered for, “Black Ocean”).
With the full album in our hands (presently available CD-only in Japan and Europe), we’re ready to talk about the duo that made Final Fantasy XIII so beautiful and vibrant. After the jump, our review of IMERUAT’s “Black Ocean.”
The album opens with the title track, “Black Ocean.” And right from the start, I felt like “wow, I’m in for a treat.” The electronic sound style, augmented by Mitsuto Suzuki, is so reminiscent of the best tracks from Final Fantasy XIII. And the chords, almost all enhanced by dominant 7ths and 9ths, bounce along with that “oom – pah” bass note – chord combo. And Mina’s soft, breathy vocals sound beautiful. It takes about 90 seconds before the intro and first verse are complete. And when we kick into the chorus, a whole bunch of percussion comes in for 4 measures, and then pulled back when Mina sings “To the end of the woooorld!” — it’s epic. Straight up epic. Rinse and repeat, like the tides of this black ocean, and be ready for more love.
“Cirotto,” one of the three tracks originally on the IMERUAT debut single, is almost entirely instrumental. A simple minimalist pattern from the strings and piano, like something from SaGa Frontier II or “Vielen Dank,” takes up the majority of the track. Only at the end does Mina sing, and when she does, it’s almost like a tribal melody, in the lower registers, and absolutely beautiful.
The third track, “Leave me alone,” is a personal favorite. Mina’s identity, as part of the minority tribe the Ainu, makes her special. And yet, she struggles to find normalcy in herself. In this song, she exclaims and even whines (with pitch bent) “I’m not special.” The counting to 8 in different languages, the intentionally flatness of each instrument, the cerebral sort of misery that comes with the minimalist pattern … it’s easy to get lost in. And, honestly, I love it.
There are two tracks on the album that feature spoken-word. The first is “Giant,” featuring Nino Kerl speaking in German, and rapidly at that. I’m not sure what is being said, but it sounds … like an emergency. It’s intense. The other spoken-word track, “Left,” is a scripted conversation, in English, between Mina and VGM guru / personality Jeriaska. In this track, Jeriaska plays the role of an investigative journalist who has apparently overstepped his boundaries. He’s written an article, presumably about the Ainu, using Mina as an interviewee, but he uses her words without her permission, and she’s upset about it, and feels she’s misrepresented. Behind these series of telephone conversations, where we hear increasing frustration from both parties, is a swell of piano, synths, and beautiful strings. This is one of the tracks featuring arrangement from the venerable Mitsuto Suzuki, and the track sounds even better because of it. The static and the dial tones sound fantastic as well. When Mina sings “I take off my costume to avoid being noticed,” it breaks my heart. So much emotion hiding behind a wall of sound.
These two spoken-word tracks straddle “Haru no Kasumi,” another of the tracks from the single. If you listened to the single, it’s easy to detect the remastering here, where the piano is now more balanced with the string and woodwinds. A simple 6/8 track, featuring Hamauzu’s trademark impressionist, minimalist patterns, it’s one that only stands out because of the occasional dissonance. I like to think of it as a “transition” piece to get my mind ready for what more is to come.
The latter half of the album blends a little better than the first half, where each track is sort of a stand-out experience. Among the tracks in the latter half, I have two definite favorites. One of them, obviously, is the debut track “IMERUAT.” I like that, a song title that is also your group’s name. What I also like about it? The huge wall-of-sound strings, the rhythmic guitars, the heavenly piano work (totally reminiscent of SaGa Frontier II and UNLIMITED:SaGa), and of course, Mina’s beautiful voice. This song is so good, and so uplifting, even the minor chords sound happy.
And my other favorite track: “Springs.” The piano part sounds much like FFXIII‘s “Sulyya Springs,” but Mina’s doing something totally different with the vocal track here.
IN SUMMARY / tl;dr: imagine Masashi Hamauzu was asked to write more songs for FFXIII using the same team of people, but wasn’t limited by any thematic structures, cut scenes, or visuals. That’s what Black Ocean is. It’s Hamauzu flexing his creative muscles with a top team of talented musicians. Don’t miss out on this one! And, if you’re in North America, feel free to express your present displeasure that the CD is only available in Japan and Europe! We want a domestic version! (Right?)
Tags: Ainu, Black Ocean, IMERUAT, Masashi Hamauzu, Mina, MONOMUSIK, Music Reviews, Original Work, Reviews
Great review and a wonderful album, of course! Loving the experimental overall sound and it really offers the best of both (or three) worlds, combining exactly what I love about Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki with Mina’s beautiful voice (especially her lower voice, like on “Cirotto”).
Interesting facts, by the way! Didn’t know about her struggle with her Ainu identity. It must be hard for her. I read about the history of Ainus and Japan once after hearing of Hamauzu’s interest for this topic.
Is that telephone conversation real and if so, what exactly happened?
Oh, and besides, I just sent Nino Kerl a message on facebook asking him how that feature came about.
If you like, I could translate the German part on “Giant”. I’m a native German speaker, so that’d be no problem 😉
Nikurad — thanks so much for the comments!
From what I can tell, the telephone conversations in track 6 are “staged.” That is to say, something like this may have happened to her, but not with Jeriaska. If you check around, Jeriaska has been in close contact with Hamauzu-san and Mina for this project, and his name is intentionally credited in the liner notes. So I think some sort of script was established for that track.
I speak German fairly well, but I have a hard time hearing exactly what Nino is saying on “Giant.” It’s spoken very fast and there are a lot of effects there too. But feel free to translate it!
Done 😛 Hmm, I wonder what’s the meaning of this. Could it be veiled criticism of Japan’s government during the Fukushima crisis? I really don’t know.
“Imeruat – Giant” Lyrics
German:
Bald wird man es dir wieder sagen… dass du dich in einer Krise befindest, dass du reagieren musst. Auch wird man dir erzählen, dass du nicht nach links gehen sollst, wenn der Riese nach rechts läuft, dass du besser nicht stillstehst, wenn sich der Riese in Bewegung setzt, dass du nicht laufen sollst, wenn der Riese stoppt, dass es deine Pflicht ist und so weiter.
Doch nur zu trauern und ermutigende Worte stetig zu wiederholen, wird denen nicht helfen, die am Rande der Katastrophe stehen. Wurde es dir nicht schon gesagt? Dass du deine Persönlichkeit aufgeben musst, dass du so sein musst wie alle andern auch? Man wird dir erzählen, dass du nicht nach links gehen sollst, wenn der Riese nach rechts läuft, dass du besser nicht stillstehst, wenn sich der Riese in Bewegung setzt, dass du nicht laufen sollst, wenn der Riese stoppt, dass er schließlich unter die Erde geht und so weiter (*echo* und so weiter).
Selbst wenn wir diese Kriese gemeinsam meistern können – es wird noch immer all jene geben, die allein gelassen, draußen in der Kälte, einsam im Schlaf sterben. Das sind die Zeiten, in denen wir leben.
English:
Soon you will be told again… that you are in a crisis, that you have to react. Also one will tell you, that you shouldn’t go left when the giant moves to the right, that you better not stand still when the giant begins to move, that you shouldn’t move when the giant stops, that it is your duty and so on.
But by just grieving and repeating encouraging words alone, those who stand on the brink of disaster won’t be helped. Haven’t you been told yet? That you’d have to give up your personality, that you’d have to be like everyone else, too? You will be told that you shouldn’t go left when the giant moves to the right, that you better not stand still when the giant begins to move, that you shouldn’t move when the giant stops, that he will go under (ed.: or vanish ?) in the end, and so on (*echo* and so on).
Even if we were able to overcome this crisis together – there will still be all those left alone who will die in their sleep out in the cold. These are the times we live in…
(Transcribed & translated by Nikurad)
Wonderful review! This album was everything I wanted and more! I just hope Hamauzu will compose another album like this. My favorite track on the whole album is “Battaki”. It is so groovy :).
[…] 30. Imagineering – The World Spings Without You (Module) 31. IMERUAT – Leave me alone (album review, OSV) 32. IMERUAT – […]
The CD is available for the world and not only Europe! I bought it from Canada!
After kitty has run the gambit a couple of occasions with encouragement, see if he will try it on his
personal.
Mysterious and persnickety, these bundles of fluff, claws and teeth
are determined to make their own approach on this planet,
and this might – or won’t – imply allowing you to rub their bellies.
I have and it isn’t nice.
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this brilliant blog!
I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding
your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward
to brand new updates and will share this site with my Facebook group.
Chat soon!
I’m curious to find out what blog platform you are utilizing?
I’m experiencing some small security issues with my latest website and
I’d like to find something more safe. Do you have any suggestions?
Three young homeowners have been pressured by their families to get
rid of their hamsters regardless that they all owned them for greater than half a year, stated
Ocean, who declined to provide her last title fearing offended reactions from those.
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it.
Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! By the way, how could we communicate?
Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers?
I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any recommendations?
The research, printed this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals
the cascade of indicators that prepare the hamster for winter, triggered by reducing day size.
Hi my loved one! I want to say that this post is amazing, great written and come with almost all significant infos.
I’d like to peer more posts like this .
The excellent news is, as soon as you recognize what you are in search of,
searching for one of the best dog food does not should be tough.
I go to see daily some web pages and websites to read articles or reviews,
but this website offers feature based writing.