Touhou Discussion Thread - Page 19

And finally, a three-piece wallpaper pack of Momiji Osuyrgoaergliweuth (I can't remember her last name, so I punched my keyboard instead).

As the name of the album would imply, the majority of the tracks here are remastered songs from previous Spells. To be fair, every single track sounds far better than their original incarnations, and xi-on does throw two new songs into the mix, but if I might speak candidly, I was hoping for some all-new material. I shouldn't complain, though, since each song is marvelous anyway.

Track Listing:

1. Memory of the Past (Original song)
   
2. Gensokyo Millennium ~ History of the Moon (2nd Spell: FullMoon)
   
3. Maiden's Capriccio ~ Dream Battle / Love-Colored Master Spark (2nd Spell: FullMoon)
   
4. The Road of the Apotropaic God ~ Dark Road (1st Spell: Airstream)
   
5. Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom ~ Nuclear Fusion (3rd Spell: Asteroid Orbit)
   
6. Green-Eyed Jealousy (3rd Spell: Asteroid Orbit)
   
7. Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall (1st Spell: Airstream)
   
8. Native Faith (1st Spell: Airstream)
   
9. Higan Retour ~ Riverside View (Original song)

Memory of the Past, the first track, seems to be xi-on's original work, and not an arrangement of any ZUN piece. Perhaps I'm incorrect, but I can't seem to hear anything familiar from it, and it's a fairly short song to begin with.

All of the remastered tracks sound similar to their first album appearances, as is to be expected. The three tracks that stood out for me the most, however, were Fall of Fall, Native Faith, and Maiden's Capriccio / Master Spark. Each of those three introduces enough unique flair to be distinguishable from their antecedents. Also of note is Nuclear Fusion, although it seems that xi-on dumbed down not only the warning klaxons, but also the drum line, which makes it a bit dull. The guitar solos are even more bitchin' to compensate, but I'm not sure if it's enough. I did note that all the remastered tracks were taken from the first three Spell albums, so I'd wager that xi-on's next album will be focused on remastering tracks from the latter four in the Spell series.

Higan Retour is an interesting one. The song itself (as done by ZUN) has a weird tempo to it; it's fairly slow, but it's difficult for an arranger to increase the tempo without making it sound bad. As a result, what I've heard most circles do is slow down the tempo even further, but what xi-on did was he changed the tempo for different parts of the song. It's a weird result, and I'm not sure I'm completely on board with it, but the track itself is excellent otherwise, with very nice use of the strings and guitar that define xi-on's style. I uploaded the song to YouTube for those who are interested in hearing it for themselves, too.
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