Our necessity-driven CreoFUGA winners retrospective rages on, with a couple of tracks coming from the latter chronological half of the Taiko-borne competitons.
Oozora to Taiko no Odori (大空と太鼓の踊り) paraμ| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (172) | x6 (367) | x8 (642) | x9 (864) |
Taiko 0 S, Taiko Wii U2, Taiko 3DS3, Taiko +, CD CC-7
148-163
none
irpunkComing from the 2013 song-making contest, Oozora to Taiko no Odori (lit. 'Dance of Sky and Taiko') is one of two tracks composed by the nick-named paraμ (Twitter; Nicovideo), and the one of said song couple who made it into Taiko gaming as a contest victor.
As opposed to the discarded Halo (ヘイロー) (link active up until the CreoFUGA website lasts) which he made (by his own words) from the songwriter's perspective, 'as a song first', this lively composition was built with the player's perspective in mind, with the 'as a game first' mentality as the main priority. Wanting to make a music game song that would have been tailor-fit for Taiko no Tatsujin gaming and nothing else, paraμ aimed its song composition act to a musical genre whose heart-moving frantic rhythms could 'be only fully enjoyed with all of your might', and for that end he opted for a Celtic-inspired rock piece with a timeless development. He dubbed his ultimated work as a piece of 'Irish Punk', a sentiment which is also referenced in the song's ID in Taiko games.
By paraμ's admission, he originally wanted to input this song as a Vocaloid-enhanced piece, justifying in turn the melody line's structure that is featured in the full-instrumental submitted track as originally synth-vocals lead. For further refgerence, the artist himself left a lyrics sheet in the CF contest entry, while his Vocaloid cover of the song starring ZOLA PROJECT was uploaded near 2013's end by the author himself on Nicovideo (link).
Yuji Masubuchi of the Taiko Team praised the song to no end as one of the 2013 contest's judges, due to its masterful complex time signature implementation and the cool dance vibes that it overall gave him while listening to it. He himself referenced how this originally was supposed to be a vocal track, but the 'there's something missing' vibe left as a result of the full-instrumental treatement were seen as a 'nice touch', ultimately leading the NAMCO SOUNDS composer to be its notecharter. A barrage of note clusters await its Oni mode players, escalating repeating patterns and a couple of main BPM changes into a peppy Kat-based passage, followed by quite a fun long cluster. In the words of the Taiko Team veteran, 'If you're dancing, take whiskey to rehydrate'!
Climb! Mount Parfait (食らいむ！まうんとぱふぇ) unatra| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (148) | x6 (272) | x8 (500) | x9 (765) |
Taiko 0 W, Taiko 3DS3, Taiko PS4, Taiko +, CD CC-7 186 none kuraimOur next contest track on the spotlight is also a full instrumental work, and one who managed to earn a winning spot in the World Championship 2016 contest on that!
The composer of this track is the nick-named unatra (Twitter; SoundCloud; Nicovideo), one we can spend a little bit more words about thanks to his profile page left on TWPF (link). According to his last-updated-in-2016 profile, unatra is a 4th-year university student who aims at making music that is not related to any precise genre (ie. generic pop/rock pieces of the sorts), while also trying to slip in catchy and unique phrases in his Cubase Studio-enhanced works. Prior (and after) its contest-winning entry in Taiko grounds, unatra struck gold with Konami's music games multiple times for songs headed to both SOUND VOLTEX and MUSECA series, with original instrumental tracks (Nofram; eXtridia), Vocaloid pieces (Gunjou Glass no Spica) and even some Touhou Project arrangements (Fabula Nova; Attack on Dwarf).
Climb! Mount Parfait was made with tho main elements in the composer's mind: the picture of a big parfait and the very concept of 'apex', embodied in a melody which wouldn't tire the composer himself during his many pre-competion revisions to his track! Kawagen Collagen of the Taiko Team's judging board for the contest felt the very same, thanks to the 'High speed, high tension and positive' vibes that don't tire the listener out of hearing it, over and over. Its Taiko notecharting side, however, was relegated to another figure in the Taiko Team: Marimo Institute (まりも研究所), who devised a Nam-Combo Oni treat with many a repeating stanza that plays more on the performer's handswitching skills in comparison to our other song pick of the day.
Like Oozora to Taiko no Odori, this song is featured in City Connection's Baby Castella mini Taiko album; hell, the two tracks are even listed next to each other in track order!
