[Categories: Music]
Be Human OST
“There’s no danger, we’re just killing time again why they order up new parts…”
This post’s song quote is from a modern concept album which, coincidentally, is I suppose a fair way of describing Be Human, the GitS SAC soundtrack album that revolves around the idea of, well, ‘being human’. The tachikomas of the SAC, like Ray Kurzweil who indirectly inspired the lyrics above, were prone to discussing what it means to be human in a world of computers and AI - a recurring theme of the series that forms the concept of this record. Basically, it’s a concept album that’s dedicated to the endearing little ‘think tanks’ - if it hadn’t been penned by Ms Kanno I probably would have given it a go on that reason alone.
The cover art, that of a tachikoma taking to the microphone, is reflected in the rest of the inlay booklet that places them in a variety of real life situations (i.e. not art taken from the series) in an photographic style reminiscent of the sleeve art for Pink floyd and The Verve’s early stuff. It means you don’t know what to expect from the album from a musical point of view, beyond the fact that it’s a bit strange.
The title track starts things off nicely as a slow ballad with half-heard background noises behind a wistful vocal in which the performer lists the little things in life that make ‘being human’ so precious and special. It’s pretty deep and heartfelt but has a quirky oddness to it that prevents it being too downbeat. The rocking Trip City on the other hand lands between the psychadelic country-ish rock of the Screaming Trees (due in no small part to Scott Matthew’s vocal style) and the stadium-sized riffs of the Who; it’s an energetic tune that’s a highlight of the record.
Taken as a whole Be Human is Kanno at her most experimental - in terms of style it’s all over the place! Going from soothing ballad to guitar rock and then to pulsatic electronica is a textbook example of ‘eclectic’, although it does make the album a little inconsistent overall. Some songs are too strange or too short to warrant any special mention on their own but others are great examples of why some of us rave over Kanno’s songwriting talents with so much enthusiasm. Some tracks, because of their contrasting styles and influences, shouldn’t be expected to work but somehow do: Bang Bang Banquet sounds like a bossa nova piece recorded on a cheap synth keyboard with its tinny horns section and honky-tonk piano; the dirty techno of Patch Me could probably fill a nightclub dancefloor if only a DJ was gutsy enough to play it.
Fax Me is possibly the weirdest song on the album (which is saying something), beginning as it does in the traditional way of a classical piece arranged for strings; it is in fact either an experiment piece of modern classical or a cheeky joke aimed at the stuffy and formal approach to performing classical. The Mozart-style violins start up just as beeps, pips and all manner of electrical noises play in time with the strings - the idea sounds as inappropriate as someone’s mobile going off during a Mozart recital (which isn’t far off what it sounds like) but because the noises are in time they fit perfectly, as if they’d always been there - it’s a bizarre effect but altogether fascinating and quite addictive!
Good By My Master and Rocko no Doko? are more ’serious’ tunes that, like the title track, convey genuine feeling - the latter changes in mood and tempo during its duration, as if it’s real background music to the search of Rocky, whoever he or she is. Most of the songs have a very electronic and home-recorded feel to them, almost as if a group of Tachikomas got themselves inebriated on natural oil in the studio and decided to record one of their philosophical duscussions before playing around and having fun. In some ways it reminds me of Kanno’s efforts on the second Macross Plus OST, in which she experiments with samples, unusual instrumentation and fusion of disparate styles.
What Can I Say? is quite frankly a bit annoying (imagine a kid singing in a school musical, as the proud mum and dad manage to overlook how damn cloying it is) but the latter part of the record offers some treats to those of us who remember the ‘Tachikomatic Days’ shorts. Pro Bowler Tachikoma and the inevitable concluding track Ciao! (that bleepy cover of a snippet from Scott Joplin’s ‘The Entertainer’ that ended every Tachikomatic Days instalment) send things into Tahikoma comedy territory, and there’s the cutesy Jpop of AI Sentai Tachikomans too, which must have been a lot of fun for the musicians and vocalists to record.
Summary
The vast range of styles and genres is something that has been a Yoko Kanno trademark for years, giving us some of her best work as well as some that is…well, pretty darned strange. Be human is a record to approached with an open mind, purely because you’d miss some real gems if you skipped certain tracks because the sound ‘weird’ or ‘random’. Many are whimsical novelty numbers that make you wonder whether they are making a serious point or not but rest assured it’s bound to have at least something to your taste, no matter how unlikely that may seem!
Tracklisting
- Be Human
- Trip City
- Patch Me
- Tachikoma no Ide (Runaway Tachikoma)
- Osanpo Tachikoma (Tachikoma out for a walk)
- Bang Bang Banquet
- Fax Me
- Rocky wa Doko? (Where’s Rocky?)
- Spotter
- Let’s Oil
- Cream
- Spider Bites
- Good By My Master
- Piece By Ten
- What Can I Say?
- Hi!
- I’m Not Straight
- AI Sentai Tachikomans (AI Combat Team Tachikomans)
- Pro Bowler Tachikoma
- Don’t Sponge Me
- Po’d Pod
- Ciao!
Posted on July 26th, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
Just wanted to make sure this didn’t go uncommented upon. Great review, which goes without saying that I agree with everything you said. Never really thought of it as a concept album, though I guess you CAN look at it that way…
Posted on December 5th, 2007 @ 11:13 pm
Rocky is probably Engrish for “Locky,” a reference to one of the SAC episodes, “Escape From.” Batou’s Tachikoma helps a little girl look for her dog Locky.