Dance the night away with Move’s Grid
March 17, 2007
by Andrew Martinez
01 GOTHICA (SYMPHONY NO.1)
This is a VERY dramatic opening song. Not only are there elements of baroque and opera, but there’s a gunshot and some futuristic voiceover dialogue. It’s more like a movie opening than the opening to an album. Certainly surprising the first time you hear it.
02 FADED ~Iro Aseta Arubamu~
This track opens with the operatic choir extending from the intro track. In all honesty, it’s a bit awkward of a song opening, which is probably why the intro track was added. The operatic elements may take some getting used to as they don’t tend to mesh naturally with the heavy beats of this track. There’s a lot of slow, hard rock going on here with deep bass and electric guitar. Where it seems to work is when the choir acts as a backdrop for Motsu’s rapping in the chorus. For fans of Motsu, although he doesn’t sing in this one, he is certainly featured here. The track is great for those who like a pretty straight-forward hiphop song with a little rock twist, but pop fans will most likely be turned off a bit by this one.
03 ANGEL EYES
This is a much more classic song. It is a beautiful ballad performance by Yuri with a fairly disco feel to the instrumentals. It’s an interesting mix of the emotion of a ballad with the beats and rhythms of a dance song. Of course, this isn’t exactly new to Move, but it is part of what sets them apart from others. Fans of the band will probably be reminded of Spring Breeze, Weeds, or even See You, My Best Love from previous albums. The song’s placement towards the opening of the album seems to signify a re-incorporation of some of the electronic and dance elements that Move became known for, but were foregone on the previous two albums in favor of a concentration on rock.
04 DISCO TIME
This is a very fast and fun song. Moreover, it is very likely the catchiest of the four songs released as a single immediately prior to GRID’s release. Again, like the music from Boulder, there are a lot of elements of rock here, mostly in the backbeats and overall tempo. However, it’s all overlaid with a dance tune and catchy, poppy melodies. The placement of the song right after Angel Eyes goes a long way to keeping continuity here as both, obviously, have a very disco nature. Yuri’s voice is very dynamic in this track as she moves between foreground, melody, and bridge accompaniment. You get to hear a lot of different aspects of her voice that aren’t always apparent on every Move track. Overall, what you get then is a fast-paced, energetic track that keeps your attention through its various movements.
05 WHITE FOX
This track is a bit out of place here, as it cuts the tempo and rhythm of the previous two songs. It is a slow and plodding ballad, and not one with any particularly interesting features. After listening to the album in its entirety, this is the low point and the album may have benefited by simply not including this song. There is some nice piano work in the background, and Yuri does deliver a nice performance, but it does not really compare to Angel Eyes and the song is more difficult to catch onto and get lost in. Musically, this song is pretty much carried by its bassbeat, with Kimura’s piano and some strings joining in mostly at the chorus. This is what gives it the plodding feel and makes it a bit awkward to listen to.
06 THIS IS MY HEARTACHE
This Is My Heartache is a bit similar in tempo to White Fox, though it has a good deal more of electronic instrumentals in it to carry the track along rather than relying only on the bassline. The song has elements of a ballad again, though it is more like the classic Move song in structure, with melodies by Yuri followed by musically offset rapping from Motsu. Yuri sings a little bit on the low side of her vocal range here, giving a little more emotion to the sound of the track and setting it apart from the previous song.
07 NAMIDA 3000
At this point, the album returns to being very upbeat with the very driving Namida 3000. Trust me; this song is great to run to if you’re a runner. The track sounds very similar to the work featured on Boulder with its heavy mix of rock and electronica. It’s actually pretty similar to Noizy Tribe, but with a more serious mood and a more danceable chorus. It’s interesting to hear the instrumentals segue between rock-club/electronica and rock-disco, as the stanzas give way to the chorus. The bridge in particular in this song is awesome, with a very emotion-ridden melody from Yuri, bringing a nice almost closure to the song.
08 MISHA (SKIT)
This is an instrumental track that pretty much sounds like it came straight from a 16-bit system. If you’ve ever played Super Mario RPG, you would swear this came straight from the closing song during the parade after beating the game. At least, that’s what it reminded me of. There’s a bit of a marching rhythm in it, but the overall cutesy factor of the 16-bit sound just makes it a fun and silly song to listen to.
09 FREAKY PLANET
Freaky Planet is possibly the most widely-known track from the album, as it was the center of attention in Sony’s AcidPlanet remix contest, out of which came one of the later remix tracks on this album. There is a strong rock element to this track, but it is one of the better mixings of the two styles that is showcased on the album. Interestingly, Motsu carries the vocals for much of this track, which matches well with the heavier beats here. The song is very dynamic and varied with small bits of various synth sounds playing in and out, short drum beats in various pitches, and lots of vox play intermingled with natural voice. The song really is constantly changing, which is part of what gives it its great energy and danceability.
10 GIRL (YOU WANNA MOVE)
This track is a very nice, refreshing change in style for the album. It keeps up the tempo of the previous tracks, but drops the rock and electronica for straight-up danceable hip-hop. There’s a bit of an Arabian beat here that helps make this one of those songs that gets you of your seat. Yuri’s performance is extremely catchy and leads the track nicely. This is a bass and percussion heavy track, giving it a bit of dramatic feel to add up the attitude of the hip-hop dance rhythm.
11 DISINFECTED GENERATION
This is the first all-out rock track on the album, with a sound that is fairly close to some punk rock. There are little bits of electronica every now and then in this tack, but they only really serve to accentuate the movements in the track. The lyrics of the song are actually pretty interesting, especially towards the chorus and the bridges. Like all of the songs since the break at the instrumental Misha, this one is very high-energy and fast-paced. This carries through to Raimei, giving the second half of the album a nice, cohesive feel.
12 RAIMEI –OUT OF KONTROL-
Again, this song is a mix of heavy rock with heavy electronica elements. And like Disinfected Generation, the rhythm is more reminiscent of a punk track, giving a lot of energy to this track. The chorus is pretty fun in this track as it is a calling back-and-forth between Motsu and Yuri for much of it. The only drawback of this song is that the rhythm is literally the same throughout the entire song. There are not many separable movements in the rhythm; instead, the lyrics are all that indicate the various portions of the song. It’s a great follow-up to Disinfected Generation to keep the energy going for a little longer, but not quite as good as the previous track.
13 SAIL AWAY
The original portion of the album closes with a trance track. There is absolutely no rock or disco to be found here, which is interesting given the rest of the album’s overarching style of mixing those two styles. The track starts out with some soundbytes from Yuri and a bit of tribal and choir chanting eventually giving way to the overall melody of the song and Yuri delivering the first stanza. Although this is stylistically a trance track, it too is fairly high in energy, especially as the main portion of the chorus gives way to its latter half with a pick-up in tempo and emotional expression in the vocals. The track is a bit similar to the songs found on Move’s album Synergy, but it has a little darker of an emotional feel to it.
14 FREAKY PLANET –ROSY MIX-
This remix is by Akira Yamaoka, another DJ who has done collaborative work with Kimura recently. This version is much more drum-heavy than the original and features the vox vocals almost exclusively. The intent seems to have been to create a “creepier” version of the original track as there a lot of sound effects in the track that sound like they are out of a ghost movie soundtrack or something similar. It’s an interesting interpretation that has a more blatant emotional expression, though I don’t feel it’s quite as good as the original.
15 GROOVY PLANET –LONDON STOMP MIX-
The closing track of the album is the song which one Sony’s AcidPlanet remix contest. Submitted by a member of the website, the remix was hand-chosen by Move themselves as the best entry in the contest. The track has a bit more of a progressive feel to it, especially in the opening as the various elements that eventually come together in the song are brought together one-by-one. The track is even more danceable than the original, and certainly more so than the other remix. Again, it is more drum and bass-heavy than the original, but it makes for an extremely catchy version of the song. This one is about on par with the original version.
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Grid Review – A Player of Your Drama
March 22, 2007
by Bradley Hall
Grid, Move's first, and only, release of 2006 starts off slow but ends up as one of their most rocking albums to date.
Several songs will be familiar to Move fans as they were featured in single form months before this album's release. The single songs are Angel Eyes, Freaky Planet, Disco Time, and Raimei (Out of Kontrol). They appear here as they did in their respective releases.
Almost all of the songs feature T-Kimura (normally just the maker of “phat beetz”) on vocoder, giving each song a little futuristic robot sound.
Right when the album begins, you're greeted with Gothica (Symphony No. 1), an opening that's half-industrial, and half-orchestral, and half-choral (three halves?) welcoming you to “2006 Move Point Grid.”
Track two, Faded, carries the choir of the last track and creates an amalgamation of musical influence. You have rapping over violins and choir, then rapping over drums, electric guitar, and more choir. In the end, it's a nice effort, but isn't Move's best.
“How many lies are there in your Angel Eyes?” asks the third track. It would not be a Move album if there wasn't at least one straight song in the middle of a pile of Trance, Rock, and Rap. This is very singable and Yuri shines in it. This was the last of the singles released prior to the release of the full album.
And then we move right into Disco Time, my all-time favorite from this album. It's jumpy, it's fresh, it's got a beat, and you can dance to it. All winners in my book, and this song is the embodiment of the Awesome.
White Fox is one of those Move songs that really ended up on the wrong album. It's a ballad in the middle of rocking Trance and Rock. Motsu raps about a Lullaby Forest, Yuri sings about a little boy. This really should have been cut from the album. I'm sorry, that's my opinion. Same goes for the next song, This is My Heartache. It has a nice sound, but doesn't strike me as being a Move song. It just seems forced.
Track seven is Namida 3000. “Namida” is the Japanese word for “Tears.” Move returns to the rocking sound that they started in Deep Calm mixed with a little of that Trance from Synergy. This is an excellent companion to Disco Time, as both are fast and frantic. It really moves you (please kill me if I continue to use the word “move” to describe Move).
Did someone hook up a Super NES up to the synthesizer? Track eight, Misha, sounds as though it belongs in a SNES-era RPG, like Final Fantasy VI or something. That's not saying it's a bad song, it's awesome.
Freaky Planet was one of the first tracks released as a single in the Fall of 2005 and was the first Move track featured on Sony's AcidPlanet website to be remixed. This track is the “original” Move version. It was also the first new track to showcase Move's updated rock sound. It's all here. The Trance bits, TK on vocoder, rockingly awesome guitars.
Girl (You Wanna Move) is the next track and it picks up the Arabic influences that T-Kimura first expirimented with back in 2003 with DECADANCE and combines it with their more current Rock sounds. The result is a track you can move your head and feet to and not feel silly.
Disinfected Generation is a funny name for a song, as it brings to mind images of a group of young people in a hospital being kept away from contamination. The song itself I can only describe as being “dirty rock” as all the guitars have their overdrive switch on. The vocals are raw and gritty and seem to be telling the Disinfected Generation in question to rise up and take over the hospital.
Raimei (Out of Kontrol). Raimei is Japanese for “Thunder”. Raimei was the third of the four singles released in the months before the album's release. Like Freaky Planet and Disco Time before it, this track rocks.
Sail Away sounds as though it belongs on Move's Synergy album. It features a full Trance sound that seems reminicent of half the songs on Synergy, mainly the songs “Let's Rock!” and “Venus in Paradise.” Everything comes together in this track, Motsu's rapping in this song are among the best he's ever delivered, Yuri's singing harmonizes with the music in a way that only her voice can, and T-Kimura once again proves that he is among the best of the best when it comes to Trance.
The most interesting tracks on this album are the last two, the Freaky Planet remixes. Where Akira Yamaoka's iFUTURELIST album had a track that T-Kimura (lead musician of Move) collaborated on, this album has a track that Yamaoka remixed himself. Called “Freaky Planet -rosy mix-” this mix is anything but rosy. At the beginning the track sounds as though it would belong in a Silent Hill game (of which Akira Yamaoka is the producer and musician) it quickly turns into a catchy tune that's quite hummable, that is, as far as industrial drums and percussion goes. It also features a bit more of that synthesized voice that T-Kimura seems to love as of late.
The last track, and last Freaky Planet remix is interesting as it originates in the US. In the Fall of 2006 Sony's AcidPlanet (a website promoting Sony's AcidPro music sequencing software) hosted a remixing contest where the goal was to remix an English language version of Freaky Planet. Unfortunately there aren't many vocals in this mix, dubbed “Groovy Planet – London Stomp Mix-” but it does feature some sick sounds and excellent production values.
In the end, this album is equal parts “totally awesome” and equal parts “close to being awesome” combined, these two parts create a cohesive whole that is better than the sum of its parts.
Mentioned website: www.acidplanet.com
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