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Album Information Reviewer Rank
Einhänder OST
Published by: DigiCube
Release Date: December 21st 1997

Composed by: Kenichiro Fukui

1 Disc, 29 Tracks
Catalog: SSCX-10015
100

Reviewed by: Ersatz Sobriquet

One of the greatest Techno soundtracks, ever.

When you think of Square and their music, you usually think about classical pieces. A light flute rolling off a grassy hill as a child relaxes in the crisp, summer air. The powerful trumpet blast as the enemy storms into town, destroying everything in its path. Somber, sweet piano keys played in the backdrop of a touching scene. These are the sounds that usually saturate a Square soundtrack. Not synths layered over synths ripping through an intensive drumbeat. But, that's what you get when listening to the Einhänder Soundtrack.

A beautiful piece of Techno wonder that still hasn't been reached in other Techno ventures, whether it be video game inspired music or "Official" store brought albums. A man by the name Kenichiro Fukui did tracks 22-29, that I know. Whether it was he who composed the whole album or not, I'm not certain of. Though it's very likely he did, and for reviewing purposes, let's assume he did.

This soundtrack is one of those rare albums that accompanies the game perfectly or stands tall on its own. Some outstanding tracks that are featured on this soundtrack include Factory, Madness, Dawn, Shudder, Chase, Badlands, Machine Beat, Bloody Battle, and Warning.

Factory is one of those powerful Techno imbued tracks that hits you with layered over standard breaks, nice work with the synths and various hits on the electric guitar.

Madness throws you in a bit of a confused organized frenzy as the beat comes in on the somewhat offbeat synth and thrust you into a still jagged melody.

Dawn is one of the softer pieces that use quiet quips of synth notches here and there. The bass line is soft as well and accompanies the main melody nicely.

And Shudder. What a wonderful song. Starts off with the hi-hats being played very rapidly as the main melody begins to pan out and then, it hits you with all it's got. One of the better points of this song has to be the rap displayed at the end. So you can't really hear what he's saying, at least it sounds good.

Such pieces, hit after hit on a soundtrack are very hard to come across, but Kenichiro Fukui does it splendidly. A very solid soundtrack that does this very different game wonders beyond what anyone could ever hope for.

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