Casshern OST (cd 1 )

Searching on amazon.com seems to tell me I might not have 'the original soundtrack' or 'the complete soundtrack' as they call it.. But the cd's I've got definitely belong to the Casshern movie. The review is about the 1st cd. Maybe I'll do the 2nd (instrumental cd) another time.
I've put links down so you can listen to the tracks. Most are youtubes, some are from a Japanese(?) version of myspace. On the latter, after a while a 'you have to login to listen to this' message appears..just ignore it :)

1 Shiina Ringo - Kuki
Listen here
This song has a J-pop(py) sound to it. The typical Japanese-English lyrics exchanging eachother. But where some of the J-pop music sounds too childish for my ears and maybe even 'cheap'this track has more to it. After listening to it a couple of times you'll be whistling along.


2 Mondo Grosso - Like no one's looking
Needs Imeem login
In a couple of words: funky, techno, robotic, industrial track. Don't listen to it while driving...it will make you break the speed limit.


3 Hyde - Masquerade
starts at 37secs
This track has a good rock sound to it, starting of like a track where you know there's soon gonna be a point where it loudens. With 'loudens' I mean the point where you get the feeling it has that aggressive strike point where you want start jumping.
As far as the English part goes, this track is about that nothing is what it seems, it's all a masquerade.


4 Towa Tei - Original Human
Needs Imeem login
I didn't réally like this song. The violin's almost sound false, but on purpose. It does have a funny way of substituting for lyrics by using loose sentences which sound like they are plucked from a phone call or conversation, but only from one guy.
Listen and you'll see what I mean.

5 Acid Man - Suisha
Link is DEAD
It almost has a easy listening jazzy sound to it, but then with a rocky twist.
I don't know what he's singing about, but it sounds dramatic.


6 Shiro Sagisu & Satoshi Tomiie - Pluriel
Ignore the warhammer talk and listen to the track ;)
Strange thing is that I've listened to this soundtrack lots and lots of times but only really found out this track is actually an instrumental.
This track can be divided into bits. An peaceful intro, switching to a kind of Mission Impossible sound (theme), action packed. After a while it switches again to the peaceful part, and back to the MI theme style. The track ends a bit abrubtly.


7 Onitsuka Chihiro - Borderline
Onitsuka Chihiro -Borderline (live)
This is in my opinion one of thé best tracks. Onitsuka has a voice that gives me goosebumps. Like more tracks on this cd, it's part English, part Japanese. The English has quite an accent to it and the pronounciation is not always right. But somehow this is nót a negative part of the song. It just strenghtens the drama this track brings.

8 Back Horn - Requiem
the vid is for batman, but it's the song that counts
A very impressive requiem to Casshern. Right from the start it shakes out of the trance left by 'Borderline' . It's a requiem to battle. Oh and I had this for a ringtone, which startled people.

9 Glay - Mugen no deja vu kara
Needs Imeem loginOne of the first words I wrote down about this track is 'peaceful' after finding the link above I found out I'm not alone. A peaceful almost happy sounding song.


10 Utada Hikaru - Dakera no negai ga kanau koro
Youtube video
Lyrics
It sounds like it's about loss and pain. And after checking the lyrics, that's almost exactly what it's about. Missing someone, longing for that someone but not being able to see eachother ever again.
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I feel bad that my Japanese is not more than being able to count to 100, and the occasional greeting or martial arts term (and curse I learned through Anime). That means a part of the meaning of songs get lost to me, but the English parts and the music itself make up for that. I saw the movie a couple of years ago and ran around torrent sites long enough to find it eventually. If able, I might use the 'listen link' idea more often.

The movie is a strange mix of anime and reality in a fictious world. The soundtrack fits very well with a mix of sometimes dramatic, sometimes action packed and sometimes just plain 'strange' tracks. I guess most of the music on this cd has to be kinda up your alley, but then again I didn't know the music before seeing the movie and instantly got hooked. Seeing the movie gives you an extra feel to the music. So go rent/download/buy it!

Final statement:
Not enough people know this cd, but I know it visits my cd player often.