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WANDERERS: EL HAZARD TV SERIES SOUNTRACK
"ILLUSION"
Copyright © 1998 AIC / Pioneer LDC, Inc.
PICD-1011A
Available Now(US)
$16.98
—by Mark L. Johnson
| 1. |
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Illusion (English Opening 1) |
4:37 |
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Shane August |
| 2. |
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Reflection |
1:35 |
| 3. |
|
Welcome to El-Hazard |
1:22 |
| 4. |
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Dangerous Journeys |
1:44 |
| 5. |
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Heat & Lethargy |
1:27 |
| 6. |
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Jinnai the Ruler |
1:17 |
| 7. |
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Absurdities of Life |
1:10 |
| 8. |
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Celebration |
1:18 |
| 9. |
|
Clever (English Ending) |
4:01 |
|
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Melissa Fahn |
| 10. |
|
Preview (extended version) |
1:31 |
| 11. |
|
Overflowing (English Opening 2) |
4:26 |
|
|
Shane August |
| 12. |
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Roshtaria |
2:32 |
| 13. |
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Marketplace |
1:11 |
| 14. |
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Pending Chaos |
1:16 |
| 15. |
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Into the Wild |
1:17 |
| 16. |
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Time Heals All Wounds |
1:39 |
| 17. |
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Pace of Knowledge |
1:56 |
| 18. |
|
Bugrom Workers |
1:53 |
| 19. |
|
Hive Activity |
1:39 |
| 20. |
|
Days End |
1:32 |
| 21. |
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'bukiyou ja nakya koi wa dekinai' (I'm Clumsy at Falling in Love) (Japanese Ending) |
4:00 |
|
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Etsuko Kozakura,Kikuko Inoue,Rio Natsuki |
| 22. |
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Abduction |
1:47 |
| 23. |
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'atsui kimochi' (Passionate Feelings) (Japanese Opening 2) |
4:27 |
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One Step Communicate |
| 24. |
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Fanfare |
2:29 |
| 25. |
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Elemental Games |
2:35 |
| 26. |
|
Once Upon a Time |
3:02 |
| 27. |
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Tempest |
2:58 |
| 28. |
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Catch the Eye-Catch |
2:22 |
| 29. |
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Edge of Darkness |
2:37 |
| 30. |
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Sentiment |
1:51 |
| 31. |
|
Illusion (Japanese Opening 1) |
4:33 |
|
|
INVOICE |
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As Pioneer continues to feed its growing anime fanbase
in North America, Pioneer's P-ANIME line of products
expand once more with a discounted domestic release of
the EL-HAZARD TV Soundtrack.
The main focus of this CD is the
opening and ending vocals (both English and Japanese versions) and the
BGM. There are no image songs or other bonuses, but
for background music this CD is filled to
capacity.
Beginning with the vocals, the music is
quite good. The Japanese originals are very catchy
J-Pop songs with the male vocal groups INVOICE and One
Step Communicate. And the ending song is standard
seiyuu cuteness with the tune sung by EL
HAZARD voice actresses.
Both English version opening songs are sung
by Shane August, and do a good job in emulating the
original Japanese versions. The ending theme "Clever"
sung by Melissa Fahn is also appropriate, though it
lacks the backup harmony support. For all these
versions the instrumentation is slightly more mellow
and the lyrics clumsy in some spots, but they are
still quite listenable.
The background music is a wide variety of
synthesized tracks. These are not as symphonic or
epic as the original OVA tracks, but some of the songs
still show that Arabian influence. They also tend to
be more lively and modern. The tracks are easy to
listen to, but many of the pieces blend into each
other without strong differences.
My favorite background music tracks were
hard to pick out. "Welcome to El-Hazard," a light
song with a wide variety of percussion type
instruments was quite catchy, and "Dangerous Journeys"
was just a nice variation on this theme. "Jinnai the
Ruler" was slow, dark and omnious, while "Bugrom
Workers" and "Hive Workers" have a fast modern beat.
"Marketplace" has a true Arabian feel, while "Into the
Wild" has a heavy African influence. And the extended
preview music is perhaps the best of them all with a
cool beat and mood.
The packaging of note has certainly improved
over intital Pioneer releases. The CD comes in a real
jewelcase and is filled with high quality cel artwork
and song lyrics in English and Japanese (romanji).
The only negative on this part is that the track
listing is very hard to read.
Overall, general CD advice is to watch the
show, then buy the soundtrack if you like the music.
This CD is no exception as the tracks will probably
only mean something to fans who have seen the TV
series. It is different enough from the original
EL HAZARD OVA background music to
not guarantee a liking. However, for fans of the
television series looking for a particular piece of
music (especially for the rather good opening themes),
this CD should be exactly what you are
looking for.  |
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