Review: THE WORLD

Seems I´m again the first one to get Hora´s CD...he seems to like me . It has 10 tracks:
DEFAME HUMANITY
DISTORTED WORLD (!)
KILLING CULTURE
SENSUAL MADNESS (!)
INNER ELEMENTS
HEAVENZ
THE WORLD (!)
MODULATE GOD -Deep Mix- (!)
SPELLBOUND (!)
INDWELL

Defame humanity and Indwell are a little bit chaotic, can be regarded as intro and outro...they both feature chaotic voices in the background, INDWELL is more calm. There are only two tracks with vocals on them: KILLING CULTURE and MODULATE GOD. Rest is instrumental. I´ve marked my personal highlights with (!). The whole CD doesn´t sound really Schwarz Steinesque any more, now you really can feel the influence of videogames...especially SENSUAL MADNESS reminds me of the lava caves in Metroid Prime. The MODULATE GOD remix is rally great! It´s more calm now...well, just wait and listen to it! Only one negative point: as always, too short. 32 min. not more. Nevertheless great. I somehow miss the female vocals.

@ admins: if this isn´t worth an own topic, please move it.

EDIT: SPEELBOUND again has a touch of the Current-theme. not as strong as in INNER UNIVERSE, but still a touch of it.

We've had a couple people (including myself) post reviews in the other THE WORLD thread, but I think it's a good idea to start a new one.

I won't repeat myself completely, but my favorites were KILLING CULTURE, DISTORTED WORLD, THE WORLD, and maybe SPELLBOUND. I didn't like the MODULATE GOD remix much, though the guitars were improved.

And I agree with the others who have pointed out that Hora's breaking free of the Schwarz mold and establishing his own style.

Somehow I miss the female vocalist from his 1st album. But there's no doubt, it's a great album. It sounds a little like Metroid Prime, indeed.

Kageryu wrote:

But there's no doubt, it's a great album.

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I don't think I'd go that far. A lot of the tracks were forgettable. I could have done just fine without SENSUAL MADNESS, INNER ELEMENTS, HEAVENZ, and MODULATE GOD, at least. This album could have been much tighter as another 5-track mini-album.

I think it's interesting how he's sort of moving in the same direction away from Schwarz Stein as in Inner Universe except moreso...my favorite songs are probably...Inner Elements, Modulate God remix and Indwell ^^ I do miss the more "feminine" feeling of Inner Universe but maybe he wanted to be manly. I didn't realize before how girly the lyrics to Inner Universe and Frozen Past were.

Anyway I really like it. I feel like it should be described with more fancy musical terms but I don't know any so I'll just leave it at that *lol*

I think Inner Elements would have sounded good with an ex 0513 vocal. Frozen past always reminded me of the ice level in metroid prime three.

Man I can't stop listening to killing culture and sensual madness.

Excuse me...
...but did I understand correctly that Hora does the vocals
in these two songs, by himself?

I'm just curious because I'm not able to
order the cd...so I'll probably never hear it...

That's right, Hora's the only vocalist this time around.

Is Hora still like RAHRAHBLARGH? If so, then awesome. If not, then cool.

Btw, Flowers, what does your sig say? >>;

Miz wrote:

Is Hora still like RAHRAHBLARGH? If so, then awesome. If not, then cool.

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Pretty much. I don't think he has any other style of singing

BTW everyone should go vote in my THE WORLD sales poll in the polls forum o-o/

flowersofnight wrote:

We've had a couple people (including myself) post reviews in the other THE WORLD thread

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Seems, I didn´t read that far back...now I see myself. Sorry .
In these posts everyone´s saying that this is mostly "generic techno". I have little idea of genres you see, so, what´s that?

Generic techno... think of artists such as Darude, Robert Miles, Ian Van Dahl, Daft Punk, etc. Something that is composed entirely (or almost entirely) of synths, and has a steady pattern in the music. Like how Brittney Spears is generic pop, and Nickelback is generic rock.

Or something like that. To me, it seems like pigeonholing the music, really.

Reposting from locked thread (as directed by Flowers),

I finally heard THE WORLD since a friend of mine got it too and I must say I am beyond disappointed. I might have Faith sell mine to someone else. It's certainly not worth the money if you ask me. x___X

All I can really say about it is that it's pretty generic and uneventful. Very basic techno. KILLING CULTURE is by far the best song on the CD. There's really no way around that one. It'd do good in a club if you didn't want to pay attention to what you're listening to and just dance.. but other than that I'm pretty sad about how it turned out.

Kazuo wrote:

KILLING CULTURE is by far the best song on the CD. There's really no way around that one.

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Agreed I like a good rap when it comes from unexpected places
Seems to me that about half the album was filler techno though. Like... it's just "Here is more music written by Hora". Which is fine as far as that goes.
I did like THE WORLD though with the ascending harmonics in the background, etc. And DISTORTED WORLD was the best "Hora techno" offering - he hit the nail on the head with track 2, no need to keep belaboring the point. DISTORTED WORLD had moxie.

Here's how I would have put the album together if I were Hora's (imaginary) producer:

DEFAME HUMANITY
DISTORTED WORLD
KILLING CULTURE
THE WORLD
SPELLBOUND
INDWELL
Secret track: MODULATE GOD -Deep Mix-

I wouldn't say the album is really a "disappointment"... the good parts were good, but it left me wanting more substance.

Kazuo wrote:

KILLING CULTURE is by far the best song on the CD.

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To be honest, this is the track I like most less. I really like it...I just wish he´d sing a bit more...5 tracks instead of 2 would be totally enough. Just a few songs more...but maybe he can´t sing melodic lyrics....then he should have Ms. Experiment do the vocals again.

THEN: the sneakers
NOW: the rap and the disc scratching in "KILLING CULTURE"

NEXT: an techno/rap album about hos, weed, and life on the street?

J/K

Well . . . I'm not disappointed with this album, but it wasn't what I expected. I figured there would be "more" to the new songs. I agree with Flower's version of what the CD layout should have been like. The other tracks are just . . . Ok. He needs to bring back that boring Experiment 05093412-34 . . . I actually missed bland/generic voice.

Ah, what I am disappointed is that he spent Heavens with a Z . . . (WHY HORA WHY!!???)

*cough cough* he needs to bring back tEH KaYa! *cough cough*

I just listened to the CD, and I guess I have a lot to say...but I won't say all of it because I doubt anyone's interested and I don't want to (laughs). Here's my useless review:

When I got the package, the first thing I did was open it and sniff the CD's, just to see if they had some sort of "Hora-ness" to them. They smelled like mushrooms.

I know a lot of people are saying this track and that track could have been cut out, but the only ones I felt could be left out in terms of CD flow were "Defame Humanity" (1) and "Distorted World" (2). I personally felt the rest of the songs belonged where they were and couldn't be left out without taking away from the impact of the CD. As far as individual songs...

1) Defame Humanity - I like the way the clips are put together rythmically a lot. Like, it's not really a song, but it's music, and as for being music, it is Good.

2) Distorted World - I bet Hora's heard "Tranceport." I have a hard time placing it within the rest of the CD, although I like it; I've been falling asleep to Oakenfold for the past few weeks after all.

3) Sounds like a club remix version of BIO GENESIS.

4) Sensual Madness - The synthesizer here stood out too much, and it thus sounded somewhat unbalanced and crudely done. I'd like to hear a remix at some point. Gamer trance music-ish XD

5) Inner Elements - Personal trauma, but it reminds me of walking the streets of Shinjuku at night sometime around last Christmas/New Years. I have this tendency to kind of zone out while I'm walking and ponder my existence, kind of take things in, etc. That night I was feeling really depressed and thinking about how miserable life was, how I was never going to be anything, how I'd made a lot of bad choices and my dreams were impossible, how I wish everything would EXPLODE *lol* when I got one of those moments of self-awareness...you know, the kind where you realize, "hey, I'm alive, and I'm okay!"
To me, this song is reliving that moment.
But as far as the technical elements go, I feel it ends too soon to be completely effective.
It has the same feeling as "Orasaito Eve", oddly enough...

6) Sounds like a pop song. Dunno. It's okay. Only a minute or so though, so...For something that short I'm suprised he didn't use an echo-out/flanger. I think "Heavenz" is a great name for it.

7) Angry and more of what I expected.

Modulate God - The original sounded angry too to me, but this one sounds toned down and his voice is almost lost amongst everything else. I don't think the melody really fits the song anymore and would have liked something new, and would have perferred more distortion and de-naturalization of the voice.

9) I've heard a song EXTREMELY like this one before, but I can't remember what it was or where I found it. If anyone knows, please let me know...?
It might have been one of those happy songs I found when I was looking up obscure gamer music. Along with the Bisquit song. Either that or it was in one of those Doraemon flashes I love but no one else'll watch~ ^^

10) This song's good to end the album on I think.

Well...that's it. Take from it what you please I guess, and I hope it convinces those who didn't order the CD earlier that you were really dumb and you're missing out on something great

(nah, just kidding)

faith wrote:

9) I've heard a song EXTREMELY like this one before, but I can't remember what it was or where I found it. If anyone knows, please let me know...?

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Maybe you think of Current? Like INNER UNIVERSE, it has the same main theme. I guess Hora liked this one a lot

...Actually, I mean, like the main melody and everything...and I found it anyway

*lol* Ganbare~!

If there is a connection, Hora is indeed a top rate gamer nerd.

Akito wrote:

Ah, what I am disappointed is that he spent Heavens with a Z . . . (WHY HORA WHY!!???)

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Because anything spelled with a Z at the end mean's it's cool and extreme! (j/k j/k but that is a general observation with anything that's modern for pre teens like Trollz and Bratz and crap like that XD )

I quite like the CD
Not what I was expecting but still, I like it alot. INNER ELEMENTS is one of my fav tracks on it.

I still can't get over the Mr. infront of my name on the envelope though
Koodos for Hora on spelling my first and last name correct though =P