Pumped for PAX Spotlight: The Protomen and Anamanaguchi

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In this installment, I'll be taking a look at two of the musical acts performing at PAX East. They're two acts that I've never personally heard, which is one of the reason I chose them, I know what Frontalot sounds like, but these guys? Not so much.

The Protomen - Self-Titled:
The self-titled debut of The Protomen is a concept album of sorts, telling the story of Protoman's creation, rise and fall. It has a very "rock opera" feeling to it, and you could easily see it being produced as such. That is, if you could find an audience for a Megaman themed rock opera.

The album starts out with a nice little guitar melody, with a scratchy record effect on the recording. For about 20 seconds, you can almost convince yourself you're listening to an old timey guitar picker vinyl, then the voiceover comes on, the mood isn't broken, but he does start
talking about robots.

"No one who would do anything, No one who would oppose the robots, no one who would challenge their power... or so Dr. Wiley believed."

And we know where we stand, and we have an idea of where we're going.

Distorted synth guitar and drum sounds blare as the opening track "Hope Rides Alone" reveals the origins of the Protoman. Its not bad, but its not great, if it wasn't deeply rooted in geekiness, it wouldn't be that memorable. The strange melodic singing doesn't do much to help it either,
its like they're trying to be the geek(ier) version of Muse, but the vocalist isn't nearly as skilled.

After an entirely forgetable second track (an instrumental which consists of midi bagpipes or something) we get to what in my opinion is the best track of the album "Unrest in The House of Light" which has a cool old west vibe to it, lone gunman sort of thing. Somehow Megaman being created and told that his purpose is to go forth into a losing battle lends itself very well to western motif. There's also no hint of that wailing vocal element that was so offputting in the first track

But don't fret, it returns in the 4th track, and its bleh. The 5th track "Vengeance" is pretty badass in content, telling the story of Megaman basically blowing the shit of everything that gets in his way, but the high pitch wailing is very present, and thus once again detracts from an otherwise enjoyable track.

"The Stand (Man or Machine)" has a dramatic piano intro, that builds to a very foreboding 8-bit tune, and keeps that overdramatic feeling the whole way through. This works well since we know this is about Megaman vs. Protoman, and the epic 8-bit battle that should almost definitely be playing in our minds gives the track a cheesy dramatic feeling, you can just see them bouncing around, Megabuster to Megabuster. Good times.

The 7th track goes out of its way to be epic, with a full chorus behind it, thunder crashes, and a 2 minute outro. There's a couple of well placed original Megaman 8-bit sounds that helps add to the atmosphere of the track. As the track closes out, the record scratching from the first track
returns as we hear wind blowing, after about a minute of that, we are treated to the final and probably most "8-bit" sounding track of the album. "Due Vendetta" names off some classic Megaman characters with a decent riff and loose distorted drums. Closing off witha preditable "Game Over".

But it isn't really over, is it? Last year they brought out their second album "Act II: The Father of Death"... and while I haven't had a chance to hear it, I've heard it is more of the same, which is a good and bad thing. If they drop the high pitched wails, or the singer has taken some
vocal training to get them more in tune, I think they'd be onto something a little more polished and enjoyable. The band really seemed to be at its best when they were experimenting with styles that weren't their own.

Apparently the band never breaks character and always performs in costume, known only by their codenames (which are somewhat awesome like: Turbo Lover and K.I.L.R.O.Y). I have never seen them live, but I assume they must perform at least one of their albums in entirety. If they didn't, the songs would be out of place. I'd also bet that if they do play full albums, they would play their second. Given that there are four acts sharing the stage though, they might play an abridged version? Something to consider.

Considering the overall "epic" feeling of the album, and that they perform in costume and don't break character, I think the PAX show should be at least entertaining.

Anamanaguchi

I managed to get my hands on what I believe is both albums from these guys, Dawn Metropolis and Power Supply. This stuff is straight up
chiptune, supposedly using NES and original Gameboy soundboards in the synth stuff... I don't have a perfect ear for this sort of thing, but it
does certainly sound legit (there's been several allegations against a lot of chiptune bands claiming to have old video game soundboards in their setups but turning out to be bogus). So more power to these guys right? Right. Another cool thing is that they back up the straight chiptune with real instruments, giving a much fuller sound over a lot of their contemporaries.

Power Supply came out first, so that's the first one I'll check out. Its hard not to get instantly nostalgic listening to this album. Within about 10 seconds I was 8 years old again, playing the first level of a brand new video game. Upbeat and postive sounding beeps and blips come
together in a pretty solid composition, it's all original stuff, but stands up against the best tracks that ever came out of the 8 bit era. The other cool part is that these tracks are not designed to be looped, so they get to play around a little more with composition. Maybe it's because
I just listened to the Protomen disk, but I couldn't help but think of Megaman games while listening to this disc. Its got that Megaman vibe.

It takes a little bit of listening to hear the "real" instruments, but when you do you realize that their presence really fills out the sound. There isn't much of a point in reviewing track by track, if you like one, you'll like them all. If you like 8-bit NES music, you'll like this stuff.

The whole album goes out of its way to be super upbeat and positive, but I'll admit that after one or two tracks it just sort of blended into the background, still very enjoyable, but discerning one track from the next became more or less impossible. Not necessarily a bad thing, just an
observation. I can see myself giving this some future listens while I'm at work, plugging away at the keyboard was tons of fun and the time went by in a hurry.

I was expecting more of the same when I put on Dawn Metropolis... and that's what I got. There's only about 2 years between the release dates of the two albums, so I guess you really can't expect much of an evolution. So if you're expecting anything different, don't.

That being said, they do seem to get a little "tighter" on the second outing, willing to mix it up a little more than they did on the first. We're not talking about reinventing the wheel or anything, but Dawn Metropolis sounds a little more like something you could actually dance
to, as opposed to Power Supply's "head bobbing" tunes.

Throughout the two albums, they seem a little hellbent on keeping all their music "positive", the first moments of a track on Dawn Metropolis called "Danger Mountain" gives indication that the track is going to be a little darker, but a few seconds it gets pretty pumped up and happy sounding. It might be cool to see what these guys could come up with if they allowed to make something that wasn't super upbeat. One way or the other, I'd like to see how it all comes together live.