I had pegged Yuki Sugiura (and, by extension, the band Heinrich von Ofterdingen) as having a distinct sound and specialized style. I had best not try to narrowly scope people into specific musical categories anymore.
The goth/punk rock sounds of Heinrich von Ofterdingen are, generally, not to be found on the Death Connection soundtrack. Death Connection is a graphic adventure title, import-only, with a visual style that suggests a mix of rural (country) sounds with sleek, leather (jazz) aesthetic. So it’s no surprise that, musically, what we get is something akin to Cowboy Bebop. Country Western meets Jazz.
The title track is a recorded instrumental piece that has that awesome “spaghetti Western” sound to it. The guitar part is awesome. It’s also a far cry from previous soundtracks, like Spectral Gene, which were hard industrial rock. The next track, a vocal piece called “Breakthrough,” has a distinct dance jazz sound to it. The big band-style horns are a great addition, and having male and female vocalists singing one octave apart sounds really hip in this context.
After these two tracks, much of what you’ll hear is MIDI (sequenced) music. Some of it sounds fairly real, but there are others that you wouldn’t have been surprised to hear in an adventure/RPG 8 to 10 years ago. Outside of the character themes early on the disc, there isn’t a lot that stands out, or could be described as “memorable,” for the OST. It becomes functional for the most part.
A few more vocal tracks appear on the disc. A strange one that I fell in love with was the fully English Christmas song (track 30). Intentionally tongue-in-cheek, sentimental lyrics about Christmas-time from a Japanese person’s perspective? I’ve never before had such a strange cultural re-education than when I heard this song. Christmas music in Japanese video games always weird me out, but this one does so to the tenth power. Bravo, Sugiura-san.
Overall, L2 ~Love x Loop~ remains my favorite soundtrack from Sugiura. But I think Death Connection shows his versatility. Fans of obscure game music, of graphic adventure soundtracks, and of Heinrich von Ofterdingen will want to check this out.
