What got me into Policenauts? You’d think the answer is found right on the cover. It’s Konami, it’s the Kukeiha Club, and apparently some excellent guitarists. Not to mention, it’s the spiritual successor to Snatcher, another excellent Konami title. With all these reasons to pursue the music, you’d think I would’ve listened to this album years ago.
But I didn’t. What got me into Policenauts was a fan video on YouTube, a Korean guitarist who did an excellent cover of “Just who I needed to see.” I loved it. And I wanted to hear the original recording! I found it, as the opening track to this album. Color me pleased.
“F/N” is the arranged album, not the OST. F/N simply stands for the names of the two arrangers, who also play guitar on the disc (Furukawa, Namiki). Each of the two guitarists takes on tracks individually. Furukawa does 1, 3, 4, 7, and 10, and Namiki is on 2, 5, 6, 8, and 9. You can easily hear the difference in style, but what matters is that they’re both great at what they do.
What style will you find? An eclectic blend of jazz and electronica, smoothed out with the one constant factor: an electric guitar. In recording this album, it’s obvious what was done. A background track was arranged and laid out in full, and once it was complete, either Furukawa or Namiki sat down in a chair and topped the track off with a beautiful guitar part. That’s how it goes for pretty much every song on here, and the results? I think the samples speak for themselves. Unless you can’t stand this sort of jazzy, ambient music in general, you’ll be hooked as quickly as I was.
Track for track, minute for minute, this album is one of the most worthwhile things Konami has released. It’s a rare item to come by, but my recommendation is to seek it out.
