The time where melody is truly present is in the intro, giving it a bit of a Spanish flair with its brass sounds, and with its reprisal later in the track. There is a huge focus on heavy beats and distortion with little focus on melody. Whether the track title is a play on "It's not a tumor!" from Kindergarten Cop or foreshadows the fact that "It's not a tune-a," is up for debate, but the end result is sure to split opinions. However, many may find this tune not to their liking, especially if they aren't fans of hard techno. Lastly, "IT'S NOT A TUNA," rounds out the list with another very intriguing fusion. It's one of my favorite contributions from Tohyama and the long edit remixes the theme a bit and is also a treat.
In addition, he incorporates some bell chimes and some exotic chanting, reminiscent of Indonesia, for which this stage is based. It's an extremely energetic piece featuring the fast tempo of psytrance, some slick beats, and some great synthesizer lead notes. "Abyss of Time" follows in the footsteps of "Karma" from Tekken 6. It doesn't feature much melodic development, but definitely works for something to use in battle.Īnother more contemporary style that Tohyama uses is psytrance, having used it in past Tekken games as well as in his solo album Samurai Damacy under his AJURIKA moniker.
One of the artist's weaker contributions is "The Strongest Iron Arena -Silver Mix-," an arrangement of the music featured in Tekken 4, though I still think it's an improvement over the original it sounds much cleaner and fuses the original's rock focus with electronic elements to yield a thicker musical texture. Surprisingly, the dubstep beats and distortion really work well with the romantic strings work that is introduced in the B section, giving the piece an edgy, yet delicate, atmosphere. It's very intriguing fusion of the increasingly popular dubstep style and classically inspired orchestra. One of the most striking contributions by Tohyama is "Tekstep Fountain," used when fighting with the Fontana di Trevi as a backdrop. There's also a long edit of this theme on the second disc that is heavier in sound and features more elaborations that would work wonders in a club. It's energetic and really gets you ready to fight! The character select theme, "Aim to Win," is equally beat-heavy and there is some distorted vocoder thrown into the mix, which foreshadows some of the common bonds for many of the tracks on the soundtrack. It combines a wonderful piano and synth melody with a fantastic trance backing. "Tekken Tag Tournament Piano Intro -Massive Mix-" is a remix of the intro from Tekken Tag Tournament soundtrack. Lead composer Akitaka Tohyama offers a plethora of styles on this release. Compared to the last major Tekken title, Tekken 6, the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 soundtrack definitely boasts a more contemporary sound combining a variety of styles, including styles that have recently become much more popular in the world of electronic dance music. In addition, Taku Inoue and Go Shiina also offer contributions. Most of the composers for the first game return to reprise their roles, with the exception of Yu Miyake, with Akira Tohyama serving a the sound director and lead composer.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the latest in the famous fighting series created by Namco Bandai, and is the long-awaited follow-up to the original tag battle game.