Gradius Arrange Album

Hello. I am looking for info on a Gradius arrange album that came out earlier this year called 'Under The Blue Sky'. It has Motoaki Furukawa as the artist and I know he was or (is?) part of Konami Kukeiha Club and was the lead arranger on the classic Salamander Pro Fusion album. Anyone hear this album? Is it similar to Pro Fusion or what? Dieing to know!

Not part of a Kukeiha stuff, it's a solo album. Lots of drum programming too...not as fusiony as the last efforts. Cool solos though...somewhat sounds like some home demos at times, whereas the Pro Fusion stuff sounded more "live"

Anyway, everyone on this board can probably speak to them twice as fast than I could, but quality/ratings wise, in my opinion, this one falls just short of Sound Locomotive...

- Brandonk

>Hello. I am looking for info on a Gradius arrange album that came out earlier this year called 'Under The Blue Sky'. It has Motoaki Furukawa as the artist and I know he was or (is?) part of Konami Kukeiha Club and was the lead arranger on the classic Salamander Pro Fusion album. Anyone hear this album? Is it similar to Pro Fusion or what? Dieing to know!

Not quite a Gradius arrange album...

As Brandon alluded to, it's Furukawa's solo album, which means that while it includes a couple Gradius tracks it's mostly original compositions. I still haven't gotten around to buying my copy yet so I can't give you a personal review, but I've heard nothing but good things about it so far.

Decent, but not great.

I kept waiting for the songs to take off and they never did. They just lacked the necessary emotion and "umph" to make it more than a pedestrian effort.

>Hello. I am looking for info on a Gradius arrange album that came out earlier this year called 'Under The Blue Sky'. It has Motoaki Furukawa as the artist and I know he was or (is?) part of Konami Kukeiha Club and was the lead arranger on the classic Salamander Pro Fusion album. Anyone hear this album? Is it similar to Pro Fusion or what? Dieing to know!

bland

Overall it's an underwhelming solo album (like practically every other vgm solo effort imo). I found two tracks that were nice (For You and the title track), but most of it is kind of boring. And the Gradius arrangements are crap and feel out of place on the album. So if you are looking for Gradius arrangements or a Salamander PF sidekick, dont come here. And if you are looking nice guitar work, definitely don't come here.

~yvk

All of the above agreed...

All the opinions above sum it up real well; bland, never took off, dry. This album disappointed me as a colossal Motoaki Furukawa fan probably because of the lack of orchestra. Don't get me wrong, I like Furukawa, but he really should've gone creative and inventive with it like he did with the very melodius Sound Locomotive.