Copied from my post at Gamingforce:

Anyway, I received my copy of Alphabet Planet today and... I'm not exactly impressed. :/

I honestly barely made it through the first disc (and actually had to skip most of the earsplitting "Uriah Heep", track 9); it's almost entirely made up of sugary sweet "town"-ish themes, which I don't mind in small doses or when they're done well, but this just felt like getting hammered with 17 tracks of brainless gee-whiz happiness. Clearly Mr. Kikuta is at a place in his life where he's feeling really good about things, and that's great, but I wish he'd dial it down a notch when he steps over to the keyboard. Coaster.

The second disc thankfully does steer away from Happy Happy Land a little, but I'm still not hearing anything particularly memorable or impressive here. This frustrates me, because I felt like Kikuta's style had really evolved and matured by the time Soukaigi and Koudelka came around, but this just feels like a huge step backwards for him.

I was willing to excuse some of Lost Files' unevenness, because it was made clear to us that that was just Kikuta sweeping up whatever was left on the cutting room floor. But Alphabet Planet is supposed to be new, fresh work? Nope. Doesn't cut it. I'll listen to Lost Files ten times (and Soukaigi fifty) before I come back to Alphabet Planet again.

I downloaded a rip of Alphabet Planet today to check out before buying, and I'm really glad I did; it saved me a few bucks. I agree with Vaeran on pretty much all accounts. Disc 1 is way (way way) too happy and "sugary sweet" for me, and Disc 2 has a lot of tracks that sound the same (it sounds like tracks 2-5 all have almost the same drum beat from the get-go). There were some cool tracks on D2, but nothing that would make me want to pick this album up at all. Like Lost Files, I'm going to file this one under D for Disappointment.

Well, Alphabet Planet is set for a release date of 08/30/2007, for those that don't already know.

VGM WORLD: http://www.vgmworld.com/catalog/index.p … m_num=1259

Anyone interested in hooking me up with some MP3s?

Bernhardt, check your forum e-mail.

I'm tempted to import this but it sounds rather mediocre so far. Any site out there have few seconds of samples? Its been years since I imported I would rather get AAA product.

Don't know about any of you (actually I do), but I find this to be pretty peppy and enduring; that should be expected, I don't think Kikuta was ever an emo composer. Know what? Think I want my copy of Lost Files back, at that!

I'm getting a lot of play out of this soundtrack, especially 4℃, T, 2nd Variety, and Zeal.  Considering it's a limited edition fan project produced for an anime convention, seems to me there's some good stuff in Alphabet.

What exactly do you mean by "fan project"?

As far as I know, Alphabet Planet isn't attached to a game or anime product, so my impression is that fans of Kikuta's music are the ones supporting the sales of this album.  "Project for fans" would be a better way to put it. 

I'd consider myself a fan of Kikuta's music and I'm liking how the album resonates with earlier work like Seiken Densestu 2 & 3.  While it doesn't have incredible production values, like Bernhardt I think a lot of these tracks will be enduring. 

I'm also impressed by the tenacity it takes for a musician to create an independent label and see the project through the way he has.  He's put out, what, five discs on Norstrilia?  And I believe Concerto should make six.  If what shows up when you visit Angel's Fear is any indication, there appears to be more in the works.

Today Kahori Ezaki posted a new interview with Hiroki Kikuta to CocoeBiz.

http://www.cocoebiz.com/report/kikuta_i … 007_en.htm

My review is up at 8Bit Hero.  Any comments or criticism would be appreciated.

http://www.8bithero.co.uk/2007/10/01/hi … et-planet/