Overview

Square Enix has been on roll lately with releasing poorly produced singles and random albums showcasing their composing team, or lack thereof. choBIT seems to be Takeharu Ishimoto's alias when arranging some of his tunes with a fusion of chiptune sounds with his signature hip hop beats and rock undertones. choBIT Orchestra Ver. 1.02 focuses on his work from The World Ends With You, and gives yet another vision of what this game could sound like with different arranges and samples.

Body

"Twister -???-" is the first arrange featured here, and it completely transforms the original vision. Using the male vocals from the western version of "Twister" and a somewhat catchy chiptune beat, Ishimoto succeeds in making what was once a rather terrible song at least somewhat appealing. The track also succeeds in being rather varied in style, showing off his experimental style rather well. It may not be the best track on here, or the best arrange of this particular song, but it makes some much needed improvements on the "meat" of the track making it rather enjoyable.

The next three tracks make even more radical changes from their original counterparts. "Deja vu -Sanctuary Mix" takes the original in a softer bossa-nova/electronic fusion with vocoded vocals and a rather peaceful beat. This one is exponentially more enjoyable than the original, especially closer to the end with the focus more on the serene beat than the vocals. "Three Minutes Clapping -no clapping-" is now totally electronic, focusing all on the club mix beat. It has a darker tone, and the slight hints of the chiptune samples are a nice addition to this decent arrange. "Long Dream -Parallel Mix-" has a heavy focus on the chiptune theme of this album, and also makes use of the vocoder vocal alterations. I can't say this was well done, though, as I was left bored about fifty seconds in, and it never goes much farther than that. It's not terrible, but I can't see this having much replay value at all.

"MMM:0001/The World Ends With You" is the final track on the album. This music track previously formed the backdrop and focal point from the previously released Mini Metal Masters music video, also from Ishimoto. This track will receive extremely mixed reviews. Like "Twister", everything about this track is messy and rather amateur. You will either love the experimentation, or hate the train wreck of said experimentation. For some unknown reason, I am rather drawn to this track. Aside from the rather annoying vocals, the beat really draws me in and I love the bass cut-ins and massive variations on the main theme. For me, this is the highlight of the album, and the three Ishimoto fans in the world should really love this one.

Summary

There is no way I can recommend this short arrange album to a wide audience. The style is way too "out there" and really doesn't showcase anything new or impressive. What I can appreciate though is Ishimoto attempting something different from his last few albums, and if nothing else, giving us a rather nice alternative to the Mini Metal Masters video. It's only four bucks on the iTunes store, so it's worth it if you have a slight appreciation of Ishimoto's electronic style. Again, it's just the same old Takeharu Ishimoto trying to delve into a style he doesn't do too much.