Overview

The Samurai Damacy EP is a digital release by AJURIKA, the moniker of NBGI composer Akitaka Tohyama. Featuring music in Tohyama's favorite style, psytrance, it offers an intense listening experience. This album is quite interesting due to the fact that the style is consistent throughout. For some fans, this may not be appeasing, but I think that Tohyama manages to create an extremely diverse album, both through his beat manipulation as well as the various effects going on throughout each of his tracks.

Body

The title theme "Samurai Damacy" distinguishes itself from the other tracks by offering Japanese shamisen to open up the track, before the intense beats hit, and also to serve as a bit of a calming interlude in the middle of the track. As for the rest of the track, the beats are extremely intense and I really like how he incorporates both the Japanese instrumentation and some ethereal synthesizer accompaniments to form a semblance of a melody. "Propaganda," on the other hand, features a bit more of an industrial influence, particularly in the introductory measures. The psytrance beat itself is also much more intense than that featured in "Samurai Damacy." The melodic portions of the track really add a lot of energy to the mix and the details in all the layered portions of the track are amazing.

"Paranoid Ears" is my personal favorite on the album. It opens up with some piano tones before moving into the psytrance. However, what makes this track my favorite of the album is all the various elements in the melody line. From the futuristic synth rises to the industrial percussion and all the awesome synthesizer manipulation, it's a ride from start to finish. The "intermission" of the track is also quite interesting, sampling the message someone may hear if they dial a number that is no longer in service. I also love how the track progresses, offering new soundscapes at regular intervals. Not that the other tracks don't do this... they do, but this track just sticks out the most!

"Kick Ass" is another top notch track, opening with some ethereal synthesizer before incorporating a subtle psytrance beat that fades away before becoming the intense accompaniment that follows. While some of the other psytrance tunes have focused on incorporating a lot of elements in the melody line, this tune, while doing so, does it a bit of a more reserved pace. The focus on ethereality is also a key factor in this tune and I really enjoy how it contrasts with the accompanying beat. The "intermission" is a bit strange, featuring distorted children's vocal, giving it a bit of a creepy vibe for a short time.

The last track is "Silver Cord" and is most reminiscent in style to Tohyama's contribution to Nanosweep 5, "Sacred Mushroom." In fact, it may very well be a reimagining or a reworked version of the track, given many of the elements in that track are present in this track, although this track is much more intense. I really like the distorted synth manipulation in this theme featured in the melody line. It gives it a bit of a raw edge not present in the others and the futuristic synth melodic fragments give this one a bit more of a personality.

Summary

In the end, the Samurai Damacy EP is well worth the digital download, currently available on Beatport. It's forty minutes of excellent psytrance that never ceases to bore, as each track progresses quite different with a variety of different soundscapes, despite the overall intense accompaniment that is featured in each track. Fans of Tohyama's Tekken works, such as "Karma" from Tekken 6 or "Abyss of Time" from Tekken Tag Tournament 2, would be advised to give this album a download!