Overview

NanoSweep is an ongoing series of biannual original mini-albums that was initiated in 2004 by various members of NanoSounds and SuperSweep. It usually features members from each of these companies and occasionally a guest composer. This is the twelfth original album and features compositions by Hiroshi Okubo, Ryo Watanabe, Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso, and Takahiro Eguchi.

Body

Okubo's contribution, "Wob.," opens up the album with a dubstep style track. As expected with the genre, it features a heavy bass sound and as the title implies, lots of wobble effects in the synthesizer. In addition, Okubo's use of vocal sampling and more ethereal synthesizer work does give it a nice personal touch. Given this is his first dubstep tune, it isn't the best dubstep in the world, but it does manage to provide the proper stylings of the genre.

Ryo Watanabe returns with one of his heaviest tracks to date, "Brutal." This track has a bit of a tech-house feel, particularly in the beat. Overall, the track has a very industrial sound that really manages to provide a nice energy to the mix. While the main progression of the melody line itself isn't super varied, I really like the various elements incorporated into the mix to keep the track from sounding stale, such as trippy electronic sound effects, vocal samples, some trance elements, and the deep house tones in the melody. It's one of my favorite Watanabe Nanosweep tunes as it manages to capture his regular style, but in a much more intense outing.

"The cluster," by Shinji Hosoe, is the quirkiest of the samples on this Nanosweep album, which is usually par for the course. It features a very intriguing rhythm, tons of strange sound effects in the accompaniment, a heavy industrial sound at times, and some vocal samples. While it is a bit unorthodox, compared to some of the other tracks on the album, it manages to impress due to Shinji Hosoe's masterful manipulation of a variety of synthesizer effects. This is definitely one of Hosoe's best Nanosweep contributions.

Ayako Saso manages to succeed in having my favorite track on the album with the very intriguing, "Stalking Darkness." It's a fantastic rave track with so much going for it. The chopped vocal samples and eerie vocal samples really help add a bit of tension to the mix, which works with the inherent darkness heard in the piece. It's an extremely fun piece and a bit different from Saso's normal rave offerings for the Nanosweep albums.

Lastly, Takahiro Eguchi returns with "Blue screen" and once again manages to create an effective electronic composition that really makes me want to see him featured on more high profile series such as Tekken or Ridge Racer, given Supersweep's collaboration with them. It is a mix of intense beats, particularly in the beginning, mixed with stunning beautiful synthesizer tones that really help convey a dreamy atmosphere that meshes well with the energetic accompaniment.

Summary

In the end, I think that Nanosweep 12 manages to stand amongst the best in the series. There is definitely a darker tone present on this album, amongst all the composers, and I really like that unity. While the other Nanosweep albums are also quite strong, their lack of a unifying theme sometimes has some tracks that don't quite measure up to the rest. While there are some shortcomings on the album, all the songs manage to keep that core essence of that dark soundscape intact.