No love for Hayama ?

[Dragon God]

Ever since he got promoted here, he is the only composer who hasn't gotten any feedback from fans... This is quite dissapointing, people. Surely some of you have heard his work on Front Mission 3, at the *very least*...

While Front Mission 3 is more orchestra-oriented, Hayama's rock and electronica pieces stood out the more I listened to it... This eventually led me to the Cho Aniki Soundtracks. They are indeed very bizzare the first time you hear them, but if you give those a chance, they are definite "growers". While I'm well aware that only Aniki Shin Sekai is currently readily available at this point, the rest sometimes appear on eBay. It's how I got hold of several of those, like Aniki No Subete, Cho Hayama Aniki Bangaichi (Amazing creativity here !!), and more...

I think Hayama's tunes are alot of fun to hear, especially those featuring electric guitars, and he uses the most hilarious voice samples (case in point with Bangaichi).

Seriously, I think Mr. Hayama should be looked into as his style is fairly unique and is certain to please Power-Rock lovers.

[CocoeBiz]

I guess the video games he was involved with were not so popular overseas as the games were for Japanese PC platforms. Otherwise, Mr. Hayama is probably one of the most famous and respected artists in Japan. His music style is very unique, not only the music style but his soul to music is very admirable.

Some of his original albums are vocal album that he sung, and the lyrics
are something we should look up to.

He is not snob or cocky, but very modest. Some of you might have felt that he was like snobbish guy from what we read the interview with GoGamemusic.com, but I think it was a good interview, and he was very honest without flattering anyone.

I read the lyrics of his vocal albums, and I was impressed. I think it
is pretty hard to get to know him by not understanding what he wants to
say in his music, so that is why, there are many fans in Japan, and they call him "Aniki (Big brother).

When I was updating his English website, Mr. Hayama and I were chatting
about a few things, and I found out that he has been struggling with
the current game music industry. But his doesn't polish apples for someone
to get work, but he keeps his policy and his style and try what he can
do.
I can say that there are many things that I (we) can't agree with the
current game music industry, and sometimes it's necessary to compromise
and we have to accept things even we do not agree with them.
But he is trying to keep, "Right is right, Wrong is wrong" which I really
admire.
I will set up another interview and try to draw out his origin.

Dragon God, thank you for your post, I'll make sure to send your message
to him. :)

Thanks,
cocoebiz

[Dragon God]

Thank you, CocoeBiz, for the information, I greatly appreciate it. Tell Mr. Hayama to keep on making quality music for me. He's certainly in the right direction with his music.

Since April I've acquired a bunch of Cho Aniki CDs, and also the Kinzoku Live Video acquired back in January, everything I've seen/heard this far is a testament to Mr. Hayama's musical quality.

It's quite fascinating to learn that he had collaborated with 3 other composers for the Cho Aniki game released on Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation back in 1996. Mr. Hayama had composed two tracks, being Aniki 02 and Search for News !!, which were also featured in the Live Video, but also his 2nd original album "Kinzoku Bat Ichi-go". The others who collaborated were Don McCow, Taku Iwasaki(He did Ai Cho Aniki, great music) and Sanae Kasahara.

I have yet to own Kinzoku Bat Ichi-go, but I'm constantly on the lookout on eBay for it. One of my good friends has the CD, I've enjoyed listening to it so much that I must have it myself !

[PB8J]

I've yet to listen to his work I do believe. I'll go check out his website...

Checked site:
Hmm, checked the discography. I can't say I've listened to one of his works. I suppose I'll have to buy some of these albums if I ever plan on listening to Hayama-san's music. I remember when Cocoebiz only supported one or two artists (Iwadare) and now you've all branched out to so many.

[Carl]

The first time I got to know his name was when I bought the soundtrack to the Sega Saturn game "Gran Chaser OST" from yahoo japan auctions.

It was a nice jazzy synth style which I liked, so I then pursued a couple other albums like the cho-aniki ones, and found out that Gran Chaser was rather unique and not his "typical" style of music.

I've bought at least 3 of his albums and listened to a couple more, and his music has Energy and a combination of both Humerous & Serious feelings mixed together, so at first it can seem like rather wacky combination...

But I've gotten used to his style and find it pretty enjoyable now, yes.

(Mostly from listening to soundtrack cds, rather than playing any of the games themselves, since most of those software were JP-only releases...)

[CocoeBiz]

I remember when Cocoebiz only supported one or two artists (Iwadare) and now you've all branched out to so many.

Thank you very much for being with us from our first time :)
We are expecting one more website coming, but it will be an authorized website, not an official website. But we hope it will help international fans to get to know about the music composer more. :)

Thank you!
CocoeBiz

[CocoeBiz]

(Mostly from listening to soundtrack cds, rather than playing any of the games themselves, since most of those software were JP-only releases...)

Yeah, that's the main reason, I guess. His works were for the Japan-only- games since he started, NEC PC series etc. ( Mr. Iwadare worked with Mr. Hayama early 90's, I think). Even now, his works are for the games that are not released overseas. :(

[Eriol]

When I was updating his English website, Mr. Hayama and I were chatting
about a few things, and I found out that he has been struggling with
the current game music industry. But his doesn't polish apples for someone
to get work, but he keeps his policy and his style and try what he can
do.

"Polish apples for someone" is not an idiomatic expression that I know about.

Are you saying that his very unique style of music makes him a turn-off to the game music industry, so he has trouble obtaining projects?

[CocoeBiz]

Hi Eriol,

"Polish apples for someone" is an English idiomatic expression which means "to flatter someone".

Thank you,
CocoeBiz

[Dragon God]

Still haven't been able to acquire Kinzoku Bat Ichigo, but I have gotten hold of his Yoshinoya album, quite a whismical, fun album :) I can only imagine the game itself must be one of a kind.

Ms. Ezaki,
how would you describe the A****a wa Hareru album ? On VGM World, it says it's filled with warm hearted lyrics, but what about instrumental tracks ? Are any of those present ? I doubt it matters anyways because I'm bound to order it eventually =)