Nanostray 2 Soundtrack

Nanostray 2 Soundtrack, Manfred Linzner, 2008

Manfred Linzner remains one of Western game music’s best-kept secrets, even though his scores deserve to be far better known. His work first turned heads with the Game Boy Advance soundtracks for Iridion 3D and Iridion II, and not only because of their catchy melodies. These scores were technical marvels, proving that high-quality sound could be achieved on a console notorious for its weak audio capabilities. Fortunately, the Iridion scores did receive an excellent and widely available arranged release. However, most of Linzner’s discography – including strong work such as Fix & Foxi 1 – Episode 1: Lupo – remains commercially unavailable.

Enter the Nano Collection, a digital soundtrack bundle containing the complete scores for all four titles in the Nano shoot-’em-up franchise, along with another very good arrange album. Among the original scores included there, Linzner’s Nanostray 2 soundtrack is the strongest. Significantly more fully realised and varied than its predecessor, Nanostray 2 mirrors the game’s overall character rather closely. It does not dramatically reinvent established shmup formulas, but it polishes their constituent parts to an impressive sheen.

From the moment the satisfyingly deep, full bass of “Main Menu” kicks in, it is obvious that Linzner has once again pushed the sound capabilities of his chosen platform to their limits. The beats on this Nintendo DS score are robust and land with exactly the impact they are meant to have; electronic-guitar riffs register with force and precision; and the melodic synth leads gleam in bright shades of silver neon, even if the Nano soundtracks have always been less melody-driven than the Iridion scores. Linzner combines all of these elements in dense, carefully layered arrangements, and the album mix presents them with satisfying clarity.

Fortunately, there is plenty of substance beneath those gleaming futuristic layers. Linzner uses each track on the Nanostray 2 soundtrack to introduce some variation into the album’s overall style, even if that style remains rooted in the same high-tech science-fiction setting as so many other shmups. “Daitoshi Station” perfectly captures the feeling of setting off on a spacefaring adventure. Tinkling synth arpeggios and dramatic, but always optimistic, staccato melodies are set against deep bass drones that provide a welcome sense of gravitas. One especially refreshing deviation from the genre template is Linzner’s use of R&B rhythms. They drive the music forward and create an energetic, danceable contrast to the cue’s sci-fi textures.

Next comes “Kaikan Outpost”, whose pumping techno beat and grinding guitar riff raise the stakes after the comparative ease of “Daitoshi Station”. A faint synth melody squares off effectively against the bass-heavy undergrowth, almost swallowed whole by the relentless rhythms. It is precisely this flair for effective orchestration and textural contrast that keeps Linzner’s more repetitive melodic material from ever growing stale.

The Nanostray 2 soundtrack then moves through several variations on this collision between electronic beats and layers on the one hand and gritty guitar work on the other. “Naizoh Habitat” combines howling guitar riffs with synth arpeggios to strong effect. Once again, Linzner pits a wispy synth melody against forceful rhythms to create the kind of musical conflict and drama that suits the on-screen action. Things are no less energetic on “Shinkai Bay”, which brings together high-octane techno and raging, buzzing guitars to produce the album’s most restless, adrenaline-charged cue.

Linzner’s gift for finely etched atmosphere that never loses the necessary punch comes through most clearly in those tracks where he allows himself to experiment. “Teppeki Dock” opens with a synth drone that remains unchanged for thirty seconds, accompanied only by beeping effects and light beats. After artfully frustrating expectations, Linzner then introduces distorted guitars that flare up and churn over drum’n’bass rhythms. The cue’s second half contains the album’s most striking melody: essentially a chain of quivering crotchets trying to assert itself by accenting each square beat, suggesting barely contained franticness through its forcibly rigid progression.

“Kigan Belt” is more restrained at first, with its anxiously suspended high synth notes and melodies that hesitate to form. Electric-guitar noises and shreds of single notes echo through an eerie soundscape, and the same sense of insecurity returns in “Kohai City”. Here, the lead melody is doubled by a ghostly echo before being torn apart and scattered across the stereo field.

As much as the Nanostray 2 score plays like a constant thrill ride, it does come with one caveat. There is a fair amount of filler on the album, and for that reason its inclusion among the very greatest game scores remains debatable. Still, there is more than enough quality and substance here to elevate Nanostray 2 to the level of a genre standout. Less cinematic than Rafael Dyll’s Söldner-X soundtracks, avoiding the extended running times of REDUX: Dark Matters, and also steering clear of the self-conscious retro approach of Sturmwind, Nanostray 2 nonetheless celebrates the virtues of old-school shmup scoring through succinct, exciting cues that pack a small musical universe into less than half an hour of music.