ReMix:Katamari Forever "Tales from Arctic Katamari Roundabouts, and You and I, in Cherry Blossom Season" 7:41

EPIC!! E.L.O. style rock Katamari Forever power love tribute with respectfully woke lyrics from the one & only Star Salzman!!

Star Salzman, who's THAT? Some n00b. It's been OVER EIGHT YEARS (!!) since we last feasted on Salzbury steak, back before even the OCR02XXX series, so it's pretty effin' great to see one of OCR's vets back in action & returning to form with this Katamari/Jeff Lynne 7+ minute rock opus! It's insane! If for some reason you're unfamiliar with Star's work, go back and listen to ALL his previous mixes first, THEN come back and catch this one! SS says:

"Here's a new remix! It's of the theme "Cherry Blossom Color Season (fanfare mix)" from Katamari Forever. Which itself is a remix of "Cherry Blossom Color Season" from Katamari Damacy.

This song took me forever (2 years) for no good reason. I am just lazy. I wrote the lyrics to be as feminist as possible given the constraints. Turns out, it's quite difficult to not use a billion ownership cliches when talking about women in a musical context.

The title is long: "Tales from Arctic Katamari Roundabouts, and You and I, in Cherry Blossom Season."

The idea behind this song is that I really like the band Yes and I think it dovetails nicely with Katamari music. Fans of Yes will notice several homages to various Yes songs, such as "And You and I" and the album Tales from Topographic Oceans, and the song "Roundabout." (Larry's note: Sir Jordanius also has an amazing arrangement of "Roundabout.") Also, I met my wife in March which is traditionally cherry blossom season in Japan. And the song is about her.

She is from Alaska and Alaska has a lot of roundabouts. So, the title works on like every possible level.

The original is such a sweet exploration of love, since it's from the perspective of two old folks who are reminiscing about their past life. Had to remix it with fun feminist lyrics."

A+ for backstory and mix title working on multiple levels; very sweet. Star plays up the feminist angle of the lyrics in his notes, but they're really just more of a parody on the standard outdated cliches used in love songs - cheeky and earnest at the same time, and not pedantic. This ReMix echoes "Dreams Come True" a bit for me, which is a GREAT thing, and while Yes may have been the inspiration, I continue to hear more of an E.L.O. flavor, personally. Gario writes:

"This is delicious. The performances are great, and the vocals are absolutely on point here. I could nitpick on the mixing of the vocals and how I'd prefer them to be closer to the front of the mix, but that's more a testament to how much I like 'em more than anything. The lyrics are great, too, so full props on that.

The source is easy to hear, but the Katamari Damacy theme is integrated cleverly throughout. Honestly, all I've got are great things to say about this one, so let's just get this posted, shall we?"

Short version: It's not JUST a new Star Salzman ReMix, it's one that is similar to his vocal masterpieces of yore, works in some new tricks, clocks in at 7'41", and will blow your mind :) From the opening acoustic guitar to the lo-fi, Mellotronish strings to the bitcrushing & psychedelics to the rich, creamy vocal harmonies, this is a love song in every sense of the phrase: love went into it, and love comes out of it. Higly recommended - welcome back!