IN-CHARACTER TRACK COMMENTARY FROM GONKAKA:

Denji Koshiro: My initial idea for this one was something a little bit more full-on; more influence from Trance music, and something that you felt you could dance to. You can kind of hear a little of that idea at the end, with the acid bass and changing of the chord sound, but during the actual composition process I kept feeling the urge to dial things back. “A moment of serenity before the storm”, was my thought process.

Takayuki Mitsuyoshi: I think you achieved it; even after all this time, the menu music soothes me before I get stuck into the game.

Shinji Namiki: I commend your decision to include that final sample during the loop point; did *****ndo ever catch wind of that?

Denji Koshiro: They will now, if they read this guide! Haven't you ever heard of- how does that expression go again- “mum's the word”?

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DECON'S TRACK COMMENTARY:

In what will quickly become a theme for more then a few tracks for this project I'm sure, I wasn't 100% sure what I actually wanted to do with the menu music for BM2; I just know I wanted to have one, for the menus featured in the "console port" of the game. In the buildup to working on it, the Game Select BGM from Xevious 3D/G+ came up on my MP3 player and, whilst I kinda thought something like that might work, I wanted to strip the menu track further; have it be a little more relaxed and chilled out. Once I had some chords set up and the rhythm in place- I specifically wanted an un-busy, un-complicated drum line where the 909 open hat was the standout element- most everything began to fall in place and the track had a fairly quick turnover. Originally the chord line was a little more complicated- it actually went on for 16 bars, going further and further up the scale- but writing a bassline and melody lines that fit the shift in the second 8 bars was proving difficult, so I reworked it into what you hear here. It sounds way better, frankly. The little SFX/TTS-Vocal intro was, somewhat, inspired by the way the menu music from KOF: Maximum Impact opens, for what that counts. Y'all know there had to be some text-to-speech synth somewhere in the soundtrack, both for period accuracy and because of how much of a slut I am for really old, obviously non-human TTS synths.

In a switch up from prior Gonkaka works, I decided to credit most of the tracks in the project to the head composer of the actual track; in prior projects I've had a very clear idea for which of the four members of the band- Shinji Namiki, Fumie Saso, Takayuki Mitsuyoshi, and Denji Koshiro- did what song, but I didn't always do a very good job communicating it (despite, in my mind, the members each having distinct "styles" or "traits" they bring to Gonkaka tracks), and I wanted to avoid that this time around for the most part. It can be assumed that the other members are still involved in the songs to some capacity, either providing their primary instrument (Shinji: Guitar, Fumie: Drums, Takayuki: Bass, Denji: Violins or Turntables), helping with the electronics/synths (they're all skilled at playing keyed instruments and know how to program synths/drum machines/composition software etc., as they all started out at the company they work for- Nincom- working with FM Synth chips) or providing subtle composition assistance, however. That's something I may cover in some sort of "in-universe" track commentary from the members of the band.

And yes, "Heaven" is something of a key word when it comes to Battlemania; it won't crop up in every song, but you can expect to see it in a few places. Hell, or things relating to hell (e.g. Devil) may also come up from time to time. Because Basic Christian Symbolism Is Cool innit.

This song contains the following samples:
- Acid Bass from Because of You by Scanty Sandwich
- some SFX data from Super Mario Sunshine