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Old Jun 2, 2017, 08:16 AM
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layzee layzee is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: .au
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Now for the good news. If you have browsed my website, then you should have noticed the section titled "Missing". S.S.H. has a varied treasure trove of amateur past works, both original and arranges (as my S.S.H. database shows). Some are rare and some are very rare - so rare that I am not even sure they exist, which is where the "Missing" text document comes in. I've been searching for S.S.H. songs for a very long time and while I managed to get most of them, some were not able to be downloaded because of lack of sources/peers, and some were only theoretical (e.g. I copy-pasted S.S.H. mp3 data from random websites). In theory these mythical mp3s should exist, I just need to find S.S.H. fans around the world who might have some knowledge about it. That's one of the reasons I created my S.S.H. fan website - to spread the word and connect with the international community and hope that people out there have what I've been searching for.

Recently someone from France contacted me with very useful historical information (see my previous post) and most importantly, kindly provided some formerly missing but now simply ultra-rare S.S.H. mp3s as follows:

神乃&Loki~The Cold Shade of Night (4:32)
I don't know who or what 神乃&Loki is, whether this track is an original S.S.H. composition or an arrange, nor do I have the musical terminology to describe what I'm hearing so I'll just say this: it's basically vintage 2001 era S.S.H. synth guitar metal. One particular riff does sound remarkably similar to an Akumajou Dracula/Castlevania song though but no names come to mind at the moment. When I find it, I'll quote myself in a later post.

アメリカンキッズ (2:37)
In English: American Kids. Likewise, I have no idea if this is an arrange or original. Doing a bit of searching, I came up with the mainstream 1980s song "Kids of America" and a just-as-old Japanese kids show called "American Kids" which is for learning English with a female Japanese host (who has a surprisingly decent non-Japlish accent). Musically though, neither seem relevant. As for the song itself, it's an upbeat positive-sounding guitar/bass/keyboard/drums affair. It also has what I think is xylophone and harmonica instrumentals. In the "Album" tag is this: YAMAHAオルガン教室~ぷらいまりー①. In English: Yamaha Organ Classroom~Primary(1). I think "primary" is as in "Primary School" and I briefly noted something about this in my S.S.H. biography.

グラディウスI~逆火山ぼ~ん! (0:24)
In English: Gradius I ~ Reverse Volcano Eruuuuuption!. Or something. I'm not too good with onomatopoeia, assuming it is one. Anyway, it's basically the Stage 4 theme from Gradius on steroids. The original is just as short.

スーパマリオブラザーズ~背中で語るルイージ (1:26)
In English: Luigi Talking in the Background or something. A low tempo arrange of the Super Mario Bros. theme starting with piano and I think organ, and continuing and finishing with guitar/bass/drums. Is the intent of the song to express how Luigi is always ignored in favour of the main man Mario?

S.S.H.(んむギター) - 天空の城ラピュタ~君を乗せて(生ギター) (3:05)
In English: Laputa: The Castle in the Sky ~ Kimi o Nosete (Live Guitar). Basically a metal version of the ending theme to the Ghibli anime. The BPM is about the same as the original and is more or less played straight with a few minor embellishments. S.S.H. has two arranges of this song. I don't know what "Nmu Guitar" is.

ルドラの秘宝〜The Spirit Chaser (Demo) (1:46)
In English: Rudra no Hihou. It's just a demo for the song from Made in Saitama. I got it for the sake of completion/database.

There was one other helpful person back in early 2016 (wait, it's been that long already?) with also useful historical information (anything useful/interesting has already been mentioned in the thread) as well as kindly offering more missing mp3s:

メタルマックス~Dr.ミンチに会いましょう (2:36)
In English: Metal Max ~ Let's Meet Dr. Minchi. This is a heavy metal version of one of the songs from the open-world RPG series Metal Max, presumably the first Nintendo Famicom version. This song is basically in every Metal Max game and I quite like it (the originals and S.S.H's version). Starts off (as it always does) with the "Oriental/Chinese" riff and is basically metal the whole way through with solos/improvisations. Historical note in the "Comments" tag: Placebo20000Hitおめでとう記念!

S.S.H.(グツァー) - デジタル・デビル物語 女神転生II~Fall'n Gods (0:33)
In English: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II ~ Fall'n Gods. A metal arrange of one of the battle themes from the Nintendo Famicom game. I don't know what "Gutsa" is.

B'z~Move (3:01)
Instrumental arrange of the Japanese rock group B'z with the keyboard playing the vocal role. Enjoyable enough.

偽Funk (0:35)
In English: Pseudo/Fake Funk. Sounds like an original guitar riff demo in a funk style.

アメリカンキッズ (2:37)
Was also provided this but it was an incomplete download (last 20% of song chopped off).

神乃&Loki~The Cold Shade of Night (4:32)
Was also provided this but it wasn't the original file and did not have the original mp3 tags.

真・女神転生II~戦闘 (Demo 2) (2:07)
In English: Shin Megami Tensei II ~ Battle (Demo 2). Just a demo for Made in Saitama and seems to be two of them.

F-zero〜Big Blue (Demo) (1:25)
Just a song demo for Made in Saitama.

スーパーマリオブラザーズ〜メインテーマ (Demo) (1:27)
Just a song demo for Made in Saitama.

Final Fantasy2〜反乱軍のテーマ (Demo) (1:17)
Just a song demo for Made in Saitama.

You might now be thinking "Enough damn talk. Where are the links?" Well the thing is that my intention for my website from the beginning was to be legit and for informational purposes, not a download free-for-all. I don't think S.S.H. would appreciate if I did that and even if he doesn't mind, if he wanted to spread his old music, he would do it himself. Except he hasn't (apart from the ones on his website right now). I'm afraid I'll have to sit on them for the moment. Also, I doubt I would have received the responses of the two kind strangers above if my approach from the beginning was "I LIKE S.S.H. BUT I AM MISSING A FEW MP3s. I ORDER YOU TO GIVE THEM TO ME NOW." Give a little, take a little, as they say. My actions may or may not be hypocritical but that's the way it goes for now and policies may be subject to change in the future.

To finish off today's post:

Quote:
Originally Posted by gackerjr View Post
I tried to contact him, but no response.
Quote:
Originally Posted by layzee View Post
I also tried to contact him by email many years ago (in Japanese, albeit unnatural textbook style Japanese) but for whatever reason, I didn't receive a reply, so that was the end of that.
Actually, that wasn't the only time I tried to contact him.

Quote:
UnFrequently Asked Questions



In the early days of his website, he had a diary/blog section where people could comment on.
One possible translation of my simple message could be: "Hello SSH, how are you? I like your music. [URL of S.S.H. fan group] (Have) a good day!"
And one possible translation of his reply: "Woah!! Thx!! Nice to meet you too. I'll keep trying my best. You have a good one too!"

Looking at it now, why didn't I use the Kanji for music? And also 良い一日を (Have a good day) doesn't exist in natural everyday Japanese. Well, the idea of wishing someone a good day does of course exist, but just not in that specific form. That is simply the literal Japanese translation of the English phrase "have a good day". 良い一日を is what a Japanese person learning English would come up with, for example. But whatever, a decent effort from 10-years-ago-me and as long as the message has been successfully communicated, no matter how unnatural sounding.
Fortunately in this case, I had the foresight to take a screenshot because, and I think I've said this 5 times already, just because something is on the Internet doesn't mean it will always stay there. Fun fact: shortly after I made my comment, his blog was overrun by trolls (I think they were Japanese trolls) and from that point on, he removed the public posting function.

Well then, until next time, adios.
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Last edited by layzee; Jun 2, 2017 at 08:21 AM.
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