“This series was conceived with the intention of taking impressions from animation, comics, and other visual works and developing them into a completely fresh musical world using synthesizers.”
-Obi Strip Digital Trip Series Description, 1983 (SDF Macross DT, translated by Windii)
Intro
When I first started
listening through tokusatsu soundtracks, I was going through the two-disc set for Uchuu Keiji
Sharivan’s BGM and noticed that the second disc began with a set of songs
titled “DIGITAL TRIP Uchuu Keiji Sharivan SYNTHESIZER FANTASY.” Upon playing those
curious tracks, I was greeted with a very electronic, synthesized, and striking
series of compositions. They were still recognizable as variations of the OST
and BGM I’d heard earlier, yet they sounded almost otherworldly.
Years of anisong searching
and listening later, and now as an avid music enthusiast, I’ve plunged into the
huge range of the Digital Trip – Synthesizer Fantasy albums. Though only
lasting around five years, the series saw many releases from a variety of
arrangers offering their own, synthesizer-heavy takes on anime and other Japanese
media music.
Some of the albums recently
received worldwide streaming releases for the first time, but I wanted to write
about this series anyways because of how much I enjoyed listening through and
discovering so many favorites. I love synthesizer music of all kinds, especially
ones that aim for their own distinctive style. The Digital Trip series is unique
among both electronic and anime music, and I think it’s worth highlighting as a
creative and entertaining series of albums.
This retrospective is a
mix of contextual overview, notes on the styles of the main arrangers, a look
at some of the tech used, the end of the line itself, and ten personal album
recommendations.
(VGMDB is the source for most
of the credits and dates in this post.)
