Review by: Nick DiMaio

    First off, if you're looking at the cover to this thing, you'll automatically believe this is the original soundtrack to Capcom's Rockman X released on the Super Famicom. If you've picked it up and put it in your CD Player, you'll realize that this is nothing of the sort - it is indeed a completely overhauled re-arrangement of the main Maverick level themes from in the game. Overhauled meaning Alph-Lyra completely rewrote the musics, fully recomposed and played entirely of jazz instruments as saxophones, guitars, and plenty of sensuous relaxing sounds that define beautiful music. As said before, even if you picked up this soundtrack expecting the game music, you won't be disappointed at all - and if you own the original copy of this CD, you're even luckier not to own the game's music but a truly baffling a wonderful bunch of arranged musics.

    There's 10 tracks in all ~ all directly inspired from the game's Super Famicom soundtrack. It may take a while to recognize most of these songs since they've been completely composed from scratch, but still have a flavor that maintains originality and parallel with the game's music. The CD opens with one of the finest tracks on the disc, we have 'Awakening Road' which is a rearrangement of Rockman X's opening stage which is so relaxing with the soft guitar riffs and mesmerizing sounding background. The next track, 'Welcome To Mechanical Forest' is simply an awful, and unfitting piece of repetitive techno-sounding garble that completely lacks fluidity - this one completely misses it's mark on the CD and really interrupts the overall mood. The rest of the CD redeems itself, especially such tracks like 'Take Back The Tower' and it's nice upbeat drums and wonderful guitars and saxophones that move the song along fluidly. 

    Another good track is the next one 'Night In The White' which is an arrangement of Chill Penguin's stage, this one is smooth, even though it starts of like it's going to be vocalized by a early nineties black female singer with it's soul slash pop opening ~ it only bursts into a very nice repetition filled background and very sensuous saxophones. 'Scrapping Beat Factory' also gets me confused with the Tower track as it's equally pretty drum-filled, and some very excellent drum work here indeed gives this track a great feeling of hearing a nice jazz piece with great saxophones as well. 'Get Through The Dark' is a decent one, even if it's one of the faster, peppy tracks I often skip since it sort of jumps out of the mood of the rest of them, but a well-done track nonetheless. 'Spark & Shadow' is the next track, which in my opinion steals the album away with a truly excellent track that sounds "electrically charged" with amazing synthesizers and beautiful guitar work that sounds like a great song to listen to whilst watching a sunset.

    'Again', a hardly distinguishable rearrange of the Sigma Stage theme is also an arguably best track here as it's a smooth and sensuous piece that is one of the disc's finest. This one captures the similar sound of the Night In The White track ~ this one's definitely a little better though. Then we have the CD's final tracks, 'Repliroid King' which is a track I most often skip since it really doesn't capture a feeling that the rest give off - this one almost like the Mechanical Forest is a jumble of more electronica-sounding music that doesn't fit the rest of the jazzy disc. Lastly, there's 'Transient Silence' which is a very upbeat, funky track that is often a favorite amongst a lot of listeners, and whilst a fine track, it sounds very jazz-pop-like which sways my interest a tad. I'll usually listen to this one if I'm in the mood for the Get Through The Dark track.

    Ten tracks in all, typically I can say I wanted more which I did. I also wanted every track to be jazzy, since there a couple (Mechanical Forest mainly) that get me thinking "what where they thinking" and then you turn to the next track to be mesmerized in more jazz beauty. I absolutely adore this soundtrack ~ I wish they did the same for other Rockman or X games ~ a sad thing they didn't. But even if you dislike game music but like jazz, this CD still makes the mark to own - if you truly love jazz. Nowadays, Alph-Lyra strays from jazz arrange music as do many composers ~ surely it was popular back in the early nineties. Speaking of today, this CD is nearly extinct, but can be found on eBay for over $50, as it's truly worth it if you're a connoisseur of fine instrumental jazz music. Personally, I had to scrounge to find this music - and I recommend you do whatever it takes to find it - this is surely a diamond-like treat that is a rarity amongst game music.