Ok well here we go kicking things off for real with the Yakuza piano series, with this excellent R&B number that accompanies many hours of dress up with Majima (Kiryu in Kiwami 2), composed by Saori Yoshida. (Always love to see women composers, that was a pleasant surprise!)

For those of you unfamiliar--I know I've cultivated a hardcore JRPG audience here for over a decade and I'm not sure how much overlap there is lol--this is a highly addictive cabaret club minigame in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami 2 with an impressive little system of progression, and this is the theme that plays when you outfit your top earning hostesses in different dresses, hairstyles, makeup, and accessories to boost their stats before sending them out to work tables for the night. It's one of my favorite themes on the OST, and I swear I'm not just saying that because I heard it for 40 hours doing this minigame lol. It really is a banger track, really!

Adapting this for piano was tough but I feel like I say that 90% of the time because 90% of the time I'm adapting things for piano that don't adapt easily to piano lol. It's got the basic R&B formula with the vocal line noodling in alto range, high synth riffs, sparse guitar riffs, booty bass and synth percussion holding it all together plus some random harp flourishes. Needless to say, a 1:1 adaptation works for maybe the first iteration of the verse and bridge but needs more or it starts to stagnate without drums. I added a few more rhythmically and harmonically complex figurations to keep it interesting, but mostly just spent a good chunk of time at the piano just trying to vibe it. Though that last part just had to go full piano-y type piano stuff, since everything just layered on in a climactic way and it's all about trying to convey the feeling of buildup as best suits the instrument.

ANYWAYS will do my very best not to bombard everyone with Yakuza piano covers all at once though I have like, an hour of it already recorded and banked over the past two months hahaha--though to be honest, it has ended up being an interesting academic exercise that's made me think a lot of film music, film cues, how cues are deployed in cutscenes, and intrinsic musical value of said cues, though I'll reserve that infodump for when I inflict all the Makoto Makimura cutscene themes on you guys lol. I'll be mixing it up with my usual stuff, I swear! Thanks for putting up with me, you guys are the best!!! 😍😍😍😍