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| (Click to enlarge) |
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| (Click to enlarge) |
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Read on for more on "Float Islands"!
Harmony and Melody
We're in C major, in 4/4 time. Common enough in music.
The intro establishes the main vamp that repeats through most of the "A" section, while also setting up the jazzy mood of the piece. It doesn't take much to notice the heavy syncopation of the bass line, which adds a snappy groove to the entire proceedings.
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| "Float Islands" Bass line (m.1-2) |
And speaking of the bass line, check out the little walking bits that link Dm7 to Em7, furthering the jazz idiom while sprinkling a bit of extra chromaticism to it all.
"A" Section
The "A" section is harmonically based on a simple I – ii – iii – ii vamp, and the chords are colored in standard jazz's major and minor sevenths. Notice how the chord figurations in the xylophone and bass line don't arrive in perfect lockstep due to the bass's syncopation; as such, the root of each bar's second chord pops in just before the third beat rather than right on it. This really helps prevent the whole section from sounding too boxy or repetitive and keeps things interesting for the listener.
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| "A" melody |
The melody is made up of extremely long and flowing notes, and notice how it too falls on beats you wouldn't expect: look at all those notes that start on the last sixteenth-note of the bar and tie over to the next one! More balance is created by pitting the predictable harmonic structure against the untethered and metrically free melody. That's some masterful proportioning right there.
You'll notice the last chord of the section comes almost out of nowhere: an A7♭9 in C major. It doesn't sound too strange, and you might consider the Em7 just prior to be acting as a V to A7♭9 for a brief moment. The bass line walks down in the last moments of the first section from A, to G, leading us into the...
"B" Section
And the bass hits an F to finish off the short transitory descending run. The organ from the intro is back, providing the short percussive melody stabs that characterize the "B" section—you know where I'm going with this: they provide the perfect foil to the long, vocal melody of the "A" section. You'll notice the bass' rhythmic pattern is slightly different now too.
Harmonically, things are mixed up a bit; there's still a lot of repetition, but the harmonic rhythm is now one chord per bar rather than two, giving the "B" section a more laid-back groove. Also notice the slightly more jerky feel of the section, due to the supporting synth periodically dropping out to let the lead get some words in.
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| Measure 16 |
This all comes to a head at measure 16, check out how every instrument but the drums and lead organ drops out on the last beat. Finally, in measure 18 the synth is no longer interrupted and is allowed to pull us back into the "A" section's steady groove.
Chord-wise, the section is based on a smooth half-step descent from Fmaj7 to Em7, which is then transposed up a minor third starting in measure 17. The "B" section closes out with a simple IV – V progression leading us back to I—and the "A" of course.
Arrangement
It's something of a Kirby trademark, it seems, to evoke an existing style of music but with tweaks and alterations; think of the title screen's fusion jazz with lead strings, or "Corkboard" and its panpipe-filled jazz combo. "Float Islands" is Kirby Super Star's shot at latin jazz. It's got the syncopation and the jazz chords, and a lot of the melody sits on the extensions/sevenths—the "B" section, slowed down a bit and arranged a little differently could easily pass as bossa nova.
And if you listen closely, there's even a tango feel in the harmony figurations in the "A" section. Here's the basic tango rhythm:
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| Basic tango pulse |
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Sounds familiar enough. Now listen to this slowed-down snippet of the organ intro from "Float Islands":
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| "Float Islands" organ intro (m.1) |
Flash Player
It's there, faintly and in double time, but still there. Very few would actually call it a tango of course, it's just way too fast and upbeat! I slowed it down to fifty-percent speed in that audio clip to get it recognizable.
As we'll see in future articles, a lot of genres get the fast-forward treatment in this game, and though we don't really consider it often, tempo can be an important stylistic marker that differentiates one genre from another. Think of ska and reggae: even though there are instrumentation and lyrical differences (among many other stylistic differences, no doubt!), tempo is also one of the biggest differences between the two.
A smart touch in the instrumentation: the very beginning introduces the organ instrument that will reappear only in the "B" section, creating a nice symmetry and unity. Also note how even though both sections feature different instrumentation, the electric bass is the only pitched instrument shared throughout, further promoting cohesiveness and a link between the two.
Last Thoughts
I find the balance in this track extremely impressive, from the metrically freewheeling melody versus the repetitive harmonic backdrop, to the intro organ foreshadowing its later appearance in a different role, every track so far has this extreme attention to detail that is astounding and reveals the high level of craft and intuition of the composers. I'm looking forward to what other compositional surprises might lay hidden in Kirby Super Star, and I hope you are too.
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