The album's final two tracks are weightless and ambient, fittingly concluding with the sound of crickets chirping. Drum-heavy "J-cruise" concentrates on rattling percussion and hand drums, punctuated by a few booming bass drops and synths that swarm like air-raid sirens. Highlight "Okuma" is reminiscent of IDM at its most sparse, with a gentle, snowflake-like melody gracefully falling on fluttering acoustic guitar and sighing vocals, and soft, almost subliminal beats. "3d Relief" has detached, offbeat synth bleeps cloaked by layers of beautiful acoustic stringed instruments, tied together with slow, thudding beats. "Print" begins with jazzy hi-hats, sparkling pianos, and thumping downtempo kick drums, gradually layering in eerie backwards vocals and a droney, shoegaze-like melody. The album is full of ghostly whispers and buzzing insects, but it's the calm, detailed beats and organic melodies that make the most lasting impression. Reiner spent two years gathering sounds in order to craft this album, traveling throughout the United States and Japan in order to capture bizarre and beautiful noises. Fashion and videogames may be two starkly different disciplines, but Nier exists in its tantalising intersection."Gossamer" is defined as something having a light, thin, or delicate quality, and while Los Angeles-based producer Evan Reiner's debut full-length under the Gossamer moniker fits these descriptions, there's a considerable amount of care put into his work, ensuring that his songs don't just float away in the breeze. While the costume design in Nier has divided players, with some criticising its practicality and others the way it sexualises women, there’s no denying that its conceptual, cerebral fashion elevates the game. To be blindfolded also denotes total trust, perpetuating the idea that YoRHA were created to follow demands. Whether this was intentional or not, the android design is unnecessarily sexual, from the cut-out that exposes 2B's cleavage and sharp slash that dissects the elegant hem of her dress to Kaine's nightgown, which falls open at the back to reveal tiny white panties. This distinct note of BDSM is a sharp reminder that YoRHa are fetish objects, created by humans not just to reclaim the Earth but also a kind of dominance. 2B could easily be a model from a Bayne runway show, in boots that look like liquid latex and elbow-length gloves. Unlike typical bondage wear, Bayne makes luxury items in buttery black leather, such as harnesses, chokers and garters. In its prevalence of blindfolds, collars and black materials, Nier recalls Zana Bayne, a New York fashion house described as a post-fetish leather brand. The idea of androids as playthings is heightened further by the echoes of fetish wear. McQueen, obsessed with fragmentation and decay, curiously littered the runway with glass and pieces of broken machinery, highlighting the idea of women as broken dolls. In McQueen’s fall 2009 ready-to-wear collection, models were transformed into phantasmagoria, their faces chalked out and mouths blotted until their natural beauty was twisted into unnatural shapes. One particular boss towards the beginning of the game looks like a model from an Alexander McQueen collection: skeletal, grotesque, but still beautiful, a red ball gown spilling over its thin frame. In McQueen’s fall 2009 ready-to-wear collection, models were transformed into phantasmagoria, their faces chalked out and mouths blotted until their natural beauty was twisted into unnatural shapes.Įven Nier’s villains are given a runway of their own. While the silhouette is similar, 2B’s costume is more adult, swapping a parasol for a svelte sword and Mary Jane shoes for killer heels. Like an elaborate play on Victorian fashion, young women don their dresses like tiered cakes, their bouffant skirts layered in ribbons and pleats. 2B’s style may have been inspired by Gothic Lolita, a Japanese fashion subculture. She is the femme fatale of this planetary ruin. With her traditionally feminine, hyperwaisted silhouette, 2B’s uniform is not about practicality, but desire. She pirouettes across the screen in a billowing velvet dress adorned with a high collar and a delicate cut-out at the back, and is accessorised with thigh-high leather boots and black stockings. When we meet Nier’s protagonist 2B, she is a draped and ruffled china doll. At times this feels far-fetched, especially when watching a woman fi ght machines in a gown and stiletto heels, but it’s also a celebration of contemporary fashion from Los Angeles to Milan. Instead of utilitarian uniforms you may expect from an army deployed for destruction, YoRHa look like ghosts from Gothic romance crossed with children’s toys.
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