Various music info
Forgot to mention this before, but on the 63rd episode of the radio show (aired on April 11), Taku Iwasaki came on as a guest to talk about the new tracks he made for the movie.
He said he started making the music after the script was finished; he was asked by the director to create music for specific scenes. As for how he came to record the new music in the first place- at the launch party for Gurren-hen, Iwasaki was drunk and approached Imaishi. He had been really excited over Gurren-hen, and feeling regretful and left out, so he demanded that they let him make new music for Lagann-hen, even if it meant paying for it all himself. And he was told right there "Please do it." XD
Some background: When Iwasaki was first hired for the job, he didn't want to make music for a robot anime. He hated the idea of making generic "hot" music used in most robot anime, and though Imaishi chose him for the project after hearing his work in other shows, Iwasaki refused to follow expectations of what constituted as robot anime music, choosing to do it in his own style instead. So when he started making songs with rap, it threw the staff for a loop and made them get creative in how to use the music.
For example, Iwasaki was surprised that they used "To hell with combining!" as the theme for combining, since he'd refused to make a combining theme (but he still liked what they did with it). Likewise, some of the track names in the OST reflect his own attitudes toward the music (such as "No helping it, I'll suck up for just one minute and twenty seconds," which he considers the most generic).
So it's just a little ironic that now, years later, he's asking to do it himself. XD
Anyway, getting back to the Lagann-hen OST, Iwasaki posted his comments on the new tracks on the movie website:
1. "Just stay quiet and get fired up ~ God in Heaven"
Looks like I was way off with my previous speculation, because it turns out he used an excerpt from "Ode to Joy" by Friedrich Schiller (known for being used in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) as the lyrics in the second half of the track. I find his reasoning for why he used it to be kinda pretentious and hard to understand, but basically he wanted to use the lyrics of the Ninth Symphony, while making the music both similar and different from the Ninth Symphony, and reversing the meaning of the lyrics so that they foretell a completely different future. In particular, "Above the stars God must dwell (Uber Sternen mus er wohnen)" is meant to hint at the Anti-Spirals.
2. "As it was promised, here's one"
Iwasaki says that personally, he feels the most regret over "No helping it, I'll suck up for just one minute and twenty seconds" among all the music he's created so far. But now he's faced the reality that this track is the most Gurren Lagann-like "promise" that he's kept, so he made several variations of the melody for the movie. This track is just one of them. "No matter the situation, once you've made a promise, you have to take responsibility!"
3. "My xxx is best in the universe"
There's some talk about "Tarantula-kun" the MC and "Laurence-kun" who provided the rap in the first half of the track. The MC wrote the lyrics after watching all of the Gurren Lagann DVDs. Unfortunately, the movie only uses the second half of the track, but the CD has the full version.
As for what parts of the movie these tracks are used in...
[SPOILERS FOR LAGANN-HEN]
According to 2ch:
"Just stay quiet and get fired up ~ God in Heaven" is played during the battle against Lord Genome in the prologue.
"As it was promised, here's one" is played during the scene showing what happened in the seven years up to the timeskip.
"My xxx is best in the universe" is played in the scene with all the Tengen Toppa Gunmen.
He said he started making the music after the script was finished; he was asked by the director to create music for specific scenes. As for how he came to record the new music in the first place- at the launch party for Gurren-hen, Iwasaki was drunk and approached Imaishi. He had been really excited over Gurren-hen, and feeling regretful and left out, so he demanded that they let him make new music for Lagann-hen, even if it meant paying for it all himself. And he was told right there "Please do it." XD
Some background: When Iwasaki was first hired for the job, he didn't want to make music for a robot anime. He hated the idea of making generic "hot" music used in most robot anime, and though Imaishi chose him for the project after hearing his work in other shows, Iwasaki refused to follow expectations of what constituted as robot anime music, choosing to do it in his own style instead. So when he started making songs with rap, it threw the staff for a loop and made them get creative in how to use the music.
For example, Iwasaki was surprised that they used "To hell with combining!" as the theme for combining, since he'd refused to make a combining theme (but he still liked what they did with it). Likewise, some of the track names in the OST reflect his own attitudes toward the music (such as "No helping it, I'll suck up for just one minute and twenty seconds," which he considers the most generic).
So it's just a little ironic that now, years later, he's asking to do it himself. XD
Anyway, getting back to the Lagann-hen OST, Iwasaki posted his comments on the new tracks on the movie website:
1. "Just stay quiet and get fired up ~ God in Heaven"
Looks like I was way off with my previous speculation, because it turns out he used an excerpt from "Ode to Joy" by Friedrich Schiller (known for being used in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) as the lyrics in the second half of the track. I find his reasoning for why he used it to be kinda pretentious and hard to understand, but basically he wanted to use the lyrics of the Ninth Symphony, while making the music both similar and different from the Ninth Symphony, and reversing the meaning of the lyrics so that they foretell a completely different future. In particular, "Above the stars God must dwell (Uber Sternen mus er wohnen)" is meant to hint at the Anti-Spirals.
2. "As it was promised, here's one"
Iwasaki says that personally, he feels the most regret over "No helping it, I'll suck up for just one minute and twenty seconds" among all the music he's created so far. But now he's faced the reality that this track is the most Gurren Lagann-like "promise" that he's kept, so he made several variations of the melody for the movie. This track is just one of them. "No matter the situation, once you've made a promise, you have to take responsibility!"
3. "My xxx is best in the universe"
There's some talk about "Tarantula-kun" the MC and "Laurence-kun" who provided the rap in the first half of the track. The MC wrote the lyrics after watching all of the Gurren Lagann DVDs. Unfortunately, the movie only uses the second half of the track, but the CD has the full version.
As for what parts of the movie these tracks are used in...
[SPOILERS FOR LAGANN-HEN]
According to 2ch:
"Just stay quiet and get fired up ~ God in Heaven" is played during the battle against Lord Genome in the prologue.
"As it was promised, here's one" is played during the scene showing what happened in the seven years up to the timeskip.
"My xxx is best in the universe" is played in the scene with all the Tengen Toppa Gunmen.