Recent MOSAIC.WAV collaborations: Micheal Jackson and Eminem

Yeah, this is a lazy repost, but you gotta admit it's a pretty timely one. They just love him to death in Japan, tomorrow's probably going to be an off day for the whole country. I figure not everyone saw this MAD, so here it goes again!

Oh, but this isn't the only weird-ass fan-made crossover I've got for you folks today. Eminem and MOSAIC.WAV? Yup, that happened last year. These guys JPz Records made an unofficial two-disc album featuring "Eminem's spits" (their words, not mine) over various anime theme songs, including MOSAIC.WAV's first "Sumomomo mo momo" OP. There's some even weirder shit in there too, such as a track featuring Phil Collins. Just don't tell my dad about this travesty, or he'll have these guys' head on a stick. Sussussudio, bitches!

Credit goes to Sham Studio's Ino for pointing this last one out to me. He probably wants to shut this horrible thing down too!

LOVE BULLETS Reloaded for Third Offensive

Unbelievable, but true. The dynamic LOVE BULLETS duo (磯村カイ and 井上みゆ) will release yet another mini-album on July 31st 2009, their third in eight months. This was only recently announced by their label GWAVE, but the artwork is already out and their banner campaign is in full swing. Once again, Yuzu Soft artists こぶいち and むりりん reprise their roles in drawing the cute LOVE BULLETS mascots, which are still nameless it seems! And you guessed it, FAMISHIN is also going to contribute a track as a guest producer, to everyone's delight.

The six tracks have more or less been confirmed by GWAVE already, with full details and short versions to follow in the weeks to come. They are, however, tossing all sorts of genres in a blender with this one: Denpa, AgeAge (that's a new one to me, but it basically means Get up! Get up!), Moe R&B and Japan-Techno-Pops. Oh well, they can call it whatever they want, we know it's gonna turn out great either way. One of the confirmed songs is particularly interesting, namely a Special Remix of last year's Sister Magic OP theme. It was already pretty damn good, so it'll be interesting to see how TONAKAI can mix it up. Don't look for the ChiChi Ninja theme song here though, that'll be on GWAVE's 2008 Second Experience, coming out June 26th.

Remember the Angel Magister commercial that popped up about a month ago? Mana just put out the standalone opening demo movie, so check out a 2-minute preview of a song that will most likely be on the fourth LOVE BULLETS album later this year...

VORC Records Interview (TM NETWORK chiptune tribute)

Chiptune. If you're with it, you'll praise its contemporary composers for their amazing ability to increasingly knock out dazzling originals or faithful recreations with a new twist. But if you don't get it, you'll be quick to dismiss the genre as a bunch of eighties-obsessed geeks freaking out over crude beeps. Honestly this description suits me just fine, as I'll readily admit to being an old-school video game nerd anyday. But unless you're a stinking hypocrite, you just have to applaud the efforts of recently-launched VORC Records, who are working so damn hard to bring chitpune to the next level, with international collaboration albums and a major push for the budding genre to hop onto mainstream distribution channels, certainly to the joy of all artists involved.

Assuredly, this last point holds true in the case of this interview and the many other international articles spawned off from the release of their latest album, "8-BIT PROPHET - TM Network Tribute Generated by Chiptune + Vocaloid". Unlike the majority of Japanese artists and labels, VORC Records are stepping out of their insular boundaries and aggressively reaching out to the whole world, making sure no one misses out on any of their latest chiptune offerings. While you're reading this interview, you might want to head over to VORC Record's myspace page and let the audio player do its thing, as the label generously put up 10 samples for everyone to check out.

Let's begin with a brief overview of VORC Records, for the uninitiated. Actually, what does "VORC" stand for?

VORC Records is a pioneering independent Japanese chiptune label founded in Tokyo in 2006. It was originally started by hally, who is a chiptune artist himself, as well as the website manager of VORC. The acronym stands for "Video game OR Chiptune". But before it was a label, VORC used to be a news site dedicated to oldschool video game music and chiptunes, launched in 2001. Unfortunately, this news site has not been maintained in over 3 years, mainly due to a system problem, but it doesn't help that Hally is very busy with the label and his own artistic activities. You may access the English archives to get a better idea of VORC's long-standing involvement with chiptune and videogame music.

What are some of VORC's long-term objectives?

We really hope that chiptune will occupy a greater part of this music jungle in the near future. We want a lot of people to know about chiptune, to spread this original sound as much as we can. That's why we released various remix compilations in the past and want to put out more original albums in the future if our most recent release turns out to be a success. Saitone's first original album "Overlapping Spiral" and his 3D dome theater live as well as the SILENT LIVE 2008 are also some of our proudest achievements to date.

Can someone really make a living running a chiptune label in this day and age?

I think it's more and more a possibility. In fact, we released the TM NETWORK tribute album through the POSCA personal distribution system. It can be used to distribute a CD or DVD internationally, with very little work required from a label's perspective. Anyone can use this system. Furthermore, we are going to sell our MP3s through HearJapan. Again, anyone can use this service (though it focuses on Japanese artists obviously) and its circumstances are much less restrictive than Apple's iTunes. Thanks to these distribution services, we can concentrate on promoting our releases on the Internet and other media.

Now let's focus on your recently-released album "8-BIT PROPHET". Please explain how this TM Network chiptune tribute concept came to be.

We realized that TM NETWORK represents a major source of influence for this generation of musicians and listeners. One day at a club, my DJ friend played a TM NETWORK song between two techno tracks, it drove the crowd nuts! Hally and I discussed the possibility and we eventually agreed on a course of action. K-> took a leading part on this album because he just swears by TM NETWORK. Specifically, he contributed the album's title, its track list and produced 6 of the 11 tracks.

I imagine you had to obtain permission from TM NETWORK before putting this show on the road?

Yes you are absolutely right, this album would not have been a possibility without TM NETWORK's consent. We are a corporation after all, not just a fun part-time hobby. You can find the names of members, crew and publisher of TM NETWORK on the album credits, as well as Yamaha's Vocaloid copyright information.

Speaking of which, why was Hatsune Miku selected as a vocal engine?

We thought that Hatsune Miku's impersonal voice would be a perfect fit for the 8-bit sonority. Furthermore, K-> and Kyonomoti are what you'd call vocaloid specialists, so it all just fell in place, a no-brainer if you will.

Did you ever consider using real voices on these tribute tracks? Saitone's "Get Wild" cover does not use the Vocaloid.

Well actually, yes, we considered this possibility! However we concluded that it would be too difficult to find the perfect replacement to Takashi Utsunomiya's unique voice, not to mention someone who could complement our 8-bit style. Saitone's "Get Wild" cover is based on the "I LOVE TM NETWORK" cover album, which came out on AsianDynasty Records earlier this year. The vocalist's name is Reco. She is one of those few people whose voice can suit both a TM NETWORK song and 8-Bit style at the same time. It was Saitone's idea to remix this particular track.

Thanks goes out to Tsutomou Outani for this interview.

Yui Sakakibara's Mad Summer of Compilation Love

The otaku-pleasing-yet-otagei-prohibiting JPop diva may have had an extremely busy first half of 2009, but that doesn't mean she's planning to take any vacation this summer. Of course the biggest concert of her life is approaching rapidly, as she takes the Saitama Super Arena stage on August 23rd along with a host of other elite artists gathered for the Animelo 2009 RE:BRIDGE concert. In terms of releases though, she's got not one, not two but THREE brand new compilation albums coming out in the near future.

The first one is titled 「DreamParty メモリアルアルバム」 and actually already came out on May 5th at the Dream Party (duh) Tokyo event, but will be available to the general public on June 30th. It compiles twelve unreleased and/or re-arranged songs from her 2004-2006 repertoire. It's possible that this re-release might get different jacket artwork, since neither amazon nor ota-suke are showing the album's cover at the moment.

Then we have another compilation which was apparently heavily requested by fans, that is to say her first four singles on the same disc. 「LOVE×singles」 comes out mere days after the Dream Party Memorial album, on July 3rd to be exact. There's no word on whether any of these songs will be remixed/remastered/what-have-you, but it's a safe bet that they'll be the exact same versions that could be found on the 「jewelry days」 (2004, produced by DJ SHIMAMURA!), 「此の花咲ク頃」 (2005), 「Eternal Destiny」 (2005) and 「Imitation」 (2006) singles.

Last but not least... her fifth full-length album is also coming out this summer! It's slated for August 26th, but you can be sure that advance copies will be sold at Animelo. This was just recently announced (June 10th) so the only details we have right now is that the album will contain 15 songs; 11 of her latest eroge compositions and 4 new ones. That's it for now. Oh wait, we have the title too... 「Yeeeeell！」. Yeah, no kidding. I like to end my posts with a bit of a snark, but I don't believe anything else needs to be said right now.

ave;new project hits hard with nonstop mix

The second ave;new project is just under one week away from coming out, after being hit with a myriad of delays. doreCHU gave the growing website a much sought-after update: a link to a 5 minute long nonstop mix containing a preview from each track off the upcoming album. Recent updates also include a short version (1:15) preview of ｢ふわっFuワッホー☆メイプルまじっく！！」, sung by the lovely (and frequently naked) 柚木涼香 (YUZUKI Ryouka).

There are plenty of surprises on board, such as the return of 井上みゆ (INOUE Miyu) and 榊原ゆい (SAKAKIBARA Yui) to the ave;new fold, if only a temporary one. Huh, one of the questions I had for Miyu in the LoveBullets interview was whether or not she would work with ave;new again. She declined to answer, now I know why! Also, I think I may have heard that Sakakibara song before, but I'm not sure. Maybe a certain fan of hers can fill us all in.

Putain de bordel: MOSAIC.WAV to perform in Paris

Sacrebleu Didier, mais il est où le foutu pain baguette? Ah, il est tout juste à coté du Roquefort, nom d'une pute! Ralala, quelle poisse! Tu me fous les boules!

French people. Usually associated with stinky cheese, fancy wine and striped mime shirts, they will soon add a positive chapter to their otherwise morose legacy of unparalleled whining and beheaded kings. For you see, mon ami, the organizers of Paris' 10th Japan Expo have wisely decided to invite MOSAIC.WAV to perform on July 2nd, for the dirt cheap ticket price of 12$ USD. Good for them, good for the French, and possibly good for us non-Euros too, because this event sets a precedent that will most likely see our dynamic duo/trio travel to other countries in the future. On the other hand, seeing as how Japan Expo saw 130,000 visitors last year, this will be a very hard event to top.

Wait, what's this? That French bio page looks familiar somehow. Oh right, it's a literal translation of Sham Studio's English section, which yours truly put together earlier this year out of pure generosity and blind adulation. Surely this uncredited work entails a free trip to Paris' Japan Expo, right Sham Studio? Heck, I'll even take my chances and fly Air France, for god's sake.