Wednesday 30 December 2009

C77: Witness the best of the rest (IOSYS is everywhere)

Comiket 77 ends today and so will our coverage with this final entry (unless we've missed anything glaring). Interestingly, most of the remaining entries are linked together in ways other than they feature denpa music to some degree... all of them can be traced back to IOSYS.



When you think of IOSYS, does the ARM/miko duo come to mind first? That may change soon, since they have another denpa unit in the works (and let's not forget the underrated Dear Chocolat series). Enter VOID/ayu and their first "solo" album 「*antipasto*」, which features 4 new tracks and remixed versions of the two Princess Party opening themes. Check out the crossfade sampler to get a good idea of what the pair is capable of.



東方ラブストリーム」 (MP3) is C77's flagship touhou release for IOSYS, but it is also Countess Younomi's second entry in her own series (follow-up to 「東方ヘクトパスカル」 (MP3)). The four-track mini-album offers an interesting mix of gothic metal, flower-pop and hyper-moe-denpa, for serious. Calling all Albatrosicks fans: quim sings on the third track. If you're aching for more material from IOSYS's lyrical powerhouse, you can also check out 「定概テクトニクス」, (MP3) which offers straight up JPop tinged with just enough moe goodness to make it worth your time.



Date Course is linked to IOSYS too, because Countess Younomi wrote a few of their lyrics. The hypersexual trio (blame it on MILK) is currently the star of the most recent Dance Mixer DLC, but what we're mostly interested in today is their C77 mini-album-slash-eroge-single 「いちゃいちゃプリンセス!」, which compiles all FOUR of the songs they've done so far. Yeah I know, not a lot, but still good stuff. Let's just hope they'll focus on new material in 2010, now that the whole handshaking business is out of the way. The trio is also proud to announce that they've won the 2009 Moe-GameAward for best... topic (話題??) thanks to the game Marginal Skip, out of which the sound unit came from in the first place. No MP3 samplers here but you can always refer to our Under The Scope feature for all the info you need.



2-dimension is a circle from circa 2006 with quite a few earlier releases, but based on their slick new website, their C77 release 「parade」 (MP3) seems to be their "reboot" effort... and what an album this will be. The composer behind all songs is this guy "task", who seems to be the 2-dimension head honcho as well. A quick look at the album cover and the assembled talent will show you just how much flair this dude has. The miko/ARM duo leaves its mark here, although on two separate songs. More interestingly, you have cosMo@暴走P on arrangement duties, better known 'round this blog as one half of cosMoDRIVER. Then yet another veteran shows up on vocal duties... talking about 茶太 (chata) who's been out and about since 1998 and is still kicking with tons of stuff for C77. Most will agree that she is mostly famous for her Growlanser VI OP, but the couple of denpa songs she did with her own circle ウサギキノコ sure turned me on to her music. Anyway, this looks like yet another winner even though it will probably fall into obscurity as soon as C77 is over.



Now for something even more under the radar, yet still totally IOSYS-related: a new moe-denpa duo 天然ジェミニ (shortened to tenjemi) featuring the lovely 愛原佑季 & 愛原千尋 are releasing their first CD 「東方香辛甘味」 (Touhou Spice and Sugar) (MP3) at C77. This is more or less completely denpa (or at least totally cute stuff) so it comes highly recommended from your friendly neighborhood 電波の世界 overlord. No seriously, check that shit out. The first sign of quality is that the two ladies have been featured on a number of IOSYS albums in the past, mostly on the really good ones too. Their about page has all the stalker info you need. The second sign is that さつき が てんこもり (Satuki Studio) composed the very first track of that album, with his signature deep bass groove prominently featured. 未来派 (iDOLM@STER lover) and 24 bit lolitas (likely another IOSYS byproduct) have a couple of marked contributions as well. Yes, this is another Touhou remix album, but one totally worth going out of your way to obtain (wonder how I'll be able to get my hands on this one...)



Aaaaand we're gonna end today's fun-tastic update with our good buddies at Studio Satuki. Yes I know, this isn't quite IOSYS-related, but bear in mind the previous paragraph and BEHOLD, a vague connection appears! Their C77 release 「ファミマ秋葉原店に入ったらテンションがあがった」 (When you enter the Family-Mart in Akihabara, tension goes up!!!) has a really long title, but is a little short on contents. All it basically does is collect their two most recent NicoNico hits (minus their splendid Hatsune Miku song) as well as the instrumental versions, a glitch remix of "ファミマ" and a bonus track from LOLI.COM. Hardcore Satuki fans will snap this up, but let's hope a real full-length album is on the way! A cross-fade sampler MP3 is available, but full-length versions of both songs can be checked out on our Under The Scope feature.

Tuesday 29 December 2009

C77: From fripSide to DystopiaGround, nao's "graduation" complete


We all expected nao to bounce back after her separation but other than a lone (though brilliant) eroge OP, nothing concrete came out of that fateful day. Well worry no more, nao fans, as she is definitely back, but not in the way you'd expect. Spearheaded by 志倉千代丸 (of 5pb. fame, yes the Ketsui publisher), DystopiaGround is a new doujin circle that focuses on nao and her songs, much like what fripSide used to be. They will release two mini-albums called 「Euclidean」 and 「Fermion」 at Comiket 77, with 4 tracks on each. Click "Play Music" on the flash-only website for demos of each song.

The main difference so far is that DG is not limited to a single composer but rather a ton of them, including superstars 桃井はるこ and motherfucking 伊藤賢治 of SquareEnix fame. Yes, the one and only Kenji Ito, how the hell did they get this guy? But according to his blog, it's not the first time he works with Momoi (they were teamed up on this effort). One of the "fripSide NAO project!" composers is back too, and you can tell from the samples that they won't shy away from denpa stuff. Either way, their mantra is "No A-Pop, No Life!" which greatly pleases this writer. There is a lengthy interview with nao about this new project up on Famitsu. Exciting stuff! Let's hope for more DystopiaGround stuff in 2010.

Saturday 26 December 2009

C77: More Sexy Touhou Denpa from Holic Service


School has been out for a couple weeks now, but the extra cute characters in Holic Service's "Energy Reimen" have to study year-round. 「お受験せんそ→☆」 is the fourth entry in their Touhou-inspired denpa series and the theme seems to revolve around preparing for really tough exams... while wearing a cute school swimsuit, of course. Make sure you visit the official website for a convincing eight-and-a-half minutes sampler (or just download it directly). This time around, KuKuDoDo enlisted new blood with t+pazolite/[C.H.S.], tio/emroots and iDOLM@STER remixer superstar 未来派, but past collaborator o.k.o.G4 is back for another wild ride.

What, you've never heard of KuKuDoDo and crew? Holic Service were the subject of an Under The Scope feature earlier this year, which even drew praise from KuKuDoDo him-fucking-self. All things told, their C76 album 「エネルギー冷麺 もうこはんっ!」 was probably my favourite denpa album of 2009, simply because it is PERFECT from start to finish. Never a dull moment, packed with ingenious features and full of lovely/dreamy voice talent. The bar is high, but I believe this fourth entry will push it even further. Only a couple more days to go!

Thursday 24 December 2009

C77: Ta Chi Tsu Te Toromi has a new CD v1.7+


とろ美 has a new album coming out at C77! What a year for the secretive young lady. She first gained notoriety with とろでん, a song for a Suzumiya Haruhi Wii dance game. It still spawns a ton of fan renditions to this day, including some very impressive stuff. Then she had a great summer comiket release with 「SECRETORO×MEROCONCERT」, a collaboration album with めろこ and Lisa Records. The songs were pretty good, but some of the MC between each track is just downright hilarious.

This winter comiket CD is actually a bit of a compilation. Most notably, it features 「とろみかん 果汁0%」, a short-lived single that came out at M3-24. Then, from what I can gather out of the posted album cover, it also includes some (hopefully remixed versions of) songs from her 2006 mini-album 「たちつてとろ美ちゃん Ver1.2」. The rest are probably new. Of note, track number 3 "plus one" has English lyrics, though you couldn't tell from listening to the song (no offense torobaby).

Remember the estrogen-fueled denpa compilation "【電波系】作業用A - POP【痛サウンド】"? Toromi had a track on there and uploaded a nice promotional video for all to see.



She also appears in two of the most recent CRAZY OTAKU WORLD of GENKAN MATT videos.



For more super otaku party time antics, check out part two.

Tuesday 22 December 2009

C77: Birdtune and Satuki team up for Sweets Palette


Is there such a thing as a 電波萌え萌え overdose? If "Sweets Palette" was some sort of food instead of a record, would if get featured on This Is Why You're Fat?!? No doubt in my mind, but I'll take the risk. Birdtune enlisted the aid of blog favourite Studio Satuki (along with quite a few others) to compose a song for their upcoming C77 album 「すいーつぱれっと」. All involved staff can be found on the official website.

This is actually the second in a series of Touhou Arrange CDs for Birdtune. The first one, 「東方ちゅんちゅん郷」, came out mere months ago at M3-24, so odds are it is still available for sale. As of this post, samples for the second album weren't available, but you can check out the first to get a pretty good idea. IOSYS take note: this is how you do a GREAT Touhou comp! No more filler bullshit, plzkthxbai.

UPDATE: Due to manufacturing problems, release of this album has been postponed to Reitaisei 7 (March 2010).

Sunday 20 December 2009

C77: Upcoming MOSAIC.WAV "trap single" now has samples


Sham Studio just put up two new sample MP3s from the upcoming 「おとこの娘のトビラ」 single, confirming that it will be an official single after all. I could have just updated the previous post, but I believe these samples warrant a post of their own. If "Love Cheat!" is one of your favourite MOSAIC.WAV songs, take heed: the title track goes to great length to dethrone it as their most striking composition to date. Yes, the lyrics are all about traps and the "brand new emotions" they can trigger... we'll just leave it at that. But I applaud them for taking such a daring direction, although not completely unexpected.

Track number 2 is equally glorious, though in a different manner. It is certainly one of their "sweet" songs, but it packs serious heat and will grab your attention from start to finish. I believe this Soshie-chan is another one of their new characters, although her presence should be limited to this one song. She doesn't have a drawing yet, but I can picture this cute amazon-tan type of girl recommending other items based on what's in your cart, and nerds totally breaking down because UWAAA SOSHIE-CHANNNN~~~~
  1. おとこの娘のトビラ (sample MP3) (lyrics)
  2. 商品おすすめソシエちゃん (sample MP3) (lyrics)
  3. unpleasant melody~戸惑いの仔羊たち~
  4. おとこの娘のトビラ(Off Vocal)
  5. 商品おすすめソシエちゃん(Off Vocal)
  6. unpleasant melody~戸惑いの仔羊たち~(Off Vocal)

Friday 18 December 2009

C77: ARM to unleash denpandemonium with first best album


ARM? I FUCKING LOVE THIS GUY? LIKE YEAH, TOTALLY? ANYHOW!

Well the official IOSYS website was recently updated to reflect their C77 goods, including one of the biggest bombs to drop in the '09. Now you too can nuke a small country of your choice with 「ワァオ!ハイパー電波チャン - ARM商業作品集 -」, ARM's first 100% denpa "best album". Woah! Hyper denpa-chan compiles some of his most memorable eroge/manga/anime theme songs, the majority of which were not available for purchase. They even managed to include ARM's fantastic contribution to last year's anime cover album by 桃井はるこ!

I find it satisfying on many levels that I've been dying for an ARM compilation album and then WHOOMP there it is. Proof that he does read this blog on a daily basis. Too bad he was too shy to proceed with the interview I had in mind for him. Give this 3-minute long sampler a listen and prepare to be blown away. Complete details and credits available at the official website. Here's the absolutely mind-numbingly incredible tracklist for what is sure to become an instant classic. Like your own private little bitch, I've gone ahead and provided links to full versions, except for one of them...

01. ヒステリックソーダ
02. 聖夜のスペシャルシューティングスター
03. エンドレスヘブン
04. ちゃっかり+ちょっくり+ななななー feat.ayumikos
05. 揺れてはじけてあふれちゃう☆魅惑のペンギン娘 1.55倍速electroclash
06. ものがたりを探して
07. あわだっちゃ☆パニクリバニラ
08. ゆっくり揉んでね☆ぱいタッチ!
09. ウッーウッーウマウマ(゚∀゚) (IOSYS REMIX)
10. 乙女ゴコロ×局中法度 ~だんだら shooting MIX~
11. ハッピー☆マテリアル

Wednesday 16 December 2009

C77: Well duh, of course there's a new MOSAIC.WAV single

From the like-so-totally-captain-obvious department: MOSAIC.WAV will have a new single for sale at Comiket 77. Nope, your eyes are working just fine, that is a rather plump bulge on this young lady man. Well, traps are the new loli but benefit of the doubt shall be given, as the best MOSAIC.WAV songs usually come out of such twisted situations. Gotta love the cherry hair brooch and banana bag charm, just to make sure the point hits you like a fucking Blackbird.

「おとこの娘のトビラ」 is billed as an exclusive C77 item, but it will be distributed over iTunes in the near future. Just like with their previous mini-album, VIEWS CORPORATION will handle the Comiket distribution. Sadly no samples yet, but they should pop up any day now. There doesn't appear to be any game tied-up to this release, nor is it being promoted as a formal MOSAIC.WAV single... it just appears to be one of those spur of the moment things.

By the way, mi~ko (as サテラ) and her BFF 新堂真弓 (as ヒカリ, clearly the dominant one) have teamed up for a new web radio show titled アキバニュースサテライト (Akiba News Satellite). Fun times to be had by all, not much in terms of news as far as I can tell however. Although this is episode #1, they're not saying when or if the second episode will go up.

Friday 11 December 2009

作業用A-POP explores the multiple possibilities of Denpa


A new denpa compilation CD (the first of a series?) was officially released on December 4th 2009, with a requisite Ishimaru launch event coming up December 13th. The full title is actually: "【電波系】作業用A - POP【痛サウンド】", square brackets and all. This is the first album produced by 上田紗奈衣 (UEDA Sanae), with the new label PELVIS MUSIC backing her project. Oh, hey, notice anything? She's a she, one of the rare female denpa composers along with Toromi, U and very select few others. Could we eventually witness denpa's answer to Clamp?

So what sets this one apart from the rest? First of all, there exists very little of this so-called rest, so that makes it stand out immediately. But there are a number of other factors. For one, it features completely original songs, no touhou / anime theme covers here. Hearken the two samples below and you'll quickly notice that this isn't your typical eroge-OP-theme type of denpa, nor is it fist-pumping DENPA madness (although it's possible the other tracks are very energetic). There's a distinctly soft feeling to both tracks, no rough edges. Oh and check out that jacket art: it's a loli sitting on two pancakes on top of a record player. Well, that's... creative?

The other major draw to this compilation is the interesting talent that Ueda-san was able to put together for this debut effort. There are three "stand-alone" artists: とろ美 (that's our Toromi!), 木ノ下ゆり and 天宮ゆめか, as well as the five girls from ふたば☆ (えい, 小麦, ミナミ, 夢眠ねむ and 霧島若歌). The latter are staff of the DearStage club in Akihabara, a store / live club / bar which opened about a year ago and spawned a few in-house units such as the highly energetic and wotagei-friendly ピヨラビ. Either way it's a solid combination of guerrilla live smarts and debutante innocence that should make every song unique.

As far as I can tell, this is more or less completely out of the blue, so I hope unprepared denpa fans won't be caught too off-guard by this sudden release. Perhaps they wanted to beat the C77 rush, but a little more internet promotion elbow grease wouldn't have hurt getting the word out. Filthy gaijin pro-tip: YesAsia has it on the cheap. Here's the track listing, notice how they classified each song into a denpa category such as Vocaloid, Nostalgic, ElectroFuture and so on.

★収録曲
・イントロダクション
・君だけのもの(ボーカロイド電波)
・狂気でしょでしょ?(ノスタルジィ電波)
・魔法少女プリンセス・ファンシードOP(アイドル電波)
・蒼き少女隊(戦隊ポップ電波)
・-ぶれいくたいむ-(毒電波)
・あんみちゅ(エレクトロフューチャー電波)
・逃げて!レアリア(毒電波)
・密会(クラシカル毒電波)
・ディスプレイの向こうから(アイドル電波)

逃げて!レアリア -short ver.- (毒電波)


君だけのもの-game tone mix-short ver. (ボーカロイド電波)


Wednesday 9 December 2009

Blip Festival 2009 reminder, full schedule


Friendly reminder for you folks: the final countdown to BlipFest 2009 is on, with mere days to go until 32 artists from around the globe hit the Bell House stage in Brooklyn on Dec 17-19 2009. Of course we have the fantastic regs such as Nullsleep, Bit Shifter and Bubblyfish, but I'd highly recommend newcomers Rainbowdragoneyes (a.k.a Eric, who gave me my first LittleSound DJ lessons a couple years ago) and The Hunters (a trippy trio straight out of Tokyo, highly active in the LoBit Playground scene). Here is the complete schedule:

// 12 17 • THURSDAY /////////////////////
8:00 pm · Silent Requiem · Jean Y. Kim
8:40 pm · failotron · Paris
9:20 pm · Leeni · VBLANK
10:00 pm · minusbaby · Enso
10:40 pm · Chromix · The C-Men
11:20 pm · Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours · NO CARRIER
12:00 md · Albino Ghost Monkey · outpt
12:40 am · Eat Rabbit · Rosa Menkman

// 12 18 • FRIDAY ///////////////////////
1:00 pm · screening: _Reformat The Planet_
2:00 pm · workshop: SID chip synthesis workshop with VBLANK
--
8:00 pm · Disasterpeace · Enso
8:40 pm · Starscream · Jean Y. Kim
9:20 pm · Fighter X · outpt
10:00 pm · little-scale · Rosa Menkman
10:40 pm · I, Cactus · VBLANK
11:20 pm · Nullsleep · Rosa Menkman & Paris
12:00 md · Rainbowdragoneyes · The C-Men
12:40 am · Patric C · NO CARRIER

// 12 19 • SATURDAY /////////////////////
2:00 pm · screening: _Reformat The Planet 1.5_ + selected videos
2:00 pm · presentation: Classic Sound Chips to Virtual Instruments
3:00 pm · workshop: Open Source Solutions for Live Visuals
--
8:00 pm · The J. Arthur Keenes Band · Rosa Menkman & Enso
8:40 pm · tRasH cAn maN · Jean Y. Kim & Paris
9:20 pm · Bubblyfish · NO CARRIER & outpt
10:00 pm · The Hunters (music & visuals)
10:40 pm · glomag · The C-Men & VBLANK
11:20 pm · Bit Shifter · outpt & Enso
12:00 md · David Sugar · NO CARRIER & VBLANK
12:40 am · Psilodump · Paris & The C-Men

For full details, descriptions, & admission information, visit:
http://blipfestival.org/2009/schedule

I would love to attend the Open Source Visuals workshop, but I've decided to spend my vacation over in Death Valley this year. Yeah, no, for real. Oh that reminds me, I have some short videos of Sulumi and Bubblyfish from the 2008 event. Sulumi was by far the highlight of the event as far as I'm concerned, what a crazy guy!!!

Friday 4 December 2009

C77: More U for you this winter


It's not a winter Comiket if there isn't a new U single for all of us to enjoy. This year is no different, as GWAVE recently announced two new songs will be released in late December 2009. Interestingly, the attention-grabbing promotional image above lists Koike-aniki as "guitar", meaning he actually plays both songs. Well that's what's assumed right now anyway, otherwise he should have been credited as "fuckin' awesome guest" or something.

GWAVE says sample MP3s are coming December 14th. This will be a release limited to C77, but odds are that the two songs will be featured on a full-length album somewhere down the line so no reason to panic. Additionally, they mention that the genre is "denpa&moe" and that the name of the two songs ("NicoNico" and "BabyBaby") should be enough to describe the contents. Huh. I'm thinking the gratuitous panchira will also be a strong selling point.

Recently, U opened a members-only section to which yours truly has been granted access. Unfortunately I am bound by HI-MI-TSU law not to reveal the login procedure (I wish to retain my testicles, thankyouverymuch). Ah who am I kidding, of course I'll expose her (hopefully indecent) exclusive material as soon as it pops up online. At the very least, she is promising some early demos and other unreleased material.



In related news, idoling's tenth single comes out on December 16th 2009 with our dear U credited as composer/arranger/overlord. Just take a quick gander at the video for the A-song 「ラブマジックフィーバー」 and you'll quickly notice that it really does sound like a U song. Actually, 実は, she has been writing songs for this popular idol program (as well as a couple AKB48 tracks) for the past couple years via her general-purpose (i.e. no porn) sound unit Funta. The duo hasn't really been mentioned at all on this blog before, but are definitely worth checking out, even if that other guitarist dude is totally not as cool as big brother.