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.

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