Saturday 27 October 2012

M3-2012秋 part 2: Zero-Shaft, なゆ, 33.turbo, 藤原鞠菜 +more!

The M3-2012秋 doujincore group import is over, but that doesn't mean we can't report on newly-announced albums! Many of these should be available on online stores in the near future.



First, let's take a look at an exciting new series from Zero-Shaft! "Princess Vocal Collection" sounds like a follow-up to THEiDOLST@GE, which hasn't seen releases since last year's 「My Voice」. Sure enough, it features recurring vocalists, but this time the delivery is slightly different. Instead of a stand-alone album featuring many singers, Zero-Shaft is giving everyone their own single! Pretty cool and not too hard on the wallet at 500円 each. Vol. 1, 2 and 3 feature 天城あくる, ゆきまめ and なゆ respectively, great way to launch the series! Ideally these would be compiled on one disc in the future, until then we'll look forward to the next volumes! ななひら and 桃箱 please!



Speaking of Our Queen なゆ, make way for her grandiose debut album 「なゆきんぐだむ」! She rounded up a bunch of her friends on vocals (such as ななひら and 彩) and enlisted legendary composers (talking bout 吉田省吾, task, しの and Good Guy きくお!!!) to make sure her loyal subjects talk about this one for years to come. Almost every song is a collaboration of some kind, especially the last one which features all singers together! Although it prominently displays the spectacular jacket artwork, the website currently doesn't offer a crossfade. But you know what... I'm not exactly worried anyway! It's a なゆ album, I need this in my life!!!

Update 10/27/2012: Samples are up! Intense and high-quality music as expected!



The seventh (already?) 33.turbo mini-album is titled 「Dempa de Dance」 and it launched with a funny PV! This unit has been ramping up production values lately and as a result, this mini-album feels more focused. 500円 gets you 5 new songs and some seriously sweet artwork. Their website has samples for four of the five songs, so check them out!



Honestly, 藤原鞠菜 is pretty awesome and I feel bad for not mentioning her as often as I should have in the past. She started singing 10 years ago, but these days she's mostly known for her IOSYS collaborations, both on Touhou arranges and TV anime OP themes. Cool! She also did some voice work for... Microsoft, in an Internet Explorer 8 PV. Not cool.

Still, what's really relevant to this site's readers is her original albums with none other than TONAKAI sound works! Yes, 磯村カイ of Love Bullets fame. If you miss the GWAVE unit (they haven't released anything in two years) then you'll love Wisteria Magic. You're in for a treat because they've already released 「キミトマホウノヒビキ」, 「SUPER MARINA WORLD」, 「まりテツ!」 and soon *drumroll* 「SUPER MARINA WORLD2」! By the way, you can order all these albums off amazon.jp in case you miss them at M3.



Here's something new and somewhat mysterious! From circle "りょーかとゆかいな仲間たち" comes their (first?) album 「虹色スペクトル」. It's all very fuzzy, but from what I can gather we have 真泉涼夏 on vocals and this dude 虹関数 composed a few songs. Rainbows everywhere! Kenji (Sound;GEAR) also seems like a close collaborator. In any case, this sounds a bit rough around the edges (in a punk rock kind of way) but very exciting nonetheless! Fast songs, smooth songs, passionate vocals and lovely artwork. 300円 for 7 songs is completely outrageous, must GET!



Watch out, here comes しなもんしゅがー☆! I found out about this self-proclaimed denpa singer sometime ago (maybe even last year) but she didn't actually have any music at the time. Back in July 2012 she released her first single 「裏表シンデレラ」 along with samples on her myspace account. This is also rough around the edges, but honestly pretty damn good! These silly tracks kind of remind me of 33.turbo musically with a bit of とろ美's attitude for good measure. This girl seems like she'd drink anyone under the table, anytime. Wouldn't mind hearing more like this!


Sunday 21 October 2012

M3-2012秋: doubleeleven UpperCut, t+pazolite, プチリズム +more!

This Fall 2012 edition of Music + Media-Mix Market is a bit frustrating for international fans. Wish we could have written this article earlier, but quite a few of these albums were announced in the past two days. Once again, we will be adding Doujincore Import Info tables to each album, but take note that the deadline is October 23rd at 9PM PST! Don't dilly-dally, go denpa-crazy!

The essentials are covered below, but take note that many more offerings are still TBA, including 33.turbo, A.C.T, another Zero-Shaft single and possibly new material from とろ美, Holic Service and/or Birdtune. We'll keep our "denpa watchlist" updated, but feel free to look at similar lists from clixdex and もえぴー. Unfortunately doujincore limits orders to 6 items, so you'll have to choose carefully.

Updated 10/22: 24 hours to go! Not one, not two but THREE new Zero-Shaft singles have been announced. 33.turbo mini-album also has a name: 「Dempa de Dance」 and a price (500¥). A new なゆ solo something (single? mini-album? who cares!!! it's なゆ!!!) titled 「なゆきんぐだむ」 will launch for 500¥ at A-15ab.



Can we just call them veterans at this point? It's only been 2 and a half years since doubleeleven UpperCut released their debut album, but the sheer volume of new songs has been staggering to say the least! Sure, it's been one whole year since their third album "NUMBERS" came out, but that still feels like yesterday since it hasn't left my playlist since! Keep in mind that deUC has also been performing live quite a few times in 2012, so they've been keeping busy.

Somehow, the theme of 「FORCE -Do you like Upper Cut?? 4!!-」 turned out to be Star Wars (at least based on the cover). Actually, "FORCE" probably has to do with all song titles having so many exclamation marks!!!! At 2000円, pricing is a little more expensive than your average denpa CD, but give the crossfade MP3 a quick spin and you'll hear 10 quality songs that definitely belong in your collection. By the way, did you know that a couple of Softhouse-Seal games are being officially translated by MangaGamer? They just released Boob Wars on October 18th, so that's another way to support deUC on their quest for worldwide eroge OP domination!

Doujincore Import Info (deadline Oct 23rd 9PM PST)
Title:FORCE -Do you like Upper Cut??4!!-
Label:  doubleeleven UpperCut (A-08a)
Price:2000
Link:http://uppercut.doubleeleven.net/



Whether they're original or touhou arrange albums, you can count on t+pazolite releasing (great) new stuff each M3/Comiket. His latest effort is 「ULTRA CUTiE BREAKiN'!!!!」, a 10-track followup album to 2011's 「cutie breaks e.p.」 (right down to the artwork guy!). As expected of his recent albums, there's a bit of everything on here, from straight-up hardcore to borderline electropop and even a self-remix. Personally I'm glad he seems to have toned down the random rap inserts, but ARM's dubstep-heavy remix of "Sakuramichi Overdrive" might not be for everyone. Too bad there's only one new リズナ track! Still a must-buy.

Doujincore Import Info (deadline Oct 23rd 9PM PST)
Title:ULTRA CUTiE BREAKiN'!!!!
Label:  C.H.S (G-05a)
Price:1000
Link:http://c-h-s.me/ucb/



We all knew this was coming, but somehow it still feels like a nice surprise! ポヤッチオ is back with the fifth installment of the プチリズム series. Most of the staff you know and love is back (ななひら, ゆきまめ twice!, kana, なゆ and more!) but Master かたほとり likes to keep things fresh with new composers and singers. The "imouto-style" is definitely alive and well!

Doujincore Import Info (deadline Oct 23rd 9PM PST)
Title:プチリズムGo!
Label:  ポヤッチオ A-15a
Price:1000
Link:http://www.orc2000.com/cd/petit5.html



In completely related news, make sure you also procure the latest ななひら mini-album. This time she teams up with her friend ひなうさ to deliver 5 beautiful hyperactive female pop songs on 「女の子あ・ら・もーど」. The opening track by ねぎとろ is particularly powerful, but all tracks deliver a certain dose of intensity. Take note that this is published by a new circle (40より7大きい!) so let's support them and hope for new albums! By the way you can also catch ななひら on しの's second single 「笑顔になる魔法」.

Doujincore Import Info (deadline Oct 23rd 9PM PST)
Title:女の子あ・ら・もーど
Label:  40より7大きい! A-15b
Price:500
Link:http://confetto.chu.jp/girl_alamode/



Odenpa's seventh single 「Lolly’sへようこそ!」 is a bit on the short side with just 2 new songs, but they strike again with yet another stellar guest appearance! 春河あかり performs on the first song and the indispensable でぱらじ episode; you may know her better as doubleeleven UpperCut's vocalist! Excellent choice and the crossfade can't come soon enough! The theme this time is an imaginary maid cafe named "Lolly's" which should make for some interesting lyrics as usual.

Doujincore Import Info (deadline Oct 23rd 9PM PST)
Title:Lolly'sへようこそ!
Label:  おでんぱ☆スタジオ B-02ab
Price:500
Link:http://www.odenpa.jp/cd/opcd1010/



A new Zero-Shaft album is always reason to rejoice, but they also seem to have the only new ココ song of the event! That's a must-get reason right there, but otherwise, 「ぺろっ!」 is also full of quality material from vocalists such as 彩, りこ。, ののな, ななひら and がきコ. On the backend, a mix of easy-going and hard-hitting music from しの, nmk, むちゃ and former Holic Service/Birdtune collaborator 貿易風.

Doujincore Import Info (deadline Oct 23rd 9PM PST)
Title:ぺろっ!
Label:  Zero-Shaft A-14b
Price:1000
Link:http://zero-shaft.com/cd/pero/



As soon as the M3-2012秋 list was published, I noticed this new circle "denpa*garden" but I couldn't find anymore info. The cat's now out of the bag, along with a debut CD! 「HEROINES」 is the first mini-album from denpa etude, with ほのか on vocals and ニゴロウ as main composer. The four tracks range from vigorous pop to lovely ballads, with a certain level of mind-control injected in each song. Lyrics are provided courtesy of ちな, らいね and 愛原圭織 (of ちぃむdmp☆ fame!) so quite the lineup indeed. Strong debut effort, looking forward to more!

Doujincore Import Info (deadline Oct 23rd 9PM PST)
Title:HEROINES
Label:  denpa*garden E-15b
Price:500
Link:http://denpaetude.web.fc2.com/heroine/




Last but certainly not least, we have a new album from underground idol らめる! It just so happens that she was featured here just a month ago, so make sure you read up on her if you haven't already. 「どーぶつどーなつ」 has 7 new songs from composers such as CHEEBOW, Records Booster, y@yama and others. She told us it would be a "sweet" album with many denpa-oriented songs, but we didn't know the whole theme was going to be Animal Donuts! All those saccharine delicacies you see in the video actually come from a donut shop called Ikumimama out in Kawasaki. Tasty collaboration for a sweet album!

Doujincore Import Info (deadline Oct 23rd 9PM PST)
Title:どーぶつどーなつ
Label:  Rameru&Records Booster キ-21f,22f
Price:1000
Link:http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm19174681