C80: IOSYS, Albatrosicks, Forest Pireo, Innocent Key +more!

Try as we may, we just couldn't write the following previews in time for C80, choosing instead to focus on the brand new hotness that you just had to know about. That's not to say this "best of the rest" list isn't worth your time, hell no. Anything that gets mentioned on this website is gold! *ahem* Besides, any of these CDs can be ordered from stores like とらのあな for a slight premium... while quantities last! Before we go on, here are the albums we previously covered:

• ACT 『First Aid Navigation』
• Birdtune 『東方ピコピコ祭り』
• beatlogic 『シュミックトリガ！ -New wave of A-POP-』
• ちぃむｄｍｐ☆ 『電波LOVE～でんぱあいす～』
• C.H.S 『Samplejunk』
• doubleeleven UpperCut 『NUMBERS!! -Do you like Upper Cut?? 3!!-』
• MOSAIC.WAV 『Hな国の教育事情』
• ポヤッチオ 『プチリズムさん！』
• 夕野ヨシミ 『俺のチルノがこんなに天才なわけがない』
• 天然ジェミニ 『東方マジカル☆コミカル』
• 天然ジェミニ 『東方多目的多世界』

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Did you really think IOSYS wouldn't have their 18th Touhou album launching at C80? Course not, that's their bread & butter. Are you surprised that it's a fairly even mix of denpa, pop, rock and drama? Well, even under the motto "no denpa, no life" they strayed a bit... gotta keep everyone happy. However, who out there expected that one day we'd find とろ美, REDALiCE and ビートまり on the same album? Well now, that is a nice surprise! Credit must be given to IOSYS for always finding a way to set themselves apart one way or another.

The first three tracks from 『東方プレシャス流星少女』 deserve a closer look. The album opens strong with とろ美 singing hilarious 夕野ヨシミ lyrics over a turbo-charged punk-as-fuck anthem from minami. We knew Toromi could be versatile, but this is just beyond expectations! This trio should seriously consider spawning a new unit. Next we have ARM and ビートまり teaming up for a brutal hot-blooded Byakuren parody (see video below). Actually the dream pair has worked together in the past but this high-profile, "marquee" kind of song is generating quite a lot of buzz!



Our third examination sees REDALiCE serve up one of his classic hardcore concoctions with a long and slow buildup towards an explosive climax. TANO*C and IOSYS are definitely not strangers, nor is this REDALiCE's first IOSYS track (notably "Taboo Tears You Up"). It's just really nice to have these three artists on the same disc. Most of the other tracks also make for fantastic ear candy, but we'll leave that exercise to the reader. There's a strong chance you'll get the same feeling listening to this album that you did listening to 2007's 『東方萃翠酒酔』 and that means a lot to some fans!

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Despite all these hot guests, notice someone conspicuously absent from the latest IOSYS album? That's right, miko didn't participate because she was so god damn busy preparing for a new ALBATROSICKS album! 『AERAS』 marks the seventh effort from the longest-running IOSYS offshoot. As always, it consists of sweet glittering picopico pop with Dr.ARM's ever-present denpa style deeply permeating all tracks. The mood swings on this new one are quite extreme, going from melancholy to ecstasy in the blink of an eye. No doubt about it, the supergroup hasn't lost its mojo... now where is the flash movie for this album?!

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All samples available on website

Believe it or not, Forest Pireo is now offering its 14th album. The impressive part is they only started in June 2008... so that's an average of 4.666 albums a year! That's one of the advantages doujin circles get from cooperating with various freelance composers, they can pump a lot more things out the door and keep the fans hooked until the next big event. And when some of your regular collaborators include さつきがてんこもり, kana, ななひら and ココ... we sure won't complain about this high turnover rate!

「Sing Summer Song」 can be fully analyzed just by looking at its title. It's happy-snappy and makes you want to go out for a pleasant walk under the sun, by the river (preferably accompanied by ななひら). Of course this being a Touhou arrange album, different folks will get different levels of enjoyment from different songs, but there's no denying that this site's readers will most likely get a kick out of tracks 1, 5, 6 (未来派!!!) and 7. That's a good 40% right there, and the rest is absolutely nothing to scoff at. There are some prime performances by まめこ, めらみぽっぷ and 実谷なな, the latter two can also be heard on the latest Birdtune CD 『東方ピコピコ祭り』.

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All samples available on website

We quite enjoyed Innocent Key's 例大祭8 album 『東方スクール』 since it had a high concentration of denpa songs and some of the best ココ performances to this day. Their C80 album 『東方スクール』 is a bit more in keeping with their regular style, which is to say high-tension pop, some softer stuff and even a bit of prog rock thanks to デッドボールP. For you see, Innocent Key is giving the Touhou girls an Idol CD, so they must test their various skills! The album's PV is based on the the song 「東方プロデューサー ～ミセパンアイドル大作戦～」 and features 5 vocals: めらみぽっぷ, 大瀬良あい, Nimo, ココ, 梨本悠里 and 岩杉夏!

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Our last recommendation would be 「Sweet Blue」 from そよかぜのおと with some pretty cool 萌え-esque songs from ななひら, ひななた and a great song from がきコ whom we think has a bright future!

That's it for our C80 coverage. There's still a bunch of other albums in our "denpa watchlist" and we're pretty sure we missed out on a couple ones! Otherwise there are a couple of REALLY exciting albums coming out in September, stay tuned for coverage on new albums from さつきがてんこもり and U!

C80: Celebrate KuKuDoDo with Birdtune's 『東方ピコピコ祭り』

It's been 1.5 years since the last Touhou arrange release from Birdtune and frankly, we were getting a little worried. Although the circle is relatively young having started in 2008, they've built an impressive legacy of fantastic albums (both original and touhou arrange) and frequent live appearances. But they've lost a bit of steam since their main vocalist みりん☆ "graduated" (read: hasn't done much since) shortly after the release of her May 2010 album 『アタラセカイ』. Since Birdtune is highly-regarded by denpa fans worldwide thanks to multiple creative albums, it would have been a shame for them to bite the dust so suddenly.

No way... do you think Lord KuKuDoDo would give up this easily? Enter their new in-house vocalist: nanano. Not much is known about the mysterious new singer, other than a couple posts on her blog and a hell of a debut! Actually she was also on HolicService's 『ニヒリズム！」 in May 2011 but let's not mix things up. She is officially attached to Birdtune and as you can see from the tracklist below, she's also very much in charge of lyrics. Otherwise she's also taking care of the new website and hopefully she'll be keeping KuKuDoDo's ass in gear to make sure he focuses on creating more albums!

Which brings us to 『東方ピコピコ祭り』, a full-on KuKuDoDo effort! His sharp, unique and refreshing style can be found on every single track, which almost turns this into a concept album compared to the previous compilations. As expected, there's a large percentage of straight-up denpa and ピコピコ songs, which this author would like to think is due to a personal request during our last meeting (hah!) Of course KuKuDoDo's requisite NewWave touch can be felt everywhere, since he's such a big fan of early eighties Synth Pop bands... but we already discussed all of his influences in the past!

Here's the awesome crossfade video, followed by the album tracklist. Feel free to download the MP3 as well. Please note that all instrumental tracks are included on the CD! A second promo video for the song 「小町ちゃんの超すごい三途の川ツアー」 (featuring nanano on vocals) should be uploaded just after Comiket 80.

Track	Title	Vocals	Arranger	Lyrics	Original
01	もうパソコンしかいらない人の歌	小岩井ゆづき	KuKuDoDo	nanano	もう歌しか聞こえない　～ Flower Mix
02	小町ちゃんの超すごい三途の川ツアー	nanano	KuKuDoDo	nanano	彼岸帰航　～ Riverside View
03	残っているほうの記憶の話	めらみぽっぷ	KuKuDoDo	KuKuDoDo	六十年目の東方裁判　～ Fate of Sixty Years
04	秋葉原での日常	実谷なな	KuKuDoDo	Gumi	春色小径　～ Colorful Path
05	魂魄妖夢のみょんみょん異変バスターズ☆	小宮真央	KuKuDoDo	Gumi	東方妖々夢　～ Ancient Temple
06	食物どっきゅんアレルギー	桜ふみ	KuKuDoDo	nanano	幽霊楽団　～ Phantom Ensemble
07	楽しいブラッディ夏祭り！！	nanano	KuKuDoDo	nanano	お宇佐さまの素い幡

How awesome is 桜ふみ singing on a Birdtune album eh? This collaboration is likely due to KuKuDoDo having composed a song on her second album 『』 back in October 2010. You might have heard 小岩井ゆづき on some of 2-Dimension's CDs, but still... WOW give us MORE! 小宮真央 is also a great fit for any Birdtune/Holic Service album, always good to hear her sweet little voice. Too bad Gumi didn't get to sing, although she did write some cool lyrics (especially 「秋葉原での日常」) Of course all the girls performed admirably but overall, we're extremely excited about nanano joining Birdtune and can't wait to see what's next!

C80: ユウノウミ, beatlogic & 天然ジェミニ have かめりあ in common

Although some of his songs were briefly mentioned in the past, consider this article a proper introduction to the work of かめりあ (aka cametek). He seems to have been active for a couple of years, with two 初音ミク albums self-produced within the past 10 months. The first one 『ハニージンジャーエール』 came out in late 2010, while 『TRIPPERS』 was released recently in May 2011. Sampling both albums as well as his nicovideo and soundcloud accounts should convince you of his various skills: drum and bass, dubstep, techno, trance, 8bit and even eurobeat!

But of course... this guy can also do denpa songs! He's pretty tight with our good buddy さつきがてんこもり, in fact they're collaborating on the debut major album 『ニコ生モラルハザード』 (more on that after C80). Earlier this year, the pair also tag-teamed the song 「恋色マジカルフライト」 on ForestPireo's 『Party Poche』. Finally, he's had multiple tracks on most of the fine CDs from Guunone Sounds. Now as luck would have it, cametek is featured on four Comiket 80 albums that we were already planning to cover and since his contributions are such standout tracks, he definitely earned today's spotlight!

First off, we have the ridiculously awesome 『シュミックトリガ！ -New wave of A-POP-』 from the brand new circle beatlogic. What a great way to kick it into high gear right out of the gate! Tons of big cannons shooting loosely on this one, just check out this tracklist!

1. 寝ル娘は育つ / MAX VEGETABLE
2. 続々☆熱中症っ！ / ボークP(azuma)
3. 夏休みYummy / さつき が てんこもり
4. 48 / デッドボールP
5. ソーサラー98 ～ The end of the known story / ぶっちぎりP
6. MoFmOf Days! / かめりあ
7. 通称！デンパリ娘 / cello
8. 恋人サンディは明後日笑う / 盛るP
9. マスシス / ふなむし
10. HOME MADE HERO / Phasma

That's right, Satsuki's on here, DeadballP too. And even if the other names aren't as familiar to you (yet), just give them a shot! This is a surprisingly high-quality 初音ミク/電波ソング/A-POP compilation that honestly feels long overdue, unless you count 『HeartsNative』 by MOSAIC.WAV. Difference here is that this is still within the doujin realm and some of these songs are batshit insane! The ぶっちぎりP and cello tracks in particular... man!

Next up is 『俺のチルノがこんなに天才なわけがない』 from ユウノウミ, also known as 夕野ヨシミ, aka the in-house IOSYS lyrical mistress (of doom). This is her fifth Touhou arrange album and much like the previous ones, there's a good mix of bonkers and softer songs (if you're into that). We're big fans of 未来派 and he's been on this series since the second album, so it's always good to get our fix. But the big news here is the fabulous opening track 「恋のパーフェクト微分方程式」 composed by かめりあ and performed by 山本椛 (momiji). It sounds like something ARM would come up with and that's probably the biggest compliment for an up-and-coming denpa composer these days. There's also a bit of eurobeat flavour which makes this track even more interesting.

天然ジェミニ is yet another IOSYS offshoot but we've covered them countless times in the past, so you know they're good! This time, they have two brand new albums for C80 and guess what? かめりあ is on both of them! Actually, he has two contributions on the "primary" release 『東方オールナイト幻想郷』 including opening track duties once again. He did work with them on 『東方マジカル☆コミカル』 so that explains his presence. Another repeat composer is Irus who brings in a harder edge, but he once worked with ななひら so he gets our eternal support! What sets 『東方多目的多世界』 apart is that it's a 神波千尋-only album. Part of what makes 天然ジェミニ special is the constant exchange between the two girls and their frequent guests, yet this actually works better than you'd expect. Once again there's a good mix of denpa, rock, jazz and pop, so there's absolutely no reason fans of the duo would pass up this solo effort!

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This concludes today's spotlight on かめりあ! These tracks are pretty impressive and definitely catchy, so we'll be keeping an eye on his future endeavours. We do have one more big article lined up before C80 hits this weekend so stay tuned! Remember to check out our Twitter feed @denpanosekai for the absolute bleeding edge news reports!

C80: Double your t+pazolite dose with C.H.S and ACT injections

For the past couple years, C.H.S (t+pazolite's circle) was pretty diligent in releasing new material at events like Comiket and even M3, so it wasn't a big surprise when 「Samplejunk」 was announced for  C80! In fact, we were kinda anticipating something new coming out, so here we are with the 10th official release in a long line of really cool and mostly fucked up albums.

As usual, this is a Touhou arrange album that doesn't really sound like one, unless you are a diehard fan of the original soundtrack and can pinpoint every little nuanced similitude. The rest of us will just blissfully listen to the album, especially due to quality vocal appearances from リズナ, ランコ (豚乙女) and Ayu/Coda (ACT) . At this point we're kinda hoping the next album will be a full-vocal follow-up to C78's brilliant 「Honey I Scream!」but in the meantime this'll do nicely!

And now for something which, in theory, would be a lot like t+pazolite's "regular" stuff but ended up sounding a bit differently. When we introduced ACT back in December 2010, it seemed obvious that his fans would automatically jump ship and follow him, Coda and Ayu on this new adventure. As good as their new album 「First Aid Navigation」 does sound, it's a lot softer and slower than we expected! Topazo's unique style is still heavily palpable, but this won't be for everyone...

The album features eight brand new tracks, including an intro and outro which the trio performs by itself. Then we have three tracks where patients come in with their problems, which in turn generates three "examination" collaboration tracks. At least, that's what the concept feels like. One of these patients is the lovely ゆきまめ, which is definitely an highlight of the album! Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how well this album resonates with the ACT fans. If you enjoyed brutalizing your ears with 「5分でわかるこれまでのACT」 then you might have to wait until their next offering to get your fix...

C80: Count on doubleeleven UpperCut releasing a new album

Make no mistake, it was clear as crystal that doubleeleven UpperCut (deUC) were going to release a third album at C80. After all, they're releasing new songs on a monthly basis and not a single one of them went unpublished so far. But you could also deduct quite a while ago that their next album would be called either 『NUMBERS!! -Do you like Upper Cut?? 3!!-』 or "MATH101 for sex-deprived otaku NEETs". Let's just say they went with the sensible option.

You see, the second album had "colour" for a theme, and all songs were titled accordingly. Yes, there was a yellow song, but luckily nothing of the brown variety, thank Based God. All songs released since then have included numbers in their titles so that kind of gave away the theme sometime ago. Still, we're not sure how the last two song titles qualify. Maybe the first one is some sort of far-fetched binary joke but 「boys, be "stand up"!」 is anyone's guess! Oh! Maybe it's a reference to random seeds. Here's said tracklist, complete with NSFW links to the games they're from:

Tr01. 十戒！ ～草食系男子、反逆の狼煙～
Tr02. 百・鬼・夜・行 ～道を違えた妖の恋物語～
Tr03. ズット一緒ニ ～病的恋愛中毒症候群～
Tr04. セブンス・ヘブン ～英雄好色冒険譚～
Tr05. two of us ～姉さん、それは事件です～
Tr06. love me, Mr.Insert
Tr07. boys, be "stand up"!!

Download the MP3

If you want to pick up the CD and meet 山下航生 (composer) and akari (singer) in person, just go to Comiket 80 at table イ-18b. Speaking from experience, they are thrilled to meet their fans and even speak a bit of English!

C80: New MOSAIC.WAV single 「Hな国の教育事情」 ups the H

MOSAIC.WAV songs have long been associated to erotic OP movies, but now they're about to break the fourth wall by basing their upcoming C80-exclusive single around the H word itself. Of course the lyrics found on 「Hな国の教育事情」 are quite cute, actually none of their songs ever contained subject matters as "offensive" as the videos they were accompanying. Well, there's always that "semen security" song (eyebrow-raising to say the least), but that's the exception rather than the norm...

Regardless, anything new MOSAIC.WAV is cause for celebration! Other than the rather enchanting H-driven title song, there's also some fairly traditional stuff that will definitely please long-time fans. Thematically and melodically, 「量子コンピュータガール」 feels like it was plucked straight out of 2006's Space Akiba-Pop, augmented with Kayapi's modern production values. 「Cry for the moon」 on the other hand... may seem like a soft little ditty if you go by the title, but don't be fooled! It's actually one of their most aggressive compositions in a while, as it shares a lot more in common with their うじゅ songs than, say, (the very respectable) GAMER'S ACTRESS.

This is turning out to be one of the nicest surprises of C80 so far... make sure you check out these new songs!

C80: Second ちぃむdmp☆ album 「電波LOVE～でんぱあいす～」

A mere 8 months ago during C79, budding niconico starlets 桃箱 and 愛原圭織 united as ちぃむｄｍｐ☆ and their gift to the world was 「電波っぽいのっ！」, a 12-track debut CD that took the world of denpa by storm. The album was impeccable and easily earned a spot on our coveted 2010 Denpa Sampler, not to mention lifelong coverage and unlimited adulation. Swanky!

Regardless of past achievements, the girls are restless in their quest for excellence and so here we are with a brand new follow-up album titled 「電波LOVE～でんぱあいす～」. Most of the original staff returns, with a couple new names to spin things around. Our buddy さつきがてんこもり was tasked with creating the opening song and he certainly brought the goods to port! Behold, the PV for 「電波LOVE～でんぱあいす～」!!! (Choreography: 旦那D)

As if this summer couldn't get any hotter, whew! All eleven tracks can be sampled on the official website, so make sure to check them out. Lots of fast and powerful love songs, denpa-style! If you can't pick it up at C80 (and won't consider JSAS), there's always Toranoana through a courier. Act fast... the first album sold out rather quickly and won't be reprinted!