It's been forever and a day since I
last reviewed some of my spoils of war, having mostly focused on album previews recently. Judging from the picture, you might think this event's selection was slim pickings. In fact there were
quite a few releases, but I did show som restraint for once and went for the highest quality items. I did forget to pickup 「
おんがくのじかん」 from new unit twinkle, that's an oversight from my part. Sorry Mandi! From left to right, top to bottom!
Row 1:
SHAKING PINK 「ももいろHoliday」
This is five new tracks and one voice drama from the three Ladies of Denpa. Actually, the last track 「ふわり、ピンクの恋」 is a Touhou arrange but I couldn't even tell until I looked at the tracklist. かたほとり and かめりあ (かめほとりあ？) each provide two superb tracks, including 「We are SHAKING PINK!」 which features heavy slapping bass as the girls introduce themselves, must be awesome live! ふくＰ and yohine provide the background music to a mysterious and luscious tea party. Really lovely mini-album, especially for ココ fans since she's not doing much new music outside of SP these days. Obviously real fans need to buy this CD, but newcomers will probably get a bit more bang for their buck with the
full album from C83.
ななひら 「FreePl@ying」
I already
covered this album in depth, so my opinion based on the crossfade still stands. All ななひら albums are worth buying but this is a very good one to start with, if you're new to this thing. Musically I think かめりあ once again comes out on top with a mind-blowing track, but
NanosizeMir really surprises with their epic "hunter game parody" (yeah, I wonder what they mean). The duo even provides some guest vocals on this grandiose adventure. As for かたほとり, he definitely provides the most recognizable tune out of everyone! Extremely impressive composition and very much in line with his musical influences growing up. Of course it's really surprising to see REDALiCE contribute to this album (or is it?), this is basically a light-hearted version of his usual hard style. Very interesting and I hope to see more collaborations! Why not t+pazolite next time??
Row 2:
木下いちご 「でんぱれっと~いちご色になぁれっ!!~」
It's really cool to see 木下いちご making tangible progress, but the autotune on the first track is a little overbearing. I want to hear her real voice, imperfections and all. Thankfully the other tracks aren't as saturated with this dreadful effect. Another nice aspect is that all four tracks have nice pacing and tempo, no ballads here or otherwise boring filler tracks. Orphe Knights is doing a pretty good job providing 木下いちご with splendid mid-2000s denpa songs. Intentionally or not, this album feels like early MOSAIC.WAV and the first SHORT CIRCUIT compilation, at least musically. Looking forward to more!
おでんぱ☆スタジオ 「おでんぱ☆夏祭り～でらっくちゅ～」
Woah, I actually haven't even listened to this CD yet! But I liked what I heard from the crossfade, besides I wasn't gonna skip this. In fact I'm pretty sure my Odenpa collection is complete so far. Got nothing but love for this studio!
がきコ 「ロコモコ！」
Yikes, make that two CDs in a row which are still shrinkwrapped! I got acquainted with がきコ thanks to her various Zero-Shaft participations, but she doesn't seem to have that many original songs to her name overall. I was starting to worry about her but this CD proved me wrong. Three brand new tracks which hopefully mark the beginning of something much bigger.
C.H.S 「108 Sketches 3」
There's a little something for everyone on here. Of course this is an absolute must for t+pazolite fans and his bleeding-edge sampling and high-speed hardcore abilities, but Roughsketch is also amazingly versatile. In fact he has developed a few aliases over the years and they're all featured on this album. My favourite songs on here are definitely "GRK Spice", "UK HARD #SEAPUNK", and "Artistic Bondage" but the entire album has a great flow and there aren't really any weak moments. This is by far the best "108 Sketches" release, it's pretty awesome how much better they get each time. I don't suppose we'll see a fourth for another couple years, so enjoy the moment!
 |
| Delinquent 桃箱! Gotta love that pompadour. |
Row 3:
ちぃむdmp☆ 「電波CHU×違法」
I may be a ちぃむdmp☆ fan for life, but even in my blind love for duo I can be critical. Here I come... 「電波CHU×違法」 is fucking awesome from start to finish! Yup, nothing bad to be said here. It's a miracle this duo is still providing us with classic denpa after all this time, so I feel it's really important to support them in return. I thought I'd be annoyed about the repeat song, but it's just so good and since the first album is out of print, it's a nice gesture towards new fans. Besides, NanosizeMir strikes again with the splendid opening track CHU＊LIP which might just be the best thing about this album. But really, everything here is pure audio crack. Master かたほとり also surprises with さくらんぼ旅館は移転しました which I feel is a spiritual sequel to a previous song, but I haven't really spent much time looking at the lyrics, or listening to the album for that matter...
The CD-ROM contains two high-quality WAV tracks (さくらんぼ旅館 and ジュウナンザイのうた) which both sound incredible, but more interesting is "収録風景", which shows both girls recording vocals at
Naked Note Studio with a bit of playful banter sprinkled throughout. Unlike their previous CD-ROMs, this one doesn't have a music video... did MMDs already drop so much in popularity?
Honey came Lab 「practice!」
I loved their debut mini-album 「Honey planet」 so of course when HCL announced their C84 album, it went right on my shopping list! Even their first three songs were enough to provide a clear sign of things to come. This unit is definitely on par with ちぃむdmp☆, two beautiful voices (one way brattier than the other) with feel-good lyrics and addictive singalongs. Once again, the extremely busy Katahotori reinvents himself and provided 「Summerちっく☆ほりでぃ」 as a memorable opening track. Those who bought the album shouldn't forget about downloading the bonus track 「はっぴぃ にゅう にゃあ」 by
MOMO_nga who normally deals in J-Core but provided a surprisingly catchy tune here (almost suspiciously sounds like きくお, that's a compliment!) I for one welcome any denpa dabblers!
桃箱 「mofumofu」
After teasing us for what seemed like ages, 桃箱 finally released her solo album at C84! This is basically a ちぃむdmp☆ mini-album with a single vocalist, so that should tell you everything you need to know. However, tracks like 「我☆猛獣ちゃんなり(`・ω・´)＜にゃー」 are clearly tailor-made for 桃箱, I'm not sure where Kaori would fit in! "Cat songs" are a denpa staple, but this one is pretty... aggressive. She almost sounds angry during the chorus, and I'm loving every minute of it! Although there are 10 tracks, only 5 of them are actual songs. Fans of her radio show will be well served with three drama episodes but personally these don't do much for me.
Beatlogic 「シュミックトリガ2-PsychoCrush A-POP!!-」
Last but not least, possibly my most anticipated record of the past 2 years! The followup to 2011's 「
シュミックトリガ！ -New wave of A-POP-」 does not disappoint one minute. It's impossible to pick a favourite here, but I'll admit that かめりあ hits hard with his opening track 「電波、受信チュウ...」. This wonderboy definitely has his own style, but you can also hear some Tenkomori and きくお influences in there (both of them seem to have dimished their denpa output recently). Anyway the track is full of shiny, glittery and unexpectedly scrappy moments. Even a jazzy breakdown! With 盛るP, you only know one thing for sure: you'll be blown away. The rest is pure silky smooth mystery.
azuma's track is extremely professional sounding as usual, no wonder it was selected by SEGA. Special mention goes out to ふなむし and his masterpiece which oscillates between metal, loud indie rock, minimal techno and everything in between, while keeping a somewhat cute theme with the lyrics... I think! And of course my bro Cello, whom I can't praise enough, gives us straight-up Akiba-pop. I really hope this guy can gather the courage to work up a third compilation, but better yet a sequel to the criminally overlooked 「
eLekSoNicRusHeRRRRRR!!!」. Go Go Go, you can do it Cello!
