New MOSAIC.WAV うじゅ image song

It seems my lustful prayers and dark sacrificial ceremonies were not in vain. A new うじゅ single will see the light later this year and a short version of one of the songs has already been made available. Titled 「ねばねば♥スイーツ」, you can sample the MP3 directly or get crushed by the massive NicoNico walls of texts. Alternately you could also check out the Joraku page for said track, since it also includes a lyrics sheet and the story which inspired the song.

Bottom line? Although this is not exactly the うじゅたま follow-up song I was hoping for, it's the next best thing indeed. So far it might not have the same long-lasting qualities that 2007's 「電脳合戦×うじゅの陣！」 possesses but it's growing on me and definitely redeems itself when you consider the absolutely devilish arrangements that Kayamori-san once again cooked up. Plus, it's only the short version of one of the two songs (or more? don't rule out another ドラマ) which will be available once the single drops later this year so I shall reserve my judgment until then. I'm guessing October 18 is the exact date (which is when the Uzumasa Sengoku Matsuri hits) and you can bet on a MOSAIC.WAV performance too, much like they have last year.

PS: Intro was taken from Dvořák's Symphony No.9 ("From the New World" - 4th movement.) Thumbs up for bridging the gap between denpa and classical music...

Source: new-akiba.com

CD検討: Perfume 「love the world」

A mere three months after the highly successful 「GAME」, Perfume drop new music with their 12th single 「love the world」. Given the short delay between both releases, you'll be forgiven for thinking these two new songs are nothing more than extra B-sides that didn't make the full-length cut. But in fact, even though the two new songs "love the world" and "edge" are very similar to what you would find on 「GAME」, they hold their own quite well and serve as the perfect companion to an already perfect record. There are four tracks in total, including an instrumental version of "love the world" and an extended remix of "edge". The cover gives off a retro/60's vibe which can be felt in the music. All of them are looking nothing short of hot (with Nocchi on top) so my chauvinistic side is hoping the next cover follows in line!

love the world: The opening track wastes no time introducing the poignant little jingle that will make a recurring appearance for the next 4:35 to come. In accordance with the song's name, this is a fairly cheerful track that may or may not entice you to actually love said world. I don't really dig forced child labor in India and the endlessly ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so I'm gonna assume that they're singing about a fictitious, dream-like world. That much I have no problem with... good try though. Musically we're really close to GAME's "Plastic Smile", which I have really grown to love due to my girlfriend's abusive favorite-song-on-replay policy. Yet again, there are no surprises on here, high quality production values are all over the place and the song never drags on or becomes boring.

However, I'm starting to understand long-time Perfume fans when they say they prefer the older stuff. Not that I'm on their side, but the girls' role might as well have been diminished to showroom mannequins. They don't sing at all anymore, they merely push harmonious sounds out of their tiny mouths while they prance around in a faux-popping fashion. The vocalizer plugin does all of their work while Nakata-san serves up his greatest compositions to date unto the unsuspecting masses. One quick comparative listen to "Sweet Donuts" and even momoi-produced "アキハバラブ" reveals that the girls used to have to sing their way into their fans' heart. This is apparently no longer necessary given the new style, but I'd still like to see them turn off the cruise control someday...

edge: Whereas "love the world" was purely written Perfume-style, "edge" is... ちょっとちがう, a little different. It doesn't sound anything like a Perfume song, but rather a capsule one. This is 中田ヤスタカ having fun 2 da maxxx obviously, but I'm not sure how well the die-hard fans will receive this. Personally I'm quite pleased given how much I love capsule, so I welcome the crossover initiative with open arms. But what exactly makes "edge" capsule-sounding? It opens with an arcane groove pattern tucked under a laser-cut precise drum pattern. Appropriately this time, the girls sing in a darker tone, bathing this tune in a gloomy aura that you just can't shake off. Definitely not the lollipop stuff they were singing about 3-4 years ago. I appreciate the change but I'd still really like to see some new songs performed in the key of yon.

edge ~extended remix~: Why yes, I am reviewing a remixed song, thanks for noticing. This one (probably the intended cut) adds a whole 2 minutes to the watered-down version for a whopping total of 8:41 minutes. The girls don't start "singing" until about 1 minute in, due to the long intro. The rest of the song is actually very similar, except for elongated passages and an even darker mood due to some sullen chanting and morose homophony that mirror the vocal patterns.

I'm completely sold to Perfume, so I'm not gonna say "this isn't bad" or anything like that. 「love the world」 rules. Hard. If you enjoyed 「GAME」 there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't get this なかま single. Japan seems to think so as well; with an astonishing 80K+ units sold in the first week, this single is on par with the full-length album's 315K copies so far. There is just no stopping this Oricon-raping Perfume train!

Upcoming 榊原ゆい album 「JOKER」

The ever-so-prolific 榊原ゆい (SAKAKIBARA Yui) will release her fourth full-length album on September 10 2008. That's just two weeks after C74, so don't rule out advance copies being available that weekend. Much like her three previous albums, 「JOKER」 will be a compilation of her (11) most recent game/anime themes along with four new tracks. Similarly to Haruko Momoi, she covers a select variety of musical genres but mostly oscillates between cute JPop and straight-up denpa. I've actually been aware of her work for some time, but didn't think about featuring her on 電波の世界 until 愛撫 from I've Sound Blog made the suggestion. The cover isn't available at the moment, but StarChild has a rather nice promotional picture which clearly hints at the art direction; not that it's entirely unexpected. She clearly has no issue with demonstrating her assets, as she has shown in the past. Here's the track list... Get Love Power!!!

01　Love Game
（JOKER～prelude～）

02　JOKER
(オリジナル新曲)

03　Einsatz
（Dies irae OP主題歌/light）

04　Believe
（オリジナル新曲）

05　Happy Leap
（タイムリープ OP主題歌/フロントウィング）

06　Over the Light
（七彩かなた 挿入歌/千世）

07　Together
（暁の護衛 ＯＰ主題歌/しゃんぐりら）

08　ふるふるっ☆
（ふるふる★フルムーン OP主題歌/Little princess）

09　Till I can see you again
（Chu×Chuぱらだいす EDテーマ/ユニゾンシフトアクセント）

10　Get Love Power
（こんぼく麻雀 OP主題歌/あかべぇそふとつぅ）

11　Aqua Voice
（朝凪のアクアノーツ　OP主題歌/Fizz）

12　Ready Go!!
（Fate/タイガーころしあむ OP主題歌/カプコン）

13　Imitation
（Imitation Lover ＯＰ主題歌/light）

14　Girl meets Boy
（ラテールイメージソング/Gamepot）

15　message!
(オリジナル新曲)

In related news, she will be performing alongside Momoi and many other artists who had their songs collected under 5pb.'s massive 「THE WORKS～志倉千代丸楽曲集～」 game themes compilation series, all three volumes of which will go on sale on July 30th. If you're near Tokyo's Studio Cube 326 on August 23, then you know exactly what to do. Seeing as how this series should contain a lot of denpa tunes, expect to read more about it in the coming weeks.

MOSAIC.WAV @ 「Animelo Summer Live 2008 -Challenge-」

2008 is clearly shaping up to be MOSAIC.WAV's biggest year so far! Today, they announced their participation at the two-day ANIMELO live event on August 30-31 2008, possibly the biggest Anime music concert out there since it first started in 2005. The event is already sold out: over 10,000 fans are expected to gather at the Saitama Super-Arena and with good reason too! Look at that crazy list of artists and singers which will appear on stage. Among others: 桃井はるこ, GRANRODEO, miko (from IOSYS/Albatrosicks), THE IDOLM@STER girls, 石川智晶 and the motherfucking JAM Project!!! Note the absence of any I've Sound members, which is surprising considering their strong Shakugan no Shana contributions. To be fair though, I don't think they ever participated in the previous festivals. Final observation: previous Animelo concerts had live DVD releases... so this should mark MOSAIC.WAV's first official DVD appearance!

Internet radios for the discerning denpa listener

AnimeNfo Radio

This one is on top of the list and by far. They have a huge variety of songs, probably terabytes of MP3s at their disposal. MOSAIC.WAV frequently gets requested, although they mostly offer their anime songs. As for KOTOKO and the rest of the I've gang, while none of the SHORT CIRCUIT songs are up (for shame!), all of the compilation albums are. They have JPop and JRock blocks as well as a recent "happy hour" where only the most popular songs are played, as voted by the users. My favorite aspect of AnimeNfo Radio is that I frequently discover fascinating new anime series just because I like the theme song. For example, "2x2=shinobuden" has a furious opening theme and the series is just as upbeat with its ton of non sequitur moments. Of course I've discovered a ton of artists that aren't necessarily associated with anime, such as can-goo, Kimura Yuki and Yousei Teikoku. I have been known to donate once in a while, perhaps you will too once you discover the vast selection they have to offer.

Kawaii-Radio

There used to be a time when AnimeNfo, despite all of its greatness and our monetary contributions, was on very shaky grounds. The server would crash all the time and Doff (animenfo admin) was busy on service in Norway so that's where Kawaii Radio came in for most people. Although they started out very small and still pale in comparison to AnimeNfo to this day, their selection has vastly improved over the past couple of years. They even started including some Touhou-inspired artists such as IOSYS and Silver Forest, so clearly they know what they're doing. My biggest gripe is that their regular listeners enjoy requesting the same songs over and over, resulting in huge déja vu whenever I tune in. One thing I absolutely love about this radio is the sleek website interface that loads instantly, something AnimeNfo should look into.

Kohina

Although I don't listen to Kohina as much as I used to, it is still a ton of fun to tune into every once in a while. The premise behind this unique internet radio is to feature nothing but remixed versions of classic 8/16 bit games or the occasional "demo" tune. Unfortunately the updates seem to have slowed down, with no new songs this far in 2008. This radio is clearly not for everyone as it is highly gamer-oriented, but I still think you should give it a try, especially if you're a fan of chiptune bands such as YMCK.


ormgas/ocremix
If Kohina was too rough around the edges for you, then perhaps ormgas is what you were looking for. Again, the same premise of user-remixed video game songs applies, but in this case there are no restrictions on what subset of instruments can be used. The quality is overall much sharper and possibly easier to listen to, depending on your preferences. The systems covered here are mostly the NES and SNES, but there is a lot of Genesis and even Dreamcast thrown in there for good measure. I love how users can vote on-the-fly which song should be played next, and considering the high number of listeners that log in recently, I'd say this new project is fairly successful in its execution.

Micro Music

So you like the idea behind Kohina, but would like to hear original tunes? Then look no further than Micro Music. Again, we're talking about 8/16 bit sounding songs, but taken to the extreme. What I like the most about the radio interface is that you can skip tracks as well as use one of ten filters, going from "lovely" all the way up to "fucky". Guess which one I always pick. This site is even nerdier than Kohina: with song titles such as "how to meet local hot women" and artist names such as STA$D400, you can practice your flirting techniques and assembler skills at the same time! While the radio service is prominently featured on Micro Music, the website also acts as a gateway of sorts to the electronic music community. Overall this is a great radio to tune into, but eventually you'll find that their selection is somewhat limited. At this point you could check out the 8bitcollective repository, which sorely lacks a player.


VGamp
Currently, the VGamp website isn't much to look at as it's undergoing a facelift. But the Toronto-based station is still kicking it with the best video game music of the past 20 years, all styles included. No remixes here, unless they are official of course. From Akumajou Dracula X to Ikaruga, Jet Set/Grind Radio to Silent Hill, the gang's all here and just waiting for you to jump in. Alternately, you could download all these songs one by one from Galbadia Hotel, but that would be a pain in the ass, not to mention that the venerable Hotel is (once again) rumored to close its doors.

So what do you think? Any of these radios tickle your fancy? Feel free to share your favorite stations, too!

Upcoming MOSAIC.WAV summer events

Two events have recently been added to the official MOSAIC.WAV website. The first one is the "twilight listening party vol.4", an official gig thrown together by Lantis Records which showcases its artist. This is on July 24 2008 at Shibuya's "DUO music exchange" club. Featured artists are yozuca*, MOSAIC.WAV and Little Non. Except for Little Non, which I find pretty boring myself, this should be an exciting night. MOSAIC.WAV need no introduction, but yozuca* has sung some kick ass anime themes in the past, notably the ones from Girls Bravo and Da Capo. The second one is a DVD release event for 「狂乱家族日記」 or "Frenzy Family Diary" as it's unofficially known in the west. The MOSAIC.WAV clan has recently confirmed its performing participation, with August 24 2008 as the date. Location? Akihabara's ISHiMARU, fabled home of so many gravure idol events.

Update: Added one more summer event.