ONE YEAR OLD
It's now been a year since we started this thing, and somehow we're still going strong. Thanks to all our members for putting up with bad Japanese, ranting and raving, and the intricacies of trying to avoid spam while trying not to come off as heavy-handed or with our noses fifteen feet in the air. (Not sure if we've still got that part down, honestly...) I said I'd have a post ready - I lied, but I'll try to get something special up at some point this weekend. If anyone wants to chime in with comedy posts, now is the time.
Second: This post is a bit late because of, can you guess, Project Diva 2 and my need to unlock everything I possibly can in a rhythm game. I am pleased to note that I've completed everything on Hard and can thus access Speedo Kaito. More on him later in the post. I would also like to have a few pleasant words with whoever decided that Inochi no Uta should remain in Diva2, because I am so heartily sick of it I can barely stand to touch it.
Third: This is a pretty manly post. Also huge, and I've still got songs I really wish I could add to it, but it's simply getting too long. Tags will go up tomorrow, and descriptions are likely to be a bit scrappy again. Oops.
【オリジナル曲】ひとり占め！summer☆girl【男性ボカロ】
(Summer ☆ Girl (pantan), Len + Kaito + Gakupo + Sensei, Boyband, PV)
Let's get the manly underway, shall we? Get into the summer groove with Vocaloid's finest boyband and their crooning pop track, and try not to cry with laughter too hard at the chorus. Truly an inspirational track.
【初音ミク】トリコロール・エア・ライン(TropicalResortMix)【アレンジ】
(Tricolor Airline (Tropical Resort Mix) (OSTER Project), Miku, Pop, PV)
Hitting straight back are the girls - well, just Miku, as Rin is only there to look pretty while Luka is on hand solely to provide an extremely blatant Utena moment at the end - with their own summer-style track, full of steel drums and cowbell and sax and piano and a very silly video.
巡音ルカ・鏡音レン「Perfect Crime」【オリジナル曲】
(Perfect Crime (samfree), Len + Luka, Clubbish Pop)
I'm always pleased by how well these two work together. It's not a combination of voices I would have considered when I first encountered the pairing, but AVTechNo and now samfree have worked to considerably reverse that viewpoint. Perfect Crime is a funky headbopper of a track with a strong beat and some delightful Engrish to be had.
【GUMI】 会いたい 【オリジナル曲】
(I Want To See You (Dios), Gumi, Pop, PV)
Slight liberties taken with the title, if anyone can word that better I'd appreciate it. Super angsty pop from a warbly wavery Gumi - far from sounding bad, I find it really gets the tone of the song across, as she sounds uncertain and unhappy and teary-eyed. The actual song behind it, meanwhile, is tremendous.
【初音ミク】どうぶつ占い【オリジナル曲PV付】
(Animal Divination (scop), Miku, Pop, PV)
Hot off the presses, a new release from one of my favorite producers. As you'd expect, scop's work is bright and vibrant as ever, and the piano work is absolutely perfect.
初音ミクオリジナル曲 「さよなら常識空間」
(Goodbye Conventional Space (cosmo), Miku, Chiptune/Hyper Pop, PV)
A cosMo track I like is something of a rarity recently, but thankfully this makes up for his last couple quite handily. Relentlessly happy with some great piano and a lot of neat little asides and chiptune snatches, and with a great chorus line, this will do me quite nicely.
【鏡音リン】 THE DYING MESSAGE 【オリジナル】
(The Dying Message (utsu), Rin, Screamer Emo)
Well, it's been a while since we've had something this outright emo. Rock with some amazingly deep and hoarse yells, it's actually a surprisingly melodic and calm track when you get out of the screamer sections, and the contrast works well even if the harsher sections sound like Donald Duck just got shot.
【初音ミク】Sweet Devil (SuketchP rmx)【Remix】
(Sweet Devil (SuketchP Mix) (suketch), Miku, Club)
Suketch is rapidly going on my list of remixers who can do no wrong (a prestigious award, most recently also awarded to junky) for repeated feats of fantastic music. hachioji's Sweet Devil is good enough as a base track as-is; this remix gives it an uptempo beat and funky foot-tapping style.
【巡音ルカ】Mad Lovers【オリジナル】
(Mad Lovers (hachioji), Luka, Trance Pop)
Speaking of hachioji, and snuck into the post at the last minute, this Luka track is a bit harsher and 'pure trance' than most of the light and airy club that makes up the rest of the post, but it's still top-notch work from one of the best producers around for this stuff. Roll on C78 - I really want his CD.
【鏡音レンオリジナル】白い翼の少年
(White Winged Boys (sososo), Len, Pop)
Len's putting on a good showing this week - sososo's offering is stylish and superbly executed, dripping with an air I could possibly call Latin, at least until the big pan-pipe finish. That wasn't a trio of words I ever expected to type, but there you go. Either way, a low Len avoids sounding too chirpy and S-TRIBE are known for being something of a mark of quality.
【初音ミク】sound,word,heart,world【オリジナルPV】
(Sound, Word, Heart, World (KulfiQ), Miku, Rock, PV)
I think a certain trend has started up for Vocaloids to face their unassuming dark or real-world counterparts. Monochro Blue Sky, Mozaik Role, and a few others besides... and now Miku jumps back on the bandwagon again. I really like this track a lot - it's energetic with some gorgeous guitar and a pair of very balanced Miku voices.
【初音ミク】心海【オリジナル】
(Deep Sea (mamomo), Miku, Easy Listening)
If you like the softer and gentler Miku tracks - Aldebaran and Little Forest are two that come to mind immediately - then you'll almost certainly love this simple and delightful track. A well-tuned Miku croons along to sliding scales of bells and aquatic tones.
【初音ミク】Counterclockwise【オリジナル】
(Counterclockwise (ryuryu), Miku, Orchestral Pop)
If Heart Sea was too slow for you, though, then Counterclockwise should fit the bill nicely. A track in very much the same vein - at least in terms of the vocals - the floatiness of the aquatic track is switched out for a marching band's pace, full of snares and deep wind instruments.
【リン・レン・ＫＡＩＴＯ】白い鑿の彫物師【オリジナル】
(White Chisel Engraving Teacher (mayuko), Len + Rin + Kaito, Goth Vocal)
Mayuko is back with another creepy, monochrome, gothy vocal track. As with last week's, the voices are top-notch, with Kaito's voice offsetting the twins nicely and Len leading the way with a strong performance. Just the right amount of strings and percussion to back it up and the whole piece comes together very well.
【巡音ルカ】モーションブラー【オリジナル曲】
(Motion Blur (machigerita), Luka, Rock)
I don't remember if I've heard a machige Luka track before, but this isn't bad at all. Luka's voice might be a bit warbly but it stands out well in what is a primarily vocal track, while the track itself is less chaotic and angry than his other recent works, turning what could have been a very angsty track into a pleasantly listenable rock affair.
[巡音ルカオリジナル曲] 旅鳥クロニクル
(Wandering Bird's Chronicle (millstones), Luka, Jazz)
In comparison, I'm not sure that jazz is really millstones' forte. Soemthing's missing here, but I can't quite make out what - whether it's Luka's voice, which just seems off for the music, or the general feel of the song. There's nothing tremendously wrong with it, everything's there as you'd expect... I just can't say it's up to the standard I'd expect from them.
【初音ミク】終わり行く世界と、最後の僕ら。【オリジナルPV】
(Our Final Moments, As The World Ends (相馬), Miku, Rock, PV)
A lot happier a track than you'd expect, this is a simple and unassuming standard rock track with a PV that relies a lot on cutpaste art but mixes it up with apocalyptic 'the signal is going down' facets. A couple of comments mention the current Highschool of the Dead anime and I can see where they're coming from - it's definitely a track suited to an action movie.
【初音ミク】初恋リグレット【PV付オリジナル】
(First Love Regret (matsuk), Miku Append, Pop, PV)
Colour me unimpressed by this one, sadly; in this respect I appear to be against most of Nicovideo. I can't complain at the music - the solo is absolutely fantastic - but the Miku voice just ruins it all for me, the Sweet tuned-way-up-there utterly disagreeing with me.
【鏡音リン】トワイライトプランク【鏡音レン】
(Twilight Prank (mothy), Len + Rin, Piano + Drums, PV)
Eeerrgghhh... after Venomania, this isn't what I was expecting, and it's all I can do to stay awake through the whole thing. It sounds perfectly fine, a gentle and kind of relaxing pastoral thread running through it, but there's just nothing to really grab my attention and Len seems to have a couple of problems in his solo lines where his voice isn't really up to scratch.
初音ミクオリジナル曲「テレスコープ」
(Telescope (yoshino), Miku, Perfume Pop)
What's that - I haven't included a token cheesy Perfume-style club-pop track this update? Well, now I have.
【KAITO】ローリンガール【本家ver.＋ラップver.カバー】
(Rolling Girl (KAITO Original + Rap Mix), Kaito, Wowaka Pop + JRap)
We started on a manly note, let's end on one. That title line pretty much says everything you need to know. 2 Kaito voices cover Rolling Girl at once, one doing the original song, the other the j-rap version. Surprisingly enjoyable even if it does kind of turn into song salad.
Utattemita / Other:
【アレンジ】メランコリック【15人大合唱】
(Melancholic (15 Nicochorus))
From the same incredibly badass group that gave you the Mozaik Role cover linked in the last Utattemita Hour, here's their breathtaking version of Melancholic. I'm not sure how it stacks up against Gumi's anthem, whether better or worse - I'm hopelessly biased in favour of this track, which is one of my all-time favorites, but this track's obviously shorter and more full of random catches that might distract from the music.
【歌ってもらった】SPiCa -HPT ReACT-【リアレンジ】
(SPiCa -HPT ReACT- (toku), MARiA, Pop)
Totally stealing this one from Floor too, because I love me some SPiCa. MARiA's voice is simply astounding, and the ReACT mix first turns the song even softer and gentler than usual before beefing up the midsection with choral work and guitar solos.
KAITOがミツバチを歌ってくれました
A fantastic Diva 2 Edit video loop. I am not going to spoil this in any way - just go and watch it and bask in the glory that is Kaito. (NB: For those people I may have subjected to it during the week, this is not Kaito doing Kocchi Muite Baby in a Speedo.) Diva Edit videos have come so far. :'D
【MikuMikuDance】ハートキャッチ☆ガンダム！ / 初音ミクAppend【ガンダム00】
(Heart Catch ☆ Gundam!, Miku Append, MMD PV)
Just when you thought you'd seen every version of Heart Catch possible, here's a new one for the record books, which comes complete with rendition of a famous Gundam scene before getting very, very silly. Animation quality is awesome, and the Miku Append cover isn't too searing.
Second: This post is a bit late because of, can you guess, Project Diva 2 and my need to unlock everything I possibly can in a rhythm game. I am pleased to note that I've completed everything on Hard and can thus access Speedo Kaito. More on him later in the post. I would also like to have a few pleasant words with whoever decided that Inochi no Uta should remain in Diva2, because I am so heartily sick of it I can barely stand to touch it.
Third: This is a pretty manly post. Also huge, and I've still got songs I really wish I could add to it, but it's simply getting too long. Tags will go up tomorrow, and descriptions are likely to be a bit scrappy again. Oops.
【オリジナル曲】ひとり占め！summer☆girl【男性ボカロ】
(Summer ☆ Girl (pantan), Len + Kaito + Gakupo + Sensei, Boyband, PV)
Let's get the manly underway, shall we? Get into the summer groove with Vocaloid's finest boyband and their crooning pop track, and try not to cry with laughter too hard at the chorus. Truly an inspirational track.
【初音ミク】トリコロール・エア・ライン(TropicalResortMix)【アレンジ】
(Tricolor Airline (Tropical Resort Mix) (OSTER Project), Miku, Pop, PV)
Hitting straight back are the girls - well, just Miku, as Rin is only there to look pretty while Luka is on hand solely to provide an extremely blatant Utena moment at the end - with their own summer-style track, full of steel drums and cowbell and sax and piano and a very silly video.
巡音ルカ・鏡音レン「Perfect Crime」【オリジナル曲】
(Perfect Crime (samfree), Len + Luka, Clubbish Pop)
I'm always pleased by how well these two work together. It's not a combination of voices I would have considered when I first encountered the pairing, but AVTechNo and now samfree have worked to considerably reverse that viewpoint. Perfect Crime is a funky headbopper of a track with a strong beat and some delightful Engrish to be had.
【GUMI】 会いたい 【オリジナル曲】
(I Want To See You (Dios), Gumi, Pop, PV)
Slight liberties taken with the title, if anyone can word that better I'd appreciate it. Super angsty pop from a warbly wavery Gumi - far from sounding bad, I find it really gets the tone of the song across, as she sounds uncertain and unhappy and teary-eyed. The actual song behind it, meanwhile, is tremendous.
【初音ミク】どうぶつ占い【オリジナル曲PV付】
(Animal Divination (scop), Miku, Pop, PV)
Hot off the presses, a new release from one of my favorite producers. As you'd expect, scop's work is bright and vibrant as ever, and the piano work is absolutely perfect.
初音ミクオリジナル曲 「さよなら常識空間」
(Goodbye Conventional Space (cosmo), Miku, Chiptune/Hyper Pop, PV)
A cosMo track I like is something of a rarity recently, but thankfully this makes up for his last couple quite handily. Relentlessly happy with some great piano and a lot of neat little asides and chiptune snatches, and with a great chorus line, this will do me quite nicely.
【鏡音リン】 THE DYING MESSAGE 【オリジナル】
(The Dying Message (utsu), Rin, Screamer Emo)
Well, it's been a while since we've had something this outright emo. Rock with some amazingly deep and hoarse yells, it's actually a surprisingly melodic and calm track when you get out of the screamer sections, and the contrast works well even if the harsher sections sound like Donald Duck just got shot.
【初音ミク】Sweet Devil (SuketchP rmx)【Remix】
(Sweet Devil (SuketchP Mix) (suketch), Miku, Club)
Suketch is rapidly going on my list of remixers who can do no wrong (a prestigious award, most recently also awarded to junky) for repeated feats of fantastic music. hachioji's Sweet Devil is good enough as a base track as-is; this remix gives it an uptempo beat and funky foot-tapping style.
【巡音ルカ】Mad Lovers【オリジナル】
(Mad Lovers (hachioji), Luka, Trance Pop)
Speaking of hachioji, and snuck into the post at the last minute, this Luka track is a bit harsher and 'pure trance' than most of the light and airy club that makes up the rest of the post, but it's still top-notch work from one of the best producers around for this stuff. Roll on C78 - I really want his CD.
【鏡音レンオリジナル】白い翼の少年
(White Winged Boys (sososo), Len, Pop)
Len's putting on a good showing this week - sososo's offering is stylish and superbly executed, dripping with an air I could possibly call Latin, at least until the big pan-pipe finish. That wasn't a trio of words I ever expected to type, but there you go. Either way, a low Len avoids sounding too chirpy and S-TRIBE are known for being something of a mark of quality.
【初音ミク】sound,word,heart,world【オリジナルPV】
(Sound, Word, Heart, World (KulfiQ), Miku, Rock, PV)
I think a certain trend has started up for Vocaloids to face their unassuming dark or real-world counterparts. Monochro Blue Sky, Mozaik Role, and a few others besides... and now Miku jumps back on the bandwagon again. I really like this track a lot - it's energetic with some gorgeous guitar and a pair of very balanced Miku voices.
【初音ミク】心海【オリジナル】
(Deep Sea (mamomo), Miku, Easy Listening)
If you like the softer and gentler Miku tracks - Aldebaran and Little Forest are two that come to mind immediately - then you'll almost certainly love this simple and delightful track. A well-tuned Miku croons along to sliding scales of bells and aquatic tones.
【初音ミク】Counterclockwise【オリジナル】
(Counterclockwise (ryuryu), Miku, Orchestral Pop)
If Heart Sea was too slow for you, though, then Counterclockwise should fit the bill nicely. A track in very much the same vein - at least in terms of the vocals - the floatiness of the aquatic track is switched out for a marching band's pace, full of snares and deep wind instruments.
【リン・レン・ＫＡＩＴＯ】白い鑿の彫物師【オリジナル】
(White Chisel Engraving Teacher (mayuko), Len + Rin + Kaito, Goth Vocal)
Mayuko is back with another creepy, monochrome, gothy vocal track. As with last week's, the voices are top-notch, with Kaito's voice offsetting the twins nicely and Len leading the way with a strong performance. Just the right amount of strings and percussion to back it up and the whole piece comes together very well.
【巡音ルカ】モーションブラー【オリジナル曲】
(Motion Blur (machigerita), Luka, Rock)
I don't remember if I've heard a machige Luka track before, but this isn't bad at all. Luka's voice might be a bit warbly but it stands out well in what is a primarily vocal track, while the track itself is less chaotic and angry than his other recent works, turning what could have been a very angsty track into a pleasantly listenable rock affair.
[巡音ルカオリジナル曲] 旅鳥クロニクル
(Wandering Bird's Chronicle (millstones), Luka, Jazz)
In comparison, I'm not sure that jazz is really millstones' forte. Soemthing's missing here, but I can't quite make out what - whether it's Luka's voice, which just seems off for the music, or the general feel of the song. There's nothing tremendously wrong with it, everything's there as you'd expect... I just can't say it's up to the standard I'd expect from them.
【初音ミク】終わり行く世界と、最後の僕ら。【オリジナルPV】
(Our Final Moments, As The World Ends (相馬), Miku, Rock, PV)
A lot happier a track than you'd expect, this is a simple and unassuming standard rock track with a PV that relies a lot on cutpaste art but mixes it up with apocalyptic 'the signal is going down' facets. A couple of comments mention the current Highschool of the Dead anime and I can see where they're coming from - it's definitely a track suited to an action movie.
【初音ミク】初恋リグレット【PV付オリジナル】
(First Love Regret (matsuk), Miku Append, Pop, PV)
Colour me unimpressed by this one, sadly; in this respect I appear to be against most of Nicovideo. I can't complain at the music - the solo is absolutely fantastic - but the Miku voice just ruins it all for me, the Sweet tuned-way-up-there utterly disagreeing with me.
【鏡音リン】トワイライトプランク【鏡音レン】
(Twilight Prank (mothy), Len + Rin, Piano + Drums, PV)
Eeerrgghhh... after Venomania, this isn't what I was expecting, and it's all I can do to stay awake through the whole thing. It sounds perfectly fine, a gentle and kind of relaxing pastoral thread running through it, but there's just nothing to really grab my attention and Len seems to have a couple of problems in his solo lines where his voice isn't really up to scratch.
初音ミクオリジナル曲「テレスコープ」
(Telescope (yoshino), Miku, Perfume Pop)
What's that - I haven't included a token cheesy Perfume-style club-pop track this update? Well, now I have.
【KAITO】ローリンガール【本家ver.＋ラップver.カバー】
(Rolling Girl (KAITO Original + Rap Mix), Kaito, Wowaka Pop + JRap)
We started on a manly note, let's end on one. That title line pretty much says everything you need to know. 2 Kaito voices cover Rolling Girl at once, one doing the original song, the other the j-rap version. Surprisingly enjoyable even if it does kind of turn into song salad.
Utattemita / Other:
【アレンジ】メランコリック【15人大合唱】
(Melancholic (15 Nicochorus))
From the same incredibly badass group that gave you the Mozaik Role cover linked in the last Utattemita Hour, here's their breathtaking version of Melancholic. I'm not sure how it stacks up against Gumi's anthem, whether better or worse - I'm hopelessly biased in favour of this track, which is one of my all-time favorites, but this track's obviously shorter and more full of random catches that might distract from the music.
【歌ってもらった】SPiCa -HPT ReACT-【リアレンジ】
(SPiCa -HPT ReACT- (toku), MARiA, Pop)
Totally stealing this one from Floor too, because I love me some SPiCa. MARiA's voice is simply astounding, and the ReACT mix first turns the song even softer and gentler than usual before beefing up the midsection with choral work and guitar solos.
KAITOがミツバチを歌ってくれました
A fantastic Diva 2 Edit video loop. I am not going to spoil this in any way - just go and watch it and bask in the glory that is Kaito. (NB: For those people I may have subjected to it during the week, this is not Kaito doing Kocchi Muite Baby in a Speedo.) Diva Edit videos have come so far. :'D
【MikuMikuDance】ハートキャッチ☆ガンダム！ / 初音ミクAppend【ガンダム00】
(Heart Catch ☆ Gundam!, Miku Append, MMD PV)
Just when you thought you'd seen every version of Heart Catch possible, here's a new one for the record books, which comes complete with rendition of a famous Gundam scene before getting very, very silly. Animation quality is awesome, and the Miku Append cover isn't too searing.