Alright... I lied. You can tell right away what this post is going to be about. That's right, more EDM! This time from one of the oldest touhou doujin circles around. But don't worry, I've got some other previews in here as well. [Alstroemeria Records] - POP | CULTURE 5 Genre - EDM, Dubstep, House, Electro-House, Vocal, Touhou Site | XFD Alstroemeria Records (ALR) needs no introduction. You guys have probably all heard Masayoshi's Bad Apple beffore. I predicted that ALR was going to release yet another Pop Culture, and I was right. At this point, I think they've probably run out of names for their albums. I don't blame them... this is their 49th full album after all. But lets take a look at the individual tracks in the preview. 1. N/A. It's just a short intro track, so that's fine 2. Nomico sounds just like how she did on Lost Emotion (POP | CULTURE 3). Meh, more originality please. 3. Pretty decent original composition with nachi. Can't go wrong with nachi as the vocalist right? 4. Camellia... ugh. This is actually not that bad, compared to Restart (POP } CULTURE 4). I didn't get to hear Mei Ayakura in the preview though :(. 5. Syrufit is back!!! It sounds decent, but I won't judge til I hear the full track. 6. Oh jeez, such a huge shift in styles with this track. It's by Tracy of Amateras Records. 7. Not bad... there was a hint of a drop at the end, right before the track faded into #8. Scary stuff, I'm not gonna lie! 8. It's Ayame x Masayoshi. Sounds like the typical laid back Ayame track that I've come to expect. Good, but not special. 9. ZYTOKINE's remix sounds... alright. 10. ARM's transformed Ayame's track into something more up beat. Should be interesting. This is actually not that bad compared to PC4 from the last comiket. I mean it's just a preview though, so there could be some hidden surprises in the full album. I know I'm really harsh on Alstroemeria Records most of the time, but I used to have great expectations of them. They happened to produce two of my favorite touhou albums of all time, but nowadays it's been nothing but disappointment. Will Alstroemeria Records end the year with yet another terrible album? We'll see! [Alstroemeria Records] - CLOSE TOGETHER Genre - EDM, Dubstep, House, Electro-House, Vocal, Touhou Site | XFD Alright, so a remix compilation of ALR's tracks. As far as I'm aware, these are all old tracks from either ALR's albums or guest tracks on other circles' albums. It's pretty cool to hear some remixes that I haven't heard before from other circles. Judging by the catalog # of ARCD00R1, there seems to be more remix albums to come in the future. The last time ALR released something like this was during C84, REBIRTH DANCEHALL. My god, that was an awful release. Masayoshi took his older tracks and mixed them so they would flow together in the style of his DACENHALL albums. That would have been perfectly fine, but he also managed to significantly decrease the sound quality of the individual tracks. At least this time the tracks in CLOSE TOGETHER seem to be kept relatively intact. Also, props to the artist for the album art. It looks very well done, meshing together the covers from Harmony, For Your Pieces, DEGENERATE DANCEHALL, and FLASHLIGHT. [HAPPY I SCREAM!!] - ハピスクまとめ チョコミント味 Genre - Rock, Punk, Vocal, Touhou Site | XFD 1, XFD 2 I think I've seen their albums around before, especially since the art style stands out. As promised, this is NOT an EDM album! This is a a compilation of HAPPY I SCREAM!!'s rock/punk arrangements over the past 5 years. They've been around for quite a long time! I'm kind of surprised that they don't have a VGMDB entry. Anyways , the MINT disc consists of their work from 2013-2015 and is mainly arranged by void from IOSYS. The CHOCOLATE disc is from 2010-2012 and has a variety of arrangers. Overall the compilation sounds decent and may be worth a full listen if you like some touhou rock. The sound quality isn't anything to sing about (ignore the pun :P) but isn't as bad as foreground eclipse's or shinigawa satellite's. [Amateras Records] - Trip to Fairyland Genre - Electronic, Vocal, Touhou Site | XFD More electronic music. Sorry!! Amateras Records is another fairly old electronic touhou circle. Their work is actually generally more tolerable than ALR and ENS's lately. They do have a guest track from Masayoshi (ALR) and Kirin (ENS) in this album however, and their tracks actually sound better than the stuff that they put on their own album. Subjectively of course! One of the better touhou electronic previews I've listened to thus far in C89. Interestingly enough, the cover art is done by nana(Sevencolors), who is known for his vocaloid music. Also, this is the second album cover I've seen with Clownpiece on it. She's the stage 5 boss from Touhou 15, Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom. [Hachimitsu-Lemon] - Kowarekake no Sekai no Naka de Genre - Instrumental, Piano, Jazz, Vocal, Original Site | XFD I actually wasn't expecting to hear this kind of music from Hachimitsu-Lemon. What a pleasant surprise! If you guys have played Adventures of Scarlet Curiosity (A touhou rpg), you'll recognize the circle. Normally they make touhou pop arrangements or OSTs but this time around, there's a variety of genres here. All original compositions, with a few vocal tracks. I really liked that piano jazz piece around 2:00. It's so smooth and relaxing! Hachimitu-Lemon sends this winter, Based on what I can make of google's web translation, it seems like this album also comes with a story book and illustrations to go with it. It'll be nice if someone could translate the lyrics and the story sometime after the album is released. [753] - "LANJERD PROJECT"3rd record Genre - Instrumental, Piano, Jazz, Vocal, Original Site | XFD 1, XFD 2 I'm actually not sure what the album name is. It's kind of hard to tell from the website and the soundcloud page. I don't know if this is an original album or an OP/ED from an anime either >~<. So there's only 2 tracks in the preview. The first one is a rare (at least to me) Japanese girl + guitar composition and the second one is a soft pop composition that ended up sounding pretty good. Haruka Shimotsuki, the singer/writer, is actually more known for her work in games and anime. You may recognize some of her work in visual novels (Cartagra, KNS, KNS 2), Rosen Maiden, and Atelier Iris. She has a pretty lovely voice. I'm actually really looking forward to Syrufit coming back to the doujin music scene. Syrufit and Poplica were one of the first doujin circles that I've listened to and loved. They really differentiated themselves from the other electronic circles around. Poplica is still making music, but unfortunately he doesn't make his own albums anymore. I don't believe that they're in the style of Replica, Live A-Round, or Love either. It's a shame, but wouldn't it be amazing if the two of them got back together? A user from doujinstyle said that Syrufit is working on an album for the next Reitaisai. If that's true, then I'm hoping he could bring some new ideas and styles to the disappointing touhou electronic music that we have nowadays. Who else is excited that Syrufit is back?
There doesn't seem to be anything new up on Shibayan's website so far. I hope that he does come out with something this Comiket. Last Comiket, he released TOHO Bossa Nova 4 so I'm expecting an electronic album this time around. I've also checked Kimino-Museum's website, but nothing from them either. Stay tuned for more previews to come.
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Welcome to The Emotional Skyscraper, a blog for touhou/doujin music recommendations, games, visual novels, and other otaku related oddities.
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Games: Atelier Escha & Logy Anime: None Emoskyis a full time otaku & audiophile who enjoys listening to Touhou music, playing doujin games, and reading visual novels. For more information, visit the About page. Categories
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