A debut
work by SUISO laboratories. ‘Oxygen’ is a blissful hard/j-rock song featuring
vivid GUMI’s vocals as well as a bit over the top instrumentals :) Enjoy!
No, this track
seems to be unrelated to ‘Sleeping beauty’ made by 164 back in goode olde
2008 which was somewhat popular at the moment. The producer of today’s song,
lovin-san, labels his piece 'dark fantasy hard rock’. While I wholeheartedly agree
with ‘hard rock’ part, and maybe even with ‘fantasy’, I can’t feel any specific
‘darkness’ in it :) Anyway, the song has decent production compared with the
majority of Vocaloid hard rock works.
Good news: Caz still remembers us poor souls craving for grand metal sound. Bad Shocking news: the character of “Parallel Dreamer” could be quite far from what you expect from this renowned producer. Seriously, the last piece presented by Caz, “Valkyrie Dance“, brings in melodic metalcore of epic, no, EPIC awesomeness! So you’re prepared to be blasted by roaring whirlwind of music… and… and…
…And, as track starts on, a slight feeling of weirdness emerges. Like, you know, you suspect you’re being fooled :) Well, can’t say there isn’t blasting whirlwind of music, if a bit less of roaring type ;) The drums are no less energetic than in earlier producer’s songs… But, damn, it’s PLAIN J-ROCK! And yes, sparky, intense and joyful j-rock. The mood reminds that’s of “Foolish "13" People” – only you should remove all metalcore from there. (And I know there’ll be little left from “Foolish "13" People” if you’ll remove all metalcore :)
At least Caz keeps allegiance to Luka Megurine. Though it’s a bit unusual, again, to listen to his work without screaming vocals :) On the other hand, I must notice a greatly improved quality of Luka’s clean singing, so I think the developments are not that bad. The video and illustrations (featuring a couple of bishoujo VN characters, Luka desperately addicted to them, and, finally, Luka with bazooka) are deftly made by achikoaco.
Luka with bazooka. The song is actually about hardships of excess virtual world engagement, but that doesn’t diminish the prominence of the concept a single bit.
Producers were unwilling to give us true and potent j-rock recently, so the fresh blockbuster from H’aven project (and Jiro personally) is quite timely. The style is much closer to hard rock, only ‘classic’ hard rock is not nearly as insane :) Vigorous guitars (lead by Pibo-san) and wonderful lively IA’s singing fit together perfectly. By the way, vocal part is rather complicated and could pose a challenge to a human vocalist :) Damn them robots! ;)
Fantastic stuff from yairi-san. The man is gross, but this time it’s just something extraordinary! Wild, absolutely mind-blowing cocktail of djent, alternative metal, j-rock and unleashed electronics. And also picoreamo? Yeah, if you explain me what the fuck ‘picoreamo’ means :) The brew is perfectly dense and goes as smooth as vodka with Coca Cola ;) Add yairi’s top-notch sound with wicked and shrewd guitars and hard hits of bass drums. And finish this with two charming vocalists doing their best to match all this splendor! Oh, and I don’t know why, but IA’s and Miku’s voices sound suspiciously similar here :)
Only now I have realized it is very easy to surprise me. The video’s title doesn’t contain the name of Vocaloid singing it, so… My first thought when I’ve heard the clean vocals was: “Luka…” My second thought was “Fuck…” My third thought was: “Damn you Yuyoyuppe for five fucking years you DIDN’T GIVE A FUCK on quality of vocals now what? an enhancement? what have you been waiting for BASTARD I FUCKING LOVE IT” In this very moment my Caps Lock has died so I was forced to stop the hysteria. I mean euphoria… ;)
This song is lighter than average for Yuyoyuppe but keeps his style as well as quality. The shift somewhere into j-rock is rather substantial, especially in chorus. But many of post-hardcore elements are still present, including vicious-tuned guitars. The movie isn’t my thing actually, I’ve grown up on more mighty stuff ;)
For all I know, this can be the announce of a new circle. But the information on this topic has been pretty scarce so far…
An engaging, if a bit troll-ish, song by Rascal-san. The producer seems to throw in the pot everything he thinks worthy enough, and the whole jumble sounds oddly attractive. The shift from rock’n’roll to nu metal in the beginning belongs to fucking Hall of Fame! :) Some tricks aside, this could be described as hard rock with a pronounced Japanese flavor. Smart work with Gumi vocals makes this song really splendid.
Project “Last Note” has released a new blockbuster song. This time it’s buoyant j-rock. The guys made Gumi sing incredibly lifelike, awwww… I call it ‘mastery’.
It seems today is post-punk day, because another awesome song was uploaded just an hour after “Gorgeous Big taidan” was. Well, this post-punk is much, MUCH closer to its roots :) Kyou-inu, the producer, was on the scene almost from the very beginning, and the quality of his current works is fearsome to say the least. Kyou-inu-san tries hard to bring a novel character to the each of his songs, and the result tends to be quite appealing.
Daruma is a thing you see in the first moments of video, it’s a kind of toy. Besides, the video is excellent, if a bit fuzzy for non-Japanese (like me). The music is awesome, light and lively and carefree. It’s made without any synthetics, that’s why I mentioned ‘roots’, it sounds totally like it would some thirty years ago. Gumi-san adds much to the overall craziness. She’s just perfect!
Weekend. It turns out that various creepy producers that make music worthy enough for VMW hide somewhere deep in their burrows at weekends. Maybe they just don’t want to ruin all that weekend, you know, *jubiliance*, and *comfort*, and other things. Maybe they’re just drinking or smoking weed. Who knows? The only thing that matters is that we are left one-on-one with some really dreadful stuff. I’m unwilling to name it, but I must…
J-rock.
Yes, j-rock, which I work thoroughly to be not permitted on the pure and shining VMW pages, still squeezes in. We’re losing ground, we need reinforcements! We don’t stand a ghost of a chance against the almighty Suzumu! “Sekishinsei…” is a tide of sound with overwhelming energetics. It’s perfectly paced and perfectly mastered. Add masterful work with Kagamine twins and you get irresistible level of charm. Plus the excellent video (by Saine) for extra balance.
Mokemoke has created a really aggressive cocktail! It’s not too easy to neither define its genre attribution nor even sort out what are the dominants here. I’d cautiously name j-rock as a base, then some industrial influence, then a dash of breakbeat, topped with rapcore, and finally a j-pop cherry just to make everything outright indigestible overwhelming. But don’t worry, the chimera stays steady on all its five feet. ;)
Even more astonishing is the fact that IA’s vocals manage to override all this turmoil. Her voice sounds unusually powerful, yet it might’ve lost some of its charming tones. She even could be confused for Ritsu. But not every song needs charming tones, and in “Akashic Record” IA does well impressive without ‘em.
Nice j-rokku by Haruchin. Haruchin-san is better known for bass covers, and seems to have more fans on Youtube rather than on Nicovideo, which is a rare thing for Japanese ensoushitemita performers. As for Haruchin’s Vocaloid original releases, there wasn’t much. Haruchin’s been active on this scene for a little short of three years yet “Hoshiyume” is only fourth work to come out. But the producer seems to be comfortable with this pace. I should admit this approach bears fruit, because the latest song will definitely outpace previous works in terms of popularity. Speaking of more ambiguous matters such as quality, I’d claim there is a remarkable progress. Everywhere – in the composition, in the creativity, in the density, in the arranging skills… At last (but not the least) in Miku’s vocals. Miku’s voice never was Haruchin’s advantage (indeed Hatsune differs from bassu slightly :) ), but in “Hoshiyume” the change is drastic. Maybe vocals are not top-tier lifelike here, but the emotional side is just awesome!
Hope with the momentum like that the next producer’s song will be the ultimate killer. We’ll see next year… ;)
Usually
Vocapunk is best described as 'cute'. Sad but true. OK, OK, the word ‘sad’ is
the last thing that comes into mind when you are listening to “Thrash Princess”
:) Because it is kinda typical for Vocapunk sub-genre, so it is full of sheer, triple-B
A brainwashing CUTENESS. Moreover, Gumi is leading all that impudence
personally. What a shame…
Don’t you
even try to say you don’t like it, it’s irresistible :)
A song from the Light side of the Force again. If you crave for something heavier, I have to remind you of Master Yoda’s words: “Patience you must have, my young padawan”. Well, in fact, Master had a low opinion on the Dark side:
Speaking of expensive hustlers, not a long time ago I was hanging in a bar… Huh? The song? What song? “Recall”? Ahh, yes, of course, the song, almost forgot about it… ;) Well, the track, made by Aki-san, is an easy, vibrant and adorable piece of music, closer to rock’n’roll, but with its own distinctive mark. Everything is done masterly, especially the drums part. But what struck me most is Hatsune’s singing. Guys, I hadn’t believed my ears first! The chorus might be impaired by overpitching vocals up, but the verses are splendid. Gumi’s nice too, but I somehow get used to her fine vocals in other works. Miku, though, is a real shocker here.
Never, NEVER EVER try to do this with your iPhone. Most likely you’ll end up with splintered pen. The fuck with the pen, you could easily injure your hand.
Nontrivial works continue to come into VMW’s view. This time the song disproves the rule that when you mix up uncommon ingredients you end up with some sort of chimera. Love and skill make miracles, guys, and “Akusei doguma suuhai” is a nice example of that. It is lightweight, dainty and smooth fusion paying little respect to genre definitions. The only certainty might be the general ‘oldie’ spirit of the song.
Virtually everything sounds perfect here. Miku’s doing her job well too. Her parts are quite tricky yet she makes it awesomely bright. Great work, Anyaho-san!
“Kokoro shoku termination” is a mighty and enjoyable thrash metal/grunge with a kinda Japanese influence. It sounds a bit old-school for both scenes, but hardly should it be viewed as a drawback. Well, the only substantial drawback here is the indigestible drum machine. But the overall drive of the song, thanks in much to Gumi’s splendid work, conceals this quite easily.
Fuck, guys, I’m melting out by this song like a snowman under the blowtorch. If there is a perfect j-rokku storm then “Flame Heart” is quite close to it. The song is from the Death-ohagi’s new album “Super Kasane Teto collection”. Just if you’re wondering, the whole album isn’t that ‘Super’ from the general HM/HR perspective…
But “Flame Heart” is a notable exception. Wild, swift, vigorous guitars and even wilder pair of vocalists. Teto sounds quite charming here, together with Ritsu they form a fearsome duet. The video also adds several points to the overall score. Back to the fire!
“Akusei Lolita Machiavellism” is a song from the similarly called album “Lolita Machiavellism” by Kairiki-bear. It is blatant j-rock and no less blatant trolling :) The song is virtually overwhelmed with loli theme, which, I suppose, explains a kinda success in terms of popularity. Because, as we all know, only few things could earn the wide public’s attention, and loli always was and will be one of them :) In this video lolis are represented by no one else but Kagamine Rin herself. And I consider this an overkill :)
Of course, there are some minor points… Like music, for instance. For j-rokku, guitars are tuned a bit harsher than usual. In VMW’s taste, that is definitely beneficial for the song, might be even more helpful than all that endless lolis. Kairiki-bear’s created fairly intense sound. Gumi is brilliant, keeping in line with j-rock style easy as you please. She certainly makes much of all that mind-blowing, hilarious atmosphere of the song. “Loli-loli-loli…” – I guarantee you’ll be singing this after listening to the song :)
Matica has released another song, “Corvo”. “Corvo” means crow in Italian and Portugese, so don’t be startled by the video art.
Thanks God, the song came far less j-rokku than two previous Matica’s works, so it fits loosely with VMW format. The genre leans more to hard rock. Of course, with unavoidable J-flavour :p
Still it has enough drive to like it. Hatsune’s part is quite nice, especially the chorus. Might not be perfect but definitely better than a crow ;)
