Saturday, November 23, 2013

メカクシティデイズ/Mekaku City Days by じん aka 自然の敵P (Shinzen no Teki-P)


         Overview
             
          Well, here we go! This album is the first full album of the star-studded Kagero Project, or Kagepro as some call it. This album's story has spawned just about every type of merch including novels, manga, fanart, fanfic, and more. An anime adaptation has been announced by SHAFT, which should prove to be quite awesome if it's done well.

          I'll try to give a brief summary of what it's all about before I get into the music. Mekaku City Days tells the story of a group of teenagers (life ends after high school in Japan, so there's no other possible setting) who have mysterious eye powers with various abilities. The one uniting characteristic that they share is that their eyes are red, which marks them as eye power users. The songs on the album generally tell the story of each character and how they came to get their powers. It's quite interesting, but you have to really delve into the manga/novels/wiki summaries to get the full picture.

          As for the album itself, it comes in a really nice little box that contains the CD as well as some extra goodies. The CD itself is actually a pair of CDs: one disc contains the music, and the other is a DVD which contains PVs of a few of the songs: Kagerou Days, Headphone Actor, Souzou Forest, Konoha's State of the World, and Toumei Answer (You'll get more info on these songs later, don't worry). It also comes packaged with nice little booklets that give you the band score for Kagerou Days as well as Souzou Forest, in a ddition to a little booklet that has the lyrics to all the songs. It's all quite lovely, and the stellar artwork of Shizu and わにゃんぷー adorns pretty much everything. This album definitely gets an A+ for packaging.

But how does the music fare?

1) ロスタイムプロローグ/Lost Time Prologue: This is a cool little spoken word prologue that introduces us to the album. It uses some nice reverberant noises behind the vocals to create a sense of dread before topping abruptly and having the vocals lead us into the last song. I'm pretty sure the vocals are done by Kana Asumi, who you might know as the actress of Strength from the Black Rock Shooter anime(s). It's a nice way to start things off. I'm not 100% sure what she's saying, but I do know that she's supposed to be Takane Ene, and A.I. character in the Kagepro series. Check out the translation here.

2) カゲロウデイズ/Kagerou Days: Here it is, the big ol' granddaddy of the project. This song's skyrocketed into Vocaloid legend already, having easily surpassed 3,000,000 views on Niconico. Interestingly, わにゃんぷー made the first PV that everyone came to know; it was a fanmade PV with no official support (check it out here). Soon after, as the song started to reach its massive popularity, Jin put out an official PV of the song, and thanked わにゃんぷー for his support. The song features Jin doing what he does best - playing guitar. Jin's stellar guitar work coupled with some great synth work make the song especially memorable. This song is unique on this album due to its use of Miku; the rest of the songs use IA, as this album was commissioned as part of the IA Project to promote her. Jin's tuning of Miku here is a controversial thing: his Miku is very high-pitched and shrill. I remember playing around in the Vocaloid program and transposing Miku's voice and octave lower;  I liked it better that way. This high-pitched tuning is very common in Jin's stuff, and it tends to draw sharp lines over who likes it and who hates it. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan, though I can tolerate it. Jin's songwriting itself is superb, with all the instruments being very interesting and well mixed. Miku's vocals just get shrill.

3) ヘッドフォンアクター/Headphone Actor: Another popular song and the current focus of the manga, Headphone Actor is the story of how Takane Enomoto, a regular human girl, was forced into an A.I. body and reborn as Ene. The PV is quite lovely, and tells a cool tale. As I mentioned before, Jin's tuning is generally quite shrill, especially with IA. This shows through in Headphone Actor, as IA's voice reaches incredibly high pitches that might make your ears crawl if you're not used to Japanese music. The instrumentation is, again, awesome, with ゆーまお's drums and the bass guitar sticking out especially.

4) 想像フォレスト/Souzou Forest: This is another very popular song from the series, with another very popular PV. It's about a 1/4 Medusa girl named Mary who has shut herself away in the woods. It's very cute, and features a much more mildly-tuned IA. The synth and drums are the most prominent parts of the track, with the guitar and bass being present but secondary. Souzou Forest is one of the best songs on the album, as it's got a nice groove with cute-yet-not-harsh vocals. The synth breakdown in the middle gets extra points.

5) エネの電脳紀行/Ene no Dennou Kikou: This song picks up right where Headphone Actor left off; it's about when Takane first awakens  in her new A.I. body as Ene. The synth and guitar dominate this song, and they're really cool. IA's tuning here is a strange middle ground between her overly high and harsh tuning and her soft ballad voice. It's not awful - there are worse in the album - but it comes out a little too robotic for my taste. The song's still fun though, despite some misgivings about IA's tuning. There are some really cool effects with the synth that you can pick up with good headphones.


6) デッドアンドシーク/Dead and Seek: Not much is really known yet about exactly what this song is about. Judging by the lyrics and my knowledge of the series, I would guess it's about people getting their eye powers and being spit back out into the normal world to entertain Dark Konoha (see the sound "Outer Science" for an idea of what that's like. It's on Mekaku City Records, which I'll be reviewing next. Spoiler!) Regardless, it's a synth-based song with a decent backing track. It's not one of my favorites; IA's voice is VERY robotic here, even moreso than the last song. That may be Jin's objective, which is fine and all, but it just doesn't make for all that pleasant of a listen. The instrumental track is acceptable but altogether forgettable, and blends a bit too much with tracks 5 and 7, which make it almost tough to tell when the songs switch if you're not paying attention. It doesn't help that it's short.

7) 人造エネミー/Jinzou Enemy: This is actually the first song in the series; it's about Ene watching over her master, Shintaro, and trying to convince him that being a NEET is not the answer to his troubles. The song is almost at 1,000,000 views, and it'll probably get there soon enough. Like the previous two songs, the synth is very strong here. It's sung by Miku again (I'm surprised they allowed more than one non-IA track on an IA Project CD), and her voice is as high and shrill as we've come to expect from Jin. It's by no means an awful song, but it suffers from Dead and Seek's syndrome of sounding emotionally stale and forgettable, a shame considering its cool message.

8) 透明アンサー/Toumei Answer: Finally, a break from the synth! Toumei Answer is a pretty sad song actually; it's about how Shintaro's friend Ayano commits suicide for an unknown reason by jumping off the school roof, which does such emotional damage to Shintaro that he becomes a NEET (and later, Ene's master). It's a gorgeous little tune, with high-but-gentle tuning of IA, and an absolutely wonderful guitar track that makes great use of the delay pedal. The drums are groovy but not overpowering. It's a pretty little ballad, and definitely one of the high points of the album.

9) 如月アテンション/Kisaragi Attention: One of the most popular songs on the album, Kisaragi Attention is a cute little number about Momo, a girl with the eye ability to make others look at her, aka draw attention to herself. She becomes and idol and rises to stardom, but she quickly comes to dislike the fame and the inability to go outside without drawing in crowds. She meets Kido, whose eye ability can cloak her. Momo joins the Mekakushi-dan in the end. The guitar and drums stand out, but the bass line is pretty nice as well. IA's tuned very well in the songs; her voice has just the right amount of wetness coupled with a high pitch to sound cute but not annoying. The guitar solo is also damn cool in this one. The PV is quite cute too, which contributed to its popularity. A great song to cheer us up after Toumei Answer.

10) メカクシコード/Mekakushi Code: This song is about Kido, the leader of the Mekakushi-dan who has an eye ability which can cloak the user and make others around her practically invisible. It features a very grungy and fuzzy synth at the forefront with the guitar chiming in on occasion. We surprisingly hear Miku again, and her voice is a bit robotic, though not as high as Kagerou Days (thankfully). The background music isn't very strong, though it serves very well as just that; it backs up the vocals very well without calling too much attention to itself. All in all it's a very well-written song, but Miku's vocals are a bit bland and take away from the song's replay value.

11) コノハの世界事情/Konoha's State of the World: One of the darker stories in the project, even for Jin. This song is about Konoha, another strange A.I./android type character (it's unclear what his deal is yet) who is forced to watch the unfortunate events of Kagerou Days unfold over and over again. He wants to do something about it, but he is powerless to stop it, though a glimmer of hope appears to him in the end. The song is sung by Miku and IA together, and is the only duet on the album. The guitar in particular is awesome in this song, and credit for it goes to Nakanishi, an awesome guitarist whose work appears in a lot of Vocaloid stuff. The song draws you in, gets you excited for the climax, and explodes into an awesome finale. It's incredibly well written, and there have been a ton of great covers of it. Ultimately, I like some human singers better than the Vocaloid duet of the original, but it's still very good. Check out the PV here.

12) シニガミレコード/Shinigami Record: A gentler piano piece to wind us down as we approach the end of the album, this is a sweet IA ballad to treat out ears nicely. It tells the story of Azami, a Medusa who is the grandmother of Mary. She lives alone in the woods and detests humans, but one day a man meets her and, over time, they fall in love and start a family. She realizes, however, that he will age and die long before her, which saddens her deeply. She uses her power to create a never ending world where her family can live with her, but fails to do so before her husband dies. She goes into her own world, along. It's quite tragic, but also very beautiful. The gentle piano works very well for this song, and it's quite cathartic to listen to.

13) カイエンパンザマスト/Kaien Panzermast: This is the outro of the album, and is a spoken word section much like Lost Time Prologue. It's about carrying out some sort of plan and meeting someone (check the translations out). I'm not sure who the voice is, but I'm pretty sure it's Ene/Kana Asumi again. It's a cool way to end the album.

  Final Thoughts

   Ultimately, Jin suffers from what I like to call "Bob Dylan Syndrome." He's an excellent songwriter and a stunning instrumentalist, but he just can't seem to consistently nail the vocals down well. A few great hits here and there are equally matched by some unfortunate missteps that occur along the way which drag the album down. Ultimately it's worth having for the sake of the extras, the story, and the good songs that are present, but I wouldn't call the album as a whole a masterpiece. It's of acceptable quality, but it's not great.

     6.5/10

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

REBOOT by ジミーサムP (JimmyThumb-P) feat. Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka, Samune Jimi


      Overview

   I figured for my first review, I'd pick apart one of my favorites and give you a solid breakdown. This is "REBOOT" by JimmyThumb-P. You may also know him as OneRoom from some of his earlier work. The album first gained some notoriety when the PV for the titular song, ReBoot, was posted to Niconico. This was before the whole album came out, of course, but it sparked a lot of buzz. The PV depicted a sad story of a friend dying, separation, and ultimately redemption for Miku and Luka. Check it out here: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm19570813

  Anyway, I'll make some general statements about the album, and then I'll do a track-by-track breakdown. Overall, the album is a very relaxed listen. The music is generally pop/light rock, with songs alternating between Miku, Luka, and a few duos. The songs tend are generally excellent; JimmyThumb-P has a very distinct way of tuning the Vocaloids (especially Luka) that makes their voices sound very rich and full. There is also a nice variety of track types, from peppy guitar pieces to jazzy bossa nova numbers.

The first pressing of the album came with some really neat goodies. I got a replica of the star-shaped keychain the Jimi gives Miku and Luka in "Reboot," as well as an 18" x 28" poster of the album art. Both are quite lovely, and the kaychain especially is a great way to show your love for the album while hiding your power level. Other places gave exclusive extras, such as clear folders, those fake credit cards (what's the deal with those, anyway?), and tiny mousepads that don't seem to serve much function.

Now, onto the more in-depth breakdown:

  1) 第一日目の扉 : This is a simple little intro track in which we hear rain, followed by footsteps entering a barn. It would seem that the idea is to give the listener the impression that the album is either being played by a live band in a barn, or perhaps just the first complete song (which it blends directly into.) I'm not 100% sure how to translate that title, but it seems to be something along the lines of "Looking through the door of the first day." Please correct me if I'm wrong.

  2) 新世界セッション: The second track on the album is a peppy little number where we're introduced to the band. The title seems to translate to "First Session of the World." It's sung by Miku, and at one point she introduces us to everyone else: Luka on the bass guitar, Miku on the keyboard, Samune Jimi on the guitar, and Jimi again on the drums. "Samune Jimi" is the fake persona JimmyThumb-P uses to insert himself into the Vocaloid world (Sa-Mu-Ne-Ji-Mi, Ji-Mi-Sa-Mu, as in Jimmy Thumb. Get it? Samune Jimi actually functions as an UTAU which JimmyThumb-P created by recording his own voice, and she's unique to him). Anyway, it's a pleasant tune that really gets your feet tapping, and it builds a lot of anticipation for the rest of the album. The guitar is upbeat and fast, and Miku's singing/keyboard work is excellent. Luka's bass guitar lines a groovy as well.

  3) Reboot: The titular track of the album, Reboot is a back-and-forth duet between Miku and Luka. The song depicts the story of them being friends with a third girl - Samune Jimi- as children. Jimi gives Luka and Miku a pair of star-shaped charms which match her own, and they represent the bond the three of them share. After a childish fight Luka and Miku have, Jimi winds up running into the street to recover a lost charm and, in the lovably typical Japanese way, she gets hit by a truck and dies. Miku and Luka's friendship detriorates after that, and the sorrow of seeing this friendship end forces Jimi into limbo as a ghost. We see them get on with their lives until college. In college, Luka meets up with Miku again by chance, and chases her down as she tries to run in shock. They tearfully reunite, and while watching the stars, Jimi is finally able to move on. It's a beautiful song, and it's shock full of emotion to go with the PV. The singing is stellar, and the piano work particularly sticks out as being excellent. These two elements overshadow the other instrumentals in the song, however, but it's no so bad as they're clearly not the focus of the piece. (PV: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm19570813)

 4) PYX: A rockin' little number sung by Miku. The electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums are the focus of this song very clearly. They all play off each other excellently, and the song flows very well. My only complaint is that the song feel a little static; there's not a lot of dynamicism is volume or tone, and the song feels very similar from beginning to end. You could almost skip around to different parts of the song and not feel like you're missing much of anything. (PV: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm20738973)

 5) サンセット(Sunset): Sunset is a cute bossa nova song sung by Miku. It's very relaxing, and feature excellent classical guitar and flute work. The lyrics carry an optimistic message about casting off the things that trouble you and moving ahead with life. (PV: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm20864067)

 6) Lunarian: This song is a surreal instrumental piece that gives a sense of being gently wrapped in a comfortable space and floating around. It has wonderful synthesizer work, and features recording that seem to be coming from an astronaut as he looks down on Earth from space. They might be Apollo recordings, but I'm not sure. It's an awesome little interlude, and one of my favorite tracks on the album.

  7) 夢幻放射: This is a pop piece sung by Samune Jimi primarily featuring synthesizer work. It's very cutesy and bubbly, and the beat is fun to bob to. However, Miku's voice is interestingly tuned here: JimmyThumb-P turns the GEN factor wayyy down in the Vocaloid editor, causing Jimi's voice to take on a very wet and nasally sort of sound. I can't say I'm a huge fan of it, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it "bad." It's just not really my cup of tea; those of you who are really into higher-pitched cutesy songs might dig this one. My translator widget tells me that the song title means "Fantasy Emission," but I can't guarantee anything with it.

 8) Crossroad: This is a very relaxed piece sung by Miku, with the guitar and drums at the instrumental forefront. The chorus is very strong, and it sounds awesome to listen to. There's a sense of surreal reflection in this song, and it makes for a great introspective piece. One interesting thing at the end of the song is that, if you're listening with good equipment, you can pick up the sound of footsteps coming and going, which suggests the singer change for the next song.

 9) Joker: Finally, a Luka song! Here, Luka, sings a chill but slightly more upbeat song than many of the others that have come before. The crescendos of the song feel like they're meant to imbue a sense of hope, as they're accompanied by an appropriate rise in pitch. The guitar solo near the end is really cool too. Luka's vocal are very rich, and are wonderful for the eardrums. Definitely a great addition to the unfortunately small collection of awesome Luka songs out there (seriously Vocaloid community, use her more!)

10) Infinite Color: This is a poppy and cute tune sung by Miku again. Miku's voice is backed by synthesizers and a flute chiming in quietly on occasion. The song isn't bad, but honestly I find it a bit boring. Nothing really "happens" sonically: no crescendoes, no great solos, nothing too luring. There's a short breakdown to prepare you for the chorus, but it's not that good. The tuning is good, but the composition just isn't that interesting.

11) おやすみのうた (Oyasumi no Uta/Goodnight Song): This is a peaceful song that invokes its sleepy namesake quite well. Jimi's got that GEN factor down again, leading to that wet/nasally sound I mentioned earlier, but it's not quite as bad as before. Since this song is meant to be more soothing, it works better here. I think this track works quite well as a relaxing agent, and while it's not an album highlight, it's certainly nice.

12) Dreamscape: This one's a very mellow, very relaxing song sung by Luka. It fits, of course, that "Dreamscape" follows up "Goodnight Song," and JimmyThumb-P handles this so well it's unreal. Dreamscape invokes exactly what it says it will. It's a dreamy, calming song in which you feel like you're floating through the universe gently while holding hands with a lover. There's some cute Engrish in the song from Luka to tickle the eardrums, and the synthesizer backing her adds to the dreamscape. This is a great tune.

13) 水槽脳: Luka's taken over the album now! Here, we have a folkier sounding piece with the guitar taking over in the beginning. The soundscape expands after the intro into a wider set with drums and the bass guitar backing everything up. It's nice and chill, and it serves as a good "waking up" after the previous two songs. Nothing in particular really stands out about it, though I must praise the guitar solo for being nice. It makes a nice filler song to round out the album. The title means "Aquarium Brain," seemingly implying the image of a brain in a jar.

14) Mantra: "Mantra" is an instrumental like "Lunarian" was, and it's great. It starts out low and quiet, and as the song goes on it takes on life and energy. It wakes us up from the hypnotically calm state the last few songs put us in, and readies us for what comes next. Drums and guitar with delay pedals are featured here.

15) Afterglow: This is the big Luka song on this album, and it has a beautiful PV. The song is quiet and beautiful in the early stages of the song, and has an ethereal quality unique to JimmyThumb-P's tuning. However, around the 2:30 mark, the song explodes into a crescendo and picks up a huge amount of energy that just lifts your heart and soul into the heavens. It's awesome, and then that wonderful guitar of his kicks in and delivers a cool solo. The song finishes into a nice rest. The PV depicts a troubled painter and what happens to him after seeing a certain girl on the school roof. (PV: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm20244831)

16: Starduster (Orchestral Ver.): This is, as the title says, an orchestral remake of OneRoom's famous "Starduster." Honestly, I'm not that big of a fan of it. The instrumental work is lovely, but ultimately I find the song rather boring. The beauty of the first one is its emotional sadness as we feel Miku's pain. This one makes that feel more "ornamental," in a way where the song is more delicate and pretty than the original, but much of the original emotion is lost. If you're a huge fan of "Starduster" and love orchestral music you might dig it, but I like both of those things and I wasn't even that impressed.


  Final Remarks
       This album is very, very good. JimmyThumb-P has eked out a spot in the Vocaloid community all his own, and his unique tuning of the Vocaloids, excellent songwriting skills, and mastery of multiple instruments and styles make him a force to be contended with. Despite a few hiccups here and there that prevent the album from being perfect, I would say it's a must-own for any Vocaloid album collector.

   9/10

Monday, November 18, 2013

Introduction

Hello Readers! This is the start of what I hope is going to be a really neat thing in the Vocaloid community. As an avid Vocaloid listener, I've come to have a pretty wide knowledge base of producers, styles, and Vocaloid songs in general. As such, I figured I'd start a blog where I can review songs and albums for those who might want an opinion before they buy or download any music!

To clarify, this isn't going to be a blog where I post random Vocaloid content such as art, fanfic, or whatever. There's already plenty of that on the internet. This is solely dedicated to Vocaloid song reviews with the occasional advice column where maybe I'll discuss a certain aspect of the community - maybe a general review of a producer's career or something to that nature. We'll play it by ear.

Please feel free to suggest any albums to me that you'd like me to review. I'm going to try avoiding compilation albums like the EXIT TUNES releases because they tend to just focus on big hits instead of showcasing a particular artist/circle's style.

Finally, I hope you'll consider buying Vocaloid music instead of pirating it. I know that's not always possible, and I pirate sometimes too, but it's always great to see the Vocaloid artists we know and love get rewarded for all of their hard work. At the very least, I will post links to the Niconico videos and not their Youtube uploads because the Niconico video views matter more to the Vocaloid community and support the artists better.

I hope you enjoy my reviews. Happy reading!

      - McDoogle