DECORATOR EP by livetune.kz

Overview

Does livetune.kz even need an introduction? This man is the King of Vocaloid Dance Music, one of the founding fathers of Vocaloid whose fame and importance are only rivaled by other giants like supercell. Livetune produced one of the most famous Vocaloid hits, Packaged, a mere three weeks after Hatsune Miku was released. He’s even gone on to write various OPs and EDs in anime, but he has never abandoned Vocaloid. His newest EP, Decorator, is his newest foray into the scene. He credits himself as “livetune” without the .kz part, which is interesting, but I’m going to refer to him as “livetune.kz” here for continuity’s sake.

Decorator was used as the opening theme song to Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f2 on the PS3/Vita. The EP is available for purchase on iTunes, so I highly recommend buying it if you wish to have it in your collection. But is it worth owning? Let’s check it out.

Music

1) DECORATOR: As we seem to almost always encounter, the titular track is first. It makes sense though, as the EP is centered on this song. DECORATOR is a pop-dance track featuring Hatsune Miku, as is livetune.kz’s forte. This song is upbeat in tempo and atmosphere, which makes sense as the opening to a dance game. Miku’s vocals are accompanied and supported by an array of synthesizers and special effects, which complement her voice very nicely. The thin, cute, and high-pitched background music matches Miku’s voice without invading her pitch range, allowing us to both keep tempo as well as keep each separate element in the mix distinctly separate without feeling like the sound is muffled. The song lacks a particularly explosive climax of any kind, and is a much more relaxed song than some of livetune.kz’s past work. That’s certainly not a bad thing, of course; DECORATOR will have you tapping your feet and grooving out in no time. The song is as good as a simple dance tune gets. Check out the Project Diva PV here.

2) Packaged (Shipping in 2013 mix): Speak of the devil! Livetune.kz has graced us with a renewal of his original hit that helped launch Miku’s career. The lyrics and tuning of Miku are more or less identical to the original, but the background instrumentals are different. There’s a stronger bass element now, which makes it easier to dance to. There’ honestly not much I can say about the instrumentals; they’re fun, upbeat, and work really well with the rhythm of the song and Miku’s voice. This song is simply a more dance-oriented renewal of Packaged, and it’s great for it. It’s definitely worth a listen.

3) Connection: Oh boy. Miku English. I’m always scared when I hear a song with Miku English, as her failures are much greater than her successes. They didn’t coach Saki Fujita well enough on English, and so she makes many basic pronunciation errors; most notably, she pronounces her “r” sounds with a distended lower jaw (stick your bottom jaw out as far as you can and make an “r” sound, you’ll hear what I mean). Despite being set up for failure, however, livetune.kz works his magic in this song. For one thing, I can actually understand most of what Miku is singing without external help, which is a rare luxury when listening to Miku English. Miku is very well tuned, and her voice is quite cute. There’s a heavy Japanese accent, of course, but that’s inevitable. The background instrumentals are very exciting, with swells coming in and out to build and release tension as the song goes on. It’s a bunch of synthesizers that complement Miku again, which is par for the course. This song would go very well in a club featuring some harder dancing, as it’s much more energetic than the previous two tracks.

4) Pink or Black: Another Miku English song! I guess livetune.kz likes her. This song is a cute, relaxed pop-dance song that floats along like you’re skipping along on a cloud (that’s the best way I can think of to describe it, okay?). I can’t understand Miku’s English as well here, but it doesn’t really distract much from enjoying the tune. Certain phrases that get repeated a lot, such as “pink or black” and “it’s magic” are easy to understand, which anchors you into the lyrics well enough that you never mind. The background synths are cute and bubbly, which lends the song a very happy mood. The pitch range does unfortunately overlap a little bit here, but it’s not a big deal; the song is great for easy listening and is a nice pick-me-up to throw in the middle of the album. There was a really nifty MMD PV made, which you should watch here.

5) Long Way From Here: This song is a little less upbeat in mood than the previous tracks, though it’s not sad or anything. It’s just a mellower dance tune. It’s back to using Japanese Miku now, so no need to worry about deciphering Engrish lyrics. The instrumentals in the background are mixed a bit quieter in this song, lending more focus to livetune.kz’s tuning of Miku, which is stellar always. Interestingly, this song’s Miku doesn’t employ the chorus effect that livetune.kz normally uses to lend Miku’s voice a sort of rich and robotic quality. It’s just one Miku voice singing, and it works well with the song. The synths do a good job of keeping rhythm as well as maintaining a melody line that works well in complementing Miku’s vocals portions. Unfortunately, however, I would say that this song is a little boring. There really aren’t any swells or crescendos except for one small swell near the end, nor are there big rests or pauses. The song ambles forward at a nearly constant pace, and the lack of change makes it more suited to background music than something you’d go out of your way to listen to. It’s not a bad song per say, but I would call it the low point of the EP.

6) Andante: It’s been a long time since we’ve heard livetune.kz compose a song like this. Andante, which is an Italian musical marker meaning “at a walking pace,” is a beautiful and slow piece that harkens back livetune.kz’s hit Last Night, Good Night. Miku’s got that chorus effect going on that I mentioned earlier, and the background instruments are more varied. The song starts out with a delicate piano riff, and is slowly joined by some sort of percussion that seems to be a mix of live drums and synthesizer, as well as a synthesizer that is maintaining some complementary melody lines that work as a counterpoint to the piano (I don’t know enough music theory to tell you if this is an actual example of counterpoint, so don’t kill me if I used the word wrong). Judging by the mighty translating powers of Google Translate, Miku is singing about the beauty of life, despite it being short, and that we should take our time and enjoy everything. It’s a beautiful message that goes along with the heartstring-pulling quality of the tune. It’s by no means a technically complicated song, but that’s part of what makes it so great; it sucks you in and doesn’t let go until it’s done, and you’ll love every minute of the ride. The mood isn’t “sad” like Last Night, Good Night was, but it’s more introspective and may make you start to think about your live. Livetune.kz hits another one out of the park.

7) DECORATOR (TeddyLoid Remix): Ah, TeddyLoid! He’s a really good remixer; I’ve heard him do some tracks for other people, including Jin. He was invited to try his hand at remixing the titular track, and this is the result. This version is much harder and more energetic than the original, and it comes across as much more passionate. There’s a lot of skipping applied to Miku’s vocals, as it often the case with remixes, and she feels like more of an instrument than a singer sometimes (oh, the irony), to cool effect. There’s one part of this remix that is especially cool: there’s a male human singer accompanying Miku during the chorus! I don’t know if that’s TeddyLoid himself or not, but I do know that it sound really awesome. I guess DECO*27 was on to something there. The harder, stronger percussion also gets particular praise from me, as it almost seems to guide the beating of your heart as you listen to the song. The synthesizers in the background sound awesome as well, and all the elements come together to make you feel like you’re flying around above a lit-up city at nighttime (picture it with this song in the background, you’ll get it). There is a bass-drop that occurs in the song that might turn some people off, but I don’t feel like it was done in excess. We didn’t go full dubstep here, but it was an interesting interlude to throw in the song. The dancing back and forth of the male and female vocals during the final chorus is really great, and this brings about a stellar end to the song, and thereby, the entire album. Honestly, I think I like this remix even more than the original.

Final Thoughts

It’s over already?!? What a drag. But, that’s what happens with EPs. As expected of livetune.kz, this EP is a great showcasing of what he can do. The songs are fun to dance to, there’s a real sense of energy going on, and the songs are stylistically different enough to make sure you don’t get bored as you listen along. The album isn’t perfect, of course, but it’s still a great time. Hopefully livetune releases a full album soon instead of another EP (he’s released Tell Your World, Re:Dial, and DECORATOR in succession), and I’ll be waiting eagerly for this to happen.

8/10

Dual Sight by Various

Overview

Now, I know what I said before in my opening post: I like to avoid compilation albums. There’s a good reason for this; with each album I review, I like to use it as a chance to get to know a particular producer’s style and gauge how it is explored throughout an album. One-producer albums tend to have a sense of coherence and theme to them – look at Vibgyor, which I reviewed last – unless they’re greatest hits compilations.

However, Reddit user raposarealm requested this review about a month ago, and I decided to oblige. The main reason for this is because it’s electronic music. I’ve had very little engagement with the genre before, particularly as it pertains to Vocaloid, so I decided to give it a shot. Incidentally, I was actually going to make this post about a week ago, but I made the error of trying to compose it in the Tumblr field instead of Word, and when I accidentally backed out of the Tumblr page, my whole post went up in smoke. That demoralized me a bit, but now I’m redoing it.

Without further adieu, here’s Dual Sight. By the way, this album is available in the West on iTunes/Amazon, so if you’re interested I recommend buying it.

Music

1) Dual Sight (feat. Hatsune Miku) by G.K: The titular track of this album starts us off. It’s rather mellow, as expected of house music (I think? I’m very poor at distinguishing between electronic genres. I tend to classify chill electronic music as “house,” but please correct me if I’m wrong). The beat is rather slow, and you can easily tap your feet and bob your head to it. The synthesizers in the background have a sort of ethereal quality that puts you in a calm mood; I could easily see myself relaxing with this song in the background while reading a book. Then Miku’s vocals come in. Truthfully, they’re not bad. Miku’s voice is very gentle, and matches the tempo and flavor of the song well. However, her voice is tuned very thinly, and it comes out rather shrill despite not being very loud. Because of this, I feel that the best sections of the song are the instrumentals. Some people like the sound of that thin, tinny Miku, but I am not among them. The song as a whole is certainly decent enough, but I wish Miku had a bit more richness to her voice.

2) Offshore (feat. IA) by Nhato: This song has a bit more of a partying sort of vibe than the previous track. By no means is it a crazy 350bpm techno ecstasy-fest, but it has a lot more energy. The bass kicking in the background is louder and more aggressive, which causes your heart rate to speed up a tad while listening closely. The song’s rhythm as a general whole is also slightly faster, and this makes a very nice dance track. IA’s voice is also perfectly executed in this song – it’s energetic and songlike, and her gentle vocals match the background music nicely. The elements in the song are also mixed well, with neither the vocals nor the instrumentals trying to override each other – everything has its own little place. There’s variety in the backing tracks, with the bass pulsing and dragging around to mix up the rhythm. There’s also a nice keyboard sound that comes in once in a while, along with some other synth patches and loops that are well utilized. If this were played at a Vocaloid dance party, you can bet that there would be a lot of dancing weebs with spaghetti flinging all over the dancefloor – and rightfully so, given the nice quality of the track.

3) Rebirth (feat. Hatsune Miku) by Haloweak: We’re picking up the pace now! I’m starting to think that there’s a theme here; perhaps the tracks are arranged in such a climaxing way that it’s supposed to be like going to an entire night at a club if you listen to the tracks in order. The bass is aggressive, and there’s a purring in the background that keeps you on your toes. When Miku comes in, she has much less of her cuteness than usual, and instead has a more serious singing voice on. The GEN factor is kept low, so she sound bubbly, saturated, and feminine, but not to an extreme where it’s annoying. Things do get a little dubsteppy sometimes, and the backing track behind Miku skips and stutters about during some sections. I really don’t mind it, as it never goes full Skrillex-tier breakdown and instead serves to spice up the rhythm section nicely. Miku herself even takes a step back once in a while to assist the instrumentals utilizing “ah” noises to fall in line with the synthesizers. The only gripe I have with this song is that sometimes Miku’s singing is overshadowed by the backing synths and instruments, and her lyrics also lack a great degree of emotion. Other than that, though, it’s a pretty nice track, and it keeps the album flowing nicely.

4) Liberator (feat. IA) by Taishi: I’m really excited to see Taishi working on this album, as Taishi is one of my favorite producers with IA. His work with her beta bank in “Falling Apart” was splendid; I recommend you give it a listen if you haven’t already. “Liberator” was the most hyped song on this album from what I read, and it’s with good reason. Taishi has an electronic magic that he channels well in this song, and IA is part of that charm. The rhythm starts off at a slow and ethereal pace, with airy instrumentals in the background creating a sort of dreamy state. IA’s vocals are there, but they’re far in the background, just singing vowel sounds to add to that air of mystery and dislocation. Around the 1-minute mark a more concrete bass rolls in and anchors us down, and shortly after, IA begins singing. Her singing is cute and yet mature, as IA’s voice often is when used well. She blends right in with the vocals, and everything is mixed together very well. Taishi also does this really cool thing using a high-pitched synthesizer that he plays like a keyboard for a while (you’ll know it when you hear it), and it’s awesome. Taishi is known for structuring his songs in a manner where there are longer sections of instrumentals and short intermittent sections of singing. He does this in “Liberator,” as IA’s singing appears in less than a third of the song. The parts she does appear in, however, are well appreciated, and the song is well done. I feel like Taishi is an underappreciated producer in the Vocaloid community, and I hope “Liberator” earns him a more prominent spot, which he deserves.

5) Confession (feat. Aoki Lapiz) by Haloweak & G.K: A combined effort! And with a much more rarely used Vocaloid to boot! We have an interesting proposition here. Aoki Lapiz is not a Vocaloid I hear very often, and I’m glad to hear some skilled producers work with her. The song starts off with her singing, which is very bubbly and saturated; it sounds like a young Japanese idol I’d hear in an anime somewhere. The instrumentals creep in with her voice and climax nicely, leading us into the rest of the song. The tone and speed of the song don’t fluctuate very much throughout; the song tends to trot along at the same pace throughout. The bass is very prominent with this one, and there’s plenty of wub wubbing occurring for those who like that. There’s an 8-bit sound to some of the synthesizers in the background, which is also pretty cool. Aoki Lapiz’s vocals are decent, but I feel like they’re a little dry; there’s no climax or strong emotion in her vocals to keep me hooked, nor is there that gentle strength like with IA’s vocals that keeps me listening anyway. The vocals feel more like a background instrument rather than the focal point of the song. Everything is well mixed, however, and it’s certainly not a bad effort. The instrumentals in the background are well put together, and there’s a good amount of variety in them that keeps things interesting. I like the track overall, but I wish there was a stronger hook in there that made me want to listen to the whole thing more.

6) Desperate Parade (feat. IA) by rest or stay?: The track starts off with a huge bass boom that draws a clear separation from the rest of the songs before. It boldly proclaims, “I am going to be different from the rest!” After a short introduction, IA comes in. IA’s singing here is much more sonorous than the rest; whereas the other songs felt like the vocals were there to accompany and bring together the instruments, this track has more of a rock/pop feeling where the vocals are clearly the center of the song and the instruments are there to support IA’s singing. The instrumentals are well done, and they do a good job of keeping a lot of variety involved while not overshadowing IA most of the time. That being said, there are a few parts, especially during the outro, where the instrumentals do overwhelm IA, and it can be irksome. One very interesting part comes in around 1:50; the song has a dubstep-style breakdown, wub wub and all. And then, it follows up with piano and violin playing! It’s a very strange juxtaposition, but it works well, leading to a lot of intrigue and variety in the song. The lyrics feel like a bittersweet ballad the way they’re sung, and it’s interesting to hear such a singing style in a place like this. I rather like it, and I think it’s a very solid track. The proclamation in the beginning is very correct, for this one is not like the others, in both style and content.

7) Gentle Saturation (feat. Hatsune Miku) by Cnsouka: “Gentle Saturation,” like many electronic tracks, takes its time to get started, with an intro that extends beyond the 2-minute mark without Miku singing at all. Then, Miku comes in with her “ah’s,” filling up the empty soundscape with her voice. Truthfully, I’m not a big fan of how this is handled; it’s too loud and overbearing compared to the instrumentals in the background, and her voice is tuned a bit too shrill and nasally to capture that pleasant feeling that vowel singing gives in other songs. Then the instrumental sections kick back in, which are quite nice. The background instruments are simple, but they’re catchy enough to keep you interested. Miku’s vowel singing drifts in and out, and with proper mixing rearing up here it sounds good. However, the song is over quite quickly, and I feel like it never really had a chance to build to its full potential.

8) Mysterious (feat. 洛天依) by Hachiouji-P: This track is a special track as a promotional piece for the “China Project” which hopes to spread Vocaloid into China more. It’s only found on the Chinese version of the album, as well as some other international releases (I don’t have it on my version, which is from Amazon mp3). The song is pretty cool; it’s Hachiouji-P’s standard fare of catchy vocals combined with an energetic and upbeat set of background instrumentals. The drums are cool, and there’s even a guitar thrown in there a little bit among the electronic instruments in the song. It’s a short piece, clocking in at 1:44, so don’t expect it do rise and fall slowly like the other songs on this album do. The vocals are in Chinese, so I can’t comment on their pronunciation, but I think they sound pretty cool. The tuning is nicely done, and there’s a decent semblance of emotion in her singing. The PV is also pretty nicely done for what it is; all in all, it’s a nice little bonus track.

Final Remarks

This album was a fun challenge to review since I’m not at all used to reviewing electronic music. Whereas in rock/pop/jazz it’s very easy to distinguish between instruments and analyze how each one performed relative to the others, it’s not so easy to do that with synthesizers in electronic music. The genre operates by very different conventions, and I tried to abide by them as well as possible.

That being said, I think there’s a lot to be discussed with an album regardless of finer point of genre-specific ideas, and I hope that comes through in this review. The songs were as a whole pretty good; while there were some ups and downs in the album, it’s a fun listen as a whole, and I could see it being a nice 45-minute set list for a Vocaloid-themed party. IA’s vocals command the high point of the album, but Miku and Aoki Lapiz aren’t that bad themselves. All in all, it’s a good album, but at the end of the day I wish more stuck out about each song; they all felt a little similar to me, but perhaps that’s simply my experience (or lack thereof) with the genre.

7/10

Vigbyor by Ryuryu

Overview

Sorry for the long delay in between posts! My winter break from university kept me away from my good sound equipment, and I always like to do my reviews using the best equipment possible to hear all the subtleties in the sound.

Anyway, I didn’t know about this album or this producer until Reddit user ofsaltyvanilla pointed them out to me. After giving “Vibgyor” a cursory listen, I was intrigued and decided to engage in a full review. “Vibgyor,” by the way, stands for the colors of the rainbow in reverse, and the album seems to carry a color/art theme. Without further adieu, here’s the breakdown.

Music

1)      Landscape II: This is a really interesting intro. It’s almost entirely instrumental (Miku’s voice is used to do some “aah-ing” in the background), and it uses a gentle music box to get it rolling. It’s very quiet and almost conveys a sense of melancholy, but as the ambient noise begins to creep in it becomes a very hopeful-sounding track. After that it takes on a standardized rhythm and an upbeat, pleasant sound. It’s quite nice.

2)      For Us All: This track can best be described as “soft and flittering.” Miku’s voice is gentle and a tad shrill, and the song gives the feeling of recounting a story. The background instruments are all light and optimistic, and there are quite a few of them (to the point where it’s tough to identify what they all are). The drums are especially tight, so I give them a shout-out, but there’s some other high-pitched instrument playing the melody lines that also sounds quite lovely.

3)      Hide and Seek: There’s something about the rhythm of this song that I would describe as “African.” The gentle, low-attack quality of the drums combined with a steady and fast rhythm accompanied by slow lyrics makes me think of drum circles. Miku’s voice also has that sort of tribal excitement here (she’s upbeat and engaged without being too fast or loud). There’s a tambourine in the background as well as what sounds like a wooden xylophone. This song isn’t quite as optimistic-sounding as the previous two, but it’s far from downbeat. It’s just a bit slower and not quite as emotional. My only complaint about this song is that there isn’t much variety in its tone. There’s not a big chorus or a noticeable crescendo; it just putters along at its same pace the whole time, and at 5:13, that’s a long while. That being said, it’s still pretty good.

4)      Leucocoryne: “Hide and Seek” transitions directly into this song, which is a very nice touch. “Leycocoryne” is a more bubbly and rhythm-based song, and the drums are sure to have you bobbing your leg up and down. This sounds like a very fun walking song, or just a great song to sing along to. Miku’s voice isn’t terribly differentiated from the previous two tracks, unfortunately, and the lack of instrumental variety begins to make the album feel a little stale. However, it’s not terribly much so, as the bubbly atmosphere this song creates is still charming, and inclusions of infrequently heard instruments such as a brass section and a xylophone keep things interesting. That brass section, by the way, is very well done, and by the time to song reaches its end it feels like fairies fluttering around. There’s a PV with a absolutely gorgeous illustration, so I recommend you check it out.

5)      So Little Time: This takes a more conventional approach in the instrumental section, coming in with an electric piano and Miku’s voice. The song sounds a bit sad; Miku’s voice is very gentle and slightly downbeat, and the song seems like a lament. There are no instruments besides an electric piano, chimes that hold down the rhythm, and a droning wind instrument that is probably a flute or clarinet. It’s a pleasant and slightly melancholy piece that acts as a nice mid-point to the album.

6)      Breathe In: The title is appropriate, as the song begins to pull us out of the sleepy mood that “So Little Time” put us in. The beat is a little more active, and you’ll probably bob your head to it. These are actual drums holding down the beat once more, which makes it feel more active than the chimes and wind instruments relegated to the task previously. The piano is energetically playing a lot of chords, and chimes are running up and down for the melody.  These elements come together to create a pretty, upbeat, and delicate feeling.

7)      Turn That Dream: The song starts with a flute and a pizzicato violin playing together in a way that can only be described as “dancing.” The two are intertwining nicely, and it feels like the plucked violins strings are emulating someone dancing through a meadow in the woods. It gets especially interesting when Miku’s voice kicks in; she sounds more robotic than she did in previous songs, as Ryuryu has applied some sort of chorus effect to her. This quality of Miku’s doesn’t remain this way throughout the whole song, but it’s noticeable anytime she’s singing quality. This roboticism isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it sound interesting, and makes me think that this song is the story of a robot’s dreams. There’s an electric piano holding down the rhythm along with clapping human hands. The drums are there too, though they sound very quiet relative to the other musical elements of the song (you can really only pick out the cymbals unless you try very hard). Miku’s voice carries much of the optimism and brightness seen throughout the album, and these elements work together quite well.

8)      Watercolor: This song might be the most well-known of the bunch, as Ryuryu released it first via his Bandcamp page to give people an idea of what the album would be like. Unfortunately, it might be my least favorite of the bunch. If I had to summarize it, I’d call it “standard.” Nothing about it seems to really stick out at all. The drums and synth do a good job of keeping down the beat, and Miku’s voice is acceptable. The beat is nice, admittedly, and Miku’s voice will have you bobbing along, but that’s really all there is to the song. Nothing sticks out as being particularly good or bad about it, and it doesn’t have any special points. The flittery-ness of the song is much like what almost every other track on the album features, and it doesn’t differentiate itself much at all. It’s not a bad song in its own right – someone looking for a chill Miku song will undoubtedly enjoy this song, as it is good – but it just doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from the other tracks on this album for me to give it a firm recommendation.

9)      Juvenille: This track is a slow burner, with a prolonged start featuring slowly escalating chimes. The rest of the song follows suit with musical parts coming in and developing the piece one by one (It’s a “Juvenille” song at first that grows into its own!). This effect is pulled off really well, and the end result is quite cool. “Juvenille” is the longest track in the album, clocking in at an impressive 6:43. Miku’s voice is exciting and meshes very well with the rest of the instruments, particularly when he has her sing “la la la” as a rhythm element. There’s a great variety to the soundscape, including drums, chimes, electric piano, and Miku’s voice utilized for rhythm and melody at different times. It’s a great semifinal song, and it’s probably my favorite song on the album.  My only real complaint is that the outro feels a little too long, but hey, the Beatles did it with “Hey Jude,” so it’s not a big deal, right?

10)  Vibgyor: And here we are, the titular track that serves as the end. “Vibgyor” starts off very quietly and gently, and it’s pretty much just Miku’s voice, some chimes, and a viola/violin combo for a while. As the song progresses, it picks up more sonic elements, much like “Juvenille” did. However, “Vibgyor” is much slower and more downbeat/soft. Right around the halfway mark, however, it crescendos, and the drums kick in as a more dominant sonic element. Miku begins “la la la”-ing again, and it sounds wonderful. This song feels very much like a “farewell” song, even more so than Juvenille did. The last 30 seconds of the song are a musicbox quietly playing us out before the final silence.

Final Remarks

     This album has a very definitive and unique sound to it. Ryuryu uses some unorthodox instruments to great advantage, such as flutes and xylophones. Miku;s voice is also used well, as it sound quite pretty and goes well with the themes of the album (or at least, what I interpret them to be. It seems to me to be about a robot who is awakening and seeing color/dreams for the very first time. I could be completely wrong, of course, so please let me know if I’m off the mark!) The album is not without its drawback, however. Ultimately the tracks do little to differentiate from each other, and the differences can be subtle enough that a listener might not even notice that the tracks have changed if they leave the album on in the background of whatever they’re doing. Sometimes this gets to the point where, in certain songs such as “Hide and Seek,” it almost seems like the song is just dragging out forever. In the end, however, this is a solid album that showcases a very unique style for a very unique producer.

7/10

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