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Inspired by some stuff that came up in Updates a few weeks ago, here's a general music discussion thread (But it's mostly a place where I can vent about how nobody gives Tamaki Nami a proper shot at a comeback).
As an update to what I brought up in Updates, a full-on teaser of the first two or so minutes of Crystal Kay's new single with Amuro Namie was
posted a few days ago. I'm not too sure about how I feel about the slight military march feel of the song, but I really am pleased with how much it sounds like a true collaboration effort but with the balances tipped very heavily in Crystal's favor because Amuro, being a big deal as she is, should (in theory) be very commandeering when she appears on a song.
But somehow in the first two or so minutes she doesn't even have a solo bit (I think I read somewhere that she does have one later though). Anyways, it definitely isn't an Amuro song.
It turns out that this is the Season of Collaborations for Universal Music Japan artists though, with some guy whose name escapes me doing a song with miwa and Aoyama Thelma
doing a song with Shimizu Shota.
I haven't heard the former, but the Thelma song is like... it's a song that's not particularly
eye ear-catching based on my two listens, and I have no idea if she realized that she and Shota had such similar voices because I can barely tell when they switch. Maybe I'm just super starved of Miliyah/Shota collaborations though (since those two
broke up decided to never collaborate again for creative reasons).
Also related to the new Crystal Kay single, apparently she's going to do a self-cover of her single hard to say, which I am now completely obsessed with because it is beyond adorable.
There's lots of other thing I want to talk about, like a full-on thing about Namie's album _genic and how BEE SHUFFLE apparently aren't a joke anymore but this has gone on long enough.
As an aside it'd be nice if this thread weren't overrun by YouTube embeds because we have a thread for that.
Comments
Also, the Touhou track "Native Faith" is better than "Kero (9) Destiny", its remix. But "Cirno's Perfect Math Class" is better than Cirno's original theme, "Beloved Tomboyish Girl".
Wow, I'm the last poster in this one!
There's also the Dump thread. (It's the one with embeds. Not that the other lacks them.)
...in other words, I suppose I should make my post about some other music threads we've had before. Like, you know. I wanted to provide an easy link to the past threads in case someone was interested. Perhaps this time we'll manage to keep embeds in a thread for embeds.
I have some thoughts on music itself, but I may share them some other day.
In fact, before this album I'd only given reunion a passing listen on YouTube once, and I'm glad I properly discovered it.
But this isn't actually what I was meaning to post about right now <_<, I was going to talk about how BEE SHUFFLE seem to be evolving as an idol unit.
From the day they debuted to around the release of their first album, they were kind of a "jokey" group. Their songs weren't at all serious and the choreography was a bit wacky, which is what appealed to me about them. It meant they just didn't rest on their laurels as another Japanese/Korean boy group.
But their latest single, LOVE YOUR SMILE, seems to have taken them in a (semi?-)serious direction and I'm not sure I'm completely okay with that. I mean, of course their dancing is pretty solid and their vocal-harmonies are great, but I mostly made the decision to follow them and not Da-iCE because they always kind of made me smile with their antics.
Oh yeah, also I learned this:
It only sold like 3k copies ;-; (other misono thread)
celebrating the singer's 30th birthday. It was released in two
versions: a CD+DVD edition and a CD Only edition. The full album title
and the covers actually include the mention
"※アルバムが1万枚売れなかったらmisonoはもうCDを発売できません。", saying that if misono doesn't
sell 10,000 copies of this album she won't be able to release music
anymore.
- See more at: http://www.generasia.com/wiki/Uchi#sthash.y9QPexPU.dpuf
Launcher is probably her best overall album yet (and this isn't just about how Akogare Boenkyou is basically a perfection of the style that BRiGHT FLiGHT experimented with).
On to EMPTY MERMAiD~
Not this year's, but I once applied to compete in it. Didn't get in. I think that was the one time I got bloody tired with doing my audition recording and left a really stupid but prominent wrong note in Chopin's Op. 25 #12 étude...
As a kid I was pretty involved in the activities of the Chopin Foundation of the United States though. Never got my own concert, however.
In an alternate universe, I might be in Lang Lang's place. Incidentally, I disagree with his interpretation on some pieces...
Along with other things in Ab or G# minor.
The first Guilty Crown OP (My Dearest) is almost unfittingly bright and optimistic for a story that's about considering various shades of immorality and the mistakes in one's decisions.
already released a billion singles
Also everybody stop whatever you're doing (but not really) and listen to yanaginagi's Kazakiri. Most worth it song of the anime season.
Anyways, new SAO game is coming out and I hope Aoi Eir does the opening for it because Accentier was/is brilliant and I don't think I've ever listened to a song that wasn't by fripSide as many times as I did Cynthia no Hikari.
leavinggraduating from 9nine. At the very least I hope the group doesn't fall apart after this.Hey, at least it's better than discovering an artist you like and then realizing that they're deceased.
Also, fixed your link.
ELISA's cover of Himitsu Kichi is really the only cover to really respect it's original this year. Also now if Eureka Seven were to reair as two cour anime there are almost enough covers for that (faylan's DAYS, Claris' sakura and now this).
I think this is the most appropriate thread for this stuff.
So, there's this guy I happen to know who turns mathematical models into sounds and music comes out of it. This is just one of many of his examples, see for more. I don't exactly know what he does with it, I think he explained it once in my presence but I don't remember. Perhaps he put it in the descriptions. In this one it looks like he assigned wavelengths to points on a circle hit from inside by a double pendulum, but you don't need me to tell you that.
@GMH I remember you saying you liked songs in Spanish. I thought this was particularly ambitious for a Telenovela opening.
(This is not necessarily a compliment.)
Thriving
Amuro Namie : I can't even with Hero right now, it is such a great single. I can't believe she was going to relegate this to the Red Carpet B-side, it is so danged brilliant. Namie has been on a roll lately, releasing single after single I can't stop listening to (and then there was the ridiculousness that was _genic, probably my favorite album of hers).
Utada Hikaru : I don't understand how she moves to Italy and comes back sounding more J-pop than she ever originally sounded. It was as if she'd assembled a whole board of 90's J-pop stars to help out with Manatsu no Tooriame and Hanataba no Kimi ni. I'm incredibly excited for Fantôme.
Wth is going on
Koda Kumi : After that weird "I'm going to 180 on my image because I have a baby now" single (Koishikute or something?) she's been really on her game. Unlike Namie, I feel like she doesn't get anything out of her work with foreign producers (at least since after JAPONESQUE). She's mostly in the latter half because Namie and Hikki have actually bothered being around this year, but I don't know if she's released anything after To the top that really made me happy owning it.
Hamasaki Ayumi : Ayu still exists... right?
My weebness has been severely threatened by how much I enjoyed it.
* Mozart piano sonatas
* Joplin ragtimes
* Cervantes Cuban dances
* fripSide songs
You mean the 1.2 years between TRYANGLE and PLASMIC FIRE didn't count?
Probably for the best, I'm looking forward to more from fripSide and I hope motsu finds a project that isn't Yokai Watch soon.
As for Maon, I've never been a fan of her solo work anyways so... good luck, I guess?
At first I even thought it was one of the leitmotifs of Trails in the Sky but then I was like, wait, this started the same but did something different.