I’ve Sound have some weirdass song titles. Just saying.
Yuki over at I’ve Sound Blog posted the news about KOTOKO’s latest song. The song is the theme song for BALDRSKY Dive2 and is called… jihad.
Yes, believe it or not KOTOKO’s latest song is named after a controversial Islamic term. The short version of the song doesn’t sound bad at all, but… why that term, out of all the random wikipedia pages?
While I find I’ve Sound have always had a history of bizarre titles (The penchant for Botany related terms is something I picked up on – song titles such as Lythrum, Meconopsis, Oxisols exist plus strange things like Everything is assumed to be connected, intron tone, Vacillate, Scheherazade), this one just makes me scratch my head more than usual.
So in some sort of experiment to satisfy my curiosity, this is a meme that I plucked off livejournal which uses the Special:Random page over at wikipedia to generate an album and some songs. Will it resemble anything particularly I’ve Sound-ish? Let’s see.
Scouse!TOKYO x Mob Squad Tokyo: Donk Bass Bootlegs
While I strain my brains on what to write in this thing, I have a little tidbit of news to report on today.
Scouse!TOKYO, the Tokyo based donk-a-riffic crew bringing the sounds of a style with a detuned bassline from Liverpool are releasing an album in collaboration with Mob Squad Tokyo. While I’m one of the few people who scratches their heads at the idea of a Scouse Tokyo (I cannot imagine anybody wanting to speak with a Liverpudlian accent, especially people from Tokyo, of all places), I personally find donks highly amusing… until I see the Blackout Crew and then I end up wishing the damned thing never existed.
The album is slated for a September 21 release and will have an accompanying Scouse!TOKYO party.
Artist: Various
Title: Scouse!TOKYO Presents – DONK BASS BOOTLEGS
Catalogue No: MSTBL016
Tracklist:
01. Mr.ABC – Balalaika vs. Yaranaika
02. 204 – D’nk Soldier
03. DJ Schwarzenegger – Who Kills MJ?
04. Bit Breaks – 8 VS 16 Bit
05. Mr.ABC – INSTRUMENT FLYING (pump this mix)
06. DONK TERRORIST – Blue Technologic
07. D.N.K – Sound Crusher
08. Shingo Dj – DONK is Fashion!
09. DONK TERRORIST – Move It
10. grayghost – Don’t Rest!
11. Y.V.L vs 204 – Donkly-Hvn
This release walks the borderline of highly amusing and highly appalling. Personally, I’m going to stick with highly amusing.
Review: PSI-missing – Kawada Mami
Artist: Mami Kawada
Title: PSI-missing
Catalogue No.: GNCV-0009
Tracklist:
01. PSI-missing
02. 雨 [Ame]
03. PSI-missing (Instrumental)
04. 雨 (Instrumental) [Ame (Instrumental)]
My love for Mami Kawada’s eyeshadow on the cover art aside – PSI-missing is one of those songs I am not entirely sure why I like. I shouldn’t like it in all respects – it is completely unfulfilling as a song as it is… not as catchy or memorable as Mami’s earlier releases. (The only lines I can remember the melody of is “touzen no kurushimi o unmei ga sasou” and “sezoku made”) Mami sounds flat and the melody doesn’t really resolve itself as strongly as it could be, so it falls flat even if it starts alright.
As for what it sounds like, it sounds like the bastard child of radiance and Hishoku no Sora, arguably Mami Kawada’s two best singles.
That is probably the reason why I like it, ahaha. The use of distortion is reminiscent of KOTOKO’s Suppuration -core-, which gives Mami a darker sounding voice contrasting with the chorus which doesn’t have as many effect filters on it and eventually the distortion is almost non existent towards the end of the song. The effect of altering Mami’s voice quality becomes understandable after watching the PV for PSI-missing, which is included in this edition of the single.
Demonic Mami calls upon Goddess Mami (who is very reminiscent of MELL, though I can’t put my finger on exactly why – maybe it’s the hair. Or the fact that Mami looks… so much more mature than I remember.) and the use of filtering on Mami’s voice fits what she’s doing in the PV. Ohoho, so they did try to be clever.
So, how do I feel about PSI-missing? It’s enjoyable to listen to, but not really memorable. 
Which is a shame. I do love the drums in this song. I couldn’t help but me won over by the entire package – which admittedly in the absence of, might have made me dismiss this song. I do have a soft place in my heart for I’ve Sound’s darker trance songs though.
As for Ame, the b-side… sadly forgettable. Even from the opening, it is just very bland and very flat. A half-hearted pop ballad, if you will. I can’t actually say much about it, because I nod off while listening to the song because I get bored listening to it.
So, is this single on it’s own worth buying? Well, in my honest opinion, not really. (Watch me eat my words as I come back from Japan with this single in my collection, but that’s because I’m obsessed with collecting CD singles.) Admittedly while I do like PSI-missing, for the casual I’ve fan it’s probably worth just waiting for Mami’s next album (which will have this track in it) to come out so you get more value for your money.
KraftyRadio’s August Podcast: The Day of Hardcore Showcase by JAKAZiD
In between refreshing the Hardcore Tano*C website constantly the past few days, I’ve noticed that The Day of Hardcore headliner JAKAZiD has mixed a special KraftyRadio Podcast consisting of an interesting mix of mostly Japanese producers (the mixer himself the only one not Japanese, lol)
The mix itself is downloadable over here. And for reference, here’s the tracklist!
1. Cycheouts Ghost – Arcadex – ROMZ Record
2. DJ Shimamura – Bring The Noize – Dynasty Records
3. M-Neko – Everything Needs RAVE – MPT
4. M-Project – Blue Lotus – Terraform Music
5. Joshka – No Reason – Hardcore Tano*C
6. DJ Shimamura – Return 2 Universe – Dynasty Records
7. L.E.D. feat. Sana – The Shining Polaris (Kors K Remix) – Konami
8. RoughSketch – Pride or Money – Mob Squad Black Label
9. DJ Sharpnel – Shine!! – MPT
10. m1dy – Wani – Maddest Chick’ndom Pork
It features a variety of things – JAKAZiD’s new track for Hardcore Syndrome 3 entitled “Nø Reasøn”, kors k’s highly popular remix of L.E.D.’s The Shining Polaris, Cycheout G’s Arcadex from Vikalpa (one of my favourite tracks from there) and tracks from M-Project’s new album, M-Neko’s first album and DJ Shimamura’s new album. For those of you who keep seeing me blabber on about j-core but never really know what it is – this is pretty much a good starting point with arguably the most popular artists on there (Including Sharpnel himself and m1dy, Japanese King of Speedcore). It’s a diverse enough mix and a little bit mental in some places (I mean, come on. m1dy is there.)
August is shaping up to be a pretty good month for J-core in general as even BBC Radio 1’s Kutski has tweeted that he is making a j-core mix for his upcoming radio show. I shall be in Japan when it airs, most likely at the The Day of Hardcore, but nevertheless Kutski has good taste, so it should be a good listen.
And as I mentioned, I will be going to Japan for The Day of Hardcore, so I might make a photo report on that when I come back.
Denki Groove’s Shangri-La – The Cover Song Paradox
Firstly, I’m surprised by the number of Jpop fans who don’t know who Denki Groove is. I’m not the biggest fan of theirs (I have interest in what they do) but I know who they are. Anyway, a short introduction to them is needed and their song Shangri-La.
Denki Groove is a Japanese technopop in the style of Kraftwerk and YMO. The current members are Takkyu Ishino and Pierre Taki who basically produce everything, compose everything and whatnot. I’m a fan of their older stuff, especially of their A album and their songs have a very raw feel to them with pop sensibilities over very nice beats and basslines. I find that they’re sorely underrated as a group and they have gotten some popularity in Europe in any instance.
Their arguably most popular song is Shangri-La. It’s one of my favourites anyway.
The bassline in that song is to die for. It is amazing, I love this song. It’s very new wave but there is something German, something French, something distinctly European but fused with this infusion of something very Eastern as well. The melody is of course, taken from Bebu Silvetti’s Spring Rain (Lluvia de Primavera? That’s the title in Italian, though I have seen both in usage.)
Anyway, the lyrics are about this girl who is so wonderful that when she laughs, when she talks – it’s like she’s bringing Shangri-La (utopia, paradise, whatever floats your boat in terms of fictional mythical arcadia) to this guy who is infatuated with her. The days with her are sweet for him, like the spring rain. It’s a beautiful song, lyrically and musically. I would pay good money to have the original 8cm single that this was released on.
As far as I am aware, this song has been covered twice relatively recently. The first one is by the newest incarnation of formerly Konami backed j-pop group BeForU.
From this very raw new wave sound it gets turned into slick, electropop influenced… well, pop. It’s a different direction for the song, but what is with those outfits? As much as I like BeForU and followed their travails, I know this new incarnation was meant to be a shift from their old image to something sexier, but still. If I’d never heard the original Shangri-La, I would be perfectly content in thinking this song was alright, but not terribly impressive.
The other cover I know of is by electropop darling, Aira Mitsuki’s labelmate Saori@destiny, who gives a distinct definite electro twist to the song and it’s ever so slightly verging into denpa territory as well. Though this didn’t have a PV, it was released before Saori’s JAPANESE CHAOS album on iTunes as a “teaser” track.
Now that I’ve made you aware of the existence of both covers and the original, I am flummoxed by the fact that they’re both electropoppish and they’re both sung by females. It’s ever so slightly egotistical for a female to sing this because for god’s sake, it’s like they’re saying they’re the girl that brings Shangri-La upon some poor soul – which is clearly the direction the BeForU video takes it with those pajama outfits and sexy dancing.
BeForU make their cover sound very sexy and admittedly the synth that carries the main melody line sounds very cheap compared to the used in the original. It’s a decent enough cover.
Saori@destiny has sorta made covering songs in an electropop style her speciality as her first major single was a Kyogo Kawaguchi cover, and the choice of Shangri-La was certainly odd, but she pulls it off well enough with her vocals being slightly flat on the emotional aspect of the song (that’s probably just the vocoder), but nevertheless, it’s not too bad to listen to, with the vocal cutting of “Shangri-La, Shangri-La” during the bridge being one of the highlights.
What I really want, is a guy to cover this song. Admittedly after seeing a clip of Shangri-La live on youtube, if a guy were to cover this, then there’s a lot that he’d have to live up to. Nevertheless, as far as cover songs go, Shangri-La by Denki Groove does lend itself to being covered well enough.
MELL@Otakon
Well, while the folks at International Wota didn’t manage to get a solo interview with her, they were present for her press conference!
As you all know, I am a big MELL fan and I would dearly love to see her live one day. But she seemed to give a really enthusiastic press conference that you can read over at International Wota, courtesy of Pengie, who was referred to as cute (and now is a MELL fan. Yes!). The transcript can be found here, for your reading pleasure.
It is a good read, and it does show a different side to MELL than what she normally portrays herself as. She seems really bubbly and friendly and very very funny. (Wait, this woman has the best death glare ever in her PVs.) It’s a shame that I wasn’t there, but maybe one day I’ll be able to see her. She talks about the creation process for her songs, her outfits, her concert and several anecdotes which made me laugh.
It seems as if she wore a red kimono at her live aside from a variety of white dresses. This brings to mind the MELLSCOPE art, in which she was garbed in a red kimono for some of the booklet shots. In my opinion, those shots of her were absolutely gorgeous because they had that strong element of wa, the closest English equivalent I can think of being “Japanese aesthetic.” You can view the very kimono used in the SCOPE PV here. (It’s about 2 minutes into the PV, the first couple of minutes are actually of MELL wearing a white dress.)
It’s a shame that there actually isn’t more information on her concert other than she sang… Red fraction. But as always, I shall be on the lookout for whatever I can find out.
As a MELL fan, I thank Pengie and International Wota for sharing with us what I feel, is a good insight into MELL as a person and hopefully more people overseas will support her endeavours in the future.
Meanwhile, there’s a review of Aira Mitsuki’s PLASTIC in the wings and another review for a jpop single you might not have heard of for this blog. Stay tuned!
I’ve Sound Blog Has A Karaoke Competition: Brace Yourselves
Aibu over at I’ve Sound Blog is having a karaoke contest! For those of you who don’t mind embarrassing themselves by singing an I’ve song for all the readers of Aibu’s blog to gape over, this competition is for you.
The songs are restricted to those that are explicitly linked to I’ve Sound. (So if you really wanted to, you could sing C.G. mix’s under the darkness and pretend that you are a bishounen born from… under the darkness.)
I have decided that one way or another, I will be taking part in this contest. For the actual entry specifics, here’s the entry in which this is being discussed (I can’t believe I forgot about that, thanks Aibu for reminding me.)
It is proving to be complete fun finding a song for me to actually sing. I’ve found myself eliminating most MELL songs for reasons stated previously.
The more I look it, the more I find it more likely that I am going to sing a KOTOKO song. While I’d like to keep my most likely choices to myself for a bit of a surprise for the readers of I’ve Sound Blog, the one song I would have probably wanted to do would be KOTOKO’s Suppuration or Suppuration -core-, neither of which have a karaoke or instrumental version.
But in any instance, I’m off to practise two or three songs and see what works best. Of course, as this contest progresses, I will keep this blog updated. 
Losing My Comiket Virginity
This coming August, I will be going to Comiket 76.
… I’m not sure why, but I’m kinda dreading and yet happily anticipating the experience.
For those of you who might not know about Comiket, it is basically a giant… market, really for doujinshi artists and even well established artists and more to sell stuff (enigmatic LIA 2 was a Comiket 71 release for example). It’s expanded now to encapsulate music, manga and various other things. Most of the items that are available at Comiket are very often limited edition and while they go for relatively reasonable prices at the actual event, when they’re resold on places like Yahoo!Japan Auctions or shops such as Toranoana, the price gets a hike a lot of the time and often become ridiculously rare collectors items.
Since so many people go to Comiket at Tokyo Big Sight, there will be lots of lines and lots of people there. It will be like sardines and hence the reason I’m almost dreading the experience.
The last time I went to Japan, I sort of did my own preparation by going to the Touhou only event Reitaisai (mainly because of REDALiCE’s CDs, coincidentally his booth was right beside the IOSYS one, which was clever). I’m not a big Touhou fan, but it was probably the closest experience that I had prior to actually going to Comiket.
But some people have reported going and actually enjoying the experience. Mind you, they probably mapped out their route before they went there. (it is possible to do this, the organisers of Comiket release a CD catalogue containing map information and you can plot out a route beforehand! This is nifty.)
But what am I going to Comiket for? Well, I’m not sure just yet because I have yet to find much information about who is producing anything for Comiket. Hopefully there will be more information closer to the event.
Unfortunately, I haven’t taken much interest in Comiket prior to relatively recently and thus, my knowledge of who and what releases at Comiket is relatively sparse. I hope that something from Hardcore Tano*C will get released at Comiket and that there will be something from Visual Arts and queens label.
Sadly, due to this unfortunate brouhaha of eroge websites blocking non-Japanese IPs I have a feeling that available information will be hard to come by…
Hello! Project 2009: Spitting On the Memory of Those That Made It Great
I used to have a strong interest in Hello! Project. This was close to the time of their heyday of the 10th anniversary and I felt that Hello!Project at the time had a lot going for it because of the variety of girls that participated in it – you had mature singers like Kaori Iida, Yuko Nakazawa and the lesbian leghumping v-u-den to counterbalance the loli filled acts Berryz Koubou, C-ute and the almost nauseating Hello!Project Eggs.
My interest in Hello! Project eventually waned when all my favourite girls came to a slow but steady decrease in their activity or was placed in the hands of bland composers and arrangers (Case point: Aya Matsuura) that listening to their current music was just unbearable no matter how much I liked their voice.
Without going into the details of my Hello!Project favourites, let’s just say that I was throwing the towel at being an H!P fan and was just taking a casual interest in the girls I liked.
And then there comes the news that every single member I ever cared for graduates in one mass exodus from Hello! Project. So there goes my interest in the group. I could have dusted my hands off Hello! Project and called it a day.
I pretty much did, until I heard the news that there was a new Hello! Project CD coming out. It’s called チャンプル① ～ハッピーマリッジソングカバー集～ [Chanpuru 1 ~Happy Marriage Song Cover Shuu~] and is pretty much a cover album of Jpop from the 70s and 80s with updated arrangements and sung by girls who look young enough to be the daughter of a male at marriage age.
My heart sank when I saw the tracklist and corresponding artists (Courtesy of Hello! Online)
Hello!Project
Chanpuru 1~Happy Marriage Song Cover Shuu~
Release Date: July 15, 2009Tracklist:
1. Diamonds – High-King
2. Ai wa Katsu – °C-ute & Erina Mano
3. YES-YES-YES – Aa! [Tanaka Reina, Natsuyaki Miyabi, Suzuki Airi]
4. Tentou Chuu no Sanba – Shin Minimoni (New Minimoni) [Linlin, Kanon Fukuda, ???]
5. Kimi ga iru dake de – Pucchimoni V
6. Heya to Y shirts to Watashi – Reina Tanaka
7. Mamotte Agetai – Risa Niigaki & Eri Kamei
8. Cosmos – Ai Takahashi
9. Mirai Yosouzu II – ZYX-α (ZYX alpha)
10. ONLY YOU – Zoku･Biyuuden (Sequel Biyuuden)
11. akai sweet pea – Tanpopo #
12. For You… – Linlin
13. Kanpaku Sengen – Berryz Koubou & Erina Mano
14. Sekai wa futari no tame ni – Sayumi Michishige, Koharu Kusumi, Aika Mitsui, Junjun
My first reaction was the title of this particular entry. My second reaction was to believe that due to the global recession and the rise of digital methods of buying music, H!P were running into hard times.
I have very dear memories of Pucchimoni and Tanpopo. My favourite incarnation of Tanpopo is Kaori Iida, Mari Yaguchi and Aya Ishiguro – their Tanpopo was mature, melancholic and featured lovely harmonies. Songs like Last Kiss, Motto and the eponymous Tanpopo were examples of good 90s Jpop. And I loved it to death.
I expect the current Tanpop would just be even more of a sham than the Rika Ishikawa led incarnation.
Pucchimoni on the other hand, were the fun loving and girlish group that Sayaka Ichi, Kei Yasuda and Maki Goto. And though Ichi was replaced with Hitomi Yoshizawa, the group still packed a punch by being cute and in your face without being saccharine.
You can’t beat that, seriously. I don’t think you can.
Again, for the purposes of being brief I won’t go into v-u-den and Minimoni’s incarnations but the point is, these groups were laid to rest for a reason. They were created with a purpose and it just seems a bit… disrespectful to the girls who made H!P great in the first place to revive their groups with these other girls who don’t have the charisma or personality to be worthy of joining these groups.
The point being, I think Maki Goto and the rest of the Hello! Project Elder Club left at a good time. I don’t think they’d be able to stand this sacrilege.
Because I certainly don’t.
MELL: Why I to this date, have a massive crush on her.
I don’t mean just physically, I think that MELL is my favourite member of I’ve sound without any doubt. And I am not ashamed in admitting that I have a crush on MELL.
For those of you unfamiliar with I’ve Sound, MELL is basically the oldest member of the collective; presumably still with Kazuya Takase before I’ve was even formed. It wasn’t until 2006 that she got her big break with Geneon and released “Red fraction” an Engrish filled melange of awesome of heavy guitars versus sparkly piano and MELL’s vibrato filled vocals made to sound menacing with a hint of distortion.
Since then, she’s released one album and a slew of singles with Geneon. She’s also performed in America at Project A-Kon and is going to perform at Otakon this year. So she’s got the distinction of being the only I’ve girl besides KOTOKO who has performed overseas.
Prior to this debut with Geneon however, MELL seemed to be the darkest out of all the I’ve singers. And I seem to gravitate towards darkness a lot of the time, I always used this comparison when describing MELL to people.
“You’ve heard of KOTOKO, right? KOTOKO’s like a mermaid, all sparkly and happy and rainbows. MELL on the other hand, is a siren singing beautifully and darkly with just a little bit of sexual appeal to entice people.”
And in terms of songs? Egen, Out Flow, Proof, Spiral… all good things. Mind you she has had some misses with songs like Fall In Love and Fly To The Top. I don’t even want to begin how getting MELL to sing cutesy is a bad idea. It just doesn’t work and sounds forced for my ears.
Which is why I wonder why she released Proof, her second single. Or rather, I really wonder how she got dragged into singing such a bland song. It’s a flat song that I’d expect KOTOKO or Kaori Utatsuki to sing that has the elements of that sort of anison pop.
On the other hand, the b-side, no vain is pure gold. I always imagine that MELL would be like “Rawr, I don’t like this Proof shit. Let be who I am!” It also has some of the most interesting bits of Engrish written like “In the world chain of pain vomit.” That’s okay MELL, I forgive you because I find it endearing rather than annoying.
Your grasp of English probably meant that you were the most likely candidate to cover Lia’s Disintegration on The Front Line Covers. And I was impressed, the opening lines were pristine. Somewhere along the line though, your Japanese pronunciation just creeps in. But other than that, it’s a spectacular effort on MELL’s part. (I am suitably unimpressed by Lia’s delayed backing vocals left there, since you can tell it is Lia. Bad SINE6.)
But, I am not here to give you a single-by-single replay of MELL’s career. I am here to tell you why I love this woman as a singer and why she should continue.
… Or not. Recently MELL’s latest singles KILL and RIDEBACK have suffered from following the same format as Red fraction (which was inventive… when it was first released. Now not so much.)
But, the KILL single’s promotional photos looked like the closest to a MELL-sama S&M fantasy.
I suppose the biggest reason I love MELL is because I could never sing like her. She has acquired a certain tone and vibrato to her voice that is very hard to imitate. I have tried singing Red fraction and not even the massive amounts of distortion I placed on my voice gave me a little bit of MELL’s vibrato. And because I cannot sing her songs, I admire her.
Did I mention she’s really hot too?
Note: I am female. Let’s get this completely clear.
