Kanna’s Mp3 Player Top Ten [September 10 2009]
In my first attempt to make a sort of regular feature, I thought I’d start with something relatively simple and relatively pain free.
I have an iPod. It’s a nice little iPod Nano in black (because I couldn’t find a red one). I listen to it a lot – I take it with me everywhere and when I’m driving, it is often playing music to keep me company during the traffic jams.
So in no particular order, here’s the songs that have caught my interest recently.
1. そらとぶひかり – COLTEMONIKHA
Soratobu Hikari is one of those songs that amuses me greatly because it’s both in Japanese and Mangled English. The first line goes soratobu hikari kimi no moto e or so a lot of heat curry, gimme no motorway. Kate Sakai’s quite good blurring the line between the two languages and it’s a cute, silly little song that reminds me a little bit of capsule’s FRUiTS CLiPPER. The song, not the entire album mind you.
2. Adagio – DJ Depath & M-Project
I’ve always had a thing for pieces for string orchestra as the violin is a beautiful instrument and the cello can sound really lovely and warm and they’re my favourite string instruments. Barber’s Adagio For Strings is one of my favourite pieces of 20th century classical music – sadly the best remix of this is William Orbit’s – as the other trance version by Tiësto was a piece of shit (actually, Tiësto is pretty shit no matter how I look at it). But this remix… confuses me slightly but I like listening to it. Maybe it’s my love for the source material but I do shake my head in puzzlement each time I listen to this song on how it goes from strings to KICK KICK KICK KICK CUT UP HIGH PITCHED VOCAL SAMPLE KICK KICK KICK KICK STRIIIIIIIINGS KICK KICK KICK KICK STRIIIIINGS. You get the idea.
3. Ligaya (Yoji Biomehanika Remix) – Gouryella
Personally, I think the time in which Ferry Corsten was at his best was when he made the Gouryella tracks. That’s probably the best Tiësto’s ever been too, considering that all he probably did was make the coffee. I love the original instrumental version of Ligaya (the vocal version effectively ruined the track) but I am very fond of this remix because Yoji gave it more of a bassline and kick. It’s still very uplifting (it does fit the name, ligaya means “happiness” in the Filipino language) but at the same time, I do like that it is harder and the breakdown is one of my favourite parts in the entire song.
4. Attack the music – DJ FX
One of my favourite 5 key beatmania songs. It is a shame that the song actually doesn’t have a sample that says “attack the music” but I was overjoyed to hear when this was revived in beatmania IIDX DistorteD CS version.
5. The Talking Goat – DJ Shimamura
… lol youtube remix.
6. GOLD DIGGA (DJ Hazime Remix) – MICHICO feat. AI
I’m not really a fan of hip-hop/r&b/rap a lot of the time, but I do like this collaboration between MICHICO and AI. (Actually, I just like MICHICO’s O.P.D. single. That’s it.) The original version of the song was a bit flat, but this sounds like it’s got a lot more punch.
7. The Prophecy Unfolds (The Playah Remix) – Tommyknocker vs. The Viper feat. MC Mouth of Madness
I think Tommyknocker is one of my favourite gabber artists and I’ve been listening to Tha Playah’s The Greatest Clits compilation. I think this is my favourite track on there besides The Viper and Tommyknocker’s remix of Fuck The Titties.
8. Chasse – 詩月カオリ
This song is very cute. I think I like it since it isn’t too nauseatingly denpa and sugar coated, but cute enough to be enjoyable. Admittedly it isn’t the best song Kaori Utatsuki’s put out, but I think this is a little song that you can enjoy singing along to. waratte runrunrun rara runrun ruru~~
9. G-Sigh – Remo-con
I love Remo-con’s album. Tech-dance makes good music to do statistics to, as I did the majority of the statistics for my reports while listening to A life with remote controllers. While Bemani fans bemoan the lack of IIDX songs, for heaven’s sake this album is pretty good and Prototype resembles Golden Cross without the bassline and more tech dance-y.
10. tsugihagi Construction – t+pazolite
Such a good way to end Hardcore Syndrome 3. I love this track. Hardcore Syndrome 3 was made of pure gold. C76 actually wasn’t too bad, overall. There were quite a few albums I could listen to without skipping anything. And just how it rounds off Hardcore Syndrome nicely, I’ll end this list with this track.
Kaori Uta…who? Eh?
I’ve been an on/off fan of I’ve Sound for a variety of reasons. I can’t remember the first time I heard of them but they’ve been in the background ever since I started listening to Japanese music.
It’s only been relatively recently that I’ve have been in the mainstream with their link with Geneon. It’s also then that they reduced their line up from a veritable roster (Including a variety of guest vocalists such as Lia to name a few) to just a core group of five entitled… Love Planet Five, as the moniker from Tenjou wo Kakeru Monotachi would lead me to believe.
My on/off relationship with I’ve comes from the fact that I am not the biggest fan of their denpa stuff. Denpa is a sugary sweet, saccharine – normally fast and nauseatingly nonsensical style of music that KOTOKO (the I’ve mothership artist) is known for. It’s just… a bit too much and denpa is one of those things that I’d like to have in small doses.
This is where Kaori Utatsuki comes in. While she is one of the artists who used to be under vocalist and voice teacher Eiko Shimamiya’s wing – and I do think she has a pleasant enough voice, I find her to be out of place among the current Love Planet Five. She’s the newest addition and arguably one of the weakest.
I never really paid much attention to her until I read at 愛撫―I’ve Sound Blog― that she was releasing a new album entitled SPYGLASS. Other than knowing her existence, she was just another member of I’ve that I didn’t really take too much notice of.
But the more I looked into her, the more she seemed to stand out. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why that is until I twigged it.
Compared to the other girls in Love Planet Five (KOTOKO, MELL, Shimamiya Eiko and Kawada Mami), Kaori seems to have very little involvement in regards to her input in songs. MELL, Shimamiya Eiko and Kawada Mami write their own lyrics and KOTOKO composes and writes lyrics. But Kaori always seems to have her lyrics written by KOTOKO.
I just feel a bit cheated, really. I always found that personally, one of I’ve Sound’s selling points was the singer writing the lyrics for a fair majority of their songs since you can get a really strong impression from them sometimes and then it becomes a stylistic thing of an artist that you being to look out for. (Case point: MELL’s fantastic English.)
Then another thing that held even more weight hit me. Most of Kaori’s songs are pop ballads, denpa pop, midtempo pop and just pop songs in general. Unless someone proves me wrong, Kaori Utatsuki doesn’t have any dark, electronic trance songs to her name which every other girl in Love Planet Five. I’ve Sound was built upon Takase Kazuya’s heavy trance beats and synth loops. I could name my favourite songs from each of the Love Planet Five, save for Kaori Utatsuki. There is a trend between all of them.
KOTOKO:
- Abyss
- Suppuration/Suppuration -core-
- Princess Bride (this is so the black sheep in this list)
Kawada Mami
- radiance
- PSI-missing
- Trill
Shimamiya Eiko
- World My Eyes
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
- To lose in amber
MELL
- Two face (She did such a good job this cover, I was completely amazed)
- no vain
- Spiral
They’re all dark songs with a dance beat and trance/techno elements to them. That’s the connection. And I can’t be bothered to dig through Kaori’s discography.
So, in summary:
- Every single I’ve member in Love Planet Five has at least three songs I like which have trance/techno elements (SAVE FOR PRINCESS BRIDE, that song is just… special) except for Kaori Utatsuki.
- Kaori Utatsuki is purely pop with none of this electronic music which I love the other girls for.
- (minor point, but it needs to be included) She doesn’t write her own lyrics, which strikes me as slightly odd in this I’ve collective.
So I hope someone can prove me wrong and find a dark, beat filled Kaori Utatsuki song. Maybe then I’ll pay attention to her for when she releases SPYGLASS. Call me I’ve ignorant, but my denpa tolerance does run low.
