More Bishoujo Remix Goodness… I think.

So, in an attempt to sway the bishoujo market towards the loveliest of dance remixes – Shot Music has come up with a comprehensive little package. They’ve even given the random girl on their CD a name and profile including her three sizes, for god’s sake. :p (The character is half Dutch, which makes me lol a little bit.)


Artist: Various
Title: Shot Music Presents Super Shot -Bishoujo Game Remix Collection-
Catalogue No.: SHOT-001
Tracklist:
1. Shinsei Philosophy (JAKAZiD Remix) – Veil ∞ Yui Yamamoto
2. HE∀tingSφul (DJ SHIMAMURA’s H∀RDCφR3 R3mix) – Katakiri Rekka
3. Tears to Tiara ~the essence~ (bh’s trance mix [remix by Blasterhead]) – Uehara Rena
4. Shukufuku no Campanella (StripE Trance Remix) – Satou Hiromi & NANA
5. Answer (Emotional MEGA Beat mix [remix by Samplingmaster MEGA]) – Katakiri Rekka
6. Daichi no Uta (DJ SHARPNEL Remix) – Itou Kanako
7. rebirthday eve (Aura Qualic Remix) – Marica
8. Concerto Note (DJ SHIMAMURA’s 5AM Remix) – NANA
9. reach for the runway (REDALiCE Remix) – Rita
10. Himitsu Recipe (Disconation J-Euro Remix) – Hashimoto Miyuki
11. Primary (DJ SHIMAMURA’s 10PM Remix) – Rita
12. Koisuru Kimochi (DJ Hirojack Remix) – Sakakibara Yui
13. Heart To Heart (kors k Hardcore Remix) – Uehara Rena

While kors k and DJ Shimamura seem to have been working overtime with these remixes, I can’t help but feel that the remixes presented here are going to be… watered down? It aims more for the mainstream than Ultimate A-Style did, and I can’t help but feel like this is going to be a CD like Amasia for me – Not something I’d really, really actively listen to but I’d buy it for collection’s sake. The choice of remixers isn’t bad at all – the surprises of Blasterhead and AQ were certainly unexpected.

I do have my hope on Aura Qualic actually doing a good job on this provided he doesn’t do any hardcore and sticks to doing trance/vocal trance, which is probably the area he does best in.

However, I can’t tell until I can listen to this CD. Meanwhile, M3 has come and gone so I am eagerly awaiting the releases that come from that (with the exception of REDALiCE’s bazillionth Touhou album).

Hardcore Tano*C@Comiket 76: Hardcore Syndrome 3

Okay, so I admit that REDALiCE has been a little uncreative with the past two iterations of the series. But do I give a flying fuck? No! Why? Because I think that Hardcore Tano*C is the shit.

This is the CD I’ve been waiting for to appear for ages. Now that this CD is definitely confirmed for Comiket, I can go fly into Japan happy because damn, look at that tracklist that is available here on the Hardcore Tano*C website.

Each Hardcore Tano*C sort of has its own catchphrase that goes with the CD. Hardcore Syndrome’s catchphrase is “さぁ、己の攻撃性[HARDCORE]を解き放て” (Romanized as “Saa, onore no kougekisei [hardcore] wo tokihanate” and translated as “So, liberate your agression [hardcore].”) Admittedly the original Japanese sounds a lot more aggressive, haha


Artist: Various
Title: Hardcore Syndrome 3
Catalogue No: TANOCD-0010
Tracklist:
01. Joshka – No Reason
02. REDALiCE – Remm
03. DJ SHIMAMURA – DROME (DJ SHIMAMURA’s 09 UPDATE)
04. 源屋 feat. motoko – Stasis
05. REDALiCE vs DJ TECHNORCH – 不思議の国のアリス症候群
06. DJ-Technetium – tc-ma_011
07. Betwixt & Between – division 4
08. DJ Noriken – Conclude
09. Alabaster – Sarcomite
10. Thanatos – Astaluego
11. kenta-v.ez. – iNNovAtizE yoursELf
12. RoughSketch – Fuck Me Jesus
13. USAO – Irrelevance
14. t+pazolite – tsugihagi Construction

We have all the Hardcore Tano*C favourites plus a couple of surprises. REDALiCE collaborates with DJ Technorch in an unanticipated move with the song 不思議の国のアリス症候群 (Fushigi no Kuni no Arisu Shoukougun, The Strange Country’s Alice Syndrome – look at the puns there people). DJ Shimamura brings an update of Drome from his Bitter Sweet Magic E.P., a slightly arbitrary choice but oh well. kenta-v.ez. is there, with his painful capitalisation but at least it isn’t anything ridiculous like spEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEdphobiA 230pLus+. I hope that this song is more gabba than it is jumpstyle.

Anyway, this release is available from Comiket 76 – plus it’ll probably will be available at Guhroovy, the Hardrave Store and mydjsobad when Eddie and Nick finish revamping the place.

REDALiCE’s Comiket Offering: Colors (aka another Touhou arrange album)

REDALiCE is being a Touhoufag again by producing what? Another Touhou arrange album under his Alice’s Emotion label, that’s what. While this stuff makes money, I’m sure – I’m hoping that he’d release the details of Hardcore Tano*C’s latest album (I am pretty sure it is uncreatively titled “Hardcore Syndrome 3″)

The information site can be found over here, but just for recordkeeping, here’s the details.


Artist: Various
Title: Colors
Catalogue No.: AECD-018
Tracklist:
01. REDALiCE – Truth *intro
02. REDALiCE – Deadline
03. 野宮あゆみ – Colors
04. Betwixt&Between – Nemesis
05. REDALiCE – Elebreaka
06. 野宮あゆみ – Sleeping Beauty
07. 三澤秋 – Piece of Blossom
08. DJ Noriken – Artificial Flower Garden
09. REDALiCE – Sakura Distortion
10. 天音 – Revered Collapse
11. 佳織みちる – Tears Doll
12. Betwixt&Between – blood sacrifice
13. Tsukasa – Accelerator

kz and HIR make appearances, kz composes Sleeping Beauty while HIR provides guitar for the track which shares the name of the compilation – Colors. I am not entirely enthused by this release because it carries the same format as REDALiCE’s other releases on Alice’s Emotion of Touhou arranges. Which is to say, utterly boring and more Ayumi Nomiya than I’d care for. Did I mention that they were Touhou arranges?

Oh come on REDALiCE, give me my Hardcore Tano*C already.

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… :(

Album Review: LIA – enigmatic LIA3 -worldwide collection-

This review is an extension of my review that I originally posted on Discogs for this CD.


Artist: LIA
Title: enigmatic LIA3 -worldwide collection-
Catalogue No: PCCG-90031
Tracklisting:
Disc 1:
01 sky-high (Inverse & Orbit1 Remix)
02 The World (ORIGINAL MIX)
03 時を刻む唄 [Toki wo Kizamu Uta] (JAKAZiD Remix)
04 Crystal World (teranoid Remix)
05 new moon (Al Storm Remix)
06 Believe 〜from Vivaldi’s “Winter”〜 (JAKAZiD Remix)
07 TORCH (Spy47 Remix)
08 pure rain (ORIGINAL MIX)
09 SANDSTORM (Fracus Remix)
10 The Never Ending Love (DJ Shimamura’s XTC Mix)
11 月童 [Tsuki Warabe] (Reese Remix)
12 Saya’s Song (Nu Foundation Remix)
13 Fly high again… (ORIGINAL MIX)

Disc 2:
01 君をのせて 〜from 天空の城ラピュタ〜 [Kimi wo Nosete ~from Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa~] (REDALiCE Remix)
02 I’m feeling (源屋 [Minamotoya] Remix)
03 FILIATION (DJ-Technetium Remix)
04 You Are… (Betwixt & Between Remix)
05 I’m wondering (源屋 [Minamotoya] Remix)
06 Light In the Air (Thanatos Remix)
07 SAYONARA (REDALiCE Remix)
08 Saya’s Song (REDALiCE Remix)
-Special Bonus Trax-
09 DJ Sharpnel – 鳥の詩・torino-uta (the speed freak’s noise rave remix)
10 LIA’s (a cappella) Track

Lia and her staff have really outdone themselves with enigmatic LIA 3. It features a lot of stellar remixes of songs from her previous albums (mostly from her latest one, new moon) done in a completely different electronic dance style.

The first disc boasts artists from around the world (”Remixers from 7 different countries!” as the promotional material boasted, a fair amount of them handpicked by JAKAZiD himself. JAKAZiD is one of my favourite artists and for a very good reason, I can’t even begin to imagine how he had to deal with all these artists.)

(more…)