A Ton of Updates.

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Sorry for the late updates. I'm having so much fun in the "introduce yourself post" I kind of got lazy with the spotlights and updates, all of which I'm doing now! Also I'm trying to get a couple of friends into the fandom (again) and I'm still thinking of how to go about it. I suck at writing intro posts seriously XDD;.

Anyway, updates!

• It seems that there is a planned novelization of mothy's Aku no Musume/Meshitsukai series. There are no details released yet but here is some more info in Fujyoshinews (in Japanese), though.

• If you enjoyed the Utattemoratta CD 1 (theme: ikemen voices), you'll definitely love Utattemoratta CD 2 (theme: gender-defying voices). This is going to be released August 27 (clear's birthday lol) and will include Hitori, che:sakurai, vip-tenchou, Kogeinu and Lon. It's kind of stingy there are only two people in the cover though ;;.

• As I said in twitter, clear should take lessons on "how to pose for a CD cover" from Piko, who is to release his debut album. Limited edition has a DVD, too! Pretty face is pretty, I'm ashamed to be female, etc. While you're ordering why not order Irregular Voices by Ouzoku Band (y'know, the one with Tissue hime) feat. Sekihan, too XD. This was released last month so it's a bit older.

• G.W. Nicolai website is updated with some info, art and demo of the seven singles they're releasing. Remember the ones having singles are ASK, Gero, Nodoame (lol lollipop art), Pokota, Yuge, Kogeinu and Makomakkou. You can view the crossfade demo in the "special" part of the site. And the tracklist at the "product" part. Here's a translation of what they are going to sing:

Gero: Kutabare PTA (NashimotoP) and From Y to Y (Jimmythumb)
ASK: Eh? Aa, Sou (papiyon) and d's (Kudou Yasumoto)
Kogeinu: Kusari no Shoujo (NoboruP) and Shinryoku no Kaze (Studio IMO)
Yuge: Dancing Samurai (mathru) and Neta Kiri Goukin Depenza (Don McCow/MML)
Pokota: Scissorhands (Nem) and Kuro no Kata Tsubasa (Studio IMO)
Nodoame: Migikata no Chou -Len ver.- (Noripy) and Spider Kiss (Ritsu Inoue)
Makomakkou: Spice! (minato) and Heaven's Door (Don McCow)

Some of them aren't Vocaloid songs :). At the moment, there is no way to buy the CDs aside from the shop but it might be available in Animate and other sites soon :).

• Usa Colony 4 has its site up with MP3 previews of the tracklist. It also has a crossfade demo in Nicovideo here. This will be released August 14, 2010 at Comiket.

• That kind of epic collab CD in a graceful sound has released a crossfade demo here. Remember this CD involves collaborations with producers 40mP, FullkawaP, Scop, ←P, KuwagataP and kous; and singers Tourai, Tabun Jibun, Erusi, Rumdarjun, Usa and F9.

• For those interested in BL games, "Nessa no Rakuen" has an OP teaser here (SLIgHTLY NSFW AND BL OF COURSE!) You might remember Dasoku is singing the opening song. Get your tissues ready.

• In case you missed it the first time I posted it, here is another page of the Utattemoratta 1 (clear, ASK, Dasoku, Pokota, Kettaro) CD interview. This one contains voice messages as well as handwritten ones (holy crap ASK's message D:).

• Before we get to the crazy part, have some random dancing by Pokota which is the reason why my brain broke last night.

• Now for the crazy part. Nico Nico Douga is actually holding an end-of-summer fest which involves a 27-hour marathon of guests from 18:00 TODAY up to 20:40 of the next day (Sunday). There is a list of guests here and they will only appear at certain times. In order to watch, just click the view tab in the site and you'll be seeing few ustream channels. The guests are singers, musicians, producers and gamers. I translated some of the guests' names (only the ones relevant to this comm) and the time they will appear under the cut. All of the time is in JPN time so please convert to your timezone~.

( time table )

And that ends our update XD. I'll squeeze in some of the news later if something comes up~!

Producer Spotlight: BungaP

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BungaP/ブンガP

mylist | community | blog | KarenT profile | HearJapan profile

He is also known as VOCALOTUS. BungaP might be someone unknown to most of you, just like pulot/SantenP. He started uploading his songs in Nico Nico Douga in 2009, but seems more prolific this year. Although he is a lesser-known producer, he has released a couple or so CDs in VoM@s and other conventions. His CDs are also available in toranoana.

BungaP's music is hard to define for me, because I'm not a fan of this genre. Like pulot's his music seems to be bordering on trance/ambient. Aside from the trace-like beats, he uses sounds of traditional Japanese musical instruments like the koto or bamboo flute (seems like it!) which is why his music sounds unique compared to most songs released today. Most of his songs are a myriad of rhythms and beats from instruments/sources I can never define and are mostly relaxing/calming to the ears. I don't think there's such a term as "traditional Japanese ambient music" but it's definitely how I define BungaP's works.

Most of the time, he draws the art he uses in his works (he draws really well!). He uses Miku or Luka as his singers, and both of them are tuned really smoothly. He sometimes affixes weird effects on their voices, making them sound echo-ey or "Okinawa-ish" (you'll see when you watch one of the samples I listed ^^). Coupled with the different music, the effect is almost mystical and very beautiful.

sample music
• ABYSS DIVER (Miku Append)
• Kiete Yuku, Kimi no Utagoe (Luka)
• Kami Asobi (Luka)
• Osanago Koro no Hibi (Luka)
• Rankan Bashi (Luka/Miku)


nikki says

BungaP is one of those producers I encountered in twitter and I was ashamed to admit that I didn't know of him before (and he has such wonderful music too ;; ). He is a nice, well-traveled person (he greeted me in Filipino and I'm like, O_O, too bad he only knows greetings ^^;). He taught me a lot about Japanese culture and words and he seems to be very keen in preserving the Japanese culture as well as exploring cultures beyond their country.

Because of that, most of his songs have this traditional feel, especially with the use of traditional instrument melody. Unlike with other producers, I usually "feel" BungaP's songs instead of hurrying to translate the lyrics, since his music tells a lot about the song and its mood already. For example in "Abyss Diver", you hear the poignant beats (like a heartbeat) with a bit of dark-sounding rhythm. In Kami Asobi, you hear flutes and faint traditional drums that makes it seem you're in a forest or something. In Rankan Bashi, you hear snippets of traditional Okinawan music coupled with Luka and Miku's lovely tuning (they really sound like Okinawan singers ;_; ).

If you haven't listened to him before, I strongly suggest you go over his mylist, especially if you love traditional Japanese and/or ambient music. His music is not something everyone will love, but I do know I liked this type of genre more because of his works :).

Utaite Spotlight: MISAKI

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MISAKI

mylist | community | blog | mixi comm

MISAKI is not a famous singer, but she's also not that unknown. She has gathered some following and even has communities in both Nico and Mixi. She started uploading her covers early 2009 and has been active since, although not prolific.

MISAKI's voice can be compared to Yamai and Erin. She has a very rich, syrupy and slightly nasal voice that can reach super high and super low notes effortlessly. Whether the song has a high or low base, she can sing it cleanly without difficulty. Aside from that, she rarely uses vocal stylistics or auto-tune so she delivers songs in a naturally lovely way. She sings ballads, rock songs, upbeat songs -- you name it and she still can pull it off very well. Sometimes, it might seem that her voice lacks feelings because of her low drawl, but I think that itself is her style?

sample songs
• Omoide Kakera (original by DevilishP)
• ToyBox (original by Jimmythumb)
• Kusari no Shoujo (original by NoboruP)
• Dancer in the Dark (original by fatmanP)
• Tower (original by KEI)

nikki says

I first heard MISAKI's Rip=Release cover and fell in love with it, although it was shabbily mixed (if it was) compared to other singers' back then. Gradually, the mixing of her songs got better and even her range and voice quality improved. I love singers with clear voices so I appreciated her covers very much, whether it's super low or super high. I think hers is the only cover of Dancer in the Dark that I appreciate XDD;. She is nice to listen to if you like your singers with less screechy extremely high voices, moe voices, etc. or if you like Yamai, Erin and Yoru :).