Producer Spotlight: PolyphonicBranch

[fascinates]

POLYPHONICBRANCH

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PolyphonicBranch started uploading Vocaloid compositions in Nico Nico Douga right at the end of 2008 and since then he's been steadily uploading songs which become quite popular in the site. He also has released a few albums in Comiket and other conventions and were quite successful. He's one of these composers whose songs are hard to forget, in my opinion.

Most of the time, his songs are slightly upbeat with unforgettable intros, either they sound majestic and mystical or pop-ish and very catchy. His melodies are never similar to each other because of the differences in genre and instruments used, but all of them have this high quality, complicated feel in them. All of his works also has an anime appeal, which is kind of hard to describe unless you personally listen to his songs ^^;. Another thing which makes his songs quite hard to forget is his way of naming them, with grandiose words you only see in anime songs XD (I mean... "Dragonheart" or "Kimi ni Sasagu Fantasia", etc.). He uses a lot of instruments, depending on the song. He has songs with wonderful guitar arrangements and some ballads with magical piano melodies.

PolyphonicBranch usually uses Miku in his works, although he has also used Len, Luka and GUMI. He had some songs where Miku sounds a bit off (but not to the point of hating the song), but otherwise, his tuning is quite okay. Not as perfect as some composers, but the quality of his music makes up for it.

sample songs
• Taiyo to Tsuki no Rondo (Miku x Luka)
• Kimi ni Sasagu Fantasia (Len)
• Boukyaku Alice (Miku)
• Dragonheart (Luka)
• Yumekui Nightmare (Miku)

nikki says

PolyphonicBranch's works always makes me go *_* as they always sound so grandiose to the point of magical. By magical, I meant the anime-ish feel they give off. He also always seems to have difficult-to-read lyrics, mostly having deep metaphors, like for example "Taiyou to Tsuki no Rondo". The best part of listening to PolyphonicBranch's songs for me is the intro part, because they are often so varied and cool that you can somehow catch the theme of the whole songs just by the listening to them.

Utaite Spotlight: Lon

[fascinates]

Lon / ろん

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I think by now everyone knows Lon as the Ochame Kinou 2-million hit maker :).

Lon did not become a star overnight, though. In fact, most of her covers gain a lot of views, although not as successful as Ochame. While they did not exceed 100k views, they are starting to, now, because of the Ochame craze XD. Lon's name was hypothetically taken from a play on the Kagamine twins' names: Rin, Len, Lon. She said that if her voice would be used for an UTAU voicebank, the name should be Bokune Lon. She first uploaded a cover of Mirai no Uta sometime in 2008 but deleted it afterwards because of uploading issues as well as poor quality of the upload.

She is mostly known for her shotappoi voice which she uses perfectly in her quite few covers. She also has a way of singing very clearly which sets her apart from other cutesy-lolishota singers, like she didn't have to try very hard to act cute and still pull off singing the song wonderfully. She mostly sings popular songs and while she's associated to the Kagamine twins' voice, especially Len's, she sings Miku songs a lot, sometimes singing her songs with a Len feel. She also seems attached to LamazeP's songs. Also, unlike the usual impression, Lon sings serious songs, too, beautifully at that.

sample songs
• World is Mine
• Yami no Dance Site
• Juvenile
• Migikata no Chou
• Shota Shota Night Fever (community-only)

nikki says

To be honest, I didn't think much of Lon when I first heard her through her Migikata no Chou cover. At that time, I did wonder if she's a boy or girl, but since she sings popular songs with a lot of covers, she seems underappreciated at that time. Her really big break is Ochame Kinou and while I'm all @_@ at it's 2 million views, I'm kind of thankful for the song for reintroducing her not only to me but to the fans.

After going through her mylist, I feel that she needs to sing more serious songs like Yami no Dance Site because while she sounds so awesome in cheerful songs bordering on crack, she has a different air when singing serious songs, which is something I want to hear more (her Juvenile is all sorts of cutesquishycute though ;; kyaaa).

Lastly, she has two mylists, one for public uploads and one for community uploads. You might want to join her community. One is for the Shota Shota Night Fever (which is a Lenification of Luka Luka Night Fever). And another one is for her mini-drama/skit thing where she voiced Rin and Len, with Tokumei (Anonymous)-san as the lucky Kaito. (Tabenaide, Kaito-nii ;_;).