Producer Spotlight: Caz

[fascinates]

I'm posting them early again since I am starting my classes again every weekends, which means my free time is even less now xD. Anyway, I've been spotlighting ballad and pop song composers recently, so let's have someone more hardcore :).

Caz

mylist | site | blog | community | KarenT profile | HearJapan profile

Caz is not so new in the Vocaloid community, having started uploading his own works October last year and continuing to do so until now. He currently has nine works up, two of which you might have heard of, especially if you have seen that certain recent amazing PV.

Caz's specialty is Vocaloud/Vocarock and his music utilizes very strong guitars and drums. He's not as intense as, let's say UtsuP or Yuyoyuppe when it comes to screamo, but his melodies are enough to make your heart drum against your ribcage, if I could be so poetic XD. His style can be likened to buzzG or otetsu, just louder and more forceful. As expected from a Vocarock composer, most of his songs use angry drums and guitars, although he has some songs where he goes out of his way to be a little playful and lace his hard rock music with cutesy stuff reminiscent of K-on!/Haruhi elements.

His main Vocaloids are Miku and Luka, His Luka can be likened to buzzG's GUMI, soft and mellow against strong backgrounds. His Miku is high-pitched and steely but doesn't sound bad at all. Aside from composing Caz also sings, and sings even more intensely (he does screamo ; o ; ).

sample music
• Corruption Garden (Luka)
• a tail of the wind (Miku)
• Excalibur (Luka)
• Ru Ru Magical Rukaruhoi (Luka)
• Blind Memories

sample songs/covers
• I am a super man
• Draw the emotional


nikki says
I remember saying I do not like screamo/Vocaloud much, but Caz works, while loud, aren't really hard on the ears. Even if it's hard rock, the instrumentation is wonderful and works with Luka's/Miku's voice without sounding screechy or weird. The Vocaloids themselves aren't strained. If you like otetsu, buzzG or Yuyoyuppe (just of a tamer kind? XD), I highly suggest listening to Caz. Also, you have to watch the PV I linked above. It's full of awesome, I don't even...

Utaite Spotlight: Vasreiu

[fascinates]

Imram/Vasreiu

nicovideo tag | twitter

I think this is the first time I'm featuring an utaite who is not Japanese and who has already retired from the utattemita category. I regret that I haven't spotlighted her sooner, at least before she left, but I wanted everyone to at least hear her covers. Also, I do not know much about utaites outside Japan, so if people here are knowledgeable of them, please let this post be a reminder that they're most welcome in the spotlights, too :).

I prefer calling her Vasreiu since I knew her from her YT account. She is a Korean utaite mostly known for her lovely covers of otherwise difficult-to-sing works. She has a low voice reminiscent of MISAKI but has a richer quality. Despite her deep voice she can reach high notes, enough to pinpoint melody peaks. She is also quite popular for singing covers of songs that use hanamogera or imaginary languages and for some reason, she sounds really good when she does.

She's also one of the few overseas utaite who managed to enter the Weekly Utaran ranking and who had gained more than 100k views for one of her works. Unfortunately, Vasreiu has quit being an utaite sometime in July due to personal reasons and it is unclear if she intends to come back. The reason for her retirement is written in her Twitter account.

sample works
• Pane dhiria (original by ShinjoP)
• DYE (original by AVTechNO!)
• Harvest (ShurabaP)
• Jutenija (original by DATEKEN)
• Aldebaran (original by MamomoP)

nikki says

Vasreiu is one of the few non-Japanese utaite who I really like. I find her singing style as well as the rather interesting choice of songs engaging and I am sorry to see her retire so early. My favorite song by her would probably be DYE (AVtechNobiashere). I won't talk about utaite retirement issues in spotlights so feel free to look/read around for more information on that :).