Producer Spotlight: keeno

[fascinates]

keeno

mylist | piapro

I'm sure most of you know who keeno is. He started uploading his works in Nico Nico Douga just October of last year. He had used mostly DAW, apologetically even, but he quickly grew popularity because of his ingenious track-making as well as a distinct way of tuning Miku. Keeno's songs are always well-received by listeners and all of his uploads reached more than 100,000 views.

Keeno's style has always been rock ballads, although since he only has four or so tracks uploaded, it's hard to see if this is will be a continuous trend. His rock ballads are always of echoey, slightly muffled and never sharp guitar melodies, a disctinct but simple bass rhythm and very subtle drums that occasionally rises in intensity at the choruses and bridge. His songs, like with Tsunamaru's, have a certain warmth in them, making them sound very gentle and soft despite the theme or the genre. His songs often speak of sadness, regret and a yearning for a loved one. Oftentimes, his songs' metaphors involve nature, like sunset (glow) or rain (crack).

Hatsune Miku Dark has always been Keeno's Vocaloid. She is tuned low and whispery with no shakiness or sharpness. While Hatsune Miku Append voices often sound gentle or soft (especially dark and sweet), Keeno's Miku is even gentler, probably because of the added breathiness to her singing. His tuning is also considered almost "human-like" due to the lack of any robotic or awkward edges in Miku's voice. While he hasn't used any other Vocaloid yet, he seems to plan using GUMI and even KAITO append in the near future.

While keeno has released a mini-album "at dusk", he will also be releasing his first major album "The Very Best of Keeno" under AVEX this November. More information can be read here. It will include all his previous songs as well as new ones, including songs that will be sung by KAITO and GUMI.

song list
• glow (English translation here)
• crack (English translation here)
• longing (English translation here)
• fix (English translation here)

nikki says
I fell in love with keeno's works since Glow and everything else he had made ever since. I'm a sucker for emotional songs and it doesn't help that he specialized in rock ballads. His songs are very nice to listen too: they're rockish with a distinct melody with just the right amount of drama and sentimentality going on in them. It's always been a pleasure to translate and let the meaning of his songs sink in because they're full of metaphors and indirect descriptions that makes people compose their own interpretation of his songs. Aside from that, his wonderful tuning fits his melodies so well that it's not hard to love his works. I can't wait for his first album to be released :).

Utaite Spotlight: Inakamono

[fascinates]

Inakamono / イナカモノ

mylist | community | mixi community

Inakamono started his utattemita career way back from 2009. Last August 10, he reached his second anniversary as an utaite. He is fairly active in updating, uploading songs at least every two months. He is also fairly popular in the community, with all his uploads exceeding more than 10,000 views. He holds irregular namahousou, sometimes of him singing not only Vocaloid songs, but also popular J-pop/rock songs.

Inakamono is known for his deep, solid, "ikemen" voice that can shift from being "refreshingly gentle" to "impressively erotic", as his listeners say. He also has a very stable hold of his pitches and tones and while he only sings covers by the book (meaning almost always without his own adlibs or additions to the original style), he always brings out a wonderful cover of each song. Most of his songs are ballads/rock ballads in nature and he rarely does screaming, harsh rises in his voice or even falsetto/high pitches. Compared to other utaite, he is mostly categorized with Tourai or Nero.

Aside from singing solo, Inakamono also sings in duets with utaite like maro., Soraru, Wataame and Seriyu.


sample songs
A. solos
• Eh? Aa, Sou (papiyon original)
• Kimi no Te, Boku no Te (40mP original)
• Hysteria (KuwagataP original)
• Ama no Jaku (164 original)

B. duets
• Yuki no Nagori (with Seriyu; PattsunP original)
• Nakimushi Kareshi (with Wataame; FernandoP original)
• Starduster (with Soraru; JimmythumbP original)


nikki says
I rarely talk about Inakamono, but he is one of my favorite utaite. I don't know much about him nor do I follow him as much as I follow Clear or other utaite but I always make it a point to listen to his songs. Actually, I don't remember disliking any of his covers at all! He just seems to be out of the limelight sometimes because he's singing the songs everyone is singing, though I think he should have more listeners as he's just...a wonderful singer. He reminds me so much of Tourai, with their similar voice qualities as well as with their tendency to sing songs as exactly as they were in the original (no adlibs, crack whatsoever). While that might seem boring to some, I appreciate it because I can see how well he manages to sing each song.

Utaite Spotlight: Bibi

[fascinates]

Bibi/ビビ

mylist | community

Bibi is very new to the utattemita scene, having only started uploading his covers February of this year. Despite being a rookie, though, he has gained enough attention and respect from fans and other utaite alike because of his unique covers and high-quality uploads.

Bibi's style can be likened to the types of Touyu, Kouhei, Furuike Yuusuke, etc. albeit at a less loud degree. He's a passionately strong singer and always sings in high-strung, full-forced voice. What is impressive about his style, however, is his tenacity and solidity in terms of holding the rhythm as well as pitch very well. Singing in this style plus carrying out the perfect rhythm (and second voicing) is quite a task even for seasoned utaite, and I think it's in this part that Bibi earns people's admiration. Despite singing in this style, though, he can sing basically anything from rockish songs to gentle 40mP songs without effort.

sample songs
• Babylon (Tohma original)
• Gaikotsu Gakudan to Lilia (Tohma original)
• Shiryokukensa (40mP original)
• Yoku Aru Rinne to Neko no Uta (KotsubanP original)
• Sleep, Sky, Walk (YuuyuP original)
• Tokyo Teddy Bear (with Panyo; Neru original)

nikki says
Bibi is one of those few utaite who have impressed me at my first listen. Usually, it takes a while before we get used to someone's voice, especially if they only have a few covers, but Bibi really actually made me loop his covers of Lilia and the Skeleton Band and Babylon. Even though I likened him to a few utaite above, I find his style entirely different, probably because aside from the passionate singing, he can also change his pitch from out of the blue without difficulty, reach high notes effectively, sometimes even without screaming, and create a whole new approach to covering a particular song. I honestly think that he is amazing and that has a lot of potential as an utaite. I'm looking forward to seeing/hearing how he can manage to cover certain songs in different genre.