Producer Spotlight: ShakeSphere / ShakeP

[fascinates]

ShakeSphere / 鮭P (ShakeP)

mylist | piapro | blog

Shakesphere is a two-man unit of Vocaloid producers who is mostly known for their popular work OVER. Composers low and oga make up Shakesphere, and their P name is taken from the way their collab name is first read: "shake" -> salmon.

Shakesphere is known for making RnB Vocaloid songs, which is a genre not much utilized in the Vocaloid community. Aside from RnB, they also touched Vocalohouse (mostly their dancey tunes) as well as a bit of technopop. Their music is described as simple-sounding but is actually a complicated layer of different sounds. Their songs are usually composed of suave, repetitive melodies with general abuse of bassline riffs. Because of this, their songs are often tagged "rest magicians" (rest being the musical term for pauses) and "bass line magicians". Their songs, despite being structurally complicated, often have simple melodies evolving around light emotions.

Though they mainly use Hatsune Miku for their works, they're known to have also used the Kagamines and Gakupo in their works. However, their most popular works are those by Miku. Their Vocaloids are tuned mid-range and solid without any particular quirks apart from the distinct "breath intake" that can be heard at certain stanzas. Their Miku can also admirably hold long notes well without sounding shrill, even at really high notes. Aside from using Vocaloids, ShakeSphere have also collaborated with singers like Saiya and Umineko.

In 2009, oga and low began composing as individuals, with low continuing on working with Vocaloids like his individual release Winterlight. Oga, on the other hand, collaborated with utaite, like with his collab with Dakishimeta Tonight, Heaven. Despite the individual works, they still continue to make music as a unit.

ShakeSphere has released a few CDs including ShakeTunes, OVER, and Birthday. They have also participated in compilations like Innovator-HUMAN, Plustellia, and EX:P ~Ex:Producers.

sample songs
A. With Hatsune Miku
• Polaris
• Enamel to Ribbon
• Baby Love
• Last Smile
• Over Flow

B. With Utaite
• AWAKE (feat. Saiya)
• China Town (feat. UmiNeko)
• Life (feat. ☆Aya☆)


nikki says
ShakeSphere is one of the Ps (or rather P units) I first knew in the fandom. At that time, I wasn't that sold into Vocaloids singing RnB (it IS pretty rare, especially at that time) but they got me with their music, especially those I've listed here. My current favorite is Polaris, although OVER will remain their best song in my opinion. I like how there's always something new to hear in their songs, no matter how many times I've listened to them. It's like peeling layer after layer of the song and discovering something new each time. I haven't explored the non-Vocaloid side of their songs although I enjoyed Life and oga's collab with wotamin LUV 4 U.

Utaite Spotlight: Teksy

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teksy

mylist | community

Teksy is a fairly new utaite, having started just last year, but he has been a namahousou person for a longer time. He is considered to be a promising new face to the utattemita community.

He is known to sing with his own guitar accompaniment in his singing namahousous, but he only does this kind of nama until 22:00 in consideration of his neighbors. From 22:00, his namas are often about gaming and chatting. He is known to have been playing the guitar for eight years now. He also likes gaming and his most favorite food is chahan.

Teksy's voice is deep and rough with a certain solidity that makes him good at singing hard rock songs. He also has an admirable range even at fast-paced or strong songs. In terms of intensity and range of his voice, he can be likened to utaite Kanzentaicell and Soraru. He's able to carry strong notes without obvious effort in fast, rock songs. On the other hand, he has a rather emotional rendition of ballads that he almost seems like crying every time. He is presently being dubbed by fans as someone having an ike-voice.

At the moment, he only sings Vocarock songs, but he sings more ballads in his namahousou. In his nama he also sings songs by BUMP of CHICKEN, Mr. Children, 19, B'z, Kobukuro, Sukima Switch, Spitz, UVERWorld, RADWIMPS, etc.

sample covers
• Bye-bi Baby Sayonara (saiB original)
• Hysteria (KuwagataP original)
• Invisible (kemu original)
• Kagerou Days (Jin original)
• Seigi Funsai (Maki original)

nikki says:
Teksy is one of those new people who I think will become pretty popular soon because of the quality of covers they put out. I first heard him from his Hysteria cover and was quite impressed, although his big break came later on with his cover of Seigi Funsai which remains his best cover yet. If you don't have time to listen to all of his covers, I highly recommend listening to that song. I'm also hoping that soon he'll be able to upload his ballads because they sound really good (from his namahousou)! Anyway, not much can be said aside from hoping he'll have more listeners since he deserves them...and his neighbors are really lucky.