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ShakeSphere / 鮭P (ShakeP)

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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.

Since I dropped the monthly Vocaloid ranking, I decided to replace it this time with the Monthly Nico Nico Indies Ranking.



Nico Nico Indies is a small part of the Nico Nico Douga site where people post their original works. The concept that is different from Vocaloid/Utattemita/Ensoushitemita is that the works here are all original and are usually instrumental or sung by people. Of course, while there are many unfamiliar names here, there are VocaloidPs and utaites that participate in this area, too, especially when they collaborate to sing original songs. Oftentimes, original songs from NNI appear also in utattemita, so you might recognize some of them. NNI is also a very slow-moving category, so there are only a few views/participants than what you might be used to.

I'm glad this ranking is just monthly because gathering information on the artists is a bit difficult, especially since I am also a bit new in this area. Since this writeup is to introduce people to NNI, I tried my best to be as descriptive as possible. If you are a fan of anyone mentioned in this ranking please feel free to chip in other information you can share re: the artist!

Since it has almost the same format, this ranking will be arranged just like the utattemita ranking, minus the colorful letters :). This might be a bit tl;dr than most of my rankings, so please be warned! Also, as I said before, this is a slow-moving category, so you will encounter songs here which you might have already heard months ago :).

original nicovideo link

( new upload ranking )

( overall ranking )