9th
【あの子の劣化版】死ンデレラ - みつあくま feat. 初音ミク (Cinder Girl)

so, i honestly really enjoy mitsu akuma's works, though i admit a lot of them sound really similar to each other. i still replay them often and a few of them are on my character playlists. this one i would classify as upbeat jpop, but i think it actually slows down a bit more than other songs of theirs, and the mixed instrumentals here are fun.. i hear a lot of electronic and more chiptune sort of feeling mixed with electric guitar, and also the same kind of instrumental you tend to hear in electric swing music? personally one of my favourite things about mitsu's songs is how miku is tuned to sound like KAFU, which i think is an insane feat and really impressive sounding. i wouldve thought that i was listening to KAFU if i didnt check!

Fire◎Flower - halyosy (Cover) ver.Sou

ah.. its a cover of fire flower by halyosy, this time sung by sou. i love this song lol. maybe one of my favourites from this period of vocaloid classics, and in this specific style of belting heartfelt vocals and instrumentals and pop feeling. sou's vocals are really nice and soft here, and i think his softness is lovely in the song, ive heard a lot of covers of it lmao. he also sounds really comfortable and confidant, and does well on the high extended notes! super natural feeling and not strained, and i love it. this is a very summer and end of summer type of song to me, and im pretty fond of it as one of those classic famous vocaloid songs, so im glad sou lended his voice to it.

Hotobori - Secound Secound (Cover) / ivudot

ivudot is one of my favourite utaite right now, wow his voice is really stunning. besides that, though, i realised that this song is pretty unknown? it doesnt have an english translation and the original video on youtube has around 10k views at the time of writing this (the ivudot cover has over 250k), and the niconico upload of the original has 5k. im really surprised since its such a beautiful song and i would expect it to be circulated a bit more, and this also makes it more special to me that ivudot decided to cover it.. i definitely enjoy his cover of it very much, and the emotion feels very plain and captivating, so i wish that there was an english translation. this is one of the songs id like to consider commissioning a translation for in the future.

Disconnect Disco - Meddmia (Cover) / ivudot

another genius work from the producer meddmia here, and this beat is so FUNKY. im brought back to memories of disco. meddmias songs have always struck me as super punchy, catchy, and a little more experimental than some other producers, and i also notice that they hold up by themselves and dont tend to sound a lot like each other. i really enjoyed this one and specifically ivudots performance of it. id like to put some time aside to listen to more meddmia songs soon, since i think ive only heard three or four, but "Sassaka Surrender" has been my favourite. another note about this cover is that i enjoy ivudots vocals more than i enjoy the original.

29th

Not for Sale Fossil - Kanon Wakeshima on youtube i am a big fan of kanon wakeshima after discovering her Tsukinami album a few months ago. for this track, here were my notes: GREAT use of drums, a lot more intense than some of her other works to me, can definitely imagine dancing along in a huge crowd at a concert and waving lightsticks frantically, or having a lighthearted moshpit for some parts, i also really like when the vocal effects make her sound more electronic. great production on this, and as always beautiful strings which is really her trademark sound since she is a talented cello player.

夕ヒ夕ヒ夕ヒ夕ヒ / GUMI - autore on youtube the instrumentals here are goofy, really goofy. gives a very carnival or circus feeling with the marching. the beat is bumpin. the melody is SO fun!! i shared this track with my friend and minecraft wizard Legitimoose to hear his thoughts on it, but also because i was very interested in what someone with more knowledge of technical terms and analyzing music would say. we both enjoyed the chorus a lot. "im not sure about the panning decisions, and i wish it was a little more intense" the moose told me, "it feels like it's just a production issue that it doesnt hit harder esp at the chorus" which was something i could totally understand. smaller and newer producers like autore tend to have production issues like this. "but the arrangement and stuff are super good [...] it's really interesting to have the oompah-type bassline in the verses and then the very "standard" vocaloid/anime style chorus" he pointed out. subsequently, he noticed on a second listen that the chorus is "like an emotional endgame reprise" of happy synthesizer, and at this point i was increasingly grateful i had asked for his opinion.

Panacea - Disasterpeace wow.. this goes deep into my soul. such a tender and delicate piece. it feels like the sort of thing i would hear my instructors perform when i was studying piano. listening to this led me to booting up Hyper Light Drifter and actually playing the game to completion for the first time, though ive owned the game for at least five or six years. im glad i did! i have a few thoughts on the game itself unrelated to the soundtrack, but the music made for it by Disasterpeace is one of my favourite parts of the game. fantastic final track that leads into the credits sequence, and really set the mood and helped me get more closure with the ending.

Between You and Me - Lemon Demon what a special song. the highlight for me has to be the lyrics, shining with that classic lemon demon charm and sprightliness. though this is an older song (by my standards) i only heard it for the first time less than a week ago. im relatively new to the lemon demon scene, but ive very much enjoyed many of the songs ive listened to. im glad i picked out this one to listen, and am surprised its not as popular as many of his other songs. is it because its not very dark, or doesnt have an alluring plot compared to his other works? maybe the different style that feels less intense than songs like cabinet man or touch-tone telephone? the stylistic choices in lemon demons earlier works are something id like to read about and examine more in detail sometime. i cant get over how fun this is to listen to, and how the main melody of the chorus comes in during the background in the opening verse as a little chiptune sound. the dragging languid sound of the vocals, the tiny little drumbeats, the spoken poetic verse bemoaning the situation! what a romantic song.. i think it captures the longing feeling of being separated from a partner really well. the ending of all of these instrumentals overlapping and crashing into each other is joyous. i wanted to note that the reason i stumbled on it was because of spiders' music page, so im quite thankful for that.

unfortunate news regarding bandcamp

in my music posts so far, ive enjoyed linking to bandcamp as a way to share the songs i talk about here. i discovered that a few days ago bandcamp was sold to songtrdr, which is less than desirable because of the fees they charge artists and licensors...... i am extremely disappointed to say the least since i really appreciated bandcamp for a few different reasons and favored it heavily over alternatives like spotify.
going forward, i want to put in more active effort to find other methods of sharing music ready-to-listen on my site, so that linking to bandcamp will not be as necessary. when that happens, i also want to start linking to the artists sites and social media pages.
its a rough world out there for artists and musicians who want to make money off of their work, and i wish i could support them more.. i hope i can attend a concert next year (that sort of thing is a very rare occurrence for me).
that wraps up this months page!