Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts

[REVIEW] Stray Light by Wintermute feat. 初音ミク

Sunday, 29 November 2009 at 16:09 | Posted by GekkaMeron
I am really pleased to make this my comeback post, and from my point of view, it's an honour to review this. It's been on my playlist for weeks and I always enjoy listening to it. The album is by Wintermute and it's called "Stray Light". Recently I have been really tired of hearing Hatsune Miku. I like her voice, but she is being overkilled on nico nico douga videos. This album has given me a new love for her voice all over again.
  • Artist: Wintermute feat. 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku)
  • Title: Stray Light
  • Tracks: 16
  • Genre: Pop/Rock/Ambient

  1. Jupiter Pop
  2. Sleeping in the Red
  3. Mint Tea
  4. Postscript
  5. 秋の空 (Virtual)
  6. 記憶の錆色
  7. Song of Pixie
  8. スニーカ
  9. Reality
  10. Fury, Melancholy And Joy
  11. Mint Tea (Mango Roots mix)
  12. Postscript (Mango Magic mix)
  13. スニーカ (Mango Leaf Mix)
  14. Song of Pixie (Bossa Study)
  15. 秋の空 (Real)
  16. Mint Tea (Prototype)
In case you were wondering, Wintermute's name and the title of the album are both a homage to my favorite cyberpunk book by William Gibson named "Neuromancer". In the book, Wintermute is an Artificial Intelligence who ordered a man named Armitage to conduct the "Straylight Run" with Molly Millions and Case. They must travel to the Villa Straylight located in an anti-gravity city named 'Freeside' and merge the two AIs Wintermute and Neuromancer to change Cyberspace forever.

If you like anime and manga such as Ghost in the Shell, Akira and Appleseed then you will certainly love the book and the rest of the trilogy.

I am a big lover of Trance music and other forms of electronic music, so along with the Cyberpunk themes on the album cover I thought this would be an aural depiction of the Neuromancer world with hints of Miku's signature vocals (Which is a very cyberpunk concept I think). The album was incredibly different from my predictions. Let me explain.

Imagine a city of the future. Gone are the dirty glass buildings and smoggy streets as conveyed in many Cyberpunk novels, no more underground trading and black companies. Our world just got intelligent.

In a unique genre I would like to dub as 'Intelligent Rock' Stray Light shows us Wintermute's view of the future; a world of clean-white terminal screens and abstract concepts born entirely of an artificial mind where the software meets the soul. If AI was to produce music it would sound like this; bright, clear riffs with a raw yet perfectly timed beat, giving the album a real 'Advanced Analogue' vibe.

Tracks like Reality, Fury, Melancholy and Joy, Song of Pixie and スニーカ are thought provoking, mind-clearing works of excellence that have helped me through many a coding session and ignited my brain to think of new ways to approach problems.

This is the kind of world I can't help but imagine when I listen to Stray Light. Something very similar to net animation Eve no Jikan (イヴの時間)



The album is divided in two. With Mint Tea (Mango Roots Mix) kicking off the largely-electronically-dominated side of the album; an ambient trip into standby mode compiled of chilled out remixes of the previous tracks.

バイバイ
そう眠りに落ちて
聞こえない

Stray Light is a Yin and a Yang of luminant, thought-provoking soft rock and a cool flow of ambient beats and melodies with Hatsune Miku providing colourless, crystaline vocals that produce a facade of emotional feelings inaugrated as a result of compliance to thousands of lines of self-composed code dictating all of her synthetic thoughts and curiosities.

All in All, Stray Light is a real masterpiece and I can't wait to hear more of Wintermute's music. There is no doubt in my mind that this will ever truely leave my collection.

You can listen to some tracks from this album plus more of Wintermute's music on his youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/likeadaydream

The Album Stray Light can be purchased here

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[REVIEW] IOSYS - ANIME HOUSE PROJECT　～神曲selection～　Vol.1 (CD)

Saturday, 5 September 2009 at 22:23 | Posted by GekkaMeron


So this post is going to be about the latest CD from IOSYS, the 'ANIME HOUSE PROJECT'. That was released just over a week ago now, and priced at a reasonable 1905円. As ever, click 'Read More' full the full review.



If you're not familiar with IOSYS, they've been producing animations and music mainly for 東方 related items and apparently did the ending animation for the second ED of Penguin Musume Heart which I didn't really notice was IOSYS, but then the whole series did feel a little bit patchwork. IOSYS are also connected with 電波 Supergroup Albatrosicks. You can read more about them [Albatrosicks] here.

Anyway, IOSYS's latest endevour has been the 'Anime House Project' which is basically anime themes remixed into 'House classics'. Okay so they weren't dubbed as 'House Classics', but it felt like the right thing to add. So let's see the lineup:

01. “K-On!” ~ Don’t say “lazy” / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Anporin
02. “Tales of Phantasia” ~ Yume wa Owaranai ~Kobore Ochiru Toki no Shizuku~ / Tetsushi (Red Hot house) feat. Anporin
03. “Shin Seiki Evangelion” ~ Zankoku na Tenshi no These / Sound Holic feat. A~Ya
04. “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann” ~ Sorairo Days / Dr. Arm (Albatrosicks) feat. miko+Resurrection (Albatrosicks)
05. “Sousei no Aquarion” ~ Sousei no Aquarion / Boido (IOSYS) feat. ichigo (Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets)
06. “Fushigi no Umi no Nadia” ~ Blue Water / fishtone (TTB Studio) feat. Beat Mario (Cool & Create)
07. “Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha A’s” ~ Eternal Blaze / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Asana (IOSYS)
08. “Digimon Adventure” ~ Butter-Fly / AVSS feat. nyanyannya (Team. Nekokan)
09. “One Piece” ~ Believe / Redalice (Alice’s Emotion) feat. Ayumi Nomiya
10. “Dragon Quest” ~ Yume o Shinjete / D.watt (IOSYS) feat. witch (Sound Cyclone)
11. “Air” ~ Tori no Uta / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Rekka Katakiri
12. “Shoujo Kakumei Utena” ~ -Rondo- revolution / D.watt (IOSYS) feat. Yuuko Meguro

thanks to dancemania-ex.com for saving me time of having to type the tracklist :P

I'm not much of a house fan. I pick up the 'HOUSE NATION' series of CDs, but I would never go much further than that. So remixes of famous anime tunes sits well with me and I don't mind giving it a listen.

Before I go much further, beware; if you've ever listened to an anime remix CD, prepare for the same tracks to come up again. As you can see, we've got the compulsory Tori no Uta mix, a nanoha remix, Sousei no Aquarion mix and so on. So watch out for the same old hats coming up again and again.

I have some serious doubts about the CD being house. Like I said, I'm not a house expert, but I know when I am and am not hearing house, and a lot of tracks on this CD could be summed up as 'Ambigious electro'. 「Dont Say Lazy」 is far too fast for house, and despite most tracks hovering at about 130BPM, many shift into technopop (Sorairo Days) or just really plain electromixes.

But with all credit to IOSYS on this one, it doesn't sound cheaply made, it just seems like they've really beaten around the bush as far as house goes. Some of them are most definitley house though, I found the Dragon Quest ED 「Yume o Shinjete」 to be a really good midnight blend of Jpop and House without going into Technopop territory.

Okay, so at times it's a bit random and not as house-y as it could be, and unless you like dropping slow tracks (I wouldn't recommend it for the pacing of many of the tracks) it's not really good for mixing, but it isn't all that bad. If you want to wind down after some more frantic music, this CD really isn't a bad way to do it. Just watch out for a few odd tracks that might ruin your peace.

Overall, I'd give this about a 7/10. Doesn't really do what it says on the tin, but the production quality isn't bad at all and it's enjoyable. If you click the image of the album art above, you'll be directed to the official CD website, where you can listen to previews and make your mind up from there.

Favorite tracks:

「Sorairo Days」 by Dr. Arm feat. miko+Resurrection (From Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann).
「Yume o Shinjete」 by D.Watt feat. Witch (From Dragon Quest)

Tomorrow I'll be playing and hopefully previewing a demo of a game featured in the most recent calendar. But what will it be?! You'll have to find out tomorrow!

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[Review] - DancexMixer Trial

Sunday, 26 July 2009 at 02:20 | Posted by GekkaMeron
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As I'm sure you're aware, a while back I did a preview of DancexMixer, the original character creation software, which was suprisingly popular and got a lot of traffic (I think I was one of the first places to cover it in some detail in english). Anyway, today I took a break from Angel Magister and got to grips with the trial version.



Originally, because of the price I thought I would either wait for it to get cheaper, or not bother at all, but because I stumbled across the trial I decided I'd finally give it a go.

Note about installation: If you downloaded the trial (which most people probably will have), it is very complicated. Not because of the Japanese, but because of things like the NoActiLauncher and so on. The best approach I found was this:

-Download game as usuall
-Go to Dancexmixer folder > dancexmixer > DirectX
-Search through the folders and install DirectX via DXSETUP (I thought I already had it installed, but apparently not)
-Install dancexmixer via Dancexmixer.msi
-When it is installed, select 'Setup' you should get a blue menu come up. Select trial: "トライアル"
-From there play the game as normal

These are NOT 100% going to work. Sometimes I got errors and I had to re-install, reboot or repair the installation (it's on the uninstall menu). And eventually it worked. Keep trying and you should get somewhere. Trial and error.

That isn't a problem with DancexMixer though, it's just what you get when you use downloads instead of the official disk. It can't be helped I suppose.

Anyway, the program itself is not bad. The trial version had limited options in terms of clothing, hair and other appearance options, and there was nothing to indicate that the rest was available only in the full version, however given the small amount I'd say there should be more in the full version. If not, then someone has a lot to answer for..

Once everything is installed, the interface is very easy to use. If you're worried about needing to know Japanese to navigate around, then don't worry. All you need is a little common sense and the rest speaks for itself. More advanced settings regarding making the video however, will take some knowledge. But they're not crucial stuff for making a music video.

Character creation is very fun, and it's almost impossible to create something that isn't at all 萌え. For the trial version, the hairstyles were very limited, pictured above is the closest I could get to normal twintails. But there is also a super long, Miku-esque option there too.

Breast customisation: raging melons of fury, or cute pettanko. I went with the latter.

Customisation is a slightly strange, but really not that difficult process. Physical attributes such as hair colour, hair style, eyes, chest and so on are saved in one file (.chf) and clothing options are stored in a (.drf) file. Once you've selected your physical attributes, save it as a .chf file, go to the dress editor and load it up there to see the character you just made.


The clothing is really the fun part. Although limited, the options will fulfill most desires, ranging from Bloomers, Maid, School Swimsuit, Chinese Dress, Nurse, Bunny Suit, plus of course many separate items for mixing and matching.



In the end, I think I overdid it with the accessories. But hey, at least I didn't go for the eyepatch. Grade school nekomimi maid, meganekko, ahoge pirates just don't sit well with me.

As for the actual dance creator, well. The interface is very easy to use once again, and there are some great options, but it really lagged me out in terms of processing power (Hence no screenshots). This software demands a high-spec computer, if you have to question 'Is my PC good enough to run it?' then the answer is either 'Only Just' or 'No'.

Basically there is a timeline bar at the bottom of the screen, a preview box on the top left, and selection of dance moves etc. on the right. It reminds me of Windows Movie Maker actually. For each tab you select on the 'dance moves etc.' part, there is a different timeline; one for stage effects (spotlights, lasers, bubbles, pyros and so on), one for dance moves, and one for lip-syching, and one for camera angles.

If you want to make a video, it will take a serious amount of work. I foolishly thought I could just put random stuff in and then show it off here, but after a few watches....well it was just terrible really. Time and effort needs to go in for a good video. Also, make sure you have some .wav music files handy, because it won't accept mp3s. You can save a silent video and sync it up with music on WMM later on, but that would make things very hard for yourself, and would be like guesswork. Oh and videos can only be up to 5 minutes on the trial.

Overall, it's fun to play around with and if it was cheaper, I would get it. But with the pricetag being so high, and not being sure if any new customisation options are added in the full ver. (I sure hope so) it puts me off. Now I'll leave you with a video someone else made, because mine was really that bad. Thanks for reading.





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[REVIEW] EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS SPEED アニメトランス BEST 7

Wednesday, 8 July 2009 at 11:07 | Posted by GekkaMeron

As you may know from about a month ago when I reviewed EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS BEST エクスタシー ~Second Season~ I am a big fan of the EXIT TRANCE series. There are many CDs in the series, some of which contain anime related tracks, and others are just J-Trance mixes. For the sake of this blog I decided I would only review the BEST エクスタシー (Best Ecstasy) and the アニメトランス (Anime Trance) series.



Anyway, as much as I hate to admit it, I think that gradually the Anime Trance series has gotten worse over time. 1-4 was excellent, there wasn't a track I disliked. 5 was amazing, but there was maybe 1 or 2 tracks I didn't like (not a problem though) then there was 6. 6 had some good tracks, but I think there were more I didn't care for than there were those that I really liked. Not to mention while I love Toradora (トラどら) and the remixes were great, I think that it was overkill to have more than one song from a small series. Anyway, I'll get on with the review.

Track List

01) Cagayake!GIRLS (K-ON! OP) / Helvetia(DJ Sa9+Hommarju) feat.CAMRY
02) キミシニタモウナカレ (Shangri-la OP) / MK feat.R.Cena
03) Wonder Wind (Hayate no Gotoku Second Season OP1) / Hommarju feat. YURiE
04) 経験値速上々↑↑ (Minami-ke ~Okaeri~ OP) / DJ Sa9 feat. MAKI
05) Spiral (Asura Cryin' OP) / MK feat. YURiE
06) SHUT UP AND EXPLODE (Bounen no Xamdou OP) / B.U.S feat.YUKI
07) RIDEBACK (Rideback OP) / Icon feat. Latte
08) silky heart (Toradora OP2) / MK feat. MAKI
09) Prototype (Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season ED2) / Icon feat. PECO
10) What 'bout my star? (Macross Frontier IN) / B.U.S feat. MAKI + R.Cena
11) 天使のゆびきり (His & Her Circumstance OP) / Dizzi Mystica feat. YAH
12) プリズム (Dennou Coil OP) / Starving trancer feat. R.Cena
13) being (Shakugan no Shana OP2) / DJ Sa9 vs. Judas feat. PECO
14) masterpiece (To Aru Majutsu no Index OP2) / Hommarju feat. Latte
15) 笑顔の理由 (Asu no Yoichi OP) / CAMRY
16) HANAJI (Maria+Holic OP) / Hommarju feat. MAKI
17) ？でわっしょい (Hidamari Sketch × 365 OP) / Ryu* feat. MAKI + Ma15 + CAMRY
18) JAP(Sengoku Basara OP) / Acid=Stone Valley feat. YUKI
19) Don't say "lazy" (K-ON! ED) / Helvetia (DJ Sa9 + Hommarju) feat. Latte
20) ずっとみつめていて (Ryu* Remix) / DJ UTO vs. Starving Trancer feat. 森永真由美

I don't want to launch into attack right away, but with the exception of some nice suprises there, I think that they have tried to cram in as many OPs, EDs and INs from the newest series possible, and I think that K-ON! has gotten the Toradora treatment this time around. There are some suprises in there too, Prism (Dennou Coil OP) and HANAJI (Maria+Holic OP).

Cagayake!Girls does work well as a remix, but I think it drags on a little, they could have cut it down by one chorus. But then I think that with the popularity of K-ON! This and 'Dont Say Lazy' were the intended highlights of the album, so it is to be expected. I'll also cut in quickly with this comment: it is actually well mixed. Not that the others were poorly mixed, but most tracks have really good transitions with each other.

I think that the length of tracks on the album was slightly irritating and made some tracks that could have been really good just a little bit boring. I was let down by Wonder Wind (ハヤテのごとく　OP) because I expected it to be much bouncier, plus it suffered from length problems as well.

I feel I might be being too picky here, but many tracks were either too long (No I wasn't listening to the extended track version), simply not interesting or for some reason had crossed over in genre. SHUT UP AND EXPLODE for example sounded more like electro-house and HANAJI was like a speedcore/Gabber crossover. I'm not going to mince words here; it was horrible. I was really looking forward to a trance mix of it too.

But there are some nice things to say about the album too, prism (dennou coil OP) was a completely unexpected choice but wasn't bad at all, and being (Shakugan no Shana OP2) was a really perfect track, perfect length and sounded really good. You could have slipped it into one of the older albums and it would have fitted perfectly.

I thought Macross F music was impossible to sound bad in the EXIT TRANCE series, but What 'bout My Star? Was just...disappointing I think. Really, it is not nice to have to say, but I think that there were many tracks that I really didn't like. being was good, Prism was nice, Hidamari Sketch OP (？でわっしょい) was upbeat and nice, Dont Say Lazy was...pretty bad really. The final track ずっとみつめていて (Ryu* Remix) (I'm sorry, I don't know where this is from either). Was just Okay, I thought with DJ Uto himself involved, it may have been outstanding, but it was just listenable and not much more.

Overall, I'm disappointed. It really wasn't a very good album at all and I think the genre crossovers were a very bad idea. I sincerely hope this isn't the destiny of EXIT TRANCE. I'm not saying 'Don't buy this' but instead, take great caution before doing so.

Favorite track: being (Shakugan no Shana OP2)

--

I don't want to write a review about it because I don't feel it really fits in here, but Perfume have released their new album: ⊿ (Triangle) and it is not bad at all, there are some great tracks on there!

In other EXIT TRANCE news, if you're quick to buy the ウマウマできるトランスを作ってみた COMPLETE BEST box set, you'll get a figure of the mascot character of the series! Sorry I couldn't find a bigger picture:



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[REVIEW] EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS CODE SPEED アニメトランス BEST エクスタシー (Second Season)

Friday, 5 June 2009 at 14:40 | Posted by GekkaMeron



A few days ago, EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS CODE SPEED アニメトランス BEST エクスタシー Second Season was released by EXIT TUNES under the QUAKE HOLDINGS label. I've always loved EXIT TRANCE and I especially love the エクスタシー (Ecstasy) series they do, which are OPs, EDs and other music from Eroge/Bishoujo Games.



Tracklist

1. 深愛 (White Album)
2. 夢想歌 (Utawaremono)
3. YOU (Shuffle)
4. Hello (ToHeart2)
5. SHINING STARS BLESS☆ (Nanatsuiro Drops)
6. 前奏曲(プレリュード)-We are not alone- (Crescent Love)
7. マジカルちょーだいっ (Magical Canan)
8. 大好きだよ(Into Your Heart) (ToHeart - Remember my Memories)
9. プラスチックスマイル (Canvas2)
10. Fly (Comic Party Revolution)
11. トモシビ (ToHeart2)
12. amulet (Hani Hani: Operation Sanctuary)
13. 舞い落ちる雪のように (White Album)
14. AGAIN (Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru)
15. 素直になれない (Tsuyokiss: Cool x Sweet)
16. ぽぽたん畑でつかまえて (Popotan)
17. 跪くまで5秒だけ! (They are my noble masters)
18. LOVE POWER (Otome wa boku ni koi shiteru)
19. 片翼のイカロス (H2O - Footprints in the Sand)
20. きらめく涙は星に (Fate/Stay Night)

ToHeart and Otome wa boku ni koi shiteru sure got alot of attention this time around, but they were both great and both were very good in the last album, so I'm not complaining. I'm glad to see Nanatsuiro Drops get some attention as I'm currently watching it right now and absolutely love it. I can't say that I feel a bit ripped off in the sense that YOU, 片翼のイカロス and きらめく涙は星に were all on other EXIT TRANCE albums, and are virtually remixed the same too. But they're still welcome as far as I'm concerned, seeing as EXIT TRANCE アニメ 4 and 5 were some of my favorite CDs released under EXIT TUNES.

The whole thing was a joy listen to the whole way through, on the first BEST エクスタシー CD, things got a little dry and uninteresting for a phase around tracks 13-17 but picked up toward the end. Here however, there was none of that, and kept interest throughout.

The typical EXIT TRANCE familiar faces are there too; MAKI, MK, Icon, Ma15, DJ Sa9, Acid=Stone Valley, Starving Trancer, B.U.S etc. and of course Ryu* giving parts of the album a bouncy J-core feel. If you've ever listened to any EXIT TRANCE album, you're bound to notice at least one of these names.

One thing I've noticed with the EXIT TRANCE series is that albums with alot of diversity (Like アニメ 4) tend to be poorly mixed, but albums with not as much variety in sound are very well mixed, but I think that cannot be helped. However, I think that エクスタシー Second Season has done a really good job of keeping the album interesting and being well mixed too. However I am not a DJ so I can't really say much.

Overall, the album is more of a solid, interesting listen than the previous CD, but lacks the number of memorable tracks. Next, lookout for my review of EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS SPEED アニメトランス BEST THE MOVIE. The first in the series of EXIT TRANCE CDs dedicated to themes from Anime MOVIES. Then look out for EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS SPEED アニメトランス 7, the 7th installment of the anime series. Due on the 1st of July.

Favorite tracks (Excluding the repeated 3): SHINING STARS BLESS☆, マジカルちょーだいっ, 大好きだよ(Into Your Heart)

Buy the album here

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