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Mark With A K - Collaboration EP - 24-Jun-09 11:02 PM
The main point of this EP seems to be the collaboration between Mark With A K and DJ Ghost entitled The Ghosthouse. So much so, in fact that out of the four tracks on this EP, three of them are of The Ghosthouse.

There's no point beating around the bush with it because it is quite frankly a really really bad track and perhaps is the leading example of how dreadful jumpstyle is as a genre. From the painfully arbitrary vocal sample to sloppy composition, the only reason for anybody to own this EP would be to have an example of how extraordinarily bad electronic music can get.

エニワン・ブラザース・バンド* - Obama Is Beautiful World! - 21-May-09 04:30 AM
It's no secret that certain African and Japanese surnames can sound very similar to one anouther. Obama is an example of one of those. In Japanese, it commonly means "small beach" and there is indeed a city in the Fukui Prefecture entitled "Obama City" which has been there before Barack Obama started his campaign. Now it has become something closer to Barackville with the president's face emblazoned everywhere. (Perhaps one of the most interesting is a pachinko parlor (a Japanese version of the slot machine) called Daitoryo (President in Japanese) which has American flags and Obama's face abound.)

This single is probably just the icing on the cake, in which your only reason for buying this single is for the comedic value it possesses. With lyrics like "Obama is Beautiful World!" and "Obama is No. 1" sung in the thick Japanese accents of Akino and Mukken, it is just impossible to make this shit up, seriously.

Lia - Enigmatic Lia3 -Worldwide Connection- - 15-Apr-09 12:08 PM
Lia and her staff have really outdone themselves with enigmatic LIA 3. It features a lot of stellar remixes of songs from her previous albums (mostly from her latest one, new moon) done in a completely different electronic dance style.

The first disc boasts artists from around the world ("Remixers from 7 different countries!" as the promotional material boasted, a fair amount of them handpicked by JAKAZiD.)

I can't speak of disc 1 without talking about JAKAZiD, for his remix of Toki wo Kizamu Uta is amazing. His handling of this very beautiful song was superb and has kept the vocal's power while bringing an energetic dance beat to it. It's one that definitely stands out as absolutely amazing in a CD of seriously good stuff. JAKAZiD's second remix is of a vocal cover of Vivaldi's Winter from the Four Seasons. It is very cheesy, and sometimes I feel I can't listen to this song without wanting to singalong in an exaggerated manner. I feel that it's a bit too cheesy to take seriously.

Other remixes that really stand out are the teranoid remix of Crystal World, Al Storm's remix of New Moon and Spy47's remix of Torch.

teranoid keeps the nu-style gabba flavour that he's known for in the Crystal World song and it's definitely a step up from his previous two contributions in the enigmatic Lia series. The only thing is that Crystal World was such an arbitrary choice of song because the lyrics are happy and light hearted and to hear that in a nu-style gabba track is a little disjointed to hear "So every day lookin' for lovely day and music / My shinin' day comin' wonderful day and music" to a gabba tune.

Al Storm's remix of New Moon has a really good buildup and has such a great energetic atmosphere about it. The softness and sincerity of Lia's vocal is kept but it is partnered with a strong beat and really interesting bits which really makes it stand out.

Torch is a melodic speedcore remix by Spy47 very reminiscent of DJ Sharpnel, a standout "doujin" remixer who shows that he's capable of handling proper vocal parts but still keep the style he's known for from his bootlegs.

The only songs that I felt were weak compared to the rest were the songs composed soley for this album. The World and Pure Rain featured DJ Zet, and while interesting musically - it failed to leave much of an impact on me. Fly high again... seemed a little too protracted for my tastes and I'd have to say the best of the bunch was Shimamura's contribution - The Never Ending Love.

Disc 2 on the other hand, featured artists from the Hardcore Tano*C circle. The art for this disc gets a mention as it is the Hardcore Tano*C logo superimposed over a world map, which never fails to get a chuckle from me.

It leads off with a remix of Kimi wo Nosete, a cover of the theme song from the popular Hayao Miyazaki movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky. REDALiCE's remix seems to give this song a soaring feeling, which is appropriate considering the lyrical themes of the song.

I have mixed feelings about Disc 2. While it's all interesting musically, the treatment of Lia's varies from track to track. There are times in which I feel that the track and the music feel disjointed - such as in Betwixt & Between's remix of "You Are..." I also feel that certain remixes seem watered down because it is a more commercial release compared to the previous two enigmatic Lia albums.

Interestingly enough, Saya's Song is remixed twice - on the first disc by Nu Foundation and on the second disc by REDALiCE. Nu Foundation's remix has a more subdued & melancholic feel to it while REDALiCE has given it a happier & upbeat feel. Lyrically, the song has elements of both and it is interesting to compare from a lyrical perspective.

I highly recommend this album for anyone who would enjoy a high energy dance sound combined with Lia's beautiful and distinct vocals. (Because lord knows that there are very few of those kinds of tracks.)

Various - HOBiTRANCE Presents Ultimate A-Style - 08-Feb-09 04:09 PM
The first album in the Ultimate A-Style series presented by HOBiRECORDS, it contains many songs that were hits amongst otaku in Akihabara. As such, this album is for the most part remixes of vocal j-pop with female vocalists.

The first track is a remix of Ready Go! by Yui Sakakibara by UK hardcore artist JAKAZiD. It is evident that he has seemed to increased his involvement in the Japanese hardcore scene with this remix, as the various promotional materials featured this remix. The track itself is very bright and very listenable and dance-y but is ruined slightly by Sakakibara's vocals. While JAKAZiD should be commended for making Sakakibara listenable for the most part, she is still unbearably squeaky which may be the only flaw with this song. Though this is common in J-pop, the excessive squeakiness may make one wonder why Ms. Sakakibara is allowed to keep churning out songs.

The second track is a remix of You, a highly popular song from the anime/game/CD drama Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. While this is REDALiCE's second time to be remixing the track (the first time was on his arrange album Sugurashi without vocals). While this remix borrows some elements from the said first remix done by REDALiCE, it is a track which keeps the emotion and atmosphere of the original yet manages to be energetic and interesting enough remix.

The next remix on the list, Asgardh by Ace Closer keeps the trend of keeping the genre of the remix in the title. This is definitely a song which is reminiscent of Kazuhisa Hirota's work under the alias Floorbreaker and Cannon Cracker, albeit less over the top. Clocking in at 8 minutes, this is the longest track and the length works in favour of the remix because this gives it a rather nice buildup and breakdown with Ace Closer utilising Rekka Katakiri's vocals to their full extent - including the little improvised vocal hooks that were present in the original track.

Steps is the next track, featuring a song that is very characteristic of Sampling Master Mega. This is one of two original tracks in the album and I would say it was the weaker of the two. While Shinji Hosoe is normally a very good composer, this track just seemed rushed though it did incorporate many of his characteristic sample usage which made it interesting enough - though not his best track.

The next track, another Shinji Hosoe track is his remix contribution to the album. The original Brilliant Azure was an atmospheric pop track that featured trance elements composed by DJ Shimamura. Shinji Hosoe's (Sensualness Mix) picks up the pace that the original lacked. While at the beginning it may sound a bit more like an inventive rehash, it definitely gets better as the track progresses.

DJ Shimamura gets another mention in this album as he remixes Koja Yukino. This is a familiar combination to many people who would have picked up this album as Koja Yukino and DJ Shimamura had worked previously on Teranoid Overground Edition - Koja Yukino. Only this time, DJ Shimamura is remixing a track by Koja Yukino that was not composed by him. The original Daylight was a rock track featuring Koja's booming vocals and the change from rock to happy hardcore was quite drastic. And as only DJ Shimamura could do, it was done well. The track is reminiscent of Koja's work on the teranoid albums and if one isn't fan of Koja's voice, then one might find this grating to the ears.

In almost another case of deja-vu, kors k appears remixing a song that he originally composed. StripE is one of kors k's aliases and he has done his best to remake this song into a more hard trance style with the second longest track in the album (this is shorter than the Ace Closer track by mere seconds). While instrumentally, it's very uplifting - it sounds as if the harmony vocals were used rather than the main vocals for this song. As a result, the vocal sounds very flat in contrast with the rest of the instrumentation. Whether this is intentional, one may never know.

The second original track comes in at this point of the album - Drop da Hardcore by teranoid featuring not one, but three MCs. MC Kent, MC Rally and MC Natsack all bring their MCing styles into this nu style gabba track with Kent clearly taking prominence with his heavy and prominent style of MCing which contrasts to the lyrical and flowing style of MC Rally and even more so with the quick-fire style of MC Natsack.

You (Ace Closer Electro House Remix) is Ace Closer's second remix for this album which has caused questions. The first one is why You is remixed again when it was remixed by REDALiCE earlier in the CD. The second inevitably asks why Ace Closer did another remix. It seems that this remix is based more on the original BGM from the original game and thus is truer to that version of the song rather than the vocal one and makes excellent background music to listen to. In addition, this song is also much closer to the style of music that Kazuhisa Hirota's Ace Closer name is associated with.

The last track rounding up this album is a Ryu* remix of another kors k song - Brother Soul. While the original was already very sugary - Ryu* takes this to the furthest extreme of speed and sugaryness by actually pitching up the vocal to the point that Ryu* himself has choreographed a matching dance to do with his hands while playing this live. The decision to like this track is subjective: if high pitched cutesy vocals are your cup of your tea, then you will find yourself enjoying this song immensely. If it is not your cup of tea, then often times you will find yourself skipping the end song and proceeding to the next song in your collection.

JAKAZiD - Cillit Bang - 12-Dec-08 06:42 PM
Cillit Bang in itself is an amusing track and this single is clearly one that capitalised on it's viral popularity by including two tracks and the video.

The first track Cillit Bang (Original Mix) is lifted straight from the video and contains all the intensity and catchiness you'd expect from the Hardcore Cleaning Sensation.

The Extended Mix is a DJ-friendly retooled version of the Original Mix which seems to drag on and I felt that it lost some of the intensity that the original had. Personally, I felt that JAKAZiD's other retooling of the song - Cillit Bang (Aural Adrenaline Mix) could have been a better addition to this single rather than the Extended Mix.

The video is... the video. Ah, Barry Scott and his penny. Look what Cillit Bang did to it.

In other words, this single is nifty if you just want the original track and the video, though it could have been a stronger release.

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