(東方♫) Touhou music: Latest albums discovered
It's been over a month since my last round of new album acquisitions, so let's fix that.
+18 albums
Total album count in collection is now 696
Gallery of new album covers
Text list
- Amateras Records - Everlasting Conviction
- Amateras Records - Everlasting Conviction the instrumental
- Amateras Records - Sparkling Alteration
- Amateras Records - Sparkling Alteration the instrumental
- Amateras Records - Resonate Anthems
- Amateras Records - Brilliant Story
- Amateras Records - Brilliant Story the instrumental
- Amateras Records - Sweetest Paranoia
- Amateras Records - Sweetest Paranoia the instrumental
- Amateras Records - My Dearest
- Amateras Records - My Dearest the instrumental
- Amateras Records - Addicted Moon
- Amateras Records - Addicted Moon the instrumental
- Amateras Records - Grateful Days
- Amateras Records - Grateful Days the instrumental
- Amateras Records - Reconnected Anthems
- Amateras Records - Farewell Flower
- Amateras Records - Farewell Flower the instrumental
Highlights and thoughts
As of the time of posting, I did not listen to everything yet, just sharing ultra-quick thoughts on what I saw and listened to so far. I may make a follow-up post as I listen along over the next few days.
Yep. We're back on that deep-dive of the Amateras Records back catalog... It's huge. There's still a lot to check out.
On Everlasting Conviction:
- Obligatory mention of the smile on my face when Amane's track came up. With or without vocals, I just love his stuff. In top form for 2016, we're firmly in his modern sound era by now; this sounds like it could have been on Out of the Box 2.
- Stand-out track: 恋繋エピローグ. Incredible rendition of Broken Moon, with 築山さえ (Sae Tsukiyama) on the vocals and instrumentals by Tracy and Astronomical.
- Stand-out track: Purely with moca on the vocals and taqumi on the instrumentation. An electro-swing arrange of Pure Furies that does not skimp on the swing. Blown away by moca's voice. Must listen!
On Sparkling Alteration:
- Stand-out track: Scarlet Keeper, with taqumi on the instrumentation and まめみ (mamemi) handling vocals in Japanese and English. Electro-swing with a little more electro and a little bit of a house-y vibe. Very fun listen and an excellent arrange of Chinese Tea.
- Stand-out track: Stray Star; vocal trance arrange of Alice in Wonderland (Mystic Square extra stage) by Tracy with guitar work by 零 -zero- and vocals by nayuta. Wonderful blend of flavors.
- PLASTIC DREAMER gave me Cytokine vibes... Obviously, as it was composed by 隣人 of Cytokine/Zytokine. I still don't have any Zytokine albums, I should really really really fix that if that's how they sound today...
On Sweetest Paranoia:
- Sweetest Paranoia the instrumental has an extra track, Regretful Flower. It's the same as the one from Resonate Anthems.
On Addicted Moon:
- We're in 2018 now, and the Amateras sound is evolving to a heavier but no less catchy flavor. The intro track, Entrance to Moon, announces the album's flavor with a half-and-half of psytrance and hardstyle. Track 4, ROMANTIC!, is a vocal arrange of Romantic Children that follows along the same path.
- Stand-out track: Spotless, with Masayoshi Minoshima at the helm and Kanata.N's soft vocals. Alstro's leader brings in a pure, concentrated shot of liquid house to the album with this remix of Cinderella Cage ~ Kagome-Kagome. A treat, with or without the vocals.
- Stand-out track: Princess Lily, with vocals by 大瀬良あい (Oosera ai) and instrumentation by 溝口ゆうま (Mizonokuchi Yuma) of M.H.S. A fast and tense trance arrange of Poison Body ~ Forsaken Doll, Medicine Melancholy's theme, backed with Latin choir chanting. Nerve-wracking in all the fun ways.
On Reconnected Anthems:
- Track 9 is a re-release of Bad Apple!! feat.nomico [Tracy vs. Astronomical Remix], originally featured on 10th Anniversary Bad Apple!! (amusingly, I don't have that one yet, but it has been on my radar for a hot minute now)