The “Touhou Project” is a family of shooting games. According to what I’ve read, they are mostly the work of one person, “ZUN,” who, as “Team Shanghai Alice,” writes the code, draws the art and composes the music. They are noteworthy for their complex bullet patterns and large casts of pretty girls.¹ I don’t have any particular interest in playing the games, but I was curious to note that the very active Touhou doujin community includes many musicians who record their own versions of ZUN’s music in various styles. Most I’ve sampled have been okay but nothing more; I forget them as soon as I’ve heard them. One album did catch my ear, though. It has the perfectly comprehensible title “Cubical Another Perspective Has Violated Systematically” and was recorded by something called “Cytokine.” Here’s a sample:

It’s no substitute for ELP, but what we have here is good, old-fashioned prog rock.

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No only is Polysics one of the most energetic bands around (they’d be the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band if only Hayashi could carry a tune), but they are also one of the most uncompromisingly intellectual:

Here are the lyrics.

1. if you don’t mind cockeyed mouths [↩]

Cartoon Brew notes that today is the centenary of Raymond Scott’s birth, whose music is “genetically encoded in every earthling.” If you spent your childhood Saturday mornings watching Bugs Bunny, you know this tune.

Here’s a radio show about Raymond Scott, featuring Irwin Chusid and a lot of Scott.

Does the background music to this clip from Strike Witches sound familiar? Steven thinks that it’s 19th-century, but I don’t recognize it. My guess is that the tune was composed specifically for the show.

(Yeah, I hadn’t intended to watch any more of Strike Witches, but Steven’s note piqued my curiosity and I had enough left in my BOST account to download one last episode. Unless I hear that there is a quantum leap in quality in the second half of the show, this is as much of Strike Witches as I’m going to waste time on.)

… but I prefer young women who play Liszt, such at Ayako Uehara (Via M. Keiser):

Here’s the end. Here’s some Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.

Here’s Aya Nagatomi:

Miyuki Kanbe, the third actress to play Sailor Moon in the SeraMyu musicals, died Wednesday of heart failure at the age of 24.

(Picture from here.)

Paya-tan

It’s time for a fresh poll. Which creature¹ from recent anime would you most like to see as a plushie? Some of the candidates might be unfamiliar to some visitors here. Paya-tan/Dark Paya (two phases of the same character) is the “crazy and cute” mascot from Dai Mahou Touge, an underappreciated series recommended to those who like their humor black. The mojos are Isako’s helpers in Denno Coil.

As far as I know, none in the poll are yet available in soft and fuzzy form, though there is a President Aria “money box.”

Dark Paya

Mojos

Beelzenef

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I lost interest in the anime Spice and Wolf, but I do like the neo-Renaissance soundtrack. Here’s “Mada Minu Machi he.”

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The most impressive magical gift of the sailor senshi is their ability to sprint while wearing high heels. It turns out that some ordinary humans also run in stiletto heels. Why, I don’t know. See also the Ukrainian army.

1. Beelzenef, strictly speaking, isn’t a creature but a hand puppet, but it has more presence than Nekozawa does. [↩]

Recently I’ve been investigating last.fm, hoping to find some new music worth listening to. I was surprised today to discover that there are not just one, but two pages there devoted to my music. (There are also three distinct bands named “McClane.”) Of course, someone has me confused with the guy who sang “American Pie,”¹ but I spotted some of my own tunes in the lists. I claimed one of the pages and uploaded some of my old tunes.² The curious and incautious can listen to them there, or you can click on the player at the botton of the sidebar. The tunes include a couple inspired by Haibane Renmei. In “Kana’s Toy,” I imagined that Kana finds and repairs an old music box, to which a couple of her nestmates dance. Haibane Suite is a portrait of one of the haibane that ABe doesn’t mention. The sections are “Dream;” “Off to Work;” “Saturday Evening at the Abandoned Factory;”³ “Reading by Halo-Light;” “Calm, Rational Discussion;” “Night.”

1. I was frequently told when I was younger that I looked just like John Lennon (as does Aziz), so I have the name of one singer and the face of another, neither of whom I particularly like. [↩]
2. There may be some new tunes soon; cross your fingers and keep the earplugs handy. [↩]
3. “Washerwoman’s Bransle,” from Arbeau’s Orchesography [↩]

One of the charms of The Diary of Tortov Roddle is the music by Kenji Kondo. It’s hard to pigeon-hole. Sometimes it reminds me of Metamora, sometimes of Satie, sometimes of something else I can’t quite place. Here’s a sampling of the soundtrack:

Kondo, I discovered, is part of the Kuricorder Quartet (formerly the Kuricorder Pops Orchestra) and is one of the musicians featured on the Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba&! albums. He also plays Mozart on the ukelele. Here’s a video with the Kuricorder Quartet. I think Kondo is the one on the bicycle.

Addendum: Here’s the picture Author mentions in his comment. It’s from the booklet accompanying the first Yotsuba&! CD.

You find the damnedest things on YouTube. While checking if there was anything recent featuring Umezu Kazutoki, I found some Japanese Klezmer:

Who knows when Hatsune Miku will be ported to the Mac? Until then, there’s the Delay Lama:

(Via Fellini 8.5)

If that’s too passé for your taste, you can listen to music made with Nintendo Gameboy chips at the Blip Festival. Want to make your own bleeps and bloops, but you don’t have any old video games on hand to take apart? Try quadraSID.

If tht’s too old-school for you, consider Reactable. (Via Fred.)

Update: Accordion Hero? Sure, why not?

I’m not terribly impressed with Ghost Hound — yet, anyway — but I do like the opening song, “Poltergeist,” by Mayumi Kojima. A few days ago I came across something listed as “Ghost Hound OP album.” It turned to be Kojima’s “A Musical Biography 2001-2007,” and it’s not standard J-pop. Most of the songs fall somewhere between novelty jazz and rock, with touches of rockabilly, surf guitar and the top 40 of an earlier era. To be painfully honest, on some of the tunes I enjoy the band and the arrangements more than her singing, but she earns points for an idiosyncratic repertoire. “Poltergeist” is Kojima at the darker, rockier end of her range; here’s something more playful, “ラストショット!,” or “The Last Shot.”

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It’s an obvious point, but perhaps worth making anyway. Some series should be marathoned, while others are best appreciated one or two episodes at a time. For most series, of course, it doesn’t much matter. I’ve watched a dozen episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura in one sitting, and also watched one per evening for weeks, and enjoyed it equally both ways. However, something like the Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles saga demands to viewed in one or two long sittings (if you can get past the bizarre character designs¹ and the mystifying first episode. The series’ creators perhaps expected too much of the casual viewer and the professional reviewer). Don’t put the first disc in your player late in the evening if you need to work the next day. Seirei no Moribito is another to marathon, as is Baccano!. I’ve held off watching the second half of SnM until all of it is available and I have six uninterrupted hours available to spend on it (maybe Thursday, finally).

Lightweight comedies and farces, on the other hand, are best viewed one or two episodes at a time, else they become cloying and the formulae become too obvious. Galaxy Angel A and Z, Animal Yokocho, Kerero Gunsou, Muteki Kanban Musume, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, etc., are all best taken in small doses. Also, some of the more thoughtful episodic series benefit from being watched one episode at a time, with time to reflect between viewings. I can’t imagine wanting to marathon Mushishi, for instance, or Kino’s Journey.

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A bit of good news via Anime on DVD: Martian Successor Nadesico is being reissued as a “perfect collection.” It’s due out January 1.

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Mickey Mouse Feio. (Via Cartoon Brew.)

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What exactly is Aria?

… it’s essentially 40 filler episodes.

1. Kei’s and Yuri’s busts are as large as I find attractive; bigger than that just looks grotesque. [↩]

There’s still little time for anime. The only current series I’m up-to-date on is Oh! Edo Rocket (or Oedo Rocket, or Ohedo Rocket).¹ Eighteen episodes have now been subtitled, and it continues as off-the-wall as ever. The word is that the dramatic story is concluded in the twentieth episode and the remaining six focus on comedy, which is fine with me.

The soundtrack is distinctive. About half of it is big-band swing; the rest is mostly swing/rock hybrids, with a bit of pseudo-flamenco here and there. I don’t know how well it will sustain repeated listenings, but in small doses it’s fun. Here are a couple of examples:

(This tune recurs in different arrangements throughout the series. Another setting can be heard in the second video excerpt here.)

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Speaking of soundtracks, I discovered yesterday that the other dealer is selling Geneon CDs for $5.99. This includes many outstanding OSTs — Haibane Renmei, Azumanga Daioh, Someday’s Dreamers, Noir, etc.

1. Though I download Denno Coil and Seirei no Moribito as new episodes become available [↩]

How to compose music for an online RPG. (Also why I avoid using violin samples in my own music.) If you can read French, the original is here.

I’ve just added Seven of Seven to my buy list (though it will have to wait awhile):

Another thing that’s interesting is that they’re using a lot of Scott Joplin in the soundtrack. I think it works, too. It’s refreshing, and it does tend to support a light feel to the show. Joplin isn’t ponderous and certainly isn’t slow or depressing.

I used to play Joplin half a lifetime ago when my fingers were in shape. Using his music in the soundtrack could backfire, of course. I hated The Sting partly because I disliked Hamlisch’s arrangements. I hope Yoshihisa Hirano uses the original piano scores.

Incidentally, while most of Scott Joplin is lively and cheerful, he did write a few slow pieces, e.g., “Solace,” and some of his later rags, while not depressing, do leave a bitter aftertaste, e.g., “Scott Joplin’s New Rag.”

Steven’s recent discovery reminds of the punchline of an old Koren cartoon: (said of a movie) “The sex wasn’t much, but the violence was wonderful.” I don’t have much to add to what Steven says, except to note that there are also four brief omake episodes. Punie takes her friend Tetsuko on a visit to Magic Land. It is indeed the kind of place that Punie would call home. I’ve posted the opening of Dai Mahou Touge on my video weblog.

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Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice, a.k.a. Tweeny Witches, has just been licensed. I watched the first several episodes a year or so ago and wasn’t sure what I thought of it. It certainly has a distinctive Studio 4°C look, but the main character is nearly as fatuous as Fuura Kafuka. People who like the series like it a lot, though, so I may give it a second chance.

I do like the closing theme. Here’s the full-length version, sung by KOTOKO. You might recognize the melody.

GreyDuck recently posted nearly an hour’s worth of his favorite music on his site. I thought I’d do something similar, in case anybody is curious about what I listen to. Here are nine tunes I like in batches of five and four. I picked mostly shorter tunes, so the total time is about twenty-two minutes. My tastes run toward the obscure and the eccentric (hence my interest in anime); if anyone recognizes more than one or two of these, I will be impressed. No matter how broad your tastes are, there is sure to be something here to annoy you.

Update: Identifications below the fold.

(more…)

Hatune Miku, a “vocal android” suited for J-pop and anime songs, might be a lot of fun to play with. Unfortunately, she’s Windows-only at this time. (The Vocaloid website doesn’t list a release date for the Mac AU version, but I can hope.)

When I first started fooling around with music on computers, one of my projects was to make my own primitive version of Switched-on Bach. I arranged Bach’s two- and three-part inventions and a few other things for software synths and sequencer. I recently unearthed the CD I recorded. It hasn’t aged well, but some of it doesn’t hurt my ears. I’ve uploaded some selections to my music site for the curious. (Click on the little speaker icons next to the download link to preview the tunes.)

When I made these recordings five years ago, I used as wide a variety of synthesizers as possible. After making the selections, I was surprised to realize that the majority of arrangements I found still listenable used only one synth, FMHeaven, an emulation of the Yamaha DX7.