Welcome to the eighteenth Music Highlights post, where I talk about music I found and liked!

This post is quite varied in song selection, that reflects the two sides of what I usually listen to. The first half are pretty hard-sounding songs, like hardstyle and hardcore, and rhythm game music. The second half is all about idols.

Now, let's talk about music!

#1: Incyde

First of today is a Sta release, but under another alias, for the Cytus II game. While it is released under another alias, the music can't really lie, can they? I mean, the vocals are like a dead giveaway here.

The song itself also has the signatures of a Sta song, with the sounds it has. It  also references some of Sta's past songs like Loom and 99 Glooms. For Loom, the song even references its melody!

#2: Rising Sun

Next up, we have the first release from Yuta Imai since his joining of the major hardstyle label Dirty Workz. Holy moly, he made it, and I also want to say congratulations for getting into the label!

Rising Sun has very strong Japanese characteristics, with oriental instruments, but paired with a strong kick and very satisfying synth.

#3: Kisaragi

Then, a new Camellia album and song release. U.U.F.O. is a massive album, having a total of 27 tracks and 2 discs. From the album, the song that I liked the most is this one: Kisaragi.

The genre is said to be Artcore, which I think fits the bill okay. Camellia, as usual, delivers nicely with his signature rhythm-game-core, combined with melodious instruments. In the middle of the song, there's a part that I really like, when the vibes turned to something that is a bit lo-fi.

There are some other songs that are very close to being chose here, like We Magicians Still Alive in 2021 (Newspaper for Magicians-else melodic dubstep track), SLIME INCIDENT (Camellia's signature Machinegun Psystyle with a bit of Rawstyle, and, interestingly, it sampled the EN VTuber Nyatasha Nyanners), and Myths You Forgot (Future Bass and co-written with Toby Fox, yes, the one who made the likes of Undertale).

#4: Growing Smiles

After that, we have the theme song of the upcoming new SideM game GROWING STARS, appropriately named Growing Smiles!.

Like C.FIRST's song "We're the one", this song is quite electronic, but the fact that it's an anthem song is quite interesting. This may mark a very interesting era for SideM. SideM最高!

#5: Starcrossed Heroine

To end this post, I am bringing a song that is probably pretty unusual for this section, although probably totally on-brand for me to do this: putting an independent content creator's song on a Music Highlights post.

The song itself was actually written quite a while ago, during a collab stream with BIYORI (it was on December 2020? Is December that long ago?). However, it needed someone to finish what had started, and that someone is Vibetronic's ittou, who arranged, mixed, and mastered the song. With that finish, the result is a very colorful and fluffy idol song with a great production value.

That concludes today's Music Highlights post, see you on August!