Welcome to another Music Highlights post!

From how long since the last Music Highlights post got released, I clearly had less time now. Actually finishing the administration paperwork for my final project got a little bit too long for my liking, and I now have full-time work! That being said, I plan to keep writing these posts, even if a little irregularly.

This Music Highlights is mostly things that I've been looking at for a while, but some of them are genuinely surprising. I also talked a bit about the growth of a community that I've been looking at closely since I followed it. Compared to the last post, there's less song that really caught my attention, so I only posted 10 songs this time. I hope next month will have all sorts of cool releases being made.

Now, let's talk about music!

#1: NEW FRONTIER (re:VITICZ)

One thing that I am really curious about Denonbu's community is how the creators are joining up, and one place where unexpectedly a lot of creators showed interest in Denonbu is South East Asia. One such creator is VITICZ, hailing from Singapore. I first discovered them from their song with phritz and Hoshimiya Toto, then a song sung by Ririsya, and I got really hooked into their songs, especially the one with Ririsya.  

This fan remix of NEW FRONTIER! (which I covered in #24, by the way), in my opinion, elevates the original song even more, reimagining the already amazing melodies in VITICZ's own style, resulting in something I can only describe as delightful.

#2: Shining Lights [KAUTSAR Remix]

On the topic of South East Asia, Indonesia has its own Denonbu fan remix compilation. The one that I chose to highlight here is KAUTSAR's hardcore remix of Shining Lights, because I like hardcore, but other songs in this compilation are no less impressive, from a drum'n'bass remix of Where Is The Love to not one, but two funkot remixes.

On post #25, when talking about Yuuna and KoYami's Where Is The Love cover, I also talked about  Denonbu getting more recognition from content creators, especially outside Japan. Well, in the six months since that post, it seems that the Denonbu fan content train is rolling already! The fact that Indonesian content creators manage to do a Denonbu fan remix compilation speaks not only about the enthusiasm of the Denonbu community in Indonesia, but also the power of Denonbu's freedom in making derivative works. Denonbu's community may become one of the most active yet.

#3: Allegro

One of my favorite TAKU INOUE things is when he does drum'n'bass, and guess what, his unit with Suisei, Midnight Grand Orchestra, released a new EP, and it does have drum'n'bass! Unlike Stellar Stellar from Suisei's own album, Allegro makes true the "Orchestra" of MGO, and toned down a bit of its electronic instruments, further cementing MGO's distinct sound identity.

#4: Sprout

I put another new KOTONOHOUSE song in a Music Highlights post again. Guess I really like their songs. This song is part of "Princess Letter(s)! From Idol" project, which also has the TAKU INOUE-composed Little Secret (which I also covered in #25).

The real value is in the vocalist of this particular song, Rie Takahashi. She sings much more cheerfully in this song than in Little Secret, and she sounds really cute. Princess Letter(s)! From Idol is a relatively small project, and considering it's an idol project with the concept of poetry, commissioning electronic music producers for the idol songs is a very interesting decision.

#5: Three piece!

This is one absolutely beautiful song from the three-person unit La prière, consisting of nayuta, Aitsuki Nakuru, and Natsumi Itsuki, and composed by none other than Ichinose LUPO, Project Sekai song contest winner.

Hearing Ichinose LUPO is like hearing magic in sound form, and all three members of La prière sound special in their own way: one of my favorite artcore songs is a nayuta song, I described Nakuru's voice as special in a post before, and Itsuki's voice has some serious potential.

#6: バラして！！ ROSE ME

I don't have words on how this describe this song, because Rosemi Lovelock got the Camellia denpa treatment! Just listening to this song while writing this post is already making me want to chant along, that's how catchy this song is. It's generally all-around great Camellia denpa. Recommended to listen until the end.

I don't usually watch NIJISANJI EN members (even the only one I actually follow and subscribe, the one who played SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR on stream, that's the only stream I watched from them), but I'm quite intrigued that the artists that I follow started to make a name in the VTuber space.

#7: Impermanence

Part of the HARDCORE UTOPIA 4 compilation, the reason I chose this song as representative is that it combines hardcore and artcore sensibilities in a way that, with the vocals, makes this song have that mysterious vibe to it. This song also happens to be the one I looped the most from the album, because it's that good.

#8: Fantasia of Salvation

Denonbu's Shibuya Meeting event has some very interesting stuff happen, like the announcement of three new songs by Tatsunoshin, with genres that have not been in Denonbu before: hardstyle and hardcore music. The one that I chose to post is a hardstyle song, sung by Seto Mitsuki (voiced by Sister Claire, can't believe Denonbu made Sister Claire hardstyle happen). The song sounded straight out of a western hardstyle label, the quality is at that level.

#9: Unwelcome School (t+pazolite Remix)

t+pazolite remixed a soundtrack from Blue Archive. Blue Archive itself has a soundtrack that is notable enough that I mentioned it in my review of the game. The composers of the soundtrack is pretty well-known in the doujin music community, so remixes are bound to happen, but I find it hilarious that Unwelcome School has become a meme.

t+pazolite's style actually matches nicely with the original song's franticness, resulting in a song that still feels like the original, yet having t+pazolite's own touches in it. Aru's forever a meme, however.

#10: Non-Fiction

I just talked in post #26 about how I like Elliot Hsu's fantasy tracks. Recently, they lent their music prowess for a song by hololive EN's Myth group. In a way, Elliot Hsu's music signature is a perfect match for holoMyth's world view. Note that this isn't the first time Elliot Hsu worked with a holoMyth member: there's Ibasho, which sounds straight out of an Atelier game, even though it's made for the EN release of Princess Connect Re: Dive. Compared to Ibasho though, Non-Fiction is more of that cool fantasy vibe, resembling more of anisong.

That's about all of this Music Highlights post, see you next month (hopefully)!