#non-touhou

[thislittlelog]

Two of my girls I decided to sketch. Their names are Karrot and Kayke (currently). They were originally gonna be for a beat em up game concept I had a long while ago but now I just draw them whenever I feel like it.

Considering whether or not to do some lineart and color on this so think of this as a WIP for now

[nanabeats]

An old favorite, from well before I kept indexed playlists. One of the first non-Touhou things that I heard of Nhato’s, and to this day, something honestly still amazes me about this. I don’t speak a lick of japanese, and. I don’t have subs for this, but that doesn’t really matter to me.

This isn’t going to be a long post, just a sharing of something slightly nostalgic. If one is not familiar with the sound of Nhato, you can get a good feel of his style from this, with heavy syths and that low, running bass accentuating the higher-toned foreground in a way that, once you hear, you can pick out of most of his works. 

Nhato does a lot of collabs, and sometimes remixes of certain Touhou arranges, and his style really, really shows through in those. In his collabs, you can definitely identify his influence, as said above. As for remixes, he makes things like Dancing Dollz, a Zytokine arrange that I have favorited that was since taken down, uniquely his. You can catch hints of what the original was, but his work is truly transformative.

Then you get into his original stuff, like this, or Amygdala, or Magic. All uniquely him. There’s just something about it that I don’t quite know how to describe. Go on, have a listen. I promise, it won’t bite. It is music, after all.

[nanabeats]

This song is full of lines that are just golden.

“Addiction's growing faster, making you go insane Ivory fangs are smiling, you'll have to break the habit” 

“Forbidden fruit tastes better when it can numb the brain The outcome of the future is looking quite inane”

For a long time, I had a caffeine addiction, downing around four energy drinks per day to sustain life on two hours of sleep per night, using the other twenty two waking to help people through their personal troubles or to be my mother’s obedient little workhorse. This song gets at exactly what it felt like.

I have another problem, to this day, perhaps born from that addiction, and running from my demons. Yeah, it never works. They always catch up, but I’ll be damned if that numbness isn’t exactly what I need at times.

I no longer consume caffeine to run from these things. Not very often, anyway. Now, it’s music, and distracting myself by immersing myself in things that aren’t the impending doom of whatever fate looms over the horizon.

For now, it’s a court date, capping off a trial that has been four and a half years in the making, where even if I win, I lose my ability to call myself a functioning human being, and any self-respect. 

This... This is a thing I’d rather not think about. So, for today, a ruined sleep schedule, delirium, dog-watching, and another two cans of the aptly named Venom, that is probably very slowly killing me. 

For those wondering, Killer Taipan. Mango energy drink. Yum.

[nanabeats]

Another non-Touhou, but this is more to cleanse the palate of yesterday. Project Mili is definitely... Something. 

This wasn’t the first I’d heard of theirs, but it is by far my favorite. It reminds me vaguely of someone that I used to know, and that’s really nice~ A tad lewd, a tad dark, and wholly divine.

The art they have for the background is incredibly detailed, and I love every bit of it. As the song plays, the lyrics scroll by in code form, and there are so many programming references that I honestly can’t help but love it. And that’s not even mentioning the instrumentals. 

God, that piano is just perfect. Haunting when it needs to be, intense when required, and even just lightly, vaguely accentuating Momo’s sweet vocals as they carry the song.

I adore this, I really do~

[nanabeats]

Fox Stevenson, formerly known as Stan SB, apparently. There’s not much to say about this song, so I’ll keep it short.

It’s soft, it’s smooth, it’s uplifting. It’s always a pretty nice feel-good track that is useful for when I want to lift myself up a bit. I like it.

Also, reminder that Plug later, probably in three to four hours.

[nanabeats]

“Change your life, your love, your heart/ I bid farewell to the repeating end.”

God, Noriko’s vocals are to DIE for. This is hands down one of my favorite songs in existance, and you are in for a RAMBLE today! I’mma put a “Read More” just in case.

I will start off by saying that Taishi did an amazing job with this, and every aspect of the song is damn near perfect. But Taishi is going to get shortchanged here for a bit as I rant about my favorite singing voice on earth.

Noriko Mitose. That is one hell of a woman with one hell of a voice. The emotion conveyed by her voice is unique, and nearly without equal. The style and tone is enthralling in a sense that nobody else can really replicate. 

Sure, you can have things like Meramipop’s storytelling voice, which carries raw emotion very well, 3L’s incredible range of possibilities, the raw power behind Stack’s heavier vocals, or I’ll even stretch out as far as Tarja Turunen’s beautiful tones born from the fires of hell in a deal with the devil to make her sound like the the exact opposite; an ice goddess. But none are Noriko. None come even close.

The primal emotion, the soul and feeling of those words always gets to me. That, carried in a vocal style that I don’t see often and that I am also fairly fond of. So, forgive me for thinking that the otherworldly, yet somehow down to earth vibrato of her voice as she sings these things to be one of the best damned things I have ever heard.

Now onto the composition itself. Taishi is amazing, and the song sounds wonderful. Vaguely folk-y with a very strong electro-trance-ish base, and a steady beat that accompanies the enchanting vocals of Noriko, helping to deliver the raw beauty to your ear. 

The breakdown about halfway through the song gives time for the first half to settle in and for a steady tone change while delivering some of the best bass I’ve ever heard. Though said wubs are present throughout the song, the raw, unmatched power is best around 3:55, and I can’t get over it. Leading up to this is a wonderful buildup, and out of it, a smooth transition. What more can you ask for?

Oh, I don’t know, maybe a well-chosen picture by the uploader. I’ll let Ammy speak for herself here, though:

"It’s like the time of being born" (From the lyrics)-> planets and constellations are being created all over her hair, flowers are appearing. "I am drawing hope towards me" (also the lyrics)-> the shapeless thing might represent "hope". And I could list many examples.

I'm no psychic, at the time I made this vid, I only guessed by my own interpretation of the title, "Personalizer" such as "the girl who personalizes her own world and herself", at least, that's what I thought.

From the comments section, and rather well put, too! 

[touhou-lunatics]

Hey...

Today is birthday. Hehe...

[touhou-lunatics]

So...

Would anyone like to contribute to this blog?

Just wondering...