【Singer】梅宮雛 (UMEMIYA Hina)

梅宮雛 (UMEMIYA Hina) is a relatively well-known niconico singer best known for her rendition of wowaka’s 裏表ラバーズ (Uraomote Lovers/Love & Lovers). Her titles always start with “人知れず”, which means “secretly”. (So the whole template title translates to something like “Tried to Sing in secret / Umemiya Hina”). As well, she gets other people on niconico to help her with mixing her songs. Also, Umemiya Hina is most likely not her real name.

Umemiya is capable of hitting extremely high notes without straining, wavering or straying from the note, and can sing in many different voices, though the usual one she uses is slightly cutesy but not at all annoying. Some of her “other voices” sound like Kagamine Len and even INOUE Marina. (See her rendition of Nanairo no NicoNico Douga). She also seems to have really good breath control since she can not only switch between voices quickly, but she can also keep singing a lot without gasping for breath (See her rendition of Uramote).

Essential Works:
1. 裏表ラバーズ (Uraomote Lovers/Love & Lovers) (niconico link) **Most Popular Work**
2. 炉心融解 (Roshin Yuukai/Meltdown) (niconico link)
3. いつもより泣き虫な空 (Itsumo Yori Nakimushi na Sora/A Sky Who’s Being More of a Crybaby Than Usual) (niconico link) **Recommended**

Niconico Profile: http://www.nicovideo.jp/user/10862349
Mylist: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/10657771

【Lyrics】 I Love Loop

This song’s title is absolutely not a misnomer. Also makes great background music.

This post consists of three parts:
1. Original lyrics
2. Transliteration
3. Translation

I love Loop

Lyrics: AVTechNO
Compose: AVTechNO
Arrange: AVTechNO
Vocals: Megurine Luka (I Love Loop) / Hatsune Miku (i love loop 単調)

I Love Loop feat. Megurine Luka
Nico | Youtube
MP3 | Instrumental

i love loop 単調 (Tanchou/Monotone) feat. Hatsune Miku
Nico | Youtube
iTunes

Artwork drawn specially for i love loop 単調. (Illust: 和音)

Description: Original version (I Love Loop) is sung by Megurine Luka, and a slightly remixed cover sung by Hatsune Miku (i love loop 単調/Tanchou/Monotone) was released to be distributed through iTunes under KarenT in Piapro. Both versions have the exact same lyrics.

【Lyrics】 VOSTOK

Not a new song, just a very good song in terms of high loopability and coolness of theme.

This post consists of three parts:
1. Original lyrics
2. Transliteration
3. Translation
4. Singable Translation (For vostok2+, by つてと (ikuy398) from this video)

VOSTOK

Lyrics: あつぞうくん (Atsuzou-kun)
Compose: あつぞうくん (Atsuzou-kun)
Arrange: あつぞうくん (Atsuzou-kun)
Vocals: Hatsune Miku

VOSTOK → Nico | Nicosound
vostok2+ → Nico | Youtube

あつぞうくんさんのコメント： 3曲目出来ました！無職力を発揮してます。今回はボッサ・ラウンジ・カフェとかそんな感じでしょうか？。そんなオサレ場所に縁ないですが。登場人物は主人公ボストーク１号、宇宙犬ベルカとストレルカ、人間ユーリィ・ガガーリン。６０年代の宇宙は希望とサイエンスに溢れております。宇宙と未来とSFは男子の永遠の夢です。さてさて次の曲の準備します。

Atsuzou-kun’s Comment: Finished my 3rd song! Take a look at the power of the unemployed. The song this time should give off a feel of bossa, lounge, cafe, or something like that? Even though I’m not really one for stylish places like those…The characters this time include the Vostok 1, some space dogs named Belka and Strelka, and a human named Yuri Gagarin. It was from the 60’s when the dreams and sciences for getting to space really took off. Space, the future, and science fiction have always been the dreams of a young man after all. Anyways, I’ll get to preparing my next song now.

Image used in VOSTOK. Vostok 1, Belka, Strelka, and Yuri Gagarin are in it. Click to enlarge.

Description: A relaxing song of the Bossa nova genre about the USSR’s space frenzy during the 60’s. Atsuzou-kun made a remix called vostok2+ that sounds more pop-ish and wintry about a month and a bit after posting VOSTOK. Both songs have the same lyrics.

【Singer】UmiNeko

I don’t usually listen to male singers for unknown reasons, but this person is far too great.

UmiNeko is an amateur singer from niconico who is becoming more well-known recently for his unique voice and consistently high quality works. His most popular works are his renditions of DixieFlatline’s Just Be Friends, with 1906 Mylists, and におP’s (nioP) 蜜蜂 (Mitsubachi/Honeybee) with 1536 Mylists. He almost always provides MP3 downloads of his songs, and the majority of his songs are mixed by madamxx and encoded by various people. In addition to singing, he also has a radio show hosted on niconico live stream sometimes.

UmiNeko’s voice is, to put it in one word, soulful. It is mature, emotional, and has weight as he retains all his notes completely and fully, which makes him extremely suitable for songs of the Soul genre. Despite having a pretty specialized voice, he sings many songs from different genres, including Jazz, R&B, and Pop, to name a few. UmiNeko usually sings in a relatively low voice, but he has absolutely no trouble transitioning to really high notes quickly and smoothly. He also likes to do a lot of really well-done scat singing. Lastly, UmiNeko also songs quite a bit of English songs (which I think he is best suited for), and his English pronounciation is quite good.

Please give his songs a listen! His voice might take a bit of getting used to at first, but it is absolutely incredible from his first songs to the most recent ones. I had a hard time picking only 6 songs to list here.

Essential Works – Vocaloid Covers:
1. 蜜蜂 (Mitsubachi/Honeybee) (niconico link) **Representative Work & Highly Recommended**
2. 少年銀河 (Shounen Ginga/Boy Galaxy) (niconico link) →Recommended
3. つよがり (Tsuyogari/Bluff) (niconico link) →First work

Essential Works – Original/English:
1. Losing game (niconico link) (Original song; Collaboration with におP (nioP)
2. You Give Me Something (niconico link) (English song; James Morrison) →Recommended
3. What’s Going On (niconico link) (English song; Marvin Gaye)

Mylist: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/9247970
niconico Community: http://ch.nicovideo.jp/community/co71841
Youtube Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7EA54D231EF07449

【Lyrics】 1925

Everybody else’s song of the week, and also my (other) song of the week. \o/

This post consists of three parts:
1. Original lyrics
2. Transliteration (by viridian_lights@Livejournal)
3. Translation

1925

Lyrics: T-POCKET
Compose: T-POCKET
Arrange: T-POCKET
Illustration: buchiko
Vocals: Hatsune Miku

Nico | Youtube
MP3 | Instrumental
English Subbed Video (Alternate and better translation by KataGatar)

T-POCKETさんのコメント：
（ニコニコから）
【素晴らしい絵とタイトルはpiaproよりbuchiko様からお借りしました。本当にありがとうございます。】今日はみんなに素敵なお友達を紹介するよ☆まいけるだ！顔はカッコいいし、喋りは上手い。気だても良くて、眉目秀麗、錦上添花、おまけにこの筋肉だ！ぼくの自慢の友達さっ！えぇ？！君も彼のようになりたいだって？どうだい、まいける？「そんなの簡単さぁっ☆なんたってこの教本セットがあるからね！これは簡単なトレーニングを１日たったの3分/150セットやるだけでぼくのようになれるんだ☆そして、なんとこの教本には1028通りのメニューが載っているから飽きっぽい人も安心だね！さらに今回は、先日発売して大好評だったあの『全自動湯沸かし器』もお付けして、たったの3980円！！！（月々3980円の100回払い）
（ブログから）
レトロでスタイリッシュな絵のおかげで、泥臭い曲と歌詞が一気にお洒落になりました。

T-POCKET’s comment:
(From niconico)
【The awesome artwork and title were borrowed from buchiko at piapro. Thank you so much.】Today I will introduce everyone to a marvelous friend☆This is Michael! He has an attractive face AND he’s good at chatting. He’s also good-natured, handsome, and to top it all off, a bonus are these muscles of his! So, my boastful friends..! Huuuh?! Did you just say you want to be like him? What do you say to that, Michael? “That’s easy you see☆It’s because I had this set of textbooks, you know! Just do this easy training everyday for three minutes per 150 sets and you’ll become just like me☆Also, what’s in these textbooks is a menu of 1028 ways you can do it, so even people who get tired of the same old routines can rest easy! And this time, we’ll even throw in an “Automatic Water-boiler” which was a big hit when we sold it the other day, and all this is only 3980 Yen!!!(In 100 payments of 3980 Yen every month)
(From his blog)
Thanks to the retro and stylish artwork, the crudeness of the song and the lyrics suddenly seemed cool.

Artwork used in the video for the song. Title of song is also from artwork title. (Illust: buchiko@Piapro)

Description: This song dominated the music and overall daily rankings this week, getting 11,000+ Mylists in less than a week, which will definitely secure its place in the Weekly Vocaloid Rankings, and has already been attached with the “VOCALOID殿堂入り” (Vocaloid Hall of Fame) tag. Also, T-POCKET’s video comment is intentionally meaningless and out of place, and I’m sure we all had fun reading it regardless. This song is T-POCKET’s first widely well-received song, with his next most Mylisted song only having 94 Mylists.

【Lyrics】Ding-Dong

My song of the week. It’s been on endless loop, and I can’t get enough of that synthed sax.

This post consists of three parts:
1. Original lyrics
2. Transliteration
3. Translation

Ding-Dong

Lyrics: Miksolodyne-ts
Compose: Miksolodyne-ts
Arrange: Miksolodyne-ts
PV: オサレP (OSARE P)
Vocals: Megurine Luka

Nico | Youtube
MP3 | Instrumental

Miksolodyne-tsさんのコメント：
tsです。オサレPさんとのコラボ３つ目です!今回は山本ニューさんの大好きな名曲のフレーズがずっと耳から離れなくって曲を作ってしまいました!（もちろんあんないい曲にはできませんでしたが・・・そこはオサレPさんの素敵な夜のイメージでカバーなのです）曲も歌も絵も言葉も、素敵なセンスに出会うと感動したりうらやましく思ったり→mylist/15135721（ほかにもたくさんすごいひとが・・・）宣伝宣伝！→nm8265110

Miksolodyne-ts’s Comment:
ts here. This is my 3rd collaboration with OSAREP! Made this song since I was inspired by Yamamoto New’s incredible song, which has that one phrase that always gets stuck in my head. (Of course this song probably couldn’t do the same…but OSAREP’s spectacular night images will cover that.) Here are some works that I think have really good taste in everything, from the melody to the song to the artwork to the lyrics, and have made me both deeply moved and jealous→mylist/15135721(Except there are still a lot of other really awesome people I didn’t cover…)Plugging!→nm8265110

Shot from the PV by オサレP. Click to enlarge.

Things I Am Excited About 【Fall 2009 M3(24)】

M3 is a one-day, biannual, music-only convention held in Yokohama, Japan, and its name stands for “Music + Media-Mix Market”. It’s kind of like Tokyo’s Comiket but for doujin music artists only. The Fall M3 event for 2009 will be held on October 11th, and is the 24th iteration of the event. This post will briefly highlight only the circle releases I am watching for (22 releases in total are profiled here). Click on the banners for a link to the site, all of which include demos unless otherwise stated. Info is listed BELOW the banner.

Entries are loosely ordered by genre:
1. Original, xx-based (ie. Story-based, Light Novel-based, etc)
2. Original, Pop / Original, Pop-rock
3. Original
4. Touhou Arrange
5. Cover
★★ entries are the ones I am most excited about.

Copy and paste the stars or genre titles into CTRL+F to find them.

I know the doujin music scene is a pretty uncommon/obscure subject in most anime-related blogs, but if you have an interest in finding out more and discovering new artists and such, M3 is seriously the best place to start foraying into this niche-ish sector. Hopefully this post will be helpful for doing that too.

Official M3 Circle List: http://www.m3net.jp/m3_24/circles.html
M3 Circle Releases List at BLACK ANGEL: http://blackangel.main.jp/event.php

【Vocaloid Composer】DATEKEN

Artwork drawn specially for Tsumugi Uta. Click to enlarge.(Illust: ホルダー@Piapro)

DATEKEN is a relatively well-known Vocaloid composer who submitted his first song onto niconico in October 2008, and prior to that he had experience in composing instrumental songs since 2005, which he uploaded onto his muzie account. DATEKEN’s most well-known song is 紡唄 -つむぎうた- (Tsumugi Uta/Spinning Song), which currently has over 11,000+ mylists and 190,000+ views. DATEKEN is actually a graduate student from Hokkaido and his hobbies include playing the piano, doing karate, and reciting poems.

DATEKEN uses only Kagamine Rin and Len to sing his songs, and at this point has not used any of the other Vocaloids yet. Each of his Vocaloid songs have a different genre assigned to them, ranging from ethnic (Jutenija), technopop (Ur-Style), R&B (イマジネイション/Imagination), and even waltz (schwarz waltz), which really show his high level of versatility as a composer. However, most of his songs generally belong to the electronic music genre, such as techno, trance, 2-step, and house. All his songs are extremely high quality, and give a really good representation of their respective genres. Song themes are really varied, which makes all of them impressionable and easy to remember, and the large majority of songs are quite catchy. His vocal tuning for the Kagamine twins are also impeccable, and in my opinion ranks among the best as they are consistently natural and easy to listen to. (Definitely not a small feat considering that Kagamine Rin and Len are among the harder Vocaloids to tune.) He also changes their voices according to the song, and as a result they always sound fitting and different. As a one-man composer, DATEKEN does everything himself: writes and arranges the song, writes the lyrics, and makes his own videos, which are usually well-subtitled and with a nice static layout and picture, the latter of which he borrows from royalty-free artists on Piapro.

In addition to composing Vocaloid songs, he has also composed intrumental tracks also to the theme of widely varying genres, and has also released a Touhou arrange doujin album called 当方暇軍団 under the circle name of 暇軍団. He creates songs with a keyboard controller for the most part.

All in all, super-good and incredibly composer. Please listen to all his songs! I especially recommend his works if you want to explore different musical genres.

Essential Works:
1. 紡唄 -つむぎうた- + ENG Subs (Tsumugi Uta/Spinning Song) (niconico link)
2. Never! + ENG Subs (niconico link) **Especially Recommended**
3. なまえのないうた (Namae no Nai Uta/A Song without a Name) (niconico link)

Website: http://www14.plala.or.jp/dateken/
Mylist: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/10109173
Piapro: http://piapro.jp/dateken
Twitter: http://twitter.com/dateken
muzie: http://www.muzie.co.jp/artist/a014791/
Blog: http://blog.livedoor.jp/vit_dat/
Youtube Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=896975BF8D8151E4&search_query=dateken
DATE tunes (digital album) page: http://piapro.jp/karent/?view=album&id=43