Reitaisai 5 Music Review: IOSYS
IOSYS, the usual breeding ground for Nico memes and all sorts of craziness, has released three new denpa-filled albums during R5: Touhou Makashinsai (東方真華神祭) and a two-disc, 27 track collaboration with various artists… entitled Gossun-Remix. As you’ve probably guessed, the two discs (cleverly labeled as Eins and Zwei) contain nothing but remixes of IOSYS’ most (in)famous song: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing. Read on to what I think about this denpa overload.
Let’s talk about Makashinsai before moving on to Gossun-Remix.
Veterans of IOSYS (lovers and haters alike) should know what to expect from Makashinsai. It doesn’t set itself apart from any of IOSYS’ previous Touhou remix albums in any way whatsoever, with the subtle distinction that every track on Makashinsai is vocal. Does that make the album any better?
Well, yes and no. The slower tracks on Makashinsai, in particularly “Pray” (Track 1) and “Hourai no Omoihito” (Track 11), benefit from having vocals. It’s clear to me immediately after listening to both aforementioned tracks that they would have been much worse had the vocals been removed. The vocals become the defining feature of both pieces, giving them depth and more flavor. However, the opposite is true for the more denpa-based, faster tracks in this album. “Border of Extacy,” (Track 2) in particular, becomes an earsore after the initial amusement factor wears off, usually halfway during the first playthrough. In fact, most of the faster tracks on Makashinsai are both unoriginal and sometimes downright annoying; off-pitch vocals combined with grating electronic effects isn’t my idea of a good listening experience. Songs such as the previously mentioned “Border of Extacy” are simply skipped when I listen to this album now.
Continuing with their recent trend, IOSYS has chosen to put a few heavier, more metal-esque tracks in Makashisai, to good effect. Both “rock” songs on the album, “Shinjyou no Namae no Shita ni” (Track 10) and “B・E・E・R” (Track 15) sound very solid. While nothing amazing, they represent, to me, an improvement over the more freakishly-happy denpa-inducing tracks that dominate Makashinsai.
So what are my favorite songs? I have two on this album: “Gyouretsu no dekiru Eirin Shinryoujyo” (Track 9) and “Hakurei Jinja Chounaikai Onto” (Track 14). Why? They’re both catchy. They have good rhythm, decent vocals and a melody that simply drew me in upon the first listen. Plus, the flashes released on Nico probably helped.
Ultimately, Makashinsai simply isn’t as good of an album as some of IOSYS’ other Touhou remix albums. While not downright horrid, it’s not spectacular, either. I would recommend it for listening every once in a while, but I won’t be loading this entire album on my iPod anytime soon.
+++++++++++
Now, speaking of denpa, we have the mother of all catchy songs: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing. Gossun-Remix is a two-disc collaboration produced by IOSYS, featuring circles such as Cis-Trance, Alstroemeria Records, dBu, Barbarian on the Groove, Innocent Key, and a few others. There are a few remixes done by IOSYS, as well. So, how does this two-disc, 27-track hypnosis device fare as music?
Not bad, actually. The two discs, entitled Eins and Zwei, are both pretty decent, although Eins is clearly the better disc of the two. It may just be personal preference, but since I perfer heavier techno sounds, Cis-Trance’s and Alstroemeria’s remixes of the song were definitely the most memorable and catchy in my mind. To be fair, though, Innocent Key, dBu and Live House S.S.H. all had memorable mixes. It’s extremely challenging to take such a piece of music and transform it into something completely different; as an example, Live House SSH chose to do a heavy metal remix of Marisa Stole the Precious Thing. Ultimately, it worked out extremely well, and the track stands out as one of the best in 27.
Not that disc Zwei didn’t have its golden moments. In particular, Barbarian on the Groove had an especially hilarious remix, featuring a hectic pace and lots of guitar, giving the entire track a slightly latin feel. REDALiCE also had a solid remix utilizing heavy bass and a fast-paced beat.
Of course, where there is good, there inevitably must be bad. A few remixes fell flat on their metaphorical faces. In particular, the first track on Zwei was excrutiatingly painful to listen to, as male vocals and death-metal esque screaming simply don’t work for “Marisa Stole the Precious Thing.” SOUND HOLIC gave a good effort, attempting to remix the track with a more jazzy feel, but it ended up being a bit jumbled and a bit messy, as well as a bit cacaphonic, which didn’t impress me at all. In addition, both of IOSYS’ original remixes of their song didn’t work out too well either; while they didn’t fail to the degree as some of the other tracks did, they weren’t exactly eye-popping amazing in the first place.
Ultimately, no remix on the album is as good as the original track. Something was lost, perhaps the original catchyness of the piece. However, make no mistake: Gossun-Remix works out fairly well as music. My personal recommendation is not to listen to the entire album, but rather, put it in your party shuffle. It’s a pleasant suprise once in a while to hear Barbarian on the Groove’s remix of Marisa Stole the Precious Thing every once in a while, but listening to 27 different attempts to remix the same song in a row becomes a chore very fast. I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed the album, although it definitely has its faults.
+++++++++++++
That ends my little rant for (against?) IOSYS and their newly released works at R5. Some may like to claim that IOSYS is now simply attemptoing to milk their own popularity, pointing to Gossun-Remix as evidence. Makashinsai does show a bit of a slump in performance, but I hope they’ll be back with something better once C74 rolls around.
The opinion expressed above is mine and mine only. Don’t blame Gensokyo.org for my ranting.
Loading ...
Good reviews, but… where I can download that CDs. Sorry for my english.
I absolutely cannot stop listening to “Gyouretsu no dekiru Eirin Shinryoujyo”.
“Border of Extacy” is awesome!
I really like Remilia’s track on Makashinsai.
Seems like the slow ones were the better ones on this CD, ‘though I like Border of Extacy too.
Border of Extacy is orgasmic.
Also the only album(s) that satisfied me are the two ALiCE’S EMOTION albums. Maid in Japan has got the be the best remix of Luna Dial so far. To me at least.
The flash for Hakurei Jinja was neat. Since when was the miko an idol?
I’d have to agree with you on the reviews. Over all IOSYS is by far my favorite group of all expect that I simply have to say that I hatted the Gossun remix. I don’t like listening to the same CD thousands of times over and over like some people do but if i like a CD ill listen to it a few times in a week or so, and it gets stuck in in my head, in a good way. But after listening to the Gossun remix i was driven insane and couldn’t get the song out of my head and haunted my dreams for several days even. I’m not saying i hated the original but dam that was over doing it. But even thought I hated IOSYS’s Gossun remix release i still love em just as much as before, its just that I have higher hopes for their next album even more now.
Agreed with Hino-kun, my favorite track from this album is the 4th one, れみりゃ＠フルムーン. It gave this really nice and smooth feeling~ I think I fall in love with the vocalist’s voice.
Border of Extacy was pretty fun in a certain way. Especially in term of craziness, which is IOSYS’ specialty.
As for Gossun Remix, I really like Eins CD and don’t mind hearing it over and over, but the Zwei was a bit boring for me.
You wonder why the slow tracks are nice? First, one of them is made by Morrigan, which implies WAVE, ergo: wtfbbq amazing orchestral stuff and acoustic works. It’s probably the only reason I checked Makashinsai since I absolutely cannot stand IOSYS, their memes and crap. Which is the phrase people use? “Gets old”? Ok, that. Gets old way too fast and I concur some pieces are blatantly forgettable (the infamous filler material, Border of Extacy with its awful typo feels like a lame rehash of the “Overdrive” song, but to the worse with all that crappy moaning), not memorable at all and the next year people will already forget these albums even existed… That’s just me anyway so don’t take this at the ultimate truth as I know others might differ.
Lost interest in IOSYS some time ago…
Their album tends to get worse time by time. At least IMO Makashinsai is better than it’s C73’s predecessor…
only liked two tracks from Makashinsai. One is Hakurei Jinja Chounaikai Onto for it to be an actual “decent” music, and along with a great flash. Other one is B.E.E.R, because it reminds me of JAM Project LOL…
Decided not to get either Gossun Remix albums.
The idea of two whole album all arranging a single comedy song already gave me the creeps…
I actually think that Makashinsai is an improvent in IOSYS’ discography. Much better than their latest Cimket album. However, I did miss the usual non vocal tracks.
As for the gossun remixes, I think it was a pretty bland collaboration overall. Sure, there a re one or two decent tracks in either disc but most of it was just lazy, uninspired filler.
hmmm. . . . . . .
from IOSYS new album . . . . just border of ecstasy , hakurei jinja ondo and BEER only that i like to hear in my ear . . . . . . . so disco fever~~
no hard feeling~~
maybe im try silver forest . . . . .
Pray was magnificent. Remirya@Fullmoon was classy and cute, sooo Remi. That Eirin song was also enjoyable.
Anyone knows where to download the flashes?
^ Look for PVs at lower left
http://makashinsai.com/top.html
Why do people mostly like the songs that have flashes? Is it the effect of combined audio and video? What about the rest like tracks 4, 5, 6, 7(bit goofy, but still fun), 8(this one’s great), 10, 11, 12, 13?
I on the contrary wish to argue that Makashinsai comes off as one of the best Iosys albums there could be. For the reason simply there are more notable worthy songs than just flashy jumbo loops. (Marisa STPT exp.)
Good tracks:
Pray, Eirin’s track, Keine’s Holy Beast track, Zun’s BEER, are all notable.
On the other hand, catchy as Reimu’s track is, it lacks a lot in the Iosys department of entertainment, I had expected something much more worthy of listening, but the fact that I SKIP the reimu track just means there was nothing much they put into that one.
Pray is only good until the middle when it just prolongs the track.
BEER was in fact… until the last moment, I find to be the only track I have on repeat more times than usual. Nonetheless, what I wanted to say is this, there has not been an Iosys release that was worthy of such a comment as “Good for the most part”
which I dare say, is a compliment.
@onsokumaru
I don’t know about others, but I highly expected some of the tracks ever since IOSYS released the demo track of the album. It just happened that the songs I liked got their flashes later.
I bought both Gossun Remix Eins and Zwai (sic) at Otakon… the remixes are interesting, but the fact that it’s two disks of the same song makes it a little annoying.