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.

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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.

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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.

Seems everyone’s releasing something this year; it’s the first time Reitaisai is going to be at the Big Sight. A much larger venue than last year’s means an overwhelming increase in participation.

++GAMES++

First off, we have the two biggies:

Twilight Frontier has announced the release of Touhou 10.5: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. You can read more about the release announcement here.

Team Shanghai Alice has announced plans to release a demo of Touhou Chireiten~ Subterranean Animism, the 11th game in the Touhou canon. You can read more about this here.

Finally, on the doujin game front, the final version of Marisa & Alice (Mariari) will be released by Desunoya.

Read on to see what else we’ve learned.

++DOUJINSHI++

There’s so many doujin planned for release, it’s hard to count all of them. Here’s what we have so far in no particular order.

• Personal Color is releasing a doujin starring Yukari, Youmu and Yuyuko. It appears to be the first half a longer doujin.

• Ishikiriba is planning to release a doujin collaboration based on their webcomic, Yagokoro Labs.

• Winter Scenery plans to release a doujin featuring the Scarlet Devil Mansion crew.

• Hole of Yago will be selling a new doujin titled Metapo!!, featuring Alice and Marisa.

• 3-Chome has a new doujin about Alice, named Kouma no Kuni no Alice.
• Wi-Z GARAGE will be selling the 300 parody/tribute, Tales of 30.
• Ennui Akadako is releasing two doujin, Kami-sama wa Okyaku-sama desu about the Aki sisters, as well as what appears to be a compilation of old works titled Hitomatome.
• Asatsuki Dou will be releasing a doujin entitled Happy End, about Koakuma and Patchouli.
• happy flame time is releasing a new doujin.
• Kagero is releasing a doujin. You can see the cover here.
• Yumeiro Goromo is releasing both a doujin and an artbook at R5.
• KFC has a new doujin out, entitled “Flowery Flier.”
• ReverseNoise is releasing a doujin seemingly about mahjong.
• Golden Pe Done is releasing half a doujin.
• Saku Saku Tei is releasing a doujin entitled “Witches Don’t Look Back.”
• Hashiya is releasing two doujin: Red-Black Moon, Jasper Star and Road of Eastern, a collab with Rengeza.
• Fuantei is releasing a doujin entitled “What’s that!?”
• Haniwa’s Store will be selling their new doujin, “A Doll’s Wish.”
• Mizutaki is releasing a doujin named “Brilliant Gensokyo”.

++MUSIC++

Many different groups are releasing a slew of new music, ranging from orchestral works to techno to any other genre you can possibly think of:

• Alstroemeria Records is releasing a “Best Of” album featuring some of their best songs to date, including Bad Apple!!, Alice Maestra, Dreaming, and more, entitled “Exserens – A selection of Alstroemeria Records.” In addition, they will also be taking part in “Gossun-Remix 1″, a Marisa Stole the Precious Thing remix album produced by IOSYS. A demo of Exserens can be found on their website.
• sisimai-brothers is releasing a new album entitled 東方冬風雪灯.
• UI-70 is releasing a new CD, titled Riddles Covered in Flowers.
• ~xi-on~ is releasing an MoF only album, previously released at M3 2008 Spring.
• TAMUSIC is releasing a new CD entitled Touhou Nocturnes for Pianoforte [Spirit].
• Lime-Green is releasing three albums: an MoF Piano solo, MoF electro and EoSD electro.
• Vn’dyk is releasing a new album entitled Ein Klang Multidimentional.
• Masamitei is releasing a new album.
• Style.S is selling a new CD; crossfade can be heard by clicking on the link.
• Chocoa is releasing an album entitled ~Toho the First~
• SJV-SC is releasing an album entitled Divit, first released at M3 2008 Spring.
• Hobby Atelier Carrotwine is releasing an album titled —Rei— Gettenyahime.
• mistbell is releasing a new album.
• Silver Forest is also selling a new CD.
• SOUND HOLIC is releasing two new CDs. You can hear samples of them here. (SOUND HOLIC is after Alstroemeria Records.)
• SYNC.ART’s is coming out with a new CD as well.
• IOSYS has three new CDs, a new original CD and two “Marisa Stole the Precious Thing” remixes that other circles are participating in.

Finally, a bit of sad news: Spiral Music will no longer be participating in Reitaisai 5. According to their blog, all data was lost or corrupted during a computer crash. The one track that was undamaged is available for free download on their site. They will, however, be participating in Comiket 74. We here at Gensokyo wish them the best of luck.

That is all we have for now. If you would like to be constantly updated, please feel free to check the forums.

First and foremost, ZUN himself has announced two CD releases: Akyu’s Untouched Score vol. 4 and 5.

As with the previous three Akyu’s Untouched Score releases, volumes 4 and 5 will recap the original soundtracks of PC-98 games – in this case the final two, Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream and Highly Responsive to Prayers, respectively.

For arrange CDs, we’ll start with the ones that most of us heard first (at least in the West): IOSYS is planning their 6th album release for C73, Touhou Kasokusouchi.

The album appears to be primarily composed of vocals, although not as much towards a parody slant as most of their other vocal albums (although we’ll have to see what the full release is like). While some themes are making their usual appearance (such as a Keine parody piece) there appear to be a few Touhou 10 songs being arranged as well. Check out the website for a crossfade demo.

Second spot goes to one that I’ve personally been waiting on for quite some time, BITPLANE‘s second CD, 竹取物語 (Taketori Monogatari). Several samples are already available on the album’s page, so check it out!

Other groups with new releases include:

• SOUND HOLIC
•  UI-70
•  Sekken-ya
•  CYTOKINE
•  Seventh Heaven MAXION
•  Two CDs from Yellow Zebra
•  Sounds of Liberation
•  Sound./Ecriture
•  文鳥Online
•  Sound Online
•  Dougen Works (a live jazz group, apparently with their first Touhou release)
•  A collaboration called Toho Never Land that includes music from Silver Forest, Yellow Zebra, and Angelic Quasar.

Most of these groups offer sample or crossfade tracks on the CDs’ pages, so check them out!

We’ll keep an eye out for further new releases; feel free to stay up to date with us on the gensokyo.org forums here.

More information about upcoming doujin releases soon!

There’s a sample MP3 from the 東方夢魔境 ～Half asleep and Half from Scinicade awake album available. Click here to take a gander at the album information. Sample is provided in the 視聴 link.

Estimated 13 tunes for the music arrange CD to be released on October 8th. Tracks listed below:

1. Sentence
2. Being
3. 霊験あらたか アキver
4. 明日の調べ
5. ???
6. 蒼空に舞え、墨染の桜 — instrumental
7. ツンデレアリスの憂鬱 — instrumental
8. Eternal moon — instrumental
9. Phantasm Brigade — instrumental
10. Vivid Vermilion — instrumental
11. 7 days a week — instrumental
12. 永遠に幼き紅い月– instrumental
13. Sentence — instrumental