As
my first post of 2015 (yeah, I’m kind of late to the party), I wanted to talk
about one of the few new songs that were released between Christmas and
mid-January. Based on that, it was fair to talk about one album I’ve been
listening to non-stop since the start of this new year. The album I’m talking
about is ShibayanRecords’ “Adrastea”, which was released in late December 2014
at the Comiket 87 event.
Apparently,
ShibayanRecords releases versions of songs from the Touhou Project (東方Project), which is a
famous fan-made (doujin / 同人) video game series. I’m not the greatest person to explain this
kind of thing, but, apparently, it’s similar to what I wrote in the article for
Rie Sugimoto’s (杉本理恵) “Beyond The Maze” in the past. Also, like I said back then, I’m
here for the music, so I will not go deep in this kind of thing, even though
it’s noticeable that the Japanese underground, in which this anime/video-game
niche is included, can offer very interesting things.
“Adrastea”,
as an album, offers a nice mixture of instrumental and vocal songs. Both types are
great, but today I decided to introduce my favourite song of the album, “AURORA”,
which happens to be an instrumental one.
“AURORA”
is an amazing Synthpop song that takes me back to the late 80s/early 90s
video game era, and this feeling is totally amazing for a nostalgic guy who
grew up playing 16-bit era video games like me. Also, it’s a very exciting song
that showcases really well what constitutes a talented and happy synth player
(well, besides the somewhat mysterious vibe at the beginning, this song is pure
happiness to me).
One
thing that called my attention, and also of one of the commenter’s on YouTube,
is that “AURORA” sounds like Yellow Magic Orchestra at some parts. The 80s homage
was really well done here.
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