Touhou Discussion Thread - Page 148

Track Listing:

• 1) Scarlet Beyond a Fleeting Eternity
  
• 2) Septette for the Dead Princess / U.N. Owen was Her?
  
• 3) Shanghai Teahouse ~ Chinese Tea
  
• 4) The Centennial Festival for Magical Girls / The Young Descendant of Tepes
  
• 5) Voile, the Magic Library
  
• 6) The Maid and the Pocket Watch of Blood
  
• 7) Septette for the Dead Princess

A little story for you guys: I was on 4chan yesterday, and I —

I can wait until you're done admonishing me, you know. Yeah, I'm not proud of it, but in my defense, I was checking out /jp/, not /b/ or some other monstrosity.

Anyway, I was checking the comments on the various C80 releases, and some people actually said they were disappointed with Cardinal Red! What the hell are they talking about?! The 9th Spell is an amazing album! A few hiccups here and there (which I'll discuss later), but a xi-on album dedicated to EoSD has both me and Yoshi Kirishima jumping for joy.

The first track is Scarlet Beyond a Fleeting Eternity, done in the style of the "introductory" track that xi-on seems fond of for opening up albums with. They're usually short tracks, starting off slowly with calm synths and then breaking out with the guitars later on, but the tempo remains paced; it's not a rushed song. This particular intro track is fairly generic in that style, but is by no means a bad one.

Then we jump right into Septette for the Dead U.N. Owen. I don't really like sounding like a fangirl, but there are like three "#1" tracks on this album (all in a row!), and this is the first. U.N. Owen and Septette are blended so marvelously, you'd think they were originally one song. Add in the brilliant prog style that xi-on favors, and you have an amazing song. One of the three album highlights.

Next is Chinese Tea, the second highlight. Electric and synth instruments are prominent in this song, but fuck that, the tempo is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT for this song. This is my favorite Shanghai Teahouse yet. Just go and listen to it.

The last of the three highlights is Centennial Festival for the Young Descendant of Tepes. Just like Track 2, the two songs blend magnificently. The familiar Centennial chimes are present through the whole song, while Young Descendant (a song I don't usually care for) takes up the majority of the song time. Somehow, the instruments used just fit together.

A slight dropoff occurs with Voile, but it's still a good song. It seems just a bit too minimalistic for the first thirty seconds or so, just a keyboard and drums. It kicks up after that, but I think that Voile itself just isn't the best choice to arrange.

The Maid and the Pocket Watch of Blood disappointed me a bit. I don't think it was done optimally. If you listen to the song, you'll notice that the intro and bridges sound... off. The string portion in particular. I feel this one was the weakest track on the album, but even a weak xi-on track is above average.

The last is a piano solo for Septette. While the song is beautiful and well done, I think perhaps it would have been better if this one was substituted for another prog arrangement. I mean, Septette is already on the album. Locked Girl, Shanghai Alice, and A Soul as Red as a Ground Cherry would all have been great to see, but I guess Septette is too iconic to pass up. As for the arrange itself, it's fairly generic as far as piano tunes go. Supplemented by strings a tad, but otherwise not a standout track.

Harem, if you're reading this, I'm still on to you.