well due to a lack of effort i mostly have just been listening to konekodakkaiya sally kairo and demetori
i really wasn't that happy about this comiket mostly cuz the draw the emotional lacked good singer, and also cuz some promising groups are still pretty "raw" (i.e. need more practice)
oh right the iosys wasn't actually too bad this time around.
if i had to rank circles on quality it'd be something like this...
Draw the Emotional (if and only if a certain singer is on the album, otherwise -25) Sally (due to more or less decent consistency) Kairo (some of their earlier stuff has a lot of le screme so caution) Demetori (would be higher if they weren't so fucking troll) GET IN THE RING (fairly good quality, if you can tell what song its based off of) TAMusic (because I fucking love violin rock) Whatever group ichigo happens to be attached to (ex. Kishida Kyoukan and the Abekyoshi Rockets, or w/e) Soundholic (mostly for swing/Metal parts) Hachimitsu Lemon (usually can be relied upon) Yuuhei Satellite (either ok or average) Liz Triangle (see above) Misty Rain and C-Clays (roughly comparable) Riverside (when they are more active, they have like... 2 really good songs, and then 7 trash) 38Beets (I find to be far more consistent than ENS technowise)
About a week ago, I discovered a pianist that does Touhou arrangments, Kurenainagi Tabibito, whom I'd never heard of. He is now my favorite arranger yet. His style is a lovely form of electronic piano music which I can only really describe as "uplifting".
I get a very positive vibe from it, but it's not even a "happy" feeling; more like it's uplifting, inspiring. I can't really put it into words, but it's a gorgeous sound. It's Kurenainagi Tabibito's best (and most well-known, if being a playable track on Osu! is any indication) song, though the other stuff I can find is also great. Unfortunately, he has very few songs in his repertoire. Therefore, if anyone here knows other arrangers or circles with the same style or sound of music, I'd love to know about them. Liverne is probably the closest I can think of, but more names = gewd. :D
Yeah, so probably old news, but xi-on's C83 album was pretty weaksauce. It wasn't bad... but it certainly wasn't xi-on. No sick guitar solos, no smooth jazz, no epic strings. His release was a very subdued, mellow kind of music. This song is probably the highlight of the album, but I was very disappointed with the release.
With the english community at least, you can relate to their skill levels (and stop and chat(!)), whereas the gap is incomparable between some of those japanese performers.
--- I really like the liverne song. Thought it was really powerful, and surprising. Seems like Kurenainagi Tabibito isn't *that* prolfict, some works from XL Project, Shinya Project, Liverne , and also Sound Sepher (which seems to be a sucessor to Liverne, and maybe why the beloved tomboyish sounded familiar). As for similiar songs or circles, I will look.
Title: Loneliness is, within a doze (孤独は微睡の中). note - male vocal. I recommend you listen to it anyways. It's alternative rock, and an arrange of The Barrier of Ame-no-torifune Shrine (天鳥船神社の結界), no less.+ Show Spoiler +
I love this song, like any nearly any song that brings something original or uncommon to the table. Maribel's and Renko's adventures are anything but straighfowards. The slow vocals and high electric guitars give a sense of melancholy and tranquility; the chant-like voices, a sense of sanctity; and the building chorus, a sense of longing. "The world coloured sepia, races before my glazed eyes: nothing will change"
Ok so I've been chipping away at this for forever, so I think it's about the appropriate time to do some serious gloating recommending (thanks for the inferiority complex, Caller ^^'). Anyways, in all seriousness, I hope this sparks more investigation and discussion about less well-known, older or no-longer-active circles. Partial Survey of the Touhou Lossy Music Collection+ Show Spoiler [link] +
AmT - Ambient techno HiT - hyper techno HaT - happy techno
ELC - Electro DUB - Dubstep
Pia - Piano, often piano heavy but not exclusively, will go to mInst
Orh - midi orchastreal like, or uses many instruments ROrh - Real Orchastreal-like
mInst - various instruments, but again "minor".
mRock - "minor" rock, rock which is netheir violent nor happy. VRock - Vocal Rock VSRock - Vocal Slow Rock
VPop - Vocal Pop VAlst - the style of alstromerica records' more noisy/ voice sampling/ beat songs VElectro - ex. dreaming, alectromerica record's more vocally songs VStory
Instr - Instrumental-focused track, meaning good clever or original use of instrumentation var - various genres together unpl - unplugged Exp - experimental, stuff that is pretty wierd or out there (doesn't immediately give a feeling or emotion). Note: a capital V indicates all vocal tracks, a lower case v indications some vocals.
Adrama - audio drama (often comes with sound tracks)
Size rankings:
S - single, small albumed M, Med, Mod - medium sized (3-8) L, Lar - larged sized (8-14) H - Huge (15+ albums) TLC - Too Large to Classify
Feel free to ask, this legend isn't comphrehensive nor strictly followed
-nothing- Standard mainstream stuff which isn't good in its area, a few genres I don't like as much (hyper techno, screamo), also important: PROMINENT circles which I think you are familiar with already. Also, if you see a bank swath of ratingless folders, I probably haven't gotten around to post-listen-reskimming and rating them. I also have noticeably less patience for circles with huge amounts of albums, those that use ALL CAPS for their titles, and those that don't change their song names away from the originals. It's mainly the huge circles which I may have skipped.
+0.0 Just categorizing, I don't think it's bad, but I coudn't reccomend it. Listen if you are curios, open-minded, or with generous standards +0.3 Has something interesting, or perhaps a single choice song. +0.5 Has good things, but they maybe only a part of many albums or I have some other quip against it. In someways this is a more objective and significant rating then +1. +1 I clearly like it. If you follow these, you'll see what my preferences are. +1.3 This is somehow unique or one of the best of it's category. If nothing else, listen to these. (also perhaps more objective) +1.5 (My) favourite circles (subjective, duh)
If you have the time, just go through anything with a rating. If it has a positive rating, there's something someone might find pleasing, even if it varies from person to person.
Note: The folders that have ratings are doubled because of a technical limitation
Everything that is lined with blue is NOT part of a conscective alphatpetically grouped list of circles. This is perhaps to make finding the circles easier. The red lines also distinguish where the strictly conscetive listings begin and end.
The gray divisions are just the groups in which I listened to the albums.
Everything other part of the list is robust (ie. has no holes)
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CfKARF3.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x278/eragon147/Assembled322013Copy_zps8f18eebd.png)
