July

30/07/2023: Homeland ⋅ Hanggai

I've come across this just a couple days ago so I have not had time to properly listen to it yet, but oh my.. am I absolutely in love with this already. How could you not!? It's Mongolian folk-rock! Don't tell me that doesn't sound the slightest bit interesting.

Homeland (故乡) is the 7th studio album by Hanngai (杭盖). So far, I am really digging the first (喇嘛大叔探亲记) and seventh (江格尔) songs. The titles are all in Chinese (probably to make it more readable/recognizable to the general audience), but the songs are mostly sung in Mongolian. The band heavily resonates with their Mongolian background, they incorporate traditional instruments such as the morin khuur and topshur as well as Mongolian throat singing (a famous example), which is often combined with west-modern styles and instruments as well.

The main audience seems to be of western origin, which is a shame since the band's main intention is to rekindle interest towards Mongolian culture within China. This is because most Mongols migrate to China and other more developed nations, and therefore do not get to experience their culture (see here).

26/07/2023: the same things happening to me all the time, even in my dreams ⋅ Teen Suicide

A sad song with lyrics that hit hard. The title especially, although very long, reflects how most people with depression tend to have a hard time waking up and spend most of their time asleep to avoid having to experience life. Often times however, sorrows from life do seep into dreams, making escape even more difficult. The song exudes total hopelessness, just as in the above scenario.

The band also goes by American Pleasure Club.

25/07/2023: Late Night Delivery ⋅ Doctor Pizza

Late Night Delivery is a modern jazz-funk album by doctor pizza. The beginning piano solo on Cosmic Carpet Ride in particular is very entrancing. It is quite similar to the piano segment of JVKE's Golden Hour, and I found it surprising how a similar piano melody can be incorporated into a very different genre.

16/07/2023: Alto Glide ⋅ Alan Hawkshaw

One of the tracks from the jazz-funk library music album "KPM 1000 series : Synthesis". KPM is a literal treasure trove for chill-sounding background music like these and many others. It was produced by Alan Hawkshaw (and possibly Brian Bennett) sometime around 1974.

Library music like these are often popular among music makers, amateurs and pro alike, for use as sampling material. For an overview, click here

11/07/2023: Crepuscolo sul mare ⋅ Piero Umiliani

The title is in Italian and translates into "Dusk on the sea". It is a soundtrack made for the 1969 Italian thriller film La legge dei gangsters. Piero Umiliani - being an Italian composer for film scores - composed music for many other films during the 1960s and 1970s.

This track in particular has seeped its way back into the modern age; being featured in the 2004 film "Ocean's 12" and also sampled by Lil Yachty in the song "Concrete Goonies" and by Jon McxRo in the song "Somewhere in Italy".

09/07/2023: Amethyst Choker [sped up] ⋅ ThorHighHeels

A track from the YouTuber ThorHighHeels. I haven't watched his content yet, but it seems like he makes videos talking about weird and obscure video games (which I find interesting, so I may give it a watch at some point). Other than that, he makes EDM style music (as you can tell).

He also composes the music for several video games, most notably Producer 2021 and Umurangi Generation. Both of them look interesting at first glance so I may play them at some point.

07/07/2023: Red Sun in the Sky ⋅ 屠洪刚

Why is this so good? and why can't I stop bopping to it?

Warning. This was difficult to research because information relating to it is hard to find and also in a different language. Take it with a grain of salt.

This song comes from an album titled "红太阳——毛泽东颂歌新节奏联唱" which consists of modernized versions of older classics (most of them idolizing Mao Zedong). This is a massive album consisting of 5 CDs; each CD consisting of 30 songs to give a grand total of 150 songs. Each song in the album also seamlessly transistions into the next; this probably makes it the longest 'seamless transition' album.

You can listen to all 5 CDs on YouTube.
Alternatively, high quality downloads can be found here.

The video linked above has amassed over 27M views at the time of writing, the popularity came as a result of it being the subject of various memes and edits. The song in the video seems to be a slightly faster and higher pitched version mashing together the 2nd (天上太阳红彤彤) and 24th (延边人民热爱毛主席) song from the first CD.

Also see the album titled "歌唱毛泽东 群星颂伟人" where you can find alternative versions of the songs.

06/07/2023: Lower One's Eyes ⋅ Nuyuri

This was the song that got me into the vocaloid rabbit hole. I have listened to many other vocaloids since, but this still remains one of my favorites. It has hints of jazz and maybe ragtime which I find really cool (I love genre hybrids), this is probably more apparent when listening to the piano covers.

I first discovered this vocaloid song through an OMORI animatic which utilized the same music (OMORI is an awesome game). Not only that but this animatic managed to capture the style and sequences perfectly from the original vocaloid MV. It is truly a well produced animatic which is why I decided to share this part as well.

It turns out there is a whole trend of appropriating vocaloid MVs into other fandoms. For example inputting 手描きOMORI as a search string in YouTube will provide you with a whole list.

"\(\small \stackrel{\tiny て}{手}\stackrel{\tiny が}{描}き\)" (or alternatively \(\small \stackrel{\tiny て}{手}\stackrel{\tiny が}{書}き\)) translates to handwriting (according to Jisho) and is to be used as a noun. However I find it is more frequently used to refer to something that is hand-drawn, hand-painted, or specifically in this case a hand-drawn (not in a literal sense but with a drawing tablet) animation.

もちろん this means you can type 手描き[INSERT_FANDOM] into a search engine and find some cool animations relating to a particular fandom from Japanese creators.