用户Wiki:Demobanker/2021 listening log and recommendations

Never done this before, but I figured it's time for yall to suffer my terrible music opinions.

I say this is a listening log, but it'll mostly be positive opinions. Everything listed in this series will be one of the two things:

• something that I'd rate at least a 3/5, or
• something that I dislike or don't care much for but want to recommend to other people, or want to see explored more.

Don't worry too much about the rating - it's just how much I like it, not an indicator of the objective quality of the music. Plus, I might change them in the future. For the commentary, some will be initial impressions that I expand from my listening notes, and others will come from multiple listens. Most of this is gonna be focused on Bandcamp releases, free downloads from Dizzylab or releases that are available for streaming. For those who don't have access to Youtube, I've noted any non-Touhou music I linked to so you can try finding it on another site. Some of the genre terms might be confusing, comment and I can try give a quick explanation.

It's important to note that my musical interests are different from most Touhou/doujin music fans, so expect releases with styles or aesthetics that are unusual in Touhou music. It's also important to note, however, that not everything on this page will be in that category! Maybe it's just me, but after adding tons of obscure releases on the wiki, there's this pressure to be be interested in everything that's different or "alternative" to the current scene. But, I'm not gonna force myself to listen to genres I dislike just because they're by an obscure artist. It's just not good for my mental health lol. If you're built different and you wanna write about every new or lesser known circle, you can go do that :p

For what it's worth, I tend to like more conceptual, sonically unique, cohesive, and/or "modern"-ish music. This is partly because of zoomer/90后 brain, partly cuz I don't like retro stuff in general, and partly because I dislike the tendency to think of stuff like orchestral music and epic metal as the peak of art. If you don't vibe well with this taste, well, now you know you won't get much out of this list. If that's is the case for you (or you dislike my iconoclastic approach to things), then bust out your favorite online translator and read these two lists of 2021 Touhou music recommendations by 农夫山泉XZ, who is probably China's busiest Touhou music nerd. The writing there are more developed and also cover a wide range of genres.

If you're curious about other music I liked or found interesting from 2021, here's an uncommented list. If I own the release digitally it usually means it was available for free or name your price, not that I like it more than the wishlisted stuff.

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2020 <-- | 2021 | --> 2022

The List

曲目信息
Wriggle Nightbug's Beetle Collection （2021-08-20） 社团：Genetic Memory Orchestra folktronica, breakbeat Oh wow, I was suprised when the artist released ebisuloops during their 2021 release spree, but I didn't expect them to release a huge Touhou album. As with Second Prayer (see below for my opinions on that album), I appreciate how obscured some of the originals can get. For the first two tracks I couldn't find what it is and assumed that this was an original album with a Touhou themed concept. There's a lot of variety that you wouldn't expect from the genre tags. Sometimes the music is bright and pastoral and feels like warm sunlight. Other times it's more rhythmic, with multiple layers of instruments that feels disconnected. Sometimes there's processed vocal fragments, and sometimes there's chopped up and glitched acoustic instruments. Allomyrina dichotoma and Chrysochroa fulgidissima are dark sounding tracks that has the original tracks come in midway through, not really changed. It feels a bit thrown in, but the end result is surprisingly enjoyable to me. Well, the latter more than the former, anyways. If you like the artist's previous Touhou album containmentzone, Harmonia axyridis is a good mix between that album's sound and this one's. In essence, every track on here feels like its own vignette, with some fun rhythms and textures that give the music a surreal edge. If you enjoyed this, I encourage you to check out their other releases from this year! 5/5
曲目信息
Thalassophobia （2021-03-08） 社团：Karasu contemporary classical, solo piano Atmospheric and impressionistic piano pieces with semi-cryptic arrangements (I thought scherzosamente was an Infinite Nightmare arrangement at first). Despite the album's title, it's an overall peaceful album with some cathartic moments. 4.5/5
曲目信息
蓬莱絵 ～ HŌRAI-E Soundscape （2021-07-04） 社团：ごんばこんなか uhhhh.... IDM-adjacent EDM? Let's just say chill electronics. Will write some blurb about this later. BTW, I'm listening to the free 10 tracks version. I can't afford the CD version, for reasons I'll get into in the 2020 list. 4.5/5
曲目信息
Holmgang Ov Gensokyo ［Remastered］ （2021-03-21） 社团：Holmgang Ov Gensokyo various metal styles, mostly in the progressive metal area As with the unremastered version, I love the two Suika tracks, Torrent of Power and Broken Moon. Joining my favorites is one new to the remaster, Pulse in Ruin, a thall track that feels like the soundtrack to a battle in a hi-tech forest ruin. 4/5 (For reference, the unremastered version gets a 3.5/5)
曲目信息
TAHWA 3 （2021-04-30） 社团：Alter Synth various modern EDM genres So yeah, one way to get me to care about relatively "normal" EDM styles like house or hardstyle is to make it super brash and in your face. Qirmizi and IBARAKI are great examples of that, with varied, maximalist arrangements and ear-candy production. Talking about the circle's Tahwa series wouldn't be complete without mentioning the middle eastern influences. But, my unfamiliarity with the topic beyond a surface, aesthetic level means I can't say much. At the very least, the incorporation of middle eastern melodies and instrumentation (talking about the strings on Al-Iksir here) make the release more interesting than other modern EDM collab albums. 4/5
曲目信息
無我の有 （2021-10-24） 社团：マッコ屋 post-rock (somewhat experimental, with drill and bass and shoegaze parts) Oh there's actually noise on this. It's not particularly harsh and basically goes in the background once the guitar comes in, but I didn't expect M@cosAKi to do that on an album. Putting that aside, it's a nice distillation of マッコ屋's sound. A lot of it is post-rock, but there are a lot of variety to keep things interesting. The first half is more delicate, with manipulated vocals reminiscent of ヤヤネヒロコ's voice, though more fragile. The trumpet on 忘却のマグ・メル is a lovely addition. ゼロの本懐 is a track I'd call prismbreak and has a nice sax section. Afterwards, the atmosphere gets more oppressive as the following track プラスチック・イド brings a more prominent bass to the mix. 孤独の果て、ポホヨラより is the noisy track I was talking about at the beginning. My usual complaints for the circle about the cheap guitar VSTs still apply, but it's somewhat resolved on Að kwergí which had some okay sounding guitars. It also helps that that track and エルゴスム uses those guitars mostly as hazy, shoegaze sounding texture. (but someone should buy M@coSAKi better guitar VSTs anyways.) The album ends on 無我の縁覚, another prismbreak track. The chopped acoustic guitar and soft unclear vocals here brings to mind Sonic Deadhorse's blend of indie post-rock and drill and bass and Ed Harrison's cinematic post-rock and IDM-influenced style of drum and bass.
曲目信息
First Demo Single （2021-10-31） 社团：Orbit／／Arclight progressive metalcore/post-hardcore with J-screamo and djentcore influences Powerful, hooky, and hella uplifting. The dynamic, J-screamo-backed songwriting helps the music get past my reservation towards mainstream metalcore and post-hardcore. The arrangement is done by the songwriter and one of the guitarists of the Japanese prog metalcore/post-hardcore band Eversolitude, which I highly recommend checking out.
曲目信息
Chiquita Drug on Force （2021-11-28） 社团：RoundLoudness djent/progressive metal with progressive metalcore influences (written in 2023) Solid modern instrumental djent album with good variety in the arrangements. As you can expect from the Periphery references and the electronic parts, the writing here is heavily indebeted to that band's style of music. Part of that band appeal comes from its mix of prog metal/metalcore songwriting and hooky vocal melodies, and in an instrumental album the guitar writing has to compensate for the lack of vocals. ラウ does rely on references to structure the tracks, but the end result feels distinct from a plain mashup or reference. It also helps that the writing is dynamic and groovy, which I love in technical music. With all tracks being less than 3:10 long, though, I feel like they could be expanded some more, especially the electronic bits. Prog metalcore writing does tend to be short and compressed compred to prog metal, but that isn't the case with Periphery. Standout tracks are the jazzy もうドアには入れない　～ Trap Game and イザナギオブジェクト　～ Epoch, which takes an IDM interlude as its base and turns it into a powerful closing track using some simple and emotive riffs.
曲目信息
Gensokyo 199X： a 90's Touhou Album （2021-09-16） 社团：Nocti 90s electronic music, mostly breakbeat-y EDM With releases like this, it's important to know that it's not literally gonna cover the whole spectrum of 90s music genres in it's runtime unless it's like, 30 hours long. Even if you limit it to EDM, that's still a lot to cover. It comes down to what the artist choose to put in, and here it's stuff I like. Will add more details in the future.
曲目信息
Ａｎａｇｌｙｗａｖｅ 東方青赤波 （2021-08-28） 社团：ξ vaporwave, didgeriwave, chopped and screwed It's a trip alright. There's a lot of imagery that comes to mind when I'm listening. The one I'm drawn to the most starts with television static dragging you into an 80s RPG, and ends with you finding yourself in a movie theater watching a slow but thrilling sci-fi movie. All of this is obscured behind a vaporwave haze. will expand this later cuz i got a lot to say about it
曲目信息
ＰＥＲＰＥＴＵＡＬ永久の （2021-10-01） 社团：ごんばこんなか vaporwave stuff coming! eventually
曲目信息
Faithless Planet （2021-10-29） 社团：Yumi Sakata melodic death metal Solid melodeath with prog influences. It's pretty amazing how much Yumi's playing and arrangement skills have improved. My personal favorite is the technical and erratic The Hell Jester with its sudden speed shifts. Having three different vocalists do their own take on the title track is also pretty dope. (I will write something more detailed later)
曲目信息
Terra Incognita （2021-10-27） 社团：Mille Oculos psytrance (with tech house influences?), downtempo Dark and psychedelic electronics that starts off minimalistic, then builds in density with synth arpeggios and hypnotic metallophone loops. All of this builds up to the sudden samba section on Phantasm which feels out of place but also fits the surreal feel. The last three tracks from the title track onward are slower but still keep the dense layering of sounds, and gives me urban survival horror game (specifically the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series) vibes.
曲目信息
Touhou Color Bass I （2021-10-30） 社团：同音寺 color bass, melodic/future riddim, cinematic music Cinematic bass music is pretty good. I'll add some more words about this eventually but here's the bottom line: this, along with Rolling Contact's midtempo album, are some of the most cutting-edge and focused Touhou bass music to come out this year. I hope these two albums can encourage EDM arrangers to be more adventurous with what they do!
曲目信息
（ （ （低） ） ） （2021-11-05） 社团：予報士`94 broken transmission, weatherwave wow the 2hu vapor scene do be popping, so much that I don't know if I can keep up with the releases. but I'll try lol I think it's worth noting that most tracks have a similar structure. The first half is the ambience you expect from vaporwave, but on the second half you start getting these microscopic sounding beats.
曲目信息
Three Fairies of Light （2021-07-03） 社团：Heaven Topology utopian virtual What I imagine as the music to a 90s children's point and click computer game featuring the titular three fairies. It's fairly subdued (with some exciting parts, of course), and there's a variety of soundscape sketches presented on each track.
曲目信息
MOON BASE MALL （2020-02-05） 社团：ごんばこんなか mallsoft Reminds me that I need to listen to more vaporwave lol 3.5/5
曲目信息
Lunar War Chronicles Vol. 1 （2021-04-30） 社团：GENSOKYOxDEFECATOR doom metal with slight post-metal influences Admittedly, as someone who loves extreme metal, I don't listen to doom metal much. I used to dislike the genre because of it being slow but not as emotionally satisfying as post-metal, and even now it's not a genre I'd pick first when going through my backlog of metal albums. Which is terrible, because I have a huge backlog of doom releases that sound interesting, and if you picked out something from that list I can explain why it's enticing to me. As usual for the genre, the guitar tone is powerful and creates a crushing atmosphere. The acoustic guitar that starts the album gives mellow post-metal vibes, but the doom riffs quickly come in to make thing tense. The rest of Near Side keeps on building that intensity with the addition of organs, with some acoustic parts thrown in to ease the tension. Even then, when the sample of the phone conversation with Apollo 11 astronauts comes in, it sounds outright ominous. In contrast, Far Side was more relaxed, with the acoustic guitar having a more prominent role. Even the spoken word sample was buried by the acoustic guitar. 3.5/5
曲目信息
Haavemaa （2021-03-16） 社团：NCMR folk, acoustic rock/pop Love the atmosphere and interplay between instruments on this. The simple arrangements feels a lot dense and meditative thanks to the percussion, especially with the droning sounds on the title track. The two vocaloid tracks are also nice. A bit melancholic, but not outright sad. IA's voice is a bit lo-fi, which I'm gonna consider a subtle atmospheric touch. 3.5/5
曲目信息
Eastern Retrograde Memories （2021-01-23） 社团：Pegmode chiptune dance music I've seen the artist's name on some Battle of the Bits albums, though I never got to listen to any of them. The music's in that area of dense, warm, melodic, mostly four-on-the-floor type of chip dance that I associate with artists like 12insomnia or USK. The tracks are joyful and the speed changes on some of the tracks shake things up a bit. Underground Anomaly in particular is the jammiest track on the album, and a great closer to boot. The one thing that I think is kinda disappointing is that it's all Game Boy chiptune even though the artist has made some Commodore 64 stuff. I can't recall there being much Touhou chiptune using that chip, so it would be a nice surprise for people who are interested in less used chip types. My tastes in chip EDM is more towards stuff with fun beatwork or colorful/interesting textures, so I hope the people reading this can take it as a high recommendation. 3.5/5
曲目信息
Second Prayer （2021-01-25） 社团：Esme Allan electronic, folk, maybe some house influences? When I came across the artist's first album while searching for fanworks on DeviantArt, I liked it because of the variety of arrangements and somewhat offbeat styles on display. This album is also varied on the electronic side, and goes into folky territories in the second half. The house-influenced rhythms turns me off a bit because it imposes a monotonic dance beat onto some pretty interesting compositions, and I think they could be expanded even more without the constant beat. (Alternatively, the beats could be made more complex or irregular, which contrasts better with the other instruments. It's unintuitive, I know.) I had trouble figuring out the arrangements, but that's a good thing for the album! Part of the trouble comes from the fact that I don't care much for PC-98 arrangements, but it's also because the changes are a bit cryptic. There are also parts where there's two melodies playing at once, but one of them is subtle and hard to notice even if you pay attention. Sometimes Esme reveals the original track at the end, but that isn't representative of the whole track. If you're trying to figure out what the originals are, you're gonna feel like you missed a lot of stuff. But that's okay, because all of the cryptic arrangements and subtle references make the music feel richer. The album feels like it's telling a story, and focusing on finding the originals only distracts from enjoying some interesting music! 3.5/5
曲目信息
Touhou Boot （2021-02-28） 社团：nardius12 EDM, instrumental hip hop Discovered them because of their minimalistic IDM album Gloom. There's a variety of music on here, but most of them have a somewhat stripped-back and subtle production, which goes well with the dark cover art. For more active music, there's the trap track Black Hole Crisis and dnb track Yuanhun. On the opposite side, there's Desire Drive which is close to the style on Gloom, and the ambient track Gods Loved that features some warm fuzzy static. Nice mood music for late night times. 3.5/5
曲目信息
ebisuloops （2021-08-13） 社团：Genetic Memory Orchestra electronic ambient (track 2 could be described as early glitch hop? idk) I was so excited about Wriggle Nightbug's Beetle Collection that I didn't pay much attention to this, but this is still pretty nice. As the title says, this is structured around loops, with different layers being layered as the track goes on. side a is textural, a beatless track with lots of different synth loops being mixed together. Some synths actually sound synthy while others sound closer to acoustic instruments. In contrast, side b is more rhythmic, starting off with one rhythm loop played under a bunch of early synth sounds. A second rhythm loop joins in after a bit, and halfway through a noisy and stretched break loop joins the party. Near the end, straightforward 4/4 claps gets added in the mix. Throughout all that, the same synth loops keep on playing. Overall, it's a neat little experiment in loops and atmosphere about Touhou fans' favorite stone stacker.
曲目信息
Shattered （2021-12-31） 社团：Takamachi Walk post-hardcore, melodic djent It's a first impression but this is incredible. Dragon-Eating Deathloop is a poppy and super fun take on Momoyo's theme. Monster is hella cathartic and emotive, and 鈴蘭 ~Proof that Love Was Never Real~ is a hard-hitting closer. 2023 edit: as generous as I am with ratings, having 3 songs that I like on revisits out of 12 tracks (10 excluding the intro and interlude) is too little for a 5/5. First impressions, can't always trust them. 3/5
曲目信息
輝針残酷物語 （2021-03-21） 社团：堕武者グラインド goregrind, hardcore punk Otakugrind had some pretty interesting releases in 2021. Anna Pest's Dark Arms Reach Skyward With Bone White Fingers pushed the technical side of the genre in a more progressive direction with an Evangelion themed album. Sugar Wounds' Calico Dreams, meanwhile, infused grind with the emotionalism of screamo & blackgaze and makes it strange with surreal-sounding synths. But this is Touhou, don't you know! We can't have new things! Best we can have is have these bunch of fucks decide to go back to Touhou after a long hiatus !!!!!!! (okay I'm done complaining) As usual, the exciting thing about this circle isn't how they fuck up the original melodies. Despite the extremeness of the music, the arrangements are very straightforward, which you can understand by focusing on the guitars. What is exciting here is the utter manic energy of the music. 血塗られた湖畔から shocks you with its speedy programmed drum blasts that leaves space for rhythmic twists. After that, the arrangement turn to normal hardcore punk fare, but here's where the Kim and Agai's vocal gymnastics draws all the attention. The vocals aren't all that harsh - they're fast. They can get as frantic as one of those "fastest rapper ever?????" videos that gets viral once in a while. The other standout track is 丑三つ時に鼓は誘う, where the taiko drumming brings a layer of rhythmic energy to the pounding midtempo guitar. If all these sound too scary for you, don't worry, because there are a few parts on here that has synths that's sure to remind you of good ol' 00s epic digital rock arrangements. The distorted synths on 俺の不浄なお祓い棒, though, will probably alienate you, but don't worry, because there's also a piano. oh right and the lyrics are very sexual and gory. 俺の不浄なお祓い棒 even starts with sex sounds. you're on your own for that one 3/5
曲目信息
Touhou Speed Bootleg （2021-01-07） 社团：808sndmindbreak lolicore, speedcore welp, the first 2021 Touhou release I listened to is a "low effort" speedcore remix EP of denpa songs. pretty much the opposite of the Norowareta Night album I started 2020 with With that said, it's a solid and straightforward EP for its style, with intense beats and a purposely blown-out and noisy production style. If you like this, I recommend checking out yumeHolic's albums. They're one of the rare lolicore producers I like who has a similar sound. 3/5
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touhou speed 2 （2021-03-22） 社团：808sndmindbreak breakcore A short collection of playful breakcore tunes. The tracks are basically rough piss takes but that's part of what makes the genre fun. Guess I'll also recommend the artist's recent album, shut in core. It's half breakcore and half lolicore, with the breakcore side in an atmospheric and depressive style. 3/5
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The Legendary Flamenco Dancer （2021-03-27） 社团：Artifex ZUNstyle (listened to in 2024) Meat and potatoes ZUNstyle with tracks that adapt existing Touhou melodies and are comparable to the rockier side of MoF and Magical Astronomy. Despite the album title, the album doesn't feature any flamenco outside of the title track, La Leyenda del Dorado and The Last Dance ~ Between the Final Hours which is kinda disappointing because those are definitely the standout tracks. 3/5
曲目信息
Bullet Patterns （2021-11-02） 社团：Panic Bomb instrumental hip hop I don't think those are all Touhou remixes (if they are, they're very esoteric) but the beats are pretty nice. 3/5
曲目信息
CYBER 2HU PS1 AMIGA MUSIC （2021-04-19） 社团：ARC＝SION＝CIRCLE hardcore breaks, tracker music I actually have a lot to say about this! But I need some time to get it down in words. In the meantime, listen to some Kaizo Slumber and DV-isince you're probably here for similar recommendations. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble putting down my thoughts on this well. I had a self-imposed challenge to get this out before September since it'll contextualize my view on the upcoming 90s Touhou album. The main point is that this EP combines three aspects of the ongoing 90s nostalgia that also happens to be the rare parts of that era I like: the aesthetics of 5th generation of video games, the futurism of that era of drum and bass, and how tracker music connects to both. Execution wise I would have liked more variety, but it's still a fun and groovy release that I like. February 2022 Update: Even though this and Gensokyo 199X are heavily influenced by 90s EDM, I think it's interesting to point out their different approaches. 199X feels like it's trying to bring you back to the 90s. There's a point made to be period accurate, but it's not a historical exercise and is okay with adding modern touches that fit the mood. This EP? It's more specific about its genre and musical influences for sure, but it's also more outwardly modern. I'd place it adjacent to this upcoming and still-doesn't-have-a-concensus-name scene in drum and bass. You can even see the influences in the collaged cover art. (recommended)
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Eyes On You Remix Compilation （2021-02-12） 社团：Nami Haven EDM, mostly house and trance I'm putting this here only to talk about Tenyu's remix. It's a great mix of the original with the classic tracker music tune UnreaL ][. There's one synth on the original Eyes On You that has a warm, tracker music-ish texture, and using that to lead in to the UnreaL part is a galaxy brain move. So yeah, more tracker music rep in Touhou please! (recommended)
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In Decline （2021-07-31） 社团：Panic Bomb garage rock (Note: I said this was post-punk before because I'm not familiar with the garage rock term, and this sounded somewhat like the few indie-ish post-punk I heard. But the garakuta review for this said it's garage rock and I don't disagree after listening to some examples. I haven't changed the rest of the comments.) At first the music felt too much like a type of basic, "rock-for-the-sake-of-rock" music that I call regular rock. The quiet and deadpan vocals, and the overall lethargic and repetitive sound, though, pretty much told me that no, the arranger is going for something different. I guess this is post-punk? Not very familiar with that genre, but the post-punk albums I've heard doesn't get as rock-y as this. Paradise and Voyages are more synthpoppy which I kinda liked. Ill Omen is pretty interesting cuz of the tom drum usage on a track that's basically the guy singing over an acoustic guitar in the same quiet, deadpan vocals, but that could be cuz I listened to a bunch of footwork recently lol In the end, the music still feels very regular rock-ish for my tastes, most notably with the solos (no, really, Ill Omen didn't need that end solo so it could be considered rock or whatever, it already has a unique sound!), but it's also not squarely in that territory so I do feel like putting it on this list. Plus, a friend who likes post-punk said it slapped hard so how could I not. (recommended)
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Chocolate Hearts and Stag Beetles （2021-02-14） 社团：AERO GROS M hexD, cloud rap This >>>>>>>>>> 贰砖 >>>>>>>>>> the nonexistent Tamaonsen album from this year. Jokes aside: Even though I love this album, I'm putting it at the end because it's not related to Touhou except for two tracks. The lyrics are abstract enough that it probably makes no sense if you translate it into another language, and most of it is about how hexd is boring (according to the artist). But let's face it, Touhou hip hop has been pretty much lacking since forever, and I'm sure people want there to be more high-profile circles than Tamaonsen making things. Of the circles that have some existing popularity, 异象聚合 is solid but could be more adventurous, and Moon-Tone is probably gonna do another lo-fi hip hop album over actually exciting local hip hop genres like grime or afroswing. HexD might be overplayed and at a creative dead end, but maybe you can make something more interesting out of that? September 19 update! I wanna mention two other Touhou vocal hip hop albums by up-and-coming circles. 灯音華's FIRST ENCOUNTER is EDM-based pop rap with more of a focus on rapping and might be interesting to Tamaonsen fans. 地狱超甜's 东方之星 is Chinese hip hop/trap with horrorcore elements. It doesn't bypass my dislike of autotune rap as this album does, but it is the most promising one I've tried so far. something/5
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Stencilmarks of Gunnhild's Tengus （2021-10-02） 社团：fudarin ga'proy experimental hip hop yes there's only one remix on here no i don't care, the beats are baller. thx dede
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Kuso AKA Kx $ 0 the Mixtape： "God of Darkness, breathing clouds in the fantasy landscape, etc." （2021-12-22） 社团：Yung Aether trap, experimental hip hop, cloud rap (with hexd influences and some footwork instrumentals) mfw gensokyo rap is real. but also this is pretty interesting to talk about, as it relates to my like of futuristic sounding music. where Touhou Color Bass I and Cyberwack is futuristic in the clean, hi-fi shiny tech sense (even if it doesn't sound like it due to noisy bass music influences), this is futuristic in the raw, lo-fi sense. But even though it's lo-fi, it's not dark or industrial. The music feels light and floaty, and hi-tech in her chalice (red t*nt music) even has a pretty melody going along with it. I've seen people talk about feeling imagery of floating in cyberspace with similar sounding music, and while I don't agree with them, it's a compelling vision of the type of utopian net futurism that people long for.

post-2021 retrospective

I'm not running this log like an end-of-year best of list by music publications - I don't cut the year off at October or November, and I don't consider it finalized once the next year hits. So expect new releases to be added in the future. I do want to write some stuff about my experiences this year, as some kind of closure. In the spirit of not cutting the year early, I'm not going to add it until 2022. TBH a lot of this I've thought about for the past few months, but who knows. The year isn't over yet and there's still a chance for something to come by and make me rethink things.

whoops it's may and I still haven't written this yet. lmao

wow it's july now and I still have not done much with my draft

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It's September 2024 and I'm still sitting on this draft. Honestly I don't care about finishing it anymore, here's the summary:

• The writing here are mostly first impressions. Because this is a recommendations list (and not actually a listening log), I think it's better to have many recs with a short writeup than having a few recs with multi-paragraph reviews that I might not even finish. But I also didn't want to just list out albums without explaining what I like about it. Even then, I left a few entries which were basically "writing something longer about this, check back later!". I put those in their own sections on later lists to make it more clean.
• It took about half an hour to an hour to write a paragraph, and that's with editing. But that will improve as I practice writing more.
• There are a lot of non-Touhou music linked on the list cuz I find it fun to make connections in the ever-expanding list of things I listen to. As a bonus, I get to make more recommendations in the hopes that you can find something cool.
• There weren't any ZUNstyle releases on here cuz it's mostly not my thing but I still try to check things out.
• I'm still thinking about that time the developer and composer of Ultrakill posted a fumo meme set to avant-garde metal. And then posting vinyl pics with his Tewi fumo.