Impressions: Yunomikku ni Ocha Shite

I found this album completely by accident. A while back I followed a link recommended by the socialite Fubuki Hoshino on Google Plus, ended up wandering around SoundCloud, and discovered a whole new world.

SoundCloud really does have a lot of musicians active on it — though of course there are even more music fans. Plenty of remixers and musicians choose to release their work on SoundCloud. Most of it, well… personally I think it’s pretty slapdash, but at the same time there are quite a few tracks with something going for them too.

Most of the remixes and original tracks on SoundCloud are electronically produced music — not everyone can afford to put a band together, after all. That means the music there tends to have a strong beat and a thick electronic flavor. Once you accept that premise it’s actually pretty catchy. I personally found some interesting tracks, like this one by aiobahn — the latest, 永久の宴, is quite distinctive and leans into a flavor that suits Western tastes.

Western listeners call that move where the chorus suddenly drops in a massive bassline to deepen the rhythmic drive Drop the beat. If you look closely you can see in the comments on 永久の宴 just how satisfied the Westerners are with that beat drop…

Of course, SoundCloud isn’t only this boom-tish music. There’s some more Japanese-leaning stuff too, though most of it is still electronic. A few doujin circles attach SoundCloud preview links to their promo pages — that’s another route in.

And that’s where I found this little album, ゆのみっくにお茶して…

ゆのみっくにお茶して is a mini-album produced by Yunomi with nicamoq on vocals. The album’s selling point is “cute electronic.” The first-press limited edition has 6 tracks, while the standard edition has only 5 — it’s missing the last song, おとぎ話の日々.

Listening through, the impression is obvious: strong rhythm, with both intense tracks and less intense ones. Overall it’s a good listen — heavily electronic but not off-putting. My personal favorite is 明けない夜、醒めない夢, though the lyrics are so cringe that the line “僕の戦争まだ終わらない” made me spit out my drink… thankfully the melody is decent…

In the end I bought the album. No last track, but whatever — call it support.

You can buy the songs directly on iTunes, or pick up the physical disc. The iTunes version isn’t lossless, though. Seems like a lot of Japanese circles selling music go the digital route — and I want to complain: you’re selling it, can’t you sell it lossless?

Personally I still lean toward physical discs, which is why I’ve ended up buying a scattered pile of them. Looking at them gives a little sense of accomplishment…

Preview link for ゆのみっくにお茶して: https://soundcloud.com/tkrism/sets/yunomicep