Kiroro's new song on the net.

今年の目玉キロロの配信曲「幸せの種(Spring Version)」もうゲットしましたか大阪のイベントで玉城千春ちゃんの調子がだったらしいんですが、この曲、DAMにも入ったことだしカラオケ歌って応援してま～す

◆ Kiroro released, in May, a new song named “Siawase-no-tane”, which means “a Seed for Happiness”. It is distributed only through the Internet for PC’s and cellular phones as the spring version. They first introduced the song at the 10th anniversary concert and it was played by them at the recent event in Osaka.
◆ Many people in the audience, reported in their blog that Chiharu, the vocalist of Kiroro, was not in the best condition at the recent event. I feel anxious about her as a fanatical supporter, because there once was a situation when she lost her voice for some span of their activities. But I believe it was not a severe case of a chronic symptom this time.
◆ When she is not on the stage, she spends her days as a busy mother of two children, and the rhymes of the song, which Chiharu wrote, just symbolizes babies to be born. It also expresses her complex feelings as a mother, full of anxiety as well as full of pleasure. I hope that through the good wishes of all her fans and the love of her family, she will recover soon.
◆ I had not expected that the Karaoke for the song would be released yet, but I have just found the song on DAM(Daiichikosho Amusement Multimedia)’s release news. First impressions told me that the song is very difficult to sing myself to get a high score, but I could reach the point 93.806 without too many problems, because the song is one of my recent heavy rotations. There might be no other competitors now for the song. However, to maintain the number one position against any possible experts, my present target score is above 96.

Movie Review for “Climber’s High”(SPOILER ALERT)

日航ジャンボ機事故の裏で、その特命デスクとなった地方記者の葛藤を描く映画「クライマーズ・ハイ」を見てきました。音楽話から外れますが、風化防止の願いも込めてレビューを残します。（英語は、ネタバレありです。）

The movie focuses on the local newspaper-persons, report on the biggest aircraft accident, which occurred in the mid-summer of 1985. The name of the publishing company is fictitious, but the original novel is based on the real accident and real experience of the author as a local journalist, I heard. The protagonist of the story is also a climber, and the title denotes the exciting feeling, which a climber feels when he or she is about to conquer the severe peak of a mountain. It is likened to the situation, of when he was going to release exclusive big news, that disclosed the cause of the accident, and was waiting for the evidence of the article just before the deadline. But there are many obstacles like conservative traditions of the company or the power game against the national papers. He was confronted with the gap between “how the press should be” and “how the situation really was, and was for the the local press”.
The running time spans around 2:25, as it was exciting for me, it didn’t seem too long. The actors and actresses are very enthusiastic with each personality, I think, and it is quite a good remembrance of the accident, because the scenes of the rescue, real or performance, are on the screen. However, it focuses on the local press company, and not on the accident itself. Therefore people who seek the actual facts of the accident might feel it insufficient.

Review on ave;new concept mini album "inscribe"

ave;newのコンセプトミニアルバム「inscribe」が発売された。日本人感覚かもしれないけど、このタイトルは、すごくカッコいい。音楽史に刻印するもの、心に刻む音楽、なんかそんな感じ。内容は、ave;newプロジェクト所属アーティストさん達、佐倉紗織さんを中心にオムニバスで歌いあげる訳だが…。
実は佐倉さんだけ聴ければいいな、正直、ave;newって無理押しのセット販売が多いのが嫌だなと思っていた。その期待を大きく！？裏切ってくれたのは新人の白沢理恵さん。佐倉さんと較べて少しだけ低い音域の受け持ちだけど、心地良くマスタリングされた歌声はかなりいける。佐倉さんに負けない強さで、琴線の別の場所をきゅんとさせる。「当局」の宣伝の完全な受け売りになるけど、ave;new入門アルバムとしてぴったり。Perfumeとかウマウマとかハマってる方なら、この世界は間違いなく脱出不可！もう、ゲーソン、アニソン、電波とか（蔑んで）呼んでいる場合じゃない完成度。佐倉さん初の自作曲、『銀木犀』にも注目！！


◆Songs for games or animation have long been treated as subculture and criticized by Japanese. “Denpa(Japanese, which means wave)-song” might have been the disparaging name, for such songs with unusual voice or strange melodies and rhymes causing mishearing like mixed-up waves. However, they have remarkably improved their quality to break into the general public. Electro-music like Perfume emerged into the prime time music scene as main-culture not as subculture. “Like Perfume”, has become the key phrase among media directors and producers, and many similar acts, with high or low quality, have come out.
◆Among such a trend, “ave;new” has just released a concept mini album named “inscribe” with excellent quality. The name is symbolic to be inscribed in the music scene. It is a collective album sung by artists belonging to the organization named the “ave;new” project. The main singer is Saori Sakura. She has an extra high pitched voice and her beautiful voice is processed to be even more touching. She first composed and sings a couple of spectacular songs in this album, which might be one of the major sales points of it. She has a weekly net radio program named “LoveLoveLovable” and you can hear her voice and sample songs anywhere, anytime. For those who are new to Shaorine (lovable nickname for Saori), this album might be a good introduction.
◆In this album, I also encountered another new promising artist “Rie Shirasawa”. Her charm, in turn, is found in her mid-pitched voice, which is also processed to be extremely attractive. It was a pleasant surprise to me that Rie performs quite sweetly beyond my expectations. I strongly recommend, from the bottom of my heart, this album to Denpa-song lovers as well as to all trendy electro-song lovers.