音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Rainy soul, I wrote this phrase into my blog subtitle a few days ago. I just suddenly realized this word fits myself perfectly… and thus, I remembered the song by GARNET CROW.

Rainy Soul.

It happened recently when I paid more attention to this song, since I began my super crazy listening to GC's music. The album which "Rainy Soul" belongs to was released in last year, but at that time, I only loved "ON THE WAY" like mad… (gosh, I'm a bit off topic…).

I love rainy days, I like to stay alone, and my soul is always calm and quiet. I like to imagine being in a weekend afternoon, with the soft sound of raindrops falling down to the ground; there is the scent of grass outside, gentle breeze blows into the room where I am; people in other houses turn on the light in turn, the sky turns darker and darker. The world is in an endless serenity, with me being its very centre…

Way too fantastic, no? ^^;

Not only my imagination, the aura of the song fits my soul. I believe it very much. The melody, the lyrics, the calm tempo, the intense vocal, the rich arrangement… plus, GARNET CROW is one of Japanese artists I knew when I just entered into the Jpop world!

-The music-
I like the darkish and depressing ambience of the song. Piano and bass introduce a soft tempo by drums. Yuri's voice is just as low as that in other typical GC songs. Yet, in the middle, her voice is getting more intense, and so is the tempo. In the second phrase, what I like best is the sound of piano hovering over Yuri's vocal (when she sings "warabe uta kasukani"). In the climax part, from the lyrics, I think the real conception of the song is coming out, and soon, this song ends in the same darkish and depressing ambience, just like the beginning.

-The Words-
I spent some time on understanding the lyrics, and I love it. Azuki Nana tends to use some "special" words in her lyrics – in this lyrics, she made "ningen (human)" as "hito (person)", "Mirai (future)" as "Shiawase (happiness)", "hankyou (echo)" as "naru (echo)", and so on. Although some words have basically the same meaning under the two different ways of reading them, some do not. This feature makes them unique and thus gives GC the reputation out of those mediocre Jpop artists.

I'm so glad that I found the song fits my soul that well.

I tried to translate the lyrics… using my careless translation power again :D

* Parts in parentheses have the literal meaning, which is according to what I mentioned about Azuki Nana's unique way of writing.

月夜に響き出した 狂った旋律のピアノ
The crazy melody of piano rushes out of the moonlit night,
眠りを誘う
Enticing me in sleep.
意味もなく 不安にさせる
With no meaning yet making me anxious,
冷たい視線はもう私を見てない
Your cold eyes are on me anymore.

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
明日の気持ちなんて
Don't think about how you feel tomorrow,
人間は約束など出来ぬもの
This is human, which not be able to make promise.

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
時に君がみせる
Sometimes, I am attracted by your life,
孤独にさえすがる生き方魅せられた
Which is depending on even loneliness.

物音ひとつない午後 童歌 微かに
In a silent afternoon, I hear a folksong echoing slightly,
“トオリャンセ…” さぁ、さぁ…
"Tohryanse…" come on, come on…

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
あなたが生きてるならば
If you are there,
私まだ未来を祈れる
I can still pray for the happiness (future).

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
何も欲しがらぬ その瞳で
Your eyes are telling you need nothing,
何を恐れているというのか…
Yet I know you fear something…
教えて…
Tell me…

誰も知らない 誰も見えない戦場をゆくのね
You're going to the battlefield that is not known by anyone, and cannot been seen by anyone,
そして人知れず勝利願う
And you pray for your victory that no one can realize.
君の世間が
Your world
また反響しだした
Is reflecting your soul again.

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
魅き合う時もあるでしょう
I believe it exists when we're attracted by each other,
人はただ人であると知るなら
If we know people are just people.

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
傷ついた時だけでも
Even only when you're hurt,
愛が必要だと思うなら
If you believe you need love,
存在して
I am there (It exists).
HUMAN LOST
HUMAN LOST

Ohhh, double post today! ^^;

Continue to where I stopped in last post, I am going to talk about the ORB series now. (I said I was going to play Dragon Nest, but I did not. Instead, I changed my blog template. I was thinking on changing its theme colour as well, but, since I was lazy to modify all colour codes, I modified the hue of the picture I chose for the new template, and got my new blue template! XDD)

ORBITAL MANEUVER, I have never tried this series before. I only saw information that was linked by amazon.co.jp in its related items. This series has the motif about stories of people who leave their hometown and fly to the outer space, sounds like a SF – according to the official webpage. No matter what the story is, ohhh, look at the staff! Hiroyuki Ooshima featuring the three doujin singers again!!! Im my own imagination, I did not get too much sense of his music, but I loved his "Why, or Why not" sung by Rekka Katakiri. His music gives me a unique feeling, which has much of electronic instruments yet not too similar to the flooding abuse (?) of them by some other composers. Thank God, I got this series in last month finally!

-Haruka Shimotsuki: geotaxis-


-Chata: anemotaxis-


-Rekka Katakiri: phototaxis-
↑Nice covers! Just look like the cover for a SF novel <3

In the first track of the first album, the introduction is very splendid, like a symphony. The electronic instruments used in this song give it such a perfect ambience of the vast universe. It was the first time I hear Haruka sing a full English song (so was the case of Chata). Ohhh, how fantastic her voice is!! I have never loved Haruka's voice that much! There is a specific power in all songs in this series, and I can specifically feel the intensity from the first Haruka song, "geotaxis". However, I love her second song, "Silver Lining", the most. Yet I cannot tell more of my feeling of the song. I like its ambience, calm with a bit of loneliness; also like its medium rhythm and catchy melody. I especially love the background hovering piano!The lyrics, oh yes, I have to say all the lyrics sound like extracts from a SF novel as well! Sweet! I think I have got some writing ideas…!!! I may use "geotaxis" as the opening theme song, and use "Silver Lining" as the ending theme song. Now, her third track, "カナタ/Kanata/The Other Side", can be used as an insert song (must stop my reverie immediately, lol)!! Here, Haruka finally sounds like Haruka. LOL!! This is a gentle song; it is nice but a bit too close to an average doujin song.

Volume two, featuring Chata, gives me less sense comparing with Haruka's. Chata's voice does fit the melody, but I failed to feel much enough. Maybe I have been over-impressed by Haruka's performance… orz… Volume three, featuring Rekka Katakiri, did not give me much of impression either. However, I paid extra attention to this album, because the second track of this album is called "Chisato", hey, I am using this name for my own writing story! Should I thus use this song as her theme song? :P

In all, except the two Haruka songs I extremely love, I do love the whole ORB series. I am picky on music I listen to, and this is true that I do not like some other works by bermei.inazawa or Hiroyuki Ooshima (Hiroyuki's new work featuring Noriko Mitose did not fell into my favored range, I personally think Noriko's voice does not fit his composing melody, -__-|| ), but the two series, ACI and ORB, are really awesome. Being a doujin music lover, you cannot miss it!!

-bonus image-
My addiction to the two Haruka songs mentioned above~ =w=

Image got from my last.fm page :3

Recently, I am addicted to two series of doujin music works: "Ancient Colours Infinity" and "ORBITAL MANEUVER", featured by composers Hiroyuki Ooshima and bermei.inazawa, lyricist interface, and the most famous three doujin singers, Haruka Shimotsuki, Chata, and Rekka Katakiri.

The first series, "Ancient Colours Infinity", is focusing on using elements giving people the feeling of the distant past, the time we do not know yet. Songs in this series are mostly sung in ancient Japanese, which fits the sense of "ancient" very well. Each CD cover is mainly based on one single colour: green, blue and red. Oh, that's the ancient colours! XDD

I remember I have ever tried some pieces from Haruka's album, and said, "oh, no, that's not my favoured type." Yet now, I love it so much… orz. I think my taste got changed a lot during these years since I began to listen to tons of Japanese pop/doujin music. :P

-霜月はるか：泰東ノ翠霞 - Haruka Shimotsuki: Taitou no Suika/Emerald of the Great East-

My favourite album from this series. From the first song "泰東ノ翠霞/Taitou no Suika/Emerald of the Great East (my careless translating, applicable to all translation below!)", You can feel typical bermei.inazawa-styled noise. The background noise and the percussion are such a well-done. This song really sounds like the very music used in a ritual, a mystic ceremony to praying for the eternal peace. Track 2, "さよなら/Sayonara/Farewell" is my favourite song. I love its medium tempo introduced by a rather slow solo. This song has even more elements from traditional Japanese ballad. In the middle of it, percussions make out a calm yet intense rhythm. Haruka's multi-layered chorus is another point that attracts me. Ohh, also, do not forget to notice her whisper-like chanting in the late part!!! Track 3, "森羅/Shinra/The Universe" is another of my favourites among the whole series. This song has a fast tempo, and a more complicated arrangement as well as chorus, which indicate the intriguing true nature of the universe. I love it also because its melody is so catchy!! Track 4 and 5 are remixed versions of track 1 and 2, and they are also very nice, in which track 4 is more rich in arrangement comparing with track 1, whereas track 5 is simpler and cleaner than the original version.

One-sentence summary: Haruka does not sound like Haruka… lol

-茶太：蒼昊ノ恋歌 - Chata: Soukou no Renka/Love Song of the Endless Indigo-

To be honest, I am not a bit fan of Chata – I more care on the melody itself than how the singer's voice is, and the melodies from most of Chata's songs do not attract me – they sound just average (I am serious!). However, songs from this album all have beautiful melodies, and thus I love it! Except the typical bermei.inazawa-noise, many Chinese traditional instruments are used in this album. Then, look at the cover of this album again, hey, does not this album have a perfect ambience of the ancient South China (maybe Soshu according to the jacket)? I have never thought Chata could sing that amazingly in Track 1, "古街/Furumachi/Old Town"!! Hmm, here, Chata does not sound like that Chata either! LOL Comparing with track 1, track 2 "蒼昊ノ恋歌/Soukou no Renka/Love Song of the Endless Indigo" is much calmer, like a serenade and might be perfect if listen during the night. Track 3, "いささめの花/Isasame no Hana/A Small Flower", is my favourite of this album. The melody is like the flowing water, and Chata's sweet voice fits it so well. Track 4 and 5 have more noise but they sound similar in terms of the ambience for me…

One-sentence summary: My favorite Chata album is this!

-片霧烈火：饗旺ノ烈火 - Rekka Katakiri: Kyouou no Rekka/Mighty Blaze-

Rekka Katakiri, since the time I knew her she gave me a feeling of craziness and darkness; she is the queen of the darkest abyss, the owner of the most powerful voice (for me, though she HAS peaceful and calm songs… ^^;). The last volume from the ACI series is featured by such a sense of darkness. I cannot say how good the melody is, but I do love the album! Here, the melody is not that important for me anymore – I love the final assembly of the noise, arrangement, metal-like background effects, and the intense voice. I lost the feeling of each single song; I recommend listen to this album without any break. Songs in this album have to be listened constantly to achieve the most ancient feeling of the unknown force – yes, it is "force", not "power", which fits the feeling of the crimson CD jacked, which was rather scary for me, orz. If I say Haruka's album is like a developed ancient civilization, and Chata's album is like a not-that-ancient town, Rekka's album is describing the most original universe, in which everything was in chaos. Track 1, "饗旺ノ烈火/Kyouou no Rekka/Mighty Blaze", is the first sign of life in the world, which is rather calm but full of energy. Track 2, "纏/Matoi/Entangling", is the vast chaos before any civilization; track 3, "贈火/Zouka/The Fire has been Controlled", described the very beginning of civilization (I guess!). The world was tending to have rules and well-organized, in which the melody is much calmer. Ahhhh, by the way, the two remix versions are much crazier!! Enjoy! :P

One-sentence summary: anyone who can sing songs in this album must be a singing god of chaos! ;)

Writing a review is exhausting! I will talk more about the other series, which is "ORBITAL MANEUVER" later… flees away to play "Dragon Nest" now!!! XDD

On the same day when I went back home, my copy of KOKIA's "long journey" has also arrived. Superb.

I didn't wanna buy this mini-album at first, because there are only four songs in one disc, which may be a small waste for the rest blank space on the disc. However, since this was the very first song KOKIA recorded before the born of KOKIA, the song "For little tail" is thus valuable enough to buy… ^^;

This album was just excellent. Yet, I don't want to talk about "Road to Glory" again. I love this song, and I DID use a large space to talk about it in my "REAL WORLD" review.

"Daybreak" is an image(?) song KOKIA wrote for game "Dragon Nest". There was a Dragon Nest trail version coming with the mini-album. I played it a bit, and I felt like to continue it when it becomes available in NA. I guess this song must be fitting the conception of the world of Dragon Nest very well! However, "Daybreak" is a beautiful song itself. The beginning of the song can be said as calm, but in the middle, it gets to be grander and more intense – I love that part especially the background chorus, which is clean, neat, and powerful. The arrangement was in consistence with the theme song "Road to Glory", which has been done in an intense and ethnic way. The slight and rapid beating of drums is also very neat. I can get the feeling that's similar to the image of "REAL WORLD" – indeed, the booklet was using some photos from her REAL WORLD photobook.

Now, "For little tail", my favorite. Even though KOKIA mentioned in her blog that she likes the new arranged version, I prefer the original version. KOKIA's singing skill was not as mature as now, but I found the exactly same feeling of her albums released in her earlier stage – I'm saying "trip trip", and I LOVE that kind of voice too!! On the other hand, I also love the melody and the arrangement. Ohh, wait, this song also has something similar feeling to "daybreak", not in melody, it should be something deeper, the "core conception (don't know how to describe it though, orz)". Well, I know the two games have the same staff, so that's the reason! Anyway, I love this style. :D I especially love the repeating phrases: "zabiatsuta… zabiatsuta…." KOKIA has already done the chorus well since that period, the chorus is so perfect and powerful, which made that part so sweet and catchy!! This song was done 13 years ago, before the born of KOKIA – now, this song has went beyond the time, and we were finally able to enjoy the "phantom" KOKIA song, which was not officially released until now. How can you not collect this album if you really like her? It has KOKIA's earliest work in it!!!

The last track, "For little tail ~once~", which is a rearranged version. It is slower and calmer than the original. KOKIA's voice… ohh, still the beautiful voice and she was doing more excellent chorus works in it. Comparing to the original, this one is thicker in melody and chorus; it has a completely different ambience from the original. However, I really prefer the original, hmm, personal suggestion, and I do love this version very much. :3

I was so glad for getting the limited version of this album. Now, what I'm expecting is the day of the coming of Dragon Nest in NA! XDD

This afternoon, I by chance mis-closed my gmail window, and when it reloaded, a small box popped up beside the chat.

Call phones in gmail!

Ooh, seemed Google was introducing their new service. Call US and Canada for free. Sounded good, but wasn't that like google voice? Both can call US and Canada for free, and both have low rate for international callings. Plus, I got $0.1 to for my first experience!! I was wondering if that was an integration of gvoice and gmail.

I wished that was. Thus, I accessed my previous gmail account, which has gvoice account. But I saw nothing like "call phones in gmain" small banner being above my gtalk buddy list. I was confused. Were they only offering the new feature to non-google voice users?

However, at night, I by chance loaded google voice home with my new g-account, and found that the g-voice account was ready for my new account. Oh, my! Sweet!

Then, I went to google blog, and found this post [ http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/call-phones-from-gmail.html ] and another similar post (link not shown). They are merging g-voice and g-mail as well as g-talk. Okay, not bad. Google, you're so amazing. I think I may apply for the cheapest cellphone plan and use g-voice a lot in future. XDD

I was glad to finally hand out my proposal for the coming committee meeting this afternoon. It was supposed to be handed out by five, yet I was around a quarter later. That was not really matter too much, and although I still need to work on preparing a presentation for it, my mind was loosened immediately after I submitted my writing.

My boss is famous (?) for his slow easy-going character. I gave him my original draft of the writing on last Wednesday, and his first feedback came on this Wednesday. I knew that I was also wrong that I should have mentioned him about giving me the feedback, but that did not mean he was allowed to forget it. orz

As a result, I had to face the fact that lots of parts were needed to be revised. He asked me if I was able to give him a revised second draft at Wednesday night, but at the same night I was going to learn about computer modeling from a former guy in my lab, how come I was be able to submit my revision?! So I told him probably I would give him mine on next morning, and it made me keeping working till 2:30 AM.

On Thursday, I spent lots of time on editing the figure and table. He read my revision and made some corrections, which was directly useful for me. I was working late in that afternoon in the lab for revising, editing figures, and other technical issues, and when it was 7:30PM, I decided to go home. But at that time, the last part of my writing was not fully finished, so he told me he would read that and put his feedback on my desk so that I could get it on the next morning before he came to the lab (don't be surprising if I tell you that's early for him to arrive at our lab at 2PM). He marked some parts were described unclearly. Hmmm, okay, I knew I'm not a native English speaker so such things were not strange if they happened. Thus, I had another night being working till 2AM.

Then, Friday the final day. The deadline was supposed to be 5PM. I got his feedback in the morning (10AM) and finished revising the entire proposal before his arrival (2AM, he was so on-time!). I gave him it, and started to proofread it by myself. I finished my correction ~15 minutes faster than him. Yet, I confess that his read that more carefully than me, so that I could correct typos and such other errors. He was still pointing out the unclear parts in my writing although they were clear for both of us – because others who don't have same background may not understand, you have to describe everything with as much of detail as possible – that's his deduction. Fine. I would do the work, and it was 3:30PM already. By around 4:20PM, I gave him my "final" revision while he was talking to another guy in my lab. I waited until three to five, and decided to ignore his talking. I guessed he also realized the time (I also know he belongs to the type of people who can still work after the last minute…). He didn't say more about my revisions, except a few minor grammatical errors. "Correct these and then you may hand them out." Oh, yay, that's what I was awaiting for! Superb!

I could probably have a long sleep tonight, without any worries about my writing – worrying on it won't work anymore. Also, I can finally enjoy my newly ordered item: KOKIA'S 2010 "OTO NO TABI BITO" CONCERT DVD!!!! Which I had been waiting for almost 3 weeks!!!!

I just ripped them into iso image files. Oh, no, you can not own them by me. You have to buy them by yourself if you really love KOKIA and her music!! I will go take a shower and then begin enjoying it. Do not disturb me while I'm dating with KOKIA's concert, or you suck forever! :D

Previn conducting Tchaikovsky three ballets. This version was my first near-complete view of Tchaikovsky's most famous ballet music. I got the two CD set music from a music sharing forum one and half years ago. Very luckily, the version I got was in flac. At that time, I was not very into lossless world, so, I converted the files into 128kbps just for saving my hard disk space. Yet, three months later, god knows what happened, I was turned over completely! I was searching online, ripping from my own collection, or ask any others to get my music library into as lossless as possible – well, I purchased a 500GB EHD, and that was partly spurred my mind into the lossless world.

I found the lossless version for most music from my library. Some music was too old to find, and I didn't really care. But, for the Tchaikovsky ballet music, I was yearning to own it in lossless. I had found a Karajan version in lossless later, but that version had only one disc, which meant it had less tracks than the Previn version. Also, I found other works containing the whole ballet music, but I just wanted exactly this one – my first touch!! Of course, I went back to the forum where I firstly got the files, but the links had already expired when I tracked it back…

Actually, at that time, I didn't know who conducted it. What I knew were only the track list, and the published year, which was 1990. I tried to search online by the two pieces of information, but not really a hit matched my needs. I myself thought it was done by magic: I began searching for this version for no reason in July – by the year and an ambiguous CD title, and I got it, simply.

Firstly, I didn't believe what I got. I compared the tracklist with my files, exactly the same; I checked the published year, 1990; the disc number, two. Seemed everything matched perfectly. Was this one really the one I was looking for?

I didn't really know, but I assumed it was. Looked at the price, around 14 CDN plus ~4 of shipment fee, and I could get two discs. Not a bad deal. I placed the order without more thinking.

This morning, I finally received my order. Almost two weeks of delivering from NY was not really fast, but it was still acceptable for me. Okay… time to rip it!! By the way, today was also my first time to use foobar to rip CDs, and it worked pretty well. The CD was ripped into flac directly! Amazing! Before, when I was still using wmp, I had to rip into wav and then convert, which means I have to tag the files twice… and I am lazy to get the EAC software, which has a good reputation. Anyway, foobar is good enough for me!

Finally, the last step, listen to it!!! Really, the music is EXACTLY THE SAME as my low-bitrate version!!! I was so excited! After one and half years, I regained the pretty music in lossless, and I really owned it! To be honest, this version was current my favourite among all my collection of Tchaikovsky. If plus the play count before I reset my lastfm, I've been playing the two discs for more than 20 times!!

Now, I was pretty satisfied.

Before I end this post, I have an extra story. I just checked the amazon page for that product again. When I ordered it, there was one new and two used available, and the price was 14CDN around for the new one. But now, the seller was the same, and there are two new and two used available, and – the price is around 34CDN for the new one!! Oh my god! I was so lucky! lol