House☆Disney [Compilation/Cover Album] (Special Review)

Tracklisting
1) When You Wish Upon A Star – MEG x Q;indivi [Pinocchio]
2) Beauty and the Beast – World Sketch [Beauty and the Beast]
3) Part Of Your World [HOUSE NATION Remix] – Q;indivi [The Little Mermaid]
4) The Enchanted Fairy Garden – Fantastic Plastic Machine [Tokyo Disneyland Disney's Fantillution!]
5) Mickey Mouse March – AYASE KOZUE [The Mickey Mouse Club]
6) A Whole New World – Late Night Alumni [Aladdin]
7) He’s A Pirate – 80kidz [Pirates of the Carribean]
8) Under The Sea – THE LOWBROWS [The Little Mermaid]
9) Baby Mine – Kaskade [Dumbo]
10) Reflection – Eric Kupper [Mulan]
11) When She Loved Me – A Hundred Birds feat. TeN [Toy Story 2]
12) Main Street Electrical Parade – Shinichi Osawa [Disneyland]

House☆Disney is a compilation/cover album that features many different Disney songs that have been rearranged and recorded by different techno and house artists, thus putting a new sound to the classic songs. However, there have been no language changes in the midst of the re-recording. The album was released on the 28th of January, 2o09.

The album opens with When You Wish Upon A Star, from the movie Pinocchio, which features MEG and Q;indivi in a dual effort. Obviously, it was also the major draw of the album for me, with MEG being in it. ANYWAY, the song opens simply with a surprisingly true rendition of how the original started, with sparkling synths and a music box playing the melody while the opening lyrics are sung over it. This is where the song takes a new turn, as the verse synth holds an extremely techno-influenced sound, with robotic beeps and blares making up the whole sound. MEG’s pulling her usual vocal issues here, which was a bit of a draw, and you can barely make out the lyrics as she sings, which kind of kills it. The chorus keeps the new techno spin, with the inclusion of many of the sounds heard in both the opening, and the original song. It’s rather linear in its arrangement, as it continues like this for the whole song, but it is a really enjoyable rendition, which is surprising since I wasn’t a huge fan of the original.

Now the songs start sounding a little less like their original counterparts. Beauty and the Beast, performed by World Sketch, still has the original piano in it, following the same melody and everything, but this time the newly spun synths are present through the whole song, giving a nice mix of piano and dance beats, which works well with the clear, crisp vocals that seem to be hitting all the notes perfectly. The synths sort of drown their voices out at times in the song, though. The end is rather enjoyable, as you can’t really detect any vocal faults as they’re singing, which makes me think they’ve distorted or altered them somehow, but you can’t detect anything if they have. It sounds brilliant overall.

Part Of Your World’s HOUSE NATION remix, performed by Q;indivi, sounds even less like the original did compared to the other two, which may be because it’s a remix, and yet it’s still the most enjoyable so far. It’s entirely made up of dance beats this time, and even more surprising is the vocals. As far as I can tell, Q;indivi only uses one vocal in all their songs, and while tracks like Just were absolutely horrible, they sound fantastic here. If they don’t use different vocalists, then kudos to them because the vocalist’s airy, thin voice suits the nature of the song perfectly. If they do, then at least this song still sonds great. This song has the usual techno break-down near the end, which is really the only change in the song, but either way it sounds great.

I’ve never heard this next song before in my life, so it’s come as quite a bit of a surprise to me. The Enchanted Fairy Garden (performed by Fantastic Plastic Machine) reminds me of one song in particular: Otsuka Ai’s Shachihata. While the cheerful, fast-paced synths are nothing like that song, a similar vocal style as in Shachihata is used here. I’m liking how the synths sound, but the vocals are just too strange, especially when the guy is doing them. At least the woman doesn’t sound horribly out of place.

Again, I’ve never heard the original Mickey Mouse March, but I’m sure it wasn’t like AYASE KOZUE’s version. A light techno synth is the main attaction of the song, with some whistling (which I know was in the original) and some distorted voices playing in intervals. The vocals carry a bit of distortion all around in this song, but they just sound out of place most of the time, and the childish vocals that sing along sound even stranger against the synths. The constat chanting of the letters in Mickey’s name makes the song even more annoying. The synth sounds nice here, but the rest is just too grating.

A Whole New World, performed by Late Night Alumni, is yet another total reworking of the original that doesn’t include anything from the original apart from the lyrics. It features a subdued sound, with what sounds like an electronically muffled electric guitar playing the entire arrangement instead of synths, though there are some obvious synths throughout the song. The vocals are in a similar subdued manner, so at least they suit the music. I do like this version, but it’s a shame that it wasn’t anywhere near as epic as the original.

Now we come to the first of the instrumentals on the album. He’s A Pirate, performed by 80kidz, is now a heavy techno song. I haven’t heard much of the original, yet again, but the familiar piano melody is present in the song, with the strings present as well. The rest of the song, however, is an unrecognisable fare, and it’s too much of a mess to really enjoy.

Unfortunately, THE LOWBROWS’ version of Under The Sea was horribly mutilated for this album. Yet again, it’s a heavy dance fare, with no signs of the original being visible at all. The western-styled vocals (they actually sound a lot like Christina Aguilera or another similarly-voiced artist) fit the synths well, but overall it’s just a horrible mutilation that turned a carefree song into a foreboding dance song.

Baby Mine, by Kaskade, is a lot more bearable than the last two songs, thankfully. It’s still entirely made up of dance synths, but they aren’t as messy or heavy this time. It contains a rather melancholic set of synths, and some light, wispy vocals that suit its sound well. Sometimes it sounds like the song can’t decide which mood it wants to settle on and utilize in different sections of the song, and once again it sounds nothing like the original did or was intended to. But, as I said, it is a lot more bearable than the previous two mutilations.

Reflection, which was handled by Eric Kupper, features a much more light hearted, latin-influenced sound, with vocals that sound rather western. Once again, it sounds nothing like the original, which is actually rather annoying since this is supposed to be a Disney album, but it is one of the most enjoyable songs on the album up to this point either way.

It’s at this stage that I’ve given up on hoping any of the songs sound like their original versions. Thankfully, When She Loved Me, by A Hundred Birds and TeN, is actually recognisable. I can actually believe that this came from Toy Story 2 while listening to it. The accented English sounds great against the echoing, simple synth backing track. Later on in the song, there are some quiet dance beats added into the song, but they’re nowhere near the main focus of the song. I was glad to hear something like this, despite being the second last track.

And the last track is both the second instrumental, and the second song not to come from a movie, with the first being The Enchanted Fairy Garden. Main Street Electrical Parade, produced by Shinichi Osawa, is instead a reworking of a Disneyland song. Having never been to Disneyland (and not having access to the original), I don’t know what the original sounds like, but this rendition actually sounds rather reminiscent to something capsule would bring out. It’s a simple synth arrangement with an array of beeps and blares and trumpet-like sounds that slowly come into the song at different times. The highlight of the song is definitely the “chorus” that first comes in at around 2:30, as it actually sounds like something that would be used in a parade at Disneyland. It’s rather repetitive, and yet it’s one of the more enjoyable songs.

Album Score
C-

Favorite Tracks
1. When You Wish Upon A Star – Meg x Q;indivi
2. Part Of Your World (HOUSE NATION Remix) – Q;indivi
3. Beauty and the Beast – World Sketch
4. When She Loved Me – A Hundred Birds feat. TeN
5. Main Street Electrical Parade – Shinichi Osawa

To be blunt, this album was extremely disappointing. Most of them sounded nothing like the originals, which makes me wonder why they bothered covering a Disney song and ruining it when they could’ve just created an original song with that sound. Granted, I haven’t heard a few songs on the album, so I could be completely wrong, but I didn’t really expect an album with the Disney moniker to sound like a heavy dance album with relatively few references to the original songs. I would really just recommend watching the PV for When You Wish Upon A Star when it comes out.

BEAUTIFUL TECHNO [Compilation Album] (Special Review)

NOTE: I will NOT be sending the link to anyone else who asks for it. Most albums are easy to find, and even when you think they aren’t, they usually are. “Kyo Music City” has this album as well as many other hard-to-find releases, so go google the site name and look there.

NOTE 2: IGNORE THE COMMENTS SAYING I WILL SEND THE LINK. They were one or two exceptions. I don’t usually do that, and I won’t be doing it anymore. Deal with it.

Tracklisting
1. Amai Zeitaku (甘い贅沢; lit. Sweet Luxury) – MEG
2. China Discotica (Substance Remix) – Aira Mitsuki
3. Local Train – immi
4. Stay Fine – Sound Around
5. Love Me After 12AM -RAM RIDER REMIX- – m-flo <3s Alex (CLAZZIQUAI Project)
6. Sayonara Revival (サヨナラリヴァイバル; lit. Goodbye Revival) – Saori@destiny
7. The Goonies ‘r’ Good Enough – Sweet Vacation
8. My Treasure – www.lollipoptears.com
9. Meu Sonho (yasutaka nakata – capsule mix) – KALEIDO
10. you’ll be all right -re:construct- – Iwaya Shigeru
11. Magic Colors – Nakatsuka Takeshi
12. Sun Lights Stars (yasutaka nakata 8FM mix) – RAM RIDER
13. Just – Q;indivi
14. R.G.B – Spangle calli Lilli line
15. Dreaming rabbit – The Sakura Telephone

BEAUTIFUL TECHNO is a compilation album containing tracks from many different Japanese techno artists, and one Brazilian artist. (Namely, KALEIDO.) It was released on the 16th of July, 2008. The cover model artist is Kishimoto Cecil. As it’s a compilation, I’m not sure of many of the inidividual artist names in the groups, so I’m sorry about that.

The album opens with a song I’ve reviewed at least three times on Vitamin Drop, Amai Zeitaku, by the hacky Techno-Pop artist MEG. Despite her being hacky, I still love the clean, smooth sound that Amai Zeitaku has, which was always something I missed in a lot of her later songs. Her voice is still sort of grating at times, but this is one of the songs where it sounds a bit better when put with the music. It only just missed being in my favorites for MEG’s BEAM album, and would probably be up there now if I re-reviewed that album. It’s a nice mid-way point between her mature dance songs (MAKE LOVE, MODEL) and her more carefree songs (HEART, PRECIOUS).

The next song is ALSO one that I’ve reviewed three times. This time, it’s the China Discotica Substance Remix from upcoming Techno-Pop artist Aira Mitsuki. While you may be wondering why the original wasn’t just put on here, I like to think it’s because the album boasts a smoother sound to its songs. The Substance remix is a lot less rough than its original counterpart, and while I was never a huge fan of how the song skips parts of the original and has that annoying overtone throughout, it does fit this album very well.

We now come to the first track I haven’t reviewed on this site before. Local Train, by immi. The song opens with a simple, blaring synth-line, followed by a skipping vocal section and thumping synth line, and I’m already loving it. This section is certainly infectious. Unfortunately, it quickly takes on a smoother, more connected feel, and it gets a little less interesting. This is the first song to not involve vocal distortions, and that really helps this song a lot, because it helps keep the fast, quiet nature of this song working well. I still prefer the skipping style of the opening and closing sections, but it is a nice song overall.

The compilation continues with the song Stay Fine, by Sound Around. The song has a quieter, almost natural sound to it, and the high-toned voice of the vocalist work well together, but the beginning of the song can be pretty bland. There are a few ethereal sounds throughout the verses to improve the light feeling of the song, and the vocals are perfect for the song. There’s actually a somewhat Aira-ish quality to her voice, highly reminiscent of Darling Wondering Staring. There is a bit of distortion, but they could majorly pass for being vocoder-free. About 2:52 in, the song sounds as if it’s rewinding, and I’m thinking this is something wrong with the mp3. So, I’ll look up on that and see what I can find, as it sounds really unnatural. Sorry about that, guys.

The next song is probably the worst up to this point. The Love Me After 12AM -RAM RIDER mix-, which was an m-flo loves collaboration preformed with Alex from the CLAZZIQUAI Project, opens with a simple clanging sound, before the steady synth comes in, with Alex’s vocals slowly coming to the foreground, and it all sounds alright at this stage. When Alex starts screeching though, the distortions on his voice make it almost unbearable. This is why I can’t stand the chorus of this song, as that’s the main focal point of it. The verses are bearable, as they don’t have this horrible quailty, and I rather enjoy the dance-based synth throughout the song, but as the chorus is usually the focal point of a song, it doesn’t help that they’re pretty much horrid.

Sayonara Revival, by Saori@destiny, leads straight into the vocals, which sound a bit sketchy at this time, but it makes up for it with some interesting, skipping synth backing the vocals. The song sounds a lot more “in-your-face” after the songs we’ve heard so far, as it has a rougher overall tone, and is probably what a lot of people are used to after listening to some of the tracks Nakata has produced. The synth can be a sort of hindrance when it starts looping on itself, and it drowns the vocals out semi-regularly, which is a shame, as for the majority of the song, they’re actually quite pleasant. All that aside, it’s a nice song, and if you can overlook a few technical glitches in those mentioned aspects, you’ll definitely get something out of it.

Next up is The Goonies ‘r’ Good Enough, by Sweet Vacation. The song opens with a highly technological, robotic sound to its synth, which I quite enjoy. The vocals quickly come in, and they seem to be majorly, if not entirely, in English. The high vocals suit the technological sound of the song perfectly, with just enough distortion being added to make them blend in properly. The chorus tends to sound a bit repetitive, with a high focus on the phrase “good enough” being placed, but overall, this is probably the most enjoyable song on the album so far. It’s the second shortest song on the album though, clocking in at 3:38. With a title like this, I wasn’t really expecting much, but it’s a brilliant upbeat tune.

My Treasure, performed by www.lollipoptears.com, leads straight into a faster, dance infused sound, with some higher synth added soon after. This song is probably the most open with its happy nature so far in this album, and it’s great to hear. A short talking sequence plays before the vocals, which blend perfectly with the style of music, which still carries a technological overtone. The vocals in the chorus stand out more from the music and sound more natural, while still having the distortions on them. It’s the kind of song you’ll want to get up and dance to, which is great to hear on this album.

Following up is the black sheep of the album, the Meu Sonho (yasutaka nakata – capsule mix), performed by KALEIDO. It’s the black sheep, because it’s performed in Portuguese, and the band is also from Brazil. I assume it’s on here because Nakata remixed it, but anyway. The song opens with a simple, thumping beat with the vocalist ad libbing over it, and her slightly deeper voice sounds brilliant, even when it isn’t singing. The slight vocals over them make them fit the simple, thinner sound of the song much better, and while it sounds odd to hear someone singing in Brasilian right after a bunch of Japanese songs, it actually manages to sound a lot more interesting than many of the previous songs because of this. There isn’t much change throughout the song, and it lasts an exact six minutes, but you should be able to last through the song, as it’s definitely a great addition to the album.

Back onto the natural order of things, we’re given you’ll be all right -re:construction-, from Iwaya Shigeru. We’re back to a similar sound that Local Train had, with some robotic beeps added throughout. When it comes to its full accompaniment, it sounds more like My Treasure than anything else, or maybe the preceeding song, while still keeping the illusion that there are actual instruments throughout the song. For all I know, there could be a guitar in there. The female vocals that come in remind me A LOT of Toshiko from capsule, except for the large amount of distortions placed on her voice. The verses tend to be sort of boring, and the emotionless quality of the vocals makes the choruses sound more boring than they have to. The lack of any real changes in the song keeps it from ever picking up.

Oh, good lord, next please. Magic Colors, from Nakatsuka Takeshi, opens with some deeply distorted vocals that makes them come out in an unappealing way, and they’re coupled with a carefree synth line that has an almost.. Mexican quality? I’m bad at sticking country musical styles to songs, but anyway. The vocals don’t fit the song at all, and the random sounds added throughout don’t help the song at all. I can’t even sit through this song. Skip it, please, for your own sake.

Next up is a song that really caught my interest, mainly because of the collaboration this artist has done with Ami Suzuki. The song on this album, Sun Lights Stars (yasutaka nakata 8FM remix), is performed by RAM RIDER (He produced cover versions of his two songs SWEET DANCE and MUSIC for Ami Suzuki’s DOLCE album). Back on topic, the song opens with an exploding sound and the usual simple thumping synth line, with more synth slowly added over it, with a few… Odd sounds from RAM RIDER himself, I assume, thrown in. About a minute in, this all stops, and we’re treated to one long, 8-bit sound, before the synth lines are slowly added in again. The entire song has an 8-bit sound to it, especially through the vocals, as his voice is distorted to the absolute EXTREME. This makes it really hard to decipher what’s actually being sung, but the overall synth arrangement with the heavy vocals make an interesting mix. It’s another song that lacks any real change throughout, but I absolutely love the way this song sounds. I can see why RAM RIDER’s one of the most well-known Techno artists in Japan now, despite this being a remix.

Just, by Q;indivi, comes next. It has a natural, rainforest sound to it, with a waterfall and birds, before it cuts out once or twice and leads to the simple synth line with the deeper female vocals this time. This song sounds a lot more natural compared to any other song, which is nice, but the vocals sound a bit too deep, as if they’re distorted in the wrong manner for this kind of song. There’s a change in the middle of the song that makes pretty much everything indistinguishable, which helps break up this somewhat awkward song somewhat, but it doesn’t really help much. It’s just not that interesting.

R.G.B, contributed by Spangle calli Lilli line, acts as the semi-final for this compilation album, and the song has a much more laid back sound to it, and it features a guitar and some rather odd tapping sounds. The light vocals sound like they’re being sung in a strained manner, but not in an overly obtrusive way, so they sort of work. The arrangement doesn’t see much change in the first minute, which in this case probably isn’t very good, as it gets sort of annoying as it repeats on itself. When more sounds are added in the choruses later on in the song, it gets a bit more interesting, but overall it’s not a really large contribution to the album by itself.

Dreaming rabbit, by The Sakura Telephone, closes the album. The song opens with an odd stretching synth, with the distorted vocals quickly coming in over the synth. Again, there’s an almost Aira-ish quality to the vocalist’s voice, and the overall arrangement is extremely similar to the song in question, Darling Wondering Staring. However, about a minute and a half in, it takes a childish, xylophone sound instead. The song follows this arrangement for most of its duration, so it’s a pretty bad way to end the album.

Album Score
A-

Favorite Tracks (In Order)
1. Sun Lights Stars (yasutaka nakata 8FM remix) – RAM RIDER
2. My Treasure – www.lollipoptears.com
3. The Goonies ‘r’ Good Enough – Sweet Vacation
4. Meu Sonho (yasutaka nakata – capsule mix) – KALEIDO
5. Local Train – immi

A great thing to note about this album is that it includes music by artists many of us probably haven’t ever heard of. As such, this is a great introduction for those of you who are new to the Techno-Pop scene, and the veterans may just find something to love in this album. I myself have discovered at least two artists to keep an eye on in this album (RAM RIDER and immi), so maybe you will too. Recommended for anyone curious about Techno-Pop.