• Touhou 6 New Classic Score Attack Ongoing!

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Raiders of the Lost Remix Tournament

I keep forgetting about this

1. Shinra-Bansho - Song of Companion
Holy shit, why does this song remind me of Raspberry Heaven (Ending song for Azumanga Daioh)? I'm not complaining tho, this is a very calming song, I like it a lot!
8/10

2. GET IN THE RING - ⑨melodies
It's pretty, but it didn't really resonate with me, probably because I don't really listen to stuff like this.
7/10

Shoutout to Tenkko for actually liking Eternal Underworld (とこしえの黄泉) lmao, now I don't feel alone in this world :KoishiXD:

 
Alright, it's about time for round 7. I've been waiting for this one, actually - and I'd like to come back soon to say something about this round, but I'm waiting until I have spoiler tab functionality back for that.

Daio Ye Zhong - The Second Performance: Curse Deity




 
Alright, time for this round. And this time, I am actually early with my review...

Daio Ye Zhong - The Second Performance: Curse Deity

It seems like I am always discovering yet another new music group with each round of this Tournament. And that's quite fun. Anyway, for the song itself. Just as it started, and it's already very catchy. The more I went through the song, the more I felt like a I wanted to sing along. And I feel like I wanna sing along at the very first listening of a song, then it really means something. I got a very good impression about this, and all I can say is that I am pleasantly surprised. Bring me more!

I will give it a solid 9/10

C-CLAYS - The moon which was swallowed to a wolf

C-CLAYS... where have I heard this name before? Doesn't matter. Due to a very weird thought process, the first thing to come into my mind for listening to this song was Rock On! from Stack, but that is not a bad thing. Also, instrumental-only songs can actually be very good. This one to me sounds like a very decent party remix, I will not lie. So I do not have that much of a negative to add this time.

Overall, I think that a 7.5-8/10 would be a perfectly fair score

UNDEAD CORPORATION - Kushinada-hime

Finally, we are back to one of the songs I submitted for the Tournament. In the time between last year's Tournament and this one, I discovered UNDEAD CORPORATION. And through that, I really felt like uploading one of their songs as part of this event. The original idea was to go with Yogoto no Yami no Okusoko, but then I have discovered this arrangement for the Aki sisters (maybe I will bring the other one at the next Remix Tournament). At least compared to other characters' themes, my experience with listening fan arrangements of Touhou themes is severely lacking when it comes to the Aki sisters, and especially Princess Inada remixes. Therefore, why i considered this one the more interesting choice. I just like rock/metal arrangements (and music of the kind in general), so I really wanted to bring it up.

As it is my own submission, I will not rate it for a fair trial

 
My keyboard is giving out on me, so this will take even longer than usual. 😞

19: Diao ye zong - The Second Performance: Curse Deity
Approaching the end.

Y'all ever hear jumpscares referred to as "cheap horror?" In theory, a jumpscare exploits a fight-or-flight response to "cash-in" on building tension; this is contrasted to the more difficult process of cultivating dread over time, sometimes withholding payout indefinitely in favor of an enduring horror. This doesn't have much practical application for me, since I don't tend to engage with horror in the first place, but it struck me as a fitting parallel for my experience with this piece. Pola's Eternal Hades will serve as my musical comparison to cheap horror; it accomplishes its mood by crafting an atmosphere out of elements specifically selected for their fitting qualities. The end result is effective, but lacks depth, and therefore endurance.

Curse Deity is meant to be an unsettling song; its lyrics communicate a heavy threat, belying the lighthearted tone they are sung in. Their is a unique form of discordance throughout, the nature of which is of a level beyond my ability to fully analyze, but I suspect some advanced chord work in a carefully maintained distance between the melody and accompaniment. The resulting product lacks overt horror, yet its intricacies allow the effect to penetrate far deeper than a more obvious piece would.

A masterpiece of tone setting. 10/10

20: C-CLAYS - The Moon which was Swallowed to a Wolf
Confusing but apparently intentional grammatical error aside . . .

At first, this seemed some straightforward augmented Oriental folk. Yet with further listening, I find myself at the diversity of instruments at play, being more than I usually hear utilized. The augmented accompaniment is balanced surprisingly well; the Oriental folk takes precedence, and usually feels the focus, with the additional parts serving to reinforce and elevate the arrangement. As the piece progresses, the balance becomes more even without losing the folk focus. All this works splendidly with the source motifs.

A minor downside is the limited escalation of the piece; the piece reaches its peak energy early on after an initial buildup, and fails to have a proper climax. Nonetheless, the dynamic instrumentation and arrangement make it a fun piece

Would (/will) listen again. 8/10

21: UNDEAD CORPORATION - Kushinada-hime
"AAHHH!"

The previous tournament entry from Undead Corporation (several tournament ago) is still one of my favorite submissions, being a wonderful blend of folk and rock accompanied by a stellar vocal performance, all together doing great justice to a usually too-familiar motif. This piece has a lot of the same elements, but with a bit heavier emphasis on the metal and less obvious applications for the source material. I think it's pulled off well, but isn't as fresh to me as the other one was; whether this is because the pieces are too similar, or there is something else lacking in this one, I'm not sure of. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it, and whether the intro is meant to be amusing or not, I've become quite fond of it. The lyrics are weird, though.

Fun in an epic way, oddly nostalgic. 8.3/10

This did take longer, I'm really tired now, and I'm worried about how much that effected this post.

 
Ken Hisuag said:
The lyrics are weird, though.
Click to expand...
Funny you should mention that...

Well, I have figured a way to get back spoiler tab access, so now I shall proceed with what I was going to say. Normally I would wait until the end of the tournament before talking about songs, but there's something I want to talk about right now.

That thing is Kushinada-Hime and why this song is AWESOME. Most listeners are probably just going to think of it as another metal banger (which it is), but of all the songs submitted for this tournament this one stood out to me for understanding exactly what the lyrics mean.

This song is a retelling of an early chapter in the Kojiki, Japan's oldest surviving literary work. It also a retelling of what has to be my favourite moment in said work, where the god Susa-no-O slays an eight-headed-eight-tailed dragon to protect the goddess he wishes to marry, who is known as Kushinada-hime. The song lyrics are sung from his perspective and reference the myth in a number of ways. To keep things short:

-"Winter Cherry Eyes" is a epithet of the dragon taken directly from the Kojiki.

-"Totsuga no Tsurugi" is a type of sword. Many Japanese gods own a sword of this type.

-The "Yashioori's Sake" mentioned is how Susa-no-O overcomes the beast; he and Kushinada-hime's father create 8 bowls of sake brewed 8 times over, one for each of the dragon's heads, and construct a hut each to place the sake inside. When the dragon puts its heads into the huts to search for Kushinada-hime, it drinks the sake it finds instead, and becoming intoxicated, Susa-no-O easily cuts it to pieces.

-"Under it's back's scales, what is there hidden? / So my reward is the Murakumo no Tsurugi" - When Susa-no-O severs off each of the dragon's tails, he gets confused as when he cuts off one of them, his sword hits something hard and straight up snaps in two. He looks inside the severed tail to see what caused it, and discovers a new sword, the legendary Murakumo no Tsurugi or Cloud-Gathering Sword. This is actually one of Japan's three sacred imperial treasures - it's a real item! Don't think the real one came from inside a dragon, though.

-"Many clouds arise; those coming forth are peacefully guided by this hand" Susa-no-O is the god of storms. This is also another possible reference to the Cloud-Gathering Sword.

-"And once within the warm of my arms / it will open it's eyes again" while a previous, similar line referred to sending the dragon to hell, I personally believe this one is instead referring to Kushinada-hime opening her eyes, since Susa-no-O transforms her into a comb before the fight, so that he can keep her safely by his side whilst fighting.

So because I am a mythology nerd and also like metal, this song, and by extension CountVonNumenor, has officially earned the host's seal of approval.

TLDR; Susa-no-O is a badass and so is this song.

 
So... how many people do still need to answer? This is the last round of I am not wrong, so I think we should find a way to finish it. It's been almost 6 months already...

 
CountVonNumenor said:
So... how many people do still need to answer? This is the last round of I am not wrong, so I think we should find a way to finish it. It's been almost 6 months already...
Click to expand...
This is the second to last round, actually. You're right, I should engage the summoning. I've had my eyes away from this for a bit due to studies.

Breathes in

@Tenkko
@Drunken_Flower
@sodaodaoda

I shall wrangle soda and DF through discord, just kinda gotta hope that Tenkko reappears. He usually shows up eventually.

 
5 months since this started 💀

Diao Ye Zong - The Second Performance: Curse Deity
Ah yes the greatest of all.

As expected from RD the lyrics has a significant meaning.
his expertise also extends to creating the perfect feeling for said story.
tbh I have trouble commenting on this since it's too perfect. so i just end this here than random rumbling. no im not lazy at all noo,,, yeah... n.. yeah.

9/10 if not because i listened this 2147483647 times i would rate 10.
Suwako story is always interesting.
I was so close for submitting another Suwako story at the start, but in the end i didn't. Could've flawlessly fit in this round.

C-CLAYS - The Moon which was Swallowed to a Wolf
what does the wolf has to do with Suika?

Opened quite nice actually,
though the first transition to original theme is quite sudden I'd say.
The track did a good work on keeping the energy balanced for the whole track, and also because of that it has lack of... punch(?).

8.5/10 nice party
what does the wolf has to do with the party?

UNDEAD CORPORATION - Kushinada-hime
Oh i just listened to this album a while ago, the album is about old folktale and the origins of the demons and youkai.
undoubtedly one of the best album from Undead Corp

this song in particular is about The slaying of the Yamata no Orochi, in which Kushinada or Princess Inada took part in the story.
The lyrics might be hard to understand without context but it makes total sense when you know Japanese mythology.

I would dare to say that the original melody doesn't quite fit with the story it's telling.
The original theme feels a bit too festive for a battle story.
nonetheless still a great arrangement.

9/10
did we have another Undead Corp last tournament? i forgor.

i should start collecting curse themed music

 
View attachment 3265

19. Diao Ye Zong - The Second Performance: Curse Deity

Well I love this circle so I'm tempted to just give an 11 and be done with it. I really like that approach of storytelling they have with their music. This song itself in particular might not be one of my favorites but I love the combo of sounding kinda innocent for a bit and then bringing in some dark chord in there. And it does have a great rhythm to it, very jumpy you could say. Like a frog. Yeah.

Ah what the hell, 10/10

20. C-CLAYS - The moon which was swallowed to a wolf

Suika jumpscare. Gonna agree with Drunken here in that the energy is pretty much consistent all throughout, and so there's a lack of punch. I know it's not something noteworthy anymore but idk, the mixing of traditional instruments with synth sounds still gets to me a bit.

It's good background noise, 7/10

21. UNDEAD CORPORATION - Kushinada-hime

Dude got got by the previous Suika jumpscare.

Undead Corp is a circle I don't listen to a lot, despite me usually being on the side of metal. Maybe that needs to change. That said this song in particular don't really do much for me, to the point where I don't really know what to say about it. It's nice, it flows well, it does what it needs to do and then it ends, and that's fine.

7/10

Sorry for the delay again, busy with stuff that I shouldn't plug in this thread.

 
1. Daio Ye Zhong - The Second Performance: Curse Deity

Hm. I don't know what I feel about this one. It feels very samey, and it didn't stick in my head at all after finishing it. I don't like this type of songs, where the vocals are like that. I don't even know what the original song is here.
4/10

2. C-CLAYS - The moon which was swallowed to a wolf

Pretty funky, I like the usage of Japanese instruments. And that square wave lead is pretty nice as well!
8/10

3. UNDEAD CORPORATION - Kushinada-hime

Aaah, Undead Corporation. Not my cup of tea, since I don't listen to metal, but they're still neat. I do like the uhh.. I don't actually know what's it called in English, when the main part of the song comes. It has nice vocals there.
6.5/10

 
22: Eternal Melody - SYNCHRONICITY
A paradox.

On initial listening, it seemed to me the piece was clipped at the end; there is no fadeout, neither is the last measure even finished. So I went looking to see if I could find another video, to determine if this was a mistake by the uploader or an issue with the arrangement itself. What I found was this video, which includes the album's preceding track as an intro into the focus piece, but does not do much to fix the ending. As of now, I still do not know if the cutoff is intentional.

The piece itself has a good buildup, even without the extra lead-in, but suffers a little in its climax. It felt a bit longer than it maybe should have been; the progression structure supports it, but I suspect it has too many unnecessary parts in the middle to give its climax the necessary punch. It was also a bit difficult at times keeping track of the source motifs; at times I thought I heard elements of Maiden's Capriccio and Capital City of Flowers, but I believe this was unintentional. Of course, there's nothing wrong with an arrangement creatively straying away from its source material; I just thought I'd mention it.

A solid arrangement, but with a few oddities. 7/10

23: Karasu - Moths to a Flame
Casual intensity.

Glad to see Karasu in a tournament, though I would have preferred a piano arrangement. As expected, this is a more experimental-type remix that doesn't quite fit its associated genre. Despite employing heavier instrumentation, there's a laid-back tone to the piece; it's not building up to anything, and even its climax holds back on anything forceful. While this is intriguing, it also doesn't seem to serve a purpose, and the finer thought process underlying the arrangement eludes my perception.

Creative, but without direction. 6/10

24: ShinRa-Bansho - Traveler of the Aurora
Cheating.

Following up the previous two with this feels imbalanced, but mayhap that's my bias. However that may be, it's hard to sound fairly critical of this piece, since it obviously covers all the important points and also happens to be a favored style. As a high-energy piece, it jumps very quickly into itself, but somehow avoids stagnating. This may have something to do with the length; I initially thought it was too short, but I think this was more the previous entry feeling so long. It's well filled out and progresses quickly, so I'm now inclined to think its length is appropriate. Also impressive is the double lyrics, a method not unheard of but uncommonly employed.

With perhaps biased favor, an invigorating ending. 8/10

 
i finally got time
life is hell

Eternal Melody - SYNCHRONICITY
I forgot my stance against techno music, good thing i guess??
for disclosure i listened to the one Ken linked since it's better quality.

Quite a high energy track, they did a nice job keeping it exciting
maybe yeah a bit too long as ken says, i also not a big fan of repetition but it's alright.
a bit funny how the end is a fade covered by choirs which never appear in other part.
I will elaborate about the hard cut later.

Vocals, love hate with the autotune, somehow it emphasis it being techno and yet at the same time doesn't feel very natural...well yess technology ain't natural but aeugh.
The lyrics are ok, nothing too deep but not too shallow either, it's about revenge, how surprising.
 

I actually quite enjoy this 8/10

About the abrupt end, the video length is matching with official information, so it's NOT a cut.
I was right when i felt there's something off with the whole track, the mastering felt really amateurish. I'd assume the uploader had put their hand in this track mastering, and NORMALIZED ALL THE PEAKS. Basically making everything flat to a set decibel, the loud got toned down and the lows got louder.
Does not work well with fade since it flatten the fade... which is no fade.

Karasu - Moths to a Flame
they do metal?

I was quite impressed by the opening actually
The sounds of vibraphones faintly in the background is quite nice, though the moment they introduce it as the focal point it kinda kills the tense they've been building.
The transition to satori theme is also flawless, these two theme work together nicely.

I do like the eerie screeching and moans at the middle, it does add to the feel.
While the okuu climax is quite interesting, I can't help but feel the brighter guitar is confused.
no i don't wanna talk about the satori climax

The whole track felt a bit slow with the lower tempo and longer duration despite the intensity they give off.
And slight problem with mastering, some instruments are significantly dominating the others.

6/10 gosh i hate those vibraphones

ShinRa-Bansho - Traveler of the Aurora
I don't even need to listen to this, I listen it all the time. I'm very familiar with this
I collect SWR arranges.

iirc I've posted this in Musical Discovery but ok.
I love this kind of fantasy-esque ethnic genre.
Paired with Flawless Clothing of the Celestials it's a flawless combination.
This kind of stuff feels so epic. Like a breath of the wild, a new perspective, an adventure.
This is is what i expect from any media that delves into fantasy genre.

10/10 i got sucked into the world.
Read 天子の旅 Tenco's Story from Sirakannnu, only 3 Chapters
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/22712774

 
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One month later, I've got a question to those of you who see this.

What do you want me to do next with this?

 
I think we can agree that, for all intents and purposes, RT9 has concluded. As such, I feel I am justified in making some post-tournament comments.

Concerning submissions, I considered this tournament to be above average. I believe this is the largest tournament I’ve been a participant in (I may be mistaken, though), and I both appreciated the volume and variety of arrangements presented, and enjoyed the opportunity to offer commentary thereon. There were ambient soundscapes, an oft overlooked subject of music theory. We had quite a few Shinra-Bansho arrangements, and I was surprised to be still so impressed with their originality despite thinking myself familiar with their style. Even pieces I didn’t appreciate as much served to illustrate the variety of musical tastes and their nuances.

All that being said, these are my top three most memorable submissions. (Those keyboard issues I alluded to a while back have escalated to my main device being unusable (hopefully only temporarily), and the spoiler tab function is unavailable on mobile; as such, I am forced to settle for the quote tab function instead. Last time I did this, I was similarly unable to edit in a spoiler tab later, so I must presume this to be permanent; however, my hope is to eventually utilize the power of InvisiText to restore the integrity of the format.) EDIT: The features available in post editing and mobile posting are bafflingly limited; it wasn't always this way, and I'd like to know why so much was restricted.

1: Shinra-Bansho - Fantasy Poem

I make a point of purchasing the arrangements featured in tournaments when possible; of the few that were available, this is the one I’ve relistened to the most.

2: Virus Key - Dance of the Ice Spirits

I still can’t get over my awe at this piece; I feel this style is relatively rare, and I’m glad to have heard it here.

3: Undead Corporation - Kushinada-Hime OR Iron Attack - Sturm und Drang

The staggered duration of this tournament has made it difficult for me to determine which if these pieces has had more impact on me, so I’m putting them both here.
Click to expand...
Traditionally, my own picks follow. I won’t be able to give my standard reviews thereof right now (I’m already fed up with this touchscreen keyboard), but maybe I can add to the post later.

I’d been saving all of these for some time before this tournament, and I’m glad to have finally got them submitted.

O-Life Japan - Dawn Sky of the Myouren Temple

Noah - Capital City of Flowers in the Sky

Diao ye zong - The Second Performance: Curse Deity
Click to expand...
I have many thoughts and considerations about the way in which this tournament transpired. Most of them I deem to be unhelpful at this time,  so I won’t bother y’all with them. Suffice to say that the interest and investment of participants was less than that of previous tournaments, and I believe this negativity affected the overall experience. 

If there are to be further tournaments, there must be changes made to the structure and formatting, whether it be stronger standards of commitment or a complete overhaul to adapt. But more importantly, there must be interest in doing so; any changed would be pointless otherwise. As such, I will not be the one to instigate the next tournament if there is one.

Thank you to all who contributed. God bless you all, and good night (or day, as the case may be).

 
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