On the nin/eighth day of Christmas, a cat and bunny have sent to me:
nine keysound burgers
surrender peer-pressure
some jumpscares
m̸̧̛͙̝̤͍̠̺͔̓̽͌̋̒̔̏ỵ̶̛̈́͂͑̇̌̕̕ ̸̧̢͉̳͔̰͆̅̄̐̀͐͜ͅb̶̟̘͚̺̌͝ĺ̷̙̯͕͚̬̘́͆̂͛̀̃̋ȇ̸̹̣̱͕̮͖̿͗̔̔̍͝ë̴̳̭̤͖̺̬̎̀̌͋̕ͅd̵̡̧͎̦̘̤̙͓͐̌̅̀̌̀̈͆i̵̘͈̗̳̱̿̾̔n̴̬͇̩̗̞̹̱̉̈́͝g̵̛̼͍͕̝̩͗̎̐̄̕ ̸̭̇̈̔ȩ̵̻̮͎͔̤͕͛̈́a̷̻̎̊͌̀̉̃̇̌r̴͉͈͍̄̓͗s̶̡̢̙̳͇͚͚͒
colorblazing madness
a coaster ride
one ghostly inn
and Linda AI-CUE under the tree.
surrender peer-pressure
some jumpscares
m̸̧̛͙̝̤͍̠̺͔̓̽͌̋̒̔̏ỵ̶̛̈́͂͑̇̌̕̕ ̸̧̢͉̳͔̰͆̅̄̐̀͐͜ͅb̶̟̘͚̺̌͝ĺ̷̙̯͕͚̬̘́͆̂͛̀̃̋ȇ̸̹̣̱͕̮͖̿͗̔̔̍͝ë̴̳̭̤͖̺̬̎̀̌͋̕ͅd̵̡̧͎̦̘̤̙͓͐̌̅̀̌̀̈͆i̵̘͈̗̳̱̿̾̔n̴̬͇̩̗̞̹̱̉̈́͝g̵̛̼͍͕̝̩͗̎̐̄̕ ̸̭̇̈̔ȩ̵̻̮͎͔̤͕͛̈́a̷̻̎̊͌̀̉̃̇̌r̴͉͈͍̄̓͗s̶̡̢̙̳͇͚͚͒
colorblazing madness
a coaster ride
one ghostly inn
and Linda AI-CUE under the tree.
Ergosphere TOMOSUKE / pop'n musicA trio of songs is on our way, all three belonging to bemani's pop'n music series! The first of these also happens to be our last-recorded song request for this year around.
Suggested by Aries, here we are served with Ergosphere, a 'Collapse Jazz' piece made for the series' 10th anniversary arcade entry, pop'n music 16 PARTY♪. It's one unique track that changes quite a bit from the playable version(s) to the official soundtrack ones, all due to a stylistic choice by the composer himself, Tomosuke Funaki (舟木智介)! As recently revealed through a tweet of his, he wanted to convey the idea of 'a thrilling one-shot session atmosphere' for Ergosphere's soundtrack version in the pop'n music 16 OST, leaving out the playable cut with the voice cues only many years later with the pop'n music SUPER BEST BOX album. Another interesting tidbit concerns the song's rival character SMOKE, originally being one of the rejected character ideas for the 2nd pop'n music arcade game (link).
Arcade and portable console ports aside (with the PSP's pop'n music portable 2), the song has faced a minor resurgence of sorts as one of the latest in-house crossovers headed to the latest entry in the beatmania IIDX series (IIDX 29 CastHour).
Kanashii ne (悲しいね) Butapunch / pop'n musicNo need to fear for a sudden meme interlude with finely-minted cheese from the very-recurrent bemani commission artist Tsugumi Kataoka (片岡嗣実) on my part, for once... mostly due to the fact that the requesting work was already made by someone else! User quartzs from the Discord server managed to beat even me to the punch. Or the Buta-punch, you might say...
Kanashii ne (lit. 'That's Sad') made its debut on the console version of the 6th pop'n music game, a first in the series for being an unlockable tune not coming from any artist with direct affiliation to either bemani or Konami as a whole, a feat to be repeated only 5 console versions later with the infamous song Blue River. It's also quite a relevant song for the artist as this is Kataoka's first track to be signed under the Butapunch (ブタパンチ) pseudonym. Similarly to Tatsuya Shimizu's "alias-lore reveals" for his Xeami and Persona aliases, the composer behind Butapunch was introduced as a mystery with question marks all over its online profile for this song, a mystery which was used as a selling point to the first OST holding the song, the pop'n music 8 AC ♥ CS pop'n music 6 original soundtrack which back then was the only source of finding out who Butabunch really is (without doing... you know... the search-engine usual).
The genre-titled 'Oi Punk' managed to get relation with two more tracks from the artist, over the years: the 'Oi Punk 0' Butapunch no Theme (ブタバンチのテーマ) whose ending portion begins into the same Kanashii ne and Genkai Shokudo (限界食堂) from the more recent pop'n music peace, one of the few tracks from that arcade version to receive an extended version.
Der Wald(kors k Remix) Elehamonica remixed by kors k / pop'n musicOriginal song remixes have always been a substantial part of the series' essence on each succeeding version; at long last, we can see the beginnings of it through a request by DiamondN1nja ver. Sig! Gather around to find out more about this song than your average monoplayer of PC rhythm gaming of a pink circular logo might be able to tell you...
Titled after the German way of spelling "The Forest", the original Der Wald was made for the 13th pop'n music entry (13 Carnival) by Kiyoshi Murai (村井潔), signed under the alias of Elehamonica (エレハモニカ) and backed up with German singing by longtime bemani contributor Taku Sakakibara (榊原琢) as a means of musical experimentation in line with his other songs with 'DARK' in their genre. Quite the courageous choice for the original composer to take, considering how most of the 13th pop'n music game's Location Test players asked from him another song in the 'DARKNESS' genre with Yoshinori Hatae (波多江良徳) instead!
Flashforward to the development of the last numbered entry in the arcade series -pop'n music 20 fantasia- and Kosuke 'kors k' Saito (斉藤広祐) was tasked by colleague PON to remix Der Wald for one of its latter-end unlockables. Styling his song revisitation under the way he composed his beatmania IIDX songs under his Eagle alias (D; ICARUS; S!ck), kors k managed to finish the Der Wald remix commission a few days before the deadline's end!
