Winter in Gensokyo Week 2

Reviews

Week 2 is here and Louisville saw our first snowfall of drumroll not even a measurable amount to justify the news reporting on it. In that brief moment, however, I felt more at ease with the winter season. Now understand, at this moment I was walking out of work, trying to gather back all the hopes and dreams I abandoned at the door when I saw the white powder falling from the sky. I was happy, elated at the fact there was a substantial amount of snow falling from the sky. It wasn’t until I looked at the ground and cars around me that I noticed, this is going to melt as soon as it hits the ground. You can’t make snowballs or even snowpellets with this. Instead of letting this time with the show go to waste, I fired up the old Youtube and started getting to work on some Touhou tracks for this weeks “Winter in Gensokyo” playlist.

毒入り金平糖の踊り by TATAMI STUGIWO

I remember when I was a kid in choir, one of the field trips we took we to see the Nutcracker, a wonderful piece of ballet that was welcome in the winter time to break up the cycle of watching “Cats” the musical and singing songs from it as warm up. It is kinda funny that I find a mix of the Nutcracker and “Poison Body ~ Forsaken Doll”. It oozes elegance, like a princess at a ball. The instrumentation on both ends of the song really puts the vision of all the Touhous putting on the play in the center of the human village to celebrate the holidays. The powerful crescendos, the thumping drums, and that amazing string section bring so much depth to this song that if this song was all digital, you could have fooled me.

Scarlet Session!! by Assault Door

This song is SAXY!!! HAHAAHA!!! GET IT!!! HAHAHAHIHAVENOFRIENDSHAHAHAHA!!! Anyway. I just love this song. It is short, at about 1:03, but it is nice to put on in the background on loop when the nights are cold, your fireplace is roaring, and you and your loved one (2D or 3D, I don’t judge) are nestled down for the night watching the snow fall. It is a comforting song. The saxophone is a nice touch.

Holy Night’s Dong by Azure & Sands

If you are from the states, just after (and sometimes even before) Thanksgiving, the seasonal radio stations start hitting the air. Think of it like GR, but only Christmas Music and Seasonal hits. That is where I think this song would fall. Just add some Michael Buble on top of this and you have something similar to what I hear every time I walk into Walmart at 10:00pm looking for something to inconvenience the only register open (there is not much to do in my town). What annoys me is the amount of compression on the song but I have no idea if it has to do with the age of the song, the recording method, or the fact that Youtube sucks for most music when it comes to fidelity. #FLACMasterRace. What the song lacks in the quality department, it makes up for in the nice bouncy Jazz department. I really like how the song just bounces about with the sounds of the upright bass. It really transforms probably one of the most hype tracks in all of Touhou: “Catastrophe in Bhava-agra ~ Wonderful Heaven” the title theme for Hisoutensoku.

妖精と風の木 by foxfactory

It has a very nice tone to it. The guitar is very smooth and adds this feeling of movement. Like if you were walking outside alone on a cold winter night and the wind starts howling. You see the trees bend, and you can hear the sound of the branches snapping. It is kinda like that for me. I mean it is all up to the listener. At about three minutes long it is rather short. If you love guitar, I would recommend this track.

Cryistalized Silver by SeeU???

The Year is 20XX, and this Christmas, all the snow is DIGITIZED! Christmas was canceled, that was until DJNicholas came to town. Naughty or Nice, they all defeated the evil spring robots and take back Christmas.

Again this is a case of this song is barely fitting into the category of the song being a winter mix but it defiantly falls more in line then “Funny Baby Doll” from last week. This is possibly my favorite mix of both Cirno’s and Letty’s themes together. It skirts the line between “you want to tear off that ugly Christmas Sweater and bust out those glow-sticks” and “I really think this mix is elegant and soothing.” It plays fast a loose this that concept. Like I want to have a rave in ankle deep snow. All we would have to do is bust those sticks in the snow at nightfall and get those black lights out.

The only reason I have question marks in the title is the fact that I cannot find any citation for this track Nico Nico and Youtube were no help to verify if that is the real artist and song title. If anyone has the proper citation please notify me and I will edit this post.

Well, that is it for this week. Tune in next week to get five more Touhou tracks for this winter season. So from all of us at Gensokyo Radio to you, Happy Holidays and stay warm.

Suggested Posts