If there is one song that I like to listen over and over, it would be Saikai covered by Moona and Suisei. To me, this is the entry for me to like again Japanese songs and starts to take the vtubing industry as a legit music industry.
I have liked the Japanese songs in the past, but grown tired because of their direction. They tend to milk much with royal road progression and the math rock-ish style. Feels like repeated theme over and over.
I will know if it's a Japanese song or not based on the song. That at some point made me tired of listening the same pattern on any Japanese songs. I do have a favorite band that I think different from the rest, Perfume. I collected their CDs by asking my friends who visited Japan. So, I don't think that I am totally off with the Japanese music.
Of course, the pandemic stops my supply of CD and I don't have any room for more CDs.
Anyway, back to the Hoshi duet...
I found it interesting about how both of Suisei and Moona taking the approach. And how I am learning Japanese culture from this song.
If you look at the video mash up between the original singers and them here:
You can hear that Suisei is sounding a lot like Uru and Moona had sung the song differently. At first, I would think low for Suisei. However, the Japanese comments seems to like Suisei take on the song rather than Moona.
Here I want to be clear, both of Moona and Suisei is taking a good effort to sing the song. However, me as an audience from outside Japan, and as a musician, feels that Suisei is singing not like herself. She mimic the Uru style.
My expectation for both cover artists to sing Saikai with their own take. You give your flavor to that song. That's why my respect grow for Moona because she sings the song with her take. Moona showcasing her long breath and strong vocal on that song.
Fortunately, I learn the word Utaite means Utaitemitta, or I tried to sing. So, in their culture, probably, what Suisei doing is actually honoring the original singer as the best form of cover. So, now I understand why Suisei wanted to sing her song closed to Uru-style. Which was why started to respect both approaches.
UPDATE: Yeah, based on the Suisei personal preference, she has a habit to sing a cover as close as the original singer. That in itself actually a skill. I respect that despite wanting her to have her own take in the cover. I just need to respect from different point of view.
There is one thing that I don't like from the production of this duet. The sound engineer (Redshift) seems playing too much with the vocal. Redshift distorted the vocal sound too much for me. Or, may be this is a problem with YouTube decoding?
I feel the distortion is something that of Redshift signature. It works really well in Reine's cover with Towa in Cynical Night Plan. But, that is a stylized songs, while this one is a vocal-based song. I hope Redshift do the mixing like in Kobo's rendition of Everything Goes On.
I mean, the song of RATATATA by Baby Metal x Electric Call Boy also feels distorted. But not so much like Saika. And also, I think this is natural because RATATATA is a rock song. The distortion on the singing is obviously to balance with the scream of electric guitars.
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