Aira Mitsuki – Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS January 27, 2009

Track Listing

1. Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS
2. HiGH SD Sneaker
3. COSMiC CHOPPER
4. distant STARS
5. Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS (Traks Boys rmx)
6. HiGH SD Sneaker (BIG BEAT CRUSH rmx)
7. Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS (digital mp-3 mastering ver.)
8. HiGH SD Sneaker (digital mp-3 mastering ver.)
9. COSMiC CHOPPER (digital mp-3 mastering ver.)
10. distant STARS (digital mp-3 mastering ver.)

1. Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS

A song about global warming? The girls of D-TOPIA has some strange topics and Saori and Aira lead it.  Anyways, the song has a stronger beat and does sound more serious than “ROBOT HONEY” which luckily this Aira I love more than girly Aira.  The song also a a very small urban touch as well, which made the experience more cooler.  Even though she says ~Technoplis~ like *facepalms*.  This is probably her strongest A-side IMO since “China Discotica”.

2. HiGH SD Sneaker

It starts innocently enough, but it screeches into a pretty aggressive track.  Aira is speaking the verse and then there’s a guys voice which mixes with Aira’s and they come in and out of each like real smoothly until the chorus where she sings the chorus.  It sounds like there’s electric guitar going, so I basically liked this hands down.  Cooooool!

3. COSMiC CHOPPER

Even more wicked is the opening to COSMiC CHOPPER which also fits with the space theme of the single.  Aira is singing slower, but the music still contains some awesome synth riffs.  It has some pretty wicked bass lines and perhaps seems disco-y?  This is also another track that could’ve been an A-side, I swear.

4. distant STARS

The ballad of the single definitly outshines “Every night heartfull music song” in almost every way.  It starts with a muffled start and Aira as well singing it as well.  Then a click happens and the song starts off as well.  It isn’t as awkward as the said song it beat out and it definitly brought the space theme well. 

5. Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS (Traks Boys rmx)

I like how the tracks opened with a beat and Aira singing the chorus.  It really makes you wonder where it’ll lead as the sound rises and it covers Aira up.  I guess it does seem long-winded and repetitive by then your half-way done with the mix.  Though the rocks elements sound cool, it just doesn’t connect with Aira and well it failed practically.

6. HiGH SD Sneaker (BIG BEAT CRUSH rmx)

The second remix was a lot more eventful because of just how in your face it was.  There’s a lot more sound and Aira has some vocal distortions as well with more vocoder.  The remix is way better than the previous and the chorus is again <3.  Interesting to note that it’s a pretty short track only at 3:30.  So it did its job right.

 

 

Aira major single release was definitly a huge step-up from “ROBOT HONEY”  One can make the parallels almost immediatly to that single because of the track layout and presentations of the songs.  This time she definitly took notice and did a way better job.  Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS is a great A-side, COSMiC CHOPPER and HiGH SD Sneaker are space-themed awesomeness and even distant STARS would space sound really nice with its dream-like qualities.  HiGH SD Sneaker’s remix was the only good one of the two, but altogether a pretty strong single!

Aira Mitsuki – Valentine STEP January 27, 2009

Track Listing

1. Valentine STEP
2. Tofubeats Mash UP include 11 Aira Songs
3. L0ne1yBoy L0ne1yGirl

1. Valentine STEP

Interesting is that the song as a small latin flavor to it.  Must be the acoustic guitar driven sound and the percussion choices this song features.  This odd mixture to Aira techno sound causes a small riff, but it’s this mixture that also makes this stand out than the normal stuff the tekkers usually do and I praise Aira fully for this.  This is gonna be one of those love/hate tracks but this is pretty good for Aira on this pretty long single.  Though the ad-libbing in the middle of the track probably wasn’t needed, but I guess it did link up the other small solo of the track.

2. Tofubeats Mash UP includes 11 Aira Songs

1. China Discotica
2. Swallowtail D.A.N.C.E (It’s China Discotica with some of Swallowtail D.A.N.C.E’s chanting.)
3. Fantasy Candy
4. HEART LINE ALIVE (HEART LINE ALIVE plays over an instrumental section of Fantasy Candy after it’s played through)
5. Knee-high Girl
6. SAZAE FUNKADELiC (TOKYO IKEJIRI PLASTIC BABE rmx)
7. Happiness land (Happiness land starts playing over the remix pretty soon after it starts)
8. Swallowtail D.A.N.C.E (Cherryboy function ver.)
9. Rock’n Roll Is Dead
10. ROBOT HONEY
11. High Bash (Original ver.)

Ok first off, I do not hear the 11th track of this particular track, so if anyone catches this please do tell me.  If you though “COPY YAKENOHARA MEGAMIX” was long, then prepare for this heavy one.  Why I called this single long was the 21 minute fest of songs that do practically chronicle her past works.  We begin with China Discotica and it’s the longest of all the tracks meshed in because it practically goes through the track itself with some obvious cuts and repetitions.  About the 5 minute mark we land into Fantasy Candy which I wouldn’t have known it if it weren’t for the noticeable synth line.  We go through the first verse and chorus and second chorus before you hear Aira begin singing the chorus of HEART LINE ALIVE and the music starts to die down a little because you hear it come back as the synth line from Knee-high Girl kicks in which did surprise me as I didn’t expect any of the B-sides from the last single to actually appear.  As for the transitioning in the last 3 songs, they handled it very well actually.  It also worked through the transition into another surprise track SAZAE FUNKEDELiC which I found funny when they decided to mix the loud part with Happiness land as well.  It was a pretty short mix of both songs as they made its way into Swallowtail D.A.N.C.E. which like the original is pretty quiet.  Though it builds up to a loud section just as the original.  Luckily it goes through the vocal parts, so it wasn’t as useless as it was heard on the megamix off the album.  Then there’s this part where it goes through a moment I couldn’t exactly decipher, but I bet this would be where the 11th song would be, but it’s a very small part.  We then get into Rock’ n Roll is Dead which is my biggest surprise to this track all over.  I didn’t expect it after it was the only new track found on the original version of “C.O.P.Y”.  I have to say it’s good to see its inclusion. The transitioning into ROBOT HONEY was so off the wall, but definitly cool to hear.  It’s goes through its verse and chorus and finishes into what I’ll say is the Original version of High Bash which finishes off this 21-minute fest.  Altogether, it’s a nice treat, but she didn’t include any big hitters like “Colorful Tokyo Sounds NO.9″ or “GALAXY BOY” which was sort of disappointing.  Oh yea, the whole skipping sound was so annoying.

3. L0ne1yBoy L0ne1yGirl

Wait, didn’t I hear this track on “C.O.P.Y”?  Well, I guess they wanted to really officialize it, so they put it on here.  This could’ve been the 11th track to the previous track but iono.  I actually like this track still even if it was an extra to the album.  I love the arpeggios happening in the synth which made the song bouncy and the twinkly stuff worked for me as well.  The verses are a little weird as the bass synth keeps popping in and out.  It’s crazy.

 

 

Aira’s minor single was pretty different, but in a good way.  Valentine STEP is a nice listen and also a cool change of sound even though it’s still techno.  L0ne1yBoy L0ne1yGirl, even though it’s a rehash, finally got it’s official release and still is one of her better tracks.  The uber long mash up was mistitled IMO and probably wasn’t needed, but the song choices were great.  I mean the obvious China Discotica to the not-so-obvious Rock’ n Roll is Dead was in that package.  You know they could have ditched the mix and put in “Senjou no Merry Christmas” and “MIKE ALWAY’S DIARY” instead because even though they were from a V.A. they were the best off of it.  Damn…