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Hello fellows, long time not to see. A short post about one of my favorites musicians (unnecessary, but for me).
I don’t have a specific reason to write this post, but I’m doing anyway. Today’s subject is not about politics, censorship, or how the world is getting better in economic sense but much worse in terms of individual freedom. On contrary, it is a light, touchy subject. It is about music, one of the wonders the humankind has invented for their own pleasure. Now, a small introduction, a context about what kind of music Kikuo produces.
If you are here, I assume with high probability that you know or at least heard about Vocaloid (don’t say that is cringe!). Vocaloid is a voice synthesizer created in mid of 2000s developed by Yamaha. However, because cute and moe things sell (thoughtcrime.MOE), in 2006 or 7 they launched “personified” voice data that you could synthesize in the program – a character. Since then, the most famous, universally recognized, Queen of All Electronic Music is Hatsune Miku, that I won’t explain what is, just Google it. Well, since that launching, Miku just became the symbol for the Vocaloid software, and many, MANY people – called producers – just used her voice (and from other characters) to create music. Easy explanation, right?
Time goes by, producers also come and go,; some of them still exists, but in obscurity; a minority ditched Vocaloid altogether and only produces real person music (like Hachi, or his real name, Yonezu Kenshi, that nowadays is a superstar in Japan, making music for himself to sing and to others artists); and a few dozen, not to many, still have some kind of popularity and keeps creating music sung by software, including Kikuo, that goes in this last group. It is no surprise that since always many of Vocaloid music had and have dark and disconcerting lyrics and melodies, ranging from suicide and depression, to bullying and despair. Ok, all music have such themes. However, only a few musician really have a distinct characteristic, given both by their technical abilities behind the (musical) keyboard and storytelling sensibility. Kikuo is one that excels at both, creating heart-piercing melodies hard to forget, complex to digest, and easy to fell in love S2.
I won’t tell his entire history, but he was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and released his first album in 2009 (I just found a rabbit hole leading to his past artworks and music and old Twitter and pixiv accounts, and it is so… somber). Initially not using Vocaloid, but instrumental and in collaboration with singers. But I think that when he launched Kikuoworld, the second album under the pen name Kikuo, still without Miku, when we could finally listen his characteristic melody. A dark touch, a line of bass, transiting between electronic and ethereum (?) music. I am the worst to type in words how music “feels”, but let me present you Ankyo (暗叫/Screaming at the Darkness):
At the start a voice in crescendo blends with the instrument, and then the tremoulusity gives a phantasmagorical sensation, until we don’t know if what is screaming is the voice or a instrument. This ambiguity carries all the melody of this song, something screaming, claiming for help, but still smooth and pleasant.
In Kikuoworld 3, he puts all of the skills in a one-song 38 minutes music album, a song called Sight, Noise, Life and the Earth. This one is a hell of a trip, it transverses dozen of instruments, rhytms, compasses and tempos. Everything glued so well that transitions between sections are hard to realize. If you are into drugs (I’m not), you should listen to this while smoking a pot.
Time will pass so fast that you think this music is only 10 minutes long! Ok, I am being hyperbolic here, but you can have a trip with this while stranded in home due corona. I like to think while listening to this song that I am traveling around the world, taking a taste of different types of melodies in each place. Try that too.
After this introduction we can talk about Kikuo’s works in Vocaloid world. Until now, he have launched 6 albums with Hatsune Miku, and in each one I think he just got better.
Kikuomiku is the album where the journey with the virtual singer starts. Miku’s voice (tuning) is still kind of plain, without special characteristics, but the range of instruments used was already astounding. Boku wo Sonna Me de Minaide (僕をそんな目で見ないで/Don’t Look at Me That Way) is one of the most remarkable for me, it has a kind-of-happy-melody for Kikuo standards, but something still sets me off, and I don’t know what it is. Perfect for listen while going to sleep.
Koufuku na Shi (幸福な死/A Happy Death) is my favorite in Kikuomiku 2. It has some electronic music feelings, but with a low beat rate, it has some repetitive pattern in the melody and lyrics. Its happy melody contrast with the somewhat dark lyrics, about a person who wants to be reunited with his or her loved one in heaven (or hell).
Kikuomiku 3 is where becomes reallllly difficult to find the best one. Miku’s tuning got substantially better, is not so plain anymore, and two songs I think are the most representative.
The first, Aishite Aishite Aishite (愛して愛して愛して/Love Me, Love Me, Love Me). If you type Kikuo in Youtube search, probably you will get this one in the top results. The video clip by itself is a fine art piece, especially when attached to lyrics. Aishite Aishite Aishite looks to be about a child that (beware: interpretations may vary) pressured into to be a good girl, that takes goods scores and has a exemplar behaviour, becoming addicted to be the center of attentions, but struggling so hard to keep up the appeareances. Eventually she’ll will break due stress, but this is a extrapolation of a half assed understanding. Besides the catchy melody, the simple lyrics, and the nice bag pipe-like instrument in the background, it has many covers, like this one from Miyashita Yuu which I recommend.
The second one is also that one to listen while smoking a pot. Tenshou Shoutenshou (てんしょう しょうてんしょう/Reincarnation Ascension).
How can I explain this… It is like to going up in a spiral staircase with the eyes closed while a wind blows at 40 kilometers an hour in your face, not knowing what is up ahead. Then, when you are finally approaching the end, when you see clarity going through your eye lid you lose your equilibrium and falls, rolling down the staircase infinitely until the end. Sorry, I don’t even know what I just wrote. It feels like being in someone else’s body, like being… reincarnated? (pun intended). Well, the lyrics says exactly this, someone being held in an eternal cycle of reincarnation due bad things made in the past, like curse. I recommend you not to joke around Kikuo…
Kikuomiku 4 is the one I think is most okayish compared to the others. The melodies somewhat sound like “happier” (not really happy, but it looks like), however it got a little bit less of my attention (maybe more repetitive?). Tracks exceptions to this are Obake no Shoutaijou (おばけの招待状/Invitation from Spooky) that you can listen below, and the superb extended and remixed version of Tenshou Shoutenshou, almost 8 minutes of the reincarnation spiral.
The next, Kikuomiku 5, is special to me, because it was because I pirated this one first I discoverd the awesomeness of Kikuo’s discography and finally threw my money at his face, buying all of his digital albums (physical copies someday, who knows). The first 3 tracks are the best of the album, I think, that is difficult to just place one here, but Kara Kara Kara no Kara (カラカラカラのカラ) is my choice now. The tuning of Miku is top tier on this one, and although it may look repetitive it has a broad range of instruments and also utilizes sound effects. Every time I listen to it, my head moves along the rhytm, please don’t judge me.
Miku here has some passages with the voice sustained, without sounding irritating (electronic voices usually have high pitch, so it needs to be very well tuned to not repel any listeners).
Kaijuu Pino Porarisu (怪獣ピノ・ポラリス/Pino Polaris the Monster) is a cute song also with many layers of genres and instruments, and the lyric is also cute but at the same time kind of sad (haha, as many Kikuo works…).
Finally, the masterpiece: Kikuomiku 6
This one deserves a separated section, for sure. The sixth Kikuomiku album is what peak perfomance looks like (is this joke old now?). I would say it is a experimental work, because although the style screams Kikuo all the time, there is something there that stands out when compared to the previous ones. Maybe it is the first one made with digital distribution in mind, but when bought from Bandcamp it came with the booklet in jpeg format, designed by himself (except the cover, made by an artist called si_ku). One of the images is a message from Kikuo on thoughts while making this album, and reveals this one is very, but very personal to him. The school thematic is strong in both audio and in art, maybe using his traumatic old days in school as source for inspiration, and holy shit, everything went so perfect! As he says in the booklet, less lyrics, high quality mastering and mixing, unexpected sound effects, unbalanced audio in right and left side and go on. It is fucking hard to decide the favorite track, every single one embraces me and drags me down deep into Kikuomiku world, specially when using headphone (it is better you do fucking use headphones while listening, or I will personally throw you under a bus).
Boring is exactly what Kikuomiku 6 is not. Even inside the same song, everything can change at any time, the start and ending may not follow the same compass, but never escape what the song proposes. It avoids repetition without losing the central melody that sustains the song, it never adds too much instruments at the same time, clogging the audio, but keeps them strictly separated, and you can hear all of them. Each side of the audio plays slightly different tracks, so that’s why I recommend to use a good quality headphone.
I will show you 2 tracks that I like (is there any that I dislike? I think not). First one is Batsu Neko (バツ猫/XxX Cat):
Audio separation? Check. Cat meowing as compass marking? Check. Things breaking as beating? Check. Although you may say this one has repetitive beating but it is not boring.
The second one is Festival of the Dark (闇祭/Festival of the Dark). Since the first second, you will catch yourself looking to the sides to find the source of the sound, but it is only the instrument dancing around your head due the use of stereo effect. It gives me goosebumps everytime I listen to this one, and I don’t know why this kind of effect is not used more frequently in mainstream music (maybe because nobody cares outside a niche? Or it takes too much time to make it correct? I don’t know).
These are two great works, technically perfect, but my favorite music in the album is Butasei Nanika (舞台性ナニカ/Histrionic), a Vocaloid version of the song he had previously made for Miyashita Yuu to sing, but in my opinion the Miku’s version is substantially better.
One more recommendation from me: at least, listen a few times the album in order, from track 1 to track 12, it feels like a continous journey, and will be more enjoyable. But it is only my personal preference…
From the booklet art, the technical precision, the heart piercing lyrics, I can easily say that Kikuomiku 6 is one the best music out there, including bone and flesh singers! (Un)fortunately, the genre only appeals to a niche because of the dark setting and complex messages and I don’t see such kind of music going mainstream (and I even didn’t touch the Vocaloid scenario, that is a niche squared, and let be sincere, it is not everyone that can tolerate high pitch virtual singers). I wouldn’t say Kikuo is underrated, he is very known in Vocaloid world, and for me he stands apart from the rest. As a Vocaloid (or virtual instrument, if you prefer) producer or just a music producer, yes, he is the best one (given my sample of listened music to the date, obviously). The future only God knows and I would be more than happy if he, one day, follows the Hachi/Yonezu Kenshi path and starts to produce music to mainstream singers – I do know about the collaboration works with human singers besides Miyashita Yuu, like Yurica Hanatan and the crazy good Kikuohana Dai Ichi Maku and Dai Ni Maku albums (example: Fukouya no Musume), but unfortunately these two albums I couldn’t find available for digital purchase in my beloved flac, only in mp3 format and on monopolistic Amazon…
I think I reached the end of this article. If you like his music, you can buy in his Bandcamp, or explore his website. During this research, I discovered a now abandoned Kikuo’s blog where you can find posts since 2008 with many drawings he made, and know we can see from where all the art style accompaning his music came from. Just a warning: it has some unsettling imagery, so don’t access if you are easily offended.
