ALiCE'S EMOTION 2009 - Chaos Flare/COLORS/Lycoris/Sphere Caliber

 

ALiCE'S EMOTION

Chaos Flare/COLORS/Lycoris/Sphere Caliber

[ALiCE'S EMOTION; 2009]

3.5 / 4.7 / 8.3 / 7.5

REDALiCE has always been one to release a lot of albums in a year's time. Back in 2008, he put out seven, and six the year before. This does not mean he's slowing down, as he still makes appearances on other doujin albums left and right, churning out hardcore techno at a miraculous consistent pace. When he wasn't sticking his head into every hole he could find, he and circle co-founder Ayumi Nomiya were making and releasing four Touhou remix albums, each of which was released a few months separate at one another.

There is so little of interest about Chaos Flare that it actually leaves me a tad red-faced that I have nothing to say. I personally blame myself for going backwards from the releases, with Sphere and Lycoris making CF look completely boring to listen to by comparison. I guess color me wrong for saying Mizuhashi Jealoussic Park, which was kidnapped by IOSYS for their 2010 release, was from a better album, because CF is worse than Toho Ageha.

COLORS is a vast improvement on Chaos Flare, but also falls victim to having most of the album easily forgettable. If you have heard one vocal remix of Necrofantasia, you’ve heard them all, and Sleeping Beauty is nothing special. Artificial Flower Garden is the musical equivalent of chronic masturbation, always edging but never climaxing. Don’t let the guitar credits for title track COLORS lead you to believe we are getting something special, as it’s just monotonous chords that don’t really contribute anything to the song. Taken out of the context of being on an ALiCE EMOTION release, the electro-house Elebreaka could be mistaken as something made by Traffic Jammies. Tears Doll uses what I like to call “manipulating vocals to sound as artificial and whiny as fucking possible” technique, which combined with Michiru Kaori’s shrill squekly vocals, makes it the worst track out of the thirteen on here by miles. COLORS is filled with some hits and a lot of misses.

An aggressive sound made pretty with joy-filled vocals in Fallen Flower and un;balance, high-spirit synths in lolite, pretty percussion in Alkaloid and a hint of mischief in Morphine. The outer-worldly drones and synths of Hidden Radiance, Magical Higan Tour 2009’s ambient to breakcore blasts, and Oriental Darkcore’s buildups add a feel of mystery and suspense. Despite the rather dark and grim cover, the sound Lycoris boasts is of that that leans more towards celebration than of an ill omen while still being on the lookout.

Given the reputation that doujin has when it comes to vocal tracks, you have every right to be cautious, especially when they are apart of more than half the track listing much like Chaos Flare. Sphere Caliber is the most mellow out of the four releases, with trance being prominent. If you can pardon a bit of moe-ish voice, Ghostly Parapara Ship (Hardcore Edit) uses vocals as a necessity rather than a tag-on to conjour the energy needed for this fist-pumping speed rave. PsychoSniper and under the black, over the shine have better vocals than the aforementioned track, but are musically weaker. Searching For... has more of a lounge groove, making it kind of like the black sheep. REDALiCE goes back to a more light-hearted sound with Heian Inferno and Law Field resembling tracks on Angel Rings more than Crimson Hardcore. Magnolia is THE JAM OF A LIFETIME a masterpiece of bouncy hardstyle. If all of the tracks were up to par with REDALiCE's material, Sphere Caliber would effortlessly outshine Lycoris, but there is so much baggage and dead weight that it hurts the overall quality of the final release of 2009 (seriously? P*Light? Are you bullshitting me?).

With each passing release, an evolution in sound is apparent. There is an awareness that if they keep going along with the same basic structures, Akai Hito and Ayumi Nomiya would be pigeonholed as dime-a-dozen J-Core hacks. It might be the guest-star artists influencing them, or perhaps a sudden burst of inspiration with the release of UFO, but I can see the boldness developing gradually, hopefully promising a better future for the circle and the artists who hop on board, making remixes together in the not-so-distant future, possibly influencing a new route to follow. I cannot help but feel a tad optimistic.