Blck Onyx - DiGiTiZED FAiRiES

Black Onyx

DiGiTiZED FAiRiES
[Black Onyx; 2010]

5.7

I don't get three-flavor ice cream cases at all. I mean, I can understand the concept behind them, but just how many people buy them because there live with several different people in a house, each of whom don't like certain "basic" flavors, and just how in the name of hell is a third of a case satisfactory? Too much for one bowl, and not nearly enough for a second serving the time after. It leaves you unsatisfied unless you aren't too picky and would eat the other flavors (or perhaps take from the other flavors as well). And so this is exactly my beef with DiGiTiZED FAiRiES, the ultimate example of a Touhou remix album that is basically a three flavor carton of ice cream, being a third Trance, a third hardcore, and a third DURRHURR (or mint strawberry pineapple blueberry all in one).

The first third consists of trance tracks such as the reverb-heavy opener Milky Child. セプテットテープセット throws acid onto the field, with a start abusing various effectors at the start before becoming fairly standard afterwards. Flandre Underground Rave Party!is the highlight of the album, feeling like a track you would hear at a club by not being too direct of a remix with an explosion of energy at the end, and FLANDRE SCALET as our piece of Engrish for the album as a bonus.

The middle is the weakest portion, being entirely hardstyle tracks. saw-soul thundering bass drowns out the more subtle layers. TRAUMA MUThAfUckA and cruel punisher use samples that anyone who has looked into the Japanese Hardcore scene for more than an hour would immediately recognize. cruel punisher is the best song of the three, borrowing breakcore and trance elements, but it's not saying a whole lot. もふもふ, frankly, baffles me as to what to label it as, with quiet melodies and distorted uplighting drones done in the form of ambient, and a deep bass seen in techno techno but at the tempo of hardcore. ?63HiiraossHuikgoeH53? corporates breakcore, chiptune, many shifts between various instruments, tempo shifts, etc. that makes it stand out the most from the nine, but in the end come off as an abandomed clustefuck that could be passed off as a B-Side track on ABT&HM(P). Code Red Biological 2010 is another remix of U.N. Own was Her? and is significantly weaker than Party Rave, but still has a fantastic buildup with increasing beats, musical layering, and fade-ins.

What we have here is not an album, but three collective extended plays aimed at different audiences. If you like trance, the first half is for you. Hard style nut? Dig into the center. Want a mish-mosh or a surprise? Skip to the seventh track and leave the player on until the end of the album. If you like all of them, you're mostly like going to find something you like out of this.