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Media touhou music and doujin circles
- Thread starter rineko
- Start date
In anticipation for Marisa's first lead game next month, have a remix/arrangement of each of Marisa's themes *-*
[Touhou 2] Love-Colored Magic (Ambient Ver.) - Stas Gavrik
[Touhou 3] Dim. Dream 2.0 (Remastered) - Artifex
[Touhou 4] Vessel of Stars - Casket of Star - Demetori
[Shuusou Gyoku] The Witches' Ball ~ Magus - dBu
[Touhou 7.5] Dance of the Witches - Melodic Taste
[Touhou 8] Love-colored Master Spark (Piano/Traditional remix) - 彩音 ～xi-on～
[Touhou 9] Oriental Dark Flight PC98 remix - Hazama Yuutou (the best marisa theme btw)
Also bonus [Touhou 2] Title theme - Pure Land Mandala <Megaman X style> - Ventus because Oriental Dark Flight is a remix of it
[Touhou 12.8] WiTCH's BRAWL (Magus Night) - TheHanako
[Touhou 13.5] Magus Night - U2 Akiyama yes this is just the official game's theme, it is however the perfect Magus remix and it'll never be touched
Zun really decided to make 4 distinct Magus Nights :pensive: still a top 10 touhou theme in any iteration though
[Touhou 2] Love-Colored Magic (Ambient Ver.) - Stas Gavrik
[Touhou 3] Dim. Dream 2.0 (Remastered) - Artifex
[Touhou 4] Vessel of Stars - Casket of Star - Demetori
[Shuusou Gyoku] The Witches' Ball ~ Magus - dBu
[Touhou 7.5] Dance of the Witches - Melodic Taste
[Touhou 8] Love-colored Master Spark (Piano/Traditional remix) - 彩音 ～xi-on～
[Touhou 9] Oriental Dark Flight PC98 remix - Hazama Yuutou (the best marisa theme btw)
Also bonus [Touhou 2] Title theme - Pure Land Mandala <Megaman X style> - Ventus because Oriental Dark Flight is a remix of it
[Touhou 12.8] WiTCH's BRAWL (Magus Night) - TheHanako
[Touhou 13.5] Magus Night - U2 Akiyama yes this is just the official game's theme, it is however the perfect Magus remix and it'll never be touched
Zun really decided to make 4 distinct Magus Nights :pensive: still a top 10 touhou theme in any iteration though
so ignore the huge necro but within this span touhou 18.5 and 19 have released, the grape lesbian has become a fan favorite, and doujin circles continue to release music, especially with reitaisai happening this weekend with dozens of new albums releasing. in the past two years, ive been listening to touhou doujin circles more than ever before, discovering so many different ones even though it feels like ive still only barely unraveled the surface. ive been listening to a lot of halozy, eastnewsound, alstromeria records, liz triangle, zytokine, digital wing, sync arts, inorai, sound holic, shinra bansho, akatsuki records, and so much more; all are amazing. many of the circles often collab with each other and will have the same vocalists on their songs, such as nachi, misato, nayuta, mei ayakura, cheluce, nomico, just to name some off the top of my head.
but theres been one circle thats stood out to me way more than the others and thats minimum electric design. the first song i listened to was sputnik no sekai (スプートニクの世界), a remix of g free which was already a favorite of mine, and i was hooked immediately. the generally relaxed instrumentation of this circles songs, the vocals of mineko and kanihara, it just hits so right. this is another song of theirs, scientific age of gutenberg (グーテンベルクの科学世紀), a remix of satelliete cafe terrace, which im really fond of. to be honest im a big fan of the renko and maribel cd songs in general so im really glad they cover a lot of them.
i wanted to bring minimum electric design up cause they just released their newest album this past weekend, just titled will. they already uploaded one of the songs a few weeks back, a remix of retrospective kyoto, tengu girl (テングガール), which makes me so excited to listen to the rest of the album whenever i get the chance. the circle also has several "trail" albums, which are about ~90 minutes long and are a huge collection of many of their arrangements. not all of their songs are vocal, some are chill instrumental songs, but theyre all such a vibe. i could probably talk so in depth about all these doujin circles but my brain is mush right now, go check them out theyre awesome.
some more songs from them:
rainbow emotion (虹色エモーション), original: lost emotion, vocal: kanihira
murasaki (ムラサキ - Out of the East), original: necrofantasia, vocal: mineko and kanihira
hana chiru tsukiyo no kairou (花散る月夜の回廊), original: flowering night, instrumental
but theres been one circle thats stood out to me way more than the others and thats minimum electric design. the first song i listened to was sputnik no sekai (スプートニクの世界), a remix of g free which was already a favorite of mine, and i was hooked immediately. the generally relaxed instrumentation of this circles songs, the vocals of mineko and kanihara, it just hits so right. this is another song of theirs, scientific age of gutenberg (グーテンベルクの科学世紀), a remix of satelliete cafe terrace, which im really fond of. to be honest im a big fan of the renko and maribel cd songs in general so im really glad they cover a lot of them.
i wanted to bring minimum electric design up cause they just released their newest album this past weekend, just titled will. they already uploaded one of the songs a few weeks back, a remix of retrospective kyoto, tengu girl (テングガール), which makes me so excited to listen to the rest of the album whenever i get the chance. the circle also has several "trail" albums, which are about ~90 minutes long and are a huge collection of many of their arrangements. not all of their songs are vocal, some are chill instrumental songs, but theyre all such a vibe. i could probably talk so in depth about all these doujin circles but my brain is mush right now, go check them out theyre awesome.
some more songs from them:
rainbow emotion (虹色エモーション), original: lost emotion, vocal: kanihira
murasaki (ムラサキ - Out of the East), original: necrofantasia, vocal: mineko and kanihira
hana chiru tsukiyo no kairou (花散る月夜の回廊), original: flowering night, instrumental
oh this is a thread
anyway ive been listening to a lot of this channel recently its just touhou x piano but its so pretty and i just love it a ton. some of my favorites are heaven of scarlet perception, voyage 1969.5, last remote and apparition stalks the night (this last one i was not expecting it to become so bright and cheerful but it just hits and i do not know why)
also, this orchestral arrange of the sa ost is one of my favorites. this is the kind of stuff that i think bores people within 5 minutes but hooks me instantly, im a very passive listener so i love instrumentals and this is perfect for me. the atmosphere just oozes from these tracks as if they couldnt enough from the originals already (this is also 12 years old lol).
anyway ive been listening to a lot of this channel recently its just touhou x piano but its so pretty and i just love it a ton. some of my favorites are heaven of scarlet perception, voyage 1969.5, last remote and apparition stalks the night (this last one i was not expecting it to become so bright and cheerful but it just hits and i do not know why)
also, this orchestral arrange of the sa ost is one of my favorites. this is the kind of stuff that i think bores people within 5 minutes but hooks me instantly, im a very passive listener so i love instrumentals and this is perfect for me. the atmosphere just oozes from these tracks as if they couldnt enough from the originals already (this is also 12 years old lol).
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Absolutely amazing to see this thread pop up near the top of the forum. I got into music as a whole through Touhou music, since getting into the series when I was 13 is what made me get an MP3 player and care about collecting music in general. Touhou as a whole has had a huge impact on me but the music especially so, I've got around 6000 songs saved on my phone rn and I'd guess around 5000 of those are touhou, the number i've saved into my "touhou music" playlist is 1600. Let's just say I really like touhou music, something about the melodic patterns just makes me smile even when i'm hearing U.N. Owen for the 100th time and touhou music allows me to branch out into all sorts of musical genres easily while still staying within an enclosed environment to not be overwhelmed, which helps because I'm the sort of person who needs to have a complete understanding of the media I enjoy. If I like a circle my first instinct is to download their entire discography and listen to it.
I usually structure my posts on Smogon pretty well I'd like to think but I'm not gonna do that here because trying to structure all the touhou groups & songs I wanna talk about would be a project with serious time commitment involved. This is just gonna be a stream of consciousness list of groups and songs I wanna shout out, sorry if it's scatterbrained or has too much yapping. I'll link most things and especially anything hard to find but anything I don't link should be easily found by typing the title into youtube search, or if you care about tracking down details https://touhoudb.com/ is an amazing resource.
TLMC is also great since it contains the vast majority of popular doujin songs but not everything I've listened to is on there.
First is the album Gensokyo 199X by Nocti, and the sequel volumes 2 through 4. Nocti is probably the most underrated artist I know going off her sub count on youtube. Every time a new album drops from her it's the best part of my week, amazing stuff. Vol. 4 specifically is all covers of the themes from the Lotus Land Story extra stage which is one of my favorite stages in the series in terms of gameplay, tracks from the PC98 games get good covers much less often with the exception of Bad Apple, so it's great to see them getting some focus.
Another great circle is PHOENIX Project, my favorite albums from them are Scarlet Inferno and Unknown Climax. Scarlet Inferno has got a bunch of great tracks, the Apparitions Stalk the Night cover is one of the first doujin songs I listened to and it's still great, the covers of Septette and of Eternal Night Vignette are both also really really good, they kinda remind me of the Terraria OST which is why I used them in a music pack I made for the game (boss 1 and the space day themes respectively).
I'm also a huge fan of the Eurobeat songs by A-One and related circles. Although all their albums are mixed bags enough that I can't recomment any in specific. For the TOHO Eurobeat albums the songs by Odyssey Eurobeat (or one of her million pseudonyms) are some of the best English-Language Touhou stuff and Catch Us is prolly my favorite of those, although there are lots of strong contenders. Couple other high points are Magic Girl !!, Anything for You, 月の媚薬, MELO☆MELO MELTDOWN !!, CHERRY BLOSSOMOON, and DIE for ME?. Tons of others I didn't mention though all the albums are worth a listen. There's also the other eurobeat albums outside of TOHO Eurobeat where I'd give a particular shoutouts to the stuff by NJK Records and the track BLOOM from Eurobeat Union, which does albums with some Touhou stuff but mostly original.
dat file records is another underrated circle, they've got some of my favorite hardcore songs, mostly the stuff by DJKurara, particular mention to their cover of Antique Terror which is the stage 6 theme from Seihou Shuusou Gyoku. The rest of the album that track is on (Unstable Step) is one of dat file's high points. Kurara also has a great cover of Septette for the Dead Princess and the album that track is on is also really solid.
I'm also gonna talk about Touhou original songs because I've got some strong opinions on those too, Septette for the Dead Princess is consistently ranked as the 2nd most popular song right after U.N. Owen, and while the latter is probably a little overrated I actually think Septette is one of ZUN's best compositions, one thing that really frustrates me though is how often it gets butchered in doujin covers. My favorite part of the song is the little pseudo-improvised piano solo that bridges the chorus back around to the loop, and so often fan covers will just remove the segment. When it does get included though it can be glorious shoutouts to R.I.P. by hatsunetsumiko's, also a great circle with some really strong songs I could list out like Collage:PP&F, Moonstruck Dance or FELICIDADE.
Another hatsunetsumiko's song I want to post about that bridges over to one of my other favorite Touhou tracks is fragments, which is used for one of the Kinema Kan anime opening videos. Necrofantasia is a track I hear a lot of people in the Touhou fandom kinda get sick of, but I honestly just love it. The song (I'm talking about the original here although this applies to covers) feels particularly emotional to me, in a way a lot of touhou music isnt. It's structured like an overwhelming blast with the into, followed by a long portion that feels like it's holding something back, staying under control. Then the drop with the chorus feels like the song exploding out and screaming at you, it feels... honest and raw, in a way I can't really describe but I hope at least someone reading this also gets what I'm talking about. The best covers of Necrofantasia get something about that and really put emphasis on the sharp drop between the build up and the explosion.
Anyway that aside wrapping back around to dat file records, I'm generally not the biggest fan of piano-only songs but there are 2 touhou covers with piano bits I really wanna mention. dat file's track 3rd Music of Psyche which wasn't anywhere online so I had to upload it myself, absolute hidden gem and kinda similar to what I was talking about with Necrofantasia where it's got a long build up then at 3:38 really burst out into a beautiful section that isn't so much Touhou melody but I adore it nonetheless. Another real solid track is 環式行進曲 by Shibayan Records, kind of an outlier in their discography, it's got this bouncy section for the main melody of Mokou's theme that I like OK enough, but the electronic piano that plays during the sort of transition part of the original song takes the stage here in the second half of the track, and it's honestly some of the best audio i've ever heard, feels magical.
Shibayan in general are a circle I've been listening to since right when I got into touhou, not through the Bossa Nova albums actually although those are good too. Magico Catastrofe and especially the first two tracks with the intro leading into Fall in the Dark are outstanding. Fall in the Dark is a contender for my favorite Touhou cover and near-singlehandedly pushes Rumia up on my character ranking (Moon Light Step by Liz Triangle also helps). RETRO FUTURE GIRLS is another exellent album by them especially the 2nd track
minimum electric design was mentioned a couple posts above, another good circle, my favorites are Another Good Morning and secret garden although there are tons of others, Yakumo Electronic, nanairo emotional and any version of Yukari Telegraph are also great, not sure if I prefer the male or female vocals on that last one, both versions are great.
Another song with both male and female vocal versions is Dreamy Noise by Tamaonsen. My favorite version is the Liquid Memories remix from one of their remix albums. Tamaonsen has albums specifically dedicated to remixes of their existing songs, which is fun. A funny story with the female vocals version is that I listened to it on loop when I was playing through the fangame Pokemon Insurgence so now those two things inextricably linked in my mind and remind me of each other.
Tamaonsen has a ton of good songs. Scarlet Velvet, Crazy of Scarlet, Chill in Wonderland, こころのすきま, 流星ドライヴ (Loves 'BT' Remix), Tekito Daybreak, Steamy Soul Hot Springs and slushy poetry are just a few I can name off the top of my head.
The last song I linked there is a cover of Alice Maestra, which is probably my favorite track in the whole Touhou franchise. IDK really what about it specifically clicks, but one part I really love is the instrument that's used in the original PC-98 version. Another really solid cover of that track is Stray Whisper Taker by CYTOKINE. Another great track of theirs is their remix of Shibayan's Monochrome in the Night. Sedecim is just a strong album in general though.
Halozy also has good songs, especially Philosophy in a Cat and Eight Alley, for something more upbeat there's まっしろな雪. Although my favorite stuff of theirs is actually non-Touhou, they have a cover of Uninstall, the opening to Bokurano which is one of my favorite anime, and a cover of You from Higurashi.
Speaking of Higurashi, Silver Forest has some fun meme-y songs that are much less popular than the IOSYS stuff you'll see everywhere. Attention-seeking Yandere Masochistic Girl J is funny while also being a pretty good song, although it's not quite as silly as IOSYS's Absolutely-Will-Kill-Chang'e Man. Silver Forest also made tsurupettan which shows up in the visual novel Umineko and somehow isn't just a dumb reference and is absolutely dripping with dramatic irony on the second read-through LOL.
In terms of meme songs though IOSYS does ultimately have my favorite stuff, with Marisa Stole the Precious Thing being my gateway into the franchise and cementing PCB as my favorite touhou game. Their funniest track to me and also still a favorite in terms of music is Murasame UNITED: The Unbelievable Alice Assault.
IOSYS also notably has some genuinely good non-meme stuff that tends to get overshadowed. It'd worth listening to most of their albums if you have the chance. I'll specifically mention Touhou Maiden's Orchestra and the track Special Ability to Sneak Out Together on a Moonlit Night. I really love this song, it feels so happy, soft and romantic.
SOUND HOLIC and SWING HOLIC make a huge quantity of songs, I really like a good few of these like YORIGAMI TWiNS, Grip & Breakdown, Grazin' Bullets Flower Mix, You may know Dream, and SWING HOLIC's Break the Sabbath. They notably regularly make PVs for their songs that are much higher quality than the typical music video, with fully animated scenes which is really cool. Although I do think the group tends to make quantity over quality. Lots of their songs blend together to me. They also have an album of Mega Man song covers which is fun.
Now for a bit of a rapid fire of circles:
Iemitsu is a circle I've found just recently that really surprised me. Their album Re5-W- is awesome and I havent had the chance to listen to their full discography yet but the stuff I've heard so far is great.
Yellow Zebra has a massive discography although this circle is more hit and miss for me. Story of Scarlet is likely my favorite track of theirs. Listening to it for the first time just put a big smile on my face, it's really fun and bouncy for a U.N. Owen cover. Another highlight is スキマツアーズ.
flap+frog has some really good chill music, similar quality to DDBY's Cafe de Touhou which is well known enough I won't need to talk about it. The Cirno Out albums 1 through 4 are ones I come back to regularly.
Another really strong chill Touhou creator is Elle / Mondorium and don't cry is my favorite track of theirs, although the EoSD album is strong competition.
Glassy oceaN is somewhat similar to dat file records although a little more smooth and less hardcore. I really like their track hotaru yuki.
The Touhou Bakuon Jazz albums by Tokyo Active NEETs are great. The first and sixteenth albums are my favorites, although the third is good too iirc.
I can't not mention the Touhou House Sets by Kuroneko Lounge. Eternal Spring Dream (ginkha remix) and the Necrofantasia from Magical Astronomy are my faves.
Sally has some great tracks, a few choice selections are min, 爪, overlap and A Coke in Misaki.
ESQUARIA has a ton of good tracks, a few good ones are Gogic Gear, Ms. Endless, "Good Bye, Happy Unbirthday" which doesnt seem to have a youtube upload except for a nightcore version so have fun tracking it down, "Ignition, skywalker" and Irrelevant -both sides-.
Couple others are Suwasuwa records, the TOHO SPEED albums and Diao ye zong.
Anyway I'm starting to run out of steam, so the last 3 groups I wanted to talk about are Kishida Kyoudan and the Akeboshi Rockets, Mohican Sandbag and Akatsuki Records.
Mohican Sandbag has a ton of good albums, although the standout to me is TOHO COCKTAIL, this album is really something, with a non-stop barrage of tracks frequently making use of samples from old popular music, it has a great flow to it and it's good to put in the background. The rest of their work has a decidedly more electronic character and is more hit or miss to me. I like a lot of the stuff from the Full Materials albums but my favorite of their electronic stuff is Vibration of Womb, it's entrancing. There's also Resonance Days which is very strange, I'm not sure if I like it but I feel it deserves a mention.
The Akeboshi Rockets are nowadays more well known for their work in the Anime industry but they've got quite a catalogue of Touhou songs, with ANCIENT FLOWER being the album I'm listening to a lot these days although another really strong one is surumeika, I absolutely adore the cover of Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17 at the start of this one. Second only to YU-MU as my favorite track of theirs, a track that really really makes Yuuka's character stand out to me, especially with it's use in the Kinema Kan PV.
Akatsuki Records are to me sort of like a modern day IOSYS in that they are making the songs that really explode in the touhou fandom and border between being genuinely great music and kinda memey. Their singer, Stack, genuinely has one of the best voices I've heard in general, it's unique and she's really flexible with it, able to do low and angry and also high-pitched in either a cute or a sort of creepy way. YOMOTSUTICA LOVE, ENDLESS FANTASY, Shout it out Loud !! and Midnight Parade are probably my favorite tracks of theirs. Stack is probably the Touhou creator I think most could really break into mainstream if she did stuff like anime openings or other non-doujin J-Pop stuff. But I can't complain about her sticking to Touhou.
Anyway, that was a lot. I really like this stuff as you can probably tell if you're at the end of this, so I'm pretty much always happy to talk about Touhou music and I'll post here again if I find more cool stuff.
EDIT: I forgot to mention Frozen Starfall!!!
They do Touhou songs in German, which is really unique. They've got some great albums like Sunlight Diamonds or Promised Dancefloor. That said my favorite of their tracks is actually an English and Japanese duet, Lullaby from the album Mirrored Worlds.
I usually structure my posts on Smogon pretty well I'd like to think but I'm not gonna do that here because trying to structure all the touhou groups & songs I wanna talk about would be a project with serious time commitment involved. This is just gonna be a stream of consciousness list of groups and songs I wanna shout out, sorry if it's scatterbrained or has too much yapping. I'll link most things and especially anything hard to find but anything I don't link should be easily found by typing the title into youtube search, or if you care about tracking down details https://touhoudb.com/ is an amazing resource.
TLMC is also great since it contains the vast majority of popular doujin songs but not everything I've listened to is on there.
First is the album Gensokyo 199X by Nocti, and the sequel volumes 2 through 4. Nocti is probably the most underrated artist I know going off her sub count on youtube. Every time a new album drops from her it's the best part of my week, amazing stuff. Vol. 4 specifically is all covers of the themes from the Lotus Land Story extra stage which is one of my favorite stages in the series in terms of gameplay, tracks from the PC98 games get good covers much less often with the exception of Bad Apple, so it's great to see them getting some focus.
Another great circle is PHOENIX Project, my favorite albums from them are Scarlet Inferno and Unknown Climax. Scarlet Inferno has got a bunch of great tracks, the Apparitions Stalk the Night cover is one of the first doujin songs I listened to and it's still great, the covers of Septette and of Eternal Night Vignette are both also really really good, they kinda remind me of the Terraria OST which is why I used them in a music pack I made for the game (boss 1 and the space day themes respectively).
I'm also a huge fan of the Eurobeat songs by A-One and related circles. Although all their albums are mixed bags enough that I can't recomment any in specific. For the TOHO Eurobeat albums the songs by Odyssey Eurobeat (or one of her million pseudonyms) are some of the best English-Language Touhou stuff and Catch Us is prolly my favorite of those, although there are lots of strong contenders. Couple other high points are Magic Girl !!, Anything for You, 月の媚薬, MELO☆MELO MELTDOWN !!, CHERRY BLOSSOMOON, and DIE for ME?. Tons of others I didn't mention though all the albums are worth a listen. There's also the other eurobeat albums outside of TOHO Eurobeat where I'd give a particular shoutouts to the stuff by NJK Records and the track BLOOM from Eurobeat Union, which does albums with some Touhou stuff but mostly original.
dat file records is another underrated circle, they've got some of my favorite hardcore songs, mostly the stuff by DJKurara, particular mention to their cover of Antique Terror which is the stage 6 theme from Seihou Shuusou Gyoku. The rest of the album that track is on (Unstable Step) is one of dat file's high points. Kurara also has a great cover of Septette for the Dead Princess and the album that track is on is also really solid.
I'm also gonna talk about Touhou original songs because I've got some strong opinions on those too, Septette for the Dead Princess is consistently ranked as the 2nd most popular song right after U.N. Owen, and while the latter is probably a little overrated I actually think Septette is one of ZUN's best compositions, one thing that really frustrates me though is how often it gets butchered in doujin covers. My favorite part of the song is the little pseudo-improvised piano solo that bridges the chorus back around to the loop, and so often fan covers will just remove the segment. When it does get included though it can be glorious shoutouts to R.I.P. by hatsunetsumiko's, also a great circle with some really strong songs I could list out like Collage:PP&F, Moonstruck Dance or FELICIDADE.
Another hatsunetsumiko's song I want to post about that bridges over to one of my other favorite Touhou tracks is fragments, which is used for one of the Kinema Kan anime opening videos. Necrofantasia is a track I hear a lot of people in the Touhou fandom kinda get sick of, but I honestly just love it. The song (I'm talking about the original here although this applies to covers) feels particularly emotional to me, in a way a lot of touhou music isnt. It's structured like an overwhelming blast with the into, followed by a long portion that feels like it's holding something back, staying under control. Then the drop with the chorus feels like the song exploding out and screaming at you, it feels... honest and raw, in a way I can't really describe but I hope at least someone reading this also gets what I'm talking about. The best covers of Necrofantasia get something about that and really put emphasis on the sharp drop between the build up and the explosion.
Anyway that aside wrapping back around to dat file records, I'm generally not the biggest fan of piano-only songs but there are 2 touhou covers with piano bits I really wanna mention. dat file's track 3rd Music of Psyche which wasn't anywhere online so I had to upload it myself, absolute hidden gem and kinda similar to what I was talking about with Necrofantasia where it's got a long build up then at 3:38 really burst out into a beautiful section that isn't so much Touhou melody but I adore it nonetheless. Another real solid track is 環式行進曲 by Shibayan Records, kind of an outlier in their discography, it's got this bouncy section for the main melody of Mokou's theme that I like OK enough, but the electronic piano that plays during the sort of transition part of the original song takes the stage here in the second half of the track, and it's honestly some of the best audio i've ever heard, feels magical.
Shibayan in general are a circle I've been listening to since right when I got into touhou, not through the Bossa Nova albums actually although those are good too. Magico Catastrofe and especially the first two tracks with the intro leading into Fall in the Dark are outstanding. Fall in the Dark is a contender for my favorite Touhou cover and near-singlehandedly pushes Rumia up on my character ranking (Moon Light Step by Liz Triangle also helps). RETRO FUTURE GIRLS is another exellent album by them especially the 2nd track
minimum electric design was mentioned a couple posts above, another good circle, my favorites are Another Good Morning and secret garden although there are tons of others, Yakumo Electronic, nanairo emotional and any version of Yukari Telegraph are also great, not sure if I prefer the male or female vocals on that last one, both versions are great.
Another song with both male and female vocal versions is Dreamy Noise by Tamaonsen. My favorite version is the Liquid Memories remix from one of their remix albums. Tamaonsen has albums specifically dedicated to remixes of their existing songs, which is fun. A funny story with the female vocals version is that I listened to it on loop when I was playing through the fangame Pokemon Insurgence so now those two things inextricably linked in my mind and remind me of each other.
Tamaonsen has a ton of good songs. Scarlet Velvet, Crazy of Scarlet, Chill in Wonderland, こころのすきま, 流星ドライヴ (Loves 'BT' Remix), Tekito Daybreak, Steamy Soul Hot Springs and slushy poetry are just a few I can name off the top of my head.
The last song I linked there is a cover of Alice Maestra, which is probably my favorite track in the whole Touhou franchise. IDK really what about it specifically clicks, but one part I really love is the instrument that's used in the original PC-98 version. Another really solid cover of that track is Stray Whisper Taker by CYTOKINE. Another great track of theirs is their remix of Shibayan's Monochrome in the Night. Sedecim is just a strong album in general though.
Halozy also has good songs, especially Philosophy in a Cat and Eight Alley, for something more upbeat there's まっしろな雪. Although my favorite stuff of theirs is actually non-Touhou, they have a cover of Uninstall, the opening to Bokurano which is one of my favorite anime, and a cover of You from Higurashi.
Speaking of Higurashi, Silver Forest has some fun meme-y songs that are much less popular than the IOSYS stuff you'll see everywhere. Attention-seeking Yandere Masochistic Girl J is funny while also being a pretty good song, although it's not quite as silly as IOSYS's Absolutely-Will-Kill-Chang'e Man. Silver Forest also made tsurupettan which shows up in the visual novel Umineko and somehow isn't just a dumb reference and is absolutely dripping with dramatic irony on the second read-through LOL.
In terms of meme songs though IOSYS does ultimately have my favorite stuff, with Marisa Stole the Precious Thing being my gateway into the franchise and cementing PCB as my favorite touhou game. Their funniest track to me and also still a favorite in terms of music is Murasame UNITED: The Unbelievable Alice Assault.
IOSYS also notably has some genuinely good non-meme stuff that tends to get overshadowed. It'd worth listening to most of their albums if you have the chance. I'll specifically mention Touhou Maiden's Orchestra and the track Special Ability to Sneak Out Together on a Moonlit Night. I really love this song, it feels so happy, soft and romantic.
SOUND HOLIC and SWING HOLIC make a huge quantity of songs, I really like a good few of these like YORIGAMI TWiNS, Grip & Breakdown, Grazin' Bullets Flower Mix, You may know Dream, and SWING HOLIC's Break the Sabbath. They notably regularly make PVs for their songs that are much higher quality than the typical music video, with fully animated scenes which is really cool. Although I do think the group tends to make quantity over quality. Lots of their songs blend together to me. They also have an album of Mega Man song covers which is fun.
Now for a bit of a rapid fire of circles:
Iemitsu is a circle I've found just recently that really surprised me. Their album Re5-W- is awesome and I havent had the chance to listen to their full discography yet but the stuff I've heard so far is great.
Yellow Zebra has a massive discography although this circle is more hit and miss for me. Story of Scarlet is likely my favorite track of theirs. Listening to it for the first time just put a big smile on my face, it's really fun and bouncy for a U.N. Owen cover. Another highlight is スキマツアーズ.
flap+frog has some really good chill music, similar quality to DDBY's Cafe de Touhou which is well known enough I won't need to talk about it. The Cirno Out albums 1 through 4 are ones I come back to regularly.
Another really strong chill Touhou creator is Elle / Mondorium and don't cry is my favorite track of theirs, although the EoSD album is strong competition.
Glassy oceaN is somewhat similar to dat file records although a little more smooth and less hardcore. I really like their track hotaru yuki.
The Touhou Bakuon Jazz albums by Tokyo Active NEETs are great. The first and sixteenth albums are my favorites, although the third is good too iirc.
I can't not mention the Touhou House Sets by Kuroneko Lounge. Eternal Spring Dream (ginkha remix) and the Necrofantasia from Magical Astronomy are my faves.
Sally has some great tracks, a few choice selections are min, 爪, overlap and A Coke in Misaki.
ESQUARIA has a ton of good tracks, a few good ones are Gogic Gear, Ms. Endless, "Good Bye, Happy Unbirthday" which doesnt seem to have a youtube upload except for a nightcore version so have fun tracking it down, "Ignition, skywalker" and Irrelevant -both sides-.
Couple others are Suwasuwa records, the TOHO SPEED albums and Diao ye zong.
Anyway I'm starting to run out of steam, so the last 3 groups I wanted to talk about are Kishida Kyoudan and the Akeboshi Rockets, Mohican Sandbag and Akatsuki Records.
Mohican Sandbag has a ton of good albums, although the standout to me is TOHO COCKTAIL, this album is really something, with a non-stop barrage of tracks frequently making use of samples from old popular music, it has a great flow to it and it's good to put in the background. The rest of their work has a decidedly more electronic character and is more hit or miss to me. I like a lot of the stuff from the Full Materials albums but my favorite of their electronic stuff is Vibration of Womb, it's entrancing. There's also Resonance Days which is very strange, I'm not sure if I like it but I feel it deserves a mention.
The Akeboshi Rockets are nowadays more well known for their work in the Anime industry but they've got quite a catalogue of Touhou songs, with ANCIENT FLOWER being the album I'm listening to a lot these days although another really strong one is surumeika, I absolutely adore the cover of Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17 at the start of this one. Second only to YU-MU as my favorite track of theirs, a track that really really makes Yuuka's character stand out to me, especially with it's use in the Kinema Kan PV.
Akatsuki Records are to me sort of like a modern day IOSYS in that they are making the songs that really explode in the touhou fandom and border between being genuinely great music and kinda memey. Their singer, Stack, genuinely has one of the best voices I've heard in general, it's unique and she's really flexible with it, able to do low and angry and also high-pitched in either a cute or a sort of creepy way. YOMOTSUTICA LOVE, ENDLESS FANTASY, Shout it out Loud !! and Midnight Parade are probably my favorite tracks of theirs. Stack is probably the Touhou creator I think most could really break into mainstream if she did stuff like anime openings or other non-doujin J-Pop stuff. But I can't complain about her sticking to Touhou.
Anyway, that was a lot. I really like this stuff as you can probably tell if you're at the end of this, so I'm pretty much always happy to talk about Touhou music and I'll post here again if I find more cool stuff.
EDIT: I forgot to mention Frozen Starfall!!!
They do Touhou songs in German, which is really unique. They've got some great albums like Sunlight Diamonds or Promised Dancefloor. That said my favorite of their tracks is actually an English and Japanese duet, Lullaby from the album Mirrored Worlds.
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yo i was tryna make a post sometime sooner but i kinda forgot lol. it kinda chill tho cause in that time ive been going to lot of weeb events where theres bare touhou and rhythm game nerds, esp cause all these rhythm games have touhou in them right, so ive kinda been listening to lot more of touhou music in general lmfao. ill talk about all the circles ive listened to tons in the past few months, esp as id say experiences with music carry a personal touch that you often share with and from others, touhou absolutely not exempt from this.
first off, have to mention shibayan, i always liked their songs but a few months ago i met up with a friend and we were just blasting shibayan in his car so thats basically just enlightened me. shibayan songs are always good whether he does bossa nova, trance, though the nu-disco style of songs have to be my favorite. kokoro vibration, magico catastrofe, musou materialize, retro future girls, are all absolute peak. id say you absolutely have to listen to these albums start to finish to 100% appreciate them, not only is each song often a trip in and of itself, usually being around 7-10 minutes of pure bliss that just never lets up with the way the songs keep building up that makes it endlessly replayable, they just flow into each other so well. my favorites out of these that akira didnt already mention before me cause fall in the dark is peak are lunar 11.3 candle magic in kokoro vibration and desert years in retro future girls. also yea shibayan did trance stuff, listen to dream of utopia, a remix of dream of arcadia from changeability of strange dream, or meteor of magic, a remix of erichs theme from seihou, this guys just insanely talented at whatever he does, hes even done vocaloid stuff before too.
one last thing to bring up is broad border, this album is a compilation of shibayan songs mainly from other circles like syrufit but i wanted to mention this album purely for the cover. im absolutely biased cause the cover is my literal favorite touhou wearing a sari but like its so rare to see touhou art in desi clothes, its like this was made for me????? shoutouts to the 5 other indian touhou fans out there ive interacted with like 4 of you already but fr i know theres way more of us out there.
speaking of syrufit or syrup comfiture, they also follow the shibayan formula of creating songs that continuously build up to something greater across 7-10 mins and just never get boring to listen to. truth be told i need to listen to their original albums more to truly have them engraved in me but theyre rly good, they often appear on other circles like alstroemeria, for example fantasia by mei ayakura was published on an alstroemeria album tho made by syrufit. tsukikage shoujo (月影少女) also with mei ayakura is def one of their standouts, its one of the best remixes of maidens capriccio ive listened to, a song with tons of amazing remixes to begin with.
ive only been more deep in the alstroemeria rabbit hole, always a big fan of their style of edm / trance, its always so distinct esp their albums from 2006-2011 or so. alice maestra is prob my most replayed song of theirs if we disclude bad apple for obvious reasons, easily my favorite nomico song its always on repeat. romantic fall with mei ayakura has also been on repeat of mine for the past few months, esp with some of my other friends rly liking this song lots, but i just never get tired of it, i think mei ayakura is starting to become one of my favorite vocalists alongside misato and mineko.
need to mention hatsunetsumikos as akira has always mentioned them to me. she got me hooked on transparent, a remix of invisible full moon, one of the slightly rare english vocals and its just extremely pleasing to listen to.
akira also brought up sally who has rly good songs, and in particular i got hooked on min, a remix of kyoukos theme from th13, which she linked above, its so clearly inspired by linkin park how could i not get addicted to it. unfort idt theyre rly on any streaming services so ur best bet is like yt music if u wanna go that route
halozy is one of my favs and they also seem to be every osu players favorite doujin circle, cause tell me why every single osu player i know always mentions halozy to me. obv i know its cause their maps are super popular and obv a big part of that is cause their songs are just rly damn good, tho im sure theres more to it. genryuu kaiko a remix of riverside view, is probably their most well known song, hotaru rly brings out the best of this circle within so many halozy songs, and dare i say this would be the absolute best remix of komachis theme if halozy didnt also make another banger, that being masshiro na yuki. this ones got more of the upbeat vocals many of halozys songs are known for that just make it so fun to sing to. halozy songs in general are really diverse, they range from these hype vocal arranges to weeb trance to soft macaroom arrangements with ambient sounds of plates breaking and cat noises. one time they even parodied party rock into the th07 stage 2 theme because it was 2012 lol, live actors with 3l from shibayan whose vocals go so hard here as they always do.
other bangers i can think of immediately are k.o.k.o.r.o. + s.a.t.o.r.a.r.e. with misato, a remix of th11 stage 4 theme leading into satoris theme, 143 with nayuta which is just peak trance imo, one of the best remixes of oriental dark flight. dont let you down with nagao chiemi is yet another banger desire drive remix this was what rly got me into halozy. hopefully some day halozy returns cause i miss them dearly
i feel like ive talked about eastnewsound in the past but these guys have been consistently putting out trance and edm style touhou music since 2008. i dont even know if i can mention one song specifically that i particularly like, maybe light connection, a remix of vessel of stars, this song in particular sounds like trance music from the late 2000s and early 2010s, and we have misato vocals too, this was released in 2024 btw like omg. also vessel of stars is probably my favorite marisa theme so this is just absolute top tier. im still rly nostalgic to the songseastnewsound used to produce like in lyrical crimson or scattered destiny, they carried that aforementioned late 2000s trance vibe alongside staying closer to the original melodies, like together in the sky for example, th06 stage 2 is rly nostalgic to me in particular.
i genuinely could talk forever about touhou music as theres so many circles that i didnt even mention, maybe another time. theres so many remixes out there that its borderline impossible to estimate just how many arrangements are out there. apparently theres been ~200k documented arranges? but this number i think only includes arranges that were released officially at comiket, though many of these esp from the early years have been hard to track down or document. point is theres just so much music that its an endless fountain youll never get tired of. interacting with many likeminded people in the past few months have made me realise that this is something i want to share with people however which way i can, felt like it took me maybe 10 years to realise this but better late than never? for me personally, this site is the very reason im even into touhou the way i am x.x, i have to imagine that its the same for others but its just wild to think about.
first off, have to mention shibayan, i always liked their songs but a few months ago i met up with a friend and we were just blasting shibayan in his car so thats basically just enlightened me. shibayan songs are always good whether he does bossa nova, trance, though the nu-disco style of songs have to be my favorite. kokoro vibration, magico catastrofe, musou materialize, retro future girls, are all absolute peak. id say you absolutely have to listen to these albums start to finish to 100% appreciate them, not only is each song often a trip in and of itself, usually being around 7-10 minutes of pure bliss that just never lets up with the way the songs keep building up that makes it endlessly replayable, they just flow into each other so well. my favorites out of these that akira didnt already mention before me cause fall in the dark is peak are lunar 11.3 candle magic in kokoro vibration and desert years in retro future girls. also yea shibayan did trance stuff, listen to dream of utopia, a remix of dream of arcadia from changeability of strange dream, or meteor of magic, a remix of erichs theme from seihou, this guys just insanely talented at whatever he does, hes even done vocaloid stuff before too.
one last thing to bring up is broad border, this album is a compilation of shibayan songs mainly from other circles like syrufit but i wanted to mention this album purely for the cover. im absolutely biased cause the cover is my literal favorite touhou wearing a sari but like its so rare to see touhou art in desi clothes, its like this was made for me????? shoutouts to the 5 other indian touhou fans out there ive interacted with like 4 of you already but fr i know theres way more of us out there.
speaking of syrufit or syrup comfiture, they also follow the shibayan formula of creating songs that continuously build up to something greater across 7-10 mins and just never get boring to listen to. truth be told i need to listen to their original albums more to truly have them engraved in me but theyre rly good, they often appear on other circles like alstroemeria, for example fantasia by mei ayakura was published on an alstroemeria album tho made by syrufit. tsukikage shoujo (月影少女) also with mei ayakura is def one of their standouts, its one of the best remixes of maidens capriccio ive listened to, a song with tons of amazing remixes to begin with.
ive only been more deep in the alstroemeria rabbit hole, always a big fan of their style of edm / trance, its always so distinct esp their albums from 2006-2011 or so. alice maestra is prob my most replayed song of theirs if we disclude bad apple for obvious reasons, easily my favorite nomico song its always on repeat. romantic fall with mei ayakura has also been on repeat of mine for the past few months, esp with some of my other friends rly liking this song lots, but i just never get tired of it, i think mei ayakura is starting to become one of my favorite vocalists alongside misato and mineko.
need to mention hatsunetsumikos as akira has always mentioned them to me. she got me hooked on transparent, a remix of invisible full moon, one of the slightly rare english vocals and its just extremely pleasing to listen to.
akira also brought up sally who has rly good songs, and in particular i got hooked on min, a remix of kyoukos theme from th13, which she linked above, its so clearly inspired by linkin park how could i not get addicted to it. unfort idt theyre rly on any streaming services so ur best bet is like yt music if u wanna go that route
halozy is one of my favs and they also seem to be every osu players favorite doujin circle, cause tell me why every single osu player i know always mentions halozy to me. obv i know its cause their maps are super popular and obv a big part of that is cause their songs are just rly damn good, tho im sure theres more to it. genryuu kaiko a remix of riverside view, is probably their most well known song, hotaru rly brings out the best of this circle within so many halozy songs, and dare i say this would be the absolute best remix of komachis theme if halozy didnt also make another banger, that being masshiro na yuki. this ones got more of the upbeat vocals many of halozys songs are known for that just make it so fun to sing to. halozy songs in general are really diverse, they range from these hype vocal arranges to weeb trance to soft macaroom arrangements with ambient sounds of plates breaking and cat noises. one time they even parodied party rock into the th07 stage 2 theme because it was 2012 lol, live actors with 3l from shibayan whose vocals go so hard here as they always do.
other bangers i can think of immediately are k.o.k.o.r.o. + s.a.t.o.r.a.r.e. with misato, a remix of th11 stage 4 theme leading into satoris theme, 143 with nayuta which is just peak trance imo, one of the best remixes of oriental dark flight. dont let you down with nagao chiemi is yet another banger desire drive remix this was what rly got me into halozy. hopefully some day halozy returns cause i miss them dearly
i feel like ive talked about eastnewsound in the past but these guys have been consistently putting out trance and edm style touhou music since 2008. i dont even know if i can mention one song specifically that i particularly like, maybe light connection, a remix of vessel of stars, this song in particular sounds like trance music from the late 2000s and early 2010s, and we have misato vocals too, this was released in 2024 btw like omg. also vessel of stars is probably my favorite marisa theme so this is just absolute top tier. im still rly nostalgic to the songseastnewsound used to produce like in lyrical crimson or scattered destiny, they carried that aforementioned late 2000s trance vibe alongside staying closer to the original melodies, like together in the sky for example, th06 stage 2 is rly nostalgic to me in particular.
i genuinely could talk forever about touhou music as theres so many circles that i didnt even mention, maybe another time. theres so many remixes out there that its borderline impossible to estimate just how many arrangements are out there. apparently theres been ~200k documented arranges? but this number i think only includes arranges that were released officially at comiket, though many of these esp from the early years have been hard to track down or document. point is theres just so much music that its an endless fountain youll never get tired of. interacting with many likeminded people in the past few months have made me realise that this is something i want to share with people however which way i can, felt like it took me maybe 10 years to realise this but better late than never? for me personally, this site is the very reason im even into touhou the way i am x.x, i have to imagine that its the same for others but its just wild to think about.