So, let's get started.

Alstroemeria Records - The Brilliant Flowers (ARCD0029) - Highly Responsive to Prayers

Original: Highly Responsive to Prayers (Makai 6-9 theme)

You could really never go wrong with Masayoshi Minoshima and company. When I first opened the channel at around October 2009, I wasn't expecting something as rare as THIS to actually appear in my collection. Heck, I wasn't even expecting that I'd find something from Highly Responsive to Prayers, the game that started it all. I actually heard this one from my comrade Asch (aka SpiritOfKensei) in the PC-98 "tribute" thread at Doujinstyle and from heibonnakurashimata. When I listened to it, I'm stunned and went like crazy to actually find that song buried deep within Alstroemeria's K5 release.

I'm anxious to find an English translation for this song's lyrics. I'm just dying for it. It's easily catchy, and it's uneasy to just leave it like so.

EastNewSound - Lyrical Crimson (ENS-0001) - 奏で穿て、東雲の彼方へ

Original: 永遠の巫女 (1-4, Jigoku 16-19 theme)

My first confrontation with this circle was during the Winter Comiket 2008, along with Demetori's Offering to the Sukhavati, UI-70's if and Hachimitsu-Kumasan's Touhou Yochien. Back then, I didn't even know a crapload about Touhou except for Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, which was the first game I was introduced to. But now, I can proudly say that I am knowledgeable about this series. Yep, and I am now able to appreciate the EastNewSound that I got introduced to, because after a whole year in the fandom, I found that the song I listened to the most during my first days in the fandom...is actually an arrangement of one of the songs in the VERY FIRST TOUHOU GAME.

EastNewSound kicks ass; everything that they make -- from A to Z -- certainly hits the spot.

Oh yeah, I also remember hearing Eternal Shrine Maiden in that fangame Touhou Mother. That's why I said to myself when I was digging this up EastNewSound's first album, "Uuuu~ this sounds familiar." It's one of the factors that made this song grow up inside me...for days, months, up until now.

Labels: Touhou Project