The Introduction
Time for something a little different – and not just because this is the first review on the site since 2017. I’m reviewing not just one, but three vinyl releases – all from French label Phantoms Records.
To make matters even more interesting the focal point of these reviews will be arrangements of music from the Touhou Project series of (mostly) bullet hell shoot ’em up games. It’s a series that I admittedly don’t know a whole lot about, other than it having a very large and dedicated fan community that also creates a lot of music inspired by the series – both arrangements and original tunes.
Reviewing these three was the first time I heard either of them, so while I did listen to them several times before writing the review, there’s still some degree of “first impression” in here.
The particular releases that I will review here are the Sommertrip EP by Frozen Starfall, the Moon Future Lounge 2XX3 LP by Torash, and the J-Core Vibes EP by several artists. A small disclaimer before I start – all three releases were provided to me by Phantoms Records for the purpose of this review.
Sommertrip
Sommertrip is an EP by German Touhou doujin group Frozen Starfall, that they originally released digitally in 2019. It was picked up for a vinyl release by Phantoms Records in late 2023.
The album is loosely themed around the ice fairy Cirno who first appeared in the game “Touhou Koumakyou ~ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil”.
The Packaging
The release comes in a nice and sturdy glossy single-pocket jacket with title-appropriate artwork of an anime-style rendition of Cirno eating ice cream in sunny weather with palm trees and blue skies in the background. The artwork was originally done by Ei_Flow, but was ever so slightly reworked by Onali Draws for this vinyl release.
The release is also individually numbered out of 200 copies, with the number appearing in foil-print on the back of the record jacket.
The Music
The EP is centered around the song “おてんば恋娘”, which is also originally from “Embodiment of Scarlet Devil”, and includes three arrangements of the song alongside remixes of two of the arrangements. While all tracks on the EP are arrangements of the same song they manage to stay quite different from each other, while still being thematically similar to the Summer vibe theme of this EP.
It starts out with the track “Lovely ⑨”, which serves as a nice little electro opener that kicks off the Summer vibes and sets the stage for the two key tracks of the EP.
The first of those two is the titular “Sommertrip” where vocalist Selphius takes on the role of Cirno and sings about what it must be like for an ice fairy to go to the beach in the Summer (spoiler: not ideal). The song continues the electro vibe from “Lovely ⑨”, but manages to both feel danceable and relaxed at the same time. While I wasn’t immediately a fan of the slightly high-pitched anime-style vocals the song grew on me and has been stuck in my head since I first started listening. The sax riff in the middle also totally works for me.
The next track “Einfach Einfach” is another vocal track with Selphius. It’s a little more subdued and more of a standard pop song, but again keeps that neat sax tune going in several places.
The remaining two songs on the b-side are a “Sommertrip” by crouka and an “Einfach Einfach” remix by Frozen Starfall themselves. The crouka remix of “Sommertrip” starts out slower, but grows into more of a dancefloor banger than the original, although it does remove focus from the vocal parts a bit. The Frozen Starfall remix of “Einfach Einfach” goes a bit harder than original and goes for more electro than pop, which I find almost suits the song better.
How’s the pressing quality, then? Split color discs like this one can be a bit hit and miss, but I’m happy to report that it sounded very clean and even with headphones on I didn’t pick up any background noise or pops and the sound quality is terrific.
Moon Future Lounge 2XX3
And now for something more laid back. Moon Future Lounge 2XX3 is a future lounge/downtempo-style arrangement album of music from the games Touhou Bunkachou ~ Shoot The Bullet, Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy Of Lunatic Kingdom, and Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria Of Flower View alongside arrangements of original tracks by Touhou creator ZUN.
The vinyl release is a limited run of 300 copies across multiple different color variants.
The Packaging
This one has the simplest packaging of the three records in this review as it comes in a matte single-pocket jacket. It does, however, feature my favorite artwork of the three. The original art was by Idomizu, but once again Onali has redrawn it slightly for the vinyl release and it truly matches the futuristic lounge vibes the album is going for.
The Music
This is also my favorite release of the three. It took a couple of listens to grow and sink in, but once it hit it really felt good. They key part of the album title is “lounge” which is the defining feel throughout. Put it on just as the sun is going down, ideally when you start to spot the moon in the sky – and then just let opener “Terran” wash over you.
Yeah, this is my jam. And while the vibe is lounge it’s not just that – it’s not an easy listening-style album at all. It’s almost too futuristic sounding for that. That’s not a diss on easy listening lounge, but more a way to say that this album wants a lot of things and gets away with most of it too. There’s definitely some of the playful feels you’d get from the original versions of the tracks (that I did look up too), but it’s also got a little ambient, IDM, downtempo and experimental vibes that’s a little more upbeat and offbeat than what I’d expect from a regular lounge album.
While it does try out different things it still manages to stick to the overall theme. I don’t think there’s a track on here that I couldn’t imagine playing in that futuristic bar on the album cover. Some tracks (like “Insomniac” or “Skywalking”) are more “moon future” than “lounge” (like “Terran” or the title track), but there’s always that little crossover of these two styles that keeps the theme intact.
In short, what I’m saying is that I really like what I’m hearing here.
As for the pressing, it does unfortunately have a little surface noise when listening with headphones. It’s mostly between tracks and otherwise drowned out by the music. It is worth noting that some of the tracks also have intentional added vinyl noise, but the little surface noise I picked up did not seem intentional.
When I put it on my speakers instead I could barely hear it, though, so it’s not a major issue, but it is there. Otherwise it’s a clean and good sounding pressing without any pops or crackle. While the pressing does have a little surface noise, the mastering is very nice and you can easily hear the playful little details in the tracks.
It’s worth noting that this album comes in a variety of different color pressings, so I can’t say if it’s the marble effect on my copy that’s the cause of the little bit of surface noise here.
J-Core Vibes EP
And now for something completely different in almost every way. J-Core Vibes isn’t really VGM, so it’s not something I would normally review. However, there IS some overlap as it features a track by DJ Sharpnel – a long-lived Japanese DJ duo – that’s become quite popular with their works featured in the Beatmania series of rhythm games. And the track by Laser Imouto features some game music samples as well – a name some may also recognize from the hardcore Chrono Trigger arrangement album “Dreamseeker”.
Overall, though, this is an EP of original tracks that was created for the UNMUTED event in Netherlands – an event for hardcore electronic music inspired by and/or related to anime and Japan. It was released by Phantoms Records in collaboration with DiamonicBeat.
The Packaging
This one comes in a real nice and heavy jacket with a matte black base with spot gloss features of all the printed parts (characters, text, you name it – spot gloss!) and really gives off a premium feel. Each copy is individually numbered in gold foil print on the back cover.
On the inside it comes with a thick insert featuring the lyrics to the title track by DJ Sharpnel on one side and liner notes by the event creator behind J-Core Life, who helped produce the release.
Finally, it also includes a double-sided felt slipmat with the front cover characters on one side and chibi-fied versions of the featured music artists on the other.
The Music
This one’s tricky for me as I’m well out of my depth here. The style here is largely j-core-, freestyle-, hardcore-style tunes, which are all a bit more aggressive than what I normally listen to, so it’s hard to give a completely fair judgment (as I’m not really the target audience). So take my comments with that in mind.
The opener is also the title track of the album and is an original song by DJ Sharpnel produced for this release. While it goes hard it also feels like the least experimental song of the four featured on this EP and a little generic maybe. Bit of a shame for what is arguably the headliner for the EP.
Second track is by Tektheist who I’m completely unfamiliar with, but this is hands-down my favorite track here. The way the lush vocal bits work excellently with both the downplayed and hardcore parts of the song is great and the soft-hard-soft build-up of the song is great. Definitely gonna check out more of their work if this is anything to go by!
Third track is by Laser Imouto and it certainly goes places. It’s a hardcore tour de force with samples coming at you left and right (you’ll get hit with both Eminem and some VGM samples that I’m embarrassed to say that I can’t place even though I definitely recognize them). It’s a little to hectic for my casual listen, but I can’t deny that it also sounds really fun.
Fourth and final track by Triplestar ends the EP as it started – a little uninspired unfortunately. The track is quite repetetive and also follows a soft-hard-soft-etc. formula, but without any real catch as the beats are unfortunately a bit generic. It may work in the right setting, but doesn’t do a lot for me really.
The pressing comes on a gorgeous orange with red splatter colored record and is an excellently sounding loud cut EP. I didn’t notice any noise or pops with headphones, so while this may not entirely be my thing, those who are into j-core is definitely in for a quality pressing.
That’s all folks! Hope you enjoyed reading this review. If any of the releases sound like they’re up your alley they are still available via either Phantoms Records’ site, their Bandcamp or third-party distros.