Milestones, Turning Points, and Activity Updates – April 2022

So this month, vacation at my grandparents’ got extended for around another week than expected, but at least there’s stuff like two music covers uploaded this month, with those two being:

1. an English cover of Jin’s (Shizen no Teki-P) “Erase;” and
2. a vocal cover of Calliope Mori’s “Red” with the Lo-Fi Version

As for other uploaded videos, there’s one meme vid, and then there are them killer7 streams, a Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 stream, and the end of New Game Plussin’ Live With Tobby along with the end of the NGPLWT of Persona 4 Golden. More streams to come as this month ends and the next month starts, hopefully. Might be mostly spontaneous in terms of streaming in the coming month, too.

Oh, and speaking of my planned activities next month that I think I can share without too much trouble right now and aren’t videos, I’m reviving my poem posting here. Unfortunately, it’s very religiously motivated, so please prepare your pitchforks and torches and the stake for this one of many demons posing as God Almighty.

As for music next month, I hope to upload at least another two covers. Also, I’m itching to write more original lyrics, but ordering original instrumentals, among other things, takes a lot, so yeah, you’re likelier to find me doing lyrical remixes in terms of that.

Some other not yet mentioned fun things about this passing month that I’m comfortable about sharing here? Well, there’s me doing more of a return to gaming offstream and reading light novels. Been playing NieR Replicant again (and completed that freaking Life in the Sands quest along the way), and finished a volume of Combatants Will Be Dispatched! and started another (and gained increased interest in Grimm and Lilith along the way). I also think I’m getting back into the groove of my day job, considering some recent faster progress on a sort of work I slowed down at big time last time I did it.

And I guess that’s that for this month’s digest post here in this blog. Honest constructive feedback is highly encouraged and will be highly appreciated, and may God Almighty keep on challenging and guiding us all as He wishes!

Calliope Mori – Red (Lo-Fi Version) – TOB Vocal Cover

And so I’ve covered my other favorite Your Mori. track, and I covered it with the Lo-Fi Version because that arrangement fits my vocals better. And yes, I did make my singing vocals rougher and rougher every chorus. I really should appreciate my lower vocal range more. I’d like to thank dj-Jo for the added interlude as well, because hey, more room for me to yell like a banshee and almost drown in the middle of the musical vocal ocean. Also, points to Calli again for her voice being a big help in making her raps sound wise and strong in this song, because man, I think I sound like a nerd acting tough rather than a toughened nerd in the raps here, hahaha! X”D

Anyway, gotta send really big thanks to the great folks who helped me out here: Shigeru with the audio engineering, ArkFord with the illustration, and Venetian with the video! Again, I’m kinda at a loss for words about how Shigeru gets my voice so well now, and now I’m wondering about what sort of tougher challenge I should give him to further break his limits well. And Ark’s giving that elegance real good again, though I want to give him a dorkier order next time. As for Venetian, who I worked with for the first time, I love her simple and subtle work here, especially with the text.

And now, here’s this cover’s mp3. And again, I’d like to ask for honest constructive feedback~

Jin (Shizen no Teki-P) – Erase – TOB English Cover

My appreciation for Jin’s Allegories mini album continues and grows, indeed. And this particular song, which also has a synthed vocal version utilizing KAFU, from said mini album has themes that are not so new to his discography, considering songs like “Toumei Answer” and “Lost Time Memory,” but I don’t think he’s ever gone this direct about it before. Still, I think he plays around with the dramatics as music wonderfully, connecting with lyrics depicting the familiar experience of trying to glorify self-loathing by imagining it as a story to be told, especially a cheap one posing as something holy for us fellow fools to vainly enjoy, something that Jin’s deceptively light instrumental work with Shota Horie, a.k.a. kemu, emphasizes as well.

As for stuff about the translyrics here, something I’d like to note in particular is my decision to have the final pre-chorus split the plural first-person in the original into singular first-person and singular second-person. I guess we can also call it my lazy butt’s copium thanks to how I think I started thinking about whether it’s an error or not after getting the fully engineered audio, but anyway, I feel like the outright plural would’ve made something unnatural both in the singing and in the storytelling in English.

As for the vocals, I could only have my lower range as the harmony here. Jin’s beautiful songwriting continues to push human vocals to their limits, and too much squeak would’ve invaded your ears if I tried to add a high harmony, so yeah. And I’d like to thank Shigeru very much again for yet another beautiful piece of work on the products of my wrung neck.

And now, this cover’s mp3 and this cover’s lyrics sheet. Please do credit and link me if you wanna use my stuff, okay? And please give me feedback, especially the honest constructive sort.