#NixsMixes
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phoboslabs.bsky.social
Finally making a fancy ahh thread for #NixsMixes - album recommendations for each month of 2025, based on what I've listened to! Check back here later for some good tunes*!

*Subjective. They might actually be bad lmao
February 9, 2025 at 7:02 PM
phoboslabs.bsky.social
And a bonus #NixsMixes for Feb 2025 - Flavour Foley's epic compilation Cardiac Contrepoint!
"Cardiac Contrepoint" combines Flavor Foley's line up of songs into a fantastic farrago, which I personally think is an excellent starter album for those new to the world of vocal synths who may want to listen to something which sounds a bit more realistic, yet still contains the quirkiness found in many vsynth tunes. FF's lyrics have always been their strongest point to me personally, especially with their hit "Butcher Vanity" which you've probably heard a million times already (and should listen to a million times more!). "Queen of Venus", featuring the entirely synthetic vocals of Adachi Rei, is beautifully written, almost poetic, full of longing and cleaver little lines referencing the workings of computers.
March 8, 2025 at 11:15 PM
phoboslabs.bsky.social
Okay finally back on my bullshit - here's a very late #NixsMixes for March 2025 - We got UATU, we got lo-fi EDM Synth V Teto, we got an idol group, and some bassy Darkwave.

Just doing these for fun - all I wanna achieve is offset the negativity on the net a lil with something light and positive :>
The first thing I have to say about "Let's go! Cunning 30 Children's Center" is that I love how it focuses more on the lower vocal ranges of it's cast of UTAU singers, which includes artificial idols Adachi Rei and Defoko, as well as the beloved Kasane Teto, Momone Momo, and canned sugar's own UTAU voicebank called Touko, who has a mature, husky yet clear voice. Another thing which makes this album stand out to me is there's bits and pieces of what sound like general MIDI/FM synthesis instruments, which really makes the album feel like it's come from a 90's VGM composer. "Rain Flows" is my top track for it's chorus with Rei, Defoka and Momo, backed by an artificial orchestra. "RGB" is a little idol oddity I stumbled upon after listening to Sasuke Hiraguchi's composition for the song "Togare!" by idol group Moso Calibration. I see an album with good art, I have to check it out! "RGB" features a decent variety of EDM genres, notably leaning into future bass the most, but also features hints of dubstep, breakcore, and a tiny bit of chiptune and denpa too. It's not too cutesy or energetic either, so I'd say if you're not the biggest fan of traditional idol music, maybe give this a listen. "ANZEN KAIHATSU SONG", composed by AMEN KENSETSU is backed with a fast paced amen break beat and has an extremely catchy chorus. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" brings post-punk's signature rich basslines up front and center, accented by echoey vocals and light synth melodies. Once again just another album I happened to stumble upon out of the blue - it's immensely catchy and easy to get lost in the rhythms. Ago Giordano's vocals are very reminiscent to me of Ryan Shuck's (Julien-K) style, however, his vocals take more of a backseat in "Apocalypse Queen", overlapped by several synthesisers, a punchier drum track, and, of course, an excellent bass guitar. I might also just be hearing things, but the track reminds me of Tears For Fears' compositions (but that might just be because of the lyrics happen to include two of those three words lol.) "astro blue" is the perfect easy listening experience for those who want to introduce Teto SV into their life. Simple, minimally layered instruments bounce off of each other and trap-inspired beats, further carried by Teto's soothing voice. Many of the songs featured on this album are Teto SV covers of Makino Sena's previous tracks mostly featuring KAFU, Chis-A and ONE, but the beauty of vocal synths is there's a thousand different ways to manipulate even a single voice, so each version brings something new to the table vocal wise. While I have to shout out the track "rainy rainy" for it's more artificial vocal direction, "Melting Rainy" is very funky with a bouncy beat and glimmers of guitar.
May 7, 2025 at 5:31 PM
phoboslabs.bsky.social
#NixsMixes for February 2025!

New releases including GBV, Hatsune Miku and Adachi Rei, as well as an older release by MGMT I kept coming back to :)
"Universe Room" is GbV's 41st release, and, personally, it's a huge step up from their prior release, "Serene King". I didn't dislike it, but sometimes analbum just don't click with you. GbV have never not been experimental, but their recent albums have definitely been more consistent in sound. I personally found "Universe Room" to be very similar sonically to their 2022 release, "Crystal Nuns Cathedral", but still stands out as it's own release. It's very hard to pin down a favourtie track, but I absolutely adore the layering of "The Great Man". "Loading Screen" by MPXX throws you through some absolute curveballs with it's genre exploration - and this is a good thing! It's a very expressive album which explores a variety of EDM genres, all harmonized by Miku's sweet voice. Something you'll notice immediately is the entire album utilises her Japanese voicebank, despite the majority of the lyrics being in English, which adds to the unique sound and is refreshing to see in 2025! "Cherish" is a very upbeat electro-pop track, with a cheerful and punchy beat, utterly adorable vocals and a catchy rhythm. MACHINA MORI deserves all the applause it gets - while boasting predominatly electonic-dance music styles, there's still a very wide variety be- tween every track. And it's a project that just OOZES with love for the character and voice of Adachi Rei. Despite every track being a masterpiece in it's own regard, keysgen's noisepop number "VISIONS" is my favourite track with it's lush, choir-like vocals tuned by HWAAStyle, and a single verse sung by keysgen telling the story of two people watching each other from opposite sides of the same screen. I got on a huge MGMT kick late last year, but somehow skipped over the "Time To Pretend" E.P. until now. I imagine most people are drawn to this release to hear earlier versions of "Time to Pretend" and "Kids" which host slightly different instrumentations to the versions on 2007's "Oracular Spectacular", however, this release contains 4 exclusive tracks from the discordantly layered "Boogie Down", to the more mellow "Love Always Remains". "Destrokk" stood out to me with it's chiptune-inspired lead acompanied by a grungy guitar and strained vocals.
March 8, 2025 at 11:15 PM