yooo

 

 

I'm making a thread for her music.

 

For the unaware, Mori Calliope is a musician/Vtuber, part of the Japanese Hololive Production of animated streamers, and while many in that collective are musically talented and do Japanese idol songs, her music has a lot more widespread international appeal than most. Which is because she's an English-speaking rapper who clearly takes some of her inspiration from Eminem and 00s pop rap and emo music, with a heavy focus on wordplay and feelings. Occasionally her lyrics make reference to her persona as a Grim Reaper's apprentice on hiatus from doing the actual reaping stuff.

 

Her debut EP, Dead Beats, released in September last year briefly got to #1 on WW iTunes. A later release, Cursed Night, in October, also showed up in a few charts here and there.

 

Dead Beats

1. Reaper かRapper [iNTRODUCTION RAP]

2．失礼しますか、RIP��

3. Dead Beats

4. Live Again

 

Cursed Night

1. Cursed Night

 

 

I think if you held a gun to my head, this is my favourite of hers, though it's a pretty heavy listen.

 

 

These are all proper 10/10s though, fun lyrically, good pop production (only reason this thread's in hip-hop is because of the rapping x)

 

I'm keeping this short because I've already written tons about all of her current songs in these two posts if you want to read more than anyone ever needs to see written about some very good rap songs x

Anyway, reason I'm making this thread now is that she has a new song coming out soon with a very intriguing title:

 

@1354737197438492686

 

seriously I cannot wait wtf at myself

 

that BEAT

 

a lot more subdued than I was expecting, but there's some cool distortion, a few Shinto-esque sounds, some pretty natural sounding take that lyrics, the beat is something that tends to mean I'll like a song for a while. Another good one.

"start creating, stop tweeting"

 

she's so inspiring but this is all I've listened to for an hour so in order to actually use that inspiration I'm gonna go do something else

 

A song she did for the 'Princess Connect' game, which is nice, a bit more like an anime OP than the rap I got into her (as she's singing) for but good lyrics nonetheless.

 

she also has an EP called 'Your Mori' coming out on her birthday, 4/4 (her birthday is the number for death), with apparently both singing and rapping promised.

 

trailer for new EP

 

1. The Grim Reaper Is A Live Streamer

2. Red

3. guh

4. いじめっ子Bully

 

seems like she's mainly doing singing rather than rapping on this one :o excited to see where she goes next.

 

the animation on this is so good I'm dying, and as far as the song goes she's branched out into emo pop

 

'Guh' is my early favourite, probably because it's the one where she's rapping the most out of the 4, she really sounds like the female Eminem she clearly wants to be at some parts and it's got some really outstanding production particularly at the beginning. 'Guh' is named after the vocal tic she opens live streams with to be adorable; she also boasts about her insane vocabulary on the very same song :')

 

other 2 will need to grow on me

 

edit: seeing 'The Grim Reaper Is A Live Streamer' done live has awoken that one, great electro-swing there

@1378917337399615488

 

@1378939592531800067

 

ha ha ha ha YES

just spent an hour in awe at this

 

 

she's so good live, did some YOASOBI, some other Hololive songs, blasted through the new EP, very fun and entertaining, Hololive karaoke always delivers even when it's not her, there's some really talented singers in that collective

 

(event of the day, absolutely sure nothing else is going on x)

@1442365670302257154

 

it has been so long... she's done plenty of awesome covers (including, finally, Rap God and a bunch of other rap classics x) but an age since new original music

 

beautiful title as always, and she's mentioned that this has some... feelings about it, something she just wants to put out there and see how it goes (which is similar to what she said for 'Cursed Night' and 'Off With Their Heads', two of her best), need

 

um... this is beautiful

 

lowkey, reflective Mori is always very emotional and this definitely hits :cry:

Calli has released (with the help of several collabs) 4 songs in as many days - one ("Myth or Treat") is a fun song that she did with the rest of HoloMyth for Halloween, another is a cover of K/DA's "The Baddest" that she did with three of the girls from Hololive Indonesia and then there's the songs I'm going to post here:

 

BOOGEY VOXX - Crown (feat. Mori Calliope)

 

 

Boogey Voxx are a singing-rap duo from the underground Japanese electro-swing rap scene that Calli used to be a part of in her old life, and they've done a both-ways collab with her.

"Crown" is like, well, if "end of a life" was Mori expressing some regrets about the life she left behind, "Crown" is the sequel, her and Boogey Voxx revelling in all the new opportunities they have now, with some great call-and-response rap and an uplifting chorus.

 

Mori Calliope - Graveyard Shift (feat. BOOGEY VOXX)

 

 

"Graveyard Shift", meanwhile, is the Mori Calliope club banger everyone I wanted. It's got an amazing swinging beat and the Boogey Voxx girl has some great vocals here.

 

("Crown" is a slight step down from 'end of a life' but basically nothing was going to top that; "Graveyard Shift" is super fun though, I guess like FAKE TYPE a bit)

 

Mori teams up with Gura and veteran vocaloid producer DECO*27!

 

thought about making a thread in Pop for this one but decided to keep my stanning/promotion contained to a single thread (for now), it's actually tagged as 'rock' on iTunes even though I would not say that's what its primary genre is. Pop-rock with a bit of rap and vocaloid influences and a whole lot of hype. The animation they did for this video is really quite something.

 

by which I mean: third-fastest Hololive related song to a million views after Gura's 'REFLECT' and Mori/Gura's one previous collab, a cover of Kanaria's 'KING'. It's going to be huge, in weeb circles anyway.

we can still use this thread? Yes, we still can use this thread.

 

THE FIRST FULL-LENGTH MORI CALLIOPE ALBUM IS RELEASING IN THREE DAYS OMG WHAT THAT'S SO SOON I BARELY HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO PROCESS IT

 

Mori Calliope - UnAlive

 

 

1. UnAlive

2. Q (feat. Gawr Gura)

3. Dead On Arrival

4. Graveyard Shift (feat. BOOGEY VOXX)

5. Lose-Lose Days

6. HUGE W

7. Resting Power

8. Scuffed-Up Age

9. Ouroboros

10. UnAlive (Japanese version)

11. UnAlive (instrumental)

 

includes tracks by Camellia (famous... and infamous Japanese producer) and other producers. 'Resting Power' is the same producer as 'end of a life', PrettyPatterns. I've seen her write lyrics for a few of these on members' streams, there's a lot of good stuff coming.

 

Q and Graveyard Shift we already know, just above this post in this thread. At least 'Dead On Arrival' is an 'electroswing banger', there was a clip played on stream and one other track is an 'angsty RnB song' - see, she knew she had to justify her place in this forum. The entire album is her doing whatever genre she feels like lmao.

it leaked on spotify

 

initial uncollected thoughts on new songs:

 

un-alive - epic

dead on arrival - an electro-swing specific *.*

lose-lose days - awww cute

huge W :lol:

resting power :cry:

scuffed-up age - good message

ouroboros :heart:

 

surprisingly cohesive from one song to the other despite all the different genres.

more shilling you say?

 

 

LOOK AT THIS 3D VIDEO IT'S VERY GOOD

 

I have an UnAlive review.

 

Uh, scores:

10 UnAlive

09 Q (feat. Gawr Gura)

11 Dead On Arrival

09 Graveyard Shift (feat. BOOGEY VOXX)

10 Lose-Lose Days

08 HUGE W

08 Resting Power

09 Scuffed-Up Age

09 Ouroboros

09 UnAlive (Japanese version)

 

that doesn't say much does it but the strength of doing a genre album is that each of them is great for different things, my electro-swing bias aside.

 

so here's my review of it:

https://izzystarsblog.wordpress.com/2022/03...mbnail_id=14370

 

it's way too long to copy over but here's a few bits from it about some of the most interesting tracks to write about:

 

UnAlive

 

The album opens in what I can only think of as a very epic fashion with UnAlive, it is a very familiar kind of riff, the sort that often appears in fantasy anime, I think it’s a strong instrumental, allowing for flourishes that follow up Calli’s lyrics. The rap has a huge amount of energy too, and Calli’s chorus delivery ensures the epic feeling is felt. It’s a song telling of Calli’s independent (‘reject any and all help’) streak striving to create (‘a place I’ll never know until I’m satisfied’), but also feeling the pain from doing that. And there are lore connections in that a Grim Reaper would also never be satisfied, and, if empathetic, like we know Calli is, they would also find some aspects of the ‘job’ weary. It feels like a cry for help of a workaholic, a little. But more than that, it’s constantly moving towards a future that isn’t quite there yet, and I know that’ll be also touched on by songs later on the album. As an album theme, this is a fantastic choice, showing Calli has a great longing for satisfaction; and it’s great to listen to. Absolutely the most epic song here. Plus that 3D video is jawdroppingly great.

Lose-Lose Days

 

Lose-Lose Days was initially a song I didn’t think much of, perhaps a little too ‘pop’ for me and reminding me a little bit of ‘Ibasho’, which while pleasant is Mori’s weakest release. Further listens have shown it’s a lot stronger than ‘Ibasho’ and has ended up as one of the tracks I want to listen to most, the bright instrumental working to its advantage as Calli shows off some really strong lyrics around its concept of working through the pain, to find the positives in working to make something meaningful. The chorus sets up this beautiful set of lyrics ‘deciding to stay’ and ‘If I’ve got you, I might stick around…’ indicating that Calli has found a reason to stay, and it’s a very beautiful sentiment. The final line is the strongest though, an unmistakably emotional and cute ‘I’m going to smile and make you guys proud’ – which is the message of the song, making those she loves proud, more or less. It’s the positive idol song and I will celebrate that because damnit we needed one of those.

 

Scuffed-Up Age

 

Scuffed-Up Age is the track where I feel best speaking about the message because it’s more than just Mori, it’s a generational call. I initially thought the lyrics sounded a tad awkward when going over them in the members’ stream, but the full context makes that all better, it’s a fantastic rhythmic listen and are probably my favourite messaging lyrics on the album for that reason. More than just ‘it sucks that not everyone gets to follow their dreams’, there’s something that speaks to the atomisation of society, that there’s not really any unique cultural moment (‘we choose to know’). Us in the vtuber sphere probably don’t have much social contact with people outside of that, at least not as a group though we might well do individually. For that reason, it sounds like Calli is fighting along with us in this world that’s not what was promised – but not cynically, to spread positivity and love wherever we can. That Calli can do that, even in this age, is great.

'Ouroborus' was the best track I think. Enjoying the folky vibes a lot.

okay mori calliope has been literally signed to Universal and there's a new EP in July - Shinigami Note we're pro now

 

she's doing so well :cry:

 

also she's done these collab songs with my favourite Japanese vtuber Suisei, 'Wicked' is doing great on Japanese iTunes behind Suisei's solo song 'TEMPLATE', and 'CapSule' just premiered and is leading off the new EP

 

 

gonna change this thread title to 'Shinigami Note' soon enough

 

but for now Mori has released a new psytrance banger with Giga27

 

 

yes, psytrance, at least this is in the ballpark with Indian instrumentals all over the place

Mori's first major label EP is out and it's #2 on worldwide iTunes albums and top 10 in lots of places including almost the UK! still got it

 

@1549569835016884224

 

anyway this just dropped and I can't decide whether the backing is pirate or Italobrothers but it's high energy nevertheless