Continuing with the theme of melting things down and re-embodying them comes a luxuriant Cirno-centered collection of songs from C.H.S., provocatively titled “Ultra Cute!?” The album title of course is never really a question – this scandalous serving of Cirno cupcake is deliciously kawaii in every way.
For those unfamiliar with Cirno, she makes her Touhou debut in 東方紅魔郷 ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, only to return for a special mid-boss cameo in the following game, 東方妖々夢 ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom, as a playable character (⑨) in 東方花映塚 ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View, and yet more times in the esoteric 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet.
Revolving around the alluring scenes when the ice fairy deigns to make an appearance and shamelessly far from sounding anything like its source material, “Ultra Cute!?” gleefully injects dempa moe pop with a pummeling dose of over 9,000 bpm lolicore. The breaks are often stunning and C.H.S. keeps the production on point with sticky beats and juicy synth hooks, perpetually floating on the surface of an 8bit bass bubblebath. The vocals are delightfully sparkly, and with only a handful of brief exceptions, utterly prepubescent throughout.
During the more introverted arc of the album, the listener is taken on a dizzying instrumental ride inside the genius Cirno’s mind when she’s thinking way too hard. The trippy, tranced-out progression of nonsensical mental activity actually sustains itself through quite a few levels of discourse before the inevitable explosion of ice cream, perchance egged on once and for all during “10Q-385,” a hot blooded staring contest with Izayoi Sakuya, the illustrious head maid of Scarlet Devil Mansion.
In Cirno’s loveable world as conjured here, thought quickly devolves into beat repeat sampling madness. It’s like a sped up candy factory that moves so fast it starts to loop around on itself, a perplexing and flirtatious play on time. The final stretch of the album is complete chaos, with raging standout track “ねむれないよ。(QTODMix)” casting a hyper-pop perfect freeze of distorted drums, distorted moe vocals and thumping bass lines.
The closing song, “SunnyFunnyChiny(BlueberryMix)” breaks the general pattern of haphazard derangement on an extremely high note, with some lovely waifish vocals by RIKU intoning the melody of “上海紅茶館 ~ Chinese Tea.”
Trap?!
