東方 Touhou Moonlight (Flight of the Bamboo Cutter ~ Lunatic Princess) [E3,

Title: Oboro
Circle: N-tone／Dust_Box_49 (ziki_7)
Album: Beyond the Last Archive (NDCD-0008)
Original: 竹取飛翔　～ Lunatic Princess (Flight of the Bamboo Cutter ~ Lunatic Princess), ネイティブフェイス (Native Faith) cameo at 3:51
Image artist: 3000小纯
Image link: [Unavailable] danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2814884
Upload #22
Dust_box_49 and N-tone are both circles that I tend to overlook, but I regard both highly. A lot of their music's kinda all over the place, energy-level-wise, which doesn't work well for this channel's music classification system, but I don't think I've heard a strictly "bad" track from either of them. Their albums do feel like a sit-down-and-listen-through-the-whole-thing ordeal though; many of their tracks are over 5 minutes long, sometimes over 10, which I'd imagine wouldn't sit well with the attention-starved internet users of the 2020s.
I'm not sure how often both are discussed nowadays since both circles have been inactive, arrangement-wise, but from popular culture, I'd suspect that Dust_box_49 might be best known for being featured in minusT's PCB video. Aside from that, both ziki_7/oiko (of DB49 and N-tone, respectively) seem to have contributed to TH17.5's OST.
Truth be told, I originally had another track of theirs in mind for upload, but this one caught my eye for having basically no presence on RUclips, which was a shame that I had to rectify. Maybe I'll put up the other one the next time I upload something from these guys.
~~~
If there's one thing that I hate about running this channel, it's picking titles. Using a genre doesn't scale well (given how many other tracks are going to share the same genre), using an adjective/noun could be pretentious/cringe if not done right, and throwing out the descriptor altogether makes tracks hard to find. (Is someone really going to hear a track and think "Oh hey, that's E3#22"?)
In my defense for this one, the title, Oboro, usually refers to 朧, which is generally moonlight haze.
...or maybe it's a ship that Wikipedia translates as "moonlight", or shrimp paste; who knows.
Bleh. I'll think about the title later; having upload momentum takes priority right now, lest I go back into hibernation.
Anyways, continuing from the blurb from the previous video, there are a lot of things I haven't really figured out yet about this channel, but going to be adding a few more limitations for myself:
1. Whether to use AI art is a big one - there are a handful of tracks that I have trouble finding pictures for. There were actually a few times during my hiatus where I spent a few hours looking for a picture for a video, gave up, and waited another few months (before inevitably repeating the cycle).
I think I'll do that once I get a new computer capable of image gen without frying my PC, though I'll probably still try to use human-sourced art if convenient (or until I run into a copyright strike)
2. No AI allowed in these oversized blurbs of course. I'd probably quit uploading before I resort to that.
3. I'll be focusing on albums out of commercial circulation. Heavily underappreciated tracks from active circles/artists might also be considered.
4. I'm going to actively try not reusing circles, but I'll arbitrarily set a minimum gap of 10-15 uploads before I repeat a circle.
I already have 18 unique circles featured on this channel, over 10 of which I'd consider prolific, so this requirement isn't much of a stretch.
5. Uploads will be limited to pre-TH15 tracks, since that was the last game without an initial steam release. This might seem like a very boomerish gatekeepy mentality, especially from someone who couldn't legally obtain CDs until recently, but at the end of the day, this is an archival channel, and I'm not familiar enough with the later games to have much of an opinion on them.
That, and I can't say I'm too pleased with the direction in which ZUN has been taking the franchise. Especially with the mobile games conflicting with his original stance on derivative works + preferential treatment of certain circles, I feel like he's "sold out", for lack of a better phrase.
...At the very least, there's a bit of a sad feeling I get when I see Reimu being considered a gacha game character, and burying my head in the sand's all I can do about that.
6. I just noticed that I've been repeatedly swapping the positions of the personal rambling blurb/track critique blurbs. For now, critique top, ramblings bottom.
7. In line with this channel's energy level grading system, E3 tracks and below will only have relatively stable BPM, volume, and overall energy levels. Anything goes for E4+.
Apparently 作業用BGM (literally "work BGM") is a genre. I think I'll aim for that classification.
There are a few other thoughts on this channel that I've been considering (E.G. "rebranding" from 東方 to 同人, video titling, using AI to clean up vocals/disruptive samples, whether or not to allow original tracks or arranges only, etc.), but those seem like thoughts for later.

[@spaghettiking7312]

What a wholesome, beautiful bop.

[@melodywawichi802]

This feels really nice to listen to.