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Saturday, May 7, 2016

Song of the Week! 7 May 2016


For today's feature, here's yet another song who made its Taiko debut through a Taiko no Tatsujin game for Playstation Vita!

 Sugar Song to Bitter Step (シュガーソングとビターステップ) UNISON SQUARE GARDEN
Version
Allx3 (126)x4 (169)x5 (332)x8 (535)
 Taiko 0 W, Taiko Ps Vita, Taiko +
 132
 Anime -> J-Pop
 ???


Noteworthy in recent memory to be one of the latest genre-changing songs in Taiko games, Sugar Song to Bitter Step is the 10th single from the Japanese rock band UNISON SQUARE GARDEN, currently signed to the TOY'S FACTORY label. Founded in 2004 as an high school band, its name is based on an assemble of word-plays, with the whole title possibly coming from the name of New York's Madison Square Garden arena by replacing the first word with a mashup of 'Union' and 'Song', as to symbolize that its three members all contribute for their songs' singing component. Aside from singing, the three members also play a different instrument for their songs, with Kousuke Saito (斎藤宏介), Tomoya Tabuchi (田淵智也) at the bass and Takao Suzumi (鈴木貴雄) as the drummer.

Sugar Song to Bitter Step is UNISON SQUARE GARDEN's latest single (with its release date on May 20th, 2015), as well as its most popular one to the public, peaking 5th at Oricon's CD sales charts and scoring many 1st places for weekly standings between Billboard Japan Hot 100 and Oricon digital downloads. Being used as the ending theme of an Anime series, the songs was also ranked 1st for three consecutive weeks in the Billboard Japan's Anime charts!

As its V Version debut's subtitles states, in fact, Sugar Song to Bitter Step was used for the 2015 Anime transposition of mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow (内藤 泰弘)'s Kekkai Sensen (血界戦線). Known in the West as Blood Blockade Battlefront, its story is set in New York City, when a mysterious portal to the "Beyond" transforms the cosmopolitan American city in a bizarre place where monsters and the use of magic is mixed to the city's everyday life. The neo-formed town -now known as Helsalem's Lot- is now on the verge of chaos with its new inhabitants' attacks, and it's up to the crime-fighting organization Libra to contain the newcomer menaces from the "Beyond" in Helsalem's Lot while repelling their attacks in the city's streets.

Despite the low BPM value for the genre, the song's naturally-upbeat rhythm makes fertile ground for different note cluster formation, mostly consisting of even-note clusters with a dash of occasional time signature changes.