The Manimal's Music

[Manimal]

New single!

"College Cosplay Meeting" with an Elvis cover "The Girl Of My Best Friend" and a song that most likely won't make it on my next album, "Don't !!". The artwork was done by Karung_Susu on Fiverr. It's my character Kaletta dressed as Ritsu in the first K-On! ED. I was very happy with the art!

I've made about 250 songs and "College Cosplay Meeting" is one of my Top 20 best ones, easily. It was just one of those magic times when I was recording it. Everything came together perfectly. I am extremely proud of it and it's just one of the best things I've ever made. The other two are...what they are. 



LISTEN ON SOUNDCLOUD
https://soundcloud.com/kanttilamusic/sets/college-cosplay-meeting-single 

[Suuper-san]

Very nice artwork indeed.

-College Cosplay Meeting
A very vibrant song with lots of layers, very energetic. Not too much to dislike, was very good all the way through. Only complaint is the fade out sounded a bit wrong somehow, like it was cutting off the vocals mid-sentence. Lyrics were a little hard to hear and typical crazy content, although a bit more normal than some of your other songs. I think I agree, definitely one of your best. Drums also sounded distinctly better than normal I think.

-The Girl Of My Best Friend
For a split second I was gonna say this was like super normal lyrics but then I realized lol
Otherwise it came out really good. I actually preferred your version to the original, which tells me something - if you have the right lyrics and music you can make something massively good quality. So with practice and experience you can compose something yourself of equal or better quality if you put your mind to it.

Don't!!
Lyrics were chaotic for sure XD
Music was nice actually and vocals were ok, so if the lyrics were more normal it wouldn't be bad at all.

and 250 songs huh? what a milestone!
That's a pretty awesome achievement for sure. Keep it up!

[Manimal]

Thanks for the listen! Honestly, I wish I kept playing on "College Cosplay Meeting" but I went bananas on the drums and lost it right at the end so I had to have a fade out. I also didn't have the idea to start listing names until I was recording vocals, so in retrospect the end part should of been longer. 

Surprised to see your comments on the cover song! I wasn't too sure about it at first since I recorded it quickly.

I don't know if I could ever write normal lyrics haha, thanks again for the comments!

[Suuper-san]

Ahaha your crazy lyrics are becoming your trademark lol

But on another thought, you know that artists do this redraw meme, taking an older piece and drawing it again with better skills? Have you ever considered trying to redo an older song, rewriting the bits you didn't like or retrospectively have now thought of better lyrics or music etc? I get the feeling you'd be able to take a couple of songs to a higher level that way. I dunno just a random thought :P

[Manimal]

I haven't done something like that in quite a while. I like the idea of it being like the redraw meme.

I made an entire album that I'd like to redo. Some of the lyrics were top tier awful and I could do a lot of things better. I even played a broken snare drum on one song, it sounded so bad 

It's hard to recapture the emotions I felt when I made the songs though. That's the roadblock for me. But I would like to do a remake album at some point. Or "Re: Draw" album 

[Suuper-san]

ah right I can relate to that, it's like an advanced form of "not feeling like it", except you need an even more specific kind of feeling that may or may not ever come again :P
Aha redraw album sounds cool.

[Manimal]

Kanttila : Earthshaker (EP)


1. Sweet Montana
2. Wealthy Wally
3. Led Zeppelin II (Reissue, 1977)
4. College Cosplay Meeting
5. Fake Fan

All Songs Written/Performed by: Manimal
Album Art by: kemaltafwidh 

Bandcamp Link
https://kanttila.bandcamp.com/album/earthshaker-ep

Soundcloud Link
https://soundcloud.com/kanttilamusic/sets/earthshaker-ep   

Kanttila is coming, and you're gonna hear me drumming! This set of seven songs presents an upgraded sound for me, with better mics than I previous used and a much better drum sound. Thanks to my Who obsession I have reached a new level of drumming, and I wanted to make a set of songs to show the spirit of Keith Moon that I wish to channel, within my usual Phil Rudd/Peter Criss influenced drumming.

Ultimately this didn't end being an album like I hoped. I made other songs but they didn't cut it. Ultimately this is an EP with five solid songs, instead of an album with half filler songs. I lost the inspiration and I have no desire to finish this, so I wanted to put out what I have and move on. I think this is a fiery set of songs that captured a very brief moment of new life and energy.

This is my Rock 'n Roll.   

This is Earthshaker.

         

[Manimal]

Kanttila : Karki 5:15


1. GNX
2. Tsunko
3. First Kiss In Hell
4. Petit Bad Boy
5. Messages In The Sand
6. Our Mutual Dissatisfaction (Feat. Ashley Brewer)
7. Through The Door (Feat. Cola)
8. (Do Fear) The Soccer Mothers
9. The Sandwich Artist
10. Roast Beef Thief
11. Entangled Species
12. No Perfect Sky   

All Songs Performed By : Kanttila
Full Credits On Bandcamp

Album Art by: kemaltafwidh 

Bandcamp Link
https://kanttila.bandcamp.com/album/karki-5-15

Soundcloud Link
https://soundcloud.com/kanttilamusic/sets/karki-5-15   

 

I'm back at it with my 24th album!

Karki 5:15 is a few things to me. For one it's my personal comeback to an actual finished fully realized album, unlike my previous one which was six songs padded out with three unrelated tracks from prior projects. For another this is sorta kinda my break-up album (though it's not the main focus). Sure enough the end of my long term relationship and longing for something to fill the void has re-engaged my creative spirit. This is also a further step to my goal of making music that sounds like a live Rock 'n Roll band is playing instead of me over different tracks. 

I played the drums on this album with my everything and many songs have moments where I went off tempo and threw off my headphones to keep going. My drumming instincts guided the flow of many of the songs and I wanted to really make an album that had my Rock 'n Roll in full force alongside some different types of songs. I think this album represents a very competent picture of myself, my personality, longings, spirit and above all inner energy. It's one of the more balanced set of songs I've made, with the silly cartoony songs and the serious but not too serious ones.   

I tried to step up my mixing game a touch on this album. I'm still not great because my focus is on making songs constantly rather than perfecting things, but it's a small step forward. I think this album has some of my strongest lyrics and I'm happy with how it came together. It's not one of my best albums but it has some of my best ever songs, "First Kiss In Hell", "Tsunko" and "Petit Bad Boy" along with two duets and plenty guitar solos.

This is Karki 5:15...

         

[Suuper-san]

wow so many albums now!!!
well done on a new release, here's my thoughts:

1. GNX
where the vocals changed deeper at 0:30 and 1:15 I thought that sounded really good. the instruments worked together well and there weren't any bland bits. lyrics were not as mad as some of yours that I've heard, actually passable as normal lyrics :P

2. Tsunko
I liked the intro but felt it went on a tad too long before the guitar started. lyrics were alright actually, I'm rather fond of quick rhyming pairs so that's always a plus in my books. nice guitar solo. some of the vocals were a bit off but some was also some of the best I've heard from you. The outro was nice but felt a tad too long, I think there could have been some fade out lyrics, like repeating a bit of the chorus or something.

3. First Kiss In Hell
lyrics were really nice and coherent, quite good actually. vocals were nice and strong through the entire range of highs and low, and were in tune more than previously. the overall song flow, ups and downs were good and worked well in each section.

4. Petit Bad Boy
vocals felt on the weaker side in the first half but around 1:20 to 2:00 got better, 3:20 it wasn't so great. melody was good, lyrics were alright. where the vocals dropped out of melody (i.e. you spoke), these fitted the lyrics and worked well, better than when you've done it before, possibly because the lyrics were better.

5. Messages In The Sand
lyrics were good. I've noticed regarding your vocals, specifically in this song I noticed it more, you seem to be jumping between singing in melody and shouting/speaking without melody in the same sentence. from 0:00 to 1:00 this is quite noticeable but I've heard it happen in other songs. I suspect it's not deliberate but seems that you can start on a note alright but you're struggling to move from note to note in the middle of phrases. At least that's how it seems to me. I liked the slow buildup in this song as the tempo and volume increased. nice guitar solo.

6. Our Mutual Dissatisfaction (Feat. Ashley Brewer)
lyrics were good but a couple of words seemed to be not suitable for song lyrics i.e. "dissatisfaction", they are just naturally jarring I think. As someone who loves overlapping lyrics I loved the duet from 2:20.

7. Through The Door (Feat. Cola)
while you both have quite different types of voices there were some nice harmony parts in the duet. the lyrics were nice. overall the song felt a tad too slow although that might just be my preference. the outro felt a little out of place for some reason, maybe because it was just guitar on its own.

8. (Do Fear) The Soccer Mothers
pretty mad lyrics lol. vocals were pretty good actually and were in tune especially during the chorus. overall a very fun song but not really my cup of tea. the outro felt quite long but wasn't bad. the very final part of the outro was a good ending.

9. The Sandwich Artist
again another crazy lyric song. but all the same lyrics were coherent to the theme/story so not all bad. the spoken parts were good and didn't feel out of place. quite a bit of the vocals weren't in tune.

10. Roast Beef Thief
another heist song :P lyrics were mad but coherent.
vocals were pretty strong in this one, especially around 0:40 to 1:30

11. Entangled Species
really liked the intro. vocals were really good from 0:30 to 0:45. didn't like the spoken mid part, was sort of unexpected. the ending spoken part was alright though.

12. No Perfect Sky   
lyrics were good and overall a good song. everything was good and strong for most of the song. the chorus was really good.

overall these are definitely some of your best songs I think. the mixing is definitely much better, there's nothing that sounds out of place or too quiet or loud, which was more common in the past. so definitely an improvement.
all the songs have strong instrumentals with the drums and guitar and there were no points where I felt that anything was missing or weak in that regard.
your lyrics are much better with a higher proportion of "sensible" songs, as well as the crazy songs having more coherent lyrics that are interesting and fun.
vocals are also a lot more in tune consistently.
whatever you're doing, keep doing it because these turned out super well, looking forward to the next album :P

[Manimal]

Thanks so much for listening and leaving your comments Suuper! As always I appreciate the honest feedback, which is something that truly helps me improve! I think the take away here, and as other people have told me time and time again, I should focus on my lower register since everyone thinks I sound the best that way.

I'm happy what you said about the lyrics also, I am trying to make my stuff more understandable so it's nice to hear that. Again, thanks a ton for taking the time to listen and comment!