Lost Producers Project: Vocaloid Producers You May Have Missed – Nashimoto-P

Welcome to the first entry in my new series:

The Lost Producers Project!

What is this series?

Lost Producers is a series that shines the spotlight on Vocaloid producers who were lost to time, are underground with a small but dedicated fan base, or never crossed into global algorithms.

Every month, I will share some of the wonderful music and projects of some of the lost Vocaloid-Ps! You might find your next favorite.

The series is divided into a few parts – background info on the producer, intro their musical style, recommended songs and utaite covers, why fans love the artist, and some speculation on why the artist didn’t hit the mainstream.

This first entry features one of my all time favorites – Nashimoto-P.

Who is Nashimoto-P?

Nashimoto-P, also known by his nickname Nashimoto Ui (pronounced “we”), started uploading music to NicoNico Douga in 2009.

He is from the outskirts of Tokyo – a prefecture called Chiba, and is suspected to be from a city called Funabashi.

The “nashi” in his name comes from a popular fruit in the city, the Asian Pear. Anyone remember the insane mascot character called Funashi?

Funashi reps Funabashi, too.

Nashimoto-P is still actively uploading songs and performs in two bands around Tokyo covering his Vocaloid songs live.

Musical Style and Influences

Nashimoto tunes Miku’s voice to a muffled shoegaze style with instrumentals ranging from garage punk to melodic hardcore.

His style of dark music features themes about the harder sides of life – from being alone on Christmas, feeling like a cockroach, not living up to potential, to stumbling upon his high school crush selling love to other men.

Along with Kikuo, Nashimoto was one of the earliest Vocaloid-Ps to write about super twisted and dark realities.

Take a Listen

Miku’s Unique Grunge Tuning –

aaaaAAAAaaaaaaaaaAaAaAaAa

A perfect song to hear Nashimoto’s signature style.

Utaite Classic –

Petenshi Ga Warau Koro Ni (When The Scammer Laughs)

A standard that was covered all over the utattemita community.

Utattemita ver. Jiguru

One of the many covers of the previous song.

Nashimoto’s Sense of Humor on Full Display –

Screw the PTA (Utattemita ver – hashiyan and amatsuki)

For anyone who ever wanted to stick it to the PTA.

Nashimoto’s Vocaloid Self Cover Band –

OeOeO – araiyakashiko

recorder solo @ 2:15

Why Fans Love Nashimoto-P

Early Vocaloid was more focused on songs that sounded good with Miku’s bright, cute voice. The J-pop style was popular and easier to tune, but Nashimoto went against the grain and made Miku sound dark and grungy. Nowadays, there are more choices like V-Flower or Otomachi Una who work better for the dark rock genre out of the box.

His music videos were easy to recognize – simple black backgrounds with some hand drawn doodles and lyrics scribbled across the screen.

Nashimoto makes it obvious through his discography about his nihilist tendencies. He sarcastically critiques and laughs in the face of life, slaps an addictive melody to it, and the product is a solid song every time.

Oh, yeah… and his basslines… ❤

Why Did He Stay Underground?

There were several popular utaite covers for his songs, including covers by the big names like Amatsuki, Glutamine, Uratanuki, and Michan from the popular utaite unit group ROOT FIVE. Despite that, he has always remained lowkey, especially in the English community nowadays.

I think it boils down to Nashimoto simply being satisfied making personal art for himself and his inner circle of band friends. He doesn’t seem to care about promoting his music much online, other than releasing it and letting the world interact with it however they want. He never commissioned music videos, and stuck with his black background + white scribble doodle formula for 15+ years now.

As for the English speaking community, there was a Deviant Art artist named Aisha Neko who made original MVs to Nashimoto’s music.

She disappeared, but I found the video re-uploaded on YouTube. It was popular in the early Vocaloid fandom around 2011 and helped Nashimoto gain some fans abroad.

His music also draws a lot of influence from the UK and American rock sound, and isn’t the typical Jrock/Jpop chord progression that Vocaloid and the big producers are known and loved for.

But, personally, I love his style and I think he is an unforgettable force in the Vocaloid community. Hope you love his music too!

That is all for this first entry!

Let me know if there are other things you would like to see in this series – I am still experimenting with the info and formatting. I plan to make a new part every month. And, definitely let me know if you have a favorite Lost Producer!

Until next time!! ❤

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