Quick introduction for those unfamiliar: this is where I talk about Touhou music from this year that I liked, or at least found interesting to talk about. Most of them will be from lesser-known circles or artists. As usual, you can check here for an uncommented list of other music which I enjoyed (and a few I didn't) from this year. Also feel free to peep my sandbox for drafts.
2024 | 2025 <-- | 2026
The List
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Betelgeuse （2026-01-27）- 社团：Scalding Coffee Cup
progressive metal, melodic death metal (a fair bit), post-rock (last track)
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this is a placeholder entry, I think this might be an early contender for Touhou music album of the year, if not the decade.
note: the full entry will mention aspects of Outer Wilds, a game where progression is heavily based around acquiring in-game knowledge and is extremely spoiler-sensitive. The aspects alluded to will include one plot point that is likely discovered within the first two hours of gameplay, as well as one moment in the good ending. I kept the latter vague enough to hopefully not spoil too much, but it might affect your expectation of the ending if you're planning to play it. As such it will be kept in a collapsable, but the spoiler-free version is this:
A very ambitious album in both concept and arrangements, and with great lyrics to boot. The standout track is, of course, the ~28 minute Too Much Information, beating the record for the longest Touhou prog metal arrangement. The previous record holders, まぐなむお～ぱす (~23 min) and Electric Red (~25 min), are instrumental medleys. Scalding Coffee Cup takes a more involved approach to arrangement by developing a small set of themes in varied ways into a larger narrative, and by writing lyrics that fit into the entire album's narrative. Ignoring the lyrics, this approach to arrangement reminds me of one of my favorite non-Touhou video game music arrangers, Cory Johnson. While he specializes in post-rock and psychedelic rock rather than prog metal, his arrangements also tend to develop a single theme in ways that feel like a longform, organically unfolding narrative.1. Too Much Information being prog metal means there's more room for chaos and transitions that might not logically make sense. Even then, the song is full of interesting arrangement choices and is consistently engaging. Even the extended ambient at the end feels earned from all the build-up beforehand.
Touhou prog metal is not known for its lyrical concept albums, but with recent releases like this and The Yama King, it feels to me that it won't be far until someone makes something that rivals 凋叶棕's albums in narrative ambition and intricacy. The arrangements are rough around the edges, but that doesn't diminish its power as a whole. Plus, the album made me cry. I can't say that for many Touhou albums I've listened to.
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as above, so below （2026-01-17）- 社团：Silhouette Dance
EDM grabbag
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This album was released at 通往未来世纪的邀请函, the South Korean Touhou scene's first Hifuu-only event. I feel like the Korean Touhou fandom has had a new generation of people joining starting in 2019 or 2020, resulting in the Hourai-sai event series that started in 2020. This wave is big enough that the 3rd and 4th Hourai-sai in 2024 and 2025 managed to have live concerts with big-name Japanese circles performing, and the fact that there's now enough interest for something as specific as a Hifuu-themed event is another indication of just how big the scene has grown.
With that said, this new wave doesn't show up well on the music side - there's a lot more doujinshi released than CDs at the events mentioned above, it's just not really visible because this wiki has more music editors than doujinshi editors2. It's only in last year's Hourai-sai that the number of album released matched 2010s events like 芳年少女弹幕祭 and 弹幕色宴会. Maybe this will change in the next few years?
As for the music: personal highlights include the warm-sounding bassline tune Hifuu Girl's Club dub which goes hella hard and Journey Inside Fantasy; Unreal Reality Illusion which is a nice trip through festival EDM styles. Honestly, Cloudverge's tracks takes the spotlight for me - The road ahead feels lonely and O'Erpine are both beautiful and work as fitting album closers. I'd even say that The road ahead feels lonely should be the final track because its soulful chill hip-hop sound fits the comfy cover art really well.
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Writing about these!
Interested in listening
Linked Releases and Other Footnotes
- ↑ His Earthbound arrangement album from 2014 is one of my favorite video game arrangement albums, and is on the level of my favorite Touhou albums. His Celeste arrangements are also excellent.
- ↑ the number of fangame editors is somewhere inbetween, but I don't think "the number of games released at events" is a good indicator of the growth of the SK scene, as most Touhou fan games nowadays are released on digital platforms rather than events.
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