Thread by @140VGM

For our second #140VGMArtists thread, we will this time talk about a very underground artist, composer, and remixer : ZTS and his label CODE ZTS LABEL. @zts_czl

Most of our sources for this series of tweets are from :
-vgmdb.net/artist/959
-codeztslabel.info

Very little is actually known about him. ZTS is a dojin (amateur artist circle) composer and arranger, fascinated with visual novels and anime in particular.

Most of his earlier works revolve around arranging and remixing tracks from KEY’s universe like Kanon and other lesser known titles such as White Album and Pastel Chime.

His debut album is Conceit Orbit in 1999, consisting of 13 tracks with remixes from Kanon, Pastel Chime, Atlach=Nacha, White Album, One, Moon, Suzu ga Utau Hi and To Heart.

(Most videos of this thread are sample videos)

Already with this first album, zts’ style is easily recognizable, despite most of his works being remixes : They’re very joyful, very rhythmic, and filled with satisfying samples and beats. Sometimes, they’re more melancholic, with acoustic and digital cord instruments.

Throughtout 2000, zts arranged a lot of (hard to find) albums : Grand Blue, Piece, respect, Carnevale, dedicate... Still with a lot of KEY representation such as AIR and Kanon.

2001 marks his first (credited) work as an original composer, however : the tracks "selection - supreme gear" and "Stage 4 - luminary". Unfortunately could not find a single source, mainly because the name of the game is fairly common.
web.archive.org/web/2001072811…

Throughout 2001 and 2002, ZTS continues to distribute many albums through Comiket.

He also worked on the game GLOVE ON FIGHT, a dojin game featuring characters like Ciel (Tsukihime) and Ayu (Kanon). Disc 1 of the soundtrack contains a single remix by zts, and the rest by other artists like Raito (Melty Blood, UNIST)!

if... (zts mix) - GLOVE ON FIGHT (2002)

In this same year, this is when ZTS starts doing a trend of his : Making trilogies of original and remix albums throughout the years.

The first being the VAGUE series, the second being SELFREGARDS, and the third being VAGUE IN WINTER.
I unfortunately couldn’t find any samples for the Vague albums.

Selfregards and Vague mark a sort of transition in zts’ works, shifiting towards making a bit more original compositions and longer tracks, between 5 and 10 minutes. His joyful tunes are still here, but we can see how slowly, zts is shifting towards making more experimental work.

Oblivion, still in 2002, is a remix album for Tsukihime (and Kagetsu Tohya). Considering how minimalistic and short these soundtracks are (around 10 short tracks for a 40+ hours long visual novel), making an hour long remix album out of it is quite a feat.

zts releases VAGUE2 in 2003, and is a lead composer on Parhelia alongside the composer mirawi. Little is known about this shmup, but “The Mom” is featured on Selfregards2.
web.archive.org/web/2008011509…

The Mom - Parhelia (2003)

The next year, ZTS releases VAGUE3 and starts making his first of many Touhou remixes : “The capital city of flowers in the sky” from Touhou 7, featured on “Cradle : Touhou Gengaku Shiten“ and later in Selfregards2.

Still in 2004, zts discovers a game that (most likely) seemed to have deeply touched him : Clannad, the lastest KEY game. He already participates in a remix album called “CLANNAD remix album -memento- “ the same year.
vgmdb.net/album/1183

2005 marks his biggest featuring in the VGM industry. For Higurashi Kai, 07th Expansion wanted a completely original soundtrack : Dai leaded the way, and there followed zts, again with his noticeable acoustic touch.

What is Wished - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (2004, PC)

His tracks are subtle, soft, and nostalgic. daily passing by, soak, and what is wished are his three memorable tracks for one of the best visual novels of all time.

That didn’t stop him from staying a TYPE-MOON fan the same year : zts releases the fantastic remix album “Eleison”, containing many remixes from one of the most famous visual novel of all time : Fate/stay Night.

In 2006, after the release of the official soundtrack of Higurashi Kai, Vague in Winter releases, with amazing featured artists such as MINA, Tomoe Mizuki and Syo Hida.

The first track “summer's winter” is a remix of dai’s “You” from Higurashi. As if after the tears and the pain, zts wanted to express his joy from this series’ beautiful resolution with a gorgeous and joyful symphony.

In 2007, zts sure was busy, for a reason fans of him might know.
But before we talk about this one big project, i recommend you to listen through Selfregards2, containing many remixes from Touhou as well as a Fate/hollow Ataraxia one.

2007 marks the launch of the bible known as Umineko no Naku Koro ni. Umineko is not only one of the longest visual novels (or even piece of fiction) of all time, it also contains a soundtrack filled with 210 tracks for 13 hours of music with dozens of different artists.

ZTS tracks for Umineko, with Dai’s are clearly the most popular (and listened to) tracks of the entire VN. And it’s not surprising, considering his tracks touch a multitude of genre on some of the most impactful scenes of the game, with 35 tracks done (with 5 unused ones).

The first track you hear in the series from him is Witch in gold, perfectly capturing the mystery of Rokkenjima. Far from his comfort zone, this track is a clavecin solo, shrouding the mystery of the golden witch.

Witch in gold - Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2007)

The second is Stupefaction, an extremely eerie and atmospheric track, which helped make the first episode as memorable and haunting as it is known to be.

Stupefaction - Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2007)

Stupefaction’s leitmotif is later used in episode 4 with “death from stupefaction”, one of the many trancey tracks of the game.

https://twitter.com/140VGM/status/1110390920640225285

ZTS’s score for Umineko is particularly memorable thanks to the many leitmotifs being used throughout your game experience, later used in very punchy and striking scenes with very intense music.

His third track is Goldenslaughterer, one of the most symbolical of the game. It evocates horror, incomprehension and confusion at the perfection in the most gruesome scenes of the game.

Goldenslaughterer - Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2007)

December of the same year, zts releases VAGUE IN WINTER 2, featuring Taishi, YR=tune and Syou Hida. Taishi is known for doing two remixes of Umineko, Goldenslaughterer and Worldenddominator. zts only did one song : a 12 minutes tearjerker remix of Clannad called "like stars".

The track Apathy appearing in Umineko's 2008's episode 4 is one of those times when zts decides to go for a more emotional and immersive mood for the biggest tearjerker scenes.

Apathy - Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2008)

As time goes on and zts keeps making tracks for Umineko (releasing between 2007 and 2010 at every Comiket every six months), zts still produced many remix albums, still in his Touhou and KEY craze.

He releases VAGUE IN WINTER 3 in 2009, which is a sort of showcase album for many other artists like the previous ones with estha, MINA, Syo Hida, Showcase and Taishi. He once again only made one track, “in winter”, back in a joyful tone.

ZTS is a bit more absent in Umineko Chiru, with 12 tracks instead of 23 for the first four arcs. But that’s mainly because his old tracks are often reused. But his Chiru tracks are all bangers with close to no exceptions.

the executioner - Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru (2010)

And if they’re not bangers, they’re an amazing experimental and atmospheric mood.

terminal entrance - Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru (2010)

Some unused tracks are in his physical musicbox releases, which i recommend you to check out since some are great ones : longingly, movie passing by, red leaf, game, and lastend

lastend - Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru

Ever since Umineko's end in december 2010, zts was still present but at a much more slower and steady pace. He still composed music for games like GWAVE and HALFPIPE TOKYO.

In 2013, zts finally releases Selfregards 3, filled with many remixes of, again, Touhou and other visual novels. A greatly paced album filled with long and addictive beats, and some soothing acoustic songs.

Ever since 2013, zts is much more quieter. He did produce a few arrangements for Kantai Collection and composed a few tracks for some very specific games (see here vgmdb.net/artist/959).

Around 2018, zts, alongside other Umineko/Higurashi composers like Dai, xaki and Luck Ganriki, formed the group “HiguumiSound” for a specific reason.

Since the director of the Square Enix mobile game Mashiro Witch : Midnight Marchen wanted a soundtrack “close to Umineko”, they decided to form such a group for convenience sake. zts composed 3 tracks for this title.

lingering affection - Mashiro Witch : Midnight Marchen (2018)

This year, zts unsurprisingly participates in the Key BOX -for two decades- project, which consists of a music/remix collection of KEY games containing 50 discs (!!!), featuring some of his old and newer KEY works.

It is still unknown if zts is planned to produce music for When They Cry 5 : Ciconia no Naku Koro ni. I really hope and pray we can expect some stuff from him in the future, as his works worked as one of the strongest cultural bastion that is Umineko.

And that settles ZTS’ background and sound production!

There’s no doubt : Even with the simplest possible melodies, zts is capable of extending tracks and almost making them his own through very long and extremely satisfying and addictive sounds.

Umineko, and even his work at this time contains a lot of trance and psychedelic tracks, but also a lot of much calmer and softer melodies with bells and music box like samples. To me, zts is a huge part of why I loved Umineko’s sound ambiance.

It’s hard to tell if my experience of it would be the same without him.

Although his style has only subtly changed through time, there’s always something unique about every tracks he makes. KEY, the Touhou series, Type-Moon, and Ryukishi07, zts was all around in the dojin scene.

It’s by no means an exaggeration to say that zts is a perfect representation of Comiket culture. A very polyvalent remixer and composition figure, familiar with the biggest names in this specific industry.

You might think a figure doing so many remixes wouldn’t really belong in an original VGM composer thread, but to me, zts is too special for me to ignore.

For the most part, his remixes are brand new tracks altogether, simply subtly taking an original melody and making it his own. That is the very nature of a remix of course, but zts takes it the long way.

Still many years later, zts still keeps his independence and transparency when it comes to releasing albums, and there’s always something intimate and beautiful you experience through listening to his works. Clearly a name more people should remember.

My alternate channel has a LOT of zts and When They Cry related music and albums. I’d even dare say the main objective of this channel is to keep track of many dojin albums. youtube.com/channel/UCb9wd…

I guess you can tell how much zts work is dear and important to me, eh. Thank you for having enjoyed this thread ! We invite you to search “from:140VGM zts” in the Twitter search if you wish to find more tracks from them, and follow them as well @zts_csl

It’s still possible I made some little mistakes here and there, so please point them out!

Stay tuned for another thread within the next 2/3 weeks!
-Robin @Fivda_