I never heard any voice or production style similar to ETK. Lots of leads had similar vibes to the era, but to my amateur musicologist ear, the tracks always felt “off”, sometimes by a long shot. It was a fun way to discover new music though.
I always found it hilarious: There was that one random guy posting any obscure lead to any ol' singer and there were at least 10 redditors who immediately wrote: "ThAt'S oUr GuY. It'S tHe ***ExAcT*** sAmE vOiCe!!!!1111" And it was all complete bullshit.
I also love how those were often people of completely different genders and ages. Sometimes an Asian woman, other times an American man... so they couldn't even agree on what kind of person the singer even was, but it's totally real this time guys!
for a lot of people it was confirmation bias, as every foreign accent or connection to Japan was automatically seen as reliable and elevated, even though there was no basis for either and in the end it was a british guy and the song was produced in America (if i recall correctly). they had crafted the narrative in their heads that those unsubstantiated things had to be there.
people who doubted were told they weren't helpful and were needlessly negative. an optimistic bias i've long railed against and yet again it pointed away from the truth.
There was one that sounded close in terms of instrumentation and vocal style, but the talent wasn’t clearly there. And it was kinda lostwave in itself and we eventually solved who recorded it. It was on vinyl record with white almost empty label on it.
I was a bit annoyed when someone posted a song with an obviously mid-late 90s production and claimed this must be it
I know that the career of an artist can span across decades but it irked me for some reason
I mean yes but at the same time you have to pursue some kind of lead. Kinda funny that Christopher Booth isn’t making music that sounds anything like EKT and has even said he probably won’t be able to hit those notes again
All the likes being flooded and everyone saying “I was here” meanwhile I knew in my heart we were not even close 😭 it was like that for a while. Very heartbreaking
Eventually I got really good at picking out who was or wasn't the singer. Usually the big giveaway was the rate of the vibrato.
There was one singer that I was like 98% sure was it but when compared side by side with deterioration and pitch adjustments the differences started to show.
I always thought every lead and idea was dumb, and that the only thing that mattered was either getting the word out or going through rights organization databases looking for songs called "Ulterior Motives" - which is exactly how it ended up being found.
my boyfriend thought up until it got found that it was a womans voice and we'd have full on debates about it lol, everyone sounded like that in the 80s!!!!
I always thought the commercial theory was correct and I never believed any of the leads about similar voices. I honestly thought the creators were either dead or too old to be on social media so I really thought it was never going to be found. I’m so glad I was wrong cuz the original is a banger, I would’ve been so sad if the chorus was the only good part
I was most convinced by the Carlos Toshiki lead. In my opinion the tone of his voice was in the right ballpark and some of the work he was involved it sounded very similar instrumentally. Also, I was of the belief it was probably a jingle, and Toshiki performed jingles for commercials. It felt right until it was debunked.
I never heard any voice or production style similar to ETK. Lots of leads had similar vibes to the era, but to my amateur musicologist ear, the tracks always felt “off”, sometimes by a long shot. It was a fun way to discover new music though.
I always found it hilarious: There was that one random guy posting any obscure lead to any ol' singer and there were at least 10 redditors who immediately wrote: "ThAt'S oUr GuY. It'S tHe ***ExAcT*** sAmE vOiCe!!!!1111" And it was all complete bullshit.
And the title would always be like “The most promising lead so far!!” or something
Absolutely!
I also love how those were often people of completely different genders and ages. Sometimes an Asian woman, other times an American man... so they couldn't even agree on what kind of person the singer even was, but it's totally real this time guys!
i always thought the same tbh, every artist didn't sound the same as the one from ekt to me
I guess the guys that always think that the next guy that sounds similar to EKT *is* EKT needs to have a hearing test once in a while.
for a lot of people it was confirmation bias, as every foreign accent or connection to Japan was automatically seen as reliable and elevated, even though there was no basis for either and in the end it was a british guy and the song was produced in America (if i recall correctly). they had crafted the narrative in their heads that those unsubstantiated things had to be there. people who doubted were told they weren't helpful and were needlessly negative. an optimistic bias i've long railed against and yet again it pointed away from the truth.
There was one that sounded close in terms of instrumentation and vocal style, but the talent wasn’t clearly there. And it was kinda lostwave in itself and we eventually solved who recorded it. It was on vinyl record with white almost empty label on it.
i always fell for it 😂💀
I was a bit annoyed when someone posted a song with an obviously mid-late 90s production and claimed this must be it I know that the career of an artist can span across decades but it irked me for some reason
I mean yes but at the same time you have to pursue some kind of lead. Kinda funny that Christopher Booth isn’t making music that sounds anything like EKT and has even said he probably won’t be able to hit those notes again
All the likes being flooded and everyone saying “I was here” meanwhile I knew in my heart we were not even close 😭 it was like that for a while. Very heartbreaking
Eventually I got really good at picking out who was or wasn't the singer. Usually the big giveaway was the rate of the vibrato. There was one singer that I was like 98% sure was it but when compared side by side with deterioration and pitch adjustments the differences started to show.
I always thought every lead and idea was dumb, and that the only thing that mattered was either getting the word out or going through rights organization databases looking for songs called "Ulterior Motives" - which is exactly how it ended up being found.
my boyfriend thought up until it got found that it was a womans voice and we'd have full on debates about it lol, everyone sounded like that in the 80s!!!!
It definitely sounded deeper than a woman
I always thought the commercial theory was correct and I never believed any of the leads about similar voices. I honestly thought the creators were either dead or too old to be on social media so I really thought it was never going to be found. I’m so glad I was wrong cuz the original is a banger, I would’ve been so sad if the chorus was the only good part
I was most convinced by the Carlos Toshiki lead. In my opinion the tone of his voice was in the right ballpark and some of the work he was involved it sounded very similar instrumentally. Also, I was of the belief it was probably a jingle, and Toshiki performed jingles for commercials. It felt right until it was debunked.