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Japanese Music (Pop, rock and all 'dat) |OT|

S

Slowdive

Banned
Shiina Ringo has a collab best of album coming out and there's a new song on it that features Nakata. This is huge. Can't wait to hear it.
 
R

Rooster12

Member
Got some interesting Japanese vinyls:

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Osamu Shoji - Star Wars Electric Funk (1978)

Osamu Shoji was an arranger and synthesizer virtuoso who released his own Star Wars album on Warner-Pioneer Records in his native Japan in 1978. The brightly-colored cover gives the first indication that this isn’t just another do-over of a soundtrack, and make a perfect fit for the music within: immediately recognizable, but a distinctly distorted re-imagining of familiar concepts. Each track is filled with glitches and tworps and all manner of odd analog sounds, notes waver and bend, tones wobble and nearly run astray. Songs dash right to the edge of a precipice, peer over the edge, and somehow never quite lose their balance. Notes fall ever-so-slightly out of tune with themselves. This version of Cantina Band is a junkyard cacophony of synthesized steel drums and backfiring squeezebox emulators, the Main Title starts as straight ahead warp-boogie and dissolves into drunken robot improvisation, and The Throne Room is straight-ahead 4/4 disco deconstruction. It’s a little unsettling, but well worth listening to.
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Kimio Mizutani - A Path Through Haze (1971)

1971 Japanese Psychedelic Rock, easily one of the best Japanese records I've bought.

This set starts with several awesome tunes. The opening title track does indeed provide some nice jazzy haze, cut straight through with a monster riff from Mizutani's guitar supported by some groovy, Ginger Baker-like drums and streams of strange electronic noise. Once "Sail in the Sky" gets going, we're treated to a fusion vibe which features a very complementary woodwind arrangement. "Turning Point" sounds surprisingly like the post-rock band Tortoise, who wouldn't start recording until about 25 years after this album was released. "One for Janis" might not be the best tune for Janis, but it does give us another riff monster which is pretty fun. On the lesser side "Tell Me What You Saw" veers into hamfisted atonality which actually sounds pretty much the same as Phish jamming (although I'm sure that's a positive point for some of you), and "Way Out" doesn't tend to fit in very well as the only track with vocals. It comes out sounding like early-Return to Forever's vocalist stumbling into a funeral as the music is rather dirge-like.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9O_tTMUGxo
 
Aizo

Aizo

Banned
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This album came out today, and it's pretty fun. Visual Kei bands covering songs from anime.
1. ヒカリへ （ONE PIECE）/ Royz
2. happily ever after (Gurren Lagann)/ GALEYD
3. 愛をとりもどせ!! (Hokuto no Ken) / DaizyStripper
4. THE MEANING OF TRUTH (F-Zero: GP Legend) / Juri(ex.DELUHI) feat.Leda
5. アンバランスなKissをして (Yu Yu Hakusho ) / AYABIE
6. 魂のルフラン (Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth) / A（Ace）
7. ゲキテイ(檄!帝国華撃団) (Sakura Taisen) / Kaya
8. ゆずれない願い (Magic Knight Rayearth) / THE BEETHOVEN
9. 輪舞-revolution (Revolutionary Girl Utena) / WING WORKS
10. Butter-Fly (Digimon Adventure) / FEST VAINQUEUR
11. The WORLD (DEATH NOTE) / Souiumono
12. LOVEさりげなく (Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel) / SEX-ANDROID

Megamasso was also supposed to do a song from ∀ Gundam, but they seem to have dropped out, sadly. My favorite song is definitely Hokuto no Ken's theme done by DaizyStripper. Pretty badass.
 
S

Slowdive

Banned
Caps Lock impressions.

"First thoughts on the new Capsule album, it’s surprisingly avant-garde, almost like a deliberate fuck you to EDM."

"In two years Capsule have gone from ‘Tonight it’s party time, it’s party time tonight’ to a concept album about keys on a computer keyboard."

"It’s like the ‘Dazzle Ships’ of 21st Century J-Pop."

"Haven’t heard [LEVEL3] yet. Interested in having a listen though, especially given how fucking weird the new Capsule is."
 
I

Infinite

Member
Slowdive said:
Caps Lock impressions.

"First thoughts on the new Capsule album, it’s surprisingly avant-garde, almost like a deliberate fuck you to EDM."

"In two years Capsule have gone from ‘Tonight it’s party time, it’s party time tonight’ to a concept album about keys on a computer keyboard."

"It’s like the ‘Dazzle Ships’ of 21st Century J-Pop."

"Haven’t heard [LEVEL3] yet. Interested in having a listen though, especially given how fucking weird the new Capsule is."
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Wow this sounds good. Can't wait
 
I

Infinite

Member
New Kyary single titled "Mottai Night Land" coming November 6th.

tumblr_mu2e9nvdDd1r0bykto2_500.jpg


CD Tracklist
01. Mottai Night Land (もったいないとらんど) au CM song
02. Sungoi Aura (すんごいオーラ; Amazin’ Aura)
03. Ninja Re Bang Bang -extended remix- (にんじゃりばんばん)
04. Mottai Night Land -instrumental-
05. Sungoi Aura -instrumental-​

And you can find a short sample of Mottai Night Land in this video: http://youtu.be/VFb-AX7eDtg?t=2m10s

Nakata is putting in over time. Shit
 
Aizo

Aizo

Banned
Infinite said:
New Kyary single titled "Mottai Night Land" coming November 6th.

tumblr_mu2e9nvdDd1r0bykto2_500.jpg


CD Tracklist
01. Mottai Night Land (もったいないとらんど) au CM song
02. Sungoi Aura (すんごいオーラ; Amazin’ Aura)
03. Ninja Re Bang Bang -extended remix- (にんじゃりばんばん)
04. Mottai Night Land -instrumental-
05. Sungoi Aura -instrumental-​

And you can find a short sample of Mottai Night Land in this video: http://youtu.be/VFb-AX7eDtg?t=2m10s

Nakata is putting in over time. Shit
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What a nice birthday present that will be. :)
 
D

Desiato

Member
Bought Tricot's THE today. It's fucking great. One of the most promising Japanese bands of the moment IMO. POOL , おもてなし and おちゃんせんすぅす are so good.
 
I

Infinite

Member
The last two singles for Meg was really fucking good so I'm looking forward to her next album big time.

I have high hopes also for tricot's album, can't wait to hear it.

November is looking pretty good so far now. There's the next kyary single, the final Bloodthirsty Butchers album, and now a new Meg album. What an exciting year of music 2013 turned out to be.
 
K

Kurita

Member
Rooster12 said:
That's kind of an insult to Kendrick, but I'll check it out though, even though I think I'm too old for that type of music.
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How old are you?
There were young and old (well, relatively old :lol) people at the Perfume concert in Paris, it was really cool.
Perfume's audience is quite large and diversified.
 
D

Desmond

Member
Holy crap! Just made an amazing discovery listening to the new Perfume album. (First album I've heard from them.)


I had heard this song on the flight over to Japan, and it was so goddamn catchy, so I tried to find out what it was called. After having no luck I had given up my search.

Months later I found it whilst listening to Perfume's new album.

だいじょばない



It's fate.
 
R

Rooster12

Member
Infinite said:
It was kinda a joke but the album is pretty good I must say. How old are you btw?
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I'm 27, I've heard Perfume's last album JPN, and liked what I hear, then I went to check some of their live performances, I wonder if they were lip-synching? Because when they were singing the voices sounded way too perfect and seemed that they were recorded.
 
K

Kansoku

Member
Rooster12 said:
I'm 27, I've heard Perfume's last album JPN, and liked what I hear, then I went to check some of their live performances, I wonder if they were lip-synching? Because when they were singing the voices sounded way too perfect and seemed that they were recorded.
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As far as I know, yes it's lipsync. Was pretty bummed when I found out too. :/
 
I

Infinite

Member
Rooster12 said:
I'm 27, I've heard Perfume's last album JPN, and liked what I hear, then I went to check some of their live performances, I wonder if they were lip-synching? Because when they were singing the voices sounded way too perfect and seemed that they were recorded.
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Yeah they lip sync during lives.
 
L

LayLa

Member
Rooster12 said:
I'm 27, I've heard Perfume's last album JPN, and liked what I hear, then I went to check some of their live performances, I wonder if they were lip-synching? Because when they were singing the voices sounded way too perfect and seemed that they were recorded.
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Perfume pretty much always lip-sync live, most J-Pop "idol" performers do. I find MCZs insistence on singing live whenever they can a bit baffling - most of them are not very good at singing, they readily admit as much themselves in interviews, and I would bet sizable sections of their audience wouldn't care either way.
 
I

Infinite

Member
LayLa said:
Perfume pretty much always lip-sync live, most J-Pop "idol" performers do. I find MCZs insistence on singing live whenever they can a bit baffling - most of them are not very good at singing, they readily admit as much themselves in interviews, and I would bet sizable sections of their audience wouldn't care either way.
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pretty much this except h!p idols for sure sing live. Perfume don't use much of their natural voices in recordings anyway.
 
P

Peru

Member
They've done some live vocals if they're not too processed - the new album has more natural vocals than ever before so I foresee more live vocals this tour. A-Chan in particular has a great voice.

And they are quite a few notches above Kendrick on the 'legend' ladder of music history.

LayLa said:
Perfume pretty much always lip-sync live, most J-Pop "idol" performers do. I find MCZs insistence on singing live whenever they can a bit baffling - most of them are not very good at singing, they readily admit as much themselves in interviews, and I would bet sizable sections of their audience wouldn't care either way.
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Disagree wholeheartedly - what makes MCZ ten times more attractive to see live than other idol groups is their energy and stamina and balls out-ness on the stage and it would not come across half as well if that didn't include singing their asses off even after doing acrobatics around the stadium for two hours. It's impressive and charming.

And here's a solid example of how decent they are vocally when not running around like mad (still 20 songs deep in the set list). http://vid48.com/watch_video.php?v=YH33B5R8SHY9

Of course Perfume's appeal is different - the perfection of the moves, the club atmosphere, it's like the Daft Punk pyramid - whether the sound is live or not is not that important.
 
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