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Talk about anything and everything Japanese here, from gakagu to Gackt. Feel free to discuss well-loved modern acts like Envy, Mono, Boris, Boredoms, etc., but if you know any good bands which you feel are underappreciated, feel free to share! I'm not an expert by any means, but there's lots of really creative and talented bands from Japan even in genres I normally don't pay much attention to. Take Gesu no Kiwami Otome, for example. I recently got into them and am absolutely in love with how they incorporate math-rock rhythms with pop hooks and a vocalist with an almost hiphop-esque style. Or fellow histrionic pop oddballs Wakusei Abnormal. Japanese metal and prog rock also offers a ton of underappreciated and unique acts like Gonin-ish, Zeni Geva and P.O.N. Further from the classifiable end, there's famous underground figures like Keiji Haino or Merzbow, both of whom look cooler than you probably ever will.   So, go ahead and share your favorite Japanese bands with fellow goons! 
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Dec 6, 2015 08:43
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The first microscene I'd like to spotlight is Japanese sludge metal. You all probably know Boris, but the scene runs further than that. Take the famously reclusive Corrupted, who write hour-plus dirges evoking atmospheres of nuclear wastelands. Or the guys from Birushanah, who blend Japanese folk and progressive songwriting with their crushing riffs, and manage to not seem gimmicky at all - as with their more tribally-oriented fellows over at Ryokuchi. There's also this scathing EP by a band who released nothing else - they really didn't need to since I doubt they'd ever be able to put out anything as abrasive and hateful as this again. A lot of the more extreme and unusual bands I've found from Japan tend to have very small discographies, really... which brings me to the other scene I'll spotlight in this post. Japanese screamo! It's the other end of the hardcore-influenced spectrum from sludge. Where sludge crushes, screamo tends to burn furiously. There's a lot of really loving weird, artsy poo poo in the scene, though, like Killie, Kulara, and my personal favorites Gauge Means Nothing. If you want something more conventional, check out Birth, Endzweck, or This Time We Will Not Promise And Forgive. I should also note that there's some great non-screamo post-hardcore too, like Ling Tosite Sigure, who are one of my favorite post-hardcore bands period.
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Dec 6, 2015 09:38
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El Gallinero Gros posted:I also like Melt Bannana. Melt Banana are great! The Japanese noise and psych rock scenes are probably going to be the topic of my next post. I could :sperg: about Japanese metal basically forever too. For this post, though, I'll leave it brief and just mention a very underrated band I came across. 八十八ヶ所巡礼, romanized as 88Kasyo Junrei (Pilgrimage of 88 Points), are a band I discovered just because their cover art caught my attention. And really, how could something like this not stick out?  These guys play... I'm really at a loss for words to categorize it, but it's a mix of Voivod-y angular math rock with psych and prog, and some post-hardcore-inflected alt-rock. Really though, Just listen for yourself, these guys are really cool despite seeming goofy as hell. My favorite track of theirs, ⌘惑う惑星⌘, isn't on YouTube, but this one captures some of the appeal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KdjPIRrYZs
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Dec 10, 2015 02:01
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ElNarez posted:I just started playing the new Urbangarde record and it's the usual pop with a a heightened sense of drama and a somewhat dark undercurrent, but man, it goes places, which is loving great. Fuuuuuuck yeah Urbangarde. I've been enjoying the hell out of Mental Hells recently. It's a bit darker and rockier than most of the Japanese electropop I've found, but it has a lot of personality. Buffis posted:the dude from Capsule OH poo poo I didn't know Teddyloid did a collab with Nakata. I've been in love with Nakata's production on Perfume's stuff for the past few months. Polyrhythm and Dream Fighter are classic songs of course, but his approach on JPN with all the chopped-up glitchy vocal samples is probably his most interesting production-wise. I feel like his production style is a big influence on PC Music guys like A.G. Cook. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbeGeXgjh9Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXAlCazm3J0 Gamma Nerd fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Dec 12, 2015 |
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Dec 12, 2015 02:33
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ElNarez posted:You should really find a way to listen to Showa 90 because, after a few listens, I can confirm this is Urbangarde at their darkest and rockiest. It hits really hard, but then it can also get to slower, more mournful pieces like Heisei Shibou Yugi. I definitely will!
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Dec 14, 2015 08:17
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Since the new Galneryus album just came out, I figured I'd talk about the Japanese power metal scene... though this will probably end up covering the less extreme half of the Japanese metal scene in general, since the prog scene is so closely tied to it. Visual kei also ties into this, but I feel really unqualified to make an effortpost about it, even though I can drop some of the bigger names in classic VK like BUCK-TICK and Luna Sea, as well as more modern acts like Malice Mizer and Schwarz Stein. It all starts with X Japan, basically - they were the band to bring metal to Japan (though a couple artists, like Anthem and Loudness, had formed earlier), and their odd reappropriation of glam aesthetics was the basis from which visual kei evolved. Though their getups and aesthetics were rather restrained in comparison to their successors, they still adopted a style way more flamboyant and theatrical than Western metal.  X Japan's discography is pretty small considering their outsize influence - only 4 albums, an EP, and a few singles - but unabashedly ambitious, with heavy use of symphonics before they became an established trend in metal. Vocalist/pianist Yoshiki was classically trained, after all, and initially assembled the band to find people who could play his compositions. Their defining song is undeniably the half-an-hour Art of Life, which bridges 2 power metal sections with a bizarre, discordant piano solo. The focus on musicianship, heavy use of keys and orchestration, and prog rock pomp/excess have been a constant in Japanese metal since. Which is to say, this is some of the cheesiest music you may ever hear. But if you have a tolerance for it, it's incredibly fun. Anyways! By the time of X Japan's breakup in '97, more than a few bands heavily inspired by them had started to gain popularity. Most notably, the folk-inspired Onmyoza, the neoclassical shred vehicle of Concerto Moon, and the prog-oriented Marge Litch (who had started out closer to prog than metal, a closely associated act to the symph-prog band Outer Limits), as well as more obscure acts like Aion and Gargoyle. Aion and Marge Litch members went on to star in several of my favorite Japanese acts, like Zigoku Quartet and Alhambra. The two modern Japanese bands people tend to be familiar with are Galneryus and Versailles:   As you might guess, the two do sound somewhat different - both are pompous as gently caress but Galneryus take a more aggressive, masculine approach with lots of keyboard/guitar duels and fast rhythms, where Versailles tend to be more atmospheric and heavily orchestrated. Or, should I say, tended - the vocalist of Versailles is pursuing a solo project and the other members are in Jupiter, which is essentially a poppier Versailles with a different vocalist. I personally never cared for Versailles as much as Galneryus, and Jupiter's work doesn't impress me as much as the better Versailles songs like God Palace, but if you're interested definitely check them out. Galneryus, while a teeny bit overrated, still write some goddamn brilliant melodies. Tracks like Whisper in the Red Sky, The Promised Flag, and Beyond of the Ground have some riffs which will get stuck in your head for days. Their more reflective instrumentals like Requiem show Syu's gift at guitar goes beyond merely hyperspeed shredding. The keyboardist Yuhki also has his own solo project as well as playing in Alhambra. My favorite album in the whole scene, at least right now, is Scenes of Infinity by Light Bringer. The musicianship is spectacular, especially the very prominent bass, and Fuki's voice is tremendously powerful - massive range and wonderful vibrato coupled with really gorgeous melody. The bassist is also in the more progressive-oriented Alhambra, who I mentioned earlier - they're tremendously underrated and I highly recommend you check them out. I don't like Alhambra's vocalist quite as much, but the instrumentation is quite stunning and varied. If you like Light Bringer, I also suggest you look into the up-and-coming Octaviagrace (who only have one EP out so far) and Fuki's other projects DOLL$BOXX and Unlucky Morpheus - who are actually a Touhou metal cover group. Yeeeeeeah, on that topic, metal remixes of Touhou music is a booming home industry it seems, with lots of popular artists like Iron Attack! and Demetori and even some unexpected ones like the Touhou + brutal death metal (???) band Agent 0. I can't tell you whether I ever thought I'd hear chirpy Touhou melodies mixed with brutal death metal pig-squeal vocals but... here we are. A lot of these groups also produce original albums, like Knights of Round. Hope you guys enjoyed some of those links or at least thought they were lame in an entertaining way. It's hard for me to not go full  when talking about music, especially a scene I've spent a lot of time looking through. There's a pretty comprehensive playlist here if you need more stuff.
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Dec 14, 2015 09:53
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A human heart posted:Are you not perhaps understating the importance of the Japanese thrash scene here? many of those bands weren't very proggy at all. And at least some Japanese thrash is clearly also connected to their punk scene, which is a whole different thing. Yeah, "Japanese metal" there was mostly referring to the heavy/power/prog scene. With a couple exceptions, like Gargoyle and Doom, Japanese thrash isn't too proggy, but I think the Japanese thrash scene was probably more influential to the extreme metal scene (particularly Sabbat) so I left them for a later post. I'm sort of ignorant of the Japanese thrash scene aside from those bands and, like, Barbatos and Abigail, so I didn't want to misrepresent it.
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Dec 14, 2015 19:22
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I'd check out immi, LIL, Genki Rockets, and maybe some vocaloid producers like Hachiouji-P, GigaP and AvTechNO! (the last 2 are human vocalists covering songs written for Vocaloid but both artists primarily produce Vocaloid stuff) e: also while it's not vocal, definitely look into J-core and J-trance. Nhato and Oda are both awesome producers. Gamma Nerd fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Dec 14, 2015 |
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Dec 14, 2015 20:40
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Wampa Stompa posted:Anybody listen to Bi Kyo Ran? They started out as a King Crimson worship band, but they're way weirder than KC ever was. They've been active continuously since about 1980, so they've got a massive discography that I'm just barely starting to get through. Yeah, they're pretty cool. I've also only listened to their early material but it's surprisingly hard to find bands that mine the more moody, dark side of prog a la KC without delving into avant-prog dissonant chamber stuff, and the first 2 Bi Kyo Ran albums definitely do a great job of elaborating on KC's vibe. Sorry I haven't made another effortpost - I'll probably cover prog or extreme metal next. I just started my majors program at a new university so it's been a bit stressful trying to adapt to a new schedule 
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Jan 11, 2016 08:58
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Alright, so, Japanese prog. I'd try to write up a brief history of the scene but I sadly don't have much in the way of sources... I can split the J-prog scene into roughly 3 groups, though. The first scene was the initial wave of psych and folk-inspired bands like Yonin Bayashi, Far East Family Band, Magical Power Mako, Flied Egg, and solo artists like Kimio Mizutani and Hiro Yanagida. It's sort of hard to sum up this particular scene since the artists brought a really eclectic blend of influences to the table, but probably the wildest and most summative record of the period is Magical Power Mako's debut. (If the vocals on that track sound a little familiar, by the way, that's because it's Keiji loving Haino.) A few cool archival releases fall into this category too - my personal favorites are Round House, who remind me of KC in a similar sense that Bi Kyo Ran do, and Mandrake, the nearly unknown first band of pop impresario Susumu Hirasawa. If you like Hirasawa's work on the Paprika or Berserk soundtracks, Mandrake is... pretty different but still worth your time if only as a curiosity. The audio quality of these archival releases tends to be pretty poor but that comes with the territory I guess. The second scene, rather than being inspired by Hawkwind and Faust and other improv-focused bands, was keyboard-focused and generally worshipped at the altar of Emerson Lake and Palmer (though some artists, like Mr. Sirius and Kenso, were not quite so intense and technical, and took more from Soft Machine or Camel). The general tendency with these bands is towards very brassy, digital synth tones, lots of neoclassicism and aggressive rhythmic changes. This is where I'll stick artists like Social Tension, Providence, Gerard, Vienna, Vermilion Sands and Outer Limits (probably the best known group in this style). While this scene is pretty obscure abroad, it was a big influence on Japanese metal (as I mentioned with Marge Litch) and video game soundtracks. Motoi Sakuraba got his start as a prog keyboardist, and I suspect that composers like Noriyuki Iwadare, Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu were strongly inspired by the strain of highly symphonic ELP-inspired prog popular in Japan at the time. The third group of artists is the more avant-minded ones inspired by Magma and/or chamber prog like Henry Cow. Probably the most important overall band (though calling them prog is pretty reductive) is the bass/drums duo Ruins, whose debut mixed noise rock, zeuhl and math rock into one unholy cacophony - and along the way introduced listeners to one of the world's best drummers, Tatsuya Yoshida. Seriously, dude is a madman. His characteristic jabbering vocals can be found in other projects like Koenjihyakkei. Speaking of which... Angherr Shisspa is seriously one of the most fun and catchy albums out there, regardless of genre label. Anyways, Ruins hardly created the avant-prog scene in the country, and a lot of their contemporaries like Bondage Fruit, Happy Family, Mong Hang, and Demi Semi Quaver deserve a lot more attention in my opinion. As with a lot of Japanese music, these bands don't pay much attention to genre convention and often include noise rock or punk influences which you rarely find in prog. More pop-based oddities like After Dinner also belong here.
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Jan 14, 2016 08:16
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abraham linksys posted:So here's a real naive question: what's up with the lack of legitimate ways to purchase a lot of this music in the US? What prevents a label like Warner Japan from just throwing some stuff up on US iTunes/Amazon? I know that anti-piracy laws in Japan are pretty strict, and that coupled with scant social media presence can make it hard to find out if a band is still active or releasing anything, but it's a mystery to me why they don't like digital distribution. I know that the "Japanese bonus track" thing that so many non-Japanese bands do tends to be a reward to Japanese fans since CDs are more expensive there, and since they buy physical copies a lot, but that doesn't really explain why that situation arose. Really my only guess is that their internet is stuck in the 90s in that regard. Which isn't unprecedented if you look at how archaic their version of YouTube is, or know how slow game developers there are to embrace digital distribution. And with their traditionalist attitudes, I assume the prevailing sentiment is "if it works, why fix it  ".
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Jan 19, 2016 05:22
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Satorr posted:Shiina Ringo is one of the greatest pop artists ever. 
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Jan 22, 2016 04:18
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I've seen Boris and that's basically it. Got shafted out of seeing Toe because they chose a 21+ venue  Boris was great, though I'm not as big of a fan anymore. They played an abbreviated version of Flood that was magnificent.
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Jan 23, 2016 03:38
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I think Shiina Ringo fans will appreciate Seiko Oomori. Similar cluttered, eclectic approach to production, and I think she's more than a little inspired by Ms. Shiina - the cover of her debut gives this away. But yeah her music is pretty drat good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9ZTFmryLe4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_X4MBaeaik She even pulls off a song with a pseudo-dubstep drop really well, a bit better than Kyary did imo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbKu4Xx0_Us
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Jan 26, 2016 09:12
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Pieholes posted:I've recently listened to a lot of Especia! Their album GUSTO is a pretty good starting point, especially the tracks " L’ellsir d’amore" and "Foolish". I'd describe their music as vaporwave-meets-jpop. It's actually a throwback to the Japanese style of city pop, which was basically vaporwave before its time both aesthetically and musically. Seaside Lovers in particular is sort of an anachronistic template of how vaporwave would sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmKNiiQBCzc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dC0R-wZt3g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkqHiUGp6yU I'd also suggest Hitomitoi, another city pop revivalist. Also, before I write another big effortpost on a genre, I'd like to share a couple pop artists I've been digging lately. Usagi to Neko have lovely glitchy production, though not as strident and dancey as something Nakata would do. They also make really enjoyable music videos. This song is a collab between producer Giga-P and vocalist Reol. Both are involved in the utaite/vocaloid scene, which is a  in several senses and not something I feel qualified to cover adequately. But an utaite is basically someone who covers songs on Nicovideo (Japan's YouTube) and gains a fanbase because of it. I love Reol's voice, though, and she has crazy control during during the high-octave jumps. I also like this Nanahira song, though the uber-chirpy denpa-ish nature of her music means I can't handle it in very large doses.
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Jan 30, 2016 06:38
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fruitpunch posted:I'm a big fan of rap in languages i don't understand, no idea why, there's something pure about hearing the lyrics only as part of the composition that appeals to me. Yeah. I guess part of what makes Japanese appealing in this way is that the syllables are all very similar length and use pretty crisp consonants with lots of punchy bright plosives, which makes the vocal rhythms a lot clearer to me than most English hiphop. I'm not much of a hiphop guy to begin with, mind, but I do like Moe and ghosts. Cool ethereal futuristic production. Some of Suiyobi no Campanella's work falls in this vein, and occasionally reminds me a teeny bit of M.I.A. (maybe it's the mix of electronic and tribal beats?) Also, group_inou are neat.
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Feb 5, 2016 02:43
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fruitpunch posted:
That song is from her newest album, Zipangu, so maybe start there.
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Feb 5, 2016 06:17
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B33rChiller posted:You guys tease me with mention of J-Thrash, and then no links? I'd love some new thrash to listen to. The only thing I know of, that's related is I heard Marty Friedman bailed out of the US for Japan, and supposedly continues to shred. Oh, sorry. AHH gave a pretty good list (Barbatos are loving awesome and "ROCKING METAL MOTHERFUCKER" may be the best album title of all time) but I'd like to add a few: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAr1K0b3ec - very prolific band, haven't explored them much but they're interesting and have some amazing solos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ij5_JzdI7M - pretty traditional 80s thrash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-HG3bxVV2A - more brutal death/thrash, really intense https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-It0jibq3DU - power/thrash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyBXJJ4rqT4 - underrated thrash that's sort of like early Maiden I'd also link the fantastic band DOOM (very similar to Voivod and Thought Industry) but they don't have anything on YouTube - do check their albums Complicated Mind and No More Pain, though. They also have a reunion album coming out on March 2nd, called Still Can't The Dead, and I'm sort of excited for it even though reunion albums generally suck.
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Feb 7, 2016 02:26
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Anyways, bringing up Sabbat is a pretty good excuse for me to write a post on the extreme metal scenes in Japan. (I'll save hardcore-derived genres for a later post, since between Japanese Hardcore, grind, noise rock, metalcore, and the like there's a lot to cover.) My knowledge of early death and black metal is pretty spotty compared to more recent stuff, and the Japanese scene is no exception. The first death metal band I'm aware of is probably Necrophile, who sounded a good bit like some other 80s DM bands like Necrovore - lo-fi, thrashy, filthy. Members went onto bands like Transgressor (who later became the Autopsy-inspired Anatomia), Hellchild, and my personal favorite of the early scene, Multiplex - a band that Jon Chang of Discordance Axis cited as a major influence. Another really early and underappreciated group is Eroded, who like most other early Japanese acts maintained a moderate tempo with occasional crushing slow sections. And with Japan's love of all things doomy and sludgy, it's no surprise that some of the more well-known Japanese death metal acts play at the glacial tempos of Coffins or the more obscure Grudge. But back to Transgressor - Two early members of that band split off to create one of the other vital acts in Japanese metal history, Vomit Remnants. Playing exceedingly low-fi, simplistic brutal death metal with an incredibly obvious drum machine, they represent the start of the brutal death scene in the country in earnest (though not really the first band you could associate with the style, since Maggoty Corpse did have some Suffocation-ish moments), which may not be too large but is certainly one of the most intense around. Bands tend to operate at extremes of tempo, shifting erratically from hyperspeed blasting to slow slams like Infected Malignity or Cryptic Revelation. Then there's the brilliant and prematurely deceased Jenovavirus, who combine totally bizarre song structure with electronic effects to create a psychedelic, futuristic atmosphere - the band later on became the more conventional but still worthwhile Blunt Force Trauma. On the less experimental end you have incredibly filthy, primitive acts like Rest in Gore, Gorevent, Glossectomy and Disconformity. There's a couple good modern acts, like the uber-chaotic and rhythmically convoluted Veiyadra, but like I said the scene is pretty small and not easy for a Westerner to research. Oh, also - they don't quite fit in the brutal death scene because they're very consonant rather than purely abrasive and atonal, but due to the vocal style and ferocity I'm thinking this is the best place to bring up Intestine Baalism, one of those melodic death acts which doesn't sound at all like the usual Swedish names. They have some goddamn fantastic guitar leads, and are overall worth looking into. Just as the Japanese brutal death scene is fairly small but pretty high-quality, so too is their technical/progressive death scene (with the exception of Desecravity, who I personally can't get all that excited about). Goats are one of the earlier technical acts, with an interesting sound similar to Obliveon's first 2 albums and maybe tinges of Gorguts. Defiled are also underappreciated in the technical sense, with excellent bass work (seems to be a constant for Japanese bands really) and some evil, angular Demilich-y riffs. The enigmatic Vortex released one quality album similar to mid-era Death or Atheist, and then vanished - similarly, a band called Ritual Suicide released a 10-minute, 2-song demo entitled To Nothing which is among the weirdest and most alien death metal I've ever heard - like, Wicked Innocence/Demilich levels, easily - and promptly split up. (I can't find it on YouTube but it's highly recommended and pretty easy to find online.) Yeeeeeah, really small discographies and uncertain histories are unfortunately a constant with lots of the better Japanese music, and this holds especially true in the metal scene. In total opposition to the rest of the death metal scene in the country, Japanese melodic death bands seem to have taken inspiration from early Children of Bodom and then committed themselves to making that sound even fruitier and poppier. Like, Blood Stain Child's earlier releases could conceivably be seen as a Japanese answer to Soilwork or Scar Symmetry, but by the time they put out Epsilon (which shamefully is probably one of my most-listened albums I've mentioned in this thread) they seemed intent to see exactly how close you could get to being a magical girl anime opening theme while still technically being a metal band. Aside from that and a couple related acts like Gyze, the majority of J-melodeath acts just sound like the country's power metal scene except with harsh vocals (see: Veiled in Scarlet and Serenity in Murder). There's one or two old-school acts like Sorrow of Tranquility and the aforementioned Intestine Baalism that would probably appeal to fans of earlier Gothenburg bands, too, but it's pretty hard to find Japanese melodeath that doesn't come coated in keyboards or isn't a Touhou cover band (speaking of which, I should probably do a post on Touhou remixes at some point, but I think I should ask someone from ADTRW to chip in since it's a bit of a daunting topic). Now onto black metal. I can't not mention Sigh to start things off - not only are they one of Japan's most famous and influential acts, along with Sabbat they're one of the earliest extreme metal acts in the country. Their career trajectory, if you're not aware, is somewhat similar to Arcturus - starting out as a more conventional black metal act, they became more and more keyboard-focused and began to incorporate tons of Iron Maiden influence around their mid-period before eventually just doing whatever the gently caress they're doing now, which sounds to me like a drunken rendition of a giallo film soundtrack. It pains me to say that Sigh have never really clicked with me, but it's undeniable that their frontman Mirai Kawashima is one of the most talented and innovative keyboardists in metal. Sigh's current guitarist, You Oshima, has a long-running solo project Kadenzza which may appeal to Sigh fans or really anyone who can't get enough cheesy Castlevania keyboards. You might expect that Japanese black metal is as keyboard-drenched as their melodic death and power metal scenes, but oddly this isn't true. The majority of Japanese black metal I know is actually uber-raw, outsider poo poo like Endless Dismal Moan and Manierisme, which would make an absolutely perfect soundtrack to a J-horror film - someone please do that. Even the more conventional acts like Arkha Sva have some... rather unusual elements, and the seemingly novelty all-girl black metal group Gallhammer make some seriously oppressive, terrifying poo poo. And I can't forget to include Gorugoth, or the folky acts Misogi and Magane. In closing, here's some Seinfeld metal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnQQoHU7CIQ
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Feb 7, 2016 05:09
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Sorry if the writing in that last post got a little , I had a lot of ground to cover. Anyways I didn't mention them in the extreme or traditional metal threads, so I might as well make a standalone post for them. Yep, that's right, we're covering Dir en Grey. If you're a few years older than me, you probably had friends in middle school or high school who liked them, and you may remember a band that looked and sounded somewhat like this:  or, half a decade later, one that played music that resembled a slightly more unpredictable Slipknot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUvpMhw5ALw and yeah, they've played a lot of styles to varying degrees of success. No matter the style, though, it's really hard to deny Kyo's vocal versatility and extremity or his surreal and evocative lyricism, though unfortunately a lot of his wordplay is lost in translation. It's not that he overshadows the other members - Kaoru and Die may not be as good as the average prog guitarist but they still write some of the cooler and more emotive solos I've heard, Toshiya's basswork is characteristically Japanese in how it moves between independent wanderings, countermelody and close harmony, and Shinya's fillwork is very nuanced - but his contributions really make the band what it is - well, he also handles the visual aspects of the music. He's a bit of an enigmatic figure to say the least - little is known about his private life or personal history, and his bandmates say he doesn't share the meanings of the lyrics with them. I'm not going to do an album-by-album summary because I'm not as familiar with their first 4 or so albums as I probably should be (and besides there's very good breakdowns of each album on their subreddit), but in essence their first 3 releases are mostly alt/pop rock which sort of resembles Faith No More and makes good room for balladry - which, oddly for a band that is ostensibly metal, has always been DEG's strongest suit. Their mid-period (from Six Ugly through Marrow of a Bone) is marked by the inclusion of lots of nu-metal and metalcore influence. Though I still think that this period sounds a lot more legitimately chaotic, furious and engaging than anything Slipknot or Korn ever did, it is nu-metal and if you're opposed to that sound on principle you'll probably not like songs like C. From Uroboros on, though, their sound focused more on atmosphere and melody, and less on macho aggression, and even the more aggressive songs like Different Sense transition from deathcore-y groove riffing into eerie clean soloing and vocal melody. (Seriously, the chorus/solo transition in that song gives me chills every time.) I'd say that their current aesthetic reminds me most closely of a Japanese horror movie - it's rarely obviously grotesque and is sometimes eerily beautiful, but there's a prevailing sense of unease and mental conflict. Actually, Dum Spiro Spero is worth its own note in this regard, since the especially bleak and resigned tone comes out of the Japanese government's inadequate response to the Fukushima reactor disaster. They even advertised the album abroad with billboards (which I sadly can't find pictures of) calling Abe's government to task for negligence and whitewashing. Their most recent release, Arche, is definitely their most atmospheric and least aggressive (what music journalists would call their most "mature") but it does not at all feel toned-down and in fact may be the most emotionally potent work they've done. Moments like the climactic phrase of Phenomenon and the falsetto vocal melody of Rinkaku are where I think DEG finally come into their own and transition from highly-capable chameleons of Western music (albeit seen through a Japanese lens) to a unique sort of rock that can't be seen just as an extrapolation of a pre-existing trend. It's very easy to dismiss them for their past work, but I really do recommend Arche and Uroboros without hesitation to basically everyone visiting this thread (Dum Spiro Spero to a lesser extent mainly due to the deathcore influences possibly turning people off). Gamma Nerd fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Feb 10, 2016 |
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Feb 10, 2016 03:37
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Negrostrike posted:So, technopop favorite Perfume released their latest album last week OH GOD HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS WAS HAPPENING  Thanks, will listen immediately.
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Apr 13, 2016 08:21
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kagrra are good. I'd check out kiryu, D and Rikugo if you like their folk side. deluhi, nocturnal bloodlust and sadie are my poo poo personally. visual kei metalcore is about as "bad taste" as you get but man, NB have some tasty solos and deluhi just go unreasonably hard also, for classic bands, cant go wrong with after image, luna sea, siam shade, kuroyume, buck-tick...
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Apr 21, 2016 19:36
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I think Kyary, for example, has a lot more creative input in her music than most K-pop idols do, but in the case of, like, Morning Musume or AKB48 there's probably not much difference in how they're treated. The main difference between J-pop and K-pop, to my mind, though, is that the independent (non-idol) pop scene is MUCH more substantial and prominent in Japan. There's a couple K-pop indie stars, but I can't name nearly as many. The Singing Chav posted:Pretty sure that Jpop idols are strongly discouraged from having relationships, and the business side of that particular niche of music is said to be chock full of Yakuza and pedos! So not all that different from the idol industry anywhere else. Yep, and it's not just about female idols. The worst part of that case is that they have tremendous evidence against Kitagawa, but haven't done anything since he's rich and powerful. Not too different from America, but considering the scale of abuse the authorities are oddly nonchalant. I recall a source saying that lots of modern Visual Kei band members are male escorts, too, but I forget where I read that.
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May 11, 2016 22:16
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Anyone here up for one of my effortposts, this time about Japanese math rock/post-rock? Been very into that scene these last few days. Been especially digging Uchu Conbini's mix of midwest emo math rock with j-pop, pity they split up after only 1 album and 2 EPs. Also, these guys are nuts. It's like toe channeling Mick Barr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw1LzdwEqTg Gamma Nerd fucked around with this message at 22:16 on May 13, 2016 |
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May 13, 2016 22:14
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TOUR94 posted:Do you like Ovum's newest album Nostalgia? You know, I skipped past them when I was listening to my math rock playlist. Thanks for the reminder, will check them out.
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May 29, 2016 04:53
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Made a RYM list of some Japanese artists I like, feel free to use it as a resource.
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Jun 21, 2016 04:45
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i went on record a year or so ago as not liking them :v yasuko's vocals were too much for me.
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Jun 22, 2016 19:34
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Hell yeah, my dude  Also, man, the synth abuse is strong in this entire album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L847T9NnvkU
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Jun 24, 2016 19:37
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Just want to let ya know that Fuki (of Light Bringer, Unlucky Morpheus, DOLL$BOXX) did a new album under the name "Fuki Commune". ISAO (of Spark7 and Cube-ray) and Nozomu Wakai on guitars, Atsushi Hasegawa (of Gerard and Sound Horizon) on bass, and Light Bringer's keyboardist. Great lineup, mostly awesome tunes.Negrostrike posted:Welp, remember Especia, that vaporwave-y group? They're back from their hiatus after the graduation of 3 members and they're jazzy as gently caress. Yup, Brazil and Japan are pretty closely intertwined culturally. Is she related to Milton Nascimento by any chance?
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Jun 28, 2016 01:08
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Anyone who likes Ling Tosite Sigure ought to check these guys out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ricbduE6nPM Also, Zazen Boys are pretty dope.
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Jul 2, 2016 03:11
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Japanese psych rock is pretty dope. There's about a hundred bands related to AMT, Fushitsusha, Les Rallizes Denudes and Boredoms, and lots of them are pretty prolific. Your tolerance for them will depend on how much you enjoy AMT's noisy side though. Definitely check out Tsurubami, they're basically an AMT side project that are so hazy and blown out that they resemble shoegaze at times. On the Boredoms side, Rovo and OOIOO are both awesome - the former is more electronic and trance-inducing, the latter are very diverse and often tribal. Angel'in Heavy Syrup and eX-Girl are also great.
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Jul 25, 2016 20:19
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Mike_V posted:What is similar to T-SQUARE and Casiopea? That is a distinctly Japanese jazz-fusion sound that I can't really find replicated elsewhere. I've been very into J-fusion recently, so let's see if any of these click. You might want to look more into City Pop than the fusion scene, though - most of the J-fusion I like is the sort that tends towards prog. This is my favorite Japanese fusion album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY266lRU578 It's very spacy, the synth tones are gorgeous, and the closing track is a hypnotic slow-burner that gives me serious Magma vibes. Space Circus deliver serious fire on both of their albums. Kenso are basically the Japanese Camel, and they're one of Japan's best prog bands. Not all of their stuff is jazzy, though. Yume no Oka is the best I've heard from them, and also the jazziest. Trix should be an obvious choice since they have members of both Casiopea and T-Square. Good band. Pyramid have T-Square's keyboardist and they're pretty good. Some more thoughts: NOA Lu7 (on the smoother side of prog-fusion - the composer also worked on the Mega Man Zero soundtracks) Side Steps Toshiki Kadomatsu is THE guy if you want stuff on the more city pop side of J-fusion. Makoto Mastushita ain't half bad either.
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Aug 11, 2016 02:08
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So what's everyone's favorite Japanese album of 2016 so far? Gotta be these guys's new EP for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf1-N5A1C4I Gesu No Kiwami Otome's album was also good, of course.
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Sep 1, 2016 04:01
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Omglosser posted:Are all-female or female-lead metal bands starting to become big in Japan or have they been that way for a while? The first-all-girl metal band in Japan that I can think of is Show-Ya. They were from the 80s and were pretty popular. There's also some all-girl prog groups from that time period like Rosalia and Velvet Paw. So yeah, there's been a girl-band trend (non-pop girl bands, specifically) in Japan that is much larger than in most Western countries.
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Nov 12, 2016 00:44
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pfs Write posted:just say a word that starts with g then yell ONETWOTHREEFOUR and throw every pot and pan you have in the kitchen around for a few seconds. Do that about 70 times. ULTIMATE poo poo BAND
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Dec 1, 2016 02:54
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