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Artist: 椎名林檎 (Shiina Ringo) Album: NIPPON Score: The One True QueenTM is back! I don't joke around when I proclaim Shiina Ringo as The One True Queen. She belongs in the upper echelon of artists that can tackle any genre effortlessly. Her worst output is merely good. Her best output is legendary and amongst the best albums ever recorded in J-Pop. So imagine my disappointment with 逆輸入 ~港湾局~, where I felt that she couldn't pull together the many styles she was flirting with. Being a compilation album of music that she didn't even write for herself, I let it slide. After all, when Shiina writes music for herself she knocks it out of the park. NIPPON is no different. NIPPON is a two track single where the single was Japan's theme at the World Cup. With such a simple title that translates into Japan, it would be reasonable to expect Shiina to deliver a simple pop rock tune. Fortunately for the world of music, Shiina doesn't do simple. There's the trappings of an upbeat pop rock track accompanied by an orchestra and some type of instrument I can't identify. You can't miss it though because it's there during the more energetic transitions, especially into the chorus. There's also a pretty nice solo, which is something I haven't heard Shiina do in a while. NIPPON gives me vibes of younger Shiina and the rock sound that she bursted onto the scene with all those many years ago. Sakasa ni Kazoete rounds out the single, waltzing in with a jazzy pop sound balancing Shiina's rock side with her more mature one. Sakasa ni Kazoete sounds like it could have come straight out of Tokyo Jihen's discography, which makes it even better than NIPPON for me. Amazing keyboard work and an amazing vocal delivery by Shiina herself puts the cherry on top. It's very refreshing to hear Shiina take on this sound outside of TJ because she doesn't do this nearly enough. I can't recommend this single enough. This is a nice, short introduction into just two of the many faces of this talented artist. Don't sleep on it!

WRITE-UP: The immensely popular Rock Band UVERworld returns with the album that I personally enjoy most out of their catalog to date. The tracks flow through many different musical styles and feelings, while staying anchored to the UVERworld signature product. What to expect most is lots of attitude (something I look for) and a rock album that you can pretty much bounce along to as if it were full of `hip-hop jams`except with heavy riffs, great drums, and a soaring sax to go along with the vocalists stand-up-and-shout microphone persona. I recommend this to any VK or Indie fans who haven`t already checked it out due to the band not fitting into their preferred genres. If you enjoy rock, musical creativity and just all around great production, give it a try. The lyrics, vocal ability and instrumentation all deliver. How quickly the album picks up on you may differ. Even for me as a fan, there were tracks that instantly clicked, and others which I had to give a few spins in order to get into and really feel. But after all the plays I eventually grew fond of listening to each and every track. Biggest Attention Grabbers: The singles including Fight For Liberty, Wizard Club and Nano Second, as well as the Underworld cover `Born Slippy` an underground classic from England, featured in the `cult-hit` Trainspotting, and referenced in the audio/music-phile Tomoki Kyoda`s anime Eureka Seven AO. Sleeper Tracks: 別世界 (betsusekai, lit. Seperate World, interpreted as Another World in common speech), and ENOUGH-1. Betsusekai would theoretically be an answer to anyone doubting that UVERworld could make a track like Born Slippy on their own. They step it up musically, and put together a jazz-rock structured jam that really takes me on an instrumental journey. ENOUGH-1 has a laid back Japanese Yankee kind of attitude to it, I imagine it as the perfect tune for a group to roll out to in the sunset as they hit the town for something wild. The lyrics, music and attitude grew on me with each listen and it became one of my go-to tracks when I slip my headphones on. Track Count: 14 (4 previously released, 3 of which are slightly modified for the album) Listens: 30-40 Production Quality: Amazing recording, mixing, timbre and overall feel. CD Print Quality: No perceptible flaws, perfect track synch, no artefacts. Overall Rating: They seem to have pulled off the exact feel and quality they were going for, I enjoy the album immensely, and in the right mood I don`t skip a single track.

With Yuji&Nozomi from Carat and Tomo from the Rhedoric!

im gonna go with....Lycaon well because i never heard of the other band XD im kind of obsess with them... yes it's creepy but i am..its just..something about them makes me i dunno they just sound awesome too me lolol

BAND BATTLE LYCAON VS. CALMANDO QUAL Which one is your favourite and why? Figured we'd get these band battles started up again!

acoustic event "高円寺茜空歌謡ショー(kouenji akanezora kayou show)" will be held at Kouenji REEF at 2014/08/10 [live participating artists] さいとうひろゆき(saitou hiroyuki)(ex-ハッチ(hucci))×masayoshi(TOKYO HEROES) 吟(gin)(ex-ハッチ(hucci))×キンヂ(kinji)(ex-ハッチ(hucci)) chanyama(山田勝義/yamada katsuyoshi) feat.Rinda(TOKYO HEROES) btw 鈴木リンダ(suzuki rinda)(TOKYO HEROES) has re-opened his blog http://ameblo.jp/rindasuzuki/

it is announced at vistlip live tour "Good vibes CIRCUIT II" tour final at Zepp Tokyo at 2014/07/07 that their LIVE DVD "GOOD vibes CIRCUIT II" will be released at 2014/12/24, and their new full album (title not yet finalized) will be released in 2015 spring, although details have not yet been announced btw they will hold their VIIth anniversary tour "Progressive Jack Pot" since Fukuoka DRUM LOGOS at 2014/10/11 and up to TOKYO DOME CITY HALL at 2014/12/20 SET-LIST at 2014/07/07: 01.Prey Shadow 02.瞳孔(doukou) 03.B.P.M.DIRECTION 04.GLOSTER IMAGE 05.android's dream 06.aquamarine 07.the surface [Re:birth] 08.aim 09.Jack 10.Locoism 11.Pave au chocolat 12.Dead Cherry 13.偽善MASTER(gizen MASTER) 14.EDY 15.深海魚の夢は所詮、(shinkaigyo no yume wa shosen) 16.HEART ch. 17.LION HEART EN1 01.Sara 02.-OZONE- 03.Hameln 04.Recipe 05.July VIIth [Re:birth]

Royz vs. 己龍 Which one of these B.P Records' bands is your choice? I prefer Royz because they're just so k4w411.

Sorry have to go with Lycaon. Love their sound, may be generic to others but to me it's different and refreshing plus I pretty much know all their songs and I'm in love with them. <3

Just a personal suggestion, but I think it is a good idea to make the release list on the Main Page have a scroll bar, so that it doesn`t stretch out the main page so far and bump down the stuff below it. Like right now there is a ton of releases, and maybe it would be neater if it just showed something like 5-10 and you scroll down to see the rest. Just my opinion, maybe it is hard to implement though.

Well, i'm not an artist ^ ^U but i like draw... In this forum are great artist, please be nice and honest *shy* Random: paint it: Real people: pant it: Anime: i hope you like it ^/////^

Hi there, Im september I´d like to go to Mucc's final show (Im living in Beijing...so it wouldnt be that long travel), but I wondering how to buy tickets. Anyone has experience on this (not just Mucc...but any j-rock show there)? I saw that the normal sales will start on aug 2...but where to buy? eplus.jp? any other place? Do they send abroad the tickets? anything important i need to know before the sale starts? thanks for all the info!

yeah definitely not. it plays flawlessly on a decent desktop rig though Playing a lot of Shovel Knight still... really I'm just in love with this game also playing Dark Souls II still whenever I feel like it.

So I've been playing Shovel Knight a lot lately and I've just fallen in love with the soundtrack... you can grab the OST over at the bandcamp HERE for free, but srsly they deserve a little compensation if you ask me... I mean they even got the lady who did the original megaman music Manami Matsumae on board to do this soundtrack! there's also an arranged soundtrack with a bunch of different participating artists that is worth checking out as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTupVILyzkU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0qWnkJP5h4 again you can grab the arranged sound track over at the bancamp HERE for free.

Are people actually getting all up in their feels over this or? People like what they like, it's no use arguing over "which is better" because you're never going to get anywhere with it. With that said, I chose CQ simply because I like them more than Lycaon. I've tried countless times to get into them but they just don't appeal to me that much. Don't get me wrong, they're great at what they do, but CQ is just a favorite of mine in general.

they will commence their formal activities at their live at Shinjuku RUIDO K4 at 2014/07/09, and they have opened their OHP at 2014/07/07 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czJb8eNeMsQ http://www.xyloride.net/

SAME. I've tried hard to get into them, but I just can't handle the vocals. Sounds like he's dying or in lots of pain to me. I think 屡流 is the only song I can stand. :<

Codomo Dragon Kiryu ofc. Hiyori is more kawaweee than all Royz together

This is an interesting one... Although their stuff irritated me to no end in the past, I'm gonna have to go with Kiryu because I'm finding myself to be enjoying their stuff more lately, and their sound has some surprising and fun elements. Royz never left much of an impression on me, tho their newest album (the first release I ever listened from them all the way through) was okay-ish enough.

^Oh, sorry for the lack of that exact info - and if I were to respond: Believe it or not, but the only input that Kyary has in her music is basically her vocals - producing, composing, lyrics, mixing and mastering is SOLELY done by the same guy throughout her career (Yasutaka Nakata, as I mentioned). It's not a stretch then - read the liner notes/credits in release booklets Of course there are also news about two artists contributing to her music (on a later phase) , but that's unrelated to this matter...

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying. Tracklist with romanizations: Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece... After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler. Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though. Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message. I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts. The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are: Standouts: Serious Hitomi, do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer Tracks worth the big fix: Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi (I won't rate the title track - intro, duh) - Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

krauser-sama approves of this

You guys are weaksauce... ALSDEAD + GALEYD back-to-back == like an hour of constant headbanging. I did it like a champ without any headaches at all :v

D.I.D.... I still can never get into Nocturnal Bloodlust

I know i can only headband a tiny bit before I get a MASSIVE like minute long headache ;w;w;w; lol just sway the head kinda side to side loosely , instead of like RAWVFUVFHBSUYBUSYKGBSUDGB HEADBANG F YEAHHHHH YBYU

Nope, a scrollbar is not a feature that can be enabled for the sideboxes, sorry. I tweaked the settings a bit so that the calender shows less days in advance. If it still bothers you, you can always collapse the box (or any of the other boxes for that matter). For example, I always have the "popular tags" box collapsed, as I don't need to see it every time I'm on the index page. I only open it when I actually want to search for a tag.

why those 2 bands why? i don't get it seems a little irrelevant or unfair i love vs threads. i want more. ok since i am not listening to any of them . this is how i choose: first aboout music. i never liked cq in music. i have listened old lycaon in the past and liked them. i hate the nasally voice but i know yuki can do lower if he wants. about looks. i do not like cq visuals and i do not like them as guys. only one of them is cute (if you do not care about looks or visuals go away from vkei,you shouldn't be here) i think lycaon majority of members are more good looking with better visuals. (even if you do not like yuki ,they have fricking hiyuu) so generally lycaon is more entertaining to me.

I was a fan of sfp and I definitely hear indie sfp in ego-izm. Not a bad thing in my opinion.

Artist: la la larks Album: ego-izm Score: A pleasure to listen to from start to finish. It's bad enough that I have a difficult time treating school food punishment and la la larks as two different bands, but la la larks isn't trying too hard to make that distinction themselves. Yumi Uchimura must be abiding by the adage of "If it's not broke, don't fix it". school food punishment wasn't broken - it just found itself in a position where it couldn't continue down the path Yumi envisioned. It seems natural to me then that la la larks' first single is so impressive, even amidst the almost devoid hype. It's also come to my attention that I unconsciously gravitate towards mentioning the production before getting into the content of the review. In this case however, the production is what makes la la larks such a pleasure to listen to. The label must have blessed la la larks with a budget that would make Dir en grey envious. The sound that producer Ryo Eguchi achieved here is the perfect blend between the organic and the artificial. There's a lot going on in both ego-izm and end of refrain and yet the instruments aren't competing with one another for the listener's attention. That's a large achievement and is something most bands never get quite right. la la larks nails it on their first release. Ponder that for a moment. ego-izm was used as the ending theme of M3〜ソノ黒キ鋼〜. In my humble opinion, this song was too different from the show thematically, sonically, and lyrically to fit. It's a disappointment that the anime was too much of a confused and introspective Evangelion-stanning brainfart mecha that went nowhere to get any type of real hype, as I'm sure that's what the record company was shooting for. It's not much of a setback, since it sounds like Yumi has finally reconciled making anime pop fodder with experimenting as an artist. I expect them to do another theme very soon. ego-izm is best described as the spiritual successor to How to go, resembling more of the former band's indie period than major period. This is a Very Good ThingTM. If you require an explanation, imagine swelling violin guitars, boisterious piano and bass runs, and the vocals of an angel so sweet you might fall in love on first listen. I've had this single on repeat since I've gotten my hands on it and I haven't grown tired of the title track yet. The B-sides are where things get a lot more interesting, and by more interesting I mean "sound even more like indie-era school food punishment". end of refrain sounds like it could come straight out of riff-rain, what with the acoustic guitar that pans from left to right just like egoist from said mini-album. Part of me wonders if that was an intentional nod or not. The guitar tapping during the chorus is also memorable, maybe a little too memorable. earworm starts out like it could be an alternate take of transient but halfway through it shifts enough in mood and song progression to stand out as it's own track. Both are wonderful tracks that contrast well with the more direct pop effort of the A-side. There are also instrumental versions of the first two tracks. If you want to more fully enjoy the effort that went into producing the music, or if you want to sing karaoke, they're there. Yumi's dynamic vocals are one of the greatest appeals to listening to her music, so naturally the vocalless versions aren't as appealing as their completed counterparts. Still, they're worth a mention for their inclusion. In most cases, a new band sounding exactly like the old one is taken as a point of criticism. But just this once I don't mind. J-Pop has missed the unique blend of electronic and pop music that Uchimura is known for. The fact that it sounds like a redux of riff-rain only makes it better. This is what many school food punishment fans have wanted and thought they would never get since riff-rain. I'm just really glad that she's back and hasn't missed a beat, and has also found band members willing and capable to execute her vision to the fullest. If you were a school food punishment fan, you're already all over this. If you missed that boat, this is a perfect opportunity to get acquainted with some refreshing and unique pop music.

usually i think i prefer the more old-school VK band like calmando qual here, but in this case with lycaon in the race i must admit, that with their pv for eros, with them actually swallowing cum, they've shown a dedication to the whole VK-genre that other bands still struggle to achieve. my vote goes for modern VK here

I didn't mean the style at all though, in that sense CP and MBHI are very far removed lol. I meant for Tenten personally, I would like this to be a step up in his CAREER. Just meaning that I hope MBHI is able to get bigger than CP or KuRt ever were. Oh yes I do miss the funk, but I'm quite impressed with the aggressive attitude of MBHI in the previews so far (I actually was surprised by the amount of screaming he did in CP at first but Tenten has a unique scream and he always makes it work lol) I loved SKULL I always thought they were a great example of "pretty heavy VK" and somehow I just imagined this lineup falling into place perfectly.. Geez I'm so excited first thing in the AM now..

Hmmm, Well i think CPS and MBHI are really two different directions all together. CPS had a lot of almost classic rock type riffs and funk in general during it's early stages with Jimi, but I know Joe is influenced by some really surprising genres. MBHI is really different, I mean most of the members were from SKULL which was a pretty heavy band, I never really followed Yoh that much though... I mean yeah it's Tenten/Taira, but I always thought he had two styles.... He didn't scream much in CPS. I don't mind it... but I feel this band is going to really revive some techniques he used in KuRt but in a new way.

You remind me of a Norwegian Gackt.

Got a better pic of me - This was from a photoshoot about a year ago (same photoshoot as the one of my avatar, but this is much easier to see)

Im the only one that thought that they were going to start to sing Welcome to the Jungle aftere the first seconds of Hallelujah XD?

THIS. I would love to see GazettE give us a mini nowadays.

It is done. My greatest life work is complete.