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ＶＡＰＯＲＷＡＶＥ The Vaporwave Essentials ULTRA EDITION Guide: Vaporwave Essentials NU EDITION Guide: Vaporwave Essentials Mix by DJzap152: Vaporwave Subgenres Guide: Vaporwave, an electronic microgenre considered the love-child of Hypnagogic Pop and Chillwave, is in a nutshell, 80s/90s pop-hit plunderphonics. While Macintosh Plus' 2011 album, "Floral Shoppe" (containing the viral sensation "リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー") is considered the defining album of the genre, vaporwave's history goes back just a touch. Chuck Person's "Eccojams" released in 2010 contains chopped & screwed samples from 80s hits and Ecco the Dolphin, and is credited for truly pioneering the style. What he called "echo jams" would eventually evolve into the classic vaporwave that we know of today. For a brief period of time, vaporwave existed alongside Seapunk, a closely related genre that was sort of a proto-vaporwave. The genre which would spawn from a single tweet, had elements of southern trap rap, 90s house, and witch house. While seapunk music garnered some interest, its distinctive aquamarine aesthetic would have a much larger presence, with artists like Azealia Banks and Rihanna donning outfits of that particular style and implementing the iconic aesthetic in their music videos. The genre from 2014-onward would be swallowed by vaporwave which, with its much broader influences, became the more popular genre. Vox Documentary on Seapunk: Current vaporwave comprises of many subgenres including Classic Vaporwave, Future Funk, Vapor-Trap, Vektroid, Simpsonswave, Hypnagogic, Mallsoft, etc. While the classic ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ includes bright turquoise and pink colors with images of roman busts and aging malls, each subgenre, even release, has its own "flavor" (refer to the guides above). While vaporwave was labeled a satirical take on consumer capitalism, most people would flock to it because of the nostalgia factor. Japanese City Pop, 80s/90s Western Pop Hits, R&B, Lounge Music, Dead Malls, Japanese Typography, Internet Memes, Glitch Art, and Cyberpunk are some of the many topics that this genre encapsulates. It's a gigantic clusterfuck that can barely be described without going through several layers of irony and memes... I'll just let the music speak for itself: Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe (2011) | Vektroid Style | Iconic, but objectively one of the least innovative albums in this list. ECO VIRTUAL - ATMOSPHERES 第1 (2013) | Classic Vaporwave | Notable for its atmospheric sounds. Hazy and relaxing. SAINT PEPSI - Hit Vibes (2013) | Future Funk | Booming with chopped and screwed 70s/80s disco hits. Artzie's channel grew as a hub for this type of music. LUXURY ELITE // SAINT PEPSI - LATE NIGHT DELIGHT (2013) | Hypnagogic | Along with LUXURY ELITE, SAINT PEPSI does it again with 80s/90s television references including the iconic McDonald's Commercial on the cover. Too bad the moon turned into an alt-right symbol during the 2016 election. t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 - 現実を超えて (2014) | Dreamwave | Telepath has been this purveyor of Japanese typography in the vaporwave scene. Dreamy... 猫 シ Corp. - Palm Mall (2014) | Mallsoft | It's all dead malls from here, baby! Strong muzak/elevator music & jazz influences. Blank Banshee - 1 (2013) | Vapor-Trap | Fusion of trap music & vaporwave. It's a good place to start if you're more acquainted w/ the larger electronic scene. I'll post my current favorites in a separate post. --- I've been acquainted with the scene for about 4 years now, and it's been really neat. Having the idea of this genre (particularly the 80s/90s pad sounds) in the back of my head for years come into fruition by people more creative than I, has been quite the experience. On a slightly sour note, while vaporwave has evolved greatly from slowed down Diana Ross, a glaring negative that sticks out like a sore thumb is lack of transformativeness some artists can still get away with. While the album, Yung Bae - Bae was popular upon its release, it was a bit controversial because the editing done was "minimal", yet to fans, considered "subtle". A lot of this still exists w/ "artists" daringly passing off slowed down 80s/90s compilations as their own creative work. For the amount of individuals trying to make a quick buck on Bandcamp, there are 100x more artists that really put effort into what they create. Additionally, many of it is free! One unique characteristic of this genre is the collectibility of cassette tapes. Similar to the resurgence in vinyl, physical cassette tape releases run rampant in the scene. Some of the more popular artists will have limited physical runs of their material on cassette tapes, and oh boy do they sell out quickly. Personally, I'm not one to collect these things w/ the limited lifespan they have, but others love the staticky, lo-fi nature of the cassette tapes. ...otherwise, most vaporwave is accessible via Bandcamp and Youtube. Here are some major labels to get you started (Also search for the terms in Bandcamp to view a lot more artists): https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/ https://music.businesscasual.biz/ http://illuminatedpaths.bandcamp.com/ https://ailanthusrecordings.bandcamp.com/ https://keatscollective.bandcamp.com/ Shoutouts to FrankJaveCee's Channel and his chuckle-worthy how-to guides on many of the Vaporwave subgenres. More shoutouts to Dan Bell's Dead Mall Series. Ｆｉｎａｌｌｙ，　ｓｈｏｕｔｏｕｔｓ　ｔｏ　ｆｕｌｌ－ｗｉｄｔｈ　ａｌｐｈａｎｕｍｅｒｉｃ　ｆｏｎｔ　ｆｏｒ　ｍａｋｉｎｇ　ｅｖｅｒｙ　ａｌｂｕｍ　ｔｉｔｌｅ　ｔａｋｅ　ｕｐ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｔｈａｎ　ｏｎｅ　ｌｉｎｅ． Additionally going to mention one of the more obscure/dark subgenres in vaporwave called "Ocean Grunge". Idk if it's still truly around, but if we're talking about one of most bizarre music subgenres alongside stuff like Extratone, this is it.

lady gaga is the crazy

https://vk.com/club558881?z=video-558881_456239642%2Fvideos-558881%2Fpl_-558881_-2 - Mode of Withering to Death

I sometimes wish the rest of the band would get a little improvisational. Kyo is doing whatever the fuck he wants while the other guys are practically jukeboxes. Die seems to the only one that would add extra color here and there. Sometimes Toshiya would throw in a different bass run, but for the most part they played the songs straight. Can these guys jam once in a while?

Yeah sorry but there is nothing brilliant about self-harm.

I don't think I can love a song more than I love AN ETERNITY. What a chorus, what a guitar line. Kei was fuckin inspired. Granted, the youtube version doesn't it do justice. DL section is the way, guys!

Forget the hair, they didn't even iron the shelf folds out of the shirts they bought an hour before the photo.

DIMLIM: Gt. Ryuya, Vo. Sho, Gt. Retsu Support: Ba. Yume (ex-Pisaro, Now in DIMLIM) Dr. Hibiki (ex-A Ghost of Flare) Set-list: 1. Birth 2. Innocent Passion 3. THE INVISIBLE 4. Limit of reverse 5. Age of lies 6. Destroy a desire 7. MASSACRE 8. 浄土の花 9. 記憶、紺碧の微笑み‬ 10. 初潮 11. 虚妄の歌 12. PERSOALIT NONCONFORMIT 13. 「」 encore: 14. THE SILENT SONG 15. 塵外 16. ハレワタ 17. MASSACRE (Chorus) This was one of my first concert experiences in Japan and it was one of the most memorable concerts I've ever been to. The venue is Takadanobaba AREA and I must admit in pictures it looks tiny, but once inside it’s a lot larger than I expected. The venue is divided into 3 sections: the front, middle, and back. Of course, your boy here was in the front! There was a lot of guys at the live; to my surprise I think it was an even number of girls and guys. Walking into the live, there was a curtain raised with a projection of the DIMLIM logo and the sounds of baby’s crying and screaming. It was very fitting because I wanted to scream as well, I was thrilled to finally see DIMLIM live. The live started a bit late but once it began the projection went away and the SE track “birth” began. The curtain was still raised, but a light from the other side projected the shadows of Ryuya, Sho, and Retsu onto the curtain. They stood still until “birth” ended. A few seconds of silence passed, and they just gained life as they began playing “Innocent Passion . The song began with the opening riffs, and once Sho gave his scream, the curtain was lowered revealing all of them. Everyone looked amazing, but Sho stood out since the paint on him was inverted from the paint he had on the MV for “THE SILENT SONG”. He had a white colored face with black details. He still looked killer. As they played, Sho hits all the screams, including the intense high-pitched ones. Most bands skip these types of screams, but Sho made sure he hit each one. Other noteworthy standouts are Ryuya and Yume (At the time he was in Pisaro but he’s now officially in DIMLIM). I was shocked at how skinny Ryuya was, even though he still looked great. Yume, well, he’s short. I’m not joking. He’s so tiny, he had a box next to him, that he would use to stand when he wanted to yell something or get the crowd’s attention. It was cute haha. Everyone was noteworthy because Hibiki (ex- A Ghost of Flare), despite not being in a visual-kei band, still wore eye shadow, did his hair, and wore a cool outfit. He looked wonderful. And Retsu… well he’s fucking beautiful, so nothing else I can say there. They played a few more songs, but I was so unprepared once they got to “Destroy a desire”. A lot of the songs had dance moves that go with them, like fist pumping or waving your hands side to side, etc. (AKA Furitsuke). For the most part, it was headbanging. But for “Destroy a desire”, people started jumping side to side. They first jumped to the right and before I could make it and realize what was going on, they started jumping to the left (towards me) and I almost crashed in to one of the girls. Side note: Im 6’3” so I’m nowhere near little. I would have destroyed this girl. Luckily, I managed to jump left and join them. After this they debuted the song 「」.It began with the whispers of a women and goes into a techno like rhythm. The pacing of the song is slower than the usual songs DIMLIM puts out. Its not the heaviest song, but there are some screams. My personal favorite part is the harmonics that Ryuya adds during the slow parts. It’s a really nice song. To my surprise they played “初潮”afterwards. I was expecting this song to be their closing song, but I didn’t mind it. It’s every bit as beautiful and powerful live as I’d hoped it be. I gained so much respect for Yume because he owned that solo and overall did an awesome job. He even played it sitting just like Tsubasa (former Bassist) used to. Retsu executed the solo beautify and it gave me chills seeing it played live. And probably the most fun I had was during the wall of death. For those that don’t know, a wall of death is when the crowd splits into two and gets some distance between them, so they can run towards one another. During “MASSACRE”, Sho asked us to split and so we did and as he was hyping us up I proceeded to taunt the other side haha (I flexed a bit haha). Unfortunately, I don't remember much about “Age of lies” and “記憶、紺碧の微笑み”. These two songs where part of the first live limited single so this was my first time listening to them. All i rember is one of them not being as heavy, so kind of slow. Wish I can say more but thats all I got. The main set ended, and they played a short video. Sadly, I can't read Japanese, or at least all the Kanji that was there. There was a lot of clapping and cheering haha. The video ended, and the curtain opened, and the band stood before us. All the lights were off and out of nowhere Sho gave a powerful scream that began “THE SILENT SONG”. Sho had a podium in front of him like the one in the MV. It was painted black and had the DIMLIM logo sprayed onto it. It was a really nice touch and I wasn't expecting it. Sho sang the song with the podium. He would lean on it in order to get closer to the crowd and even shaking it to get the crowd going. Sadly, he shook it too hard and halfway through the song the podium fell apart. Sho tried to hold it together, but it collapsed, and all the pieces fell to the floor. Sho sighed but he laughed it off and continued singing. Staff stepped in and removed the pieces off the stage. I figured that the end was near, and of course they closed with their debut song “ハレワタ”. All i can say is Holy Hell was it good live. The energy they gave off was incredible. They played and sang passionately and when they headbanged, everyone headbanged. The song ended, and I thought it was over. I was wrong, DIMLIM wanted to get us going one last time so they transitioned into the chorus of MASSACRE and made us do a wall of death again to end the show and we did. I taunted again hehe... and the show ended as powerfully as it had begun. Bonus: They have this thing where if you buy cheki, certain cheki will be marked with "Lucky" in Kanji. If you get a cheki with one of these written on them you can take a picture with one of the members. I bought three and got Luky hehe... I was thrilled, and I yelled a bit and some of the girls there game me a stink eye. You snooze you lose, because I didn’t see those girls after, so they didn't get lucky HAHA. I waited in line to take my picture and once it was my turn I was really nervous. I went in the room and there they were Sho, Ryuya, and Retsu. I wanted to tell them something at least, so I told them I had come from the U.S. to see them. And that their music is super cool. Sho nodded with his arms crossed and said "hmm”. I’m guessing that a good thing, Ryuya said "Ahhh". lol and hands down the best reaction was Retsu. He said in English, "I can speak english a little bit.... Stay with Us!" I wanted to cry he made the effort to speak English for me and he did it so well. I took my picture with Retsu ❤️

More info soon. I wonder if all the previous singles will be included, he has quite a lot now! (VAD†MAN, 不死鳥-FENNIX-, FIXXTION BOY, RAVVE OF MY TRINITY, Burn Your Soul, IKAROS, INFERNO, ACID CASTLE, 未完成サファイア and maybe even ロゼッタ. That's 9/10 tracks already.)

マチルダ (Mathilda) new single "キキカ・イカイ (Kikika Ikai)" will be released at 2018/9/26 through fiveStars.

EDIT: SCHWARZ STEIN IS SOLD, MEGAROMANIA IS STILL FOR SALE I'm selling Schwarz Stein Dunkelheit + Licht compilations + bonus Rudolf Steiner CDr's. The compilations are sealed. I'm asking 48EUR for this, which is incredibly cheap. Both were around 40EUR each when I bought them new. Nevermind the Megaromania DVD next to it. I'm also selling it if anyone's interested, but seperately, I'm asking 12EUR for it. PICTURE:

Not really sure what you mean. He's always been like this. In the VULGAR days he would sometimes take some time out of a song so he could spew fake vomit everywhere (a la the Obscure video), or have a gigantic nosebleed. In WtD, he didn't sing whole portions of some songs, instead putting a bucket over his head or some other such shenanigans. This is really nothing new. Above all, he's an artist. He knows that it's pointless to just perfectly reproduce the music in a live setting. That's what the CD is for. In that way, their live show is more about ambience and atmosphere. It's a statement; a message. A visual representation of what he wants the audience to feel when listening to the music. Bear in mind that touring is really fucking hard on everyone involved. They're all tired, probably jetlagged half the time, eating at weird times and having to perform the same songs constantly, and it becomes a drag. They're not going to be on top form every night. It certainly won't be perfect (this goes for practically any band). If he wants to dress up and bring some theatrics to break up the monotony, I say good for him. Let him have his fun. Edit: Speaking of the MODE OF concerts, it would have been really nice if they had not been A KNOT exclusive. They're expensive as fuck. I would have bought most of them had they been £15-£20 a pop.

They did announce a "ura final" at ikebukuro cyber for the 1st of september though, I believe. So they might announce something there!

Tour final at マイナビBLITZ was today, surprisingly they didn't annonce a new release at the live

Honestly, I kind of agree with the 'if you want perfection, go listen to the studio albums' thing, but I really enjoy the band's live shows more than the albums, so in this case I want to see something astonishing when I watch the recordings. I don't care if they cannot reproduce all of the sounds that they use on the albums (the guitar and vocal layers, the synths, the samples, etc.): I just want to be able to watch a memorable performance that's not as cringe worthy as (for example) the one in Wacken 2007. I still have faith! The 'MODE OF...' shows have some of the most outstanding vocal performances by him yet. From a technical standpoint, I think the 'Uroboros' one is the most balanced, but the 'Vulgar', 'Dum Spiro Spero', 'Kisou' and 'The Marrow of a Bone' ones have incredibly tight performances too (that performance of 'Ryoujoku no Ame' may be one of my favourite live performances ever!). Watching the 'Withering to Death' one, he sounds strained and really weary. As Ozileras10 said, 'Withering to Death' is the most emotional one, and to some extent, the 'Macabre' one has also a lot of dramatism going on that makes the overall performance amazing, but I think they don't feel as good as the others. I think it may have to do with the way Kyo interprets the old songs that weren't remade, because on the newer tracks he sounds better (he really nails the new version of 'Rasetsukoku', which is also the last track). Or maybe it has to do with the emotional factor, and, as you said, the 'expressing myself' factor takes over the technical one. Regarding this, I think the 'Mode of Macabre' blends the drama and the good singing quite good. Anyway, I still have high hopes for his future: for a man in his forties who has sustained a lot of damage to his hearing, vocal chords, etc., it's a miracle he can even sing. Sometimes, he has average days; sometimes, he sounds amazing. The good thing is he doesn't seem to have any bad days (judging for this pro-shot live shows, of course). I still think that the band started to become really tight as a whole during 2011/12, with the 'Dum Spiro Spero' and 'Arche' shows at the Budokan being their finest moments. If the 'MODE OF' are an overall standard for what is to come and if Kyo can find the perfect balance between technique and emotion, then I'm more than happy.

Anyone interested in buying my Schwarz Stein compilation CDs? Made a topic.

Gauze->Vulgar->DSS->Kisou->Uroboros->TMoaB->Macabre->WtD

https://vk.com/club558881?z=video-558881_456239644%2Fvideos-558881%2Fpl_-558881_-2 Mode of Macabre

Don't worry, unless you buying stuff from bands such as Rosenfeld or X Japan. You (probably) won't find a single genuine copy of anything then... Watch out for qld96 on Yahoo Auctions, who definitely bootlegs tapes. The same for jnsyn936.

hopefully at least

it feels like a new chapter of my life will start soon, a lot of things culminating, and saying goodbye to my favorite band of almost 16 years. This Muse will never come back and I've finally accepted it.

The album has been released on all major digital platforms worldwide

dude I fucking love vaporwave *_* although I don't listen to it as much as I do vapor trap, that's something that I've long been craving for in music - something that's chill, but not at all boring, something to listen to when you're high as shit and falling through the clouds. If someone told me that there would be chillout versions of rap music, I'd laughed in their face. Although it's tiresome that the same soundbytes are used in every new song I listen to now, I still find joy in listening to it nonetheless. I also really love the nostalgic aesthetic that's rampant throughout these videos. Messy VHS edits of Simpsons, or other stuff like Dragon Ball, etc., are just as interesting to watch as listening to the music itself. Here's the best vapor trap playlist that actually started it all for me (below). I remember seeing this thumbnail and generally being like, "Why the fuck is Youtube recommending me Simpsons videos with unicode titles and 420 references???" Since then, I've seen more Simpsonwave without realizing how much I've seen, maybe a lot, I know. Anyway, I'll stop blabbing. Also, a really brilliant chillwave mix: I could recommend more mixes, but this is all I can think of at the moment. I'll update when I find those said mixes.

Some of these sound really cool, and I loooove the Y2K / 90's pre-911 affluenza consumerism aesthetic, so I'll be checking these out more. The only contribution I really have, other than AB's "Atlantis" music video, is Ultrademon

AN ETERNITY blew me away, as expected. I don't remember the last time I've heard such an atmospheric, heartfelt piece of music

samples of all 5 songs from their mail order limited minialbum and just so you know in the video title i wrote the "new" updated CD title. since i ordered my copy within the first few hours they announced it i received the "misprint" version which has a different name at the album artwork and also the tracklist on the lyric sheet is different which makes it more rare to own i guess!? XD honestly i wasn't really sure what to expect with that CD and well i still don't really get whats so good with old school Vk but lets wait for some different opinions from people who really like the genre. - i am curious nontheless. ;D

So he can only write heavy, disturbing music when he's happy? Raising funds for Chiaki's therapy and retreat. This album is okay, but it's not the kind of music I'd ever go after myself. If the band needs to find themselves, recover from a rough time or if this resonates with who they are right now then cool. But I'm not sticking around for it. If they go major and Chiaki starts feeling better again, this is the music they'd be putting out anyway so I don't believe illness is the only reason they went down the pop route.

I'm not even all the way through but nothing will change my mind, this album is tragic.

I’m just here for the post-avant jazzcore.

Only by looking at the hairstyles I think music is going to be meeeeh.

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy: As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage. Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...). The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead. This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal. Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars... I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other. If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars. The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'. That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem. I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records. I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song). I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.

new look individual:

Loove that look a lot, way better than the last one. I wasn't crazy about their last release, but I got some high hopes for bleach milk on the shortcake lol. btw did anyone ever find /buy/ get a download for 僕等の曲天烈大百科3? I couldn't find a copy to buy anywhere except one that sold on closetchild, and no downloads either.

so i haven't updated this as much as i should've ;w; here's a colored drawing of rei-rei ♥ (rei from marco), thanks to my grams giving me some colored pencils *_*

VK newbies モンダイジ!! (Mondaiji!!) released a PV for their new song "ラヴベリ-Love very-" and because they decided to disable comments on the video, I had to take my comments here! 'Hey guys! We're Mondaiji!!' I don't like that this caution tape is arranged in such a way that it isn't even pretending to keep anyone out of anything. It looks way more like they were learning about Maypole dances in class that day and had no streamers to make one. Oh no we're only 10 seconds into this video and they've already started adding unnecessary post-effects in editing. They did not have a lot of confidence in this video holding up on its own. See what a I mean? Though this was probably necessary considering the terrible lighting of this PV. 'We don't have a drummer yet.' Did no one think that exposed fluorescent lights maybe wasn't the best they could do for lighting a music video featuring three men in tons of makeup? The lighting just screams 'this is a cheap PV we made on an iPhone!' and is the second worst thing about this video. The worst thing is how unwilling the whole band is to just 'go for it'. I remember Jimi from Chemical Pictures blogging once about how to look cool in a PV you have to be willing to look ridiculous in person because normal movements won't translate with any energy on film. The dancing and jumping and instrument-ing in this video are so half-assed it's like the band are embarrassed. This is also my biggest complaint with their sound so far. I actually kind of like the summer-time fun vibes in the verses of this track, but no one in the band sounds like they really *mean it*. I have no idea what this song is about, so I'm not sure if the classroom relates. But now the vocalist is singing into a chalkboard eraser cause why not. (Though I do appreciate that they gave him a microphone in this PV, nothing makes singers look more awkward than when they have nothing to hold and don't know what to do with their hands.) I feel ya bro. 'Quidditch after class??' I actually think dude on the right's vibrator-on-my-hip blowin-some-bubbles aesthetic is pretty on point. Again, dudes look like they got bored in the middle of shooting their own music video. There's rapping in this song. When will VK vocalists learn that really all you have to do to not sound like my mom or the Beastie Boys trying to rap is rhyme more than one syllable? Also there's no way that little cone would amplify someone's voice whatsoever. 'Oh shit I forgot to hold either my mic or cone or eraser. I'll just mime it for this shot.' What's with the curtains in this classroom? I like to think they shot this video while school was in session somewhere and the school's principal needed all the middle school children to not see the VK horrors lurking in that classroom. (Hopefully it's something innocent like nap-time darkness. Going to school in America, we had drills where we had to hang things to black out the windows so hypothetical school shooters wouldn't be able to see into the classrooms 😢) Who ya got as the GOAT, MJ or LeBron? 'What are you doing to the clock??' 'Hehe, time to go! Saika you're such a trickster!' These guys have a one-man show coming up at Takadanobaba AREA this fall, whoa!

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gots me some new eye-windows 👓

vk finally nailed the ultimate incel bait formula tbh featuring a bihet frontman, kawaii yaoi guitar-shonen and not one, not two, but THREE sultry gravure hussiz to leech tha moneys from the affluent and unfortunately looking gentlemen as opposed to bacteria-infested present??..

...Akane would look simply enchanting in a space-vampire dress Oh, sorry, PLOT TWIST

Plot twist: it's Jasmine You

Maria Cross will be the lead singer.

Workin girls are at it again Edit: if the new vocalist is Riku or what's his face from mejibray I'm going to have a stroke

Youtuber Kei

You know you could just branch out into other sections of Japanese music besides VK, where there seems to be no shortage of up and coming promising bands. when I started getting tired of all the stagnation in the scene back in 2010-2011 that's what I did and it pretty much revitalized my interest and love for Japanese music. Just a thought.