Laurence02

One of the things I like most of visual-kei is the lack of professional quality of anything for many many bands--artwork, costume design, marketing, and recording quality. I love trying out bands' super early work that only came in tape form; some of my favorite works have never been re-recorded and shall forever live on in a muddled, hissing, tape.
 
So, what are your favorites? I'll try to post videos, but a lot of them I'm going to have to upload myself eventually since Youtube doesn't have everything. Oh, and feel free to not be restricted to just Japanese music.
 
+Crack Brain- 砂時計: love the melody of this one, and the poor quality adds an extra layer of creepy to it that I really enjoy. Unfortunately, this was never rerecorded (as far as I know).
 
+Luna Sea- Shade: I liked the demo version of this song more than the 1991 rerecording. Haven't heard the 2011 version yet, but I don't think it'll really do the same for me.
 
+Werkmare - Psychopass: Messy metal demo-tapes are fun. This one also has some Bach thrown in as well, which is always an added bonus. I'm actually reallly disappointed that this one wasn't rerecorded for real.
 
+Malice Mizer- Sans Logique: This tape is great. I really love their 2nd attempt at 'Speed of Desperate' and '終幕への扉' is pretty magical. Had this not be lo-fi, I probably would not have liked it as much.
 

 
+Madeth Gray'll- 狂死楽園: Ooky-spooky demos at their best. The recent version uploaded here also has some warping in the tape that make it sound so so much better, like an old horror movie. They also had like 100000 other demo tapes of similar quality that were all eventually re-recorded (multiple times, actually). This video isn't as warped as I had mentioned, but you'll get the point.
 

To add on what @WhirlingBlack said (by the way, you never got back to me in PMs ):
 
惨劇の夜 was initially once performed as a poem by Kyo and BGM (like INWARD SCREAM nowadays, just w/ coherent Sangeki's lyrics). According to my source, they performed 惨劇の夜 and 霧と繭 at the same time, so it's unclear if the story of "霧と繭 is a clean lyrics version of 惨劇の夜" is really true.
 
You all probably know of Re:birth, which is a fake title for an unnamed early song.
 
There is also another unnamed early song without ANY information, aside of the live recording itself. Performed on 3rd August 1998. It's 04:55 long, so I'm not sure if @WhirlingBlack means this song or a different one?
 
Then there's the early live versions of mazohyst of decadence, cage, raison detre (written in Katakana as レイズンデートル), 残-ZAN- (known as 残-ZAN- (前期型原曲 Ver.)) etc.
 
刹那 (Setsuna) would later become Unknown...Despair...a Lost.
 
The working title for JEALOUS was CAGE.
 
蜜と唾 was initially called NS1 (New Song 1), but most of the songs were called either that or 新曲, which also means "new song".
 
Oh and something that had vanished without a trace was the TWO MONSTROUS NUCLEAR STOCKPILES cassette 清水寺, by DEG's Kyo & Kaoru. It was on the internet in, I don't know, 2008? Uploaded on megaupload and other filehosters, but they all deleted it/got shut down, so at least I was never able to find it online.
So I did what any reasonable fan would do and bought it from Japan.
 
There are also a lot of demos/samplers floating around, if you want to know more about rare DEG stuff, just hmu

also @ZeusComing here to set the facts about Dir en grey straight:
This is incorrect, Setsuna was a WIP project song by Dir en grey that developed over the course of 1997 (starting out as 5 minutes and evolving into a nearly 7 minute track) until finally being scrapped in the first half of 1998 for reasons unknown. Whether Setsuna was an official title or one given to it by fans is still subject to speculation.
 
"Ai Murasaki Iro" Is in fact pronounced "Ranshishoku" based on a newspaper interview which I scanned and upped some year ago from a indie magazine made in early 1998. I know this due to the fact that the name was written out in katakana. It's the onyomi pronunciation of the same kanji. They played this song at every oneman live starting from August 1997 until their last indies live at the Budokan, after which it was scrapped due to poor audience response, supposedly.
 
They  had another unreleased longer track that they played throughout the second half of 1997 and on and off into early 1998 which then subsequently disappeared as well. No known title for this track.
 
There was an early version of Mazohyst of Decadence played from 1997 which differed slightly.
 
raison detre had a early quite different  version which premiered at their oneman tour in late 1997 and evolved into it's current form during 1998.
 
ZAN is also one of the earliest songs they wrote, and it was played from their first tour in april 1997 and onwards in various stages of evolution until it arrived at the GAUZE form in late 1998.
 
Tsumi to Batsu was also performed during their last indies tour in a slightly different format.
 
They also premiered two new songs at the DUM SPIRO SPERO and Kisou part of the recent tour respectively which haven't been mentioned or played since. 
 
I could go on but I think that'll do for now.
 
 
 
 
 
 

MBHI had several unreleased songs, although most/all of them featured on their one live DVD release. They put a couple of short demos on YouTube around the time they started activity but several of those were never properly recorded. Interestingly though, one of them was a full song, it was just never released elsewhere: 21st century boy.
 
Recently disbanded MALISEND also played their full discography at their final live which I was able to attend, which included at least 3 unreleased songs (including the various free distributions). I directly contacted them upon disbandment inquiring about purchasing these unreleased tracks as at least some of them had demos on Youtube, but they informed me that no properly recorded versions had ever been made, so I wasn't able to get hold of them.
 
Going back to DDRM and KIDS WAR, Yoshiatsu's previous band Crazy Shampoo also had a couple of songs they often performed live but never saw official releases. After extensive research, it appears they had live distributions a long time ago, but since I've never seen them for sale either in used stores or at auction/Mercari, I consider them to be basically 'lost' songs. (Will pay for them if anyone has them though). The ones that immediately come to mind are 'Guernica' and 'Battou'.
 
 
 
And on a personal sob story, I have always deeply regretted missing Signal's last live due to my flight being just two days later, and as a result will pay handsomely for a copy of their last single 'Crossing fate' which has yet to even see the digital light of day.

So I tried digging up information on the Memento Mori song I mentioned earlier, and couldn't find any evidence of a demo. The Kanji name is 二月八日の失明, as seen on live DVDs.
 
Then, I came across this site, which lists the song: http://www.weblio.jp/wkpja/content/見世物小屋演者集団「メメント・モリ」_見世物小屋演者集団「メメント・モリ」の概要
It lists it under "other"
Apparently, the band once actually had a wikipedia page, but it was deleted, and this is the only record of it. 
 
This is as far as I've gotten. I have no idea how to contact "Rose Tsukada" on anything like Facebook or Twitter. I do know of him outside of YT because he used to be the moderator for the Kuroyuri to Kage facebook fanpage, but then he left. 
Alternatively, if anyone else has information, that'd be lovely.
I'd resort to personally contacting the members, but I doubt that would help, as they didn't respond to my request to see if they had a PO Box I could send fanmail to (I was hoping to send a painting I made as a birthday present for Kuro and K), and I'm pretty sure Mei himself wouldn't be any help since he'd probably just troll us. 
Also, is it even possible to get into personal contact with the members? I see VisualKei friends in Japan talk about their bandmen friends, but none of them are from Memento Mori and Kuroyuri to Kage. 
The only one who has the original masters probably is Shinjou Kasumi, who I think may be possible to get into contact with. If anyone is interested in helping me (and speaks Japanese), then please do. PM me so we can figure this shit out.

I realized I once promised to post a live report of this gig here as well, I did post it on my tumblr some years ago when I was still in Japan... So I'm posting it here now. Enjoy (don't mind the typos lmao).
 
Just 2 weeks after this I went out for beers with Yayoi, Kenzi, Ruiji (ANti feminism) and the bassist from Youya or Youka (old anarchist records band). I could write about that as well if someone wants to read it.
 
Deadly Circus Vol.1 Shinjuku BIRTH 21/11
NOTE: Pictures at the end of the post.


I arrived at the live house about 30 minutes before doors open. I was surprised by only seeing 8 people waiting inside. I love the look you get as a foreigner when going alone to a visual kei live (I do that from time to time when I want to attend lives that nobody likes :v )  the look on the bangya’s faces is like “you must be lost or something…”. 

Anyway, there were some free distributed CD’s at the entrance (didn’t see what band, but it wasn’t Deadly Sanctuary so I didn’t bother to take any of them). As it got closer to 18.30, we were about 25 people in total, and most of them being women in their 30-40’s lol. I was really surprised, but since the bands were ANTI FEMINISM (been active since 92?), THE PIASS (also 90’s?), GELLONIMO (also 90’s!) and Deadly Sanctuary, I guess it’s natural. It was weird seeing everyone drinking beer, chuuhai and other alcoholic drinks, as most people usually drink melon soda or water (since they are underage most of the time). Also, all around the stage there was fluorescent leaning against the grid (there was 14 to be exact).

ANTI FEMINISM

At 18.40, the background music got shut of (thank god, it was slipknot anyway), and the lights got dim and the first band was about to enter stage. At first I just saw the drummer, guitarist and bassist, and I really couldn’t figure out what band it was. It looked like PIASS or ANTI FEMINISM, but I wasn’t sure since both of them have shitloads of memebers and neither Takayuki or KENZI was on stage. As I looked closer on each member, I saw the drummer wearing a ANTI-FEMINISM shirt though, so I figured it was them. And well, just as I came to that conclusion, the backstage door opened (not at the stage, it was closer to the merch booth). And out comes Kenzi in a hat, blazer and addidas pants, carrying something that looked like a homemade raft, made out of fluorescent. He put them on the ground in the middle of all the fans (basically we made a ring surrounding him), ripped of his blazer, shirt and hat, started screaming to the music and made a front flip, bareback into the fluorescent. 

He got a lot of glass stuck in his back, but he crawled up again, took a fluorescent, broke it on his head and took the rest of it and started eating it. Then he took one more flourescent and went up on stage. They played two songs (for people who are familiar with ANTI FEMINISM, all their songs basically sound the same so I really don’t know the setlist). Anyway, after the two songs, he had a MC. I was really surprised as he was speaking in really really polite japanese (teinei and keigo), I assumed that he would speak casual Japanese because… well, he seems like a guy who would do that. 

Anyway, after that they played about 4 songs, and then Kenzi grabbed a bottle (looked like a water bottle but was obviously gasoline in it) and jumped down to all of us. He stood in the middle and filled his mouth, spat out gasoline and used a lighter so he breathed fire. He did that a couple of times, then he went back up, and the drummer came down instead and while he was doing the same thing, Kenzi was putting on what looked like a Pikachu mask with half of the face of a devil. He brought up a porno magazine and started jerking off (not taking his dick out though lol), while reading it. 

And then the drummer spat fire on Kenzi, so he was sat on fire for a little while and his book burned up. As the drummer went back up, Kenzi told us that they want to show us their feelings now. So the entire band came down from the stage, the drummer last and holding a bag of banana’s which he seemed to have bought a family mart. So Kenzi started handing out bananas to everyone, it seems their fans are scared of him as well, because when he gave a banana to one of the girls he said “BOOM!” and pointed it like a gun, and she got so damn scared lol.  After they finished giving out the bananas he started talking about how banana’s are a good fruit because they contain a lot of energy. When he had finished his banana, he said he wants to make a song with us. So from the speakers, “What’s up people” by Maximum the hormone started playing (lol), and the entire band started head banging and trying to get us to join them… Quite frankly I think most people was scared of him more than anything. 

They then went back up on stage and played most of the setlist without saying anything (no MC’s). Just KENZI doing a little selfharm (scratching himself etc). During the last song he went backstage and came out with a new “fluorescent raft”. This time he put it on the floor, and put a pillow next to it where he put down a pickachu teddybear. He then put his hand on fire, and set pikachu on fire with his hand. Then he did a front flip into the fluorescent again. This time he did run for water afterwards though, so I assume the fire started to hurt lol. After that he went back up on stage, said thank you to everyone and hoped that we would have fun watching the rest of the bands. 


GELLONIMO

There was about 15 minutes time to wait before the next band came up. I really didn’t do anything besides check out the merch. Anyway, next band up was Gellonimo. I don’t really have a lot to say about them, except that the vocalist (Miyabi) don’t pull of visual kei at all. He is too old and looks so tired lol. He was also wearing something that looked like a persian carpet rolled around him with a vest on top of it, which I guess didn’t really help him. The drummer and bassist was fairly young, so I think they are not their original line up. 

During the MC he talked about being a bandman is tiresome and tears on you a lot. So he prefers just running his shop (which is a visual kei bar in Kabukicho). He told everyone to please come by after the gig. And then the guitarist asked if we would get nomihodai from him (free drinks for a fixed amount of time). He was thinking for a while and said something along the lines of “… well if they pay for it” followed by Bakkayaro. Their music was fairly OK though, I had only heared one song from them some years ago on a compilation album. Their music was kind of a mix of punk and thrash metal (bands like Kuroageha comes to mind). So it was still very nice to listen to, even though they looked like crap. Their set was very short (15-20 minutes) and I know for sure that they played “HUMAN REBEL” and “NO”

THE PIASS


After Gellonimo, there was the obligatory “wait for the next band”-time. So I checked out the merch more, and decided to buy Anti feminism’s best of album. I really liked their performance, and I really haven’t listened THAT much to them. Anyway it was 3000 yen and I payed her with a 5000 yen bill. She didn’t have change so she had to leave for a little while, only to come back with Kenzi lol. It was kind of fun because he seemed super appreciative of me buying his CD, so he gave me a lot of stickers and photos (which actually was sold at the table for 300-500yen each) for free. At one point I thought he was done giving me stuff, so I went off only to hear him call me back (lol) to give me some more. It was quite amusing, and very different from how I saw him as earlier (from seeing him live). He seemed like a very kind and nice guy and I will probably visit his bar some time soon. 

Soon after I was done at the merch table the next band took place. Sirens started shouting and PIASS came out on stage. Of course last was Takayuki. And 80% of all people there seem to have come mainly for THE PIASS. Sadly, they did not play any songs I was familiar with. So I can’t say I was very impressed… Takayuki was cool, and had a nice stage presence and I like that he use a megaphone to shout in. Also their outfit’s was really awesome, especially Takayuki’s. He wore a white “La'mule-ish” dress with blood. A blazer looking thing on top of that, white shoes and brown/purple-ish hair. As I already wrote, I was not familiar with their songs as I have only listened to their first album which was released… 20 years ago? And they didn’t play songs from that album so.. They had a lot of fun furi’s, and they were definitely the highlight of the evening for most of the people (so it seemed). 

Deadly


When PIASS was done, about 40% of the crowd left. And for a while I thought I was going to be left alone to watch the band I actually came for. Fortunately, new people came in (Yuuga wrote at twitter when approx time they were about to start, so people dropped in at that time). Most of the people that entered (I found out later) was fans of Yuuga. When the light turned off,  a instrumental version of MASTRUBATION started playing. Out came their drummer, guitarist and bassist. Followed by Yuuga (and this point all his fangirls were yelling “YUUUUUUGA SAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! YUUGA YUUGA YUUGAAAAAAAA” lol). After Yuuga, came of course Yayoi. 

He was dressed in a white doctor-ish coat with blood on it. He was also wearing a black wig and had black eye-liner and red lipstick. When Yayoi came out on stage I heard the girl next to me say to her friend “futotteita yo ne” (which basically means “he got fat, right?”) lmao. It was true though, but, not being a visual kei artist means he can eat whatever he wants again I guess lol. I was very surprised with Yuuga, after all the rumours that has been going on at international communities (Yuuga being a agressive guy) only to find out he seemed kinda calm. Also his looks was very different from what I expected since I haven’t been following him since he started “THE.” (early GOKIBURI). And at that time he was fat as well lol. 

He looked very much in shape, and I am definitely going to check out GOKIBURI as soon as I get the chance (if they can update their damn schedule some time soon…………). After the instrumental S.E., they started by playing HOMESICK CHILD, followed by Mastrubation. After that they had a S.E. were Yayoi basically just said thanks for coming, and presented their schedule for the coming month since they are a time limited band. They then played, what I think was a new song. Then it was time for MC… I can’t recall exactly what he said but Yuuga also spoke a little bit. At some point he was trying to get us to yell “SEX” ), like he does in one of their songs (I think it’s in “Suck my dick!!”?). Then they did a band introduction (Yayoi saying everyones name, along with respective member having a small solo, about 10 sec or so). Of course all the girls got batshit insane when it was Yuuga’s turn. After the MC they played they played their last song which was either a new song or a song from their split “EMPEROR” with ANTI FEMINISM. I haven’t listened that much to that release so I am not 100% sure. 

When Deadly was finished, a lot of the band members went to their merch booth (no members of Deadly did that though). Kenzi was at the ANTI FEMINISM booth, Takayuki at PIASS booth and well… I think it was SHUN (a guy who works at Yayoi’s bar) who was at Deadly’s booth. I have never bought checkis before, but I decided to try and do it because I really wanted a picture of Yuuga and Yayoi. When I was going to buy the checkis, I went up to the booth and Takayuki thought I wanted to buy PIASS merch, but when I didn’t he looked kind of disapointed lol. When you are buying checkis you can’t see what photo you choose. So you can get any member (basically roulette I guess). 1 checki was 500 yen, so I bought two. Unfortunately both checkis was of 一斗 (no idea how to pronounce his name) but it’s the other guitarist (who is also a part of Yuuga’s GOKIBURI) he still looks cool though so I am still happy. Since most members was outside, I figured it was going to take some time until the “big session” started, and it was already getting very late and I was tired. So I decided to skip it. When I went out I remembered the distributed CD’s and thought that if they are still there I’ll grab one. Unfortunately they were all gone. :x 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://image-complex.occult-proposal.net/images.html
 
New update went out this evening. It's scans for all of the Cuartet CDs I've been spamming here (as well as that Gossip single). I got a new scanner, so I plan on actually updating more often. Already started working on my next batch~

Since I work as a translator I'll throw my two yen out there... A lot of it is just echoing @inertia
 
- Learn the language. My personal opinion is that you need at least N2 level. The more kanji and grammar you know, the better. Don't learn Japanese exclusively from anime, manga, or VK. Seriously no one in real life talks like that.
 
- Be well read in your own language (assuming it's English). It's difficult to  translate something well, especially poetically, if you don't know how to write well to begin with. Commercially you will probably have few or no fluent proofreaders so double check and proofread everything.
 
- Spend some time in Japan after you've become conversationally fluent. You'll get a better "feel" for how people of different personalities, genders, subcultures, etc. use the language. There are also a lot of Japanese words that are defined in the dictionary a certain way and might seem interchangeable, but really aren't, and hearing them used situationally helps. Example: "mesen" and "manazashi" both mean gaze, but the latter is almost never used in real life (but used in anime, etc.)
 
- Research whatever you're translating. I'd say sometimes half of my work or more as a translator is spent researching the topic. Unfortunately most clients fail to include essential background information or a guide of officially accepted translations of organizations, laws, company names, etc. that I then have to double check. When it comes to VK, like @inertiasaid, reading interviews or liners can go a long way. Even better if you are familiar with the band/their fanbase so you can provide tone to your translation.
 
- Japanese can be pretty vague so you'll probably have to offer up your own interpretations at times just to add subjects and have things sound natural in English. If it's a personal translation you can just mention that in the notes if you feel unsure, but for commercial translations it's better to seek confirmation from the client if possible.
 
- Be prepared to answer lots of annoying questions from clients like, "Why can't you translate this literally?" Or, "Google Translate says this, so why did you write it like that?" especially from Japanese people who only have a rudimentary understanding of English but think that qualifies them to be checking your work and second-guessing you.
 
Or people who have no idea how long translating takes nor its value, and don't understand that no, sorry, I cannot translate and proofread  10,000+ characters for you a day for 1-2 yen a character and give you a high quality translation so please quit wasting my time. Also people will want you to answer these dumb questions and edit for free.
 
If you aren't a freelancer and work for an actual translation company, be prepared to for your job take over your whole life and work crazy hours for likely not as much as you should be making.
 
- I did a lot of bad/ok translations before being able to do better ones. I still don't think I'm anywhere near the best out there and I'm still learning new things every day. If I could re-do things, I would have taken translation courses in college, studied harder, and gotten certified.
 
- It might help if you are well-versed in some of the major translating softwares like TRADOS, but honestly most of Japan is still technologically stuck in the 90s (most of their fancy tech stuff is export only lol) and you'll be translating mostly in Docs and Excel files.

(Edit: I realized after typing that my post is pretty long... sorry for that.)
 
There are a lot of reasons why translation is difficult, and especially so for languages that are not genealogically affiliated. If you ask me i think it's inevitable that at some point you're going to feel dejected that you've "butchered" the lyrics of a song you love, but hopefully I can show you that at least a part of that feeling stems from the fact that by and large Japanese doesn't translate very well into English at all, which isn't your fault (although of course, even though there's no perfect translation, there are translations that are blatantly incorrect). 
 
In general, here are some challenges confronting anyone attempting to translate:
 
1) You need to ensure not only a complete correspondence of just the denotative meaning of the word (possibly multiple), but also its connotations, nuances, implications, cultural 'flavor' that you need to drag from one language to another. Cultural expressions like 宜しくお願いします have to be translated variously according to the context but even so it's not exactly the same. Some words like 何番目 have no English equivalent. 
 
2) The etymology of the word that gives rise to its "internal" meaning, as well as its residual "meaning" that has accrued through its multiple usages in history (we call this the "trace" of a word). So for instance if you come across the word "individual" in 16th-century Renaissance poems, it actually refers to "that which is indivisible from the community/society" instead of what it means today ("that which stands apart from the society"). Attempting to translate the word into Japanese as 個人 compromises linguistic complexity because as a Sino-Japanese concept the word 個人 does not retain the same linguistic history of what "individual" means in English. This is kind of a nightmare when you're dealing with non-contemporary works.
 
3) The "metonymic" aspect of a word and how it functions in a sentence. What this means is that for every language, one word relates to the other words in a sentence in completely different ways, and this presents a serious impediment for translation because sometimes a language's syntax simply don't allow you to word things in a certain way. A classic example would be the perennial problem English translators of Franz Kafka encounter thanks to the author's extensive use of syntax and linguistic structures exclusive to the German language. In the context of Japanese, I recall the phrase "君を信じた僕を信じて" from BLESSCODE's Imperial City, which is cumbersome to translate into English because the pronoun "I" in English cannot be modified as by a phrasal verb like in Japanese. It's not impossible; but the feel is significantly different.
 
4) The "metaphoric" aspect of a word, i.e. how it triggers other words and concepts by association. A lot of this is cultural ("rose" for us signifies "love", which may not be the case for a different linguistic community) - so even if you translate the word-image correctly, you're losing what's arguably the more important dimension of the word if it's operating figuratively. If you think that's already hard, in Japanese you'll find idiomatic expressions (四字熟語), cultural idiosyncracies (various kinds of 慣用語), and notorious onomatopoeia (擬態語 and 擬音語) that abound not just in lyrics but also in day-to-day conversations. 
 
5) And finally there's everything else which affects how a word is perceived by a reader/listener that linguists can't exactly put their finger on... so they happily call all of that 'context'.
 
As mentioned above, lyrics are one of the most difficult things to translate and there are reasons for this. I'm not a professional translator, although I'm required to translate academic essays by Japanese writers as part of my job. For my purpose I assume that there's a message the writer wants to convey (in good faith) which I focus on delivering. Effectively that means points 2~5 above are relatively less important when I'm doing my translations. However the converse is true in the case of lyrics: because for lyrics you aren't translating a single "meaning" but a field of potential meanings that a reader can possibly rope off from the original lyrics. So 2~5 become as important (if not more important) as the denotative meaning of the words in a song. Obviously mapping that field 100% is an impossible task, so it's completely natural to feel like as a translator you're already intruding and helping the eventual reader of your translated lyrics make interpretations in advance.
 
One last point I forgot to mention: Japanese has 3 different scripts while English has 1. As a result there's invariably some level of homogenization that takes place when Japanese is translated into English. This is less of an issue in day-to-day usage of the language since the division of labor between the three scripts is pretty straightforward... but not in lyrics. I'll give you an example. I was just talking to my friend about the solo project of Ryutaro (Plastic Tree vocalist), whose debut release is called "デも". As you know でも is "but" and デモ is like "demo(nstration) cd". If you dig deeper into the "metaphoric" level, you'll realize that でも can be a sort of protest, a breaking off from the original (it's his solo project anyway), and so on. and デモ naturally signifies a "first" and a fresh beginning. In this case splitting his title into 2 different scripts has a kind of mutually enhancing effect (in other places, like in DIV lyrics, you find that they create a tension). So you really have to make a choice here when you translate; alternatively you can transliterate it as "Demo" which would convey none of  all of that unless you append a few paragraphs of footnotes.
 
tl;dr: Translation is difficult. Borrowing the words of John Ciardi (eminent translator of Dante's Divine Comedy): the translator strives not for success but "the best possible failure."  
 

Yeah, like other people have said, songs are really tough to translate because the wording can be so vague. I also find it kind of difficult to figure out where lines start and end sometimes.
 
I've facepalmed many, many times after reading other peoples' translations of songs I butchered, but I tried, and botching things horribly is the best way to learn sometimes, so oh well.
 
I'm definitely not an expert, but the best method I've found is to write the song out in romaji first (using Rikaichan for any kanji I don't know) and then to read through it quickly (using Rikaichan where necessary, but without googling grammar, expressions, names etc.) and see how much makes sense. If I feel like I get the gist of about 65~70% or so, I'll usually give it a shot. If I get really stuck, I usually just post the romaji and come back to it later. (Like three years later, in some cases, but still...later) I try to go back through the ones I skipped every now and then to see if I've improved.
 
Like plastic_rainbow mentioned, if you're not feeling confident about something, making a note of it in the post is a good idea. While people are usually reluctant to go through a whole song, they're often happy to help correct a line or two if they come across your translation - especially in a forum like this, where so many people are either studying Japanese themselves or devoted fans that will understand obscure references and slang you might be missing after it is translated into their native tongue.

I feel like this topic can probably go along with this thread, but idk.
 
Translating songs is a REAL struggle and @inertia already listed a lot of the reasons why. Every time I translate songs I'm always worried about what the subject is and which pronouns to use since they often get dropped. Some lyrics will explicitly state their subject, but most often times they will not. When that happens I always have to wonder, do I use I/we/you/he/she here?? Most of the time it's either the first three. I only use he/she when kare/kanojo is specifically used, then I know that they're talking about a boy/girl here and can figure out what pronouns to use from there. Likewise, if watashi/boku/anata were to be used in a line somewhere I can kind of guess which pronouns to use on areas where the subject is not specified. I usually have to read the lyrics over and over again, while listening to the song, to grasp some kind of understanding of the song. I will ask myself, Is this written in their perspective or someone else's? Are they saying "you" or "I" here? And so on. There really is no right or wrong way to do this. It all comes from your own understanding of the Japanese language and your interpretation of the song.
 
If you're just starting out though, you should understand that your first few translations will PROBABLY sound like crap....But don't worry, you'll get better and the process will become a little easier as you go, ONLY a little easier though cuz it's still really hard sometimes. I like to look at other song translations as well and kind of learn from it. Compare your translation from theirs, see which one you like better. And at the same time, you can pick up a few translating techniques too~
 
If you're really worried about whether you're translation might be wrong in some areas, you can always just make note of it at the bottom of your translation. Could just be that you had a different interpretation too~ ^^
 
Well, I don't know if that was helpful or not, but that's kind of how I go about with translating lyrics.
Good luck to you and have fun!

1. X Japan (pre-1997)
2. 黒蜴蝶 (Kuroageha)
3. Gigaslave
4. S
5. Sakrun
6. Sleep My Dear
7. Buck-Tick
8. Versailles
9. 摩天楼オペラ (Matenrou Opera)
10. Baiser
 
The first two are definite, the rest are in no real, particular order.

@Laurence02  

Well, it is a singer from a VK band and guess what, Vkei was influenced by GLAM.
Good VK = hot? So it's really not about the music, ok.
Also blackdoll, we have all already understood that you find old school to be shitty and pointless. You are writing the same argument again and again in any fucking thread that vaguely mentions oldschool bands (or is about old bands being covered by new ones, etc). It's okay now, you can calm down and fangirl/fanboy about Lycaon. No old skewl fanatic will stop you.
What i noticed so far in the thread: Kote kei elitists will never accept new VK and will always cry about it being shitty, too poppy, commercial and the bands looking like dumb hosts. And they will all sit in the corner waiting for new bands sounding like their indie superherous, like punks still wait for the revolution. (I know what I mean, I am kinfd of one of them)
And the Neo VK Fans will always make snarky remarks how old VK looked dumb and shit and how sexey and hotz the new bands are now. And that their production values and skills are better (something that even I agree with.)
 
And yeah, I am using those fucking labels. The reason: even though everyone seems to have a different understanding of Kote kei and Neo Vkei (since both are terms generated by fans, not bands or "experts") the majority of people will still understand what I mean, when I talk about Neo VK. Also it is horter than to say "the bands that came after those old skewl groups." Yeah, I am very lazy when I write my ass huge texts, so short terms and labels com very handy. I don't really care if the label is legit or if we have to rethink the concept in 10 years when contemporary bands are now considered old - for the time being it's totally practical.
And now to the "old band style coming back" thing: I am with the majority here. Old school VK is gone and over. That era will never repeat. Unlike  other music scenes that had more or less successfull revivals in the last years (see deathrock, post-punk and synthpop) old VK doesn't have enough fans to be revived. There is no big and strong "core" scene or community which is interested into forming and/or supporting bands playing in that style and there are no people who would help to build up a space and network for this style to flourish in the underground scene. VK itself isn't even a real scene and definitely not a subculture. There is no chance either that the early to mid 00s bands will have a revival and the type of VK that's popular now will vanish on day as well and be replaced by a new type of VK.
I also often heard that old VK was fitting to it's time. Every era has it's own feel and “Zeitgeist“ and of course musical and fashion trends. Old VK fitted into the 90s, because it was fitting into the feel of that era. We have the year 2014 now and the 2010s have a complete different feel and culture than the 90s. It's not easy to translate something from an older era into a new one without having to change it or at least adapt it ti the current circumstances. Old VK therefore wouldn't even work in the same way today as it did in the 90s. Too much has changed since then.
Of course there are bands like La'veil Mizeria or GAUZES, but they don't have a big following. They seem maybe too boring and "old" for the average VK listener, which is why their fanbase is way too small to bring them into the spotlight of popular music. Grieva may be the only ones who are successfull, but for me Grieva are more of a "modern old VK band". They defintely have the '99 spirit in their music, but they still sound somewhat modern. If they had only a  reportoire of songs like kikei they'd be spot on-old school VK, but with old Kuroyume inspired music alone you can't win the attention of people anymore. That's why they spice up everything with a bit of modern VK influences. Not that this is bad though. in fact I like it a lot and in my book they are doing it right. They have the right connection to the roots of VK, but they aren't totally backwards. (I don't want to discuss about the Dir en grey influence though, everthing has been said about it).
 
My faztít: the argument will go on until eternity and I too would like to see more old school bands. But i guess we can accept that it's dead and gone and should instead value what we have. There are enough old bands you can listen to. If you want to follow new bands and feel, that modern VK isn't yours, maybe try to go searching something you like outside of VK. This is mostly what I do and therefore I have no problem with no new VK bands being of any interest. On the other side: I may often come off as a hater, but I have nothing against modern VK bands. I just don't really like any aspect of 95% of them and I can't really get the hype around some bands, especially those Pop-rock Host kei groups. As I have said in this thread already: it's dependant on your preferences and what you like. Tastes are different and while I love old school aesthetics and music, another person may find it absolutely horrible. I can totally accept it, nobody has to like what I like. On the other hand I am not going to make mean spirited comments about how you suck for thinking the Gazette or Vivid (the new one) are the best bands that ever graced the scene. I may not agree with it, but you can love it as much as you want and defend your opinion.
 
I just dislike the strange climate between fans of old and new VK. It may be just me, but I have the feeling some people on the net (and here on MH) are extremely defensive when it comes to that topic and try to push down the fans of the other side. I am really sick and tired of users trying to turn every discussion into a bitchfight between oldschool and newschool lovers. I can't hear anymore the whole "But my (old or new) band would have done that better". And of course the whole "they looked like shit back then". It's as shitty and dumb as the "My band is better than yours. Your band sucks and therferoe your taste sucks!!! trololol" crap.
Sorry for writing a long text again. >_>
 

You are right, I just listened to the samples from the new mini-album for the first time:
 

 
They are actually a lot more Luna-Sea-ish than the previous mini-album (I posted this here a while ago.)
 
Naoto's voice is a bit deeper, but when he hits the high notes he totally sounds like Ryuichi too! In the video at 1:12 min, when he sings "zutto" - that's an A++ Ryuichi! XD

Rather surprised I didn't respond to this topic before.
 
Old vk to me, would be anything from '90 to '05, which is certainly a broad range. In that case, I'd most definitely prefer old vk to new any day. New visual kei doesn't do anything for me, to be quite honest. But of course there are some exceptions. 
 
There's something about those old matina/soleil bands losing their shit in a song, and dressing in the gaudiest of artificial leathers, that simply do not compare to the sparkly, glittered-up, boyband-esque bands of today. Needless to say, the music was just as awful then as it is now, but old vk had this certain charm about it that makes it a whole lot more enjoyable as a whole, for me. But then again, maybe I'm just biased towards flour-faced men in PVC attire, recording shitty (yet lovely) music to satisfy my ears.
 
With all that goff matina stuff aside, I also find that the older angura or nagoya bands such as cali gari, mucc, kalimero, or deadman, also stood out to me more than any new vk band ever has. Once again, I find that these two particular subgenres have quite the charm to them. Certainly gives you a sense of nostalgia and immense emotion to listen to artists like these, which is something I like.
 
The musicianship from the older era of things seemed to be of a more excellent quality, in general. In most cases, you can surely sense when there's a lot of feeling and thought put into a song, and I cannot sense that with most things I've heard from the newer spectrum of vk. Not to say the musicianship is horrid here, but it doesn't quite feel the same.
 
This is just my two cents though, and should probably be taken with a grain of salt. I'd to conclude that I'm also very surprised at how many others here prefer the older era.

In my opinion THAT is actually what i really love about the old looks. Surely, the outfits were sometimes really silly and exaggerated and the make up sloppy, but i prefer it that way dozen times. Why? Because I feel the old styling looked more raw, dynamic and interesting. It wasn't the complete über-perfection which it is now, some guys looked like Drags, others like punks, the others like a bad version of Sayako from Ju-On. I really dislike how most vk make-up nowadys looks so polished, everything has to be precise and perfect from teint, complexion to eyes and the boring hairstyles.
It makes sense though - new VK guys rather look like Hosts (who are supposed to look like ultimate perfect bishonen straight from your wet manga fantasies) than frilly New Wave boys with Boy George make-up (or oh so spooky goths in drag).
I guess that's where everyone's opinion differs, depending on their taste and aesthetic preferences. I personally adore a well done old school make up (and I tell you - it's very very difficult. I've tried it a few times and it still looks rather "meh". You can fail pretty hard at a late 90s Matina/Soleil style make-up if you aren't really good with the tools. Also: see all early 00s cosplays. All the people who wanted to look like Mana or oldschool Kyo and failed epically...). Especially the white faces are my faves, because they can be expressive (almost Harlekin like), yet it doesn't really matter how beautiful the person is who wears it - they don't need to be super beautiful bishonen and the focus lies more on their style and make up.
Of course I can see and understand people who like new VK make up better. It's more polished, clean and it can be worn outside the stage in mundane life as well- so it is more versatile. Old VK styling is rather extreme and especially the outfits aren't supposed to be worn daily.
 
But I still miss this style though and I am happy a few groups now are still dressing that way.

I can totally relate to seikun with the "unique sound" thing.
But we have actually talked about this already in a few threads, I stated my opinion about it earlier here.
I know a lot of people (such as miyuu) will disagree with my stance on this. It is correct that old bands wanted to get their hands on girls and money too- but there is still a difference in having a vk idol who looks like a crazy fucking deliquent or idiot or having a vk idol who looks like a beautiful host boy.
I am one of those people who sees old visual kei as it's very own thing, while modern visual kei has become something entirely different. Visual kei today has it's origin in the early 2000s pile of mediocre indies band thing and you can still hear a bit the influences of these band's and older visual kei, such as Luna Sea or Kuroyume, but overall the modern Vk phenomenom doesn't share that much with the older bands. Both the music and fashion were very different, let alone the concept. When in old visual kei it was more about being rebellious, punx and radical today's visual kei is more about being fashionable, beautiful or about coolness. And while older visual kei was regarded odd, strange and maybe even dangerous, modern visual kei is part of the japanese mainstream. It's still not really accepted and people dressing up visual kei are still regarded as weirdos, but there is much more acceptance and the fashion is part of japanese capitalistic fashion industry.
I am not saying, that old visual kei bands really ended up being so radical and different and anti-mainstream, because they didn't. And I mostly base my argument on Kaorus and Sigizos opinion on modern visual kei-both have the same feeling about modern visual kei having a totally different "ideology" which surrounds more about fashion and clothes. And he also feels that visual kei will drastically change to a point it can't be called visual kei anymore. It's also interesting that both are indicating that modern visual kei bands don't express themselves anymore as musicians.
Of course their opinion is very subjective, but they have been members of two very well known and big visual kei bands. And maybe the "being different and rebellious" is true- but obviously more for the early and first visual kei bands and not for those copycats, that followed afterwards.

I personally consider old visual kei to be more creative and exciting than new visual kei. And I also consider it to be an actual genre- mainly because bands from the 80s to the mid and late 90s shared a lot of musical elments. Even when a band from the 80s would sound very different than a Matina band from 1998, you can still hear and see the connection.
There have been as much terrible bands in the 90s as today- but at least I do tolerate old horrible bands more than neo Vk horrible bands. Though I think it is hard to compare their levels of terribleness because of how different the indies bands of these two eras sound.

I am honest though with my "kote kei elitism". I've got into groups like Moi dix Mois, D'espairsray and Dir en grey first so I was actually more in the 2003-2005 years of visual kei. It was easy then for me to go back in time and find a liking to older bands- but I couldn't get into any new band after 2006. I was and am still too fond of the wannabe-edgy fake-goffick punk sound and look I learned to know from Mana, Kyo, Hisui and others and the mass of oshare or brightly cute and try-hard to be sexy bands just didn't appeal to me- let alone, that I can't stand Metalcore, new-modern Emo and cheesy Electro-Rock and in conclusion I have a big issue with all this "neo Visual kei" thing. There are only a few vk bands from today I like and I am not denying that I am very prejudiced about new bands.

Like others have said, I miss old school's outfits (as I like their ridiculous hairstyles, the unbearable amount of make up, the cross dressing, the "edgy" clothes) and I miss especially the darker indie bands. As crappy as they have been, their mix of gothic (even though a lot of "hardcore-goffs" try hard to prove that old schhol visual kei has no goth in it), punk, metal and glam created the crazy sound of screeching, hypnotic, flanging guitars, with a prominent bass (an underrated Instrument I love but rarely plays an important role in neo vk or modern pop music in general), fast drumming and of course the out of tune singing, which pendles between  (lovely) crappiness, horribleness or complete insanity. I also miss the "mental insanity" topic too. I just love when the vocalist loses his mind during a song and screams, mourns and moans like an idiot. It's super cheesy, but I like it. (seriously: neo vk is also very very cheesy. Just in different ways than the old vk bands.)
I have no problem with being stuck in the past. I enjoy listening to the old bands and there have been enough artists that I can listen to and never get tired. I can understand why some old school lovers are so frustrated about modern visual kei though. I wish there would be more Kote kei bands and that it would be more known and popular. I'd wish to talk with people who like visual kei about old bands and not get a blank stare when I mention Raphael or Malice Mizer.

I am afraid we will probably never come into terms. As Arithmetica said, it is hard to define old or new visual kei. We can see their differences though, but it is not easy to say that music of this era was more deep and musically better than another. Modern Vk too has surely great artists too- it is then a matter of taste what you will like or what bands you can relate to.

@jduv86 I am not really good when it comes to give recommendations, but I try.
Now it depends what kind of music you lean towards and what genres you would be willing to like or try out. But as you seem to like "heavier" bands I would suggest the more Metal-ish or Punk-rock bands, such as Mist of Rouge, Vasalla, Velladonna, Antique Doll, The Piass, AION (okay, they might be or not vk but I will list them though) and of course Madeth gray'll.
Other bands I will recommend to check out are ROUAGE, Laputa, Luna Sea, D'erlanger, La' Mule, Aliene Ma'riage, Baiser, Deshabillz, Mirage, 90s penicillin and Pierrot.
 

I agree with what lots of other people already said: there is no real 'good' or 'bad' there. Very talented and totally hopeless musicians (and of course everything in between) have been around in any era of visual kei, but because the style changed a lot different people prefer different times.
visual kei that feels 'old' to me is anything until 1997 when most bands still had very notable similarities to western hardrock, postpunk and goth rock artists. Major Bands were extreme and Indie bands tried to look and sound just like them for the most part
Then from 1997 to 2005 while many major bands became somewhat toned down or mainstream rock the indies scene suddenly (while still taking lots and lots of influence from the original era) started changing rapidly in all kinds of directions and trends. The Matina Style BDSM goths. The yankees. The nagoya goths. The oshare kei bands. The aristocrats. the pseudo rappers. The angura people. The cosplay bands. The 'grown up' ex visual kei band. The dadaists. The soft visual kei boybands. The lunatics. the koteosa bands with weird hairstyles. The happy pop-punks. .. Many of those styles started earlier but most people will agree that those years were very experimental. Visual kei mutated by copying itself.
Then, somewhere around 2005-2007 until now what I feel is 'new' visual kei appeared. It might be because becoming major became a possibility again but somehow everything started to get more homogenous and less extreme, full Albums and proper songstructure took over. the scene once again started to take influence from western bands, namely different metal genres and mainstream pop.
 
I started liking visual kei in the 'gap' era between new and old and while I am a big fan of the legendary bands from the old days most of my favorites come from those years and it's what I associate 'visual kei' most with.
In comparison there is only a handful of bands from more recent years that I like.
Pop and Metal are not really my genre and on top of that I feel that the current artists put their emphasis too much on things unrelated to music.
Looks where very important for bands from the 90s as well, but not more important than for western punks and goths. There were special events/campaigns and photos and merchandise before 2005 but not nearly as much as now and also mostly for major and bigger indies bands. I know that indies need to make money with these things, but I think that their perfect looks cost more than they earn them.

What makes the argument so dumb is that not everyone will be able to agree on what defines old and new VK. 
 
Most of the people that seem to get their panties in a twist are usually referring to the gawffy Matina/Soleil era bands. Yet they tend to conveniently overlook a lot of the more popular bands from those eras that were considered VK by Japanese standards. Since those bands didn't use the overly gothic aesthetics these people usually just overlook them like they didn't exist at all or weren't tr00 kvlt vKKK. Then they get this skewed idea that VK was the howling BDSM outfit indie bandmen when Fanatic Crisis, Sophia and Wyse where around during that time and also considered to be very VK.

I prefer the Kuroyume, BUCK TICK, Luna Sea copy pasta bands over the br00tal DIR EN GREY and Gazette copy pasta bands.
I don't think any are better or worse, except current VK has a lot of little boys doing horrible grutal growly kyo-isk death vocals and should seriously stop. At least old VK had bad off tone singing, now we have off tone singing and bad death vocals.
The whole old vs new argument is stupid. While the early 00s and late 90s had more stuff I like, it doesn't make it better. There were just as many shallow and vapid bands back then like there is now.

I don't really think "old vkei" should really be lumped into just one cohesive category that spans 20 years since that implies a high degree of sameness in both halves of the equation. The music and style of dress was different from 1998~2002 than it was from 1994~1997, and the scene from 2002~2006 was nothing like it is today. Hell, even from 2007~2010 is almost a completely different game from what it is today. Is D'espairsRay's last album still considered "new visual-kei?" Rentrer en Soi's "ゆりかご" was released in 2004, yet that is probably considered to be "old school." 
 
And what about the blatantly ignored white-kei era? Wyse and IZAM are crying rn
 
If we're going so far as the mid-80s to '91~'92, I don't know if it would be correct to really consider those bands in the same realm as what's being discussed here. Bands like Red Tailed Cat, Jolly Pickles, Zi:Kill, Color, D'erlanger, Banana Fish, and the other various Free-Will entourage have always kind of been "proto visual" to me since visually, musically, and the general attitude of the scene (or lack thereof in this case) is not the same is it would become shortly after. Granted you could very well dislike them just as much as random Key Party bands, but that doesn't mean they're the same kind of asian men in dresses

That may actually be their only ever release.
 

 
The credits from their demotape don't really make reference to anything or anyone that's become influential later on, so my assumption is this was a one-and-done kind of band.

Hi everybody!
 
Doing another set sale, some various stuff - mostly on the rare and/or obscure side.
Sorry for the shitty phone pictures! 
 
Items ship out from Sweden.
Worldwide shipping is $7, regardless of order size (registered shipping is $17). Payment via PayPal.
 
Grading is record first, cover second.
G > VG > VG+ >  EX > NM
 
As always, please feel free to ask if you need more pictures or additional information
 

 

 

 
V/A - Grass Roots Party (CD, 1993) - $50 $30
Condition: NM/NM. Complete with (slightly oversized) obi.
Totally obscure and rare under-the-radar goth/metal/VK-compilation! First (and probably only) release on Da Vinci Records. 
Features early appearances of TATSUYA (7-seven-, NUDE, DOUGHTY, Whiteblack etc.) and JEANA of VOGUE/nuvɔ:gu.
Previously uploaded in full here: https://www.monochrome-heaven.com/topic/47627-va-grass-roots-party-1993/?tab=comments#comment-560085
 
 
Tracklist:
01. Uni;Sex - 廃人
02. Uni;Sex- Children
03. Distillery - Plaintive Grace
04. Distillery - Chaos Love
05. Junk Arts- Capsule Darkcity 199X
06. Junk Arts - Monster Mobile
07. Area - Disablement
08. Area - Knotty Maid
09. Du-Mode - 24 Hours Egoiste
10. Du-Mode - Mother
11. Bat Cave - Decide
12. Bat Cave - Love & Destroy
 
---
 

 

 

 
TELEPHONE:LOVERS - Romanticism (CD, 199?) - $25 $20
 
Condition: EX/NM. Complete with obi.
 
Ultra-obscure! Never heard of this before, looks privately released by the band.
No year of release stated, but I'm guessing this was released during the early to mid-90:s.
Thanks list include JUBILEE, ZEDEKIAH & UNI;SEX (see V/A - Grass Roots Party CD above).
 
Samples availiable here:
 
 

 

 

 
螺旋ウィルス (RASEN VIRUS) ‎– 真実のオモチャ箱 (CD, 1999) - SOLD
 
Condition: NM/NM. Complete with obi.
 
I don't think this one needs much introduction. Post-DESHABILLZ project in the wake of their bassist passing away.
Squaky clean copy complete with the transparent slipcase.
 
---
 

 

 
Ba-lra - 子供達の分裂 (3" CD, 1994) - SOLD
 
Condition: VG+/EX
 
These guys are "known" for their appearance on the Cosmic Fields compilation, but this is their virtually unknown solo single!
Three hard & fucked up tracks, 2nd track ("ROBOT") is the breadwinner IMO - slow, pulsating gothic madness.
Probably self-released (seeing as it is produced by the band themselves) or possibly via a studio (though neither VAN VAN V4 or Couch Case rings a bell).
 
Samples availiable here: 
 
 

 

 

 
V/A - Ayers - Real Airs of 2000 Years in Ayers (CD, 2000) - SOLD
 
Condition: NM/NM. Complete with obi.
 
Obscure early 00:s compilation! I think this was released to commemorate a livehouse called Ayers in Saitama.
Recorded at Studio Kararec and released on the Spirits label (same as the 99°C compilations).

Samples availiable here:
 
 

 

 

 
V/A - Tokyo Acid Punk (VHS, 1990) - $40 $30
 
Condition: EX/EX
 
Excellent live documentation of the early Japanese goth scene!
Sick performances by MOTHER GOOSE, EX-ANS, SCULLA, ROSEN KREUZ etc.! 
 
Tracklist: 
 
1. Mother Goose - Too Dance
2. Mother Goose - Xeno
3. Dip The Flag - Waiting For The Man
4. Ex-Ans - Abortion
5. Sculla - Longing
6. Rosen Kreuz - Twin Dead Voice
7. The Nirvana - Devil Dog
8. Neurotic Doll - Reveal -啓示-
9. いんど猫 (Indo Neko) - 水の中
 
Sample (please note: the sound on the actual VHS is much louder than on this clip) 
 
 

 

 
NOISY CROWDS - 水色の太陽 / サ・ン・ダ・ル (cassette, 1993) - $30 $25
 
Condition: EX/NM
 
Absolutely stunning song by NOISY CROWDS. 
One of their finest works, for some reason only released on this demo tape AFAIK.
Self-released by the band and tricky to track down.
 
Sample:
 
 

 

 
ZELIACORT (cassette, 1996) - SOLD
 
Condition: EX/NM
 
Demo tape by ZELIACORT, released in 1996 to promote their CD.
Features a song not released on the CD ("Risky Up Knight"). 
 
---
 

 

 

 

 
CAM-FLAGE / GRIMM THE CAPSULE - split (cassette, 1992) - $25 $20
 
Condition: NM/NM. Complete with lyric sheet.
 
Rare cassette split with CAM-FLAGE & GRIMM THE CAPSULE.
CAM-FLAGE were featured on the "Cry Max Pleasure ~Break On Through To The Nuclear Bandits~" compilation, but their tracks on this tape are harder & less poppy.
 
---
 
And as last time, I've got some items which are not strictly visual kei but might be of some interest nevertheless
 

 

 
FUNHOUSE - Bloody Butterfly From Overdrive Cloudy Skyes (CD, 1991) - $15 $10
 
Very obscure early 90:s goth band, released on the ZIKS Records sublabel Bloody Butterfly.
Deep, dark, depressing sound! Yeah! 
 
Sample:
 
 

 

 

 
藤森啓之助 & 筒井方也 - Darkness (CD, 1991) - $30 $25
 
Total mystery release! Self-released CD by these two unknown dudes. 
Lenghty instrumental synth songs; amateurish but somehow strangely compelling.
 
Balancing somewhere in the cracks between ambient and minimal synth, there's some game soundtrack vibes going on here as well, 
with some sort of vaguely creepy atmosphere permeating the whole thing.
 
Guessing this is home-recorded basement noodlings. One track starts with a round of applause, but it sounds so weird, I think they just overdubbed it, haha!
 
One & only copy I've ever come across!
I put this up over at Discogs for $50, but offering it here for bro price
 
Complete recording of this abomination availiable here:
 
 
---
 
And that's it! Get in touch via PM:s or just write in this thread if you're interesting in anything (or if you have questions etc).
Thanks for looking!
 

1. Yes.
2. No, I probably should be but nope.
3. I don't think it's political at all, at least not in VK. In VK it's just because Sugizo was one of the first to popularize the outfit and so all his fanboys followed suit. I kind of laugh at the idea of a Visual Kei band being political, I just don't believe it haha. I also tend to hate most political music anyway so I really don't want to imagine that wailing pink hair drag queen is trying to make a political statement.
World War II is still a touchy subject in Asia but I am not an expert on the issue over there. However China in particular is not that thrilled with how Japanese history books seem to just kind of skim over what Japan had done during the war, especially Nanking with some books said to simply leave it out altogether. Many Japanese youth seem to be completely oblivious to what has happened and many elderly deny it or down play it. My sources are from what I have read on the BBC so I don't know how bias the reporting is and I'm too lazy to pull up specific articles. However, I am pretty sure EVERY country skims over some of the terrible things they have done through out history and the US is not exempt from this either. China is probably guilty of rewriting their own history, being China afterall and all the political controversies it faces now. However it seems they just like to give Japan a hard time about it, possibly trying to divert attention away from their own domestic political issues. Regardless those feelings of anger are still very much alive in China, my boyfriend is Chinese and while he's not bothered by the past his parents weren't that thrilled to find out he is dating a girl who's father is Japanese hahahaha!
Anyway I'm kind of rambling now.
4. I used too and still do to some extent use WWII imagery in my artwork, I don't use Nazi imagery because that's boring, incredibly overdone and just cliche.