Pretsy

I copied this joke from JPS (oops) but gotta showcase it for the sake of fitting humor: Avex might be pretty much this with their "Japan only!"-policy, snickers.

You are implying that Japanese are going to assess/embrace usual music streaming/playing/purchasing channels (incl. iTunes) to the very extent? We are talking about the *lone* country of massive, "conservative" physical CD markets here, not some sort of digital downloading and/or streaming paradise like *almost any country in our western civilization*

Oh wow, Avex doing their best to imitate the "stereotype" (read: actual fact which gets covered by the most naive asiaphiles) of Asian marketing principles, i.e. protectionism. I wonder how this will affect or precede their domestic activities though (like whether this was a "good move" from their perspective per se)

Something tells me that he's about to do Satsuki's whoknowswhere-ville pussy swimming touring in the near future even if Kams is watching over him nowadays... Sui, don't hate me if you read this though. I just don't want you to go this low tbqh

Those are rather vivid-colored covers for live DVDs with VULGAR and DSS as themes (at least Kisou mode cover sorta resembles the palette they used in the original one)

Something tells me that there were too many hints/cues from Exile PVs and their sub-acts - the frontman is way too reminiscent of that GENERATIONS' posterboy, PV is embellished with random fireworks-over-the-nightly-cityside-views (?) which sorta recalls dozens of Exile PVs and you got choreo which would definitely please LDH...and let's not forget about blatant "kurojin" semi-stereotyping (upbreaking black bouncer guys and shiet - are they seriously pushing "Bob Sapp" imagery?) a la trademark LDH shite.

I mean sure, you can use some older, ambiguous riot imagery to depict your early rivalship back in the day (as @r...pointed it out) but randomly selecting otherwise debatable event footages (e.g. Maidan 2014 was slipped inbetween and that education protest thing) is not necessarily striking the right note there...but this is Japan and their "well who gives a shit it's edgy though lol"-positioning lol. What a buzzkill nonetheless. JUST RELEASE THE ALBUM ALREADY, BOTH OF YOU.

You should seriously stick to trying out their very first releases (well, take say from 1993/1994 up until 1997 and something from 1998 if you don't mind obvious Luna Sea-iness) because Hiro used to be their most prominent songwriter until their bassist took the lead with his power pop/glam bops So to list albums you should try: Siam's Eye (single), Warm Snow, Dwellers of a Sandcastle (WS' rerecording, superior version), Sculpture of Time and all of those respective A-side singles and parts of Lhasa if you learn to avoid pop bops (MH still should have some, I can up in case they expired) I apologize for derailing this topic again but to exhibit what exactly was Hiro cooking back in his 20s:

Literal necro time: I and my dad (who, well, passed away years ago) used to share same affinity for anything "U2-lite" (well, in my case it's Laruku haha), Steely Dan (which became more prominent in my taste after rediscovering them along with this whole city pop thing) and CSN (I still feel ashamed to admit this). My mom on the other hand is more or less about "overemotional vocal antics" and she always approved my liking for folks akin to Hyde (oops) or so on. But in all seriousness, our tastes sorta collided in enjoying "ethereal" acts : in her case it would be Enya and Enigma, while in my case it would be Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins...if that even makes any sense at all. Both of them were stricly against this whole """""degenerate rock""""" culture (see: what me and our overall community enjoys, methinks?) and it took a while for them to digest my affinity for "pretty much anything as long as it doesn't end sounding too pedestrian". So, no matter how "embarrassing" this may sound:my ties with my parents kinda led me to this "closed loop" of enjoying things they used to jam to as well around the same age.

Gotta be AOTY gotta be AOTY gotta be AOTY... Those Morrie tracks sound so psychedelic compared to how "pedestrian" Hiro/Hitoki/Shinobu compositions are time by time, lol.

What I noticed based on those pics and things I have discovered from J-netizens (incl. tweets above) and Kyotakumrau (thanks girl for updates): - Kyo kinda progresses towards 2004-2005 era throwbacking with his latest looks - Kodou-meets-Saku-PV-kind of looks, anyone? - We could say the same about Kaoru => NEW HAIRCUT (literally screaming) - Die is fab - Shinya is fab - Toshiya is the kind of super-hot soon-to-be-40 Japanese fashionista posterboy, no homo no hetero (swooning IRL) Idgaf about his flop brand but sheesh: - I would love to see them stay "demi-visual" like this compared to what most Will-like chaps would desire for while going forth saying "das super gay I want my MOAB/Uroboros era back kys". Just seriously. I don't even listen to their music that actively anymore (1-2 songs per month and I am not even kidding) but these guys never fail to get my attention. Go and snatch some wigs, DT's little boys~

I am curious about how you perceive e.g. uralic languages (e.g. Finnish, Estonian) together with Japanese as a case in point when it comes to hearing agglutinative languages/languages with otherwise non-Germanic phonetic/flow approaches per se. Might as well ask others since it's kinda funny to hear things about how our language (well, Finnish duh) would be "as melodic as Japanese to certain degree" compared to how most people start blasting shite on e.g. Swedish (tbqh it works in a decent variety of musical branches - except in case guys like Yohio consider using it seriously in Swed-kei music) or German/Dutch for that matter.

So close to being something funnier really: DW, be our hood girl~

No probs! In regards to further reading or watching: http://blog.animeinstrumentality.net/2013/06/asias-favorite-chord-progression-a-look-inside/ https://twelvearchives.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/japanese-harmonies-understanding-traditional/ And more if you just google out some specific terms like say "Royal Road" or just Pardon my geeky BS there but it's one damn fascinating subject for sure and pretty much something I have read a lot when self-assessing etc.

For me personally aside from otherwise "relaxing" flow and other phonetic mumblejumble it was also about unorthodox vocal-arrangement combinations in otherwise rather casual genres (who would think that fitting baritone/nasal-ish vox with symphonic/power metal would work well as a case in point?) AND allow me to recap myself: (Carm's note: you gotta thank folks like Beatles and earlier black Jazz musician figures for playing around with this progression - as we speak, gospel music often plays around with same chording ideas, funny huh?) Skip the intro and check the ending - there's a huge pool of subtopics related to this subject Friedman was discussing what I would call "Japanese progression". Not saying this would be literally EVERYWHERE (e.g. my standom for Pura merely started out from Britpop fanboying and affinity for special phonetic stuff) but I could honestly say nowadays that this pretty much separates my "palatable japanese taste" from "palatable western (my culture) taste". Speaking of some western figures usually slamming us into "deluded, closed-minded listeners" because of such affinity - lemme counter this with my own take: Japanese way of conveying otherwise "western" genres helped me to look and keep my *EAR* on nuances I usually either missed or never paid attention to in otherwise very "familiar, palatable" english/mother tongue-based music. But then again, that is if you allow yourself to evolve with your tastes per se (whether you "progress" in your taste or not is not dependent on whether you represent the "weeb" culture or otherwise "palatable" culture). I could go on and on about this variety of examples that reformed my musical aficionado self into more "curious" one but that would be just pure thread derailing. So to summarize in a bit more coherent way, two things: 1) "unorthodox, yet oddly palatable" approach in regards to flow, pop songwriting 2) "Same, familiar basis but different interpretation and nuances". I might express my thoughts rather oddly as some may point it out but I am hands down sure at least some "matured " (not to belittle younger generations ofc) J-music listeners get what I am saying...

There should not be any dispute about VK bandomen being associated with these porn circles or not since it's rather obvious that they ARE in fact very close with certain agencies, industries etc. Come to think of this example: what the heck is that IV fuccboi (?) from ViViD doing nowadays? He would be cashing in some serious ¥¥¥¥¥ in COAT-WEST and whatnot if you guys get what Imma saying, huh (AFAIK a lot of you actually share my sentiments about him, no homo no hetero)? Kinda validates my statements in regards to how e.g. idol group scene kinda double-standardizes the image of "innocence" with various figures being involved in gravure, even hardcore porn as we speak (e.g. Kamen Joshi). God bless this decadent sub-culture. We are all doomed, folks.

So you are suggesting to make the whole dissonance of cultures even worse by intervening and acting like a big moral police boi there? Considering the historical progression of ME, terrible fates like his in this case and many others - christians, copts, other minority representatives of religion and other social orientations - could have been evaded if people got over their own pompous "they ain't following OUR OWN, right values mate WE GOTTA INTERVENE" position and managed to envision clear what-if-isms of their moralist foolery. All we gotta do is to at least provide the example IN OUR LAWN - not to smash it in faces of people "we don't like at the moment". The problem is that our generation happens to relativize these values IN OUR OWN, "WESTERN" COUNTRIES and mix it with rather opposite values we usually abide to as well. Some dangerous chemistry is going on here yet people still avoid dialogues over this matter while screaming "racist bigot nazi" and 1000+ other buzzwords.

Pretty much anything except for HOT ROD CIRCUIT after &.U's release in La'cryma Christi's case. The moment they thought it would be cool to ape Van Halen and Aerosmith in their duncurr phases was one huge, fat mistake. Oh, and I am not a fan of straightforward pop songs by them either really - guess I always liked my La'cryma *surprising*, *proggy*, *mysterious*...

Killer was prolly included in that previous mini album I guess

Olikohan järkeä saada tuo versakeikka nimenomaan kiinalaisen uudenvuodenpäivän aikoihin kun weebopopula yms. On mitä todennäköisemmin naattimassa orientaalihäppeninkeistä muualla? Ehkä sattumaa ehkä ei mutta jälleen kerran suomiorganisaattorit osoittivat "joustavuudensa"... Pitäkää hauskaa ken siis sinne menee. Itsellä on "duunia" ja rillausta silloin...(sinänsä perseestä kun MH-miitinkiä ois ollu kiva saada tähän mutta paska säkä anygays)

+1 to what @nekkichisaid about campy progjerk fest that was DSS and literally any post-Uroboros promoing from ads to PVs (tentacle hentai, anime adverts, campy narrations etc.), merch and even songcraft as it is is far off from being "considered to be legitly serious". Can we just consider "hurr Dir is serious" thing from batsu/fukkatsu to be just one HUGE meme????

I am literally pissed to the core (greentexting, beware): > Just came back from the exchange trip > "Yeah you will be fine with your curriculum as it is since you finished your master's minor for 1 semester already abroad" > "Yeah K" > Trying to look for mandatory spring semester courses so I could finish my master's studies smoothly etc. etc. > "Cancelled" "Cancelled" "No staff in charge"... > Asking my study advisor about possible roundabout ways to finish this bullshit swiftly > "Yeah the thing is that a lot of staff in charge got sacked while you were abroad" > "Please be patient, consider possible extension ok? :)" > Rational mind would already pinpoint that extending your studies/curriculum is not financially feasible because anything related to student support or funding is getting gradually vulnerable to cuts and stricter requirements as imposed by your country's crooked gov. > Bearing no hopes in cancelled courses coming back to your school or uni for that matter because there is literally no glimpse of hope in regards to required gov-educational fundings. > Not settling with bachelor's degree only (done, received, approved) because in our field without masters' or similar honors etc. you are literally nobody or just a small cog in the machine of massive proportions, i.e. still the same little piece of shit coding their sweaty ass off in a cubicle. > Consider further internship ventures > But 'freezing' my master's would more likely deplete the given time for my degrees and eventually nullify my approved masters' course grades so far, because you know - the ministry of education! > Your only way is to become a temporary cog in the machine instead, i.e. be the "tyämies" ( (low) working (class) male in broken moonspeak) for your masters from "hyvä veli-verkosto" ("the network of good bros" in moonspeak again - a.k.a the gang of crooks) > *working class screeching* > God bless this...

That was nothing compared to their "Dead Rider"-track though. "YEAAAAAH BABAYYY I AM HOOOME TAYTAY...MAMAMAMATATATAAAAAAHH!" or whatever he did there was pretty much the best (fucked up) Morrie moment tbqh @TokageYou definitely should not skim over "Sculpture of Time" which is one heck of an opus from them. Some awesome prog-meets-psyche-meets-kinda-LS-kind of godtier stuff.

Double-post and @beni THIS IS BIZARRE WHAT THE FUCK LOL (generic chune though)

If you paid closer attention to certain works by Dead End (MORRIE) or even La'cryma Christi's instrumental craft as we speak (Hiro) as cases in point, you may notice that balls-to-the-wall progging is not a whole new ballgame to them necessarily (note: except for Shinobu, every face in CC has a HUGE record in regards to project participations) (as @emmnynoted already, I also hear Hiro's good ol' trademark dissonant riff-o-ganza* here as well - always welcomed frill in their songs :))