Pretsy

^we should mention Otome Yoshihide as well, right? (since he sorta specializes in doing that "traditional" free-jazz thing to some extent) + that song he arranged for Shiina Ringo on her remake album is hands down one of his jazziest pieces lately lol. You should really give Ryo Fukui a try - he might be hands down the best gateway to the thrilling, obscure world of J-jazz pre-80s era (since 70s need some attention too)

For less club-jazzier variants, there's always Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro in terms of 'fun' jazz collectives: Orange Pekoe might not be the best fit seeing as they are more Brazilian/Bossa-based act with scattered influences in the vein of jazz, nu-jazz, a bit of blues etc. - on the other hand, similar artist Dorlis mainly focuses on her thing with Django Reinhardt-ian swing jazz a la '20s (a.k.a as close as modern "poppy" Japanese acts can get into "real jazz") I've been always told that this *SHOULD BE* the first J-jazz essential to every new listener out there (seeing as some people like to separate J-jazz from standard jazz scenes almost completely): (oldie but goldie I guess)Funny that rarely anyone mentions jazz pianists from Japan tbqh - Hiromi Uehara should be the most known one: ...phew. As cat mentioned it already, it's a bit of shame that current scene actually lacks *bare to the bones*-kind of jazz acts - but we could say the same about any other genre out there. Seems like amalgamation-mumbo-jumbo-kind of stuff is a given phenomenon for Japanese music?

Fucking jesus, someone throws a fit over BUCKET JOKES?

TFW Gesu no Kiwami Otome (or Enon more specifically) sold his song/arrangement to your good ol' boyband: https://www.facebook.com/Jongakunosekai/videos/812471542205311/ Also, new Hitomitoi will be out soon Not expecting huge things, but heh. @herpes: it's good to see someone who's not crazy over her godawful fringe and carbon Kyaryism for once ^^

Update: I've managed to get my OS with all components avec wi-fi too working like a charm (without reinstalling ubuntu, *wink* @Zeus! Pretzels' getting happyzels right nao! ^^; (I know, very cringeworthy "pun")

Wow, I left off non-vk choices too? Allow me to cheat a little bit: Ringo Sheena - Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana You might wonder: "wow, an antique tea cup? Now what?" But this is exactly where such simple cover manages to condense the general, artsy - and maybe even "rare, fragile" aura of this exceptional J-venture. I like how Ringo literally stuck to this mysterious, questionable theme by simplifying the aesthetic part of this album (traditional, legal kanji used etc.), while trying her best at making her lyrical/musical self go for most complicated extremes (subliminal messages, weird wordplays, playful genreisms). Fun fact: the cover itself has a lot to do with the content too, as certain deep-ish lines in "Shuukyou" (the first song of the said album) show:

^that newb just happened to rush some things a bit due to his courses mostly requiring goddamn ubuntu to be installed (or else you will be kicked because "Windows is for pussies") I should have realized after chitchatting with @Biopanda that I'd emulate a few things from C++ on C# (without attempting to change my OS and go for terminal rampage)...sorta (still rolling on my IDE like a real amateur!)

Idk what exactly I should feel when I realize/notice these bothersome things: 1) You have dabbled around with Ubuntu/Linux for years because hey yeah, uni and your major! 2) After you FINALLY replaced your shitty laptop's OS with *latest* Ubuntu...your comp complains about your own wi-fi modem/network being OUT OF RANGE 3) You cannot come up with options on how to solve this problem thru offline means (albeit the fact that you should have known the best because YOU'VE STUDIED THIS DUDE) ...guess I need to find someone's wifi to use and to fool around with my settings/network card, boo!

My bad In terms of 88kasyo, what I just said was my own personal perception - seeing as their songs tend to mix a lot together inside my head, so I could barely tell at least a few significant differences (aside from "different bloops, different dissonant riffs") between them.

Since everyone and your mother is placing Vinushka on the pedestal in terms of every gargantuan song they've made (because being Opeth-ian is totes cool and in, rite?), we should rather discuss that how genius of a song Macabre's title song really was (original, not the messy remake) - sure, it doesn't offer much if you've listened to a decent share of pre-Millennium prog acts or so, but in vk context "MACABRE" (the song) was a huge step up for unique vk bandomen sensibilities back in the day. ps. why is no one mentioning DIABOLOS rehashing exactly the same riffage from "heavy part" (in the middle)? (because BLITZ had quite horrendous mixing anyway)

Solid albums or not, I think there's a tinge of good reasoning lying behind this poll: both are unfortunately quite "one-trick pony-fied" when you think of it (88kasyo is still stuck doing exactly the same thing they've done in earlier albums while Mejibray...do I even have to say it?). In terms of arrangement 88kasyo is much more intriguing though, so I might buy that. ps. no need to knock on my appreciation of "evolutionary changes" in repertoires - if you enjoy some acts doing the same hullabaloo for years or even decades and whatnot, it's your taste! (I've had enough asshats attempting to bash my ways of appreciation smh)

Its placement is still awkward (read my notes above) - and I don't think SE differs much from the western understanding of what "instrumental" is, no? One of their shows with "And Zero" as an opener AND as a closer made much more sense...

Lawlz.

It always amazes me how people tend to tl;dr right away and miss the whole context as a result.

Allow me to knock on a few things before actually revealing my decision: 1) Singles: this MIGHT work a bit in terms of vk format but it shouldn't take a genius to realize singles being somewhat irrelevant content-wise in the world of "casual" J-music or anything non-Japanese for that matter. Remixes or odd live takes tend to infest singles for the most part too, so it's anything but descriptive tbqh. 2) Best-ofs: I actually had a glimpse of motivation to pull-off a large-scale thread project in MH that would be related to this release format ("Create your own greatest hits"-MH collaborative project, FYI). But seeing as our community lacks curiosity in terms of non-staff threads (for the most part), I ditched everything about it. And how does this relate to my opinions on best-ofs? The idea of CYOGH itself would revolve around the fact that most best-ofs, in spite of the country/region (e.g. RES' best-of), are rather despotically compiled clusterfucks you'd rather name as "the most popular of", if we were to go with more precise names. One might of course disagree, but I personally see best-ofs as being more of label-ridden "mainstream scopes" rather than actual recommendation sets handpicked by band's/artist's respective fandom. 3) Mini-albums: depends on what kind of scene or format is in question ("EP" vs. mini-album) - for EPs, see singles, and for mini-albums - depends on their quantity/quality factor (most minis tend to be too subtle). TL;DR - and Juka had thoughts that I'd back up very well

Depends on what kind of bands are you exactly talking about - DEG hasn't done good long songs for a while either (VINUSHKA and BEELZEBUB are pure exceptions - while the former basically mustered a few frills they got while touring abroad *cough* and banging Opeth on the way (their Roadrunners VA had one of Kaoru's favs from them btw), BEELZEBUB had this idea of channeling something what they've done before, i.e. Mazohyst), seeing as they currently lack chemistry as a cooperative band and stick to glued clusterfucks instead (this should have been obvious at the moment DSS came out) . Those other bands you mentioned at least have a bit of chemistry showing up (to some extent, at least) - and I see this as rather important factor in terms of songwriting. I don't remember much from ARCHE (awkward experience as a whole), but I can tell you Dirboys are more of a throwback band than a band with desires and common chemistry for newer ventures. The past had a few gems they churned out in terms of "epic department": And to compare (other acts): TL;DR - Dir needs to focus on themes or delivering specific emotions instead of attempting to impress us with god-knows-what kind of throwbacks throughout over-5 min mayhem. Rinkaku was the best song they have done for a long time, but let's face it: the song left a lot to be desired in terms of being coherent

Why would we fight you if it's a given fact? Speaking of something totally out of spectrum, you guys forgot Daft Punk-based Interstella 5555 (which was basically about some space-age alien rock band getting into some odd hi-jinks)

...And after a while, I'd love to mention something worth its massive hype - more thematic aspects and less lyrical pretentiousness from "Born to Die" (which unfortunately and metaphorically screams out some brat fooling around with B&W filter @Instagram), not to mention (possibly) a great continuation to the magnum opus that was her 2014 effort : While guys are drooling over Chelsea Wolfe's 2015 gloom, I'd also favor something a bit lighter and more or less Newsom/Bush-ian: (while her lyrical visions are not really up my alley, the way she arranges her songs tingles my bi-characteristic listening senses) In terms of Nipponese, this act's so fire that I feel utterly depressed over having little to no chances in getting their latest album: THAT YMO-IAN APPROACH <3 TAPE REELS!!! Also: their TEDxTalk performance is one big must-check! Also, really intending to check out on Snoop Dogg's latest FUNKAY effort - sour folks can freely pay attention elsewhere seeing as this is rather a welcome change on his part (while tunes might not hit solely, I might imagine the album being one heck of a feelgood BGM as whole). No need to worry about pseudo-gangsta merrymaking ^^;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NkN9friokY Nakata's hitting some nails in the coffin of his career when it comes to this kind of songwriting (one could normally expect something *different* while switching from one chick to another) *deep sigh*

Oh my, oh my, oh my.... Hopefully my busy schedule will allow me to catch up with dem guyz.

Idk why but photographer snatching Tzk's fishnet w/ those moans is soooooooo wrong loooool.

PSC doesn't have much of a say of their sound? Alice Nine and Kagrra, totes would disagree with you on that matter lmao (the latter was actually involved in a scandal which might have led to their desired departure 'til Isshi's death happened - Tomomi's revelations have been up around here in Japanese btw) Gazette yet has to prove us that they'd be able to get on their own feet and not depend on peer attention to the extent of being one heck of a "suck-up" as sane critics would put it - BD was certainly a huge step towards the right direction in terms of aiming towards more coherent results (something which their previous albums lacked a lot - INCLUDING DIM), and taking a huge risk by making their sound become "one" throughout the whole album (not to mention adopting exactly the same concept from DIM, including pseudo-deep/dark/ritual stuff) happened to be a huge misstep on their part. Hopefully they learned a bit from " band sessions" (whose existence I really doubt, more like solo efforts per person as pics and tweets implied) and seriously pull together in the near future. As we speak, is this going to be something what BEFORE I DECAY was to DIM? Lawlz.

It's pretty interesting how your musical perception starts to change when you begin to treat released records like one whole entirety (minding the flow and coherence, that is), instead of blindly accepting the package just because it has "many banging tunes compiled into one epic set" (favoring sole, possibly strong numbers and totally ignoring the possible fact of clusterfucked, compilation-tier factor of the album). I might sound like a broken record, but I felt this kind of treatment should be brought up more often on reviews and analyses - seeing as what I am exactly bashing on was something I used to see very often when folks went out of their way to review "widely accepted essentials" (a switch from standard non-Japanese classics to certain "guilty pleasures" a la vk for instance and back helps a lot in terms of "enlightenment").

Inb4 piano-based ballad album ...OH! (breakdown)*, maybe not, but I am highly hoping they'd get their game up and pull out something "refreshing" instead of aping Hot Topic metalcore acts and living up to their one trick pony fame. IBIM was a nice step from SHADOWZ, unlike latter albums that seem to be parodies rather than sincerely tailored records (you could do a lot to save yourself from dullness your breakdowns and dull, double-tracking crooner induce, guys) *if you didn't get the joke, you never listened to this act carefully