Pretsy

Okay okay I kid, well I do know how to google search those details BUT usually such "known" Japanese acts both in the vk and non-vk department (let's say, Gazette for instance and JPU records) tend to inform whether they are about to start a new deal with label X and so on. DEG posted none after THE UNRAVELING, and the jury is still out on the label who'd be responsible for spreading Arche abroad. Sure thing, Gan-Shin MIGHT be doing that shit (then again, no official news! So it's all speculations for now) in EU, but what about US? I highly doubt that Firewall div. took these responsibilities as well... edit: oh look, someone actually questioned the US release hassle, lol.

This question might be out of everyone's league but are Gan-Shin/Okami records still managing Dir's "EU department"? As far as I remember, they stopped working with a couple of western promoters/labels (e.g. The End Records*) so I thought if that were to affect their ties with Okami as well. Also, on-topic: Shinya is not a metal drummer. (news at eleven, duh!) *After DSS, a.k.a 2012-ish

They never visited Minsk earlier, or did they? In case they didn't, then it'd be given (as well) that they play at least THE FINAL or Saku or any kind of "classic Dir banger" (post-'04) you could come up with. In case this kind of encore happened in one of the countries they have been to like shittons of times (Germany, NL) then it'd be a whole new ballgame Speaking of which, I didn't see any kind of interest/satisfaction in their overall performance - why did Kyo leave so quickly?

Lol exactly Why are people so negative about them playing stuff from Arche? I thought tours this year are *solely* dedicated to that album so it's certainly given that they will play Arche only...? (Arche has received better responses than DSS too, btw) Optimist thoughts: Arche's at least *executable* compared to the pro tools-fest of DSS, and Uroboros' been overplayed for years - time to move on! (man, I thought this issue was already solved in another thread???)

Okay, I found a VERY interesting PV shooting spot: SHAZNA - Magenta Story (location: (prison shots) Alcatraz) *pardon*

has made a "location-centered PV thread" earlier, except that the focus point was more on the most popular spots. After a good chitchat with Amoz and Panda I decided it'd be good to make a thread about unusual PV locations in BOTH VK AND non-VK You know the drill already, hm? Feel free to either mention or post PVs with locations that you find quite atypical to the said scene or so on (so abolish those castle kei PVs, please...or okay j/k, nevermind) I highly doubt that my threads would really garner attention but it'd be really fun and intriguing to see how many "exotic spots" we could name and such, my examples: Negicco - Hikari no Spur (location: Lapland // Rovaniemi, Finland, thx Amoz!) Guniw Tools - baby's one do (location: somewhere in Nepal) Luna Sea - Mother (location: Ireland) La'cryma Christi - Nangoku (location: Palau - ps. this band had like tons of exotic spots in their PVs. e.g. Venice in their Dwellers-era...) Vamps - Angel Trip (location: Thailand (?)) etc. etc. Feel free to share some of yours!

^Shounan no Kaze is like one of the most known J-urban acts though (well at least in the mid-00s)? So they ain't "too pop" to begin with Nice contributions, folks! Didn't notice that Blige ripoff earlier btw, cat...

Let's see if I can name a few of mine: VK: Luna Sea - Mother Dir en grey - Gauze ('twas very hard to decide!) Kuroyume - Feminism La'cryma Christi - The Sculpture of Time L'Arc~en-ciel - Tierra Malice Mizer - Merveilles Mucc - Shion Merry - Under-World Penicillin - Limelight Laputa - Kagerou Non-vk/standard J-music: L'Arc~en~ciel - Heart Ringo Shiina - Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana Mondo Grosso - Closer Capsule - L.D.K. Lounge Designers Killer Perfume - ⊿ Charisma.com - DIStopping Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Pamyu Pamyu Revolution Tokyo Jihen - Adult Hikaru Utada - Ultra Blue T.M.Revolution - The Force Namie Amuro - Sweet 19 Blues Hyde - Roentgen Pizzicato Five - Happy End of the World Fantastic Plastic Machine - The Fantastic Plastic Machine Sugizo - Truth? Non-Japanese: IU - Modern Times Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids Placebo - Placebo Mr. Bungle - Mr. Bungle Faith No More - Angel Dust Squarepusher - Feed Me Weird Things Agalloch - The Mantle etc. Phew, I named a handful lol

~J-URBAN THREAD~ So WTF is "J-urban music"? J-urban is basically an umbrella term for Japanese r'n'b, hip hop, soul, reggae, rap and related genres. And as most already realized already, we never really managed to think of a thread that would cover this separate "scene" or "department" of the J-music - not to mention that I can already see a few users who would be really glad to contribute at least a bit - or get familiar with a vast variety of major AND even indie urban artists. The idea of this thread is contributing-wise free-for-all as with those J-pop/J-indie threads - but make sure to post commentaries as well rather than spam one hell of a crazy series of YT embeds (I'd really recommend to spoiler such links while posting, mmkay?) So let's "get on" Examples: Anything related to Exile and their umbrella groups in the "softer" department: m-flo (before they went EDM) May J Ken Hirai (kinda?) MISIA And so on Feel free to contribute/talk about your current and new favs! You know the drill already so go go go!

^ I can recognize some of his Soul Calibur-era moves, lol Harada (that look might scream a bit controversy too...) + dat comeback of his old entrance (Indian stance + teleporting in the beginning of the battle)!!!

Oh my, I haven't posted here for "ages"! You might dig , Capsule's latest album, (you might have heard of him before in terms of collabing with Miyavi, SuG, Gazette...), (his remixes are intriguing) and (their "more banging" tracks) if you are really into anything EDM lately (that's all I could get out of my head so far) Also, I have tried Izumi Macra and must admit that she had some neat beats going on in the background...yeah, totally reccing that stuff My shoutouts to for reminding that Charisma.com is gonna have a new album out this summer...it's gonna be FIRE. PLUS Someone should tell Namie to stop lying about stylistic comebacks and admit that she will move on with full-on edm-ngrishized content (not that EDM would be bad - it's just not something I'd see her performing on)

https://www.facebook.com/366092113593644/videos/vb.366092113593644/395387597330762/?type=1&theater(FB-only video) They are gonna have their JAPAN NIGHT live @Taipei on 23/5, and this is one of their quickie vids... (Uruha still looks as uncomfy as ever tbqh) Also, Ruki informed that the album recording is ready (thru Twitter) - the only thing left is the band's listening round + analysis and mastering + "tons of rest" (why do I even follow his posts...lol)

I have to say that my parents have always smh'd at my visual kei interests in the past, seeing as I used to be too rabid on vk at some point in my youth (say, 2002-2003 and 2004-2007 was where I became a bit too excited about anything vk). Not a big surprise really, except that my dad used to say once that "your tastes will eventually warp back to those you were really into back in the day". By this he meant the fact that I was constantly exposed to my relatives' tastes (e.g. mum: Patricia Kaas, Edith Piaf, Russian Chanson, Ken Hirai, Lara Fabian, Enya, Cocteau Twins etc. , dad: U2, Depeche Mode, schlager, Finnish prog etc) back in the day (ps. step-brothers (that I despise nowadays) have affected my preferences with their funky, acid jazzy interests too...). Guess he was right after all? Frankly enough they are kinda cool with the fact that I listen to vk in small doses nowadays (then again - over 10 years of vk is too much!) Off-topicisms aside, orientation-centered misunderstandings have happened in my family too (lol) - if I were to quote them: " visual kei or w/e it is is the retarded scene of raging homo hooligans" (a "hooligan"-word came from DEG looks back in 2002 btw)

10 years since their major debut, y'know (2005)

Allow me to kill your joy Also, speaking of the content and the release pace itself - I am on a bit negative side and go with what rocketeer said above :/ ('quantity over quality' might be their musical slogan now?)

They surely do love those filename/domain-related name extensions, don't they? It kinda pleases my geeky self tho...

Another interesting, perhaps even unveiling (?) gazette twitter post by Reita (who rarely tweets anything + transl. by courtesy of gazettenoura@twitter): More gang vocals?

I see what you did there Well yeah, it's meh

Lol, how about cheerios metal then? More 0s than in your cereal, lol. Inb4 visualcore will be eventually this after a year or two...

Post-listening vibes: *artificial harmonics* *01010100300130* *odd gackt vibratos* *verses that sound a bit like something Tenten or MBHI has done before* *visualcore idiocy all over again* This is not the recipe of "getting everything right" in all honesty Also: looks aren't that special or good either - AND, anyone?

Guitar geek curiosities part 1: Why there are no "binary metal" bands in Japanese music? Someone could care and name a few pls in case there are some? *binary metal in guitarspeak: 00000100000110011000001100001000100000 (grab your electric axe and tune it hella low and play along! Like those cool Emmure kids these days...oh wait) no seriously, at this point "bad metal ideas" should be all the rage in the promised land of Nippon as well!

Speaking of drumming: I really wish that Shinya would not resort to these unnecessary metal/rock drumming trends such as blasting or snare abuse, and instead stick to his technical finesse from earlier albums in the vein of Macabre, Kisou and perhaps even Uroboros in the lighter department: And if we have to name a few numbers that most disagree with, I think "Taiyou no Ao" has one of the simplest, yet the most intriguing drumlines in DEG repertoire - Foo Fighters' Everlong-meets-march drumming in that "summer ballad" really managed to capture my attention in a special way throughout my fanboy days

Well, at least this "wall of text"-title taught me to filter my posts in the near future, lol Other than that, thx ppl!

Jam session-ish? Looks like I missed something... Either way:

I would have said the same if they happened to do this after TOXIC - but it's 2015 and we've had 3 albums after DIM with tons of songs that follow the formula of earlier hits, bangers, you name it. "Fresh" and "kind of different" have become petty excuses in their case, so in this case literal backtracking (as this sample showcases for the most part, minus "tricky" BGM) will eventually backfire and leave even the most dedicated stans jaded in the short run Also, Helios got my concerns wrong - I think relentless actually realized what I was about and pinpointed more severe elements in this plethora of problems that Gazette's experiencing lately ("reduced" signatures, timbres...), that are more likely to exacerbate minor, coexisting "problems" that regular listeners, and even most precise listeners don't really care about (like e.g. running down on a couple of keys). I am not a specialist in this matter but Ruki's certainly not the right person to uphold and churn out a wide, consistent variety of various ideas and concepts FOR YEARS and beyond (e.g. various maestros from the classical music, various figures from the 'popular' music culture, e.g. Bowie). Why do I find this important? Because this is my version on why Gazette's stagnancy is becoming more and more obvious lately - Ruki's not only the person to blame on "poor" vocal department (as we discussed that earlier), he's also the one to blame for a quality drop in their songwriting, from which these "gazecliches" are stemming lately. This should be their last chance to prove that they know how to overcome these "gazecliches" - and deliver a consistent package of newer concepts.