Pretsy

Double-post: Some people are aware of this already but apparently "Feel Again" got leaked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3thev_fmQOM Not bad~ Here's also the (extended) Wave Runner megamix snippet from their COUNTDOWN JAPAN show: http://youtu.be/ud-9fXQXRN4?t=10m29s

^Wondering about his super-duper powers atm (since T7 now utilizes some characters with "projectile" powers now? Other than Devil, that is)

(I think the point of this thread is quite clear, kek.) Now that we have kickstarted a new year, which 2015 albums are you guys looking forward to? In my case: Confirmed: sukekiyo - Vitium Capsule - Wave Runner Joze - Sekirara Foxpill Cult - 邪宗門 SuG - BLACK Kendrick Lamar - TBA Lycaon - Camera Obscura Faith No More - TBA Not confirmed: Death Grips - Jenny Death (Pretsy's note: HHNNNNGGGGHHH) Silent Siren - TBA (pls) Ling Tosite Sigure - TBA (pls [2]) No Doubt - TBA

Okidoki: 1) Sukekiyo A dream band-like collaboration of notable musicians from different corners of the vk-related J-music scene (RES, 9GBO, Dir en grey, Kannivalism) surpassed my expectations with their 2014 debut "IMMORTALIS" - each member succeeded in expressing themselves without causing a literal hodgepodge (most users disagree with me here). A new world of avant-garde-y obscurity/"obscenity" (to quote the band) offered by the boys from sukekiyo definitely won't fail in enthralling people with any kind of taste - convenient or inconvenient... Listen to the full album here Favourite song: vandal 2) Schizoid Lloyd Formed in 2007, progressive/avant-garde metal act Schizoid Lloyd went down with a few EPs until their full-length debut on 2014, called "The Last Note in God's Magnum Opus". If you are a huge friend of Unexpect or even California-era Mr. Bungle, and don't really mind slight Dream Theater-y influences, try to find yourself an hour for a soundscape of pure schizoid madness and clusterfucks!! Listen to the full album Favourite song: 3) Wagakki Band Traditional Japanesque (note: folky instruments too) folk rock/pop/hard rock act (you name it!), consisting of popular niconico musicians and some underground vk names, never failed in impressing newcomers very positively (as we can already witness it in MH ). Albeit their 2014 full-length debut, "Vocalo Zanmai", being a vocaloid cover album, Wagakki's unique ability of transcending convenient, but highly interesting ideas related to "Japanesque" genre overcame the lowest expectations and managed to mark one of the strongest debuts in this decade. A friend of Kagrra's or Onmyoza's sound? MUST-TRY 4 YOU! Favourite song:

TMOAB was the product of influences and ideas that stemmed from their active overseas touring in '06 - not to mention that the band was always about "making their world much more accessible" to fans abroad as well (be it even the case where elite Batsuists are eager to debunk such claims, despite the logic behind them). Therefore, TMOAB was clearly tailored with that factor (a.k.a non-Japanese audience) in mind The jury is still out on the marketing point/purpose of DSS. However, the album shared a bunch of ideas from their "gravy train" a.k.a Uroboros - perhaps they wanted to repeat the success? Seeing as the latter didn't really happen (don't let the first week charting fool you), Firewall div. tried to find the fix by delving into desperate measures a.k.a shittons of DVDs, Uroboros-based "arena gigs" and other useless merch. I am not trying to bash on the band, no. I wanted to state something I always keep in mind when my favorite act marks a new release. 'Musicianship is what really matters' is what you'd say - I am down with that! But knowing basic marketing principles won't do bad for analyses either (at least in the world of chart-infesting AKB girls, EXILE hunks and Johnny's twinks) I apologize for derailing the 'main topic' (Arche review, ofc), btw.

Man, I always forget to check out on latest Spazzkid, Kayoko and Ventla Very cool list tho (as always), fitz

Man, this is starting to bother me a lot~ Either way, I will go with Kisou - why? If I personally had to describe what I usually mean when I mention "unique pop sensibilities" or "wide palette of interesting ideas" to a person who questions my weeby tastes, I'd go with Kisou in the first place. The said album was hands down the very first *Asian* album that shaped most of my musical tendencies (I was too young to have any "tendencies" back in late 2001-early 2002, mind you!). Each track (including SEs) had AND still has enough "room" to encompass my cherished memories and preferences from the past, and for that reason alone, I picked this one out of the first 4 albums I *love* equally (fun fact: I used to hate "Vulgar" in my pre-teen days, haha). Shortly put: I find "Kisou" very special to me (not a hyperbole, I swear )

Ooooh it will have more STEREO WORXXX-iness~

I directed my review mainly at those DEG fans who have been listening to their work since pre-"Americanized market"-era (~'05-06) + I elaborated what exactly I meant with my "holy quadrinity"-idea ("Gauze-Vulgar" - most long-time listeners favor their 3-4 first albums FYI). "supposedly learned" >the band + Dynamite Tommy are able to see if their stuff sells too, right? What should they do in order to stay relevant sales-wise? Correct, make their music "much more accessible" by adding a bit of pop sensibilities from the past (hence me establishing my views on what they "learned" and how they "improved")

Meow (*for the last time*, I think)

Necro time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeOOhuGa6WY Kronekodow (her staff) even apologized after her atrocious MS performance...(she seemed to have a bad day) I also found this caption to be quite fitting for my overall reaction to SUNNY after many (painful) listens *sigh*

*noisy comeback* I have noticed similar situations in Capsule's music on several occasions, but most of them weren't as major as this: Might be "way too inspired" by this (beat, "percussion hook", stretching chorus) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFx3WX4DES0 (another case would be Capsule's "Electric Light Moon Light" vs. Kylie's "Chocolate" but I am not gonna go down with further analyses...)

I summon thee, the Mighty Banhammer of Valhalla!

Impatience is testing me so I will go with my format-breaking list now: ~Pretsy's top 20 of 2014~ (IN ORDER) edit: based on Foobar/phone statistics 1. Charisma.com – DIStopping 2. Wagakki Band - Vocalo Zanmai 3. Seiko Oomori – Sennou 4. Schizoid Lloyd - The Last Note in God's Magnum Opus 5. Vampillia - The Divine Move + My Beautiful Twisted Nightmares in Aurora Rainbow Darkness 6. Trioscapes – Digital Dream Sequence 7. sukekiyo – IMMORTALIS 8. TK from Ling Tosite Sigure - Fantastic Magic 9. Flying Lotus - You're Dead! 10. Hail Spirit Noir - Oi Magoi 11. BADBADNOTGOOD – III 12. Sivyj Yar – From the Dead Villages’ Darkness 13. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Pikapika Fantasian 14. GoGo Penguin - v2.0 15. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – Piñata 16. Mariko Goto - Kowareta Hako ni Rinakkusu 17. Kimbra – The Golden Echo 18. THE NOVEMBERS – Rhapsody in Beauty 19. Swans – To Be Kind 20. Epik High – Shoebox Minis: 1. Age Factory – Te Wo Furu 2. Vampillia – White Silence 3. IU – Flower Bookmark 4. Gesu no Kiwami Otome - Minna Normal Phew.

I would like to point out that they finally learned to embrace pop sensibilities from pre-MOAB era works - some numbers even managed to pave the way for certain comebacks, such as quirkier (approx.) 3-minute bangers in the vein of 'Machiavellism' or the majority of 'VULGAR' ('Cause of Fickleness', 'Chain Repulsion'). Nonetheless, mistakes that haunt DEG ever since DSS have been present in ARCHE too: most songs either lack any logical development (e.g. 'Revelation' is pretty much "Ruten"'s 'not-so-well-behaving little brother') or just end their 'clever ideas' way too fast (e.g. 'Phenomenon' would've been a nice NIN-like experiment w/o early climax). It's not only "the shades of nostalgia" that haunt Dir, but a few problems involving new, "organic" (if I were to quote Kaoru) soundscape and track positioning as well. What are these problems then? Let's spotlight these issues in a spoiler: Did we witness any improvement after DSS? Yes. Was the improvement big enough to make it worthier than 'the holy quadrinity' (Gauze-Vulgar) or even Uroboros? No. Kudos to them for realizing that 'catchier direction' is not going to be a massive turn-off though - sob harder, DSS aficionados (jk). Personal favs: Kaishun, Chain Repulsion, Rinkaku, Cause of Fickleness Other highlights: Uroko, Tousei, Magayasou, Behind a Vacant Image

I like the fact that Incogneeto expects the staff to please EVERYONE with their picks and resp. positions ("boohoo boohoo spoopykyo is not high enough")- also: him/her ruling out the general reaction of MH community towards this release (anything but "eww pop idol duo", if you ask me) Edit/reminder: I think Ito should change the sample song to "Iinadzuke Blue" (which is from "DIStopping") rather than "HATE" (which on the other hand is from "Aye Aye Syndrome") - just nitpicking!

Got to break the mold and go with a couple of my non-Japanese choices too (since I *never* intended to limit this thread to "Japanese music" only, right?): : Despite being obviously enough the least disturbing opener of theirs, "Sweet Charity" wraps "retro-Californian" soundscape of "California" (doo-wop, bossa, surf rock etc.) nicely together with their trademark, key & tempo-changing quirkiness. Pleases both mainstream-ier and artsier fans equally : The most ethereal and drum-lacking Cocteau full-length happens to have one of my most loved openers! The lack of drums and emphasized ambiance in "Lazy Calm" recreates a different, soothing sonic palette of warmer colours. Fraser appearing later in the song contributes significantly to the "necessary" build-up as well. Nice openers you have there, folks! (especially Sakura)

"Fukinkou Kinema" of this album, I suppose? Not bad.

I am going off-topic so spoilering this: Back to the topic: who's the tour organizer this time - B7klan? Why would they skip us all of the sudden after importing Lycaon x Born here this year + etc.?

Singles since their comeback have been nothing short of excellent (talk about a huge step up from late PSC days), so color me intrigued

No dates for Finland? The fuck... Man, I would've managed to attend Moscow gig if they went with June instead

I might be leaning a bit more on IMMORTALIS side instead of ARCHE due to former's *focused* content** and me being totally impressed after seeing sukekiyo pull off their debut album live ("Latour" and "Zephyr" were definite highlights back then) **The beginning was quite close in throwing me off for having "Destrudo" (a.k.a SE) as a 2nd track - I am not kidding here: both Kyo releases from 2014 are exhibiting same-ish 'faults' of track positions - and both bands never commented on criticism aimed at this issue, lmao. I think I am starting to dig NOVEMBERS' latest too :V

Hope they have learned their lessons from BF's fiascofest :V

Seeing as this is being marketed as a major album (just like IMMORTALIS, under SMEJ - of course) - the best marketing idea for this release could be ofc have "the face" of the band as a 'star' of album covers. Kyo is quite known enough (let's ignore AKB/Kuu-digesting youth here, k) in the mainstream J-music scene (he has been the main marketing point of DEG ever since Uroboros), therefore the inclusion of other members would only confuse clients that stumble upon this in say, Tower records shops (?). Firewall div. know their cashing game :>

Oh. I think you were a bit too eager when it comes to generalizing - I am not going to "shirtfront*" you for that ofc, but my piece of advice**: you should give the whole scene one more chance, since Asian hip hop scene itself is not STRICTLY limited to say, "good pop songs with pretentious, bad rap" - be it even the fact that you don't know shit about their rhymes/lyrics (just like most of us). Underground hip hop labels in JP for instance have tons of artists with a handful of potential despite not following normal principles in "trendy J/K-hip hop" - I am not the one to give out names, but other frequenting members might help you (in case you're interested ofc). I mean, after all - there is no such thing as "(insert any country here) is not able to do (insert any genre here) at all" - this is just pure fantasy by courtesy of extremely choosy PF/Sputnik-ian imbeciles (highly judging those members who are representing this school of thought in our forums). **I underlined this so we could rule out misunderstandings of me trying to "push" my opinions/"offending" you *I quoted Abbott here because lol