Pretsy

haha what also, they will remake "Stuck Life" too? ...I am scared : /

Yup, the second Shangri-la incoming.

*cough* Iwrestledabearonce *cough*

I haven't posted anything here? str8.

Rolling Stone Japan will have a Kyo x Alejandro Jodorowsky interview on 10/6 issue source: Kinda interesting cross-interview choice this time

I am gonna go and judge anything yet, but defo an improvement after semi-mediocrity of Yumemiru

I really hope that's just a slipcase : /

First of all, I've always welcomed Shiina trying something ~out of her borders~, unlike many jazz fanboys/girls out there - and this ain't exception at all. I like how each arrangement gave a different perspective to what Shiina would try next after this album - and no, I don't mind the general inconsistency, considering that this ("unfortunately") is not a proper full-length (she hasn't released one since 2009). I can feel the pain of fans and alike, but let's get a bit more patient and optimistic about Ringo's slow-ish efforts. TJ disbandment traumas aside, the first track starts with a huge bang - big band-like, majestic arrangement by the courtesy of Otomo Yoshihide, which surprised me more than I thought it would. The guy truly deserves a good tap on his shoulder - good job, Yoshihide. I like how the track still retains its "Shiinaistic" approach from the mild original, but now with more grandiose direction. Pretty much the biggest highlight out there. Then we have three electronic tracks - 渦中の男 , 真夏の脱獄者 and 決定的三分間 . I don't really care about the originals of the first two at all, knowing that they've had that "necessary" Johnny's atmosphere surrounding them. Here, thanks to Osawa and Ueda, we have a chance to listen to the "proper" continuation to Shiina's first-timer electro collab. Despite the unfortunate case of having Shiina using engrish in both songs due to "discomfort around male pronouns", I like how brave those songs are really - ESPECIALLY the former (despite its typical "gabba-gabber-brotherly Amen breaks"). Osawa's effort in the other hand resorts to the most familiar element/genre people have heard in Shiina's work, ESPECIALLY during TJ era: funk, and disco-like funk this time. Some might find this way too safe experimentation-wise (if we assume that arrangement idea is solely based on having Shiina experiment around genres), but nothing wrong with going around very familiar, always welcomed choices! When it comes to the last one though, this is where I want Shiina to base her further stuff on - Nobuhiko's Shouso Strip friendliness is somewhat audible here, and at the same time, he gives new colors to this femme fatale-ish song which might throw you back to...well I said, some moments of Shouso Strip (heh). All three are quite solid 8,5-ers to me The 90s strikes back and hard with Private/Cappuccino - The former is along with Ueda collab, hands down, one of the bravest Shiina experiments ever - I mean, how could you really expect to hear Shiina in such disturbingly upbeat atmosphere? As an earlier Mayeamada enthusiast, I appreciate this kind of effort too - along with various Dempagumi songs *coughcough*. Cappuccino in the meanwhile is really respectful towards the original (which is not a bad thing in this case), and retains many elements from it - including the horn section. It has that kind of typical Shiinaistic pop approach we have heard in (I apologize beforehand...) various TJ pop songs, a la 閃光少女. Consider this to be a solid radio pop hit you will hum along to while driving etc. One of the rare cases where I actually CARE about originals in Shiina's repertoire, btw. Many listeners, like myself, had some skepticism going on when 雨傘 / 日和姫 kicked in. Why? During the first listen it felt pretty odd from my perspective to have 30-something old woman singing in Avril/pop-punk-esque like manner, but sheesh - talk about growers. The former gets minuses for having oddball Engrish going on (sorry, R. Clarke), but that doesn't really distract you from some sweet good ol' Cocco/"good" Puffy atmosphere you get from this song - oh you, Takamune . Then there's the latter one, arranged by the dude from BEAT CRUSADERS - I don't really care much about their work but hey, this is some sort of SS-era "punk" throwback too (with a tinge of radio-friendliness) - and very rocking one! I prefer this to the original by miles, definitely. Good job. I must say that I started to care less and less about calmer tracks in this album (aka those I haven't mentioned yet) - Tomiita's effort would've been better if that D'n'B-esque intro was carried on even during the verses but eh, nothing really different from Chiaki's lousy effort. AT LEAST IT DIDN'T HAVE AUTOTUNE, thank god. Then there's 望遠鏡の外の景色, which is unfortunately 95% instrumental - and why? I don't know it myself either. That aside, I don't really feel this arrangement, compared to what kind of joy I had from the first track, which had the same-ish concept in the performance...and oh, of course - 幸先坂, which might leave many listeners with quite stale feelings about the album in general. We have heard much better piano ballads by Ringo, right? Nothing worth pinpointing around here. All in all, despite some small-ish downsides, which are (if we were to sum up): - English in some tracks (well, just a tinge of uneasiness) - Slower efforts just lack something... - Inconsistency (but I will exclude this prolly tho - just as I said, I don't think of this as a ~proper album~) Thus, by calculating, and rounding some things up - we get a solid 9 for this album, out of 10. My apologies afterwards for possibly weird ways on reviewing - and I really hope that people start caring about reviewing non-vk artists too

the vocalist/leader of "Coaltar of the Deepers" who's also known for his vast non-Coaltar contribution, like say - anime/video game soundtracks, idol pop songs (Babymetal has 2 songs made by him), programming/producing (Mucc, Plastic Tree) etc. etc. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/NARASAKI if you can read nihongo, then here's his contribution in a nutshell also, talk about totally cashing in with bonus CD like that ("unplugged versions", haha)

Oh well, double-posting because it's ultra-cute super cute version of Ringo Shiina's NIPPON feat. HALCA from High and Mighty Color

Wow, another MAJOR lipsyncing fail from vocalist's part...

and no one posted Especia? Sheesh... Idol group with heavy retro/vaporwave influences <3 (you guys should check their latest album "GUSTO" out, it's neato) Also, there's an interesting band called HERE (unfortunately ungoogleable and thus undownloadable) imagine if new Merry was...decent? lol.

Since the summer holidays have started already (hopefully!), I might just as well post an updated version before the "final 2014 list" or so (sorry!): Kylie Minogue - Kiss Me Once Vampillia - The Divine Move Yasuha Kominami - Do Do Airaku Ringo Shiina - Toutaikai Heisei Nijuu Go Nen Kamiyama Chou Taikai St. Vincent - St. Vincent Crosses - Crosses Yuko Suzuhana with Wagakki Band - Vocalo Zanmai sukekiyo - IMMORTALIS Neneh Cherry - Blank Project Hello Sleepwalkers - Masked Monkey Awakening Dorothy Little Happy - STARTING OVER BiS - WHO KILLED IDOL? Nobuaki Kaneko - Historia SID - OUTSIDER Kamin Shirahata - Kudamono Kotringo - birdcore! indigo la End - Ano Machi Record Sayuri Ishikawa - X -Cross II- Gesu no Kiwami Otome - Minna Normal EP Ringo Shiina - Gyakuyunyuu: Kouwankyoku moumoon - Love Before We Die Ando Yuko - Acoustic Tempo Magic Hitomitoi - Snowbank Social Club Let's assume that bolded ones are "9/10ers out of 10" rating-wise, a.k.a the albums I won't probably drop out of the final list. And oh yes, I haven't even tried all the other albums I pinpointed earlier this year

http://tower.jp/item/3495191 lengths for the new album also, it includes the credits of each song! Just click on クレジット-arrows, no Satochi songs also [2], the last song title is basically "People I wish were dead" (triplechecked that!) - quite edgy & angsty lel

I don't think Russian fans are that rude enough to "ruin the atmosphere" In fact, I might just ask right away: just how many DEG fans in Russia/Finland axis are notified of Sukekiyo's existence/music? It's not like the news/Immortalis release has spread in the general/mainstream public overseas though...

and double-post: Gesu no Kiwami Otome - Killer Ball 2:59-> (piano solo) Chopin - "Fantasie" Impromptu in C-sharp Minor, op. 66, no. 4 and vk-related: Malice Mizer - Hamon/Kyosokyoku (a.k.a Gackt x Kami's solo @ Merveilles tour) *might* have some parts from Debussy's Pour Le Piano prelude :/

AKB wotas are quite notorious anyway...I mean c'mon, not the first case, eh?

Kinda late news (since the single is *out* already) but idgaf, moving on: Kitamura Eri (seiyuu known for voice roles in animes like "Blood+", "Toradora!", "Highschool of the Dead" etc.) released a new single called "掌-show-" on 5/14, as a theme song for a new anime titled "Knights of Cydonia" And the special thing here is (i think) the backup band for this single: Guitar: Leda (ex-Deluhi, Undivide, currently as *staple* session guitarist (studio?) in BABYMETAL) Bass: Ikuo (Bull Zeichen 88) Drums: Junji (Bull Zeichen 88) source: http://gekirock.com/news/2014/04/kitamura_eri_7th_single.php interesting to see Leda being active in these major j-pop affairs lately, lol. also, according to his own twitter comment - he participated in Kitamura's affairs earlier, especially in her "SHOMEI"-album, where he arranged the first track (+ played guitar, bass, shamisen) and played support guitar in the third track (no YT link, but it's a Taisho-era jazz-like number + HE COMPOSED IT TOO).

Necroing this: peace: http://youtu.be/wIN9cDjpx88?t=59s add this to your "Rondo Alla Turca" list Sukekiyo's "hidden one" solo (in about 2:30) is this http://youtu.be/opKK871VO0A?t=2m15s (YUCHI confirmed it with co. in one of their ameblo interviews) edit: I don't know if this is worth mentioning too, but Mucc's Sanbika (you cannot unhear that part) and Kuroyume's Sanbika (they sampled the actual choir version in the intro I think? ) "sampled" Schubert's Ave Maria. edit2: http://youtu.be/likRbIf9Pik?t=2m15s this part till 2:50 =

so yeah, Dempagumi inc. - Tsuyoi Kimochi Tsuyoi Ai (Kenji Ozawa cover) Dempagumi inc. - Sabotage (Beastie Boys cover)

http://pizza-dreams.tumblr.com/post/85639671207/preview Kachuu no Otoko sample (arranged by Takeshi Ueda (AA=, The Mad Capsule Markets) neat

In my part (VGM-wise), I might mention some of my biggest favorites: and finally...

Holy shit I promised myself not to spoil the listening experience until the full release comes out but that PV is just gorgeous (as miasma said) - gladly enough I don't even remember the Bon Voyage version anymore so I guess I don't have to compare those two lol...but I like the arrangement too (makes me kinda want to check out more on Tomita Lab's stuff) edit: samples are quite hot too

By the way people, in case you're interested in (original) composers of each IMMORTALIS song, here's the interview in ameblo with per-song analysis http://ameblo.jp/712031/entry-11847194786.html so here's the list: Elisabeth Addict - Takumi (he did the original song 5 years ago, apparently) mostly + Kyo and small input by other members (at least according to Barks.jp) Destrudo - Takumi (around the same period with "Elisabeth"?) Latour - UTA Nine Melted Fiction - UTA Zephyr - Takumi (obviously) Hidden one - YUCHI (also, Mozart reference in the solo) Aftermath - YUCHI Uyuu no Sora - Takumi The Daemon's Cutlery - YUCHI Scars Like Velvet - UTA Mama - Kyo Vandal - UTA (obviously) Hemimetabolism - Takumi and Kyo Kugui - UTA Madara Ningen - the whole band as far as I understood? In All Weathers - Takumi and Kyo

^which Mozart piece did "hidden one" remind you of btw? edit: my bad, Symphony no. 25 in G minor...