Pretsy

Mutyumu have announced that recording for their new album (untitled as of now) has begun in early 2014.
"The path upwards for the poet, who gives birth to 1s from 0s, is finally over, and so we enter the craftman's path, who makes this "1" perfect.
We have finished recording our new demo specifically as Mutyumu. Soon, after the recording, mixing and mastering are done, from this idea an album will be born. That being said, it's a bit too early, but please expect the new work to arrive, as they surely will."
Ofcourse, no official statements are yet done, but now there's a solid reason for us to wait for something new from Mutyumu.
Source: http://mutyumu.ucoz.com/
Zess' note: ABOUT FUCKING TIME GUYS

DELUHI and GALEYD are very similar to me because they both suffer from all the same problems. Virtuoso guitarist with a stranglehold on musical composition, a drummer that only moves at one speed half the time, near absent bassist, and a vocalist with a few ticks that you either like or hate. GALEYD started out metalcore but started leaning more towards power metal near the end. DELUHI started out metalcore and stayed in that genre the whole time. In Meku's solos I can spot snippets of classical influence but his solos were always so sterile. It felt like he was playing lots of notes really fast all the time and prized technical excellence over emotion in his music. I felt much more emotion out of Leda's solos a great majority of the time.

In terms of composition, Leda was more diverse overall. All of GALEYD's songs follow a very similar formula of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus-end whereas DELUHI's songs tend to be more dynamic. This changes a little bit for GALEYD near the end of their career but it's the main reason why I can't just put them on. However, DELUHI have made some awful tunes, especially during the tail end of their career. I can't pretend that Departure isn't a thing.

Still, I listen to DELUHI occasionally and I haven't listened to GALEYD seriously in months so my vote goes for DELUHI.

Kinda surprises me that Ryo is sort of a multi-instrumentalist o_o Not sure about vox tho

^ curious about the main artist? He's the drummer of Ling Tosite Sigure, Pierre Nakano.
 

 
Teaser for the above-mentioned mini - interesting to see Kyono collabing too, haha.
 
Also:  http://natalie.mu/music/news/120981 (edit: pardon, forgot the link)
 
all I could understand from this was that TK was responsible for mixing SORA + チョコレイト・ディスコ (Perfume's Chocolate Disco cover) will have Seiko Oomori on vocals and Yoshimitsu Taki from 9mm Parabellum Bullet on guitars and Mito from Clammbon on bass..And Origa will be featured on "Animus". NEAAAAAAT

ピエール中野(pierre nakano)(凛として時雨(ling tosite sigure)) new mini album "Chaotic Vibes Orchestra" will be released at 2014/08/13 (2 TYPE)
 
limited edition (3,200yen) will include CD+DVD, and regular edition (2,700yen) will include CD only
 
[CD track list]
01.Animus
02.SORA feat.カオティック・スピードキング & KYONO
03.チョコレイト・ディスコ
04.double pendulum
05.T.A.M.A NETWORK feat.玉筋クールJ太郎
 
[limited edition DVD track list]
01.Animus～Recording Documentary～
02.SORA feat.カオティック・スピードキング & KYONO (PV)

So I wasn't exactly sure where to post this. But I barely saw this today and it made me really excited. 
Like i think I'd be kinda okay if he did a solo or something. I'm also surprised with his vocal skills..... like dang boi
 

I normally never bother(ed) to try out acts like this (seeing as I wasn't really enchanted by general J-hip hop/rap elements), but it looks like I found a gem here! /totallynotbiased
 
Just as Jigsaw mentioned  - Iinazuke Blue was basically something what hooked me - and perhaps many, many other new fans of Charisma.com to try out their other new songs. These same fans (including me) for the most part, didn't get disappointed at all when they tried out the whole package.
 
The incorporation of electro-pop elements along with sweet rapping flow by the courtesy of MC Itsuka really gets the listener's mood up for a long time - personal upbeat favorites of mine, such as catchy Iinazuke Blue (duh), fierce Jenga Jenga, freaky Happy Turn, sassy Sodaigomi no Koi and wild Pain Off guarantee that your mood won't get down...and might even make you bob your head/move your feet along to the beat no need to get ashamed if you want to get groovy!
 
There are also some straightforward-ish, calmer and poppier tracks for the sake of having breathing pauses in between constant party-around-ing: trippy but beautiful No Datte, almost R'n'B-y Mr. Beer and perhaps one of the pinpoints for this album after Iinazuke, Sorairo Will. To say it bluntly, there's enough variety to keep the listener in place and not fleeing out of fear/boredom - that doesn't necessarily mean that there wouldn't be *ANY* elements that might you think twice whether to like it or not. I have to admit that I found it quite hard to digest EDM-iness of some songs out there (Super Girl, Iinazuke Blue, Jenga Jenga) and unnecessarily very radio-poppy approach of Chankoi (was almost expecting a SCANDAL song there, haha). They are not necessarily something what would slow down your interest towards this release - but you have to be quite *open* and *accepting* in order to embrace DIStopping at whole.
 
All the fuss aside, I already consider this to be one of the best J-albums for this year  - if you don't mind fun, groovy and upbeat electro-pop mixed with rap/hip hop and some ballady numbers, grab this one ASAP!
 
 |  Truly solid AOTY-material over here, people! Hurray for MC Itsuka and DJ Gonchi!

guitarist's beard game too strong
 
Anyway, seems like an okay/decent song.

So there was a MH meet in Helsinki a couple of months ago. Our humongous meet-up consisted of me, Biopanda, Slsr and WhirlingBlack (who's behind the camera because he's oooooh-so-mysterious).
 

~Biopanda, paradoxal, Slsr~
 
 
 
And then one super high quality pic of me & Panda and a hint of WB's hair, part of WB's hand and the zipper of WB's shirt (so secret, much mystery, wow) 

 
 

^Oh, sorry for the lack of that exact info - and if I were to respond:
Believe it or not, but the only input that Kyary has in her music is basically her vocals - producing, composing, lyrics, mixing and mastering is SOLELY done by the same guy throughout her career (Yasutaka Nakata, as I mentioned). It's not a stretch then - read the liner notes/credits in release booklets
Of course there are also news about two artists contributing to her music (on a later phase) , but that's unrelated to this matter...

Artist: la la larks Album: ego-izm Score: A pleasure to listen to from start to finish.
It's bad enough that I have a difficult time treating school food punishment and la la larks as two different bands, but la la larks isn't trying too hard to make that distinction themselves. Yumi Uchimura must be abiding by the adage of "If it's not broke, don't fix it". school food punishment wasn't broken - it just found itself in a position where it couldn't continue down the path Yumi envisioned. It seems natural to me then that la la larks' first single is so impressive, even amidst the almost devoid hype.

It's also come to my attention that I unconsciously gravitate towards mentioning the production before getting into the content of the review. In this case however, the production is what makes la la larks such a pleasure to listen to. The label must have blessed la la larks with a budget that would make Dir en grey envious. The sound that producer Ryo Eguchi achieved here is the perfect blend between the organic and the artificial. There's a lot going on in both ego-izm and end of refrain and yet the instruments aren't competing with one another for the listener's attention. That's a large achievement and is something most bands never get quite right. la la larks nails it on their first release. Ponder that for a moment.
ego-izm was used as the ending theme of M3〜ソノ黒キ鋼〜. In my humble opinion, this song was too different from the show thematically, sonically, and lyrically to fit. It's a disappointment that the anime was too much of a confused and introspective Evangelion-stanning brainfart mecha that went nowhere to get any type of real hype, as I'm sure that's what the record company was shooting for. It's not much of a setback, since it sounds like Yumi has finally reconciled making anime pop fodder with experimenting as an artist. I expect them to do another theme very soon. ego-izm is best described as the spiritual successor to How to go, resembling more of the former band's indie period than major period. This is a Very Good ThingTM. If you require an explanation, imagine swelling violin guitars, boisterious piano and bass runs, and the vocals of an angel so sweet you might fall in love on first listen. I've had this single on repeat since I've gotten my hands on it and I haven't grown tired of the title track yet.

The B-sides are where things get a lot more interesting, and by more interesting I mean "sound even more like indie-era school food punishment". end of refrain sounds like it could come straight out of riff-rain, what with the acoustic guitar that pans from left to right just like egoist from said mini-album. Part of me wonders if that was an intentional nod or not. The guitar tapping during the chorus is also memorable, maybe a little too memorable. earworm starts out like it could be an alternate take of transient but halfway through it shifts enough in mood and song progression to stand out as it's own track. Both are wonderful tracks that contrast well with the more direct pop effort of the A-side.

There are also instrumental versions of the first two tracks. If you want to more fully enjoy the effort that went into producing the music, or if you want to sing karaoke, they're there. Yumi's dynamic vocals are one of the greatest appeals to listening to her music, so naturally the vocalless versions aren't as appealing as their completed counterparts. Still, they're worth a mention for their inclusion.

In most cases, a new band sounding exactly like the old one is taken as a point of criticism. But just this once I don't mind. J-Pop has missed the unique blend of electronic and pop music that Uchimura is known for. The fact that it sounds like a redux of riff-rain only makes it better. This is what many school food punishment fans have wanted and thought they would never get since riff-rain. I'm just really glad that she's back and hasn't missed a beat, and has also found band members willing and capable to execute her vision to the fullest.

If you were a school food punishment fan, you're already all over this. If you missed that boat, this is a perfect opportunity to get acquainted with some refreshing and unique pop music.

Artist: 椎名林檎 (Shiina Ringo) Album: NIPPON Score: The One True QueenTM is back!
I don't joke around when I proclaim Shiina Ringo as The One True Queen. She belongs in the upper echelon of artists that can tackle any genre effortlessly. Her worst output is merely good. Her best output is legendary and amongst the best albums ever recorded in J-Pop. So imagine my disappointment with 逆輸入 ~港湾局~, where I felt that she couldn't pull together the many styles she was flirting with. Being a compilation album of music that she didn't even write for herself, I let it slide. After all, when Shiina writes music for herself she knocks it out of the park. NIPPON is no different.

NIPPON is a two track single where the single was Japan's theme at the World Cup. With such a simple title that translates into Japan, it would be reasonable to expect Shiina to deliver a simple pop rock tune. Fortunately for the world of music, Shiina doesn't do simple. There's the trappings of an upbeat pop rock track accompanied by an orchestra and some type of instrument I can't identify. You can't miss it though because it's there during the more energetic transitions, especially into the chorus. There's also a pretty nice solo, which is something I haven't heard Shiina do in a while. NIPPON gives me vibes of younger Shiina and the rock sound that she bursted onto the scene with all those many years ago.

Sakasa ni Kazoete rounds out the single, waltzing in with a jazzy pop sound balancing Shiina's rock side with her more mature one. Sakasa ni Kazoete sounds like it could have come straight out of Tokyo Jihen's discography, which makes it even better than NIPPON for me. Amazing keyboard work and an amazing vocal delivery by Shiina herself puts the cherry on top. It's very refreshing to hear Shiina take on this sound outside of TJ because she doesn't do this nearly enough.

I can't recommend this single enough. This is a nice, short introduction into just two of the many faces of this talented artist. Don't sleep on it!

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying.
 
Tracklist with romanizations:
 
Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece...
 
After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler.
 
Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though.
 
Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings  ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message.
 
I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts.
 
The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are:
 
Standouts: Serious Hitomi,  do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring
Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer
Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer
Tracks worth the big fix:  Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi
(I won't rate the title track - intro, duh)
 
- Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying.
 
Tracklist with romanizations:
 
Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece...
 
After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler.
 
Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though.
 
Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings  ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message.
 
I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts.
 
The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are:
 
Standouts: Serious Hitomi,  do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring
Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer
Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer
Tracks worth the big fix:  Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi
(I won't rate the title track - intro, duh)
 
- Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying.
 
Tracklist with romanizations:
 
Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece...
 
After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler.
 
Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though.
 
Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings  ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message.
 
I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts.
 
The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are:
 
Standouts: Serious Hitomi,  do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring
Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer
Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer
Tracks worth the big fix:  Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi
(I won't rate the title track - intro, duh)
 
- Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying.
 
Tracklist with romanizations:
 
Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece...
 
After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler.
 
Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though.
 
Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings  ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message.
 
I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts.
 
The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are:
 
Standouts: Serious Hitomi,  do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring
Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer
Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer
Tracks worth the big fix:  Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi
(I won't rate the title track - intro, duh)
 
- Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

BAND BATTLE

 

LYCAON

 



 

VS.

 

CALMANDO QUAL

 



 

 

Which one is your favourite and why? Figured we'd get these band battles started up again!

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying.
 
Tracklist with romanizations:
 
Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece...
 
After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler.
 
Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though.
 
Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings  ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message.
 
I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts.
 
The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are:
 
Standouts: Serious Hitomi,  do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring
Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer
Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer
Tracks worth the big fix:  Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi
(I won't rate the title track - intro, duh)
 
- Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying.
 
Tracklist with romanizations:
 
Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece...
 
After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler.
 
Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though.
 
Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings  ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message.
 
I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts.
 
The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are:
 
Standouts: Serious Hitomi,  do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring
Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer
Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer
Tracks worth the big fix:  Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi
(I won't rate the title track - intro, duh)
 
- Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

I must admit this duo completely slipped under my radar before, even though they had already released quite a kickass debut record last year (this one I'm reviewing here is their first major album, 2nd release in total).
 
I first became intrigued when I was shown the PV for the opening track イイナヅケブルー, which is a completely addictive and repetitive (two things that walk hand in hand here) electro-pop dance number with some slick rap parts and catchy chorus. The Charisma girls are at their best when they do this type of style, and, accordingly, they sure like to utilize their talents in this area, manifesting in some pretty sweet songs such as LOOKER, ジェンガジェンガ or Train HELL. It doesn't get boring of course because, even if these songs are in a similar style, they sprinkle random fun twists throughout (I'm not qualified enough in electronic music to know these various subgenre-hints tho).
 
The duo adds more variety by delivering some tracks that are reminiscent of more straightforward J-pop or songs that are a bit softer. I personally think these instances are the weaker links of the album for the most part, tho it is kinda nice for them to chance it up once in a while. Anyway, they both stand their ground firmly, providing some catchy moments as usual. The album ends on a note that is kinda typical of the whole sound of the release, which is always a good thing to do - the combo of the last three tracks is pretty killer!
 
Even on the first listen lots of songs burrowed themselves deep into my mind, addictive stuff indeed, as I already mentioned. One of the best Japanese releases this year for me, for sure! I do recommend it strongly for lovers of modern electronic pop (with hints of rap and dance music) to check it out.
 
| tons of cool tunes & very little filler, great for replaying again and again

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying.
 
Tracklist with romanizations:
 
Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece...
 
After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler.
 
Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though.
 
Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings  ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message.
 
I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts.
 
The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are:
 
Standouts: Serious Hitomi,  do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring
Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer
Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer
Tracks worth the big fix:  Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi
(I won't rate the title track - intro, duh)
 
- Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

So Royz's newest album was released yesterday 2014.07.02 and there seems to be quite a lot of discussion going on about the album.
 
 
 
 
 
My feelings are very mixed. Now after 20-30 plays per song I still can't decide if it's a great album or not, mostly because after LILIA I was really expecting a harder and more br00tal album, but this album turned out to be quite the opposite. Not that it doesn't work, I think there are a few quite good songs. I just wasn't expecting this kind of glitter rock with basically no harder songs.
 
I haven't been a Royz fan for a long time, and actually EGOIST was that one song that got me into Royz. Naturally for me that's the best song on this whole album. But at this point I think my favorite new song is 囁姫遊女, one of the glitteriest songs on the album... I really like the riff and the atmosphere of the chorus, somehow the melody reminds me of Kagrra,. This song must be so fun at lives, 
 
Another one of my favorite songs is 洗礼, probably the hardest song on the whole album.
 
At this point I'll probably give this album 3/5 stars. It sounds pretty good, but I'm not blown away by it yet. I'll definitely need to give it a few more listens before I can write something longer.
 
 
 
 
What are your thoughts on the album? Did you hate it or love it, or is it just basic visual kei crap?
And please answer the polls, I'm really interested in your opinions on the album!
 

is that a self-rape pillow for fans who can't experience first hand abuse themselves? how considerate <3

I guess since OZ are gone, Sadie has to take their place with the shitty album names.

HAHA YOU LISTENED TO GAROOGAMESH YOU N00B. And GALEYD is your currently highest played artist? C'mon if I wanted to look at you listening to derivative power metal I'd much rather you listen to DragonForce. Then I'd actually have something to laugh at you about. Now I just feel sad because you wasted your time on a DELUHI copycat (which in turn was a budget GALNERYUS).

You also use last.fm tags? It's like the most useless things in the world, unless I'm looking for a band tagged "skullfuck revolver metal", "demon burger", or "AIDS". Then it's indispensable. But the fact that you spent so much time categorizing bands to expand other people's knowledge is so trivial. You don't even give me these great tags to work with. How am I supposed to find anything tagged indie? That's like, not specific enough bro.
 
http://www.last.fm/user/ColdNRG