CAT5

Despite the negative reviews above, I thought RED was an incredibly solid single. Certainly their best since DIM. Granted, there's nothing new here, but I've never looked at Gazette for anything groundbreaking - just some good, catchy rock tunes. All three songs deliver on that front.

^ lol, that's exactly why I made a top tracks thread. I've listened to a lot of Japanese albums this year, but there are few that really stand out as being "album of the year" material imo. But I'm also gonna have to re-listen to a lot of albums before I can actually come up with a list...I have bad habit of listening to most things only once, so there's a good chance that I haven't properly digested some albums. xD

@Herpes - yeah, "FOUL" is more or less a rehash of their Kyoiku era, and being so, I can see how it may come off as weak to some (especially with HZM and Hirama absent). I dunno...I like it, though. xD

Holy shiznit, doe! We chose the same lostage song That shit is HOT...and I don't even consider myself a MERRY fan! I swear to god I almost included this song as well. Devaloka has become my fav. track by lillies, but "a life as something transient" is easily my 2nd fav. from that release.

We have a thread for the top albums of 2010 already, but I'm sure we've all heard great songs from albums that were unimpressive overall or just not good enough to include in a top albums list. So what are your top tracks so far? (best as in favorite =p) Let's keep this contained to Japanese music, please - we have an entirely different subforum for discussion of music outside of Japan. I haven't done my top albums (so far) list yet, but a top tracks list is a bit easier for me to do. [*:3co2hk8d]Lillies and Remains - devaloka [*:3co2hk8d]mudy on the 昨晩 - deltal [*:3co2hk8d]clammbon - Ka-Ka-KaLMa! [*:3co2hk8d]MOUNTAIN MOCHA KILIMANJARO - Love Spectrum [*:3co2hk8d]Kazuho Oogiya - on the line [*:3co2hk8d]Re-Trick - Cadence [*:3co2hk8d]lostage - 眩暈 [*:3co2hk8d]number0 - literal noise [*:3co2hk8d]MERRY - クライシスモメント [*:3co2hk8d]Nabowa - Bandada [*:3co2hk8d]Shinichi Osawa - LOVE WILL GUIDE YOU feat.TOMMIE SUNSHINE [*:3co2hk8d]NGATARI - Linus [*:3co2hk8d]school food punishment - line [*:3co2hk8d]Interior Palette Toeshoes - tense [*:3co2hk8d]LisM - hidden under a cover [*:3co2hk8d]miyauchi yuri - to be in on this (feat. Julia Guther) [*:3co2hk8d]white white sisters - pigs [*:3co2hk8d]9mm Parabellum Bullet - The Revolutionary [*:3co2hk8d]LITE - 100 Million Rainbows [*:3co2hk8d]タテタカコ - 誕生日 [*:3co2hk8d]SuiseiNoboAz - 水星より愛を?????? [*:3co2hk8d]Denkitribe - djaz [*:3co2hk8d]capsule - Love or Lies [*:3co2hk8d]JiLL-Decoy association - Nightswimming feat. 45 a.k.a. Swing-O [*:3co2hk8d]Merpeoples - シャーマン [*:3co2hk8d]J.A.M - QUIET STORM [*:3co2hk8d]EGO-WRAPPIN' - 方舟 [*:3co2hk8d]Maia Barouh - ??????奇跡 [*:3co2hk8d]The GazettE - 奈?? [*:3co2hk8d]オワリカラ - otherside?????? [*:3co2hk8d]??林太郎 - ドラグスタ [*:3co2hk8d]嘘?????ービー - ??????ペット [*:3co2hk8d]??京事変 - FOUL [*:3co2hk8d]??京事変 - 電波通信 I'll probably come back and add more, as I hear them...xD

^ holy shit, did not know that Entertainment for the Braindead released anything else besides the roadkill EP this year. Gonna check out "Trivialities" asap...

haha, I like Dir en Grey, but I dunno...it actually took me QUITE a while to get over Kyo's vocals. With that said, if one can dig Kyo's vocals, they'll be well prepared to bite into a good chunk of VK.

I dunno...I don't mind loud/noisy/harsh stuff, but there is something that really turned me off about this band...I'm almost positive it was the vocals, but I'd have to listen again to be exact. xD

^ lol, seriously, though. Virtually everyone I know who's heard that band loves them. I've only seen one person express any kind of distaste for them. I dunno...I may have to give their album another listen. If I remember correctly, I was extremely put off by the vocals. =S

this is one band whose appeal I fail to understand (sorry Aion) ={

I'm not really an UNCHAIN fan, but from the songs I've heard...I'm not too sure about his English...seemed more engRish-y to me xD Completely forgot about Eugene/Aoki I doubt anyone knows this band, but the lady from sighboat has perfect English...and she looks full Japanese too. xD There's the old rock/grunge artist AYA. A lot of Japanese singers in the Jazz and Club scenes have pretty good English too. Aoki Karen, akiko, Yurai (featured on a lot of Jazztronik stuff), Arvin homa aya (though her ethnicity is HIGHLY questionable xD). Monday Michiru (though she's like half-Japanese). The lady from FRIED PRIDE is also quite good. Lots more...

So who are some Japanese singers that can sing in good, intelligible English? I'm not talking about vocalists that utter a few random things in English, I'm talking about vocalists who have sung entire songs in English...or at least enough to know that their English is legit. I know of quite a few, but It'll be nice if we could construct a list of sorts... Off the top of my head, there's the guy from OCEANLANE (though their music is plain boring) Emi Meyer...though she's not entirely Japanese Shiina Ringo has pretty good English on record, but I've seen some live clips of her English that were...sketchy Now I can't think all of a sudden...will return later xD

What bands would you first introduce to people who are new to Visual Kei or J-rock as a whole?

I'd have to say that I'm currently in love with a seemingly obscure jpop artist named Chiaki Seike (清家??晶). She hasn't released anything since 2006, but her last album "Sensitive Doll" and the album prior to that, "Tokyo Escape Music" are both wonderful. I'm quite surprised that I've never heard this girl mentioned in any jpop circles before. Her voice is amazing...kinda reminds me of Salyu but more hefty and soulful. I usually listen to music like a robot - listen to one album and then move to the next, but Seike's music has broken that mold for the time being. I mean...I can't recall the last time I had 47 plays for one artist in the same week. For a lot of you, that may seem normal, but for me and my robotic listening habits, it most definitely isn't! xD

have all the gazette fans dissapeared!!?? What does everyone think about RED? I like it personally, but I have a feeling their next album may fall pretty short of DIM. Judging by RED and SHIVER, they seem to have reverted back to a more atypical VK style. Also, the PVs for both are nowhere near as "cool" or stylized as the PVs for DIM were.

This is the Japanese music forum, so I'd expect everyone to do Japanese... Um...I dunno, it's a bit too early for this topic....ling tosite's and EGO-WRAPPIN's new albums aren't even out yet, and they have a high change of being exceedingly awesome. I can probably list my fav. Japanese albums so far, though...

I wonder why they mocked Amano Tsukiko...from what I understand, she was never even that big. And she can actually sing =/

^ lmao, indeed. Every thread is turning into a Dir en Grey shitfest. c'mon people. They're not worth excessive praise nor do they warrant so much hate.

Merzbow I'm not particularly a fan of noise, but I do respect and appreciate his music. I've always found the ideology behind noise to be fascinating. However, I'm willing to call merzbow "overvalued" because for some reason, people think by listening to him (and noise period), that it somehow enhances their taste and makes it more "sophisticated" or better than the taste of others. Hell, some people who make noise don't even consider it music, so why do people feel so musically elite for listening to it? I can't even count the number of times I've seen people namedrop merzbow in some kind of music related argument. It's pretty ridiculous. Just because it's something that MTV would avoid at all costs, does not make it the pinnacle of coolness lol. Merzbow is not a god.

I think this would make an awesome band: Music Style - Jazz/Math-rock/Indie-rock/Hardcore/Soul hybrid with some electronic (idm/breakbeats/glitch) elements xD Vocals (female): Nobie (Uni-Birth, Alma Plus) or chihiRo (JiLL-Decoy association) - chihiro's voice is a bit stronger, but Nobie is MUCH more diverse Guitar: TK (Rin Toshite Shigure) Guitar: Yoshimitsu Taki (9mm Parabellum Bullet) Bass: Kameda Seiji (Tokyo Jihen) Piano/Keys: Suga Dairo (Suga Dairo Trio) Horns/Brass: Tabu Zombie & Motoharu (Soil&Pimp Sessions) Drums: Kashikura Takashi (Toe) Electronics/Programming: Himuro Yoshiteru A band like this would FUCK MY EARS INSIDE OUT UPSIDE DOWN AND ALL AROUND TOWN alas, it'll never happen .__.

I like post-rock...was addicted to it for a time back in 2008. Though I've become rather selective in the post-rock I choose to listen to nowadays. Don't know why, but I find a good amount of it unable to hold my attention these days.

Pierre Nakano is pretty baddass

^ Yep yep. Regarding Japan's metal scene - It's nowhere near as broad or diverse as the "western" metal scene. Geography alone should tell you that one. To somewhat go back to the main topic, I will say that Japanese music was the first foreign music I'd heard where the language didn't sound "foreign" to me. I'm not exactly sure why, but the language seemed to comply with my ears. I think this is one of the reasons why I stuck with Jpop instead of kpop back when I was still getting my feet wet in foreign music.

I have to agree with the points Champ, Subliminal, and Zesshoku brought up. There is wonderful music to be found everywhere. Just look for it...it's surprisingly easy to do.

I'M TOO MUTHAFUCKIN' COOL TO CRY TO MUSIC However.... Hearing this song can make me sad/nostalgic, as I was infatuated with it when my father died earlier this year.