Blue_Spring

Full "Beast in Me" PV is up!
 

 
Nice~

"ARCHIVES" [track list]
01.Sink
02.690min
03.Den lille Havfrue
04.float
05.Sleeping Beauty
06.in the rain
07.天使(tenshi)
08.headache
09.Heaven
10.願い(negai)
11.missing
12.甘美な死骸(kanbi na shigai)
13.any
14.you
15.Panta rhei
16.8秒(8byou)
17.Nuit Blanche de L'aurore
 

 

 
 
their best album "ARCHIVES" & LIVE DVD "Silence" have been available for ordering through their official web-shop 9GOATS BLACK MART since 2013/04/29, and covers have been shown in their OHP
 
http://9goats.net/pc/disco.htm
 
 
btw 9GOATS BLACK MART will cease operation at 2013/12/31

[CD track list]
01.XXiS
02.MY BLOODY BURROUGHS POEM
03.CAVALLARO
04.Beast in Me
05.My lips to overlip your lips
06.Candy in the shape of you
07.Crimson Crow
08.Dance naked, Under the moonlight.
09.IS THIS LOVE
10.the end of eden

"夢見る宇宙(yumemiru uchuu)" digest could be watched through YouTube since 2013/04/18
 

[track list]
01.Open Air
02.Tasogare Perspective
03.nwodwols
04.Jack and Gill
05.fragments
06.turnaround

"夢見る宇宙(yumemiru uchuu)" spot could be watched through YouTube since 2013/04/08
 

BUCK-TICK will release their new DVD & BluRay "TOUR Yumemiru uchuu" on 2013/05/15. The footage was recorded at the tour final of their 2012 portion of "Yumemiru uchuu" tour on 2012/12/29. It will be released in 4 types:
 
limited edition DVD (9450Y): DVD + 2CD ("LIVE TRACKS") + 80-page photobook + special packaging
regular edition DVD (5775Y)
limited edition BluRay (10500Y): BluRay + same as the limited DVD bonus
regular edition BluRay (6825Y)
 
Tracklist:
 
01. エリーゼのために (Elise no tame ni)　 02. LADY SKELETON　 03. ONLY YOU -WE ARE NOT ALONE-　 04. 人魚 -mermaid-　 05. 夢路 (Yumeji)　 06. Long Distance Call　 07. 極東より愛をこめて (Kyokutou yori ai wo komete)　 08. Jonathan Jet-Coaster　 09. 見えない物を見ようとする誤解　全て誤解だ (Mienai mono wo miyou to suru gokai subete gokai da)　 10. 夜想 (Yasou)　 11. SANE -type Ⅱ- 12. 禁じられた遊び -ADULT CHILDREN- (Kinjirareta asobi) 13. INTER RAPTOR　 14. MISS TAKE～僕はミス・テイク～ (Boku wa Miss Take)　 15. CLIMAX TOGETHER　 16. Coyote 17. 君のヴァニラ (Kimi no Vanilla)　 18. 天使は誰だ (Tenshi wa dare da) 19. JUPITER　 20. JUST ONE MORE KISS　 21. 独壇場Beauty-R.I.P.- (Dokudanjou Beauty)　 22. 夢見る宇宙 (Yumemiru uchuu)

Score:  | It's like they forgot how to be melodic


The fandom is very averse to Dir en grey remakes. Either they nail them perfectly like they did with the acoustic rearrangement of undecided, or they butcher it beyond all salvation as they did with OBSCURE. So when Dir en grey announced that they were unleashing a whole mini-album full of remakes and one new song, I immediately grabbed my riot gear for fear of the oncoming shitstorm.

It's really not as bad as I was expecting it to be, with Unraveling kicking off the mini sounding like a DSS leftover. It stays away from the maddenly introspective "I write for me and I'm so progressive so let's place together sections of song that don't work at all to be artistic and experimental" songwriting that made the last album such an insufferable cocktail of inventive but poorly executed ideas to listen to. Karma isn't new at all, but the original sounded like it was recorded on tape a monkey wiped their ass with, so it feels like a new song too. However deep they ventured into their back catalog to pull this out of some dark orifice doesn't change the simple, repetitive structure of the song. Considering what they limited themselves to working with, it's a wonder it even turned out this decent. So is that good or bad? You decide.

The main portion missing for some of the remakes is melody. A good portion of the songs they've chosen to remake are melodic in their original incarnations, yet here Dir en grey seem fit to turn up the crunch on their guitars. This leaves us at a crossroads with some very awkward sounding song segments since the tone doesn't match the intent. One could say that this was accidental, except the remake of MACABRE and the two unplugged tracks keeps all the melodic sensibilities intact (and in some cases add some). Therefore, what are songs like Unknown.Despair.Lost doing with thinly disguised chugs and a needless breakdown over Kyo's much improved English?

Other songs like Karasu and Bottom of the death valley are barely recognizable in their new incarnations. My biggest disappointment was the atmosphere of the latter track - what I loved most about the original track was how the bass created a nice "Western" atmosphere - which has been replaced with more of a "Borderlands-styled deserted planet what am I doing here?" feel. Karasu erred on the forgettable side (but is still better than the original) but Bottom of the death valley stuck out in a good way and is a worthy remake, with the bluesy solo easily being my favorite part of the song. Before I move on, I must point out Kasumi here for them upping the cheese factor. The original was perfect. All the reverb, wah-wah pedal and Kyo-crooning takes away from the somber atmosphere. Sometimes it's good to leave something the way it is and re-record it without having to put it through the Dirufier.
Now on to the good things - I am so pleased by the lack of tacked on, awkwardly sandwiched MIDI synthesizer garbage on this release. Amon was done terribly. LOTUS was done terribly. No song on this release is as bad as those two, or OBSCURE, or whatever AGITATED SCREAMS OF MAGGOTS was supposed to be. The unplugged version of Unraveling strays close to it but it stops short with piano and some flutes, which hints that maybe they realize that over the top style symphonic arrangements do not suit them. Plus points for that.

The new version of MACABRE is amazing. The first ten minutes are an almost straight rendition of the original version found on the album featuring the same name. This is all positive, since they took one look at it and realized that it is perfect the way it is and needs absolutely no tweaking. Then the last six minutes feels like a natural extension to the song, featuring some of the greatest songwriting I've heard from them ever. It trumps the original in every single way. Likewise, the unplugged version of THE FINAL sounds almost theatrical, which is a new for this band. I can detect no semblance of the original melody in the instruments, and if you removed Kyo's lyrics I would not be able to tell at all that this is the same song. However, the reinterpretation of this song is so excellent I simply don't care.
 
A step up from their last full-length, Dir en grey are finally learning that questioning everything doesn't always mean the end result is immediately good. Now if we could do something about their badly placed deathcore influences and persistent THE MARROW OF A BONE-esque "turn up the crunch and get metal" attitude, we could have a winner on our hands.
 
Also Shinya, tune your fucking drums.

東京酒吐座(tokyo shoegazer) new album "turnaround" will be released at 2013/05/15 (2,000yen)
 
[participating guest artists]
ミヤ(miya) (MUCC) (mix engineer)
成田忍(narita shinobu) (4-D mode1) (supervisor, Gt.)
Atsuo (Boris) (Dr.)
イチカワマキコ(ichikawa makiko) (ex-COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS, now in BP.) (Vo.)
石井秀仁(ishii shuuji) (cali≠gari, GOATBED) (Vo.)
尾苗愛(onae ai) (禁断の多数決(kindan no tasuuketsu), POLTA, ROCKET K) (Vo.)
miyu (ex-Royal Cabaret) (Vo.)
桜井青(sakurai ao) (cali≠gari, LAB.THE BASEMENT) (lyricist)

radio edit of Unraveling.

D'ERLANGER will release a new album on May 22nd called #Sixx. It's their sixth album, first in almost four years, and also their first release under Warner Music Japan. It'll include some songs that have been played live, such as Beast in Me, Crimson Crow and My lips to overlip your lips, plus more for a total of 10 tracks. Limited edition will include live acoustic versions of Beast in Me, Zakuro and LULLABY.
 
Source
 
Excited!

And here's another DVD with the same tracklist woohoo, go LUNA SEA go, We know you need money, but releasing this album would probably give you more money than thousands of live DVDs

It seems Masami Tsuchiya has been busy making a new project together with fellow musicians ISSAY and Ken Morioka, among others. The new band called KA.F.KA will make their first appearance on 2013/04/06 at the Takutaku livehouse in Kyoto. Below is the full line-up and quotes from Tsuchiya's Facebook.
 
guitar, vocals: Masami Tsuchiya (ex-Ippu-Do)
vocals: ISSAY (DER ZIBET)
keyboard: Ken Morioka (ex-SOFT BALLET)
bass: KENKEN (RIZE)
drums: MOTOKATSU (THE MAD CAPSULE MARKETS)
 
 
 

If the new Kuro is anything like the one they released last year (?), it better be their last. Also, someone needs to kidnap K-A-Z and Miyo Ken immediately and stop them from talking to Kiyoharu for at least 3 years. It's the only chance for Kuro and Sads to not suck.

A different cover for 輪郭, based from the limited edition postcard.