doombox

Are there any record collectors here? While Japanese records are far and between, I've seen an increase in re-issues of Japanese music on vinyl and thought this would be a great place to share new releases available on this format. It's hard to keep up sometimes and this would be a great way to stay up to date.

I'll start this up with some varied releases!
 

Mouse on the Keys - Out of Body
Jazz / Postrock / Ambient
 
 

Cohol - 裏現 (Rigen)
Black Metal / Hardcore 
 
 

Puella Magi Madoka Ultimate Best
Anime / Pop
 
 

Yasuaki Shimizu – Kakashi
Jazz / Electronic
 
 

Midori Takada – Through The Looking Glass
Ambient / Experimental / Classical
 
 

Toe - Hear You
Math Rock /  Experimental

If their label still owns the rights to their songs then yes, it would go to the label. Usually a contract runs out at some point though (but I'm not an expert in Japanese recording contracts tbh) and after that the song royalties would go straight to the artist themselves. But like mentioned above, if you can buy it direct from his website that would benefit them the most.

Better late than never! Here's the newest batch of recommended tracks from the amazing ORZ team! 
 
Check them out and let us know what you think!
@tetsu_sama69's Pick
"PM:500" by ラッコ(LACK-CO.)

I really don't know why it is that LACK-CO.'s ballads always seem to hit me in the right spot. "PM5:00"  is definitely a track to be noted (if you can look past their drummer's current visual style) with its strange power ballad styling. It's very easy to get swept away by the tidal wave of guilt and depression, leaving you stranded in a sea of psychosis emitted perfectly though tenten's vocals and the bands messy but perfect instrumentals. Granted the rap segment of the track seems very awkward but it fits for me since it feels more like the ramblings of a man questioning his choices in life. Unfortunately, since I am not fluent in Japanese, I can't translate what is being said, only what is being musically expressed and LACK-CO. definitely know how to compose a robust track that can't be categorized as something "stereotypical". I really look forward to the release of their first album 『弱肉教職』 (Jakuniku Kyoushoku) , as it's hard to predict how it's going to end up. But if it's spiced up with a track like "PM5:00", then it's sure to land a place on this year's favorites list.

 
@helcchi's Pick
"お邪魔します" (Ojamashimasu) by まみれた (mamireta)

Mamireta have brainwashed me. This song is a drug. From the unnerving yet catchy door-knocking, to the deliriously hypnotic opening riff, to the disturbing lyrical and visual themes, “Ojamashimasu” is the intoxicating psycho fix that VK has been thirsting for. This band is so shameless in expressing their corrupt morals, and so unhinged in their mannerisms, you can't help but feel like many years of lunacy have been packed into the unit's short lifespan. Laden with fast talking featuring the ramblings of a madman, the eccentric vocal delivery adds to the song's intrigue, as this trope is so steeped in VK tradition.
Whilst a passionate chorus cuts through the repetitive rhythm that has pervaded through almost half the song, it quickly spirals into a fast-paced whir of pure neuroticism, leading back into the unnerving yet catchy door-knocking that started it all.
I've lost count of how many synonyms for “crazy” I've already used in writing this, but did I mention that this band is crazy?
Let Mamireta “ojamashimasu” into your head.

 
@emmny's Pick
"朧月夜 (Oborozukiyo)" by 己龍 (Kiryu)

Kiryu have passed 10 years together as a band, a massive milestone for any band, let alone a visual kei band. To celebrate they're...throwing it back to 1997? It's no surprise that Kiryu have an old school influence, especially as the band members have been active since the early 2000's. They're just very good at infusing it into trendy structures with their loud traditional instrumentation. I, however, live for the moments in their dark tracks when they really let loose and wear some blood on their sleeves *wink*. "Oborozukiyo" is three minutes and thirty seconds of kote-kei styled mayhem, melodrama, guts, gore; it's so indulgent and obvious a throwback that it feels like an inside joke between the band and their older fans, with the youth at the butt of the joke. Of course, all parties are in gleeful, head snapping, harakiri'd joy. Mahiro's vocal gymnastics recall the tortured voices of the late 90's, but with an amazingly melodic chorus to match the growls and grunts (all on pitch by the way, eat your heart out Matina and Soleil). The trebly, pitch-harmonic laden guitar lines paired with frequent gyakudai-style rhythm shifts disorient the listener, creating an air of chaotic noise. The track is a throwback, but not a copy in anyway-  a representation fitting of an intelligent band who have grown from the scene and still know how to extract every bit of theatric gold from a sound long forgotten, keeping it fresh 20 or so years later in 2017.
 
@plastic_rainbow's Picks
"管" (Kan) by umbrella

umbrella is a band that I regrettably have not paid much attention to until recently. I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but I've finally realized the greatness of their soft and melodic rock sound, plus their heartbreaking and soothing ballads are to die for. "Kan" sits as one of those beautiful tracks but takes it up another level. The beginning feels cinematic with the playing strings until a steady drum line and lovely guitar walk in. Yui's comforting vocals both sing like a slow heartbeat and an ocean wave that clashes against a rock gently; the perfect balance of softness and passion put into a ballad. Although umbrella may fall short because of their messier production, especially in their early days, they deserve much more love than they already do. I mean, if those mellow guitars don't tug at your heart strings then you must be on crack.
 
"Snow the Dark" by Spook Jack

Not being a fan of The Candy Spooky Theater, this new solo project of their vocalist Spook Jack (aka Jack Spooky) took me by surprise. While Spook Jack continues to portray his 'spooky' character, his solo work is not the usual fun spoopy-Halloween trope that The Candy Spooky Theater was. Instead, it's downright gothic and dark industrial. Apparently, Full (ex. Guniw Tools, Nookicky, Shilfee and Tulipcorobockles) collaborated with his solo project and although it's not certain how much he was involved in producing the music, some Nookicky influences can be heard. The slow tempo, the ghostly ethereal singing, the use of pianos and harmonious noises in "Snow the Dark" all make up the sound of Nookicky. However, being much darker, the track opens with a haunting industrial vibe, setting a gothic and bone-chilling atmosphere. Spook Jack's ethereal vocals tinged with a gloominess works wonderfully and reveals how mesmerizing his voice can be, unlike his The Candy Spooky Theater performances. If Spook Jack keeps this up with his new approach to a sinister and despairing night of horror, I'm all for it.
 
"ニヤ" (Niya) by Large House Satisfaction

There seem to be little to no fans of Large House Satisfaction here, so it's my job to make you start listening to them now, especially to those who like some new J-indie music. Large House Satisfaction is a three-piece band that have been around for over 10 years and play garage to classic rock music accompanied with harsh grating vocals. If you like Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, The Birthday, or any of Chiba Yusuke's side projects you may be interested in them. Usually their music is upbeat and faster-paced, but once in a while they'll chug out a few slower-paced songs as well. "Niya", from their newest album Highway to Hellvalley, happens to be one of those slower songs, yet is still stirred up by their punching garage-y guitar riffs and thick bass lines. The vocalist goes all out, and even sounds like he's about to croak, but his harsh singing effectively renders this piece as truly endearing. You'll be singing 'darling darling' all night once you listen to this.
 
Guest Blurbs from @Ada Suilen
 
"蛙-Kawazu-" (Kawazu) by キズ (Kizu)

In the contemporary visual kei scene, it's incredibly hard to find something appealing and worthy of some attention. One of the few times I had such a feeling has been with the second single of the new band Kizu, where the lead track "蛙-Kawazu-"shows their unexpected and engaging style: a powerful melody driven by astonishing riffs, and intense vocals by the former singer of Lezard, who seems to have found his own maturity with this new band. I can surely consider Kizu as one of the most interesting rookies of the year.
  "愚かしい竜の夢 " (Orokashii Yuu no Yume) by D D has been one of my first visual bands, and they are nowadays one of my fixed listenings. When they came back from the hiatus, they redid one of their dearest themes and tried to experiment with something new, which I enjoyed but not so much as I thought I would. But I was sure that one day this band would have found their unique energy, and in their fifth mini-album, a limited release, they used what made them so popular for the visual fans. The title track is surely one of the best works in their career, featuring an incredible mix of languages (a la Rozova Dolina) and a clash of tempos, going from soft to powerful in a blink, with a great technique and sublime vocals. If you had lost hope in D, with this track you will surely find it again.

Thank you for reading everyone!

Still here for ggg, sukekiyo and DEZERT.
 
When Kishidan came on I was like "hey why do they get to perform one of their own songs? oh wait." XD

The new V-Kei DDR game sounds promising. Wish the player would actually choose a song though.

Samples from MUCC's tribute album have been released!
 
 
What do you guys think?  (other than the samples being super short lol)

Thank you! Actually I don't like to sing in German as I don't like the flow of the language, but possibly there will be some part in the future! At least some kote eins zwei drei vier!

 
I hope you'll enjoy it! <3
We actually had some issues with getting the songs online due to us using brackets etc in our name, which is why there was a delay unfortunately, but they should be online now under "Nanashi" instead of "Nana:[shi]" though

克哉 (katsuya) (Misanthropist, ex-CodeRebirth) new band will form, & he is recruiting a vocalist.
 
 

Hi there! My band Nana:[shi] released their first EP called "Morphobia" last month.
Today it's gonna become available on iTunes, Spotify etc. too, so I thought it's a good time to show you guys what we've been working on!

Preview of the whole EP:

Music video to "NOSTALGIA DRIVE":


Hope you like the sound of it! We've been working hard for this the past year!  

Also we're gonna play with AIKOE, BatAAr, Kerbera and Madmans Esprit in Stockholm at 28th October!
First time for me to play outside of Germany - pretty exciting to say the least.

New/last(?) look:

I respect what you're saying, but it's not ruined because I wasn't into them yet in the first place. I only had a piqued interest and they've let someone ruin their image. If they kick him to the curb I'll come back. I really don't like dealing with bands who have this kind of drama surrounding them. It's not fun for me.

The other day I met YOSHIKI.  I was at a showing of We Are X in Oslo, Norway.  Norway doesn't have a huge VK scene so I was happy he had come.  It turned out to be his first time in Norway.
 
I asked him "Can western bands be visual kei?"  -  He laughed and replied "Of course!"
 
So I followed up with "If a western band is to be visual kei, is there something they must adhere to, in terms of style or aesthetic?"
 
He explained VK is more of a mindset, born out of them feeling like they didn't really fit in anywhere.  As he said, they played "super heavy" and "super soft" music.  He also told me about a festival he hosted recently where the bands were everything from metal to pop, and there was even a band that didn't play music (that got some laughs around the room).  He summed everything up by saying it really isn't a genre, but more of a mindset allowing yourself to be as creative as you want.  And it also generally has makeup.
 
I am summing these things up from memory.
 
So here's my take on VK:
1.  You must be influenced by Japan/Japanese music (because after all, it originates from Japan). 
2.  Make creative use of makeup/visuals. 
3.  Be somewhat diverse in terms of style. 
4.  Be doing your own thing confidently (basically:  be true to yourself, because people and fans can see through you being a cookie-cutter).
 
So basically, no you don't have to have a lolita in the band.  One member doesn't have to wear a surgical facemask at all times.  You don't have to have death-metal growls in your music.  Some music fans within genres and subcultures get really elitist and that gets irritating, especially when people say that VK is only Japanese (so is glam-metal only truly American?  Can you not make Brazilian samba music if you aren't from Brazil?).  VK is unique in that it is vague but also has a meaning.  A band alone isn't just "visual kei" but "visual kei rock" would be a better indicator.  I think in that sense, the addition of the term "visual kei" before "rock" to me would indicate the above traits I listed, like being influenced by Japan, be somewhat "different" in terms of makeup/visuals and potentially have a diverse musical style.
 
I had a blast meeting YOSHIKI.  He's a funny and nice guy, and it was an honor having him in Norway.

There has been some real drama involving Issei as of recent. Peace Heavy Mark II posted about how Issei is doing literal dumb marketing, but this, this takes the cake. 
https://twitter.com/AyriesTheCat/status/921440652507910144
Read the entire post, and all of the replies to it. It explains the full story. It's screenshots of Issei literally exploding on a fan, just because she made a meme. 
So basically, this innocent girl posted a meme of Issei. Issei takes offense to it, and starts calling her names. 
She apologises, and he feels the need to speak for all Japanese people, and accuse her of excuses.
Then she says he's literally making her cry, and he actually asks for a picture of her fucking crying. That is creepy, on so many levels. She's a teenage girl, and you ask her to show her crying face? 
Not only that, but she pointed out Ryuya made memes of himself, and Issei straight up tells her "Ryuya doesn't matter". Way to stroke your own ego, buddy. Saying he doesn't matter, just because you think it'll distract from the fact you're being an oversensitive hypocrite.
I originally wasn't going to post about this here, since I assumed it's get more attention. But it's not getting the attention it deserves. 
 
First, jumping on the idiotic marketing that Nocturnal Bloodlust did by making edgy comments at uploaders of your music, the people who actually are the reason your stuff is bought. And not even considering the possibilities Youtube has for self promotion. Now, going after fans for making a fucking meme? 

If they disappeared for a year and came back with something new, I think it would do wonders for their releases. Not to say this is bad but they're lacking in something. 

Tracklist:
1. 蛙-Kawazu-
2. ラブソング
3. ELISE (Type-A only)
4. 十五 (Type-B only)
 
 ｜Prosaic, but with potential
 
Should a band be held accountable for not living up to hype created by fans before they’ve released a single note of music or even revealed their identities? That’s the question I pondered as I listened to キズ (Kizu's) second, and newest, maxi-single 蛙-Kawazu-.
 
The conjecture surrounding Kizu started near the beginning of this year when a red and black flier was handed out at VK venues with precious little information other than the name of the band, details of their first show, and a phone number prominently displayed. Callers of the phone number were greeted by a recording informing them that the band would listen to “your pain, your worries, displeasure, and anxiety”.
 
All VK fans had to work with was a new, mysterious, melodramatic, emo as hell band that had left no direct clues about the members’ identities; not even a group shot in silhouette or with the faces obscured by masks! The biggest clue being that the other bands performing at Kizu's first show (DOGinthePWO, Unite) were popular bands in the scene, so this new band must be made up of people with connections… probably from playing in bands with some success themselves. This wasn’t a bunch of newbies who would be unknown whether or not their names and faces were public knowledge!
 
Little by little more info leaked out of the Kizu camp (the vocalist of the band would actually answer calls to their number, more fliers with references to despair and scars and blood and loneliness) but still no one was quite sure who was in this new band. Theories about vocalists from all sorts of recently disbanded acts were entertained. One that gained traction that I hoped would turn out to be true was that this was Karma from Avelcain’s new band. The signs were all there: Karma is the queen of teen-angst-zetsubou and these promotional materials for Kizu had that in spades.
 
When it was finally revealed that the vocalist was Lime previously of Lezard there was a collective “not bad… but I wish it had been *insert my favorite vocalist who isn’t in a band right now*”. By the time their first (extremely energetic and polished) PV came out many people had already come down from their speculative excitement.
 
With all that being said, what about the actual songs?
 
The music is not the backdrop for despair that their promo fliers would imply, which is a blessing because Lime is a capable vocalist but it’s hard to imagine him pretending to cut his wrists or mumbling to himself trying to quiet the demons in his head. In fact, the least worthwhile parts of this maxi-single come when Lime tries to showcase his harsh vocals. Too much of "ラブソング (Love Song)" is marred by Lime trying to contort his voice into shapes it just wasn’t meant to fit into. He’s much better highlighting his slightly staccato, higher range such as in the otherwise rather moribund "十五 (Juugo)".
 
Kizu is at their best playing the frenetic, vaguely djent-inspired fast-paced VK you can hear in the title track "蛙-Kawazu-" or after the jarring Beethoven intro homage has ended in "Elise". When the big riffs and digital effects combine into some bouncy, undeniably fun rock'n'roll you can see why Kizu have scheduled a second oneman live at Tsutaya O-West less than a year from their formation and having released only two singles.
 
Ultimately, I'd place my bets on the slightly brasher Razor or the even more scatter-brained Lack-co to be the 'winners' of these djent-kei experiments, but if Kizu can continue to channel the relentless energy of the performances in their PVs (shoutout to them for the throwback 'VK band in the woods' video) into their live shows and releases they should be able to make a name for themselves in the crowded and often staid VK landscape.
 
Support the band: CDJapan

This is cool if Die keeps a rotating line up. At least it gives me a reason to keep checking them out.

This is cool if Die keeps a rotating line up. At least it gives me a reason to keep checking them out.

Here's some old Miya caps I had for a mood theme a while back. The king of silently judging you.

Here's some old Miya caps I had for a mood theme a while back. The king of silently judging you.

When "This video contains content from (Insert record label here) it is not available in your country" 
 

Mid-thirties here and still don't want kids, or even a serious relationship, tbh. Everyone in my family looks at me like I'm an alien because I don't give a shit about marriage or children. I also get tired of people insinuating I'm selfish for not wanting children, like living my life for myself is a bad thing. The world is scary, not to mention over populated as it is. I don't feel compelled to add to it. 

London Grammar - Truth is a Beautiful Thing
PVRIS - All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell

Been looking for a decently priced copy of this set. 
 

 
Mono - Requiem for Hell