fitear1590

Hey Hyato, ich lerne Deutsch auch seit etwa 5 Jahren und Germanistik war mein Nebenfach!

Och, ich finde Englisch ganz praktisch… mir ist manchmal eher danach Englisch zu reden… weil es da oft "einfacher" ist etwas auszudrücken.

aber es stimmt, dass sich gewisse Sachen im Englischen leichter erklären lassen. Deswegen denke ich manchmal sogar im Englischen (ganz unbewusst).

Das ist höchstinteressant! Geil, dass ihr euch schon so gut auf Englisch ausdrücken könnt, und dass ihr in bestimmten Fällen Englisch lieber habt!

Ich habe noch einen weiten Weg vor mir, bis ich idiomatisches Deutsch sprechen kann. Aber im Deutschen finde ich die Wortbildung toll. Man kann viele Wörter einfach zusammenfügen, um interessante und neue Kombinationen zu schaffen. Vor kurzem haben zwei Mädchen auf Facebook über Fußball gesprochen und das Wort "Nationalmannschaft" fällt einem auf, weil solche "lange" Wörter im Englischen fast unvorstellbar sind!

Scarlet Valse new maxi single (title not yet finalized) will be released at their live since Kakeru(Scarlet Valse) & Ryo(Vagu*Project) birthday event "Relation of no even color～美と獣と(bi to juu to)～Vol.2" at Meguro Rock May Kan at 2012/07/12

UGHHH!

By the way, I'm having a bit of trouble finding Voyage in Chronos at any CD shops.

The usual places (brand-x, closet child, puresound, etc) and even the non-overseas shipping ones (zeal link, like an edison, etc) don't seem to have it listed. Not even the band's official web shop has it!

Am I just blind?

Hoffentlich bin ich des Deutschen ausreichend mächtig, haha. Auf jeden Fall werde ich hier ab und zu auftauchen.

Ich hoffe, dieser Faden wird bald aktiv, damit ich mein Deutsch mehr üben kann. Die finnischen und niederländischen Fäden haben schon angefangen. Wir müssen mit denen mithalten!

Deutschsprachige aller Länder, vereinigt euch!

negoto has a new single coming out next month!

Lightdentity／Re:myend!

2012.08.08

Limited Edition (CD+DVD): 1575yen

Regular Edition (CD only): 1260yen

CD

1. Lightdentity

2. Re:myend!

3. 彷徨

live DVD

季節

メルシールー

sharp ♯

I'm definitely picking up the limited edition!

UNiTE's 4th maxi-single came out recently and it's review time.

1. 約束 (yakusoku)

Another solid single, written by lead composer Shiina Mio. This is pretty much quintessential UNiTE right here: dramatic twinkly pop-rock, accentuated with technical (semi-mathy) guitar riffs. Just about everything sounds great in this song, but I will say the first chorus seems a bit disjointed from the verse before it. There's a great guitar solo in the middle. Afterwards, there's a slow piano part and I really liked those epic drums that were used, haha. What can I say? Another wonderful track that very much defines UNiTE's core sound.

9/10

2. 退廃レトリック (taihai rhetoric)

Another Shiina Mio track. Starts off with some strange bleeps and then goes into some chuggy Heartless-esque riffs. The first verse starts off very softly and some of the vocal melodies even remind me of The Kiddie's Yusa. After a while, the chuggy riffs come back again. The chorus is excellent: a great flow and Yui hits some high notes that are beauty. Afterwards, there's some nice guitar riffs and it leads into an almost "thrashy" guitar breakdown. Unexpected from UNiTE and pretty awesome. Overall, I think this is probably my favorite of their "heavy" tracks so far.

9/10

3. Love_Duck_Core_Nothing

First off, from the day the tracklist for this single was announced, I feared this song. This is by far, one of the goofiest titles I've ever seen. I had no idea what to expect. Which brings me to my next point: guitarist LiN has become the band's wildcard composer. He bears a decidedly "non-VK" style and it's even been mentioned in interviews. Plus, on the album, he was the one who composed the cheesy, but amazingly funky "BadRequest". Now, with Love_Duck_Core_Nothing, he has composed a wacky, Halloween-inspired track. It's less Candy Spooky Theater's obvious take on the "Halloween sound" and more in the style of crazy Aicle. The guitar is all over the place with a kooky lead riff and lots of technical little fills while Yui is singing. Even the bass gets a little crazy every now and then, but it's a bit buried in the mix. My main problem with the song is that the chorus is a bit too obvious. You know this is VK, so even if the rest of the song is pure craziness, the chorus is gonna be poppy. In this song, that change was a bit too much imo, but I guess it could add to the overall bipolar sound of this track, haha. I really appreciate the crazy style and ambition in the song, but the chorus (although good and catchy) was a bit of an easy way out. Still, I find myself listening to this song a LOT.

8.5/10

4. Grateful Word

Composed by vocalist Yui. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the composing finesse of the other members yet, but his songs definitely have their moments. The song starts off with generic heavy riffs, but it then leads into a nice, fresh synthy section. The verse is sweet and I really enjoy his vocals, like always. After another verse, there's an invasive rap section. I just can't get into it when they try to rap. Then, there's more Yui goodness in the chorus. After a guitar breakdown, there's a sweet little bossa nova-ish interlude. Random, but I welcome it. After the final chorus, there's some enjoyable guitar wankery that sounds like it's played by LiN. Well, "Grateful Word" is the weakest track, but there are indeed good, even great, parts. Unfortunately, the song has a few too many elements that never quite mesh together. PS: get rid of the rap, UNiTE.

7.25/10

Overall, it is probably one of their best singles, especially if I just consider the first 3 tracks. 約束 is one of their best, straight up UNiTE-pop-rock songs. 退廃レトリック is one of my favorite of their forays into "heaviness". I give Love_Duck_Core_Nothing major props for being something quite different and it mostly succeeds. Only Grateful Word suffered from ill-placed heaviness, whereas a few tracks on their last single had that imo ("AIVIE" after the chorus, "プレテンス" during the verses, "ハイスピードフェイスレスネス " with its out-of-the-blue HEAVY breakdown). A great single that, despite a minor setback in some parts of "Grateful Word", shows lots of progress. They've already announced their next single and I can't wait.

Overall: 8.5/10

(Also, I just have to mention that Shiina Mio outdid himself with the booklet design this time. The simple, but creative collage of random things (cogs, flowers, birds, etc) turned out beautifully. My avatar is right now is one of the pages from the booklet, btw.)

I don't really care if there's a new thread or not, but I just want the mixtape thread idea in general to come back.

But if a new thread is the way to do that, then whatevs.

In short, I voted "yes" haha.

My wallet has no recovery time.

This band is unstoppable.

Yay, finally some samples of the single.

"Voyage in Chronos" PV preview:

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Audio previews of all 3 songs:

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Thankfully, the PV is better looking than their first (which is not difficult at all, haha.) There's still lots of room for improvement though. Overall, I'm happy with the samples, although Everlasting Life's mixing seems a bit uneven... Maybe it's just the youtube quality. In any case, looking forward to it!

A video for "一秒間で君を連れ去りたい" has been uploaded to their youtube channel:

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Sounds great!

Damn bonsaijodelfisch, Excessive Visage sounds cool!

As does Chelsea Wolfe. I'm getting a slight Purson vibe from her, which is nice.

My song of the day is from Violens.

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I'm obsessed with them right now and their new album "True" will most likely appear on my end-of-the-year list.

I'm getting a "less exciting Gekkakou" vibe from it so far.

Interesting... I'm getting more of a "Destiny" vibe, at least from the part after the Engrish intro. Maybe a touch darker sounding than Destiny, though.

Versailles seems to have a knack for choosing the most tame/ generic parts for their previews (part of the chorus), so as usual, I can't even judge this really. Only a little over a week till it's released though.

PS:

"Formal Subscription of Masashi"

Wow, literally every song they've released so far, plus Yakusoku!

Impressive! I hope Yui's voice can hold up for that long. And I'm excited to see "melt into unite" down in the middle of the setlist. Does that mean the track will be played live (and not just as the instrumental "SE"-ish track they use to let the members walk out onstage)? If so, I'm loving that.

One thing that's a bit weird though: For the limited edition version of the Yakusoku release, out in just a few more days, there's a DVD with 2 live tracks (starting over and yakusoku). If I understood correctly, those two songs would be coming from this live (3.29), which is where this live DVD is pulling its material from. Kinda strange to see duplicate live tracks... Maybe they'll change around the angles or something when this DVD comes out?

omgomgomgomgomgomg

brb, having a heart attack

So ★NOハウス is going to be a real band?! Not a limited session thing?

Ahh, CD rental. That would be great for overseas fans too, but I think international CD rental would be pretty much implausible, haha.

It's nice to know that at least there's an alternative for Japanese fans though. A nice solution for the exorbitant price of buying CDs.

JiLL-Decoy Association is

I think I'm gonna have to check out Tales For The Abyss. I can't say I enjoyed A's Black or White albums too much, nor the Black Butterfly single (blasphemy!), but the Night of Knights single kinda got me interested. The review section has given me hope as you and some other people mentioned that Shangri-la wasn't really the best track on the album (which is a relief, because I didn't like the preview at all).

I think i'll try Les Discrets out too. It seems like something I could potentially get into.

Thanks for the list!

I didn't know Chromatics and Beach House had new albums!

And Luis Nanook sounds really nice.

空きっ腹に酒 (love the craziness), Wuja Bin Bin, mmm, Tahnya and number0 all sound like stuff I could really get into!

I just ordered my first Korean CDs the other day (the band "Nemesis," surprise surprise) and I was shocked to find out that Korean CD prices are pretty much the same price as American (around $15 for an album)... I felt rich for a second! Or rather, I always feel poor, since I order lots of Japanese CDs...

For some reason, I expected the inflated Japanese prices would also be found in some other Asian countries, particularly in Korea. Apparently not.

Which leads me to some questions:

-Are there any other countries with relatively inflated CD prices, in Asia or elswhere?

-Why does Japan actually have such high CD prices (around $35 and up, considering the shitty exchange rate) and how can it sustain this?

-With the influx of k-pop in Japan, and Korean groups also doing Japanese releases, can Japan really compete in the CD market?

Let's look at 2 examples, using Yesasia pricing:

-I remember reading once that Japan will often include exclusive bonus tracks on Japanese versions of American/European releases to help justify the price. (But that makes me wonder how they justify the already high prices of their domestically released prices...)

Basically, this sucks and makes me wish all the bands I like did Korean releases, haha.

Feel free to join in the gripe-fest, or please chime in if you have any insights on the matter.

Japanese:

ventla - BORN, BOOKMARK AND THEN DIE

ventla releases his albums for free and it is retro synth poppy perfection. Please listen.

己龍 (Kiryu) - 朱花艶閃

Without a doubt, my favorite album by them. One of the absolute best bands in VK right now.

女王蜂 (Ziyoou-vachi) - 蛇姫様

No surprise here, 女王蜂 delivers their signature psychedelic, noisy punk with Avu-chan's volatile vocals. Maybe their best release? In any case, another solid record.

DIMMDIVISION. - A Day In The PanoraMagic.

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This will definitely appear on my end-of-the-year list too, so get used to it. DIMMDIVISION. needs more love as they are an excellent underground band, creating some beautiful shoegaze-inspired music.

Non-Japanese:

Papa Topo - Rotación Y Traslación

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I've always had a thing for catchy spanish pop, and this Mallorcan band has taken their sound to the next level. For this mini-album, they experimented with a more mature, orchestral approach, and I dig it!

Belaire - Resonating Symphony

My favorite US band from my high school years finally released a second album after 5 years. This time, they went for a much dreamier bossa approach, which I am a huge fan of.

Kimbra - Vows (US Edition)

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Technically, Vows came out last year in New Zealand and was indeed a great album. However, almost a year went by before the US released her album (definitely riding the coattails of her cameo in Gotye's famous song). The album's tracklist was completely reworked getting 6 new songs and a live-take of an older song. In that sense, it's pretty much a new album. And it's awesome. If you like Janelle Monae's eclectic take on music, you should give Kimbra a try. Favorite new tracks are "Come Into My Head" and "Something in the Way You Are."

Looking forward to, for the rest of 2012:

テスラは泣かない - High noble march

Versailles new album

HaKU new album

caroline rocks new release (hopefully in 2012)

Hopefully 네미시스 (Nemesis), Rose Elinor Dougall, and Lamp will have new releases too

I've listened to it twice, and I REALLY like it so far. There's the signature dramatic Mio-synths/keyboard parts which I'm always a sucker for. There's technical, but fitting guitar elements (for a softer track), and Yui is sounding really good. He's improved so much since ALiBi. I must say I'm thankful there was no incongruous "heavy" guitar breakdown in the middle (a la "starting over," "AIVIE," etc), but rather a nice duel guitar solo. Much more interesting.

I remember thinking AIVIE was just "okay" when I first heard it, but even that grew on me a lot. Maybe this song, which I already enjoy, will grow on me even more!

My favorite part of the PV was the parts where it "scrolled" over the clips of the members playing on the white background. Wish there were more of that.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the title track! I hope the b-sides will continue the awesomeness.

HaKU announced in April that they were joining EMI music (major label) and releasing their first major label album in "autumn".

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Before that, however, they will release one last indie release, a so-called "pre debut single."

「Simulated reality “decoy”」

2012.07.18

525yen

1. 一秒間で君を連れ去りたい

2. novel decoy ver.

More info on their website: http://www.haku-music.net/news/

yeah it was a pretty bad idea to post requests when clearly there are other threads more suitable in my subject. Sorry hopefully won't happen again

I'm sorry if my reply came off as mean. I was just trying to be helpful, haha. No worries!

===============================================

Btw, this band definitely belongs here!

朱鷺-toki-

OHP

Myspace (More samples here)

They have a really refreshing sound. Kind of old-school influenced with great atmosphere. Maybe comparable to MUNIMUNI?

Check them out!

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YOcEO9s8cbU

@Heroin, I don't know if you'll find what you're looking for here.

If I understood correctly, the OP mainly created this thread to highlight some really unknown/underrated visual kei bands, with the intent of showing that some of these bands are "aren't bad, [but] pretty listenable." So I guess, trying to dispell the idea that every indie VK band is "crappy" (there's a thread for that too, haha).

If you want to discover more Japanese underground/indie bands in general (as in, not just limited to visual kei), then you should refer to the Japanese Indie Thread. Or you can ask for recommendations in the Music Recommendations Thread.