I do like really messy songs but this feels terribly executed. As if they were shooting for going out of the regular territory but didn't put time into making sure it came together well.
Especially that weird guitar sax sound what even was that.
I have decided to join the late round-up squad and bring to you my favourite musical discoveries of 2017.
Last year, I decided that I needed to really expand my horizons and hear what's out there besides visual kei. (gasp) It wasn't easy at first but once I stepped out into the vast world of music I came across some fantastic gems that I just wanted to share with everyone else. So here it is, my very personal list of stuff I think is worth a try (in no particular order).
ゲスの極み乙女。- 達磨林檎
The first time I listened to Gesu No Kiwami Otome, I thought I could tell exactly what they were about. The vocalist's style of singing screams "bowl cut, 10ft tall glasses and jeans that are too short for him" and I tend to approach this type of group with a negative mindset because they all sound the freakin' same. Anyways, I pushed through my prejudice to hear the whole album and my mind was blown. They're high energy, jazzy and quirky and sometimes such a sweet pop-rock that my ears bleed rainbows. Best of all is the acapela flourishes from the backing vocals which reminded me of the tv series Glee! (my guilty pleasure).
Favourite Track: 心地艶やかに | Spotify
東京ゲゲゲイ
They're my favorite discovery of '17. I just wanna get out on the street and preach the gospel of Tokyo Gegegay. Well, they're very gay. The frontman is a drag queen. It's pretty hard getting info on them if you don't speak Japanese, so I'd appreciate if anyone could share anything they know about this group! Their MVs are a must-watch because of their 10/10 dance performances. I'm so sorry for my shitty reviewing skills... I'll just let the experience speak for itself.
Favourite Track: ダンスが僕の恋人 (warning: NSFW)
女王蜂 - Q
It's almost impossible to find any of their stuff on youtube unless you're in Japan, so this video is relevant because they re-recorded this song with DAOKO for their album Q. 女王蜂, aka Queen Bee are popular for Avu's vocal gymnastics, alternating from deep masculine growls to a feminine falsetto in a matter of seconds. This album though, isn't as extravagant as their previous work. It feels more polished and mature. I miss 'the old' 女王蜂 but change is always good and this release is definitely worth a listen.
Favourite Track: 雛市 | Spotify
モノクロパンダ - モノクロパンダ
Monoqlopanda are awkwardly charming. If they don't make you feel some kind of way you don't have a soul.
Favourite Track: 空の泳ぎ方 | Spotify
Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds from Another Planet
Another one of my goals for 2017 was to listen to more female fronted acts because I barely know any at all. 'Soft Sounds from Another Planet' was one that stood out to me simply because of how chill it is. Although they have that lo-fi vibe there's still plenty of room for experimentation so that their sound doesn't become stale.
Favorite Track: Diving Woman | Spotify
Rina Sawayama - RINA
This lady here will take you right back to the tacky era of the early 2000's pop/ R&B except with a futuristic twist and a more palatable sound. Actually this release mixes a lot of elements from 80s pop music all the way through to the late 90s. Glistening synths, strong vocal melodies and punchy drums give way to dreamy soundscapes. Her lyrics for this album are all about cyber isolation and other phenomena that me and you as millenials who experienced the infancy of the internet and social media can relate to. It's catchy af and her voice reminds me of all j-pop divas that I used to like back in the day. There's a lot of influences to this album and it comes together to create something very nostalgic yet modern.
Favourite Track: 10-20-40 | Spotify
椎名林檎 - 人生は夢だらけ
Sheena Ringo is one of the top female artists in Japan ( at least she used to be, sharing the top three with queen Ayumi Hamasaki). Here in the forum you might remember a cover of one of her songs released by Sibile Bashir and that's how I discovered her. She might seem like a just another pop icon at first, but she has been experimenting with genres for years now. Her voice also has unique qualities that make her stand out from say, the likes of Utada Hikaru (no hate, I used to like her). She's not afraid to sound rough, belting out melodies and then going back to singing softly and in a fragile manner. This album is an example of her successful experimentation with various styles. I can't fault it. As far as I know she composes everything herself, the talented queen.
Favourite Track: おいしい季節 | Spotify
tricot - 3
They're an all female band, which is why I decided to try them but they're a lot more than that. I can't put it into words lol As a listener I just feel the joy these musicians feel for their material come through each performance so give them a listen and feel with me. (ps. they're classed as math rock and I hear people love that genre)
Favourite Track: MUNASAWAGI | Spotify
グリモア - グリモワール
In case I haven't said it enough grimoire are at the top of my favorite bands due to the flawless year they had in 2017. Their first album is a statement, solidifying their dreamy-dark concept and sound perfectly and is packed with killer guitar riffs. They re-recorded two singles 'Never End' and ' Boku to Tulpa' and actually noticeably improved both of them, I mean, how often do we get successful re-recordings in the vk sphere? Vocalist Rynk is the weaker part of the band, but even his child-like voice has shown growth in the short time span from the album to their last single 'uranometoria' (srsly suisou no umi gave me chills). I think it's unfair to label them as another gimmicky spooky kei band, but if you're looking for that kind of thing grimoire is the best man-child act in the scene right now. (sorry baboo)
Favourite Track: あましずくとマクガフィン
DADAROMA - いいくすりと、わるいくすり
The single is a typical ddrm release, although a little better than their stuff previous to this. Ii kusuri might have the heaviness so many fans have been wanting but warui kusuri was the standout track for me. Yoshiatsu's voice is charged with emotion and reading the lyrics hit my inner fangirl right in the feels (it's about sharing an umbrella with someone who's in a bad place). Probably the best ballad they'll ever release.
Favourite Track: わるいくすり
ダウト - 伝統芸能
dauto has been around forever and this is their most energetic album to date. If you need something to cheer you up, look no further. Different from their previous album 'shingitai' it has more electro elements, it's like a battlefield of synths in the first track. But regardless, it's a fantastic release with all the good typical dauto stuff: BASS, positivity and delicious vocal work from kouki. That's right, kouki's vocals are beautiful as usual, sue me. (I won't include the pv because it's embarassing to watch)
Favourite Track: 禁じられた遊び
OSTs
The only thing I listen to more than visual kei are video game soundtracks, so I decided to include my favourites for any OST fans out there.
Let me know what you think of my list and feel free to recommend any OSTs you thought stood out in 2017!
This new single called 「いつか変われる頃」(itsuka kawareru koro) will be available as of 2018.03.14 during their lives and via mail-order. (1000 yen) The second one will be released in April.
MEIDARA will release a free 2 month consecutive live limited release. 黒盤「混沌鬼ごっこ」(kuroban "konton onigokko") will be released from 2018.02.06. 白盤「キソウテンガイ」(shiroban "kisoutengai") will be released from 2018.03.27. They will also hold their one year anniversary live 【混沌の奇想】at 池袋CYBER (Ikebukuro CYBER) on 2018.05.09.
桜樹 和哉 announced on Twitter that he will be releasing his first solo album, "レトロフューチャー (RETRO FUTURE)," on April 18th. It will contain his previous 3 singles (不落のジェリー, 杞憂の暁, and カランコエ), with a total of 12 songs altogether. Further details are still to be announced.
Dang that was a mess and I like messy stuff but wooooOw. I mean I guess since budget Versailles didn't pan out for SW they gotta go for budget Pentagon.
Had some issues where last.fm wasn't working for me for a while so it really messed up my lists. But here it mostly is in in type super base tetsu fashion.
2017 has been an...interesting year, with so much unexpected drama and surprises that's to go down in history for years. So much has happened that I was able to put together two lists of band members caught in embarrassing , illegal, and reprehensible crimes and scandals. Before we put this year to rest for good, let's take another look at visual-kei and some of the less glamorous acts musicians have been up to this year.
Also before I begin, I have to shout out a few members who gave serious help in making this list possible. Thanks to @suji, @tetsu_sama69, @cvltic. and @doombox for all their help, as well as for those who broke the news in the first place and those that corrected my facts after publication!
Keina (ex-DIVEIN)
The first entrant on the naughty list is bassist Keina, who was fired earlier on July 7th from indie visual kei band DIVEIN (ディヴェイン) for "violating the rules of the visual kei industry". Earlier in 2017, KEINA was hospitalized for tonsillitis and took a break from musical activities. While on break, he participated in a session band without the rest of DIVEIN's permission, and this angered the other three members of the band. He also spread confidential information about upcoming lives and photo shoots on the side, so that was enough to get him the boot.
蕚 (Utena) (ex-DEGENE)
DEGENE announced on September 26th that they fired their vocalist 蕚 (Utena) for "bad behavior". Digging a little deeper, we find out that Utena committed violent acts against certain members of the band, trashed band equipment, and sent one or more people into mental break downs. The band stated that they could not find any way to improve his behavior, and each member felt a sense of crisis about his behavior. The other four members came to the same conclusion: “I can't work with him anymore”. In contrast, Utena's announcement about his departure did not mention his bad behavior. DEGENE went on a temporary hiatus until they could replace him.
Chaos (Glamscure, ex-INSANITY INJECTION)
One of the dual vocalists of Insanity Injection, Chaos, got the boot on May 31st for being involved in "deplorable acts on many occasions". What it was has not been clarified, but it was something bad enough to sow feelings of betrayal among the members. One can only speculate what he did, but he hasn't made another appearance since his departure, so perhaps he was blacklisted from the scene? The band has continued without him as three, which as we will see shortly is not usually the norm. Good on INSANITY INJECTION!
Update: Turns out that Chaos is still active in the VK band GLAMSCURE!
塁 (rui) (ex-REVLOW)
The last bassist of REVLOW, 塁 (rui), was fired from the band on August 5th. Management and band members discovered on July 29th that Rui was involved in many "anti-social acts" that corresponded with recent criminal acts in various Tokyo restaurants. Of note is that the official announcement used the kanji "反社会的", which is often used to refer to the yakuza. REVLOW cancelled the rest of their live dates, including their first one man show scheduled for August 29th, and rescinded the release of their CD, "'REVLISM-EP", scheduled for Aug 23rd. The band has not yet returned from hiatus, and none of the other band members have appeared in official projects. It's sad when an up and coming band gets ruined by the poor choices of one member. Three lumps of coal, one for each member you screwed over.
冬音 (Fuyune) (ex-サムクロ (Samurai Crows))
It's ironic that I found this picture of the purple-haired maverick while in a topic discussing crimes and other scandals. He was fired from his band サムクロ (Samurai Crows) on 2017/05/11 due to misconduct during their live at Ikebukuro BlackHole at 2017/5/5. He got a little too amped up and destroyed equipment, refused to apologize for it, and was caught verbally abusing people via private messaging service SNS. This is not only a rule not to be broken in visual kei, but also a rule not to be broken in society! Fuyune's misconduct caused the band to be dropped from their label, Me teaR music, and the band has been on hiatus after their live at Shinsaibashi paradigm on 2017/7/8. The other three members have moved on to a project called Bokutachi no neverland; Fuyune is still missing in action. I wonder if he has been soft blacklisted from the scene...
俐乃-rino- (ex - Synk;yet)
Remember how we established rules of the visual kei scene all members have to abide by? I can safely say one of them is to inform your band members and your label whenever you participate in a session band or a side project. Synk;yet's ex-guitarist Rino broke these rules and was terminated from his band and artist contract with Starwave Records on 2017/01/30, shortly after the return of bassist Shiori. The official reasons were "betrayal and breach of contract". Rino secretly planned musical activities with other management companies for two years behind other members' backs. He also had "private exchanges" with fans for money requests, but nothing confirmed as sexual. Synk;yet went on indefinite hiatus on 2017/05/21 despite their best attempts to keep it together, and Rino has wiped all traces of his online presence so no one knows what he is up to.
『L.』(ex-VAJRA)
Let's take it back to 2009 for a bit when grotesque face masks were all the rage and it was cool to rip off Dir en grey. There was an visual kei band named VAJRA, essentially a Dir en grey rip-off parading around as a silent tribute band, and mimicked all of their antics to carve out a meager existence in the indie circuit. VAJRA started by word of mouth and shot up in popularity quickly by sticking with the flavor of the month and putting on electrifying performances. Some of these lives would include fish hooking, vomiting, and public masturbation on the crowd, but the violent, unpredictable, ink-spitting guitarist『L.』took it too far one day. He was known for punching female fans in the face, giving them black eyes, and dragging them around by the hair on the stage, but he took up a notch for a live at Sendai on 2010/05/10, and caused fans serious injury. At first, he was put on house arrest and banned from lives temporarily, but soon after he "left" the band due to musical differences. There's room for interpretation on this. It is not known if he left because he wanted to and this was the breaking point, if he was forced out, or if he truly left on his own accord. VAJRA couldn't keep up the pace without him and virtually disappeared into disbandment. 『L.』found Jesus and work as an oshare-kei vocalist for the band Awake, now known as Eru.
Aki (ex-2bullet, ex-JackRose, ex-Concerto Moon)
Remember Takahiro from FAZ? He was covered in our first edition of the list and was caught trying to defraud people to fund band activities. It turns out that he had an accomplice! Aki, along with Takahiro, tried to defraud an elderly woman of 3 million yen. He was arrested once in November of 2016 and again in January of 2017, both for links to Takahiro and suspicion of fraud. Norifumi Shima of Concerto Moon immediately dismissed him from the band, while vocalist Re:i announced that JackRose would enter hiatus, since Aki was the composer and keyboardist. Ouch.
Ryuusei (ex-暁月 (Kyogetsu))
Another unwritten rule of the scene - one that is good practice to follow in most situations - is to keep internal band drama private. I love juicy drama stories as much as the next person, but band members spilling the beans about strife in their own project will only undermine their musical efforts. What happened to 暁月 (Kyogetsu) demonstrates this perfectly. Our story begins on early September 2017, with a few incendiary tweets from guitarist Ryuusei on Twitter. In the first tweet he claims that all bangya not attracted to him are into Himura of Bananaman, or ugly men in general. The second tweet was a little more pointed:
This hit a raw nerve with a lot of fans because it came on the heels of several unexpected disbandments. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. On his blog, Ryuusei went into detail about several aspects of the scene which up to now were just rumors and which come together to make life difficult for him and his band. A few of the things he mentioned (while also explicitly noting that he didn't know everything) were:
Ticket quotas as fees for live performances. Ryuusei does the math on how many tickets they need to sell to cover for the fees, which is dependent on how many fans show up to see them and that's before the band members split the money five ways.
Poor return on investment for popular vk standbys such as cheki.
Name drops the GazettE in a section about how well popular bands with a "pretty bassist" do financially. This got Reita's attention with a fiery response of his own.
Low wages paid from the indie labels.
How difficult it is for bands to recover once they are "in the red" and how close 暁月 (Kyogetsu) is to reaching that point after three years.
Asks fans to spend more money at shows, less at host clubs, and to tell him more information about salaries of other band men.
You can see how this won't go over well. It's one thing to blow the whistle, but when you do you better know all of the facts. Constantly dropping figures about how much your competition makes relative to you while claiming you don't know for sure is a fast way to draw a ton of well-deserved criticism both from outside and within, and that's exactly what happened. On top of that, the claims made do not mesh well with the stories I've heard about what lengths some fans will go to support their favorite artist or band. I know that some tsunagari will go as far as to feed, clothe, shelter, and fuck a band man or two just to support them! But treating your fans like ATMs and literally telling them to "If you have money, use it. High schoolers, study so you can make money in the future." is trash. To me, it seemed like Ryuusei is looking for a scapegoat for his band's poor performance. Fans struck back by revealing his name, his bare face, his DMs, and even coordinating to send 100 pizzas to his house! Ryuusei threatened to get the police involved if the situation escalated further.
His behavior afterwards is what sealed the deal. His band mates wanted nothing to do with the controversy this generated, as the vocalist even went so far as to hold an "apology twicast", and posted many apologetic tweets, even individually replying to people to apologize long before Ryuusei commented on the issue. However, Ryuusei did eventually apologize before backtracking the very next day. In his second blog post, he starts by claiming he only apologized because he was forced to. He then deflects the contents of the first post to "netogya" (a derisive term referring to online fans that don't go to shows, meaning most of us here), apologizes for name dropping bands and labels, claims he's always trying to be controversial and that this is no different, and claims that he thought this was common knowledge so there would be no problem. This only provided fuel for the fire.
The sad thing is that, as you could have guessed by now, these guys were virtually unknown before this. Shame is a very powerful deterrent in Japanese culture, and I've seen lesser drama capsize bigger bands than this. By constantly undoing the damage control his band members tried to provide, and by backpedaling and baiting Tanuki, Ryuusei put Kyogetsu in a spot where they had to kick him out to continue or disband. They did both. Bassist Shogo jumped ship first, but the formal disbandment of Kyogetsu was announced for October of 2017.
Setsuna (ex-THE EGOIST)
Whenever I write one of these lists, one person ends up doing something that eclipses everything else I discuss. Setsuna, guitarist of THE EGOIST, takes the "honors" for this position this time, although it's not something to be proud of. 2017 was not a kind year to THE EGOIST, as they paused activities earlier in the year when they lost contact with their vocalist, but things came to a breaking point by the end of the year in what will remain a black mark on visual kei for a long time to come. The timeline gets hazy at points but what we do know for certain is that Setsuna, also known as Keisuke Kawasaki (thanks NHK!), began an intimate relationship with a woman named Uran Hirayama while engaged. Uran didn't know he was engaged when she met him with the wedding planned to the degree where the venue had already been picked. The marriage was held sometime during his relationship with Uran as well.
It is not confirmed if she was a mitsu of his, but what we do know is that they had a very tumultuous relationship, all documented on Hirayama's twitter. Uran used the account as a regular personal account initially, but at some point the account became flooded with pictures and screenshots of the newly minted couple. Many LINE screenshots show both happy times as well as arguments, including one where Uran demanded to know if Setsuna had slept with a tsunagari/mitsu of his named Ayumi. He initially denies it, but admits to eventually sleeping with her once and apologizes, swearing Uran is the only one he really cares for. He ends up saying something similar on his public Twitter: "I've had relationships with various women, but aside from Uran I was just messing around. I'm very sorry. I'm considering marrying [her] in the future". No mention of his wife. Other pictures included Disney date pictures, many pictures of them in the snow as a couple, and of course the now-infamous video of him eating out Uran's ass (note to future readers: he chows down). Considering this is all in public view, it didn't take long for his "wife" to come across some of it; she apparently went ballistic when she found purikura of her and Setsuna kissing in his wallet.
Things get demented as the year winds down to a close. The messages on Uran's Twitter become more alarming; her profile stated 'I wish to be reborn and marry Keisuke in my next life', she posted screenshots of one of Setsuna's tweets that basically said he "will be one" with Uran (which he quickly deleted from his page), tweets about gifts she bought with the money she got from sex, and more. At some point, Setsuna informs Uran that he was married and in retaliation, she dumps all of this information on her Twitter. She also had at least one suicide attempt around December 3rd, likely in response to all of these happenings. Despite his marriage, he still publicly pines for Uran after all of this. The following is my guess of what happens next: Uran tells Setsuna about her suicide attempt(s) and he tries to talk her out of it, but ends up agreeing to commit double suicide with her a week later on December 9th. We know this because Uran sent the explicit details of the plan to one of her close friends around 3pm that day, which was later posted to her Twitter page. The person who posted the notice in no uncertain words claims it was intended to be a double suicide and firmly believes that was their original intention. This same friend also contacted the police with all of the information she had at her disposal, but by the time the police showed up to Uran's apartment at 9pm the deed was done. She was found on her futon, her room was locked, there were no signs anyone had been through her belongings, and there was a handwritten suicide note next to unused charcoal briquettes. I can only guess the plan was to lock themselves in a room and suffocate to death, but Setsuna had a last-minute change of heart, ended up choking her to death, locked the door, and left.
It took the detective work of another of Uran's friends to connect Setsuna to this mess and to send the police to his door. He admitted to the killing and was promptly arrested. When asked his occupation, he claimed he was a "part-timer" and did not mention THE EGOIST, his band mates, or his label. Thus, the band was able to avoid most of the wrath of the Eye of Sauron, but they still chose to disband anyway to distance themselves from the stigma as much as possible. I don't blame them. The story stops here for now, but there are a lot more questions to be asked than can be answered. As for the most important one, as one of Uran's friends put it, "The only way to know the circumstances that led to Uran being the only one who died is to ask [Setsuna] himself". Maybe this information will come out in a court trial soon.
UPDATE: THE EGOIST disbanded earlier in 2017 due to the departure of their vocalist. UPDATE 2: His trial started one year after the incident. Setsuna stated that Uran asked him to kill her, so he "helped her". Since the tribunal couldn't verify if that is true or not they accepted that Setsuna killed her on request and therefore reduced his sentence from 13 years to 3.5 years in prison.
Thanks for reading! Hopefully, band members will behave and another one of these lists won't come for a good while
tetsu_sama69 got a reaction from Manji 卍 in Nocturnal Bloodlust will release a new EP
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tetsu_sama69 got a reaction from helcchi in Ba.基(Motoi) will leave DAYDALA
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tetsu_sama69 got a reaction from Kathy in 罰×ゲヰム(Batsu Game) new single 『罪深い』 release + will disband
tetsu_sama69 got a reaction from ぺるしゃ猫 in 罰×ゲヰム(Batsu Game) new single 『罪深い』 release + will disband
tetsu_sama69 got a reaction from doombox in Last.fm Collage Generator