deedlitmurata

Although I listen mostly vkei/jrock; I have some favorites in the Jpop space that I would totally recommend, and happen to be from the 80's and 90's. One of my favorite bands is TM Network, led by the legendary keyboardist Tetsuya Komuro and fronted by the sexy Utsunomiya Takashi, their most popular song is Get Wild, but sharing another one of my favorite songs first from their 1990 album "RHYTHM RED BEAT BLACK"  
 
 
Get wild (from 1987) for the sake of completion:
 
And another favorite of mine is access, led by the popular keyboardist Daisuke Asakura (he started as a roadie of TM network ) and he started his own unit in the early 90's, I love their concept and they're still around making great music, this is one song from a controversial trilogy of songs they released xD feel free to investigate more on it LOL, this is the second song of the trilogy called "Scandalous blue" released in 1994: 
 
 

What a great idea, I never thought of that..

Ya. But you can do the trick I use: make a dupe account using secondary e-mail,  with fake Japanese name, house address and Japanese bank info,  (you can google this stuff, there are website prividing that for free), and it is IMPORTANT to do all these on incognito!
 
Then with your main account, send   Amazon JP e-gift card to the dupe and voila, profits! 👌
 

The "LAMENT" mini album is actually pretty good, it is high quality music. I don't think it sounds that similar to DEG, DEG nowadays is just growling mostly, so it really doesn't sound anything like this mini album at least xD  it's very pleasant to listen to

Nice of Koji and Michi to bring steampunk to visual kei and make it fabulous.
 
I'm loving the preview and expect great things from them. I'm gonna have a hard time picking between them and Bräymen. LOL

I wonder what sound they're gonna have following what theyve done with knot invisible, I'd be kind of down with something more heavy but I dont think that's the direction they're going into

i received the albums today, limited A and B, I'm still shocked... the only thing I can say is that the album is a masterpiece.. i'll post more thoughts later xD

Thanks so much for this post ^^ this album is a masterpiece, I am also very happy to see that it's being translated. I really appreciated exit lyrics, it's an epic song and the lyric is very poetic, I agree Ryo is a bit hard to understand but there is deep meaning and it always rhymes beautifully when he sings ❤️

i have the book and i'd love to tackle translating the rest someday but i don't think my japanese is advanced enough atm.....
the book is also quite thick so it would take a long time to translate the whole thing....

Some more smiling FULL ~

It would be interesting if any of the users above can tell why they think the band they are bringing on can be considered "unique".
 
From my experience of almost a decade listening to vk, I think the bands with the most unique sound (and overall concept) are the ones that stay in the fandom as the big ones, because they were the bands that contributed to define the estructures of the look, sound, lyrics, performance, etc. that make of vk a stablished and recognizable scene/genre. Sometimes I think it's not that hard to stand out with a creative proposal in this scene, since one of its core atributes since the early times was being vastly plagued of cheap copy-cats (what nowadays it went to the extreme of the parody, and made a genuine subgenre from itself: what in this lands they call "homage-kei").
 
In this direction, it would be really interesting to trace the different genealogies of sound, visuals, etc. within the scene. For example: the lines of power-metal bands from X; the goth lines of D'erlenger and Kuroyume (then hardcore-punk); the neoclassical line (Malice Mizer, Lareine, Raphael) etc.

Guniw tools sound wasn't always incredibly unique(plagiarism accusations), but certainly unusual and experimental  for vk. Full's voice is an acquired taste and the songs range from folk inspired pop to industrial, so I've noticed that they tend to be pretty polarizing when I try to introduce people to them.

Yojiro Noda of Radwimps/Illion is spectacular at English, even on their first album, you wouldn't think he was Japanese
 
 

Plastic Tree this year!!!
 
Ryutaro - Hello Kitty
Kenken - My Melody
Tadashi & Akira - Lala & Kiki (Little Twin Stars)
 
 

Mana is probably like 60 years old. 

So I received the Aki Revolve album this week, and I have to say I am very pleased and surprised by how good this album is, my favorite song was AFTERWORD, I really love the synths in it with a very catchy rhythm, I've seen some people complaining about Aki's synth  usage, but in my case I love it, and I agree this is the nearest to Laputa sound, especially in the last albums like New temptation, they were moving into that direction and I think it fits very well with Aki's voice, after that my second favorite was 螺旋メリーゴーランド, this song has some guitar lines that reminds me of Laputa older works too, like silent on looker and songs like that, very melodic and pleasant to listen to. Then I loved CLIMAX STARLIGHT, BACK IN THE DAY had very strong beautiful synths and a fast paced chorus that I enjoyed very much, and the lead song REVOLVE is also very good, synths and great guitar solos, this combination is total WIN.
 
I think I'm going to buy some of the other albums, and I saw he released some new EPs too, but I don't see them listed in the Zoisite shop page, maybe it will be featured later ^^  it's very refreshing to listen to Aki's voice again, I really missed some new material with his beautiful voice. I think their looks were ok, not the main reason of why someone would follow a band, the music needs to be good, and if they look good, for me that's just a plus, in the case of Aki, I think he looks pretty similar to what he looked back then, maybe less thin, but that's just age, he still looks cool and mystic, for me he looks a bit like Yukiya Fujita which is another singer I admire a lot and well, considering Aki has almost 50 it's amazing how good he looks in my opinion, and the voice is still as I remember it back in Laputa. 
 
When you draw Aki, please definitely share it I would love to see it.

no entiendo de que hablan... y eso que yo hablo español xD

Most people I know personally name them as just another band they like. And most of them also like dir en grey 😃. I watched some videos (illegally) uploaded on youtube of the solo projects of the other two members and I feel somehow that aki's work resembles Laputa the most. Though I cannot consider it as a continuation of Laputa, it is good enough for me to believe Laputa just changed again. Maybe, if they had not disbanded, this would be how they'd sound now. (But I still like Laputa more). And I'll be looking forward to your opinion on Aki's work. Thank you for talking interest in his solo work too so positively. Once, I searched his name on twitter and found some really negative comments on him, not about his music but his appearance. It is sad that some fans have turned to such views. Though I believe they didn't actually look so good in real life (maybe except for one member), it is simply... too wrong to reject his music because of it. This is one thing I hate about visual kei. The other is the aggression of fans. Surprisingly, the Laputa fans I know, (who also do not hold such opinions and continue to support him), are so much better than the ones I encounter elsewhere.
 
I read all the tweets on Kouichi's account and I came across him saying he wants to work in Tamiya: "最近　個人的な趣味から　TAMIYAに就職を熱望します　が　バンドはやめなければならないでしょうね". Seems more believable, especially with the latter clause. The account has a lot of weird tweets lol. I can barely understand what he has written in English. And also some personal looking tweets, one of which I take some pleasure in writing here lol: "あーぁ　always helena give my painful. because she want to love again...Now elsa love me so crazy..helena knew about there things. 別れたい". I view it with great doubt that he'd actually write something like that on an official account. But he might just be joking lol.
 
The truth is that I draw them frequently and don't want to spam this thread any more 😂. I am currently drawing Junji and have a plan for drawing aki later (in a certain impressionistic painting from the 1800's perhaps lol). Tomoi too after that. I am just an unemployed 15 year old hobbyist who has no other work (= no commissions) lol. But I am indeed busy due to which I couldn't reply any sooner.
 

This one, for me it's a perfect song, very beautiful and sad; and it has english subs so we can all suffer and have our hearts broken   hahaha
 
 
 

Start by checking bands that are similar to those that you like already, keep a list of those you find interesting to deep dive more on, dedicate some time to discover new bands, the results are always very nice, youtube is a great place for this nowadays, it's not that hard as it was at the beginning

I've been very excited about RAZOR, I didn't follow BORN that much but I thought it was ok.. however, I find RAZOR totally amazing and I would love to see them release some concert footage in DVD or something. I ordered the new single, it should arrive on tuesday.. I will post my thoughts then

I'm also very happy to be able to talk about them.. honestly I don't know anybody else who likes this band the way I do, so i understand the feeling lol  the previews for this album sound awesome, my mailing service says the album will arrive this week, so I will definitely publish my opinion on it ^^  I can't wait to hear new music with Aki's voice which I always liked so much. A few days ago I got nostalgic, and I watched the "Heaven to perfection" DVD, that is such a great concert, I love the set list.  Unfortunately I'm not in Japan, but I'm planning to go by the end of the year for some other concerts I'm interested in, so I will be checking Aki's schedule in case he has something planned around those dates.
 
Thanks for sharing the Kouichi account, I don't think someone would fake him.. since he is not that famous now, so maybe it is legitimate. About DADA, the only DADA I know of is the vocalist from the band Velvet Eden, I haven't seen them much active recently, so maybe Koichi is working something with this person? interesting..  and thanks a lot for sharing the drawing! it looks amazing you have very good drawing skills, maybe you should draw Aki too, or maybe you have done it already? if so, please share too

Start by checking bands that are similar to those that you like already, keep a list of those you find interesting to deep dive more on, dedicate some time to discover new bands, the results are always very nice, youtube is a great place for this nowadays, it's not that hard as it was at the beginning