saiko

Talking about another interest of mine, while looking up for old VK dedicated web sites, I've found a translation done for an interview with SOFT BALLET. Here's a quotation that put me into deep-thinking, in which Ken Morioka (their keyboardist/guitarist and, I suppose, their leader), when asked about his thoughts over his flamboyant looks and stage performances, talks about his interest in gender-trascending aesthetics in spite of him "not being gay". 

When I saw the stage I thought of how you were the weirdest one Ken. Is that because you were thinking of that visual aspect?
Ken: Ah, well...(laughs). A large part of that comes from where I'm a narcissist and I'm all like "Lookie, lookie! Look at Meee!". And then there's the part of me that really loves and adores appearing to move in a state that's transcended gender, so I suppose that's where I'm coming from....

Meaning?
Ken: It's that I've gotten a lot of influence from various people, but I've been like this from a long time ago. I really wanted to become a woman, and I never really thought to deny that feeling. It doesn't mean I'm gay though. There's a sense that I was building up and developing my own preferences.

(If you don't know who Ken Morioka or SOFT BALLET is, next I'll leave a video of them performing live:)

This quotation made me revive an old interest of mine on how gender or sexual orientation identities circulate particularly within the people of the VK scene. Till today, there's enough been written about that topic, but taking Japanese society as a whole or some of their products (as anime/manga) as the unit of analysis, but I've never came across something related to VK although I've defintely did a specific search. What always triggered me is that, if we keep in mind the obvious fact that VK aesthetics rely essentially over challenging gender/sexual orientation performances, then it can't not come weird or suspicious that 99% of band members since VK was born --that 1% goes for Kaya and Ao Sakurai-  don't actually talk about the matter, while at the same time they are always straight-supposed within the logic of selling out as idols for their gya. And the few times they do so they have the urgence of make clear that they are actually "not gay" -and then in the commentary section fans support this statements by remebering the doubting fans that said bandoman actually has a kid "so he is definitely not gay!!!". Actually, I've read very, very few comments of Japanese fans supposing/acknowledging the LGBTness of their favorite bandoman and nontheless supporting them as artists, but maybe that's because I have a hard time looking up into Japanese web sites and translating. (Also, perhaps many bandoman actually talked enough about the fact in a serious way, but I  still don't have the chance to read them since only 5% of the interviews made up being translated).

Of course, I've been aware since the beggining of my stay in the weeb fandom that Japan, while not having serious persecussion issues towards LGBT people -at least in their last 50 years of history-, definitely don't finish to get politically open about it, and that's why society decided to treat the matter in a don't-ask-don't-tell fashion. I'm also aware that this fact takes place in a more general tendency of Japanese people to obssesively keep their lives and relationships actually very private, too.  But I can't not ask myself if it isn't at least a bit fool of someone, fan or not, to assume that naturally that every bandoman is "not-gay", in a scene where artistic creativity emerges from fantasies of "men" transforming into "women", or even into un-gendered beautiful creatures, even involving into sex with/as them?  (On a personal note, although I don't actually know their reasons behind, I always liked @nekkichi and other users attempt here to call every bandoman by "her").

What are your thoughts on this topics?

5 hours ago, -NOVA- said:

 

I'm liking it more than the regular djenty -Polyphiac Dimlim stuff, so I'm definitely on board does this.

Also, love Sho's tribute to 2001's 'Macabre' Kyo. 

10 hours ago, nekkichi said:

I need her to announce the genre of their next album as "monalisa-kei. the one and only sub-genre of art-kei we have succintly co-developed together. please find your own words to describe it once you hear it." while wearing a beautiful bridal gown and eating sugared lilac/carnation/marigold petal 𝒶𝓈𝓈ℴ𝓇𝓉𝒾 from a little tea plate.

This is my fantasy for sure.

This video along with Fender's clip of J trying a model from their new Ultra series...

...makes me wonder why the Western music industry's big fishes' visibility of J-rockers (and thus their legitimacy over them as rock musicians) is happening today, with a VK scene deader than ever, both in Japan and abroad, and not in 2007.

Is 2020 going to be a revitalizing year for VK despite all our -accurately justified- apocalyptic thoughts?

3 hours ago, evenor said:

 

Important things to take from this:

1. Die shares that his fav fast riffs are from deg's debut album gauze

Dear Monochromians:

Can we just accept the fact that 'Gauze' is the most perfect gem Dir and VK as a whole scene gave us all, so much that nothing of it will be ever able to overcome such a miracle of art? Xoxo.

Edit: wtf is 'psychobilly'. Are we discovering Dir's actual '~kei'?

I've just ended up a whole listen of a list with all the Moran PVs. Pleasant stuff, many sweet sounds picked my ear at moments, but definitely it is not something that goes beyond good generic stuff:  good compositions, good musicians, but nothing far good from your average formulaic jazzy J-rock.

4 hours ago, chemicalpictures said:

have you tried the 'dark' mini? IMHO is peak experimental, melancholic Moran. Great stuff, really

Maybe my appreciation above came because, in the will of having a compressed listening/watching of a whole career in a matter of hours, I've ended up digging their A-sides only, let's say, their commercial-oriented stuff. So I'll try the B-sides you recommend here, to challenge the opinion I've made up till this point.

In the other hand, this song from Hitomi's recent project caught strongly my attention from the first second, for sure: 

The synth and chorus work is REALLY beautiful. Reminds my of some 90s J-pop songs, like the one that made the opening of the Serial Experiments Lain series.

Btw, Does anybody know why is there so little material from Umiyuri uploaded to the web?

Edit: I've digging into Moran a bit more, and I've discovered actually beautiful and amazing songs!

This is actually really complex for a pop-oriented A-side.

And this is all about the musicianship composition wise I was looking for!

Now I'm really looking forward more stuff from this talented guys!

Why didn't I see this earlier. Moran still can't get into my radar (God knows I tried). Maybe I'll give them a chance soon! Thank you so much for this pieces of historianship!

8 minutes ago, Jigsaw9 said:

[offtopic] That's exactly his next gig, haha.

 

[/offtopic]

Well, it seems that they've actually acknowledged the hype they've stirred upon their stans with the celebration of the 25th anniversary event. So I seriously hope for the upcoming event that they at least play more Malice Mizer songs instead of N.P.N.G lol

Since Mako got active again I hope this means some kind of return to activities for Yuki or Malice Mizer altogether as well, even if they consists in more anniversary lives.

Not wowed, but kept me entertained for 4:13 minutes.

For being another cosplay kei look, at least it seems very well done. Vocalist's one seems pretty.

6 hours ago, Elazmus said:

Ready, set....

This is amazing.

Incredible, thanks!

45 minutes ago, suji said:

Ｍの導創会 setlist:

1.GAUZE -mode of adam- 

2.Schweinの椅子

3.業

4.JEALOUS

5.残

6.God of Megaromania

(songs 1-5 by Dir en grey)

I don't know the guys, but this might be my session-band event fantasy. I stan.

Also, is there going to be a DVD release from it? 

1 hour ago, nomemorial said:

Hell, I'm pretty sure most of the people on here enjoy visual kei with a certain level of self-awareness that it's extremely niche (and kind of goofy) ((and often honestly kind of really bad)) but we still dig it for our own reasons.

 

I hope so.

24 minutes ago, Disposable said:

Also the biggest media draws are getting dangerously close to retiring for good if not by their own will then by time itself. The international rock circuit is not going to recover once those legends are gone and the time is almost here, and I'm open for suggestions as to who'll replace X, GLAY and L'arc and draw like they did. 

 

d-dude...

2 hours ago, BrenGun said:

 

But do we really want that?

I mean... visual kei... most bands suck anyway and don't even play the music which the mainstream will like.

This is, for me, one of the key points on the matter.

2006-2010 was a period when the offer VK did was still innovative, diverse, and at the same time close to the on-going music trends worldwide (rock was still in their cool years). It couldn't not have a success, at least at a minimum, in a niche way. Even with their flops, because yeah, I agree with many of you here that Mucc, Dir, Giru, D'espa or Gazette's take on Western trends sometimes delivered cringe-worthy material, plus all that no-homo shit over getting rid of their queer aesthetics... but hey, isn't that what art is about, creativity? At least they tried to evolve, offer their worshipers something different and outdo themselves each time.

So, speaking of today, I don't care about whether the music of the VK scene will be taken or not by the mainstream media, but I certainly will care about the quality of it if that scenario ever happens at least at a minimum. It would be actually embarrasing to have someone you've previously told you like "vk" finding about Pentagon, Golden Bomber or Under Fall Justice after looking up for it in the web, or keep wowing over the same boring heart-munching blood-sucking perfos since  

Obscure's PV... 

That said, over the years it happened to me that the more VK band I discover, the more shitty stuff I find, like, the stuff that really makes the difference in a listen could be actually, let's say, a 30~40% of the whole VK releases, while the rest being cheap BL cosplay ost's that I will always prefer it stays on the niche it belongs.

13 minutes ago, Himeaimichu said:

Also, there are a ton of people, regardless of their political affiliation, who wear colored hair. Dyed hair is arguable more popular and accepted than it ever was, and so are piercings and makeup on men. 

The current social climate is arguably the best for Visual Kei, because alternative fashion is becoming more normalized as people just stop giving a fuck. I mean, Scene fashion is seeing a revival in 2020, and in recent years, Gothic Rock and Post Punk made a mini comeback. People are finally starting to no longer giving a fuck what you look like, or what you wear. 

Curious to see where is post punk and gothic reviving.

8 hours ago, geist said:

Whenever I think of lynch, I think of "stale pop-metal". I always listen to these guys expecting some good, heavy-hitting, music, and all I get is music that's one degree of separation from Babymetal -- pop with a commercialized "metal sound" layered over the top for affect.

 

Fingers crossed they step it up.

7 hours ago, nekkichi said:

vk band on a major label syndrome. there're younger and less accomplished bands doing exactly that, and I don't really blame lynch for turning their sound into what you've described.

having no advance hype for their releases really helps digest whatever they come up with nowadays.

But guys, has Lynch ever came up with something 'different' or 'genuine', or something, not sure how to say it, 'artistic' or 'not-a-bit-touched-by-a-commercial-approach'?

I actually kind of like some features of their approach to alt-metal, but let's be honest, they've been doing pretty much the fucking same since their first release, to say quickly: every western nu-metal/posthardcore cliché driven by the gothic-hypermelodic visual kei trademark that hits the choruses, alternated in the setlist with Luna Seaesque post-punky ballads. That's why I love them, and that's also why I love, don't know, ~10 or so songs by them, and definitely fucking skip the whole rest of their huge discog with zero regrets because, hey, when I say it sounds the same it's LITERAL (God knows I tried to 'find' some actual deep musicianship into it...). The situation remains so literal that lynch is to me one of the best and yet mysterious examples of bands that are formed by seemed talented people, also do pretty well in their bussiness, but paradoxically deliver low-quality releases 90% of their time.

All this said to ask you why would you care much on whether this may be a cool release or not.

41 minutes ago, Komorebi said:

Just a heads up to everyone who is expecting br00tal stuff... keep waiting. 

Sena stated in a recent Barks interview that JILUKA will enter a third “stage”, so to speak, and this is the direction for said stage, with more emphasis on clean vocals.

I'm not against it. I've never found the point on making every song you release in a row full of breakdowns and screaming without any other musical feature from the million being out there. Like, yeah, I love songs like that, but having everything made by band being like that bores me very quickly. What is an artist without creativity, after all?

4 hours ago, Wakarimashita said:

I wish we could get something more than just band members playing instruments and dramatically overacting in empty, abandoned places lol. That makes it two in a row after Elice in slow motion... I really miss that little bit of storytelling from, say, Omelas or Mephisto

Adding to this, I can't stand musicians in PVs posing in ways that obviously don't match their playing. I mean, I love dramatic overacting while playing (that's why I'm here, after all), but also love it complementing an outstanding playing over a cool line. When that doesn't happen, like here, I don't feel there's an actual musicianship, but rather a cosplayer trying to pull out an anime fantasy over a anicon stage instead of anything else.

Wow, this look Hazuki and the drummer went full-on vk! I praise. Hope the new songs are interesting as well (and not more boring post-hardcore cliché moves).

P.d.: Screaming @ that killer portion of nude upper leg lefting from Hazuki's hot-pants.

Lol @ "La Siesta" meaning literally "The nap" in Spanish

Wow, this 00s homage-kei look... Wasn't this a band a pop-rock oriented one?

5 hours ago, rekzer said:

Mexico got an extra song.

 

But they were Saku and STU haha

 

Also kyo posted on his instagram that we should stop being wannabe weebs and listen more to their songs so that we can sing correctly next time.

 

 

Kyo being sweet

1 hour ago, EvilHippy said:

Very bold of fans think that DEG will bring overseas songs from visual era. I'm always cringed when people want to hear Cage, Zakuro and all of that stuff.

Old discussion, but they should. They have no excuses. They are the only big band I know that keeps actively erasing their (glorious and historical) past again and again. Seriously, I can't understand what's the wrong thing with Gauze and Macabre. Yeah, sure those songs aren't as "alt-metal" as they'll like it know, but wtf dude, without 'Cage' you'll be nothing now, so pay a bit more of respect to that.

9 minutes ago, Takadanobabaalien said:

Bruh, everything they released after setsudan as la:sadie's is pure poser music. I personally preferred kyo when he was masquerade /: 

Of course (?)