saiko

it's almost like there were 4 years of shows and a prior release that clearly set the tone of his solo performances under the "souen" title as being ballad covers with orchestral or piano arrangements 🗿 anyway as someone who was at the show in january the portion with the japanese instruments is sublime, glad to see it being preserved even though it seems he couldn't secure the licenses for all of the songs. ryuichi himself was in attendance for that forever & ever performance which is pretty wild
 
@saiko
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq7e8rcgRzn/ - nakigara wo clip from dec 2018
i don't remember if there was an ain't afraid to die video but if i find it i'll come back
 
 

I'm not even talking about all other possible options i.e. a tote bag + CD inside or a signature kaoru jenkem vape pen + micro USB with the audio
 
a VK band having a money milking idea shortage is kinda surprising u know

kyofi ambient ranunculus beats to relax/study to

Chill/melancholic ambient MIDI beats to relax/study to

No no no. Your humor is my fav thing on the boards haha. Never change star child 

hey all you cool cats and kittens! We have luckily not disbanded in 2 months as the coolio Karma's Hat predicted but who knows haha.
finally we were able to arrange photos during this crazy corona festival.
Have to wait a little bit longer to announce our bassist though >.<! New single Dataizai coming soon as well~
Am talking to STARWAVE about when we can do an event as well but still sketchy here.
can see more images on our twitter plus me being a dork on TOKYO BORDERLESS TV at: https://twitter.com/Encelldisdein
Stay safe out there~!

This is one of the most enlightening things I've read in a long, long time.

Oh man CAT5 and chem discussed a topic that's very relevant to me.
 
Despite being a mixed race black guy myself I remember falling down the stupid reactionary rabbit hole back during my teenage and early adult years. These were the days where the skeptic reactionary community proliferated on Youtube and such, to such an extent that these sentiments basically dominated the platform. Videos bashing feminism, black lives matter, mixed market capitalism, and pro LGBTQ content would receive around 95-100% approval ratios from the community, inundated by circlejerk reactions, where lefties often fell prone to being too timid and afraid to express their voices, and high quality lefty content would be heavily censured and bashed simultaneously by the community.
 
I was involved in it, to an extent, and while I was still  fairly open minded compared to many of my younger reactionary companions (this is how I managed to get out of that shit) I was definitely one of those typical reactionary centrist types you'd see on Youtube , debating with people in comments sections, often to the extent of seeing views heavily backed and supported by spectators, while the 'social justice warrior' types would receive the short end of the stick due to the disproportionate ratio of reactionaries to lefties that persists within the social political Youtube sphere. Seeing my views validated only encouraged me to continue engaging with people. I even uploaded a few videos here and there, and had even engaged with Lauren Southern several times (before she exploded in popularity). I could easily see why so many Youtubers became grifters. 
 
While I certainly did believe that racism was a valid issue in the united states, even during that time, I still failed to see the extent to which it persisted, despite bein a brown person myself. At my worst, which thankfully didn't last too long, I believed that black people were disproportionately targeted by cops because they simply committed far more crime. But eventually I realized  some of the nuances involved. You cannot make excuses for racial profiling, because racial profiling is fundamentally wrong. It's not something you can so easily justify and it's a dangerous belief to have. This can lead to innocent people being persecuted, and even beaten or killed. Unarmed black people are murdered at a rate much higher than unarmed white people. There are also better ways to handle criminality. Rehabilitation, investing in social programs, infrastructure, etc.
 
This may sound incredibly dumb but there is some truth to it - But I also believe that one of the reasons so many people 'swallow the red pill' is because they're young and somewhat rebellious kids who feel suppressed by a left leaning society. I say this because I felt that way, and I knew others who felt that way. When you feel like you're not allowed to express or believe certain things because it'll 'trigger' others, and you see the way that people flip the fuck out as they hastily label you as prejudiced for expressing your views, whether ignorant or not. This is harmful. You can't teach someone the proper way simply by calling them names and refusing debate. This is part of what shaped my views as a 19 year old. There are better ways to open someone up to more healthy and utilitarian views. I could have benefited from that.
 
 

This awkward Japaneseness reaches new levels every day omg

u stan vivid

Still so unlisteneable and so unwatchable that it starts to grow its own charming in me. Is this the reason behing putting up such artistc garbage?

my shameless nobudget ICONS 

I’m a B+
 
B-type people are super rare in my region so fingers crossed that nobody will be needing blood transfusions anytime soon. 
 
The takeaway: Let’s all donate blood if/while we can ♥️

A pipe burst at the office
 
And the goods, or rather CDs & DVDs, that were in stock were all destroyed
 
"I'm trying to appear like it's ok but really everything's hopeless"
Everything's hopeless could be about the goods or his mental state or both
 
"It looks like I'm going to have to talk with the insurance agent, but even then not everything will be returned, we can't remake these things, and I'm overflowing with millions of memories of making these things and honestly this has killed me.
I've got 0 HP from my tragic children being wiped out.
Thanks for everything.
Ah, also, today's the last day for the 7/7 live, so if you're free tonight please watch it. 
Please have a nice Saturday."

Me reading all this like: 👁👄👁

I agree. Perhaps they tried to court everyone, but in the end failed to get them. Perhaps they withdrew behind Mana's artistic direction, and thus all MM less Gackt were dropped off Columbia; I can't imagine him, even Kozi or Yuuki playing pop, putting up 00s 64 bits softvi rockers aesthetics, surrounded by group of dancers, etc. They are artists, I think that's clear. Kozi, like Mana, even at the cost of losing their mainstream status (a thing that history has reserved to less than 10 bands in Japanese music history, even Dir or the Gazette never had the attention MM received from the media in the late 90s), decided to move on and run after a consistent artistic project within their own worldview. On the other hand, Gackt brought iconic moments to VK and J-rock (Mizerable, Vanilla, Redemption) but generally speaking he did the stuff that would attract masses.

peak hipster
 
 

But aren't they looking to the West just by making pop/rock music and playing pianos, electric guitars, etc.? I sort of get it though. It would be sad it everything became super Americanized.
 
I don't think my impression was that Japan was "less developed," rather that Japanese vocalists choose to focus less on technique, because so many of the vocalists I heard seemed to be trying to make their voice "interesting" or achieve a certain style (such as cutesy girl group vocals). Basically, I had that sense that there was a preponderance of "stylistic" rather than "technical" vocalists in Japan. I'm starting to think my first impression may have been a result of the selection of what I had listened to. 

It's not even so much the West but more so just the US, and it's a pervasive mentality that manifests in every corner of entertainment(and probably everything else as well). Can't help but compare yourself to the big dogs, especially when it's your competition.

I mean, Japan is the only place on the planet with a majority speaking Japanese so most of the entertainment they consume is produced by themselves for themselves. However an absolute metric fuck-tonne of US content is produced and then almost forced upon the rest of the world. As an Australian, aside from the cornerstones of Australian dramas(Neighbours and Home&Away) I couldn't tell you a single other Australian drama series, but I sure as damn hell could tell you US ones. Even our stars when they get big fuck off to Hollywood because it's viewed as the end goal. (Margot Robbie, of Wolves of Wall Street and Harley Quinn fame, left Neighbours to go to the US.)

You'd think that Japan, by nature of it not speaking English as a major language would be exempt from this mentality but they are still susceptible to it. From the Western acts that tour and sell out the Tokyo Dome repeatedly all the way down to just the immense budgets thrown at CG in movies, you can't compete with Hollywood and it becomes the yardstick we're all measured by. 

I've shown people Japanese dramas and also read comments online that consistently call it out for either being bad or over the top, the music for being simple and generic, especially when it comes to following Western trends they seem to get it way after the fad's gone and apparently only tap into it's surface level.(Or at least that was the impression I got from being eviscerated online sharing a SiM song to an acquaintance.)

When you go and watch the Japanese Godzilla movies and see the man in the rubber suit but then go watch the American ones and it's this gargantuan CGI beast then you can clearly see the different playing fields. Japan's just gotta deal with Japan, and in all honesty it's amazing just for that, but Hollywood and the States has the world's entertainment market by the balls, no doubt.

(Anime's probably the one category where Japan dominates everywhere else and I imagine that's why they're pumping it with so much garbage material because the fans will always lap it up. Western animated materials are mainly kids shows and that comes with a lot of condescending design mentalities so it's never worth the comparison. I was also considering video games as another one that Japan dominates but I'm changing my mind on that. There was an interview with the translator for the GBA FFIV where he said that he gave presentation(s) to the studio on Western video game design. FFXIV also has been wanting Western blood in it's development for a while now, especially in it's raid series where they say they're having immense trouble finding raid designers from the West that can also speak Japanese.)

 

I'm not Japanese, but I always have this kind of weird ethnic betrayal feeling when I notice Japanese artists looking for the West to get better in any feature of their projects. Absurd feeling, but lol.
 
Anyway, 2020 and still Japan has less developed theory and technology musicwise? I'm surprised.
 

When it comes to trying to discuss these things about Japanese music is that majority of the online western communities that will engage the discussion are into alternative genres and will be incredibly biased. That's how you often get lists of "best voices in Japan" that'll top out with the Gazette or Dir en grey if not completely filled with just VK bands.

Even just going through this topic, I mostly skimmed it and saw two posts that discussed artists I wouldn't put into alternative genres and even then, Daoko is kind of her own thing.

When it comes to vocals, my mind always goes to one of the singers of EXILE, Atsushi. A couple years back he left and went to America, putting the group on hold solely so he could get experience and grow as a vocalist outside of Japan.


EXILE would probably be my go to if I wanted to put forward an artist that I thought could contend for at least having acceptable vocal ability on a global stage, but I'll be honest and say that's only because my first pick you already cut in your opening post.

I thought this was already announced here. (laugh)
 

 
 
Last year it was announced that Silver-Rose will make his comeback, however not with the old line-up.
Vocalist YOWMAY restarted the band with 4 new members. 
 
Gt. Zoo
Gt. YOU-K
Ba. KAPPY
Dr. ShuLa
(check vkgy for their band history)
 
Joined along to raise up Silver-Rose again!
 
 
 
official twitter: https://twitter.com/Silver_Rose666
 
 
 
Actually the band should restarted this year with a nice tour around Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, sadly due covid-19 this tour plan has moved to next year.
Yet the 2nd live of the band will be (hopefully) on August 1st. 
 

 
And maybe an interesting thing is... even if 99% of their fanbase see them as Visual Kei, they still refuse to call themselves Visual Kei.
More about that reason you can discover in their upcoming interview which I will publish on July 16th!  Look forward to it!
 
 
To discover a bit more already (some stuff I didn't add yet on vkgy) can be checked via this;
 

So I'm about to leave on a trip and won't have internet, but I just want to say I really appreciate all the recommendations! I'll finish listening to them when I get back. I didn't expect to get so many responses and you all have definitely made me feel a bit more hopeful about finding singers that I like!

there're several VK vocalists with full on operatic range who actually have control over how they sound unlike kyo, but for a kpop stanbait thread you're doing amazing sweetie x