I’m left wondering why they think it’s a good idea to tour overseas behind THIS. And are they going to slap songs like Shigarami and Mad K between all this noodle jangle? How disjointed is that setlist going to be?
The second half of the album waaaaay outshines the first half IMO (with the exception of Before it's too late, which just feels like the obligatory tacked-on ''WE'RE STILL HEAVY GUYS'' tune). Tick tak and out of the darkness are probably my 2 fave tracks so far. First half suffers too much from a combination of ''I wouldn't really be able to tell these songs apart if you played 'em for me randomly'' and anisong-syndrome.
Overall, I feel like I'd appreciate this album a lot more if it had been released out of the blue by some total newcomer band. Taken completely as its own thing it's definitely not garbage all the way through & I do welcome the new genre influences for bringing in some stuff that isn't very common in the VK-adjacent scene, I just feel like it doesn't quite cut it when you match it up against the highest highs of CHEDOARA and Rijin in my opinion. Sho has some of the best and most versatile vocals out there among the newer bands and I can't help but feel like his abilities are severely being underutilized here w/ this type of stuff, the wildest it gets is some whisper-singing and sorta half-yelling. Dude deserves his own sukekiyo-type project to go wild at this point lol
What's up?
They 've changed for sure. I like their new groove out of the darkness, but a lot to lament too.
Not goint to try to fool anyone, It's a +&- album.
Hope their new direction can take me out in the midnight when the mist clears away.
Maybe it's better for the future or they can try new things again before it's too late.
Tick tak, funny world.
@CAT5 I am genuinely curious how close I was to actually describing those songs correctly lmfao . I tried to not get too detailed because I didn't want to be like "Wow this death metal bullshit is bad" and it's actually "I'll"
Dir en Grey have always been a point of contention for me. As a visual newbie, I was intimidated by their extreme aesthetics and sound, and it took me a while to come around to liking their early works since it’s basically an amalgamation of everything I already liked. This sort of distrust of their music has caused me to not really delve too much into their middle works. Sure, I’ve heard some of Arche, I sat through whatever their album from last year was called, and I dug Sukekiyo, but for whatever reason anything earlier than Marrow of a Bone hasn’t existed on digital platforms. Yesterday, this changed — three of their early ~ middle career releases were added to Spotify and now I have no excuses for ignoring them. As such, I was challenged to do a blind listening review by some veteran fans—partly for their amusement, partly because my musical opinions are highly sought after (citation needed). Here is my first listen review of the classic album Vulgar.
Let’s start with the album art. What am I looking at? Is it a bird? Are these disembodied arms in opera length gloves? Overcooked pork tenderloin? I’m really not sure. Sometimes art is like that — it makes you unsure, and that uncertainty makes you uncomfortable. Sometimes that discomfort makes you think, but then other times it makes you reject something and move on. I don’t want to give the band credit for being provocative. I’ve read a lot of Tumblr and have the arcane knowledge to confidently state that this artwork is actually from Disney’s Maleficent — it’s her horns after they got lopped off.
Audience KILLER LOOP: never a fan of when titles suddenly yell at me. It really makes me on edge, kind of like this song does. I’m really going into this blind and any departure from Gauze is going to be a real change for me. I guess this is alright, but maybe this style just needs to grow on me more. Let’s see how I hold up going further in…
THE IIID EMPIRE: not sure why they decided to make a Star Wars reference here, but to each their own. I suppose this is the hard-hitting style that people have grown to love from this band. The guitar riff slightly after the middle of the song is super cool — in spite of all of the shit I give this band, sometimes they really do have neat ideas.
INCREASE BLUE: Again with the yelling of the song titles. Reminds me of the graphic design class I needed to take, with my teacher looming over me. My composition was too warmly colored, so she yelled to me from across the classroom “increase blue.” I took her advice and then she docked me points for it anyway. “Too much blue.” Fuck me.
Shokubeni: Apparently this means “red food coloring.” I bet the lyrics have something to do with bloody food or chopping up someone’s girlfriend. This band seems big on that and it’s kind of off-putting. I’d give some deep analysis on the meaning, but I can’t speak Japanese well.
Sajou no Uta: Kinda boring. This isn’t really my thing.
RED…[em]: a bit too rough for my liking. I get that this is when their hurgleblurgle kind of approach to art really started, but doesn’t mean I need to be fully here for it. A part of this almost saved me from disliking it, but it wasn’t enough.
Sfisdfeijaoifjsoefijse: too long for what it was, skipped
MARMALADE CHAINSAW: sticky sweet and incredibly wasteful. Started a trend of bands naming things with “chainsaw” in their names, which makes me wonder if the Japanese really know what a chainsaw is? Surely you don’t need one for spreading jam but I’m not Julia Child.
Kasumi: Fun fact—this was the name of “Misty” in the Japanese version of Pokemon. Further fun fact, there is a Pokemon card called “Misty’s Determination,” which I assume is written like “Kasumi no Jiketsu.” “”Jiketsu” means “self-determination” but is also a euphemism for “suicide,” so whenever I see that card I read it as “Misty’s Suicide” in my head. Seems like a tangent, but this is honestly a very Dir en Grey kind of story.
R THE CORE: filler intro
DRAIN AWAY: I actually kind of like this. The guitar atmosphere is really enticing and they’ve definitely upped their skill since Macabre (the last album I blind listened to). I know I’m very firmly into the “Gauze and then the band died” camp, but I am glad I am getting something positive out of this album.
NEW AGE CULTURE: Wow. Woooooow. Y’all went OFF on Kisaki for “stealing Kyo’s girlfriend” or whatever and then they go and literally steal the title from a famous Matina omnibus series? I cannot believe the low-life attempt at being petty, but here we are. Unfathomable.
OBSCURE: huh…pretty sure Grieva used this. I mean, I knew they seemed like they were fans of Dir En Grey, but I didn’t think they’d flat-out STEAL from them. Well, song is kind of bouncy and hypnotic, so I can see why they’d want to base on of their own songs on it. Still kind of shocked that this is borderline plagiarism.
CHILD PREY: One of the best songs on this album. Love the meaning behind it and how the lyrics fit together from the parts I could understand. I don’t mean to gush, but this definitely has that “it” factor that draws people into this band. Amazing. Pray / Prey for your butter
Amber: This band likes to have female names as titles. Amber, Kasumi, Audrey, Yurikago….it makes me wonder what their take on feminism is. They’ve already displayed a rather ham-fisted pro-life stance a few albums ago, but maybe their time within the inner machinations of the visual scene caused them to change their stance, especially having interacted with so many female fans and the changes fame brought to them. I wonder if this song’s direct is a reflection of that as well — it’s hard to get into an artist’s head and really understand how they see the world.
Overall: 5.5 / 10 for me
I know this is a classic album, but that’s how I felt on my first attempt at going through this. I still need to listen to Kisou, so I am open to doing a blind listen review for that as well. If you’d like to try out this album for yourself, or provide your own take on the music, feel free to check it out on Spotify. Sometimes I need to listen to things multiple times to form a true opinion. Funny enough, I still need to actually listen to this album for the first time, as I wrote this review solely based on the song titles and album art.
How in the bloody hell does a black woman in the U.S. have the unmitigated gall to utter the words "smash the patriarchy", when so many of our children are without fathers / single-motherhood is so rampant? Not to mention, there are over 64k missing black women and girls in the U.S. right now, and sex trafficking is at an all time high. Who's around to protect our women? The state could care less.
Ya know, My dad passed away in early 2010. I was 23 at the time. I had a dream about him a few nights ago...He was in the back yard of what seemed to be one of our old houses, lying in the grass. The sun was just beginning to set, and with the light glimmering in the trees, it was a beautiful sight. I went and sat next to him as he lie there in the grass. We didn't say anything to each other....we just enjoyed the moment. It was very pleasant. There was no anxiety. No worries. It felt safe. It felt secure. There was just a very present joy there.
That's what the presence of a strong, loving father feels like.
And it's so sad that many children don't get to experience this because so many people have bought into the toxic lies of feminism that patriarchy is inherently abusive and men are expendable...so many have drunken the wine of this destructive culture that we're immersed in. I just pray we get to a point where men and women can properly respect one another and cultivate healthy, regenerative relationships....because all of this division is hurting EVERYONE, especially the children. Cuz then they gotta inherit all of our unprocessed trauma, poor decisions, and other bullshit.
blah, this probably isn't coherent, but this is random thoughts.
What are some of your favorite Band/Artist promotional pictures?
At one point in my life, I'd damn near made a career out of sharing and uploading music (in addition to uploading artist photos to last.fm), so I basically have a lot of artist pics and album art saved that I just never got rid of. Here are a few of my favorites!
THE NOVEMBERS
i think i like this pic so much because it reminds me of when THE NOVEMBERS dropped "zeitgeist" and just blew all of our damn minds! Plus Kobayashi is just oozing a kind of dark, cool confidence here...it's like from this point he became an entirely new person...miles away from the average bowl-cut indie rocker he started as, haha.
9GOATS BLACK OUT
Even tho I never got super deep into their music, these guys were CLASS and their aesthetics were always on point!!
D'espairsRay
One of my fav. Despa pics. I was with the mallgoff shitz, ahaha
downy
I love this pic because it speaks to their dark, sophisticated sound, but I also love it simply for the fact they actually bothered to take some nice promo pics for once in their career!
J.A.M
Probably not the kind of pic you'd expect from a Jazz band!
コトリンゴ (Kotoringo)
Suuuper pretty pic, that's as pretty as the music she makes!
赤い公園 (Akai Ko-en)
Chiaki lookin all tall and sexy It's hard to go wrong with nature-dense photos, but I loove the colors here!
EGO-WRAPPIN'
There's a lot going on here, but this pic fit their sound so well for the time. It kinda has a cartoony/animated vibe to it.
It's your boy emmny…I’m not dead yet. It’s been almost two years since I dropped my last reflection (Kagerou 2002-2003), and I’m back for moar. It’s not that I’ve run out of ideas (real life is really busy btw, sorry!), but rather I’ve been thinking about particularly notable eras for bands I followed. Some bands are consistently good, and some bands have peaks and valleys which are kind of obvious. Choosing a band and time period to profile is challenging—I don’t want to give you anything obvious, but I want to bring light to eras which are underrated outside of a bands immediate fandom. Kagerou’s 2002-2003 phase was legendary—but the majority of their fame (esp in foreign fandom) came after. It was an era ripe with pickings—an avant-garde sound, striking visuals and some of their best songs—but I’d argue Kagerou are more closely associated with their 2004-2006 eras. The argument of placing their earlier days in the spotlight made the article interesting, and I’m not sure how much other eras are interesting in band histories. Selection is tough too—especially with bands that release intermittently and not giving enough musical ‘meat’ over the course of 2/3 years—which happen to be the most interesting (albeit financially strapped bands---*cough* yazzmad *cough*). Good music alone doesn’t cut it either—a reflection piece (in my own asshole opinion) is warranted by impact—Kagerou’s early years had influence literally a decade after they had moved on from that sound. Whether the following will have the same impact is TBD, but I will make the case that late-era Moran defined the zenith of art-kei, managing to sell out massive venues for a subgenre which was otherwise relegated to the underground and situated in a genre largely declining in popularity. In their dazzling sound, visuals, and approach, Moran kept their contemporaries on their feet and inspired subsequent kohai bands which continue to carry their flag, almost half a decade after they called it quits.
Moran have a storied history, but getting into it would take 1) skills I lack as a visual historian and 2) too damn long. 2013-2015 covers most of Moran’s second lineup output, and I’ll briefly get into the timeline. This is where I’ve drawn the rough boundary of time, so to coincide with Moran’s third-era all the way up to their disbandment. I’ll delineate three main eras: 1) 2007-2009, 2) 2010-2012, and lastly, 2013-2015. Era 1 is Moran’s original lineup (and probably their most beloved), which formed ~2 years after Fatima’s disbandment. Era 1 came to an end with the original guitarist Velo departing the band in 2009, and bassist Zill’s tragic death in 2010, following a short-term leave from the band in 2009. The only permanent members of the band’s history (and the OGs from Fatima), vocalist Hitomi (FKA Sanaka/Kanoma) and drummer Soan (FKA Towa) were left to carry the band. Moran took a huge beating, but as one of SPEED-DISK (Free Will subsidiary)’s flagship bands, they pushed on into their second era with support bassists and Sizna (ex-Sugar) taking over as kamite guitarist in summer of 2010 and a full-reboot at the end of the year. There was a substantial lull in activities, with almost two years passing between the two eras without music. They proceeded as a three-piece until the summer of 2012, with Ivy (ex. Dio) joining as a full-time bassist and vivi (ex-DragonWAPPPPPPER) as shimote guitarist. The band formally rebooted in December of 2012, and they released their first piece of music as a five-member group in early 2013 with Jen:ga, and that’s where this story will start.
Moran (2007.12.05 - 2015.09.21)
Vocal: Hitomi
Guitar: Sizna
Guitar: vivi
Bass: Ivy
Drums: Soan
Jen:ga (2013.02.20)
01 Barairo no jigoku / 薔薇色の地獄
02 benisashi / 紅差し
03 L'oiseau bleu / ロワゾ・ブルー
04 Bulbs
05 Melancholia / メランコリア
06 yakouchuu / 夜光虫
07 Wing or Tail
08 ReCover
09 Maybe Lucy in the Sky
10 Eclipse
11 Aru sakushi to no yuugiroku / ある策士との遊戯録
12 Fuyuubyou / 浮遊病
13 The last piece of the jen:ga
Hollow Man (2013.07.10)
01 Hollow Man / ホロウマン
02 Fukamidori / フカミドリ
03 Esther / エスター
Mousou Nikki (2013.12.11)
01 Mousou nikki / 妄想日記
02 Lyric of the DEAD
dark (2014.03.19)
01 Nozomenai to shiru ketsumatsu ni, riyuu ga boku o nagusameru / 望めないと知る結末に、理由が僕を慰める
02 The Hermit
03 Negai to uta / ネガイトウタ
04 Fairy Tale
05 Ikou, hakushi no chronicle / 以降、白紙のクロニクル
06 Haru no yoru no, hitoshizuku / 春の夜の、ひと雫
but Beautiful (2014.07.16)
01 but Beautiful
02 Byouma / 秒魔
03 Break the silence
Daraku e to Tsuzuku Hen’ai no Kanshoku (堕落 へと続く偏愛の感触) (2014.10.08)
01 Daraku e to tsudzuku hen'ai no kanshoku /堕落 へと続く偏愛の感触
02 Memorable
03 Grotesque Ride / グロテスク ライド
Yoake Wo Mae Ni (夜明けを前に) (2015.07.01)
01 Koufuku ni tsuite no shakudo / 幸福についての尺度
02 Reverse
03 Yoake o mae ni / 夜明けを前に
04 The scent of dreams
Moran have the distinction of being a pretty damn consistent band throughout their 8 years of activity. Their art-kei trademark of jazz/oshare/indie-rock/dream-pop/shoegaze/swing sound was a constant in their discography, with the specific flavour depending on the release. Moran largely presented a polished version of the ideas originally leveraged through Fatima’s output, which was largely experimental and toyed with combinations of genres and sounds. In my opinion, this polishing process continued into Moran’s first eras, with highs (most of Heroine and Replay) and lows (“Sea of Fingers”, “Stage Gazer”, “Party Monster”), but nowhere near as bipolar as some of Fatima’s highly questionable tracks. Early compositions were mostly Zill and Velo pieces with some Soan contributions, which diverged from their later eras which saw Sizna and Soan as key composers, with some vivi tracks here and there. Zill and Velo made some magic, but Sizna and Soan really made the band shine and polished all residual traces of odd melody and some awkward compositions. If you’re unfamiliar with art-kei, Moran laid the template for the sound in their early eras—give “Onaji yami no naka de”, “Element”, “Kimi no ita gosenfu”, “Helpless” and “Arikata” a listen for exemplars.
Hitomi’s voice is a gorgeously husky and also quite nasal, a total acquired taste. If you liked Moran, you probably loved what Hitomi did on their tracks. If you disliked Moran…you were probably deaf or just didn’t like Hitomi’s voice. Hitomi’s contributions toward 3rd era Moran were notable, as he actually composed a track on dark (“Fairy Tale”), and veered into some more experimental, spoken word type tracks like “Vega no Hana #2”. True Hitomi fans know he had a poetry column throughout Fatima and was an incredible lyricist, so it was amazing to get more longer-form musings. I will say that Ivy as a bassist was a downgrade from Zill, who basically set Heroine on fire with the most fascinating basslines, counter melodies, and solos to come out of a visual bassist in a while. He played with electrifying gusto and a sharp ear toward rhythm; I can only think of a few bassists in his era who had comparable basslines. His departure and subsequent death was truly a waste of talent, but Ivy did a job well done given the high standards Zill set. That said, I think Ivy definitely had his moments (holy shit “Eclipse”), and will be glad to point them out. Soan has a nicely jazzy twang to his drumming with some great fills and cymbal work. He’s far from a perfect drummer—don’t ask him to do anything technical, but his flavour suited Moran perfectly and Ivy danced around him with ease. Also notable among his repertoire is his piano skills for which he’s credited in Moran’s releases—I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the string/piano/other instrumentation arrangements were through Soan’s background as a classically trained musician. Moran’s more baroque leanings came in around the time Soan took the wheel, so I see it as no coincidence and attribute it to his taste.
In case you live under a rock, Sizna is a guitar god, and he basically carried Moran through pretty miserable circumstances and may or may not have been the glue that kept Moran together toward their end, with dueling egos from Hitomi and Soan leading the band to implode. Sizna’s instrumental and compositional prowess led Moran through what would have basically made any other band disband, and he had the tracks to back it up. I think vivi basically followed his guitarlines, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sizna wrote all the guitar parts himself, but vivi was an excellent rhythm guitarist. While the newer members were arguably weaker musicians, they breathed life into Moran and revitalized their sound—magic happens somehow somewhere—right?
I want to talk about individual songs, but Moran released almost 30 tracks between 2013-2015, so that’s kinda impossible too. I will speak more about major themes across the releases, with particular attention to stand-out tracks and larger releases. Moran, while playing with a unique, multicoloured palate, did release music that could be understood as variations of a broader theme. The 2013-2015 era saw Moran release their best party songs (because IMO, the prior ones sucked). These tracks are characterized by upbeat tempos, cheeky and catchy, jangling, dueling guitar lines, heavy yet tasteful synthwork, and soaring vocal melodies. These songs are Moran’s most accessible, but far from tepid, generic pop songs—take the funky bass/drum solo break and ascending vocals in the bridge of “but Beautiful”; the wailing synths, bridge breakdown and verbose sing-along chorus of “Eclipse”; the start-stop-instrumentation and killer guitar solo of “L’oiseau bleu”. The 1 minute 30 exuberance of “Melancholia”, sugary sweetness of “Bulbs”, “Reverse”, “Break the silence” are also exemplars of their charismatic charm. Across these songs, traditional structures are subverted, pacing is played with, and the listener is taken on fuckin’ journeys through textured verses, dazzling choruses, and layered instrumentation. No one is close to touching Moran on these tracks, and they stand out as highlights in their discography.
While these songs are Moran at their most polished, rough-and-tumble Moran is fun too. “Maybe Lucy in the Sky” is a rioting, gang-vocal mosh track meant to get the crowd jumping around, and “Esther” is a hella odd take on something between metalcore-kei and deadman, all ran through a lo-fi cassette playback---I’m not kidding. “Byouma” is also one of their darker tracks (not saying much, Moran are softies), marked by ominous synths, moody riffs, and a rap-sung chorus. It almost sounds like Moran doing Mejibray…in their own twisted way of course. I think what contributed to Moran’s longevity was their ability to stay true to themselves while still playing amongst basically everyone—oshare, abare, and art kei alike. They were chameleons within the visual circuit, and probably had a setlist for every occasion, reeling in curious fans of other bands with a range of styles and sounds. They weren’t outsiders playing to the same crowd at Ikeburkuro Chop every week, and they were able to spread their sound accordingly…the residual fame/notoriety from Fatima (and ikemen good looks/fanservice) likely helped as well.
Next is the jazzy/bluesy/swing/calypso (yes) bangers, being fellow A-side singles “Benisashi” and “Daraku…” and “Hollowman”, which to me, always had a more jazzy flavour than the other upbeat bangers, but was too rock-ish to fit in among the jazzy tracks. Another nice crossover honorable mention is the band’s cover of SiD’s “Mousou Nikki”, which they infuse with extra urgency through tremolo picked riffs, complex lead fills and extra dramatic vocals from Hitomi. SiD’s early years were notable for jazzy leanings, and Moran’s cover picks up with even more jazzy touches with an extra quirky rock flavour—which fits the stalker fan concept of the lyrics. Of special note is the calypso flavoured interlude of “Hollowman”, which they took all the way in the romantic mid-tempo “Daraku”. Hitomi’s vocal line is delicate as the acoustic guitars and tempered percussion, with an energy that hearkens back to the more rock-but-pretty-acoustic “Ningen no ningen no ni yoru ningen no tame no koiji”. Moran, throughout their lineup changes and style fluctuations, were always conscious of their roots, and for them to revive that sound is a treat.
“Benisashi” opens up with tight bluesy, melodic-yet-dissonant lead guitar work from no one but Sizna, leading into Hitomi’s crooning over the jazzy verse and bombastic chorus. I wish I had more words in my vocabulary to describe the nuances of their sound, but I’m not well versed enough in jazz/blues lingo. What I can say is that its fucking awesome, give it a listen. The jazz tracks on Jen:ga are by far the most balls-to-the-walls, with the elegantly restrained smoky cabaret opener of “Barairo no jigoku”, to the maddening swing-your-partner-by-the-arm jig of “Aru sakushi to no yuugiroku”. This is easily some of the jazziest/bluesiest music I’ve heard from a visual band—far from the shitty metalcore-swing transmutations of recent years.
Moran also had a good repertoire of slower, dreamier tracks. Jen:ga outtake “Yakuchuu”, “Wing or Tail”, “Fuyuubyou” and Hollowman b-side “Fukamidori” compliment each other well in their delicate, romantic style and . Speaking of midtempo (and slowwww), Moran pulled out all their stops for the ‘ballade’ concept mini-album dark. They literally made my art kei dreams come true and dropped A WHOLE FUCKING MINI ALBUM’s worth of ballads. I will preface this by saying that I’m a ballad person—If you’re not *cough* like @saishuu *cough* then you better sit tight because I’ll try to fuckin convert you. There is nothing better than some sad fucking guitar chords layered over some slow, moving rhythms and subtly ornamental basslines and a beautiful comforting vocal line. Moran give me all that and more with dark. “Haru no yoru...” is the spiritual successor to my all-time fav Moran ballad “Snowing”; “Negai to uta” is a quasi post-rock, spoken word-y duet with female vocals complement Hitomi’s crooning; “Nozomenai to…” is driven by charging drums over weeping strings, bringing to life a heartwrenching narrative of lovers split by the sea shore. The whole album stands out for being a dazzling display of Moran's compositional prowess, with each song having its own taste despite the otherwise monotonous theme of balladry. "Fairy Tale" is a barebones acoustic track, "Ikou, Shirakami..." plays with dynamic shifts and swelling delayed guitars like Mono, while "The Hermit" is a shoegazy piece with a hard-ass breakdown toward the end. Moran's ballads are removed of visual cheese, with attention paid to maintaining a bitter sweet sound, in which they remain melancholic but not absorbed by melodramatic displays of emotion. If you've been shy to approach ballads because of the affective excess ever so present in visual kei, I'd urge you to give Moran a shot.
You can’t talk about ballads without their goodbye single, “Yoake wo mae ni”, which places Hitomi as the proverbial prince in the fairy tale that was Moran. While he was going to close the chapter of Moran, he wanted to leave their fans with something to remember and his hand to hold on to. The PV reaches Malice Mizer drama heights, with the band members disappearing one-by-one as the song comes to an end, a-la "Au revoir" or "Le ciel" (an ironic touch, given Hitomi's entry into VK as a MM roadie). My favourite part is the end interlude where most of the instrumentation cuts out and Hitomi delivers an uncharacteristically dynamic vocal solo, which is even more goosebump-inducing in the footage for their last live (linked below!). As Hitomi delivers the vocal line, the audience belts it out with him, and you can clearly hear them holding back tears as they sing “I silently listened to your heartbeat; its very steady; in this way, I can share the loveliness of the night with you”. English translations (thank you translation blogger) don’t do it justice in the least; the verbs used in the Japanese version like “resonance” and the use of “beloved” with “night” sounds like Hitomi kissing his fans goodbye in his ever-romantic, poetic style.
With that, Moran bid us farewell. Basically, the tensions between Hitomi and Soan probably drove the band crazy and they peaced out. I’m no expert on Moran’s member drama, but a glance at the band news threads on here should offer a healthy dose of visual tea. Hitomi and Soan are apparently good now, with Hitomi’s solo projects Ameyasame and Umiyuri having played with Soan’s solo project (Soan Project with Akuta; Temari) on occasion. Should Moran come back? Vivi’s hands are tied with DEZERT’s current fast-track to visual major fame, Ivy is juggling side projects with Yoru (Temari, ex-amber gris’s solo project) and Tenten’s Lack-Co. Sizna has mostly left visual outside of a Sugar one-night revival, and is now teaching guitar in his own business. The funniest part of it all is that Velo had a guest appearance on Umiyuri's debut EP and is currently playing with Ivy in Yoru. I’d like to think of this as no bad blood between the art-kei dudes. The talent that graced visual kei from 2013-2015 is still present in some form in the indies circuit, although no solo project has reached the heights of Moran’s fame; routinely selling out AREA, playing onemans at O-East and ending their career at a packed Zepp Tokyo.
Oldheads on here will remember that amber gris died shortly after, and with the deaths of cocklobin and 9GOATS BLACK OUT in the near past, no major art kei band was left to carry the scene, the splintered solo projects and off-shoot bands haven’t been able to drive up interest like before. This may just be that the bands aged out of the super-touring style of SPEED-DISK bands—Hitomi and Soan were around 40 when Moran called it quits, and by then, most of their fans that followed them since Fatima were probably retiring as bangya. Luckily, the youngins behind Develop One’s Faculties have been able to carry the torch of Moran, reaching similar peak venues without members deeply rooted in art-kei like Moran. Yuya’s charismatic vocals, perplexing lyrics and intricate guitarlines certainly give him the starpower to take over Moran’s legacy while being different enough. I’d argue there are lots of parallels between current DoF and later day Moran, especially with DoF’s ability to be visual chameleons while staying true to their sound. The same can be said for Chanty, who have a distinctly indie-rock crossover flair and straddle the boundaries between j-indie and visual kei. Hell, Akuta, the vocalist of Chanty is also the star of the more rock-flavoured part of Soan Project. Belle has a slightly jazzy twang to them too, but they remind me more of classic Oshare than the former three bands. I can’t think of any other notable bands that followed in Moran’s wake, but I think as visual’s popularity continues declining—there will never be another Moran. I’m not entirely okay with that, but DoF and Chanty are doing god’s work. In the meanwhile, we can look back fondly at Moran’s later years, smiling, dancing, bopping and shedding tears with some of the best visual kei of the 2010s.
I want to hear your opinions? Are you a holic? What are your fav Moran songs? Are you with me and think their best era was 2013-2015 or are you a diehard first lineup fan? Will art-kei live forever? Do you happen to hate Moran (YOU MONSTER!!) for some odd reason? Let me know! Ps thanks to @peffy for the lyrics and @The Moon for literally being a whole Moran street team in one person.
In life? No. On Monochrome Heaven? Sure. You've already made 26 posts; that's larger than the majority of the user base tbh.
Posting is the easiest thing you can do. You want to see topics about your favorite bands? Make them! Start discussion topics and write reviews. I can't read your mind and do it for you (although I really do try). When you put in genuine effort, you will be surprised by the response that you get. Maybe that response won't be immediate, and that response won't be what you thought it was or in the way you thought it would be, but it will be there. A lot of people lurk on this forum, so eye ball real estate is just as important as text responses.
Always. We nom on sugary crap to get a dopamine hit but obviously it isn't the real thing so the er 'comedown' hits hard. It's a slippery slope; I ended up eating crap for the entire winter last year and it never made me feel better, just worse about myself =.=
I love seeing stuff like this! tt.fm was great and I miss our plug/dub sessions too. The last.fm cap you posted was one of my favorite iterations of their layouts...it's a shame the site has essentially been left for dead.
You inspired me to go dig up some of the old last.fm and tt.fm screenshots I had, and this is what I found (my first last.fm account was named "one80" and I made the account I use now, "wesurii", in 2015.):
broooooooooooooo. I feel you on this. From childhood, I've had an atypical relationship with music, but I think it was when I actually started producing music in my teens that my ears took on a new perspective. For a while, I drew most of my inspiration from southern Hip Hop (back when the south actually had a distinct sound), anison, mainstream Jpop (and slight bits of the oldschool r&B/funk I heard my parents listening to)...this was in the early 00's. And around 06-ish I started diving into extreme metal, noise, free-jazz, idm and whatever other genre/sub-genre I could name to make myself appear "sophisticated" and "elite" at the time. 🤣 🤣 🤣 (yeah, I was hella insecure about music tastes when I was younger - mostly due to being an outcast in both my online and offline environments, but I digress)
Despite the vanity and validation-seeking involved in this pursuit, I developed a genuine love/appreciation for sounds and the way they interact with one another. I learned a lot from this journey, and a lot about myself especially. This process went on for some years (and is still going on, just at a much slower pace), but my tastes have begun to crystallize as I've gotten older and I no longer have the time to really sink into music exploration like i used to. It's actually interesting because in the past few years, I've even started to enjoy stuff that I neglected or avoided in the past due to "hurr durr elitism" and being a hipster in general. So now, I feel like I've come full circle in my music tastes, and that need for validation is looong gone. In fact, when I look back, the elitism that I aspired to is something I'd consider being a "fake elitist"...listening to stuff just because other ppl deemed it cool. foh. I say being truly elite is about being yourself and fully embracing your own individuality and your own subjectivity without remorse.
In regards to reciprocation, I've befriended quite a few enthusiasts over the years, but while I've always dabbled in a little bit of everything, the music friends I'd meet always had one or a few areas where they truly specialized in. This worked for me because I could glean a little bit from everyone in my network while also offering them something in return. I was especially blessed to have amassed this network because even after my own exploration slowed down, I had friends around that were always excited to share their new discoveries or recommend stuff to me. Relationships truly are our greatest wealth!
Kind of a sidebar, cuz i'm kinda rambling at this point, but when I really decided that I liked and wanted to be a part of MH (then called Tainted World) in 08, one of my main goals was to expose ppl to the many layers of J-rock that were beyond VK, mainstream J-rock, and even your surface-level indie stuff. Many of our younger users don't seem to realize this, but MH/TW, despite its overwhelming VK fanbase, has always been billed as a "J-rock" forum, and I made it a personal mission of mine to promote other areas of J-rock (and even J-music as a whole) at one point....and uh...was I successful? eh, to an extent. There WAS a time here when there were more indie, and more generalized J-rock fans here, but could that have been attributed to my effort alone? Nah. But alas, time changes.
tldr: OK BOOMER!!!
a few questions for you tho @colorful人生:
#1. WHERE WERE YOU 10 YEARS AGO!??? I NEEDED YOU!!!
#2. What was it that prompted you to explore music to the extent that you have?
(my answer is embarrassingly simple: i was 17/18 and got shat on by a music elitist on a Jpop forum for trying to defend L'Arc-en-ciel. Dude said I was "an A&R's wet dream". I walked around mad at that for like 2 WEEKS!!! 🤣 🤣 🤣 then decided lemme go educate myself a bit )
#3. Are there any areas/styles of music where you feel more..."grounded" when listening to them than others? Like something that feels like homebase, so to speak?
#4. What does your music network look like now?
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