enyx

밀당 (mildang) is the most annoying thing ever.

"Players Book" just makes it sound like they're giving us tips on how to pick up chicks at the bar or something.

This has basically become my new favourite channel on Youtube.

Recently saw the artwork for Braids' Flourish // Perish and thought it was absolutely brilliant. It's a very good description of the album's overall sound & vibe. Some other album artworks that I'm fond of include: Dream Theater - Octavarium The whole album is written around the idea of an octave and is absolutely filled with references to the numbers 8 and 5 (mirroring the 8 naturals and 5 accidentals found in each octave). The cover itself is only half of the full image, in which the eight balls represent the naturals while the five birds represent the accidentals (basically mirroring the layout of a piano). The album is also built around the idea of things going in cycles and repeating endlessly, hence the Newton's Cradle. On top of that stuff, I just really love the general feel of the artwork. THE NOVEMBERS - Rhapsody in beauty school food punishment - Riff-rain

I have to disagree. Personally I found Fantastic Magic almost as disappointing as es or s, especially after flowering. There were some decent tracks here and there but overall it felt very lazily put together; almost as if the majority of the tracks were rushed or just churned out to fill a tracklist quota. Just my opinion though. That said, however, the few songs I have enjoyed from his post-2012 material have all come from his solo project (Acoustic Installation, Crazy Tampern, Skinkiro), so hopefully there will be one or two good tracks here too. Anyway, here's his new promo image.

I actually forgot that thread existed. My bad.

^ Yeah, Zeus hit the nail on the head with regards to last.fm really focusing on the wrong aspects of their site. More stats and stuff pls Anyway, would you guys mind voting up sukekiyo's new look? http://www.last.fm/music/sukekiyo/+images/67441f234ef9a43fc8478fa2f5aeb384

For stuff with specific release dates: 01.26 새벽 - Division 01.29 Dream Theater - The Astonishing 02.03 Hiromi Uehara - SPARK 02.10 Kie Katagi - Serendipity 03.02 TK from 凛として時雨 - Secret Sensation If we're also including releases that have been announced but don't have release dates yet, then add: Death Grips - Bottomless Pit 유카리 - [TBA]

This is news to me.

I never fully understood this argument. I thought most of the characters were surprisingly well characterised considering the fact that they weren't the main focus of the story. For example: Considering how some of those characters aren't even all that important overall (i.e. Drace and Zargabaath), it's cool to see how distinct and unique they are. Most writers would have written the Judges in particular as effectively the same character with just a different name and armour set, but here they all have there own personalities that I wouldn't exactly call one-dimensional. Anyway, the only thing I never beat in FFXII was Omega Mark XII. Have you played The Witcher 3? That's very quickly become my favourite WRPGs and honestly one of my favourite games of any genre. The previous two games are pretty good too, but the third takes the WRPG 'genre' to a whole new level in my honest opinion. It's not quite as sandboxy as Bethesda's games tend to be, but the quality of the writing, the scale and density of the world, and pretty much every aspect aside from the combat (which is passable, at least) is absolutely stellar.

Are we including SRPGs in here too? If so then I'd love to mention the original Valkyria Chronicles (PS3, PC, and soon PS4). Despite it's anime-ish aesthetic and occasional cheesiness it's probably one of the most mature games you'll play in a lot of respects. It's a lot like games such as Final Fantasy IX and Metal Gear Solid 3 in the sense that, since it doesn't always take itself too seriously, it's able to disarm you and leave you unprepared or its more serious moments. It somehow manages to sneak in themes of racism, ambiguous political morality, and genocide/ethnic cleansing at the same time that it presents you with a flying pig mascot character who's only role in the game is to act cute and say "moink!" (seriously). On the gameplay front it's one of the few SRPGs in a long time to actually try to push the genre forward; getting rid of the grid system and adding in real-time elements (i.e. interception fire), while also featuring some really brilliant level design. It also has a brilliant Hitoshi Sakimoto soundtrack, which is always a plus. Unfortunately its two sequels on the PSP are just lazy cashgrabs, but the original is really worth playing IMO. Play either the PC or upcoming PS4 version if you can. Hallelujah! It's so rare to see a XII fan these days, it makes me sad. I feel like the game gets a bad rep almost entirely because it didn't follow the storyline conventions of previous titles in the franchise, but if you're willing to look past the fact that the character that you control in towns isn't the central pillar of the story (or indeed, that there isn't a main character at all), or that it places more emphasis on political intrigue and ambiguous morality, then it's honestly one of the best video game stories out there IMO. As much as I love a lot of them, I find most Final Fantasy games tend to dumb down a lot of storyline aspects in order to place the emphasis on the emotional development of one or two central characters. Final Fantasy XII did basically the opposite and as such I think a lot of people didn't really know how to approach it or went in with misguided expectations. Also cool to see you giving Tactics a mention.

Yes. Also they only play shows in November and their birthdays are all in November. On a more serious note, lately I've been thinking that アマレット would be a really good song for them to remake sometime. Like 'アマレット (Parallel Ver,)' or something. The original song has some really nice things going for it like Matsumoto's guitar line (1:33 <3) and the overall song structure and vibe, but I also feel that their weaknesses from their early career are really noticeable in this song. Koba hadn't really developed into the quality vocalist he is today which always puts me off whenever the song ramps up (e.g. 2:30). I dunno, I just think they could do a much better job with it today than they were able to back then. Anyone else think the same?

Do I go to Japan in the week where I can see downy (one-man) or the week where I can see THE NOVEMBERS (playing with some other band I don't care about)? I'm leaning towards downy. EDIT: I chose downy.

For some reason I think you'd really enjoy the HEALTH album. It was a hard one to choose a sample song for because there are quite a few killer tracks on there; MEN TODAY and COURTSHIP II are both pretty brilliant too. I wont say that I'm judging you, but I'm judging you. Nah, admittedly it's not his strongest release by any means, but it's pretty solid regardless. You should definitely give it a shot at some point.

Senpai included one of my recommendations on his year-end list? I feel so accomplished. Solid list overall! Not surprisingly there are quite a few similarities between our lists. In addition to those I was really close to including 宮内優里's album on mine as well, in fact he was on my first draft for the list and I only took him off at the last minute. The only thing that stopped me being that, as you mentioned yourself, it's still pretty much interchangeable with the rest of his discography. I enjoyed it a lot but I could just as easily recommend any of his other works in its place. I never checked out that Ropes album even though it was on my radar a while. Perhaps I should give it a shot after all. Also, whatever site you're linking to just gives me a Korean censor warning, yay for Korean internet restrictions.

Dunno who that is, but the answer is yes.

I didn't really get anything out of Secret mode to be honest. I was interested in DECAYS on account of its lineup, but so far their output has been very underwhelming to me. I hope you enjoy ghost is dead! Well 'favourites' is a relative term, I guess. Overall I found 2015 notably weaker than the last few years in the sense that there were a lot of 'good' releases but very few 'great' ones. These releases are my favourites amongst this year's output, but admittedly not all of them would have made my list in stronger years. Nice! Hopefully you find at least some of them enjoyable!

I'm only familiar with a couple of those songs even though I know most of the artist names. I guess I'd say the GazettE track is my favourite of the bunch, but like you I don't really love any of them. Fightstar - Waste a Moment LITE - Solitude 宇宙コンビニ - origin Hiromi Uehara - The Tom and Jerry Show THE NOVEMBERS - dogma MIKTEK - Incompressible Flow mouse on the keys - spectres de mouse Solar Fields - Shard ハイスイノナサ - 都市の記憶 M-Koda - Scent I had a difficult time choosing a favourite out of this batch of songs. In the end I had to go for Shard, but the haisuinonasa track was pretty close.

It's amazing how something as simple as dyeing your hair can make you feel so much more comfortable/confident in yourself.

2015 marked the first year in which I kept a record of every new release that I listened to and attempted to create some sort of ranking system to determine which ones I most enjoyed. This is a favourites list, not a best of list; I don’t believe that music can be reviewed objectively and thus I feel that the concept of a best of is inappropriate. Also, I’m going to mix the Japanese and non-Japanese releases together and just list them all in alphabetical order. AES DANA feat. MIKTEK - Alkaline Ambient, Electronic, IDM Both AES DANA and MIKTEK are members of European label Ultimae Records; a label specialising in a distinct brand of ambient and occasionally trance-influence IDM. It should come as no surprise, then, that Alkaline is a trip through a cerebral, almost dystopian aural soundscape. It marks the second instalment of a planned three-part series of releases by the two artists. I tend to find AES DANA’s work to be most enjoyable whenever he’s collaborating with other artists and Alkaline is no exception. Despite only being three tracks long, this is one of my favourite releases by either artist. Sample song: Aureole’s latest effort is the most direct, raw and straight-forward album they’ve ever put out. Despite generally being described as a post-rock band, Aureole’s previous releases haven’t been scared to delve into other territories including considerable ambient and electronic influences. On Spinal Reflex, however, the band opted to utilise a more streamlined sound-palette (the electronic elements in particular have been notably turned down) and the result is a more tightly-focused album than any of their previous efforts. It could perhaps have had a couple more stand-out moments, but overall Spinal Reflex is Aureole’s most consistent album to date. Sample song: One day I’ll stop shamelessly fanboying over everything that haisuinonasa does. Today is not that day. Almost two years after their previous release, 2013’s reflection, haisuinonasa came back to remind me why they’re one of the few bands I can honestly say have never let me down to even the slightest degree. 変身 is every bit as captivating as the rest of their material. Even if it’s not quite as experimental as their preceding single, it still encapsulates everything that makes this band so fascinating; it’s cerebral, unique, and utterly brilliant. New album in 2016, pretty please? Sample song: Geskia (apparently now sans his trademark !) released both an EP and a full-length this year. As you can probably guess from their almost-identical artworks, both of them are extremely similar in sound & style and thus are included together here. Unlike the majority of his work, Geskia opted to make heavy use of vocal samples this time around, resulting in slightly less complex but in many ways more chill soundscapes that make both of these releases rather unique within his discography. Neither of them are my favourites amongst his other releases, but they’re both welcome additions to his always exemplary portfolio. Sample song: Over half a decade on since their previous studio album, Los Angeles-based noise rockers HEALTH finally returned this year with DEATH MAGIC, arguably their most dynamic album yet. DEATH MAGIC sees the band finally embracing the pop elements that have slowly been creeping more and more into their sound whilst still retaining a large portion of their trademark noisiness. Usually the idea of a noise rock band embracing pop sensibilities would be a cause of concern, but in this case it works surprisingly well, and in fact helps to make this my favourite release by them. Sample song: For the longest time I had ATLANTIS AIRPORT’s a [ 360° ] Cosmic Flight set to feature in my favourites of 2015 list, but after finally listening to their split with Marmalade butcher released back in October, I’ve since decided to replace it with Rembrandt rays. Normally I tend to find splits hard to enjoy as cohesive entities as the two (or more) bands involved rarely tend to gel together effectively, but in the case of these two artists that problem is nowhere to be found. Marmalade butcher contribute two solid tracks that emphasise the band’s strengths while hiding the weaknesses in thei songwriting, whilst ATLANTIS AIRPORT put out one of their strongest songs in the form LOVECRAFT MYTHOS. Solid stuff all around. Sample: mouse on the keys’ second full-length is probably their most dynamic release yet. Jumping from epic pieces like leviathan and the lonely crowd, to more subdued numbers like mirror of nature and reflexion, to an experimental recreation of Maurice Ravel’s le gibet. Despite their expanded stylistic palette this time around, however, mouse on the keys never lose sight of their core sound - minimally phrased piano melodies supported by the brilliant drumming of their main composer, Akira Kawasaki. It’s not a flawless release - the band still has a habit of coming off as being somewhat pretentious to me at times - but it is nevertheless one of 2015’s strongest efforts. Sample song: After a few years of embracing their darker/heavier side (albeit with a brief break in the form of 2014’s 今日も生きたね single), THE NOVEMBERS have finally re-embraced their softer, poppier leanings for the first time since 2012’s GIFT with Elegance. Compared with their 2012 effort, Elegance is tighter, more refined, and more accessible, yet nevertheless willing to throw a curveball at you in the form of its closing track, 出る傷を探す血. THE NOVEMBERS have established themselves as one of the true standout bands in Japan’s absolutely stacked indie scene, and Elegance does nothing to suggest that things will be changing any time soon. Sample song: the piqnic have created quite the buzz around here as of late and after listening to ZyouK it’s not very difficult to understand why. Their first official release is a well-crafted (albeit highly imitative) noise/shoegaze album that immediately earmarks the band as one of the most intriguing up-and-comers of the scene. That said, despite the albums many strengths, I’m not quite as willing to place them on the same level as say, THE NOVEMBERS, just yet. Rather they seem like a band that’s still trying to discover their own identity whilst nevertheless showing a lot potential in their songwriting abilities. I’ll be paying close attention to them in 2016. Sample song: krs 사람12사람 - feels too letter Acoustic, Chillwave, Electronic SARAM12SARAM’s sound revolves almost entirely around vocalist zieum’s beautiful, wispy vocals with everything else simply serving as a musical landscape for her to play around in. It’s a simple yet highly effective approach that paid dividends on the duo’s first EP, 2013’s 빗물구름태풍태양. In comparison to that release, feels too letter isn’t quite as dark or moody and places more emphasis on the acoustic elements rather than the electronic, but nevertheless retains the duo’s core sound. In fact, if anything, feels too letter is more of a refinement of that sound than it is a progression, but it works and is, in my opinion, the stronger of their two main releases. Sample song: Cripple 실리카겔 - 새삼스레 들이켜본 무중력사슴의 다섯가지 시각 Neo psychedelic, Prog rock SILICA GEL’s debut EP is a wonderful, albeit short, aural acid trip. Their sound is basically a combination of predominantly-instrumental progressive and psychedelic rock mixed with a healthy dose of synth and occasional vocals for good measure. In a country where the term “indie rock” more often than not refers to chilled-out, sentimental pop in disguise, SILICA GEL are one of the few standout bands not afraid to challenge the musical norm. Hopefully this EP is just the beginning of what they have in store. Sample song: I already wrote a larger review for this album here if anybody is interested. In short, ghost is dead marks a welcome return for one of the few bands whose music I consider very close to my heart. Kana Otsubo’s vocals remain as insanely relaxing as ever, while on the musical side the compositions feature a renewed emphasis on minimalism and subtle complexity that plays to the band’s strengths. Given the extremely busy nature of each of the members’ personal lives, ghost is dead may be the last we hear of SCLL for quite some time, but fortunately this release shows that there’s still plenty of life in the band… when they can find the time to record new music. Sample song: I suppose I’ll get one thing out of the way early: I didn’t enjoy this release as much as IMMORTALIS. The main reason being that whereas I found their first album remarkably consistent throughout its long length, VITIUM seems to go through a notable dip in quality during its middle three songs. foster mother seems to aimlessly meander around without any direction, 雨上がりの優詩 feels like a song that the band didn’t really know how to finish and just cobbled together, and maniera seems like a song much more suited to a live setting than a studio record. That said, however, VITIUM’s strong points, most-notably leather field and focus, do more than enough to convince me that this is still one of the most intriguing CallItWhateverYouWant-Kei bands going at the moment. Sample song: Proudly sitting alongside 실리카겔 as one of my favourite Korean rock discoveries of the year, Tierpark’s music is a delightful blend of dreamgaze, post rock, and a hint of math rock accompanied by melodic, haunting vocals courtesy of the band’s vocalist SeHee. The Moment Two Worlds Meet is a notable improvement over their previous self-titled full-length released in 2013 (although the opening track is a little on the weak side); the arrangements are tighter, the compositions more intricate, and the vocals more effectively utilised. It’s kind of like what you’d get if you took COgeNdshE’s sound but placed more emphasis on the melodic vocals. Sample song: 명왕성 toe - HEAR YOU Math rock, Post rock For the longest time I really wasn’t sure whether I wanted to include HEAR YOU on this list. Somehow toe have managed to come up with what I consider one of the strongest albums of the year yet simultaneously one of the most disappointing. Perhaps it’s just the ridiculously high bar they’ve set for themselves over their exemplary career, or my stubborn unwillingness to fully accept their subtle stylistic developments. Either way, I can’t deny that HEAR YOU is still an expertly made album, and even in my disappointment with its relative lack of mathy elements, I can’t deny that toe achieved exactly what they set out to achieve here. There is, admittedly, a rather delightful irony about the fact that whilst Japan’s plethora of toe clones keep trying desperately to imitate the magic of 2005’s the book about my idle plot on a vague anxiety’s intricate complexities, the real thing themselves have been moving further and further away from it. Sample song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxeQmF4sUJY'>Boyo

Don't make my fly over there and slap you.

Upvoted everything posted so far. Would any of you guys be willing to upvote these for me? http://www.last.fm/music/Atlantis+Airport/+images/4bcf2b39f5857d1cbafcf56a05bf5d66 http://www.last.fm/music/%E5%AE%AE%E5%86%85%E5%84%AA%E9%87%8C/+images/99f884d2351efdbcfeb1b53d5df93959

Merry New Birthday to both @Seimeisen and @Valicious.