enyx

Hmm, fair enough. I'm a complete newbie to the jazz scene so I don't have much to compare them to. Anyway, here's another band I checked out recently. Nothing revolutionary, but still a nice listen. Finally, has anyone listened to 宇宙コンビニ's new mini? I haven't bought it yet because I'm waiting to see if they release it internationally on iTunes like they did with their first mini, but I've heard some tracks floating around online and it sounds at least as good as their first.

Anyone listened to fox capture plan before? I just found out about them and I'm really digging what I'm hearing so far.

Is it bad that I was wondering the exact same thing? I'm going to say 3 songs I'm a little interested as to why he chose to rerecord Dramatic Slow Motion only. Hopefully it's not just a slight change in production but something more notable.

Great find Perez! I didn't realise that YUCHI had composed some of the tracks, but I'm happy to see that he did. I also didn't think that Kyo's compositional role was as limited as that, I mean it was pretty obvious that UTA & Takumi had the largest compositional influence, but I thought that Kyo would have been involved in more tracks overall. In particular, I thought that he'd have had more of an input on tracks like aftermath and Uyuu no Sora (the latter of which is basically a studio version of an Inward Scream). Overall I'm glad to see that this band is really more of a group project rather than being completely dominated by one driving force. I think the album benefits from having 4 different composers all sharing a decent amount of influence, it helps to keep things fresh and interesting throughout. It's a shame that Mika didn't seem to contribute much, though, but there's always that one member that just tends to stick to their own instrumental role.

Vo. 京 (DIR EN GREY) Gt. 匠 (ex. Rentrer en Soi) Gt. UTA (ex. 9GOATS BLACK OUT) Gt. YUCHI (kannivalism) Dr. 未架 (ex. Rentrer en Soi) sukekiyo’s formation, debut album, and recent live shows have all generated a lot of discussion lately. As such, I thought it would make sense to finally give the band its own thread here in the artists forum, rather than having discussions split across the IMMORTALIS news thread, IMMORTALIS review thread, and Dir en grey artist thread. Obviously new announcements and reviews of releases should still be done in their respective forums, but all of the other stuff can go here instead of derailing those threads. Some questions and points of discussion to get the ball rolling How do you feel about sukekiyo as a whole? Are you a fan of the band? Do you think it’s being overhyped? What do you think of their recent live performances having a specific dress code? Does it suit the atmosphere of their music more or does it turn you off? Are the comparisons between sukekiyo and DIR EN GREY inevitable or justified? Do you think the desire to compare the two will die down once the novelty of 京 being one of the members wears off? To what extent do you consider sukekiyo to be 京’s ‘solo project’? Is it fair to use such a term when it appears that the other members also seem to have considerable influence on the band's music? What would you like to see from the band in the future? Do you expect it to be a full time project?

Sorry for the double post, but here's a preview of the title track: Unfortunately it seems every bit as generic as sfp's anime songs were. Hopefully the b-sides are better.

I'm inclined to agree with this theory as well. It's further supported by the fact that Hasuo (key.) seemed to stop contributing creatively after they went major. I know that composer credits don't always tell the full story, but it's worth noting that he was specifically credited on 5 of the 8 songs on air feel, color swim, yet on amp-reflection and Prog-Roid together he was only credited on a total of 2 out of 24 songs (line and パーセンテージ) . school food punishment's later discography seemed to be almost entirely dominated by the Yumi-Ryou partnership (despite the latter not actually being in the band), so it's logical to assume that la la larks will follow on from that sort of sound, especially now that both of them are officially in the band this time. On one hand it's a shame but on the other it could be a good thing. I have a soft spot for pre-major-label sfp but I do like their later music as well and this band/environment seems more suited to that style than a seemingly somewhat dysfunctional sfp. I just hope these anime songs don't become as repetitive as songs like Future Nova, RPG, etc were.

Never listened to SATORI before, but I really enjoyed that track. I'll be sure to check out more of their stuff. For those that like HaKU, they recently released a new PV out of nowhere: As a follow up to my previous post, la la larks' crowdfunding project for their CD was successful. I'm still not entirely sure if it's going to be a single, mini-album or full-length, but there's a demo for the title track up if anyone's interested:

I really was not prepared for how good that sounded, wow.

Seems that la la larks are using crowdfunding to support an official CD release. My Japanese isn't good enough to figure out all of the details, but it seems that the CD's name is supposed to be 「28時」 and that there are 39 days left to support the project. I'm scared to post a news thread for it because like I said before my Japanese is kind of crappy so I'm not certain on anything; anyone with good understanding of Japanese care to shed any more light on this? And to stop this from being completely off-topic since that was technically a news update, here's a la la larks X UNCHAIN collab I found floating around on Youtube for you all to admire: http://youtu.be/fXWoXxwl4-c

Here's some more HaKU for you lovely people. I'm digging it.

I've made two pretty big discoveries this year, both were artists that I knew about previously but didn't truly appreciate until the early portion of this year. Both have since gone on to become two of my favourite artists. school food punishment - Oh my god I adore this band. Aside from the generic anime opening/ending tracks that started to clog up their later releases, everything else they released was stellar. This is the first band I've truly fallen in love with AFTER they disbanded. Normally I find bands while they're still active so getting into one that had already broken up was uncharted territory for me. Fortunately la la larks exists and appears to be moving in the same direction as sfp's indie music, if only Hasuo was involved somehow... (TK from) 凛として時雨 - Technically two different artists but I consider 時雨 and TK's solo material to be two halves of the same beast, with 時雨 focusing mainly on the more aggressive stuff and TK's solo work focusing more on the experimental side. Funnily enough, whereas I consider sfp's material to have gone slightly downhill after signing with a major label (though still putting out some great stuff), 時雨's just seemed to get better; just A moment, still a Sigure virgin?, flowering and i'mperfect are all exceptionally strong albums, each with their own slightly different direction and focus.

This thread needs reviving, so here's a band I discovered about 2 weeks ago called the perfect sports. They're basically an instrumental mathrock band in the same vein as toe. So far they've only released a few tracks and they're all freely available for download on their SoundCloud. I recommend giving a listen to Sengawa & known as worthless at least, but all of them are pretty good.

There hasn’t been anywhere enough time to properly digest this album, so consider this more of a “first-impressions” than a definitive review. Going into this album my faith in the GazettE was pretty much the lowest point it had ever been at. I got in to them shortly after DIM’s release and greatly enjoyed not just that album, but their previous material as well. TOXIC and DIVISION, however, both disappointed me (especially the latter). FADELESS didn’t do much to convince me that this album was going to be any different, but I’m delighted to say that I’m pleasantly surprised by BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY, though it does share some of their previous two releases’ low points. MALFORMED BOX - Good The obligatory GazeStep intro. This one sounds substantially better than [XI] & INFUSE INTO in my opinion. I guess there’s not much else I can say beyond that since it’s just an SE, so on to the next track. INSIDE BEAST - Good I really don’t want to like this track… but I just can’t help it. Although I don’t mind electronic music in general, I never felt that the GazettE were very successful when incorporating it into their own music. I felt that this was particularly noticeable in the English-titled half of DIVISION, most of those tracks just sounded like very formulaic GazettE tracks with some random WUBWUBWUB thrown over the top to try to mask how dull they were. INSIDE BEAST, however, seems to actually use the electronic elements as a key component of the song, and that’s why it succeeds where previous attempts failed. It’s also ridiculously catchy, particularly the chorus. This is probably going to be my ‘guilty pleasure’ of the album. UNTIL IT BURNS OUT - Poor This song is a complete waste of time and very characteristic of what dragged down DIVISION & TOXIC. It feels like the bare-minimum of a GazettE song, it does nothing particularly interesting and just feels like it’s there for the sake of having another song on the album *yawn*. DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER - Good Quite like this track. It definitely gives off a Marilyn Manson vibe which I’ve seen a few other people mention and personally I dig it. Ruki’s screams are incredibly satisfying on this song and generally speaking it’s just an enjoyable heavy track. FADELESS - Poor Didn't really care for this when it came out and I still don’t care for it now. I get the fact that it’s sort of a throwback to their YEEHAW GAZERAWWK days but all that accomplishes is highlighting how dull their instrumentation is at times compared to those days. REDO - Awesome For some reason I just really dig this track. It’s chill, relaxing and quite different from their other ballads over the last few years. Quite like the guitar lines in this track too, they aren’t exceptional but they’re good enough to keep the song interesting throughout. If I had to think of a criticism for this song, it’s that I wish it was longer. LAST HEAVEN - Awesome A lot of people have been singing this song’s praises and I have to agree with them, this is easily Ruki’s best composition in the SONY era. The highlight has to be that guitar solo towards the end, fantastic stuff. LOSS - Undecided I don’t know what to make of this song, on one hand I like many of the individual sections that it has but on the other hand I find it really disjointed when they’re all thrown together into the same song. It feels like the band tried to incorporate too many ideas and it just ends up feeling enjoyable yet awkward and directionless. Maybe I just need more time to digest it. THE STUPID TINY INSECT - Good What happens when you fuse VENOMOUS SPIDER’S WEB, SLUDGY CULT & ヘドロ together into one song? You get THE STUPID TINY INSECT. Somehow this track feels more complete than the aforementioned three in my opinion, it’s not revolutionary but it’s certainly enjoyable. IN BLOSSOM - Awesome This track is ridiculously awesome! Well, it’s awesome once that awkward, unnecessarily-trying-too-hard-to-be-heavy, intro is done with. Once the song properly gets going, however, it just kicks ass all the way until the end. Fantastic stuff. 鴉 - Awesome Another ridiculously awesome track. I love the energy and its “in your face” nature. This just sounds like one of those songs that the band had a lot of fun with and you can feel that when you listen to it. In that sense it kind of reminds me of their indie days; it’s scrappy and just fun as hell. 黒く澄んだ空と残骸と片翅 - Undecided I've had a different impression of this song each time I've listened to it. On one hand it’s an energetic heavy track, on the other hand it feels kind of generic and formulaic. I guess this is another one I’ll have to let sink in before I can make my mind up. TO DAZZLING DARKNESS - Poor This is the most disappointing song on the album in terms of what I expected after hearing the previews. I already knew that I didn’t care for FADELESS and UNTIL IT BURNS OUT’s preview didn’t do much to make me interested in the song but I was expecting more from TO DAZZLING DARKNESS. It starts out quite good, it’s atmospheric and dark, but then it just seems to aimlessly meander around and never really develops into anything. CODA - Good A good closing track, very atmospheric build up before it finally starts to break out about half way through the song. Probably my favourite closing track since DIM SCENE. Conclusion BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY is a definite step up from the GazettE’s previous two albums, though admittedly that isn’t saying much on its own. My big issue with TOXIC & DIVISION was how formulaic many of the songs sounded, they were effectively the bare-minimum requirements of whatever GazettE-song-archetype they were going for. BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY’s tracks feel like they have a lot more soul put into them aside from the occasional let down here & there. It might not reach the heights of DIM or NIL, but it’s definitely the most consistent album they’ve put out in the SONY era so far. I’d rank it below DIM & NIL but well above TOXIC & DIVISION, kind of in the middle ground that I also consider DISORDER & STACKED RUBBISH to be in.

Sounds noticeably better than their previous two albums, even though it shares a similar style in certain previews. To be honest I never had an issue with the style they were going for on TOXIC or DIVISION, I just never thought that they achieved it particularly well. DIVISION in particular just felt like a bunch of songs that were written in the space of 5 minutes with the occasional flash of quality scattered sporadically throughout (Kagefumi's solo, Kago no Sanagi's first verse, etc). These previews make BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY sound more consistent in terms of the quality, though there are one or two tracks that sound like they were quickly thrown together to pad the album out. Looking forward to DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER, LOSS, 鴉, TO DAZZLING DARKNESS & CODA.

Wow, I totally forgot to mention HaKU in my post. Although they don't write solos as frequently as a lot of other bands, when they do it always fits the song very well. Examples of some particularly good ones include , , vanitas, and selfish (cant find any YT links for the last two). Ironically that's exactly what I mean, they have the ability to write some fantastic ones (some of the ones that you mentioned that I also like a lot are Bathroom, Calm Envy, Shiroki Yuu Utsu, Pledge and ironically Clever Monkey even though you put that in the bad list), but then they have a lot of solos that just seem to be there purely for the sake of having a solo, even if it completely derails the song. Personally I actually consider Kago no Sanagi's solo to be really unnecessary. To be honest though I think a lot of bands have this problem, just because you can write a guitar solo doesn't mean you always should. Even Dir en grey, despite everything positive I said about them in my previous post, seem to have forgotten this occasionally, Unraveling being a recent example.

All link's are time-stamped straight to the solo. Note that I don't rate solo's based on how difficult they are to play, but how they fit the song. I'm amazed that Dir en grey has only been mentioned twice in this thread, and even then one time was only for their older music despite solos becoming increasingly prevalent in their music in recent years. Some of the most notable ones in recent times (in my opinion) are in , , the new version of , and the new version of . the GazettE are an interesting case, every now and then they throw out an incredible solo such as the one in 影踏み & the solo bonanza in , and then at other times their solos can feel incredibly dull & uninspired. 凛として時雨 have some ridiculously awesome solos too, such as this one from this is is this?

Secret can now be bought on the iTunes store in Japan. Also contains previews & track lengths. https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/miyavi/id649989596

HaKU's new song is stupendously awesome

People on tumblr are reporting that Kyo was hospitalized after yesterday's show for tonsillitis and a really high temp.

This is entirely my opinion and I don't really have anything to substantiate it with other than gut-feeling, but I don't think sfp or Yumi in particular had a good relationship with their label after they went major. Look at how many singles (especially anime crossovers) they made after going major and how samey they all sounded (I swear half of amp-reflection sounds like the same song being looped over and over). Now compare that with everything they did while they were independent when every song sounded unique and different in its own way. When they announced their disbandment Yumi said that she wanted SFP to stop making music "while it was still beautiful", I kinda think she was referring to label interference and wanting to get back to being free to write what she wanted to again, rather than having to throw out another generic anime opening every few months. Once again that's just my opinion and I don't have any proof to back any of it up, so take it with a grain of salt.

For fans of school food punishment, Yumi Uchimura's new band just put out their newest demo. It's pretty awesome. http://youtu.be/7kEZYnqOIc8

I think the combination of leaving PS Company, joining EMI, getting married and becoming a father has really helped MIYAVI mature a lot. Since WHAT'S MY NAME? came out it feels like he's been on a roll and he seems to be really enjoying himself, which is being reflected in his music. I'm glad to see DAY 1 is being redone for this album, I feel like that song had so much more potential that wasn't fully realized. I remember reading a comment by YUKSEK around the time that SAMURAI SESSIONS was released where he stated that he and MIYAVI only had (correct me if I'm wrong) 2 days to write the single, and I think that is reflected a little in the song itself. Justice sounds hella cool, I can't wait to hear how it sounds in the album with all the EDM stuff thrown in. Hell No doesn't do anything for me just yet though.

I second that recommendation for HaKU, great band. They have a new mini-album coming out in June too. I assume you're already aware of TK from 凛として時雨's ? If not, I definitely suggest giving that a try too. Since you listed school food punishment, have you heard about Yumi Uchimura's new band, ? They only have one demo out atm, they sound very similar to sfp. toe are also a fantastic band. A lot of their work is instrumental, but they occasionally use vocals on a few tracks. They also have one of the most beautiful PV's ever:

This is really awesome news. JPU did a great job with DIVISION (getting it into HMV, magazine covers, etc) so I'm really glad that they're going to bring us Ling's stuff now too. I love the fact that they seem like actual music fans themselves rather than just a business that's only in it for the money. I'll definitely support this release since I wasn't able to import the Japanese one.