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indigo

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Posts posted by indigo

  4. Posted · Edited by indigo

    I must admit that 2007 was a really great year music-wise now that I think about it. Inspiration is DEAD and The bottom of chaos were life-changing albums for me.

     

    I browsed my own music library and I have to shout-out some other fantastic Japanese rock albums released in 2007.  Even though they are no1curr bands for the most part.  :tw_dissapointed:  I wouldn't say they are groundbreaking albums or anything but still, they are close to my heart. So I guess they are remarkable for me personally.

     

    - The Birthday's Teardrop, one of my absolute favorite rock albums ever.

    - ミドリ (Midori)'s Second

    - ムニムニ (Munimuni)'s underrated 曲がる世界 mini-album.

    - 浅井健一 (Asai Kenichi) released not one but TWO great albums, CHELSEA and Rod Snake Shock Service.

    - And I have to mention Tha Blue Herb's Life Story, my favorite album by them, even though it's not rock.

    Jigsaw9 and CAT5 reacted to this

  5. Posted · Edited by indigo

    That new Large House Satisfaction song was pretty good, nice surprise indeed! I had been a fan of theirs for a while but the "Crazy Crazy" song they released back in 2015 was so bad that I thought they had sold their soul to the bland anime opening pop rock devil to try to please the masses or something. It didn't have the trademark rough vocals and the composition was too easy on the ears and generic as hell. I'm not even sure if they released any more tracks like Crazy Crazy but that song sort of traumatized me so I never bothered to even check out the album it was featured on but the fault is mine. Anyway, seems like they're back to the old sound now and I'm glad about that.

    plastic_rainbow reacted to this

  6. Posted · Edited by indigo

    I've seen a bunch of movies lately...

     

    I had a weak moment and watched Divergent, I don't have much to say about that. There was loads of plot-holes and unlogical things but even though the movie was well over two hours long it went by quickly and I wasn't bored. I might check out the sequels too.

     

    Then, in anticipation of the new Blade Runner I watched Villeneuve's Arrival as I hadn't seen that yet.

     

    I also rewatched the original Blade Runner to freshen my memory because...

     

    today I went to see Blade Runner 2049 in theater. In a few words: Fuck it was great. It's got the slow-burning neo-noir atmosphere of the first movie, there's a bit more action than in the first one but only like 15-20 minutes max, maybe? A lot of callbacks and references too which I loved of course. The movie looks gorgeous and sounds too. The soundtrack was pretty crazy on the theater's audio. So loud. I think it was Hans Zimmer's composition that they used quite a lot. Sounded very similar to his music used in Dunkirk. But it also sounded like some of Johann Johansson's music in Arrival at some points. Too bad that Johansson left this project. The short part of dialogue in finnish was cringey as hell as I'm a Finn myself but it was cool to hear Finnish in a Hollywood movie.

     

    Denis Villeneuve has proven to be one of the greatest modern directors. I was 90% sure he wouldn't let us down with this and he didn't as far as I'm concerned. I have no real complaints about the film but I guess I have to let it sink in for a while and re-watch it at some point because I'm so hyped right now. Strong 9/10.

  8. Posted · Edited by indigo

    During their 20+ years of existence, Envy have released full albums, EPs and countless splits.

     

    Albums:

    Breathing And Dying In This Place (1996)
    From Here To Eternity (1998)
    All The Footprints You've Ever Left And The Fear Expecting Ahead (2001)
    A Dead Sinking Story (2003)
    Insomniac Doze (2006)
    Recitation (2010)

    Atheist's Cornea (2015)

     

    EPs:

    Angel's Curse Whispered In The Edge Of Despair (1999)
    The Eyes Of Final Proof 7" EP (2000)
    Burning Out The Memories 10" EP (2000)
    The Eyes Of Single Eared Prophet EP (2000)

    Abyssal (2007)

     

    Splits:

    Endeavor / Envy Split (1997)
    Envy / Sixpence Split (1997)

    Envy / This Machine Kills Split (2000)

    Yaphet Kotto / This Machine Kills / Envy Split (2002)

    Thursday / Envy Split (2008)
    Envy / Jesu Split (2008)

     

    What are your favorites and why?

    reminiscing2004 reacted to this

  9. Posted

    Age: My The Novembers age is 5 years old since the first time I heard their music was in 2012. I don't remember the exact date so I don't know my birthday!

     

    How you found them: My best guess is it was through last.fm's similar artists pages. I watched the MV for dnim and fell in love with the song but I didn't enjoy the rest of the EP on which that song was featured. Then I lost my interest for some time until they released zeitgeist. I thought it was an interesting album but I still couldn't really get into their music. Rhapsody in beauty changed everything. I enjoyed that album immensely from the get-go. After that I went back to their older material and something very rare happened... something that has happened to me only a few times. We're talking about their 2010-2013 material here. I put some song on: "this is so good!"  I put the next song on: "omg this is amazing too"  and same thing happened with almost every song. And now I can proudly say that I love all of their albums.

     

    Favorite albums: It depends on the day but as of now

    EPs: GIFT > Elegance > Fourth Wall > Paraphilia

    Full-lengths: To (melt into) > zeitgeist > Rhapsody in beauty > Hallelujah > Misstopia > picnic

     

    Favorite songs: Wire (Fahrenheit 154), 再生の朝, Reunion with Marr, ただ遠くへ, 彼岸で散る青

     

    Extra: I remember I watched this one video interview of theirs, but I can't find it anymore!! In it they said that the most representative song of their music is (either the 1st or 2nd song on To (melt into) but I can't remember which one and it bugs me) I need to find that interview!

     

     

    nia reacted to this

  12. Posted · Edited by indigo

    I'm slow. I have listened to only a handful of albums so far but 2017 already turned out to be better than last year. I won't bother with singles. I will update the list as I progress with albums.

     

    Updated 08/13

     

    :5.0:

    水曜日のカンパネラ - SUPERMAN (Kenmochi Hidefumi proves yet again that he is the man. Smooth production all around. Also their most cohesive release to date.)

     

    :4.0:

    SuiseiNoboAz - liquid rainbow (Great comeback with banging production and nostalgic soundscape. And that guitar sound / tone? Mmmmh! Especially the guitar solos take me to the seventh heaven. The Zazen Boys/Number Girl worship is still there to be found and it's completely fine but they put their own little twist on it too. Pika is one of my favorite songs of the year and I will be listening to it even after 10 years)

     

    té - 『櫂』 (After the horrible disappointment that was last year's 閾 EP (or that's how I remember it, haven't listened to it since) their new EP 『櫂』 is a return to form. This is what té are about, pounding and commanding drums and wailing guitars that make your heart beat faster)

     

    Heaven In Her Arms - 白暈 (The wait is finally over! Kent's vocals have improved!)

     

    Norikiyo - Bouquet (I appreciate Norikiyo's slick flow and he's got a good ear for beats, be it trap, boom bap or something else entirely. The problem with his albums has always been the length. They're always around 15-20 songs long and even though is flow is good it can get a bit repetitive sometimes)

     


    :3.0:

    MONDO GROSSO - 何度でも新しく生まれる (Mondo Grosso's latest album has some real gems. 春はトワに目覚める with UA and ラビリンス with 満島ひかり are some of the best songs of the year but as a entirety I'm left with a lukewarm feeling about the album)

     

    Creepy Nuts(R-指定&DJ松永) - 助演男優賞 (Creepy Nuts, at least on this EP, is like a weird combination of RIP SLYME's pop-rap and J-rap's more eccentric artists, nanorunamonai and Sibitt. Especially the vocal delivery and voice of R-指定, the group's rapper, remind me of those two. The first two tracks don't do much for me, but the 3 remaining songs are great!)

     

    浅井健一 & THE INTERCHANGE KILLS - METEO (Yet again a new Kenichi Asai project! It's good as Asai's releases usually are but it's nothing special. Third track "細い杖" is the highlight of the album)


    :2.0:

    empty

     

    :1.0:

    SALU - Indigo (SALU does know how to name albums, I'll give him that. I like his 2016 album but this sounds even more commercial and poppy. I could even forgive that but the songs just aren't very good. The closing song, "Yedi", which has full-english lyrics by the way, is my favorite. Tough Salu, as heard on that song is just adorable)

     

    YUKSTA-ILL - NEO TOKAI ON THE LINE (forgettable J-rap album with bland production)

  13. Posted · Edited by indigo

    I was just messing around on my profile and found out that you can now set a track as your current obsession. Obviously that's just a little thing and it won't bring back the glory days of ol' last.fm but I thought it was neat.

     

    The reason I dig this addition is that way you can also change the artist banner under your name and avatar.

  16. Posted · Edited by indigo

    I finally got Netflix, wohoo!

     

    So I had one week of vacation and watched the first 2 seasons of The Killing. And if you're not familiar with the show it's about two detectives who are trying to solve the brutal murder of a 17 year old girl. And there's a shitload of red herrings. I think I had my doubts about every person on the show being the actual murderer at different points.

     

    I thought Season 1 was pretty good, season 2 was weaker. I enjoyed the investigation / detective stuff the most and season 1 had more of that. And if there's two detectives, as there was in this case, the chemistry between them is very important. I felt that it was really great on these 2 seasons.

     

     

     

    And I've got a question for y'all. Are there any other great shows about solving a murder? I don't want any of those episodic shows, though. I've seen True Detective obviously, Fargo's first season and The Bridge (the Danish/Swedish version) to name a few.

  21. Posted · Edited by indigo

    Made some upgrades to my PC: A full-modular 650W power supply, no trouble with that one.

     

    And then a Phanteks CPU cooler to replace my stock cooler.  After installation I noticed that the cooler is being noisy. It should be around 600-1800 RPM and it's constantly going 1700 RPM.  I tried to change the settings in BIOS but no luck.

     

    Original Saku reacted to this

  22. Posted · Edited by indigo

    indigo's unpopular favorites of 2016

    It's a little after midnight here, so basically I missed the deadline, but it's still sunday somewhere! I'm not in it for the prize really, I just wanted to get this list out there for fun so I didn't really invest in creativity, it's just a simple list. I imagine these artists won't appear on many - if any - lists. It's good to have a bit of diversity too, right?

     

    Some of these videos might be blocked for you, my apologies for that!

     

    Here are the Japanese albums I enjoyed the most last year!

     

    #1k7Nk3wB.jpg

     

    ムニムニ (Munimuni) - A KILLS A

     

    I feel like this album would be on a bunch of EOTY lists if it wasn't for the hmm... unique vocals. I have never been bothered by his voice, though. And he uses his lower register a lot more on this mini-album anyway. I must admit the vocal melodies and delivery can be for an acquired taste. Every time I hear someone say "I love the music but can't stand the vocals" about a band I enjoy, it makes me particularly happy for some weird reason. Few of us have been waiting for new Munimuni material for ages and finally we got a new mini-album! A KILLS A is only 17 and half minutes long but it's still something. And that something is 17 and half minutes of quality music: melancholic rock with fucking awesome atmospheric, wailing shoegazey guitar. Just listen to it on BIG MONEY or NEO SONG, for example. Third song &4 is the weakest point on the album but it's still good.

    Sample song

     

    Highlights: BIG MONEY, NEO SONG, KOGEN

     

    #2kk0O7vM.jpg

     

    Age Factory - LOVE

     

    I'm not entirely sure, but I like to think that this album is about a summer, two teenagers and first love. As you know, everything feels 10 times worse when you're a teenager, especially a break up. This album has that whole bittersweet, exaggerated end of the world atmosphere. You could almost cut these feels with a knife. I simply adore the vocalist's voice, I just want to give him a man-hug and say "it's alright". It's near impossible to pick a favorite song, they're all my favorites. This album needs to be listened to from start to finish as one consistent piece of music. For me "LOVE" hit hard, one of my favorite rock albums in a long time. 

    Sample song

     

    Highlights: EVERYTHING, maybe with the exception of Veranda

     

     

    #3WN2xN7A.jpg


    iri - Groove it

     

    I stumbled upon iri's music randomly. I saw the cover art and was intrigued. A few youtube song samples later I was excited. After the full album I was hooked. The album is influenced by urban music; R&B, soul, funk, hip-hop. The production on the album is smooth and groovy. The list of producers include mabanua (ナイトグルーヴ), STUTS (Wandering) and Kenmochi Hidefumi (breaking dawn, フェイバリット女子) among others. iri's voice is soulful and despite her young age she sounds mature. There's even some parts where she is rapping but she is comfortable with it, it doesn't sound awkward or try-hard. Perfect music for a night drive in the city!

    Sample song

     

    Highlights: breaking dawn, Wandering

     

    #4r0qH4Yn.jpg

     

    友川カズキ (Kazuki Tomokawa) - 光るクレヨン (Gleaming Crayon)

     

    Tomokawa has been around for a long time. He's been churning out albums regularly for 40 years and I think we're close to 30 studio albums by now. He's known for his avant-folk style of music and Gleaming Crayon continues on the same line. The most well-known characteristic of Tomokawa is his idiosyncratic voice, I'd describe his technique as "coughing-your-lungs-out". It's desperate, disgusting, intimidating. Most of the time his voice is accompanied by acoustic guitar. There's also some occasional instruments; distressing drums, scary strings, sporadic saxophone, you name it but which ever the instrument, it's always a harrowing feat.

    Sample song

     

    Highlights: つつじ, 愉楽

     

    #5dIOsu1t.jpg

     

    SALU - Good Morning

     

    I remember when I saw the PV of first single Tomorrowland and thought to myself "this is trash". Well, since then I have changed my opinion a bit, it's still my least favorite song though but the rest of the album makes up for it. The opener "All I Want feat. Salyu" is a strong one. It's nothing like "Tomorrowland". It's an emotional song, with a piano-based beat. The subdued "la la la's" which serve as a chorus are beautiful and last minute lets Salyu shine. The production on this album is great for the most part, it's soulful. There's jazzy horns, piano aaaaand I just noticed that I love to list instruments. SALU flows on these beats effortlessly and he got some good hooks. There's surprisingly lot of singing too, like on "How Beautiful" and "Lily". All featuring artists do a great job, there aren't any rappers but singers Salyu and Mika Nakashima and trumpeter Kuroda Takaya. Especially Salyu almost steals the show on her feature.

    Sample song

     

    Highlights: All I Want feat. Salyu, How Beautiful, タイムカプセル

     

    #6Klp7Fb7.jpg

     

    Yellow Studs - door

     

    There are bands that I wish would evolve with every album, and then there's bands like Yellow Studs. They have basically been doing the same thing since forming - garage-ish rock with hints of jazz - never really changing their sound, and damn I'm glad they haven't! They have nice melodies, raspy vocals and great instrumentation with catchy guitars, cool upright bass and some lovely keyboard/piano. I've always enjoyed their faster tempo songs the most, and this album proves it true again. おはよう (Ohayo) is a great example, it might be one of the best songs they've done so far and it's one of my favorite songs of 2016! It's simply a fun album which never fails to lift my spirits. 

    Sample song

     

    Highlights: ガラクタ, おはよう

    CAT5, Zeus, Seimeisen and 11 others reacted to this
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