hiroki

^ isn't 23% service fee pretty high though? so far the 200yen per item fee of FromJapan is the most reasonable, except i'm also trying to find alternative shopping services ever since they demonstrated zero commitment to providing any sort of customer service.

love their new look!

interesting, wonder what they will sound like. side note: would've been nice if they had picked some other name...as if searching for releases by the band 'Shiva' wasn't already hard enough lol

少年記(shounenki) new maxi single "WEAKNESS_MY BLOOD" will be released on 2015.09.02 (4 types). Limited edition (1,000yen) will include CD+DVD (WEAKNESS_MY BLOOD PV); while regular edition, Tokyo, Osaka editions (1,000yen each) will include CD only. Tokyo and Osaka editions are live-limited and will only be sold at their live venues on 9/5 (at TSUTAYA O-WEST) and 9/12 (at OSAKA MUSE) respectively. [CD track list] 01. WEAKNESS_MY BLOOD 02. WEAKNESS_MY BLOOD(instrumental) (included in limited edition) 02. STARLIGHT SNOW (included in regular edition) 02. 最果てのドール(saihate no doll) (included in Tokyo edition) 02. ムービー・スター(movie star) (included in Osaka edition) Samples are available here. New look: Jackets: Limited edition: Regular edition: Tokyo edition: Osaka edition:

i don't listen to d=out but wasn't his vocals always uber nasal? that was my impression at least. anyway i lol'd at the PV cuz this is my mum's favorite song (well, the chinese original) so i've heard it millions of time, and there's something very cheesy about listening to it with his vocals + awkward r&b dancers around him. nice to see him doing what he enjoys though.

OH HI.

here (credit: ayane@jps) is the full pv of アオイヤミ in 1080p it's stunning and i've been looping it non-stop hopefully they will upload the official PV on their youtube channel~ i'm also curious about everyone's thoughts on the new single. i admit at first i didn't find it as catchy as amazuppai mango, but it has definitely grown on me big time over the last week. i'm also looking forward to getting my copy of the live-limited version so i can listen to the re-recording of Break the World (which is one of my purple stone favorites)

that jilled ray track was stunning follow and astaria sounded excellent too i've very reluctantly gotten over the fact that there won't be a sincrea v2 (not that fest vainqueur ever meant to be one). have you heard fest's latest album? it was better than the rest of their discography in my opinion.

oh nice, i thought Juri silently retired

i was looking at this year's venue lineups for kansai rock summit some time ago and there were certainly a lot more darker bands than last year's. i wonder how much local variation there is though? cuz i don't really see the proportion shifting so dramatically in e.g. Fukuoka and Hokkaido as it has in Osaka (especially). i can only assume that the feedback effect is pretty strong in osaka (band becomes darker -> gets more popular -> attracts next batch of dark bands), while the big 'brighter' bands like those under Resistar Records and Zany Zap are more than holding their own in Tokyo. i'll also note the irony that PCM's 'main' bands in Osaka are faring a lot worse than their subsidiary Dream Agent in Tokyo (thanks primarily to RoNo☆Cro's popularity). that said, i'm not complaining since there are way more than enough new bands to interest me (ok i'm repeating myself here). if i'm to enumerate all the new bands my list would be twice as long as Tetora's, so i'll refrain from doing that. as of now i'm totally addicted to My Fairytale, CLØWD, アンフィル, Lig, just to name a few. they aren't exactly kirakira in the 'classic' sense (which arguably has already been dead and buried for a while) but maybe in the 'gaijin-vk-forum' sense of being antithetical to any dark vk band (e.g. Oneness, Ecthelion, ALIVE, etc. - the list can be extended indefinitely). it's interesting that i rarely hear my japanese friends speak of kirakira, and when they do, what they mean in each instance is usually quite different. (one of them uses it to refer to dance-y bands with ridiculously elitist furi hahah.) but this just goes to reinforce what i was saying about the scene being a lot more diverse than some people think.

Agreed. I didn't like Scums at all (except Deus ex machina) and To be or not to be is even worse (sorry) - I don't even remember how half of the tracks on those 2 albums combined sound like. Their self-titled was better for me, although I have to confess that I was rather lukewarm towards it until I heard the songs live at their tour stop in Kyoto. Someone mentioned in another thread that some bands' music are more enjoyable live than recorded and Nightmare definitely falls into that category imo. Personally i would recommend majestical parade ahead of all of those three - but that's just me. Seconding anima too of course

great news! i wonder what happened to the solo album that Roa was planning to release though..?

ahh i'm waiting for my copy (little hearts is unbelievably slow..). yes i've heard the preview and it's certainly closer to Belmosaic than the last mini album! still not really a fan of the aesthetics i've gotta say ._. i'll wait till i hear the whole thing before i can say what i think XD anyway here's the thing about Xaa-Xaa: i might not be able to get into the stuff they're doing right now but i'm elated to see the attention they're getting. one thing i can't really understand is how often you hear people say of a band they used to like 'oh shit the band just went in a direction i hate - i hope they disband soon' - as if the raison detre of a band is to create music for that one individual. if you like them, great; if not, move on to something else. there's too much music out there to be listened to and too little time to waste on useless complaining.

ooo, which Lilith? the chinese band or XI/Kei's band? (there are at least 2 other Liliths but they have disbanded so i assume you aren't talking about them) these 2 years have seen a lot of my favorite bands disbanding (Xepher, LUCHe., EVE, Diz, etc.), as well as a couple of bands that have gone in a direction that isn't really my thing (Belmosaic -> Xaa-Xaa, METEOROID -> MeteoroiD, Ray℃ -> zigzag) fortunately the sheer number of bands in the scene means that songs are being released at a rate 10 times faster than Trombe can do news updates - so rather than moping over the loss of my favorites, i always try to find new bands to get into. one of the most mind-boggling claims that people love circulating, usually without the tiniest shred of supporting evidence, is that 'vk today all sounds the same', which is just plainly untrue. there's enough out there to please almost everyone, do some work and you'll be rewarded.

LOL. for me i kinda like i.Rias but always thought Anfinit had much better composers (hello makoto please come back..). so i'm not sure if i'll get these :/

next time if you're just buying a few CDs and the total weight is less than 2kg you can consider using the small packet option. there's an option to pay an extra 410 yen to add insurance (in case of damage) as well as tracking. so even with the 410 yen it's still a lot cheaper than the normal 'international parcel'. i'm not so sure about custom fees so i can't help you there, sorry! anyway don't feel too bad, there are so many shipping options it can be confusing at first XD i remember when i first placed an order with Jishuban they made exactly the same mistake - i asked them to use the small packet SAL and paid them the shipping based on that (total 1,200 yen) and they accidentally selected the international parcel SAL option which was almost 3,000 yen lolol. but they were nice enough to not charge me the difference

i just made a calculation using the info.the 4,200 yen shipping is because you selected Airmail 'international parcel' - which is very very expensive for small parcels (it's even more expensive than EMS) in your case you should choose Small Packet Airmail (小形包装物 航空便) which is only 2085 yen. this is a cheaper version of 'international parcel' that's available up till 2kg. have you made your payment for Charge 2? if not you can still select a different shipping option!

⑥ Check Service Fee ￥600 <- next time don't bother to check this option. as far as i know they're too lazy to go through your stuff even with this option and you're just paying extra for nothing. ⑧ Oversea shipping ￥4,200 <- ok so the international shipping itself is 4.2k, which is still a lot for 5 CDs. i'll definitely email them and ask them to make sure they didn't screw up on this. but i don't live in Europe so i'm not sure if this is the normal rate for shipping to France - maybe others can help..? the rest of the Charge 2 breakdown looks ok to me.

wtf? volume doesn't play a part for air mail shipping fees, and the weight of 5 cds shouldn't be anywhere near 5k+ yen. email them and ask them to check?

samples are now available on OHP http://gimmick-web.jp/music.html#ccr-014

tra tra tra

new look