hiroki

Yay! Looking forward to it

I don't ever believe it is the same genre. Whatever people say. The end. Why can't bands from this scene play different musical genres? Why do they have to be the same genre?

Of course they can, but if the kind of music that's being produced by the majority of bands/artists in the scene is fairly consistent, I think it's justifiable to call it a genre as well. Hip-hop in the broadest sense is as much a genre in itself as a scene the artists inhabit.

I must confess I have very limited knowledge of earlier visual kei (compared to most of you guys on MH anyway), so I wish I could say more and provide more evidence. This is obviously the period Wonrei is interested in, and I look forward to what others say as well. But for me, earlier visual kei seems to be more easily divided into certain periods/epochs (the definition of what a "period" comprises and how long each lasts is debatable), and in every such period there's some very rough way of describing the kind of music that's being produced.

As we move into the 2000s, this has simply become impossible. If someone had asked me what visual kei "sounded" like in the period 2007-2009, I wouldn't know what to say to them. The incredible diversification suggests (at least to me) that visual kei has lost its "genre"-ness in the last decade or so, and is now probably better described as a scene (described by its aesthetics, concepts, and more tangible marketing/business critera like the associated labels and distributors, concert venues, etc.)

I'm not a fan of DEG but this was nice and I'm looking forward to listening to the full release. I hope it gets leaked or something.

My sentiments exactly. I respect deg as a band but could never really get into them (and their kind of music), so I'm delighted that Kyo's doing something different and from what I hear it sounds promising. I really love how the peaceful folk-ish melodic lines in this song are rippled by darker, more unsettling instrumental overtones and imagery.

I didn't like their music at all, but it's sad to see how business makes you go for such shady methods to basically force fans to buy tickets. Sounds like their manager/label did this, I agree. VK musicians are being milked for all they're worth, and it's been like this for ages.

Yeah it has always been like that. I've always wished there could be more transparency but unfortunately there's precious little of that possibility. Heck, even major artists are forced to play by the label's terms, unless they're someone "big" enough to the extent that the label stands to lose a great deal by dropping them. (In particular I'm reminded of an episode in 2010 where Utada Hikaru implored her fans to NOT buy the "best-of album" her label insisted on releasing because it was against her own wishes)

Ulysses' Gaze (1995): The kind of film you either hate or love. A highly elliptic "narrative" (if it can even be considered one) that explores the meaning of time, space, history, people, etc. set in the Balkans, Ulysses' Gaze parallels Homer's Odyssey in its epic vision. Simply put, it's exemplary of the kind of films that scream "I am high culture" in your face. Apparently also in the TIME top 100 list, in which ideally films are somewhat well balanced between artistic credentials and mass-market appeal, I was quite surprised by how this film is way skewed to one side of the spectrum. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, and for most people the 3 hours could be better spent.

Wow the video is so professional.

Welcome to the forums - hope you enjoy your time here

Awww I love your slippers CaRaN!

I recently got myself a vistlip shirt - there was a vistlip x Tsutaya collaboration for their latest album:

Been reading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age for a while now (kinda slowly progressing xD), it's a pretty cool spin on cyberpunk/sci-fi, kinda 'steampunk in the future' vibe.

Good book, but not as good as Snow Crash imo.

Why actually EVE ''2'' now? xD ''EVE'' itself was perfectly fine though. Anyways, will be looking forward to this release

I think they meant EVE is planning to release 2 new singles

Can't agree more with what you're sayin but those moments are  what make this kind of vocals in vk so ....... special

Lol. Yes there's some truth in that. Sometimes I can't make up my mind as to whether they are intentionally doing it or are so clueless that they don't realize it =.=

Yay!

Wow, I wish I have half your talent at drawing x.x

Omg Ray actually came back to perform at Shuuta's birthday live?? So awesome ;_;

Finally picked up a book again. Started Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase!

^ I love Murakami in general, and I hope you enjoy your read Although I must say 1Q84 was rather underwhelming and disappointing.

Well, I hope these are better than their last single.

The songs aren't too bad, but I really wish they deal with those moments when the vocalist goes glaringly out of tune ><

I just finished Andre Gide's The Immoralist. Probably going to move on to a novel or play by Sartre.

Citizen Kane (1941) - Lol, I'm VERY slow I know. I dunno if it's because I walked into this without any expectations whatsoever, but I ended up really liking it. I find that themes of lost innocence, vanished childhood, etc. have become somewhat cliched thanks to how they have been overworked by SO many artistic productions. This film captures everything perfectly though, and with just the right balance of artistic endeavor and melodrama (just to keep things interesting). 8.5/10

that title though, super long

lol, yeah XD

I like yazzmad's recent album, but not as much as their self-titled which I absolutely loved. Naoki's voice works for me though, so I'm still looking forward to this release (track 3 especially sounds promising)

Philip K. Dick - The Zap Gun

Nick Cave - The Death of Bunny Munro

Irvine Welsh - The Acid House

Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49

Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master & Margarita

 

yep, books.....

Nice titles! Philip Dick is one of my fave sci-fi writers. Pynchon is interesting too, though Gravity Rainbow and Against the Day took me a couple of attempts to finally get through lol. 

I've finally switched over to foobar!!   Here's a screenie, I used centered strings for the song info in "Now Playing", which looks a lot neater imo

Welcome! I'm not from HK but I can understand a bit of Cantonese. Hope you enjoy your time here!

Am I the only one here who doesn't like the covers?

There isn't any semblance of continuity across the different editions (I'll cut them some slack on the anime cover since they prob have less control over the design of that one). I can't help but be reminded of A9's shooting star cover when I look at the LE A. The LE B has a somewhat dubious and distracting combination of color to say the least. Finally they try to be creative on the RE instead of plastering their faces all over it, but (i) the colors spoil it again, and (ii) it looks like what someone half-heartedly comes up with and goes 'now here's my creative effort, make what you will out of it'.

I'm sorry if I'm being too harsh, but I always appreciate artists who put some effort into their aesthetics and design. I guess my disappointment also stems from how ViViD used to have covers I really like, especially "Across the Border" where you could juxtapose the two limited edition covers to get the entire eagle design.

The only thing I like about these new covers: I'm relieved they have not decided to reprise their hideous hair from INFINITY.

To be fair, I haven't seen any official announcement that they won't disband. I took a cursory look at the members' blogs and some of their latest entries sound as if the band's gonna disband anytime o.0 We'll see.

I still stand by my point though. If I'm a TRUST fan, I would not want them to disband. If I'm not a fan, I don't care. They can continue, or disband, or change their sex and join Golden Bomber - I simply don't care. Lots of bands have probably questioned if they truly wanted to continue at various points in time (with or without publicizing it), it's all part and parcel of the scene. *shrug*

Unfortunately, a lot of bands in vk sound terrible live, so I usually prefer studio versions. For a few bands like SID and vistlip, I occasionally watch their live performances either on youtube or DVD, but I rarely download the live versions because it just feels weird to have a handful of "live" versions in a entire playlist of studio recordings, lol.

Very infrequently there are those artists whose voice are too huge for the studio and sound way better live. Adele is one obvious example for me, as well as most operatic performances etc.