Aion 184 Posted January 5, 2012 Aion's Top 5 of 2011 As like every other crewmember on this board, I compiled a shortlist of my favourite albums of 2011. Overall, 2011 was a good year for music for both western as Japanese music. My list Little Dragon - Ritual Union Genre: trip-hop, electronic Sample song: Shuffle A Dream A band I discovered while browsing through the Lowlands festival artists-guide. i immediatly fell in love with their sound they had on their 2011-release Ritual Union. The strong jazzy vocals in combination with the electronic beats is just pure win. Too bad live their sound is more to the dance-side of the spectrum. Short said, I love them hearing on CD, but they dissapointed me seeing them live. Maria Hato – THE LATTER HALF OF ALOHA EP Genre: Folk, indie-pop, singer-songwriter Sample Song: Torty If you haven't heard of singer-songwriter mmm yet, you surely have missed out on something. Maria Hato is her new project, in which she works together with some other artists from my beloved CGCG-label. For example, she worked together with Oono Yuuki on this album. Really sweet indie folk where she re-did her song Winter Woman in a way which is so good, and yet it isn't the best song on this release. KETTLES - ビー・マイ・ケトル (KETTLES - Be my kettle) Genre: Folk, indie-pop Sample Song: つまんないから (tsumannaikara) However this originally was a limited digital only release in 2010, it also got a actual CD-release in 2011. KETTLES got under my attention thanks to a very unique PV and a catchy tune which they maintain throughout their whole album. the vaccines – what did you expect from the vaccines Genre: Britpop, Alternative rock Sample Song: Post Break Up Sex Fastpaced, short, breath-taking. The vaccines is a band that can't take it easy on stage. They're full of energy and they know it well how to bring this energy over to the listener. Even their slower songs have a beat that picks up and up untill you can't sit or stand still anymore. オトハネコモレビ – カタチないセカイ (otohanekomorebi - Katachi nai Sekai) Genre: Piano-pop Sample Song: 冒険心 (boukenshin) I guess I discovered a love for female vocalist that are called kiku. I really adore the sweet yet matured voice. Especially hearing the first tunes of their songs and seeing the band on photos and videos, you would expect the vocalist to have a young, high-pitched voice, but throughout the album she maintains here strong voice, which are backed up with some sweet piano-tunes, making this one of my favourite pop-albums of this year. Dazzled Kid - Fire needs Air Genre: Singer-Songwriter, pop-rock Sample Song: Embrace About 3 years ago I fell in love with a Dutch band called Voicst. They had some nice songs during the year, but then I kinda forgot about them. Early this year their frontman Tjeerd Bomhof released his solo-debut as Dazzled Kid (after one of the Voicst-songs). Together with some guest musicians he released Fire Needs Air, and I immediatly fell in love again with the typical voice of Tjeerd. 潮田雄一 - 8 songs Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Folk Sample Song: 眠りの国 (nemuri no kuni) Luckily I got my latest package delivered just after new years, otherwise I would've completely missed this gem. 8 songs is the second solo release of Ushioda Yuichi, who is also the guitarist of QUATTRO. This band however is completely different than his soloworks. 8 songs let us listen to some really sweet guitar tones, and this in combination with his soft voice are a real pleasure to the ears. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fitear1590 2414 Posted January 7, 2012 オトハネコモレビ!!! Great group, great album. 潮田雄一 sounds pretty nice, as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
toshii9245 0 Posted January 8, 2012 KETTLES' Be My Kettle is really fun and catchy; I could sit and listen to the whole songs without getting bored. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
