"Lost" J-Music Media

[Tokage 5930]

Not sure if there's ever been a thread about this before or not, nothing showed up when I searched for it, sooo.....

 

I made this thread as an attempt to both index and discuss any and all kinds of 'lost' media from the Japanese music sphere. I'm talking here about albums/minis/singles that were announced, perhaps even partially recorded but ultimately never released (a la Deftones' Eros or the 'legendary' X-Japan album that's been in purgatory for years), songs bands have been performing live but never got to record before they disbanded, material that seems to simply have vanished without a trace altogether... That sort of stuff. This isn't just limited to the VK scene, anything goes.

 

I'll bring up just a couple of examples to kick things off:

- My Bacteria Heat Island had a couple of songs that were often performed live, but full studio versions were never released. The track my head bursting open call a doctor is an example of one of those songs that (at least to my knowledge) never actually got a 'proper' release.

- Short-lived Angura supergroup Cuckoo (featuring Ao Sakurai, Sharaku and Bucchi) never released more than a single three-track single before ultimately disbanding, but I remember seeing a live report of one of their shows floating around which showed that they played a whole bunch of other songs that never ended up getting released. 

- Shoegaze/indie/whatever you wanna call them-band Coaltar of the Deepers teased a new EP titled 'Rabbit EP' YEARS ago... According to statements by frontman Narasaki, it was set to be released within 12 months... back in 2013. Four years later and there's still no word.

- Munimuni's DOGUU ALBUM was the musical equivalent to vaporware for a while, but i THINK it finally came out this year, proving that little miracles may still possibly exist. 

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Tokage

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Cool thread idea! The only thing that comes to mind (besides some that you already mentioned) is the almost-released last MALICE MIZER album which would have been their first full-length release with Klaha officially as a full-time member, as opposed to 薔薇の聖堂 where he was only credited as one of the guest vocalists.

 

If memory serves me correctly there might have even been a tentative tracklist for the album that made its way to CDJapan's site but then got quickly pulled and the band went on eternal hiatus and that was the end of that I guess. Would have been interesting to see/hear what they could have done on a full album in the style of Gardenia, Beast of Blood, etc.

[NICKT 147]

1 hour ago, Jigsaw9 said:

Cool thread idea! The only thing that comes to mind (besides some that you already mentioned) is the almost-released last MALICE MIZER album which would have been their first full-length release with Klaha officially as a full-time member, as opposed to 薔薇の聖堂 where he was only credited as one of the guest vocalists.

 

If memory serves me correctly there might have even been a tentative tracklist for the album that made its way to CDJapan's site but then got quickly pulled and the band went on eternal hiatus and that was the end of that I guess. Would have been interesting to see/hear what they could have done on a full album in the style of Gardenia, Beast of Blood, etc.

Probably would have helped them maybe establish more of a post-Gackt image, too.

[Zeus 7997]

Dir en grey has a ballad called "Ai Murasaki Iro" which has never been properly released and hasn't been played live in years.
 

As far as I know, "Ai murasaki iro" was only played on the following live shows:

• Shibuya Public Hall on 1998.05.05
• Nakano Sun Plaza on 1998.08.04
• Kumagaya VOGUE on 1998.10.09
• Nippon Budokan Hall on 1998.11.02

 

Here's some sources from the OHP showing this song does exist:

http://direngrey.co.jp/special/arche2016/gallery_007.html

 

There is also something called "NS1" not sure what that is. After digging around for a bit I found another Dir en grey song I've never heard of called "Setsuna", which is not the same thing as La:Sadie's "Setsudan". It could also be an early version of "tsumi to batsu" that's been floating around the net for years.

 

1997.05.31 at 難波ROCKETS
1997.06.27 at 宗右衛門町 COWBOY WORLD

1997.08.07 at 新宿 LOFT

1997.08.08 at 新宿 LOFT

1997.09.15 at 目黒鹿鳴館

1997.10.28 at 渋谷 ON AIR WEST

1998.02.21 at 博多DRUM Be-1

[Biopanda 2675]

I've posted this around a bit, but this thread seems as good as any to post it again. Around the time that Grieva started, they were playing a mysterious song called "THE Suicide☆$HOW TIME". As far as I know, this hit the cutting room floor near the end of December 2012 and was never played again or officially recorded. Since Grieva released their final album, I think it's safe to say that it'll forever stay in the vaults. The only record we have of it beyond some old setlists was a recording I made at what was possibly the last live it was performed.

 

 

I can kinda see why they decided to drop this thinly-veiled Child Prey rip-off, but nevertheless it was a pretty interesting piece of the band's history.

 

Outside of Grieva, I've got a bit of info with... no real info actually XD Last year I had received some uncirculated demo CDs from the bands Orphee, Medical Trance Peach and Romance For～. Each of these contained 5-6 unreleased songs and (as far as I can guess from how they looked) came from a former(?) employee of a recording studio. There was no tracklists or other info on these beyond recording dates on the Romance For CD(1999.03.15~1999.04.15). Doesn't really reveal a lot, but it's still really interesting to see that each of these bands were in the studio recording a minialbum's worth of songs that would never end up being released.

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

Some early LUNA SEA songs that never was recorded:

 

・DREAM IS OVER
・PERIOD
・JUNKY-もう死んだふりさせない-
・CONCLUSION
・FEELING
・Fly
・第三の言葉
・SINFUL SONG

 

 

btw ・JUNKY-もう死んだふりさせない- is the only LUNA SEA song I know of where INORAN plays the solo instead of Sugizo, possibly because it was so early and SGZ had joined fairly recently.

 

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Takadanobabaalien

[patientZERO 1066]

I know they're fairly new and the opportunity to be released still exists, but DADAROMA hasn't ever released a recorded version of KIDS WAR.

[Zeus 7997]

1 hour ago, Biopanda said:

 

Outside of Grieva, I've got a bit of info with... no real info actually XD Last year I had received some uncirculated demo CDs from the bands Orphee, Medical Trance Peach and Romance For～. Each of these contained 5-6 unreleased songs and (as far as I can guess from how they looked) came from a former(?) employee of a recording studio. There was no tracklists or other info on these beyond recording dates on the Romance For CD(1999.03.15~1999.04.15). Doesn't really reveal a lot, but it's still really interesting to see that each of these bands were in the studio recording a minialbum's worth of songs that would never end up being released.

Long shot actually, but did you ever try putting those CDs through Exact Audio Copy? Sometimes that program can strip names from metadata burnt on the CD but ofc there's no guarantee that there's any metadata there worth grabbing.

[Shmilly 519]

MBHI had several unreleased songs, although most/all of them featured on their one live DVD release. They put a couple of short demos on YouTube around the time they started activity but several of those were never properly recorded. Interestingly though, one of them was a full song, it was just never released elsewhere: 21st century boy.

 

Recently disbanded MALISEND also played their full discography at their final live which I was able to attend, which included at least 3 unreleased songs (including the various free distributions). I directly contacted them upon disbandment inquiring about purchasing these unreleased tracks as at least some of them had demos on Youtube, but they informed me that no properly recorded versions had ever been made, so I wasn't able to get hold of them.

 

Going back to DDRM and KIDS WAR, Yoshiatsu's previous band Crazy Shampoo also had a couple of songs they often performed live but never saw official releases. After extensive research, it appears they had live distributions a long time ago, but since I've never seen them for sale either in used stores or at auction/Mercari, I consider them to be basically 'lost' songs. (Will pay for them if anyone has them though). The ones that immediately come to mind are 'Guernica' and 'Battou'.

 

 

 

And on a personal sob story, I have always deeply regretted missing Signal's last live due to my flight being just two days later, and as a result will pay handsomely for a copy of their last single 'Crossing fate' which has yet to even see the digital light of day.

Edited October 29, 2017 by Shmilly

[Zeus 7997]

A few more to add to the pile:

Visual kei band THE EIGHT were fond of making their releases really hard to get, so there are a lot of live-distributed songs that never got circulated (or circulated very well). Some of the songs I'm referring to (which I have in crap quality and have never seen more than one copy of) are:

• saraba kimi yo
• hissatsu eight kiri
• no future of the sorrow <- this one in particular sounds like garbage
• Zouo (not even sure if this single exists)
• 倖福だった日々 (live only version released on a single)

Then his following band BLACK:LIST had a few songs that never saw proper release. The one I know the most of is "Barkin Darkest Luv".

 

 

[Tokage 5930]

Shinjuku Gewalt is another band that has a couple of songs that were either never properly recorded or perhaps only available as live dist. releases that never saw the light of day on the web. There's one called Daedalus or smth like that which I've only ever heard  a live bootleg of

[suji 8317]

Dunno if this has ever been shared yet anywhere, but I've yet to find MERRY's 無料配布MD for an affordable price ;w; they also have a song called "Screams of the Dark", which was only released as a live-recording in Nonsense Market's bonus cd. As for After effect, they only released a couple of tapes, and they have a whole bunch of songs that were never released:

 

 

---

 

Pretty sure they might put this in a future release like they did with their other live distros (and thank fucking GAWD), but I'm dying to hear Marco's 金襴緞子 (released on June 25 this year). I have yet to even find this in the auctions ;w;

 

 

Speaking of auctions, I've yet to also find JIVE's new under world (although they were my least favorite Rei band), Jisedai Excite's 片隅のレクイエム (a friend hooked me up with a rip, but I want to own a physical copy ;w; ), and Jackal's 性的グロサイト (which is apparently different from the LOOP OF LIFE version??).

 

As for stuff that hasn't been released yet, Marco has yet to release 神田river on a cd; they've performed that song since they were ギースパープル, and that was a while back. They've already released their songs from that period (9mm Go Round, 灰ト罰, 相対性感情論,「   」不動), but have yet to release that one...

[IGM_Oficial 1964]

3 hours ago, patientZERO said:

I know they're fairly new and the opportunity to be released still exists, but DADAROMA hasn't ever released a recorded version of KIDS WAR.

There's "Concrete" too.

 

 

[Alkaloid 3143]

This song right here:

 

Obviously people have it (since this wasn't uploaded by the band themselves) but I have found no record of it ever being released.

 

 

 

 

 

[emmny 4139]

Fatima was legendary for having a large portion of their discography unrecorded, but played frequently at lives--even with changing live arrangements. Taking a look at their last live DVD setlist, most of the song are unrecognizable unless you followed the band back when they toured and/or saw them live. its cool because fatima got pretty famous from their live show, as opposed to having frequent studio output--t'was a different time *sigh*.

 

kein was also the same, except with the vast majority of their songs unrecorded. even their alleged last live VHS is something of legend--apparently it exists but its never surfaced online in its entirety or come up in auctions for sale. Thats kind of the case for all the band's material, kein stuff resells for around the same price as new releases, at their cheapest. the terekos are around for the last live and the tracklist is mostly unreleased stuff--most of which are nicer that their studio output. Omoi de no imi is an unreleased track so legendary that yukino and mako have played it live within the past 3 years--how they even remember the arrangement/lyrics is beyond me.

edit: im not sure what is out/what isn't from kein, hopefully someone can chime in on this!

Edited January 15, 2018 by emmny

[Biopanda 2675]

7 hours ago, Zeus said:

Long shot actually, but did you ever try putting those CDs through Exact Audio Copy? Sometimes that program can strip names from metadata burnt on the CD but ofc there's no guarantee that there's any metadata there worth grabbing.

Tried that and unfortunately it was a no-go  I expected that'd be the case though, since they were never meant to be released and wouldn't have any need for CD-TEXT metadata.

[Himeaimichu 1535]

10 hours ago, Zeus said:

 

There is also something called "NS1" not sure what that is. After digging around for a bit I found another Dir en grey song I've never heard of called "Setsuna", which is not the same thing as La:Sadie's "Setsudan". It could also be an early version of "tsumi to batsu" that's been floating around the net for years.

 

1997.05.31 at 難波ROCKETS
1997.06.27 at 宗右衛門町 COWBOY WORLD

1997.08.07 at 新宿 LOFT

1997.08.08 at 新宿 LOFT

1997.09.15 at 目黒鹿鳴館

1997.10.28 at 渋谷 ON AIR WEST

1998.02.21 at 博多DRUM Be-1

Setsuna is actually a remake of Objexxx from La:Sadie's. At the same live at Namba Rockets, they also played a very strange, early version of Zan

[Himeaimichu 1535]

メメント・モリ had an unreleased song called Nigatsuyouka no Shitsumei. However, according to Rose Tsukada in the Youtube Comments, it was on a demo tape in 2012???? It's a pretty interesting song. Mei preforms in bonds and a blindfold. He used to have some pretty cool stage antics back then, though I don't know how many carried on into 黒百合と影.

There are two lives on YT with it shown. One at the Stylish Wave Circuit in 2014, and one from their live DVD in 2013 (Released in 2014)

I'd actually like to see the demo it was released on, if it was actually on one. I know 黒百合と影 has a demo tape with 浴槽, so maybe it's floating out there somewhere. Or the people who had it decided to just fuck it and throw it away, since not many have cassette players anymore

Spoiler

 

(linked at the specific part)

 

Also, for their first album, there is sometimes a track listed called モザイク自主規制, but this does not actually appear on the album. It could be a hidden track (since there are hidden tracks where you actually have to use computer programs to get the tracks), or it could've been a song from another band on Dear Dolce records. Me and my friend who owns the album tried to see if maybe people just forgot to upload the track, since for the longest while (until @nxbitakinema uploaded his/her/their rip of it in really good quality), there was only one rip of the album, and it was pretty bad quality. Of course, to no avail. though, I didn't expect it to be there anyway, since nxbitakinema's rip didn't have it. 

MP3 sites (since I used to be THAT LOW lol) have songs labeled with that title, but it's just shitty quality versions of 性悪説リンダ. 

Edited October 29, 2017 by AimiGen7

[Himeaimichu 1535]

Crow×Class～黒鴉組～ also has a plethora of unreleased content, especially since they announced a 2nd album they'd release at a live... ...and never released it. Two of them exist as their two PVs, and the rest are restricted to live footage. However, some songs can't be found in full. Rather than just post them all here, it's all on their YT, so I'm just gonna post their YT link

https://www.youtube.com/user/crowclass/videos

 

I don't expect these to actually be released any time soon, for the simple fact that Kurona and the other members have abandoned the project. Mikage (Masaki Nakamura) and Kanade (Machiaki Shirata) have their own stuff, Saku (Hidemasa Hanahara) has MUGEN, Hibiki (Daisuke Kaminaga) left the band long ago, and has Wagakki band, so does Kurona, and no one knows what Shion (no one even knows for sure his/her name outside of rumours) is doing. 

[TheZigzagoon 670]

Does 'GO TO HELL' by The Gazette count? They've never released that but they used to play it live around 2006-2007

[TrentReznor 362]

I remember Jinkaku Radio were supposed to release the single "Hizikan" that was going to be the ending of some anime...until Yuuki opened his mouth and started talking shit about one voice actress...as result they were dropped from the anime, the single cancelled, and Jinkaku Radio pretty much "ended"

[WhirlingBlack 1043]

15 hours ago, AimiGen7 said:

Setsuna is actually a remake of Objexxx from La:Sadie's. At the same live at Namba Rockets, they also played a very strange, early version of Zan

also @ZeusComing here to set the facts about Dir en grey straight:

This is incorrect, Setsuna was a WIP project song by Dir en grey that developed over the course of 1997 (starting out as 5 minutes and evolving into a nearly 7 minute track) until finally being scrapped in the first half of 1998 for reasons unknown. Whether Setsuna was an official title or one given to it by fans is still subject to speculation.

 

"Ai Murasaki Iro" Is in fact pronounced "Ranshishoku" based on a newspaper interview which I scanned and upped some year ago from a indie magazine made in early 1998. I know this due to the fact that the name was written out in katakana. It's the onyomi pronunciation of the same kanji. They played this song at every oneman live starting from August 1997 until their last indies live at the Budokan, after which it was scrapped due to poor audience response, supposedly.

 

They  had another unreleased longer track that they played throughout the second half of 1997 and on and off into early 1998 which then subsequently disappeared as well. No known title for this track.

 

There was an early version of Mazohyst of Decadence played from 1997 which differed slightly.

 

raison detre had a early quite different  version which premiered at their oneman tour in late 1997 and evolved into it's current form during 1998.

 

ZAN is also one of the earliest songs they wrote, and it was played from their first tour in april 1997 and onwards in various stages of evolution until it arrived at the GAUZE form in late 1998.

 

Tsumi to Batsu was also performed during their last indies tour in a slightly different format.

 

They also premiered two new songs at the DUM SPIRO SPERO and Kisou part of the recent tour respectively which haven't been mentioned or played since. 

 

I could go on but I think that'll do for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Seelentau 884]

To add on what @WhirlingBlack said (by the way, you never got back to me in PMs ):

 

惨劇の夜 was initially once performed as a poem by Kyo and BGM (like INWARD SCREAM nowadays, just w/ coherent Sangeki's lyrics). According to my source, they performed 惨劇の夜 and 霧と繭 at the same time, so it's unclear if the story of "霧と繭 is a clean lyrics version of 惨劇の夜" is really true.

 

You all probably know of Re:birth, which is a fake title for an unnamed early song.

 

There is also another unnamed early song without ANY information, aside of the live recording itself. Performed on 3rd August 1998. It's 04:55 long, so I'm not sure if @WhirlingBlack means this song or a different one?

 

Then there's the early live versions of mazohyst of decadence, cage, raison detre (written in Katakana as レイズンデートル), 残-ZAN- (known as 残-ZAN- (前期型原曲 Ver.)) etc.

 

刹那 (Setsuna) would later become Unknown...Despair...a Lost.

 

The working title for JEALOUS was CAGE.

 

蜜と唾 was initially called NS1 (New Song 1), but most of the songs were called either that or 新曲, which also means "new song".

 

Oh and something that had vanished without a trace was the TWO MONSTROUS NUCLEAR STOCKPILES cassette 清水寺, by DEG's Kyo & Kaoru. It was on the internet in, I don't know, 2008? Uploaded on megaupload and other filehosters, but they all deleted it/got shut down, so at least I was never able to find it online.

So I did what any reasonable fan would do and bought it from Japan.

 

There are also a lot of demos/samplers floating around, if you want to know more about rare DEG stuff, just hmu

Edited January 13, 2018 by Seelentau

[Tokage 5930]

I'm not sure if it was just a case of pure misinformation or if it's another case of mysterious turborarez, but I vaguely recall seeing something on LJ back in the day about cali gari supposedly releasing a fanclub limited album somewhere early on in their post-revival era. I'm personally rather inclined to believe it's bullshit, since I've never heard or seen anything about it since.. It must've been somewhere around the time of 10's release.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Tokage

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

WeLoveUCP has a lot of info on albums that were cancelled for one reason or another. Here's a few of my favorite examples (because I know they would have been great had they actually happened + love feeling disappointed):

 

The Eternal omnibus "Barrier Crash": https://weloveucp.com/releases/glass/2835/barrier-crash-cancelled/

 

狂同遊戯計画 -- a Mar'derayla x Garnet split-single (you know, one of those "1 new song, 1 cover song" deals): https://weloveucp.com/releases/marderayla/1230/kyoudou-yuugi-keikaku/

 

(Notice how all of these are somehow tied to Yayoi??)

 

That Devil Kitty single that was supposed to come out this month

 

Moi Dix Mois' 6th album, which has been "TBD" for like 3 years.

 

Similarly, The Piass have been saying they're going to release an album since like 2009.