The J-Music Lovers' International Assembly

[Ryusenkai]

@Ryu Please tell me you've seen Yuzu's new PV :ahmagah:

 

 

I am liking this new Wonder Girls so much.

 

And that Yuzu video / artwork was wonderful.

 

Yup!  I'm going to write up the article for the video as soon as I finish Oricon stuff for the day, but I adore the video and the aesthetic they went with for it.  Yuzu are one of the most consistently impressive groups when it comes to PVs, since they've just done so much different creative stuff over the years.

[Ryusenkai]

Thank you everyone! A few more years and I'll be as old as people on the forum think I actually am. :lol:

 

Join the club.  :lol:   At the very least the sentiment usually ends up being expressed in amusing ways.

[Ryusenkai]

I was just thinking about Samurai Champloo this morning and seeing the ending theme posted in the thread brings back fond memories. It's still one of the funniest animes I've ever seen. Good times. :)

 

And the Sekai no Owari shade gave me life. I still can't fathom why they're so popular. :lol:

 

Sekai no Owari had a lot more potential soundwise when they started out, honestly.  Auto-tune was used a lot more carefully and tastefully and there were some clearer classical influences in their music that made their initial pop-rock style stand out.  "Earth" had its flaws, but it was still a pretty darn good mini-album.  Compare that to "Tree" where the whole album feels like one long, drawn-out song that reminds of an overly saccharine trip to the carnival and you can see where my problems with them at current are.  They're not untalented composers, but they pigeonholed themselves pretty badly with that release.

 

Still, I think "ANTI-HERO" is a step in the right direction for them sonically (though the lyrics are still pretty bad), so I guess we'll see where they go from here.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

This is a bit of a problem I'm having on Arama recently, but I'll discuss it here. There are these KPop fans who pop up and say this and that about Japanese music, when they're on a site that shows a variety of Japanese music. I really don't get it. It's like they come to the site just to say something about how the music doesn't fulfill the very narrow expectations that they have. It's more their taste that is the problem than the music.

 

*kicks his feet about and whistles innocently*

 

 

Their last album sounded like Disney, Nintendo, and Genki Rockets got in a car, picked up their 8-bit friends along the way, went to a 90's themed party, got drunk and slept over at Avicii's house.

 

I liken "Tree" to a very bland vanilla cake with an amalgamation of candy sprinkled throughout it. I'm glad their experimenting and exploring other genres but "Tree" was indeed too pop-sugar heavy for my liking. And don't get me started on the obvious auto-tune that was prevalent througout the album.

 

I understand and appreciate where he was going with the lyrics for "Anti-Hero" but the lyrics do not mesh with the song arrangement at all. It was almost as if he was reading a random page out of a novel and recorded it over a random song he composed .

 

That's a rather colorful way of describing "Tree", but I can't say that I honestly disagree with you.  Auto-tune is generally fine in my case when it's used for effect... but you need to have some tact with where you apply it.  Slathering everything you do in it just adds to the appearance of being both bland and one note.

 

Lyrics have really never been Sekai no Owari's strong suit, if you've ever looked at any translations of their stuff, so I guess maybe I just routinely expect painfully cheesy lines from them.  Still wish they'd try to avoid cliche quite as much though, since that would alleviate at least some of the issues I have with them.

[Ryusenkai]

He's better off singing ballads.

 

I'm surprise they stuck a 'shit' in there. Have they dropped curse words in the past?

 

I honestly can't remember.  I don't believe so, but could be wrong.

[Ryusenkai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mpGEeZheHg

 

I love this song...

 

I actually just finally sat down with this album since I had a quiet evening.  I've been pretty impressed honestly; much better than I'd even expected.  Looks like July's releases will end on a high note after all.

[Ryusenkai]

It's a good album. She makes a very sophisticated brand of pop. It's like... a classier JUJU, if that makes sense.

 

She reminds me more of a lounge singer than a pop singer on the first listen to this record; just someone sitting on stage in a small club on a chilly winter night and regaling the audience.  The music kind of has that mellow cadence to it for the most part.

[Ryusenkai]

Honestly now it's all about getting the work done and a decent grade than it is learning and actually doing the work. So many people at my university would use Wikipedia for their research papers.  :derp: But yeah, our generation and the younger generation are pretty lazy.

 

Oddly enough, the ideology being pushed at my university is pretty much the exact opposite of this; it's not about a major guiding to any specific profession, but rather about teaching you how to think and approach problems in a certain way (they kind of expect you to have to move professions a few times).  I don't think this generation is as bad as some say personally, just that the bad seeds tend to speak loudest, like it is in just about any case.  Sad, but how it tends to be.

[Ryusenkai]

Doc brings up a point that I have always thought about Jpop.

If you're not a fan of rock music, I don't think Jpop is for you. I've noticed that Japanese music has a lot of rock elements in it (even if it's a pop song). Japan really likes rock lol

 

I'd say rock and jazz really, since those are the two genres with the greatest penetration when it comes to influencing songwriting in Japan. The jazz influences have been worn on the sleeve a lot in recent years and if we're honest, date all the way back to the mid-70s when that kind of music was first broached there by acts like SUGAR BABE.

[Ryusenkai]

Why is the lsat, and the mcat for that matter, so expensive. :/

Also why must so much crap happen so close to testing

 

Feelings I expressed all too well when I registered a few weeks back.  >.>

[Ryusenkai]

I registered about a month back and I applied for the fee waiver, but even that is quite the process since you have to contact the irs and send out so many forums.

 

Yeah, I can figure that it would, since stuff like that tends to be mired in red tape and other such bureaucratic devices.  Hope that it ends up working out for you though.

[Ryusenkai]

Happy Birthday, Mandi!

[Ryusenkai]

Still in love with his voice and praying to every god that he releases new material soon.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQlYDhn71hA

 

I actually just listened to "Midnight Ramble" a bit earlier on tonight, so I can't really say that I disagree.

[Ryusenkai]

I did a Jojo marathon last night and now I'm watching the "Battle Tendency" arc. It's freaking hilarious and a step up from the previous story arc. Joseph is my favorite character by far. :lol:

 

 

This sounds leagues better with a live band. I tend to prefer when acts have live bands in their shows. It just brings a new dimension to the songs being performed.

 

Thanks for sharing Mandi! :)

 

"Phantom Blood" is probably the weakest overall story arc in JoJo, but it's kind of necessary since it sets up so many of the plot ideas that become important later on.  "Battle Tendency" is great though; even arcs later Joseph is still one of my favorite protagonists in the series.  The anime more than does his rather eccentric personality justice.  :lol:

 

 

So much to do, so little time. Finally getting my powerscore book so that's good at least and I finally have 2 days off so I get to study more yay~ :unsure:

 

The crunch is upon us, and we still have just over a month to go.  Oddly enough, I really don't mind the studying since at the very least this test tends to be far more interesting than any of the other standardized exams I've come across.  Might just be me though.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

https://uk.style.yahoo.com/post/127781998474/from-slave-like-contracts-to-no-dating-clauses

"So who’s to blame for these military-style training programmes? Johnny Kitagawa, founder and president of Johnny and Associates, developed them in the ‘80s, to help hone each potential artist’s skills in preparation for their debut into the world of K-Pop. And we’re not talking one or two dance and vocal lessons a week. This is hardcore stuff."

...........

"Johnny Kitagawa" "80s" "K-pop"

.............. This is a joke, right? :unimpressed: No one is THAT bad at research.

 

... You know, I'd hope so, but you'd be surprised how bad some sites are at doing their due diligence.  It's kind of sad honestly, but it's why you have to be pretty picky with where you get your news from.  I have to hope that article didn't intend that seriously, since if so, it borders on laziness.

[Ryusenkai]

I'm pretty happy with some of the releases I've gotten thus far this week, which is a nice change of pace from where I was a couple of weeks ago.  :lol:

Edited September 2, 2015 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

 

Checking Amazon Japan, they're not even cracking the top 50 for pre-orders.

 

#74. Love Me Right (Kai Ver.)

#83. Love Me Right (Chanyeol Ver.)

#99. Love Me Right (Sehun Ver.)

 

Out of the 9 versions, that's all.

 

 

Their world fame doesn't really matter. Unless you're in Japan purchasing it from a store there, it isn't going to count. They stopped counting international fan purchases from CD Japan and etc a while ago.

 

 

Well, the Limited Edition (packaged with a DVD) is at #11 right now, but even so it's only been 3 days.  I'd like to see how long it actually manages to hold out in the Top 50 before I make any wild predictions as to possible numbers.

 

And now I return to waiting for NCIS' "MAZE" to release.

[Ryusenkai]

Me when the FOLKS mini leaks

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

 

The wait is testing my patience, since someone probably has a copy of the mini-album if they leaked the first track.  Soon, hopefully.  :lol:

[Ryusenkai]

`

Mines too. Especially since we had "SNOWTOWN" by this time. I found a link to the "album," but of course it was just a .rar of the title track. -_- I wish their music was on ototoy. 

 

Also Yuzu's song was interesting and dramatic as you put it.  :lol:

 

Doubt anyone cares (unless you're a vampire hunter D fan), but Tooku Made is DAI's next song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AWV_1QJtjdc

 

Oh, I've been finding much the same in my periodic searches over the past few hours; site claims it has the 'album' - size is <11mb.  >.>  Would be so much easier if they sold on a platform that was available outside Japan, but for all the digital services they are on, they don't frequent those.  I blame Sony personally.

 

That's probably the best way to look at "TOWA".  :lol:   It's not my favorite song that Yuzu's done, but I do like it a good bit.

[Ryusenkai]

Are actually Nothing's Carved in Stone an indie act? Somebody in a music review webpage called them "indie".

 

They are now, yeah.  They left Sony after they released "Gravity" earlier this year and went back to their old indie label.

[Ryusenkai]

This week's edition of CDTV was basically a roundtable with today's rising female soloists. It was an interesting concept: http://onehallyu.com/topic/242946-chay-ohara-sakurako-and-yasuda-rei-perform-on-cdtv-for-november-7/

 

 

 

It does. I'm looking forward to Hoshino Gen's album the most.

 

I'd say Hoshino Gen and Ohashi Trio are my most anticipated albums for December, though back number, JUJU, and Hata Motohiro's stuff will also likely be intriguing.

[Ryusenkai]

I know there's still a few releases left to look forward to, but I think I'm sold on 2014 being a better year musically than 2015 as far as jpop is concerned.

Also debating on translating more Natalie interviews, but I'd probably end up only translating artist I like.

 

I'd say 2014 was more consistent month-to-month, though in terms of release-to-release quality I think it was fairly similar, but that might just be my point of view.  :lol:

[Ryusenkai]

I'd agree to an extent. In 2014 I always had something new to listen to versus this year which was very sporadic. Looking at what could possibly make up my end of year lists for 2015 does have some pretty solid material, but not all of it is as strong as what was released last year. Plus I've just had really bad luck when it came to randomly downloading things that looked interesting. Also some artist didn't deliver material as strong as they did last year. Taketomo Atsushi only released one song this year which was very tame compared to what he released last year, but on the same token another young act Shin Rizumu released some great material so there is some balancing taking place at least.

Hitorie released a mini album that didn't live up to their full album from last year, but then you have FOLKS who just got stronger and stronger with each release.

I think my biggest issue for 2015 is a lot of acts didn't live up to the hype/ their potential. There was a lot I was excited for, but when the releases actually came out I was quite underwhelmed. Yet there are other artist that have been around that i casually listened to (Mr. Children, Toshinobu Kubota, etc.) that released solid material this year.

We talked about this being the year of male vocalist for us I believe. And a lot of them have really delivered across all genres for me and not in your typical band format either. Male rappers, regal artist and soloist have done really well this year.

I have no idea what I'm saying anymore lol.

 

No no, I think I can understand where you're coming from.  I'd agree insofar as finding interesting things goes - last year was much better for that on the whole, though there were a couple of surprises that popped up on occasion.  I think where you and I diverge is that more of the artists that I was expecting to deliver did, at least to an extent, and that makes me look somewhat more favorably on 2015 than you might.  That said, I've also had to learn the hard way to temper my expectations with some releases, since it did manage to flat out ruin at least two albums for me this year that would have at least been "all right" otherwise.

 

Definitely the year of male vocalists in many forms though, yeah, though in particular as soloists.  Just so much great work has come from that corner this year, to the point where it's completely changed the usual make-up of my Top 10 Albums (or what I expect it's taking shape to be).  And there are still a few more (Nakada Yuji, Hoshino Gen, Ohashi Trio, Hata Motohiro) to go before the year is out.  I even have Inaba Koshi to start out next year, so the train doesn't stop anytime soon.  xD

[Ryusenkai]

They couldn't think of a better CM?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTolTRI4Fdo

 

Shame considering that the mini-album is actually pretty darn good.

[Ryusenkai]

I plan on listening to it tonight.

 

I think you'll like it, since it varies up their sound a touch more from "OWARASE NIGHT".  I've just started my first listen to Nakada Yuji's "LIBERTY", which has been... intriguing thus far.