J-Pop survey? Yes, please!

Seriously, I’m sure we’ve all seen this over a hundred times by now. But I thought, why not? By the by, it originated here.

What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to?

If we want to be literal, it was Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis, the theme song for the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime. Which is still my all-time favorite. If we want to exclude anime, it was Utada Hikaru’s Passion. Sanctuary DID actually come just before it, but that’s English. So, I don’t know, take it as you will.

Did it inspire you to like that group/singer, or did it turn you away?

I’m still fapping to This Is The One as we speak. Seriously though, I’m still a huge fan of Utada, to the point where I now love This Is The One.

What is the one song that you have been listening to for the longest time?

This could go to quite a large number of songs. I guess the most likely suitor would be Utada’s Easy Breezy, but in all honesty, I’m still listening to Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis. So, I guess either one could count.

What group/singer have you liked the longest?

Utada Hikaru. I honestly had no idea who Yoko Takahashi was before last year when I listened to Metamorphose prior to finally watching This Ugly Yet Beautiful World.

What is the song with the most plays on your iTunes player?

Altogether? The preview rip I have of Eternity8’s I Will. If we’re talking full songs, it’s the Black Eyed Peas’ Boom Boom Pow. If I had my iPod on me, this answer would almost certainly be different. In fact, it would almost certainly be Saori@destiny’s EZ DO DANCE.

Is that song your favorite?

In the Black Eyed Peas’ case, not even close. In Eternity8’s case, I think it has potential. The biggest downside is it samples the traditional wedding march, so I’m constantly stabbing myself for sacrificing my manhood for this band. Seriously though, neither are my favorite. In Saori’s case? Not really, but it was until very recently.

If not, what is?

Right now, it’s actually a toss-up between a few Mika Nakashima songs. Over Load, No Answer, BLACK & BLUE and MY SUGAR CAT are all vying for first place. However, my all time favourite would probably be BONNIE PINK’s Broken hearts, citylights and me just thinking out loud.

Is there any one group that you can listen to all/most of the songs by? If so, who?

Not really. Saori@destiny and Aira Mitsuki both have their downs at times, but if I had to choose someone, the only group or artist that comes even close is MiChi.

What is your favorite agency?

D-topia, no question about it. Aira Mitsuki AND Saori@destiny on one label? I’m amazed it hasn’t blown up from the excess sex yet. I can barely stand it.

What is your favorite group/singer?

This changes way too often for me to really have a solid answer, but I guess a few likely choices would be MiChi, Mika Nakashima, BONNIE PINK, Aira Mitsuki or Saori@destiny.

I’m probably missing a few things for a few answers, but it’s close enough. I’m off for a nap or some shit like that now. Nighty night, readers~

(Yeah, by the by, I made that. No stealing or I cut you. </3

No, just kidding, do whatever with it.)

~IT’S DYNAMIC~

Okay, I don’t know why I chose this title for the post, but either way, everyone else involved has been doing this, and now I feel I should. SO…

There’s a new blog in town. A hot new blog. A SEXY new blog. A possibly even FIERCE new blog, if you must put it that way. It involves multiple bloggers from around the WordPress J-Pop Reviewing Blog-O-Sphere, and I’m now a (late addition *cough*) part of the group~ (THANKS FOR WAITING, BRETT, YOU FAT BASTARD. J/k. <3) It’s kind of dead at the moment, there’s only an introduction post for MOST people involved, and there are a few posts already… Buuuut…

WELCOME TO Fated Light ~FINAL NIGHT~

A joint collaboration of a blog brought to you by:

1. Brett (Kurayami Monogatari)
2. Lex (Beyond the Sea)
3. Noah (StyleJapan / Report)
4. Megumi (Lost Wing)
5. Tsuki (Lost Wing)
6. Jin (Sora to Kujira)
7. Reed (???)
8. And myself.

‘S GONNA BE HOT, Y’ALL~

And a bit random. RANDOMLY HOT, but random nonetheless~ Many of my posts will likely be… Well, miniature versions of the features I already do on this blog. The huge ones will still be here, but my posts on Fated Light will just be some of my MANY SEXY RANTS~

So, yes, check it out, comment… All that jazz.

The Current State of Techno-Pop 2 – Where Are They Now and Who’s Joining In?

It’s been a while since I did a write-up. Well, a decent one, anyway. So, instead of coming up with a new lukewarm idea, I thought… Why not continue a tried and tested formula? So, I’ll be commenting on all artists featured in the first part, where they’re heading, whether I see success or not, and I’ll also be commenting on a few newcomers and influenced numbers. So, here we go!

Also note, I’ll be leaving out artists I can’t really comment on, but expect the big ones to return.

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The Big Step Up
(Previously The Godfather of the Industry)
Nakata Yasutaka / capsule

Once again, you can’t talk about the mastermind without mentioning the act he features in. Well, after a number of disappointing albums, it’s safe to say that capsule managed to bounce back to the top with More! More! More!: the heavy techno sound we all know and love, with less off that club sound, and a huge decrease in those god damn stock vocals they INSIST on using in almost every single damn track on an album.

Unfortunately, they haven’t released anything since the album, but when they finally get around to it, I can safely say that it should hopefully be another high quality release. If the improved reactions and results to More! More! More! weren’t enough of an indicator, then I don’t know what is.

Sample Track: JUMPER

The Slow Transition
(Previously The Popular Ones)
Perfume

I’m sorry, is this supposed to be Techno? Because all I hear is crap.

Seriously though, with every passing single, Perfume gets one step closer to turning into a Hello! Project reject. They’re losing the techno edge that I, at least, have been wanting to hear for ages, and now instead of the orgasmic songs such as Electro World and Computer City from eras passed, we’re getting love the world and One Room Disco, as well as that reject song Dream Fighter. It’s no wonder they’re topping the charts, their individual edge is slowly slipping away. I think it’s a damn shame, and I condemn Nakata to hell for doing this to them.

…Just kidding, but I hope the album is a bit heavier.

Sample Track: One Room Disco

The Cheater
(Previously The Hack)
MEG

MEG, you dirty slut! First you’re the furthest thing from Techno we can imagine, then Nakata turns you into an electro-pop idol… And now you’re cheating on him with Hadouken!, the worst possible choice for the dirty deed. What’s even worse, she has a number of mistresses lined up for her concept album, and I think it’s quite shocking that she can show her face around Nakata’s crew when she’s doing this. Especially since the non-Nakata stuff is actually interesting enough to NOT bore me to death. I’m torn when it comes to MEG. I never liked her Nakata stuff, but her concept album material so far sounds great. However, PRECIOUS was great, too, so… I don’t know, is she better off without Nakata or not?

Although, I noticed there were previews as I finished typing this paragraph. BEAUTIFUL sounds like a great album, so… What the hell should I expect now?

Sample Track: FREAK

The Failure
(Previously The Comeback)
Ami Suzuki

Supreme Show was okay. Started great, slowly started getting old. She had room to improve. Then she ditches Nakata and goes to Taku Takahashi, the mastermind behind many other techno songs. And it all goes to hell. Ami has single handedly dashed my hopes and dreams. Reincarnation was a huge case of me wearing rose-coloured glasses, because I thought it was great for a while before finally realising how shit it really was. After hearing Rie fu’s Romantic, I was hoping Taku would work wonders. He single handedly ruined Ami Suzuki for me, and unless her next single is sheer genius, I don’t think I’ll be a fan of hers much longer. Of her new stuff, anyway, DOLCE never gets old.

Side note, what’s with only having one song produced by your new producer on your first single together? Nakata never did that, but then again, I guess he was a bit more of an exclusive holder than Taku.

Prediction? It’s definitely not good.

Sample Track: Reincarnation

The Ray Of Hope?
(Previously The Copycat)
Aira Mitsuki

In the realm of techno being enveloped by pop, Aira Mitsuki is one of the only people that knows  everyone wants to hear a normal techno song once in a while. Not all of her music is straight-out techno, and her ballads are appaling, but otherwise, she seems to be the only one that knows what real techno should be. Honestly, that isn’t completely true, for reasons you shall soon see, but at least she sort of has her priorities straight. Who knows where she’ll go when it comes to the release of BARBiE BARBiE: The title is kind of frightening, and yet intriguing at the same time. My hopes are placed on it being ultra-modern, but my fears are telling me it’s going to be a Perfume-styled pop song. Who knows which is right, but I can always hope Aira never converts.

In the mean time, at least she’s producing some of the best sounding techno music on the scene at the moment. Without her, we’d only really have Perfume and MEG, and who wants to live in a world like that?

Sample Track: Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS

THE Ray Of Hope
Saori@destiny

Yeah, yeah, we all know I’m a big Saori fan. Some of you may think I’ve only given her this title because I’m such a huge fan. Well, you’re wrong, because as far as I’m concerned, Saori is the only one that has kept Techno and Pop apart from each other. On the level of musical styles, I think she’s more comparable to capsule than everyone else, but not entirely. She’s got the hardcore, heavier sound of capsule to her music, but some songs bring her back closer to her label sister Aira Mitsuki. She has had her share of songs that crap all over this trend (Most of JAPANESE CHAOS and Yowamushi Heart, for example), but for the most part, if you want harder music and capsule isn’t releasing enough for your liking, I’d likely recommend Saori@destiny.

capsule is still the reigning force for the style, of course. I’m not saying Saori’s going to take their spot: That’s highly impossible, I unfortunately can’t see her becoming much more popular unless they stop screwing around and give her some proper promotional videos and events.

Sample Track: EZ DO DANCE

The Mindfuck
(Previously The Individual One)
SAWA

First, she produces crappy house music with FreeTEMPO. Then she produces a sub-par Techno/House album with the only truly good song, Stars,  being produced by RAM RIDER. Then she goes back to FreeTEMPO to sing a song for some VA that I can’t remember the name or theme of. All I want to know is… What the hell is she doing? She seems to be unable to make up her mind about where she’s going, what kind of music she’s making or if she’s ever going to release a single or a proper album. I’ve long ago lost hope on this girl, but a part of me hope she goes back to RAM RIDER or another decent producer to make her music instead of sticking with who I consider to be the worst possible choice out of the bunch.

For shame, girl. Get your act together or go back to teaching English.

Sample Track: Stars

The Deceased
(Previously The Fashionistas)
COLTEMONIKHA

Seriously, what the hell are they doing? I think this group is defunct now, I’ve never even heard of Nakata mentioning this group in recent times. What a shame.

I’d honestly think that Sakai Kate had died if she wasn’t still posting blog entries. And I am not kidding. But the fact that I barely know who she is outside of COLTEMONIKHA helps that fact too.

Sample Track: Sleeping Girl

The People I’ve Never Heard Of
Q;indivi

Seriously, why does no one ever mention this group? They’re actually pretty good for such a barely talked about unit, and the fact that they’re on avex makes this even more baffling than it originally was. Sure, their lyrics can be overly nonsensical when they’re in English, and the vocalist can be questionably horrible if she has the wrong vocoder put onto her voice, but when it works, it definitely works. They aren’t as good as the majority of those that came before them on this list, but they definitely show promise.

They have appeared on two compilation albums, as well (BEAUTIFUL TECHNO and HOUSE DISNEY, both of which have been featured here), so there’s definitely an abundance of them around if you want to start off with something that isn’t absolutely screaming of their stuff and is too big for you to worry about.

They also do a lot of CM songs, so… Maybe they aren’t as unknown as I think they are.

Sample Track: Part Of Your World

The Possible Conversion
Sowelu

A change in a musical style and butchering your hair can do… Many things to your career. MATERIAL WORLD wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly the best techno song out there. It was nice to hear her try this new sound after being a largely R&B act, but…

WHY DID SHE CUT HER HAIR?! She used to be so gorgeous, and now she looks like an 80s train wreck, which is NOT the right way to go about things when you’re transferring yourself into a new musical scene.

Hopefully she sticks with Taku after her best of album, because I WOULD like to hear how she turns out beyond a one single experiment. I’m sure we’ll be seeing something from the two of them some time soon, but its quality is under question.

Sample Track: MATERIAL WORLD

The One-Time Experiment
Rie fu

It was a shame to hear that her collaboration with Taku was a one-time affair, because Romantic changed my views on her career to a very large extent.

Thankfully, all is not lost! She’s adapted a bit of a techno sound into a few of the songs in URBAN ROMANTIC, and it helped the album quite a bit. The few synths here and there don’t make her a techno artist by any means, but Romantic can definitely fall under the category, and the fact that it’s influenced the rest of the album is a sign that she isn’t against changing her sound to appeal to the masses, while still keeping a piece of her old self in her music.

TAKU, COME BACK TO THIS GIRL! As good as the rest of her music is, I would love to hear another track from the two of you.

Sample Track: Romantic

The Indies Unit
Portable

Portable.

They’re keeping our music fortable.

Get it? Fortable? No? Well, whatever.

These girls show promise. They’re nothing at all to look at. In fact, they’re visually repulsive. But Hajimesasenai is audial sex, and Boku no Bunshin is almost as good. Unfortunately, that’s about all we’ve gotten from them. Who knows if we’ll see them again? All I know is, I’m certainly hoping we will, because I think they have a shot at going far if they can get signed.

Sample Track: Hajimesasenai

The Indies Perfume
CosmeticROBOT

Come on. These girls reek of Perfume. The band, not the covering fragrances.

They look like a bunch of dumb bimbos, but they have some pretty good heavy techno music. You can hear a few Perfume tracks inside their songs, like Butterfly and maybe Electro World if you listen hard enough.

These girls aren’t different enough to make it big, but they could probably do it on their similarities. I think Portable is a better choice as a signing opportunity, but CosmeticROBOT do have the potential to have at least one big hit.

Sample Track: SERIAL NUMBER 99

The One Trick Pony
Sweet Vacation

Honestly, what are these people offering us? I’ll tell you what. A sense of familiarity. A dependable stream of music. A safer alternative for those who don’t like being adventurous with their techno.

And I mean all this literally. They can barely make their songs sound different, even if their lives depend on it. They’re finally on a major label, which is nice to see, but they’re still taking barely ANY risks with their music. They’ve added a few new sounds that their prettier synthesizers have, and they slapped May’s vocals onto it yet again and sold us recycled shit labelled as a new song.

I’m not really enough of a fan to follow them, and if you are, well, more power to you. If you enjoy their similar discography with no surprises, then that’s your perogative. I, however, would rather steer clear of this monstrosity of a unit.

Sample Track: Sayonara My Days

The Collaboration Machine
ravex

They’re pulling a constant m-flo. And actually, that’s not surprising, since Taku, the producer for m-flo, is part of ravex. Their music isn’t great, but they use the star power of the different avex artists they collaborate with, as well as their personal star power on TOP of that, to gain the popularity they need. They’re basically GIRL NEXT DOOR part 2: A commemorative unit created by avex for some special occasion or other. I don’t see anything really interesting in their future (although I haven’t really listened to their singles, thus why I featured them), apart from Bangalicious. Anna Tsuchiya never sounded so hot. 1 more night is actually excellent, too.

Sample Track: 1 more night feat. MONKEY MAJIK

The Popular One Consolidating Her Power
Namie Amuro

Well, recently, Namie has topped the charts and shown a consistent rise in popularity ever since she released PLAY. It’s safe to say, the bitch is back.

It’s also safe to say that she’s been on the verge of a techno outbreak for ages. PLAY showed a few small signs of it, though nothing noteworthy. Do Me More was on a similar level of coming close, but with the release of WILD / Dr., she’s given us two real forays into the sound. WILD isn’t as techno as it could be, but Dr. is the perfect example of a techno song done by a popular artist. It’s more like Perfume’s recent techno than a full-on techno song on its own, but it’s shown that Namie isn’t afraid to work the influences to get ahead of the rest of the crowd. I think she did a damn good job of it, but just wait. She’ll be back to her old self in the next single, believe me.

Sample Track: Dr.

The Queen of J-Pop, Taking It Further
Ayumi Hamasaki

There’s nothing else to say about it. Ayu’s taking a clear advantage of techno-pop and its slow uprise to the peak of its popularity in recent years. NEXT LEVEL is the perfect example of it, and while I’m admittedly the biggest Ayu hater on the planet, a few songs on the album (Sparkle, EnergizE and Disco-munication, the interlude that should’ve been a full track) are absolutely brilliant.

Apart from these, she should steer clear. She’s popular enough to not have to stoop to this level to get more support from her fans. That, and Days / GREEN sound like a poorly placed joke as a single for this era, when most of the album is techno or synth-pop instead of rock or ballads. It was a poorly executed view into how Ayu would handle this style, but please… Stay the hell out of my genre and go back to your rock and pop shit. I was happier hating you.

Sample Track: Sparkle

The No-Trick Pony
GIRL NEXT DOOR

What the hell is the point of continuing this unit any further than they’ve gone? EVERY song sounds the same, and they’ve only had… What, two good songs with this formula, and they were WINTER GAME and Seeds of Dream, which is still pretty standard.

They’re barely even techno, when you think about it, they’re actually closer to dance… Yeah, that’s a better classification. These people would be an abomination to techno, anyway.

To go into a more impartial more though, they are good for you dance freaks, because their music definitely fits that bill perfectly. So, all of you, go listen to them now.

Sample Track: Seeds of Dream

The B-Movie Experiment
Aural Vampire

Aural Vampire are a funny bunch. It seems their whole career is focused on songs modelled after b-horror movie themes and audio clips worked into heavy, creepy industrial techno songs.

Not that I’m complaining. They’re a breath of fresh air into the industry. Their only problem is they barely release any music. And if they release a physical copy of any music, it’s usually re-released tracks, or songs performed solely in concerts, which are usually the songs that get re-released at a latter date.

They are a fairly unknown band, since most of their released work was done under an indies label, but now that they’re signed under avex, I think there’s some hope that we could hear a future release from the duo, and I for one am far too excited by this prospect to think about it too much. Their single album was brilliant, if not a bit creepy, and it left me wanting more compared to the similar techno acts you hear all over the place that, while they sound nice, don’t really bring anything new to the scene.

Sample Track: Preservative Woman

The Intercontinental Genre Transporter
BoA

In Japan and Korea, she was an R&B artist. As SOON as she hauled her ass to America, she shocked us all by producing an album made up almost completely of techno-inspired pop/dance songs.

It was an interesting development, and as far as I can tell, a successful one… For the fans who already knew about her. I don’t think it was a very big success at ALL in America, which is a shame, because it was a great first attempt at an American album. Stop hiding the accent and maybe it’d be a bit better, because it can be a bit grating for people who aren’t completely into that genre of music.

I can definitely see that this was a one time thing, and if she does release anything in America… Well, she probably won’t try this again. But if she did, I’d still be pleased if it was produced properly and by the right people.

Sample Track: Obsessed

The… Predictable One?
immi

…So, uh… What is there to say about immi? I’m honestly not sure where to even start. She had a non-techno album before finally moving into the genre under the moniker immi with her album Switch (Like MEG, who also started as a non-techno act, albeit under the same name), and instead of releasing something worthwhile after this standard album, we got a remix album, RimmiX, with three new tracks, and only Crazy Cat being worthwhile.

I’d like to hear another techno album from her. I haven’t heard enough to make any proper judgements on her, but Switch did have its better moments, such as Local Train and Klaxon, so I do know she is capable of a good song here and there.

The producer is more to blame for the mediocrity, though. She does have a good voice for the genre, but there aren’t really enough distortions put over her voice in her first techno album.

Sample Track: Klaxon

The Worst Techno Artist Ever
Ayaka Ikio

And here are the dregs. I did overreact a bit, she isn’t the WORST techno artist ever, but… COME ON! There were only, what, two really good songs on her debut mini-album, and we’ve heard nothing from her since. I really don’t see much happening for this girl.

Of course, remember, this is an opinionated post. I, personally, think she’s horrible. However, she does have some of the most faithful techno music out there: Heavy, distorted and easy to dance to. None of it’s great, or even really listenable in my opinion, but for those of you who like music to dance to instead of listen to, this may be your girl.

Or, give her a new producer. Maybe Nakata or Terukado… Hell, maybe even RAM RIDER could do something interesting with her.

Sample Track: Spin Me Round (This PV is such a rip off of Ami Suzuki’s ONE PV.)

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Well… This was one obscenely long post. If you managed to sit through this and read it all, then congratulations, and thank you very much! I am rather proud of this much more thorough compilation of techno acts and artists, and I managed to get my views on where they’re heading and whether the forecast is good so you can all compare, comment or even hate comment about what I said. Hope you liked it~

And sorry it went on so much longer than I originally intended.

BoA vs. Utada – The Big 180

I don’t know about all you other people thinking over whether Utada or BoA will have the bigger impact on the American music world once their albums are relased, but I think that predicting it just got about ten times harder.

I know Utada isn’t exactly new to the American music industry, having already released two albums over there, but let’s be honest. I don’t think anyone actually knew who she was back when she was Cubic U, and Exodus was, despite being a great album, a flop. This and a whole bunch of other horrible warnings in where she’s taking her musical style have made me pretty scared as to what could happen when This Is The One hits.While at least one fear has been knocked up a few notches, I can take solace in the fact that Utada’s forming a true gimmick for herself.

Honestly, the largest problem here is… well, both Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI and Dirty Desire sound the same. The only difference is the latter is faster, really. This isn’t good as well, because it’s all in a similar R&B style. The good part about this, though, is that you can hear little throwbacks to Exodus and her Japanese career in the backing synths for Dirty Desire. And, well… The song itself is basically THE WORKOUT part 2, which I was instantly excited about, just because that song was so amusingly good that it ended up being one of my favorites on the album. This would be the gimmick I mentioned. So, at the moment, my hopes for This Is The One are SLIGHTLY higher… But I still have my doubts.

Unfortunately, my hopes for BoA are taking a different turn, all thanks to the previews on her main site’s discography. Just click on the little Windows Media Player symbol next to the song name, the English album is near the bottom of the page. I know most of you know this, but this is for those who don’t.

BoA is a toss-up of an album. It’s obvious that I already like Eat You Up, I Did It For Love and what I’ve heard of Look Who’s Talking. When it comes to the rest of the album, from the previews it sounds like the real stand-outs are Did Ya and Obsessed. As much as I hate to say it, most of the other songs sound a bit generic. It’s nice to hear her take on that electronic R&B hybrid everyone seems to be trying lately, but some of the songs aren’t really sounding too good, and others sound too similar. There are some stand-outs there too, but they kind of pale in comparison.

I will also say, Girls On Top was the best choice of a Korean song to bring across, but… The translation period has pretty much made it the most unappealing song lyrically. I’m thankful that the music is intact, but otherwise… I don’t really know what to think.

I know it may be a bit unfair to compare two albums like this when we have a full preview of one and just two of another, but a first impression is always important.

And frankly, Utada’s the winner here. BoA sounds like she could do okay with her album, but honestly, I’m just feeling that Utada will come out on top, if she plays her sound up a bit more for a few tracks. She’s relying a bit too much on that Stargate producing unit, so she’d better not let them churn out all of this crap to make a worse album. Amazingly, I think both of BoA’s good tracks were produced by Bloodshy & Avant… So that’s saying something. she should’ve stuck with them.

Of course, I could be completely wrong and the real tracks will blow me away on both albums, but we’ll see.

J-Pop and the Seasonal… Um, Season

There’s only very few holidays that you can say are celebrated by every country. Well, not EVERY country, because some people botched it and made their own versions of it. And I don’t mean botched in the bad way. Just saying.

Don’t take offence~

But with holidays comes holiday-themed music (and videos), and there’s only one holiday that causes as big a fuss as an annual Japanese music festival. I am talking, of course, about…

CHRISTMAS~!!!!!!

*insert spooky horror music, thunder and maniacal laughter*

It’s a great holiday, but it’s known to spawn some awful music from time to time. That’s not always true, as some can be great. But it’s a very mixed bag when it comes right down to it. You never know what you’re going to get.

As such, I had an idea. Instead of ending my Christmas special at a last minute Christmas mini-album review…

Why not make it a write-up? No, it’s not just about CHAIN. It’s about the different winter and Christmas-themed songs we’ve heard from the Japanese throughout the years. No covers will be seen here: It’s all original.

So, uh… Let’s hope I don’t mess it up! Enjoy~

(I’m totally using the thumbs system, lulz.)

The Winter Tracks

Despite being rather seasonally focused, Winter Tracks are songs you can listen to at any time of the year, that just have that little winter feeling to them that makes them suit the season so well. They’re tracks you can blast at others or cry to whenever you want, and you don’t have to feel like an idiot while you do it.

Days – Ayumi Hamasaki

In a very un-me-like moment, I decided to kick things off with Ms. Hamasaki, so called “Queen of J-Pop”. This seems to get the winter sound right with its instrumentation, and it is rather good in that respect, but Ayumi’s voice absolutely kills it with the random wavering it throws in there. Not being a regular for Ayu, I’m not sure if this is normal or not, but it sort of throws me off of the song, as does her overall odd vocal style.

The PV isn’t very good, either, IMO. Maybe I’m biased, but it seemed a bit too overemotional, and it seemed like she was trying to be overly cute in the moments that called for an emotion about ten octaves below what was called for.

Response: Thumbs Down, no question about it. I’m just not a fan.

stay with me – Koda Kumi

Koda’s latest track is another example of a winter song that was released this holiday season. I rather like the simple beat the verses of the song has, really, but the chorus comes in sounding just a little bit off, which brings it down a bit, and frankly, it doesn’t really come back up. It’s not as bad as some of her other ballads, but it’s definitely a step down from anything un-seasonal she’s given.

And the PV is barely worth mentioning. Kuu’s just trying to act overly cute, and frankly, it doesn’t work for her. She needs to go back to the sexy image.

Response: Thumbs Across, the song’s not too bad, but the PV was fail.

WINTER GAME – GIRL NEXT DOOR

When it comes to this kind of music, I can’t really tell any noticable differences between the songs. However, when it comes to winter songs, this is one that has an edge. It has an upbeat sound to it, and while there isn’t even a total winter sound to it that could actually make it sound like a winter song at all, it does set itself apart with the sound. I guess the higher pitched synths do give it that kind of feeling. I actually really like this song, for what it is.

The PV, on the other hand, is another absolute joke, but this time it’s actually making me laugh. It’s a toy commercial, a skiing advertisement and a Christmas endorsement all in one, and if it’s not good to watch, it’s at least good to laugh at.

Response: Thumbs Up, the song’s great and at least the PV was able to give me some kind of positive reaction.

Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow – Perfume

Another winter song with a twist. When it comes to the song itself, the only real way to tell it’s a winter song is both the title, and the lyrics of the song itself. However, it’s yet another catchy techno-pop number from Perfume, which is always a plus when it comes to music. Similarly to WINTER GAME, the higher pitched synths give a wintery feeling too, and the song has an overall airy, light feeling to it that feels sort of reminiscent of winter.

The PV is another odd one though. It mainly consists of the girls dancing in the snow and exploring some random, spooky environment while it’s snowing around them. Their white, puffy outfits kind of scream “SNOW!!!” as well. It’s a beautiful PV, though. Nothing’s overplayed, like it would be in a Koda or Ayu PV.

Response: Thumbs Up, I wouldn’t be a Perfume fanboy if they got anything less. Unless the song was Negai…

Pocket – Otsuka Ai

Now, THIS is how a winter song should be. Slow, intimate and heart-felt. Otsuka’s provided one of my favored winter songs with this one, as it suits her higher register well, and the instruments fit the overall theme of the song well.

I can’t see much point to the PV, though, but Otsuka’s definitely gorgeous in this one, and whether there’s a theme or not, she is absolutely adorable, as is her PV acting.

Response: Thumbs Up, definitely one of the best winter ballads.

The Christmas Tracks

Ah, Christmas tracks… Those songs you can listen to at but one time of the year and not feel like an idiot doing it. It’ll fill everyone around you with the Christmas spirit, and cheer will follow imminently.

Unless it’s January. Then you’ll just look like a jackass.

CHAIN – BONNIE PINK

 The title track of the special Christmas review I just tried to fake you all out with. LOL, JUST KIDDING, FOLKS~ It is a rather nice, calm Christmas track, and I do like the overall sound that the instrumental of the song has. BONNIE’s voice sounds alright with the song, too, but the way her voice sounds makes her seem sort of monotonous sometimes, which is a downer. That high note near the end is gorgeous, though.

The PV isn’t very interesting, either. It just mainl consists of some lonely people at Christmas that start smiling to themselves when it start snowing. The highlight is how great BONNIE looks playing that piano and singing in the church.

Response: Thumbs Up, it’s not too bad a Christmas song, but the PV was sort of bad in comparison to some others.

Meri Kuri – BoA

So, this song has a nice simple sound to it, featuring very few beats in the verses, with BoA singing along to them. This probably wasn’t a good idea, as the synth almost has a sort of cheap sound to it when there’s barely anything to it, and BoA’s voice doesn’t really go well with it until we get to the bridge. The chorus is where it sounds best, as it just has a wholesome, beautiful sound to it, and that instrumental after the first chorus is brilliant.

The PV is pretty good, too. It’s mainly BoA singing in a long dress inside a church, with a few flashback shots that also feature her. It’s simple, yet it’s beautiful at the same time.

Response: Thumbs Up, it’s not the best song I’ve heard, but the chorus is brilliant.

Nichiyou no Asa – Utada Hikaru

Now, when it comes to Christmas songs, Nichiyou no Asa is a bit of a black sheep in the herd. It has a sound that doesn’t resemble the holiday season at all, yet it drags you in at the same time, as a song should, which isn’t really related. She does mention Christmas mornings, and the sunday morning the song and title mention is SUPPOSED to be about a Christmas morning, so it counts. No matter how outcasted it is.

Also, it didn’t have a PV. A shame, really, cause it’s a great song.

Response: Thumbs Across, it hasn’t got any Christmas tone to it, but the experimental nature it has in the Christmas song industry wins points for it, because she’s done a great job at hiding a Christmas song in a normal song.

Burnin’ X-Mas – T.M. Revolution

Bet you weren’t expecting this, eh? If Nichiyou no Asa didn’t hold the title for most experimental Christmas song, Burnin’ X-Mas would definitely be the title holder. It carries all the sound of a T.M. R. song, without the Christmas feel to it, which was an odd choice. All things considering, it is a rather good song when you look at it as a normal one, but apart from some meaning the lyrics could contain, I really only see it as a normal song.

The PV’s kind of odd, though. There isn’t much relating to Christmas here, either…

Response: Thumbs Down, this is the joke of the list.

White Light - Namie Amuro

When it comes to Christmas songs, White Light is another of my favorites due to the artist using a style that’s FAMILIAR and works well with them, while incorporating Christmas elements, which means they sound much better in it due to its fitting nature to their style. White Light itself is a safe song for Namie, due to its R&B style, which fits Namie’s voice well. It uses the Christmas bells heavily, but in a much more subdued nature, and the overall sound just has the real wintery feel to it, while the lyrics relating to Christmas help tie it in to the season.

The PV is great, too. It’s mainly Namie walking around in a snowy street, sitting in a room, or standing against a wall with her hair down in a GORGEOUS black dress (I just love how she looks in that scene, hahah). It’s my favorite Christmas PV on the list, but there’s probably a better one out there somewhere. At least it gets its job done.

Response: Thumbs Up, it’s a great Christmas song, and it’s in a style the artist was comfortable with, while still incorporating Christmas elements. A great mix.

There are many different kinds of Winter and Christmas songs, but the varying styles here should tell you how wide the field it is when it comes to the holidays and the music that comes with it. They aren’t all good, and some are downright hilariously bad, but there are some good ones out there, too.

AUGH, DAMNIT / Soundtrack To My Life Pt. 2

So, WordPress actually let me on FOR ONCE. My internet has been worse than it’s even been in my entire time with broadband this month, so I’ve literally been able to do NOTHING online. MSN has even been keeping me from signing on many times. which has been horrible.

So, since I can’t review anything at all, I’ve decided that I’ll rehash an older post of mine, and do the “Soundtrack To My Life” quiz again, with my now-expanded tracklist. I know, most of you won’t like it, but it’s something music related that can at least fill the void that has been alive in my blog for the past month, almost.

To raise the related-ness, i’ll review every track I get in the survey. xD;;

So here it is:

Opening Credits
Psychobabble – Frou Frou

This is a rather odd song. It features an ominous, almost gong-like synth line, with a quicker fast-tempo beat following this. Imogen’s (Imogen Heap, if anyone’s curious: She was the vocalist for Frou Frou before going back to her solo career) vocals are rather hushed too, which raise the ominous mood, and the bridge rises brilliantly into the horror movie-worthy chorus, which adds a higher synth line with Imogen’s threatening lyrics. It’s not an overly angry song, but it involves many threats relating to things like love and heartbreak. It’s an absolutely brilliant song, and one of my favorites from both Frou Frou and Imogen Heap. I haven’t heard anything else like it.

It fits rather well for the opening credits section, but then again, anything does. It doesn’t set a great mood, though: I’m kinda scared to see the rest. xD;;

Waking Up
Hate Without Frontiers – Sweetbox

Okay, I’m not sure which song Sweetbox used as a sample in this one, but it features… What I guess you could call yodeling, but I’m pretty sure it’s singing in a foreign language. But in reality, it’s actually a rather dark song, which the random high-pitched voices and ominous singing between Jade (The real vocalist) and her short lines.

It’s an odd song, but the ominous sound isn’t really helping after coming behind an already evil-sounding song. Especially if it’s a waking up song.

Going to School
Moon Crying (Piano Arrange Version) – Koda Kumi

After two ominous songs, we’re given a beautiful piano ballad. I sort of prefer the piano version of this song to the original now, as it has a much simpler and more heartfelt sound to it. Koda’s voice could probably show a bit more emotion in the verses, though, and maybe in the chorus, too, but my gripe isn’t too huge there.

I don’t think it fits at all as a song for going to school, though.

Falling in Love
GIRL TALK – Namie Amuro

This song has a rather classic sound to it, with the sound of a fuzzy phonograph and the high-pitched music coming from it. It’s one of my preferred straight-out R&B Namie songs, because of the upbeat sound it has, and the way the music is arranged in its bouncy manner.

It could kind of fit as a falling in love song, but it’s not overly great for the position.

Fight Song
Tsukiakari – Rie fu

The upbeatcombinations of drums, guitars and normal strings with the following piano give the song a calm feeling overall, and Rie’s vocals are nice here, too. It has a rather airy sound to it, as well, which helps make the song sound more interesting.

But I couldn’t imagine a worse fight song. It doesn’t fit at all.

Breaking Up
Stay Gold – Utada Hikaru

Ah, one of the earlier songs of 2008. The mix of synth and piano in this song, with Utada’s lower register give the song a rather bittersweet sound, which is nice to hear. The rise in tempo from the verse, to the bridge, to the chorus works well, and it was pulled off a lot better than it could have been.

I think it fits rather well in this category, too. Fantastic~

Prom
Flower – Ami Suzuki

The final new track on Ami Suzuki’s latest offering, ‘Supreme Show’. The song has a backing arrangement that sounds vaguely reminiscent of a strings section, and the techno beeps that go with it, while somewhat clashing, still manage to sound pretty good with everything as it is. Some of the heavier techno sounds in the song actually sort of ruin the mood, and I would have really liked to see it done without the vocoder.

But, it’s a ballad, and it fits really well with the prom category, so I’m fine with it. It has a great chorus too, anyway.

Life is Good
Ave Maria – Beyoncé Knowles

Well, this isn’t exactly the classic song of the same title that we all know, but it’s a slower ballad-sounding song, and Beyonce’s voice sounds pretty good here, too. The chorus is a lot more faithful to the old song, despite only consisting of the two words, and they’re only said once. In the first chorus, at least. The later ones are different, though, and when she hits that higher note near the end, I feel that it comes off very well.

I suppose it could be seen as a life is good song, as it’s not an all-out ballad. It could be a lot worse.

Mental Breakdown
HELLO – RAM RIDER

This song sounds rather reminiscent of many of his other songs. In fact, the main backing section sounds almost exactly like one of the sections from Sweet Dance on the same album, but it sounds alright here. RAM RIDER’s voice is awfully flat, as usual, but the vocoders help it here, and the arrangement is catchy enough to make up for it.

But it’s just not a mental breakdown song. It’s not really very fitting.

Driving
Just Another Day – Jade Valerie

The song features a heavy Spanish influence in it, which works well with the added synth that they put into the song. I’m not sure what it samples, and I’m pretty sure it does use a sample, but it sounds brilliant, and once again, Jade gives us a great vocal performance. It’s one of my favorites from the “Out of the Box” mini-album.

Any song can be a driving song, really, so I think it fits decently here, at least. Could have been a faster song, though, really.

Flashback
Life Is Cool – Sweetbox

This was my first Sweetbox song, after hearing ‘Real Emotion’ and ‘1000 Words’ in Final Fantasy X-2, so it has a special place in my heart, despite having a few flaws. Again, I don’t know what song this features, but it has a very bright and optimistic sound to it. It features a few corny lyrics, ESPECIALLY in the chorus, but it’s a very uplifting song, so I give it extra points for that. It’s a brilliant song if you can get part the corn in there.

It fits really well for flashbacks, too. Awesome.

Getting Back Together
Silent Night – Sweetbox

This is an extremely faithful cover of the original Christmas song. I have nothing I can add when I talk about it, as I’m sure everyone knows what it sounds like. I love Jade’s vocals in it, though, despite not being her best performance.

It’s not overly fitting, though.

Wedding
Poker Face – Lady GaGa

The song features a dark edge, and heavy dance beats as the main attraction. The vocals are rather distorted, too, which fits the almost retro sound the arrangement has. It hasn’t got the most intelligent lyrics, and it has a rather bland chorus when it comes to lyrical content, but the way it’s sung and the way it all comes off overall is extremely catchy. It’s nice to see a popular Western artist take on this kind of sound, anyway.

It’s definitely not a wedding song, though.

Paying the Dues
Shine – Imogen Heap

This is from her first album, which had a much heavier, alternative, almost punk sound to it. It has a lighter sound to it than most of the album did at the beginning, and Imogen’s voice takes the twisted sound the album features heavily. It has an upbeat sound to it, and features some great lyrical work, which isn’t a huge surprise from someone like Imogen.

It does fit this theme, too. I’m not too sure what a song for this would sound like, but I’m definitely happy with ‘Shine’.

The Night Before The War
CAndY EyEs doLLS – Tommy february6

The song heavily features the usual retro sound you have to expect from Tommy february6. It has an extremely bright sound in its verses, which is good, but the bridge is almost nonexistant, and the chorus has a rather odd sound to it, as if a few notes and words were missed, but I like how it comes off.

But, yeah, it doens’t really sound like a song for the night before a war.

Final Battle
We Will Rock You – MiChi

A cover of the classic Queen rock song. The first verse of the song is almost a perfect recreation of the original, which worked oddly well with MiChi’s obviously feminine vocals. Unfortunately, the song takes a techno sound rather early on, which wasn’t something I viewed as overly helpful. Despite not liking the song, I rather liked her version.

It still fits the final battle section really well though, so I’m happy.

Moment of Triumph
Big Girls Don’t Cry – Fergie

I’m going to admit it right here: I really don’t like Fergie. I didn’t mind the Black Eyed Peas, but her solo career was a huge bomb to me, and Big Girls Don’t Cry is no exception. It features a highly acoustic verse arrangement, which follows into the chorus, with a few more instruments fitted in. The lyrics are extremely corny, though, and too many words are shoved in there, so it sounds all wrong. I’ll admit it, this song and album were only on here in case someone wanted me to review her.

I guess it could fit, due to its overall mood, but I still don’t like it any more than I did before.

Death Scene
Satellites – Beyoncé Knowles

This song is one of the ballads from Beyoncé’s latest album, and I really like how it came off. It has a slow speed to it, and features a simple acoustic arrangement which is quickly joined by some other fitting sounds, but the guitar stays as the main focus for the song, with a few other sounds added throughout. Once again, the vocal performance is brilliant.

And it fits. Really well. So I’m extremely happy here.

Funeral Song
Koi wa groovyx2 – Yuna Ito

An up-tempo, optimistic latin dance song. There’s nothing really special about it, but I’ll admit, it’s growing on me again, and apart from a bit of vocal straining here and there, Yuna gives a great vocal performance that actually fits the song for once. I like this song a lot more than I did when I reviewed it.

But WHY did it end up here? I always have one ugely out of place song near the end when I do this… And this is it. Damn, I was doing so good…

End Credits
More! More! More! – capsule

The upbeat, happy, sparkling title track from capsule’s latest album. It’s a music-heavy song, as most of the vocals are the same section repeated frequently. Good thing the music’s so catchy, though, because it makes this song absolutely brilliant fun to listen to. It was one of my favorites from the album, but I’ll admit, that change in tempo and sound in the middle of the song always annoyed me, so I wasn’t happy with that.

It does fit, though. At least I could have a happy credit segment.

How Many Fit? / Overall Impressions
Fit Ratio:  12/20

Overall, I’m pleased with how my list turned out. It could have been a lot better, but some of my favorite songs got in there, and at least half (a bit more, actually) fit their spots, which was great to see. So, all in all, it was very successful!

- – - – -

And there it is! My last post til the 19th. Sorry that I can’t post more often, but that’s the perils of horrendously restricting internet. My monthly special will be posted not long after that, if not on the day itself, so look out for it.

(Two special notes: 1) I’m considering adding Tommy february6 back onto my blog, and, as ‘Hey my friend’ by Tommy heavenly6 started playing after ‘More! More! More!’ came on, I considered adding her. I don’t want to rush into adding people again, as we all know how february6 ended last time, but it’s in consideration. I’ll be considering for quite a while though.

2) I finally fell into the Twilight fandom. <3 So, I’ll be considering adding the OST to the special reviews list, seeing as I surprisedly fell in love with the music.)

So, look out for my next posts on the 19th~

Perfume: A Statistical Breakdown of Everyone’s Favorite Robot Trio

NOTE: All you Spanish readers need to stop taking this so seriously. I’m nothing but a Nocchi lover. <3

Whether you love them or hate them, every current J-Tek fan owes quite a bit to Perfume. If it wasn’t for Nakata and these sirens, the Tek industry would still be down in the gutters, and artists like Ami Suzuki and Aira Mitsuki would probably be nowhere near as popular as they currently are. They’re insanely popular, but as far as I’m concerned, Dream Fighter has signalled a downfall in their music, and I’m currently growing bored of them.

SO bored, that I have decided to screw it all and just come out and say it. I’m going to be saying what I assume we’re all thinking deep down, but are too infatuated with the girls to say. I’ve decided to go to examine the core of the group, and I’ll be posting tidbits about their skills in a few choice areas:

• Singing
• Lip Synching
• Dancing
• Fashion Sense
• Physical Appeal
• Overall Image/Rank

Okay, so this may not be some huge breakthrough post, but I bet none of you reoccuring readers would expect me to do something like this. Be warned: I may sound like a bit of a dick at certain stages for a few of the girls.

Round 1: Singing

Have we all seen Perfume’s Karaoke video yet? It is quite old, and it’s been on YouTube for what I’d assume is at the least, half a year. As this is one of the FEW times we can hear each girl singing individually and without vocoders, it works as the best marking point when it comes to their singing ability. This will be my basis for ranking each girl on their abilities vocally. Their singing clips are rather short, but it’ll do. They’ll be judged in order as they appear in the video.

Nocchi: She starts out well enough. You could even say she has a beautiful singing voice, from what we can hear. However, as she has to start hitting the higher notes, she starts sounding a lot weaker, and her voice isn’t exactly as beautiful. She tends to over-sing a bit on those higher notes, which isn’t a good thing. She’s okay on a lower register, but when those high notes come in, she starts bombing.

A~Chan: She has a much stronger voice in comparison to Nocchi, which is obvious from the moment you hear her start singing. She’s doing well in the lower register as well, and despite her singing being rather faint in the higher note section, her voice sounds a lot steadier in comparison to Nocchi on the higher notes. She has a much more stable singing voice, and she ends up sounding better overall.

Kashiyuka: Even at her medium initial register, her voice sounds a bit weak and wavery from what we can hear. This sticks for the entire beginning section, but when it cuts to the second section, her singing sounds at least a little steadier than it did before. She seems to be the medium of the girls.

Ranking
1) A-Chan “The Natural Talent”
2) Kashiyuka “The Amateur”
3) Nocchi “The Novice”

Overall, this round goes to A-Chan. While she did slightly worse than Kashiyuka in scores during the karaoke session, she has a much steadier singing voice, and she can hit the higher notes better. Kashiyuka has a bit of vocal trouble, but she can follow a song well. Nocchi obviously has a lot of vocal problems when it comes to singing, so she ranks in at the bottom spot.

Round 2: Lip Synching

After seeing all of their videos, Polyrhythm seems to be the video that works best when I’m trying to prove this point, so I’ll be basing this round on their abilities in that video. Similar results can be found in the PV for love the world, though.

Nocchi: Sorry, girl, but you can’t lip synch for your life. Her mouth movements are heavily overexaggerated as she’s singing, which ruins any illusion that the sounds’re coming out of her mouth at all, or that they ever did come out of her mouth. She starts off alright, but the problem is largely evident later on in the song. It is rather early in love the world, too.

A-Chan: She seems to be the best of the trio when it comes to lip synching, as well. Most of the time, her movements are close to the words, so she’s a lot more believable. However, whenever she gets to a section where she isn’t as comfortable with the lyrics, can anyone else notice that she’s SMILING?! This one can admit she’s not perfect, so she’s using her smile to cover up her lousy abilities. Good move.

Kashiyuka: Like Nocchi, she has some trouble with synching. However, Kashiyuka’s problem is she UNDER-exaggerates the movements. As such, her synching is still considerably more believable than Nocchi’s ever was. She tends to have the quietest vocal parts, too, which fits this well.

Ranking
1) A-Chan “The Master of Disguise”
2) Kashiyuka “The Under-Exaggerator”
3) Nocchi “‘…What?’”

A-Chan wins again. Despite having her flaws at synching, too, she has a trick to cover them, and while they make the flaws even more obvious, she’s just SO DAMN ADORABLE that I really don’t give a fuck about them. Kashiyuka isn’t that bad, either, but Nocchi really needs lessons.

Fast.

I’m not kidding, she’s horrible.

Round 3: Dancing Ability

Let’s be honest with ourselves here. Dancing seems to be the ONE THING Perfume are consistently good at. They can follow their choreography well when it comes to both PV dances and live performances, and they rarely miss a beat. Not having to sing would help a lot, but I simply can’t differentiate them when it comes to dancing. So, I’m going to have to leave this out.

Round 4: Fashion Sense

Perfume’s GAME outfits are pretty much a perfect representation of the girl’s overall fashion images. So, I will be giving this to you all as a visual aid for what I’m saying, but it may now refer to the image exactly at all times.

Nocchi: Her wardrobe coordinator must have one serious grudge. Seriously, am I the only one that thinks Nocchi looks like a lesbian? Short bob cut, tight shirts, tight skirts or pants, and heels that only go high enough to show us that Nocchi has more leg than any of us would ever want to show off. When it comes to the GAME outfit, the pearls are NOT helping the situation. Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow’s PV is another great representation: The huge earmuffs and tight outfit with fur additions are only furthering this image. Damn, girl, what are you letting them do to you?

A-Chan: She’s the exact opposite. Long skirts, baggy tops and shoes that say “look but don’t touch” instead of beckoning our wondering eyes to stare at exposed calves. She’s always the one that has the classy look, and her style gives her the clean cut style that her smiling demeanour and friendly personality belie for her. A much better fit, especially with her seemingly fuller shape compared to the other girls. And that’s not really a bad thing. She has beautiful hair, too. I love it when she wears it down, it just suits her so well.

Kashiyuka: She’s the happy medium. She’s not overly showy like Nocchi is, but she isn’t as prudish as A-Chan usually comes off. Kashiyuka’s the one that wants you to look at her, but she’s not begging for sex. She has the perfect image for the idol status Perfume has, and her naturally cute appeal fits the style, too. I commend her stylist. I could do without those weird bangs she has, but whatever.

Ranking
1) Kashiyuka “The Medium”
2) A-Chan “The Conservative”
3) Nocchi “TAKE ME! TAKE ME!” (See what I did there?)

Round 5: Physical Appeal

It is what it is. I’m not going to be commenting on their boobs or anything, but just the overall appeal of the girls themselves. This may be a bit more personal opinion than the previous rounds, but whatever.

Nocchi: Lesbian or not, this girl usually ends up being my favorite. She can have a mild case of beaver teeth at some stages, and her body may not be the best for the S&M image she’s currently being forced in to, but she has the best overall appeal compared to Kashiyuka and A-Chan.

A-Chan: She just has the most inviting image of the girls in the group. She seems like the one you’d see at school just chillin’ or helping someone out when they’re in trouble. The fact that she’s always smiling boosts this feeling, too. I love her to bits, but she isn’t my overall favorite.

Kashiyuka: This girl has to be the dirtiest of the three. She looks much younger than she really is, and her higher voice isn’t helping. Can someone say, “Jailbait”? She’s borderline Lolita at this stage, it’s just not funny. You see all those old guys at their concerts? This is why they’re there.

Ranking
1) Nocchi “The one I just seem to prefer for no apparent reason”
2) A-Chan “The Girl Next Door”
3) Kashiyuka “The Jailbait Lolita”

Final Round: Overall Image/Rank

3) Nocchi “The Hated One”

Her stylists obviously have something against her, and despite being my favorite girl seven times out of ten, she always seems to get the short end of the stick. She always gets the lesbian outfits for reasons beyond my comprehension. She looks GORGEOUS in an A-Chan style dress, so why not give her more of those? Her skills could be vastly improved, though. Just goes to show that last second replacements really aren’t that good.

2) Kashiyuka “The Eye Candy”

She’s in the middle when it comes to everything save her physical style. The fact that she isn’t all-out S&M just makes her situation worse. She’s teasing the freaks out there, and they’re taking the bait. Just ask the “older” audience members.

1) A-Chan “The Class Act”

I can safely say that I really want to see A-Chan tackle the Tek genre as a solo act. She’s the best at singing out of the trio, and she knows how to hide her lip synching faults well. She may not be the most stylish of the girls, but she has the best personal appeal, and she’s very close to being the best overall in my eyes. Those times that Nocchi isn’t my favorite are actually taken by A-Chan. Love you, girl~ <3

(A little note: Expect an early special review sometime within the next few days. It’s going to be from the voting page, but not the one with the highest vote. <3)

I’m gonna follow the crowd yet again~

Okay, so, I’m going to admit it: I’m becoming bored with my blog.

Now, I’m not actually bored with reviewing or anything like that, I’m just getting sick of only having reviews. Of course, this is an easily changeable predicament, and as such, I’m going to change it.

I’ve considered adding other information from other mediums (Games, anime, etc.) and also by just screwing it and reviewing Western music as well. It’s all still under consideration.

But what I’ve decided I’m definitely going to do is I’m just going to review random songs (and their PV’s) instead of sticking to my upcoming reviews schedule, which I hate following enough already. I realise that I sort of do this already, but I’m going to make it a much more regular thing now, and in a manner that doesn’t make it come off as if it was just a quick write-up on how much I’m currently gasming over the latest Perfume offering. I’ve seen others doing this, and a few certain blogs have inspired me to do it myself. *coughtruelifeseekandtranzillacough*

I may or may not include screen-caps, but there will always be a video embedded.

At the moment, this’ll still be J-Pop exclusive, and it won’t be limited to artists that I’m featuring. But I AM considering making it open to Western artists.

In other words, I’m bored with being a review-only blog.

Anyway, enough of this rant. I’d like to hear opinions on some of the considered additions above or about the PV thing, but ultimately, I don’t know how much good they’d do.

Don’t take that wrong~

When J-Tek Fails

In all seriousness though, this was the post that won the vote.

And as such, I’ve decided to dig into my J-Tek collection. Despite the rave reviews a lot of artists get here, there are evidently going to be some failures. If there wasn’t, then the industry would basically just be one gigantic, overly popular freak of nature.

There are quite a few failures, with at least one from each artist. As such, I’ll be listing it by artist instead of posting individual songs, as well as a write-up on how well they’ve done throughout their careers.

This is going to be highly opinionated though, so don’t go bitching if I talk bad about one of your favorite artists.

Anyway, let’s start with…

MEG

You guessed it. I have a pretty much love-hate relationship with MEG when it comes to her music. Her horrible voice almost never fails to ruin a song that, when sung with at least some sort of serious effort being put into it, could have been a great addition to any discography.

Now, I say almost because she has had her high notes. (With the main honorable mention being PRECIOUS, despite having one huge joke of a PV here. Save the kitties, of course.) They mainly end up being on the albums themselves instead of being on the singles, but they are there.

That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here for this:

HEART: Despite being one of MEG’s more popular songs, it’s pretty much just a joke to me. I used to like it, sure, but now that I sit down and really listen to it, the verses are just too downright boring to be worth listening to, with the chorus not being much of a huge improvement.

And let’s stop kidding ourselves here. The girl can’t sing. At all. I don’t know why Nakata even bothers with her when she’s showing herself as a huge fool with no talent.

OK: I gave this single a pretty good review when I first listened to it, and I didn’t even mind this song in question. It’s pretty much the same story as with HEART: A lot of the things she does with her voice make the song almost unbearable to listen to at times.

Unfortunately (Or is that fortunately?), YouTube doesn’t seem to have many other MEG PV’s, and I can’t find any more anywhere else (that I don’t at least partially like), so I’m going to have to leave MEG there. She takes the cake as the J-Tek artist with the most fails, though, so just listen to her albums “BEAM” and “STEP” to see what I mean.

Last minute note: What’s with all the caps? It’s like all of her titles are meant to be capped… And the album names make no sense when you listen to the albums: The names, even for some of her songs, seem to just be random. Sheesh…

Perfume

Although, Perfume tends to have quite a few failures, too. I don’t think I need to remind anyone else of their indies period, do I? But even after Nakata began producing them, they had a few flops in their career. Mainly due to the decision of leaving them high and dry without vocoders. They seem to have gotten better without them now, but back then, it was just godawful.

So expect a lot of early videos here…

Monochrome Effect: So, their first Nakata single, “Sweet Donuts” was alright. I actually didn’t mind it. So all I can say is, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?! Their voices took a huge step down in strength between the two songs, and they look awful in this video as well.

The music’s pretty dull as well, but their voices are just the nail in the coffin. They just really couldn’t sing well enough to warrant not having vocoders, especially with the genre they were trying to get into. I’m actually embarrassed to say this was the namesake for my old blog.

“The Indies Period”: Do I REALLY have to elaborate here?

…Okay, I guess that’s it for them. A lot of their stuff doesn’t really warrant being called a total failure apart from their indies stuff and Monochrome Effect.

capsule

Despite including the producer for many of the acts you have and will see in this post, capsule has a large amount of failures due to their insistence on using stock vocals throughout their songs. It doesn’t help make you sound better, it makes you FAIL. So hopefully Nakata learns that when it comes to More! More! More!, but honestly, I’m not holding my breath.

Secret Paradise: Not much to say here. The vocals just don’t really fit the song. Which is a shame, because Toshiko’s singing here. She just sounds like she’s singing all the wrong notes, because they all sound out of place. Not a huge fan of the synth itself, either.

FLASH BACK: I know capsule loves their instrumental, synth-based songs, but this is just ridiculous. An instrumental is more of a single thing when it isn’t an interlude, and even from this band its inclusion surprises me. Especially since it’s the title track. Sugarless GiRL has an excellent one, so this is an even bigger shock. The synth just sounds awful, too.

capsule’s pretty hard to find videos for too, and I haven’t heard much of their more Tek-influenced albums from before Sugarless GiRL, so I’ll end it here. But these two albums that these songs come from contain a few of the worst offenders.

SAWA

Okay, this girl hasn’t released much at all, so there isn’t an awfully large amount that can be said for her. While she does tend to break herself away from the Tek genre by throwing away the vocal distortions, her voice isn’t really suited for that kind of thing, so she ends up failing at it.

ManyColors: This is probably her most well-known song, and while I used to love it, it’s another offender that’s worked its way into the “Fail List”. The music, while interesting, can get very repetitive fast, and her vocals really hurt your ears after a while, which is a shame, because she gave it a great shot. Maybe she’ll get better later on.

So, if she made a few improvements, she’ll probably turn out a lot better. Especially since she’s only had one release.

Sweet Vacation

Okay, so there’s nothing really WRONG with this band and its music, but the thing is… They tend to play it a bit too safe. Their music all carries an extremely similar sound, and while Daichi (the producer) may have been infatuated with May (the vocalist) and her voice, I REALLY don’t see what the big deal is.

Her voice carries no emotion whatsoever when she sings, and she barely has any changes in pitch at all, which just makes the songs even more boring. While they don’t fail outright, they’re teetering on the edge with the constant lack of effort that’s put into their music.

Asobi ni Iku yo: This tends to be one of Sweet Vacation’s better songs, as it has SOME life put into it thanks to the chorus, but it still isn’t overly good. A lot more could be put into the song to make it a better overall package compared to what it is now, and May’s voice is still mainly generic.

Sexy Girl: This is a great sample of my complaints that I had about them in the first place. If you listen to the entire “More the Vacation!!” album, a lot of their songs end up sounding like this, with very few changes to the overall package. The only new things are the lyrics and a slight arrangement change.

Now, you can kick and scream and tell me that Nakata’s units do this all the time, but at least they change their synth. And they have the common sense to use vocoders to at least do SOMETHING with the vocals. Sweet Vacation doesn’t, which is the largest problem I have with them.

Who Failed Worst?

With all of these Tek failures, I bet you’re all thinking: “Who was it that failed worst, though?” Well, this last section will feature a ranking of who failed most, with another description of why they failed, and what they could to to improve. In case they ever wander in my vicinity, eh?

5) Perfume

They may have had a few early failures (behaviour, what the hell was that?), but I think we can all agree that they’ve drastically improved since then, and now they’re pretty much giving us nothing but quality releases with a few mediocre misses here and there. I have to salute Nakata here, because this is a prime example of his best work.

4) Sweet Vacation

They failed, sure, but the problem is they’re too set in their ways to give us anything exciting that’ll truly blow us away, and they keep giving us mediocre crap. If they experimented with their sound a bit, maybe they could do better, but they aren’t failing as much as others on this list are at the moment.

3) SAWA

Slap on a vocoder, give her a few lessons and you’ve got yourself a decent Tek act right here. The overall sound is great, and she works it well, but that voice is just too hideous to even consider giving her a career outside of H!P. (Zing~) Giving her to someone like Nakata or Terukado would work wonders. Maybe “Time & Space” will be better. And I see RAM RIDER is producing her in some tracks, so we’ll see how that is when December rolls around~

2) capsule

Their old stuff was gold. They managed to make me like Bossa Nova and whatever else they worked with back then, which is a miracle. Then they came to their Tek phase, and the only great works of art we’ve gotten are “Sugarless GiRL” (The track, not the album) and the PV version of “JUMPER”. If they made more like that, then they’d be a lot better. Hell, even cut the stock vocals and you’ve got gold.

1) MEG

I do love the girl in some small way, but please, let’s be honest with ourselves. The things she does to her voice cannot be considered anything but a crime against humanity. When she manages to pull herself together and sing properly, she can sound great. I even liked the greater majority of her “Aquaberry” album to at least some degree. But seriously, I can’t see MEG turning around while she’s with Nakata. Good luck, girl. I still love you. *cough*

An epicly failing picture edit for an epicly failing artist. <3

Why Didn’t They Make It?

The final section of this post will be a run-down of the Tek artists that DIDN’T make it onto the post, and why they didn’t.

Saori@destiny

This girl just hasn’t released enough for me to think of including her. Once her album “JAPANESE CHAOS” comes out on the 19th of November, I may be able to give you a better answer here, but at the moment, there just isn’t enough. Plus, her releases are pretty good so far.

Sample: Sayonara Revival

Aira Mitsuki

Has anyone else seen Aira fail? So far, she can’t do any wrong. She’s another one who’s sticking to her big guns, but she’s doing well so far. So if she at least gives us something new EVENTUALLY, then she’ll be able to avoid failing. She’s bound to get one up here eventually, but she’s safe for now.

Sample: ROBOT HONEY

Ami Suzuki

Three singles by a Tek producer isn’t enough. She’s another one who avoided the pit through her low numbers. Some of you may feel “climb up to the top” is an epic fail. But I don’t. So she’s safe for now, too.

Sample: FREE FREE

Genki Rockets

The only fail they’ve had is a lack of releases. Their debut album was great, so there isn’t really any reason for them to get onto the epic fail list. Had they released something absolutely horrible, then they may have gotten up here, but at the moment, I don’t see any reason for them to come on here.

Sample: Heavenly Star

Momoi Haruko

Sure, I’ve mentioned her a lot. But in all truth, I’ve heard, what, five songs from her? Maybe less? She could have been fail material, but I’d have to listen more to make a true conclusion on her. And I’m not listening to her just for this, so that rules her out.

Sample: Sunday Early Morning

And you can rest assured that if someone isn’t here, I’ve just forgotten about them. But as it stands, here’s the Epic Fail post. Hope you enjoyed it~ <3

The Many Faces of J-Tek

NOTE: It’s fixed now. x-x

I’m sure at least a few of you followers will remember my old post about the current state of J-Tek music, and the industry itself. Of course, it ended up being more about the different artists, not where the industry itself actually stood.

As such, I’ve had another stroke of inspiration, and I thought I’d go deeper in my probings of the J-Tek industry: This time focusing on the sounds of the music, not the artists themselves. I’ll be going over the different sub-genres and styles of J-Tek music, many of which aren’t official. But they are now, because I said so.

So here we go~!

Mainstream J-Tek

We should all know of this kind of J-Tek. It’s been topping the charts for a good few months, through the robotic vessel we all know as Perfume. It focuses on the poppier sounds, smiling girls, revealing outfits and odd dances that seem to make us scream “OH EM GEE, SO CUTE~” or “OHAY, I WANNA LEARN THAT~” or something to that extent. Other times, it’ll rely on outlandish outfits and crazy effects to catch your interest.

It’s all well and good when you hear it, but if you actually LISTEN to it, you’ll tend to hear it all blend in together. It focuses on safe sounds and similar beats, and eventually they’ll all start to sound like the same song. But that never matters, because when the next single rolls in, you’re always fawning over them again, restarting the cycle from step one.

Sample Tracks

Polyrhythm – Perfume

ROBOT HONEY – Aira Mitsuki

“Hardcore” J-Tek

While this isn’t as rabidly popular or well-known as the mainstream variant, we all know about these songs. “Who cares about the vocals, let’s throw in one or two lines and make it a synth fest~” Well, while they aren’t always as popular, a lot of the time they work to break the mould of the Mainstream music for the people who’re looking for something to break the monotony of the known genre. And then again, there are those that always preferred these for any number of reasons.

Every artist has them, from Perfume’s “edge”, to Ami Suzuki’s “climb up to the top” and capsule’s “entire freaking Sugarless GiRL album”. Mainstream artists like to get in on it, evidently, but they aren’t always good at it.

Sample Tracks

JUMPER – capsule

edge – Perfume

Dōjin-Tek

I’m gonna be completely honest here: I have NO idea if this genre is going to look redundant, stupid, impossible or whatever the hell else it could be, but it’s going here. In the cases shown here, it mainly consists of music remixed from dōjin games, which you have to admit, comes off sounding EXCEEDINGLY close to J-Tek by itself. It’s only popular in the closet nerd social circles ( Just kidding, fellows~) and those that get a good chuckle out of memes and the like, as many of these have risen to that level.

Above those levels, I doubt anyone would ever have heard of them. But that’s alright: There’re conventions for that kind of thing.

Sample Tracks

You Should Drink Cucumber Flavored Beer! – IOSYS

Power of Dream – IOSYS

Fusion-Tek

Basically, it’s any music that relies on Techno staples, such as the voice vocoder and synth usage, while still sticking closely to another genre throughout the process. This happens a lot in the Western music industry with the popular stars that like to think they’re cool by digitizing their voices to hell and draining all humanity from their music. But hey, the J-Tek genre has no humanity to begin with, so what does it matter?

I like to think that this includes Club/Techno fusions too, but some people might consider them a close enough genre as it is anyway. Well, I don’t care.

Samples

can’t stop the DISCO – Ami Suzuki

 It’s a crime – Crystal Kay

*Unavailable, looking for a replacement*

Tek-Ballads

Yeah, it’s happened: There have been Tek-Ballads before, but they sort of tie in with the mainstream music. J-Tek ballads are fickle things, as they tend to disguse themselves into the more mainstream style, while carrying sad, heart wrenching lyrics at their core. They may not sound like ballads, but that’s just the Tek in them. As can be seen in the first preview. People may disagree with this description, but that’s as close to a Tek ballad as you can get most of the time.

HOWEVER, there are the more traditional sounding ballad songs with a Tek flair to them, with a real example being an upcoming, and as of yet unreleased track, as seen in the second preview. Again, they can tend to be hidden behind their Techno-influenced glory, but the real influence is still there. Of course, since this is second preview is LITERALLY a preview of the track, I could be totally wrong and it could be some aggressive rock track. But, we’ll see.

Sample Tracks

Computer City – Perfume (The Unconventional Ballad)

Every night heartfull music song (Traditional ballad, first track in video)

And there it is~ This probably isn’t as good as the old hierarchy, but I thought I’d break it down a little bit and see whether it opened any new opportunities in looking further into the world of J-Tek. Anyway, give me some input, where you agree with what I’ve said, where you disagree…

Etc. Etc.

Techno-Jabber (a.k.a The Current State of T-Pop)

(NOTE: I added some better titles to some of the groups, and kept the old ones of some as a.k.a’s in brackets. Just said this so people don’t get confused if they read it again.)

There seems to be a large rise in the popularity of Techno-Pop lately, and as such, I felt like now would be a good idea to try and decode the big names in the business and see where they fit into it, how they’re helping to further the industry itself, etc. I’ve gathered about nine specimens, but more may be added later. Anyway, here we go!

The Godfather of the Industry
Nakata Yasutaka / capsule

Nakata is basically the reason techno-pop is as popular as it is today. Without him, we’d still be gawping over the more natural artists. That’s not to say we aren’t gawping over them, but techno-pop has definitely seen a huge uprise because of his work, you can’t deny that. And while it’s not because of his group, capsule has pretty much seen a rise as well, and they were pretty much one of the first largely noticed techno-pop acts on the scene. So, everybody thank this guy. Of course, talent with a synhesizer and vocoder isn’t everything, since…

Featured Video: Sugarless GiRL

The Popular Ones
Perfume

We all know that it’s really because of Perfume that techno-pop is as popular as it is. Ever since the release (and wide promotion) of their Polyrhythm single, their sales have slowly risen, to the point that they have become the highest charting techno-pop band EVER (what with being the first to reach #1.) And they’re just one example of Nakata’s prowess witha  synthesizer and vocoder. Side note, they can also be considered a way to see how far idols can go, because they were close enough when they were indies.

Featured Video: Vitamin Drop

The Hack
MEG

I’m going to get some disapproving clucks for this, but let’s be honest. MEG tries to do too many things at one time. She’s trying to be cute, she’s trying to tease us, and all while trying to give the illusion that she can sing. I love the girl’s music, don’t get me wrong, but this overexertion seems to have gotten to her. She looks like she’s braindead half the time, she never shows any emotion whatsoever. It’s always a blank stare. And her music, while in general it can be good, always tends to sound at least a little better if it’s not trying to be cute. And what’s with the bland, empty single covers? She wouldn’t be half as popular as she is now without Nakata’s help, so maybe she should try harder with her career. She’s basically a star running on the popularity of her superiors.

Featured Video: PRECIOUS

The Comeback (a.k.a The Reborn Star)
Ami Suzuki

There are stars constantly falling in and out of popularity all the time. It’s pretty much an inevitable thing for them. Ami Suzuki is one such person: Once one of the most popular artists in Japan, then blacklisted by the music industry, before barely keeping herself afloat until avex signed her. Then she made a full-blown dance album, before collaborating for a few years, spanning over two albums, before she settled on one such person that she collaborated with to be her producer: Once again, Nakata Yasutaka. Her popularity has slowly been coming back, and once again, it’s mainly thanks to Nakata.  Who knows if she’ll regain her previous level of popularity or not, but either way, it seems like she has a great shot at it. Her mature sound also helps set her apart from Nakata’s other groups and artists.

Featured Video: FREE FREE

The Copycat (a.k.a Newcomer)
Aira Mitsuki

Okay, she’s not an total copier, but you have to admit, Aira sounds a LOT like Perfume at times. In fact, she sometimes even draws from other Nakata artists as well. But she’s also the first person on this list to NOT be produced by him. She can sound individual at times, but at the moment, it mainly seems like she’s following the crowd and doing what everyone seems to be enjoying. You can blame her producers, as it’s mainly because of them, but she’s going along with it, so she can get some of the blame. Not that it’s all bad, though.

Featured Video: Colorful Tokyo Sounds NO.9

The Individual One (a.k.a Techno, Sans Vocoder)
SAWA

Everyone knows how big a factor vocoders are in the Japanese techno-pop industry. Well, SAWA threw all that out the window with her debut single, ManyColors, and sung a whole techno-pop song without a single trace of vocal editing. Granted, her voice is kind of grating at times, but I actually like the sound it has, and it sets her apart from the rest of the industry. I’m mainly going off of the single here, I’ve never heard her mini-album, but she has a great style (and an awesome PV), so hopefully she finds some success from it.

Featured Video: ManyColors

The Seiyuu
Momoi Haruko

One of the few techno-pop seiyuu artists (that I know of), most Perfume fans should at least have heard of Momoi Haruko through her one-time collaboration with Perfume, under the moniker DJ Momo-I, for the concert-only single AKIHABALOVE. She has the most stereotypical anime voice you can think of, but she makes great music, with the best example being her latest album, Sunday Early Morning. A lot of people won’t like her too much, but if you can stand (or even like) the sound of anime voice actors singing, then you should know where her charm comes from. She’s not exactly a huge act though. An interesting note about the title track from her latest album, Sunday Early Morning: It may sound like nonsense and random words, but every line she says sounds like an anime title if you say it correctly. Pretty clever, if you ask me.

Featured Video: Sunday Early Morning

The Fashionistas
COLTEMONIKHA

And once again, we come to Nakata. COLTEMONIKHA is the second group that he actually appears in, and it’s extremely different to capsule: It’s based on fashion. It may not sound like it, but the main point in creating their music was using it in conjunction with vocalist Sakai Kate’s fashion line. It’s different, definitely, and their music isn’t great, but at least they have some kind of idea about what they want their music to be used for… Right?

Featured Video: Sora Tobu Hikari

The Concept Artists (a.k.aThe Holographic Wonder)
Genki Rockets

This band’s concept still baffles me. They may sound like your usual techno-pop module, but there’s absolutely NOTHING natural about this band. The vocalist, Lumi, is totally computer generated, and her voice is made from sample voice clips from multiple different women. And the concept behind it is that Lumi was born in space (and is the first person to be born there), and I assume many songs focus on her experiencing Earth for the first time. I’m sure Breeze does, at least. When they perform live, Lumi is generated on-stage using holograms. IT’S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I had no idea you could do things like this. Their music is excellent, too, so there’s really no downside. Lumi is based on a real girl, though, named Rachel Rhodes. Who is 13. While Lumi’s 18. Hmm…

Featured Video: Breeze

And there you have it! Hopefully you enjoyed this brief overview of the current status of Japanese techno-pop, what people do with it, and the different concepts behind different artists. Hopefully you learnt something from it, discovered a new artist, or hell, at least enjoyed it. It was hell getting some of these pictures. Namely SAWA’s. x-x

J-Firsts

No, I’m not gonna document every step in the ever changing Japanese music industry. For someone with my attention span, that’s physically impossible. I can barely review an album as it is.

Kidding aside *cough cough*, I’ve decided to take a break from reviewing (As if I hadn’t done so already), and instead document different firsts related to the Japanese music industry for me. I just thought you’d like to read something like this from me instead (Then my ego took hold and here we are.)

Anyway, if you want me to add any questions to answer or whatever, then just comment with one, but here’s everything I could come up with. They won’t be that great, but hopefully they’ll do.

First J-Pop Artist/Song

Utada Hikaru / Sanctuary

So, it was about… Oh… Two to three years ago, maybe? I might be off, but a friend of mine from school randomly sent me a song she claimed was J-Pop. I was curious, but not altogether interested in listening to it despite having said curiosity from reading manga for about a year or less beforehand. Also, I thought Utada was some old chick when her name came up.

ANYWAY, I was an idiot back then, and despite her first song that I heard being in English (As Sanctuary is), I was in love with her voice at that stage. So I went on a downloading spree. At this point, I couldn’t be bothered worrying about albums due to only having an iPod Shuffle to listen to music on, so I had a whole jumble of songs from her from different eras.

First Full Album

Exodus – Utada Hikaru

Yeah, it’s not Japanese. But I didn’t care. I found Easy Breezy exceedingly cute when I first heard it, which was what made me REALLY interested in seeking out more of her English songs. Despite this album seeming sort of bland to me now, I loved it when I first heard it. It also containted the last song I heard from Utada before I decided to start searching for other artists. I BELIEVE that song was either The Workout or Kremlin Dusk, but I’m not overly sure.

First Single

Frienger – Otsuka Ai

I sometimes don’t believe it still, but Otsuka Ai was actually my second ever J-Pop artist. It seems odd when I say that to myself, but anyway. Yes, Frienger was the first single I had heard while conciously knowing that it was actually released as a single. I don’t remember if I heard the whole single STRAIGHT away, but I LOVED Frienger from the moment I heard it. This was back when I still used P2P software to get my music, as I didn’t know about those download sites (And I thought Get Asian Music was a lying hassle of an Asian site. How wrong I was.) so I was frantically looking around for this song. I was looping it for a good few hours when I did find it, along with more of Otsuka’s music.

First Non-Pop Artist

AN CAFE

It was actually quite recently that I started getting out of solo female artists and heard some groups and such. AN CAFE was my first foray into Japanese rock, but they were admittedly a bit poppier with a few of their songs. I’m using past tense because I really couldn’t give a damn about them since Bou (The blonde trap second from the right) left, as they’ve gone downhill. I was an idiot and started reviewing from there, which is why I haven’t gotten to their album yet. Anyway, they have some brilliant songs in their repertoire, and their albums that include Bou still hold some of my favorite songs (With some standouts being Wagamama Koushinkyoku and Super Rabbit.)

First Non-Japanese Asian Group

 

 Wonder Girls

So I heard of these girls and their song Tell Me through DeviantART, actually, on a really cute flash. It was an instrumental, but it got me interested. So I decided to look it up. Along with finding out what a fad their dance had become, I found out that they were the first band that doesn’t sing in Japanese AT ALL that I actually liked. Not including western artists. I’ve been trying to decide whether to feature them or not, that’s how much. And I wanted to keep this blog solely Japanese. Anyway, my interest is finally dwindling, so I doubt I will be. They were the first, though!

Current Favorite Artist/First Song Heard
 

Bonnie Pink – A Perfect Sky

Despite A Perfect Sky now being one of my least favorite songs from Bonnie, I must admit, I’m glad I heard that song, because it’s what introduced me to this GODDESS. I say everyone’s my favorite at one stage or another, but this is the utter truth: At the moment, Bonnie Pink is literally my absolute favorite musical artist. No matter what my current musical taste is, I can always listen to Bonnie and not get bored of her. And that’s special, especially with someone like me. So she HAS to be doing something right.

AND THERE WE GO! I’m gonna leave it here, and urge you all to suggest more questions and such that I could answer and edit into this blog post. It needs more, but my brain died on me. Hopefully someone enjoyed this bit of trivia about yours truly.

However, I have another reason for posting this blog…

I will now be featuring the aforementioned Otsuka Ai. I remember a few people asking me to feature her, and I finally decided to. I’m not overly sure where I’ll be starting with my reviews, but she’ll now be featured here. Look out for one of her single covers on my Upcoming Reviews page!

Soundtrack to My Life

Ok, so, I can’t be bothered posting a review tonight. Sorry guys.

Instead, here’s a funky quiz~ Feel free to take it.

Just copy it all and put your iTunes/iPod/MP3 etc. onto random and put it down under the heading. You can’t choose which heading, it has to be in order. AND NO CHOOSING YOUR SONGS. It has to be random, and the first one. >> You’ll see some English in here too~

Opening Credits
Just a friend – Kana Nishino (Wow, I’ve never actually heard this song before… It sounds pretty opening credits-ish, actually.)

Waking Up
That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed) – Panic! At The Disco (…o_O Pretty strange morning I’m having so far.)

Going to School
Going 2 my way – Tommy heavenly6 (Pretty awesome school song, but it’s heavier than I would’ve expected a song for this to be….)

Falling in Love
Paradise – Aoyama Thelma (Why’s she still on here? Anyway, it sounds pretty fitting as it is…)

Fight Song
Romantic Summer –momo-I version- – Haruko Momoi (Oh, god, this song bugs the shit out of me at first, but it gets a lot better… I’m going to have some interesting fights with this~)

Breaking Up
Lonely in Gorgeous – Tommy february6 (Wow, the title makes it sound like it fits, but I actually have no idea how to take it. It sounds sort of bittersweet though, I guess.)

Prom
CAndY EyEs dolls – Tommy february6 (Pretty trippy prom. How 80’s.)

Life is Good
SO REAL – BoA (I don’t get how this is a life is good song, but whatever.)

Mental Breakdown
Re-birth – Nami Tamaki (Wow, this really doesn’t make me think of a mental breakdown. This should’ve been the Life is Good song.)

Driving
Dragonfly – Hitomi Shimatani (Wow, the fast pace of this song actually makes it good for this kind of thing… Awesome.)

Flashback
RADIO DAYS RADIO NIGHTS – Momoi Haruko (Not a huge fan of this song, and Tommy february6 would go perfectly here, but whatever.)

Getting Back Together
A Perfect Sky – BONNIE PINK (Ooooh, god, this one’s perfect…)

Wedding
Baby Don’t Cry – Namie Amuro (Pretty upbeat and synthish for a wedding, but it fits quite well either way.)

Paying the Dues
I Write Sins Not Tragedies – Panic! At The Disco (…..omgwut?)

The Night Before The War
Violet Sauce (Spicy) – Namie Amuro (Fits pretty well, I guess…)

Final Battle
NEW LOOK – Namie Amuro (…… L. O. L. What kind of final battle is THIS?)

Moment of Triumph
So Hot – Wonder Girls (………)

Death Scene
Urban Mermaid – Yuna Ito (ROFLOL, WTF.)

Funeral Song
still doll – Kanon Wakeshima (Holy shit, this is perfect… And so hot~)

End Credits
(They Long To Be) Close To You – Rie Fu (Aww… Perfect ending…)

Anyway, there we go. You do it too~

New Section / First Entry: AKIHABALOVE [Perfume x DJ Momo-i - Special Release]

Okay, we all know what a Perfume fanboy I am, and as such, I always try to find everything I can about them. Namely, their entire discography. I just managed to find the one single that’s been eluding me for ages, so to celebrate, I decided to review it in all of its glory. Presenting the first special Musing/Review combo~

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AKIHABALOVE was a special event release by Perfume, and is not considered one of their official releases due to the guest producer, DJ Momo-i (Better known as Momoi Haruko). It was only available during the Uchimizu events during the summer of 2005, and is now a collectors item worth around $450 due to its rarity.

Track Listing
1. AKIHABALOVE (Perfume x DJ Momo-i)
2. AKIHABALOVE (Karaoke) (Perfume x DJ Momo-i)

Despite how stupid it may seem to review a concert single, this is Perfume as you haven’t seen them before. You can attribute this to DJ Momo-i, the producer of this single (instead of the usual Yasutaka Nakata.) This hasn’t appeared on an album by the girls to date, either.

Anyway, this song has a much heavier techno sound to it compared to any other works by the girls. It’s full of aggressive synth, and you can at least vaguely hear an electric guitar at certain intervals throughout the song. The vocals of the girls aren’t synthesized this time around, yet they still seem to suit the new style of music shown in this single. It shows that the girls can handle music that’s a lot more mature compared to their normal works, while still retaining the cutesy feeling their usual songs have. While Momoi is a vocalist/singer herself, she only features in this song by providing the back-up vocals for the girls, which can only really be heard in the Karaoke version of the song. It’s a shame, as Momoi is another great techno pop artist, but at least she gets some sort of feature in the song.

HOWEVER, I do have one gripe with the song. While the chorus is great, it can sound a bit awkward at times, and the verses do tend to get a little boring due to the quieter nature of them. It’s still a great song, so I won’t mark it down for it, but it can get annoying.

Anyway, despite this being released in 2005, I find myself hoping another collaboration between Perfume and Momoi takes place soon, because these two work great together.

Overall Grade
A+

For you readers who are getting sick of the cutesy style Perfume is well known for, AKIHABALOVE may be worth a listen due to the individuality the track shows. It even works well as a karaoke if you’re into the heavy techno style of music. Definitely the best song by Perfume, if not solely for its originality.

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I realize I did rave about this song, but in my opinion, it deserves it. This single alone should have shown Nakata that they don’t have to oversell the cutesy images of the girls. Anyway, both ways work. It’s just great to hear this different style of music from the girls.

This won’t be the first random/special review I do, either. They won’t be announced or anything, and I won’t be doing them very often (I’d say around one or two a month), because I don’t want to cause TOO much confusion to you readers. Not all of the specials will be about Perfume, either. I was going to review a special album instead, but I was overly excited by finding this, so I just had to do it~

I can’t provide a direct link to the song at the moment, so instead, I’ve decided to embed the music video. Credit goes to whoever uploaded it to YouTube~

I can provide a link to the forum where I downloaded it later~ Also note, this new section is only for special releases by featured artists, or albums released with no singles by artists that I don’t regularly feature. If I ever decide to review a past album by someone that I DO feature, that’ll go in the normal review section.

The Complete Best is actually good~/Edit Function Rant

First musing~

Anyway, if you didn’t pick up on it yet, I’m a Perfume fanboy. I KNOW, SHOCK HORROR~ However, I thought their first album sucked. Hard. With the exception of three songs (Vitamin Drop (mainly for its cuteness factor), Monochrome Effect and Computer City.) Basically, I ignored the rest of the songs. Except maybe Inryoku…

Anyway, what with me being the eclectic fool that I am when it comes to my interests in music, I listened to the album again and found a song that I… Must have missed when I left the room or something. >>

This is currently the one song I can listen to continuously without being bored (Ok, that’s not entirely true, but still…), so I thought it deserved the first mention in this section. So, enjoy~ These’ll get more interesting, I swear…

Interesting note, this is actually Perfume’s most aggressive song, with the obvious exception of GAME. So, that’s probably why I like it so much. IT’S DIFFERENT.

I’ll write a review a little later, keep an eye out~

(NOTE: I am not responsible for this translation.)

On another note, is anyone else annoyed by the lack of an edit comment feature on other peoples pages? I mean, I made the comment, why can’t I edit it regardless of page? >.< I’m so bad at writing sometimes that I seem to repeat myself blatantly, it’s something people like me just neeeeeed.