Friday, December 7, 2001

This is sooo kawaii! XD Check out the cover for Gackt's soon-to-be-released single: 12-gatsu no Love Song. Looks like this one's gonna be SWEET folks. ^________^ I wwaaaaaaaaaaaanntt!!!! - MS - Hyde yodeled at 08:57 a.m.

Thursday, December 6, 2001

JUST A QUICK NOTE This really has nothing to do with the jrock genre of music, but it does have a lot to do with the jrock community. Former Luna Sea vocalist Kawamura Ryuichi is releasing his second album, entitled (for the moment) Shin Ai. For more information go here: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=VICL-60825 I'm not a big fan of Ryuichi's jpop works, but if Luna Sea/Ryuichi/jpop is your cup of tea, go and take a look. Also check out his most recent single, Koi o Shiyou yo, which isn't too bad, in my opinion. ^_~ - Gerald - Hyde yodeled at 05:58 p.m.

Monday, December 3, 2001

TRANSTIC NERVE Who? Transtic Nerve isn't a common name among the jrock fan community. Yet out of all the newer bands in Japan, I think that they are one of the brightest, most talented bands around. They have a unique style of catchy hard rock that's somewhere between Siam Shade and Oblivion Dust, and the blend of guitars, bass, drums, synth, and vocals shows real promise. For the basics: Transtic Nerve was formed in 1996, with their first live on 12.05.96, and consists of Taka on vocal, Tal on lead guitar, Masato on rhythm guitar, Ryo on bass, and Masaki on drums. They were discovered by Hide and then went on to release their first major album in 1999, Self Rush/Cell Flash. There really aren't any English sites on Transtic Nerve anywhere on the net that I can find, so if you don't read Japanese you're out of luck. And I haven't really even found many good Japanese webpages. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough. Transtic Nerve tends to do more hard rock than anything else, but their song style ranges from almost poppish rock to genuine hard rock. Taka's voice is amazing - a very rich, powerful sound that kind of sounds like a less...edgy version of Hyde. He can scream with the best of them, but when it comes to actually hitting the notes, I'd say he's up on par with Hyde and Gackt. There's great use of bass and guitar blending in all of their songs, and all the guitar solos are very well done. Tal and Masato really bring out a lot of their talent with different distortion and synth. Taka also has a tendency to use lots of background vocals in the chorus of songs. There aren't many jrock bands in which the vocal and instruments all carry the weight of the band evenly, but Transtic Nerve is one of those bands. No one part or instrument sticks out, but everything combines together to form a really powerful experience. If you're a Hide fan, you might have heard Transtic Nerve do their cover of Ever Free on Hide Tribute Spirits. Also, Kaikan Phrase anime fans can look forward to the 3rd ending theme Overhead Run, one of TN's best songs, in my opinion. I've ordered their second CD, Recall, which should come in sometime this week (hopefully) and I'll try to give it a review. Some good songs to try for Transtic Nerve are the above mentioned two (Ever Free and Overhead Run) as well as Ai to Paranoia for some good harder rock and Shell for a more poppy style. The official Transtic Nerve webpage, Trans Freak Sattelite, is a really nicely designed page that you should visit if you know any Japanese at all. And even if you don't know Japanese, you should visit anyway. ^__^ - Gerald - Hyde yodeled at 03:34 p.m.

Monday, December 3, 2001

Gackt fans, let's see how long it takes you to pick him out of this crowd. XD XD http://www.mainichi.co.jp/entertainments/geinou/0111/29-01.html See anyone else ya know? ^_~ Totally looking forward to the show this year. Now... I wonder if it's going to be on TV here... - MS - Hyde yodeled at 10:59 a.m.

Monday, December 3, 2001

PREVIEW: embryo by Dir en grey I'm tired, my head hurts, but I couldn't sleep without saying SOMEthing about DEG's next release. I never thought I'd really get into DEG but that's another story. "embryo" is the second in a "2 month feature" of back to back single releases- the first being "JESSICA" which came out 11/14. I don't particularly care for "JESSICA" but this one... The beginning reminds me of "Jealous (Reverse)" with what seems like random, slightly distorted orchestra bits. Very quickly, it becomes apparent that the seemingly random two-note repitition, played on what sounds like a synthesized flute, is actually part of the song. Toshiya leads the rest of them in establishing the thrumming bassline early on. Kyo comes in a little after that with, not a rap I suppose, but lines spoken to a beat nonetheless. The tempo is somewhat mellow- not quite slow enough to be a ballad, but not fast. The flute bit comes back in as Kyo starts singing the second half of the first verse. It's rather bland until the refrain. The refrain is what made this song for me. It switches from the mostly minor key in the verses to a major key, the change itself lending a more uplifting and hopeful quality to the music. The rest of the instruments fade somewhat in the background as Kyo soars away, not screaming, not distorting, just singing rather sweetly (for him) backed mostly by keyboards and Shinya's anchoring drums. It's very nice and definately a contrast to the rest of the song, not to mention DEG's usual style. Then it's back to the spoken bits, this time interspersed with the sung part of the verses. This section is mostly acompanied by the synthesized flute bit, which, if it hadn't gotten already, starts getting VERY repetitive at this point, but the contrast provided by the vocals makes the whole thing interesting enough to detract from it. The voices end and the second half is an instrumental with- I can only assume it's Kyo- breathing and scattered guitar bits. Then another spoken section backed by the guitars which leads to the refrain. I suppose "embryo" could be considered as a "poppish" DEG songs but the different flavors that made up this rather tasty dish make it much more spicy than it might seem at first listen. The second verse in particular- with the combination of sung and spoken vocals on top of that haunting flute- take it a step above and the refrain... *______* it's amazing how they can put those elements together into one piece of music and have it sound as well as this does. Overall, I really like this song. Recommended for getting those new to DEG to at least try them out and for fans who like their lighter fare- such as "Yokan" and "Taiyou no Ao." Fans of DEG's hardcore/indies sound may find it a little light but an average pop listener will probably still find it too "weird" for their tastes. The thing I love most about Dir en grey is how they can combine various musical ideas and somehow making it WORK. This song is definately a good example of that. ｢ embryo ｣ [ SFCD-0011 ] Release Date: 12/19/2001 [1] embryo [2] ZOMBOID zero system MIX [3] embryo ウテウテブギウギ elegy Information from Dir en Grey's Official Website. - MS - Hyde yodeled at 01:59 a.m.

Monday, December 3, 2001

I archived and discovered Dir en grey. Check out the changes in my picks section and take a look at the older entries in the archives for more stuff. - MS - Hyde yodeled at 01:58 a.m.