October 2011
17 posts
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Rethinking Tumblr
I might switch permanently to Wordpress - Tumblr’s limitations are starting to annoy me.
https://j1muzak.wordpress.com as an experiment.
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CNBLUE - In My Head
I wasn’t really paying CNBLUE any attention at all but that giant promo truck that’s been doing the rounds in Shibuya has done its job very well…
The only past experience I had with CNBLUE’s music in any form was Yonghwa’s Banmal Song from the WGM series, so this single was a chance to discover for myself what they had to offer. I at least hoped they wouldn’t...
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BUMP OF CHICKEN - Zero
Wow, just wow. I can’t remember the last time I felt this strongly about a BUMP song…probably Planetarium. I wasn’t really aware of Zero’s status as a Final Fantasy theme but that shortened, acoustic opening version found on this single just doesn’t do the song justice IMO, lacking the majesty and grandeur of the original’s arrangement.
If the world was fair...
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Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
Hooray for being based in Japan, where English-language albums regularly get released earlier than anywhere else! But first of all, let me make a confession:
I haven’t consciously listened to Coldplay since their X&Y album.
That’s more than 6 years ago now, both to my surprise (wow, that long ago?) and horror (oh my god, I’m inching ever closer to the big 3-0).
I was...
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Girls' Generation - The Boys
Challenge for this post: remain objective.
I guess you could say I fall into the category of a ‘hardcore’ Soshi fan right at this moment, with pretty much every spare dollar I have going towards contributing to whatever amount of peanuts SM Entertainment is paying the girls, or putting money into their wig fund or helping out with fees for their English lessons.
Having said that, I...
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marble - Utatane
I have never been marble’s greatest fan. It seems the duo often are prone to choosing the path of least creative resistance, resulting in a sound that is far too lightweight to leave a positive or rather, any sort of impression upon me. Weak songs, weak melodies, snoozy arrangements…let’s just say the only purpose I find for their material is as a potential cure for insomnia.
...
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Wheesung - They are Coming
Maybe it’s because this represents his ‘final’ release before his army enlistment next month, but Wheesung has really outdone himself with 놈들이 온다. About time too - he’s been giving away his best songs to the likes of SHINee, Seven and G.NA over the last few years after all.
Previous albums tended to be patchy affairs with the odd highlight here and there, but They are...
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Various - SKET DANCE KAIMEI ROCK FESTIVAL
When I first read this arc in the manga I was really curious on how Tatsunoko would handle it in the anime - would the music the school bands played at the cultural festival actually turn out to be listenable? Turns out I needn’t have worried at all.
Have to say that I’m a little surprised they kept on the seiyuu to provide vocals for most of the acts (obviously apart from the...
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KOTOKO - Hiraku Uchuu Pocket
I only needed 1 or 2 listens to Hiraku Uchuu Pocket to know for sure that it’s the best album KOTOKO’s made in her decade-long career thus far. That might not seem like high praise when you consider the fact that the four LPs that preceded it were…well, not very good.
This happens to be KOTOKO’s first album release since switching to Warner Home Video, a new label founded...
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Hawaaii - Two Tickets Please
When I ventured back into Kpop earlier this year, one of the first voices to catch my ear was that of Earip’s - sweet and lilting, like a gentle breeze (no, really). She’s a veteran in the Korean indie scene having released a couple of albums as part of Sweater as well as pursuing her own solo career, and Hawaaii is a side project featuring Earip and gipsy&fish guitarist Lee Ho...
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Hoover's Ooover - Kotae wa 156-page
Really, the style of music Hoover’s Ooover makes is oh so charming. Unfortunately, every single track they produce has the distinction of sounding exactly the same as something else they’ve recorded in the past.
This fact hit home pretty hard when I went to watch them live a few months ago - despite enjoying their set, I could not recognize a single song they played by name and trying...
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Spangle call Lilli line - Piano Lesson
After the disappointment of New Season I lowered my expectations for Piano Lesson down by about 10 notches but it turns out I didn’t need to do that at all.
Piano Lesson features 8 hand-picked tracks from the group’s back catalogue and as the album title suggests, they’re given lush new piano-led arrangements in collaboration with ex-Kukikodan member Koyama Izumi. I was prepared...
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Kim Bo Kyung - the FIRST DAY + GroWing
Kim Bo Kyung was a contestant on Superstar K2 (the competition that Huh Gak won) but didn’t get very far - voted out before the top 10, her sob story nevertheless touched enough people to gain her a single release of her signature song Because of You, a cover of her heroine Kelly Clarkson’s popular hit.
Earlier this year came Kim’s first mini-album the FIRST DAY which proved to...
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RO-KYU-BU! - pure elements
With my tolerance level of badly-written, badly-sung bubblegum idol music now at an all-time low, it took me a good 10 minutes or so to decide whether or not to touch this album - which on paper, held the potential to melt my brain Chernobyl style.
Well…I wish I had trusted my instinct. I shall…refrain from being nasty and just offer some sage advice.
AVOID LIKE THE BUBONIC PLAGUE.
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Takahashi Hitomi - PICORINPIN
You have to feel sorry for Takahashi, the forgotten woman in Jpop - a promising start to her career aided by the power of Gundam has petered out to almost nothing, culminating with the embarrassing No.200 chart position of recent single Poolside (a collab with PE’Z’s H ZETT M).
Or perhaps she’s content sacrificing chart success for a chance to work with some of the rock/indie...
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Jess Lee - Gan Xie Ai Ren
Lots of controversy has been swirling around the promotional video for Jess Lee’s 煎熬 - the 10-minute long sexually-explicit, violent clip has garnered over 2 million views on Youtube since it was first posted 2 weeks ago. You have to wonder whether Lee herself had any say in the decision to attach her name and face to something as opinion-dividing as this, but I suppose that Warner Taiwan...
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Sungha Jung - Irony
Boy wonder’s second full-length album - this time, Jung chooses to tackle a whole lot less covers than he did on his debut CD Perfect Blue, preferring to toss in more of his own compositions. Good idea?
Let’s begin with the covers. Nostalgia obviously plays a huge part in my liking of Jung’s reworking of 벌써일년 (Been Already A Year), originally performed by balladeers Brown Eyes,...
September 2011
21 posts
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3Q2011 Favourites (Albums)
Timely once again! I’ve been on a bit of a roll these days in terms of regular posting so this quarter’s list will look familiar enough…
1.Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm. Benjamin Francis Leftwich - I think I’ve really missed hearing this sort of tuneful acoustic-folk ever since people like David Gray and Damien Rice turned a bit crap. Leftwich may have the most...
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Fujifabric - STAR
I’m sitting here wondering why we’re even seeing another album release under the Fujifabric banner - wasn’t MUSIC a good enough send-off to the memory of Shimura Masaaki? Why are they still milking the band name?
I digress. Listening to STAR, I remain convinced that Yamauchi + co. should have left the name behind and started afresh. I won’t go as far as saying that the...
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Huh Gak - FIRST STORY
Like many others, I was kind of flabbergasted when rookie singer Huh Gak grabbed the crown on this week’s M! Countdown ahead of KARA & Davichi, then capped it off by topping the Gaon charts over BEG. All I knew about the bloke was that he beat that American Idol-reject (John Park) in some Korean reality show, so like all other singing contest victors I assumed his music would be generic...
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2NE1 - NOLZA
I must be one of the few people on the Kpop-listening part of the planet who is completely indifferent to 2NE1. Yeah their songs are OK but every time I saw them performing UGLY on TV I would burst into laughter at how messy their performances tend to be - those vocals are so NOT hot, dude.
So here we have NOLZA, their first foray into the Japanese market. It’s basically a reproduction of...
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BONNIE PINK - Back Room -BONNIE PINK Remakes-
I tend to approach self-cover projects with much caution - what was so wrong with the tracks in the first place that an artist feels they have to rework them from the ground up? Surely if it didn’t work the first time ‘round then the second time’s not gonna make much of a difference? I don’t really buy the ‘finding a new perspective’ excuse…maybe you can...
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T-ara - Bo Peep Bo Peep [Japanese version]
I laugh, badly.
Seriously, it never bothered me too much on the original versions but the Japanese versions of Bo Peep Bo Peep and 너 때문에 미쳐 have had the life autotuned out of them, rendering both songs into a mess that is neither hot nor sexy. I guess I didn’t expect too much anyway, given how the damn cat-ears-and-paws concept was being pushed way too hard for my liking.
Sexy Hyomin has...
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Sakanaction - DocumentaLy
In the space of a year or two this Hokkaido-born band have shot into the big leagues - mainstream acceptance, chart hits and even an appearance on Music Station, much to my surprise and delight.
Certainly, the quartet have never let all that success cloud their creativity or water down their sound and DocumentaLy neatly continues in that fashion, offering up another potent, heady mix of sleek...
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Brown Eyed Girls - Sixth Sense
Ahead of October’s expected onslaught of returning Kpop girl groups, Brown Eyed Girls (and KARA) jumped ahead of the pack with their own comeback. BEG have always adopted a much more mature image and sound than their counterparts and Sixth Sense typifies this approach; gritty, hard-hitting urban beats instead of cheesy Eurobeat-inspired dance-pop - I swear Hot Shot and the title track are...
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Kasabian - Velociraptor!
Yes, we all know British rock is dying. No better time for Kasabian to re-emerge as saviours of the industry, right?
They’re not actually that far off. With Dan The Autamator at the helm once again, they manage to hit a couple of bullseyes whilst retreading strangely-familiar-yet-not-quite-the-same-old ground. Re-Wired is classic Kasabian with its mindblowing swagger and groove and though...
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Kalafina - After Eden
Another day, another album leak. This time it’s the new long player from Kalafina, one of producer Kajiura Yuki’s recent, highly active pet projects. I’ve long resigned myself to being unable to distinguish between Kajiura’s songs - it certainly does not help when you have a back catalogue as extensive as she does, while her persistence in recycling the same 2-3 chord...
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Davichi - Love Delight
Since my laptop’s hard drive went into cardiac arrest a couple of days ago, I’ve been unable to access my music files (this will only get resolved when I go home at the end of the month). Thankfully, I keep backups of most new albums on my 6-year old 5th gen classic iPod…fingers crossed that that doesn’t break down too!
One of the albums I’ve been giving a good few...
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Rosi Golan - Lead Balloon
Having your music featured on Grey’s Anatomy may seem like the death knell for an artist’s credibility, but this Israeli-born singer-songwriter swiftly dispels that with a confident second album. As simple as Golan’s breezy melodies and lyrics may be, they hold a certain charm that hooks this folk-pop fan in so very easily.
And hey, Gary Lightbody (he of Snow Patrol fame)...
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Uemura Kana - My Favourite Songs
Remarkably, it’s been almost a year since Uemura Kana put her infamous toilet song up for a proper single release in November 2010. In the intervening time, a digital release of Kimi to Boku was the only musical offering Uemura made…ah, how I miss her sweet melodies and the stories she tells through her songs!
My Favourite Songs is typical of her style, honest and heartfelt lyrics...
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3nd - we dance x avec toi
3nd (pronounced ‘sand’) is yet another in a long line of Japanese instrumental post-rock bands, their line-up featuring members of NATSUMEN and pocketlife.
It’s been a good two-and-a-half years since their excellent World Tour album so I was greatly looking forward to seeing how the quartet would build on that. I’m pleased to report that 3nd did not suffer the dreaded...
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Spangle call Lilli line - New Season
I’m sure this mini-album has just what the world needed - yet another version of rio.
Unlike the group’s last couple of mellow offerings, New Season adopts a rougher, rawer approach - a bit similar to For Installation. Unfortunately I’m not sold on any of the new versions of songs that were already pretty good in their original state (roam in octave, cast a spell on her) and...
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Mint Paper Project compilations
In my never-ending quest to root out the good stuff going on in the leaden world of Kpop, I came across a few compilations put out by the Korean-indie act promoting music website Mint Paper. Initially drawn in by the inclusion of my current favourite band 10cm’s song 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요 on Vol.3 - Life, I’ve come to discover a bunch of artists…any of which could possibly end up as my...
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KARA - STEP
Long-awaited comeback album…well, sort of. At least in Korea anyway, since the girls have hardly been out of the spotlight over here in Japan.
Less than a year since the release of the Jumping EP, we get a ‘full-length’ album - except there’s three instrumentals and an acoustic version of a previously released song, so it’d be a bit of a stretch to call it a proper...
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Base Ball Bear - Short hair
I must’ve been one of the only few people out there who found Cypress Girl/Detective Boy distinctly underwhelming, so it is with much bemusement that I find myself getting rather attached to Short hair which is for all intents and purposes, a rather generic slice of MOR-Jrock that you won’t remember 5 minutes after you hear it for the first time. I can’t help it though - the song...
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Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic
You never know what you’re gonna get with each new Stephen Malkmus record - bright sunshine melodies? Noisy noodling? Bird-watching music? Mirror Traffic is a little bit of everything, though the weirdness tends to outweigh the catchiness by a ratio of about 2.5:1. Easy listening, this certainly ain’t.
Ah, I miss Pavement. Time to go on a nostalgia kick and crank up the volume on...
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coaltar of the deepers - DEAR FUTURE
It’s rare that I prefer remixed versions to the original tracks, this is one of those occasions. In fact, I think I like every single remix better than the rather dull version you hear at the end of every Mawaru Penguindrum episode…if I had to pick one absolute favourite, I’d go for the WATCHMAN feat.Horie Yui one. Just about edges out the Shinobu Narita version.
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Hirosawa Tadashi - Hikari
Last I heard of Hirosawa was on the collaboration single he did with Oshio Kotaro a few years ago…now that I look back at it, Baby, it’s time was released in 2008. Time sure does fly.
Hikari precedes the release of his new album at the end of September and it really is a slow-burner, tackling a folksier style that I’m not quite used to hearing from him. His voice is as rich and...
August 2011
15 posts
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Kuroki Meisa - Wired Life
Kuroki may have all the charisma of a damp rag which comes across rather prominently in both in her acting and singing, but it’s nothing Nao’ymt can’t fix. Or should I say, Nao’ymt’s magic is something that not even a force of destruction like Kuroki can wreck. Yeah, Meisa’s no Namie but she does enough on Wired Life to easily ensure it’s the best thing...
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GOOD ON THE REEL - Schrödinger no Futari
I regularly find myself being overwhelmed by the amount of new releases greeting me upon my weekly sojourns to Tower Records - the indie section in particular forces me to spend hour upon hour at the listening posts just to ensure I don’t miss out on any potentially great new band out there, but I must admit that’s becoming increasingly difficult to pick out the wheat from the chaff...
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UNDER GRAPH - Ao no Toki
UNDER GRAPH’s fortunes seem to have gotten stuck in a permanent cardiac arrest over the past few years, the light at the end of the tunnel remaining firmly off. Such a shame really - even if they don’t reinvent the wheel with Ao no Toki, it’s still the best record they’ve made in the last 4-5 years. かごめ is such an awesomely fun song! And female drummers rock.
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Goonam And Yeo Riding Stellar - Vol.2: Friendship...
Cumbersome name to have, isn’t it? There’s nothing straightforward about the indie pair’s musical direction either, completely ignoring the bubblegum pop music their Korean counterparts churn out on a daily basis. Instead, Goonam + Yeo draw from a more diverse pool of influences, ranging from trip-hop to psychedelic-rock to Indian sounds; opera-like vocals against a backdrop of...
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Hard-Fi - Killer Sounds
Surely Archer & co. know that naming their record Killer Sounds is akin to setting up targets on their foreheads in front of a firing squad? There really isn’t anything here to suggest that they’ve recovered from the misfirings on that difficult sophomore record Once Upon a Time in the West - surely, this is not the end product one would expect from four years of hard graft. I...
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ko-ko-ya - Ikoku Meiro no Croisee Soundtrack
‘tis a good time for this album to drop since I’ve been on a Gontiti kick in the last couple of days. While not exactly similar, both Gontiti and ko-ko-ya (brainchild of Choro Club’s Sasago Shigeharu) share a sound that is warm and comforting, like a mug of hot chocolate on a cold winters’ day.
It’s a style that perfectly captures the little charms of an anime as...
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GONTITI - humble music
‘Humble’ is indeed a good way to describe the duo’s sound - no pretenses or frills about it; just honest-to-goodness, warm music designed to soothe the troubled mind.
humble music is apparently GONTITI’s first ‘guitar-only’ album in 10 years (since 2001’s GUITARS) and marks a welcome change from the bossa-nova forays of recent times.
Only one of the...
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Starting Third Debut
I really wish every label Kitamura Eri signs to would stop it with the ‘debut’ tag…
This fresh start with Starchild is Kitamura’s third attempt at the singing game after past failures with Pony Canyon & Lantis and I’m guessing she’s in the last chance saloon with Be Starters!. Thankfully the single sold enough (approx. 9,000 copies) to land her a spot in...
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SHOOT! me
In theory, SHOOT! has a lot of things going for it - a catchy tune penned by sat of fripSide with lyrics provided by KOTOKO, performed by some of the hottest young moe seiyuu talent out there right now.
So where does it all go wrong? Of the quintet maybe 1 or 2 of the girls have decent singing voices, but SHOOT! just doesn’t serve any of them very well vocally - we really do need a screechy...
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FY!Jung
Jung who? Sungha Jung is a 15-year old Korean whose genius re-arrangements & performances of popular Western and Kpop hits on the ‘tubes have made him a bit of a star. I’d come across this crazy-ass guitar kid before in past Youtubing adventures, but it’s some of his more recent works that have truly got me hooked.
His style seems is reminiscent of Oshio Kotaro (one of my...
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Simply Dreadful.
The hype machine has been in overload leading up to the release of Super Junior’s new album Mr. Simple - the hilarious teaser posters, the PV snippets and what have you.
For all the noise, the album is incredibly underwhelming. The title track is basically what you would get if Sorry Sorry was tossed in a blender, put through a strainer and then crushed with the side of a knife. Elsewhere,...
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Listening to covers of Ghibli songs, I snooze.
I downloaded an album by mistake. Thinking that the shoegazin’, post-rockin’ maestros Mono had released something new without my knowledge I queued up the file without so much as looking at the title…
…I’m not sure I can find anything positive to say about mono’s supposed ‘Ghibli tribute’ album (titled ジブリを聴きながら、上を向いて歩こう). It’s amazing how...