September 2011
21 posts
1 tag
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...