6 posts tagged “japanese”
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04/19/08 Roadburn Festival - Tilburg
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The one thing I've learned in the couple weeks I've been writing here is that metal is a somewhat tough sell to the average music fan (even those with more “underground” sensibilities). And it's definitely not for everyone, sure. But I've also found one band that seems to be an exception to this rule. For some reason, Boris manages to unite all sorts of listeners behind them, despite being one of the more abrasive bands out there right now.
That said, I was excited as hell to get the new album, Smile, for review! After many, many listens, I can say with confidence that this album will probably be at the top of a lot of magazines' year-end lists for 2008. Even early in the year, I say this because yes, it's that good.
The album starts out with “Flower Sun Rain,” a cover of a song by a band called Pyg, which begins some good old fashioned guitar feedback, and ends up sounding more like a funeral dirge, with a “pretty” sounding guitar line repeated under a hypnotic, repetitive vocal part. Guitar feedback builds up into a full-on arena rock lead and then back again into a solo vaguely reminiscent of some of Built to Spill's heavier moments. This is the shortest feeling song it's ever taken me seven minutes to listen to.
“Buzz-In” is a perfect follow up. Some of that nice, spastic rock for which Boris has become known. The dissonant horns playing in the background bring to mind Nation of Ulysses or The Stooges.
“Laser Beam” starts off with a lead guitar dueling with another guitar feeding back. This turns into a vaguely Motorhead style rock 'n' roll song with some killer leads and straight-up punk rock drumming. Eventually it buries itself under a wall of feedback and changes up entirely to full-on Kill 'Em All thrash with melodic sung vocals. It breaks down again into feedback and finally into a drum beat with a bizarre acoustic section over it.
This is followed by “Statement,” the album's first single. A cowbell and a screeching lead guitar kick it off over a nice, thrashy, Motorhead style rock 'n' roll drone. More melodic vocals here. Really, this sounds like a more focused version of the last two tracks. Definitely a lot more straightforward than either of them.
The next track, “My Neighbor Satan,” starts out in more post-rock territory with what sounds like a keyboard with an almost Boards of Canada-esque drum beat with sung vocals high in the mix, and guitar drones in the background that slowly bury them. About two minutes in, the time changes, the crazy guitar wailing takes over, and about a minute later, the song is right back where it started. The song ends with a full minute of feedback that would make J. Mascis proud.
“KA RE HA TE TA SA KI – No One's Grieve” starts out with a Sunn O))) style drone. Downtuned and slow. About a minute and a half in, it's out the door with balls-to-the-wall spastic thrash with a feedback drenched guitar solo playing slower and pulling it all together. The vocals come in slow in contrast with the speed at which the rest of the song is being played. The lead guitar is mixed high and plays a crazy, almost improvised sounding solo. This song could put you to sleep as easily as it could melt your face off.
The last track, “untitled,” (a bonus track on the Japanese release) begins with more feedback, a consistent theme on this album. It goes into another dirge-like section that pretty much goes on for the duration of the song.
A few notes: I'm pretty sure the promo copy I have of this is chopped up a bit, and missing a track. It also sounds like it might be ripped from vinyl. Also, a few of the songs are shorter or longer than Wikipedia lists them as being on the Japanese version.
Still, I can pretty much say with confidence that this is going to be one of the best albums released this year. Definitely worth picking up.
03/07/2008 00:15:18
soup
my♥posts
inoxia-rec.com/boris
I found out about Maia Hirasawa through Vu and while doing a bit of research, found that she's a backup singer for Annika Norlin's Hello Saferide (W♥M post). Hirasawa is a Swedish-Japanese singer-songwriter who was born and raised in Sweden. She's signed to Razzia Records, the same label as Annika Norlin (Hello Saferide / Sakert!), Jonna Lee, They Live By Night, and others. In other words, she's among wonderful Swedish musicians. Her debut album, Though, I'm Just Me, was released last year and according to the press release:
It is a logical name for the album, originally a phrase from one of the songs that didn’t make the cut, because this album is Maia Hirasawa, all the way.
She didn’t just write all the songs by herself, she also produced, arranged and recorded them in a terrace house in Sollentuna and in a cottage in Skåne. Maia thought long and hard about with whom she wanted to record her debut album, before she realized that the most logical choice was to do it on her own. She had to teach herself how to record in the midst of the process of recording but already had a flair for arranging.
The result is the finest of pop, but “with quite a lot of stage musical influences, perhaps a bit like Björn and Benny”, a vague feeling of classical music and melodies you love the first time you hear them and that you’ll never grow bored of.
Her first single "And I Found This Boy" (video) is an upbeat, pop song about
finding love ("for the night") and regretting it. In "Mattis and Maia", she gives the love song a modern spin; instead of the conventional face-to-face break-up,
MySpace is used as the source of messaging. Although their relationship is over, both feel it might not exactly be the end.
She'll
be performing at The Grammis Awards (which is basically the Swedish
version of The Grammy Awards) on January 9. It'll be broadcast live on
TV4 (buy tickets here).
I also wanted to point out that her song "Crackers" features Miss Li, another great musician I'll be posting about soon.
| Links: Official Site | MySpace | Razzia Records /// Similar Artists: Miss Li | Oh Laura | Sarah Blasko | Regina Spektor | Posted by Jason |
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Here are the Top 7 most talked about musicians on W♥M (based on tags).
The winner is Morrissey (14 tags) and The Smiths (11 tags), which is all my fault as every possible opportunity presents itself - I will mention the great Mozzer.
Radiohead came in second with 11 tags, obviously because of the news they generated by giving away their album, In Rainbows for any price you can afford.
Belle & Sebastian also made a few appearance, mostly because I love them and they recently gave away "Are You Come Over for Christmas" as an xmas gift.
And as usual, Stars are heavily covered by a few of us. Most recently appearing as a Top 7 Concert and also Most Favorite song with 15 people marking "This Charming man" cover as a favorite.
Blur made some appearances, with some stories such as Blur to finally reunite with Coxon? and Blur Drummer Running for Office in London. By the way, Dave Rowntree didn't win the election.
Obviously we're all big fans of 80s alternative, so it's really no surprise that The Cure made it on the list.
Shockingly, Avril Lavigne made it on this list with over six mentions. It started with The Rubinoos suing Lavigne over her "hey hey you" bit in her hit song "Girlfriend".
For a comparison, I suggest you head over to The Rubinoos vs Avril Lavigne and listen for yourself (they sound nothing alike).
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12/29/2007 15:01:56
vu
my♥posts
www.weheartmusic.com
(Japanese text by Tomo, translated into English by Maggie)
Supercar are probably the closest you'll ever get to a Japanese
shoegazer band. They hail from Aomori, a place in the countryside in northern Japan that is usually considered their version of
"the boonies." When they first started out, they were a guitar band
that seemed happy to just layer their ringing guitar sounds with
beautiful melodies. But with their 2nd album Jump Up, their sound
suddenly evolved (and this was evolution, not change), going from
Britpop copy band to developing their own sound identity.
The product of this was their 3rd album, the 2000 release Futurama. They got the title from a combination of the words "future" and "panorama," and sure enough, it was a record that seemed to depict the future and an all-encompassing view of sound itself. At the time, their use of both rock and electronica drew comparisons to Primal Scream and Radiohead.
Usually, it's very difficult to put Japanese lyrics to UK guitar band-type music as it comes off sounding very unbalanced (perhaps that explains the dearth of such bands in Japan), but Supercar skillfully maneuver around that, and the music and lyrics are written by different members of the band. Another feature of the band is the use of boy/girl harmonies, but on this album, the female vocals tend to take a backseat.In the beginning, the guitars jangle in
the instrumental "Changes," and lead into the deeper guitar sound of
the masterpiece "Playstar Vista." Despite its futuristic feel (perhaps
aided by the synths), this is an album that leaves you feeling
mysteriously warm. The first half of the album is so solid that when
you get around to the latter half, it sometimes seems like the album is
a little too long. But, there are still some gems like "Fairway" and
"Restarter" tucked away.
Post-Futurama, Supercar continued to evolve, stretching out into the far reaches of the electronica universe with the release of their 4th album, High Vision. After that, they once again changed direction and headed back to Earth with a more conventional, Talking Heads-esque 5th album Answer, and then they broke up.
Official SONY site | English fansite
ORIGINAL TEXT:
しかし2nd『Jump Up』になるといきなりその音は進化（変化ではなく進化です）の速度を時速150kmくらいに上げ、いかにもＵＫ好きってだけではなく、自分たちの音処理のスタイルがまるっきり変わりました。 ところがその音の進化はまったく止まることが無く、速度維持しながらも真っ直ぐだけではなく縦にも横にも向い始めました。
それが結晶されたのが2000年に発売された3rdアルバムの『Futurama』です。 タイトルはFutureとPanoramaを合わせた言葉らしく、まさにその言葉通りの音の未来と音のすべての景色をあらわしている傑作アルバムです。 発売当初はロックとエレクトロニカとの融合ってことでPrimal ScreamやRadioheadを引き合いに出して評価されておりました。
通常英国的なメロディとアレンジがあると、そこに日本語の歌詞を乗せるのは非常にアンバランスで難しいのですが（だから日本にはそういうバンドが少ないのかも）スーパーカーはその辺がとても巧みで楽曲と詩は別々のメンバーが書いています。 それともうひとつの特徴はヴォーカルが男女ひとりずついるということであり、このアルバムは男性ヴォーカルの割合が非常に高く、女の子の声は控えめに後ろから、または横からとても可愛げに顔を出してくれています。
さて、その後のスーパーカーはさらに進化をし続けて、エレクトロニカの星にたどり着いた4th『High Vision』を経たのち、その進化を 無理やりに止めて地上に戻ってきてTalking Headsのような原始化した5th『Answer』のアルバムを残して解散してしまいました。
１枚とも同じアルバムが無く、好みは分かれるとは思いますが、自分は最も動き続けていたこの『Futurama』が一番好きです。
Maggie | my♥posts | maggie@weheartmusic.com
Cristina requested a comparison between Elastica vs Wire. So here it is:
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There's really no doubt about it, Elastica ripped off that "I am the Fly" chorus in their "Line Up" single. Would a 10 second rip off warrant a lawsuit? That's exactly what I think is happening in the Rubinoo's lawsuit: they are suing for one alleged copied line in a song.
So listen to The Rubi-boos' version and Avril's "Girlfriend" (in Japanese) and can you honestly tell me they are the same song or that Avril deliberately stole their chorus?
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Related Entries: News: Did Avril Steal 'Girlfriend'? | I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend and/or Girlfriend
July 05, 2007 08:08 AM
vu vu@weheartmusic.com
elasticated.org
avrillavigne.com
rubinoos.com
Having been a twinkie ("yellow on the outside, white on the inside") and a hardcore Anglophile for most of my life, I've never really been a big fan of J-pop/rock. But the last time I was in Japan, which was in 2004, I kept seeing this music video by a band that sounded, well, not too bad. In fact, the song was pretty catchy and by the time I came home, I had bought the single and album by them. I suppose I liked them because they weren't vacuous like a lot of j-pop idols or Johnny's boy bands, but not overly dramatic and flashy like the visual-kei bands.
Asian Kung-Fu Generation was born in 1996, when dummer Kiyoshi Ijichi, guitarist Kensuke Kita, bassist Takahiro Yamada and singer Masafumi Goto met in college. They seem to be influenced by British and American indie bands, which probably explains why I like them. In fact, there's even a song off their 2nd album that I could swear was by a band called Weezer, but whatever. On their website they describe their sound as: "Weezer-ish sound a la japonaise. Emotional Sense and Literary Rock."
If there are any anime fans out there, you might recognize them from Fullmetal Alchemist and Naruto. For 'Rewrite' I decided to use the cover art for the single since I'm quite fond of the artist who does their cover art, Yusuke Nakamura.
So far AKG have released 5 albums, and a slew of singles. Also available are 2 compilations which include tracks by bands such as Ash, the Rentals, Silver Sun and Dogs Die in Hot Cars, along with other Japanese bands that I admit I am not familiar with. Their later releases seem to showcase a mellower "Aji-kan" (the Japanese sure love abbreviating names), but I've yet to get my hands on their latest CD. Discography can be found here, but it's all in Japanese. (The English version is not complete.)
I'm presenting some of their more popular songs, 'Rewrite' from Fullmetal Alchemist, 電波塔 (Denpato "Radio Tower") from 君繋ファイブエム (Kimi Tsunagi Five M), 遙か彼方 (Haruka kanata, which translates to something like "very very far off") from Naruto, and the video for 君という花 (Kimi to iu hana "Flower called 'you'"). If there is any interest I will translate the lyrics and post them.
Ja, mata ne!
Maggie.
[ e-mail: maggie@weheartmusic.com ]
