Sweet Honey

Hi:BRiD has rapidly become my current favorite indie band ever since I was introduced to them via Kenta (my love of TINC knows no bounds ^^). Glider is their third single, and their third release with guitarist Kiki. The first release being Utopia, and the second being Story of Mermaid. My copy came just about 14 hours ago at the time of writing, and after a few listens, I’m giving this review a shot.

glider: I remember the sample Zero put up on his blog a few months ago for this song: I loved it then and love it now as a full arrangement (Zero’s samples are … interesting to say the least). Glider is one of their first songs to really do a good job of showcasing what Kiki is capable of! I can’t say I love his work as much as I loved Kenta’s work on Butterfly. (the TINC fan in me won’t allow for it), but Kiki’s certainly improved tremendously since Utopia. Zero stands out as usual (damn his loudness! j/k) and Kisara’s line is interesting as always. I will say that the synth in this song could stand to be farther back in the arrangement as its distracting (as always!), and I wish I could hear JILL a little better, or at least a little clearer. But overall, I’m very pleased with this song.

Castles in the air: Louder and heavier than glider, I’m glad Zero’s written another heavy song for them. I’m quickly becoming fond of this sound– I really think that they should do more of it. Kiki’s gotten a little grungier  (to me that’s the best way to describe the sounds I’m hearing, but its not accurate persay) and it reminds me of Butterfly. in parts, which is great since Butterfly. is simply outstanding for a first release. Again with the distracting synth!! JILL’s voice is much nicer at the lower register the song is written at. Let’s keep it down there!!

liars game: Another heavier track written by Zero. Has bizarre English in it that I can’t understand except for “liars game” which really isn’t that bad. There’s a neat little bit around 1:40 but then they ruin it by having JILL rap.  *sad face * However popular rap might be in Japan, not everyone does it well. JILL does not do it * well *. Liars game continues the trend begun in glider with the improvement in Kiki’s guitar work — I am unsure as how much is actual improvement of skill and how much is an improvement in arrangement though. Either way, its a wonderful change.

Overall: This release continues to showcase Zero’s songwriting skills, and everyone’s individual talents. For my part, I love that the audio quality is significantly better than the last two singles, which for some reason suffered from unusually poor audio quailty (Yes I own them ^^). I could live without the synth though, really I could. Its just a distraction to me.

Yet another Phantasmagoria best-of release. How many are we up to now? Seriously. Anyway, I bought it. I don’t have any of the other ones & well *shrugs*.

Dejavu ~ Stanctuary of Revival ~

08/20/2008 (but CD Japan got it in November) / 6300 yen / UCCD-193

走馬灯∼PAST SKY~:Originally only available on Kisaki Chronicle, Soumatou ~PAST SKY~ is a soft, pretty song whose lyrics have a gentle message about moving on. The melody suits Riku’s voice to a ti or should I say do? (>< Sorry solfege joke, couldn’t be helped). This one is :D

Unknown zero distance: This one is from under the veil, released at the end of 2006. Unknown zero distance is a fun song to listen to, but it is most definitely not one of their best songs.

神創曲 -Variant Jihad-:  One of Phantasmagoria’s singles, Kousoukyou-Variant Jihad- is a fan favorite. It features all of the hallmarks of a good Phantasmagoria song: harpsichord, Riku singing and screaming, interesting duel guitar lines, and a wild melody dropped into an arrangement that is constantly changing.

fairy times memory – another tale -: This acoustic arrangement of fairy times memory is a bit of a retreatment of the song. A pretty, but sad song about lost love, fairy times memory might be one of their best songs, and this arrangement is simply gorgeous.

狂想曲 – Cruel Crucible- : This is another single from Phantasmagoria in a series of three (kousoukyou, kyousoukyoku, and gensoukyoku). Kyousoukyoku is a faster paced song and the lyrics speak of the destructive nature of love. Like it’s sibling Kousoukyoku, the arrangement of the music is quite wild and jumps smoothly from music style to music style.

．．．Lost in thought: Lost in thought opens with classic Phantasmagoria keyboarding (an instrument that the band really makes excellent use of to help cement their sound). The song is driving and spellbinding. The arrangement of the music really backs up the feeling in the lyrics and Riku’s vocals.

幻想曲 -Eternal Silence-: Gensoukyoku is one of the best songs, and a fan favorite. Its a slower, softer song with amazing music and a melody that beautifully fits Riku’s voice. AND, it has a triplet in the melody (how awesome is that?). The lyrics are touching, and the sense of yearning in them them flows right into the music.

Material Pain:  Phantasmagoria’s first song, it will always be the song. Material Pain forms the foundation of their sound. It has every main feature of Phantasmagoria’s music in it; the keyboarding, the heavily gothic feel, desperation, ever-changing arrangement, shifting vocals, and all of those other goodies. Moreover, the lyrics showcase ideas that would become themes for Phantasmagoria.

未完成とギルト:  Mikansei to guilt is another early song that cements Phantasmagoria’s sound. Its also a fan favorite.  It is a must listen.

NEVER REBELLION: Probably well-known for the furi, NEVER REBELLION is an early song where Phantasmagoria’s love of keyboarding really came into focus. The song is a specticual of sound – speeding through different music elements the way one might drink water. But it always returns to the basis of the arrangement.

光に降る雨: Hikari ni furu ame is a slower song with a driving guitar line. The lyrics are simply gorgeous and Riku’s performance outstanding. There is a great deal of gentliness in this song and the treatment of it.

Pixy false: Pixy false is a song that the band kept coming back to. First released on their second single, Moonlight Revival, Pixy false has that extra something in it, its a fantastic song. It has been re-arranged, re-recorded, and re-released repeatedly. Dajavu features the re-arrangment of Pixy false.

NEO ARK: As we head to the end of the album, we get to the meat (?) of it all. NEO ARK is one of those songs that might not be as good as a recording as it is live. NEO ARK features the theme of God that threads through many of Phantasmagoria’s songs; in fact it is one of the first songs of theirs to have this theme. NEO ARK was not released on a Phantasmagoria release until it started to appear on the end of career best-ofs.

神歌: Kami uta is important. There is a reason it is at the end of Dejavu. The version of kami uta on Dejavu is the re-recording that was put out in Japan in July of 2007. It is one of their heaviest songs, in fact for Phantasmagoria it is unaplogetically heavy.

The DVD in Short:

Hide Summit footage: barely worth it. It’s interesting, but that is about it.

Soumatou ~PAST SKY~ P.V. : Clip montage.

Special CM: not worth it.  

Photobook: Has the final(?) photoshoot in it, features their final costumes.

The end.

Miki

So a few weeks ago I promised you guys a review of the new Brother single and uBuGoe’s single from August. I’ve been waiting for them to show up in the mail, so sorry for the wait. Anyway, to the review:

Brother / 夢篝 (yume kagari)

(no image)

10/22/2008   Limited to 2,000    1,575 yen   BRCD-001

夢篝 (yume kagari): I can’t decide if I’m impressed or not. The intro of the song is pretty good (I think), but the vocals just aren’t doing it for me. The music is really almost typical visual kei.

Blue Flowers: Still isn’t as good as I’d hoped Brother would be.  Blue Flowers sounds like it might be an okay song live, but that is really the extent of the value I see in it. I’m still not impressed with Makoto’s  vocals.

蝶来来 (chou rairai): Eh, it’s an okay song. Maybe I’m just being too picky about this, but I’m just not impressed with this song either. All three songs are so typical of visual kei and I was hoping for something extraordinary. Chou rairai I think probably has the best chance of growing on you. I don’t dislike any of it, I just thought it would be a lot better than it actually is.

Overall: Has promise. But there are too many cheap rythem tricks in it. Give me something complex please!

uBuGoe / First Cry

First Cry / uBuGoe

08/27/2008    1,260 yen    UBG-0001

sleeping Beauty: Had me at the first wail from Takashi.  This song has everything that was great about Fairy Fore in it, I totally remember why I love them so much. The almost gruff punkish aspect is back in force against a tight rythem arrangement (thank you Yoko and Shigure).

どこか．．．(doko ka…): Is also awesome. There’s something new in the music, and I’m pretty sure its Shigure’s bass and of course, Yuki is just standout in  this track. I loved this song live and I’m loving it even more now.  The guitar work is outstanding and these guys really deserve some serious props for this record.

眠る太陽 (nemuru taiyou): I totally remeber this song from when I saw them in concert too. This song totally gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Overall: This single is such a solid release, something that Fairy Fore never put out. I’d really like to see them get some serious recognition for their talent. Hopefully we will see some writing by members other than Takashi.

Miki

It’s been a long time coming…. Sorry for my laziness about this concert. I meant to write it right after the concert, really… I mean it. But as it happens I’d just gotten back from Japan a couple of days before (maybe a week?) and I just couldn’t face the internet. Anyway Ayabie right?

Before the concert:

So Ame, Maru and I got to the venue at 5:30 A.M. (I think). We were up all night getting ready and driving to the venue, so we were very tired (Ame and Maru both tried to nap at points). It was a very long and crazy day… we met lots of great Ayabie fans… Like Kana & Kiki (both are from the east coast and had a long bus ride to Chicago), and Yoh & Miggy (from a bit closer to us). We had a lot of fun… Speaking of fun, Ayabie showed up at the venue at 1:30ish and the screaming began. The concert ended up running a half an hour late.

Miki, Ame, & Maru

Btw, can you tell what we are all fans of??

The concert:

We raced to buy our merch. so we could do the meet and greet with the band, and then raced to the left side of the stage (the better to be by Intetsu — Ame & I are both huge Intetsu fans). Maru, incedently was fairly happy with this arrangement as she discovered a new love of Takehito’s thighs and of course, her love of Kenzo. :) (I’m not making fun, I promise!!). They teased us for about another 20 minutes, what with the peeking out from the balcony and the peeking over doors (repeatedly mind you). When they finally came on, it was loud in there!!! The concert was awesome, and my personal favorite thus far. I’m glad that Aoi didn’t think we weren’t up to the task of doing furi (I love furi btw, it’s what I like best about visual concerts), but his furi is harder than anything I did in Japan the week before. It’s very complicated.

 Aoi spoke in Japanese a lot, although he usually remembered to say “Jump!”, not the Japanese equalivent to the word jump. Yumehito spoke a couple of times in English and he was very understandable (they all tried to say something to us in English which was a bonus I was not expecting). During one of the MCs, I think we may have embarressed Intetsu a bit (for those who were at the concert, I’m sure you remember the loud screaming from the left side of the stage — that was us Intetsu fans) because they were introducing themselves and Intetsu got the loudest response (which I’m sure he wasn’t expecting at all), he was very cute about it and turned a little bit red.

It was a serious workout though, I don’t think I’ve ever jumped so much in my life!! I even broke one of my concert ‘rules’ and saku’d for them (I hated myself for it later…). They were just great. Aoi has a great voice live and they really put on a great show. I can’t say enough good things about them. I’m going to see them again. Oh and Yumehito promised they’d be back. I am holding them to it!

After the concert:

The meet & greet was a complete mess for lack of better words. I’ll just go over my impressions quickly. I embarressed myself with Kenzo b/c I gave him the wrong photo (I know the difference between him and Takehito, but I was tired and nervous…). Yumehito said something to me in Japanese, sounded like “… your outfit is cute” or something like that. I said something to Aoi about how long I’d been waiting to see them (2 years, since before Ryohei left – I have to see Megamasso too). I didn’t say anything to Intetsu – but I wanted to. I think I said thank you to Takehito, but I’m not sure. Maru asked Kenzo to marry her and thankfully he laughed which was the reaction she wanted. Ame tried to ask Intetsu about his bass, but all she managed to do was hold up the line as they both tried to understand each other (Intetsu is one of the reasons Ame is learning bass – he’s her hero).

Miggy & Miki after the concert

 

 


Gou, Inzargi, and Ryohei (with ears)

So, it’s taken me a while to get around to reviewing “beautiful girl”. The title track is part of a two song series, “beautiful girl” and “white, white”. “beautiful girl” is Megamasso’s third single, and yet another Ryohei written track, although the b-sides “mitsu to ga” and “shakunetsu taiyou” were written by Inzargi, the vocalist.

Beautiful girl: I’ve always like Inzargi’s voice, he sounds nothing like a visual vocalist and is always on pitch. His voice is stunning and he’s skilled at conveying emotions – he’s wonderful in short. Ryohei’s skill at writing melodies that a normal person could sing still impresses me since its an established fact at this point that visual musicians excel at writing unsingable melodies. There’s some really great tempo changes in the song and the sound is typical Megamasso (not that its a bad thing). The drum line is kind of plain, but for a band with a support drummer its not terrible.  I don’t know, I like the song, but it really doesn’t reach out to me and I can’t see it being a song that sets any tone for Megamasso.

Mitsu to ga: This song is a bit odd. I don’t know how else to put it. You can really tell that Inzargi listens to western music. For some reason, it’s incrediably obvious that the melody in the chorus just slides up and down the scale (which I don’t like), the melody is just too easy, not at all fun. The keyboarding is a but annoying. I still can’t get over how weird this song is. “Mitsu to ga” is heavier than many Megamasso songs. But just the ones that are melodic mind you, I’m not counting the attempts they’ve made at metal. It’s lackluster at best.

 Shakunetsu taiyou: The intro is very happy-sounding. Reminds me of anime music (which I’m sure made Ryohei happy). The vocal range is a bit lower than usual for Inzargi (which I like). The chorus is awful; I just think it’s awful (no explaination). There’s some neat guitar stuff from Ryohei, who is a decent guitarist (but a scary human being). Honestly I find it hard to care.

Overall: this release is for Megamasso fans. I could listen to it without actually hearing it pretty easily because there isn’t anything stand out on the entire single.

I downloaded Blue Star from itunes because my sister gave me $25.00 itunes card and I didn’t know what to do with it.

Blue Star – Somehow, I don’t recall the intro to the song being that … urgh… what is that? Well anyway, Blue Star is okay as a recording (I remember it being better live, maybe a different arrangement?). There are some neat tempo changes and Jui sounds good as always, but Blue Star isn’t anything spectacular (even by Vidoll standards). The titles track is going to have to grow on me before I admit to liking it.

Delivery to Hills – Has a Final Fantasy battle-like intro (this is not a good thing.. to me at least). The rest of ‘Delivery to Hills’ is okay enough, but forgettable. I can’t help, but wish that there was something else in this song (like Vidoll – where are they?).

Berry Jam Cleaner – sounds a bit like old Vidoll (pre-current line-up). This is a good thing. There is a nice rhythm to Berry Jam Cleaner (except for the chorus). The chorus is very vk in sound (is that a claim I can make?). And there are traces of possible awesome in the possibilities for live replay (not CD replay). 

After relistening to the single (about 40 times), I find that I do like it. Blue Star and its strange siblings have become old friends who don’t annoy me or jump on the sofa any more.

It’s still just an okay single.

Miki