Japanese Music

[OL]

Kept meaning to post this one.
Dir en Grey.
A band I genuinely believe to be one of the best metal acts in the entire world. I try not to use terms like "best in the world" when it comes to music too often because it's all subjective, obviously. But there's just something so intense, so individual, so mature about their newer stuff (past five years, roundabout). And even then, aside from their newer work, their entire sixteen-year discography is kind of a wonder to haul out and listen to in order. They began as a visual kei band; a particularly good visual kei band, and I still absolutely love their old works, but they were still kind of "restrained," so to speak, by being in that scene. But over time they kept experimenting, trying new things, making conscious efforts to stand alone and do things that weren't just "same-old, same-old." They've literally gone through the biggest "character arc" of any band I've ever heard. They began as one thing, and now they're something completely different.
There are fans who whine and complain because their newer work doesn't sound just like their older work, but that's kind of a selling point in my eyes. Their discography is eclectic, to a goddamn extreme. It isn't that they've sold out by any means, because their newer sound isn't necessarily any more "marketable" than their old sound. They're just artists; they make an effort to continually express by challenging themselves.
And fuck me, I absolutely love that about them.
Just to illustrate:
First song is from about 1999, when they were still firmly visual kei.

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And the next song is from a couple years ago. Completely different from the first. You wouldn't even know it was the same band.

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And between those two, they've played around with a huge, huge assortment of other genres, sounds, and styles. There's so much great work in their entire backlog that it's impossible to give a concrete impression of who they are with just two songs.

And I just have to mention that the vocalist, Kyo, is easily the greatest metal vocalist in the world as far as I'm concerned. I don't know of anyone else who can make screaming and growling sound that fucking brutal, then turn around and clearly sing a verse/chorus as cleanly as he can. He's had some rough vocal spots in their history; for a while (around, say 2006-2010), his live performances seemed like he was struggling through them, because he'd scream and growl so much that his vocal chords would get inflamed, and then he wouldn't be able to sing very well at all. But over time, he abused the fuck out of his voice so much that he can do it all brilliantly now. It's frankly kind of amazing to me. This is the kind of voice that no one has naturally; it takes a fuck-ton of hard work to get to this point. And literally no one sounds like him.

[Axm]

Bump of Chicken (aka. Bumpu)

http://youtu.be/j7CDb610Bg0

[Rakim]

ONE OK ROCK - kanzen kankaku dreamer

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Modern J-rock song I discovered recently that rocks pretty hard. Judging by the view count they must be a pretty big deal.

[white lotus]

I'm a huge fan of Jrock, particularly Visual Kei. I love X Japan and I really, really love Dir en grey. They went from straight Jrock to full metal. Here's them, at their best, during their transitional peroid, where they still had some poppiness to them.

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[Ryuuji95]

I love this song.

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[OL]

Thought I'd posted this already, but I guess not.
I've been a big fan of Mucc for a long time now. Well, everything up to a certain point. Their actual rock work is all great. But after a while, they transitioned into this sort "blah" electronic dance sound...
That's not automatically a bad thing (I still like a couple of those songs), but it's just nowhere near as great as their earlier work. So I haven't bothered listening to their most recent work, but I still go back and listen to the stuff that made me love them to begin with.
They were pretty eclectic back then. Love that in a band.

Oh, and the kid in the first video is an effing BOSS at the end. Always loved this video.

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EDIT: Actually, posting this made me just look them up for the first time in a while, and it looks like they didn't abandon straight rock entirely, like I'd though. I guess the dance stuff was just a small phase. Their newest stuff is a poppier than the old stuff, but at least it's qualifiable rock. It's not excellent, but it made me happy to hear it anyway.

[OL]

Oh shit. Another band I thought had lost their spark over time is Girugamesh, but I just listened to their newest:

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...and holy FUCK, that's awesome.
I was a huge fan for a long time a few years back, and I still enjoyed their newer stuff now and then (they never got bad, just not as good as before), but this one sends it over the top. I'm a big fan again. New album out sometime soon. May actually import that.

[Crimson Ryan]

Crazy Ken Band - "Kuroi Kizuato No Buruusu"

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One of the main themes for Yakuza 2. Even without lyrics I think the song would be a good listen. In Western releases, the Japanese licensed songs usually aren't included in Yakuza games so it was a nice surprise when I heard this track playing over a cutscene. One of the most memorable at that.

[shengoro86]

I'm HUGE on The Pillows

[OL]

Skull.
God, I fucking loved this band while they were still around. Disbanded now, unfortunately. Not even sure if the members moved on to other bands or not (hard to find any info).
Not a huge discography to speak of (mainly a series of singles, with only one or two EPs), but goddamn, they had such a great melodic sound to them. Really considering ordering all the cds I can from them at the moment. I was only just now reminded of them while looking for other stuff, and got all nostalgic over listening to them a few years ago. Good feeling, and I'd like to keep that.

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Shame they have such a generic band name though. Makes it hard as fuck to find music by them on youtube.

[RussellAhmed]

A music and aculture that originated halfway around the world is appropriated and remade in Tokyo clubs and recording studios. Illuminating different aspects of Japanese hip hop,
thanks

[mue 26]

I love the way you love Japan's appropriation of hip hop, RusselAhmed. Oh how I wish you were real :(

[Rakim]

How schooled are you on J-hip hop mue? Who are your favorites?

[mue 26]

Pretty unschooled! But I hear good things about it, well, at least this guy at my uni was raving to me about it a while ago. So please, get me up on it!

[Rakim]

Oh ok. I have so many people I wanna name so this might take a few posts. But to start I'll suggest a few:

Kreva. My personal favorite Japanese MC. He has songs in several different hip hop styles and used to be in a successful group called Kick the Can Crew(also very good). His more recent work is more overtly pop, but its still well worth listening to IMO. I think he was really influenced by 808s and Heartbreak with everything after his 3rd solo album.

I really like the old school video gamey sounds he used in this beat:

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I couldn't find a lot of his earlier stuff on youtube, but these are still really dope.

King Giddra. These guys are fucking awesome and a really important group in the history of hip hop in Japan even though they only ever released two full albums as far as I know. But both albums are absolutely killer. Early nineties style street goodness front to back.

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Freestyle Dungeon - is that a badass song title or what?:

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Zeebra. He was a member of King Giddra. If I wasn't such a Kreva stan he would be the top MC for me. He's got a lot of solo material out there and I have most of it. He's that dope. I think he spent time in the US when he was younger or something because he speaks English fluently(and with a hilarious blaccent). He's collaborated with western artists because of this and you can hear him spit over beats by DJ Premier and Swizz Beatz. Oh yeah, and he did the theme song to the Yakuza: Kenzan video game.

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This video is awesome cuz he does the typical beat jacking thing, but he does it over some famous J-rap beats, so you get schooled on a bunch of classics:

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DJ Premier collabo:

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Bushido- the song he did for Yakuza. I thought this was the coolest shit in the world when it came out :

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Sorry about the over abundance of Zeebra but he's got sooooo much good shit I wanna post it all.

I'm gonna have to do another one of these because I have way more rappers I want to post.