2 posts tagged “gackt”

I've always wondered, if I were to tell my friends "I listen to Japanese music" and they wanted to hear something- what on earth would I reccomend? Well...

1: Ayumi Hamasaki (memorial address, song for xx... not sure.)
2: Luna Sea  (I for you, Gravity, Sweetest coma again)
3: Kiyoharu and SADS  (Rinne, Slow, Life beyond desperation, Awake)
4: Plastic Tree  (Spica!!!! Alone again wonderful world too. I've not listened to alot of them- though I plan to!)

4: 12012 (Caus' they are my favourite and most listened to J-rock after SADS and Kiyoharu. Shower, Deep forest in particular)
5: Gackt  (Caus' he's sexy. Redemption, mind forest and Yami no Shuen. Ahh...and last song!)
6: Chihiro Onitsuka  (She has a beautiful voice and her songs are very moving. Infection, Drifting feathers)

(this list could change at anytime apart from those in bold who I adore and think are extremly talented. I like 4 to 6 but not sure about what my friends would- and seeing so that's the focus of this post...)

What about you? Is there anything that you'd never ever tell anybody you listened to it? :P Is there something you'd force onto your friends?

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I've been listening to LUNA SEA lately. I'm curently working through their best of albums- it's amazing! To be honest I've never like X-Japan, the singers  voice annoys me, however for LUNA SEA their music is just so beautiful. Everything sounds so unbeliavbly right, and it's even relaxing in a way. A fantastic listen and the singer has a beautiful voice. I think the guitarist (Sugizo?) is also very talented. I've not skipped a song yet, and that's something for me. Only Ayu, Kiyoharu, SADS and Chihiro Onitsuka get that sort of treatment from me : ) Naturally, there's one or two but not quarter of the album like I usually do!

I can totally see the hype around LUNA SEA. They are total awesomness.

Other than that- have you heart Plastic Trees alone again? It's amazing! Though at first the constant, repetitive in-your-face guitar part annoyed me It grew on me: Ryotaro (is that right?) has a beautiful tone to his voice. I love the chorusy bit : ) At first I admired Plastic Tree for their visuals, but I'm steadily begining to love their music as well. I'm definitly gonna save up for some of their ablums. Also, have you seen the merchandise for their upcoming concert tour too? I so want the t-shirt and wrist-strap- the panda is adorable!!  (Sasabuchi has the pictures of them)

Olivia has new song! Title "bleeding heart" (inspired by bleeding love?) it's a really nice laid-back pop rock special Olivia ethereal-ness type of song. I didn't like it that much at first but I love it now. So glad she's back and still sounding fantastic. I think Nana was the best thing for her, she's really matured :D

Lastly, Just like to say that I don't really like Ayu's new single. I don't know but everything annoys me about it. The covers are photoshopped in all the wrong ways, and Ayu looks weird expresion wise. The PV no matter the meaing is wierd and over the top, And her performance of it was equally over the top. She couldn't walk in the shoes. The song itself is really good, though the string part is unnecesary and it really doens't stand out as anything amazing. Life is also OK but mediocre, and the two new versions though wonderfull sung were never songs I liked from Ayu. I would have prefered "Powder snow" or "song for xx" or even "poker face".  Depend on you's instrumentation sounds ripped off from somewhere. also, there is a riduculous amount of versions"! all in all, money-grabbing good but nothing special single. Dissapointing after the awesomeness that was GUILTY.

That's about it.   Bai bai : )

Saikai_~Story~

Before I start this review let me just say I love Gackt. I adore Gackt. I obsess over him the same way as Ayumi, though I can't own his albums as they are far too expensive (£15 each!). Either way he is beautiful and his songs are powerful and emotional: his lyrics beautiful and poetic. Though he may be a tad strange (vampire?) he's allowed to caus' he awesome. :P I mean, he speaks like 5 languages and plays about 8 different instruments: that can't be easy. I own his calendar right now, and though the calendar is massive dissapointement (too many crap pictures, no way to change the month thus I'm stuck on the cover...) : but it's still nice to to see Gackt every day!!

Anyway, Saikai story was one of my first Gackt songs I guess, and one of my favourites. I plan to learn it on violin I love it that much.

It does make it hard to think of this song as only Gackt's 6th single, I don't know why but I imagined it would be more recent. Either way, Saikai is a beautiful and emotional ballad one can only expect from Gackt. Based on a short instrumental Story from one of his albums, you can imagine it has a truly beautiful instrumental part relying on strings and piano.

1: Saikai~story~: The title translates as "A Promise to Meet Again ~Story~", so as you can expect from Gackt it's a song about love, lost painful love. Gackts voice is suitably heartbroken, and filled with powerful emotion.  I suggest you look at the lyrics to full understand this song.

"Inside of the fading memory
I want to hold you just one more time
Nearly painfully, I continue to shout your name
Until my voice is lost"

Saikai story starts with simple but beautiful piano, then the violin comes in and you are captured by it's beauty. The violin drops in and out of the song, so mainly it is just piano and eventually another instrument is introduced as well. The song is entrancing, and just...epic relying only on the continous piano, occasional sweeping violin part and Gackts voice which switches from quiet in the verses to loud and sad/pained in the chorus'.  Around the middle of the song there is also a fantastic change where Gackt quietly whispers over the synth and piano before a glorious instrumental,  where the violin gets to show off a bit. A sound in the background makes me think of fireworks, no particular reason. Like someone watching fireworks and thinking of someone they have lost. Either that or someone in a city, watching those walked past whilst remembering the one they loved. Someone who can't let go of a love, even though it's now fading an dissappearing? Don't know really, though you can make many story to it. Last line suggest Gackt is the one that is dying or going away, leaving behind someone. There's no way to know right- That's the beauty of Gackts poetic lyrics, beauty of any lyrics.

After another chorus and verse the song ends on almost twinkling piano and like that it's over. Wow. Gackt really specialises in heartfelt, epic ballads in contrast to eqally epic, powerful and dramatic rock songs.

2: Dears ~live~  : Haven't listened to the B-side of Saikai, however dears is a good song and Gackt is awseome live so I'm sure it'll be good (unless the recording is crap).

3: Saikai~story~ (instrumental). Sure that even without Gackt's voice, Saikai will be gorgeous. I could use this as backing track for when I learn on violin...

overall rating: 5/5

So, overall a wonderful and powerful single from one of the best Jrockers- Gackt (strictly my opinion). I've already babbled on enough so I'll just say If you want to get into Gackt listen to this single to get a flavour of his ballads, and mind forest or Yami no Shuen to get a flavour of his rock : )