#j pop

[soundslivemagazine]

Sneak Preview: Yoasobi Bring J-Pop Spectacle to Hamilton

Sneak preview. Article proper drops tomorrow once I get photos from the Yoasobi press team. But I've spent a while writing this one so I want yous all to see it and get hyped. So. Get hyped. My first proper pop idol concert experience!

Yoasobi is the brainchild of Ayase and Lilas Ikuta (known mononymously as Ikura), collaborating with Japanese authors to turn their short stories into music. These songs are often accompanied by incredible visual storytelling to bring their songs to life, first taking their homeland by storm and now, slowly, the rest of the world is waking up to the might of J-pop’s newest idols. I got the chance to see them in Hamilton, ON last night, and it was unlike any other show I’ve been to! My first J-pop experience, the first time I experienced to idolatry and lore built around artists in the world of East Asian pop music.

Here are some extracts from my review, which should be out tomorrow. Read it with your evening tea!

“Ayase and Ikura dress the part, looking partly like pop idols and also like something out of a story themselves. They have excerpts from stories their songs are based on printed on their stage clothes, Ayase’s hanging off his trousers like a towel, as if the pages are waiting to slip away from them and come alive.”

“Shared memories transcend language barriers for fans and nostalgia, interspersed with live shots of the fans, many of whom have dressed up for the occasion in cosplay, somewhat resembles a Comic convention rather than a standard concert. Ayase’s riser is shaped to look like two books stacked upon each other and the screens look like books stood up: the Never Ending Stories tour is an immersive experience. […]There are interstellar visuals, laser beams darting across the stage and the stadium is dotted with a thousand stars. The awesome track (and I use the word in the most literal sense), combined with the galactic lasers have you feel like you’re in the middle of an epic anime fight scene.”

“Catch them on tour before the TD Coliseum shows inevitably turn into sold out Rogers Centre affairs.”

[greasyfilms]

[yoko-chanfanclub]

[aya7gi]

Requiem

Lyrics: I wonder if I’ve become the person I always dreamed I’d be. Feels like I’ve come too far to ever turn back now. On my own two feet, skipping steps, pushing forward— I know I can run even farther ahead, so I run away.

Stitching together the wounds that keep growing deeper, Passing the signal along as the axis starts to spin. Familiar pain, hurried breaths, the pounding beat— Pretending not to notice, I’m alone again.

What’s “right,” anyway? There’s no eternal answer. Who’s supposed to pay the price for being wrong? That person you hate— to you they’re already the wrong answer just for existing.

Even if someone declares it a zero, there’s still no reason I could ever accept. The front line has always been right here. There was never a perfect plan from the start.

Slowly it crumbles, falling apart— Like a loose noose tightening around my neck, the me from yesterday is quietly being killed. Slowly we drift farther apart, growing numb.

And when your world begins to sway, the voice you hear is turning into someone I don’t even recognize.

Since I was little, before I knew it, you were always there beside me. Like the air itself— I held your hand tightly.

The happy moments, the tears— I told you everything. Whenever laughter or cruel voices came my way, you sang so I wouldn’t have to hear them.

You receive this voice, and every night my worries are projected again. Disposable, they say—but even if it’s rotten, this hi-fi zeitgeist never stops.

Even if it’s just a single instant in a full turn around the world, our heartbeats, our sounds, our colors intersect.

Next time, I’ll be the one singing to you.

Slowly it crumbles, falling apart— Like a loose noose tightening around my neck, the me from yesterday is quietly being killed. Slowly we drift farther apart, growing numb.

And when your world begins to sway, the voice you hear is turning into someone I don’t even recognize.

I wonder if my voice will reach you someday. No… that day will probably never come. You have no voice, no body— yet I’m just one of billions you’ve saved.

The world overflowed with sound colored in red and blue. And everyone who hears the sound we found after circling back again and again calls it “___”.

Slowly it crumbles, falling apart— Like a loose noose tightening around my neck, the me from yesterday is quietly being killed. Slowly we drift farther apart, growing numb.

And when your world begins to sway, the voice you hear is turning into someone I don’t even recognize.

This song is often interpreted as portraying the feelings of someone who was saved by music and internet culture. The “you” mentioned in the lyrics is described as a being without a voice or a body, and is commonly understood to symbolize music or the digital world itself. The protagonist has relied on music to cope with loneliness and anxiety, but as they gain recognition and their circumstances change, they also begin to fear how much they themselves are changing—so much that it feels as if “the me from yesterday is being killed.” However, in the latter half of the song, the line “next time, I’ll sing to you” suggests a shift: from someone who was saved by music to someone who now hopes to save others through it. The title “No title” symbolizes emotions that cannot easily be put into words, and the blank space in the final line leaves room for each listener to find their own meaning.

[coolalbumoftheday]

Today's cool album is

Air Ni Ni by Hakushi Hasegawa!

Genres: jazz pop, glitch pop, breakcore, j-pop

Year: 2019

Country: Japan

[immortalcultofjmusic]

@PUFFYofficialSMA Digital New Single『モヤーズ』

[italcixxx]

PEAK... 🥹❤️‍🩹

これ歌は美しいですね。。。？