Dec 19, 2024
Visual kei banner / blinkies from old italian blog
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Visual kei banner / blinkies from old italian blog
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i miss atsushi
19.12.2024
Dadaroma imvu badges / statuses made by me p.1
can't stop thinking about how MAJESTIC sena is in this shot
Image dei Luna Sea forse rientra nella mia top-50 di sempre. È tanto rientrare in una classifica del genere: pensate a Bowie, ai Velvet Underground, ai Black Sabbath, ai Radiohead, ai Clash… poi a quegli album formativi che possono rientrare nei gusti strettamente personali ma indispensabili per la nostra vita e crescita: Bergtatt degli Ulver, In the Nightside Eclipse degli Emperor, qualcosa dei Misfits, qualcosa degli Smiths e dei Cure. I Luna Sea, band sconosciuta al 90% degli occidentali, anche se cultori di musica, per me sono stati una band che ha inquadrato una parte importante della mia vita almeno dal 2006 al 2016; sono andato perfino a vederli in Germania intorno al 2010-12. Image è il primo album sotto la Sony BMG, una major che già nel biennio successivo li porterà a riempire stadi enormi come quello di Yokohama.
"Déjàvu" è forse il mio brano preferito dei Luna Sea (dovrebbe essere ancora in cima alla lista degli ascolti di Last.fm) ed è la summa della band: dietro alla batteri tipicamente hard-rock ci sono le chitarre di Sugizo e di Inoran che sono incredibili come incredibile è la produzione limpida, cristallina ma non patinata. Ryuichi è nel miglior periodo della sua carriera, un momento in cui melodia ed aggressività sono ancora legati dal filo dell’incertezza, dalle cinghie della giovinezza che si stavano slacciando verso la presa di coscienza dello status della band. Tutti i membri dei Luna Sea stavano prendendo coscienza col palcoscenico, con i loro look pazzeschi e con il loro modo di essere visual-kei. Certo per quanto Ryuichi si ispirasse a Morrie dei Dead End e per quanto l’impronta stilistica degli X-Japan fosse fondamentale, il look dei Luna Sea è stato qualcosa di nuovo, che ha influenzato nomi grossi come i kuroyume o i Glay (prima band in assoluto visual-kei a diventare pop in termini di numero di fan e vendite). La cosa più inebriante di questi Luna Sea è come suonano e quello che suonano: il loro mix di rock e post-punk prende tanto dai Bauhaus quanto dai Sonic Youth o dai Daisy Chainsaw (band amata dal bassista J). "Mechanical Dance" è un brano che crea una trance data dagli intrecci delle chitarre sulla base tipicamente post-punk di J. L’andamento sempre teatrale di Ryuichi, coadiuvato dal resto degli strumenti, riesce a costruire un perfetto concetto gothic-rock in pieno stile March Violets o Siouxsie & the Banshees. I flanger di Inoran sono irripetibili (e irripetuti) e basta ascoltare "Wall" o "Vampire's Talk" per capire che questo tipo di sonorità era davvero unica in tutto il mondo… e l’incursione di violino giapponese crea un sapore folk-tradizionale che eleva all’ennesima potenza questa straordinarietà. Straordinaria anche la ragnatela di songwriting per il brano omonimo: l’andamento del brano muta a seconda di quale strumento l’ascoltatore presta attenzione. E questo incantevole modo di suonare – anche modestamente complesso considerando sempre la matrice pop-rock della band – sarà fondamentale per tutte le band visual-kei/J-rock a seguire negli anni ’90, dai Lareine agli Shazna ai Penicillin; perfino nei primissimi Malice Mizer (che a mio avviso rivoluzioneranno ancora il visual-kei nella seconda metà degli anni ’90). Psychedelia, follia, horror-vacui, e schizofrenia sono le emozioni di "In Search for Reason"; "Imitation" è un brano che potrebbe uscire dai Cult o dai Mission con una spinta in più sull’acceleratore mentre Moon è uno dei picchi più alti composti in tutta la carriera dei Luna Sea: atmosfere gotiche, romantiche e vampiresche al suono di violini, chitarre in delay e cori femminili. Le tentazioni alla luce della luna piena sorgono in tutta la loro potenza dando vita ad un brano romantico e cinematografico.
Anche se il disco si chiude con "Wish", uno dei brani più felici di tutta la discografia dei Luna Sea, non si può non rimanere affascinati dal lato oscuro di questo album, perennemente illuminato dal chiar di luna, capace di mostrare tutte le ambiguità sonore degli anni ’80: il gothic rock, il glam, la produzione precisa e senza sbavature. Image è ancora un diamante allo stato grezzo prima di essere ulteriormente lavorato per conferirne maggiore brillantezza (col successivo Eden); l’album è un prodotto dei primi anni ’90 unico nel suo genere e unico in rapporto alla discografia che il resto del mondo stava producendo.
Telegram channel: @dristtynn
Hi, this is my ocs that are based on visual-kei! Their band is called Dazzling Bad (after the visual-key band of the same name)
MJP - D
I found this saved in a text file and I am not entirely sure and it’s from Music Japan Plus and seems to be from before D went on their European tour. I’m not sure if it’s still accessible so I thought I’d repost it here, seems to be a transcript from a video.
There are only a handful of albums that I can say actually changed my life, and X Japan's Jealousy is one of them. Knowing the band only here and there from things I had read online, specifically their contribution to the X anime with the song "Forever Love," and a few other ballads, I hesitated when I found this CD in the Import section of the ancient architectures of a now long-dead record store called The Crow’s Nest, just off of what was then the Library-State/Van Buren stop in Chicago (which I think has since become more shops and dormitory housing). Being only in grade school, I was embarrassed to be seen buying something with such graphic cover art, and the price tag was definitely painful ($38 is a lot for a CD today, but it was criminal twenty years ago -- imagine going to Target and paying $60 for Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR), but too curious to pass it up, I anxiously forked over all of my birthday money and prayed for the best.
It took me a while to get into it -- I didn't hate it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting, which was more ballads, and a different kind of hard rock than the music found on an album released at the tail-end of X Japan’s early speed-metal era. By the time this album was released, X Japan (nee X) was hugely popular, and each member was practically an institution in himself. Each brought his personality to the album, imbuing the songs with tell-tale personalities, a concept that still worked here, though it would prove to be the band's undoing as it became obvious that they were all going in very different directions. Yoshiki's presence is obviously the largest, looming over the prominent placement of the drums in the sound mix on the album's opening track, and all of the cascading pianos and orchestral moments throughout the others. The second largest would be hide's, who was already proving that his talent and ambition were too large to be contained by Yoshiki's tight and singular vision. Listening now, hide's songs like "Miscast" and "Joker" seem obvious, containing all the tongue-in-cheek wit, playfulness, and signature key changes that would pop up in his solo work. Pata and hide both get nice little solos on here, though the bassist would have to wait until DAHLIA to get his (which, practically out of spite, would be Heath's shining moment, not Taiji's). Then there is Toshi's sharp, soaring vocals, thin, but incredibly mighty. He might not be the most technical singer, often choosing volume over range, but it’s hard to imagine any other person belting these out with such serious enthusiasm. Finally, there is the album's obligatory closing ballad, "Say Anything," that guides the album to a slow, overwhelmingly sentimental, but beautiful finish.
It's an album in many different places, offering a nearly non-stop parade of skill, talent, and genre, which eventually worked its magic on me. The individualism of each track stands out the most here now, each song a unit and showcase for its creator, with each member seemingly chipping in to help the other bring his vision to life, but it also makes sense why the group didn't last beyond one more studio album after this.
It's hard to judge an album that has so much personal history attached to it, so I'm not sure if this is the greatest X Japan album, or if it just feels that way because it was the most important to me. I haven't listened to their other albums in a while, but I'm aware that songs off of DAHLIA are still very much playable and current, while the production on this one, released 30 years ago in 1991, does date it a bit. It's kind of the in-between album, sitting there as a transition between very straight-up rough and loud albums like 89's Blue Blood and 96's DAHLIA's incorporation of more grunge and standard hard rock. To me, aside from that boring bit in the middle with Pata's song and "Voiceless Screaming," it is nearly perfect.
I purchased this CD years and years ago, in the fall of 2000. This album has since been remastered and re-released, and I'm sure it sounds better than this original one. This is the very first non-anime Japanese album I ever bought, in fact, the very first I bought in a physical store, and led me to hide’s solo work and then T.M.Revolution and then Ayumi Hamasaki and so on and so on. Thinking back now, it's perfectly incredible that I happened to come across this CD, especially considering its age when I bought it. Even then, most of the CDs in the Import section were newer releases, like the Pizzicato Five, PUFFY, Ayumi, and Hikaru Utada CDs I would see at Virgin. It's pretty crazy to think of all of the music I would have missed out on if I hadn't found this CD, and been compelled to try my luck and buy it, or even just how much longer it might have taken me to get there. As a little-known musician once said, Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music -- as it turned out, the earlier, so much the better, for me.