[July 2017] The CDJapan Haul and Music Review

Due to my occasional patronage to CDJapan, I have grown to like their company. As anyone who likes anything Japanese, this is a site you probably frequent among others like Japan Discovery, YesAsia, AmiAmi and Ebay. Shipping really kills my wallet, but I still buy things from them anyways. I haven't gotten diehard enough like my co-worker to use EMS for his figurines.

So this time for my haul, it wasn't just CDs I got, but also magazines. I got two issues of Animage, June and July edition, and I'm debating whether I should get the August edition. The lure of freebies had me tempted mainly because of a Twitter post revealing a special Gintama poster that came with one of the issues. I keep telling myself to quit anime entirely, but once Gintama is airing, I'm back in the game. However to be honest, the previous season of Gintama featuring the Rakuyo arc had me terribly disappointed and bored.

My freebies for July's issue

A Levi-heichou exclusive spread

A special pinup among the many included in the magazine

Underworld by VAMPS

I don't follow VAMPS' music, but their songs "Calling" and "Sin in Justice" had me hooked. I think their previous album, Bloodsuckers, is worth a listen too as they have my favorite song "Replay". Underworld has a lot of songs written in English which I think was probably aiming to expand to an international audience. To remain in the VAMPS persona, Hyde and Kaz has continued with gothic themes in both music and visuals. This album in particular was stated to portray the underworld as a manifestation of VAMPS' "true nature" that could not be seen in the "physical world". While this message feels very gimmicky to me, I can see the overall appeal it has to a lot of listeners. The hard rock (and less punk) album has very solid composition. This is Hyde after all, not some wannabe rocker with superficial looks. I was very pleased to see that they were able to work with Apocalyptica and Chris Motionless on two of their songs.


E.P.S. by Eiko Shimamiya

You may know Eiko Shimamiya as she sings the opening themes to the Higurashi no naku Koro Ni series. Her unique voice is what earned her a title of "utahime" and a spot on the I've Sound music production group which also consisted of past successful acts such as MELL and KOTOKO, both of whom I like very much. E.P.S. is exactly what it sounds like, a compilation album of Shimamiya's most popular releases. You will see that Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni's opening themes, "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni", "Super Scription of Data", and "Naraku no Hana" have made it into the tracklist.  Shimamiya's sound is very representative of the j-pop genre with the trance and electropop. Since many of the songs on the album were made for the Higurashi series, I can feel a sense of unease and eerieness in the song content. If you are familiar with the basic synopsis of the story, you should get an idea why the music sounds the same.

Violet Cry by GARNiDELiA

I first happened upon GARNiDELiA on Nico Nico Douga when I was watching some videos. In particular I was following toku's channel and it's nice to see that toku and MARiA's collab on Nico became GARNiDELiA. Violet Cry is the second album released and I decided to give it a try. It wasn't such a stellar listen in my opinion. The electric synths and instrumentals they use sound dated when compared to E.D.M. you hear on the waves. I see that it's a problem among a lot of Nico Nico stars. Their songs start sounding like "typical generic anime songs" and it becomes hard to differentiate. It doesn't really help as their previous album actually had songs written for anime. If I really had to throw out names as to what GARNiDELiA reminded me of, I would say Aoi Eir who also use to be a Nico Nico star.

B'z The Best Ultra Pleasure

This compilation album was something I was looking forward to. I'm not the biggest B'z fan, but I know that they're pretty famous in Japan. If Gintama decides to parody "Bad Communication", you bet they're famous. One of the songs that I had wished was part of this album was "Taiyou no Komachi Angel". It's such a hit and one of my favorites from B'z. Not all songs on this album were my favorite so a couple of them were misses for me. A majority however were songs that I could definitely jam to. Is that why nearly all their tour names are titled "Live Gym" because they make good work out music? I wouldn't be surprised considering how catchy a lot of their hit songs were.

Besides CD Japan, I recently also purchased music off Amazon. It took me time as I don't pay attention to American mainstream, but I'm finally on board with Bruno Mars. All his songs on the 24K Magic album are listenable. I don't find myself skipping through any of them. It's a great throwback to 80's and 90's funk, soul, and R&B.

Way of the Flesh by Gojira

I mentioned in an older post how the Magma album introduced me to Gojira. I am slowly working myself backwards on the album list and here I am with Way of the Flesh. Due to "The Art of Dying" being made famous through Youtube, I had to try this album out. The sound is more raw. I don't want to say that the album is unrefined, but in comparison to Magma, Magma sounded very mature. Content wise, I appreciate that there's songs out there about the environment. "Toxic Garbage Island" says a lot about trash in our oceans, but it can also be likened to personal suffering on a meta level. "Oroboros" is a great track to open to with the melodic picking setting the tempo and the tone before progressing into a heavier distortion. I don't think there is a song that I didn't like.

We Are X Motion Soundtrack

This one can't be considered an album as it is mainly a compilation of previously released X Japan material that was then used for the We Are X documentary. The only exception is the newly written acoustic version of "La Venus". I was hoping for the actual version of "La Venus", but I'm guessing Yoshiki wants that in the new X Japan album that we have been waiting decades for.

The Black by Asking Alexandria

The hunt for new bands to listen to never ends. Here I am with Asking Alexandria. Youtube has done its job for me suggesting me new stuff. I'm very new to it so I can't say I know their style that thoroughly. This album is labeled metal-core online, but to me it sounds more like emo punk with some metal influences mainly on the vocals. There's some good things going on.