Notes on a Year's Worth of Listening, part 1
Gackt's Training Days 2006 Drug Party DVD is an amazing concert! Pared down production-wise from his usual extravaganzas, this one is all about the music--and the sexiness of it! Instead of a crew of dancers, elaborate costumes, and complex story lines, we get Gackt, the band, and a track list of his very best songs. The guys are playing all the heaviest tunes and they're loving it. And Gackt is working it like a stripper, wrapped up in himself and the music, part snake charmer, part snake, sinuously slithering around the stage, gyrating like a belly dancer, making love to himself, the band and us. He sounds great. Looks fabulous. And all my favorites are here, Nine Spiral, Fragrance, Bird Cage, Mirror, Cube, Luna, Speed Master, Metamorphose, it's nonstop sound and sex and I love it!
And speaking of sound and sex, check out the adorable PV for Spell Magic Yasu's (Janne Da Arc) solo project Acid Black Cherry's first single. Love that audition look! Interesting project--Sugizo played lead guitar on the single, but Chisato fills that role in the PV and for a variety of live dates they played this summer. New single coming up in September--it will be interesting to see who's doing that.
Crack 6's latest mini-album, get fired up, is a bit on the softer side for our heavy metal guy. MSTR (Chisato) is experimenting with some new instrumentation, as well as writing three of the five songs entirely in English (with some help, according to the credits) and they're very nicely done. Lyrically, these seem to be far more introspective and personal than some of his previous Crack 6 tracks, and they're musically interesting as well--I wouldn't qualify them as ballads, but they're not screaming metal, either. In interviews, MSTR has suggested that Crack 6 is a project aiming to utilise a variety of artists and the band's changing personnel and frequent guest musicians certainly supports that. The music is changing and developing as well. I like a group that is difficult to pin down with a generic label.
S.K.I.N.: When I first heard about the Yoshiki/Gackt/Sugizo/Miyavi "super band," I wasn't in a rush to see them. Mainly because I was in a complete funk about not being able to make it to see Crack 6 in San Jose! But now that I've seen the clips from the L.A. show, read the interviews, heard some of the music, I want to see S.K.I.N. As devoted a Gackt fan as I am, it did sound like a geezer come-back concert. But the clips so obviously show an exciting musical dynamic and stage presence that demands attention. These guys are legendary for a reason! And if professionalism ever had a chance to win out over raging ego, I'm confident they can pull it off. Gackt has said that S.K.I.N. could be the first truly international Japanese band. That seems a bit optimistic--except that he almost always ends up accomplishing what he sets out to do. So hey, guys, come back to the U.S. and I will really do my utmost to be there. (Chicago, anyone?) がんばって!
And speaking of sound and sex, check out the adorable PV for Spell Magic Yasu's (Janne Da Arc) solo project Acid Black Cherry's first single. Love that audition look! Interesting project--Sugizo played lead guitar on the single, but Chisato fills that role in the PV and for a variety of live dates they played this summer. New single coming up in September--it will be interesting to see who's doing that.
Crack 6's latest mini-album, get fired up, is a bit on the softer side for our heavy metal guy. MSTR (Chisato) is experimenting with some new instrumentation, as well as writing three of the five songs entirely in English (with some help, according to the credits) and they're very nicely done. Lyrically, these seem to be far more introspective and personal than some of his previous Crack 6 tracks, and they're musically interesting as well--I wouldn't qualify them as ballads, but they're not screaming metal, either. In interviews, MSTR has suggested that Crack 6 is a project aiming to utilise a variety of artists and the band's changing personnel and frequent guest musicians certainly supports that. The music is changing and developing as well. I like a group that is difficult to pin down with a generic label.
S.K.I.N.: When I first heard about the Yoshiki/Gackt/Sugizo/Miyavi "super band," I wasn't in a rush to see them. Mainly because I was in a complete funk about not being able to make it to see Crack 6 in San Jose! But now that I've seen the clips from the L.A. show, read the interviews, heard some of the music, I want to see S.K.I.N. As devoted a Gackt fan as I am, it did sound like a geezer come-back concert. But the clips so obviously show an exciting musical dynamic and stage presence that demands attention. These guys are legendary for a reason! And if professionalism ever had a chance to win out over raging ego, I'm confident they can pull it off. Gackt has said that S.K.I.N. could be the first truly international Japanese band. That seems a bit optimistic--except that he almost always ends up accomplishing what he sets out to do. So hey, guys, come back to the U.S. and I will really do my utmost to be there. (Chicago, anyone?) がんばって!