I was about to mention Chi Chi's "Longer" creeping upwards on my list but then I see it's on yours as well. A bit higher on mine, though.
Fat Cat is growing on me a lot! The tik tok thing is absolute bliss and further helped by her funny emoting on stage. Wish she could just keep ticking on for minutes. Appearance-wise she reminds me a bit of the woman behind one of my current SOTY candidates. If she found something more interesting to replace the "superstar" bit with it'd be perfect.
Fat Cat's got that expressively deadpan look of a child's doll caught in a windstorm. Her costume made me think of Gaga and Ke$ha, though since Korean idols already dress so extreme, Fat Cat won't stand out. I like the patchiness of her clothing, as if her shirt and jacket welcome add-ons.
I have the bad habit of listening to remixes of some Kpop before I listen to the originals for groups I don't particularly follow, so that when I do listen to the original often it comes off underwhelming. Case in point being Areia's remix of "I Am The Best."
Where my other favorite remixers' take on "I Am The Best" put a twist on the song, usually to suit the remixer's style, I find that Areia's remix distilled the essence of what makes "I Am The Best" so epic and amplified it. At any rate, now whenever I hear "Naega Jeil Jal Naga" it sounds wrong to me if I don't hear a whole ton of reverb with it. Although, it's not quite as much sassy fun as the original, with the relentless tribal beats lending an almost menacing tinge to 2NE1's aggressiveness.
In "My Love Bitch", do you know the name of the synth opposing the vocoded bits? All I know is that it's also the synth that takes "lead" at 0:45 here.
Heh, I see askbask's already linked Pon Pon Pon there. Nakata can do no wrong.
Some Jpop suggestions, although my experience for songs from this year is sorely limited as I've been more discovering old stuff than listening to new songs: "Kodou no Himitsu" by Tokyo Girls Style "Limited Addiction" by Tokyo Girls Style "Dear J" by Itano Tomomi "Natsu Dakara!" by Buono! The 50s/60s influence on Jpop was previously discussed here already, but in addition to lifting from the boybands and girlgroups of that era, the music of the conglomerate Buono! hails from, Hello!Project, has a history of loving The Beatles, as well as at least one song showing a good deal of Queen influence. This might stem from the fact that H!P's main songwriter(who was not involved with Natsu Dakara!, to my surprise) was first in and writing for a popular rock band before he decided to turn the auditions for a new lead singer of said band into his chance to play Svengali with girlgroups
( ... )
Well, Areia's definitely later in the night than Teddy is. Teddy's girls are in the moment of anticipation, ready to storm the evening, overwhelm the battlements, and conquer the rest of time; while Areia's taking us into the tunnel of the night, half-exhausted but still relentless.
Regarding the synth opposing the vocodor bits in "My Love Bitch," I don't know the names of any synths. The last keyboards I knew by name were Farfisa and Vox.
Infinite - a feel-good story. A lot of "us", meaning people who talk about k-pop on the sideline, immediately took to them from the first singles. I didn't know the name of SweeTune back then, but the songs were so much fun, and _they_ seemed to have a lot of fun, which has been a pretty uncommon look for k-pop boy bands (outside of YG). The sales weren't there at all, and the label isn't one of the big ones, but they just kept on releasing good singles, great routines.
Paid off in the end, and now they're getting those #1s. A bit worried about their recent style, though - all black - hope they add some color again. (Album's no good, by the way)
Orange Caramel - Shanghai Love - I remember the discussion about this unit being interesting, though I'm not sure we came to any conclusions or left it any wiser. They keep playing around, anyway, playing with jokes, playing with the joke as a concept, acting as comedians in the video, apparently serious about representing a new Asian city for each new single. Their first two singles just left me baffled, now I think they group is interesting because I can't predict what comes next, or what they're really trying to do (with the music, with the outfits, with their "Asia Project" (the Shanghai they portray here is something less than a stereotype, just signifiers thrown about. In a live performance they showed up in Bruce Lee outfits)), even if the songs themselves are kind of similar and clearly made by the same people .
Most sites are calling this track "Shanghai Romance." Google Translate usefully gives us "Shanghai Business." [Btw, Google Translate has now shifted from "My Love Bitch" to "My Love A Bad Boy" for the Fat Cat track, so I'm reluctantly going with "My Love Bad Boy" as the title.]
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Fat Cat is growing on me a lot! The tik tok thing is absolute bliss and further helped by her funny emoting on stage. Wish she could just keep ticking on for minutes. Appearance-wise she reminds me a bit of the woman behind one of my current SOTY candidates. If she found something more interesting to replace the "superstar" bit with it'd be perfect.
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Case in point being Areia's remix of "I Am The Best."
Where my other favorite remixers' take on "I Am The Best" put a twist on the song, usually to suit the remixer's style, I find that Areia's remix distilled the essence of what makes "I Am The Best" so epic and amplified it. At any rate, now whenever I hear "Naega Jeil Jal Naga" it sounds wrong to me if I don't hear a whole ton of reverb with it. Although, it's not quite as much sassy fun as the original, with the relentless tribal beats lending an almost menacing tinge to 2NE1's aggressiveness.
In "My Love Bitch", do you know the name of the synth opposing the vocoded bits? All I know is that it's also the synth that takes "lead" at 0:45 here.
Heh, I see askbask's already linked Pon Pon Pon there. Nakata can do no wrong.
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"Kodou no Himitsu" by Tokyo Girls Style
"Limited Addiction" by Tokyo Girls Style
"Dear J" by Itano Tomomi
"Natsu Dakara!" by Buono!
The 50s/60s influence on Jpop was previously discussed here already, but in addition to lifting from the boybands and girlgroups of that era, the music of the conglomerate Buono! hails from, Hello!Project, has a history of loving The Beatles, as well as at least one song showing a good deal of Queen influence. This might stem from the fact that H!P's main songwriter(who was not involved with Natsu Dakara!, to my surprise) was first in and writing for a popular rock band before he decided to turn the auditions for a new lead singer of said band into his chance to play Svengali with girlgroups ( ... )
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Regarding the synth opposing the vocodor bits in "My Love Bitch," I don't know the names of any synths. The last keyboards I knew by name were Farfisa and Vox.
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Paid off in the end, and now they're getting those #1s. A bit worried about their recent style, though - all black - hope they add some color again. (Album's no good, by the way)
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