Music!!!!

I like music very much

other comments

I will likely be adding individual pages for artists and songs and such later. I need to get a page for my own stuff as well

songs i like

artists i like

i made a couple of banners for each artist but if you'll refer to my 'other comments' section...
i'll make it prettier in the future somehow...

in no particular order...

結束バンド - kessoku bando!!

favourite song: あのバンド - That band

Kessoku band is really awesome. I'm not too sure if i should be calling them an artist when they're teeechnically a fictional band of fictional characters. I would lean more to calling them a kind of 'music project' between artists. I mean, whoever set up the songwriting for this show got some big names and the results are undeniable.

THE ORAL CIGARETTES

favourite song: ミステイル - Miss Tail

While i don't know much about THE ORAL CIGARETTES outside of their really silly name, they make a lot of really cool rock stuff i like listening to. I think their stand-out feature is their guitar. Like kessoku band, this is a great example of why two guitars are a lot cooler than one. I'm not good with the technical terms, but the lead guitar is very playful and what i assume to be the harmony? rythm? guitar helps 'set the stage', i suppose.
As someone who plays an instrument, i should probably be more familiar...

ハク。- Haku.

favourite song: 回転してから考える - Kaitenshitekarakangaeru

If i remember correctly, i was first introduced to Haku as a band when their cover of MONO NO AWARE's "Kamukamo-Shikamo-Nidomokamo!!", but i didn't really 'register' them untill a close friend of mine reccomended them. He's a pretty big fan of them as far as i'm aware, and for pretty good reason. Haku is very talented and very good. I mean, their little viral hit in that cover demonstrates that pretty well. It went viral for good reason. While Haku's songs don't have the same energy to them as a lot of the other artists i like, their songs kinda 'meld' into eachother - and not in a bad way! I can go to Haku's page, simply press play, and never be hit by a roadblock of 'this song is boring!' or 'i don't feel like listening to this'. The good music simply doesnt stop. I think i would struggle to recognise a lot of their songs by name, but if i end up listening to it, i'll recognise it instantly from one of the many times i've decided to listen to them.
For this reason, i struggle to pick a favourite. Kaitenshitekarakangaeru has a recognisable name due to its length, and to me, it's the song i most relate with Haku, simply for the amount of times i've listened to it. Plus, they name drop Norway in that song, it has to be my favourite... Hopefully, this will inspire me to try a bit of active listening.
My only grievance is that their cover of "Kamukamo-Shikamo-Nidomokamo!!" is only in YT shorts format...

Jamiroquai

favourite song: Emergency on Planet Earth (both versions are good)

Jamiroquai is a bit of a curveball when the earlier have been japanese, no? Short of perhaps city pop, Jamiroquai embodies all the things i find to be 'good' musicing. All their songs have an immense amount of groove, not to mention their ensemble of string and brass instruments. As a bassist i can appreciate the really cool basslines as well. Jamiroquai's songs to me are a sugar. They do not provide comfort directly, but they provide more than enough joy in it's place.

Blue Öyster Cult

favourite song: Burnin' for You

Blue Öyster Cult is definetly my favourite among the more classic 'rock band' archetypes. I've listened to their songs on repeat so many times in the past, and i haven't really gotten bored of them. Sure, sometimes i forget about them, but once i rediscover them, i always enjoy it. I certainly haven't listened to their entire discography, but i've at least heard plenty of good stuff and i'm sure there's more good to find. Burnin' for You as i've as my favourite doesn't really describe everything i like about them, but it's a very 'cute' song. I listened to it a lot a couple years ago during my class trip to Berlin. It's a very comforting song to me, the lyrics definetly spoke to me and they still really do.
However! As mentioned, they have a lot of stuff that isn't too similar to what Burnin' for You has to offer. I have three examples: Godzilla, Veteran of the Psychic Wars, and Sole Survivor. These are very mysterious songs to me because they don't really feel as 'rock'. I wasn't around in the 1980's and i'm certainly not very immersed in the culture of these bands (or any, really) and thru this window of zero context, it paints the picture of a very bipolar way to make music. But honestly, the large range and the talent they execute it with is why i'm sticking around. They're one of the few bands i've reccomende to people i know in person. They carry such energy, and tell very curious stories.

GLORYHAMMER

favourite song: Masters of the Galaxy

To keep the english-language ball rolling, we have GLORYHAMMER. My enjoyment of power metal stems back many years, but GLORYHAMMER is the only band among them i still listen to (at least on occasion). To quote SsethTzeentac 17 odd seconds into his review about a homoerotic isometric RPG, 'All the stuff you thought was cool as fuck at 12, still is'. As a matter of fact, he mentions 'power metal' just two sentences after. Because power metal embodies that kind of hype, and GLORYHAMMER does it best, at least in my eyes. Despite not listening that much to them anymore, i could still recall all the lyrics of their coolest songs by heart for months afterward.
GLORYHAMMER is additionally an example of something that's really silly on the surface but is fully self-aware about it and doesn't care. Unlike other metal genres which i would easily describe as pretentious, this is commonplace in power metal, although it would be better to describe power metal as the 'storytelling' metal, at least from my experience. Sabaton and Civil War are on the more serious side.
As for the aformentioned sillyness, i would provide examples, but genuinely everything is an example here. Just go listen to it, it's so awesome. I've been listening to GLORYHAMMER on auto-play while writing this and i do still find myself quietly belting out what lyrics i do still remember, it's still as cool as it was when i found it.
Honestly, GLORYHAMMER would make for a really good musical. I mean the songs would all fit, you have the characters, the story, the costume... I mean, it's not exactly thought-provoking, but that's not the point. It's awesome!!!

Eve

favourite song: Kokoroyohou

Eve is among one of the artists that first introduced me to J-rock. And what an artist to start with... Eve (and his producer(s?)) has (have) certainly tallied up an impressive discography. This is also an artist with a range of style, so i struggle to define a particular favourote 'Eve-song', but Kokoroyohou is simply a very happy and fun song and happy and fun songs make me feel happy and fun.
I discovered Eve, strangely enough, through JaidenAnimations and her video on Hatsune Miku. Eve was simply mentioned in passing, i thought, 'this seems interesting', and my intution proved right. Today, i'm a bit tired of his older songs after listening to them so much, but all of his newer stuff and some of his less rock-intense tracks (as found in OFFICIAL NUMBER and Blue, his EP with Sou) are still very much in my active rotation.
Dramaturgy was my first 'hard' song i ever learned on bass, and because of my poor practice habits, its the only hard song i still know. I don't know how i managed to get good at it in the first place, but it remains in muscle memory and will probably stay there for quite some time. It's my go-to when i get bored of playing after practicing for too long (10 minutes).

Reol

favourite song: Hibikase

Reol might seem a curious addition to this list. Everything above has been rock, what's the deal with this EDM artist? Well, it's true i have a preference for 'real' instruments, Reol's songs have the two things that make a song good for me: kick and good vocals. 'kick' is something i don't have the terminology to describe but it's just the beat in essence. If you want me to be with you on the groove you better have some impact every couple beats or i'll probably lose interest. And Reol has quite a few examples of exactly this. Hibikase is a great example, it embodies a lot of the 'hype' i described in my section about GLORYHAMMER but more japanese and more electric.
The only criticism i often find myself levying against EDM artists is their tendency to cut their really awesome vocal parts with these really goofy 'intstrumental' breaks where it kinda just feels like they throw together random bullshit and hope it sticks and every time i feel a bit ashamed for listening to it. This is definetly a me-thing, though. Hibikase doesn't have this issue! But another song i like from them, THE SIXTH SENSE, has a short but definite section of 'random bullshit' after the first chorus. The rest is straight fire.
I would also like to append a short section about Drop Pop Candy and the whole No Title albums in general. There's two, she co-released with a music arranger named Giga along with a video director and artist under the group name 'Anyosupenyosuyaya'. My preference is No Title-, the album with her vocals. Drop Pop Candy is a song i like a lot, and comforted me through the more boring parts of a Denmark trip some years ago, and i was considering setting it as my favourite. Hoooowever, Hibikase is too fun. Assymetry is also a good choice. The whole damn thing is good, i don't know.

Sangatsu no Phantasia

favourite song: Pastel Rain

This is an artist with a considerable audience, but i've only ever spoken to one other person who listens to them. Ive been a fan of them for a lot longer than a lot of other JP artists i like, and among the artists i listened to back then Sangatsu no Phantasia is one of the few i still listen to. Pastel Rain has been one of my favourite songs of all time ever since, as well. They started to feel a bit milk-toast to me some time ago, but uniqueness doesn't define quality. And there's a lot of quality to find - cool guitar riffs, slap bass, great vocals, and a ton of energy. Pastel Rain boils all of that into one really fun, really cool song.
Another one of her stand-outs to me is Day Break. To quote myself two years ago, 'daybreak is very mood'. Listening to it again, i think that is an apt descriptor.

this is a pretty incomplete list, but it's the ones i bothered to write about. I'll add more such paragraphs, and maybe in the future entire pages, but this will work untill i get more on other pages on the site. Here's a list of some of the artists i will talk about later and/or i like a lot:
mei ehera, aiko, ado, inabakumori, tokyo manaka, irukanote, shibayanrecords, incognito(?), togetoge, billy idol, casiopea(?), alohaii, andora, tuyu, tiny yawn, kenshi yonezu, tatsuya kitani, yama, natori, good kid band, sabaton...

more to come...