wakesidevision

It’s been a long time since I posted anything new here and for people who just discovered the site and have been looking for new music, I apologize.

I am now working full-time on koreanindie.com.

I used to split my time between the two sites, but that made wakesidevision become a Japanese music-only site which was changing the focus so I decided to take a step away until I figure out what to do with the site.

It’s been on hiatus for a while, but finally remembered to put an official post.

When Girls’ Generation announced the rumored sub-group, I was skeptical of the music that they would release. Would it be different from the original style or just more solos from each member?

The album sounds like original B-sides. It’s not bad and does a great job of showing off the vocals of each member who are probably the strongest in the 9 member group. But there isn’t a cohesion from song to song and they tried to cover a lot of different pop genres. I think the production behind the music is excellent, but it’s hard to tell how much of the members came out in the songs.

I want to hear more, but allow some kind of theme rather than songs that branch out way too far.

Re/composition is Lillies and Remains cover album. Songs from The Killing Joke, The Smiths, and Britney Spears appear on the eleven song album. While I think the band plays the songs well, they sound kind of flat. There isn’t a lot of interesting new interpretations of the songs.

It sounds like the band just took the songs and decided to play them in their style. While that usually works, Lillies and Remains have a slower and slightly mellow style. Even “Toxic” by Britney Spears doesn’t have the same fun as the original.

The band plays well, but they’re missing a little bit of the fun of performing covers.

I haven’t heard The Back Horn for a long time. Liv Squall is a return to the band and while I think their style remains, they have evolved forward with their music. They still have the fast tempos and complex rock songs that I’m used to hearing, but it sounds more polished.

The thirteen song album makes The Back Horn sit among the great Japanese rock bands like Asian Kung-Fu Generation and Straightener.

I’m glad the band is still making music because they are a consistently performing band. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard the standard Japanese rock style, but it’s nice to see it’s surviving.

Floppy is a Japanese chiptune/electronia group. Their seven song album is the perfect length to listen to their type of music. Featuring 8-bit sounds surrounded by electronica and vocals, it’s almost a collision of noise.

Somehow Floppy get the music to have melody and rhythm rather than pushing a large amount of noise. It’s a fun album to listen to, but it’s possible that it would get repetitive. I do enjoy listening to the different songs, but it’s not something I could listen to constantly.

If you’re a fan of chiptune from any country, Floppy is a band that is worth the time.

I never know what to expect from f(x). They have enough talent to perform interesting music, but the songs are always kind of strange.

Electric Shock may be their 2012 return, but they still haven’t really found their place among other idol groups. They have this one-off style that sounds different and appears kind of edgy, but comes off as unnatural.

At least the EP has an overall common theme in all the songs and doesn’t go from electro-pop to plain ballad. It’s different and fun to listen to, but I wonder if SM still doesn’t know how to choose songs for the group.

They are a stronger group, but I think song choice is their problem.

It’s been a while since I’ve heard anything from killing boy, but I’m glad their back. Destroying Beauty is a Japanese rock album, but they move away from standard Japanese rock to present an album that uses layers, different rhythms, and distortion to create memorable songs.

Even with eight songs, the talent of the band is present. The songs are excellent in their arrangements and they continue to create an evolution of alternative Japanese rock. Their main bands have distinct sounds and killing boy has its own as well.

Japanese rock needs killing boy to continue to make music to shake up the current trends.