I’m always in need of some new Jrock, to expand from the same artists I always listen to. Last winter, my best friend sent me a couple of songs he’d just found and was impressed by, one of them being “Fall To U” by xTRiPx. The song’s sound reminded my friend of some of the American bands we listen to, and he really liked the song itself. I was pretty impressed by it, too, when I listened to it, but it’s taken me until now to actually search for more of the band’s stuff and see if I like their other songs, too. The results? Well, I’m definitely still impressed.I downloaded pretty much their entire discography, to my knowledge. Everything that’s available for download here, plus two more recent releases that I had to Google to find. It’s a fair number of songs to take in at one time, so I probably haven’t given each song the individual attention it deserves, but I have taken a liking to some of the songs in particular. These songs left the greatest impressions on me:
Fall To U - The first song I heard by them is still a favourite. This song is a great example of something that the band does a lot: balancing parts with fairly “happy” melodies with heavier parts. I’ve always had a difficult time getting into rock songs that sound too “happy,” because they kind of just bore me to some extent (An Cafe songs being an exception, possibly because they’re just so good and they actually make me happy when I’m listening to them, as opposed to bored), but
[riot] - One of their first songs, according to the discography, and I’ve been listening to it a lot. A bit heavier than Fall To U, but still not a dark song; it seems like even when the music is heavy, it’s usually fairly…upbeat, for lack of a better word, though not the boring kind of happy. They transition really well between the “riot” parts, the singing right after, and the guitar right after that. That whole part is just a great time. And there’s a lot of other stuff going on in this song too, like when there’s suddenly a…vocoder, or some such thing, putting effects on the vocals at one point. A really cool song overall.
limpid - At the beginning, it could almost pass for some kind of Jpop song, what with the piano and the vocalist’s voice being less gruff than a lot of other Jrock vocalists’ voices. Then the song really gets going, and it has a great feel to it. I don’t have a lot to say about it except that I love the feelings the music inspires and it’s a great song.
rhymeLoud - The intro reminds me of a song by a local Jrock-inspired band I’ve seen live a couple of times and grabs my interest right away. The music’s pretty heavy at first (I really need to find another word, but “hardcore” sounds stupid and I really don’t know what word to use), and then gets a bit more upbeat, but the song doesn’t let up, and the chorus is terrific.
honey… - Another definite favourite that I’ve been listening to a lot. This isn’t a particularly happy song, and has a more emotional vibe to it than a lot of their others. The intro starts off sounding a lot like some other songs, but it becomes more unique as it picks up, and I fall for it every time I listen to it. It’s just SUCH a good song, and I highly recommend it.
PUNKxNoTxDEAD - More punk than usual, it would seem. Worth checking out.
Hakuchuumu - Sounds like they’re sampling part of The Immigrant Song here? Whoa. o.o Well, that’s cool. Pretty good song overall, as well.
clever noise - I like the electronic sounds at the beginning. Pretty.
PokerFace - I listened to this a bit yesterday, and I’m finding that I like it a fair bit. I don’t have a lot to say about it, but it’s a bit heavier than some of their other songs, and less happy.
Ameiro Drop - (At least, I think that’s the romanization. Correct me if I’m wrong on the title.) This is pretty recent, to my knowledge. Loving the instrumentation, and it’s a good enough happy song that it doesn’t bore me, but actually makes me happy. Very good quality.
Sakurairo - On the same single as the previous song, Haruiro Plastic, so it’s also a recent song worth noting. Fairly feel-good, but it has a different vibe than Ameiro, so it’s worth listening to as well.
I haven’t seen a PV by this band yet, and I’m not even positive that they have any, but I think they might and I just haven’t found them yet. If you know where I can watch any, please point me in that direction! I know very little about this band’s history and where they’re headed, but I’m really enjoying their music, and I hope to see and hear more from them in the future.
Okay, one last thing: I promise I will start blogging more here. I’m still trying to figure out what exactly I’m doing with this blog, but I need to actually write in order to figure that out. I will write here more often from now on!
May 1st, 2008 at 5:01 am
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