Ling Tosite Sigure(凛として時雨) - #5 Album Thoughts(J-rock)

 

01. Ultra Overcorrection
02. Chocolate Passion
03. Tornado Minority
04. Who’s WhoFO
05. EneMe
06. ten to ten
07. Serial Number Of Turbo
08. DIE meets HARD
09. High Energy Vacuum
10. #5
 

    Most international fans will probably associate Ling Tosite Sigure with the mega popular series called Tokyo Ghoul. the band's frontman preformed the opening theme song(Unravel) for the first season of the anime then continued to release more music after that. This was how I was introduced to Ling Tosite Sigure but I won't sit here like I know everything about this band. They have had a whole successful career in Japan before I even knew who they were. The anime PsycoPass was what really brought the band to fame, earning them their first number one on the Oricon Chart back in the early 2000s. Their popularity has still managed to maintain it's self as their new album titled #5 hit the fifth spot on the charts. It might be because TK has still remained active even though the band was on hiatus.

   I don't have ton to say about #5. You as the listener will either like the album or you won't. The album doesn't seem  too different from the music they did before they took a break. TK's producer influence is still if their music. Made very apparent by how scrambled together the production of each track is. Guitar composition goes wild and all over the place while the keyboards play haunting background melodies to make the whole sound sync. Ling is a band that sounds haunting no matter what they sing about. Their lyrics are mostly about love but it's a love that a person is desperate to keep protected. Their lyrics are really emotional which is one of the things I enjoy about Ling Tosite Sigure. Also, on top of the fact that they are a band that created success for themselves by making music that no other band could copy.

   The vocals are a mixture of soft singing, screams, and two voice harmonies. I don't consider TK a traditional singer that you would be used to hearing on the radio but his high vocal range is the core of what makes Ling's songs sound so dark. Addition of a female vocalist adds a certain charm to their music because it feels like both singers are battling each other to stay on top of the instrumental.


   Ling Tosite Sigure will not be a piping cup of hot tea for everyone. I'll admit that I don't care for every release that TK has put out but he does get it right from time to time. Check them out though if you're a J-rock fan.

O.WHEN(오왠) - When It Loves Album Thoughts(K-indie)

Track List:
01. Well I Say
02. 처음이니까
03. 예쁘잖아
04. Dream
05. Fall In Love (Remastered)
06. 없네 (Remastered)

   I literally found out about this singer names O.WHEN yesterday but we are just going to pretend like I've been a fan of his since his first release. This is our little secret, alright? You're totally not going to keep your promise are you? I know that you must be clicking off this page right now without a second though. Don't worry, O.WHEN won't miss you…. Or maybe he will considering the lyrics he writes for his songs. The guy has been a around for three or four years and he is just now starting to pick up speed in the popularity department. His newest EP is titled When It Loves.

   O.WHEN came from an acoustic guitar background as you might be able to tell by listening to his older music. When I Began is his album from three years ago when not a huge group of people knew who he was. He was playing venues on the streets of South Korea with a burning passion to gain many listeners with his music. When It Loves comes as an album that showcases O.WHEN still trying to garner in more listeners. Only his music has took a new direction in production. While some songs on the album remind long time fans of O.WHEN from three years ago, the tracks have slowly been chipping away at the essence that made him charming. That being him and just his guitar. Its very noticeable on this release that him and producers are attempting to make him have a more mainstream appeal. I'm not hating on him trying to get more people to buy his album which means a bigger paycheck however, its also really easy to become a cardboard copy of so many other male singers in Korean music. I see him sliding down that Korean drama OST soundtrack playground slide. Good choice for making some quick money. We will have problems though when all your music starts sounding like you're singing for K drama soundtracks all the time. There's enough singers that have gone down that route. Roy Kim made an excellent first album but has yet to release any music to top his first album. I love Kim too. He can't get away from sounding like one of those young singers that was invited to sing at the nursing home because his grandma invited him there to sing for everyone. Please don't go down that same road with Roy….. When It Loves also takes away the raw guitar sound replacing it with pop beats and Jazz elements that are way overplayed in Korea. Yoo Seung Yoon already beat him to the Jazz acoustic style and it worked for him. I don't need to see this territory revisited in another artist's music. Not unless your bring something new to the table which O.WHEN did not. I wish he would add the guitar and piano back into his music again. Independent artist named Moon Moon was who led me to O.WHEN. He and Moon Moon are very different in the way they create music. Moon Moon still has a refreshing vibe to his sound. O.WHEN was grasping this concept as well until this album unfortunately.

   I'm not too sure if O.WHEN spent time aboard or just studied English really hard but he uses a lot of English in the choruses of his songs. It's English that jives along with it's Korean counterpart. Then on top of that, the guy has a raspy quality to his vocals that adds an emotional depth to his lyrics about longing for love. His voice can go up into a very pretty vibrato too. He uses it too much in my opinion. I would like to hear him sing in his low voice more. Girls like vibrato though.

   I really like the song, 처음이니까 plus the remastered tracks so that saved the album for me. I'll be on the look out for future music from O.WHEN. He's not my favorite indie singer…. Maybe three years ago he would have made my list. The him of three years ago appeals to me more as a listener.

SCANDAL(スキャンダル) - HONEY Album Thoughts(J-rock/pop)

   The four piece feminine powerhouse is back with a brand new album called Honey(I always think about the song called Honey by Otsuka Ai.). These girls….. No scratch that. These women have been in the Japanese music scene since they were young. They were selling out shows, modeling, and, hosting all while being in high school. After completing high school, SCANDAL show no plans of stopping their musical activities. Their look changed to show an all new mature side of the band and a new sound. SCANDAL has grown greatly in popularity over the years. Most of their albums hit within the top ten on the Oricon Charts and they have a huge following in Taiwan.

01 Platform Syndrome
02 Over
03 Take Me Out
04 Oh! No!
05 Midnight City
06 Short Short
07 窓を開けたら
08 ふたり
09 Electric Girl
10 恋するユニバース

    Honey sets the tone for the girls's comeback with a strong list of tracks. I haven't been keeping up with Scandal's single releases so most of the songs are a first time experience for me. Their last album  showed the girls trying to go the mainstream pop road which didn't hurt the band's music too much to me. They know how to make pop work for their music. Some musical artists go pop only for it to destroy the music foundation that they created well already. Honey slides in a few pop numbers too but this album takes a step back to remind all of use that the women of Scandal still rock hard when they choose to. I'm one of those fans that doesn't jump on every release because the band has songs that could be classified as a hit or miss. You win some then lose some when listening to them. Whats great about Honey is that there's more winning tracks than losing ones. All thanks to the rock n roll juice that was pumped into tracks such as Over or the motion driven Take me out. The album takes it's hand at mixing pop and rock together for some jumpy dance numbers that don't bring down the album at all. I believe this is because pop rock is the girl's sound. They've been in high school so they know what type of songs along with lyrical content will be a big hit with the Japan's youth. I was a bit surprised how tracks like Electric Girl felt solid even though it's a track that uses a generic mainstream pop formula. Not all the tracks are my style but Honey shows the band's desire to be around for awhile. Maybe they will go down in history like PUFFY. You never know……

   I could stand the second singer's voice a bit more this time. I might have just gotten so used to her voice that it doesn't matter anymore. I enjoy Scandal's vocals overall though….. However, some of the vocals ruined certain songs on the album to me. So damned high pitched...

   Honey proved it's point to me: Scandal is still here to stay. I would like to see them continue to experiment with their sound. I'm going to scream if they ever try adding rap in their music.

Incensed Taiwanese Novel Thoughts

 

ED LIN

    I'm still that black guy that supports east asian literature written by asian authors. Kinda of in the same way that I recently started to support projects created by my own race(African Americans) even more recently. Minorities are people that need to be celebrated more in American culture. That can be hard when we live in a world that still has little problems with diversity. As racial issues seem to continue to be coming up on the horizon of our immediate future, I continue to learn more about East Asian culture as a black man through books and my love for the cultures. So I decided to pick up two books by Ed Lin in a Barnes and Nobles one late weekend evening. I don't know too much about mister Lin but his books's storylines felt like something I would read. He's written a bunch of other books that I never knew about. The two books I purchased were Ghost Month and Incensed. Both books are apart of the Taipei night market series but somehow I chose to read Incensed before Ghost Month and Incensed is the second book. Oh Well. You guys will be getting posts about this series backwards. Just a forewarning…..

  A girl is to be kept away from her boyfriend because her gang leader father doesn't approve of his Indonesian ancestry. She is then sent to live with her cousin who runs a might market stand.

   Ed Lin really truly took the time in this book to set the stage for the places known as China and Taiwan. I felt that by reading this novel, I was being given a cultural lesson while also learning more about the main story that I came for. Lin must have felt like people who weren't asian might pick up a copy of his book so he wastes no time explaining the ins and outs of Chinese culture. One of the biggest things that I learned from the pages of Incensed was how Taiwan isn't considered a part of China. Many different books I have read in the past informed me about the divide between the so called island and China. I just didn't think that the situation was that bad. I'm also aware from Mandopop and C-pop that mainland Chinese vs. Mandarin Chinese are not the same language(This blog is full of posts about Chinese music so readers should know whats up by now.). Most non asian Americans see Taiwan and China as the same place. I've thought like this in the past too sadly. Readers also learn a ton about Taiwanese religious customs that tell information of different Gods along with the temples locals go to in order worship them. A readers planing a trip to Taiwan might start feeling superstitious after all the references to punishment for not bringing offerings to a certain temple. Lin's writing does well conveying all of this information to the reader on top of detailed descriptions about the night market. I could actually see the night market in front of me as I flipped through the pages of Incensed. The smell of the food that was cooking at the stands and the people moving around the night market became a normal picture to me in a second hand after image created from the text of this book. There might be too much of a tourist experience in this book for me in fact. I originally come for a kidnap mystery dealing with a Taiwanese night market. However, I didn't expect to get a WHOLE lesson in the cultural background of Taiwan. Incensed takes a huge amount of time talking about cultural traits and a family associated with gangs that takes half the book to cover. Actions of kidnaping then being on the run doesn't come into play until the latter chapters of the book which wasn't what I came for. I would have loved Incensed a lot more if there had been an good balance of cultural information and the flow of the story. Lin could have even put cultural references in while the action of the story was taking place. My thoughts kept thinking, "when is something going to happen to the girl?". It seemed to take forever for the conflict to pick up or maybe I missed something? I believe this whole book was an excuse for Lin to teach readers about Taiwan/Chinese culture. I'm not mad at him either since I did learned a lot more than what I already knew. That doesn't excuse the fact that I felt a bit cheated out of the storyline I was interested in though.

I WANT TO TRY MOON CAKE! 

   I was interested in the certain viewpoints of the main character named Jing-nan. His character was on the borderline of being thinking like an American but then also thinking like a native Taiwanese person. He was born in Taiwan but studied in the states so he could speak English fluently. Sometimes during the book, he looks at situations in the same manner that a foreigner or an American would look at aspects of Taiwanese culture. These instances reminded me of South Korea and when a Korean student goes to study abroad. Their mind is no longer technically a Korean mind because that person has gotten the chance to experience the world outside of Korea. This causes you to question some of the customs of your own culture as well. Jing-nan had these same characteristics. I enjoyed other topics touched on by the characters but I won't address them here as I think doing so would spoil the book.


   Incensed isn't a book that I would recommend to those looking for a quick mystery thriller. Instead I would give this book to those who want to learn a bit about Taiwan because Incensed spends more time highlighting this aspect. This and family relations combined together. I'll be reading Ghost month next.

The Legend of the Naga Pearls(鲛珠传) Chinese Film Thoughts(2017)

    Legend of the Naga Pearls is another film that I happened to catch my eye in the store. The synopsis reminded me of the film, League of Gods a little bit but I didn't buy the film the first time I saw it on the shelf. Instead I went to watch the trailer that then reminded me even more of League of Gods so I went back to the store to buy a copy. The film was directed by Yang Lei, and the script was written by Tan Cheung. Darren Wang, Zhang Tian'ai, Simon Yam, Sheng Guansen, and Wang Xun make up the cast of the film.

    A thief gets caught up in a battle over magical pearls that can shift the tides in a war between humans and winged people who ruled the land long ago.

    There's not much coming from my thoughts in this post. Online many movie review sites are quick to give films like these three stars or a low rating. League of Gods to me, was a solid film that kept me engaged. This is why I don't consider my posts film 'reviews".  I accepted Naga Pearls in the same regards as League of Gods. Both are fantasy inspired pieces of work respectfully. The only difference is that League of Gods was a bit more invested in trying to woo it's viewers with special effects than Naga Pearls. What really fails the film is its methods getting to the peak conflict of the plot then coming down off that conflict in a rushed sort of way. Building up to the main conflict is a fun watching experience. The plot was set up solid enough for the film to stay stable. However, The film stays too meek and careful in showing all that the full product could be(AKA didn't have the funds). Some of the events that happened where a bit on the cheesy side to me. Especially if we count the final battle with the scene that happened after that. It just didn't feel like enough to send the film over into the territory of being a film that I could write home to mom about. The film's conclusion had me feeling a bit cheated as well. A big opening was created in the film's ending to leave room for a second film. Who knows if a second film will actually happen but let's hope that the second installment comes a bit harder with flashy battles. Delete some of those mediocre scenes also while your at it producers. That ending to the final battle had me saying, "THAT'S IT?!…. WELL DAMN.".

  Naga Pearl's special effects alone cause the film to be very attractive looking. Producers of the film made sure to focus on the little fine details of everything. Problem was that there needed to be a bit more detailed special effects in the action parts of the film. The effects actually look better than League of Gods to the point that I would go as far as to put them on the same playing field as some of the special effects created in Hollywood. I was saying to myself all throughout the film that Taiwan is really stepping up their game with film production. League of Gods was a step in a good direction appearance wise but Naga Pearls took things a step father in my opinion.

   All the actors and actresses took on their roles in a good fashion. I had no problems with any of the acting. The main character(two characters) got on my nerves a bit though. The character set up reminded me of a party of characters in an Japanese RPG game. Some of the character's are the jokesters while other are serious or full of positive vibes. Our leading guy looks like that donkey that was on Shrek when he smiles. On top that, his cocky personality grated on my nerves all through the film. I learned to love/hate him in the end since he was kind of funny. We get two jokester characters along with a serious character. They all have deep seeded issues that stem from their pasts. It's funny that all the issues they have come to meet them at their door step because their problems were caused by the same villain.

   The Legend of the Naga Pearls almost made it into being called good film. If it wasn't for the plot tip toeing around the film's development to be much greater. It's not a half bad film if you're watching it without having high standards.
 

Gintama(銀魂) Japanese Film Thoughts(2017)

    I'm familiar with Gintama(AKA Silver Light) the manga. I read about maybe one or two chapters of volume one before I lost interest and tossed it away. The manga must have been somewhat popular in Japan if an anime was made followed by a live action film. A cast of Oguri Shun, Suda Masaki, Okada Masaki, and Yoshizawa Ryo was enough for my ears to become perked up by the mention of this film(What the hell am I, A damn cat!?). Fukuda Yuichi directed the film since he was the original creator of the manga while Sorachi Hideaki wrote the script for the film. Many Japanese new outlets called the film the next biggest success in live action movie history since Attack on Titan as the film had record breaking numbers during it's first week release in Japan. Chinese audiences also took very well to the film during it's release in China.

   A man known as the world's dumbest samurai carries around a sword in a world that is ruled by aliens that banned all use of swords. In this world, he and his friends take on odd jobs assigned to them by the city folk. Two jobs soon come their way that turns their easy going lives upside down.



   This whole film is similar to a spoof of another actual film. Spoof is a term that is used to define a work that is based off another work but makes fun of that work.  If you didn't know that this film was a comedy, Gintama reminds you in the opening of the film before you can go any farther. It's really one of the wackiest films to come out of Japan in 2017. I don't remember how funny the manga was(it's been awhile since I picked up the manga.) but the film plays a fine line between being hilarious and being a samurai action epic. There's many times when you can't take the seriousness of certain events seriously because the film loves to make all the characters fall flat on their faces so much. The plot does try it's hand at different dramatics then does find a stable ground to function these two genres together. This was really thanks to the flashy action sequences that get viewers sitting up in their seat to pay more attention to what's going on. Then there's the key components of a solid background story for the characters and the world that they inhabit. I found myself wanting to learn more about the world inside the story of Gintama only because the plot sets up the story in a parallel world that's feudal day Japan who uses modern day technology surprisingly. The comedy presented in the film is actually funny for those who get the jokes too. The film's script uses a lot of references to other manga. Even having the characters mention that they knew that they were in a live action adaptation of a manga[INSERT ME LAUGHING]. Everything felt tied in together tight by the time the film got to it's conclusion. The action coexists with the laughing evenly for a high energy film that doesn't show signs of slowing down. I caught that shade that was thrown at Attack on Titan's live action adaption toward the beginning of this film…. They tried it and I caught it. I don't miss the art of throwing shade baby!

   I wasn't completely familiar with the character Gintoki and even I knew that Shun was meant to play this role. His actions, mannerisms, all of his being just felt right for the role. He's pretty much the reason I decided to watch this film. The goofy activities of Gintoki's daily life was refreshing to watch. He's a very untraditional character that's seen by others in negative and positive lights. Shun's smile while he was in character gets me laughing every time I see it. Suda Masaki had to have woke up in character because this guy can play comedic characters in his sleep. I've seen him play jokesters so much in other productions that I wasn't too excited to see him here once I found out the film was kind of a comedy. Must be hard acting with a big white dog that you can't see until the film was finished though. The rest of the cast do their part in making this film be received well too. I was happy to see that the director gave so many up and coming actors and actresses chances to be apart of  this film. It was nice to see Nanao and Yoshizawa Ryo get parts that gave them more screen time unlike their other roles. Okada Masaki was just in the film Nanimono(Somebody) before getting a role in this film which is a somewhat bigger role so I was happy for him too. All the characters had wacky qualities except for maybe one of two of them. They all need to find some clown suits and join the damn circus.

    Filming on location was different sets made by the crew. Can someone tell me why the special effects when a person would hit another person then they would fly back, looked like the Kamehameha move that Goku did from Dragon Ball Z? That was the funnest thing ever to me. Every time I saw that effect, I wanted to scream, KAMEHAMEHA!!!!! The fighting sequences were produced well for the most part. Some of the costumes for the aliens did look sort of cheap…… That lion head costume wasn't cutting it man……

  Gintama was a hot mess of a film….. in a good way. This film turned disfunction into satisfaction with it's funny flare and action packed storyline. While I don't think this film is a masterpiece, I do believe that it's charm lies in the qualities that would normally make you not like a film. I'll be waiting  for a part 2 to come out sometime this year.

UNTIL NEXT TIME FOLKS!

Alien Huang(黄鸿升) - Human Album Thoughts(Mandopop/Rock)

01 感觉对了 
02 英雄登出 
03 我是歌手 
04 北风和太阳 
05 喵女友
06 人类 
07 北风和太阳 (伴奏)
08 感觉对了 (伴奏)
09 人类 (伴奏)

 


    I'm a bit late making a post about this guy and his new album too. Mostly because I was super late finding out that he had released something new. Alien Huang is a man in Taiwan that does pretty much everything there is to do in the entertainment industry over there. There's not much use going into detail about what he does since anything that has to do with entrainment, has him right up in your face. I was introduced to him through his music first then stumbled upon him acting later on. Human is his newest album right after I though that he had settled down away from music. I guess he refuses to be quiet.

   I've witnessed Alien transform over the past decade. My favorite musical style that comes from him is rock which shouldn't be too much of a surprise if you read my posts. Well, ok in his case I'll say "pop rock" for the readers that pride themselves on separating what is heavy hard rock and soft rock. Anyway, he's changed his style over the years as he suddenly went from rock to pop constantly. Only to end up mixing the two musical styles in some cases. I've gotten a bit tired of the sugary pop anthems from him so I took a long break from his music. Human had me cautious to listen to it's contents based solely on the fact that I felt like Alien hadn't grown with my changing musical tastes over time. Surprisingly though, Human feels like a stripped down version of a mature Alien. His theme for the album this time deals with rock as a underline core sound while experimenting with different instruments on the service of this sound. Many of the tracks sound normal to me. He doesn't try to pull out any random out of the hat tricks on listeners. I did however notice the slick ease in music production when adding new elements of other music such as Jazz and Dance pop. Human's producers were very careful not to disturb the core foundation of rock to be found on Human but they also weren't afraid to shake up that flavor by adding saxophones and electric keyboards to tracks. A perfect match for the mature angle in which his lyrics seem to approach the topic of love now.

   Alien was trying to growl during one of the tracks. He will be doing screamo in no time. Just don't scare your female fanbase too much though. I'm not even sure how popular he still is in Taiwan…. I'm actually feeling my age right now…… Yeah…. Thanks Alien…… Really.

   Human will please the fans that liked his older albums. He did just enough to be relevant on my music playlist. Let's hope that me, Alien, and whoever reads this post has a prosperous new year. MUCH LOVE EVERYONE!