AnimeSuki Forums

Yubikiri · 2006-01-06, 06:52

My current favourites are:

Younha - Yubikiri 'XD', aiaigasa, my lover, omoide nekinai
YUI - Tokyo, Tomorrow's way, Feel my soul, Life
Ai Otsuka - Cherish, Sensu, 5:09am
Exile - Choo Choo train, song for you
Mink - One,wish
Yui Makino - Amrita
Nami Tamaki - Promised Land, real dream, naked, Shining star
SAYAKA - Garden, eversince, mermaid
Rie Fu - 2cm, decay, beautiful words

give it a try~~

Miacis · 2006-01-06, 07:34

Not to knock anime music, but many OP and ED's of anime aren't really representative of Japan's music scene. Most of them are sung by pop idol girls, who are overly synthesized and not very talented to begin with. If any of you watch Japanese drama's, the OP and ED's from those are a little better (Not by much though.) and a lot more representative of Japanese music. (I know BuriGuri got their break making a jdorama song, and more recently Sambomaster made a popular song for the drama Densha Otoko.)

Some recommendations if you want to get into Japanese music are The Brilliant Green, Do As Infinity, Gackt, L'Arc~en~Ciel, Tokyo Jihen, B'z and Mr. Children. They're all pretty tame listening. However, Brilliant Green (BuriGuri), and DAI broke up so they're no longer making music. I'm particularly biased towards L'Arc~en~Ciel, since Tetsu's bass is orgasmic and Hyde makes millions of Japanese girls melt (and some guys as well I'd imagine). Gackt is nice, but don't expect a whole lot of depth from his lyrics. Tokyo Jihen is spearheaded by Shiina Ringo (Vocals, 2nd Guitar), and made of exceptionally talented people. The bassist and keyboardist left Tokyo Jihen recently though. I'd imagine Ringo would have no trouble finding replacements though. (I think the band members in Tokyo Jihen were the members that played the music for Ringo's last solo album, Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana. You should at all costs check out that album too. Even at the cost of a limb.)

If you're into more easy listening, then you may want to try Garnet Crow, Love Psychedelico, or Every Little Thing. If you want something more 'urban' try out m-flo (Usually labeled as m-flo loves insert any popular Japanese pop artist here , or Dragon Ash's later albums.

If you want something harder, you could try The Back Horn or Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. GO! GO! 7188 and Bump of Chicken not only have cool names, but great music as well.

Some more punkish stuff would be Judy and Mary and Blankey Jet City. Both are broken up though. I really don't know any current punkish sounding Japanese groups except for Ellegarden, who are just ho-hum IMO.

Schwarz Stein is kind of trance and electronic sounding, and I really like their last album, 'Artificial Hallucination'. I don't know about their other stuff though.

Other notables are X Japan, Luna Sea, and Dir en Grey. All 3 are ass-spankingly orgasmic, but it's kind of hard to pidgeonhole them as they make many different types of songs. (Fast rock songs, medium tempo, ballads, etc.) X and Luna Sea are older (X is late 80's to 90's, Luna Sea is 90's) bands that have broken up though.

I'm told (a lot) that GLAY is quite good, but IMO they sound lame mostly due to their bassist and vocalist. They also tend to keep around extra band mates to appease their female audience.

I liked Ayumi Hamasaki's one album. You know, the one that she made 2398328 other remix songs from. My theory is that the more she has her eyes surgically enlarged, the more actual talent she loses. Just a theory.

Bolded = My personal favorites. (They're all my favorites, but these in particular. :x)

Edit: Oops, I forgot Misia. Check her out if you want to hear a ridiculously powerful female voice. She sings a lot of ballads to my knowledge. Great example would be her single 'Everything'.

D3athScythe · 2006-01-06, 09:04

My collection of japanese songs are very less, just started listening to them =P
Thanks to all of you who posted different singers/bands =O
Now I can actually have a jap playlist! =)

PhoenixIce · 2006-01-08, 14:09

I have a pretty big collection of music, especially from anime hehe
My recent favourites are:

Hishoku no Sora by Kawada Mami
Aozora no Namida by Hitomi Takahashi
Houki Boushi by Younha
Thank You!! by HOME MADE KAZOKU
Happy People by Skoop on Somebody
*~Asterisk by Orange Range

These are some of the songs i like

kandidasama · 2006-01-08, 14:40

Aozora (AIR) is very good ^^

Squid · 2006-01-09, 02:09

I've been listening to a lot of alternative Japanese music at the moment. Things like Boredoms, Yuki Kaijura (Madlax OST), ... I don't really like J-Pop although most of the music seems to fit Anime very well.

Mohan · 2006-01-12, 10:50

Utada Hikaru
Pierrot
Glay
L'Arc~en~Ciel
X-Japan
Asian Dub Fundation
Porno Graffitti
Luna Sea

Hiko Seijuro · 2006-01-12, 11:14

id also recommend:

-utada hikaru
-x-japan
-ayumi hamasaki
-chrno crusade ost (x2)
-Nobuo Uematsu (all his music)
-all final fantasy music
-all shenmue music
-faye wong (chinese, great too

<<~Dark~>> · 2006-01-14, 06:49

The first anime I saw was My HiME and personally I think it has the best soundtrack. I LOVE Kimi Ga Sora Datta, Shining Day and It's Only The Fairytale. I would also recommend Utada Hikaru - I could listen to Simple And Clean and never get tired off it.

Celes__ · 2006-01-14, 11:19

For people who are interested in amazing voices, I recommend:

Misia
Dreams Come True
Mika Nakashima
Ayaka Hirahara

well, there are a lot more, but these are good examples specially the first 2 ones. They are also examples of great music.

shiro83 · 2006-01-14, 12:39

If you are interested in heavy upbeat music, try I've sound

Some favorites:
Vacillate by Kawada Mami
Velocity of Sound by Momo
Kaze to Kimi wo Daite by Kawada Mami
Hishoku no Sora by Kawada Mami

Vexx · 2006-03-02, 02:56

In the non-anime bracket... I'd recommend Ua .... bluesy stuff with a mess of avant-garde jazz thrown in. I like the experimental stuff and her beatnick coffeehouse type stuff.

In easier listening... a lot of the background music used in Honey & Clover appealed to me (Spitz, etc) -- it was popular music rather than anime generated soundtrack.

Its really hard to find solid rock work..... too many groups seem to think anytime a girl sings you cut to piano from the electric guitar. KOTOKO and Yuria do some decent stuff.... Lia has a great voice but completely wastes it on "nightclub disco" brainrot music aka Britney.

ihitterdal · 2006-03-20, 19:09

Buy the Namiki Michi EP by Sakura Nadare. It's pure J-alt.

=KatanaViolet= · 2006-03-20, 22:08

I don't know if these have been mentioned, because I'm lazy and I don't feel like reading everything....

Okina Reika- Tsuki no Curse
angela- Seperation
- Shangri-La
L'Arc~en~Ciel- Driver's High
- Ready Steady Go
- Dive to Blue
Porno Graffiti- Hitori no Yoru
- Agehacho
Glay- Scream
Gackt- Neuromancer
Asian Kung Fu Generation- Rewrite
TM Revolution (anything)

mmm yea.. thhat should do for now

Vexx · 2006-03-23, 23:29

It really depends on what kind of music you like to listen to....

The AIR OST has about 50% decent stuff if you like piano and vocals.

KOTOKO has some decent trance (mixed in with fluffier pop) and some decent blues pop. Her -haze- album and the mini album with DuWadidid ....

UA has some really good stuff (avant garde, blues, traditional, experimental)

Its hard to find solid *rock* stuff .... along the lines of "Maze of the Dark" off of the Evangeline (Negima) character CD.

Some of the background music of Honey & Clover led me to Spitz and Shigeo (male folk rock singers)...

I tripped over Hinoi Team (cute and requires little thinking - Europop (happy simple stuff))

I tend to be really disappointed in the visual kei bands..... really visually stunning (duh) but pretty lame soft pop noises.

Really, you just have to kind of hunt and peck. What I like may suck to other people and vice versa. I'm definitely going to check out any non-anime stuff anyone mentions here if it intrigues me.

edit: I see I answered this twice... oh well, this is v 2.0. Looks like I'll be hunting up L'Arc~en~Ciel and Gackt and perhaps Misia

edit2: I see some anonymous redmarked my reputation without comment for this post --- its kind of hard to improve if ya don't comment

Cythraul · 2006-03-24, 08:41

I've been a bit hesitant about replying to this thread as it seems my taste in music is somewhat different from that of the other posters... anyway, I'll start with the heavier stuff and work my way towards more mainstream bands.

One of the few truly original and innovative Japanese metal bands, and thus one of my very favourites, is Sigh. I particularly like Hail Horror Hail and Imaginary Soundscape albums, though the older stuff is pretty good too.

Church of Misery is an excellent old school doom metal band. Not very original, of course, but their songwriting is good enough that I'm willing to overlook that. Of the other "traditional" metal bands, Loudness and Sabbat both deserve a mention, if only for their sheer longevity. The bands play hard rock/heavy metal and trash metal, respectively. Not exactly groundbreaking material, but worth a listen or two if you're into that.

I'm not much into emocore as a genre, but Envy is a decent band and just the right cure for too much sugary pop tunes.

Tyrant is basically a Dimmu Borgir clone ("black metal" with lots of synths for those who don't know) and there are better bands in this genre in Europe, but I still listen to their Grimoires every now and then.

Of visual kei bands, I prefer the heavier bands (who'd have guessed...). D'espairsRay's Coll:set and Vidoll's Bijinkei often find their way into my cd player. Alice Nine and Kaggra, are both very good too (though I'd hard pressed to call Kaggra' "heavy").

Blood is an ok hard rock band. Not the visual kei band from Osaka, the one with Shinichiro Suzuki. I only have the album Noises, if anyone knows where to buy the others (short of ordering directly from the band), please let me know.

Moving to the softer stuff, Baroque is a good pop-rock band whose (sadly only) full length album, Sug Life hardly left my cd player last summer. And I guess I'll mention High and Mighty Color here as well...

And finally, since I believe it hasn't yet been mentioned in this thread, the best Japanese band ever and just the right thing for when you've listened to too much Envy; Under17.

Aoi_chan · 2006-03-24, 11:40

The J-music I listen to is varied, but it's mostly rock stuff. However, i do listen to some j-pop stuff as well. For J-rock I higly recommend the following:

Luna Sea: I remember the first time I heard a Luna Sea song and I was amazed at how good the music was. Even though I wasn't too keen on Ryuichi's vocals at first I soon came to love them. I recommend these songs: Precious, Rosier, Loveless, Wish, Gravity, Be in agony, Jesus, love song, In Silence, Storm, Sweetest Coma Again.

Dir en grey: I realize that their insanely popular these days, but I still love em', and they'll always be special to me because they were one of my first jrock bands. I love alot of their older stuff, but I still dig alot of the new stuff too. I recommend these songs: Garden, Kasumi, New Age Culture, Amber, Gyakujo Tannou Keloid Milk, Itoshi ha fuhai ni tsuki, Kodou, dead tree, hydra, umbrella, Jessica, 304 goshitsu hakushi no sakura, Myaku, Zakuro, 24Ko Cylinder, [KR] Cube, Ash, Yokan, Yurameki, IIID Empire, Sajou no uta, and many many more...you have to listen to almost their whole discography to appreciate how amazing and diverse this band is.

X-Japan: Amazing musicians, I don't think theres enough that can be said about these guys. I recommend the following songs: Dahilia, Endless Rain, Forever love, Celebration, Kurenai, Blue Blood, Art of life.

Gazette: I just got into these guys recently and I love their sound! They have sort of a punk influenced sound that I never get tired of. I recommend these songs: Cassis, Sumire, no. 666, Mad Marble Hell Vision, Ruder, Anything from the Disorder album, Maggots, Nausea & Shudder, Relia, Best Friends.

Art-School: I bought their "Requim for Innocence" album and I love their style! I recommend: Hane, Chole, Charolette, Boy meets girl, Diva, Scarlet, Butterfly.

OutPhase · 2006-03-24, 12:19

Hmmm.... this thread lacks more mentioning as of how awesome m-flo is.

If you like songs that sound like somebody is violently taking away the virginity of a synthesizer, I'd highly recommend Slake for the musically impaired. Hopefully if you buy enough of his albums, he'll have so much money that he'll stay the hell out of the Bemani series and live off his sales until he's a 73 year-old man.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yubikiri

Exile - Choo Choo train

Slake make a remix for that song. It's called Choo Choo Train (dnb mix).

retrovision · 2006-03-24, 16:17

Quote:

Not to knock anime music, but many OP and ED's of anime aren't really representative of Japan's music scene

co-sign.

Quote:

Hmmm.... this thread lacks more mentioning as of how awesome m-flo is.

m-flo does have that unique sound but in my opinion, m-flo was great before they started the "loves" series after lisa left. i don't think lisa can be replaced at all. hearing "tripod baby" at the end of the "beat space nine" album is like a breath of fresh air from all the other stuff on that album haha. also, their "tour 2001 expo expo" concert album from zepp tokyo > anything on astromantic, charm school, beat space nine and dope space nine. i'd take "orbit-3", "prism", "come again", "chronopsychology", "dispatch", "hands", "how you like me now - edwards radio flow remix", "come back to me", "been so long" & "love or truth" over any of the "loves" songs. not saying i completely dislike all the recent m-flo stuff as they have pulled off some great collabos with ugly duckling (which is my favorite), crystal kay, boa, sowelu, melody., sowelu, hinouchi emi...

i like a lot of japanese hip-hop, r&b and some pop but here are my recommendations:

r&b
- aco
- soul lovers
- soulhead
- lisa (of m-flo)
- double (especially when sachiko was alive R.I.P.)
- juju
- bird
- asuka
- may
- momoe shimano
- mahya
- crystal kay
- namie amuro
- utada hikaru (although pop, i like her ballads)

hip-hop
- dj tonk
- dj krush
- dj hasebe
- nujabes
- mo wax
- muro
- q-ill
- rhymester
- tsutchie

Love Yuui · 2006-03-26, 09:28

My recommendation?

Artist: Yellow Monkey
Album: Punch Drunkard (1998)

Specifically the track, "Gorgeous."

Fabulous beat, and decisive ending.

2006-01-06, 07:34	Link #42
Miacis Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Seattle, USA	Not to knock anime music, but many OP and ED's of anime aren't really representative of Japan's music scene. Most of them are sung by pop idol girls, who are overly synthesized and not very talented to begin with. If any of you watch Japanese drama's, the OP and ED's from those are a little better (Not by much though.) and a lot more representative of Japanese music. (I know BuriGuri got their break making a jdorama song, and more recently Sambomaster made a popular song for the drama Densha Otoko.) Some recommendations if you want to get into Japanese music are The Brilliant Green, Do As Infinity, Gackt, L'Arc~en~Ciel, Tokyo Jihen, B'z and Mr. Children. They're all pretty tame listening. However, Brilliant Green (BuriGuri), and DAI broke up so they're no longer making music. I'm particularly biased towards L'Arc~en~Ciel, since Tetsu's bass is orgasmic and Hyde makes millions of Japanese girls melt (and some guys as well I'd imagine). Gackt is nice, but don't expect a whole lot of depth from his lyrics. Tokyo Jihen is spearheaded by Shiina Ringo (Vocals, 2nd Guitar), and made of exceptionally talented people. The bassist and keyboardist left Tokyo Jihen recently though. I'd imagine Ringo would have no trouble finding replacements though. (I think the band members in Tokyo Jihen were the members that played the music for Ringo's last solo album, Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana. You should at all costs check out that album too. Even at the cost of a limb.) If you're into more easy listening, then you may want to try Garnet Crow, Love Psychedelico, or Every Little Thing. If you want something more 'urban' try out m-flo (Usually labeled as m-flo loves insert any popular Japanese pop artist here , or Dragon Ash's later albums. If you want something harder, you could try The Back Horn or Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. GO! GO! 7188 and Bump of Chicken not only have cool names, but great music as well. Some more punkish stuff would be Judy and Mary and Blankey Jet City. Both are broken up though. I really don't know any current punkish sounding Japanese groups except for Ellegarden, who are just ho-hum IMO. Schwarz Stein is kind of trance and electronic sounding, and I really like their last album, 'Artificial Hallucination'. I don't know about their other stuff though. Other notables are X Japan, Luna Sea, and Dir en Grey. All 3 are ass-spankingly orgasmic, but it's kind of hard to pidgeonhole them as they make many different types of songs. (Fast rock songs, medium tempo, ballads, etc.) X and Luna Sea are older (X is late 80's to 90's, Luna Sea is 90's) bands that have broken up though. I'm told (a lot) that GLAY is quite good, but IMO they sound lame mostly due to their bassist and vocalist. They also tend to keep around extra band mates to appease their female audience. I liked Ayumi Hamasaki's one album. You know, the one that she made 2398328 other remix songs from. My theory is that the more she has her eyes surgically enlarged, the more actual talent she loses. Just a theory. Bolded = My personal favorites. (They're all my favorites, but these in particular. :x) Edit: Oops, I forgot Misia. Check her out if you want to hear a ridiculously powerful female voice. She sings a lot of ballads to my knowledge. Great example would be her single 'Everything'. Last edited by Miacis; 2006-01-06 at 07:55.

2006-03-02, 02:56	Link #52
Vexx Obey the Darkly Cute ... Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ... Age: 66	In the non-anime bracket... I'd recommend Ua .... bluesy stuff with a mess of avant-garde jazz thrown in. I like the experimental stuff and her beatnick coffeehouse type stuff. In easier listening... a lot of the background music used in Honey & Clover appealed to me (Spitz, etc) -- it was popular music rather than anime generated soundtrack. Its really hard to find solid rock work..... too many groups seem to think anytime a girl sings you cut to piano from the electric guitar. KOTOKO and Yuria do some decent stuff.... Lia has a great voice but completely wastes it on "nightclub disco" brainrot music aka Britney. __________________ "It Really IS Rocket Science", Novel series rough drafts; vol. 1 thru vol. 3 complete Volume 4 in work, Visit the thread for short stories!

2006-03-23, 23:29	Link #55
Vexx Obey the Darkly Cute ... Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ... Age: 66	It really depends on what kind of music you like to listen to.... The AIR OST has about 50% decent stuff if you like piano and vocals. KOTOKO has some decent trance (mixed in with fluffier pop) and some decent blues pop. Her -haze- album and the mini album with DuWadidid .... UA has some really good stuff (avant garde, blues, traditional, experimental) Its hard to find solid rock stuff .... along the lines of "Maze of the Dark" off of the Evangeline (Negima) character CD. Some of the background music of Honey & Clover led me to Spitz and Shigeo (male folk rock singers)... I tripped over Hinoi Team (cute and requires little thinking - Europop (happy simple stuff)) I tend to be really disappointed in the visual kei bands..... really visually stunning (duh) but pretty lame soft pop noises. Really, you just have to kind of hunt and peck. What I like may suck to other people and vice versa. I'm definitely going to check out any non-anime stuff anyone mentions here if it intrigues me. edit: I see I answered this twice... oh well, this is v 2.0. Looks like I'll be hunting up L'Arc~en~Ciel and Gackt and perhaps Misia edit2: I see some anonymous redmarked my reputation without comment for this post --- its kind of hard to improve if ya don't comment __________________ "It Really IS Rocket Science", Novel series rough drafts; vol. 1 thru vol. 3 complete Volume 4 in work, Visit the thread for short stories! Last edited by Vexx; 2006-03-26 at 03:12.

2006-01-06, 06:52	Link #41
Yubikiri YUI's silent angel Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: 澳洲 Age: 35	My current favourites are: Younha - Yubikiri 'XD', aiaigasa, my lover, omoide nekinai YUI - Tokyo, Tomorrow's way, Feel my soul, Life Ai Otsuka - Cherish, Sensu, 5:09am Exile - Choo Choo train, song for you Mink - One,wish Yui Makino - Amrita Nami Tamaki - Promised Land, real dream, naked, Shining star SAYAKA - Garden, eversince, mermaid Rie Fu - 2cm, decay, beautiful words give it a try~~

2006-01-06, 09:04	Link #43
D3athScythe « Mecha \| Shana » Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Home <3	My collection of japanese songs are very less, just started listening to them =P Thanks to all of you who posted different singers/bands =O Now I can actually have a jap playlist! =)

2006-01-08, 14:09	Link #44
PhoenixIce Hitsugaya Toushirou Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Markam Ontario, Canada Age: 35	I have a pretty big collection of music, especially from anime hehe My recent favourites are: Hishoku no Sora by Kawada Mami Aozora no Namida by Hitomi Takahashi Houki Boushi by Younha Thank You!! by HOME MADE KAZOKU Happy People by Skoop on Somebody *~Asterisk by Orange Range These are some of the songs i like

2006-01-08, 14:40	Link #45
kandidasama Serial mouse killer Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Tokyo	Aozora (AIR) is very good ^^

2006-01-09, 02:09	Link #46
Squid Flame Haze Join Date: Jan 2006	I've been listening to a lot of alternative Japanese music at the moment. Things like Boredoms, Yuki Kaijura (Madlax OST), ... I don't really like J-Pop although most of the music seems to fit Anime very well.

2006-01-12, 10:50	Link #47
Mohan Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: I usually live in Paris (France) but now I'm in Norwich (U.K.) for studies Age: 39	Utada Hikaru Pierrot Glay L'Arc~en~Ciel X-Japan Asian Dub Fundation Porno Graffitti Luna Sea

2006-01-12, 11:14	Link #48
Hiko Seijuro Rurouni Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: london Age: 38	id also recommend: -utada hikaru -x-japan -ayumi hamasaki -chrno crusade ost (x2) -Nobuo Uematsu (all his music) -all final fantasy music -all shenmue music -faye wong (chinese, great too

2006-01-14, 06:49	Link #49
<<~Dark~>> DNAngel Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Scotland Age: 32	The first anime I saw was My HiME and personally I think it has the best soundtrack. I LOVE Kimi Ga Sora Datta, Shining Day and It's Only The Fairytale. I would also recommend Utada Hikaru - I could listen to Simple And Clean and never get tired off it.

2006-01-14, 11:19	Link #50
Celes__ Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006	For people who are interested in amazing voices, I recommend: Misia Dreams Come True Mika Nakashima Ayaka Hirahara well, there are a lot more, but these are good examples specially the first 2 ones. They are also examples of great music.

2006-01-14, 12:39	Link #51
shiro83 Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006	If you are interested in heavy upbeat music, try I've sound Some favorites: Vacillate by Kawada Mami Velocity of Sound by Momo Kaze to Kimi wo Daite by Kawada Mami Hishoku no Sora by Kawada Mami

2006-03-20, 19:09	Link #53
ihitterdal Twisted person Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Nowhere, KS Age: 30	Buy the Namiki Michi EP by Sakura Nadare. It's pure J-alt.

2006-03-20, 22:08	Link #54
=KatanaViolet= Crazy Burst Angel Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Canada Age: 37	I don't know if these have been mentioned, because I'm lazy and I don't feel like reading everything.... Okina Reika- Tsuki no Curse angela- Seperation - Shangri-La L'Arc~en~Ciel- Driver's High - Ready Steady Go - Dive to Blue Porno Graffiti- Hitori no Yoru - Agehacho Glay- Scream Gackt- Neuromancer Asian Kung Fu Generation- Rewrite TM Revolution (anything) mmm yea.. thhat should do for now

2006-03-24, 08:41	Link #56
Cythraul Member Join Date: Dec 2005	I've been a bit hesitant about replying to this thread as it seems my taste in music is somewhat different from that of the other posters... anyway, I'll start with the heavier stuff and work my way towards more mainstream bands. One of the few truly original and innovative Japanese metal bands, and thus one of my very favourites, is Sigh. I particularly like Hail Horror Hail and Imaginary Soundscape albums, though the older stuff is pretty good too. Church of Misery is an excellent old school doom metal band. Not very original, of course, but their songwriting is good enough that I'm willing to overlook that. Of the other "traditional" metal bands, Loudness and Sabbat both deserve a mention, if only for their sheer longevity. The bands play hard rock/heavy metal and trash metal, respectively. Not exactly groundbreaking material, but worth a listen or two if you're into that. I'm not much into emocore as a genre, but Envy is a decent band and just the right cure for too much sugary pop tunes. Tyrant is basically a Dimmu Borgir clone ("black metal" with lots of synths for those who don't know) and there are better bands in this genre in Europe, but I still listen to their Grimoires every now and then. Of visual kei bands, I prefer the heavier bands (who'd have guessed...). D'espairsRay's Coll:set and Vidoll's Bijinkei often find their way into my cd player. Alice Nine and Kaggra, are both very good too (though I'd hard pressed to call Kaggra' "heavy"). Blood is an ok hard rock band. Not the visual kei band from Osaka, the one with Shinichiro Suzuki. I only have the album Noises, if anyone knows where to buy the others (short of ordering directly from the band), please let me know. Moving to the softer stuff, Baroque is a good pop-rock band whose (sadly only) full length album, Sug Life hardly left my cd player last summer. And I guess I'll mention High and Mighty Color here as well... And finally, since I believe it hasn't yet been mentioned in this thread, the best Japanese band ever and just the right thing for when you've listened to too much Envy; Under17.

2006-03-24, 11:40	Link #57
Aoi_chan ☆ガ♂ル☆ Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Texas	The J-music I listen to is varied, but it's mostly rock stuff. However, i do listen to some j-pop stuff as well. For J-rock I higly recommend the following: Luna Sea: I remember the first time I heard a Luna Sea song and I was amazed at how good the music was. Even though I wasn't too keen on Ryuichi's vocals at first I soon came to love them. I recommend these songs: Precious, Rosier, Loveless, Wish, Gravity, Be in agony, Jesus, love song, In Silence, Storm, Sweetest Coma Again. Dir en grey: I realize that their insanely popular these days, but I still love em', and they'll always be special to me because they were one of my first jrock bands. I love alot of their older stuff, but I still dig alot of the new stuff too. I recommend these songs: Garden, Kasumi, New Age Culture, Amber, Gyakujo Tannou Keloid Milk, Itoshi ha fuhai ni tsuki, Kodou, dead tree, hydra, umbrella, Jessica, 304 goshitsu hakushi no sakura, Myaku, Zakuro, 24Ko Cylinder, [KR] Cube, Ash, Yokan, Yurameki, IIID Empire, Sajou no uta, and many many more...you have to listen to almost their whole discography to appreciate how amazing and diverse this band is. X-Japan: Amazing musicians, I don't think theres enough that can be said about these guys. I recommend the following songs: Dahilia, Endless Rain, Forever love, Celebration, Kurenai, Blue Blood, Art of life. Gazette: I just got into these guys recently and I love their sound! They have sort of a punk influenced sound that I never get tired of. I recommend these songs: Cassis, Sumire, no. 666, Mad Marble Hell Vision, Ruder, Anything from the Disorder album, Maggots, Nausea & Shudder, Relia, Best Friends. Art-School: I bought their "Requim for Innocence" album and I love their style! I recommend: Hane, Chole, Charolette, Boy meets girl, Diva, Scarlet, Butterfly.

2006-03-26, 09:28	Link #60
Love Yuui Creator Divine Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Las Vegas Age: 39	My recommendation? Artist: Yellow Monkey Album: Punch Drunkard (1998) Specifically the track, "Gorgeous." Fabulous beat, and decisive ending.