Jpophelp's Visual Rock Attack: May 2007

Monday, May 28, 2007

Episode 5

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We are offering you an Exclusive 15 Percent Discount through our site jpophelp.com off any Visual Rock Purchases, whether it be cd's, DVD's or Magazines.
Your 15 % off coupon code is "vattack"

Episode 5 Direct Download

Featured Groups:

The group Lareine is made up of Vocalist Kamijo, Guitarist Mayu and Emiru on Bass.
Lareine have been on the VK scene since 1995 when they released their 1st demo single in the 1st band incarnation Laliene.
They changed the band name from Laliene to the current name Lareine in 1996 and was picked up and put on the Applause Records Label in the same year.
Lareine has gone through many member changes since their inception however this has not impacted the way the band truly acts or sounds.
Lareine has always been coined as being a Romantic Visual Kei Group with many of the songs they perform deal with Romance and everything that goes along with that... Kamijo's melodic voice always brings much passion to the lyrics of love found and lost he sings.
Personally i found their 2000 release of Chantons L'amour ~ A Letter from Lillie probably one of the their best, coupled the Mini movie/MTV collection they released in conjunction with the album.
Lareine only recently disbanded with Kamijo & Emiru going on to do new projects. However Lareine has left a rich library of music that spans more than a decade for any new listener to discover.

Featured Album:

Lareine - Imperial Concerto HERE

Luna Sea was a Hard Rock band formed in 1989 and apparently discovered by X-Japan's Guitarist Hide and was signed by yoshiki also of X-Japan to the Indie Label Extasy records in 1991.
The group consisted of Lead Vocalist Ryuichi Kawamura, Guitarists Sugizo & Inoran, Jun on Bass & Shinya on Drums.
Luna Sea did start out as a Visual Kei band however as thier career progressed througout the 90's, they took on more of a casual rocker look. But their musical style has always remained consistant in the Hard/Progressive Rock genre.
Luna Sea gain such popularity by 1996 that they were able to fill Tokyo Dome for their concerts. Luna Sea's popularity in the J-Rock world at that time was only rivaled by X-Japan and remembered as being a premier rock band.
After a total of 7 Studio Albums and two concerts on Dec 26 & 27th of 2000,Luna Sea disbanded leaving a rich catalogue of music for fans to savor.

Featured Album:

Luna Sea - Mother HERE

Song Line-up

Charlotte- Bakamatsu Kokousei
Lareine- Stranger in New Days
Lareine- The Soul Love
Screw- Thirty Revolver
Screw- Nanairo
Phantasmgoria- Never Rebellion
Phantasmgoria- Fairy Time Memory
Luna Sea- Mother
Luna Sea- Loveless

We are giving away a Japanese Import Copy of Miyavi's Tari Rari Tarara CD Single (1st Press) which is long out of print now.

All you have to do is send a E-mail with your name, address & E-mail address to :
mataabunaideka@yahoo.ca and you will be entered into our draw.

The draw is open to anybody in the world and the only stipulation on entering is that you agree to be added to our Visual Rock Mailing list.

The winner will be announced on our Episode 7 broadcast

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Episode 4

Direct Download for Episode 4 HERE
This week's Featured Visual Kei Band is Nightmare.

Formed in 2000, the lineup consists of Yomi on vocals, Sakito and Hitsugi on guitar, Ni~ya on bass/cello, and Ruka on drums.

Nightmare made it to the majors in 2003, which is rather quick in the VK world and was signed to Nippon Crown. Their first major single release was Believe. Nightmare's sound can be described as heavy rock with a strong bassline. Yomi's deep vocals really anchors the band's overall sound. Sometimes they do slower rock songs & ballads, but usually their songs are fast and upbeat.

Nightmare was seen by the fans as a lighter version of Dir En Grey in both sound and in look. Nightmare did give the appearance that they were trying to copy Dir's formula right down to Yomi pretty much duplicating Dir En Grey's Lead vocalist Kyo's trademark look.

But with Nightmare's sound being less intense & more mainstream as far as Visual Kei can be is probably the big reason that Nightmare went major far quicker than most other bands (even including DEG) and making them appealing to both Mainstream rock & Visual Kei fans.

Here is a excerpt from the February 2007 Issue of Shoxx featuring the "Nightmare 07' Concert Tour Report :

"Live at Tokyo Koseinenkin Hall 2006.11.11

A relaxed air flowed through Koseinenkin Hall, host of the starting point of “to the shining WORLD” and to their 2nd visit. That became changed to a moderate tension with the one drum beat from Ruka, signaling the start. That gave energy to both the stage and the spectator seating and quickly closed into a feeling of familiarity.

When I heard Yomi shout “Tokyo, Fuu!” from the furthest seat back in the 2nd story seating with a joyful look on his face I was able to predict that these people probably had a great tour. The inorganic atmosphere I had sensed at the opening of the tour had disappeared, and a Nightmare-specific feeling of warmth had even manifested.

A band-feeling that the five of them enjoy making music together, and feel comfortable with themselves. In the height of the intermezzo in “Tokyo Shounen” where both guitarists took center stage in unison, Hitsugi took a smiling peek at Sakito, and the slightest little movement and gaze would render the audience into a state of joy. You could gauge just how pumped up they were just from the silhouetted movement from the backlighting.

“I’ll take all of you to a brilliant world again today!” I suppose Yomi’s words sounded somewhat more true. “Allumina” was definitely maturing. I could feel the saturation level of “Death Note”, and the place was full of quiet energy with a positive feel to it. The charged-up power flowing from “Scion” was released in “Gianism Go”, making the floor of Kyouseinenkin Hall shake with the sheer power. "

Opening:

Uuchu Sentai Noiz- From Skywalker Maxi Single HERE