Forum Overview :: No Stairway to Heaven :: Short reviews of contents of incoming folder.

[quote name="Zseni"]+ = worth it - = not worth it :( = anime dorks only + Eno/Fripp: No Pussyfooting - You've probably heard of this before. One of the forefathers of ambient and still one of the best and most interesting examples of the genre. + 70's Soul Sessions - Philly soul and a reasonably compact overview of the genre at that. I'm really into Curtis Mayfield, it was good to hear other similar artists I wouldn't have thought to look up. + Aesop Rock: Daylight EP, Freeze single - These guys show up on Jaku! Hip hop with, you know, actual music involved at several points. + Howie B: Another Late Night - Howie B's downbeat mixtape, including a Love Unlimited Orchestra track! He's got pretty good picks on here. :( Lucifer (Aucifer): Discography - The first album was a kind of joint project based on the manga/anime Kaikan Phrase, which is full of bishies. It's safe, melodic, catchy rock. :( Ayumi Hamasaki: Connected (complete vinyl singles) - Ayumi is kind of like the Madonna of Japan and like Madonna, there is some question about whether or not she's actually a good singer. I like remixes from her songs much better than the songs themselves; they are DDRtastic. :( Ayumi Hamasaki Songs meet Princess China Orchestra - Ayu's songs redone with commonplace orchestral backing and traditional chinese instruments in place of the vocals. Chinese restaurant music. Great if you want your home to sound like the inside of a Chinese restaurant. Otherwise steer clear. - BoA: My Name - BoA is kind of like the Ayumi Hamasaki of Korea, only considerably less adventurous. She's laser hot in Korea and Japan right now but, key thing here, she sucks. All her singing and all her songs on this album are indistinguishable from the kind of Taylor Dayne/Celine Dion/"VH1 Divas" bullshit that gets foisted off on us normal white folks, except it's in Korean. I was hugely disappointed to see so much fuss made over such a piece of shit, and equally disappointed to see that VH1 Diva bullshit is so universally admired. + Mad Professor: Andy's Dub Book, Escape to the Asylum of Dub, Psychodelic Dub - I dig Mad Professor more than any other dub or even reggae artist working. I like his loopy sense of humor and the heavy feel and local flavor of his albums. Maybe the only minus is that those albums are hard to tell apart unless they are made some time apart. Escape is 4 and Psychodelic is 10 in the collection of Dub Me Crazy releases, and 5 (The Secret of the Mix Tapes) is still my favorite, so look for it on Oink soon because I'll upload it myself if I have to. + GiTS Innocence OST - Fuck you, I really like Kenji Kawaii's work on the GiTS movies and was almost upset in advance that Yoko Kanno did the music for the series. Spacious, exotic, and anthemic, with considerably more variety than the first movie's OST. Incidentally, the guy who told me to go get the OST when I complained about the music in the movie was right. Thanks, guy! :( Hana Hana - FOOT PRINT: Hana Hana WORKS 2000-2003 - This is almost average pop with only the most minor of twists, and the twist is that it all sounds like the op/ed and key music from J-doramas. If you're into J-doramas you might occasionally want to hear such music and FOOT PRINT will help you with that, but it's otherwise uninteresting. :( / + Ketsunomeishi: Ketsunopolis 3 - Horribly popular Japanese hip hop act. Like much of Japan's hip hop and rap product, it's more like pop with rap overtones and while the two main rappers are perfectly capable, it's not really what anyone here would consider rap. Or hip hop. Still, with its reggae flavor and irrepressible cheerfulness, it's hard to deny that Ketsunopolis 3 is a fun album. Just don't let anyone catch you listening to it. :( Kyoko Futada: Moon+, Universe - There is not a track of these two albums that would be out of place as the op/ed song for a wide variety of anime. Most likely to show up in harem fantasy, shoujo, or light dramatic, I'd guess. Competent for what it is, and that's not something to take for granted, necessarily, as we'll later see. Some interesting electronics and effects in the background, although the lead vocal is treated the same way on all songs on both albums. + Meiko Kaji: Meiko Kaji Zenkyoku Shu - An album of enka by one of enka's most famous female singers. I like enka, it's kind of hard not to like enka unless you, like sea anemones, react to strange new things by closing up. Enka is 60's-sounding orchestral pop backing Japanese-traditional-sounding singing and instrumentation, the subject matter swinging from bland love songs to samurai mini-epics. Meiko Kaji showed up on the Kill Bill soundtracks, so you might have heard some of this then. But I think everyone should have a listen because enka is so much fun and so deliciously overblown. :( / - Miho Komastu: Discography - I'm guessing that Miho Komastu can't sing. Her vocals are always treated and frequently doubled. She's very pretty, which is probably how she's managed to make 7 albums in 6 years and become the main artist of a respected label in Japan. This is what I was talking about when I said that competence isn't to be taken for granted. Her singing is obviously inferior to Kyoko Futada's and the music isn't anywhere near as interesting, but all of this could also show up in a wide variety of anime. I downloaded this blind and felt ripped off. It's still better than BoA, but I'm confused and frightened by the prospect that I might just have to delete the whole thing. :( Yumi Shizukusa: Missing You (single) - A pretty, R'n'B tinged, wistful love song which improves greatly on remix, but still sounds like something you'd hear on your local "adult contemporary" station during Obligatory Funky Hour. Totally ordinary singer. Fun side note: nobody involved can pronounce "missing", so the background vocalists limpidly murmur "mishin yuuuu" through the whole song. :( / + Mika Nakashima: Legend (single) - A pretty, jazz tinged, wistful love song which improves greatly on (subtly trance-y) remix, and has something more in the way of substance and durability than the previous single. The singer is also more competent, with a mellow tone well suited to the song. I kind of like this one and will probably look for more from Mika. :( Namie Amuro: Style - A whole album of pretty R'n'B-influenced tracks from one of the more famous Japanese singers. I'm unimpressed, despite the massive love heaped on her by the Koreans I know. She's being handled like a next gen Utada Hikaru but I don't think she's quite as talented. Certainly she is much, much slimmer! Posessing pics of Namie Amuro will make you appear to be a very heterosexual pederast. + Prince: 1999 - Everyone else had already heard this, but I hadn't. :( / + The Back Horn: Ningen Program - Fun, unchallenging, and able alterna-rock with very clean and uncomplicated production and lots of busy key changes. :( / + Asuka Hayashi: Kimi wa Magnolia no Hana no Gotoku - She would not be out of place as an enka singer and has vocal power to spare, but is instead singing these pretty and prettily-made wistful love songs. There appears to be some kind of hope for a "southern" (in the sense of American South) sound here, but it's a very stylized way. Nostalgic, warm, only the interesting background music saves it from the recycle bin. Still, likeable. +ish Tokyo Ethmusica: World Scratch - bumper music for NPR Japan. Full of exotic touches from all manner of far-flung locales (Spain, Indonesia, America, China, etc.) But firmly centered on clean and thoughful Japanese pop. :( Ushirokami Hikaretai: BEST album - One of many millions of idol girl groups formed and dashed to pieces every day in Japan. A variety of average upbeat Japanese pop songs. :( Xandu: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD - I now have Olivia Newton-John songs in my possession. Xanadu is possibly the longest movie in the world. The soundtrack really isn't that bad, but it is linked inextricably with that horrible movie that killed Gene Kelly. :( Yuka Saegusa in db: Itsumo Kokoro ni Taiyou single - Featherweight pop-rock with Monkees-style hooks. Fun! Yuka has an appealingly girlish voice. Still not particularly intriguing...eh...well it's a lot of fun. I'm flip-flopping on this one (like Kerry.) If the lyrics were in English I would probably hate it. But since I have very little clue what she's saying, it's still fun in a retro way. + Zone of the Enders Original Soundtrack: Man I was looking everywhere for this. Now I discover my ZOE2 soundtrack vanished in The Great Crash (anyone have a copy they would post to Oink or something? Pllleeeeaaassseee???) ZOE 1 was a middling game with a great concept that ZOE2 nailed beautifully, but the soundtrack to 1 really haunted me in a way that the soundtrack for 2 didn't, especially that title music. I wished the whole album would develop that kind of theme, but instead it's mostly what we here at Camp Zseni know and love as Ship Disco. If you play shmups, you know instantly what I mean. Both ZOE soundtracks are Ship Disco's more evolved form, Ship Ambient Battle Trance, but Ship Disco is a lot shorter. Anyway, I really like the title music and anywhere that it is used in this soundtrack. I'm also about ready to actually buy the Beyond The Bounds single. :([/quote]