Domingo 21 Oct 2007, 3:19

I used to annoy the heck outta of my friends when they scroll through my iPod and sees almost nothing mainstream. Its not even on the language they speak or usually listen to. Its mostly Japanese music. They just did not understand the genre fusions that defines the music environment.

11 years after I started hearing Japanese music, I started being more adventurous. Hearing more than what was on the Oricon Top 20 (the monthly top 100 charts in Japan). Enter Last.FM.

So my lastest random find was HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR. Whats so special about this group you might ask? For once, they bring me back to a time back to when I started listening to Japanese music. The unique genre fusions. After listening to song samples from the Last.FM entry, I decided that the music suited me, so heck…

The album I grabbed was GooVER. The first track, GooVER. It an electronic heavy and guitar heavy track. The vocalist for this track is the male one (sorry, I dont know the group members ._.). A deep voice similiar to Dir En Grey or in Gackt's more upbeat tracks. Both used to be artist I listen intensively to. So it was a good first impression on me. It gives me a "Visual Kei" feel to the music.

The next 2 tracks, NOTICE and PRIDE are what blew me away. They are both sung by a female vocalist! If one took a look at my artist listened to list, you will probabaly notice that the female artists outnumber the males. Yea, I like to listen to female vocals. The voice was slighly mellow and distintly melodic. I would not say to the extent of powerful as she lacks the vocal range. Most importantly its a voice that fits the band's music.

The band itself did not do Visual Kei music as I thought in the first track. Its just heavily influence by it. Its closer to mainstream J-Rock to what you hear Aikawa Nanase would sing with Visual Kei influence and J-Hip hop rolled into one package.

The rest of the album is roughly done in the same style as tracks 1 and 2. Not really complaining. It fits me perfectly. Not much experimental done by the artist since they know what audience they are aimming at. Funky J-rock I'd say.