#Format: CD Promo

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Rage Against the Machine - Bombtrack

[toskarin]

how do you end up finding the doujin music you post on @satorisignal? that account is wonderful and it's exposed me to a lot i would have otherwise never heard

firstly, thanks! I'm a big fan of doujin music, so I always love showing it to others

the big thing is simply keeping a finger on the pulse of the doujin scene, which mostly involves keeping up with band members, looking at cross promo, and digging through databases and wikis to look for older releases

releasing doujin music online (especially in streamable format) is actually fairly recent as a practice, so for some releases, you have to know other people who make a hobby of this kind of thing and trade between your collections

VGMDB actually does a very admirable job of documenting the albums it has on there, so that's one good place to start diving catalogues! be ready to find a bunch of cold trails if you start looking far enough back, though. Soulseek is an absolute blessing for getting your hands on obscure releases (although for really obscure stuff, you have to either know someone or be someone who is willing to buy CDs off of YHA)

oh, and importantly, soundcloud is still very much a thing japanese indie musicians use. it's a Very good way to bounce between connected doujin musicians by looking at who they interact with on there

[putschki1969]

Promo Video for "Yūyami no Uta"

The official twitter account of the Sengoku Youko anime adaptation has shared a brief message video of KEIKO and Yuki Kajiura promoting their collaborative single "夕闇のうた/Yūyami no Uta" which serves as the appointed ending theme of the first arc "世直し姉弟編/Yonaoshi Kyodai-hen" (World Reform Siblings Arc).

◆Ending theme Vocals: KEIKO "Yūyami no Uta" Lyrics, composition, arrangement: Yuki Kajiura ✅Released on January 24th The TV size is already available in digital format

Keiko is very excited to work together with Yuki Kajiura for her very first anime tie-in as solo artist. When looking at the music sheets during the recording session, Keiko noticed that the phrase 大地/Daichi (Earth) was a recurring theme throughout the lyrics. She wonders if Yuki Kajiura was trying to convey the "energy of the earth" through the song to reflect the overarching themes of the anime. Yuki Kajiura says that the anime feels surprisingly grounded despite its fantastical story. She appreciates the earthy component which just makes it a very grounded tale and she thinks that Keiko's voice is a perfect match for this kind of story since it is also very earthy and profound as if the weight of every character's lifetime (of all the hardships and joys) was carried across it. There is a very steadfast quality to her voice, when you listen to the song you feel a sense of security like you are standing firmly on the ground

Hopefully next week we'll get some details on tokutens/release events/etc. I finally need to make all of my orders. So far I've only ordered a copy of the regular edition and CD+BD edition on amazon.co.jp to receive a mega jacket.

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

99.2 by Timecode / Aquasky 1999 Drum n Bass

Man, I legitimately have no idea why some of these releases from UK dnb juggernaut label Moving Shadow's 'year-decimal' series are rated so poorly on Discogs. Usually when something has an average rating that's below 4 out of 5, it has noticeable flaws, but this sampler mix from MS head honcho Rob Playford—operating here under his DJ-mixing alias of Timecode—is an excellently steady clinic in fun, turn-of-the-millennium dnb bounciness. And the release that preceded this one, 99.1, which also has a sub-4 rating, is one of the greatest dnb mixes that I've ever heard in my life! So, like, what the hell is wrong with you people?!

And you couldn't beat this deal when this thing dropped, either. £1.99 for this disc, a bonus disc with an exclusive 20-plus minute mix of Omni Trio tunes done by the great trio of Aquasky, and CD-ROM freebies that included snippets of Aquasky remixes in WAV format, promotional videos for some Rockstar Games titles, and a playable demo of Grand Theft Auto 2 as well! They were practically giving this shit away for free!

So we've got a full, chugging, 65-minute workout here with a slate of bangers delivered by Moving Shadow's top talents: Dom & Roland, Calyx, E-Z Rollers, TeeBee, Aquasky, Omni Trio, Technical Itch, and more. But nothing here seems to hit as nicely as the moment when Playford transitions between E-Z Rollers' "RS2000" and 60 Minute Man's "Brand Nu Day." "Brand Nu Day" as a standalone track opens up with this terrific sax line, and to then hear it uniquely played alongside the fuzzy bass groove of "RS2000" just really unlocks something special 🥹.

So don't listen to all the haters and overlook this one. If you want a trip back to those lovely y2k days when music CDs also came with bonus CD-ROM content, this promo mix from Moving Shadow boss Rob Playford is terrific. And I dunno how long the GTA2 demo is on here, but I'm willing to bet that if you fired up the bonus CD in your PC, and then put the main one in your stereo, you were probably in for a good time, because the type of drum n bass that's on here really does feel like the perfect, adrenaline-fueled soundtrack for boosting some cars and wreaking havoc 😎.

Listen to CD1 here. Listen to CD2 here.

Highlights:

CD1:

Renegade - "Terrorist (Dom & Roland Remix)" Calyx - "Diablo" nCode - "Spasm" Kudos - "Boiling Point" E-Z Rollers - "Cops Don't Like Us" Tekniq - "Shark Food" Kudos - "In the Dark" E-Z Rollers - "RS 2000" 60 Minute Man - "Brand Nu Day" Calyx - "Fortune Cookie" Decoder & Substance - "Heat" TB & K - "Arctix" Aquasky - "Bodyshock (Aquasky Remix)" Omni Trio - "Byte Size Life (Shimon Remix)" Calyx - "Code Red" Dom & Roland - "Can't Punish Me" Technical Itch - "Generation" AK1200 & Danny Breaks - "Deep Porn (VIP Mix)"

CD2:

Aquasky - 25 Minute Exclusive Mix of Omni Trio Tracks

[per-the-jellicle-magician]

Cats Warsaw Merch

Aka all the Cats Warsaw merch things that I've found, at least so far

Starting with the stuff that I actually own:

CD Album

It's a highlights album containing 14 of the songs, sang by the main singing part of the cast, which mainly results in that some parts go to different people than later on stage, including Mistoffelees' part in "Mr M" being sang by the actor playing Victor (he does sing it as Misto). Also some of the songs in their arrangements are sounding closer to OBC than to how they would later sound on stage (mainly Jellicle Ball and Mr M).

The little booklet contains some basic information about the show, the songs included and the cast, as well as a few photos from the recording of the album

It was recorded in November 2003 and published/available for purchase with the premiere of the show on Jan 10, 2004

Programme

I got actually 2 of those, from 2004 and 2007. They are almost identical (only differences are ads and a bracket indicating one of the sponsors died by 2007). The actually different things are the cast inserts, both in the cast as well as the general formatting and rehearsal photos included

More photos of the 2004 version here

Book

Once again I have 2 of those, one came to me in its original protective sleeve and i'm keeping it safely tucked away. The other one is by now ever so slightly falling apart from how many times I've read it XD

The book contains interviews with: the set, costume and make up designers, the translator and some notes from the choreographers and cast members. It also includes quite a few photos (most of them from rehearsals) as well as fragments of song lyrics, some of the character descriptions and other general information about the show and its production

It was published in November 2004

Stuff that I know about from photos

Posters

I have a few such photos from a promo event for the CD album where people could get cds and posters, get them signed and there was face painting and some other activities including learning how to be a cat or smth

Umbrellas

This premiere photo is the only one that I got

A cup and a saucer

This is the only picture I have of it, and I am honestly not sure if it was actually sold or if it was custom made, but I'm gonna count it anyway

Pens

I don't actually have a photo of any, BUT the plaque over this lady's shoulder says "Długopis KOTY" aka "Pen CATS", and at this point that's all that I got (also there are CD albums on the top shelf)

Repertoire brochure

Distributed most likely sometime in December 2003, given it advertises the premiere and all the preview shows. Cats Warsaw had in total 6 preview shows, and it also had 2 premieres

The repertoire is for January and Febuary 2004, aka the original planned run of the show

Calendar

This is the only photo I have of it, possibly for June or July page, and curiously enough the same photo can be found in the Warsaw book, on Demeter's page. This suggests at least some other portrait photos from the book were originally taken for this calendar

Not merch but I thought they should be included

Cats Warsaw documentary "Ujarzmić Koty" ("The taming of Cats")

Making of Cats Warsaw, which included some of the musical's history and the director's history with it; some interviews with the cast, mainly Damian Aleksander (Munkustrap), Ewa Lachowicz (Demeter), Grzegorz Suski (Macavity), Jakub Szydłowski and Paweł Podgórski (both Rum Tum Tugger); rehearsal, backstage and premiere footage

It had its premiere on December 20, 2004

2005 edition of the Poems (that I do own)

2005 edition of "Old Possum's" translated by Stanisław Barańczak, simply titled "Koty" ("Cats")

The only tie it has to the musical is the fact that the cover photo is a very edited fragment of a rehearsal photo featured in the middle spread of the programme mentioned in the beginning of this list

It's Tantomile plus Etcetera's leg

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

I don't think Layover did great tbh. Terrible on YouTube (including all his MVs, Tiny Desk, and music show performances), underperformed in the biggest music markets, did poorly on k-charts (that debut was abysmal compared to the other members), predicted for less first week albums in the US than D-Day despite an extra version (but waiting on chart). Here’s a chart I’ve seen floating around Twitter that gives a good idea. Probably need to verify some of it, but I think it’s mostly accurate...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6LDbz4bYAADB7M?format=jpg&name=medium

His fanbases started working really hard on his first week Spotify streams when they realized he wasn’t doing great anywhere else, so he ended up with higher first week streams than FACE and LC, but barely, and most of his streams came from SEA (which isn’t a big deal or anything, but a lot of it was definitely from mass streaming farms). He also had a massive day 8 drop and allegedly way lower than day 8 for FACE. And let’s note that Layover has one extra song instead of an interlude too. He’s also higher on some official album charts, but that’s only because FACE wasn’t eligible because it’s an EP. He had much bigger overall album sales, but we were expecting that with vbar. I think they bought like 840k? So over 1/3 of his sales.

Unless I’m missing some achievements or got something wrong (I haven’t kept up with everything), I think it was a pretty meh debut considering all the promo he did and the fact that he’s “the most popular member”. They only have those first week streams, pretty sure. LMA has had good longevity though, so I guess we'll see. And BTW, they’re saying his hot100 performance was hurt because of DC2 sales being gone, which, sure, but he had 50k Slow Dancing CDs to compensate, way more than LC, and they couldn't even completely sell them out. I think his stans were using VPN to buy on iTunes in the US too because a few days in he went from 1 to 44 on iTunes chart with no explanation and never recovered. Curious what his final sales end up being. I'm not saying he did bad, but I don't think it's really anything to brag about either... I haven't seen a ton of objective people talking about it though so idk for sure.

The spreadsheet is killing me hahahs #dedication. I would like to know the missing numbers and positions, tho! Still, thank you.

I knew about kcharts, youtube, albums, and first week on spotify for the album. I saw some number that I assume included his prereleases, and it really is nothing major considering the first tracks released, and the fact that it had one more song than face. Just five minutes ago I saw that on their 8th day, like crazy (combined) had the same number of streams as Taehyung's entire album??

Sidenote: if there's one thing I was forced to learn this year, is how much difference combined versions of a song can make.

I don't think he had that much of international promo, or at least I didn't see it. I know he's been to A LOTTT of korean shows, and also his promo for pre-releases was already longer than Jimin's, but I think he just comes across as a really uninteresting person so I don't know if people would actually tune in to his music, no matter how many times they see him on TV. He definitely got more than Jimin, that's 1000% for sure, even if we consider the MVs alone; he got the same thing Jimin was denied.

I knew he'd get more albums sales, because past experience. And I knew they'd try hard to stream to break some "records", even if it won't hold up for too long. I also knew he doesn't really have many fans in the US, (I still think Jimin's the most popular member there). I've also been saying since the day I opened this blog that his "popularity" is overrated and he's never really been in the same league as Jimin when it comes to music. I blew off so many people here who would come up to me and try to convince me he was competition to Jimin or better than him in some way.

I guess the only thing I'm surprised with is youtube. I got his tiny desk video on my homepage today (saved it to watch later) and it has less than 300k views.......... It's kinda crazy. I wonder if part of the reason he got his visual album was because his youtube numbers were usually better than everyone else's combined and they believed he'd do good.

Oh, and the songs credits. It's unbelievable to me that he did NOTHING on it. People who work on songs get credits even for writing two words, so I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that he didn't do anything at all.

I'm also curious if they would've restocked the digital CD had it been sold out, but my gut tells me they wouldn't have, or it would've been just one more, and a smaller batch.

[alienorchids]

directory

all scans:

my scans

search by media format:

cd

cassette

vinyl

dvd

vhs

magazine

photobook

flyers

cards

stickers

promo

by band:

+ISOLATION

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S

SAKURA

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Since1889

sukekiyo

Syndrome

TULIA

TWO MONSTROUS NUCLEAR STOCKPILES

Various Artists

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today, on May 2nd, 1989 - Queen Story!

'I Want It All'/ 'Hang On In There' released in UK ( lifted off the forthcoming "The Miracle" album), reached No.3 in charts.

First time that Queen put out vinyl and CD single formats

"Interesting, I wrote myself a bit in the middle. I can't remember quite why that was, it's a very sort of Pete Townshend thing to do, isn't it? But it made a nice little kind of duet in the middle, a bit of spying between me and Freddie, and I know he enjoyed that."

"We were heading into the period where we decided to share the credit for all the songs, and John has said that, the song, was pretty much a finished song when we went into the studios – that's true, it was just this riff that I was obsessed with for months. The actual title was a favorite phrase of Anita's, a very ambitious girl: 'I want it all, and I want it now '... We were never able to perform this song live. It would have become something of the staple core of the Queen show, I'm sure, very participatory. It was designed for the audience to sing along to, very anthemic."

- Brian May - interview 2003

👉Anita Dobson English stage, film, television actress, and singer. She began a relationship with Brian May in the second half of the 1980s and pair married in 2000.

👉 Dobson inspired May to write the 1989 Queen hit 'I Want It All', taken 'The Miracle' album, 1989 -

📸 Pic: April 1989 - Queen Story!

Queen filmed promo video for “I Want It All” (taken from 'The Miracle' album, 1989) at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, UK, director David Mallet

[poswiecenia]

WELCOME    !!   my name is miles,  i’m 28 and i’ve been on this site since 2012 and this blog is my multimuse containing muses from various media and original means, some including baldur's gate / ttrpg's, honkai star rail and genshin impact. i just have a few quick things to drop here before you continue your perusal of my content and blog:

UPDATED 23RD AUGUST 2024.  BLOG EST. FEB 2021 ❤️ STATUS: MODERATE ACTIVITY, WORKING. BLOG ROLL: SOULSEEKCR, REAPCRBUNNY INTEREST TRACKER CREDITS: fckurselfie ( GRAPHICS ), hehearse ( ART ) UNAFFILIATED WITH: hoyoverse / mihoyo, wizards of the coast, cd projekt red, square enix or capcom

my rules are available here with my muse list available here it would be much appreciated if you went through each and every rule before we interact it would be much appreciated if you went through each and every rule before we interact - i have been very problematic in the past and I want those that write with me to be aware of what i have been apart of or what i have done. if something is unclear and / or you need something explained a little more please let me know via dm's so i can either clarify, direct you to a callout or edit something within my rules so it can be better understood.

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to write with me we must be mutuals. i will reach out to make sure that so that you have read my rules and that we are all on the same page and that you are aware of my past behavior.

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meme tag | promo tag | ooc tag

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affiliates ( sacrificial darlings ) / mains: @cybrvce ( + blogroll ), @inhumanheresy, @visionhcld, @fckurselfie & @londonfallen ( + blogroll(s) ), @dawnbrst ( + blogroll ), @pearlcure, @tartagla ( + blogroll ), glacialswordsman ( + blogroll ), @dehvours ( + blogroll )

[heylins-world]

Honestly. Taylor's incentive strategy for Midnights should be studied in marketing classes or something because not only did she release 4 different variants of her album in 2 different formats that all form a fun image when put together to appeal to both fans and collectors alike, as well as signed copies for both if you were fast enough to snag a copy as well (and you Have to be fast because they sell out like crazy),

she also released a second Surprise digital exclusive album with 7 bonus tracks for your consideration if you want to buy that one as well,

PLUS the Lavender edition with 3 tracks you can currently ONLY really listen to if you purchase a physical CD to drive up album sales from people who might not have bothered with physical copies if not for these exclusive tracks.

She Also drops her entire album in one go with no Single-release promo to drive up intrigue about what her new album is going to sound like so that people are curious enough to check it out even if they aren't die hard fans to further drive up first-day streams.

And Then at some point she'll release the entire visual album as well which will only encourage people to engage with the album all over again and continue her charting traction when it inevitably starts to dip again after the first week.

Like, I hate to jump on the bandwagon with this phrase but seriously. her MIND.

[aliasyhadaniswara]

Mengenal Sejarah Kaset Pita

Pita kaset adalah pita magnetik yang bisa merekam dan menyimpan data dengan format audio yang umumnya berupa lagu. Kata “kaset” berasal dari bahasa Prancis, yakni cassette, yang berarti “kotak kecil”. Kaset merupakan format paling umum yang digunakan dalam industri musik pada tahun 1970 sampai 1990-an.

Sebelum lanjut ke pembahasan berikutnya disini saya ingin merekomendasikan situs judi online terpercaya di indonesia yaitu ALADDIN138 hanya dengan deposit minimal 10 ribu kalian bisa mendapatkan kesempatan untuk mendapatkan hadiah jutaan bahkan milyaran rupiah, selain itu ALADDIN138 juga menyediakan banyak sekali promo promo menarik yang sangat mudah untuk kalian dapatkan, jadi tunggu apalagi ayo segera gabung dan bermain di ALADDIN138 dijamin depo dikit cuan sebukit. Kaset terdiri dari kumparan-kumparan kecil dan bagian-bagian lainnya ini terbungkus dalam bungkus plastik berbentuk kotak kecil serta berbentuk persegi panjang. Di dalamnya terdapat sepasang roda putaran untuk pita magnetik.

Pita ini akan berputar dan menggulung ketika kaset dimainkan atau merekam. Ketika pita bergerak ke salah satu arah dan yang lainnya bergerak ke arah yang lain. Hal ini membuat kaset dapat dimainkan atau merekam di kedua sisinya yaitu sisi A dan sisi B.

Kaset pertama kali diperkenalkan oleh Phillips pada tahun 1963 di Eropa dan tahun 1964 di Amerika Serikat, dengan nama Compact Cassette. Kemudian kaset semakin populer di industri musik selama tahun 1970-an dan perlahan-lahan menggeser piringan hitam. Produksi besar kaset diawali pada tahun 1964 di Hanover, Jerman.

Pada awalnya, kualitas suara pada kaset ini tidak terlalu bagus untuk musik. Bahkan beberapa model awal tidak memiliki rancangan mesin yang baik. Pada tahun 1971, The Advant Corporation memperkenalkan model terbarunya, Model 201, yang menggabungkan Dolby tipe B pengurang gangguan (noise) dengan pita kromium dioksida. Oleh karena itulah kaset mulai dapat digunakan dalam industri musik secara serius, dan dimulailah era kaset berketepatan tinggi.

Selama tahun 1980-an, popularitas kaset tumbuh semakin pesat karena hadirnya rekorder poket portabel pemutarnya seperti Sony’s Walkman dan radio yang menyediakan musik pada 1960-an, pemutar CD portabel pada 1990-an, dan MP3 Player pada 2000-an, kaset memegang peran besar dalam dunia musik pada 1980-an dan 1990-an, bahkan pada era sekarang (setelah 2000-an).

Kaset masih menjadi salah satu alternatif media musik. terlepas dari segi tekniknya, keberadaan kaset juga berdampak pada perubahan sosial. Keawetan kaset serta kemudahannya untuk dikopi berperan di balik berkembangnya musik punk dan rock. Kaset seakan-akan menjadi pijakan bagi generasi muda di kebudayaan barat.

AGEN JUDI SLOT ONLINE TERPERCAYA

ALADDIN138 sebagai Agen Judi Online yang sediakan bermacam kelompok permainan buat kamu beberapa calon anggota atau anggotanya , dengan games paling populer yakni SLOT dengan provider opsi terbaik 2022, kelompok SPORT dengan beberapa developer terpenting seperti SBOBET , CMD 368 ,dan SABAR SPORTS , permainanan tembak ikan , permainan togel , dan sabung ayam dan ada banyak kembali game yang dapat kamu explore dan capai kemenangan kamu bersama Om Jin yang memberi beragam BONUS dan EVENT yang tidak kalah hebat !

[frankenchio]

undefined

I borrowed an old windows laptop and was able to record a video from a Shockwave file that I thought was going to be lost media. This is from "Gamurakan" by Fukuyama Youji. A surreal horror piece. If I remember well, the format was called e-manga, and they were early attempts from Japanese publishers to sell manga digitally via a monthly suscription to their website. I got this sample from a promo CD I got from a Manga/Anime news magazine.

 Music by "Yojira" (Yojira House Studio). WARNING: uncanny/surreal horror.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Bpp, I hope those people who were doubting BTS’ members solo debut are for sure annoyed by how big the first two debuts have been so far. It says something about the trust in the member’s solo selling capacity is that Jhope had Lollapalooza and now Jin will be having his first debut at a freaking Coldplay concert!!! The powers that be *know* that they each have the recognition and selling capacity—like I doubt Chris’ label wpuld’ve okayed him performing them with this surprise announcement if they weren’t sure if he had the individual star power and recognizability???? Not to mention it speaks so much to Jin’s own relationship to Chris himself!! I’m not looking forward to the expectations this past two precedents are building tho 😅 i’ve already seen some skirmishes happening bec of jin’s physical cd vs jhope’s digital release, and it wasn’t even solos doing it… altho i’m still pretty peeved at the lack too, the limited vynils didnt help at all?!! but I hope Army doesn’t let ourselves forget that each member’s solo promo will be individualized and to not let solos agitate us to starting drama…

**

Hi Anon,

I’m only just getting to posting your ask now because between Jin’s Astronaut release, Riri’s Chadwick tribute, and other things happening at the time, I was kinda swamped and since your ask really just states the obvious, I triaged your ask to post later.

I like asks like yours that state things that are obvious to see. Because sometimes, it’s necessary to. We can all see how well Chapter 2 is going for BTS. We’re all on here, both ARMYs and those still hooked on BTS/ARMYs for whatever reason, every week or so talking about some new project they’re on. We can recognize how huge of a deal it is for a Korean solo act to headline a Western music festival for the first time, the sheer insanity of this showing being that artist’s solo debut, and noting this is after BTS had turned the city of Las Vegas into a festival of their own just months prior.

Coldplay is probably the only band active today that can rival BTS in pure star power and name recognition. And seeing that cultural connection, hearing Korean spoken by a white English man to thousands of Argentines because of a SeokJin of BTS, is just really fucking cool. I keep saying, the way BTS center their language and culture in these collaborations is like nothing else you’ll see anybody in k-pop being even able to attempt. It’s the sort of representation that I can only see BTS doing at this point. Perhaps in about 5-ish years some other acts will catch up to this, but right now, no one is doing it like them.

**

As to the format the solo roll-outs have taken and will take, that’s not a conversation I’m not going to bother engaging in at all because this is the perfect example of a waste of time. None of the guys have zero say in those matters. And while I understand the ARMYs upset about the different formats, ultimately at the crux of it, those are excuses. ARMYs have worked with less and done more. If people want to show up, they will, regardless of the music format. Personally, I thought the design was a bit hideous (a tiny cardboard box? Really?) but I was surprised to find out Weverse albums has even better sound quality than Apple Music. And this for me was enough to say fuck it to everything else. I’ve never been the sort to collect albums and merch anyway. If you have not heard what Arson and Future sound like on that app, and you’re an audiophile, do yourself a favour and listen to it ASAP.

It’s so interesting to me the things Hybe is clearly spending money on. Weverse Live, not really. But Weverse albums? Absofuckinglutely.

There’s a deeper dissatisfaction happening with Hobi-biased people (and solo stans) towards Hybe and the fandom and all this album/format issue did was inflame it. But as I’ve said before, in Chapter 2 expect issues like this to become the norm especially when the Maknae Line start their solo releases. It will do nobody any good giving any of these quips oxygen. I intend to focus on what the boys release (through Hybe) and support them if I like the music.

It’s honestly that simple for me.

[appears]

NEXT LEVEL

It's Ayumi Hamasaki's birthday on October 2 and we're extending the celebration in true ego-maniacal, splashy celebrity fashion, by drawing out the festivities for an entire week! Each day I will briefly discuss a totally random item chosen (not by me) from my Ayu collection. Prepare for praise, disappointment, and controversial opinions backed by love and respect as we take a casual look back in this blurry snapshot of her career. Happy Birthday to our Party Queen, Ayumi Hamasaki!

If you had been following the singles leading up to Ayumi Hamasaki's 10th original studio album NEXT LEVEL, you probably wouldn't be able to guess the direction it would eventually go in. One of the drawbacks to the Japanese-pop style of releasing music is that singles are written and released independently over the course of a year or more, before an artist or band goes in to round out the collection with extra songs. This usually leaves the idea of "concept" albums or "overarching themes" to independent, and other non-commercial artists who eschew the practice for the more Western-style of composing an entire piece of work as a single, interconnected unit, rather than a loose anthology of work. And so, we got singles like GREEN/Days that while great, didn't sound like anything that NEXT LEVEL would become. However, by this time, Ayumi was releasing singles less and less, so the only other single preceding NEXT LEVEL was Rule/Sparkle released one month prior, and "Sparkle" at least, gave us a big hint, by jacket cover and sound, about what we could expect.

When NEXT LEVEL was first released in March of 2009, I was skeptical: I hated the cover art and I didn't particularly like the "edgy" style of the "Sparkle" PV (besides the opening 80s idol-parody, which is really great -- the reference is so specific to the Japanese music industry in a way that Ayu had never done before, while still echoing the criticism of fame omnipresent in her work. The message is clear: this is what you want from me, and this is what you are getting. Deal with it). While I soaked in the album, an overarching theme emerged, one focused on a more electronic-rock sound compared to what had already been a pretty hard-rock focused album like GUILTY. But the promo songs with accompanying PVs were further confusing, since songs like "NEXT LEVEL" and "Curtain call" weren't anything like "identity" and "EnergizE."

In the end, I was left with an album that sounded like the pieces to about four different cool puzzles, each composing a little square of interesting work, but connecting to nothing around it. They're all facets of Ayu's musical personality and style, but it also presented as indecisiveness. Nothing summarized this better than the rampant use of one-minute instrumental interludes that had always been a staple of Ayu's albums but by this point were out of control: the first two out of three songs are interludes, and there are several more scattered throughout the album that don't do anything except date this album even further, as interludes like this made more sense several years prior in the context of peak CD as a new-and-improved format with an extra running time and were now already (and rightly) seen as pointless filler. Some of Ayu's interludes are really great, and something like "Mirrocle World," which was expanded from the interlude "Mirror," are now as good as anything in her catalog, but none of the interludes on NEXT LEVEL pull that off. They are mostly extraneous noise.

That makes it sound like NEXT LEVEL is a terrible album, and while that was my first overall impression, it grew on me over time. I still don't think it's one of Ayumi's best albums, maybe not even in the top ten, but there are some really great songs on here, as out of place as they might be. For example, "Rule," which is one of Ayumi's best late-stage hard rock songs, used as the theme for the Dragonball Evolution film. The title track, "NEXT LEVEL," is a breezy, optimistic song in the vein of a "Greatful days" or "July 1st" (though it always bugs me that the title track is the one that is most misleading as to how the rest of the album sounds). And the electro-rock songs that are the album's guiding bread-and-butter, like "LOVE 'n' HATE" and "identity" are super fun. "GREEN" and "Days" are both strong ballads, though again, they don't really belong on this album. Overall, NEXT LEVEL just tried too hard: too hard to keep Ayu "relevant" with ascending pop styles like Perfume, too hard to have it all ways with newer sounds and more traditional Ayu headbangers and ballads and a cushioned track list. Even the album artwork seems like it's trying too hard, though in hindsight, this is actually one of the last creative album covers Ayu would ever have (in terms of creativity, I think Rock'n'Roll Circus was the true last one, after which we just got muted, diffused-glow head shots): NEXT LEVEL's jacket is more bright, fun, and colorful than the album that was actually later called COLORS!

This album was released in several different versions, including CD-only, CD+DVD, 2CD+DVD, and (a first for Ayu) on a USB flash drive. It was later released as a PLAYBUTTON as well. The first-press edition of each version came in specially color-tinted jewel cases: green for CD-only, pink for the 2CD+DVD, and blue for the CD+DVD (again, imagine if COLORS had done something like this!). The DVD included PVs and short making-of features for six tracks off of the album, and the 2CD version included an extra CD with audio from the PREMIUM COUNTDOWN LIVE 2008-2009 A Live.

[brendakahn]

UNRELEASED BRENDA KAHN

Promotional Brenda Kahn CD, by Columbia Records ... probably in some vault somewhere

Brenda Kahn – 3 Titres Inédits (3 Unreleased Titles) Brenda Kahn - 3 Titres Inédits album cover

Label: Columbia – SAMPCD 1748 Format: CD, Maxi-Single, Promo, Card Sleeve Country: France Released: 1993 Genre: Rock, Non-Music Style: Poetry, Folk Rock 1 Lately You 2:48 2 She's In Love (Megamix) 2:50 3 What If I Saw Jesus 3:32

[digitalvibesinfo]

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