Miko's Declutter Journey/Unboxing: Chaotic Harmony's COVID Cheki Project

Unboxing: Rarezhut Haul

Unboxing: Chaotic Harmony Imports 2

Top 5 Recommended Music Videos

"For the Night" by As One
**NSFW**
I don't remember how I came across this video at all, but I'm glad that I did. It has a very sexy, sensual R&B beat and some very beautiful, soft vocals from the duo. It's always refreshing to hear really good sensual vocals from a female singer, since it's usually overly cutesy or sexy. It definitely has that throwback 90's sound. As for the video, it really matches the tone of the music and goes very well the lyrics. I love when Korea takes a risk with their sexuality without being too vulgar (or awkward) about it. It's very consensual, romantic, and enticing. I'm looking forward to delving further into this duo's discography and checking out more video releases. The vocals are too sweet to pass up!



"MISS ME OR DISS ME" by MC MONG feat Jinsil (Mad soul child)
I'm not that big of a fan of MC MONG, but I was curious by the thumbnail. It kinda reminds me of G-Dragon's "COUP D'ETAT" in the visuals. The song is kinda upbeat, mostly in the guitar section. It's borderline danceable, but the rap and vocal delivery contradict that feeling of good times to desperation and pain. The lyrics are really deep and worth turning on the subtitles for. The visuals are absolutely stunning and artistic. It kinda matches the tone of the lyrics by displaying that struggle, uncertainty, and frustration.



"U" by John Park
I've heard some really good things about John Park and I tried watching "Falling", but I really wasn't feeling it. It had a very airy indies sound and the visuals were interesting. In this song, it has more of a UK pop influence to it, which catches my attention a little more than "Falling". It has a great piano melody and his vocal delivery display a very confident strength and determination. He has a great range throughout the song and the chorus is memorable. The visuals have a great balance of disturbed and artistic as the actors interact with each other and John Park sings to us and partially observes the actors in his own scenes. I'm glad I gave this video a chance.



"NOnsenSe MARkeT" by MERRY
Like Dir en grey, I think MERRY's music releases are spaced out fairly well. It gives the fans some time to appreciate and reflect on their previous releases. I enjoy the gap. With this latest track, I was very happy to see them make something new and they always bring some pretty inventive and smart ideas to the table with their videos. I was pleased to see that an English caption option was available, which makes me enjoy the song even more. The song maintains the band's signature sound while still being fresh to the ears. The video concept is amusing and fits the content of the lyrics while at the same time having fun with it. Lastly, kudos to Tetsu for powering through the shooting of this PV with a neck injury. I hope he's doing better now.



"Aware and Awake" by coldrain
I know band centric videos can be kinda basic, but some can be fairly interesting. This is one of them. There's really not much to it, but the cinematography and editing are top notch. The blue hues, lighting, and water effects are just enough to elevate the band's performance and they occasionally interact with these elements which makes it all the more interesting to watch. The song is very energized! It's everything I expect from coldrain and more. They always keep their sound, but make that sound refreshing and addictive.

Review: Crush! -90's V-Rock best hit cover songs-

Various Artists - Crush! -90's V-Rock best hit cover songs- (2011, Japan) Rating: 3.5/5
Favorite Tracks: Pink Spider, Gekka no Yasoukyoku, Kurenai, Schwein no Isu

I noticed my review on the Seikima tribute album ran a little long and I wanted to add something I noticed after listening to this album. While listening to these covers, I noticed the newer bands stuck by the original arrangement of the song and didn't add a little part of themselves in it like the more established bands. I thought that was interesting. Unfortunately, most of the bands that were covered in this album, I don't really follow or listen to. I might've heard of them, so at least that's something. I know when this CD came out earlier this year, I did check out samples of the bands I don't listen to to compare to the covers. That's when the observation came up. There's nothing wrong with that just interesting.

The album opens up with the most memorable hide song, "Pink Spider, covered by one of my favorite underrated jrock bands heidi.. The intro is very much themselves and they added a little creative spin to the song while still keeping the greatness of this classic with great guitar work and high energy. Next is SOPHIA's "Machi" covered by another band I enjoy DOREMIdan. Even though the band is a little more well known than BugLug or DOGinthePWO, they pretty much stuck with the original. The song is alright, but a little too slow for my liking. I haven't listened to much SHAZNA, but I know a couple friends have showed me things by them or at least IZAM. BugLug covers "Melty Love". I'm not a fan of BugLug at all and I wish Megamasso took over this song instead since they covered a SHAZNA song in their album. It's kinda bland and super indies sounding. So, I don't listen to SIAM SHADE and I don't really care for NoGoD, but I actually really liked this song. I think they did a good job covering this song and I like the vocals more than SIAM SHADE. Don't hurt me. Alright, "Gekka no Yasoukyoku" is one of my favorite Malice Mizer songs and I know that D's vocalist Asagi admires Gackt, so I concluded this track would be pretty epic...and it was! They fused the elegance of Malice Mizer and D's heavy, but classy sound together to one amazing cover that would make the band tear up from the pure brilliance of this rendition. I like LUNA SEA, probably not as much as I would like to, and I really like Lolita23q, so I was curious how an oshare kei band would pull off such an iconic band's song. The intro of "STORM" was pretty wicked, especially with all the guitar breaks. Most people would've automatically thought this was gonna turn into a disaster, but I think they did a pretty good job. Yay~ Another song I'm familiar with and normally I'm a little lost when it comes to X Japan sometimes despite them being the jrock band I was introduced to. I couldn't have thought of a better band to cover the classic of "Kurenai" than Matenrou Opera. It opens with a beautiful piano intro that would make Yoshiki proud and then when the first lines of the song come in it is...flawless. In about a minute and a half, things will really pick up and Matenrou Opera definitely take a creative spin of this song like they own it. So, I don't listen to either La'cryma Christi or DaizyStripper, so anything could happen here. In the beginning of the "With-you" cover, the singing is a bit painful to listen and it's probably the reason I never stuck to DaizyStripper. They pretty much keep everything the same, but up the tempo and the tone. Next, we have GLAY's "winter again". Not a big fan of GLAY, but I love 12012 to no end. After hearing a sample of the original, I figured with 12012's skills they could pull this off and maybe make it better. They added little bits and pieces of themselves, but stuck close to the original which was a bit disappointing. Next up is Penicillin's "Romance" covered by a j-indies band I'm not particularly fond of And -Eccentric Agent-. I'm a little familiar with the song and the sample helped me refresh my memory. They pretty much stick with the original arrangement, which I think is a wise choice for the young band. Another old band I don't listen to CASCADE and a somewhat new band MIX SPEAKER'S INC. that I don't really like. The band puts their own little fun spin of "S.O.S Romantic" which was...okay. Honestly, I've never heard of D-Shade until this album and I remember that whatever song I heard of LOST ASH I didn't like that much, but they cover "Endless Love" and stuck by the book and made it a little louder. I must admit there were a couple covers I anticipated when seeing the tracklist and Merry's cover of Dir en grey's "Schwein no Isu" was one of them. Reason is quite obvious, but for those new Diru fans out there that don't know, I think one of the members was the band's roadie, so this is a perfect match like D and Malice Mizer. Must say...I think this is the most repeated cover from this album. Not only to did they take a great classic Dir en grey song and follow along the original, but they made it very Merry! They kept the energy and craziness of it without being a Diru copycat but themselves. Moving onto Buck-Tick and DuelJewel which neither I'm a fan of. They cover "Jupiter" and basically keep it all the same without doing anything wild or special to it. Reaching the final track, I noticed that the band selection was more or less evenly distributed between indies and major/well-known bands because the last track is covered by an j-indies band by the name of DOG in the Parallel World Orchestra. They close out this album with Raphael's "Yume Yori Suteki na". This song really fits the band's original sound, so they could get away with sticking closely with the original arrangement and not get scolded too badly from me.

Overall, the album was very well compiled, although I wish they snuck some D'erlanger in there or maybe and exist†trace cover of a SHOW-YA song would be awesome, but what they picked made me check out other iconic bands that I don't normally listen to.

Quick Music Review

nil delete heads - InvisiblΣ (2010, Japan) Rating: 3/5
Favorite Tracks: Z & the ultimate

It all started with a calm, beautiful melody by the name of "dorothy", then it all erupted into "S.I.G" with loud music and aggressive vocals. The intense momentum continued to a song, that ended up leaving an imprint in my head, "Z". It had the right balance that was loud, but smooth at the same time. Insanity soon came out in the middle of this fabulous mini when I reached "coup d'etat". From there, it continued to get better and better with more intensity and even some surprising acoustic work. It's a shame that the band is disbanding when they're improving so much with their music.



AYABIE - Virgin Snow Color -2nd season- (2010, Japan) Rating: 2.5/5
Favorite Tracks: ZENAKU NO HIGAN, temptation, SHINKIROU, & TSUMETAI TE

Now for the album Ayabie fans have been anticipating and/or dreading. The "Virgin Snow Color -2nd season-" was beautiful, but I was still nervous to hear Yumehito's vocals. I wasn't extremely impressed with the first couple tracks. The balance between vocals and music was off. Either the vocals were too loud or too muffled. Going through the album felt a bit awkward. I like Yumehito and all, but his voice doesn't stand out that much compared to other bands (and Aoi). The music is enjoyable, which I'm not surprised about. It's the same mixture of computer sound bits and their upbeat rock sound they left Ayabie with. Most of the upbeat songs were simply okay to me. "PARADE" was probably the best one out of all of them. Yumehito's vocals didn't seem too out of place, the music was nice and consistent, and it kept my attention. They probably should've moved the track further up on the list. The ballads were a bit bland either due to the so-so vocals or the unbalanced sound levels, although "TSUMETAI TE" redeemed the ballad portion of this album [and earned a heart on my last.fm ^^;]. Overall, I'm not extremely impressed nor overly disappointed. The album is alright and I'm still a bit unsure if it's just me being a tad bit bias of old Ayabie with Aoi's vocals or it really is reality that the band is just alright. I look forward to what they have to bring next time, I know that for sure.



Merry - Yakou (2010, Japan) Rating: 4/5
Favorite Tracks: Yakou & Lost Generation -replay-

For me, Merry has been on a roll with their music. They have been consistent with keeping their unique jazz-rock fusion style and not making it stale. "Yakou" shows off that style very well, displaying Gara's unique vocals and a couple pace changes in their music, but still holding your hand throughout this beautiful ride of their music. The band went backwards a little and revamped "Lost Generation" for the single. I think it was just as good, if not better, than the original. The single ends with a pretty and great remix of the title track.



T-ara - Temptastic (2010, South Korea) Rating: 3.5/5
Favorite Tracks: YaYaYa & What's wrong

Another fun and wonderfully comprised mini by the lovely ladies of T-ara (and a new member). "YaYaYa" is another upbeat, fun, and nonsensical song like "Bo Peep Bo Peep", but there is a point to it of course, especially when you see the video to it. If you listen to it enough, it'll get stuck in your head. "What's wrong" is almost as catchy as the first track, but in a totally different and somewhat unknown way. "Ma Boo" is a bit more downtempo and shows off the girls' vocal abilities. The final two tracks, "I don't know" and "Nevermind", are opposite from their upbeat companions and are more slow tempo to balance out the energy and mood. They're both alright tracks, but I'm not much of a ballad-y person most of the time.