2 posts tagged “maya”

LMC

Yes...finally I am freed from the enslaving obsession with NANA.
I'm not watching the anime or reading the manga anymore....which
means I get my life back. Not that it was a bad obsession or
anything! It just sort of took over my life, is all. And now that I
can actually justifiably count down the days until I leave for Japan,
I have to stop slacking off and get down to business. Maybe later.
There are still computer troubles....oh they go on eternally. People
tell me "Oh, you have to shut it down every night when you're not
using it." But you know how much trouble it is? It takes like ten
minutes for my internet to kick off in the morning if I shut it down!
But I guess it's better than having it freeze halfway through whatever
I'm doing and have to restart and lose stuff..

So last week sometime I heard [Sentimental Piggy Romance] by LM.C.
If you recall, I was interested but not entirely sold. Well, I've been
listening to them a lot recently and watching a lot of PVs, in the hopes
of hearing something really good and seeing something really cool.
To say I'm sold is an understatement.

  I do this thing with people, too...Usually when I meet people I have a
"god they were obnoxious" or "they seemed really cool" experience.
More often than not I end up hating the people I originally thought
were cool, and actually end up really liking the ones I didn't like at first.
I often do this with bands, as well. When I find a band I just *love*
I usually get sick of it in a week, but bands I'm not so sure about....
usually become my favorites. :D So don't worry about trying to make
a good first-impression with me. Best to insult me and give me the cold-
shoulder. I find that really magnetic. But ANYway, fascinating as I'm sure
my warped psychology may be, let's get back on topic here...

  I think it was around when I heard "Oh My Juliet"  and "Cosmology".
Every time I would open iTunes on my computer I would go to the
store and browse LM.C without ever buying anything. I was just, y'know,
thinking about it. So finally the fateful day came... and I bought
 
GIMMICAL IMPACT~ LM.C

Two of my major complaints with some CDs these days are that 1: the
volume balance between music and vocals is slightly in the music's favor.
This shouldn't be. The other one is that 2: all the songs sound the same.
Most groups have a "signature" sound-- for example I can immediately
tell whether it's a Malice Mizer or an AnCafe song just by the guitar
riffs. This should be, after all we like these bands for a certain reason
(because we like their sound), and it's distracting and can be confusing
when a band changes their style too often (think song to song). But
sometimes they really do sound *exactly* the same.

  The first two things that immediately struck me about GIMMICAL IMPACT
was that the music-vocal balance was really nicely done, which is helped by the
fact that Maya has a really clear, distinguishable voice. It's not getting lost
anywhere. I really do like his voice-- it's quite striking and interesting (without
being strange at all).
  The other thing I noticed was that almost every song sounds really different.
Some songs are very electronicky, while others are more heavy-rock
in their use of effects and guitar. They even use spots of rap when they feel
like it, and actually pull it off.
The selection is really nicely balanced between the different styles
(so you're not stuck with too much of one kind), without it getting at all
distracted or overloaded. The pacing of the CD is well-done as well, without
any jarring transitions from melancholy or happy to heavy.
  Again, each song is really well done-- very interesting and different melodies,
both music and vocal-wise, which has you favoriting all of them and then
never having to change tracks unless you're bi-polar.
 
  Overall I think they have a great sound. It's really balanced, so I can't stop
describing them this way, haha. It's just hard to find good music, good vocals,
good variety, and cool vocal melodies and lyrics paired with a unique image.
They're like....cute....without being....cute. I think if you're a Jrock fan, you'll
understand this cryptic description. :D    
  On the topic of image: I think I originally described them as American-rock-influenced.
I spoke too soon, ahhhh....I spoke much too soon, shame on me. They're not really...
I mean, unless they claim to be-- in which case I would be redeemed, haha. I mean,
you could say they are, because they don't really do the whole "Harajuku look thing"
as I so articulately describe it. They're like... colorful. Wooooooo! Go me with my
awesome vocabulary! I think we can leave it at that, yeah....Let's do that.
So anyway, it's actually a breath of fresh air. Cool stuff.

I'm going to have to consider buying Super Glitter Loud Box next....
ahhh, iTunes gift cards slip through my fingers like a handful of sand....  
 
 
 
  

  Wanna know something? Well, I'm kind of peeved at Vox (again). I keep having problems, because apparently I'm the first person to ever be audacious enough to want to put images directly into posts. Now you would think that because this is a feature Vox seems to be kind of proud of, they would make it easy to do. They do, they just also happen to make it very easy to screw up. Somehow I end up freezing Firefox or blasting my
fully-written post into the stratosphere of lost posts and emails...
And then I must get on my knees and pray to the Internet Gods for
forgiveness, may they free me from the karmic bonds of all my great web-wide sins.
  That also reminds me. Toshiba-san hasn't been very well recently, which is a cause of
great concern to me. I may have to take him to the doctor-guy for some kind
of check-up, as long as it's "complimentary".
I'm not sure what happened, but for some reason things have
been running kind of slow since the middle of the week...Certain
sites have been kinda wonky and such. I'm not sure what could be
the problem, though, considering that I deleted over 300 files and moved
a bunch of stuff onto backup so it wouldn't be weighing down the system.
The internet also takes a while to start up, although that has been a lot
better lately... And the left-clicker is broken. But that happened a long time
ago, haha....
  I guess it just isn't all that simple anymore.

Anyway... 
I think it's funny, because I had never listened to LM.C before last night.
I didn't even know they existed. But then I was watching... I can't even
remember. It was another long youtube sprint. I was watching something
and one of the "You Might Enjoy..." videos on the selection was...I can't
remember the title, either, but it was an LM.C song with an interesting title.
If my understanding is correct, most of their songs have such interesting titles.
Oh! The song was....no, wait, nevermind. It's no good, I really can't remember.
  They finally seem to be a band that doesn't get mobbed with Visual Kei
labels (?)...They're a good example of kei-less rockers, haha. Their look is
really weird...Very '90s. It almost reminds me of more the American band
look... Not in a bad way, just...in a way. I think they sound pretty interesting,
and they stand out of the crowd. Their PVs are very strange... A couple of songs
in particular jumped out at me, and I think this is really exciting, because this week
is the week where I set out to discover all these hit songs that I can't stop
listening to. I'm just lucky if iTunes happens to have the songs I find. ^^