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Comments
These things keep getting weirder and weirder. Also, I was not the only one to think at first, on the basis of the band's name and song title, that this was going to be stoner rock.
From what it appears, it's just synthwave with a Russian name for a dose of Soviet nostalgia. Perhaps someone who grew up in Russia might recognize a tune or two from a popular science show, but I didn't, so I can only have a hunch there might be that. Oh, and sometimes there's some speaking in Russian, from what I can gather it's fragments of speeches or old movies.
I'm really getting a kick out of Ohashi Ayaka's EDM/future-bass phase.
hey @glennmagusharvey is this the kind of "idols with pants" you'd want to know about
You know the first three notes of Shuta Sueyoshi's 'Run Away' are also the first three notes of TLC's 'No Scrubs'.
Been recently in a dungeon synth mood again. This one seems to belong to those that are more like video game soundtrack than others.
(note: positive opinions only since i originally made these for personal use)
WARNING: these are spoilers for sporcle quizzes
3:30 sounds nice - iM@S Cinderella Girls 2
6:30 fripside song
9:40 interesting - shoujo-tachi wa kouya wo mezasu
9:50 symphogear? - chuunibiyou demo koi ga shitai! ren
11:10 nice song - Snow White of the Red Hair 2
12:30 reminds me of GC OP - just because
14:20 7/4? time - Tokyo Ghoul rootA
15:00 nice - iM@S SideM
0:50 nice song - phantom
4:10 english? - mushishi
4:20 seventh chords lolol - renai boukun
5:30 nice - new game
5:40 action song - lostorage incited wixoss
5:50 trancepop - zero no tsukaima: futatsuki no kishi
6:10 nice B major, meh voice - food wars
6:20 trancepop - accel world
8:20 B-flat major - Gosick
9:50 I SHOULD KNOW THIS - DAL
12:30 raaave - baka to test to shoukanjuu
13:40 male voice + trancepop - musaigen no phantom world
14:30 pleasant voice - nagi no asakura
14:40 happy C major - hibike euphonium
15:00 B-flat major - ore monogatari
1:00 nice? - sora no method
1:10 I SHOULD KNOW THIS (4-51) - shuffle
4:30 male voice E major - fairy tail (where are you going?)
5:50 calm - mushishi
6:30 nana mizuki? B minor - The Fruit of Grisaia
6:40 i should know this?
7:00 interesting - rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto - nodame cantabile paris-hen
7:50 b-flat minor - owari no seraph 2
8:00 bright c major - little witch academia
8:10 i should know this one? - ef
9:10 i should know this one? - zero kara hajimeru mahou no sho
9:30 RITSUKO OKAZAKI - sukitte ii na yo
11:30 lullaby - amanchu
12:10 nice? - sousei no onmyouji
12:40 nice? - grimgar
15:30 nana mizuki? - white album
I guezz ZAQ's style can be similar to Symphogear but she's Lantis and they tend to not work with Elements Garden. I think ZAQ and TRUE share more similarities with each other than any Symphogear type songs.
"nice song - Snow White of the Red Hair 2"
Sono koe ga chizu niiiii naruuu~
I loved this song when the show was airing, and I got into Hayami Saori for a bit after, but the A-side to this single (Installation) is probably the only song by her that I've found has lasting value with me.
" male voice + trancepop - musaigen no phantom world"
I did not know this had an OP by SCREEN mode. Fun~
"nice B major, meh voice - food wars"
You know you might also mean a SCREEN mode song here (there's a lot of Shougeki no Soma).
"nice? - sora no method"
I think I genuinely loved this OP but my memory of it is heavily marred by the infuriating experience that was actually watching half of Sora no Method.
"nana mizuki? B minor - The Fruit of Grisaia"
Grisaia is always Kurosaki Maon and Nanjo Yoshino so probably the former. I don't think I've ever thought Maon sounded like Nana, ever. Nana has a very authoritative, classical voice. Maon is similarly authoritative, but in a more modern style that approaches Sasaki Sayaka.
"trancepop - accel world"
I bet you mean May'n's ('''''') Chase the world rather than ALTIMA's Burst The Gravity.
"nice? - sousei no onmyouji"
You better not be talking about the epic sync by lol~~~~
which is actually by Agematsu.
I did correctly identify fripSide and Ritsuko Okazaki
and yeah it's the other Accel World OP, not Burst the Gravity
For some reason I assume you can't recognize Nanjo Yoshino by herself but I think that's just visually.
Anyways, more people should listen to Installation.
I recognized fripSide by the combination of the voice and the style of the music -- trancepop, long flowing melodies, very regular musical phrase structures, minor-key pop harmony.
I know it's not standard practice to put B-sides on albums, but please put Born Free on CANNONBALL RUNNING.
pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase ;-;
Sincerely,
14w.
In unrelated stuff, I usually am not a fan of the less conceptual Aikatsu! Series OPs, the ones that play more into the jazzy realm, but I find Aikatsu Friends!' three OPs oddly endearing.
this is why subtonic-to-I (or i) cadences feel completely natural (no pun intended) to me, while i think they stick out more to my old music theory teacher
perhaps if i only grew up with classical music, they would feel foreign
meanwhile, i just ran into someone who describes various features (e.g. IV V iii vi) as a way to make something sound "japanese"
but
i don't even think of them as "japanese" features, and it's actually a little awkward for me to say it that way, because while japan the country (and much of its culture) is foreign to me, these features are very much not foreign to my basic musical understanding
Dragon Quest X official piano transcriptions book
* only one left!
* noticeably discounted!
on the other hand
> [composer Koichi] Sugiyama is a Nanjing Massacre denialist [source: Wikipedia article linked below]
FYI, that's not to say his music is bad. And it's a purchase I don't necessarily have to make and I'm probably not really gonna miss not having it, particularly since I haven't played DQX at all and am just browsing for stuff.
There's probably other stuff I've bought that was made by people who are Nanjing Massacre denialists, given that I've been consuming Japanese pop culture for years now. Not only would it not surprise me at all, it'd surprise me more if I *haven't* unknowingly encountered someone like this before.
Also he's obviously not the first musician to have problematic political views, nor will he be the last, by any means.
Though he IS particularly politically active and is on the board of a notable policy think-tank allied with historical revisionists.
That's... excessive.
I don't really know where to draw the lines on this stuff either.
I think with individual people there's a much more broad line. You have an ideological disagreement with his views, one that you take somewhat seriously.
Personally I don't like to support boycotts on people.
In this case, it doesn't seem all too important a purchase and it's your call to make really.
re: Japanese artists; I was really surprised to find out that lecca of all people was a
supporterprominent member of an ultra-conservative party that isn't too big on immigration of any sort.She hasn't actually made any music since High Street, the album this song is on, but it's still hands-down one of the best albums of this decade.
(note that Dm Bb C F is an incarnation of my favorite chord progression, i (b)VI (b)VII III)
also that Eø7 chord -- that iiø7 chord -- going to the dominant then the tonic, that really lends this song such a rich stream of pathos
the refrain too -- it's just in F minor instead, but it's now Fm Db Eb Ab Bbm Gø7 C Fm. Same progression though -- i VI VII III iv iiø7 V i.
FYI ø7 means half-diminished chord. So, in the above progression, in D minor, the chords go:
D F A
Bb D F
C E G
F A C
G Bb D
E G Bb D
A C# E
D F A
I can't remember Destiny at all so at least you're somewhere in the right direction.
02:19:31 GlennMobileHarvey: ...i feel like i've listened to "Chikai" before
02:20:11 GlennMobileHarvey: i remember noticing the 5+4 pattern in the rhythm
02:21:16 GlennMobileHarvey: for some reason i don't think i've ever warmed up to utada much
02:21:22 GlennMobileHarvey: except for like one song
02:21:30 GlennMobileHarvey: this feels repetitive
02:22:29 GlennMobileHarvey: also too jazzy for the specific feel i'm going for
02:22:50 GlennMobileHarvey: i mean i don't only like that particular thing i'd been trying to describe
02:24:22 GlennMobileHarvey: though specifically with regards to "Chikai" i feel that it's jazzy in a way that i don't really like...contrast, say, how "waiting for the rain" is jazzy in a way i love
also i really wish we could voice chat and also during the day then i could piano for you
Probably? I feel like it's been long enough that people have to have heard if it if they're looking for Japanese music online.
Well, that's modern Utada Hikaru for you in a nutshell.
It'll feature (deep breath) Wakeshima Kanon, Boku no Lyric no Bouyomi, SawanoHiroyuki[nZk], frequent [nZk] collaborator mizuki, and anime violinist Ayasa.
It'll also feature songs composed by Kanon, [nZk], Kajiura Yuki and Abe Mao.
So, kind of a big deal.
Okay it's in the top 10.
Remember that guy whose song I was obsessed with a year or so back? Well, he came back and decided to be a rapper, and his main fashion rap obsession appears to be... Michael Kors?
I was surprised that this was not an ad, but not one to miss an opportunity, the Michael Kors brand did eventually use it in an instagram ad campaign.
Also I feel like there are a lot of music videos coming out of Europe that feature old folks homes (or old folks in general), but that might just be me.
Also also Hungarian rappers love to have guitars even when the song has what amounts to negative guitars in it (well, this one has some).
So of course now there's a Super Special Christmas Edition coming out. I mean, three copies of a British album barely amounts to one Japanese album, but come on.
Speaking of Jack Savoretti, here's some of his older (does 2015 count as older?) pseudo-disco fun:
i love how darkly ominous this sounds, thanks to the chromaticism
examples of this are the flattened 2nd scale degree ("neapolitan"), and the flattened 5th within a chord
so the first four chords are:
Edim7 (E G A# C#) (over an E pedal)
FM7/E (E F A C) (over an E pedal)
B7b5/D# (D# F A B ) (over an E pedal)
Emin (over an E pedal) (and there's also an A# in the accompaniment because they need a fourth note and this chord only has three notes)
the first chord is the diminished 7th chord, which is like the classic though rather cliche "oh no! bad things are happening" chord. however, when it's used in the usual way it's usually built using these scale degrees: the second, the fourth, the (flattened or natural minor) sixth, or the (raised, if in minor) seventh. Here, on the other hand, it's built on the first, third, raised fourth (or flattened fifth, depending on how you hear it), and raised sixth (or flattened seventh, specifically flattened beyond natural minor). I hear it as raised fourth and raised sixth, because that's a common formulation that resolves to the dominant chord (a B chord in this case), though a case could be made for spelling the A# as a Bb so as to serve also as a flattened scale degree 5 and in its leading down to A. (but i think A# makes sense as we have A# to B later on, and not much in the way of bluesiness that'd justify a Bb.) (meanwhile Db makes less sense IMO because we have D# soon, and Dnat later.)
the second chord is a Neapolitan chord (a bII chord), with a major seventh added on top of it by virtue of having the E (the tonic note) basically just held from the previous chord. The other three notes are all downward resolutions from the corresponding three notes from the previous chord. This downward motion could result in iiø7 in 4-2 inversion (i.e. Fm7b5/E) if everything stayed diatonic, but the Neapolitan color of the flattened supertonic note (F instead of F#) lends a darker color to this and also clashes conspicuously with the E that's just a half-step away (and note that it's spelled so that they're played next to each other rather than spaced apart, and they're also right at the bottom of the chord so it's not just something used to give sonority to the top of the chord -- and besides, this is not the tonic chord so a M7 chord here is meant to be unstable).
the third chord is a B7b5 chord. (Not to be confused with any m7b5 chord.) A typical progression from the Neapolitan would be to go to the dominant (or dominant seventh) then the tonic, but here, this chord substitutes for the dominant seventh. This chord keeps the F natural from the previous chord (rather than resolving it upward to F#), thereby creating a chord that has two whole steps stacked together -- A and B on top, and D# and F (a diminished third, technically, but having the same interval length as a major second or whole step). The result is a dominant seventh chord that feels unnervingly flattened.
the fourth chord is the resolution to all of this -- it's just an E minor chord. the figuration in the background adds an A# (or Bb, but for scoring convenience A# spelling is preferred since it occurs next to a B natural), which keeps some flavor of those clashes in earlier chords.
later on, when the main melody comes in, it outlines an E minor with major seventh and ninth (E G B D# F#), clearly working those dissonances. the F# resolves to a G later, then there's a chord change to a B minor chord while the melody plays A#, A# F# D B (another chord that's minor with major seventh). and then the next chord after that is an Amin chord with an added G# -- yet another minor chord with major seventh. these major sevenths just keep coming, and have the result of really emphasizing that sense of tension.
and the first long note in the melody is a major 9th above the bass. or, in other words, a major 2nd, just spaced out. it's still kinda dissonant. the next long note is one of those major 7ths -- a G# on top of the bass A. The next E minor chord features half-step appogiaturas going from major 7th to octave (D# E over bass E), augmented 4th to perfect fifth (A# B over bass E), major second to minor third (F# G over bass E), and then similar figuration over an A minor chord.
and it gets more chromatic even later on.
oh yeah, G to A# is an augmented second. it sounds awkward because it's supposed to sound awkward(ly stretched).
oh gosh the end of the first phrase of the main melody is an evil resolution toward landing on the dominant chord.
So the basic structure of the phrase is
E minor chord (8 beats) - minor tonic chord (i)
A minor chord (8 beats) - minor subdominant chord (iv)
E minor chord (4 beats) - minor tonic chord (i)
A minor chord (4 beats) - minor subdominant chord (iv)
[something to set up the dominant] (4 beats)
B minor chord (4 beats) - minor dominant chord (v)
i'll get to the preparation before the B minor chord in a moment, but first, let's talk about that B minor chord.
the B minor chord would typically be a B major or B7 chord (7 chord is major with minor 7th, so a B major chord is a subset of a B7 chord). That's the thing that'll just lead naturally back to the tonic chord (in this case E minor, which does basically come next, though not before the intro is replayed.
in this case however it's a B minor with...stuff. first, it's B minor which feels sorta flattened from the usual. if it's just a B minor chord alone with no chromaticism, it would sound like standard modal dominant minor chord from rock, and if you took out the chromaticism from here it'd just sound bland. no, instead, there's something very "wrong" going on all around this, and that feeling comes from the chromaticism and heavy use of non-chord tones to give additional, clashing sonority.
what's the melody doing? A# B D F F# G# C#????? what the flying hell is this? not even if we respell the F as an E# (to lead to F#) does this make sense. but of course, it's supposed to sound weird and creepy and "off", with the melody rising like it ends on a question like that. The A# is an ornament on the B, the F (or E#) is an ornament on the F#, the B D F# are part of the B minor chord, and the...G# and C# just don't make much sense. but in a way that feels appropriate here.
the alto plays B....A D. besides spelling out a pun (likely unintentionally, since there's nothing actually bad about it), it's actually done so that the A lines up with the melody's G#, a major seventh above, and the D lines up with the melody's C#, also a major seventh above. this clashing effect keeps happening.
so yeah, that's the B minor chord. (the bass is just the B, and the tenor arpeggiates a B minor chord.)
what prepares it?
two chords of two beats each.
first, look at the bass. we could walk up from the A to the B, but instead, this track leaps DOWN, a third at a time...going from A to F (natural) to D to B. in doing so, a tritone is outlined in the bass.
so the first chord is an F something, and the second chord is a D something. the tenor tells us what they are:
F minor with major 7th (F Ab C E)
D half-diminished (7b5) (D F Ab C, or here spelled as D Ab C F)
the alto plays a straight Ab (or G#, whichever).
the melody plays D# E F D# E F D# E F D# E F. so we're putting a half-step ornamental note off of that dissonant major seventh (E) of the chord (F minor with major 7th). more chromaticism. and the two notes above that are the two clashing notes of the chord itself. in the next chord, only the F is a chord note, so we've got D# and E as non-chord notes...while the bass is in the bottom playing D natural. so we've got Dnat, D#, E, and Fnat all going at nearly the same time. this cluster of notes is brief but sorta explodes into the resolution, that B minor with other stuff going on including a melody that flies off to an odd high C#.
TL;DR how to write music that sound very evil.
and the very next beat starts with E in the bass and D# in the melody.
fripSide - "Black Bullet"
I like the refrain's chords a lot.
The chords are as follows:
key: G minor
phrase 1:
Gmin (minor tonic chord, or i) (4 beats)
Eb (major (flat) submediant chord, or (b)VI) (4 beats)
F (major subtonic chord, or (b)VII) (4 beats)
Bb (major (flat) mediant chord, or (b)III) (2 beats)
2 beats of an A in the bass and the other instruments make it imply a Dmin chord on A (which would be a minor dominant chord, or v64) in passing
phrase 2:
Gmin (minor tonic chord, or i) (4 beats)
Cmin (minor subdominant chord, or iv) (4 beats)
F (major subtonic chord, or (b)VII) (4 beats)
Eb or Eb9 (major (flat) submediant chord with major 7th and 9th, or (b)VI9) (2 beats)
F (major subtonic chord, or (b)VII) (2 beats)
phrases 3 and 4:
[repeat everything above] (32 beats)
ending mini-phrase:
Cmin (minor subdominant chord, or iv) (2 beats)
Dmin (minor dominant chord, or v) (2 beats)
Gmin (minor tonic chord, or i) (4 beats)
(the flats in parentheses are depending on what people prefer to read: some people base their chord symbols on the notes of the major scale, while some people (such as myself) base their chord symbols on the diatonic notes of whatever key the context is. It just happens so that the 3rd, (neutral) 6th, and (neutral) 7th scale degrees are different between minor and major, with the minor versions being a half-step lower. So, for example, I would write this as "i , VI , VII , III v64 i , iv , VII , VI9 VII i , VI , VII , III v64 i , iv , VII , VI9 VII iv v i , " while other people would put a flat before each of the III, VI, and VII chords.)
It's 18 bars long, assuming 4 beats to each bar. Neat sets of four-bar phrases like the first four phrases while already common in anisong (plus a variety of other music, even classical), are particularly characteristic (among other things) of fripSide songs, so I presume they're characteristic of Satoshi Yaginuma (a.k.a. Sat)'s songs since he's the composer.
My favorite part of these chord progressions is the difference between phrases 1&3 and phrases 2&4. Specifically, the Eb chord vs the Cmin chord.
Basically, the Eb chord has a particularly poignant quality to it, especially with the melody above it going "C Bb A G G". The Eb chord contains Eb G Bb as its chord notes. The melody's C resolves downward to the Bb, and the A is a passing note going downward from Bb to G. This figuration puts both of the chord notes on weak sub-beats, accenting the downward motion of the ornamental notes -- which could be called "appogiaturas" because they're non-chord-notes that arrive on a strong (sub)beat an resolve to a weak (sub)beat. The Bb A G sequence, particularly, has the A above the Eb in the bass, which produces a dissonant tritone -- particularly one that normally "wants" to resolve upward, considering its context as an augmented fourth interval, and the A also being the leading tone of the key of Bb major -- but here, it has to resign itself to resolving downward.
(The tritone is so called because it is composed by stacking three "whole tone" intervals, i.e. two half-steps or a whole step, for example Eb-F, F-G, G-A.)
This underlying progression -- i VI VII III -- is also my favorite progression. One of the reasons is because it is a minor key progression that tonicizes -- that seems to move toward or otherwise suggest temporarily -- its relative major key. If we don't change the notes but just change the key, this same progression is vi IV V I in the relative major (here, Bb major). And IV V I is a strong cadence in a major key, which gives the music a forward momentum. If this chord progression is in minor, this forward momentum is still present, but it feels like the minor key is trying to reach for something, trying to modulate to the major key, giving a temporarily brighter color to the harmony (though this is often fleeting). This swirl of emotional elements is often what lends this progression a strong sense of emotion, of pathos, in my opinion.
The fourth above the fourth note (the subdominant) in a major key -- i.e. the seventh note, the leading tone (it's called a leading tone in major, but subtonic in minor unless raised), always forms this tritone with this subdominant note. (The subtonic forms a perfect fourth, which does not have the same effect.) Sure enough, A is the fourth note above Eb, and Eb is the subdominant of Bb major.
So that's phrases 1&3: we've got C Bb A G G over an Eb chord.
In phrases 2&3, we have the same melody...but instead we have a C minor chord (C Eb G).
Here, the C is the chord note now, not the Bb. The G is also a chord note. But so our strong (first) subbeat has a chord note, not an appogiatura. And there is no longer a poignant tritone that wants to go up but is forced downward. A on C here is, while not a chord tone, relatively consonant (same as C on Eb earlier), and Bb on C (a minor 7th interval) is less dissonant than the tritone. (There's still somewhat of a tritone between the Eb in the chord and the A, but it's less prominent.
Meanwhile, the bass is now C instead of Eb. The bass took a larger leap downward from G, and instead of stepping upward from Eb to F, it'll leap upward from C to F.
This whole thing gives a different flavor to the chord -- it's still a pre-dominant chord setting up the F chord that is the dominant in the temporary key of Bb major and leads to the Bb chord (the temporary tonic) -- but this time it feels darker, but with more hardened conviction.
TL;DR - change the harmonization of a melody and you change its color.