Alice Nine - Gemini

It's been a while since I last mentioned any VK. But since I'm really into this album, I thought I might as well have a little squee over it.

First Impression

I'll be honest. I have always found a9's compositions to be awkward to listen to, and Shou's voice didn't always suit what he was singing. As a result, I only liked maybe 2 or 3 songs of theirs.

I got this album because I was quite tickled by the single they released prior, Senkou, but nevertheless I was a little apprehensive about it. I set myself up to not like it very much at all... However, I'm glad I gave it a chance, because it has really impressed me!

The feel of Gemini is quite...artistic, for lack of a better word. It seems that a lot of attention has been paid to each song, and none of it is awkward (i.e., having a nonsensical melodic progression. That's the best way I can describe it...). Mind you, I guess you could say that it sounds...well, 'major'. It's really not that bad though, and I can actually stand listening to every song from beginning to end. I remember listening to some of their older albums and stopping halfway through every song because I couldn't take it...

The Songs

So the album starts off with I., a lovely whimsical number that starts off nice and orchestral. The song is just really nice to listen to. (Since I'm not of musical persuasion, I won't delve into technical things since I'm not qualified.)

Rumwolf is a funky piece (again for lack of a better word) that I can imagine turning up really loud and headbanging with. It's not heavy, as I know heavy to be, but it's got a good beat that you can just go a bit crazy to. Can't say much about the solos, but I never really could anyway.

Next up is Stargazer. The opening has the feel of magic and wonder and sparkles, and the rest of the song has a cute, magical feel to it too. I really love this song; it's good to hear Shou sing a cute song and actually suit it. (I'm slapping my own wrist for that mean comment haha.) Honestly, listening to this song makes me feel like I'm flying through the clouds and sliding down rainbows...

Stargazer PV

4U doesn't sound like VK at all. It's very pop-y, but again quite whimsical-sounding and easy to listen to. Tbh, it's nice, but nothing about it jumps out at me. I like to listen to it on the bus to work - it helps me relax.

I didn't really like the way Shinkirou opened...but I was won over by the riff after it xD Still, this song has traces of awkward composition in it, but it doesn't get in the way too much. God I love that riff...

King&Queen didn't do much for me. The music is good, but the melody... just not my cup of tea, I guess. Nao is really going for it on the drums though. 8D

Then we get a little SE interlude with Entr'acte. What can I say about an SE? It does remind me of the opening of Still from Togainu no Chi though xD

Senkou really shines (see what I did there?) here, it's a good place to start where we left off in terms of songs. I love the melody, it's engaging and in my opinion, different from their past works. And I've always been a sucker for Shou's harmonies~

Senkou PV

I wasn't expecting much from Fuurin in the first few seconds, just from Shou singing alone, but when the music started, oh lord. This is my kinda song. Probably my favourite from this album, in fact. That is all.

Gemini-0-Eternal started off all mysterious and whatnot - I thought it would lead to disaster, but it didn't really. I like the little riffs and how they carry on into the rest of the Gemini trilogy, although sometimes I feel they played it a bit too much... There's a bit of Shou being awkward with the melody again, but it's just in one bit and the rest is good and epic-sounding. And unlike some of the other songs, I love the solo in this! It's very smooth but very emotional. And the break down afterwards is good too. I like how the beat changes in this song - keeps things interesting.

Gemini-0-Eternal PV

Gemini-I-The Void had a good strong start to it. It was very VK-sounding to me, but not that raw, unrefined sound - this has a very clean feeling to it. It's like a refreshing splash of water. Gawd I'm awful with my metaphors... Again, this song changes the pace a lot. It's like you're being taken through different chapters of a story. The little organ bit was super cool too - that was what triggered my opinion of it being 'artistic'. The song transitions nicely into something mellow towards the end, leading up to the next song.

In Gemini-II-The Luv, we get that riff that was in Gemini-0-Eternal. This piece has a really epic feeling to it, kinda what you expect to hear in the end credits of a hero movie. xD It also has the acoustic bit that was in Gemini-I-The Void. Basically it incorporates bits from the first two songs, which is good for closure and stuff. I do like how they stuck with an instrumental for the last few seconds of the song too.

Birth in the Death is a dreamy, melancholic number. I also really like songs like this, even though I don't have much to say about this particular song.

Overture is an interesting way to end the album. It sounds like a game ending or BGM to me...actually it'd be pretty good to use as one...

Conclusion

I like the general feel of the tracks - the dreaminess, the epic-ness - it's all very magical, celestial if you will. The album certainly suits its title! All in all, Gemini leaves me feeling quite good about the a9 boys. They're not just a bunch of pretty faces after all!

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When couples (or bands) dress alike.

Now before I continue, let me just say that this is a fashion critique, which does not necessarily translate into my feelings about the music. In case you can't tell.

Also a warning: This post contains a lot of words.


Let’s be honest – I like visual kei. I appreciate the diversity of both the sound and the style. I love the makeup and the flamboyant costumes. What I don’t like is when bands decide to wear ‘uniforms’.

I am talking about when the members of a band wear exactly the same thing. In such a case, you could take a photograph of the band, cut their heads out of the picture, and they would all look identical. Now, I understand that it’s supposed to represent some visual continuity between the bandmen, and that sometimes there is subtle variation between costumes; when the same colour schemes, a common theme, or similar materials have been used but each costume has been designed differently.

The rage-inducing aspect for me is when despite the use of different costume designs, it’s still extremely hard to tell the difference. If the costumes are distinguishable from one another it’s no big deal for me – e.g., D’s Ouka Saki look, or Malice Mizer’s Le Ciel.

When you all wear exactly the same thing for no formal reason, it doesn’t look visually consistent. It looks dumb.

There are a few bands that I listen to (and whose music I do like) who are repeat offenders, the worst of them being The GazettE.


I’ve noticed that they’re rather fond of their suits. That picture in the top right corner is from way back, showing that they’ve been committing this VK fashion faux pas forever! Suits are nice, but somewhat boring. It’s called visual kei for a reason. Though, on second thought, having a boring costume brings the audience’s focus onto your face and hair.

The white suits in the top left are okay. At first glance they look identical, but on closer inspection, Reita’s jacket is longer than everyone else’s, Kai’s cuts horizontally across the midriff, etc, etc. There are also minor differences in the detail on their pants. Big ups to the people who made the clothes for paying such attention to detail, but how many people would actually look so closely at this picture to appreciate it? Excluding myself, ofc. Nevertheless, I dislike how these suits appear the same at a glance. It wouldn’t attract any attention from a non-biased, non-Gaz-fangirl viewer.

Suits are one thing, but the costumes in the bottom three pictures make me cringe. The worst, in my opinion, would be their half-black-half-white costumes, of which I couldn’t find a good picture. They look childish and silly. The hoodies make them look like school kids.


The subject of hoodies brings me to the next band, Girugamesh.

It’s been a long time since I last saw these guys wear something unidentical. Being a band that doesn’t seem to place importance on their appearance, they don’t really try to make an impact with unique makeup/hair traits either (e.g., Reita’s noseband, Asagi’s one-eyedness, etc). So really unless you take the time to watch the band a lot, it’s hard to tell who’s who. You could go by height, but then there’d be two short ones (Ryo and Satoshi) and two tall ones (Nii and Shu).

Now, this is an honest problem I always encounter – it’s easy to tell Ryo from Satoshi. Ryo is cuter, like a little kid. But when it comes to telling Nii and Shu apart, especially when they’re in makeup, I can’t do it when I don’t concentrate. It probably isn’t that hard to distinguish between the two, but hey. VK bands purposefully make themselves look unique from their bandmates for dumb fangirls, in order to develop individual fanbases. It’s like how in Dir en grey’s early days, both Kaoru and Toshiya had blue hair, and fans kept getting them mixed up despite the fact that they look nothing like each other. Then Kaoru went purple/pink and all was well.


Now, onto a less offensive but still pretty bad band, Alice nine. They seem to like using similar colours and fabrics and making subtle variations in their costumes. Perhaps the variations are too subtle for my untrained eyes.

When I see these pictures, I don’t see themed costumes with subtle variations. I see a big explosion of blue, red and white/grey/black/red. The last of which hurts my eyes the most. To be honest, I quite like the suits in the top picture. I amassed several pictures from this photoshoot, but it took me about a year to realise that there were, in fact, variations in each costume.

My initial thought of the second picture is that the redness of everything takes the attention away from the details in the outfits. That and the fact that they are all costumes based on pants and jackets predisposes them to dismissal by viewers, and there will be few who take the time to appreciate the intricacy.

In the bottom picture, the members are all wearing something different, but made with the same eyesore of a print. Again, they all have lapels and pants. They even blend in with the background. I think the picture is too busy, and for this reason I rarely look at pictures from this shoot.


And what of the bands who do it right? Of course, nobody gets it right all the time. It’s just that the aforementioned ones do it wrong in so many instances.

Examples of bands who have played well with themes, materials, and colour schemes (at one time or another) include:

D. Not including Kuon, and Kaze ga Mekuru Peeji. xD

I love their Ouka Saki look. The theme of traditional kimono with a twinge of goth/punk looks really good, and each outfit is memorable. Nocturnal’s batty theme was also handled well, even in spite of everything being black. I think it works when each of the members has their own typical style (like how Ruiza and Tsunehito are usually the ones in skirts, Hiroki likes his chest and legs to be bare, and Hidezou enjoys wearing suits).

On the subject of suits, that shot of them in the Tafel Anatomie era (right hand side) is a good example of this. Asagi has his own personal flair with the leopard print tie. Tsunehito shows off his style with the cross & ribbon bow-tie and the skirt with a flash of thigh. Hiroki looks cool with his tie loosened slightly. Can’t say much about the other two though lol.


D=OUT. So far anyway.

Their Flashback outfits are to my taste. There’s an ongoing theme, but it’s obvious that no two pieces are the same. Another look I haven’t included is Koi no Vacance, where they all wear white suits with black shirts, but they all have unique, contrasting ties. Kouki looks spiffing in his white bowtie~


Sendai Kamotsu. OF COURSE.

Nightmare’s alter ego band is so easily recognizable by the colours red and gold, but there are no difficulties in telling each member apart based on their costumes. Especially Chiba, whose costume is quite often no costume. x_x





So there are my thoughts on identical costumes. There are a lot of other bands I could go on about e.g. Dir en grey. However that would take way too long… I think I’ve had enough ranting for one day.

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Alice nine - Rainbows

Out of the ashes, a fangirl has been resurrected. D:



Herein I shall devote my posts to squeeing over various people/things as I see fit. And maybe add in some witty or intellectual comment along the way. Maybe.



Squeeing has always been my forte.





ANYWAY. This post is dedicated to Alice nine., and their PV for Rainbows.






I don't know what it was about this video - whether it was the treadmill-catwalk or Saga's awkward shoulder pads or Shou's stupid glasses or the fact that the song is so oddly CATCHY (unlike a lot of their other songs) - but once I watched it, I was so overcome that I decided to create a whole new blog just so I could fangirl over it!


I actually like the guitar work in this song too. Now I'm no music expert, but this sort of tune really...er...strikes a chord...with...me..........


I also really love how Saga whips his head around like no tomorrow. I dunno. It's the fangirl in me. I've always loved that guy. I even bought a Banaki pencil case 'cos it looks like him...


Dunno...usually I'm not one to enjoy PV's that don't tell a good story, but I was so distracted by the damned coolness of this PV that I forgot my preferences altogether. I may even look into a few more Alice nine. works later. I almost feel bad for suddenly dropping them several years back.

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