The band METAFIVE reminds me of David Byrne and Talking Heads more than anyone else ever has. That seems kind of appropriate, since the band was formed around Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Takahashi Yukihiro early in 2014, as those of you who saw his interview earlier this year on J-Melo already know. Don’t think he is carrying the younger members of the band, though; it is a bit of a super-group, with 2 heavy hitter veteran musicians, a singer/songwriter who already had a long list of chart climbers under his belt, and one each famous producer and equally famous DJ. This track is the studio live version of their song Don’t Move, and it is quite impressive. It is also very different than the studio version that will be released on their new album Meta coming out this January 13th. My only regret about the album is I still haven’t heard any of the other 11 songs, unless the few tracks Takahashi played on that J-Melo episode were from it; even if they were, he played by himself, so I have no idea how they would sound with the whole band playing together. Guess I will have to wait until January 13th along with everyone else to find out.
The Baseballs are a German Rockabilly band with attitude, and if you are not already familiar with them you should be! They already have a huge library of music to their credit, and I can’t wait to see what they do next. The first track here is Umbrella, the second is Chasing Cars, the third is Hot N Cold, and the 4th is Candy Shop. Sadly, I can’t seem to find a Baseballs video to embed that is anything like a currently acceptable video quality, but perhaps that was a deliberate attempt to invoke those classic days. Or perhaps everyone in Germany watches their music on cell phones only, which would work with these. However low rez the video is, the music remains world class!
Lindsey Stirling has a great sound and a large range; if you haven’t been listening so far, now is the time to start. The first track from tonight’s collection is Roundtable Rival, a very nice Steampunk kind of song (her “Shatter Me” is also quite SteamPunk). The next is Dragon Age, which goes straight to the heart of one of my favorite MMORPGs. She follows up quite nicely with Master of Tides, another wonderful SF/F kind of track that shows off what a truly innovative technical team can do with the input from an inspired performance. Her music is quite tasty, you should check it out every chance you get.
The band’s name is Frederic (or フレデリック if you read Asian text), and they have some amazing music. The first here is Owarase Night, the second is OddLoop, and they are both quite good. The band is a 4-piece from Kobe the twin brothers Kenji Mihara and Koji Mihara put together. Take a look and see if you don’t like them, and let me know what you think.
Today is the day Wasteland, the new Abney Park album, is being released, so I thought it was appropriate to share a few of their songs here for those that may not have heard them. The first track is their rendition of Minnie The Moocher from the new album, with Captain Robert doing an amazing job of channeling Cab Calloway. The next song is Wasteland Warrior, also from the new album. We follow that with a few old favorites, Two Elixirs from the album Nomad, and the extended version of Steampunk Revolution from Ancient World. You can use the link to their home page to hear a lot more, and pick up any of the music you find interesting.
I first came across RIP Slyme as the song Super Shooter embedded in the anime Gantz, and liked them for being brave enough to be associated with it. Of course, the song was perfect for the show, so it made sense they wanted to be part of the project. After about the third other song I heard from them I began to like them as a band. Sadly, it looks like they signed with Warner Music about 5 years ago, and Gantz was done 6 years ago. So far I haven’t found an official version of that song I can include here because of that change of contract. Here are a few tunes for you to check out that I am allowed to post, so you can make your own decision. Let’s start with their latest release JUMP featuring Chay, which came out on September 30th as part of their 10th album. The next track is Star.