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Best thing at the moment: Daoko - Daisuki with TeddyLoid

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Weird Youtube recommendation. Music video from Japan. Youtube’s algorithm has found what works for me. If you open this on Youtube you can find English translation of lyric from comments. I liked the song and video before reading the translation. Translation made me like the song more and understand why video is what it is.

I thought I found new artist whose discography I need to get. Turns out this was collaboration and her regular music isn’t as edgy as this song. Not bad but it didn’t work as well when I checked it. I might still get whole album where this is from but I need to check it better. Thanks to Itunes I could get only this one first.

I don’t usually listen this kind of music but if song is good enough I listen any genre. Weirdness is always plus.

Best thing at the moment: Church of the Cosmic Skull - Cold Sweat

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I am listening Church of the Cosmic Skull’s latest album Everybody’s Going to Die when I write this. This video is from their previous album Science Fiction. Everybody’s Going to Die is going to be on my favorite albums of 2019 list. But this video is too good not to be shared. Church of the Cosmic Skull unapologetically play 70’s hard rock but they don’t feel like they try to sound like 70’s hard rock band. They are one but on 2019.

On their first album they thought they need to have everything in one song. Science Fiction took step to more streamlined direction. Everybody’s Going to Die goes even further into that direction. Science Fiction has been on my “one day I will buy this album” list for some time. Only reason I haven’t done it yet was because they added too many parts to their songs. You can see it in this song too. There is a part where song kind of lose its momentum and they start jamming. Even with that part this video is best thing at the moment.

I like how they have vision and how they go all in. Or this is what they are and they formed the band about forty years too late. Church of the Cosmic Skull has sister band Dystopian Future Movies. It is more modern band with its own vision and style. Worth checking if you enjoy “cinematic” rock music.

Best Albums of 2019 (First non-Japanese edition)

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If you have read my blog before you might know I have praised Japanese music lately. This is first non-Japanese list best albums of 2019. These are in no specific order.

Orville Peck: Pony

It is small miracle I found Orville Peck. It was one random Facebook status mentioning mask wearing country artist. Post didn’t mention he is openly gay. Well as openly as masked man can be. But that isn’t important. Music is. It is said this is country but it does remind lot of Roy Orbison. When I found Orville Peck he was most amazing thing ever. Good music and whole weird world of Orville Peck. You should check him even if you don’t like country.

Heilung: Futha

First time I heard about Heilung was at Tuska Open Air festival. When I read their introduction on Tuska’s site they sounded interesting band. I went see them without listening anything before. I thought I made big mistake going to near front row during first ten to fifteen minutes. Then it just started to work and I loved rest of the show. Video is from older show but song is from Futha. I wanted to show this video because it shows what Heilung’s live shows look like.

Protou: Anomalies

I guess it is time to add Cryo Chamber records here. I have bought almost everything they have released last few years. My relationship with the label is I trust everything they release will be something I like. Those few albums I haven’t bought are collaboration albums with hour long song. That long songs would mess up my playlists. Protou is one of my favorite artists on the label. Anomalies is her 2019 album.

Sur Austru. Meteahna Timpurilor

I have Avangarde Music subscription. They are not as reliable as Cryo Chamber. But when ever I think should I cancel my subscription they release something like Sur Austru’s Meteahna Timpurilor. Never heard of the band before but when I listened them I was completely blown away. Black metal is most interesting genre at the moment thanks to bands like Sur Austru.

Lana Del Rey: Norman F***ing Rockwell

I guess this is good point to have Lana Del Rey if I want to show I like all kinds of music. I was bit disappointed of her previous record but started to like it more as time has gone on. I didn’t have same problem with this one. Maybe all the time they took to make it paid off. I remember checking for ages when this come to preorder on iTunes.

Tool: Fear Inoculum

There was running joke “Tool releases new album before X happens”. Now we have that album. And it sold more than Taylor Swift which Swift’s fans didn’t like. I really hate the cover but I don’t have to watch it unless I am searching for video to add to this list. Music wise it was like they didn’t have the break. I don’t say it was worth the wait. There aren’t many bands who can make this kind of weird music work. I hope we don’t have to wait for next one this long.

Council of Nine: Davidian

I am running out of things to say about Cryo Chamber artists. All music they release aim to get you to similar mental state. Artists have differences. But if you play them back to back you have hard time telling which song is from which album unless it is one of those few albums which have something special on them or you don’t listen anything else than this genre. This similarity is not a bad thing. It is more of mark of quality and high standard label has. Council of Nine’s Davidian is one of the better Cryo Chamber releases.

Ghaal’s Wyrd: GastiR – Ghosts Invited

I waited for ages second God Seed album. It will never come. Ghaal’s Wyrd is Ghaal’s new band. I hope it releases more than God Seed. But you never know with Norwegian black metal projects. Artists make all-star bands which release one album and then go to next band. Ghaal’s Wyrd have same feeling I liked in God Seed and more really good songs. Not sure if this is all-star band, real band or Ghaal’s solo project.

Danko Jones: A Rock Supreme

Danko Jones released new album this year. Of course it is one of my favorite albums. I am not too much into basic rock n roll. Danko Jones is one of few artists in the genre I like and he has interesting podcast I have listened since the beginning. This either works or doesn’t. I guess it works for me since I have all his albums.

Julia Kent: Temporal

I might be little biased. Julia Kent liked one of my Instagram post. But I had her albums before that happened. I have soft spot for cellists’ solo albums. Should I say female cellists’. Or maybe I should say female cellists’ who are former members of Rasputina. Maybe not that last one. I like other cellists than Julia Kent and Zoe Keating too. Cello’s sound has something which makes it work as only instrument on a song or the main instrument. And cellist ladies make interesting cinematic music with it.

Ï guess this is good place to end this post. There will be at least two more best albums of 2019 posts coming. Current plan is one will be Asian edition and another Western edition. I might split the western edition two because there is probably more than enough good albums for it. Both are waiting albums to be released. I might not separate them by geography. Not sure yet.

Best thing at the moment: Hikaru Utada - Nijikan Dake No Vacance (feat. Sheena Ringo)

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Another post praising Japanese music. There will be more coming later. I found Sheena Ringo and Hikaru Utada from Sheena Ringo’s latest video. It was their duet on Sheena Ringo’s upcoming album. You can expect that album to be on my favorite albums of 2019 list. However I can’t get enough of their older duet from Hikaru Utada’s album.

I love everything about this video. Song is good. If I listened more of this kind of music it might not stand out so much as it does now. Video fits perfectly to smooth jazzy song. At least if you don’t understand the lyric. Which is the case with me. This whole thing gives me 60’s optimistic science fiction feeling. Someone should make a movie or tv-series heavily inspired by this music video. If there already something giving similar feeling I really want to see it.

It could be mix of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barbarella with more optimism and less sexual content. I am science fiction fan but I don’t remember seeing anything like that. Or have I? There is a movie called Space Station 76 which tried to be something like that. Maybe it wasn’t as optimistic as I want.

My Favorite Albums of 2018: Idol edition

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I made three posts of my favorite albums of 2018 at the end of the year. I said I might do one more. This is that one more. I joined Alternative Idols Facebook group and found few interesting bands from there. Some of those bands released good albums year 2018. First I though I add music from them to this year’s list mentioning their 2018 album I liked. But then I found group which hasn’t released anything on 2019. So it made more sense to have this post.

In this context Idol means Japanese idol culture where someone creates group of teen girls to perform music and dance to it. Sometimes results are just what you expect. But because this is Japan and band doesn’t make the music results can be interesting. Group could be based on weird idea which somehow works. Like Necronomidol which performs Lovecraft themed songs.

Necronomidol: Voidhymn

I had Necronomidol in original list and I wrote how they were best thing at the moment. I thought I never see them live. But then they came to Oulu earlier this week where I saw them. They didn’t play this song there which was bit odd since it is their latest music video. They played songs from their latest ep Scions of the Blasted Heat. That ep could be on this year’s list if they release music videos from. Their Oulu show was amazing. Venue was packed which I didn’t expect and audience liked what they saw.

Broken by the Scream: An Alien’s Portrait

This is first of the new findings. Broken by the Scream is good example what Idol group can be when done correctly. It mixes death metal with pop music staying more on death metal side. It could be good I don’t understand the words. Death metal parts could only style but it works when I don’t know what they sing about and they go full to death metal. Those parts could be on normal death metal song. I like how they mix two styles of death metal vocals.

Maison Book Girl: yume

This is the one non-metal group of the list. For someone new to idol culture most idol groups tend to melt together. Music is so generic and music videos look similar. Maison Book Girl doesn’t have that problem. Everything they do sounds and looks like Maison Book Girl. I almost like to say they are Radiohead of idol groups. Both give similar vibes. Yume has weird sound experiments in between songs. I had originally different video for this but changed it one which is now here because it shows better experimental nature of Maison Book Girl.

YukueshirezuTsurezure: exFallen

I could say almost same of YukueshirezuTsurezure as I said Broke by the Scream. YukueshirezuTsurezure is more sophicated than Broken by the Scream and less death metal like. Their other songs are closer to Broken by the Scream than this. YukueshirezuTsurezure use screaming parts more creatively for the needs of the song. Like in this one where screams are limited to one part. exFallen is YukueshirezuTsurezure’s second album. First one is good too but in exFallen everything falls in correct place.

There will be more Japanese music in favorite albums of 2019 list. I wanted to put these here so I don’t have to figure out way to include these groups because they released really good albums 2018.