Review Backlog Clearout #1: Guso Drop - Meshi no Tane

So, this is something I've been needing to do for about two years, but I've got like loads idol albums to review. This isn't really a good situation, because some of them are fucking good, and some of them are fucking terrible, and I want to tell people how good or shit they are.

Obviously, last time I reviewed an album I gave it 10. I still stand by it. So the next "album" (it's an EP, actually), is by the same agency and same producer, and one of the same idols. But with 4 extra idols.

It's also a completely different style.

I will now list the albums I need to review because holy shit there are a fuckton of them and I need to remind myself of the gravity of the task facing me.

Bellring Shoujo Heart - Undo the Union
Cheeky Parade - Cheeky Parade I
Denpagumi.inc - WWDD
FRUITPOCHETTE - Shippu Jinrai (EP)
FRUITPOCHETTE - The Crest of Evil
Hauptharmonie - Hauptharmonie
Himekyun Fruits Can - Jounetsu Emotion
Himekyun Fruits Can - Lightning Princess
KOTO - Platonic Planet
nanoCUNE - Tenjou Yuuen
9nine - Magi9 Playground
Party Rockets - Triangle
Passcode - All is Vanity
PASSPO - Jejejejet!!!
PASSPO - Beef or Chicken
Sakura Gakuin - 2013 Kizuna
Sakura Gakuin - 2014 Kimi ni Todoke
Tsubasa Fly - Black and White
Tsuki to Taiyou - 2014 (EP)
Yuikaori - Bunny

Oh shit.


We'll see eh.

So first up...

Preamble: The packaging for this is utterly insane. It's LP sized, which is all well and good if it's an LP. It's a CD. The CD is stuck to the middle of an LP-shaped and sized piece of card that has all the lyrics and liner notes on it. Really weird idea. Takes up a lot of space. Crazy.

1. Level.



Level is a cool song. It starts with techno synths and a buildup of terror, and then the djenty as fuck guitars hit you and everything goes chaotic all at once. This is brutal. The vocals aren't amazing, because the member prefer fucking things up than singing most of the time. Obviously, in the prechorus where Saki sings the level jumps up a lot. Then screaming. From Saki. Chorus is pretty nice, actually, with more screaming. Post-chorus has a really strange part of "look my [body part]" which ends with brains. Then Rei gets in on the screaming, adding a new dimension (Rei's growls are more death metal to Saki's more higher pitched thrash metal screaming). Then rap. Too many genres. Little break with Anna monologue before chorus. Lyrics are pretty funny. All in all, damn good song.
10/10

2. 別に上手じゃなくていいじゃん、たかが音楽なんだから。ねぇ?…刺女△. The song title roughly translates to "It Don't Matter Even If it Ain't Done Well, Because It's Only Music. Right?... Thorn Woman." in case you were wondering. Again, more techno beats from the start, then enter guitars. I can't listen to this song without hearing the wotagei anymore. Dammit. The vocals are still interestingly not amazing, but the music, despite the title is actually quite good. Prechorus just consists of "Toge Onna, oh yay!" Next bit also quite short on lyrics, but very good. Next section once again to Rei-chan fucking the shit out of your ears with death vocals. Then chorus, with some lyrics and a bit of screaming. Then a post-chorus breakdown with slowing down guitars and evil. Ultimately this is a good song and the title is rather redundant.
9/10

3. slow RAIN@東京. Glow umbrellas. That's all you need to know. Fucking glow umbrellas. This is a ballad, ostensibly, but it's a Guso Drop ballad, meaning that it's all wall-of-sound guitars and sexy ambiances. The guitars are sexy as hell. Vocals actually take centre stage here, with all of them trying. Obviously Saki is the best, Yura tries her best, and well... yea. It's a nice change of pace in the EP and in concerts. At least, it stops everyone killing each other for a while. Obviously, it wouldn't be Guso Drop without screaming, so Rei does some before second verse. After second verse, no chorus, there's a ピチピチちゃぷちゃぷらんらん coming in. Everyone gets in a circle and yells it. It's very nice. Community spirit and all that. Then Saki screams. Yea. It's that kind of group. Last chorus sounds nice on the recording. Usually it's just screaming. Yea.
10/10

4. 反抗期熊さんボコボコparadise!! Ah, Kumaboko. Again, brutal guitars. Two-stepping intro with some ska-feel. SKA METAL! Verse has like the only member call in Guso Drop songs (AAAAAAAH! SAKI-CHAN!) after she finishes singing. Usually doesn't happen. Lots of headbanging and two-stepping parts. And then the chorus, which usually involves about 20 people crowdsurfing along with a giant teddy bear which just got murdered recently. It's not bad musically either. After second chorus there's an interesting minimalist (for Guso Drop) with just drums and one guitar riff, which then builds with vocals and bass, then a second harmonising guitar, as the girls look for the teddy bear. Then it usually comes to the stage. Then one of them kills it, with Anna usually screaming in its face. No wonder it's dead. Very energetic and fun song. Even if you usually die.
9/10

5. Level6. So, this is what happens when you Level up. Basically a sequel to Level, it features a Pink-Floyd-esque tape loop of Level before Level 6 starts. Then really brutal guitars. MIX in this is English then Iescraper mix. Weird, I know. Guitars are brutal. I wanna know what pedals Daichi used. Obviously, pre-chorus we get Saki screaming. Chorus is really nice. It isn't often I get to appreciate it, I'm usually being killed in a moshpit. Post-chorus is Anna monologue, which is disturbing as usual. Then headbanging and Shion usually starts spitting water at everyone. Then panic mode with Yura singing. Then comes, honestly, the most glorious thing in idol music. A screaming battle between Saki and Rei. Saki usually rides around the crowd on someone's shoulders and Rei usually takes a baseball bat and kills someone's knees so she can stand on them. The screaming is good. I love this shit.
10/10

6. ド田舎PUNK擬女.



And now for something completely different. Just, you know, a little punk song in the middle of the djentstepdeathtrance. Ultimately it's not a bad punk song. The vocals are suitably poorly sung. Ultimately I think it's the worst song on the EP, but that's only because the others are pretty damn good. It's a good dose of punk and does its job. There are slow bits and fast bits, lots of D-beats and interesting stuff. It's also the longest song on the EP by some measure, which is strange for a punk song. Also, there's whistling because they probably couldn't think of any lyrics. Rei always stagedives near the end. Still, nice way to end.
8/10

Overall:

Honestly, in the past nearly 6 months I've been to maybe 40 or 50 Guso Drop shows. The songs haven't changed all that much. They've recently added Hirari, Hirahira, which is amazing. They also apparently have performed 『I（∵）L』 (pronounced IDOL) when I wasn't there, and have another two tracks, Tearing Teens and a new one called Bousou Shoujo written by Goto Mariko waiting in the wings. You'd think I'd have overdosed on hearing pretty much the same 7 songs that many times, but it doesn't seem that way. Still, I do want them to perform some more new stuff soon.

Anyway, good EP. Try it. You might enjoy it.

9.3/10

Ten Idol Groups You Must See In Japan

And no, I'm not giving you a choice. Some of these you will have read about on here before. This time I'm including some more information, some prices, and some suggestions.

So, as it's been a few months since I wrote anything, I'll just jump straight into it.

Kimi to Boku, Tokidoki Melancholic

Kimiboku have hooked me. Two members in particular I enjoy keeping my eye on. Their live is full of helpful cheer, wonder and strangeness. The music is "fairy-tale-esque", meaning lots of interesting creepy stuff, a bit of symphonic metal, and some waltz. Their stage presence is somewhat changed by the addition of Yuna and Ryon, who stand on steps in the crowd with flags and basically lead the audience choreography. It's like strictly official furicopy. The wota antics are also utterly bonkers, as is the case for all groups produced by AkeyP. Never seen people trying to swim in a paddling pool in the middle of a gig before until this.

For live positions, close to front is best. If you like Yuna's flag waving, go left. If you like Ryon's, go right. The stage members keep changing positions so I've not really worked out who is where yet in terms of wota positioning, but I usually stay left and keep my eyes on Minmin and Saki. Saki, by the way, is a dead ringer for Sakura Gakuin's dearly departed Horiuchi Marina.

Cheki prices are 500 for plain, 1000 for deco. Possibly more now for take-home decocheki where they pretty it up at home and such.

Definitely worth the mush it'll turn your brain into.




Maboroshi Karen GeNE

This group do strange things to my brain. Two of them look like middle schoolers but are hard drinking women in their early 20s. They also seem to enjoy removing clothing. Or maybe it's just the weather... Their music can be very ska. Their fans are very energetic. They're a bit nuts (they started climbing on the crowd the other day. Not stagediving, just... walking on the crowd).

I don't really know where anyone stands, so no real surety to my vaunted knowledge. But try to catch them in yukata one day, it really is awesome.

Chekis are 1000. They sign it afterwards. Try to know their names beforehand or the manager gets pissed off at you.



Hauptharmonie

And now for some real ska. And I mean, real ska. They have some songs which are so ska that it reminds me entirely of Madness. Or other ska bands. It's amazing. The concerts are best during these songs. They also have some alt-rock and shoegazing songs, which are nice, and some songs which are unfortunately not that good. You have to hope for a good setlist. Luckily they're quite good performers so even the subpar songs can come out well. On the other hand, there's Caterwaul, which is so insane it sounds like Madness invaded Diablo Swing Orchestra. Or vice versa.

Here, try it:





Also Aimi (Aihara Emi) is another drunk. Drunken idols... so much fun. Chekis are about 1000.

Next Shoujo Jiken

So, Shuri disappeared. Nono graduated. Eri joined, then quit. All that's left is Mai. But she's still fucking amazing. Mai is the sweetest idol you'll ever meet, she's pretty chill, will happily chat with you for ages and can death growl.



Come on, that's hardcore. I think I was there that day. Sometimes the fans can be a little thin on the ground, but that doesn't matter because they're all insane so they still make more noise than anyone else. Definitely worth a shot.

Chekis are 500, decochekis are 1000, talking with Mai = priceless.

Tsuki to Taiyou

Honestly, Tsukitai's fans sometimes keep me away from their lives because some of them are completely out of control. Most of them don't wear clothes, for example. On the other hand, the lives themselves are always fun to watch, and if you can avoid the worst of the pinchike, utterly enjoyable. I just wouldn't advise ever seeing them at a show you don't have to pay for, because free shows pinchike levels are off the charts.



Honestly, that video's missing a member but I don't really pay much attention to Sayanee so I can't really tell. Nanamiinu (yellow) has the biggest (and most... vocal) fanbase, who like mentioning how well-endowed she is. I like Tomonya (red), who happened to be a U15 idol a while back. She's really chill to talk to though. The music's also pretty good.

Chekis are 500, deco-chekis are 1000, take-home and make pretty chekis are 1500.

Necronomidol

Honestly, if you don't know about Necronomidol yet, you really should. They were formed by an American guy who makes horror/monster toys, and the advertisement specifically wanted girls who weren't quite sane. As a result you end up with girls like Sari, who wears really well done shironuri (like Japanese corpsepaint) and has green hair, and Hotaru who very rarely actually seems to acknowledge the existence of footwear. They started out really black metal, but have now moved to a slightly more radio-friendly (slightly...) format of ambient and darkwave. Which is what a fuckton of real black metal bands did anyway. They also just added two members who I've never met.



They're all quite fun to talk to, and so is Ricky, the manager/producer, so go see them. Deco chekis are like 500 yen (or they were last time I went) which are like the cheapest in the idol world.

KOTO

Koto is like nothing you've probably ever seen. It's really quite weird how she dances. It's almost like she's possessed. Her songs are pretty shweet techno kind of songs. But she does really dance like a complete motherfucker. I dunno how she does it. She also makes her own choreo, and her PVs are just... weird. But her high points are her lives, where her dancing just... goes even further.



Really, just watch the song at 6:20 and you'll understand.

Chekis with her cost 1000. Trying to figure out how to furicopy may result in bodily harm.

Petit Pas

Petit Pas aren't a new group. I'd seen them a while back, but my favourite member left so I sort of forgot about them and wrote them off as just another load of BiS clones. Then Suzu and Nozomi joined and I got back on board. nerve is still their signature song, but they're getting some originals in heavy rotation now which is good.



Kokoro is really cool, Suzu is chill as hell and Nozomi is cute. I think the best live I ever saw them have was a two-man at Next Shoujo Jiken's free shows, where I was one of about 7 people for Next Shoujo Jiken and the other 50 people in a 40 capacity venue were there for Petit Pas. Fell over a few times. They also performed in pyjamas which was really cute.

Suzu also comes to Guso Drop as a fan a lot so that's pretty cool.

Chekis are like 1000.

Kumada Kanae

Kumachan is a nutcase. A 139cm tall nutcase with a helium voice and a poison tongue. She even has a song called "Kimowota no Uta" about how disgusting her fans are. It's really quite adorable how she dotes on them even as she heaps abuse on them. Her lives are also legendary for "Cider Terrorism", where she performs Hatsukoi Cider. Sometimes as many as 13 times (more on that in a minute). It speeds up every time. It's brutal.



She will come into the crowd. She will probably use you as a stool. She will probably annoy you. But it's worth it.




Chekis are 500 yen for a good mood cheki with "no signing, very little interaction, very soon bye-bye" cheki which is recommended for DDs, pinchike and poor people; 1000 for a normal cheki with 90-120 second of talk time and signed; and 1500 for a salty mood cheki which she decorates at home, and has a photo card as well.

Guso Drop 

Well... I was gonna mostly do groups newish to this blog today but fuck it. Guso Drop are still the best live idols out there by some way. Where else do you get them stagediving (at random, sometimes), spitting water at you, slapping you, sometimes riding you around the crowd, joining in moshpits, starting moshpits, playing games, having a laugh and generally not giving a fuck? Also Anna sometimes just stands on stage and eats. Both Saki and Rei growl. Their instores turn into utter nightmares for the stores. Their lives are getting crazier. Shion kicked me in the face...



This is an instore event.



This is a punk live.

What the fuck is the difference?

Audience participation is necessary. Come, and I wish you luck!

Chekis 1000. Get a communication ticket with it, use that to get it signed. Communication ticket with every 1000 of swag you buy, actually, so you can just use it to talk to them.



Honourable Mentions:

2&, for never giving up and still doing crazy backflips during a live, plus awesome music.



Lolisyn, for being insane and the crowd even more so.

(rare as fuck Croissant 2)


Zekkyousuru 60do, just because epic.