Wafiti

GV stands above everyone else as the best "late '80s-early '90s big synth sound" group. Singer Masayuki Deguchi, keyboardist Yasuyuki (later Kurage) Honda and drummer Wataru Kamiryo are as much fantastic composers as masters of their instruments (and bassist Ichiro Nemoto is no slouch either).

Except for their second and seventh albums (Moon Voice and at Grass Valley, respectively), their output is all neck-and-neck in terms of quality. The self-titled and Style make for the smoothest front-to-back listens, and the concept album grandiosity makes Gareki no Machi 〜 Seek for Love stand out, but the songwriting feels just tighter enough on Logos 〜Gyuu〜 for me to link it, despite two pokier songs.

Even if my gushing is not persuasive, especially in this final day dash to get "coasts" through before the gates close, if you do pick out just a single album from six I've liked enough to write about here, make it this one.

I've been meaning to write at some length about this one for a while now, specifically for a different audience. I'm too scatter-brained today so this will have to be short anyway.

Through the Hirasawa connection, I'd heard their third album ダイヤルYを廻せ! {Dial Y for Murder} and some of their fourth Dadada ism. Both were strong and showed a lot of personality, but it took until this July for me to spin their first, ヤプーズ計画 [Yapoos Plan], and damn, is it something special.

There's this darkness that's pervasive throughout the entire album I just can't get enough of. And its paired with this collective drive that makes the whole so compelling. Bassist Nobuo Nakahara and keyboardist Yoichiro Yoshikawa stand out as the best composers of the bunch, but every single member delivers masterfully on this. Yapoos Plan and Grass Valley's self-titled are easily two of the best debut albums I've ever heard, and its all the more amazing they were released just 8 months apart in the same year.

Its also, in conjunction with their second album 大天使のように {Like an Archangel}, an interesting case study on how fickle and hard to formulate the creative process is. Per Jun Togawa herself, the first was done with effectively no band meetings, yet came out so strong and cohesive. They tried it again for the second, and while the sound and composition personalities are the same, the end product ended up disjointed (on the linked retrospective she calls it her least favorite, which is likely why its not available officially streaming). Her calls on its good songs are accurate, though I'm also fond of the title track. Half of these were composed by members who left by the point their third was recorded, which makes me wonder how it would've turned out with their imput.

Everything else I've posted lately was either attempts to stretch my muscles or a synthesis of notes from early study in a field I'm only just getting a good grasp on now.

I saved the best for Saturday evening. This will likely be re-published elsewhere, hopefully in the near future. Its something that had been bouncing around in my head for a good while, but some people I met two years ago had no inkling about it and wanted to know, so I wrote the entire history out. Its not something easy to find online either, much less in English.

Writing about music can often be a frustrating endeavor, especially as a layperson. I can go on about the history of specific works and the careers of their makers easily, but analysis never feels right. The usual route of looking through artist interviews falls flat when so many don't know music theory either, and do much of their work on gut feeling alone.

Gut feeling is what most dictates my music tastes as well. Lyrics are often secondary and chord progressions unnoticed, but melodies and the specific sounds of instruments are what truly grab me. Often I gravitate to acts that craft a specific sound image, but here I am faced with somebody who excelled on that front, yet most of what I heard did not resonate.