Akira Takasaki

[visualrocker69]

足立祐二のほうが高崎晃より好きだよ。

DEAD ENDより、LOUDNESSの方がもっと好きだぞ。

I always liked dead end much more.

Yep. Although, You Adachi is now doing pop music with Ryuichi Waste of talent! DE's bassist is also backing some jpop chick... Actually, their singer is the only one with an interesting solo career, but definately NOT what Dead End used to be...

 

[Mudder]

a quick search on digimart for Killer Prime
￥327,600 to ￥588,000
$ 3306 to $ 5935

Dang...unless it can make me play like Akira I don't think I could justify that price.

 

[Code001]

Yep. Although, You Adachi is now doing pop music with Ryuichi Waste of talent! DE's bassist is also backing some jpop chick... Actually, their singer is the only one with an interesting solo career, but definately NOT what Dead End used to be...

What's the name of the J-Pop singer?

 

[TOStudent]

So did he play the Marshall half stack or the Diezel rig that was on the stage?

Did he use that Boss GT-8 pedal board?

When Greazygeo saw him here in the states he was using a DSL and a GT8, was getting the tones from the GT.


Just curious.

 

[Hard&Heavy]

Great player always liked loudness they

 

[goldwing68nv]

AKIRA! another killer axe god! the Loudness '92 cd is ALL ya need... BLACK WIDOW

 

[MARK1970]

Excellent post, Loudness kick ass!

 

[Greazygeo]

He played loud as hell when I saw him. Could barely hear anything else. But that was kinda cool.

 

[visualrocker69]

Yep. Although, You Adachi is now doing pop music with Ryuichi Waste of talent! DE's bassist is also backing some jpop chick... Actually, their singer is the only one with an interesting solo career, but definately NOT what Dead End used to be...

What's the name of the J-Pop singer?

Umm.. Aiwaka Nansae. And to make it even worse, she's got Pata (X-Japan) on guitar, Marty Friedman on guitar, DIE (hide's Spread Beaver) on keyboards, and Shinya (Luna Sea) on drums. IDK how many of those names you know (except Marty obviously) but that is a goddamn all-star lineup. What she's done to deserve it... i have noooo clue.

 

[Code001]

Yep. Although, You Adachi is now doing pop music with Ryuichi Waste of talent! DE's bassist is also backing some jpop chick... Actually, their singer is the only one with an interesting solo career, but definately NOT what Dead End used to be...

What's the name of the J-Pop singer?

Umm.. Aiwaka Nansae. And to make it even worse, she's got Pata (X-Japan) on guitar, Marty Friedman on guitar, DIE (hide's Spread Beaver) on keyboards, and Shinya (Luna Sea) on drums. IDK how many of those names you know (except Marty obviously) but that is a goddamn all-star lineup. What she's done to deserve it... i have noooo clue.

Dude, Nanase is pretty damn good. I need to check that out.

 

[visualrocker69]

Dude, Nanase is pretty damn good. I need to check that out.

Seriously? I downloaded a dvd with that lineup and wasn't that impressed... But tbh, jpop chicks kinda annoy me, voices too thin... I like Korean female voices more, I think. And male voices, come to think of it. At least for pop. Well, rock doesn't really exist in Korea anway, or at least not in the mainstream, so... ok -endramble-

 

[Code001]

Dude, Nanase is pretty damn good. I need to check that out.

Seriously? I downloaded a dvd with that lineup and wasn't that impressed... But tbh, jpop chicks kinda annoy me, voices too thin... I like Korean female voices more, I think. And male voices, come to think of it. At least for pop. Well, rock doesn't really exist in Korea anway, or at least not in the mainstream, so... ok -endramble-

I'm sorry, but Nana Mizuki's voice is FAR from thin. The biggest issue I find with J-Pop singers is their lack of vibrato, but this can be extended to nearly every Japanese musician. I prefer J-Pop to J-Rock, as most J-Rock is just nu-metal/punk mixed with visual kei. An Cafe, Girugamesh, Dir En Grey, Gazette, etc. are all crap, IMO.

 

[visualrocker69]

Couldn't agree more, those bands you listed are pretty damn horrible (with the exception of DeG's 1999 album).

However, I wouldn't say that j-rock is best represented with THOSE particular bands
X Japan, Luna Sea, hide, L'arc~en~Ciel (mostly early stuff), Siam Shade... now THERE'S a list of good bands. Ring any bells?

As for vibtrato, yeah, that's a common problem that Japanese people sing with mostly straight tone... Dead End's singer being one of the HUGE exceptions! His vibrato is HUUUUGE

 

[Lution]

Akira is still baddass! I've been a fan since their first english album.

I remember the first and only time I went to NAMM was in January 1989. I worked at Guitar Center Hollywood at the time so I got to go and check it out. I waited by the Killer Guitars booth forever to meet Akira, but Akira didn't show up. So I took one of his "Loudness Akira Takasaki" guitar picks that was wedged in between the strings of one of his guitars and went to check out Holdsworth and Gambale in a different booth.

Still got that pick sitting on a shelf in my closet!

And those Killer guitars were ridiculously priced back in 89' too!

 

[Code001]

Couldn't agree more, those bands you listed are pretty damn horrible (with the exception of DeG's 1999 album).

However, I wouldn't say that j-rock is best represented with THOSE particular bands
X Japan, Luna Sea, hide, L'arc~en~Ciel (mostly early stuff), Siam Shade... now THERE'S a list of good bands. Ring any bells?

As for vibtrato, yeah, that's a common problem that Japanese people sing with mostly straight tone... Dead End's singer being one of the HUGE exceptions! His vibrato is HUUUUGE

X Japan I consider to be more along the lines of Loudness, so I don't really consider them J-Rock, but I can understand why you included them with their whole visual kei movement. Siam Shade was/is simply amazing. Can' say I'm a big fan of L'arc~en~Ciel, though (although their [fairly] new Daybreak's Bell single is pretty damn amazing). Luna Sea is alright, I guess. I never paid much attention to them. Wasn't hide with them for awhile? Either way, it's nice to know there are some people on RT who listen to music from the far east.

 

[GnR102385]

Dude, Nanase is pretty damn good. I need to check that out.

Seriously? I downloaded a dvd with that lineup and wasn't that impressed... But tbh, jpop chicks kinda annoy me, voices too thin... I like Korean female voices more, I think. And male voices, come to think of it. At least for pop. Well, rock doesn't really exist in Korea anway, or at least not in the mainstream, so... ok -endramble-

I'm sorry, but Nana Mizuki's voice is FAR from thin. The biggest issue I find with J-Pop singers is their lack of vibrato, but this can be extended to nearly every Japanese musician. I prefer J-Pop to J-Rock, as most J-Rock is just nu-metal/punk mixed with visual kei. An Cafe, Girugamesh, Dir En Grey, Gazette, etc. are all crap, IMO.

Katsu Ohta has a pretty decent vibrato. He plays guitar for Ark Storm. They are power metal, not J-Rock/Pop, but he is about the only Japanese guitarist with a decent vibrato I can think of He is a MAJOR Yngwie fanboy though, so it is like listening to a Japanese Yngwie.

 

[Code001]

Dude, Nanase is pretty damn good. I need to check that out.

Seriously? I downloaded a dvd with that lineup and wasn't that impressed... But tbh, jpop chicks kinda annoy me, voices too thin... I like Korean female voices more, I think. And male voices, come to think of it. At least for pop. Well, rock doesn't really exist in Korea anway, or at least not in the mainstream, so... ok -endramble-

I'm sorry, but Nana Mizuki's voice is FAR from thin. The biggest issue I find with J-Pop singers is their lack of vibrato, but this can be extended to nearly every Japanese musician. I prefer J-Pop to J-Rock, as most J-Rock is just nu-metal/punk mixed with visual kei. An Cafe, Girugamesh, Dir En Grey, Gazette, etc. are all crap, IMO.

Katsu Ohta has a pretty decent vibrato. He plays guitar for Ark Storm. They are power metal, not J-Rock/Pop, but he is about the only Japanese guitarist with a decent vibrato I can think of He is a MAJOR Yngwie fanboy though, so it is like listening to a Japanese Yngwie.

Takayoshi Ohmura has a decent vibrato, too. He's also a Yngwie fanboy, although not as much as Ohta. I'm starting to see a connection here.

 

[visualrocker69]

X Japan I consider to be more along the lines of Loudness, so I don't really consider them J-Rock, but I can understand why you included them with their whole visual kei movement. Siam Shade was/is simply amazing. Can' say I'm a big fan of L'arc~en~Ciel, though (although their [fairly] new Daybreak's Bell single is pretty damn amazing). Luna Sea is alright, I guess. I never paid much attention to them. Wasn't hide with them for awhile? Either way, it's nice to know there are some people on RT who listen to music from the far east.

Ah, VK wasn't necessarily how I was differentiating X. I dunno, I guess I don't really associate them with Loudness, Anthem, etc... from a metal/technical perspective, they're very much watered down... Also, there's definately a thrash-glam binary in metal, but X did a bit of both. And musically, they do have a sorta "signature" sound that the others lack. The vocal lines are more melodic for the most part, a third of their songs are ballads, but don't really sound like power metal ballads... sound more like straight pop music...

Honestly, I find hide's solo career a lot more intresting than X. He seemed to exhibit a higher degree of creativity on his own, like a bird let out of its cage. There's just more... depth, more substance. And a certainly less of a mechanical feel: Yoshiki's classical roots makes X feel very scripted. hide's also one of the most entertaining live acts I've ever witnessed (on DVD). He performs as if he's doing it for himself, for his own enjoyment. Sure, he plays out to the crowd, but it's faaaaar less... superificial than the common performer.

L'arc, yeah, Daybreak's Bell is awesome. It's on the same level as their early material, which I prefer to their more recent (post-2000) stuff overall. The thing about L'arc is that their singer, bassist, and first drummer were HUGE Dead End fanboys, so, their first few albums ended up sounding a hell of a lot like Dead End's last album (Zero).

Luna Sea is probably my second favorite band in the WORLD, so I definately think they're worth paying attention to. They have a very refined, progressive feel to them that manifests itself conceptually rather than musically, for the most part. Despite that aspect, they still sound very rooted in rock, and not even a tad 'scripted'. Progressive in a more Pink Floyd-esque sense, rather than, say, Dream Theater or their influences. Oh, by the way, Pink Floyd is my #1 favorite band, period.

Yeah, it's always a nice feeling to find other gear-happy people who are incidentally aware of eastern music

Edit: I also definately wouldn't restrict j-rock's definition to VK. I mean, come on, B'Z. 'Nuff said. Tak Matsumoto is a MONSTER.

Edit #2: hide wasn't with LS, he discovered LS though However, LS's guitarist, Sugizo is now playing with X, in hide's place. Whenever X doesn't cancel a gig, that is...