..of Kangaroos and Kickin' Tunes 1-II - Dazzle Vision LIVE

I was thrilled to recently catch a Dazzle Vision gig at the Nagoyan live house, TIGHT ROPE. The night went for about 5 hours with a lengthy line-up of bands. The supporting line-up featured an eclectic mix of bands who played punk, metal, and one, some sort of angry hip hop-screamo hybrid. Much to my amusement I experienced two firsts.

The first one was that there were children in the drinking establishment!! So, this is allowed? Yep. In Australia, kids at a licensed venue is a big no no. It was a surprise to me indeed, but later I realised that it is no big deal in Japan. Whether it be in a live house, an izakaya, or at Hanami, alcohol and children can hang out together, as long as they're just hanging out. I have since seen kids in izakayas both as customers and as staff of family-run businesses. Anyway, yeah, these kids at the live house belonged to the owners it seemed. One of the kids who I'm guessing was 4 years old, had the cutest little Slipknot shirt on. Little man, metal horns to you \.../ Amazingly, the little dude slept through the angry hip-hop performance and practically half of the Dazzle Vision performance.

The second first (?) for me was the Japanese mosh pit!!! Haha, it is a rough and tumble love-in, really. They are pretty high energy and some of the participants like to run around a little and really get a human whirlpool thing going. One of the most metal things I have ever seen was this 4ft-something woman get accidentally clotheslined, decked like the proverbial mofo (not actually a proverb), and promptly get back up, reciprocally bow twice to apology-san and resume her headbanging.

In between sets I spied a girl that I thought could of been Maiko from DV, but wasn't sure. I took a chance and went over and said hi and sure enough, it was her!! I got to have a chat with her which was awesome, such a lucky guy! I also got a photo with her too!! Winning! She was really cool. She was really excited about the band's latest album and also the reception to it. She said later on (if I understood the Japanese correctly), that they had been experiencing full capacity at their gigs in some quite respectable Tokyo clubs/live houses. Great news for them indeed, they deserve to make it big.

Their show was superb. The music was great, effects were used really well and thankfully, Maiko's voice really delivers live. All of the members really get into it too with the guitarists jumping around, standing on speakers and all that, and Maiko ritually jumping around, headbanging and also claiming some speaker-top territory of her own. I especially like the photo of her saluting the crowd. Witnessing her operatic-screamo style live is so much fun. It never ceases to amaze me how she can switch from the throat abrasion of screamo to the meliflous tones of her singing voice. The set was a good length, featuring mostly the new stuff. A great show and I can't wait to see them again!!

I really look forward to prospecting for more interesting bands in the live houses of Japan. Until next time guys, rock on :D

..of Kangaroos and Kickin' Tunes 1 - Dazzle Vision ダズルヴィジョン (J-Rock)

Welcome to "...of Kangaroos and Kicking Tunes." For this series I will be exploring various genres of music from all over the globe, but in fitting with the theme of this website, I will obviously be narrowing my focus on the Australian and Japanese music scene mostly. Being an Aussie, I of course have grown up listening to many excellent home-grown bands and artists and I am very excited to share them all with my readers.

On the other 手, I have NOT been especially savvy with the Japanese music scene for most of my music appreciating years, however, I have been putting in a fair amount of 'listening research' and 'performing research' (read: karaoke) over the past two or so years. For Japanese music, my tastes so far lie mostly within the alternative and indie scene which happens to work to this blog's advantage because in a sea of otaku freak-outs over your AKB48s and Morning Musumes, it may be somewhat refreshing to read articles about the artists that exist on the fringe of Japan's underground scene.

So without further ado, let me introduce this edition's band!!

 

Name: Dazzle Vision

Country: Japan 

Style: Rock 

Famous-ness/Prominence: Not particularly well known (yet)

Through all my Japanese band prospecting work, Dazzle Vision stand out as one of my most treasured unearthings. The band was formed in 2003 and is composed of your standard vocalist, bassist, guitarist, and drummer setup. Well, I say standard in reference to the setup, but when it comes to the vocalist, Maiko, she is anything but standard. One of Maiko's and the band's major draw cards is her excellent Operatic-Death Metal voice switching ability. I guess you could call her the Japanese woman version of Serj Tankian (of System of a Down fame), lol. Rather than a gimmick, the use of both her singing voices is done in a way to complement the momentum and emotion of the music driving it. The song VISION (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy3tJAQ2Rrw) would be a shining example of this style.

The band has released a steady stream of EPs and albums from 2003, with their earlier efforts being slightly marred by their initial green-ness. What has been enjoyable to witness, is how their sound has evolved over time, with the last 3 or so years seeing a marked sophistication in their production methods and artistic direction. It is obvious to me that they have always held the goal of producing both rocking-out-hard type songs as well as those epic, lovely songs that pull a little at the heart-strings. Their albums have indeed been getting stronger and stronger, but for me, the breakthrough has been with their latest album 'Kirari.' Again we see the band playing to their strengths as well as mixing in a bit of jazzy rock with 'Miss Cinderella 2' which is enjoyable as a bit of a stand-alone offering. 

In playing with their strengths, the songs "Juunigatsu" (December) and "One for all, All for one" are particularly memorable 'rocking-out-hard' songs and "Tsuki to Taiyou" (Moon and Sun) and "Sakura" are two 'epic-lovely' finishers to a great album. With the exception of "Miss Cinderella 2," the songs slot in together very nicely and definitely produce a consistent and very big sounding album. Can't wait to see what they can do next!!

If you are interested in hearing their music, check out the website, JapanFiles (http://www.japanfiles.com/dazzlevision) 

If you like what you hear, consider supporting this band by buying a few of their songs.

So that'll do it for now! Thanks for reading! If you've got any recommendations, I would love to hear about them in the comments section below!

Rock on!