The Piass:
I first heard this band when I visited Japan in 2000AD (great title
for a sci-if comic anthology eh?) and was browsing CDs in a music
store, with an aim to find a visual band as I had done a little
research beforehand. Their second CD caught my attention, mainly
because there were a lot of them - it had just been released - and I
could listen to the tracks, which I did and burst out laughing at
when the first song started with a scream followed by fast, loud,
headbang music. I just had to have these guys; as the last two songs
on the four-track CD were beautiful melody pieces completely the
opposite of the first two, showing off the singer's fantastic vocal
talent. I purchased their first (and full length) CD over the
internet from HMV Japan, but
unfortunately the band has shrunk by one member and made no more big
releases but still play and manage other bands on Anarchist Records
label. Recent activity has been Shizuku's hair adding about a meter
to his height, and a co-release with ra'S testars. As can be seen from the image, the band has a thing for red
and typical feminine appearance. Which leads me to one of their
creations...
Anti-feminism: Getting
serious about the genre again I followed up my small CD collection
and learnt about the changes to the Piass and that Takayuki has been
responsible for? the creation of Anti-feminism, a rotating band
member group unclassifiable by itunes. I have their first CD and they are
harder than the Piass' hardcore works and have the original punk
sound and full-band backing vocals. Only
Takayuki is a makeup girly; the CD's accompanying minibooklet
(instead of the CD jacket having the lyrics and band info) shows
Aki, the vocalist from The Dead Popstars setting his arm on fire. The band members are always male. Regardless, the name, logo, and
picture (Takayuki inspired red) is very, very cool! They play often
at one of the Club Holiday
venues, and I will make a pilgrimage there in 2006.
Here
is a video of one of their lives at Club Holiday in December 2005.
Malice Mizer: Most
genre fans would wonder who The Piass are, but all would (*should*)
know Malice Mizer and are probably wondering why I didn't put this
band first. Simply, they came second because in 2000AD and with
their third vocalist, their time was at an unfortunate,
self-inflicted end. MM is sort of a visual kei benchmark, and the
brainchild of its guitar playing, cross dressing, creator Mana. The
band's style was a mix gothic opera and harder elements tied to an
unbelievable array of costume changes most probably designed by Mana,
who has his own 'elegant gothic lolita/aristocrat' fashion lable
called moi-meme-moitie
(it is clear that Mana has a thing for French). The band's
appearance and sound changed not only when Mana got rid of the
vocalist, but many times in between as well.
The three MM vocalists, in order, were Tetsu who was removed
after the release of the band's first album, Memoire, followed by
Gackt who was sensibly noticed and given a solo career, although it
spelt the end of MM, and finally Klaha, always touted as
'classically' trained as if that made him fit MM's charter better;
unfortunately Klaha wasn't able to produce what Mana wanted I
believe. It was
unfortunate that Gackt left the band, having brought them into the
limelight as it were and providing an incredible voice and stage
presence (and always looks just so happy and lucky to be there) that
MM wasn't able to recapture without his input.
MM produced a handful of full length CDs and maxis before finally
disbanding early in the new millennium. They also had some concerts,
I have one with Gackt in '97 and the extravagant attempted theatrical
show complete with robed choir and gothic church, which had three
costume changes, only about six actual songs, and a lot of
prerecorded filler that without translation of the lyrics, left me
wondering what Mana was trying to acheive.
Despite my criticisms - people are more critical of things they
like derailing - I am a big Malice Mizer fan, always drawn to
creative works.
Moi dix Mois: After
Malice Mizer died, its creator, Mana, started a new self-project
called Moi dix Mois, which does not mean 'me ten months' as most
fansites believe and what google gives as a literal translation of
the French. The name is much more complicated than that. mdm,
mxm, m+m, all ways of shortening the name, although simply 'dix'
would be appropriate as it is what the band members have on their
foreheads, released two albums before the first vocal casualty, Juka
- who is quite a good singer - left the band in April, 2005. Whether
Mana can find a replacement, or there are any seriously interested
singers out there wanting to take Mana on, is yet to be seen half a
year later.
For the first time dix (and by earlier extension, Malice Mizer)
played outside Japan having concerts in Mana's gothic inspiration,
France and Germany, releasing the concert on DVD. dix's sound is
'heavier' than that of MM, with a return of a drummer (MM's drummer
died during the Gackt era) and the inclusion of throaty hardcore
lyrics all accompanied by a harpsichord.
Mana has extended his fanclub to the international arena,
rewarding all the diligent and not so diligent fans (like me). The
fanclub, mon+amour, lets me read english translations of the small
booklets Mana produces ten times a year (which I also receive), a sort of public journal
and thoughts piece. They can be very interesting reading, akin to
the back room special features now obligatory on DVDs.
Silver Ash: I don't know
how I could have forgotten and left out the first Chinese Visual Kei
band! Currently non-active because they can't afford to be. It was in Inner Mongolia, Boutou, one of only two Chinese
cities to have a descent AV store, that I first encountered this
band and all of their CDs in one place! For China, that is truly
amazing. The store even had reward cards, but I digress. Silver Ash
has released four CDs so far: the first, Organum, is a four track
demo with a VCD of the group's live event where a mystified crowd
watched them play, dressed in leather shorts, boots, t-shirts and
half-skirts, with typically big Visual Kei hair. Ling, the one that
is cast to really look like a girl had a white frilly feather thing
around his neck and happens to be the leader. Each of the tracks has a different style, a demo of
their talents and they are okay. The first full release has some of
the tracks again. The third CD (the one that I bought first as its
cover was less 'visual' than the first androgynous two and I didn't
want to freak the cashier girl too much, already having a Malice
Mizer VCD in hand) has six tracks, the first few pretty heavy and
making me wonder how these tiny gnomes can produce deep black metal
voices. They like to swear a bit too, in English. The fourth CD/VCD
released last year I purchased in Beijing and none of the myriad of
stores I went into there had anything older. Chinese stores are
crap. In this CD the band is much more... normal and the VCD has
then in suits hanging around Beijing underpasses (????). I
picked up the 2001 releases in Chéngdu, the only other Chinese city
with a descent AV store and a moderate climate. When I sent the CDs
home the female Chinese uniformed postal officer (this was Lhasa
afterall) was more interested in the Tian Xian Xi CD (who is pop and
very cute and a reasonable talent. Probably was mystified about
Silver Ash).