suggestions?

[kinjo]

Hi
I am planning to get some CDs thru my friend in Japan.
Hows Glay's music? Is there some album worthwhile buying?
hows do as infinity and their music? any album suggestions?
(something like "best of....")

I like oda, Mr.Children, DCT et al. and I have their CDs.

I dont have lots of fermale favorites........nevertheless utada hikaru seems to hit the charts every now and then.

I want to buy some Kazumasa Oda's CD but i already have his "looking back-1" and "jiko besuto" and i love his songs.
So, is there any Oda album worth buying? offcourse singles or something like that?

Any suggestions on the bands above??

[Twisted]

Well, most Japanese seem to think Glay and Do as Infinity are worth buying, since their music hits the #1 spot nearly every time.

Both these bands are very good, but to me, they miss that spark that makes them outstanding. But that's just me and a lot of people on this forum probably won't agree with me on this one.

If you have never heard any music from either band then i suggest you should go for a "Best of"-album. For Glay that would be "Review" (XXC-1029) which was released in april 2001.

And Do as Infinity have released "Do as best" (AVCD-17110) just this march.

As for female artist suggestions it's all up to your musical taste. If you like R&B/Pop go for Hikaru Utada. If you like dance go for Ayumi Hamasaki. If you like rock i'd say you should go for Ringo Shiina.

Good luck choosing...

[kinjo]

I got Glay- Review CD from a friend who returned from Japan and I thought the music was pretty good. I love rockish pop and its suited my taste! especially BELOVED and kiseki no hate!!
In fact, I read that GLAY themselves admit that their music cannot be branded as J-POP or J-ROCK. no probs as long as their music is good.

Now , what I want to know is , what kind of music does 'Do as infinity' produce? is it rock? similar to glay?

And is there a best of ayumi hamasaki CD?
I once upon a time bought Cocco's (am I right with the name?) CD and was very disappointed with the music. :-(

and ayumi's songs generally senti-ish love songs rite?

[Twisted]

Do as infinity is pop, which tries to be rock sometimes (with guitars ) but it never really seems to work the because the singer just sounds a bit too sweet.

Cocco on the other hand was great. Lot's of distorted guitars and Cocco herself really putting a lot of emotion into her vocals. She stopped singing last year, though.

Ayumi Hamasaki comes in a lot of flavours these days. Everything she has done is remixed in various ways. From trance to orchestrated. She released a best album at the end of last year.
First time i heard her was on the soundtrack of a videogame called "Thousand arms" with the song "Depend on you". Great stuff!
In fact, one of her first singles (i believe it was "To Be") was written and produced by the man behind Do as Infinity.

[MHtrStevie]

Greetings, kinjo!

If you're looking for more Kazumasa Oda material, I'd suggest getting some Off Course music. I found a series of four "Best" CDs for Off Course, each of which has a particular season as a theme (Spring Selection, Summer Selection, etc.) They each have a nice set of songs, including at least a couple of "big" hits. For example, I think the Summer Selection contains "Yes - No" while the Winter Selection contains "Sayonara".

I definitely recommend these CDs.

[moyashi]

You might want to try Anzenchitai or Inoue Yosui. Both are not that far from Oda Kazumasa, of course slightly different.

I'm sure Twisted will be able to give a better explanation. I'm pretty much a stupid listener while he's the coninesour.

[kinjo]

Thanks a lot folks! I generally don't enjoy J-Pop female singers (DCT being a lone exception) , so I do want to try out Ayu's songs. I heard her 'song for XXX' and thot twas pretty good.
Could u tell me whats the name/code of her best album so that I can get it from my friend in Japan?
And any albums of Anzenchitai u recommend,moyashi ?
And how old is the band?

[Twisted]

The Ayumi Hamasaki album is called "A Best" with catalogue-number AVCD-11950

I'm not too familair with either Anzenchitai or Inoue Yosui. I know them, but haven't spend much time listening to them yet.
I can think of a few other singers in this category though: Try listening Kyosuke Himuro and Masaharu Fukuyama.
Himuro used to be in a band called Boowy together with the great (and currently skullfractured) Tomoyasu Hotei.

[MHtrStevie]

Greetings!

I'm a pretty big Anzen-Chitai and Yosui Inoue fan, so I can give a little info here.

I own one Anzen-Chitai "Best of" CD (Cat. # H32K 20110). This has twelve of their biggest hits, including "Wine-Red no kokoro", "Koi no yokan", "Suiksa", "Jirettai" and the duet with Yosui Inoue entitled "Natsu no owari no Harmony". I highly recommend this CD for anyone to check out the Anzen-Chitai sound.

Yosui Inoue has a 2-CD "Best of" collection entitled "Golden Best" (Cat. # FLCF-3761) which is pretty comprehensive. It includes many of his hits from the 1970's: "Kasa ga nai", "Kokoro mo you", "Yume no naka e", etc. and it also contains some of his more recent songs: "TEENAGER", "Tokyo", etc. You also get to hear his versions of songs he wrote for other artists, including "Wine-Red no kokoro" for Anzen-Chitai and "Asia no junshin" for Puffy.

I'd definitely agree that both of these artists are in the same style as Kazumasa Oda. I think Kyousuke Himuro is considerably more rock-oriented, so his sound has a harder edge. Masaharu Fukuyama really runs the gamut, so he has harder and softer hits.

I'd recommend the group Tulip if you like K. Oda, or the solo stuff from Tulip lead singer Kazuo Zaitsu... in fact, at one point Oda and Zaitsu sang together on a #1 single in Japan (a trio which also included Yumi Matsutoya). The Tulip song "Saboten no hana" served as the theme song to a popular drama series.

Hope this helps...