[Lunatique]

Quote:

Hah! A fellow Tokimonsta fan! She makes some sick beats. Another good female beatmaker is Urban Romantic City.
 
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Deegie.
 
 
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Nikakeys (Pe2ny's student, he's around 17.)
 
 
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While I appreciate the "vibe" those tracks are going for (mixing acoustic classical and jazz instruments with electronic beats), I find them extremely limiting because of the loop-based compositions relying on sampling other people's music. They can only piece together snippets of chords, ostinatos, and maybe a short clip of melody here and there, and once you recognize the structure of that approach and have heard the first 15 seconds of development, it becomes very predictable.
 
Personally, I feel that in today's age of very playable high-end sample libraries of orchestral and jazz instruments (hell, any instruments--from ethnic to metal to exotic instruments), it would be much more interesting to me if musical artists simply composed and played with those virtual instruments instead of sampling snippets of other people's music. That way, you can still use loop-based composition, but have far more creative freedom to actually progress the harmonic structure however you like, have evolving melodies, get the various instruments to interact in a sophisticated manner (trading off notes, counterpoint, doubling...etc), and so on. Musically, that would be far more interesting than listening to snippets cut and pasted from other people's music, just repeated over and over at different intervals, without any real sense of harmonic or melodic development. 
 
This isn't to say sampling and loop-based compositions can't be great--they totally can be, but it depends on how skilled the artist is. Take someone like Kutiman--he's widely considered the master of that approach, and if you listen to his stuff, it become obvious he's far more sophisticated in the way he uses that compositional approach. He doesn't just take snippets and mash them together--he actually samples individual notes, map them out, and then play them as if they are instruments when the need arises. He's not at the mercy of the limitations the artists above faces because he's much bolder and really cuts things up and use them very creatively. If you have never heard of Kutiman, just search him on youtube and you'll see what I mean. 
 

 

[Elysian]

Lunatique: Your criticism sums up most of the editorial reviews I've read about TOKiMONSTA's 'Midnight Menu'.  It had a lot of hype and has clever moments, but it gets dull and repetitive very quickly.  The album does well in several minute listening segments, but an hour of it can get pretty droning quickly (kind of like the criticism directed towards early 2000 UK progressive and tribal house).  Fwiw, I couldn't get into that album, but I do like releases like DJ Krush's 'Jaku' in the same way that I like early Massive Attack.
 
I have this problem as a whole with the Japanese jazz+hip-hop movement (DJ Okawari, Nujabes, Nomak, Tsunenori, etc... basically anything off of Aicube, Goon Trax, Hyde Out, etc.).  I think one of the issues is that a lot of those composers are very new to their genres, so it doesn't even have the benefit of being 5, 10, 15 years entrenched in a place that's the home of a particular sound (such as London for dubstep/intelligent dnb/two step, and all the other related subgenres).  On the surface, it's very pretty and listenable, but I can't really get too deep into the music.
 
Anyway, my preference for sampling lies both in the west coast scene (anything DJ Shadows and Quanuum-related) and the wealth of east coast hip-hop producers (from NYC to Philly), particularly in the 90s.  A lot of the stuff is too abstract for me, such as some of Dan the Automator's concept projects, but it's interesting to listen to when it's not caught up in how clever it's trying to be (Madlib).
 
On one hand, I'm glad the current generation is getting into vocalless electronic music, but on the other, the stuff coming out is even more shallow than 90s big beat.

 

[Gatepc]

I've always enjoyed a lot of what Japanese music does that it seems other music does not. I don't know how to explain but it can pull out whole another emotion from the music. I really like this track I found it when watching Higurashi No Naku Kori Ni. Its actually a fairly decent recording if you listen to the lossless version (as we all know youtube compresses a lot)

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl5Z5xrBfnw[/VIDEO]

 

[thechampion116]

will probably get flamed at some point, but I also listen to Asian music.
 
my favourite groups are AKB48 and SMAP.  don't ask why but the catchy tunes have replaced the catchy pop music in the US that I used to listen too and fill that void in my music.

 

[Gatepc]

I've always enjoyed a lot of what Japanese music does that it seems other music does not. I don't know how to explain but it can pull out whole another emotion from the music. I really like this track I found it when watching Higurashi No Naku Kori Ni. Its actually a fairly decent recording if you listen to the lossless version (as we all know youtube compresses a lot)

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl5Z5xrBfnw[/VIDEO]

Does anyone even know what genre to classify this? Other then its Japanese music.

 

[Elysian]

Typically lumped under anime soundtrack genre.  Sometimes doujin, too.

 

[Bokyung]

Quote:

While I appreciate the "vibe" those tracks are going for (mixing acoustic classical and jazz instruments with electronic beats), I find them extremely limiting because of the loop-based compositions relying on sampling other people's music. They can only piece together snippets of chords, ostinatos, and maybe a short clip of melody here and there, and once you recognize the structure of that approach and have heard the first 15 seconds of development, it becomes very predictable.
 
Personally, I feel that in today's age of very playable high-end sample libraries of orchestral and jazz instruments (hell, any instruments--from ethnic to metal to exotic instruments), it would be much more interesting to me if musical artists simply composed and played with those virtual instruments instead of sampling snippets of other people's music. That way, you can still use loop-based composition, but have far more creative freedom to actually progress the harmonic structure however you like, have evolving melodies, get the various instruments to interact in a sophisticated manner (trading off notes, counterpoint, doubling...etc), and so on. Musically, that would be far more interesting than listening to snippets cut and pasted from other people's music, just repeated over and over at different intervals, without any real sense of harmonic or melodic development. 
 
This isn't to say sampling and loop-based compositions can't be great--they totally can be, but it depends on how skilled the artist is. Take someone like Kutiman--he's widely considered the master of that approach, and if you listen to his stuff, it become obvious he's far more sophisticated in the way he uses that compositional approach. He doesn't just take snippets and mash them together--he actually samples individual notes, map them out, and then play them as if they are instruments when the need arises. He's not at the mercy of the limitations the artists above faces because he's much bolder and really cuts things up and use them very creatively. If you have never heard of Kutiman, just search him on youtube and you'll see what I mean. 
 

 
No my friend, you observation is correct. The songs I've linked tend to loop since they were instrumental tracks for underground K-hiphop.
 
That being said, moar underground K-Hiphop.
 
 

 
Released around 2004, obviously not as good today's underground K-hiphop. The word play isn't anything to spazz about either. Wheesung's vocal featuring is terrible in my personal opinion. But hey, that's just me. One thing I definitely love is his choice of words is breathtaking. Simple? No, more like he deliberated and carefully chooses uncommonly used words. Well thought out, carefully crafted to avoid simple suffix.

 

[Trikky99]

 
The whole album is pretty catchy overall.

 

[DrMIS]

What is the name of this group?
 
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The whole album is pretty catchy overall.

 

 

[Elysian]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNSD
 
Girls' Generation (Korean: 소녀시대, Hanja/Kanji/Chinese/Japanese: 少女時代) is a nine-member South Korean girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2007. The nine members are: Taeyeon (Leader), Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun. They are often referred to as SoShi (소시, Hanja: 少時), or SNSD; the first is an abbreviation and the second, mainly used outside Korea, is an acronym of the group's Korean name So Nyuh Shi Dae.

 

[DrMIS]

Quote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNSD
 
Girls' Generation (Korean: 소녀시대, Hanja/Kanji/Chinese/Japanese: 少女時代) is a nine-member South Korean girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2007. The nine members are: Taeyeon (Leader), Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun. They are often referred to as SoShi (소시, Hanja: 少時), or SNSD; the first is an abbreviation and the second, mainly used outside Korea, is an acronym of the group's Korean name So Nyuh Shi Dae.

Thanks.  They look different in the video picture.  So they use different names, SNSD, but they are Girls' Generation (GG?).

 

[Elysian]

They go by both names, so if you're doing YouTube searches for specific songs, it's worth trying both.  You'll normally see SNSD, though.
 
Same thing goes for a lot of KPop bands like DBSK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBSK), which can also go by TVXQ, Tohoshinki, etc.
 
Also, some bands like Super Junior have subgroups like Super Junior-M, Super Junior-T, etc.

 

[wind016]

I don't know what's going on with Epik High but Tablo is back! (unfortunately, with YG Entertainment because of his wife... ugh... but nonetheless he doesn't sound different)
 
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I guess this song, "Home", is about his academic scandal?

 

[deadlylover]

Quote:

Does anyone even know what genre to classify this? Other then its Japanese music.

 
Ely is right on the money, there is a lot of doujin works that have that same easy listening/alternative feel to it. binaria and run girls run are a few of my favourites.
 
Been having this on replay for the past few hours, kinda makes me want to get an SR-009.
 

 

[Lunatique]

Quote:

Thanks.  They look different in the video picture.  So they use different names, SNSD, but they are Girls' Generation (GG?).

These Asian pop acts are extremely image conscious, so they are always changing their looks in order to keep things fresh and exciting. 
 
As for the name thing, many Asian musical acts or celebrities in general have at least two names--one in their own language, and one in English. In this case Girls' Generation is really their "official" name, while SNSD is more like a popularized nickname that's the abbreviation of the English phonetic pronunciation of their Korean name. In countries that understand Chinese characters, they are known as 少女時代 (means "Girls' Generation"). SNSD also works in Chinese because Korean language is rooted in Chinese (so is Japanese), and the Chinese pronunciation is "Sao Nyuee Si Dai" (phonetic, not ping-ying), which also abbreviates to SNSD.

 
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Ely is right on the money, there is a lot of doujin works that have that same easy listening/alternative feel to it. binaria and run girls run are a few of my favourites.
 
Been having this on replay for the past few hours, kinda makes me want to get an SR-009.
 

Sakamoto Maaya is another artist in that stylistic category, though the projects she's worked on are more mainstream. She sort of started on that road when she sang for Kanno Yoko on the soundtracks Kanno composed.