Take The InterMetro Transit

[kensuguro]

I'm building up a concept called InterMetro, with collaboration projects from Tokyo and NYC. Here's a start. Music's supposed to be urban, but not hiphop. (or at least not to the extent that you'd have to like hiphop to appreciate it) This one's pretty much straight forward electro with a bit of rock.

Second time around is a complete repeat, so I'm thinking of some variations to do, but I think the sequence is short and sweet. Debatable if I need to over technify it.

Will be part of a set I'm planning to do at a small electro monthly party in Brooklyn. Let's hope I stick to it and finish writing the set. hehe.

[dawman]

Yeah..I like it.
Nice hooks w/ the synths.
The filtered drums worked O.K. too. When I first heard their boominess I wasn't sure if I would like them for the entirity of the song, but it worked just fine.

Nice Job KS.

[garyb]

can i mix it?


this is j-pop all the way somehow...even the choice of sounds...


i like j-pop.


this is the best i've heard from you in some time. good job!

-btw, it's probably enough as it is.

[dawman]

It is definately j-pop, and reminds me of the tunes we heard on the Japanime cartoons when we had our " Founding Fathers " gathering in Vegas last year.

[kensuguro]

not sure if I meant it to be j-pop specifically, but structurally, I wanted to stick to a normal song structure. The thing that might be making it very j-pop is that at the base, it's got a strong "band" flavor to it. Not specifically the sounds, but just the way the parts fit together. The bass line being very melodious definitely adds to the effect. In most places, it's mainly the bass and the top lead that pretty much completes the picture, with chord elements merely filling in the void.

For j-pop I think carry over of the "band" flavor was more of a side effect than something intentional, coming from old arrangers who simply replaced or reinforced old parts with synths and electronic instruments but still arranged in exactly the same way as before. That tradition still continues in j-pop I think. I don't really like it, but the technique creates very unique results.

Not my usual arrangement technique, but it's easier to adopt to the band structure and guitar/bass style lines.

[garyb]

no, i think it's a point of view thing.

as much as i can't stand it, everything i do comes out LA/OC.



the other metro is the same. it's the melodies. look, all it needs it a short, catchy english phrase...

...and i still really like the stuff. your stuff makes me ashamed at being so lazy.

[kensuguro]

That's interesing. I sot of understood "point of view" as a srt of theming for the tunes or tendencies in the choice of emotions to depict.
To me, J-pop is somewhat happy and superficial, boerderlining cheesiness and excess with lots and lots of arrangement. Content varies quite a bit, but probably more in terms of emotion, than note content.
Seems from my experience writing for j-pop vocals, is that songs NEED to have a speciifc set of emotions, and theu're usually wuite repetitive.
One emotion that I find very particular to J-pop is "setsunai", or the sense of loneliness... Not just loneliness, but something like a fluttering butterflies when you're in love as a teen. Japanese people ig that quite a bit. From the outside perspective thogu, it often seems light, unimportant, or just excessively fancified.

With the metro set, I did put in a fair bit of those emotions, along with a ood bit of nostalgia, embarassment towards the past, and a bit of silly joking. Another important aspect that's new for me, is the strong determination in the basslines and other featured parts. I want to have them move convincingly and confidently.

[dawman]

Brotha' Man Kensuguro,
I was downloading some really cool synth stuff from the eighties at a j-pop place and was distracted by an exaggerated figured bikini cartoon girl that was in the vid. I was saying to myself she was fine, too bad she wasn;t human. Then I followed the links to another video w/ music and she was real. ......Dayamn !! Ever heard of Hitomi Tanaka?? What a shocking beauty.
At any rate these metro tunes are way cool. The mp3 of the translation worked BTW.
We got the gig on the slopes at Heavenly.
Thanks To You And Your Wife.

Mata Atode.

[garyb]

That's interesing. I sot of understood "point of view" as a srt of theming for the tunes or tendencies in the choice of emotions to depict.
To me, J-pop is somewhat happy and superficial, boerderlining cheesiness and excess with lots and lots of arrangement. Content varies quite a bit, but probably more in terms of emotion, than note content.
Seems from my experience writing for j-pop vocals, is that songs NEED to have a speciifc set of emotions, and theu're usually wuite repetitive.
One emotion that I find very particular to J-pop is "setsunai", or the sense of loneliness... Not just loneliness, but something like a fluttering butterflies when you're in love as a teen. Japanese people ig that quite a bit. From the outside perspective thogu, it often seems light, unimportant, or just excessively fancified.

With the metro set, I did put in a fair bit of those emotions, along with a ood bit of nostalgia, embarassment towards the past, and a bit of silly joking. Another important aspect that's new for me, is the strong determination in the basslines and other featured parts. I want to have them move convincingly and confidently.

it seems that japanese culture is very ritualized.

since i'm seeing it as an outsider, i see these things that you describe, but i'm also just hearing some music. there's the english phrase and silly lyrics and other things that differentiate from "serious" music, but there's also some great melodies and arrangement, not to mention some great playing. and there's crap too. the thing is that there are certain things that are quite a japanese veiwpoint, that are informed by tradition and centuries old popular meolodies reprised over and over. when this meets western "pop"(a commercial manipulative pap made for the public that is so well done that we like it. well, the good stuff anyway ), you get j-pop. glory in it. the themes are pretty much the same as american pop, believe me, with a few exceptions for the locality.

you're in an enviable position kensuguro, as a japanese man, you know it. i have admiration, but don't worry, i'm not jealous. we all have our blessings and burdens.

i want to be clear, though. while i call pop music as a whole pap, there's an awful lot of real, deep special music in there. i don't see j-pop as a lesser form than modern jazz. it may be less "intellectual", but that doesn't necessarily make it stupider, errr, more stupid...valuable...worth hearing. jmho.

j-pop to me, is just a quick way of moronically pointing out that it's pop and and by a japanese person or with a japanese melody. sorry for the banality. nice tune, still.

[kensuguro]

np at all, banality is all part of the same journey. hehe. It calms me to read your deep insights after a day of turbo shallow thinking gattling gun fire from new yorkers.