The 69 of 2011
ROKKYUU's 6 best albums and 9 best singles of 2011!
The time has come to review the fruits of visual labor of 2011 with ROKKYUU Magazine’s assessment of the year’s 6 best albums and 9 best singles. It’s been another year of ups and downs, from exciting events such as Asia Girls Explosion and V-ROCK FESTIVAL ’11 to unfortunate deaths and breakups of prominent bands in the scene. It seems that for every minor band breaking up, there’s another former headliner being revived in response to the tragic earthquake and tsunami that startled Japan. Many events and releases were designed for charity, lending a warm spirit to the genre and a sense of togetherness that wasn’t so apparent in the past. With that in mind, ROKKYUU sorted through the various releases we were able to sample throughout the year to bring you our top picks with the 69 of 2011.
6 ALBUMS of 2011
- A(Ace) – Black and White Album
- Awoi – Children
- defspiral – PROGRESS
- Duel Jewel – Luminous
- heidi. – Sixth Sense
- Kra – Naro to Torte
9 SINGLES of 2011
Kate Havas first became interested in Japanese fashion in college when visual kei and anime were just beginning to make their way to America. Having already been involved in the American fashion scene, she expanded her interests to include gothic lolita, Japanese punk, gyaru, and other Japanese subculture styles. Kate signed onto ROKKYUU in order to bring up-to-date news on Japanese fashion trends and the personalities behind these various subculture brands to fans all over the world. Follow her on twitter at keito_kate!
Leela McMullen is a strong believer in the philosophy "no music, no life." Having traversed the range of Japanese fandoms, she found her home at last in visual kei and has made it her mission to share what she loves most with the world. Leela completed her B.A. in Japanese language from Griffith University in Gold Coast Australia. She now lives and works in Japan, striving to bring you the goods, hot from the scene. Follow her on twitter for juicy hints of upcoming articles if you've got a bit of Japanese language under your belt! http://twitter.com/#!/LeelaInTokyo
Sarah began her journey into the world of Japanese music courtesy of L'Arc-en-Ciel back in the year 2000. Since then, she has combined a love of music and music journalism into writing for European Japanese music magazines and assisting with Japanese interest events in the UK. After graduating in Law from the University of Nottingham, she put 'the law-thing' on the backburner to dive into the live scene in Tokyo for 3 years. Sarah returned to the UK in September 2010 to do that 'law-thing' and now works for a Japanese ｂank in London. Her heart is always in the music and fashion in Tokyo and her life is balanced between her time in the UK and Japan. When she has time, she also blogs at http://lifeismerodii.blogspot.com
yay i’m happy that defspiral’s PROGRESS becomes one of the 6 best albums in Rokkyuu!
defspiral did showed quality of their skills from this album. the various kinds of music, which some of them really remind me of Transtic Nerve’s songs (and i love it!) make this album looks like a ‘complete package’ so that the fans can experience how Transtic Nerve, the Underneath, and defspiral sounds like all at once. i like the way they compose and arrange music without forgetting pieces of their old style, though i kinda agree with Rokkyuu about MELODY. it’s not like i dislike the song, but i did thought the same as Rokkyuu when i listened to MELODY for the first time. for NIGHTMARE, i found it sounds like A (ACE) song at first, before MASATO mentioned about A (ACE) violinist played for that song （笑）. and for the last track, PROGRESS, for me it sounds like a good closing part but also a hint for future masterpiece, aside from the encouraging lyrics itself (which i also love it). for the rest of the songs…….. thuuumbs up!! i love this album!
thank you Rokkyuu for the review, i always like the way Rokkyuu staffs write an article. in my opinion, the way the staffs write an article is so clear and persuading people to read further.
i apologize for only commenting on defspiral. i like the other bands such as A, DuelJewel, L’arc, etc.. but for me defspiral is special.
good luck on the future works, Rokkyuu!!
Thank you for sharing! We look forward to hearing your opinions both about the music itself and feedback about our writing! Please check back after 19:00 tonight for more on defspiral.
another article of them? yay thank you very much! i’m looking forward!
yep, i will always give feedback on Rokkyuu staff’s writing as well!