My 2024 Q1 Roundup

This album was released back in November 2023, but I only found out about this album in February this year, partially because, for whatever reason, there are two different spotify artists for the same band. Thanks spotify.

It's moody, it has a gradual but intense ramp up that is absolutely awesome. I don't listened to this kind of music enough (midwest emo??). Would have placed this on my 2023 list if I discovered this sooner.

More math rock!

I do quite like math rock, I was listening to more Elephant Gym recently, but this is a blind spot for me. Hard for me to find this kind of stuff for some reason. If you know of any more awesome math rock or related bands, let me know on discord (I'm Iceman1415, as usual).

This album Your Favourite Things is, aptly, my favourite album of the year so far.

Even though my favourite genre is easily shoegaze, and I usually listen to more moody or shouty kind of rock stuff, I do have a soft spot for this kind of sofy and slightly off-sounding pop(?). Also see: my album of 2023. Don't always want this kind of stuff, but when I do I love it.

Idk what to call this / if it's a sub-genre ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Probably my favourite Kaf's remix album.

Tbh, for the pass two years, it feals like Kamitsubaki's still in bit of a lull. There's some good tracks here and there, but feels like they struggle to showcase a complete, conherent project. But they seems to be finally showing some real promises recently, especially after the Yoyogi Wars. But this is probably a big writeup for another time. In the meanwhile, this track is great.

I find it complicated to talk about vocaloid.

I feel like especially in english online communities, when people are talking about "vocaloid", there's still a big emphasis on talking about old 2010s vocaloid stuff, or talking about the Vocaloid characters. They are important, but because I'm more of a newer generation of vocaloid listener, they don't matter as much to me.

And even if we're talking about the vocaloid-centric jpop craze of 2019~202x, I feel like we are (I am) slowly moving past that wave. But, sure, there still are new exiciting releases in this area, like I quite liked Nomelon Nolemon's Rule (see my top 9 of 2023).

There is now a new crop of vocaloid producers, who grew up with the rise and fall and now revitalized vocaloid scene, who are still finding new and exciting sounds using vocaloid, who deserves even more spotlight imo.

Anyway, that's just own perspective. Go read Studio Gnu's own writeup on their website.

My favourite song of the year, so far.

I'm also a big sucker of this kind of MV. From the square aspect ratio, the washed / muted colours, to all the framings and angles, it's like everything about the MV is made especially for me. So good.

And the song really grew on me on repeated listens. Laura day romance is probably my favourite band at the moment, partly because I don't like Hitsujibungaku's newest album, and they're coming to Hong Kong but the tickets sold out waaaay too quickly. Anyway, definitely go give Laura day romance a listen.

Hey, I don't only listen to Japanese music.

Taiwanese LÜCY has collabed with Hitsujibungaku, and this MV shot in Japan, featuring the bassist from texas3000. So, errr, close enough?

The upside of not writing much comapred to others is that I can finalize my list later, so I can choose to include newer songs to include in my list. :p

While yourness had a couple of hit songs in the past few years, none of their hits really gel with me. And so I didn't dig deeper into their discography.

Now after listening to their most recent EP Ⅶ, I really should've tried listening to more yourness. They're definitely trying out more mainstream kind of pop sounds, but still having a definite yourness voice. Looking forward to more new stuff from them.

MEMAI SIREN is the first Japanese band that left an lasting impression on me. In particular, I really loved their songs 偽物の宴 Nisemono no Utage and 紫陽花 Ajisai. It's only after listening to a lot MEMAI SIREN, do I then discover more similar kind of music, like amazarashi, and Kaf / Kamitsubaki Studio / Kanzaki Iori.

And so, I did feel quite sad when they announced that they are disbanding in Decemeber last year, after leaving their major label back in May.

Here is their final song, Dawn.