MY FAVOURITE JAPANESE GUITARISTS

Hey there, it's been a while since I've done a post.
About a week I think? Apart from not being able to finish video subtitles quicker, I basically just couldn't really think of something that I wanted to write about. Ha..... There should be some more videos in the next 2~3 days though.

Well anyway, I've got some motivation to write a bit now, so here we go.

My favourite Japanese guitarists.
This doesn't really have anything to do with skill or level or technique and isn't a list saying who are the best guitarists in Japan. The reason being, I don't really know enough about all that to make a proper judgement. I'll leave that for people who know about that stuff.

No, instead my list is basically one of the guitarists that I enjoy and find most interesting listening to.
Ahem, so let us begin.....Oh, and it's not necessarily in any order. Just whoever I think of first.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOTEI TOMOYASU 布袋寅泰

Hotei Tomoyasu is a legend of Japanese music. At first he was part of the band Boowy in the 80's, a hugely popular rock group that started up a band making craze in Japan at the time. He was also part of a two man unit called Complex with the singer Kikkawa Koji, which is also considered legendary, as they only worked together for 2 years and 2 albums. He has also had a successful solo career with his music being a massive influence on many of the modern musicians. He'd be most well known in the West however for his song 'Battle For Honour and Humanity' which was used as a theme song on Quentin Tarantino's film, Kill Bill.

His music is usually very fast paced and energetic, and his live shows are great because of this. 

Beat Emotion is probably a good example:

 Here is a video of a great guitar solo of his from the song Fly Into You Dream. There's supposed to be a part where he sings before this but I think it's been cut straight to the solo. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HIDE

Hide of the super influential rock band X-Japan. He along with the rest of his band popularised the Visual-kei movement and started a Visual-Kei band boom in the early 90's. Although in his X-Japan work he plays more of a melodious speed metal style, his solo stuff is a little more varied, which I like. The way he plays guitar is kind of strange too. Well it's not strange but while other guitarists move around a lot with exaggerated movements and head banging, Hide barely moves at all. Even his hands seem to have minimal wastage of movement. I like how his songs are one the verge of crazy but still has a melody to it unlike some other insane and incomprehensible rock musicians. It's too bad that he died so early though, as he only left behind 3 albums.

This is a song of his that I like called Pink Spider. This and probably Doubt '97.

And 紅 (Kurenai) with X-Japan. I came across this song when I didn't even like rock music and found their appearance gross, but still found it really good.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

ASAI KENICHI 浅井健一

Asai Kenichi is the vocalist/guitarist of 3 man band, Blankey Jet City. This is another band considered legendary in Japan, although barely even heard of by most Western fans of Japanese music. I suppose that's because they're not really the type of music that most of these people like (probably) but oh well. His singing is also one of those types that is hard to get used to, and may even be unlistenable to most. He doesn't hit his high notes properly and has a nasal almost monotone whine like Bob Dylan. I took a while to get used to it...but now I really love his music. It helps that the instrumental backing are very cool too though.

Well, so what I like about his guitar playing.....well it's quite unusual. I think. It's often very simple especially in the album he did with the singer UA as the group 'Ajico', where it is quite moody and eerie. With Blankey Jet City it's very Rock'n'Roll with elements of Jazz sometimes. 

Arrrghh there are so many songs of theirs that I want to introduce that it's hard to limit it to 2~3...

Omaega Hoshii ("I want you") is one of my favourites. It starts off as a Jazz track but suddenly turns into Rock in the last minute or so.

A more typical Rock tune of theirs is the song 'Romeo'

Here's one with the group Ajico I mentioned just before. He teams up with the singer UA which incidentally have also done a post about (here). The song is called Shinryoku (深緑) which means dark green. It's very different to his Blankey Jet City stuff.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABE FUTOSHI アベフトシ

Abe Futoshi is the guitarist for the rock band Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. I've written about them before (here) and have also subtitled a video of them on Heyx3 Music Champ (here). He's well known in Japan for his faced paced and rocking cutting skills (a guitar technique, not what you do with sharp objects hehe). Apparently he has never used an effector before, unlike most other rock musicians nowadays. Unfortunately, he has also passed away, fairly recently in 2009.

'Rhapsody' is a very fast paced tune and features a lot of the signature 'cutting'.

'Give the Gallon' is one of my favourite songs of theirs.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UKIGUOMO 浮雲

Ukigumo is the guitarist for Tokyo Jihen, the band lead by the singer Shiina Ringo. It's a very cool band that plays various types of music. 

Song- Killer Tune

Shuraba

Superstar

Well that's as much as I can bother to do. You probably noticed that I barely wrote anything for the last guitarist. That's because I've gotten tired of writing....hehe. I don't really know much about him either so I can't write a lot without doing some research too so......sorry about that.

So who are your favourite guitarists and why? I suppose it doesn't have to be Japanese like the people I've mentioned.

-