Random Thoughts: The Return

Phantom Pabulum

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What do y'all think Malice Mizer's last album would've sounded like if they hadn't disbanded... like to me it would've sounded a bit j-poppy (Garnet/Gardenia) with some few Metal/Baroque elements (Beast of Blood and Gensou Rakuen) but like.. it makes no sense.. Maybe they would've done some sort of double mini-album sort of offering ahah. It was getting quite inconsistent. Also I'm curious about how present Közi's and Yu~ki's involment was in the artistic process of their last offerings, it's mostly unfounded but I'm hypothesizing that it was mostly Mana's vision.. like 80%... I wonder if Kozi was already leaning towards the noise/industrial/pop/rock route he took with EoD and his personal project.. Also no idea what Yu~Ki would've wanted the band to sound like.. just thinking.. What if the J-Pop route with pop hooks was mostly Klaha's idea, since it was pretty much what he did in his solo career.... just thinking out loud...

what if they stopped because one of the members wanted to do rap verses and that was the last straw for Mana...


The title tracks of the final 3 singles were so strong and to me felt consistent as part of a new album. The B-sides though, feel to me as though they're part of the Bara no Seidou universe.

In the new album, I imagined it would be something like:

- SE intro (lol)
- Gardenia/BoB/Garnet
- twin guitar song (bel air/shiroi) (written by mana)
- one/two sappy ballads (written by mana)
- one electronic pop piece (written by kozi)
- one piece with a beat and the members muttering words (written by mana/kozi)
- SE outro (lol)
 

flowersofnight

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- SE intro (lol)
- Gardenia/BoB/Garnet
- twin guitar song (bel air/shiroi) (written by mana)
- one/two sappy ballads (written by mana)
- one electronic pop piece (written by kozi)
- one piece with a beat and the members muttering words (written by mana/kozi)
- SE outro (lol)
And then "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" as the bonus track, because they were all fixated on that for the longest time ::meev::
 

Hampo

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I have a feeling they were going back to the more "usual" MM sound, if there even is more usual MM sound. After all, Bara... was a funeral album and most likely not the direction the band was going to continue in.
Though, Mana did form MdM later on, so...

I honestly do feel like MM broke up because of their artistic differences. Mana wanted to go goth metal, Közi probably didn't.

Whenever I take a step back and look at Malice Mizer as a whole, I must say, what an odd band. There has never been anything like it before or after. The strange mixture of genres and old school synth sounds made them quite unique. Maybe it would have been disappointing if they continued and just released an album that sounded too much like their previous works, because the four albums they did make were all very different. Maybe it was for the best that the band broke up when it did, even though their last singles were so goddamn good. Or who knows, maybe we were denied a masterpiece that would be better than anything else they ever made before that.

It was a lightning in a bottle scenario, I guess.
 

BoOH

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Someone should go through this https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.geocities.co.jp/MusicStar-Vocal/* and search "mp3" "ram" and "wma" there's probably some hidden treasures :). (I know you found their songs from there, but maybe there's stuff other people are looking for)

Do you have a rip of Devie ? Several people have mentioned it on their trade lists.

Hey, thank you very much! I was looking for some Pierrot lyrics I couldn't find anywhere. Then I remembered this web centigrade-j which wasn't online anymore... so, I used this archive and everything was there. What a relief!
 

flowersofnight

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Cantavanda

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I like it! Definitely KALM era VE influence! But do you use any sort of limiter/compressor and mastering to give your composition more loudness and dynamics? I can hear that some sound frequencies are very present at times. I like the percussion and violin sounds that you use, so KALMey!
 

heutre

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I like it! Definitely KALM era VE influence! But do you use any sort of limiter/compressor and mastering to give your composition more loudness and dynamics? I can hear that some sound frequencies are very present at times.
Thank you for your comment :). I'm glad you liked it. I use both limiters and compressors. This was quite difficult to mix because of the amount of sounds I like to have simultaneously ahah. I also used soundcloud's mastering tools to make it less muddy.

I like the percussion and violin sounds that you use, so KALMey!
Thank you :) His melodramatic composing style with tons of strings has always been a major influence to me.
 
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Cantavanda

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Thank you for your comment :). I'm glad you liked it. I use both limiters and compressors. This was quite difficult to mix because of the amount of sounds I like to have simultaneously ahah. I also used soundcloud's mastering tools to make it less muddy.


Thank you :) His melodramatic composing style with tons of strings has always been a major influence to me.
Great! What I love about KALM's compositions is that the chord progressions aren't that clear. He does mostly think in chords, but with each chord, he adds a lot of different notes that aren't in the chord, all in synth/string/piano melodies that sound very natural, even if they're not IN the main chord on that moment. So you have a whole ton of extra notes in melodies, not just the three notes per chord. That makes it very interesting to listen to, it doesn't bore. And I could DEFINITELY hear that kind of melody+chord thinking in your composition!
 

heutre

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Great! What I love about KALM's compositions is that the chord progressions aren't that clear. He does mostly think in chords, but with each chord, he adds a lot of different notes that aren't in the chord, all in synth/string/piano melodies that sound very natural, even if they're not IN the main chord on that moment. So you have a whole ton of extra notes in melodies, not just the three notes per chord. That makes it very interesting to listen to, it doesn't bore. And I could DEFINITELY hear that kind of melody+chord thinking in your composition!

I only know some elements/basics of music theory, so your deconstructed analysis of his work was actually really insightful to read. I definitively agree, I love how his work can sound convulated at times. The instrumental breaks in 禁じられた花 have always felt disorienting and overwhelming (harmonically) to me, which is something I've always really appreciated about his work. Thanks for your input :)
 
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Hampo

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Sounds good. I think the mixing needs some attention, though. I can't give too much advice on that as sound mixing is the most difficult thing and I hate it.
Huge props for composing a 4 minute track. I can only muster up 1 minute at max and then I wonder "where the hell do I go from here?" and never finish the composition.

I've never actually tried to compose anything that sounds like Velvet Eden or VK in general. If I tried and failed (which would happen at 100% certainty) I would get so disappointed and depressed with myself.
 

heutre

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Sounds good. I think the mixing needs some attention, though. I can't give too much advice on that as sound mixing is the most difficult thing and I hate it.

Thanks for the input :) Would you mind being more specific ? To me the drums are too loud, I'll remaster that soonish.

Huge props for composing a 4 minute track. I can only muster up 1 minute at max and then I wonder "where the hell do I go from here?" and never finish the composition.

Thanks, to be honest I find that constructing like.. a very full verse iteratively through a loop, and then when I'm satisfied, spacing out the incrementation of each of the elements afterwards so they progress more smoothly, is something that I find myself doing quite often. Also just playing around with a midi controller and doing separate parts without thinking much of their transition, and trying to merge your little drafts together afterwards is something that's effective to me :).

I've never actually tried to compose anything that sounds like Velvet Eden or VK in general. If I tried and failed (which would happen at 100% certainty) I would get so disappointed and depressed with myself.

It's all about practice and trying new things at each new demo. It's really difficult to get anything on the first try. To be honest, I started this track 4 years ago, and I kept revisiting it each couple of months because I found it quite difficult to make it evolve. It drove me nuts lol. I didn't want it to be too redundant or lazy, so I just worked on simpler and more basic demos on the mean side. Perhaps doing more demos and trying more little projects will give you the confidence to take on more ambitious projects <3. I really want to hear more VE/VK inspired music so I'd love for more members to come up with their small little side projects :) <3
 

Hampo

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Hmst. I think some piano was a bit too loud at points. Sound balance and panning things is hell and I genuinely have no idea how to do things properly. There was that "demo sound" to it.

I had this one acoustic demo that had a guitar and vocals, both on the same mono track. I just doubled the track, made one track the left side of the stereo and the other track right side. The latter track started just a tad bit later than the first track. That stereo was good enough for me, hah.
 

sanctum

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I've watched this video a few times now and it is still boggling my mind watching those dodges.
 

MorganIvy

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Just thought you should all know that Scape is mostly girls who are thirsty for Mana, and some guys too!


According to this kid with a Mana fanpage on instagram, who must have gone through some 2005 posts on the picture thread or something. I cant stop laughing. Why are kids so impressionable these days? Also, when was there THIRSTING here?!?!

I can't ::meev::
 

faith

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I thought we were almost 50/50 in terms of male/female ratio...also some of us are much to old to be called girls.
Don't call us girls - call us Obaasan.

@heutre - I felt like it was a bit marchy in the beginning but then I kinda really digged it. I hope you continue composing.
This is about as useful of an opinion as you'll get from me since I forgot all my music theory stuff.

Anyhow, sorry to rant about this here, but I'm friends with my dad on FB and all that...
As I read my popcorn girl isekai, the site sometimes proposes other stuff and every once in a while this one called "Seduce the Villain's Father' shows up...
It looks like it's about a girl who dies and transmigrates into some lady's body 20 years before she's born.
Then she seduces her father to stop the bad guy from being born and...
YUCK. Is anyone else as disgusted by this idea as I am??
Like, I'm sorry, but if I had to seduce my dad in order to save the world you're on your own guys.
Imma take all the cats and go live on a mountain in China somewhere.

I really seriously don't think the Oedipus/Jocasta/Electra complexes are as prominent as Freud thought. Even in kids.
Well, I mean, a lot of Freud's nonsense prolly only applied to himself but still.

Edit: and especially good luck to Hanachan, since he has horrible survival skills and there will be no cats left to catch mice for him cause I took them all
 
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