HORA - DESOLATION BEAUTY (ALBUM RELEASE 17.01.2014)

Decadent Child

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Here's the info:

Hora - Desolation Beauty

http://hora.ocnk.net/product/17

Price: 3150 yens + shipping

Hora - Photo/Postal sets

http://hora.ocnk.net/product/15

http://hora.ocnk.net/product/16

Desolation Beauty Tracklist:

01. DESOLATION BEAUTY (4:30)
02. MOONRISE (3:44)
03. CARPE DIEM (3:07)
04. ASTRAL NEBULA (5:45)
05. NOT HUMAN (4:43)
06. NEW MEMORIEZ (4:35)
07. TWISTED DREAM (5:02)
08. TRAGEDY (4:47)
09. PART OF YOUR WORLD (4:50)
10. TILL THE END (3:27)



Well. My copy is somewhere in space. While I wait for it to arrive, please share your thoughts about this album + postcard sets.
 

Madmoiselle_Silk

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I'm no good with making a list of all songs and commenting, so I'm just gonna write random thoughts overall.
When I listened to the record for the first time I thought it was kind of meh, I felt a bit disapointed acctually...
But now I've had it on loop for a couple of hours and it's growing on me ::squee::

My favorire songs so far are MOONRISE, NOT HUMAN and NEW MEMORIEZ.
Hora acctually has the same piano tune from Distorted world in NOT HUMAN ^^
NEW MEMORIEZ reminds me of L.E.M a bit, but better.

The songs I liked the least are PART OF YOUR WORLD and ASTRAL NEBULA, somewhat boring.

Also, the photosets was kind of repetitive, but now I can see the same photo from a 100 different angles ::gaku:: Like I wrote in the Hora thread it was kind of fun he made them as postcards....
 

Wandering_Fox

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Madmoiselle_Silk wrote:
The songs I liked the least are PART OF YOUR WORLD and ASTRAL NEBULA, somewhat boring.

I think Part of Your World would only work if there are mermaid vocals over the synth d(^___^)

Being a holiday today, I'm not expecting my copy to arrive until tomorrow... (I feel like I've only listened to Cocoon once since I got it, so I think I'll dust it off and give it a spin tonight in anticipation~ :cool: )
 

flowersofnight

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Wandering_Fox wrote:
I think Part of Your World would only work if there are mermaid vocals over the synth d(^___^)
I misread it as "A Whole New World" and I was hoping for Hora to do a duet with his sweetheart ::meev::
Oh well, maybe next time, right?
 

Madmoiselle_Silk

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flowersofnight wrote:
Wandering_Fox wrote:
I think Part of Your World would only work if there are mermaid vocals over the synth d(^___^)
I misread it as "A Whole New World" and I was hoping for Hora to do a duet with his sweetheart ::meev::
Oh well, maybe next time, right?
:lol:
 

flowersofnight

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Well, I got my copy today, and the other 9 tracks BESIDES "Part Of Your World" are sappy love duets.
... I wish ::meev::

But really, I thought this album had a lot of the same standard "Hora-isms" we know so well. Nothing really innovative like we saw on "TYRANT", say. But he definitely did improve the general production - more hard-hitting bass and better instrumentation than you'd see on a generic Hora album in years past. You can tell he's putting more effort into it; it's a shame that mostly we're not hearing this stuff for the first time.
One particularly bright spot was "CARPE DIEM" though - this had a more melodic song-like structure and more variety than the rest. I could see this one being turned into a song with vocals.
"NEW MEMORIEZ" was probably the coolest instrumentation-wise. As far as aggressive tracks, I think this is one of Hora's better ones.
"TILL THE END" was a pretty decent ending track, but all ending tracks must live up to the standards of "TRANQUILLITY" now ::hora::

Also, there was nothing mermaid-y about this album, so I don't know what the deal with "Part Of Your World" was XD Overall though, a pretty solid effort. Much more even quality-wise; there's nothing on here that I would call a "clunker", and no annoying parts, which has definitely not always been the case.

I didn't buy the postcard set, incidentally. Does anyone actually mail them to people after paying so much for them? ::meev::
 

Madmoiselle_Silk

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flowersofnight wrote:
I didn't buy the postcard set, incidentally. Does anyone actually mail them to people after paying so much for them? ::meev::
No...because they're so thin they'd break unless you put them in envelopes ::meev::
...I saved them in the plastic"bag" they came in, but accidently when I was putting them back the sticky side got stuck on one of the photos and ripped a tiny bit of color of ::weepy:: That usually don't happen if it's real photopaper, so I wonder what kind of paper they used XD

Doesn't it sound like the piano in Distorted world in Not human?
 

Wandering_Fox

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Well, I listened to the album and, for a HORA album, it didn't disappoint =) I guess I have lowered expectations for his CDs, as it seems he finds a musical phrase he likes and just experiments with it for about 5 minutes per track. My favorites were Tragedy and Till the End, as those were the main ones that stood out. I felt like I've already heard this CD before because a lot of the songs seemed like alternate versions of other songs from previous CDs.

The bass was really well done though, so the CD felt a lot more polished than some of his previous solo CDs. I was a little disappointed with his choice of synths, though. It feels like in the past he experimented with many different patches and synths and now it feels like he is using the same instruments and patches in every song. His earlier CDs (Inner Universe, The World...) had a lot more variation. I wish he would go back and do things like that ^^; Still, the production quality seems to have gone up. I'll probably get the next CD too, on the off chance that the next one will be the Hora album that I didn't expect but have actually been waiting for since Inner Universe with, you know, vocals and stuff d(^__^)
 

flowersofnight

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Wandering_Fox wrote:
now it feels like he is using the same instruments and patches in every song
Well he recently bought some new softsynths, so maybe the next album will have a new sound.
I'm hoping he also bought some vocaloids at the same time. Specifically, Gackpoid ::gaku::

So what, no one liked "CARPE DIEM" but me? XD
 

Wandering_Fox

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flowersofnight wrote:
I'm hoping he also bought some vocaloids at the same time. Specifically, Gackpoid ::gaku::

He said he's done some pop music work before, this makes me wonder if he's out there writing Hatsune Miku music for CD compilations....

Or he's secretly Hyadain...? ::hora::
 

Moizer

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I'd post my review but my post office has the CD jailed [RETENTION- ironically, not a title of any of his tracks so far] and it's way way waYYYyYy too cold up here in Ohio to venture and get it.
 

faith

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So I finally got down to listening to it. I think my faves were Moonrise and Till the End.
He threw some new stuff in there too which was good.
But I was disappointed by the lack of mermaid on the CD in general.
Also I dunno...the whole thing seemed a little not quite Hora. Maybe a little Kaya?
Desolation Beauty sounded too much like Sodomy.


Randomly, I don't like Hyadain...stuff like that is meant to be ::hora:: 'd in silence.
If he were doing vocaloid or angry stuff, I'd much rather it were this
Pure genius.
lol. Someone did it over in Gakupo
 

Wandering_Fox

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faith wrote:
Randomly, I don't like Hyadain...stuff like that is meant to be ::hora:: 'd in silence.
If he were doing vocaloid or angry stuff, I'd much rather it were this
Pure genius.
lol. Someone did it over in Gakupo
Since I do synth music as a hobby, my friends are trying to get me to write vocaloid music... I'm considering it but the software is expensive, and I'm not much of a lyricist, so I'm sure all the songs would be about waffles or androids with watermelon heads who wish they were real humans. Or maybe ドラえもんのうた or something?

I was listening to the last Schwarz Stein CD the other day and realizing there is no reason Kaya couldn't do vocals for Hora solo albums. Hora still writes music for Kaya's solo CDs and it seems like a fair trade, not to mention Kaya has been able to write vocals for past Hora instrumentals. Another Cell and Recurrence of Hallucination really felt more like Hora CDs to me ^^;
 

flowersofnight

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Wandering_Fox wrote:
I was listening to the last Schwarz Stein CD the other day and realizing there is no reason Kaya couldn't do vocals for Hora solo albums.
Well, Faith and I were discussing it the other day, and what he REALLY needs is for his parents to do vocals ::meev::
I don't mean on your typical Hora-style songs though, I mean Hora covers of classic rock tunes like "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".
 

faith

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I thought it was Satoko's parents and they were supposed to do rich old people enka lol (do rich old people even listen to enka though?)
 

flowersofnight

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faith wrote:
I thought it was Satoko's parents and they were supposed to do rich old people enka lol
As a certain Sith Lord once said: "Pray I don't alter it any further" ::meev::
 

faith

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Wandering_Fox wrote:
I'm sure all the songs would be about waffles or androids with watermelon heads who wish they were real humans. Or maybe ドラえもんのうた or something?

I was listening to the last Schwarz Stein CD the other day and realizing there is no reason Kaya couldn't do vocals for Hora solo albums. Hora still writes music for Kaya's solo CDs and it seems like a fair trade, not to mention Kaya has been able to write vocals for past Hora instrumentals. Another Cell and Recurrence of Hallucination really felt more like Hora CDs to me ^^;

There's nothing wrong with any of that...gosh I miss the turn of the century Doraemon flashes.

Everything he's released has been him to me, it's really the titles in this one that seem a little bit different. Like "Desolation Beauty"...when has he ever mentioned beauty or aesthetics before? I guess that's why. But then, maybe it's the effect of living surrounded by white couches and lilac fuzzy blankets lol

I imagine his songs are fine with other people on vocals too, not just Kaya. It would be nice to see him work with some other vocalist to get some outside input.

Like, I know this sounds really weird...but I think they might actually be separate entities... :shock:
 

Wandering_Fox

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flowersofnight wrote:
I don't mean on your typical Hora-style songs though, I mean Hora covers of classic rock tunes like "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".
I watched that music video with my parents about a month ago for the first time, and it was a real trip... My dad was really into it and my mom just kind of smiled and nodded and said, "It was a different time." I think Hora needs to cover Rock Lobster and Kaya needs to dress up with a beehive wig and screech like a dolphin.

faith wrote:
I imagine his songs are fine with other people on vocals too, not just Kaya. It would be nice to see him work with some other vocalist to get some outside input.
What about the vocalist from Inner Universe? She was pretty good, I wonder why they haven't worked together since...

Maybe the next Kaya Meikyoku Series entry should be Kaya singing Enka... I could imagine Kaya in a kimono singing Tsugarukaikyou Fuyugeshiki or especially Amagi Goe by Sayuri Ishikawa or something ::kaya::
 
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