topics
GreenCine General
	Music Discuss music itself, plus music videos, performance DVDs, concerts, opera, and so on. la la la o/^	16

J-Pop: Mika Nakashima - Seven
	Topic by: manuelvillanueva Posted: February 3, 2008 - 10:34 AM PST Last Reply: February 5, 2008 - 5:43 AM PST

author	topic: J-Pop: Mika Nakashima - Seven
manuelvillanueva	post #1  on February 3, 2008 - 10:34 AM PST   I came across a video on YouTube while searching for j-pop. I really liked the song and video. The music is jazzy and a bit refined for pop. The video is dated (2005). While Mika's songs appear on anime like Blood+ and Gundam I think she's more known as a pop artist. I waiting for the CD arrive by mail. It'll be my first Japanese CD unrelated to anime.
Vanamonde	post #2  on February 4, 2008 - 12:01 AM PST   Discovering wonderful and strange pop music from the other side of the world has been a great joy with the Internet! We get to explode stuff that would NEVER make to these shores before! My first Japanse import CD (and I do mean that I imported myself) was the soundtrack to "Aa! Megumi-sama" or "Ah! My Goddess" in the tonque of the roundeyes.
FGaipa	post #3  on February 4, 2008 - 1:00 PM PST   > On February 3, 2008 - 10:34 AM PST manuelvillanueva wrote: While Mika's songs appear on anime like Blood+ and Gundam I think she's more known as a pop artist. I waiting for the CD arrive by mail. It'll be my first Japanese CD unrelated to anime. > --------------------------------- Get you hands on the 1997 album Larme de crocodile by Kahimi Karie. Here's a Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larme_de_crocodile. Her other albums are uneven, often EPs, and wildly overpriced here. But "Crocodile" is superb. Each and every cut. The lyrics are in Japanese, English, and French. fg
hamano	post #4  on February 4, 2008 - 3:18 PM PST   I dunno, FGaipa... Kahimi Karie is all image and attitude but it's hard to tell if she has any musical talent. Yoko Kanno sings in French much better on Cats on Mars and she's not even a singer. What I've heard of Karie's music is like a bunch of kids pretending to be Yoko Ono. Too much will give me a headache, and I actually LIKE vocalists with high squeaky voices (I'm a big fan of Bollywood singers for chrissake!). For anyone who is curious there's a buncha Kahimi Karie songs on youtube. For whispery vocals I much prefer the Swedish weirdo Stina Nordenstam... try Little Star for something more familiar to film fans.
hamano	post #5  on February 4, 2008 - 3:43 PM PST   There was one song by Karie that was interesting... she covered Jeanette's song Porque Te Vas, a song from Carlos Saura's 1976 film Cría Cuervos. But I think the original version is better. Karie benefits from the fact that Spanish is easier for Japanese to pronounce than French or English due to the vowel sounds. Porque te vas Kahimi Karie cover version Porque te vas Original Jeanette version Either way though, the vocals for both artists are way overproduced and it's hard to tell how much of the singing is the singer's own "voice"... Even this far back, listen to all the reverb and stuff laid on Jeanette's voice! NEGRA ESTRELLA... nice song though...
manuelvillanueva	post #6  on February 5, 2008 - 2:53 AM PST   Thanks for the suggestion. J-pop seems to cover a lot of ground. Hamano just has to tease me with that $41.00 Cowboy Bebop CD I've been wanting!
manuelvillanueva	post #7  on February 5, 2008 - 5:43 AM PST   Mika Nakashima does a lot of ballads. I just found this video called Hitori. I think it's beautiful. Some of her videos have an eerie quality.