Stereo Fabrication of Youth -- two creatures

 

Next to the various dance music sub-genres, the next big hole in my musical knowledge regards the rock sub-genres. Recently, I've been able to get a grasp on what shoegaze/dream pop is all about but now there is this whole thing about Emo that I don't know. From what I've read on Wikipedia, I gather that it's all about how the singer expresses those emotions, and if he/she expresses them really loudly, the new genre is Screamo. So I guess that maybe Emo is the opposite of shoegaze?

Anyways, the Japanese expression for Emo is also given as Emotional Hardcore, and that has been the label used to describe the rock band Stereo Fabrication of Youth. Formed in Nagoya in 1999, according to J-Wiki, the genesis took place at some sort of folk song association event at Nagoya University. with the band making its major debut in 2003. As of that year, the lineup consisted of vocalist/guitarist Ryo Eguchi（江口亮）, bassist Takahito Uchida（内田崇仁）, guitarist/vocalist Tsutomu Wada（和田勉）who also created the songs, and drummer Yoshihiro Kato（加藤由浩）.

SteFab has released a compact variety of singles, albums and mini-albums. Their first mini-album, "KNOW FUTURE FOR YOU", came out in August 2002, so just before that major debut in April 2003 with the single "1979". Consisting of four songs, Track 2 is "two creatures", and yep, when I saw that music video above for the first time, I thought that the guy who had come up with the concept was the same fellow who came up with the poster for "Ant-Man" (although the camera does eventually move on up).

I also gather that Emo is the right label for "two creatures" since there is some measure of anguish and frustration in Wada's lyrics. They come across as a fellow fairly writhing about what the heck this love thing is and the target of his affections (or is he the target?) isn't exactly helping out. Indeed, the music is on a level of a sonic assault at times. although at 2:30, there is a brief interlude of bossa nova! But it isn't just the bossa nova but the whole song that actually sounds pretty good to me, and as you know, I'm not all that huge on rock.

Over the next few years after that, the members started leaving the band and right now, it's just Eguchi representing SteFab as of 2007. Eguchi is now under an indies label and he has been providing songs for other singers and bands such as Ikimonogakari（いきものがかり）, Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）and LiSA. In fact, for LiSA, he arranged her big hit "Gurenge"（紅蓮華）.

LiSA -- Gurenge（紅蓮華）

For the Spring 2019 anime season, it's just been "Dancing to Night ~ Kimi e Saitan Warp Kouro"（君への最短ワープ航路）from "RobiHachi" that has been the out-and-out earworm for me. However, there have been some other pleasant themes from the ones that my friend has been showing me over the past few months including the songs for "Boku-tachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai"（ぼくたちは勉強ができない）and the lone theme tune for the Nagoya-themed "Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki"（八十亀ちゃんかんさつにっき...Yatogame-chan's Observation Diary）.

Another show that we've been thoroughly enjoying is "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃）which is known as "Demon Slayer" here although the direct translation is "Blade of Demon Destruction". It's a horror adventure that takes place in Taisho Era Japan (about a century ago) involving a kind boy, Tanjiro, who has to do some growing up in a massive hurry after nearly his entire family is massacred by demons with the exception of his little sister who has become half-demon and partner in war. He goes through some rigorous training to become the titular heroic demon slayer, and he's just been joined by a couple of other slayers: Zenitsu, a seemingly hilarious and cowardly kid who actually has some incredible battle depth to him and the literally pig-headed Inosuke who lives for battle and ought to join a Klingon house in the future.

I've just found out that "Kimetsu no Yaiba" is going for 26 episodes instead of the usual 13 which I'm glad about since it certainly doesn't look like it will wrap things up in 3 months. The show's been plenty entertaining and the last major battle before this writing had me thinking all sorts of Marvel stuff such as "The Avengers". And yet, the staff behind the creation of this anime have been able to insert some wacky humour even within the trading of blood and gore.

As I've hinted above, the opening theme "Gurenge" (Crimson Flowers) hasn't been an earworm but it's grown on me over the weeks. Written and sung by singer-songwriter LiSA and composed by Kayoko Kusano（草野華余子）, despite the Taisho Era setting, the kickass rock arrangement suits all the hell that's coming to the demons by the slayers. I figure that a future episode will definitely save "Gurenge" as a sonic weapon during one of the final climactic scenes. Stereo Fabrication of Youth's Ryo Eguchi（江口亮）was responsible for the arrangement.

I managed to find a short version of the stylish music video for "Gurenge". The single hasn't come out yet but will be released on July 3rd according to the website for the show.

As for LiSA, she was born Risa Oribe（織部里沙）in Gifu Prefecture. Her stage name stands for “Love is same all” and was once a member of the band Chucky before it broke up in 2005 after which she aimed for a solo career. Some of her musical influences include Avril Lavigne, Rihanna and Green Day. For some reason, Wikipedia and J-Wiki are having issues today so I was able to get the information from another site.

January 2, 2020: I was glad to hear that LiSA was able to perform "Gurenge" at the 70th Kohaku Utagassen, but the red tape of bureaucracy and copyrights forced TV Japan to mask almost all of her bristling performance. Apparently due to licensing agreements, or the lack of them, TV Japan couldn't show any of the scenes of "Kimetsu no Yaiba" playing behind her to anyone outside of the country watching the Kohaku. Fortunately for now at least, I can see the hidden performance on YouTube (or at least, I was able to...the above video is from a concert).