Hello,
Today's Artist is the musical project of Katsuhiko Maeda, whose work blends elements of electronic, classical, and post-rock music.......N'Joy
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At the age of 10, he was inspired by his father's collection of classical music. Not much is known about him or his background, he generally seems to avoid publicity, which has ultimately made him a rather mysterious character. His love for classical music -- which already started at the tender age of 10 -- is fairly evident when listening to his surprisingly challenging albums. He was already composing music with guitars and keyboards at the age of 13 and apparently hasn't stopped ever since. The music of World's End Girlfriend defies categorization. It combines countless ideas and genres together quite effortlessly, resulting in a weird, but exciting musical world. In this world, you can find post-rock, modern classical music, electronica, all presented in a tasteful fashion. The clichés of the genre are thankfully missing, and there's one thing you can be sure of; World's End Girlfriend will not let you rest on your laurels; he will always keep you on your toes as the music often takes drastic changes in direction without any warning.
Some artists are authentic masters of human emotion. They are able to tug at the heart, weaken the knees, and bring out the tears of even the most emotionally impassive individuals. Katsuhiko Maeda is one of the most accurate contemporary examples of a musician who excels in this craft. With a fanbase that stretches from his native Japan to the United States, his primary project, World’s End Girlfriend, has pleased the masses for seven years with its incorporation of orchestral post-rock and experimental electronica. Nearly a household name in Japan with his multi-instrumental prowess, Maeda is hardly the embodiment of a conventional songwriter. His incorporation of classical music, avant-garde production, and tumultuously layered samples is hardly the norm for an internationally reputable musician. Whether or not his cultish fan following is most impressed by his instrumental grasp or immaculate songwriting ability, there is one aspect of World’s End Girlfriend that remains quite certain. There is no other conscientious artist in activity that crafts music in the same distinctive style as World’s End Girlfriend.
Barring a few vigorous transitions in the demeanor of song production, Maeda’s stylistic flow has remained nearly the same throughout his career. Including his collaboration with Japanese post-rock veterans Mono, Maeda’s releases have been a vigorous display of his trademark tendency to present songs in a cloud of unpredictability and ceaseless turbulence. Always keeping the listener on edge, Maeda has proven that, at any moment, he can transform of an instrumentally tranquil setting into a scene of abrupt chaos Maeda’s typical instrumentation bursts with pianos, strings, upright bass, and most orchestral instruments imaginable, occasionally laced with sound effects in the feverish vein of a door quickly closing shut, the scream of a child, or the laughter of a deranged madman. However, when Maeda shines brightly in his occasional spots of instrumented placidity, he echoes the more classic works of Ryuichi Sakamoto, yet another famed Japanese musician.
A cinematic feel is one of the trademarks of Maeda's detailed compositions (which is hardly surprising in this field of music), but it's a tad more orchestrated than the average post-rock act. His music has been featured in the Go Shibata directed film Late Bloomer (2004). He also composed the soundtrack to Air Doll, a 2009 movie by award-winning director Hirokazu Koreeda and scored the 2011 Taiwanese-Chinese film Starry Starry Night.
Another characteristic of Maeda’s work that continues to impress is his ability to produce songs that render a variety of moods and emotions. There are few artists who can make a human being as overjoyed, ardent, or terrified as Katsuhiko Maeda through the sheer art of music.
World's End Girlfriend has performed live in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, Macau, Spain (twice at the Sonar festival), Switzerland, China, Taiwan, UK and the US. He did a 32 date tour of North America with Mono in 2007, with whom he also made a collaborative CD. In 2010 World's End Girlfriend played shows in Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Despite being completely unknown at the time, "ending story" recorded high evaluation and sales numbers. The chaotic sound in which delicate timbres and many samplings are intertwined creates an overwhelming worldview completed though it is a debut work. Think MONO meets Aphex Twin...
Worlds End Girlfriend - Ending Story (flac 407mb)
01 Listening You 7:00
02 Magical Romantic Freestyle 4:52
03 Heartbreak Wonderland 6:13
04 Cruel Girl's Beauty 9:43
05 Air Reason 6:13
06 Purple Orange 4:30
07 Red Red Red 10:35
08 A Faint Melody 1:13
09 Ending Story 14:50
10 Birthday 7:31
Worlds End Girlfriend - Ending Story (ogg 171mb)
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In Farewell Kingdom we see Katsuhiko Maeda's project called World's End Girlfriend at its early stage. World's End Girlfriend is here in a more restrained manner compared to his excellent and more spontaneous "The Lie Lay Land". This album relies a lot in piano melodies so it has romantic feel to it also thanks to the song names as well. It also has its electronica beats and special sound effects like tape manipulation that's very common in World End's Girlfriend sound. One of the things that people will notice is that this album doesn't rely much on guitars, instead it has a decent variety of instrumentations making its sound very well orchestrated, but never overdone. The album has its occasional climaxes and, instead of making a cacophony of instruments, while still maintaining it's fragile symphonic sound in the background. One of the best example of this is in the third song, "Daydream Loveletter". The problem that I have with the album is that the songs sound similar to one another. You also need to have a decent amount of patience as well since most of the time the album is very calm and delicate and climaxes aren't very common on this album, but the ones it has are very well worth it. Plus this album has World's End Girlfriend's most beautiful and melodic song, "You".
Worlds End Girlfriend - Farewell Kingdom (flac 233mb)
01 Yes 15:06
02 Call Past Rain 8:33
03 Daydream Loveletter 7:32
04 Halfmoon Girl 7:22
05 Fragile Fireworks 5:26
06 Fifteen White 11:51
07 You 12:53
08 Onepiece 4:58
Worlds End Girlfriend - Farewell Kingdom (ogg 167mb)
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Glitchy electronics, beats, hip-hop samples and post-rock cliches. This record's got them all. And the crazy thing is it all comes together so well. Often with a clumsy openness and honesty that can not be found on polished formulatic post-rock of today. It's an inconsistent compilation of some of the most stunning pieces in experimental post-rock you can find. It explores some very outlandish soundscapes and goes places where you would never think of going to. Wonderland Falling Tomorrow is just an ambient soundscape that has a very attractive, quiet melody that wanders in and out until you are hypnotized. Moments of termendous power and energy as well as unearthly beauty.
Worlds End Girlfriend - Dream's End Come True (flac 336mb)
01 Singing Under the Rainbow 8:52
02 Caroling Hellwalker 8:46
03 All Imperfect Love Song 25:35
04 Wonderland Falling Tomorrow 7:08
Worlds End Girlfriend - Dream's End Come True (ogg 123mb)
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What the hell? In April 2006, Mono released their instrumental opus You Are There on Temporary Residence and they toured the world in support of it. In September of the same year Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain is issued as a collaborative album with World's End Girlfriend (aka Katsushiko Maeda), the underground Japanese producer, mixologist, and multi-instrumentalist. Helping out with this slab are a string section, a chorus, a pianist, and jazz saxophonist Takafumi Ishikawa. This is, it appears, one long set with each "movement" or division in it marked with the titles "Trailer 1," "Trailer 2," "Trailer 3," and so on. It begins innocently enough with an elegy played by the string section, shifting slowly, purposefully in dirge mode. The guitars begin to enter at seven-and-a-half minutes into the 12-minute opener. The chorus enters in "Trailer 2" with the guitars barely present, but adding just enough tension that the listener knows something is about to happen. Tension is built so slowly as to almost be imperceptible. On "Trailer 3," Mono begins to play as a trio, with drums weaving through the strings, which become more insistent until WEG and Mono set the noise to stun about halfway through its 13-plus minutes. Chorus, piano, and silence add dimension to the strings on "Trailer 4," and Mono begins their swell, burn and release on the final trailer, slipping around the background, creating a taut sonic backdrop until the entire thing just explodes as a mournful, gorgeous, funereal hymn that eventually enters back into silence. Palmless Prayer reveals an entirely different side of this band, who nonetheless keep their individual identity adding depth and dimension to their sound. This isn't classical music, but it's not rock, either. It's something else entirely, which apparently folds into the multivalent calling card Mono have attempted to establish since they began. It's puzzling, bewildering and utterly beautiful.
Worlds End Girlfriend n Mono - Palmless Prayer Mass Murder Refrain (flac 341mb)
01 Untitled #1 12:15
02 Untitled #2 13:36
03 Untitled #3 17:03
04 Untitled #4 11:59
05 Untitled #5 19:13
Worlds End Girlfriend n Mono - Palmless Prayer Mass Murder Refrain (ogg 141mb)
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Today's Artist is the musical project of Katsuhiko Maeda, whose work blends elements of electronic, classical, and post-rock music.......N'Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
At the age of 10, he was inspired by his father's collection of classical music. Not much is known about him or his background, he generally seems to avoid publicity, which has ultimately made him a rather mysterious character. His love for classical music -- which already started at the tender age of 10 -- is fairly evident when listening to his surprisingly challenging albums. He was already composing music with guitars and keyboards at the age of 13 and apparently hasn't stopped ever since. The music of World's End Girlfriend defies categorization. It combines countless ideas and genres together quite effortlessly, resulting in a weird, but exciting musical world. In this world, you can find post-rock, modern classical music, electronica, all presented in a tasteful fashion. The clichés of the genre are thankfully missing, and there's one thing you can be sure of; World's End Girlfriend will not let you rest on your laurels; he will always keep you on your toes as the music often takes drastic changes in direction without any warning.
Some artists are authentic masters of human emotion. They are able to tug at the heart, weaken the knees, and bring out the tears of even the most emotionally impassive individuals. Katsuhiko Maeda is one of the most accurate contemporary examples of a musician who excels in this craft. With a fanbase that stretches from his native Japan to the United States, his primary project, World’s End Girlfriend, has pleased the masses for seven years with its incorporation of orchestral post-rock and experimental electronica. Nearly a household name in Japan with his multi-instrumental prowess, Maeda is hardly the embodiment of a conventional songwriter. His incorporation of classical music, avant-garde production, and tumultuously layered samples is hardly the norm for an internationally reputable musician. Whether or not his cultish fan following is most impressed by his instrumental grasp or immaculate songwriting ability, there is one aspect of World’s End Girlfriend that remains quite certain. There is no other conscientious artist in activity that crafts music in the same distinctive style as World’s End Girlfriend.
Barring a few vigorous transitions in the demeanor of song production, Maeda’s stylistic flow has remained nearly the same throughout his career. Including his collaboration with Japanese post-rock veterans Mono, Maeda’s releases have been a vigorous display of his trademark tendency to present songs in a cloud of unpredictability and ceaseless turbulence. Always keeping the listener on edge, Maeda has proven that, at any moment, he can transform of an instrumentally tranquil setting into a scene of abrupt chaos Maeda’s typical instrumentation bursts with pianos, strings, upright bass, and most orchestral instruments imaginable, occasionally laced with sound effects in the feverish vein of a door quickly closing shut, the scream of a child, or the laughter of a deranged madman. However, when Maeda shines brightly in his occasional spots of instrumented placidity, he echoes the more classic works of Ryuichi Sakamoto, yet another famed Japanese musician.
A cinematic feel is one of the trademarks of Maeda's detailed compositions (which is hardly surprising in this field of music), but it's a tad more orchestrated than the average post-rock act. His music has been featured in the Go Shibata directed film Late Bloomer (2004). He also composed the soundtrack to Air Doll, a 2009 movie by award-winning director Hirokazu Koreeda and scored the 2011 Taiwanese-Chinese film Starry Starry Night.
Another characteristic of Maeda’s work that continues to impress is his ability to produce songs that render a variety of moods and emotions. There are few artists who can make a human being as overjoyed, ardent, or terrified as Katsuhiko Maeda through the sheer art of music.
World's End Girlfriend has performed live in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, Macau, Spain (twice at the Sonar festival), Switzerland, China, Taiwan, UK and the US. He did a 32 date tour of North America with Mono in 2007, with whom he also made a collaborative CD. In 2010 World's End Girlfriend played shows in Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Despite being completely unknown at the time, "ending story" recorded high evaluation and sales numbers. The chaotic sound in which delicate timbres and many samplings are intertwined creates an overwhelming worldview completed though it is a debut work. Think MONO meets Aphex Twin...
Worlds End Girlfriend - Ending Story (flac 407mb)
01 Listening You 7:00
02 Magical Romantic Freestyle 4:52
03 Heartbreak Wonderland 6:13
04 Cruel Girl's Beauty 9:43
05 Air Reason 6:13
06 Purple Orange 4:30
07 Red Red Red 10:35
08 A Faint Melody 1:13
09 Ending Story 14:50
10 Birthday 7:31
Worlds End Girlfriend - Ending Story (ogg 171mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
In Farewell Kingdom we see Katsuhiko Maeda's project called World's End Girlfriend at its early stage. World's End Girlfriend is here in a more restrained manner compared to his excellent and more spontaneous "The Lie Lay Land". This album relies a lot in piano melodies so it has romantic feel to it also thanks to the song names as well. It also has its electronica beats and special sound effects like tape manipulation that's very common in World End's Girlfriend sound. One of the things that people will notice is that this album doesn't rely much on guitars, instead it has a decent variety of instrumentations making its sound very well orchestrated, but never overdone. The album has its occasional climaxes and, instead of making a cacophony of instruments, while still maintaining it's fragile symphonic sound in the background. One of the best example of this is in the third song, "Daydream Loveletter". The problem that I have with the album is that the songs sound similar to one another. You also need to have a decent amount of patience as well since most of the time the album is very calm and delicate and climaxes aren't very common on this album, but the ones it has are very well worth it. Plus this album has World's End Girlfriend's most beautiful and melodic song, "You".
Worlds End Girlfriend - Farewell Kingdom (flac 233mb)
01 Yes 15:06
02 Call Past Rain 8:33
03 Daydream Loveletter 7:32
04 Halfmoon Girl 7:22
05 Fragile Fireworks 5:26
06 Fifteen White 11:51
07 You 12:53
08 Onepiece 4:58
Worlds End Girlfriend - Farewell Kingdom (ogg 167mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Glitchy electronics, beats, hip-hop samples and post-rock cliches. This record's got them all. And the crazy thing is it all comes together so well. Often with a clumsy openness and honesty that can not be found on polished formulatic post-rock of today. It's an inconsistent compilation of some of the most stunning pieces in experimental post-rock you can find. It explores some very outlandish soundscapes and goes places where you would never think of going to. Wonderland Falling Tomorrow is just an ambient soundscape that has a very attractive, quiet melody that wanders in and out until you are hypnotized. Moments of termendous power and energy as well as unearthly beauty.
Worlds End Girlfriend - Dream's End Come True (flac 336mb)
01 Singing Under the Rainbow 8:52
02 Caroling Hellwalker 8:46
03 All Imperfect Love Song 25:35
04 Wonderland Falling Tomorrow 7:08
Worlds End Girlfriend - Dream's End Come True (ogg 123mb)
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
What the hell? In April 2006, Mono released their instrumental opus You Are There on Temporary Residence and they toured the world in support of it. In September of the same year Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain is issued as a collaborative album with World's End Girlfriend (aka Katsushiko Maeda), the underground Japanese producer, mixologist, and multi-instrumentalist. Helping out with this slab are a string section, a chorus, a pianist, and jazz saxophonist Takafumi Ishikawa. This is, it appears, one long set with each "movement" or division in it marked with the titles "Trailer 1," "Trailer 2," "Trailer 3," and so on. It begins innocently enough with an elegy played by the string section, shifting slowly, purposefully in dirge mode. The guitars begin to enter at seven-and-a-half minutes into the 12-minute opener. The chorus enters in "Trailer 2" with the guitars barely present, but adding just enough tension that the listener knows something is about to happen. Tension is built so slowly as to almost be imperceptible. On "Trailer 3," Mono begins to play as a trio, with drums weaving through the strings, which become more insistent until WEG and Mono set the noise to stun about halfway through its 13-plus minutes. Chorus, piano, and silence add dimension to the strings on "Trailer 4," and Mono begins their swell, burn and release on the final trailer, slipping around the background, creating a taut sonic backdrop until the entire thing just explodes as a mournful, gorgeous, funereal hymn that eventually enters back into silence. Palmless Prayer reveals an entirely different side of this band, who nonetheless keep their individual identity adding depth and dimension to their sound. This isn't classical music, but it's not rock, either. It's something else entirely, which apparently folds into the multivalent calling card Mono have attempted to establish since they began. It's puzzling, bewildering and utterly beautiful.
Worlds End Girlfriend n Mono - Palmless Prayer Mass Murder Refrain (flac 341mb)
01 Untitled #1 12:15
02 Untitled #2 13:36
03 Untitled #3 17:03
04 Untitled #4 11:59
05 Untitled #5 19:13
Worlds End Girlfriend n Mono - Palmless Prayer Mass Murder Refrain (ogg 141mb)
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Many thanks for these posts, I was unaware of WEG and although sometimes a difficult listen it does however have moments of sheer beauty.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for your time & energy
Whisky