Tadaima, Rocksmith fans!
Various responsibilities and irresponsibility’s have kept me from writing articles recently, but hey, getting to ramble about Japanese bands is a great bait to lure me back.
We’ve got two teases, one with a few specific songs teased and another mentioning a list of artists. We’ll start with the specific songs, then we’ll discuss the list of bands through the lens of their most popular songs.
For continuity with Japanese titles in the English library so far (i.e. ORESKABAND’s songs), I will be referring to them using the official English translations when available, and including the romaji that might be more familiar to those who listen to these bands otherwise as the official translations don’t actually get a lot of use outside the game. I’m not including the kana, you damn weebs (affectionate).
Jaymes Young doesn’t seem to have any connection to Japan specifically that I could find at a glance, but he comes up in both images so warrants a mention. Happiest Year is unquestionably a pop song with ballad piano backing it up. Not gonna win any guitarists over, but as a modern song that found success and emphasizes keys it’s a good addition to have in regardless.
Marty Friedman was a member of Megadeth through the 90s (including playing on Rust in Peace), but has lived in Japan for two decades since. The song Illumination visible in the tease isn’t as shredtactular as Megadeth, but it’s a classical-inspired piece that’ll still obviously require some competence on both guitar and piano throughout as it progresses through its movements, both evolving with the general sound over its runtime (if you’re impatient you might want to skip around the 5:00 part to hear things that might hook you in play).
Super Girl by aimyon has got a great indie rock sound make it worth checking out even if the verses aren’t particular challenges on guitar or piano, the bass riff carries the song throughout while guitar and piano come in stronger in the chorus. aimyon, like Jaymes Young, is mentioned in the teaser image list, which every artist who has been in a release already has multiple songs in the game, so there could be more coming from them as well. Or not!
Chanmina is one of those artists who pulls from pop and rap sounds pretty evenly (hip pop?), reminiscent of Chainsmokers and similar, which means there’s sometimes neat parts on all instruments as the foundation for the song but they tend to stay in that for the majority of the song as the vocals tend to be the main vehicle (ex. PAIN IS BEAUTY’s guitar). But hey, even saying that, Shameless (Harenchi) has a great funky basis that’ll be great fun to learn on everything, with some great bass fills in the last chorus and ending on a guitar solo, and B-List could easily end up joining the group of rap songs that are a blast to go through on bass. Also this isn’t related to the music but her nail game is on-point oh my god.
Describing themselves as “hip-hop/progressive,” Gesu no Kiwami Otome bring a sound that’ll excite jazz fusion and prog fans. Even with Triumph’s catalog, the launch library did fell like it had little choice in the way of prog to me, and while the Dream Theater drop was a big step in the right direction this could be as well provided it’s just not an errant song. Most all their songs are technical and varied, gonna be a blast trying to keep up no matter what instrument you play (drums too sometime, please?). Not a Me Other than Me (Watashi Igai Watashi Janai no) is their biggest hit and it’s an exemplar of their style, with guitar and piano getting some incredibly intricate parts in there and bass just killin’ it out throughout. Romance Is Lavish (Romance ga Ariamaru) is a bit poppier but follows a similar structure and doesn’t mean it’s any less technical, especially the outro. Adult-ish (Otonatic) shows that they CAN have parts that are more stripped down, they just prefer not to – like in the chorus, solo, or of course their always frenetic outros. Just like, if anything catches your ear give the band a listen, they’re really good! Anything we get by them will be a blast, so hopefully it’s a lot.
Kobukuro is a two-piece band with their name derived from combining their family names, simple. Tsubomi (lit. Flower Bud, but left untranslated, so) is a pretty poppy ballad, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be fun, the bass especially playing in the space provided but guitar and piano provide some fun in the styles familiar to ballad. Meteor is structured suspiciously similar, but that means it’s got the same positives. Mirai (lit. future) is a bit more piano focus, with the guitar being striking in tone if nothing else.
Tofubeats is another hip-hop artist, which again means some fun foundations like Suisei’s (lit. Mercury) (feat. Onomatope Daijin) bassline but don’t expect much in variation. Disco no Kamisama (lit. God’s Disco) (feat. Takashi Fuji), as expected from the name, is more funky, with a killer bassline building and fun synth strings depending on keys chart. No. 1 (feat. G.Rina) continues the theme but has a bit more variation on keys, but it still sounds it’s another bass part that’s gonna be a good time throughout.
yonawo meanwhile brings more of a soul and R&B influence. tokyo (feat. Mahiko Suzuki), and Kongaragaru (lit. entwine) are both chill R&B songs that seem like they’ll be great songs to just feel on keys and bass as you play along, with some jazzy lead guitar sprinkled throughout the latter. After Party puts a bit more funk on it (but only a little), including some wah and delay on guitar.
Last but not least, Minami brings a rock sound, which like. Every Japanese song we’ve had in the genre has been killer to me and Crying for Rain has great single note riffs and of course as expected by now some incredible bass. Lilac has a great intro riff and varied solo. Waiting for Rain – wait weren’t you just crying for it – has a beautiful piano intro that goes right rockin’ lead. Also really good drums, though that’s not relevant to Rocksmith… yet.
Also the list mentions Bad Company, which is exciting, but I don’t feel like I have to promote in the same way.
Even with the limitation – we all some bands where their hits are their worst entries, it seems almost all of these bands bring pretty unique sounds and enjoyable experiences with most of their songs, so hopefully that’s in line with what we get.
One last note: These are all Warner artists, following in the trend of drops since the announcement of the deal, but hopefully in time we can see some more surprises from Japanese artists on other labels too. I know many on Sony, Universal, and others that would be awesome additions as well, and I know there’s more folks than care to admit that would have a blast playing more anime songs.
Hope to get back into the groove of writing on this stuff again soon as there’s many exciting things on the horizon, but for now, matane!
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