HANGRY & ANGRY – Sadistic Dance November 1, 2009

Track Listing

1. Mr. Monkey
2. Top Secret
3. Sadistic Dance
4. Lady Madonna
5. Doubt
6. Angelia (crash berlin version)
7. Shake Me
8. Kill me Kiss me (crash berlin version)
9. GIZA GIZA (crash berlin version)
10. The☆PEACE! (h&A Death Tracks)

1. Mr. Monkey

I find it that a gothic-looking duo would start the album off with a track called Mr. Monkey.  I do like the electroness of the song and it continues to show the group’s darker sound.  Unfortunately, it also still shows the awkward harmonizations with Yossie and Rika.  I do love the chorus where the music gets louder and crazy, but I can’t help and cringe at Rika-chan’s performance.

2. Top Secret

As the main promotional track, it was a pretty cool choice.  It suits more towards Rika’s vocals and id doesn’t hurt Yossie either (actually makes her more better).  I’ll admit that I love the bridge a lot, but what killed the song is the high note, neither girl can pull it off correctly and ~top shhheeecret~ isn’t fooling anyone.  Still it’s one of the more interesting songs and can be amazingly catchy given the right opportunity.

3. Sadistic Dance

The only “single” of the era, Sadistic Dance is still pounding in my head all the time.  We do go back to hearing odd harmonizations, but given that the song is catchy and sounds like a more synthed up version of “Kill me Kiss me”.  The lyrics don’t really sound clear, especially the English ones like ~this is my bible~ in the second chorus….it comes off more as ~this is my life~  I don’t know but whatever, the song is pretty cool.

4. Lady Madonna

Are they saying ~spiders~ at the beginning?  Whatever, Yossie opens the song after that strange opening to this gloomy arrangement that evidently picks up right after she’s done.  It’s weird that the chorus is really grungy and heavy and totally out of context with the song itself, it just seems so not what should be there, but what could I do?  It’s like Jekyll and Hyde within itself (that’s the best comparison I could come up with).

5. Doubt

Doubt starts off just like “Lady Madonna” with it’s dark and empty atmospheric air about it before the pounding drums and the girls come in quite messy with the first part.  It seems Doubt is H&A’s “epic” track, but for me, it sounds like a Momosu track for some reason…I’m not enjoying this track much.

6. Angelia (crash berlin version)

Now a few tracks off their debut “Kill me Kiss me” got rearranged and remixed for the albums release starting off with “Angelia”.  It seems not a whole lot was changed with the arrangement of Angelia, but it does seem there was a little more added more like an epic strings addition and a few cutbacks on the guitar and more sound for the vocals.  It seems like an equal amount of change and I like that.

7. Shake Me

The final new track, Shake Me starts off like a calmer version of “Sadistic Dance”, but then moods instantly change and the song goes towards a more electronica style and while I question the motive for changing styles, it’s bold and the chorus does bring back a summerish mood.  I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite, but I guess it was nice to bring some change to the album.

8. Kill me Kiss me (crash berlin version)

Sadly, the rearranged version of Kill me Kiss me was very disappointing.  They took out what made the original so amazing and replaced with dance beats and left the chorus feeling oddly empty.  I mean the guitars and hard hitting chords was what made the song great…I’m sorry this was a bigger downer than what Anna T. did with “cocoon”.

9. GIZA GIZA (crash berlin version)

I actually don’t remember much of GIZA GIZA’s original take, so I had to take a quick listen before getting back to this.  The new version is actually more of an acoustic version of the original, but still featuring electric guitar, and synths, just more pronounced acoustic guitar.  I thought this was a cleaner version when compared to the “KmKm” cut so I’m happy with what we got here.

10. The☆PEACE! (h&A Death Tracks)

Yup, the girls were able to cover a Momosu track (since y’know, they were once a part of the group.)  Anyway, they decided to take “The☆Pea~ce!” and give it the deadly spin and what we got was like death metal version…I was shocked to hear such a fierce cover of this song.  On Momosu’s version, Rika-chan was the main vocalist for it, so it’s not surprisingly that you hear a lot of Rika over Yossie, but it’s rather tough since both are filtered a bit.  I didn’t expect such huge transition from Momosu’s pop-filled original, but damn was this different for H&A too.

Tracks Recommended

• Sadistic Dance
• Angelia (crash berlin version)
• Lady Madonna
• The☆PEACE! (h&A Death Tracks)

For H&A’s first full-fledged album, I didn’t think the direction of a more synth-based sound was right for them.  They should stick with hard rock and little synths.  Sadistic Dance is a nice album, but it’s not one of the top, but that’s just cuz the members still have to learn how to harmonize. 

The Candy Spooky Theater – Living Dead Spooky Doll’s Family in the Rock n’ Childs Spook Show Baby!! November 1, 2009

Track Listing

1. Devilish Kidnapper
2. Strip
3. Merry Go Round
4. Spook House
5. Ferris Wheel -Cinderella no Kimi to, Kanzen ni Kowareta Shimatta Ouji-Sama no Boku-
6. TRICK or TREAT
7. Nightmare ~Fuminshou no Shoujo to Kaaten Goshi no Akumu~
8. Nemurenu Mori no Hanayome
9. Murder Toy in the Closet
10. Exosist
11. A Clockwork World
12. Nejimaki Denki Isu

1. Devilish Kidnapper

Honestly, what could open the album more epicly is the band’s first vocal track released.  Devilish Kidnapper is definitely a hot mess if I heard any.  Jack Spooky is vocally creepy and also give me the creeps.  It doesn’t help that the Halloween like arrangement that fits the mood perfectly.  I like how the song is march-like, but then again is covered by the group’s random inserts of sound.  Very abstract, but awesome!

2. Strip

As the B-side to the single with “Devilish Kidnapper” we get a pretty short tune.  Under 3 minutes, Strip is a bit more Halloween/jazz mixture that kind of weirded me out.  It’s not as memorable, nor the quality of the song really good, but I like the group’s want to mess with different genres.

3. Merry Go Round

The leading track off of “Wonderland” I thought Merry Go Round was the pick-me-up I needed after “Strip”.  It mixes this goofy dance style with Jack Spooky’s psychotic vocals which oddly fit here once again.  It oozes Halloween just as much as the previous two tracks which is definitely a plus since they are pulling off a theme.  Sweet track, though I have no idea what Jack Spooky is saying in the middle of the song…or is he just ad-libbing?

4. Spook House

It’s the first time we actually hear the band at full force and Spook House got some cool aggressive guitars to replace all the Halloween-ish sounds that the last tracks had.  They also cleared up the vocal blocking that has pretty much shaded Jack Spooky so far in the album and I’m happy to finally hear his voice fully and over the music.  He actually has a good voice and can do rock cool.  Sometimes the music comes back to haunt him and cover him making his singing rather hard to decipher, but it’s not too bad of a song.

5. Ferris Wheel -Cinderella no Kimi to, Kanzen ni Kowareta Shimatta Ouji-Sama no Boku-

I’m still not a huge fan of Ferris Wheel to be honest.  The opening was just trash just to get into Jack’s verses.  I did notice that Ferris Wheel was trying to be the ballad of the album, but it seems that generally speaking the music producer messed up because Jack is hard to hear in the song.  I don’t know why, but damn this was a bad track to listen to.

7. TRICK or TREAT

It seems we’re being pulled back into Halloween mode because TRICK or TREAT seems like a darker and more freakier version of “Devilish Kidnapper”.  It starts out with dark pipe organ chords and random sounds of Halloween.  Jack’s vocals are also a bit more stranger.  Sounds like he’s acting like a child.  To me, it sounds like Tweety saying it ~twick or tweet~  Strange yes, but very deceiving and evilly playful.  It’s one of the more interesting tracks of the era.

7. Nightmare ~Fuminshou no Shoujo to Kaaten Goshi no Akumu~

I love the disjointed chords that open Nightmare alot.  It also gets better with guitars added in to boost it up as well.  I just love how normal the song is.  It’s like “Ferris Wheel” (sans the long titles), but I felt more interested listening to this song a bit more.  I still don’t think it’s one of their best songs, but it’ll do.

8. Nemurenu Mori no Hanayome

I’m disliking that Jack has been covered up by the music for most of the album.  Like I said on the single this song was on, “Murderland”…This also doesn’t have anything that ties in with Halloween and that might be nice and stuff, but the song sound really messy and just felt like too many ideas colliding with each to pass as a song.  Another track to pass up from them.

9. Murder Toy in the Closet

Wow, it’s strange that when we get far from the Halloween music, we just get pulled back in and in this case pulled into Murder Toy in the Closet which began “The Bedroon” single.  Like the previous 3 opening songs from their respective singles, what we get is another song that just shows the wackyness of everything that’s going on in the song.  It’s a weird track and also short as well.

10. Exosist

The only track to actually have had a PV released, Exosist is bringing back the more edgy sound from the band and it sounds a whole lot better than “Ferris Wheel” and “Nemurenu Mori no Hanayome”.  It still isn’t to most consistent of songs and it still comes of as a bit more of an absent-melodic tune, Exosist is the first track that I’ve heard Peggy so that’s a plus.  Still, once again meh…

11. A Clockwork World

That’s the exact problem that lays dormant in this song as well.  It seems to have a more clear melody, but it’s still a bit watered down to the point where it doesn’t even matter.  Jack didn’t exact make thing better either because he’s singing way slowly, to the point of slurring his words.  Yeah, you can really tell that “The Bedroom” is now my least favorite single from em.

12. Nejimaki Denki Isu

It was released with a live performance of theirs but to me this is a new track and oddly enough it mixes the creepiness of their Halloween songs and their dark rock tracks.  However, it isn’t as good as them because once again, a lack of melody does destroy the mood, but there’s times that there’s somewhat of a melody, but it quickly disappears…Weird track.

Tracks Recommended

• Devilish Kidnapper
• Merry Go Round
• TRICK or TREAT

I was saddened to see that the album altogether was a best-of album with one track not released within the singles.  Even worse, the tracklist was chronologically listed so it was like listening to the singles in order AGAIN!  It just doesn’t work for me.  However I did like that everytime the album was hitting a sour note, a song or two gets you back into it so that’s good, still not a strong debut IMO.