The cover art, track list, and other details for Arui wa Anarchy have just been released. The track list is as follows:
01. DADA DISCO -G J T H B K H T D- (Imai/Imai)
02. Uchuu Circus (Space Circus) (Sakurai/Hoshino)
03. masQue (Sakurai/Imai)
04. Devil’N Angel (Imai/Imai)
05. Baudelaire de Nemurenai (Baudelaire Won't Let Me Sleep) (Imai/Imai)
06. Melancholia (Sakurai/Imai)
07. PHANTOM VOLTAIRE (Sakurai/Imai)
08. SURVIVAL DANCE (Sakurai/Hoshino)
09. Satan (Sakurai/Hoshino)
10. NOT FOUND (Imai/Imai)
11. Sekai wa Yami de Michiteiru (The World is Ripe With Darkness) (Imai/Imai)
12. ONCE UPON A TIME (Imai/Imai)
13. Mudai (Untitled) (Sakurai/Imai)
14. Keijijou Ryuusei -metaform- (Metaphysical Meteor) (Sakurai/Imai)
Though the imagery for Keijijou Ryuusei clearly owes a lot to Russian Constructivism and Soviet propaganda posters, this album cover takes a more surrealist bent, mixing the militant imagery of naval flags, loudspeakers, and rockets with mysterious Delvaux-esque mannequin figures and trains outside the doorway of what would appear to be a child's bedroom, complete with hanging paper stars, matyroshka dolls (there's your Soviet theme again) and toy airplanes. In the promo photo, the band members are standing in this room, holding the various toys, and the faceless figure in the doorway on the cover would appear to be dressed in the same clothes as Imai.
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Russian Constructivism, as exemplified by the work of Aleksandr Rodchenko. (Look on Buck-Tick's website to see how they ripped off this poster)
...and here's the toy plane.
...and here are some of the visual effects from the "Keijiou Ryuusei" PV, viewable here.
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Trains, perspective, architecture, and mysterious figures in the work of Paul Delvaux. Note the similar imagery, composition and color palette.
Очен хорошо!
I thought of copying the track list to a french site, but someone beat me to it and had even a link to a 15 seconds preview of the next single:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSOgmAhyXrQ
I also noticed that this french site now gives the male/female ratio of people posting there and for the BUCK-TICK page the ration is a perfect 50/50 which seems to me very different from the Japanese fan base.
I already linked the PV spot in the main post, but thank you anyway. Clearly half the French fangirls are posing as fanboys. Which is to say, the other French fangirl is posing as a boy because I think there are only two B-T fans in France. Buck-Tick appears to be more of an Eastern Europe/Latin America thing.
DeleteHmmm, you'd think a song invoking Beaudelaire would have had at least some writing input by Sakurai, but apparently not.
ReplyDeleteAny idea what the string of letters next to "Dada Disco" stand for?
The invocation of Baudelaire may be a confession of love on Imai's part. After all, the fangirls have been telling us for ages that Maimai has a soft spot for Acchan-chan, and we can't exactly argue with the fangirls, now can we?
DeleteAs for the string of letters, I suspect it's an acronym for some phrase that pops up in the lyrics, but we won't know for sure till we hear the song. Bonus points if the phrase is in Russian, but based on the letters my first guess is Japanese.
Sorry to butt in the conversation, but I have heard a few Japanese fans are thinking it may stand for the famous phrase by abstract artist Okamoto Tarou, "Geijutsu wa Bakuhatsu da"
DeleteMeaning something like "Art is an explosion"
I think it is a pretty good guess seeing Okamoto Tarou's ties with surrealism.
"The World is Ripe with Darkness"? You were right when you said once they are like a married couple (:
ReplyDeleteI love the new promo photos. They look so soothing and otherworldly!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wonder what that red flying things is supposed to symbolize. Some fans made a big fuss about it.
At least partly, I think the red triangle with the band's name in it is a visual reference to the Rodchenko poster I posted above. However, it may also be a reference to the red triangle badge worn in Nazi concentration camps by prisoners of war, spies, military deserters, and political prisoners...though in the case of the Nazi badge the triangle was either upright or reversed, not sideways. I don't doubt that the red color in part is symbolizing communism, or at the very least, the Soviet Union. The triangle itself also looks like the symbol for "play" on music players and music software, so it may in part be a visual pun.
DeleteOh now I realize you meant the flag they're flying, not the red triangle flag ...isn't it just the flag of the Buck-Tick Revolution? The flag of the Anarchic State of Buck-Tickistan.
DeleteHm, but isn´t the picture sort of contrasting, then? I can´t see the connection between the Nazi- triangle badge and a dreamy child´s room.
DeleteBut yeah, I actually meant the red scarf. It´s visible on all the promo photos published so far and I wondered why they added it. I thought the red thing only detracts attention from the actual picture.
I don't believe the cover art is intended to be comforting. I think we're seeing a child growing up in a time of political unrest, amid images of war and uprising, attempting to dream of peace though he's never known peace. Look at those loudspeakers! Those are the things mounted on top of the trucks that drive around Japanese cities at election time, blasting right-wing propaganda. And have you been following the recent political situation in Japan, what with Prime Minister Abe's State Secrets Act and constitutional revisionism? If not, you should start reading the newspaper. I admit I am hoping and expecting this album to contain some biting sociopolitical commentary on the state of the world today.
DeleteAh, I think I can see where this is going now.
DeleteI really like it and I agree it would be interesting if this album had that kind of message.
But I have to admit I was so distracted by the red scarf that I didn´t notice the loudspeakers at first!
Thanks for the explanation. It´s striking how quickly you always grasp everything ;)
Juli, if it's communisms references, the red scarfs can be counted in as well. Although I missed the period by a couple of years (born in '87, I was 3 when revolutions came swinging in 1989 through my corner of Eastern Europe) my parents and colleagues used to wear them in their youth (highschool), as they were (volunteered to be part) part of a youth associations called pioneers (similar to boyscouts I guess, but the idea was that they were the youth pioneering a brand new [communist] world) Otherwise, this mix of russian constructivism & '60s posters references mixed with some delvaux and french symbolism poetry of all sorts and fashions seems to be rather intriguing :) (although I wonder how in the world will gothic lolitas fit in?) But anyways it was Klimt last time, so I also wonder whether Mr Imai plans to take his references cronologically too?
DeleteOkay, I really have no idea of the current political situation in Japan, and I don't want to ignore the revolutionary implications of constructivism. However, the red flying thing is too ephemeral to be a flag. My first associations are dream and blood, so maybe it goes better with surrealism and its interest in the subconscious. I agree though, the cover art is anything but comforting, and the image of a child growing up in a dark world of war is spot-on.
Delete@ crossparallel - Have you seen the PV yet? It's definitely a flag...as in, they actually use a flesh-and-blood red flag as a prop. Sakurai is literally waving it around like a flag, and then later he uses it as a blindfold because flags are more fun if they're kinky.
Delete@ delana - I doubt the Klimt thing has anything to do with this. Sakurai said in an interview that it was the jacket designer Akita Kazvnori who suggested the use of the Klimt painting. I don't doubt that he's the one who designed this new cover, too, as this looks like his distinctive style. Who knows if the Delvaux thing was deliberate or not but if not it's a pretty big coincidence.
DeleteAs for the gothic lolitas, they will not fit in, I fear. I guess Buck-Tick's overseas fanbase is due to lose another cadre of members.
Why, I've watched the video. It may well be a flag in real life, or it may be a scarf, but I still don't get the feeling they're using it as a flag with all its revolutionary connotations. If anything, I think being a blindfold is its primary usage (: Now, if they had put it on a pole and waved it as on "National Media Boys", that would be another thing. As an aside, when did Sakurai acquire the habit of making weird hand gestures? Not only in the PV, it's all over the art.
DeleteWell, the Lolis are not part of the album anyway. They are "just" on the third track of the single, so I think it doesn´t really have much to do with the theme of the album.
DeleteI was afraid they are going to be terribly annoying, but from what I´ve heard in the preview, the violin actually fits verry well.
Plus their distorted voice is only hearable at the "togire togire"- part.
Still wonder why they had to hire the Lolis for this.
@ crossparallel - The hand gestures are directly related to the song lyrics, as you will see when I translate them, but I'm not going to do that till I see the official lyric booklet. As for the flag, if you prefer to be whacked over the head with your symbolism, you're going to have more than a bit of trouble with metaphysics of all kinds.
DeleteI don't have trouble with metaphysics, just a different interpretation, thank you, but of course it is possible that I'll change my opinion when I read your translation of the lyrics (: Really looking forward to that. Glad to learn that the gestures are not a whim on the director's part, too.
DeleteWhen I saw the preview link I went straight to it and proceeded to tear up with glee whist pre-ordering the limited edition of the album. Now I'm broke, but happy.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cayce.
There should be а "ь" in the end of "Очень" ))
ReplyDeleteThanks for your correction...though I can't say there's much glory in correcting a hapless beginner :P
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