Unusual Instruments: Meguru

Kagrra,: Meguru

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The koto is a plucked, 13-stringed wooden instrument with moveable bridges allowing for variable tuning (guitar players are drooling right about now). It sounds so distinctively Japanese that it's their national instrument. It's rarely found in Western music, although both John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner incorporated its 5-note scale in some of their music, and David Bowie and Brian Jones (of The Rolling Stones) managed to work it into one song apiece over a long stretch of releases.

Visual kei band Kagrra, (apparently one of my favorites here, 'cuz I've posted their songs previously here and here) moved heavily into the koto-based sound that gave them their distinctive Japanese flavor. (Well, all the kimonos and yukata they wore helped stress their Japanese-ness, too, I think.) Shin, one of their 3 guitarists, took up the ancient instrument and really began using it much more in 2005, with the release of San, and later. See how his guitar is still hanging around his neck as he plucks the koto in my photo. Can we say musical multitasking?

In Memoriam: Isshi

Kagrra,: Haha e

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Kagrra,: Arishi Hi no Bishou

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One of the saddest things in Japanese culture is the high rate of early deaths of her young, which isn't ever discussed properly. Instead, we read terse announcements such as this one about the death of 32-year-old singer Isshi, whose band Kagrra disbanded this year, only to be followed by the dispassionate notice of the lead singer's death. The reason was not, nor will ever be, discussed in public, but I'm inferring suicide. And as a fan of the band it saddens me to read this.

Kagrra, embraced the visual kei genre with a Japan-heavy twist. They performed in traditional garb, titled their songs in Japanese as well, and didn't try to emulate the Engrish-laden lyrics of other groups. Their album covers were gorgeous, and I featured them earlier this year in cool covers week, sadly a short week before Isshi died. Isshi's voice began to fail after their 10-year run as a popular VK group, and the band broke up earlier this year, calling it the demise of Kagrra,. They'll definitely be missed.

Album Cover Art: Kagrra, - Miyako

Kagrra,: Urei

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Kagrra, (yeah, with the comma as part of the band name) was a J-rock band whose style deliberately blended classical Japanese traditions (both musical and sartorial) with rock. Sadly, they just disbanded a few months ago, but they were pretty decent for the ten years that they lasted. During that time they released nearly a dozen albums (depending on how you count), a slew of mini-albums, a raft of maxi-singles, a bunch of concert DVDs, and some stray singles.

In Japan, artists don't merely release one album or one single; there are commonly multiple versions: a regular version, a limited version, perhaps an 'A" version, and 'B' version. They've all got the same single, but each variation has a different second or third song, some may have a version with the vocals stripped out for karaoke, and the limited version will have a DVD with the promotional video of the song. And a diehard band fan will buy each version (and each purchase counts separately to determine the Oricon chart rating, which is how it evolved into such a racket).

Can you tell where I'm going with this? Each version also has a unique cover.

Kagrra, was unique in that the group had a long-term relationship with one artist, Fukaya Yuichiro, who created most (but not all) of their artwork. His style similarly merged classical Japanese themes with a modern feel to them. Check out more of his artwork for Kagrra, on his Facebook page. He would create a series of related pictures for the various incarnations of a release, often with a bit of subtle humor to them. Notice some of the paired images of the regular and limited covers in the Facebook examples (and he doesn't have all of his stuff here, so Google 'images' can find more for you).

The artwork above shows the expanded cover for the 2004 album, Miyako. The right side of the artwork was featured on the front of the CD, showing only the kanji and a bit of hair and sleeve, and the left wrapped around to the back cover. Pretty, ne?