Sharing a phenomeal bassist

#1 · February 16, 2015, 4:50 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on February 16, 2015, 4:50 pm
Posted by: rdo <rdo@...>

I discovered this young woman and her band a little over a month ago.

Michiko Koga, for your enjoyment:

But, as we all know, bass solos tend to be more style than substance. The bass properly resides in the context of a band. And Koga is in a band ...

But, obviously, she is Japanese, and her band is Japanese, and I don't speak, read, or understand Japanese. This is why it has taken me more than a month to share this amazing bassist here. I wanted to immediately share this music as soon as I found it. But, given that there are lyrics that I cannot understand, and remembering that there is at least one member of this list who understands the Japanese language (and God can understand it even if none of us can), I made myself wait until I was able to find English translations of the song lyrics. I finally found those translations, and can happily say that there is nothing objectionable about the lyrics.

Koga plays in an all-female band called Gacharin Spin. But my first exposure to her was a project called "DOLL$BOXX". This is, apparently, a one-off collaboration between the young women in Gacharin Spin and another young woman named Fuki, who happens to be the singer in a progressive metal band called "Lightbringer". I've checked that band out, and they're outstanding, and I have suspicions that they may be a Christian band, but I will again need to find English translations to confirm or deny. One of their songs is titled, "Pray for Japan", but prayer is not unique to Christianity. But they also have songs titled "Noah" and "Babel".

The DOLL$BOXX project appears to be a "concept album", and it seems to me that the songs and videos are meant to be heard/watched in a specific order. There has to be a reason that they made videos for nine of the ten songs on the album, and the videos themselves are linked into a definite story.

I will provide a link below, but first I will provide a warning: pretty young women with their legs showing. Just in case somebody might have an issue with that. There is otherwise nothing sexually suggestive about these videos. One sorta exception: the video for the song, "Take My Chance" is a straight up indictment of the media's sexualization of young teen girls.

But as I mentioned, these videos have a story, and before I found the English translations of the songs, I came up with my own interpretation. The story in these videos is a satirical mockery of the way girls and women are portrayed and used in pop culture and the media. Some of it is specific to Japan, but much of the message I absorbed applies to the rest of the world as well. Women should be respected as God's creatures, just as men are.

So here is a playlist I found on YouTube, which shows the videos in the intended order.

The talent and musicianship in this band blows me away. And Koga's bass work ... Don't let the first song turn you off. It's my least favorite of the bunch.

And since I said I found English translations, here they are:

<lyricstranslate.com/en/dollboxx-lyrics.html>

The lyrics tell a different story than the videos ... or do they?

--
Rik Osborne
<rdo@mister-rik.com>
<www.mister-rik.com/>
<www.facebook.com/mister.rik>

Posted by: rdo <rdo@...>

I discovered this young woman and her band a little over a month ago.

Michiko Koga, for your enjoyment:

But, as we all know, bass solos tend to be more style than substance. The bass properly resides in the context of a band. And Koga is in a band ...

But, obviously, she is Japanese, and her band is Japanese, and I don't speak, read, or understand Japanese. This is why it has taken me more than a month to share this amazing bassist here. I wanted to immediately share this music as soon as I found it. But, given that there are lyrics that I cannot understand, and remembering that there is at least one member of this list who understands the Japanese language (and God can understand it even if none of us can), I made myself wait until I was able to find English translations of the song lyrics. I finally found those translations, and can happily say that there is nothing objectionable about the lyrics.

Koga plays in an all-female band called Gacharin Spin. But my first exposure to her was a project called "DOLL$BOXX". This is, apparently, a one-off collaboration between the young women in Gacharin Spin and another young woman named Fuki, who happens to be the singer in a progressive metal band called "Lightbringer". I've checked that band out, and they're outstanding, and I have suspicions that they may be a Christian band, but I will again need to find English translations to confirm or deny. One of their songs is titled, "Pray for Japan", but prayer is not unique to Christianity. But they also have songs titled "Noah" and "Babel".

The DOLL$BOXX project appears to be a "concept album", and it seems to me that the songs and videos are meant to be heard/watched in a specific order. There has to be a reason that they made videos for nine of the ten songs on the album, and the videos themselves are linked into a definite story.

I will provide a link below, but first I will provide a warning: pretty young women with their legs showing. Just in case somebody might have an issue with that. There is otherwise nothing sexually suggestive about these videos. One sorta exception: the video for the song, "Take My Chance" is a straight up indictment of the media's sexualization of young teen girls.

But as I mentioned, these videos have a story, and before I found the English translations of the songs, I came up with my own interpretation. The story in these videos is a satirical mockery of the way girls and women are portrayed and used in pop culture and the media. Some of it is specific to Japan, but much of the message I absorbed applies to the rest of the world as well. Women should be respected as God's creatures, just as men are.

So here is a playlist I found on YouTube, which shows the videos in the intended order.

The talent and musicianship in this band blows me away. And Koga's bass work ... Don't let the first song turn you off. It's my least favorite of the bunch.

And since I said I found English translations, here they are:

<lyricstranslate.com/en/dollboxx-lyrics.html>

The lyrics tell a different story than the videos ... or do they?

--
Rik Osborne
<rdo@mister-rik.com>
<http://www.mister-rik.com/>
<http://www.facebook.com/mister.rik>