Perfume First Tour “GAME” DVD release

ekuseru of Perfume City reports that sales for the Perfume First Tour “GAME” DVD have hit the #1 daily spot on its release. He also provides many links to various promotional videos for said DVD. There are also links to buy said DVD (but who hasn’t already? ^^; j/k). Finally, my favourite part of the post and also my favourite compound word when it comes to my favourite girls: eyecandy.

After doing a bit of research on oricon, it made #2 on day 2, and then went back up to #1 for the 17th and 18th. Yay!

On a more personal note, I received my copy on the 17th. IT. IS. FABULOUS. <3

Single reviews: Perfume, Ikimono Gakari, Chihiro Onitsuka

Our very own Henkka ventures out of his bogan basement and walks out into the unknown, coming across Perfume, ikimono gakari and Chihiro Onitsuka. He still has his bogan mindset with him at all times, and with such a distorted mindset, you’re bound to get interesting and surprising opinions. He has a very interesting review of Perfume, mind you, he’s new to electronica so don’t take your pitchforks out yet…His Ikimono Gakari review is not as surprising as his Perfume review, as he is a big fan.

Hold on, did Henkka just review Chihiro Onitsuka? I think Henkka has drunk a bit too much when he reviewed this, since I honestly do not associate him with ballads…at all. What’s even more surprising is that Hennka has been a fan of Chihiro for a while. Anyways, he makes good points about Chihiro and her style. All in all, a traditional Henkka review, always surprising.

Chihiro needs to SOUND INSPIRED for a change. That’s the key to getting me interested in her again. That, or performing topless.

You know she’s not 13 right?

New single, Dream Fighter (Perfume City)
Perfume NEW SINGLE! “Dream Fighter” & GAME DVD Tracklist! (contemode LJ Community)

TechnoPop darlings, Perfume, have announced their latest single entitled “Dream Fighter” and (coincidentally… or not) has a common release date as capsule’s latest album. Mark your calendars for November 19th!

Better yet, go pre-order it already! I have. So should you

On a little side note, I’m kinda disappointed that there aren’t more GAME songs on the tracklist (I only see Take Me Take Me, Secret Secret, and ceramic girl). I’d love to see plastic smile and Puppy love. *sigh* Watching them live will help me get over it.

Techno-Jabber (a.k.a The Current State of T-Pop)

Selryam has posted a primer of sorts on technopop artists. It has short bios for Nakata Yasutaka, Perfume, MEG, Suzuki Ami, Aira Mitsuki, SAWA, Momoi Haruko, COLTEMONIKHA and Genki Rockets. Selryam also explains where these artists fit within the technopop landscape. I feel this also sort of creates a hierarchy of each individual act’s importance to the technopop boom, with Nakata and Perfume being at the top and the likes of MEG, Suzuki Ami and Aira Mitsuki being a rung below those two. It is a great read, whether you are already into technopop or wanting to get into it.

Yumi Yoshimura MC’s Girl Pop Factory 08

It’s a meeting of the new school girl idol rulers and the old school not-quite-idol, still-ruling-to-some-extent Yumi of PUFFY! I’d say the maturity level between the two is quite literal, gotta be a 10 year age difference there at least. PUFFY were just as cutesy in their own way, back when.

Anyway, there’s a short live clip of PERFUME and the interview is unsubbed, maybe it’ll get done later.

A Statement on American Politics

Broomhead’s latest screen capture of Perfume’s Nocchi is typically brilliant. A strange, but altogether alluring facial expression. The post also gives Broomhead a quick opportunity to have a dig at American Politics. I mean, come on, who - out of the American readers out there - hasn’t pulled this face yet?

needs more!

Two more pictures from Broomhead on my favourite Perfume girl, Nocchi, and honestly, I’d still totally tap that. She really needs to meet with me in a dark alley - I’ll bring ferraro roche - and pull that face that you see in the second picture whilst I go about exposing myself. Err…

“GAME Tour” live DVD!!

ekuseru shares the latest news coming from the technopop trio, Perfume. Their 2nd live DVD is due to release as soon as October! As a Perfume fan, I couldn’t be more excited!! I’ve gotta see if they’re accepting pre-orders…

Hamasaki Ayumi - Bold & Delicious / Pride [38th Single]
Perfume - ポリリズム [10th Single]

Amaiyume reviews these singles from Hamasaki Ayumi and Perfume. The review of Polyryhthm surprised me a bit as amaiyume finds “SEVENTH HEAVEN” to be “a little forgettable.” I’m just used to most people loving that song.

Perfume’s Gravity, Before They Took Over Japan

Ken M takes a look at a video of Perfume performing “Inryoku” at a 2006 event and focuses on how far they’ve come since then. These were the type of events that started a buzz about Perfume. However, if they were to perform this type of event (a release event at an Apple store), and it were announced ahead of time, the place would be swamped.

HAPPY! - episode 9 and 10

oroitsme goes back to look at these episodes of the Perfume show. In the ninth episode, they get harassed by some guy in a bowl haircut - oh wait, he’s a comedian, that explains it - and the tenth episode has background information on the group and some concert footage. The screencaps are great, and it’s a quick, fun read.

The Good, The Bad, and Idoling!!!

Recommended reading. Our own CK opens his post by talking about Perfume’s cover of "Jenny wa Gokigen Naname," then switches gears to discuss various covers of a classic Jitterin’ Jinn track, "Natsumatsuri." A cover done by Morning Musume’s Niigaki Risa is received with enthusiasm, but the Idoling!!! version? Uh… girls, maybe you should quit your day job. Man, that is awful. Can we get Whiteberry back together to show them how it should be done?

Sora to Kujira

As the blog’s header states, Sora to Kujira is a blog focusing on “up to date j-pop reviews.” True to its word, the posts focus on reviews of recent single and album releases, including (but certainly not limited to!) alan, Buono!, Perfume, Kalafina, and misono. Releases are given a rating at the end of the post, and the wide range of artists covered makes this one worth checking out.

Perfume - Love the World

1337rice gives a quick and honest, yet fun, review on Perfume’s latest chart topping single and even goes on to say that Perfume reminds him of a techno Morning Musume. Tee hee! 5 stars all around for this review. Buy links are at the bottom, but seriously, who doesn’t have this single already…?

Polyrhythm

Before he gets to his review of “Polyrhythm,” josh012595 goes over his story of how he got introduced to Perfume, which was initially through Beyond The Sea and Stereo Love. I get kick out of how all the review blogs on wordpress.com end up tied up into each other. He then gives a very positive review to “Polyrhythm” - specifically the b-side “SEVENTH HEAVEN.

ONE for music, zero for that cover!
A nurse with instinct. (99%)
Perfume loves edgin’ the world.

I get the feeling that freehummingbird likes writing these headlines. Anyways, freehummingbird is back after a brief blogging hiatus. I’m glad he is back as I’m really partial to fhb’s reviews. He uses very technical terms to describe music, like “cheer-you-up songs.” Normally, such technical terminology would fly over my head, but somehow he can just explain to regular folk.

The reviews for Crystal Kay’s “ONE,” Shiina Ringo’s “Honnou” and Perfume’s “love the world” are all great reads. I joke about the “cheer-you-up song,” but fhb definitely knows what he is talking about. The reviews for Crystal Kay and Perfume do a good job of telling you what happens in the songs without boring you down with details. The Shiina Ringo piece is focused on the PV - and fittingly has plenty of screenshots to complement the writing. Recommened reading for all three.

Perfume - Love the World

Millhouse takes an overdue look at Perfume’s Love the World, insisting its simplicity makes the Perfume experience much more enjoyable. Although he has unmistakable love for Kashiyuka, he insists that some parts of the PV where Kashiyuka is shown does scare him.

Charmy loves the world

Over at Shiny Days, Charmy is falling under the spell of Perfume’s Nocchi and their latest single, Love the world. If for some bizarre reason you haven’t seen the PV to the song yet, Charmy has the clip for it, ready for your viewing pleasure.

Perfume-Concert in Sapporo

Firstly, this blog is NOT on the IW blog roll, I just stumbled across it.

According to this one guy (I honestly have no idea who he is) he went to the Perfume Sapporo concert and he has a summary about it but in a chat/IRC kinda summary (you’ll understand when you read it). He has a pretty good review of the concert, but one thing that totally struck me is that…

Perfume performed a Berryz Koubou song.

I don’t think I need to repeat myself.

And this guy has his H!P groups all messed up. And even if it a rumour, which I totally doubt, it is quite amazing.

Read it, you’ll understand.

I Almost Looked Like A Fool (True Life Seek)
Love the world #1 at Oricon charts! (Perfume City)
Perfume at No. 1 again (contemode LiveJournal community)

Our own Broomhead, ekuseru of Perfume City, and the contemode LiveJournal community put their two cents in on love the world hitting #1 on the Oricon Daily Charts.

Broomhead’s conclusions from the news make for an interesting read while ekuseru’s #1 mention includes the screencap from the Oricon website. One of the comments on the contemode community discussion makes note of the same single Broomhead thought would overtake Perfume and says there’s hope for Perfume to take weekly #1. I’d definitely like to see that happen.

A little aside: Tsume Tsume Tsume by MAXIMUM THE HORMONE and Berryz’s Monkey Dance are 2 and 3 respectively. Yay MTH.

Nocchi in love the world

Broomhead has a whole lot of Nocchi screencaps from Perfume’s latest PV, ‘Love the World’. She’s styling some pretty awesome hair in the last few shots.

[single] JYONGRI - Unchanging Love ~Kimi ga Ireba~
[single] Miyu Nagase - Akane
[album] Perfume - GAME

Recommended reading. Lex gives us three track-by-track reviews with JYONGRI’s lastest single, Miyu’s recent single and Perfume’s first original album, giving the high points and the low points of the songs, all leading to an out-of-five rating.

For JYONGRI, Lex likes the A-side, despite the poor vocals in the verses, but thinks the single was ruined by the accompanying B-sides. He also thinks the Elton John cover to be an AWFUL (in big letters) rendition and believes a rap shouldn’t have been in the song.

He also takes a look at Nagase Miyu’s recent release, giving it a nice 4-star score and saying that the lead song was a soothing ballad and that the B-side had a nice funky attitude to it.

My favorite review was (of course) Perfume’s GAME. Lex goes on to review each song, giving a highlight of each song. Although he finds the album high quality, he thinks that “take me take me” and “Butterfly” provide a weird and somewhat offensive vibe to the album. On my part, I thought those two were very good songs on the album, but despite those two, he likes the album and recommends it, which I totally agree to!

I love the world. (96%)

A fine, detailed review from freehummingbird on Perfume’s latest single/PV, love the world. It is a thorough piece that covers the song, dance, special effects, amongst other things. I was a little taken aback when I saw “sex/violence” as a category, simply because I’ve never seen that as a category in a PV review in any other blogs. There really isn’t any overt sex/violence, but in the symbolism with all the b… no, I’m just going to stop there.

Perfume Loves the World and Portal

Our own broomhead shares the PV for Perfume’s upcoming single, “love the world”, and promises a more in-depth review later. The PV itself is full of playful and mind-warping displays of recursion and iteration, as well as Rubik’s cube awesomeness, so it is no surprise that broomhead (and I) are absolutely in love with it. There is, however, no cake.

Love Your Seed

There have been previews recently from Perfume and Hey! Say! Jump and Julia takes a look at the both of them.

Perfume’s “Love the world” is an upbeat song, which means it’ll have to earn a stamp of approval from Julia. I’ve listened to this preview myself and I couldn’t agree more that it cuts off at the worst time, just as it sounds like it is heading a nice direction.

Hey! Say! JUMP’s “Your Seed” is not the typical pop-happy song and this makes Julia happy, which is yet another thing I find strangely appropriate. Furthermore, this is probably the best-titled signle all year.

When Perfume Plays Games…

Kuri is back to posting on Monochrome Effect and has a review of GAME. I am immediately going to the part about the title track GAME. Kuri wants the girls of Perfume to play a game by surviving through certain situations. The things Kuri want Perfume to survive through include all of evil broomhead’s wishes. The review is a good read. It is the track-by-track style, but not in the business of detailing which instruments are being played at certain intervals.

Happy Music

Julia shares her thoughts on the “happy” genre of music, sorting out what she likes from what she doesn’t. Then she shares some happy news of her own and the music that expresses her current feelings. Listen to every song that she mentions if you want to turn around a bad mood or feel like celebrating something, because this is a whole lot of happy all in one place. What makes me the happiest is that there is no mention of certain Morning Musume member’s third solo single.

Pefume City Has a RSS Feed! (and Love The World covers)

Broomhead of TLS shares the latest covers of Perfume’s new single “Love The World” as well as sharing the his joy of Perfume City changing to Wordpress. He also makes comparisons between the covers of “Love the World” and “Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance”.

Plus, his last point fills me with anticipation.

Perfume - GAME [Debut Studio Album] (Amai Wana)
Perfume - GAME (Lost Wing)

Amaiyume of Amai Wana tackles GAME and it gets Amaiyume’s approval. Secret Secret is one of the favorites here and that is something that I think a lot of people will say. There is a downside to the album though, as Amaiyume finds that some of the tracks “get monotonous and lack variety.”

Megumi of Lost Wing has a different tone while reviewing the album. While Megumi is relatively positive to it as a whole, it is the work of Yasutaka Nakata that gets the credit. Megumi says that Perfume sings “robotically and half-heartedly.”

I think what I got from bringing these two reviews together, as well as other reviews of GAME, is that the album just is not going to be for everyone. Furthermore, I must be the only person in the world that likes the song “take me take me.” And I have suspect reasons for enjoying that one.

Perfume - Fan Service (Sweet) [9th Single]

blackmager finds this “Chocolate Disco” more simplistic than the single that followed it, “Polyrhythm”, but still enjoyable. However, “Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow” doesn’t fare as well.

Perfume in Porno Graffiti’s Itai Tachiichi

Recommended reading–and no, it’s not what you think! broomhead has an excellent writeup on Perfume’s appearance in rock group Porno Graffiti’s latest PV, “Itai Tachiichi,” and how the collaboration is likely meant to boost sales and popularity of both acts, as opposed to boosting Perfume’s sales alone (the girls are holding their own by now, it seems). The commentary on the video itself is easy to read, and plenty of screencaps are offered for those seeking sweet, sweet Perfume eyecandy. Mmm, Kashiyuka.

HAPPY! - episode 5 and 6

Recommended reading. oroitsme provides a fun look at these two episodes from Perfume’s current TV show, as the girls do interesting things like, um, shop for clothes… and shop for electronic goods. This is a fun, well-screencapped read. And Good Lord, if I could only dress Perfume however I liked… or get them to buy me stuff…

Perfume - Monochrome Effect

This track-by-track review starts with a lot of hate for the title track, but winds up liking the c/w song “Elevator”,

Perfume & Porno team up for music video

Courtesy of Tokyograph, news that the Perfume ladies will be in agency mate Porno Graffiti’s PV for their new single and even singing in the vidoe, though not in the actualk single to be released. So is this Perfume Graffiti or Porno Fumes? Obviously, I prefer the latter.