Ok so I still don't have much time to blog while doing this University research, but I had to post this. So without going into all the nitty gritty, Jin posted a message on some official JE phone site which basically said that he was to leave KAT-TUN to become a solo singer. The fans seem to be divided, one side is very upset...being fangirls and all. The other side is kinda meh and they were meh about him...him being a bit of a douche at times and all. One can't deny however that he was probably [well in my opinion anyway] the best singer in the group and his absence will leave the group with a different type of sound. Personally I don't like that he is leaving, I never really cared for him as a celebrity or whatever but he was a great singer, plus the group were together for years, even before their debut. What affects me most however is the future of KAT-TUN. Will it remain KAT-TUN, Kame possible lending the A in his name or will they have a name change. Can you image awaiting a new song from a group called KU-NNT?

What are your thoughts?

1. N.M.P. (NO MORE PAIN)
2. Love yourself ～Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki～ (Love yourself ～君が嫌いな君が好き～)
3. FARAWAY
4. THE D-MOTION
5. RIGHT NOW
6. ROCKIN' ALL NITE
7. Going!
8. SWEET (Kamenashi Kazuya)
9. LOVE MUSIC (Taguchi Junnosuke)
10. MAKE U WET -CHAPTER 2- (Tanaka Koki)
11. RABBIT OR WOLF? (Ueda Tatsuya)
12. FILM (Nakamaru Yuichi)
13. PROMISE SONG
14. HELLO (Regular Edition only) 

As you can see the album contains the single Going!, which ye may know my feelings towards, but we also get 13 brand new tracks which is awesome, 5 of these are solo songs for each of the members.The title track of this album is N.M.P (NO MORE PAIN) for which a pv was made. now let us go and watch this pv and cap it to hell then talk about the rest of the album m'kay!.....................................

Have you ever listened to a song or watched a songs video and thought it was great. Have you also seen a live version of this songin which you thought that the hearing it live was even better. Was it to do with the natural un-touched voices of the performer....or was it to do with the extra energy that was pumped into the performance by the chanting the performers got while singing. In all forms of music there will be people shouting and chanting to their music stars but lets compare the all too overly compared Jpop and Kpop music scenes in terms of chants.

Now before I begin, believe me I know they are 2 totally different types of music and cultures etc but for the sake of arguement lets just move on. Anyway the 2 groups I shall be comparing in terms of chants will be to "Oh!" by "Girls Generation" and a "Renai Revolution 21/Love Machine" medley by "Morning Musume". Not a perfect comparrison but it shall do.



As soon as the girls start to sing, the chants begin. The chants shouted after each line are the names of the girls in the group, shouted out in a particular order ending in a mass "So Nyu shi dae". Where the girls have solo lines however, usually people only scream rather than shouting the members name like the wota do. Also throughout the song, the fans can be heart chanting along with the "Ha!" and "Oh!" parts. Another round of name shouting begins in the chorus. At the end of the song however we hear a long chant that the fans have made up to coincide with the instrumental, this is an aspect of korean pop chants which is superior to jpop chants. The chant also has some meaning aswell which makes it even cooler, for example, the long chant at the end of this song is "xxx".

Pros: Members names chanted while group sings, Unique chants created for each individual song usually working with the instrumental
Cons: No chanting of indivdual members names during solo lines with only screams to be heard, not much chantng during chorus besides name shouting.



In this medley, the chanting begins when the instrumental starts as opposed to the kpop fans which dive right in as the singing starts. The chaning here is the old faithful "Oi!" of the wota which when chanted seriously escalates the energy in the room. This chanting is also times to fit around certain areas of the instrumental and is not just shouted throughout the whole thing. When the singing does start the wota join in with the "Fu Fu" and similiar noises, however when the group sings together, there is no chanting. Chanting resumes again however when the girls solo lines kick in. Here the audience chant the members names until thier line is up, the wota will then chant the next singers name. However this is not a constant, where the chanting can stop at a certain point even if a solo singer has a line which can sometimes seem like they are shunning that person, even though eveone knows there not. The chanting of the 'Ooowah', 'Yeah!', 'wow's' 'Oh' etc continue throughout where appropriate like that of the kpop songs.

Pros: Chanting Members names during solo parts, Use of 'Oi' to increase energy is extremely effective
Cons: No chanting during group singing, Use of the cyber, fiber, driver, tiger mix thing seems very random and non sensical

Conclusion: Both types of chants have their por's and Con's and both are effective when they are used. Both are very different, the kpop going for unique and thoughout chants where as the jpop group go for instand energy boosting chants. The chants obviously change for each song and no 2 are the same, also the types of music are a bit different too which will affect the chants. But I do think that both groups could take a leaf out of each others hymn chant books to make some epic chants. And personally I would come up with something a bit more creative than the H!P cyber tiger mix thing....but I havent been to a live concert so I can't appreciate its full affectiveness, but as a very distant observer those are my views.

  Say whaaaat!! But yes, have you ever listened to a song by your favourite artist and you ust thought, "Man I just love to ride that!" ...well now you can with Audiosurf! Yes of course audiosurf, what did ye think I was talking about.

For those of you who dont know, audiosurf is a game which allows you to  ride your music in a way that is somewhat similiar to Dance Dance Revolution.To play this game you need to buy it or get it by 'other means'. Once you load the game, you choose your difficulty easy, medium and hard, and also the type of game. Persoanlly, I play the mono type on medium level.

The aim of the gameis to collect as many colourd blocks as possible and avoid hitting the grey blocks which hinder your coloured block collection ability, thus reducing your score. For every coloured block you collect you get a point, then at the end of the game, your total score can be posted on a worldwide scoreboard where you can compete with other riders of idols.

to give you a better idea of what I am talking about, here is a video of me playing:



As you can see, with the right song, you can get a kickass track, mixed with a great song added with blowing neon colours. Its a full body sensual experiance. Not onlt is it an insanely addicting game, but it can also heald with your hand eye coordination and stuff. A warning though...it is insanely addictive so be prepared. I love this game and as you can see, I sometimes record my progress and show it off to the youtube world.

Overall it enhances to music experience, your not just listening to it, you are riding in and on the music, making you appreciate the different layering and stuff thats put  into the music. Not only do you play it and thats that, but its also uploads your played music to your Last.Fm account which is always handy. So give it a try and let me know what you think, but done blame me when you get addicted. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Yes!! My favourite Korean techno pop wizard is back with a new album and a smokin hot new look.

Lee Jung Hyun has burst onto the music scene this may with the release of her 7th album entitled "LEE JUNG HYUN 007TH". It was released on the 11th and contains 12 tracks, 6 of which were already released on her 2nd Mini-Album "Avaholic"...........