I got to know the Japanese indie rock band Psysalia Psysalis Psyche through MySpace around 2007. Back then they didn’t have any CDs out yet, so I listened to the songs on their MySpace account all the time. A few years later, my awesome friend got me their first EP :D

Since then, the band has released several singles, EPs and a full album. I had actually not paid a lot of attention to them in the last few years, so I went to check out their recent songs and came across a few interesting music videos.

Titan Arum – White Version

In 2009, the band released their first album “Matin Brun,” which features the really great song “Titan Arum”. There were two editions released for “Titan Arum”‘s music video, a ‘regular’ and an additional white version. The videos feature the Butoh dancer/performer Nobuyoshi Asai who is both incredibly awesome and incredibly creepy at the same time. For me this was my first encounter with Butoh and I must say I am very impressed.

I really love how they managed to make his movements and emotions even more powerful with white on a white background. I just hope the black stuff is cacao-powder, lol.

Titan Arum – Original Version

Below is the original version, in which Nobuyoshi isn’t white, but rather a bronze shade. His dancing is breathtaking in this one as well, I love his liquid movements and how he moves in nearly impossible, uncontrolled yet so controlled ways. Though, without the close ups it’s not as bold as the white version.

Their newest music video, 2.5D has a ‘full version’ music video, which includes eight minutes of uhh, a guy having sex with his guitar (including mosaic). I’m not sure if that’s actually one of the band members, some say it’s Toru… Anyway, if you’re curious, check it out here.

More information on the band can be found on their official homepage or MySpace, and we at JaME have an artist file up with Psysalia Psysalis Psyche biography/discography and an interview from 2007.

I kind of like bachata music, although the only artist I’ve been listening to regularly is Aventura (anyone remember their Obsesion?). This week while I was listening to a reggaeton podcast, I discovered this American Spanish-language artist Prince Royce. He was featured in a song of Daddy Yankee and I went to look up his own music (see this is an example of what ‘featuring’ songs are good for). He’s one of those singers with a sweet, honeyed voice. I found out that he’s mostly doing bachata, and did a really great cover of Ben E. King’s Stand by Me. Who could’ve known Stand by Me fits bachata so well?

Below is his rendition of Stand by Me, plus another song of his I really like, Corazon sin Cara (although how is that possible, a heart with no face? Do hearts have faces anyway?). The strings give it a really classy feel.

Unfortunately the problem with bachata is that the rhythm gets so repetitive at some point that I grow sick of it… So I’m trying to keep the Prince Royce doses small, lol.

My friend asked me for some recommendations for Dutch music, with vocals in Dutch. Even though I’m from the Netherlands, I dislike most Dutch music, especially the traditional kind. However, there are a few artists I find decent. It’s funny though, the only thing we appear to be good at is metal (such as Within Temptation) and we have a few DJs that are doing quite well in the world market (Tiësto, Armin van Buuren). And it seems Caro Emerald has been gaining quite some recognition lately?

However, those are all English-language artists, and my friend asked specifically for Dutch language music. So here we go:

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The weather this summer has been rather shitty, with lots of rain and temperatures that rather fit with autumn. Fortunately, there’s still great music to put you in a summer mood! The song “Danza Kuduro” by Don Omar feat. Lucenzo is on the radio occasionally and even though it’s a horrible match with the weather, I think the track is awesome. (Excuse the bad acting, lol)

I did some searches around the internet and discovered that both artists have an interesting discography themselves. I’ve been listening to Don Omar’s “Meet the Orphans” album non-stop for the last few days. The album features collaborations with artists from his label, amongst them this one with Plan B.

As for the French/Portuguese Lucenzo, he hasn’t released a lot of music under his own name yet, but I discovered this great reggae track on YouTube, Emigrante Del Mundo:

This Odeon was built at the Acropolis of Athens in the year 161 by the nobleman Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla.The theatre was used as a music venue. Nowadays it is still used for such purposes, and one of my favorite artists, Stamatis Spanoudakis, will again perform at the Odeon in September.

Because my mom and I are crazy fans (there is really no other way to call ourselves this time, lol), we bought ourselves tickets to the show on September 9th and booked a trip to Athens. I’m really excited about it, especially to think I’ll be sitting on a seat people have been sitting on nearly 2000 years ago, too.

So in case you’re curious as to why we’re making such a large trip for this artist, here are a few YouTube videos of his songs. His music is a bit of a mix between classical music, contemporary music and traditional Greek influences. He performs live rarely and the previous time was a show in Beijing for the Olympics in 2008.

The following two tracks are from his album Alexandros (The myth of the East, the dream of the West), which was the first one I listened to. The album was once described as a “soundtrack of a movie that was never made,” but it’s not hard for me to imagine scenes from Alexander the Great when I’m listening to these songs. The first song, Hephaestion, is a music video, but the second one is a live recording of his performance at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in 1998.

A soundtrack he did compose though, was the soundtrack for the movie Nyfes (Brides) which came out in 2004. It’s a gorgeous, very emotional and touching piece of music. The second one, Klemena filia, also comes from the Nyfes soundtrack and features (female) vocals.