A new year has begun! So this is the time for ‘best of’ year lists. I joined my fellow team members at JaME for my favorite Japanese artist and releases, but I thought my last.fm stats from the last 12 months give a better overview.

Most listened artists of 2011:

1. Birdy

I’ve been listening almost non-stop to Birdy since her album came out in November, otherwise she wouldn’t have ended up as the #1 in 12 months time. I’m totally in love with the way she covers all those indie songs, her fragile voice and the beautiful piano arrangements.

2. Mohombi

Ok this is getting a little embarrassing, lol. I had honestly not expected him to rank so high. But yeah, I like his rhythms!

3. A.R. Rahman

Rahman makes the best Bollywood soundtracks! I got interested in his music through the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire and also found some of his other soundtrack albums.

4. The Baseballs

After seeing The Baseballs live in concert in October, I fell even more in love with them (their music, of course XD). Looking forward to new music and new gigs from the boys this year!

5. Ed Harcourt

An excellent singer-songwriter. I guess I’ve been listening a lot to his music in the first part of the year before I went to his gig in Utrecht. His 2011 album Lustre is pretty great.

6. Usher

Haaa I seriously can’t believe the artist I listen to sometimes. Uh, I believe I had this obsession with one of his albums earlier this year but right now I don’t care much for Usher.

7. Adele

Following the rest of the world, listened a lot to Adele as well. She’s got a gorgeous voice and I’m addicted to Rolling in the Deep and Set Fire to the Rain.

8. Lil Eddie

Ok ok I admit being into cheesy R&B sometimes!

9. PUSHIM

I’ve barely listened to Japanese music this year… The only one remaining was the Queen of Reggae, whose newest album Milestone I love to pieces.

10. Belle and Sebastian

Indie music like Belle and Sebastian’s music is good for listening to when writing, makes the words flow much easier!

Favorite concerts of 2011:

1. The Baseballs on 5/10 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2. Stamatis Spanoudakis on 9/9 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, Greece.
3. Ed Harcourt on 4/3 in Utrecht, the Netherlands
4. Matthew and the Atlas on 20/5 in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
5. LUNA SEA on 22/10 at Saitama, Tokyo, Japan

I first got introduced to Japanese music in 2001 and for the first few years of my ‘obsession’, I happily indulged myself in as many as visual kei bands as I could. Later, my taste fortunately improved a bit, heh heh. Since then, many of these bands I used to listen to, have disbanded. I can’t really bring myself to care much to be honest, I haven’t listened to most in ages and stopped following them when I started to dislike their new releases more and more, and drifted away from the visual scene. Though, when D’espairsRay, a band I haven’t listened to in the last three, four years, announced this week that they were going to call it quits and all the messages popping up on Facebook about it, I realized that I might have some memories of them after all.

In 2004 I went to see the first Japanese bands as they slowly started coming over Europe. One of the first ‘bigger’ visual bands to come to Europe, was D’espairsRay in October 2004. My friends and I bought a ticket to the gig and a train ticket to Berlin, Germany. It took ages but it was cheap, so that was good. I remember my parents being a little angsty about it, us 17-year-olds travelling to Berlin for a gig, until then I had only been to Munster, which is really close to the Dutch border.We stayed with a friend of mine whom I had met at Livejournal. Which was rather weird because that friend just locked herself up in her sister’s bedroom while the three of us piled up in her double bed.

The gig was awesome, I remember thinking it had been the best gig ever. Everyone tried to get as close to the stage as possible, and I had a hard time breathing because I was rather small and everyone was pushing forward like crazy. It wasn’t like I cared though, I managed to worm my way to the front anyway, being a crazy fangirl and trying to peek under Zero’s skirt. It was damn hot and I remember being totally happy as Zero sprayed/spit water over us, I was such a gross girl back then, ewww.  Ecstatic,  we all chanted/yelled “I WANNA DIE” along with Hizumi in Garnet. Man, those were the times (when we all fangirled without realizing how dumb we looked)! Afterwards, I came out with my skirt on backwards and had been having the best time of my life.

Two years later, I interviewed them for JaME before their show in Utrecht. The subject of this particular gig came up:

Throughout your whole career, what was the most memorable concert you’ve ever played?

Tsukasa: All of them. (He says ‘all’ in English a few times, to empathize this and is quiet for a moment before he continues) The first time we came to Germany, I don’t remember where that was.
In Berlin. (SERIOUSLY HOW CAN YOU FORGET, IT’S THE CAPITAL OF GERMANY FFS)
Tsukasa: That was very memorable for me because the audience was something we had never experienced before; it was different from Japan. So it was something that left an impact on me.

It was also where my fellow interviewer and I had first met (and later started a company together), which we mentioned because it seemed like we had some history with the band, a story to share. They weren’t impressed.

Another thing that was brought up in the interview:

D’espairsRay is still together after seven years, with exactly the same line-up. How does this make you feel when a lot of other bands around you disband, such as Kagerou who will disband in January?

Zero: Every beginning has an ending and of course it’s sad and regrettable but those are just our personal feelings. The visual scene won’t stop or disappear when disbandings happen; this scene is fascinating and full of surprises.

Well, wise words from Zero there. Let’s see what the four men of D’espairsRay will come up with next.