Japanese Male Of The Now: あさき/Asaki
Japanese rock/visual kei musician, perhaps my favorite artist of the modern era. His second album made it to #2 on the Oricon Daily charts, so this seems like a good enough cause for him to be deemed "relevant."
Bit of background:
-He's very secretive, rarely ever divulging pictures of himself and even going to far as to remove other people's uploads of his face.
-His music is some of the most intense stuff I've ever known, both sonically and emotionally. Has an affinity for melodramatic and surreal imagery. Also has a penchant for goofy voices.
-Lyrically his music invokes imagery involving sickness, death, the underworld, demons, nature, and all somehow tied together with romantic relationships. It's difficult to understand what he's saying specifically though, since a lot of his lyrics employ a very old and archaic style of Japanese that hasn't been spoken for centuries. I'll do my best to translate what I can.
http://cdn.natalie.mu/media/1301/013...t_20130130.jpghttp://cdn44.atwikiimg.com/reflec_be...e=mahoroba.JPGhttp://image.jbook.jp/img/04241/M04241363-03.jpghttps://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profil...181729093.jpeghttp://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/18711545.jpghttp://livedoor.blogimg.jp/matomepo/...985e37e5-s.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zdwCs_itE8
Akai Suzu - Red Bells
The evening stretched out far
The couple returned home as they followed the growing shadows with their eyes
The sound of tiny bells rings out
At once, a cuckoo clock sounds off unison
"Ring ring ring"
The tiny, tiny bells resonate
One morning, the man had to leave ("o-erai-san" literally means a big-shot, or someone with high aspirations. I take this to mean that he left to fulfill these desires)
"Would you be okay if I weren't here?"
A fantasy appeared from his trembling hands and encircled him
All fell into ugly colors
A nauseatingly dirty smile
"Ring ring ring"
Her bells rang out
The witch in white arched her back and laughed
Yes, while sticking her tongue out...
"Raise your right hand to the sky, your left to the sea, and look up to the heavens like a proper man!"
So spake the crows who followed to the right
(Extreme/this/naturally/lined up/ideals and happiness |topic| threat of rain/vaguely/expanded and dissolved) I have no fucking clue what this is supposed to mean rofl
A whisper in his ear
"Come towards the sound of the Demon's clapping hands..."
And he vanished into the white clouds.
"I'll cut off all you bastards' lying tongues! I'll wait, I'll wait for him forever..."
Seeing nothing, hearing nothing
"I'd rather there be nothing at all!" he laughed
Her reflection spun around and around within the goldfish bowl
One day, her letters asking "how are you doing?" stopped coming
A rain-drenched crow rode along the wind for the thousandth time
But this time, its tone was silent
The amber sky had never made shadows so long before
The bells rang out
"I've returned!"
The joyful shouts of the crows faded into the twilight
He ran, pushing through his tears.
He opened the door, but her time had already gone.
Only the sound of bells remained...