cimorene | Kokia performing "Someday when you love someone" live in Paris.

what a gorgeous voice. i love that there's a hint of restraint in the way she's singing, as though she could be all over the scale but she doesn't want to show off. i don't understand what she's singing, but it just. glah. yes.

I understand just enough Japanese to maintain my interest and sense of what a song is about, while maintaining enough mystery that I am incapable of discovering when lyrics are really cheesy. It's ideal, really.

And Kokia's voice is just incredible. It reduces me to a alöskdjföals-ing mess. She's one of my favourite two or three musicians. (I have tons of music - possibly the whole discography - if you want an mp3.)

what's the rest of her stuff like? is it all love songs, or is she punkish, or what?

yeah, hook me up with a couple of your favorites. :D

thanks! ♥

Hmmm, well, it's closer to all love songs. She doesn't get punkish, but she does vary over the scale in pop and ballads and some kind of crunchy acoustic stuff and some... weird stuff.

someday when you love someone (the song in the video): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GBOMOMEV

(Then I realised a zipfile is kinder than individual uploads.) The zip: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=82TMFLVI

This includes:

Chouwa, which sounds mideastern- or indian-influenced and a bit trancey.

Pink No Zou, a totally funky comical poppy thing which tells the story of how she woke up one day to discover that she was a pink elephant and went out in the street and taught everyone to do the elephant dance.

Dandelion, which is practically a capella during the verses, and has this mellow tinkly thing going on, flute/xyolophone/some kind of primitive-sounding drums.

Tsugi Au Toki Wa, which is slow and folk rockish (harmonica, guitar), and shows off her lungpower again.

? (The name of the song is actually a question mark), which is on the pop ballad end of things.

(Limiting my choices was difficult, but I didn't want to give you too much incomprehensible music at once. If you want any more I will be delighted to oblige.)

And here is an amazing a capella (except for a box of alternative percussion) performance of "Dandelion".

wow, thanks so much. ♥ i really love her voice, i'm looking forward to giving all this a listen. :D

^ *is a music freak*

eeeeeeee, that video is AMAZING. :O oh my god, that is just! AMAZING! fucking A, can she sing. she's so playful, she almost reminds me of what jewel was when she first came out but LET'S NOT THINK ABOUT THAT because every time i look at my razor in the shower i think of jewel, and i never thought something like that would be true. i guess she needs to eat too, and everything, but god.

ANYWAY. !!! just *squeeeeee*! wow, i'm so glad you posted this! it's making me want to write new music. just WOW! ♥♥♥

Oh YAY! I'm glad you like her so much! I'm not sure why, but I get tremendous pleasure from sharing my musical taste, and she's one of my top three artists. And you write music? It's so cool that you found it inspiring. ♥ :O so does that mean you want some more?

YES absolutely! you said you have her WHOLE discography? i mean, just. YES. i think i am going to make a post about this, she's just too awesome. *hands* i just. ♥

aigakikoeru (most recent album) in a zip: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U9WPPB5S

trip trip (which you already have part of) and uta ga chikara (minus the tracks I don't have) plus some b-sides and such: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LZVVFQRV

So... do you really want the whole discography (I checked last night and it seems I actually am missing some early things and b-sides), or shall I just send my favourite ten or thirty tracks?

(I'm not just teasing - I just thought I'd post what I have uploaded already while I upload the next bit.)

favorites would be great! :D you are so nice for doing this. your music folders must be reeeeeally organized, ha. :D seriously, you are the best enabler ever, and i appreciate it! thank you!! (i never get this excited about a new artist, this is a big deal for me - i'm practically verklempt.)

Okay, here's the last one, my favourites from the remaining two albums. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TTVYVQ13

I'm afraid I've overshot the 'favourites' mark a little so I'll try and help you prioritise. My top tier of favourites, from everything put together, are

Ningen Tte Sonna Mono Ne, Hana, Dandelion, Chouwa, Sigh, Tsugi Au Toki Wa, Daiji Na Mono Wa Mabuta No Ura, ?, So Much Love For You, Ai No Melody, Anshin No Naka, & Tomoni.

The second tier would be...

Pink No Zou, Kawaranai Koto, Soyokaze Ga Sougen Wo Naderu You Ni, Someday when you love someone, So sad so bad, Arigatou, Shiroi Yuki, Utau Hito, Ningyo No Yume, Hope of an ugly duuckling, & Nesia.

Assorted non-album tracks: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CQIV6JF3

and! here is a live Yuukyuu No Mori. I just found this yesterday!

thank you SO MUCH. you have made me a very happy fangirl. :) a NEW fangirl, but happy nonetheless.

i'm so full of squee over her, just GAH.

Oh, I know how you feel!

aeslis, who lives in Japan and is my crack dealer, first sent me her shit about one year ago. I listened to a mix of her entire discography plus like two albums by another genius Japanese singer, Cocco, well into the autumn, with almost nothing else. All the most-played spots in my iTunes are full of her, too. I think her music is possibly the closest I have come to a religious experience, although hopefully not in a horribly cheesy way. ♥ I wish the love would spread to as many people as possible! She's one of the few artists who transcends the language barrier completely!

like i said, i write music, so that instantly makes me a huge music geek, kinda. i mean it IS my life. and i have seen certain music move people like that, so... that's not cheesy at all. :D her voice, god... yeah, i can see how she could turn a song into an experience like that.

i looked up the lyrics to "dandelion" finally (i have been humming that song everywhere for days, kyle's about to strangle me) and i know this is a pretty bad translation - run through babelfish, christ - but it's the closest i've come to kind of understanding what the song's about:

Softly placing in the dandelion cotton wool, in the world the flower of light it does the う, from somewhere one small kind which is done blossoms in my towns Small sheath consideration landing kindly to someone's heart, producing the bud, blossoming, you probably will attach the truth It probably becomes the wind? To your town the thinking which we would like to deliver it probably becomes the wind? Crossing the sea, there is the thinking which we would like to deliver In the migratory bird which travels the world over the country from the country the border no serving From the high sky if the ぁ it disdains, the ground which spreads is star what where the family of the name, one earth which passes is blue It probably becomes the bird? If you see from the sky, you probably will hear in the small trouble thing bird? My stars are beautiful even now? With it probably becomes the bird... Don't you think? the あ - you thought and the smiling face of thinking had begun to forget as the あ - been similar, 1 human 1 difference me who am borne the reason where I stay here searching... It probably becomes the wind? To your town the thinking which we would like to deliver it probably becomes the wind? Crossing the sea, the thinking which we would like to deliver it may want in the wind! My thinking keeping carrying, it is late and is slow in the wind! The flower it will be able to bloom in the chest of everyone, it probably becomes the wind

my heart like, broke when i read it. ♥

It never bothered me not knowing what they were about, but my friend

kyuuketsukirui runs a jpop translation site, so I could ask her to do a proper translation of that one!

Dandelion is one of my top five songs by her, yeah, but Ningen Tte Sonna Mono Ne is my biggest one by a fair margin (20 play counts on iTunes ;). There's a translation of it here: http://www.kiwi-musume.com/lyrics/kokia/trip%20trip/ningenttesonnamonone.htm

I can tell you about dandelion: "Kaze ni narou" which is what they are translating as "it probably becomes the wind" is like... that verb form can do several other things. I unconsciously read it as "[whoever: we/I/he?] becomes the wind" or "become the wind" [command/request/suggestion], but I'm fairly sure there are other uses of that form.

it doesn't bother me exactly, more like language just fascinates me, gah. i don't have the discipline to learn japanese (not that i haven't wanted to) or any language remotely like it. i tried learning mandarin chinese once but, alas. i'm left not remembering which phrase is 'good morning/evening' although i will always remember how to say 'lemon tea.' *tangent*

... anyway, yeah. what's the difference between "kaze ni narou ka" and "kaze ni narou yo?" like i said, i have zero knowledge of japanese. i was just mostly impressed with the imagery, i guess of a good deed done in one place having a positive impact on the world and eventually coming to me. am i misinterpreting that? i guess it would be kind of like, well. like blowing on a dandelion and the petals going everywhere, which i guess is the point. *ponders*

Japanese sentence particles:

-ka (makes a sentence into a question, but can be inserted at almost any point; "dareka" means whoever, "dokoka" means wherever, "itsuka" means whenever because dare, doko and itsu mean who, where and when respectively)
-yo (adds extra emphasis to a statement)
-ne (requests confirmation, invites agreement, softens statements for less assertiveness)

"Kaze ni narou ka" means "[__] will probably become the wind, won't it?" or "Shall we become the wind?"; "Kaze ni narou yo" means "Let's become the wind!" or "It will probably become the wind" (with a stronger degree of certainty than with -ka).

You could be right about the good deed, but the translation is so bad and so is my Japanese that I... really don't know. There's definitely nature imagery and, I think, a sense of wonder at nature's beauty (esp. since the second verse is about becoming a bird and looking at the world from up in the sky - that's where she's miming being a bird in the live video!), which Kokia definitely has a lot of - it's a big theme in her music. Human kindness is another one, though. And I think there's something about remembering and possibly something about emotions ("omoi" means either "thought" or "emotion" and sometimes "love", so).

http://www.megchan.com/lyrics2/translations/dandelion_kokia.html

There you go - she's posted her translation. Very speedy!

oh man. kokia./ ♥

In one of the other Paris performances from Aigakikoeru - YOU SHOULD FIND IT. She's, hahaha, she's wearing this... multi-tiered ruffled shiny pink thing with these huge wide ribbon bands of white or lace or cream or something? And giant puffy sleeves and a neck so wide it's like falling off and... yeah. Ahahhahahahah.

Kokia performing "Someday when you love someone" live in Paris.

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