[VAR]iable expression

Those of us who follow Japanese rock are all a-twitter over the latest news from Yoshiki (the man! the myth! the legendary J-rocker!)

Disclaimer: If you have never heard of Yoshiki or Japanese rock in general, the rest of this post will be utterly confounding. Apologies in advance!

Last year at Otakon in Baltimore Yoshiki announced he was teaming up with Gackt (my favorite J-rock artist). At the recent J-Rock Revolution festival in L.A. (which he produced) he finalized the line-up for his new supergroup S.K.I.N.

Now, not only is Yoshiki producing S.K.I.N., he’s in it. This man has some serious business acumen.

The line-up as we know it thus far is as follows: Yoshiki, the (de-facto?) leader of the band and pianist, much like he was in X Japan. (And perhaps not too coincidentally S.K.I.N.’s new iconography of sorts parallels X Japan’s a lot). Gackt on vocals. Sugizo and Miyavi on guitar. It’s a bit hard to compare or describe how big this is if you’re not already kind of a part of this scene, but this line-up is huge.

For one thing, all four of these men were once in bands and then split off to very successful (and ongoing!) solo careers. And all four of them have rabid legions of fans around the world.

So not only is there enormous name recognition with each of these artists, but there’s major appeal for both “old geezer” J-rock fans like me who have been in the ’scene’ for a long time, as well as younger and newer fans who are still learning about the artists.

(What did I tell you, Yoshiki is a smart, smart man.)

The formal announcement of S.K.I.N.’s first performance was also at (Yoshiki’s) J-Rock Revolution, and this group’s very first show will be at Anime Expo in Long Beach, Calif., which I am attending. And yes, I’m already salivating at the thought of seeing this group live, I admit.

The only taste of their combined musical sound comes from this official promo video, released less than a week ago:

Fans of the artists can hear strong influences from each band member. Gackt is perhaps the most obvious in the video as he’s the vocalist, present here through some interesting distorts, though the piano solo is definitely in Yoshiki’s style.The video doesn’t reveal very much though as it’s just flickering images.Out of curiosity I slowed the video down to see if there was anything hidden in there. (Let’s say it’s a LOST influence!) Here’s what I found:

That photo’s from Yoshiki’s myspace profile.
I’d recognize that eye anywhere! That’s definitely Gackt, I think from around the time he released Diabolos? (Someone correct me on this. I know there a gazillion Gackt fans reading this right now!)
Anyone recognize this Sugizo photo? I have been looking for the original and can’t find what this might be from.
And of course, that kohl-lined eye is most definitely Miyavi’s. I can’t find the source photo for this either. I’m wondering if the sources of these photos might reveal what era of sound these musicians will pull from their repertoire to this new band?…Or, perhaps the video editor just pulled whatever he/she first found off their image bank. Whichever!C’mon J-rock fans, I check my server referral stats—I know the vast majority of my visitors are here for that Let me know what you think!