At the start of this summer MIKARU went on a tour through six different countries in Europe with his solo project G.L.A.M.S. During the concerts there was an opportunity to get the latest EP “Under the Moon”! For the European fans, a special Europe edition has been released.
The album consists of the following numbers:
Tracklist:
1. The Other Side Of The Moon
2. Call My Name
3. 1200AM
4 Wanderer
5 The Light Of My Life
The Other Side Of The Moon starts off with a rough guitar play at a fairly low pace. Once MIKARU starts singing, the music becomes very calm. It makes me think of someone singing under the moonlight. At one point, it seems that MIKARU is singing under water because the song is being deformed. In the song there is a lot of variety, first rough, then quiet and then a little bit more of the rough parts. There has also been a number of uses of voice distortion suits this track. This is a nice song to start with!
This song was my personal favorite during the live concert! Call My Name has a fairly long instrumental intro that starts calmly, but becomes somewhat harder as it goes on. It seems again like MIKARU is singing far away in a tunnel due to the use of voice distortion. When he sings “Call My Name”, the voice sounds clear again. The chorus is also clear, but after that the voice distortion returns. The alternation between the pure singing and the deformed was very much in my taste. What’s also a lot of fun about this song is that there is quite a lot of English text.
As soon as the intro begins, I feel like I am standing outside. You can hear the rain drops while the melody starts with a piano. In comparison to the previous two tracks 1200AM is very calm and there is more use of classical instruments like the piano and violin. M IKARU’s vocal sounds very beautiful and harmonious in combination with the music. This song sounds very relaxing and it makes me feel that way too. It’s a very beautiful and calm song. It ends with the words ‘Goodbye Darling’, which brings me some questions as I do not speak Japanese, Who would this song be about?
Wanderer has a fairly exciting and energetic rhythm. The song reminds me of a typical rock song by the way the guitar is played, but also by the way MIKARU sings. The chorus sounds very beautiful and there is much variation in the song in terms of vocal heights. There’s also an awesome guitar solo in the song that gives me more of that Rock feeling. The music stops abruptly, after which only a sound of the sea can be heard.
At The Light Of My Life you can already hear the waves of the sea return at the intro, as if this is a continuation of the last song. This one sounds fairly calm and the vocal is beautifully supported by the softer background music. To hear the words ‘Aishiteru’ and given the title, I assume that this is a love song. The atmosphere reminds me of a song about love and about a special person. In this song too is a fantastic guitar solo, after the solo, MIKARU begins to repeat the chorus. MIKARU’s voice slowly fades into an echo and it ends with the last piece of Piano. This was the last song of the album, a very nice closing.
Under the Moon was very pleasant to listen to, there was a nice variation in the songs and I got the idea that there was a story about the album. The album starts quite rough and ends very calmly, this is a very nice setup, to my personal taste. If you have not seen MIKARU live yet, I strongly recommend that you attend a concert next time when he comes to Europe. This album was very nice to listen to, but live the music is even cooler!
The EP is now available on the website G.L.A.M.S for € 20, -.
