MELL@Otakon
Well, while the folks at International Wota didn’t manage to get a solo interview with her, they were present for her press conference!
As you all know, I am a big MELL fan and I would dearly love to see her live one day. But she seemed to give a really enthusiastic press conference that you can read over at International Wota, courtesy of Pengie, who was referred to as cute (and now is a MELL fan. Yes!). The transcript can be found here, for your reading pleasure.
It is a good read, and it does show a different side to MELL than what she normally portrays herself as. She seems really bubbly and friendly and very very funny. (Wait, this woman has the best death glare ever in her PVs.) It’s a shame that I wasn’t there, but maybe one day I’ll be able to see her. She talks about the creation process for her songs, her outfits, her concert and several anecdotes which made me laugh.
It seems as if she wore a red kimono at her live aside from a variety of white dresses. This brings to mind the MELLSCOPE art, in which she was garbed in a red kimono for some of the booklet shots. In my opinion, those shots of her were absolutely gorgeous because they had that strong element of wa, the closest English equivalent I can think of being “Japanese aesthetic.” You can view the very kimono used in the SCOPE PV here. (It’s about 2 minutes into the PV, the first couple of minutes are actually of MELL wearing a white dress.)
It’s a shame that there actually isn’t more information on her concert other than she sang… Red fraction. But as always, I shall be on the lookout for whatever I can find out.
As a MELL fan, I thank Pengie and International Wota for sharing with us what I feel, is a good insight into MELL as a person and hopefully more people overseas will support her endeavours in the future.
Meanwhile, there’s a review of Aira Mitsuki’s PLASTIC in the wings and another review for a jpop single you might not have heard of for this blog. Stay tuned!
I’ve Sound Blog Has A Karaoke Competition: Brace Yourselves
Aibu over at I’ve Sound Blog is having a karaoke contest! For those of you who don’t mind embarrassing themselves by singing an I’ve song for all the readers of Aibu’s blog to gape over, this competition is for you.
The songs are restricted to those that are explicitly linked to I’ve Sound. (So if you really wanted to, you could sing C.G. mix’s under the darkness and pretend that you are a bishounen born from… under the darkness.)
I have decided that one way or another, I will be taking part in this contest. For the actual entry specifics, here’s the entry in which this is being discussed (I can’t believe I forgot about that, thanks Aibu for reminding me.)
It is proving to be complete fun finding a song for me to actually sing. I’ve found myself eliminating most MELL songs for reasons stated previously.
The more I look it, the more I find it more likely that I am going to sing a KOTOKO song. While I’d like to keep my most likely choices to myself for a bit of a surprise for the readers of I’ve Sound Blog, the one song I would have probably wanted to do would be KOTOKO’s Suppuration or Suppuration -core-, neither of which have a karaoke or instrumental version.
But in any instance, I’m off to practise two or three songs and see what works best. Of course, as this contest progresses, I will keep this blog updated. 
MELL: Why I to this date, have a massive crush on her.
I don’t mean just physically, I think that MELL is my favourite member of I’ve sound without any doubt. And I am not ashamed in admitting that I have a crush on MELL.
For those of you unfamiliar with I’ve Sound, MELL is basically the oldest member of the collective; presumably still with Kazuya Takase before I’ve was even formed. It wasn’t until 2006 that she got her big break with Geneon and released “Red fraction” an Engrish filled melange of awesome of heavy guitars versus sparkly piano and MELL’s vibrato filled vocals made to sound menacing with a hint of distortion.
Since then, she’s released one album and a slew of singles with Geneon. She’s also performed in America at Project A-Kon and is going to perform at Otakon this year. So she’s got the distinction of being the only I’ve girl besides KOTOKO who has performed overseas.
Prior to this debut with Geneon however, MELL seemed to be the darkest out of all the I’ve singers. And I seem to gravitate towards darkness a lot of the time, I always used this comparison when describing MELL to people.
“You’ve heard of KOTOKO, right? KOTOKO’s like a mermaid, all sparkly and happy and rainbows. MELL on the other hand, is a siren singing beautifully and darkly with just a little bit of sexual appeal to entice people.”
And in terms of songs? Egen, Out Flow, Proof, Spiral… all good things. Mind you she has had some misses with songs like Fall In Love and Fly To The Top. I don’t even want to begin how getting MELL to sing cutesy is a bad idea. It just doesn’t work and sounds forced for my ears.
Which is why I wonder why she released Proof, her second single. Or rather, I really wonder how she got dragged into singing such a bland song. It’s a flat song that I’d expect KOTOKO or Kaori Utatsuki to sing that has the elements of that sort of anison pop.
On the other hand, the b-side, no vain is pure gold. I always imagine that MELL would be like “Rawr, I don’t like this Proof shit. Let be who I am!” It also has some of the most interesting bits of Engrish written like “In the world chain of pain vomit.” That’s okay MELL, I forgive you because I find it endearing rather than annoying.
Your grasp of English probably meant that you were the most likely candidate to cover Lia’s Disintegration on The Front Line Covers. And I was impressed, the opening lines were pristine. Somewhere along the line though, your Japanese pronunciation just creeps in. But other than that, it’s a spectacular effort on MELL’s part. (I am suitably unimpressed by Lia’s delayed backing vocals left there, since you can tell it is Lia. Bad SINE6.)
But, I am not here to give you a single-by-single replay of MELL’s career. I am here to tell you why I love this woman as a singer and why she should continue.
… Or not. Recently MELL’s latest singles KILL and RIDEBACK have suffered from following the same format as Red fraction (which was inventive… when it was first released. Now not so much.)
But, the KILL single’s promotional photos looked like the closest to a MELL-sama S&M fantasy.
I suppose the biggest reason I love MELL is because I could never sing like her. She has acquired a certain tone and vibrato to her voice that is very hard to imitate. I have tried singing Red fraction and not even the massive amounts of distortion I placed on my voice gave me a little bit of MELL’s vibrato. And because I cannot sing her songs, I admire her.
Did I mention she’s really hot too?
Note: I am female. Let’s get this completely clear.
