Asterism - Church (live in studio) - Margarita Kid Reacts!

[@UltraHD.7]

"Church" isn´t just a song, it´s an otherwordly experience that takes you on a journey far far away. The whole Guernica+a album is a masterpiece in progressive instrumental metal. Listen to that song again, close your eyes and let it take you on a trip without overthinking anything.

[@VladimirChupin]

This is part of the story of Guernica, a Spanish city which was the first victim of the concept of carpet bombing civilian targets. People were praying in the local church, and then the Luftwaffe planes came, bombed the city, and chased the people who were rushing down the streets, shooting them with machine guns. When HAL-CA turns to her cabinet to overdrive her guitar, that's the sound of the German planes approaching. The fast part which follows is bombing and machine guns. I believe this album must be listened to as a whole. Last. fm tells me that I listened to GUERNICA almost a thousand times. I consider this album to be a real contribution to the treasury of world music. Maybe not as epic as, say, The Wall by Pink Floyd, but it's a short rock opera, which was able to tell the story with instrumental music only. Amazing.

[@DadDaughtersandDrinks]

This is interesting; I'm going to listen to it again with this in mind. I had no idea this song was part of a concept album. That could certainly change a few of my conclusions.

[@dregeye]

\m/

[@VladimirChupin]

@@DadDaughtersandDrinks You may read the story of Guernica on Wikipedia, they tell the sequence of events. Although HAL-CA said she conceived the idea after seeing Pablo Picasso's painting, they definitely read a lot of history before composing the songs. Guernica may be well-known to the Japanese people since it's a sister city to Hiroshima, and the Mayor of Hiroshima said that "Guernica was the first, Hiroshima was the last." After the World War II this concept of destroying entire cities to gain a military advantage was reconsidered. It became obvious that hitting civilian targets is a waste of resources, and it only raises the morale of your enemy due to the perception that now it becomes a question of survival. Atrocities only make the resistance stronger. One more interesting thing is that different songs on the GUERNICA album were composed by different members. For some it was HAL-CA, for some MIYU, and for some, MIO. It seems they all are pretty good at composing. Of course, they all contributed their parts in the end, but the main theme was set by some individual member in each case. I don't remember now who did what, they speak about it in the "Making of GUERNICA" video chat which is somewhere on their channel.

[@DadDaughtersandDrinks]

That's all interesting info. I'm glad they're all involved in composing different pieces; I've said for decades that what really sets musicians apart isn't what they can play, it's what they can write.

[@RussInCanada]

They have an 18 minute concert called Zepp Yokohama which is phenomenal.

[@aaronleesgbclieutenant]

Yes!! Thank you for checking out Church! Btw thought I was subbed, fixed that!!

[@DadDaughtersandDrinks]

Thanks!

[@jimnusbaum3589]

This is off their second, more progressive rock/metal, album. Dawn, was off the first, more classic hard rock album. This session of live in studio recordings are very "dry". They are better in a real live setting where, as you suggested, they feed off the audience. In fact I would say this is as somber as I have ever seen them. To the point where you have to wonder if someone was not feeling well or there was some drama going on. Because in their other live in studio videos (they have a bunch from the first album) they are much more animated. Haruka is a very "analog" player and the whammy bar usage is a part of her style. I really don't think it is whammy for whammy. Part of her role in the band is to "play the vocals" and the whammy bar, wah pedal and her bends, slides, etc. are part of that. She also plays keyboards, drums and bass and now sings.

[@Double_J_48629]

while i do agree that Miyu was the star of this one , i am going to have to diverge and say that i LOVE the whammy work on this one. as someone else already alluded to, i think understanding the premise of the album (as well as listening to the album in whole) may give more insights to the musical choices. k, done rambling on that one. so, lowkey, one of the most enjoyable performances, for me, is their very first recorded performance for _Rising Moon_ . there are several videos out there (including an official music video) ; but the one i'm talking about is "hal-ca rising moon final stage" (i'd post the link, but i know YT doesn't like that sometimes). notably, this is exactly one year after they met , ages 12/13/15 ; i think it was the first song they wrote together (that and _155_ were written around the same time). it's not necessarily the best version of this song (that'd probably be the OMV) -- the reason i like that one so much is seeing the child-like exuberance , and seeing them already having their rock-star personas already locked-in at such an early age.

[@egodreas]

_Dawn_ is absolutely my favourite song of theirs, so I can't promise that they have anything else that quite beats it. But there are a few songs that come close. I also agree about them being much better in front of an audience, which is why I generally recommend the very video you watched of _Dawn,_ rather than any of the live-in-studio ones. Only trade-off is the sound quality, which is never as good on the venue fan cam recordings. _Church_ is from their second album, Guernica+a (2021), which is very much a progressive metal concept album. Taken as a whole, it is by far their best album. _Dawn_ was from their first album, Ignition (2018), which I think is less well produced (especially the tracks produced by Bootsy Collins, I'm sad to say), a bit uneven, and padded with a of couple covers to boot. But there are certainly still a few bangers on there, and they are of course especially great if you hear them live. If you want to see Haruka showing off in front of a crowd again, perhaps give _Blaze_ a try: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2KzqZ6mbdF6d9Usi=AwNS8tcodRPClM83 If you want to go back even further, then _Rising Moon_ is one of the earliest songs the band wrote together. In fact, they weren't even formally a band yet, and hadn't started calling themselves Asterism. The boys were still playing gigs as a duo called O.G.I, and when they performed together with Haruka, they did so under her stage name HAL-CA. This is them playing _Rising Moon_ back when Haruka was 12 (although I guess a video with little kids like this might not get you too many views): kzbin.info/www/bejne/eH6wi3VqisSge80si=dbrvf5siOaa2-mYS And here is the official music video, released 3 year later to promote their second EP, The Session Vol.2 (2018): kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5fbfpxmd91nrpIsi=J7Be3nFA_YN7z-c0 They still regularly perform it live, but unfortunately I'm not aware of any recordings that don't have completely dreadful audio 😞 If you want to go back farther still, here they are rehearsing _155_ in 2014 (Haruka 11): kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJildKCLjNangLcsi=uNShPnnrbjr_hJfC Or, for something completely different, an Asterism cover of SRVs _Scuttle Buttin':_ kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKWlkImojrGFl68si=58ROUxsCmBtb_Soj

[@DadDaughtersandDrinks]

Thanks for all of those links, and the context behind them as well!

[@billmcleangunsmith]

"Dawn" is a hard act to follow. It's like trying to follow "Stairway to Heaven" or "Moonlight Sonata." They are so good that nothing else really measures up. I agree that there is some jazz influence in this song. Jazz has been VERY popular in Japan for almost a hundred years so there is some degree of jazz influence in a lot of Japanese music. It's as though jazz were a part of their musical DNA.

[@manbow2344]

If you’d like , please listen to it later Sokoninaru - Gou ni Moyu

[@DadDaughtersandDrinks]

Thanks for the rec - it's on the list now

[@dregeye]

In my view and experience, people play slow to convey a particular effect, mood, form-of-expression. It is exactly the same for playing fast. Some cannot or choose to not immerse themselves in the music to embrace what the musicians are obviously conveying, evidenced by your acknowledgement of the intensity that you chose to identify as "for the sake of playing fast notes" rather than the experience, the moment, the segment of composition that HAL-CA is immersed in. Just a different point of view. Some analyze. Some embrace. For a listener to conclude the fast-part as optional is to advocate for a different composition, a different piece of music, imo. Thanks for your promotion of Asterism, the band I want to see as "support" for LOVEBITES first West Coast USA shows &:-) 🐺 dreg👁

[@DadDaughtersandDrinks]

I get what you are saying (and it was very well written), but it's honestly not that I cannot (or choose not) to get in the moment or cannot appreciate fast notes or heavy whammy bars, etc. Some of my favorite musicians are guys like Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, EVH, etc. - all guys that are masters of this type of playing. And really, even among their music there are a lot of times I kind of scratch my head as to what they were trying to convey. Esp. Yngwie; his older stuff was really great (while still being about as fast as a human can get), but his later stuff largely just felt like soulless flashy fast notes, at least to me (and a lot of other musicians I know). That being said, this clearly moved you and many others, so it's clearly an interpretation things. I'll try to be better about making sure it's clear that it's how I'm interpreting things, as opposed to ascribing intentions onto the musicians. Thanks for the feedback.

[@paulpabloanderson6884]

There is also a drummer in the band. Your microphone needs some work. So many drop outs when you was talking.

[@DadDaughtersandDrinks]

Yes, there's a setting I need to tweak. I know exactly what it is though. Thanks for the feedback!