SUPER FUNKY POP ROCK // Gacharic Spin - MindSet // Composer Reaction & Analysis

[@amiwolf8117]

Hi Bryan, this was definitely best analysis of Mindset I've seen. Kudos! And you got a pretty good hold onto what the lyrics are about. Angie (the pink haired vocalist) was 19 when this was written (the rest of the band is mostly in their mid 30s). The pressure that is put onto teenagers from society and especially her teenage years being influenced by further restrictions from the pandemic led to a pretty dark look at life for her. That's represented in the MV by her being in a school uniform with black hair in the beginning. She's trying to find herself in all of this mess, and although being depressed she's looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, or rather breaking free of all the chains (Depicted in the MV by her cutting her hair and coloring it pink, also wearing her own costume, which she actually made herself). I hope you'll check out more from them, and < I Wish I > would indeed be another great song make a deeper dive into. Cheers :)

[@jasonnord785]

I Wish I is also great and will show their diversity. I also love Kachi Kachi Yamma, Tamashii, Redline, Mirai Ronso, Don’t Let Me Down, … we’ll just about everything they do.

[@homegnome2429]

Thanks for this excellent analysis. I would say that once you get to know them then the 4 main singers (ones who tend to have their own lines) have quite different tones although fully understood on a first listen, and this particular track does not lend itself to that. If you check out more of their material you'll also find that another way in which they utilise similar voices is through vocal trading rather than just harmonising - this is more the unique part of GS for me. Their musical sound also varies considerably from track to track, this is quite a simple song for them (other than the bridge) but good for an introduction, and probably their most popular song perhaps because of that simplicity. I'm not sure how you are with live performances v studio, most GS fans especially enjoy them for their energetic live performances - for that reason if you do checkout "I wish I" then I would recommend the official live version from 豊洲PIT (there are 2 official lives on their channel) for better sound and also includes English subtitles - cheers

[@Aizix_]

It's awesome to get some GS on this channel :) Definitely looking forward to your analysis of I Wish I.

[@jasonnord785]

I love this band! So creative, so talented, so much energy. Great fun. Massively under appreciated. More please!

[@v01dal]

Great video! I would say that MindSet is pretty tame on the scale of their craziness, but it did it's job as single. And yes, it would be cool if you'd explore more of Gacharic Spin. Genre fluidity and (as someone mentioned) utilizing multiple vocalist is just a couple of their strengths.

[@StrappingOldLad]

It was very interesting to hear your thoughts about this song. An analysis of "I wish I" as in depth as this would be greatly appreciated. Took me quite a few listens to get into the flow of that song, but when it clicked it really payed off.

[@johnquinn7794]

Gacharic Spin, Band Maid, Lovebites. Sounds like a jrock category could be an awesome addition to the channel.

[@MaartenT]

Bryan has done a couple of Band-Maid reactions back when he started and revisited one of the tracks later if I recall correctly. I believe some of the fanbase weren't super happy with at least one of the reactions (and they were somewhat overreacting imo and I am a big Band-Maid fan as well), but I already knew the channel from before I had heard Band-Maid, so I already knew a bit how he approached reactions. I think they are certainly worth checking out though, I at least enjoyed them when I was looking for Band-Maid reactions later on and found out Bryan had done a couple of them. I don't think he has reacted to Lovebites, I do think he has done Unlucky Morpheus reactions as well as Sokoninaru. I am sure there are other Japanese bands on here as well, especially during livestreams. The community seems to have a very wide range of tastes and are relatively open minded to music in general, which is also why I thought Gacharic Spin might work.

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

Just insanely fun, and a stark reminder of how much great music there is all over the world that's hard to discover merely because so few people in our own culture knows about it. I loved everything about this though. Pretty much any band that combines pop hooks with strong groove and proggy/complex/virtuosic instrumental parts is always going to hit the sweet spot for me, which is one thing I love about bands like Dance Gavin Dance. Will definitely be checking out more from this band sooner rather than later.

[@CriticalReactions]

Completely agree. I don't even think it's possible for one person to dedicate their time to letting people know about awesome music like this -- there's just too much good music coming out constantly from every corner of the world. It sucks that stuff like this can fall through the cracks

[@christerfurberg6538]

"I wish I" has parts where several of them sing at the same time. Check out the live version, it'r very clear there

[@konteros9850]

Another very similar band worth reacting is tricot! The song wabi-sabi might be a great choice

[@MaartenT]

Thank you for checking them out! Gacharic Spin (you had the correct pronunciation) actually just had their 14th anniversary yesterday. They did a streamed set with a lot of their singles/more important tracks from over the years. As far as vocal timbres go, I can hear which vocalist is which nowdays, but I am also more used to listen to Japanese female bands the last couple of years and a lot of them have a similar "problem" if they have multiple vocalists. Gacharic Spin does sometime use heavy vocal production (and some over-the-top auto-tune) on multiple tracks, especially in their earlier days when they were more electronic driven. All the vocalists can sing live though, so it's not to cover anything up. They are one of the few bands where I can overlook the use of auto-tune, I typically don't like that sound at all. As far as the lyrics goes, they might have been written with covid in mind (the same for I Wish I actually). Also vocalist Angie is still pretty young (close to 22 now, 17 when she joined) and clearly has changed the topics of some of the tracks compared to their earlier stuff. The rest of the band minus the newest drummer, who is in her late 20's was on maternity leave in this video, are in their mid to late 30's now. The drummer/vocalist in this video is the second guitarist and vocalist nowadays, she is a multi-instrumentalist and can basically play any instrument in the band if she wanted to. The band also went through some hardships over the years losing multiple members and were apparently close to being killed a couple of years ago before finding the current vocalist and drummer. This was also of the last album with their previous label, not sure why they split but I had a feeling they might not have gotten that much support any more the last couple of years. As far as the jazz influence goes, I have noticed that multiple Japanese bands have this and I discovered that Jazz seems more alive in Japan with the younger population compared to what I see in the West (might be coincidence). I have discovered plenty of young fantastic Japanese jazz musicians by checking around in their scene over the last couple of years and I hardly ever listened to jazz before that. The Japanese music scene in general seem to be more ok to use more spicy chords and a lot of bass even in some J-Pop (Zutomayo comes to mind) and even Idol groups.

[@jcfarnham4634]

The jazz scene in Japan is pretty huge from what I can tell. I listen to a jazz radio program occasionally, and they're always bringing it up. And yeah, you do hear some influence in their pop music, too. Thank you for selecting them. This was a fun listen!

[@homegnome2429]

Good channel request! 👍👍

[@greggerypeccary]

Yeah, there's definitely a big jazz influence in Japanese rock. I wonder if it doesn't have to do with the fact that they mostly learn to play at school... in the West, young people who learn to play will usually do it on their own time and learn the genre that interests them and that's what they'll play. But if they learn to play at their after-school "pop music" club (like tricot...), it could be that the teacher who's their adviser is a jazz fan and so influence them in that direction.

[@jcfarnham4634]

@@greggerypeccary I also read somewhere that the influence of traditional Japanese harmony and composition can still be felt in a lot of modern popular music. Notably in the much longer chord progressions vs the 3 or 4 chord progressions you tend to find in the west. So maybe there's something there

[@icipher6730]

Jazz and funk influence is why I love Japanese pop. It's choke-full of epic basslines and compositions taking direct influence from jazz harmony, chord progressions, phrasing, etc., but adding a pop music coating to it and a lot of unique flavor coming from local music scenes.

[@killiansred1000]

GS has an incredible amount of energy in live shows. Tamashii live should be on your list of videos. They also play Tamashii on toy instruments.

[@david_ii11]

I think the commenter you mention is exaggerating about the vocals. Mostly this band does unisons and simple harmonies like most rock bands. Sometimes the different vocalists take turns, but it can be hard to tell because their voices are pretty similar. I haven't heard them do anything like what Jacob Collier does, for example. On this song, first and second verses are actually completely different. It even wanders into a different key just before the second chorus but then returns to e minor. The section around the keyboard solo gets really complex, and when the vocals return it seems to be in F major. Then it shifts to F minor where you noted the key change for the final chorus, but the outro returns to the original key of E minor. Although this might sound like a happy song, it's actually darker than a lot of Gacharric Spin's other songs, which can sound super poppy and cheerful.

[@MaartenT]

Well, I hope I did not overstate it or miss-used some expressions, the fact that both you and Home Gnome are tempering expectations might mean I somewhat screwed up on that. Hopefully it won't be too much disappointment if that's the case. I saw an other reactor reacting to that live version not too long before my comment (who generally doesn't seem to hold back too much) who liked that part, so that might be why I was more hyped on it than I should have been. I hope I wasn't too overly fanboy on that one, I generally try not to be because it doesn't help the bands in question.

[@david_ii11]

@@MaartenT I wouldn't worry about it. He got the chance to listen to this song, which is great.

[@homegnome2429]

No criticism from me. I’m very glad you got him interested in the band and I don’t know what you said exactly about the vocal harmonies. It’ll be very interesting I’m sure if he does checkout I wish I - cheers. .

[@timgove5337]

@david_ii11 Great job noting the multiple key changes, so many people miss those. Vocally, this song has fairly standard chord harmonies, and limits switching of vocalists to just between major sections. They are certainly known tho for rapidly switching and overlapping multiple vocal lines and utilizing all six voices, to varying extents. They do have songs with more unusual harmonies, but as a self proclaimed pop band that’s been leaning on their new singer for lots more raps, they don’t do that all the time. Many songs have some complex or difficult passages (I call it near prog) to distinguish themselves, but as eclectic and genre smashing as they are, they still want to be accessible, so leave simpler (familiar pop melody) parts in each song as well.

[@清原忠司]

Gacharic Spin is the most underrated girl rock band in Japan. They are a unique group that is funky, rock, punk, unconstrained by conventions, full of experimental spirit and entertainment value.