Which band member's departure would have the biggest impact on TJ?

[Glathannus]

Petrolz has some groovy tracks (I say this as someone who pays $75 just to get any of their singles), but they hardly do anything new. It must be because Ukigumo is putting more of his creativity into Tokyo Jihen. I suppose the same is also true about Izawa and Appa. Still, both of those bands really show a lot of promise. Sometimes bands are better when only one person has creative control.

Now PE'Z is a bit different, in that their trumpeter writes maybe 2/3rds of the songs, while HZM writes the other third. I think he's only a show-stealer with the few songs he writes, while in Tokyo Jihen he did the most show-stealing with songs he didn't write. It's really quite odd - the opposites between how someone conducts themselves in the band, versus outside the band.

So this really begs the question of, if someone in Tokyo Jihen right now were to leave, what would their post-Jihen career consist of? I'd be quite eager to follow that, no matter who it was - unless it were Kameda. Ugh. Don't get me wrong - I love Superstar, but stuff he has composed ever since, has been going from bad to worse. On second thought, if there's this whole "opposite" thing going on with each of the members inside the band versus outside, then maybe his new stuff would blow our minds. I mean, after all, it couldn't be any worse than the latest single, right?

[jackmanca]

Oh. I thought the question in this thread was "Which band member's departure would have the biggest impact on TJ?", and we were supposed to answer with our oppinion... Cause each one of us have one, right? That we thought by ourselves. Or is there some kind of "absolute truth" that I wasn't informed?

Well, I gave mine (I can... Can't I?)

[TurtleFu]

But Kameda has been in the business for longest, and his sound has always been the same.
No really, everyone he's ever produced sounds exactly the same when he arranges it.
Have you heard of Weaver, his latest project? They are the blandest, most boring music I have heard recently, and they have that signature "Kameda" sound.

[Tokyo Jihad]

I agree, burn Kameda!

[justriiingo]

@jackmanca: I didn't name you because the comments were not meant to be personal. So. Please don't take them personally. We're harsh on rebuttals here (it's the forum culture), but it's never personal.

Anyway if you find me (or anyone else) annoying, you can always use the ignore list.

[jackmanca]

@justriiingo: Well, considering that I was the only one saying that Izawa's voice was beautiful, it seemed pretty personal to me. But that doesn't mean that I will make a war out of it. So let's just overpass this, shall we?

[justriiingo]

Well. I'm sure there were many people thinking the same way.
Anyway. My apologies to you. Let's be happy in this forum.

[jackmanca]

Let's be happy!!

[Lustau]

From the least impact, to the most:

5. Hata - I understand that a drummer sets the foundation for the band, but I would think that there are legions of drummers who can do this. If you remove Hata and replace him with another competent professional, how different would the band really sound?

4. Ukigumo - I think the choice between Uki and Izawa is the difficult one. Uki's sound is so distinctive that replacing him with another guitarist would automatically result in a different-sounding band. The world is not teeming with close Uki substitutes.

3. Izawa - Although Izawa's playing is more replicable than Uki's, Izawa is a more significant source of the band's songwriting. Now that Shiina writes so little, perhaps he is the primary composer in the band.
If he left, not only the performance but the music itself would have to take a new direction.

2. Kameda - Because he has always been there and because his style remains so consistent, it is not as easy to recognize his influences on the band. There is no "pre-Kameda" to help me imagine what life would be like post-Kameda. But my impression is that he has always contributed so much to the arrangements that everything would sound very different without him. I can't really disagree with those who get on to him for a tendency towards campyness, but he has been so deeply involved with Ringo for so long that I sometimes wonder if it's possible to separate out her sound from his. I think that apart from Ringo, he is the member who influences a song most without even writing it. I'm pretty confident that without him the band would be very different, and more than any other member I have no idea what their new sound would be.

1. Shiina - If she left, I would leave too.

[deadgrandma]

Originally Posted by Lustau

If he left, not only the performance but the music itself would have to take a new direction.

This might be a good thing...