Laputa (band)

Infobox musical artist 2
Name = Laputa


Img_capt =
Background = group_or_band
Origin = Nagoya, Japan
Instruments =
Genre = Visual kei
Nagoya kei
Years_active = 1993 to 2004
Label = Toshiba-EMI, Nippon-Crown
URL = |Current_members = Aki (vocal), Kouichi (guitar), Junji (bass), Tomoi (drums)
Past_members = Hiro (guitar), Hideno (guitar), Kusuba (bass)

Laputa was a visual rock band from Nagoya, Japan. The band chose its name from the flying island in Gulliver's Travels and tried to portray a similar unrealistic view of the world with their performance. Musically the essence of the band sound was extracted from the three pilliars of "Dark, Hard, and Melodious". Their sound is characterized by Kouichi's unique chord processions and aki's transparent high-pitched vocals. The band is considered to be under the sub-categories of black suit kei and nagoya kei. Even though not extremely commercially successful, they were influential on developing bands. Laputa's early sound was influenced by Kuroyume, since both aki and Tomoi were roadies for them.

Indies Period

Laputa was formed in July 1993 by Aki and Tomoi, high school friends who were previously in the band AI SICK FACE together, and were also Roadies for Kuroyume. They met some success in 1995 in the visual indie scene with their first indie album "Memai", and shot a music video for Vertigo. They released a mini-album (Kurumeku Haijin) in 1996, and also released a live video (Hakoniwa) featuring performances from the concert at SHIBUYA ON AIR WEST from the Paradoxical Reality TOUR IV.

Toshiba-EMI

With their increasing popularity in the visual indie scene, Laputa caught the attention of big record companies and signed to the major label Toshiba-EMI in August 1996. Laputa released their first major single "GARASU NO SHOUZOU" in September 1996, which peaked at #34 on the Oricon singles chart. In October Laputa's first major album "KAGEROU" was released. Laputa released 4 more albums and several videos in the following 4 years.

In 2000, Laputa released a collection of their B-sides (c/w songs) "Coupling Collection + xxxk [1996-1999 singles] ". They also released a three-disc best-of album "3DISC BEST ~1995-1999 except Coupling Collection~", which featured 32 songs in all including Laputa's eight major singles and 24 other songs. After these releases, Laputa left Toshiba-EMI and signed to a smaller major label Nippon-Crown.

Nippon-Crown

While on Nippon Crown Laputa released 4 albums/mini-albums and 3 singles which made it on to the top 50 of the Oriocon charts. Glitter, a mini-album which was released in 2002, had a more electronic-oriented direction.

Laputa's lead songwriter Kouichi was reportedly in a hospital or clinic for much of 2002. Because of this, he wrote only two songs on the New Temptation album, and Laputa's tour for the album consisted of less than ten concert dates. Junji wrote more of the songs on 誘～New Temptation～惑 than any other member, and would remain Laputa's lead songwriter for the rest of their career. Tomoi also began to contribute more in writing songs and lyrics.

In May 2004 Laputa announced through their fanclub that they were disbanding, citing a desire for each of them to evolve. They released a best-of CD+DVD of their material from their years on the Nippon-Crown label titled "BEST AL+CLIPS 2000~2004" on July 28th, 2004, toured from August to September, and played their last live on September 5th, 2004 at Shibuya Koukaido. A DVD of the last live titled "ALL BURST" was released on December 15th, 2004.

Moving Forward

*Aki has formed a solo project. He has released 3 singles, an album, and also has a fan club.

*Kouichi has a solo-project called Everlasting-K which has released two albums and a single.

*Junji has formed a solo-project called HALATION.

*Tomoi joined MILK FUDGE, and then played support for JILS .

Discography

ingles

Albums

References

* [http://lasteve.lovelessineden.com/main.html Last Eve - Fan page]
* [http://www22.big.or.jp/~yunisan/vi/laputa.html Laputa's page on Grass Thread]
* [http://cesspit-factory.com Official page of Aki's Solo Project]
* [http://www22.big.or.jp/~yunisan/vi/everlastingk.html EverlaskingK's page on Grass Thread]

External links

* [http://akiakiaki.com Aki's personal website]
* [http://el-k.com Everlasting-K (Kouichi's solo-project) official website]
* [http://halation.jp/ Halation (Junji's solo-project) official website]
* [http://www.geocities.jp/tomoi34/ Tomoi's personal website]