Awesome, yet another JDK Band Live concert.  This one will be their "Year End" concert to close out 2008.  Scheduled for December 21st in Tokyo, the concert will be divided into two parts again, and is said to center around the Sora no Kiseki series.  Tickets go on sale at Lawson on November 9th.

http://www.falcom.com/info/index.html

It's a Tokyo-only show and is happening a day before I head back to the States for Christmas, so I'm not sure if I can go. >_<  Ah well, JDK Band concerts seem to be a regular thing these days.  Three cheers for Falcom.

- Justin Pfeiffer

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Rock/Techno? What tracks were you thinking of? I hear mostly symphonic metal in there on their Spring 2008 album (they use a violin as a lead instrument a lot, but plenty of quality shred as well). Both are good and I'm a huge fan of Kishimoto (at least before JDK Band became a bunch of synthesizer arranges only with the occasional guitar part), but I'm glad these guys are tasteful enough to hit hard when they need to.

I know what he means.  Some of the tracks on the Autumn 2007 album are rock with a dash of electronica.  Like 1. Tower of the Shadow of Death, 5. 幻の大地セルペンティナ, and 10. Gurumin Hirome Movie.

That had made me wonder though.  The additional synthesizers and drums, while cool, aren't exactly "band-like."  The pure rock/keyboard/violin tracks are the ones they perform at the concerts, along with some of the Zemeth vocals and some pre-recorded tracks for the Kiseki vocals.

- Justin Pfeiffer

I kind of agree with McCall. The original J.D.K. Band did a great job popularising Falcom music with their accessible arrangements, but the reimagined is a personal pull to me much more. Their Spring album was just fantastic in my opinion and yet another amazing Falcom release in recent years.

I don't know, I don't find either one particularly more "accessible" than the other (although the penchant for people to constantly whine about all things 80's would lead me to guess the newer one to be more accessible? I dunno...). I guess I need to hear the Autumn 2007 album then (didn't even know about it), because techno/rock is definitely not quite fitting for Spring 2008.

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I'm not really trying to argue this into the ground or trying to draw up a comparison, I'm just saying this is a rare VGM example of what a lot of symphonic euro-power metal sounds like. I like it and I hope they do more with it...It's a good sound that I wish more games would adopt for their soundscape. The keyboard/violin usage mixed with shred solos and the overall uplifting sound is exactly what the genre calls for. There are exceptions of course (the Jpop song, Serpentina and Cat Relaxes in the Sun...Overdosing Heavenly Bliss has more electronica than I first realized, but the leads in this make the track more rock than techno to me), but most of the disc sounds like something I'd expect from Stratovarius or Power Quest. Metallica is American Bay-Area thrash metal anyway (this definitely wouldn't fit that category...and I don't know what they were thinking with S&M anyway).

Now Zuntata, yes, I do tend to think techno/rock for the most part, but much more emphasis on the techno part than what is here. I really didn't picture them at all when I heard Spring 2008. A few notable exceptions aside, I don't picture Zuntata in full rock-out mode like 2008 is constantly doing.

No, I agree... Zuntata is definitely equal parts rock and electronic. JDK '08 is less so, but stands somewhere in between old JDK and Zuntata. Part of why I thought Zuntata wasn't just the instrumentation, but also the large ensemble. There are quite a lot of people in the new JDK group.

And I think I just shy away from "symphonic rock" because, like I said, that label conjures up images different than what I think JDK '08 sounds like. What I'm saying is, if you didn't jive with le JDK of old, try the new one.

What's more important is that it sounds good.

O RLY? Is there any site that has some streaming samples so I can check this out?

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Someone could explain why in this show the formation of JDK Band was completely changed?
http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/130/130272/

Falcom jdk Band 2008 Spring
Mikihito Tanaka (guitar)
Masaru Teramae (guitar)
Maiko Kawahara (Keyboard)
Ren Ohara (Violin)
Atsushi Enomoto (Bass)
Norisuke Yoshikawa (Drums)

jdk Band Year End 2008
Okaji (Drum)
Ippei Tatsuyama (Keyboard)
Bunpei Tatsuyama (Bass)
Mizuki Mizutani (Violin)
K. (Guitar)
Masaki Hanakata (Guitar)

As far as I know, all the new J.D.K. Band members are session musicians and none have any real association with Falcom. I'm not sure why they opted to change the lineup, but it might have been to do with studio musicians vs live musicians or budgeting issues.

Session musicians generally are very good at live and improv play, so perhaps Falcom just wanted to ensure a great show. 

But it is odd that they would hire and pay other players versus using their own employees, which would have been free.  Unless their normal day-to-day work duties didn't leave any time for the stage rehearsals and stuff...

Good catch though Revoc, I didn't even notice the switchup myself.

Very interesting, Chris and Carl. Curiously, the band members of the Falcom jdk Band 2008 Spring are the same of the jdk Band Live "REBIRTH" show: http://www.falcom.com/ys_20th/jdk_live/index.html

More info about the new members: http://www.falcom.co.jp/jdk/