Hi friends.
I wish to learn more about Laputa. There isn’t really a whole lot about them floating around on the most apparent parts of the internet, and I think the era they were active/the lack of a revival era has locked a lot of information about them in the past. The basics are on Wikipedia and the like, but only enough to get the broad picture.
I’m largely interested in the progression of their sound, namely the shift to Electronic Rock. Why’d they do it, what influences were they drawing from? It’s not like they were strangers to electronics, but Heaven through the end are a pretty dramatic shift. I know they switched record labels for Heaven, and the early 2000s were a time of change for the scene. Given the context of Everlasting K, it stands to reason that this is where Kouichi’s interests were at that point. They stuck to that sound after Kouichi stepped back from writing too, so it seems like it was a wider interest within the band. Their early years seem standard enough for a 90s VK band, but their later years feel different from their contemporaries - so I’m interested in getting more context for those later years.
I’m also generally interested in discussing the band, so feel free to drop your thoughts about one of the best classic VK bands; I’m here to selfishly accumulate lore, but any form of Laputaposting is more than welcome. I’ve been going through their stuff again recently. Before I was always inclined to stay in the pre-Jakou territory, but lately I’ve really been enjoying their later stuff. It does feel like they were petering out by New Temptation and Material Pleasures - but they were doing cool stuff around that time as well with Glitter and Sparks Monkey, and the major albums leading up to that period are so passionate and life-affirming.
I’m gonna drop some of my current favorites down here in the event that someone randomly clicks this topic without knowing Laputa:
Older material:
Later years: