2016
In 2016, Hisashi's side project Schaft resumed activities after a recording absence of 22 years! Previously the Maki Fujii (formerly of Soft Ballet) driven project was with Hisashi only and there were various guest musicians on the album but those musicians did not necessarily tour. The most notable guest musician in 1994 was Raymond Watts who recorded and toured with the band. The new reincarnation of the band included the same members both on the album and on the tour so it felt more cohesive, like a real band. The new members were Yow-Row (Gari) on vocals, Takeshi Ueda on bass (AA=, ex-Mad Capsule Market's), and Yukihiro (L'Arc~en~Ciel) on drums. Both Takeshi and Yukihiro had participated in Schaft before. Takeshi was the original live bassist in 1994 when he still used the stage name Cra¥. Yukihiro drummed during a surprise 1 song performance of Schaft at the Music and People event in 2008. When the band started doing interviews about Schaft's revival, they joked that they won't be around another 22 years to do this again.
For Schaft's activities, first the previously released Schaft material were re-released as the box set Archives on January 20. It included their only studio album, remix album, and live video on DVD. This was the first time the live video was made available on another format since it was originally released on VHS in 1994. Also on January 20, Schaft released their new album Ultra, containing 11 original songs.
Second, a 6 date tour entitled Tour Ultra -The Loud Engine- began on January 22 at Club Citta' Kawasaki. The other dates included the 24th at Yokohama Bay Hall in Kanagawa, 25th at Liquid Room in Tokyo, 27th at Akasaka Blitz in Tokyo, 28th at Ex Theater Roppongi in Tokyo, and concluded on February 6 at Umeda Club Quattro in Osaka. The majority of songs performed were from this new era of Schaft.
During the tour encores, Schaft performed 2 original songs that were not available on the album. Perhaps due to overwhelming response, this was rectified with the release of the album Deeper and Down on May 25. It included proper studio recordings of "Deeper and Down" and "H.N.A." as well as live songs recorded on January 28 at Ex Theater Roppongi, Tokyo. Also on May 25, the live video Archives 2016 Tour Ultra ~The Loud Engine~ was released on Blu-ray and DVD.
On January 30, Hide participated in the 11th annual Onsyuhai (Sound Kick Cup) soccer tournament, which has a mix of musicians and pro soccer players. He was part of the entertainment team TFA. Other team members included Teru (Glay), Ai Ishigaki (formerly of The Mad Capsule Market's), etc. Hide loved playing soccer as a child and he was a goalkeeper. He dropped out of playing in high school as he lost his motivation. I am not sure what position he played in TFA but his jersey number was 6, probably because he was born in June 1966.
On February 29, U-ta was a guest at the tribute event Yoshio Harada 19x4th Birthday Live Furaikyo ~Sorosoro Yoshio No Uta Ga Kikitai~ held at Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo. Yoshio was an actor who had released several albums and passed away in 2011. It was sort of a tribute to his 19th birthday but quadrupled as it would have been his 76th birthday. The idea was the last birthday one has as a teenager. (The event title roughly means Past Frivolties ~Soon I Want to Hear Yoshio's Songs~.) Other guests included Flower Top, Yoshio's son Kenta Harada, Seitarou Kuroda, Ryudo Uzaki, Koichi Sato, Eita, Yosuke Eguchi, Shigeru Nakano, etc.
On March 9, a live video of the final tour date of Atsushi's side project The Mortal was released. It was entitled Immortal and filmed on November 26, 2015.
Buck-Tick launched a Japan only smartphone music streaming service to listen to their entire catalogue called B-T The File for ¥1500 per month beginning June 6.
Buck-Tick fans were in for a television treat in 2016 when an Empathy commercial's background music was written by Hide. I believe Hide said that he was friends with the owner or someone important in the company and that's how he ended up writing music for the commercial. The last time Buck-Tick's music was used in a product commercial was in 1991 when Atsushi endorsed the JVC/Victor CDioss stereo.
On July 3, Toll appeared at the Tago Studio Takasaki Music Festival in his hometown where he helped to judge amateur performers.
Around July, Buck-Tick entered the studio to record their next album. Toll was the phone-in guest on Radio Takasaki's "No-Subject" show on July 8.
In August, Toll performed his annual birthday gigs It's A Now! with his band Blue Sky. The members included Kenta Harada (guitar/vocals), Kaname (bass), and Masato Yagi (guitar/vocals). They performed on August 19 at Shimokitazawa Garden in Tokyo and on August 21 at Takasaki Club Fleez in Gunma. The Tokyo show had Shime join on guitar/vocals again. The Takasaki show was a special one as they were joined by U-ta on bass and Makoto Takahashi on drums.
From September 10 through October 2, there was a collaboration with Tower Records Cafe Omotesando in Tokyo where the cafe was decorated with Buck-Tick photos, had Buck-Tick music playing in the background, and featured a special menu of food and drink with selections chosen by members. Original Buck-Tick label beer was also sold.
On September 11, Buck-Tick once again held a Climax Together concert at Yokohama Arena, creating a 12 year cyclical event. The first Climax Together show in 1992 set the precedent and was held on the same date and venue. The second Climax Together show was entitled Akuma To Freud -Devil and Freud- Climax Together in 2004. This 2016 event was entitled Climax Together 3rd. Both the first and second events were released as a live video but Buck-Tick did not announce any plans to release the third event on video. Perhaps they were holding onto it for the following year as part of the 30th anniversary of their major debut. (This concert was finally released in 2018.)
On September 20, Atsushi appeared on the radio as a guest on "The Dave Fromm Show" on Inter FM. On October 8, Atsushi and Hisashi appeared on the FM Cocolo radio show "The Majestic Saturday Night."
The results of the summer recordings were finally made known with the release of the single "New World" on September 21. The song's lyrics were written by Atsushi and music by Hisashi. The B-side was available on the upcoming album, Atom Miraiha No.9, released on September 27 (translation: Atomic Futurism No.9). This title was written mixed with katakana, kanji, English, and a number. It had it all! (Well, hiragana was missing but we'll let that slide.) These releases were the first since their return to the Victor label. Originally they were on Victor from their major debut in 1987 through 1996. After 20 years, they had returned home. To celebrate this, Tower Records Japan released welcome back merchandise that featured the original RCA Victor dog Nipper, making it one of the rare times you can refer to something in Japan with the word Nipper.
The supporting tour for the album was entitled Tour Atom Miraiha No.9 and it lasted for a total of 28 dates, beginning on October 8 in Kanagawa and ending on December 29 in Tokyo. This would make 4 album tours in a row that Buck-Tick holds the final date on December 29 in Tokyo at the Budokan instead of holding a "The Day In Question" concert. One of the tour merchandise items was a face mask, which is common for Japanese to wear when they are sick so as to lessen the spread of germs. The mask had "B-T" over the left cheek, just like how Hisashi writes it on his face. Hisashi would even wear the mask on stage sometimes.
In December, Toll donated a Gretsch new classic maple drum set to Tago Studio in Takasaki to help the music scene in his hometown. From the photo, it looks like two sets may have been donated but it could be that it was just a full set with two bass drums and for the purpose of the photo they were configured to look like two sets. Darn Japanese language lack of plurals.
