Buck-Tick Zone

Original Titles in Japanese

Kirameki No Naka De...

Yuuwaku

Ao No Sekai

Kamikaze

Dress

Minashigo No Yuuutsu

Titles Translated

Kirameki No Naka De... - "In the Glitter..." (as translated in the remix album Shapeless; I really can't think of a word more suitable than "glitter", possibly "glimmer" or "shimmer", so let's stick with glitter.)

Yuuwaku - "Temptation"

Ao No Sekai - "Blue World"

Kamikaze - literally "Divine Wind"; kamikazes were World War II suicide pilots. (Personally, I feel this word has permeated other cultures and most know or have at least heard of kamikazes so it's not appropriate to translate when speaking about kamikazes. For example, saying many young men died as divine wind in the war is quite odd. Poetic, but odd.)

Madman Blues --Minashigo No Yuuutsu - "Madman Blues --Orphan's Depression"

Notes

Ranked #2 on the album chart. 210,000 copies sold.

The singles released from this album were "Dress" and "Die".

"Dress" was later used as the theme song for the cartoon show "Trinity Blood" and the single was repackaged and released for the show in 2005.

This is the first album whose cover art does not feature a photo of a member of the band.

This is the first album that Hide played keyboards on.

When playin "Kirameki No Naka De..." live, Hisashi has been known in the 2000s to play the well known melody from "Swan Lake" by Tchaikovsky.

"Madman Blues -Minashigo No Yuuutsu- " is the first song that Hisashi sings lead vocals on. Atsushi only sings backing vocals on this song.

"Yuuwaku" has the name "Maria" in the lyrics. This is the second time this name is used in Buck-Tick's lyrics.

Though Atsushi is not credited as playing saxophone on the album, he did play a bit during the tour that followed.

This is the first album Buck-Tick recorded at Sound Sky Studio. Previously they had only used that studio for mixing.

The track listing for the album shows that the last song is "Die", which technically makes this the second Buck-Tick album to end with a single. However, it was not the first single released from the album and hence, was not recorded in advance of the album, which would cause it to sound different. However, as there are hidden tracks, the album does not really end with a single as the last song.

Tracks 11-74, 76-83, and 85-92 are blank. The bonus tracks are #75, #84, and #93. They are uncredited in the liner notes but their titles were revelead in a magazine at the time. This may be the first time a Japanese CD has had "bonus tracks". In fact, this idea was so new to Japan at the time of it's release that there were reports of some fans returning the CDs to the stores they bought them from, claiming they were defective and demanding a new one! Personally I think that the long silence followed by fuzz makes D-T-D (Darker Than Darkness) feel like you're receiving it from some secret transmission.

"Not T Dise" is the shortest "song" Buck-Tick has ever released on a studio album.

During the intro for "Ao No Sekai", Atsushi says, "Ao No Sekai he youkoso", which means "Welcome to the Blue World".

The songs "Kirameki No Naka De..." and "Dress" were remixed for the Buck-Tick remix album Shapeless (1994).

During the recording of the album, Maki Fujii of Soft Ballet suggested that Hisashi borrow his Gittler guitar and try it out. He used it on "Madman Blues". (These guitars are quite rare and known for their unconventional design.)

This is the first time the liner note credits are completely in Japanese. My skills at reading people's names are crap so I hope I got them all right. Thankfully Buck-Tick tends to stick with the same staff members for a few albums. (Even one who grows up in Japan may have difficulty reading someone's name as sometimes the reading of kanji is a rare way, which is why applications and business cards have kana on top, or how to read the kanji.)

This is the 3rd album to be engineered by Hitoshi Hiruma.

This is the last album with manager Yoshihiko "Joe" Masuoka, who was their manager since they signed to a major label.

Jupita is mentioned in the thank you section. Jupita was Hide's dog. (Written in Japanese as 'jupi' in hiragana then the kanji for 'fat'.) Hide also wrote the song "Jupiter", which can be read as "Jupitaa" in Japanese. (long vowel vs. short vowel)

It's my personal opinion that U-ta really came into his own as a bassist on this album. His bass lines are much more mature and versatile than previous albums.

Booklet Images

group

Music Video Stills

Dress, directed by Wataru Hayashi

Die, directed by Wataru Hayashi