Buck-Tick Zone

Original Titles in Japanese

Thanatos

Heroine

Muchi No Namida

Lizard Skin No Shoujo

Rasenchu

Chouchou

Sasayaki

Kalavinka

Schiz•o Gensou

Kimi Ga Shin..dara

Titles Translated

Muchi No Namida - "Tears of Ignorance"

Lizard Skin No Shoujo - "The Young Lady with Lizard Skin"

Rasenchu - Literally "spiral insect". I see some Japanese lyric sites list this song as Rasen Mushi rather than Rasenchu. When Atsushi's singing the title in the song, he carries the "n" sound for a bit but ends in "chu" to my ears rather than "mushi".

Chouchou - "Butterfly"

Sasayaki - "Whisper"

Kalavinka - "Kalavinka" is a word Hide had been toying around with and liked very much. It is a bird in Buddhist belief. I believe the pronunciation of the bird's name has changed over the centuries to now be 'karyoubinga', which are the kanji appearing in the title.

"Kalavinka: a bird said to possess a voice more beautiful and melodious than any other bird. The kalavinka is cited in Buddhist sutras and other works for its beautiful voice, which is often used as a metaphor for the Buddha's voice...The kalavinka is said to start singing even before leaving its shell and to live in the valleys of the Himalayas as well as in Amida's Pure Land of Perfect Bliss. Some have equated it with real birds of India, though its origin is not clear, and some Buddhist art depicts it as having the body of a bird and a human head."
--Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism entry on kalavinka

Schiz•o Gensou - "Schiz•o Fantasy" (the dot is not actually a period; in Japanese it floats in the middle of the line and is often used to separate foreign words; I'm not exactly sure why they chose to put it in the middle of the word but this album had more than one song title stylized with dots)

Kimi Ga Shin..dara - "If You Were to D..ie". I'm not sure what the periods are for other than the possibility of teasing what the (tense of the) word will be or that talking about death is unpleasant so you don't say the world all at once.

Notes

Ranked #4 on the album chart. 100,000 copies sold.

The singles released from this album were "Heroine" and "Sasayaki".

The limited edition version had the SSL logo in white directly printed on the smoky translucent CD case. The regular edition was in a regular CD case.

"Heroine" was originally titled "Stream Liner".

At first, I would write the title as "Heroin" but later switched to "Heroine" as the title is in katakana "hiroin" which is "heroine" as opposed to "heroin" (same in English). With the album version being the "Angel Dust Mix", it is clear to me that the band is referring to the drug but changed the spelling so as not to be in trouble over drugs yet again. I reverted to the way it is literally spelled in order to not make the assumption for you that the song is about the drug but armed with this knowledge, you may come to the same conclusion.

The logo for this album, as displayed on the special color case image to the left, was comprised of the letters S S L, the initials for the album title.

This was the first release on Mercury/PolyGram as Buck-Tick had ended a 9 year relationship with their previous label Victor/Invitation.

The kanji next to the song title for "Kalavinka" is simply the kanji for karyoubinga, AKA kalavinka.

The CD included a postcard for a contest where you had to affix a sticker that came with the "Heroine" single. It was to enter a contest where 300 would win a Buck-Tick original T-shirt (contest ended January 31, 1998).

An interviewer asked who came up with the title of the album (answer: Hisashi) and what it means, to which Atsushi answered that it is like "saishingata no ryusenkei no buttai", (something like "latest streamlined object"), so I suppose he was only trying to translate the title into Japanese.

"Muchi No Namida" was originally written for the Darker Than Darkness album but Hisashi thought it needed more work.

Lead vocal duties on "My Fuckin' Valentine" are shared by both Atsushi and Hisashi.

It is my personal opinion that Toll's drumming combined with the electronics gave this album a much more modern feel. However, that may one day backfire and sound dated.

This is the 6th album to be engineered by Hitoshi Hiruma.

This is the 3rd album to be engineered by Kenichi Arai.

Booklet Images

Atsushi

Hisashi

Hide

U-ta

Toll

Music Video Stills

Heroine, directed by Atsuo Imai

Sasayaki, directed by Atsuo Imai