The Klock single, plus the AA= live album

This single, the only physical CD single from AA=, is interesting in that it also functions as a live album from the #3 tour. There is a live DVD from this tour, but not an actual album to the best of my knowledge beyond this one. The only odd part is that, much like Daft Punk's Alive 1997, the entire live portion is presented as one continuous track. However, I haven't had the time to go through the entire track, and I'm not normally one for live albums (I don't even have a copy of 020120, for example) as it is.

The studio portion of this single is still interesting to have, even if you aren't a collector of live albums. The single version of The Klock is different than the "New Recording" version that would eventually show up on #4, yes, but not by too much. There's also a remix of Lasts from what would end up being the same album, but I don't know if that recording was eventually changed from whatever the original version was as well.

The studio tracklisting is as follows:

1. The Klock

2. Lasts (Your Rhythm Mix)

The live tracklisting, all part of one hour-long track, is as follows:

1. #3 Intro

2. Working Class

3. Distortion

4. Posi-Jumper

5. Step Code

6. Dry Your Tears

7. Colors

8. Greed...

9. meVIR

10. Loser

11. Roots

12. I Hate Human

13. People Power

14. Dreamer

15. We're Not Alone (AA= Ver.)

The artwork for this single is also very nice. Forgive me for my bad attempt at photographing the entire folded out "poster" that the liner notes booklet, but it really does look a lot better than this up close. The obi also has an ad for #3 on the back, as well as functioning as an extension of the excellent artwork already on display otherwise.

AA= #4

This is one of the odder releases, period, that I've ever seen through a major label. AA='s fourth studio album, for some reason that I can't comprehend, was split into two albums which came out only a couple weeks after one another, each with only seven tracks comprising about 20 minutes of material per disc. Perhaps it was a move to get the fans a little more involved in picking up the album? To making more money? I don't know. But in any case, it's a "split album", and I have both parts.

The packaging of the two albums is pretty interesting, actually, particularly the second half's. Whereas # just comes in a normal jewel case with all the bells and whistles typical of Japanese CD releases, 4 is packaged in a liner notes booklet. Seriously. It's a liner notes booklet in a small mylar, with a cel of the album artwork in front of the blank white cover, as the CD itself sits inside the booklet in an LP-esque plastic disc protector. # is actually a 2-disc CD case with an empty spot in the back for the 4 disc, and the cel with 4's artwork is meant to go in front of #'s cover. (Scroll down all the way to the bottom of this article for the result.)

There are a couple disadvantages to this packaging, unfortunately, those being:

• The mylar and disc protector for 4 become absolutely disposable once you combine # and 4 into their intended shape. Personally, I just keep the remains next to it in my stash of Mad stuff, but I can imagine other people thinking it sucks that there's disposable unique packaging with it.
• When you do combine them, there's still the obi that only recognizes #. On the other spine is another #, and underneath the obi it only says 4 for some reason. If the obi had just said #4, that would have been alright.

Granted, those are nitpicks, but it's still odd that the packaging doesn't totally gel together.

In any case, the material here is really solid. It's a little poppier than #3, and the songs are a lot shorter than most of their prior material. The short length of the material, considering you have to buy both halves of the split album separately, may scare some people off, but that doesn't make it not worth buying or anything. It's also odd that the music videos of the material are shortened even further for YouTube... splitting it in half to make people go for the tour DVD? I dunno. I don't have that one, either, nor do I have any of AA='s other tour DVDs.

The combined tracklisting of #4 is as follows:

#

1. Drone

2. WARWARWAR (# Mix)

3. Viciousness

4. Will

5. Distrap

6. PRG

7. Kilroy Was Here

4

8. HUMANITY2 (4 Mix)

9. ||:Repeat:||

10. The Jam

11. Path Of The Arrow

12. Lasts

13. The Klock (New Recording)

14. Endroll

NOTE: There was a recently released official #4 compilation that seems to combine the two albums into one disc. "I'll just get that!" you might say, but don't. From the look of the official #4's tracklisting, it omits two tracks from the separate versions: PRG from # and Endroll from 4. There's absolutely no reason to, either; it's not like they're interludes or anything, they're full songs! Just get these two and combine them, the extra tracks will make it worth it.

AA= #3

This particular album by AA= was the first to be released by Speedstar Records, a sublabel of Victor Entertainment which released Mad's albums from Digidogheadlock onward, so in a sense, Takeshi is returning to a label which was once home to him. This is also the first AA= release packaged in a typical jewel case, which the single for The Klock and #, the first half of AA='s recent split album, were also released in.

The limited edition of this album has the patch on the front cover thrown in as a bonus, but the limited edition's obi has much more writing on it than the regular's, while a "LIMITED PACKAGE!" sticker adorns the front. I actually bought the standard edition in a lot and purchased the patch separately, so I kinda schlubbed it out a bit, but the patch is still mine!

In the liner notes, Takayoshi Shirakawa, who was the main vocalist on AA='s first two albums, is only credited as "team member" separate from the rest of the band. The reason for this is, while Shirakawa's vocals are prominent on the first real track Working Class, the rest of the album is dominated by Takeshi's much higher vocals. The album also has a bit of a lighter sound than the first two albums, which may have been caused by the label switch, but I doubt that was the main factor. In any case, I would highly recommend this album as well.

It also contains the AA= version of "We're Not Alone", a song Takeshi recorded for his AA= AiD charity in the wake of the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan. This version omits contributions from guest musicians on the main version of the song, which includes a pretty neat guitar solo. This version can be heard here.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. #3 Intro

2. Working Class

3. Distortion

4. posi-JUMPER

5. sTEP COde

6. Dry your tears

7. coLors

8. Sunshine glow

9. People Power

10. Dreamer

11. We're not alone (AA= Ver.)

12. #3 Outro

AA= #2

This is the second album released by AA=, Takeshi Ueda's solo project after the disbanding of The Mad Capsule Markets. It is a stylistic continuation of the heavily electronic punk featured on the first album, but with the lyrics moving away from the more environmentally conscious themes present on #1. This is the last AA= album I have that directly credits Takayoshi Shirakawa as a vocalist: #3 merely credits him as a "team member" separately from the rest of the band, despite his vocals still being present on some tracks.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. prologue {2+2=4}

2. 2010 DIGItoTALism

3. INDUSTRIAL

4. BASS JUNKEES

5. GREED...

6. meVIR

7. BPMaster

8. 4 leaf clover

9. TEKNOT

10. F

11. FREEZE

12. epilogue {sonata no.8}

There isn't much else to say here that wasn't covered in my entry for #1 regarding packaging. As you can see, it's the same kind of eco-tray pushing the disc against the tray by a thick tab that's a little bit of a pain to lift up. This time, the liner notes fold out to be a poster with the lyrics on the other side of the paper. Allow me to get on my soapbox a little on this, though: I really hate when this happens. It isn't as bad in this case as jewel cased ones, where the album art itself is a piece of this poster, but it just makes you wish it could've been an additional insert so you could pin it up on the wall without losing any information. /rant

As for my recommendation, if you liked the sound of #1, you'll like this as well. That's about it, really.

AA= #1

I found a lot on Yahoo Auctions of AA='s first three albums, as well as the CD single for The Klock, and I jumped on it like a barbarian. For those who don't know, AA= is the solo project of Takeshi Ueda, who was the bassist/main songwriter for The Mad Capsule Markets, which he formed after Mad disbanded. (Kyono, the vocalist of Mad, also started his own solo project called Wagdug Futuristic Unity, but I haven't gotten any of the Wagdug albums just yet.)

AA= expands on the digital hardcore sound that Mad was doing by the time of their final album, CiSTm K0nFLiqT..., but from Takeshi's perspective. (Wagdug's first full album Hakai is a similar expansion from Kyono's, which makes the albums ripe for direct comparison.) The lines are blurred even further between punk rock and electronica, and vocals from both Takeshi and main vocalist Takayoshi Shirakawa are coated with a smattering of Auto-Tune to give it a distinctly robotic flavor. This album is utterly fantastic for fans of Mad to have something new to latch onto, as are the AA= albums that follow.

NOTE: Despite the DVD being advertised as region-free, it is actually locked to Region 2.

 This digipak album is released through Commons Music Group, designed to accommodate Takeshi's environmentalism through the AA= project (the liner notes even have a QC code to support the World Wildlife Foundation); the CD and DVD are held in soft cardboard spindle-less disc trays to crack down on the use of plastic.

However, I can't say I like this particular design (I really don't like any disc trays that don't have spindles, one of my few exceptions being the one designed for the DVD of Wall-E) because of one major issue I have with it: there's a tab pushing the edge of the disc against the tray, that you have to pull up to get the disc out. It's not an absolute chore to get them out, like the deluxe edition for The Amazing Spider-Man 2's soundtrack's "inserts" are, but it does make you fear that the disc is scratching. #2 has the same kind of disc tray, and AA= did not go back to regular jewel cases until #3 was released through Speedstar instead.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. 4Legs Good, 2Legs Bad

2. I Hate Human

3. Peace!!!

4. Freedom

5. Loser

6. Roots

7. All Animals Are Equal

8. <Electrik-Zweep>

9. Electrik

10. People Kill People

11. Starry Night

12. New Hello

13. R.I.P.

DVD-1. Peace!!! PV

DVD-2. Loser PV

DVD-3. Freedom PV