Category: Site News


Please excuse my newfound interest in blogvertising – it not only helps pay the bills (believe me I really need the dosh for something special), but is also fun to do! However, before you throw your hands in the air in Despair, please note I am just getting prepped to do some of the more regular blogging that you are looking for. First up there are the indy nights that will be updated for Clubs Chop and Urga and possibly a more Goth event or three to be included. Then there are the reviews – I just got a couple of CDs from the states that I will listen to closely and I’ll check my JGoth CD pile for good measure.

Cheers,

Igor

[youtube aDa4GlInwaE]

I was about to get ready to write some more reviews from the Greek Goth label, Dead Scarlet Records, when I received three really interesting CDs.

The first two came from the main man at DeathWatch Asia, Jude. Despair and Sawdust in Me are Japanese bands who are making waves in the Gothic/underground world. Two pops to Jude for sending these across. Jude who, apart from running the DeathWatch Asia label, heads up Sins of the Flesh and does keytair for Despair. I will get onto the reviews soonish – latest in the new year.

If you cannot wait for a review, you can buy either CD internationally from Music Non Stop (click here for Despair’s Rewired Riot Technology CD, click here for Sawdust in Me’s Mortification Made Me single).

The other CD received was from Chris of The Stompcrash (MySpace), a Goth band in Italy. The CD is called Requiem Rosa and the lyrics have their origins from a site of the same name created by an unknown songwriter. Quite a dark, mysterious provenance, which has certainly caught my attention!

Anyway, more events will be added in the days ahead and reviews soon after that.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Igor.

As part of my quest to monetize the site (or at least cover server & Pepsi Nex costs required to keep me online) , I have signed up with Blogvertise.com. This appears to be a similar style of service to another company mentioned in an earlier post, and as part of the registration process I need to write a quick piece on Blogvertise.com‘s service.

At the moment, I can honestly say that this is a nice idea, but wonder how well it will work in practice. I know there are a couple of opportunities looking for either Japanese or Goth/alt posters, which works well here. I look forward to seeing how the relationships develop. It would be very nice to be blogging as a side-business! I would not expect millions of yen doing Blogverts (haha), but a few thousand yen from Blogvertise.com.

If you look on the column on the right with the Amazon MP3 advertisement (note: even if you shop for other stuff at Amazon, just click on the ad so I might get a small sub-referral fee – yay!), you will see the upcoming events list in chronological order with links to the related information/story page. That works better for me, and hopefully for you too.

Good morning folks.

I am sorry for the JGoth.com site problems and general instabilities in recent months. However, things are getting worked out just in time for Halloween (okay, most parties have finished), but there is still TDC to look forward to:
http://forum.jgoth.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8

First up, the board has been re-launched at the following URL:
http://forum.jgoth.com/ Being a stand-alone board it offers greater flexibility and more options, which is good for board members.

On top of that you will find that there is a stack of topics to cover more Japanese music scenes not to mention international sections to talk about various Gothic scenes overseas.

The board comes in five major sections. The lengthy list is:

  1. The Welcome board with FAQs, Polls and Suggestion box
  2. A smeg-load of boards covering J-Goth, industrial, other music styles and life in general in Japan. There are also special sections German, French, Spanish and Japanese.
  3. A European section for listing the 10 countries that I get the most visitors from including the U.K., Germany, France, Sweden, Finland, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Italy, Greece, Spain and Belgium and a board for other countries.
  4. Goth in the Americas with U.S.A. Canada, Brazil and Chile listed plus a board for other countries.
  5. Finally Oceania and Asia where the bulk of visitors come from Australia & New Zealand and China/Hong Kong.

If you are interested in giving the JGoth.com forum another try I’d be most appreciative. Because the password encryption is different from the last board you will need to re-register. That takes about one minute to do. Once in feel free to post away!

Remember the new board is located at:
http://forum.jgoth.com/

The archived articles for JGoth.com are presently located at:
http://xfactor.jgoth.com/

So that’s three places to keep in mind:
Board: http://forum.jgoth.com/
Archive: http://xfactor.jgoth.com/
New site: http://www.jgoth.com/

Thanks again for your support.

Cheers

Igor/Admin
forum.jgoth.com
xfactor.jgoth.com
www.jgoth.com

August apologies

Sorry, I have been under a lot of stress lately and haven’t had time to blog.

Hey folks. Sorry for the long time offline. The last few weeks or months have been a bit scary and I have even avoided going online. Basically it seems as though somebody has been breaking into my place on a regular basis (daytime and night) and it has been going on for weeks despite improving security a bit. I don’t know for sure – things are moved around a bit and lots of stuff looks like it has been rifled through on numerous occasions, but nothing physical has been stolen, yet. It has me a bit freaked because, apart from lots of small things hinting someone is around while I am out (or out like a light), there really isn’t much to show. I reached the conclusion this morning that either I am experiencing some kind of delusion (btw. the rest of the world seems just dandy), or there is a real pro (or experienced amateur or a group of pros) about. I hope I’m just jumping at my own shadows, but I am afraid that the shadows aren’t connected to my body.

Anyway, I decided that rather than obsessing about this 100% of the time, that I would try to get back in the scene as best I can. I don’t have the energy at the moment to go full-on event-handling (and I have to pick up the rest of my life too), so I’ll post Goth things when I can and try to keep the unknown fears at bay.

Hugs to all friends, family, acquaintances and people not invading my home.

PS – I *know* this sounds all very psychotic, but there are too many little weirdnesses going on for me to quietly sit in a corner.

Shock, horror. I have lost Web access from the ferret dungeon. The little lords (them dang ferrets are higher lifeforms) are part of the reason why this site continues – I get to kill two birds with one stone giving you a regularly updated site and giving the little masters the activity time they need. Without the dungeon connected to the Web I have to choose between paying to go online at some smelly Internet cafe just to update the site or take care of the two fuzzy masters of JGoth towers. Fuzzies win every time.

Until I can get the dungeon reconnected, JGoth goes through another go-slow period. I will add a few more events for June when I can grab a couple of extra hours outside, but it will be quicker and dirtier than usual.

Wow, it has been 3 years since I first decided to do this site (1st year anniversary message :: 2nd year anniversary message). The last year has been difficult with the body conking out sometime in April 2006. Lots of missed parties, lots of quiet Saturday nights tap-tap-tapping away because it was all I could do. The site went from being relevant to being comical-sad. Perhaps there is no recovery from that fall, but it doesn’t matter. I only came online to do one thing, facilitate the birth of an appreciation of the Japanese Gothic underground scene.

:: Why does Igor do what he does? ::

Way back in the first half of 2005 when I first met U-tarou and Mikito of Chronotrigger, now called Baal, U-tarou asked me why do I do this site. I could not explain back then, but I can now.

I see a fractured, earthly beauty of the Japanese underground scene, that I have not seen anywhere else in Japan. While the many aspects of Japanese culture that I know have such strong connections to fixed traditions and etiquettes, the Gothic scene is like a wild child; perhaps lacking some finesse, but awe-inspiring in its natural, unconscientious beauty. It could be light-hearted or it could be pure darkness, it could be melancholic or it could be manic, but it always remains an unrepentant an expression of self. It breaks with the mores of Japanese society and is untainted by the manufactured processes that feature prominently in many music scenes. It is an unpolished gem that very few people can see (although many more can see it now).

Since mid-2004 I have wanted the world to see what I could see right in front of my eyes. I wanted to make something happen. And I guess my senseless screaming worked a little bit to bring attention to this scene. Can you see what I see?

:: The high point with Astan ::

By October 2005 I received an e-mail from the German magazine Astan – a magazine I had not heard of before, but they are the third-largest Gothic mag in Germany. They were interested in contacting a couple of more widely-recognized visual bands (they actually are quite good bands), but since I didn’t know these bands personally I could not get a response from them. However, I certainly knew quite a few Goth bands so I started doing a little jig to introduce bands that I personally knew to the lord of Astan.

It was a lot of work, with e-mails buzzing around and some home-brew copy-editing and re-translation for my friends in Baal, as U-tarou and myself attempted to bring Mikito’s poetic genius across from Japanese to English – but it was time well spent. After about three months Astan 22 came out and Germany got its first full-dose of Japanese Goth. There was even a whole page dedicated to me as Igor and a little photo of me with one of my faithful ferrets, little Truffle. It was golden. Here’s the official victory announcement.

And here’s Astan’s interview with Igor.

:: Falling down, but nice memories ::

Soon after that, my body conked out and the rest of 2006 faded away with it. There were also a handful of problems that caused a great deal of concern for me, and by the time I started to regenerate sufficiently to look at my little world as lord and slave JGoth.com, I realized that the train had rolled out of the station while I was in the lavatory!

Not to worry. I know I can never be omega, but, in some ways, I was part of alpha, and it was nice. I want to thank Steff from Astan for trusting in my judgment for bands that he had never heard of, and the bands for trusting my judgment with Astan, and Kiwamu from Blood for sharing his wisdom in those early days.

Most of all, I want to thank U-tarou & Mikito for taking the challenge and making the most of things. You guys shine brilliant like diamonds in the night. Baal reminds me that no matter what happens to JGoth.com and “Igor” that the effort was worth it. Every time I hear Baal piping in my speakers it brings a smile to my dial – their music is the sound of hope.

:: Where to now? ::

So year four rolls around and the things boiling my noodle are direction of the site and the upcoming re-connection with a few good friends. I don’t know what value JGoth.com is to people now, but that didn’t stop me before. The site has almost fully returned and will be around for a while, but there are other ways to move the agenda of getting more people to see what I can see. And perhaps I’ll turn up in unexpected places doing unexpected things in the months ahead.

:: Thank you ::

To everybody who has been kind enough to drop in from time to time – thank you very much for your support, I am so grateful.